24 Hours of Joy

My cousin, Joy, that is. She's hilarious. She's random, impulsive, fun, funny, often loud, and blatantly honest. Some say she's ditzy, but she's far from dumb. Her high-pitched voice and laugh make her . . . distinctive. And she's beautiful :)

Here's a recap of our weekend together>

Saturday:

2 p.m. : Shopping @ the Mall. Joy is usually the one to randomly decide she wants an outfit and blow all of her money on a shopping spree. I prefer to shop and shop and find the sales.

3 p.m. : I pay full price for a belt and shirt. Joy pays $10 for cropped trouser pants.

4 p.m. : Joy's friend meets up with us. Her home has just burnt down and she has lost everything. Joy buys her a very expensive pair of jeans and a shirt. How sweet.

5 p.m. : Joy & I run to Wal-Mart so I can pick up a birthday gift for my nephew. Joy disappears and comes back with sugar on her face. She's just eaten two doughnuts. Then she forgets to pay for them when she checks out. Easy to forget to pay for something you've already eaten.

6 p.m. : Micah's 2nd birthday party. Joy & I enjoy food and try to decide what to do that night.

7 p.m. : T calls and invites us to his party.

10 p.m. : We arrive at T's house and play polish horseshoes. We are awesome!

11 p.m. : We become the life of the party. We bring in Joy's techno CD and do a "dance" and sing for everyone. Several guys get into it; everyone else just laughs and watches - and we play the song 3 times over. It's hilarious!

12:30 p.m. : We drive home, so not tired or ready for bed yet.

1:00 a.m. : We stop at Taco John's and go through the drive-thru twice. We immediately regret it and drive to the nearest facility.

2:30 a.m. : We reluctantly go to bed for lack of something else to do.

3:30 a.m. : Joy is on my side of the bed. I try to be nice and fall back asleep.

4:30 a.m. : Joy is still on my side of the bed. There is room for another person on the other side of her. I nicely shove her to the other side.

Sunday:

11:30 a.m. : We go to church together.

1:00 p.m. : Joy tries to bribe the hostess at Mimi's to seat us faster by offering her $5. Nice try, Joy. "I used to do that for other people," she says of her days as a hostess.

3:00 p.m. : We lay out at the lake and get no sun, because, who are we kidding - it's September.

5:30 p.m. : We go inside and Joy pulls out brownie mix and cake mix. We make both. And order a pizza.

6:30 p.m. : Brownies are gross. Joy eats five anyway. We toss the rest. Cake is delicious. Pizza still hasn't arrived. Joy has called and chatted with the manager twice about the late pizza. She has decided to give the delivery guy some cake and asks the guy on the phone if he wants a piece, too. "Ask your manager, Kevin, if he wants a piece." Kevin wants a piece.

7:00 p.m. : Pizza arrives. Delivery guy is flustered by the cake. "This one is for you, and here's one for the guy with the deep voice and one for your manager, Kevin." Delivery guy starts to walk off without the money. We give him the money. He starts to walk off without giving us change. Joy says, "Hey, we're not tipping you that much. Kevin said we could have the pizza for free. Keep the ten for yourself." Kevin never said we could have it for free. But, we should have, because it was late and cold.

8:00 p.m. : Grandma comes home and we present the cake to her, even though we know she's starting her diet tomorrow. She doesn't seem to mind.

9:00 p.m. : Joy heads home. It's been fun.


(The picture is Joy doing the "dance" to "What Was Her Name?")