Cast of Characters

Family

Dad – not often mentioned in my blogging world as he’s more on the serious side except for his puns. Dad’s life is full of puns. But he taught me how to save money. (Thank you and I own my own condo… woot woot!)

Mom – My mom’s hip: she texts me, she emails me hilarious forwards, she’s my friend on Facebook, and she’s on TV almost every Sunday. She makes the rest of us look average.

Mick/Tracy – Oldest bro and his wife whose home I have a hard time leaving when I tend the five kids. Why? Because I could just sit around and talk with them until the sun comes up.

Jarv/Jennie – The Ying in this relationship is my crazy bro, who found his Yang in his sweet wife. Guess if their kids are yings or yangs.

Pete/G – This bro is my financial advisor and personal trainer (Body by Pete works for me!); his wife is my girlfriend.

Maren – The little sister that used to run around the bedroom after the lights went out with a pillow on her face for protection. Okay so I had a pillow on, too, along with the littler brother.

Thane/Laina – This little brother scored in the wife department; he’s also the guy that I most like to play soccer with (which is a hard thing to claim with Mick and his wicked left-foot shot).

James – Baby brother isn’t very small, at all, and puts the rest of the high school seniors to shame with his muscles (Body by Pete works for him!).

Ster – This is my cousin who belongs in the family just because he was number 26 for USU’s men’s soccer team. There are probably other reasons that he fits in, too, but I’m not going to tell you.

Sir Pee-a-Lot – My cousin who’s more like a sister since we grew up together and she used to clean my room; what? we couldn’t play otherwise. Also, she and Maren sing a nice version of ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.’

Auntie N – Everybody needs an aunt as fabulous as she is who can make room for you in her San Francisco apartment, have an amazing condo in SLC, help you organize, etc., etc.

Minyo – This is my gorgeous, exotic Bengal cat whose name is pronounced like Ming-yo and means rare beauty in Korean.

Pogi – Minyo’s new best friend, also a Bengal, but unlike Minyo (who has a brown, marble coat) Pogs has a silver, spotted coat. And his name is pronounced Poe-gi, meaning handsome in Tagalog. It all makes sense when you realize that Bengals are bred from Asian Leopard cats, whose natural habitat includes South Korea and the Philippines, among other Asian locations–two places where two of my brothers served LDS missions. (How’s that for a rambling sentence?)

Friends (no particular order-if you’re not on here, it only means I haven’t blogged about you recently)

Puck – Best buds for many moons, even though we’ve had plenty of rough patches. One of our best fights was playing night games when I lied about being tagged out because I swear I climbed up onto the garage roof faster than you could touch my foot. We’re soccer buddies, basketball buddies, cartoon buddies, elementary school buddies, high school buddies, english major buddies, etc. etc.

Kow – Our friendship story is one of my favorites, from dangerous encounters with Bob our high school typing teacher, to talking on the phone late into the night about cars, health, real estate, and cars.

Kaakun – He’s my bloggin’ buddy (his term) who has stuck with me since we met at BYU. I haven’t yet figured out why he’s been so good to keep me around, but the occasional vacations (in Vegas or So Cal) are a bonus.

Pepe – This is one of my friends that gratefully resurfaces every year or so and we cruise around in his BMW with the bass turned up. Quality.

Megs – A former roommate who put up with my braided extensions (yes, I am white), excessive cookie making and odd sleeping habits. Thankfully, she chooses to remain a fabulous friend and we’re due for another crepe party.

Nichole – One of my “extended” roommates who can put on an impressive southern accent when reading historical fiction from the Civil War Era. (I would love to hear that tape again one day.)

California – A good kisser, very good looking, and by now, a great eye doctor.

Freddy – The Lead in my group at work whose words of wisdom are known as Fredisms.

McJosh – Coworker who looks like an Irish cartoon character to me… it’s just the beard minus a stache.

Bret – Coworker who was defenestrated by Stacky when he transferred out of her department.

Ali – We went to school together for MANY years before I finally realized how awesome she is. Now we’re friends for life–haha, lucky her.

Janet – Former diet coke break pal who is lucky enough to now be my neighbor.

Ramirez – Abs/Core class buddy who misses the cute, female instructor that took another job out of state.

Bethy the Third – I work with her and we keep each other sane / entertained throughout difficult work days via random and humorous IM conversations.

Shanny – After coercing her into agreeing to be my roommie at the B.Y. we began little contests where we randomly picked men in our ward and raced to kiss them first. You would think that we were little kissing sluts, but this is so not true. Believe you me.

Shawman – My workout buddy who keeps going on vacation instead of to the gym with me.

P Brothers – My good looking neighbors who I met when I was in the holy land of Provo and they eventually followed me to the exact same condo complex. It was fate.

Misfit Toys

Alaska – I know, there’s no “Alaska” on the island, but he doesn’t quite fit the misfit category because of a sense of humor combined with good looks, intelligence and Frisbee skills. The island is happy to have him.

Joel-in-the-Box – The one and only to know the ins and outs of the dating history of the Nigerian and myself mentioned previously. He promised not to tell all my deep, dark secrets but if you happen to know who he is and after reading this, pester him about it, he will crack. I should probably delete this paragraph and start over…

Bird Fish 1 and Bird Fish 2 – One of these bird fish initially put the moves on for my heart, but that’s in the past. Now, I find it humorous to watch these two interact, both with each other and with others. They’re two great guys with quirky personalities.

The Dolls – All of the women in my ward.

King Moonracer – This is the Nigerian bishopric member (I did not date him…) who’s in charge of recruiting for the ward and is not happy that I am moving out.

Misfit Elephants – We have two polka-dotted elephants in our ward that have the knowledge to match a tie and some nice shoes with their polka-dots. They crack me up and one of them teaches a mean Gospel Doctrine lesson.

The Canadians – Like Alaska, they are named for their home, not for their misfit toy-like characteristics. The island is mighty happy to have them amongst the group.

Smooth Operator – He received this name after putting his arm around one of the dolls in the ward he was into. Pretty smooth. Only she didn’t think so. He’s still smooth, though, as he seems to always get a seat next to the newest doll in the ward.

Braden – Sometimes just called Operator, or Brotha’ Operator, he was recruited to the ward for his financial clerk skills and puns. Oh and his artistic skills drawing whales.

Aaron – Former member of the island who went across the country to find some new toys.

Heather – I should come up with a name for her, but nothing seems to fit. When somebody isn’t misfit, it’s hard to categorize them and just calling her Normal sounds boring. Maybe I’ll call her Alaska when Alaska mentioned above leaves. Why? Because I saw her pictures from her Alaskan cruise and I’m jealous.

to be continued…