Rebecca A. Foster

Before this past weekend I never knew the phrases 'tapas bar' and 'topless bar' sound so alike.* Go ahead and say them to yourself out loud real quick. See? Who knew! Not me, until we had this conversation about where to eat: Him: "How about a tapas bar?" Me: "Topless bar? The food won't be any good and it'll be expensive. Plus I don't want to go to a topless bar. You want topless, I'll take my shirt off while we eat real food." (Note: we were in Vegas, so this conversation is not as far-fetched as it sounds.) Him, laughing: "Tapas, tapas, not 'topless!' T-a-p-a-s.' Me: Laughing so hard I cry a little. Him: "But since you've promised to eat topless,** I don't care where we go!" *Pronouced as 'tahpahs', not 'taypahs.' I think people argue about this. I'm not sure which one  is right.  *I didn't eat topless, even though we went to a restaurant, and I am not making this ...

My birthday weekend in Vegas was awesome! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I forgot my camera (again!) but I have been to Vegas several times. Here are some of my favorite pictures from past trips: A view of Las Vegas Blvd: Me and a friend I met there: A bride waiting at a bus stop at 2:00 AM: Kids playing a joke on David: Vegas, there really is no place like it in the world. I had a great time at Sephora, Rebecca bought some super strong pigment silver eye shadow ( Urban Decay in Vapor ) and nail polish ( Sephora OPI in Queen of Everything ) for my birthday. I'm really into strong metals these days. My little brother got me this awesome Michael Kors costume jewelry perfume ring from Sephora. I love it! My friend and I had a good time, and I ate many delicious foods. (That is Chinglish, btw; they aways say 'delicious foods' to describe all foods.) I'd say more, but you know the rule! Haha. I have a few more days left here, I'm trying to get everything done. Time...

For our 4th of July party, two of the PC volunteers had a special cake made. They wrote down the message they wanted put on the cake and asked a Chinese bakery to make it for us. I'm not going to post the picture here because some of my readers might be offended by profanity, but if you want to see it, click here . The best part is, when they went back to pick it up, the bakery had placed it in the front store window! Obviously there were no English speakers working at that bakery. (And yes, those are cherry tomatoes on the cake; tomatoes are eaten as fruit here.) Speaking of America, I took this picture of the Washington Monument in D.C. the evening before I left for China. I felt I needed to make a connection to my hometown and home culture before I flew away for two years, so while the rest of my group went out to dinner/drinking, I went to the monuments to take pictures. The guy who spent the weekend in D.C. with me also likes photography, so I'm glad he didn't mind ...

I found this in my purse; evidently I love hotel room keys and can't bring myself to turn them in when I check out. I did the same thing in NYC, but found it in my pocket when I grabbed my Metro card on the way to the ceremony, prompting the dash back to the hotel with the best man to properly check out, prompting his cute line about having the rings with him, prompting me to think he is darling. Anyway, if you ever go on vacation with me, don't let me be in charge of the room key, mmmkay? In Vegas I grabbed a key because I was the last one out sunbathing, my fair-skinned friends are sun-wussies. On one occasion their abandoned chairs were taken by a group of five handsome men. Hooray for wuss friends, right? Except...I was on my stomach reading a magazine, put my head down to close my eyes for a minute, and too lazy to move the magazine. Do you know what tanning oil and sweat do to ink? I do...now. It transfers it to your skin rather well. I got up shortly thereafter to leave...

A few things: 1. FloJo eloped today! For those that know her, she will no longer use Floyd, but I am still calling her FloJo. 2. In Vegas last weekend, I lost one of the diamond earrings my dad gave me several years ago. Just plum fell out. I never wore them regularly 'til my dad died, then wore them as a reminder of him. And seems kind of appropriate, as I am coming to different terms with his death, that I lost it. Time to move on to another stage of remembrance. Also, a reminder how transient "things" are, and why they don't really matter. 3. Did you know The Office starts back up this week? It does. RFos + JKras forever! 4. I had so much fun in EMT class last night, it hit me how my classmates are incredible people, funny and talented with diverse goals and a desire to help others. It's just a good feeling to be there with them. And my teacher is awesome and joked around with us when I asked why no one had thought to make bras out of the new splinting mate...