Poor Blog, How I've Neglected You

For my 8 followers out there, I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogging. After the finale of American Idol, I just thought I didn't have that much to write about. For those of you who know me best, you know that's a lie though, because this summer I have been going nonstop and quite frankly, I think it's gotten the best of me. Since my last post SOOOO much has happened that I think we should talk about!

Sugarland
I didn't really realize how much I liked their music until I went to their concert. My sister in law, Brittany went with me, along with a friends from church. When we walked through the gates, we were given a little package with a little card from Sugarland that said "Thanks for coming to our show" and inside was a glowstick and a thing of bubbles. At one song in the show, everyone pulled out their glowsticks and one one show everyone blew bubbles at the same time. It made it SO much fun! It really made us feel like we werent just ticket sales to them, but like they really wanted us to enjoy being there.

Michael Jackson
How could I go any farther without at least mentioning it. For those of you who haven't heard, Michael Jackson is dead. I know, I know, you're shocked. Michael passed away on the same day as the Sugarland concert. I'll be honest with you, I was pretty sad about it. It's sad that someone could have that much and never know what it means to be truly happy. I remember as a 6 year old being SO excited when my Aunt Susan gave me a Michael Jackson glove, belt (with a glitter glove buckle) and t-shirt that she'd gotten from his concert. If only the Michael of those days had never changed. Thanks for the music, Michael.

New Kids On The Block
After the devistation I felt when they cancelled their Birmingham concert back in May, I didn't know if I could bring myself to go through the heartache of buying another NKOTB concert ticket, but I sucked it up and purchased 2 tickets for me and my friend Gina to see our grown men in Memphis, TN. My friends Mandy, Melanie & Lindsey had already purchased their tickets, and thinking I couldn't get off work, didnt buy mine then, so I drafted Gina into making the roadtrip with us and away to Memphis we went. As we stopped along the way, just inside Tupelo, to the Pizza Hut for lunch, I saw a family that I'm certain were inbreads, but I'm not here to judge. I knew that we were almost there. Gina and I were sitting in the 2nd tier at an amphitheatre that didn't have a bad seat in the house. I think it was called Mud Hill. Great place for a concert! There were 5 platforms in front of each section, just in front of our tier. Gina informed me that she saw on You Tube that they were to come down from the stage and each guy would be on one of those platforms. We had 2 platforms that were , I kidd you not, 15 ft from us. I was sure we would get the shaft and get Jon and Danny, but when I saw Donnie walking my way, as I live and breathe, I thought I would D.I.E. die!!!!! I just kept yelling, we got Donnie, we got Donnie! We had a BLAST!!!!! My girls, Mandy, Melanie, & Lindsey, got Jon, however. Sorry ladies. After the concert we went on the Waffle House run, hoping to see them (along with every other cougar in town) only to find out they wouldn't be stopping by, since they were all sick with summer colds. Oh well...we gave it a shot.
The next day we got up and decided to take a trip to Graceland, home of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. You know what they say, "When in Rome..." so when in Memphis, you know we had to see the king. I've always said that there's no such thing as gaudy (usually talking about diamonds) but I'll be the first to say that Elvis proved me wrong. While some parts of the house were beautiful (the Peacock Room, for instance) others were just downright hideous (such as the paisley draped rec room). Apparently I'm a super slow walker though, because it took me a good bit longer to get through it than it did the other girls. The highlight of my trip to Graceland was by far, seeing the jumpsuits and singing karaoke with Elvis. LOVED IT!!!!! I had a great time.

California Dreamin'
On July 4th I flew out to visit my Aunt Susan and her family in sunny California. I flew in around 1:30pm their time to beautiful San Francisco, and made an immediate stop to In & Out to get a burger and one of their famous neopolitan milkshakes. If you've never had an In & Out burger, you don't know what you're missing! SOOO good!
We picked up my Uncle Farzad (he's from Iran) and headed to one of Susan's friends houses where they were having a little party. When I walked in, I was immediately a novelty because of my stunning good looks...um, I mean, my Southern accent. One lady took one look at my blonde hair, blue eyes, and said, oh, you must be from Farzad's side. I looked at my aunt, who also has blonde hair and blue eyes, and just said..."No, not exactly". I thought, how could anyone mistake my lily white skin for me being Persian? But, I digress. The next lady came in and was talking about her husband who's from South America. I said, "Where exactly is he from?", to which she replied "South America". I said "What part of South America? I was in Peru last summer". She told me he was from Venezuela, and he came in and she said, "Honey, this is Susan's neice, she's from Peru". He looked me up and down, and I just simply said, "No, I'm from Alabama, I just visited Peru". I learned there on my first day that California is called the Granola state for a reason. Once you remove all the flakes, all you have left is a bunch of fruit and nuts.
While in California, I visited Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel, Monteray, Santa Cruz, and San Jose. My aunt lives in Livermore, which is right in the middle of the wine country. I had SOOOO much fun sight seeing and visiting my cousins, Brianna and Sherizad (Sher) that it was really tough to leave. Carmel was absolutely one of the most beautiful places I've been to (home of Clint Eastwood and Pebble Beach). I took TONS of pictures. Visit my facebook page to see those (www.facebook.com/blarinkaren).

Always the Bridesmaid
My best friend, Kendra got hitched on July 25th to Mr. Stephan Reese. I had double duty at this wedding, as a bridesmaid and wedding singer. She was a beautiful bride, and Stephan is a very lucky man. I made it without shedding too many tears. She got to the altar and realized she'd left Stephan's ring in the bride's room. I didn't know it until I got a tap on my shoulder telling me to pass the ring what was going, but it all worked out. I did however, catch the bouquet. I'm 4 for 4 this year.

August
Well, so much has gone on this month I don't even know where to begin. I took and extremely short trip to the beach, found a little jewel called the Cotton Gin in Hanceville, AL (I'll discuss that in a seperate blog) and finally finished and passed my Statistics class. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I'll have more to talk about later, but I think your eyes may pop out if I go any further, so until then, I'll have to say goodbye.

Sorry for such a long post but I had to get this whole summers worth in!

-Blarin Karen