Holli Rausch

Two weekends ago I went to Okoboji to spend some time with friends. I also scrapbooked with the girls. It probably isn’t something I’ll continue to do, because I’m an all-digital girl. But it was a lot of fun! Miles came along and he did boy stuff with the boys. It’s always a fun time hanging out with camp friends. Oddly, it makes me want to go to Disney World.

I only took three pictures, so they’re in my Random pictures Flickr set.

Thanksgiving was good. We spent most of it in Hawarden, but did spend one night in Big Stone City. Miles has nearly met everyone on the Gregg side. Except for my uncle and his wife. It was a good weekend, but I’m tired. As usual. Two weeks left, then finals…

Hey! Anyone want to see a fully-grown man and 8-year-old boy eat chili soup off the floor?

Here are some things I experienced this weekend that I have never encountered before at camp:

- I spent almost an entire day in front of a computer. I created a disc golf course map.

- I ate meatloaf. They were having a family reunion.

- I didn’t remember the words to some songs. “I will magnify the….who?”

- Trespassers set off firecrackers. Idiots. Check out the left overs in the picture.

- I was put in the sleeper hold. Luke was practicing what he’d do when he found the trespassers.

- I set Deb up with a blog at Blogger. Find it here.

- I almost ran over a turtle on the way there. I almost ran over a turtle at the same spot on the way back. Haji was in the car both times.

- I reinacted a scene from Tommy Boy. I’m a maniac…maniac on the floor.

- In a stretch of 10 miles on the road, I saw 12 ground squirrels. None of which where dead.

- I conducted a photo shoot of Mandy Shew really late at night. We were all drunk.

OK, so we weren’t drunk. But it was really late. And you should check them out because some of them are kind of funny. Most of them were taken on the verge of laughter…so it’s the best photo shoot ever.

I’m watching Family Guy right now. Congratulations to my brother Adam and Cari on their recent engagement! Also, congratulations to Miles’s brother Bryce and Lindsey on their recent engagement! It’s a happy time! Up next time, pictures from my apartment!

Come home soon, Miles!!! And tell your dad hello.

Anniversary
Miles and I celebrated our three month anniversary (that’s a quarter of a year) on Tuesday. We ate at China Moon and sat by the door. It was like negative 100 degress outside, and 500 people came in to the restaurant too. Miles picked the table. We then went to play practice. Miles made me the picture on the right, using Photoshop, for a gift. I gave him a little ring thing that some bathroom stalls have around the toilet paper dispencer pole. Apparently he collects them. He was overjoyed about it.

Fond Memories of Okoboji
I was looking at a bulletin board today and saw a poster that advertised for Lake Okoboji United Methodist Camp and Retreat Center. That is my previous place of summer employment! I was in complete shock! There were three phone number stubs missing too, so I wonder who was interested from DSU. Anyway, I thought it was pretty stinkin’ cool.

Spring Production
The spring play has been drastically changed. Adrienne Boese is doing a monologue, Fifteen Minutes. Then our play, The Actor’s Nightmare, is being performed. We’ll have an intermission and concessions, and then Comedy Bytes will perform. Comedy Bytes is also having a few late night performances, of just the comedy troupe without the other one-acts. It should be a really good production. I think Comedy Bytes being hooked on to the other two in the early show will bring a lot more to those shows than would normally go. At the Dakota Prairie Playhouse, April 7, 10, 11 at 7:00 and April 8 at 2:00 are all three peformances. Also at the Dakota Prairie Playhouse, April 7 and 10 at 10:00 are Comedy Bytes only performances. Also, on April 8 at 9:00 is a Comedy Bytes jam session, where anyone can come and just do some improvisation games with us for a good time. I’m pretty excited about it all. Come and see it and laugh hard!

School
In Literature, we’re watching Mel Gibson’s Hamlet. I’m really excited about this because I wanted to rent it (I saw it in high school) and possibly buy it off eBay or something later on. So at least I’m getting my fill, for now. In Photography, we were to use Photoshop and enlarge or shrink yourself into a photograph and make it look as real as you can. I think I did a pretty decent job, especially if you compare it to David’s work.

Weekend Plans
Good times are to come this weekend as Miles, David, Bryce, Lindsey, Chris, and I travel to Fargo to visit Tony. Look at all those hyperlinks! Pretty exciting times to come soon, I hope it doesn’t suck as much as my visit to Marshall last month. I’m sure it won’t. Plus, Tony’s way cool. And so is Fargo…… :)

It all started my first summer as a counselor at camp in Okoboji, the summer of 2004. It continued to the summer of 2005. We’d get massive amounts of laffy taffy pieces, the kind that have jokes written on them. Well some of us, mostly me, found it entertaining to read them…a lot. With my simple-mindedness, I often was able to guess the answers correctly or similarly. I thought I should go into joke writing. I guess it was a good career choice to not do that.

Most of these laffy taffy jokes are a bit on the ridiculous side, some even pushing the edge on appropriateness. I remember receiving bug-eyes from Heather when I read the following joke aloud: What do you call a crack in a window? –A pain in the glass. However, my all-time favorite laffy taffy joke in the world ever, is one I still tell people which is responded with minutes of hilariousness. Here it is: Why was the tomato blushing? –Because he saw the salad dressing. I’ll pause here for you to recoup from your laughter.

Pause.

So Miles and I bought laffy taffy on Friday to consume while we watched Multiplicity. I thought maybe I had passed my laffy taffy enjoyment stage. Boy was I wrong. Back to my gigglesome-self, I laughed and laughed. Miles said he didn’t think any less of me because of this, but I think he was unpleasantly surprised at my horrible taste in jokes. I’ve decided to collect the wrappers and make some kind of art piece with them. I had to teach Miles how to open them without ripping it so that I can use them with my art. Turns out, I can’t open them without ripping it.

Miles and I ate out with my parents and sister yesterday at Perkins in Sioux Falls. We’re broke now because among other large purchases, they bought a 57″ big screen TV. I think they just wanted to impress Miles when we travel to Iowa this coming weekend. Oh, the things my family will do for approval. ;)

I also got new shoes, thanks to Dad. They’re very comfortable, and it feels like I am walking on pillows. What a wonderful feeling.

When Miles and I came back from Sioux Falls, we rented the movies About a Boy and Raising Helen. We watched the first one last night, and will probably watch the second today sometime. We’ve been in a big movie renting frenzy since we finished all of the Arrested Development episodes. I’d imagine we’ll rewatch all of those sometime in the near future as well. I definitely am not opposed to that.

I’m at KJAM now, doing the DJ thing or something. I had Bible Basics, How well do you know your Bible? trivia this morning and received callers live on the air for the first time. It was exhilirating, which seems extremely lame now that I type it out. So…have a good one. Folks.