Going Back to Hogwarts...

Since downloading the Timehop app on my phone a few weeks ago, I've been having so much fun reminiscing about what I was doing on this day 1, 2, 3, 4....8, 9, 10 years ago (because I've had facebook for almost 10 years now - yes, I'm one of those...).

So for example, 2 years ago today I discovered Pinterest.  I wasted more than 4 hours browsing pins that first day.
3 years ago today, I found a picture of a cake decorated with darth vader riding a my little pony over a rainbow.  That won the internet that day.

But the best timehop I got today was from 5 years ago.  When I discovered AVPM - A Very Potter Musical (which at the time was still called Harry Potter the Musical), and 3 hours later when I was officially obsessed.

If you're a fan of Harry Potter and you have not yet discovered Team Starkid's excellent musical theatre, you are doing yourself a disservice.  AVPM became so massively popular that it spurned AVPS - A Very Potter Sequel, and AVPSY - A Very Potter Senior Year (guest starring Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood).
I could watch these shows over and over and over again.  I constantly listen to the soundtracks.  I make random references to it in my everyday life.  I fell in love with Darrin Criss before he was on Glee.  I went to their SPACE tour concert.  I'm a geek.  I admit it.  But watch this and tell me it's not the best thing you've ever seen, ever...


So thanks, Timehop, for this wonderful trip down Starkid memory lane.  And now I'm off to listen to the soundtracks.  Again.

Stay Chelish, friends.

Lava Monster - Cousin Love

The other day Chad posted a vague statement on his G+ "Everybody knows 'don't touch the lava'"!  At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about.  I thought it was some movie or tv reference that I didn't understand.  It wasn't until he mentioned at dinner that I understood.  He was referring to a childhood game we all played - Don't Touch the Lava.  Think about it - you did, didn't you?
He made a good point - it was one of those games that you thought you made up on your own, but yet everyone you know played it too.

In our family it was called Lava Monster.  We played it in my grandma's basement.  The floor was the lava (but it didn't kill you...strange) and the couches were "safe".  One person was the Lava Monster and their goal was to stop you from moving from one end of the basement to the other.  If you used the floor (lava) to travel, you were fair game, but if you hopped from couch to couch, they couldn't touch you.  I guess, essentially, it was tag for a small, confined space.
I played a similar game in elementary school gym - Spiders and Flies.  The flies had to run from one end of the gym to the other without getting tagged by the spiders.  We are the spiders. We are the flies.  We're going to get you.  Let's see you try!  Wow.  I can't believe I just remembered that, since the last time I played it was 1995....

Anyway, back to lava monster - Did you play some variation of Don't Touch The Lava?  What were your rules?

Oh.  And I just found this. See? Chad was right.

Thinking back to it also makes me a little sad.  Growing up, my cousins were my best friends.  I had 12 cousins on my mom's side and 6 on my dad's.  Miles will only have cousins if my sister has kids, and she lives in Tennessee, so they won't get to just hang out like we did with our cousins growing up.  That makes me sad for him.

Sunshine, Mackenzie, Alissa, Elana, Andrea, Chad, Tara, Jacob, Samantha, Dominic, Ryan, Dylan, Jason, Joseph, Steven, Stefanie, Jackie, & Matt (and Caitlin who is not technically my cousin, but who is their cousin) - I love and miss you all so much.
And the new cousins that have joined us recently - Charles, Travis, Diana, Mike, Abbey, Cora, Avery, Bella, Joey, & Aidan (and soon-to-be baby Scanlon) - I love you like you were all my "real" cousins, too!