Da front – notice the two pockets in the front? Oooooooh ahhhh

Opened up – but wait, where its the storage? Just those two pockets?

The real inside! More oooooohs and ahhhhhs

IT COMES OUT! Oh my goodness, this bag is so awesome.

Check out the back of this bag! Room for Marla too!

I had Owen in the empty spot and took photos with my point and shot but then I couldn’t find the connecting cord for it… so Owen too this blurry photo becasue I packed the flash and hate his default flash. I have so much room to grow! The tri-pod fits on the side too! Such a fun bag! Thank you, Jason.

Jason: I have a friend from college name Kari. Kari and Alisa are friends through a fan message board for the band Caedmon’s Call. After following the link from Kari’s blog to mine, Alisa asked Kari about me and Kari told her to email me to say hi. Alisa tried to be mysterious and coy about who she was but I had seen pictures of her (gorgeous!) from Kari and knew immediately who she was. We emailed for about a month, then decided to talk on the phone. We spent six weeks emailing and calling, marvelling at all of the things we had in common and making each other laugh profusely. Alisa lives in Alabama but had already arranged to meet up with some friends in Charlotte, NC, for the weekend of June 12th. I was really excited at the thought of meeting her, having fallen for her charm, intellect, and sense of humor. I had made only one other friend on the web and had never met them, so the thought of meeting her was strange. The weekend before the trip, my feelings got stronger and stronger for this girl whom I had never met and I stayed up all night Saturday night thinking about her and praying for guidance. Sunday morning came and I called her before church, my stomach in knots.

Alisa: Well, one Sunday morning (which was odd to me because we always talked at night), he called me saying he needed to talk to me about a girl. I was thinking ‘I don’t want to hear about another girl’ but listened cause we had become such good friends and I cared about him and what he was going through and enough trust in me to talk to me about something important. And he goes on to say how great she is da da da and I said “You’re not giving me enough to go on to give you advice.” He went on a little more about her and I’m like, ‘This sucks I don’t want to hear this but I will cause we are friends but apparently my crush on this guy needs to go away.’ then THEN he said “Alisa, you need to know, I’m talking about you.” I was a bit speechless. (And he keeps doing that to me, leaving me speechless.)

Jason: While I’m glad she was speechless, her silence was deafening. She sort of hinted that she might have possibly felt the same way, but didn’t say much. We spent the next week talking a little about dating but never coming to a conclusion, mostly due to the fact that we had never met. We were both excited about seeing each other that Saturday. When the next weekend finally did roll around, I met up Saturday morning with Alisa and her friends Sarah and Brandon, the most awkwardly touchy-feely- couple on the planet. They left to run some errands and Alisa and I sat in a Barnes & Noble talking and finding our rhythm, which came quickly. We spent the whole day off and on with Brandon and Sarah, having a lot of fun with them, but I was dying to hang out with Alisa alone and talk more about our feelings for one another. I didn’t want to do it in a Barnes & Noble or a restaurant or anything like that, and as dinnertime rolled around and we waited for a table at PF Chang’s, I was getting a little frustrated.

Alisa:When we met, I spent the whole day SO unable to read him. I thought he saw me and changed his mind, to be honest. Brandon and Sarah couldn’t read him either. I was upset during our hour and half wait to eat at PF Changs because I was tired and hungry, so my emotions were even more so out of wack. I, who can’t flirt to save my life, flirted as much as I knew how to flirt that day. Nothing. I didn’t know what to do. He even asked me what was wrong at one point and of course I wasn’t going to say, “Well apparently I’m not what you want, so I’m dealing with that”. I kept thinking how awesome he was, even if I was at a friendship level, I’d be blessed to have him in my life. After dinner he drove with me (two cars) to Susan’s, where I was staying that night, which was about 1 hour and 1/2 away from where we were. And we got lost, we pulled over to call Susan and relook at the directions. We pulled over off Hwy 311 in the middle of nowhere (so it seemed) NC. In that Burger King parking lot at 12am, something happened. He was worn out. We both were. He leaned against my trunk the look more closely at the directions and I rubbed his back, my only thought being to know how to help him feel better. We just stood there for a while, talking a little. He asked if I was cold. I said yes. I leaned on his shoulder. We stood there for a while then he pulled his arm out from under my leaning on it, which made me fall into him and he put his arm around me and then we just stood there in a hug for a long while.

We finally realized it was the wee hours of the morning and Susan was waiting. We made it to Susan’s and talked to her for a little bit then Jason, who still had to drive 45 minutes to Greensboro, got up to leave (after Susan making some PMS comment). I thought it might one of the last times I saw him (I didn’t know what the plans were for the next day) and so I walked out with him. We talked, hugged and stood there for a while. Made plans for the next day to hang out. Then we were just looking at each other. He said “You have three seconds to tell me not to kiss you.” I just smiled at him… his 10 seconds of a 3 second count down was SO cute. And then he kissed me…

Jason: Then I kissed her. It was the kind of kiss poetry is written about. The kind symphonies are composed about. The kind a thousand ships are launched for. The kind that sends chills up your spine, curls your toes and makes you forget that you’ve ever kissed another person.

Alisa: It wasn’t bad.

Jason: There’s the story! I’m very happy and can’t wait to find out what the future holds. Commence commenting.

This year was Jason and I’s first Halloween together, and over two years together I still didn’t know Jason’s take on it till last night. He doesn’t like the holiday, really much at all. Yet we still were at Target picking out candy and good candy at that. I asked why if he didn’t like Halloween why he was getting (good) candy? He didn’t want to be a Scourge to the kids just because he didn’t. Fair enough. With me spending the evening at his place (not dressed up as Pam as I had hoped) we made a new game. Unofficially, its called Friends-Trivia-Loser-Answers-the-Door. I had gotten a Friends trivia book earlier that day and wanted to try out our knowledge of show. Whoever had the most wrong answers when the door bell rang was who answered the door. Simple enough right? I was apparently rusty on my Friends facts because I found myself answering the door a lot last night. Cutest kid of the night, a two year old superman who when asked “What do you say?” by his mom said “CANDY!” I think this whole trivia game for door answering duties is a good tradition to start. And I’m also looking forward to left over candy in my mint ice cream tonight.

We are so even with my complicated drink order at the ‘Bucks if he get to order his hamburger this way (tee hee). I guess McDonald’s is where Jason gets to have it his way.

Jason and I have been eating at McDonald’s a little more than healthy. Actually, sometimes just for a diet coke because, Monopoly is back. I always like playing this game but never get that into it. I have now collected every piece from each color of properties cept one. This is where you come in. You just have to get a medium (or larger) drink or a premium sandwich (which I got for the first time this past week, I wouldn’t of guessed it was from McD’s) which also comes with a Best Buy buck. Im looking for the following pieces and would be really fun if yall would want to help me out on this. And of course, we’d share the prize money. So keep your eyes pealed (no pun intended) for: Pennsylvania Avenue, Ventnor Avenue, Kentucky Avenue, Tennessee Avenue, Virginia Avenue, Vermont Avenue, Mediterranean Avenue and Boardwalk.

Couple days ago he asked me a question about the 30th. I hadn’t thought much about it (to avoid trying to guess what it is) but then starting poking for hints. He wouldn’t give any up much to my dismay.

This afternoon I was looking through the music pages on myspace to see if anyone had some new songs for me to download. I’m trying to not spend money right now, save money for new house things. I clicked on Peter Bradley Adams’ page to see what was new with him and saw that he was coming to Charlotte really soon. Peter Bradley Adams is one of the few artists that Jason and I both love (which is a very rare thing). I call Jason up, not even thinking just so excited that PBA is playing outside of LA (he doesn’t really). the phone call goes something like this:

*ring ring*

Jace: “Hey.”

Alisa: “JASON! Guess what! Your friend Peter Bradley Adams is playing in Charlotte on the 30th!”

Jace: “We are busy that night remember ?”

Alisa: “Oh yeah. OH! OH! Is THAT what it is?!”

Jace: ….

Alisa: “OH! I’m sorry! I wasn’t even trying!”

Jace: “You so owe me.”

I ruin surprises even when I don’t try! This is why I am a horrible girlfriend. Now I’m off to do a happy dance because I get to see Peter Bradley Adams.

This afternoon shortly after my manger left the store she rang to tell me that my rear passenger side tire was very low. So low in fact she recommended not driving on it. This was not something that brought me anything but saddness. Another thing to have gone sour with Gwen, no surprise here. The thought of getting a new set or even just one tire didn’t strike me well. I just paid a lot of bills being close to the start of the month. Tire money is not really something I wanna do at the moment. I call Jace to share with him my damsel in distress situation in hopes he’d come and fix my tire.

Shortly after five I see a blue polo shirt enter my store. A smile spreads across my face as I hand over Gwen’s keys. As I cleaned an espresso machine, Jace worked on seeing how big the hole actually was in my tire. Not only did he go out and get a hole-in-tire-kit (unsure of its offical name) and gauge, but he filled up the rest of my tires so they are all nice and full now.

Cost to fix my tire: $6
Reward of Starbucks drink and muffin: $1.08
A boyfriend who is my hero when it comes to my car: priceless

I was an on looker for most of the weekend. My face behind a camera wanting to capture sweet moments for Graham and Nicole. I saw Jason enjoy the reconnection of his close friends. Stepping back and watching others something I don’t do often enough. Soaking up the joy that was in that place brought warmth to my heart. And I hope that a silly grin that was on my face for most of the weekend reflected that.

Getting a purity ring seemed to be the thing to do in my youth group. I remember being one or the first in my circle of friends. We had the same ring and it was a topic in the youth group. Our small group leader would ask us how we are sticking to our commitments, which for most of us was rather easy since we weren’t allowed to date. After the hype of it fell, I remember wanting a new ring. Not because I didn’t like the one I had or had changed my mind on this whole purity thing. With so many of my friends “into it” and having the same ring, some of what made it special was gone to me. I don’t remember when exactly, but I bought myself a new ring (my parents were only willing to pay for one that they thought was the first was still just as good) and sealed the deal again with a Frappuncino (I was like 14, the right age for drinking a Frappuncino). Somewhere over the years, I lost that ring I had bough, probably because it was a 6 and way too big for my finger but was that was the only size they had. So, in high school I searched again for the right size and a fitting ring for me. My original purity ring sat (and still sits) in my small jewelry box too small for my finger. It wasn’t till I was near the end of high school or out of it I found a circle of hearts I wanted as my third purity ring (sounds so wrong). It was again a little big, so it stayed on my middle finger to help not lose it. And I still to this day have it, but a couple of days ago it had to be taken off my finger.

This past week when I was at work in the afternoon I was doing a very common afternoon cleaning of the cold beverage station. Part of that is moving the blender, cleaning behind and under and the actual blender. Well, when I was putting the blender down from moving it, slammed down on my finger. I saw it happened but I didn’t feel anything but then my finger started to feel tighter. I realized my ring had caught the blow instead of my finger. But being not the most expensive ring, it smashed into a flat shape cutting off the flow to my finger. I started to pull it off and reshape it so it wouldn’t hurt, but it wouldn’t move. It started to hurt and turn my finger colors and panic started to come over me. I tell my manager what is happening and she says “just put butter on it and it will slide right off”. I put butter all over it, which didn’t make it budge at all. My finger,now covered in butter, has now turned to a dark shade of red/purple color. I ask my manger for something, anything to get this off my finger. She finally finds a pair of pliers and squished back into a circle shape and off my finger it came. One of my coworkers, totally oblivious to my panic asked why my finger was all red. His reply? “I hope it wasn’t a ring you really liked” I told him “Well, I did like the ring, but I like my finger more.”

So here I am once again without a purity ring. Wonder if workman’s comp covers such things?