hands down, my favorite people on earth are my family. the barnes clan has it all - rugged good looks, brawn, brain, adorable dogs and humility. strong silent type? look no further than my dad. brainiac? rem, ashly and mom. perpetual servant? grandma matie. adorable, 4' 9" raisin with a sharp tongue? great grandma. and the crown jewel of the clan - our resident leaf blowing in the breeze of life (with perfect bone structure to boot) - spencer. my main squeeze just quit his job, bought a Lezbaru and has pulled chocks to go conquer the wilds of Colorado as a river rafting guide. i realize this sounds like the plot of another van wilder installment but such is the life of my baby brother. college graduation, shitty seattle weather, a dead-end job and one heaping dose of wanderlust combined to create the perfect storm for spence's emerald city exit. he left today with all his worldly belongings and a huge smile on his face.
i'm genuinely excited for him but also horribly sad at the same time. spence and i were thick as thieves in high school and after suffering through a whole year without him freshman year, i managed to connive him into going to the same college as me and living three floors above me. booyah. brave little soul even shacked up with me and my four gorgeous ladies for a summer in our magnolia estrogen pit. suffice it to say we are close. reallllllly close. moving to texas was so awesome for me but also was the longest i've gone without seeing spence and the furthest i've ever been from him. upon my return to seattle, i posted up in my boss' basement for 2+ months until spencer and i could move into our postage stamp condo together. though i cringed at the smell of his man cave, the lack of mennonite cleaning skills and being forced to watch reruns of "las vegas" every day on our lunch hour (oh yeah, did i mention we worked for the same company?) - i already miss him SO MUCH. eesh. he's been gone for 6 hours and i've cried three times already. woe. is. me.
all this to say - i'm super bummed. it breaks my heart to think that now the three barnes children have officially gone their separate ways and spence and i will never live together again. but this isn't about me. i hope that colorado is to spencer what texas was to me - eye opening and life changing. even more...i hope i can convince him to chuck deuces to seattle for good and move with me somewhere new. i just can't imagine this being the end of our era! we've got a lot of living yet to do and there's no one else i'd rather do mine with. so, if you're holding a glass, raise it to spencer the river rat and send him some love as he starts a new chapter.
oh, and i have this shiny new guest room (that smells so fresh and so clean, clean). so come visit me! seriously. i'll feed you, i'll let you play with my adorable smush-faced pup and i'll play tour guide to perfection. see you soon?
now, enjoy a surplus of kt & spencer pictures. i HIGHLY recommend you scroll all the way down. there may be a blast from the 1998 past where i look like a man child in my loony toons shirt, breakaway pants and adidas sandals. yeah, the kind NBA playas wear. NBD.
