too old to be scared of bikes

Ok. In all honesty, I haven't written a blog in a month because my life has become consumed by watching NCIS. It's ridiculous. I've watched over 50 episodes, and I don't want to even calculate how much time that is. But it's like that whole "try to eat just one potato chip" thing. I've started watching the show in order from the beginning, and now I can't stop. Fortunately, I will eventually reach the end and hope to have a normal existence after that. And decent grades in seminary.

I'm gonna hit on a few random things now. Hopefully it's fun.

Today I got back on the horse. And by horse, I mean bike. See, I've been scared to ride a bike for about...8 years now. What had happened was, right around graduation from high school time (2001 baby), one of my good friends (Robbie Fischer) fell off his bike and (don't worry this is funny) broke like everything. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but he broke his collarbone and had stitches, and showed up to my graduation party the next day looking like this:

So the fear started. Then that summer at Young Life camp--Crooked Creek to be exact, which is weird because I go there with church now--we went mountain biking one day. First of all, I had many injuries/issues at camp that summer, from riding a crazy horse to getting a bruise that extended across my entire upper arm, you get the picture.

Anyway, near the end of the bike ride, the guide dude explained to us that there was a little bridge coming up and we could either get off the bike or jump it. I thought, well how hard can popping a wheelie up on that thing be? Well, harder than I thought, because my front wheel hit the bridge and flipped me completely over the handlebars and landed me on the ground. Grassy ground, but still.

Side note: I still have that shirt and those shorts.

Since then, I think I have ridden a bike once. And it was terrifying. But recently, I have been wanting to try riding a bike, because most places I go are in biking distance, and I'm getting tired of running as a work out. Even though I've gone running only about three times in the past month. Whatever.

Sorry, this story got really long so I will now conclude it. The Wysockis gave me Ben's old bike as a loaner, and an old helmet, and today I went on my first bike ride. It was awesome. I rode to Starbucks. On a trail, but also some on the street, and I felt really cool. I want to ride my bike all the time.

Let's see, what other fun things. Well, I hang out with Kayanne and Sophie constantly, so that's fun.

Kan, I stole this picture from your facebook, so thanks for not quitting. :)

Sophie is at my house all the time, which is cute. We can't be separated.

Kayanne and I go on fun adventures. For those of you unfamiliar with Kayanne, or Kan as I like to call her, she graduated from high school this year and helped lead my small group at church last year. She's pretty much da bomb, and since her school doesn't start until the end of September and all her other friends left, we hang out a lot. And it's awesome. A couple times we've ventured to Windsor to visit Ev and Joe, and one time we went hiking, which may have ended in us taking a wrong path and hitchhiking. Maybe. Maybe not. We survived, that's all I know.

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm old. But I got cookies (Beth) and cake (Kendra and Raychel) and breakfast (Wysockis) and dessert (Kingrys) and mostly food. And a high school boy bought me flowers. And Kayanne gave me a painting that she found on the side of the road but claimed to have painted herself. And Dani got me a KU Mr. Potatohead. And my parents gave me money toward buying a keyboard. And Wysockis got me Wolverine. And Cait is going to get me season 3 of 30 Rock. And Jen says there is something awesome on the way in the mail, but we'll see. And Sophie says she'll give me a present tomorrow. Here is a picture of my birthday presents:

Also, I got a really cute video message from Mason Garlich, AND I got to video chat with him/Andy/Jen/Alli tonight. Highlight of my day. Besides the bike thing.

But seriously, I can't believe I'm 27.

Well at this point it's probably about time that I highlight the wedding of the summer.

Introducing Mark and Kara Poshak. It was a pretty awesome event. Outdoor weddings are something of movies for me, I'd never been to one, and the weather was beautiful and everyone looked awesome and it was so much fun. And now they're married! And there's another member of the Tate/Poshak family.

It was a great reunion too. This will probably be one of the only weddings besides my own (someday) that had the sweet combination of good friends AND family. I was so excited to be able to spend the weekend with the Van Rossums...



And the Poshaks...

And the Tates...

And the McGintys...

And Angie...

And lots of Colorado friends...

It was sweet. Unfortunately we didn't get to take any official Tate/Poshak family photos, but that's ok. Maybe some other time in life we'll all put on our wedding clothes again and take one. Or probably not, but we can pretend.

And now Mark and Kara have moved on to California to fight fires. Well, not really. I wish they were still here so that we could hang out, but the great thing about being practically family with the Poshaks is that we have many more Christmases and Thanksgivings ahead of us.

So congratulations Mark and Kara! I love you guys.

Do you know what's hard about life? Well, a lot of things. But one main thing that sticks out to me is that in life, I am always missing somebody. No matter where I am, I miss someone. And I think it will be that way forever. Right now I miss Jen and my other Kansas friends, especially camp people. Next week I'm really gonna miss Kayanne. I wish everyone I love could just move to the same island and live there forever. Oh, and I would live there too. It would be sweet.

See you there!