a hot july moon

Girl you know you're only 17...



I sang "Strawberry Wine" soooo awful at this weird beach bar's karaoke a couple of months ago. I wish so bad you guys were there. I think I even called you.
I wish more we could do it tonight for Erin's birthday. I googled the images for "Erin Riley's Birthday" and this is one of many that came up.
I was talking yesterday about how a lot of times I'll just say I'm 25... or forget that I'm 24. like it doesn't exist.. Might as well just skip to 25 (think it's because JT is). But I've dedicated myself to reminding myself I'm 24 for the next few months I will actually be... Anyway, cherish it, Erin, and remember, you're not 25 yet!

So, I delete these sometimes... because they pile up in my old email's mailbox. but I'm always so glad when I do take the short time.
Here's what happened Erin's last week of 23.

Harper's Weekly Review July 14-21st, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor, who is expected to be confirmed to the
Supreme Court in August, was interrogated for four days by
Democratic and Republican senators of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. Republicans grilled Sotomayor on her legal
positions. Democrats lauded her; Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (D., R.I.) said that her life story gave him
"piel de gallina," or goose bumps. Sotomayor was, however,
not able to answer when Senator Al Franken (D., Minn.)
asked her to name the one case that Perry Mason
lost. "Didn't the White House prepare you for that?" he
said. Reporters noted that Sotomayor was "a big toucher"
who responded to Republican senators' proffered handshakes
with a warm smile and a squeeze of their shoulders, and
they also pointed out that on the second day of the
hearings, when the judge was asked by Senator Patrick
Leahy (D., Vt.) to explain her "wise Latina woman"
comment, she blinked at least 247 times while answering,
averaging 90 blinks per minute in the morning; that rate
decreased to 50 blinks per minute in the afternoon. At
least four anti-abortion protesters were arrested at the
hearings, including 61-year-old Norma McCorvey, better
known as Jane Roe, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case
that made abortion legal. A tiny species of Mexican shrew,
previously thought extinct, was rediscovered.

At the convention to honor the hundredth anniversary of
the NAACP, President Obama admonished African Americans
for their poor parenting, telling them they had to start
"putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a
reasonable hour." Some worried that Obama was no longer
cool after he appeared at the All-Star baseball game
(where he threw a lob ball that didn't clear the plate)
wearing "dad jeans." "I suppose President Obama is indeed
a father, so we should allow him such a strike against
humanity," said one blogger. "I thought he was cooler than
that, somehow." Auditors questioned whether Crocs Shoe
Company, which lost more than $185 million last year,
could remain solvent. The Pope fractured his wrist; the
Episcopal Church voted to overturn a moratorium on
ordaining gay bishops. An amendment to the annual defense
authorization bill that extends federal hate-crimes
protections to gays passed the Senate; and Bill Clinton,
who signed the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented the
federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages
during his presidency, said he is "basically in support"
of gay marriage. Harry and Pepper, gay penguins who since
2003 have nested together at the San Francisco Zoo, broke
up after Harry had an affair with Linda, a recently
widowed penguin who seduced Harry in her deceased
husband's burrow. "To be completely anthropomorphizing,"
said zookeeper Anthony Brown, "Linda seems conniving."
Seventeen-year-old lesbian Cheyenne Cherry pleaded guilty to
charges of animal cruelty for baking her former lover's
kitten in a 500-degree oven, and scientists found that
cats have developed a "soliciting purr" (different from
regular purrs because they are embedded with a "cry") that
can manipulate humans into giving them food and
affection. Walter Cronkite died.

North Korea launched its first television commercial for
Taedonggang beer, the "Pride of Pyongyang," which promises
to relieve stress; stress-relief was also the reason
offered by Japanese manufacturer Wishroom for the success
of its line of male bras. The unemployment rate was rising
for Japan's robots, and, following reports suggesting that
EATR, a steam-powered, biomass-consuming military robot,
could feed on dead bodies, its makers released assurances
that the robot is a vegetarian. Thick dark blobs of
unidentifiable goo were floating in the Arctic Ocean,
divers off the coast of San Diego were attacked by jumbo
flying squid, and at least nine shark-bite survivors went
to Capitol Hill to lobby Senators in defense of sharks. A
German "molecular" chef, using liquid nitrogen to prepare
a dish, blew off his hands, and scientists found that
swearing alleviates pain. Before police rescued him, a
three-year-old Canadian boy spent two hours floating down
Peace River atop his toy truck. Two Chicago teens sneaked
into a 66-year-old man's home while he was watching
television in bed, pulled off his prosthetic legs, and ran
off with them. A brothel in Berlin began offering a
discount to customers who arrive by bicycle. Researchers
found that amphibians enjoy mating by the light of a full
moon.

-- Claire Gutierrez


I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU

Jeanine