of endings

Woke up this morning in excruciating pain again. I get the feeling this is going to be a regular occurrence for the next few weeks. Ulgh. So. Not. Looking. Forward. To this.

In other news, one of my pain medications is also used as an anti-depressant. So, I might not be depressed in the next few months? Haha… interesting.

I stumbled around my room, bending over like an old pregnant woman. It’s depressing. I used to totally take it for granted that I could just bend-in-half to do, well, just about everything. Bending straight down from the waist is super convenient. For getting ready in the morning, cleaning your room, getting up out of bed, and numerous other things. You have no idea how much you use your abdominal muscles until you can’t or don’t want to because it causes pain. For me, I can use them, it just hurts a lot because it causes me to use the nerve that is affected by the shingles. It also hurts to slouch. Who knew.

Headed to church – I thought, on time, but I got there 5 minutes late for worship practice, for which I was kinda bummed about, but it wasn’t an issue at all. Still bummed though. Then after practice I walked around a bit and got some coffee at the coffee shop. Bud was really depressed. It was surprising. He was on the verge of tears the entire time I was getting my coffee.

Then I saw Kali, and she was already a mess. It was sad to find out that her Dad let her down and bailed on the whole song for the special offering that they were going to take for her to go to the Masters Commission up in Minnesota in a few weeks. So between that and the fact that I was leaving – this was my last Sunday at church, she was pretty down.

I found myself telling people not to be sad. I mean, I wasn’t crying. Did that make me a heartless person? (Or was it just that I’m on this anti-depressant/pain-killer? Lol) or is it because I know it’s foolish to get worked up over goodbyes? I have no idea, because it’s not like I don’t get worked up over goodbyes. I mean, I am going to miss all these people so much. Good gravy, yes, I am. It’s going to be hard going back to Oregon after having been here all summer. I haven’t been away from home and away from everyone I know in Oregon for this long since I went to Belhaven a few years ago. But even then, that was for school, and I didn’t really get to know a lot of people in the community like I have here.

Then during worship, I was supposed to play a solo of the chorus of a song… but I realized three notes in that I wasn’t supposed to play it at that exact time. Whups. But I just went with it anyway and finished it because if I stopped mid-way everyone would notice. Trick of stage performance: never let people think things happen unintentionally. The show must go on. haha.  Sooo I sat down at the back during announcements right after that feeling kinda like a dork, but oh well. The only people who knew were the worship team.

Then right as Pastor Dan was starting up his sermon, he gave a shout-out to me about how they have loved my playing and will miss me, as it’s my last week here in Shenandoah. It’s amazing how sweet all of the people here are. It’s one of the things that always manages to catch me off guard.

Then after church I passed around some bracelets that I had hand-made in the last few days for all of them. I’ll miss them a lot. Some of them had a harder time accepting my departure than others. They all wanted me to stay forever. There was a lot of hugging, and me consoling them that it would be alright, and then Danny wanted to give me something that he had been wanting to give me every day for the last week. His old guitar. Yup, this kid has the hots for me. I had to convince him that I could not take it because it was his instrument, and because there was zero way I could get it back home with me on top of everything else.

Before Kali left, I made sure to give her the package I’d assembled for her, which included a notebook/journal, some of my favorite pens for her Master’s program, and a really good book for her to work through.

I could really go for some chicken nuggets right now. Why I am telling you this, I have no idea.

Then after more and more and more goodbyes and hand-shakes, and hugs, Erica wanted to do something for lunch when she found out that I had no plans. So she, Ashley, Tricia, and her brother Michael, and I went over to El Portal (where everyone goes after church because it’s kinda the only restaurant in town) for lunch. We saw a lot (and I don’t just mean like two or three, I’m talking like 10-20) of people from church there.

Then after lunch, I came back home. Erica had handed me a box and I opened it when I got to my room. A hilarious Hoops and Yoyo talking card, and a beautiful scarf were inside. So sweet.

Then I set to work cleaning my room and organizing things more (yes, I do continue to destroy it on a daily basis, thankyouverymuch). Then I vacuumed. I can’t do that enough, it seems. As it’s Sunday, there isn’t a whole lot of much I can do for the rest of the day. I visited with Jan a bit, watched a movie on my computer, tried to update my blog, but fell asleep for a few hours, and woke up only to find that I’d managed to type some garbled nothings while I was asleep.

Tomorrow is Monday. I’m hoping to do a few things tomorrow. I believe the plan is still for me to meet up with Susannah on Tuesday for lunch in St Joseph or something like that. So pretty much everything else that I want to do in Shenandoah has to be done tomorrow. Which, isn’t a whole lot, but still.

Weird how things come to such a close like this.


Recent updates:
August 17: "of an epic all-nighter"
August 20: "of roat tripping"
August 21: "of misery and a bowling adventure"

of misery and bowling adventures

Woke up this morning in a Benadryl coma of sorts, but also in excruciating pain. I had no idea what was going on. I have this bug bite on my back, but it’s like it circled around to the front. I couldn’t figure out what the deal was. But it was to the point that this morning I could hardly move or breathe without crying. I’d like to say that I’m pretty tolerant to pain, but this was a lot of it.

I decided I didn’t need to be up just yet, so I decided that more sleep might help me and that I might just be over thinking everything.

20 minutes of aggravated and painful attempts of sleep later, I woke up in tears and decided that I should at least probably call home. Maybe it sounds extreme, but I’m sorry, I just don’t want to die or be stuck in Iowa with health complications. Not cool. So I talked with dad for awhile before realizing that I should try calling Nanch&Co’s to talk with John, because, he’s, well, a doctor, and should know about these things. I felt slightly ridiculous while I was on the phone, because I just don’t have health issues – ever. And the fact that I was kinda sobbing on the phone was awkward, but it hurt a lot and I couldn’t stop it. He asked if I could drive over to their house to have him look at my apparent bug bite and evaluate me in person. After getting off the phone I wasn’t quite sure if it was the best idea to, you know, drive in my current state, but I figured that I was able to drive last night, what is stopping me from driving 3 miles to Nancy&Co’s? Granted, by this point, I had figured out what makes it hurt more and less, and worked through it all. Pretty much doing whatever I could to get my mind off the whole thing.

Once there, John took a quick look at my side and said he pretty much had me completely diagnosed over the phone but wanted to see me in person just to confirm things. He said I have shingles. Which is related to the chicken pox, but only contagious by the rash. It’s like the chicken pox virus kinda just hangs out and chills in your nervous system until something triggers it to come out of hibernation such as low immune system, emotional stress, among other things. It then follows the nerve around from the spinal cord and to the surface of this skin, most often around the waste. With this in mind, it’s kinda awesome. I can totally tell that it’s messing with my nerve (hence the pain), but also: it’s following my nerve! It’s kinda cool. Yes, I’m a total nerd. But it’s cool that it totally traces my nerve from my back around to my stomach. I mean, it’s not a good thing, but it’s really fascinating.

Painful, yes, very. But cool to think about. Annoying, even more so. And now… at this point in time: not awesome. But I’ll deal. Because John’s a doctor, he set me up with some prescriptions right there, which was awesome. One for an anti-viral which won’t “cure” it as shingles has no cure, but it will help by slowing down the reproduction cycle of the virus allowing my body to eliminate it sooner. He also gave me some pain prescriptions which won’t stop the pain, but help it not be quite so miserable. I’m just glad, if nothing else, to know what the heck is wrong with me. I tend to over-think things sometimes, and at first I had no idea if I might have a hernia, or even a kidney stone? Good gravy, it could be anything, but thankfully, it’s just shingles (and as annoying as that is, at least it’s a fairly standard thing with a basic solution). But also: this whole thing is yet another way that makes me feel like this is Peace Corps: Midwest Edition

So after filling my prescriptions at Walmart that John gave me (which, btw: the fact that he is family and a doctor and was willing to help me was seriously a blessing. It’s awesome to know that God is watching out for me that way… still not completely sure why I have shingles… and now, but I’m sure it will all work out soon enough) I hurried home to get ready for work. Now, I wasn’t sure if I should even go to work because of having shingles, but I felt bad for having called in late and missing work before (as much as I say it doesn’t bother me, I like being responsible and a good worker, and yes, it kinda bothers me when I’m late for work). But after being at work for less than 5 minutes, they sent me home. Understandable, I suppose. I’m not upset in the slightest, really. It’s more of just something to occupy my time than anything else.

So instead of work, I just came home, took a pain pill and took a nap as it’s kind of the only way to not be aware of the pain at the moment. The meds don’t do a whole lot for the pain. They just slightly take off an edge.

Around 6, I headed over to the church because the youth group was going bowling up in Red Oak. We all piled into one of the church vans and headed off. It was only about a half hour drive, but some kids pulled out their ipods, others sang, others played road trip games or just generally talked about everything. Once in Red Oak we hit up the Taco Bell/KFC (same building) before going over to the bowling ally for cosmic bowling. Oh yeah.

I never used to be a huge aficionado for bowling, but anymore it’s something fun to do. I’m still pretty miserable at it, but regardless, it’s not as boring as it used to be for me when I was younger (the games used to talk foooor evvver when I was little).

Maggie was so much fun to talk with, and she brought her friend, Sarina, who is a foreign exchange student here in the sates for a year – she’s 15, and incredibly sweet and gorgeous.

I loved hanging out with the kids at bowling. It reminded me of being a counselor at YMA. Maybe I never went bowling with the kids (did with the counselors though), but I could generally be goofy, and they thought I was awesome, which made me laugh. They loved my stupid dance moves to the fun music that was blasting around the room, and I fell at one point because well, the combination of the floors and the bowling shoes were just no bueno for a gravity challenged person like me.

Danny was being hilariously ridiculous the entire evening. I could tell there was more than just a friendship interest in me. He’s only 18, and pretty sweet, but downright girl-crazy.

Ashley, Erica, and I had a good time laughing with each other and at the kids. It was fun, but tiring. It wasn’t so bad for me because I guess I’ve learned how to bounce around my energy and pull at it when I’m even really tired.

After playing two games, we headed back to Shenandoah. Luke kindly serenaded us the entire journey back to various worship and TobyMAC tunes  (a capella of course as we took the van that had AC but now radio).

On my way back home I stopped by HyVee to pick up a snack of some ice cream. Saw Mandie. It was great to see her again. She has a new hamster called Everything-Nice. Sooo that makes it so she has Sugar, Spice, and Everything-Nice.  Two bunnies and a hamster. She told me a few stories about her pets and their latest adventures in her house, which was adorable.

Wow, tomorrow is my last day at Shenandoah Assemblies of God. I can’t believe it. It’s going to be so weird to just… leave. I’ve gotten to know these people pretty well over the last few months

of epic an all-nighter

Soooo last night, yeah, somehow I managed to stay up for the duration. I don’t know how it happened. But it just, well, did. I was up at 12 and knew i’d probably be up for a few more hours, but once 2 hit after skyping with Kim, and her wondering why she was up at midnight, I was up at 2, I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be awake. I was hoping to go to bed soon, but my mind was still racing like crazy

(don't ask me about the lines, i have no idea why they are there... they're driving me crazy)


Then 4 came along. By this time, I had made the final decision to add more excitement and spice to my life by coloring my hair again. I kinda freaked out when I pulled off some of the highlighting kit after awhile, but the funny thing was that I knew that would happen. I mean, it’s what I was hoping for, it’s just that the initial shock is always there to surprise me with the: holy chamois: my hair is blonde. But I like it. Then I showered and skyped with kim while making more bracelets some more before cleaning my room. And then cleaning my room and then putting more things up on my walls, and then kim went to bed and I kept putting things up on my walls and kept cleaning, and doing random things on my computer, cleaning more, organizing more, putting more things up, bumming out on my computer more. It just didn’t make sense to go to bed. I mean, seriously, I wasn’t tired.

Then my alarm went off at 6:00am to get ready to meet Annette for our bike/chat date. Woah. 6? Already. How insane is that. I mean, I wondered if I might end up staying up the whole night, but I never really thought it would really, really happen, and I didn’t do it intentionally. I just wasn’t tired.

So I did my best to wrap up the cleaning, get… dressed? and head out on my bike to meed up with Annette just on the other side of the Nishna/Airport and Hwy 59 intersection. Of course, leave it up to loser me to stumble half way through that intersection with cross traffic nearing the signal. Fail. But thankfully I had my lights on, so I made it through safely because they saw me there.

Then Annette and I biked back over to the church and decided to just stay there as it might rain were we to bike around or sit at a park (plus, it was deathly humid). After a few hours of talking on the couches at the church, I biked back to the farmhouse. The whole way back I had started to feel the whole you’ve-been-up-for-too-long kinda thing and was quite nauseous. But I made it safely back to the farmhouse and went straight to bed. Napped for five hours before heading to work. I was so confused about what day it was and what time and all that when I woke up from my nap. It was around 2pm, but it was kinda overcast (very Oregon weather) and looked pretty much like it could just about be any time of day.

Worked 4-8 with Philip, Jenny, and Amber and we generally had a good time. Between Amber laughing at all my stupid sayings and jokes (surprises me every time), and Philip is awkwardly a high school football player, so everything is flirting from him. But we have a good time, between the laughing, jokes, fake-complaining, the occasional (and annoying) gossip about the co-workers and regular customers, making of set-ups, and rag throwing/hitting, it’s always fun.

Looking back on it all, I realize that I had slept in until noon the day before my epic all-nighter (my second on record), so really, it was no worse as if I had stayed up til 3 after getting up at 6 the same day. Which I’ve done before (more times than I would like to say). So the whole staying-up-all-night isn’t nearly as awful or epic as some might like to think.

of airplanes and shooting stars

Just so everyone (and particularly some people) know, my delay in updating this blog is not due to things relating to anyone. I’ve been busy (well, sorta… I’ve been otherwise occupied) and completely unmotivated to update. But I am in the process of updating all the back days that I missed. I’ve kept track of my goings-on and will post them in chronological order soonish. I realize I’m over a week behind and also behind on a few back days when I said I would update, but haven’t. Those are coming. I promise.

Got up at 7:45 (Wow, I know, concept, right? morning… weird). Got myself some MD Lounge coffee (to wake up… I was up til well after 3 last night. No idea why. I don’t usually suffer from insomnia. Usually I can go to bed and crash (unless I’m a) hungry b) thirsty or c) needing chapstick), but not last night. Nooo Hannah goes to bed just after 11 and can she sleep? No… not four hours. So I get up around 1:30 and read my Bible for a bit and do a Bible study that I haven’t done in literally ages and then read more in What’s a Girl to do? After finishing that, I pull out Don’t Waste Your Life. I finally start getting to the point where I can’t coherently read a page without my eyes buzzing and flickering, so I shut off the light and try to get some shut eye. Didn’t work so well, but I eventually fell asleep. Only to have my alarm go off at 7:30am, 7:31am, 7:32am, and 7:33am before I realized I’d set one for every minute for five minutes to ensure that I would actually… well, you know, get up.

So then I did a Bible study and read a bit more, then worked on my puzzle and bummed it out online for awhile, showered, and then headed to work for a few hours. Worked with Michelle, Sandy, and Pat as per usual. Trevor came in to unload the truck and asked me to cover a few hours of work for him tomorrow. Considering how much of nothing I’m doing I didn’t mind, but I found out later that the hours I am to be cover is in the middle of the afternoon and therefore the hours of the day that I would be ridin’ solo while trying to get a tip at subway (wow, way to quote two songs in one go, Hannah). So they called another worker to come in because I’m not super dooper comfortable being by myself at Subway for 3 hours. I’ve done it for an hour, but I’d rather not have to for longer I suppose…

After work I came home and after awhile I got ready for worship practice, and then I remembered that Jan wanted to go to her exercise class tonight, and I can never remember what time she has to be to it… is it 5? Didn’t know… so I went down to talk to her about it because I had to be to worship practice by 5 and would be there til probably around 6:30 or so, so I asked her to just drop me off on her way out to Clarinda. Well, as it happens, her class isn’t until 7 or so, but I still didn’t want to make her late to it, so I asked her to just run me into town and drop me off. On the drive there, she kinda surprised me. I just tried being friendly as normal, talking about the weather (lame, I know), but also about my violin playing, my upcoming birthday, playing on the worship team at church, friends from church, and the like. Then she seemed to pause for a second and asked me if I was sworn off the garden because of the heat. Well, the heat is mostly ridiculous. 100 at night? Meaning from 9pm til 5am? Yeah, I’m not going to even attempt to work out there in that insanity, I am so sorry to disappoint. Plus, when I had talked to Jim a few weeks previous, he said that he “just wanted me to have a good time here in Iowa” and that “I’m not getting paid anything for the work I do, so I shouldn’t be expected to do all the work out there.” But it’s mostly that recently there have been a lot of growing weeds (likely due to the excessive heat and humidity we have here this summer; it’s a scortcher). Anyway, Jan is getting really frustrated and depressed about the garden because it was a huge investment for them and right now Jim is focusing on doing some programming work for a client with his computer business because this is the dude who provides their monthly rent needs, so his computer is the top priority right now. This only makes matters worse for Jan, and it’s probably a combination of her health issues, but she is of the opinion that we are doing things because we don’t appreciate her, which makes life for us rather challenging. So I’m trying my best to stay on her good side now, which is harddd….

So I walked into worship practice feeling like a failure in general. I felt pressured, like a bad guest, like a miserable relative. Like the worst person imaginable. I’d come out here to help and serve, and what do I do? I complain about not having any friends. Who cares. Job lost his friends, his family, his everything, but he still served. No, I’m no Job, but I can try… It’s just really difficult. I just haven’t been putting myself forward enough I suppose. I’ve been getting too absorbed in my own world up in my room. Just bumming out because of the heat and not doing anything much at all. Like, seriously. I’m a bum, straight up. So besides the fact that I felt generally miserable, it was a wake-up jolt (not just a call… a bit more intense). So I was feeling kinda down (um… only kinda, right), and I ended up just quickly explaining things to Pam before we started up worship practice, and she didn’t have much to say, but she said that I was in the right place to be right now if I was upset about things.

I was glad for worship practice. Playing music, praising God. You know. Kinda awesome. But it all ended way fast. We played for, maybe 20 minutes tops. It was weird. We usually go for well over an hour. So… I didn’t have a car with me, or a bike because it was far to hot to bike, which was why I asked Jan to drive me here in the first place. So I just walked over to the library to do some homework, and on my way there (3 blocks to walk) I called Lydia, and we ended up talking for awhile, so I didn’t go inside, instead I went out back and sat in the grass in the shade. It reminded me of sitting behind the library in Hood River, only… there were no trees, no ice cream shops, no people, no incredible view, no river, no mountains, I wasn’t on a hill (flat as ever), and it was hot and super humid (lol). After we talked for a while, I decided to go over to Nancy&Co’s because I havent’ been over there in awhile, and would love to just talk with Nancy about everything that’s going on as she’s a decently normal person to talk with. Found out later that it is a 1.3 mile walk from the library to their house. I plugged in my headphones and walked it. With my backpack (because I thought I was going to be doing homework at the library), and my violin from worship practice. Yeah… a mile, in converse, without socks, in crazy heat and humidity… probably not among the smartest things I’ve ever done, but not the worst. Needless to say I managed two blisters (one per foot, but not the worst I’ve gotten [thank you ballet, modern, and gymnastics]).

So Rachel and I hugn out for awhile, me watching her play her new computer game (which, FYI, she bought for herself with her allowance on half.com with the computing assistance of her father), where she created new creatures and told me how they evolved (awesome…) and how her character can dance, pose, and kill (also awesome…). Then Nancy and I talked about a million and one things ranging from family, to old issues, to redecorating her house, to their recent trip to Chicago (made me actually want to go to a big city for once in my life), to everything in between. It was good just to talk, commiserate, and laugh about everything and nothing in general. Then we had dinner – but because their kitchen was just recently worked on, and their dishwasher is out of commission because of the sinks needing to be replaced and that hinging on the fact that her beautiful granite counter needs to be re-cut to fit the new sink (dishwasher was leaking, ruined her wood floor… got floor replaced with (beautiful) tile, decided to replace sinks to match stainless steal look of the rest of the kitchen (was going to do it anyway eventually, dishwasher connects to small sink, small sink doesn’t fit in available hole in granite counter, sink still not hooked up, therefore no dishwasher [because you so needed to know that]) – so Rachel and I helped ourselves to frozen (but healthy) dinners and frozen fruit bars. Then we hung out some more while Nancy practiced the piano. And ohmygoodness is she amazing. My jaw hit the floor with her intricate scales, chord progressions and finger exercises. Yes, indeed. She is a concert pianist. So awesome.

A bit later Nancy and John convened for their official dinner, which was a protein shake made from a protein mix (café latte flavor) with almond milk. She gave me a sampling of part of it. It was quite good and goodness, filled me up for the rest of the evening. I got munchy later, but only because I wanted an occupation for my hands. So I worked on my puzzle more, lol. When Nancy drove me home later, she questioned me about keeping in contact with “that one guy friend of yours who moved up to… Wisconsin?” lol… Josh, and yes, I’d been in contact with him. We’d been texting all day. Haha.

When I got home, I was kinda spacing out, but then I had a momentary freak out when I remembered that it was the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight. I was so stoked. Not only do I love stars, this is the one that always hits around my birthday (hence, why I always remember it). So, after getting far too excited, and texting a few friends about it, I went outside. Yard light. Lame. It was after 12, but I took off in the Buick. North on 59 for a few miles to get out of town. I pulled off onto 160th (whatever that is… it was a class B maintenance road, lol). It was so black out. The stars were beyond amazing. You couldn’t help but see the Milky Way. All the constellations were super visible, but also not because there were so many other smaller stars that you normally can’t see in any populated areas. I saw an airplane while I was watching the meteor shower. Yeah. Not the same thing. I realize I wasn’t watching stars fall, but meteors are a part of comets and well, meteors are actually what common people of today call shooting stars. So it was rather epic. It was really, really awesome. Yeah… and then I saw a satellite; not the same. Then an airplane flew overhead. Definitely not a shooting star (although, pre-song, I had always wished one could wish upon an airplane and pretend it was one). It was one of those moments where I wished I could have been with someone. It would have been a good moment to even be on the phone with a friend back home. But no. Not a romantic evening like one might wish for. Just me, God, and the stars.

of school bashes and missing Oregon

Meant to get up early, didn’t, felt super sick to my stomach, which is majorly lame and I couldn’t eat anything which made it worse but I had to work anyway, and I didn’t feel sick enough to just… you know, not go, and besides, I just don’t do that anyway. I only don’t go to work when I’m basically dead. So, I went to work, and worked for 2 hours. Donna asked me if I was going back to school because apparently Philip mentioned something about it to her. Ha. That made quitting easy. I didn’t have to break it to her any way. She just straight up asked me if I was, and if it was back in Oregon. Yup and yup. So I left her a note saying when I’d be leaving and when it starts and all that.

After work, I went to the Back to School bash at ShenAG for a few hours where they were giving out free backpacks loaded with the respective school needs for elementary and middle school students. There were loads of tables full of previously loved clothing for the taking, and haircuts given by some of the local ladies. There was also a table full of cookies donated by HyVee, and some orange drink donated by the McDonald’s in town. They also had face painting, but no one was volunteering to do that, so Kali and I painted some faces. I mostly painted few flowers on some girls. They absolutely loved it. Girl after adorable little girl kept coming up to me to have a flower painted on their face.  I don’t know or think that I’m like, a fantastic artist, and I was shaking up the wall because I hadn’t really had anything to eat all day, but they actually didn’t turn out too bad, especially considering my current state of health, and the fact that we were using washable watercolor paints (lol).

Then I went home, bummed around for about an hour, worked on my puzzle for a bit, watched another back episodes of Chuck (you know, I really probably should be listening to podcasts instead of watching these…) and then got ready to head back to church for worship practice before the Wednesday night service. For some reason I was super exhausted and had a miserable case of the hiccups.  Quite the comical combination if I do say so myself.

Some dude came to fix the upstairs (closet) bathroom while I was home. I was super confused about it, but it looks better/awesome now. He put up the mirror and put a piece of wood (paneling) in front of the sink, so it looks better now. No awkward place to store the cleaning supplies though, lol, but that’s alright though. I’ll live.

Kali said that her friend that was providing her with an extra ticket to the MercyMe and Newsboys concert up at the Iowa State fair on Thursday had another extra that I could use if I wanted to go. I said I’d be down, and we were to meet up in Bedford at 2:30pm to carpool up to the state fair. Awesome and super fun, but I’d either have to switch my shift at work, not go, or dip out early… potentially awkward.

But then she texted me later, not long before church, and said that the dude actually passed the extra ticket on to a friend that he knew, instead of saving it for me, which is a disappointment (people…), but honestly, I’m really not upset about it. I seriously have not been this un-upset about something in a long time. I can still go to work, and then work on homework and other stuff here.

Church was good, we had some missionaries from Mexico speak about the work they’ve been doing down there, and they will be heading to the UK shortly.

As per usual anymore the time I spend at church is filled with several short but rather awkward conversations with Bud, and with a few other people who try to get me to stay there in Shenandoah to play my violin at the church. Bud even went so low to say that he’d steal my violin. No one I consider a friend of mine would ever say that. No one says that and lives. No one.

Drove home after church and made myself some wraps because Jan has started feeling better and getting over her cold, so we now have some food = awesome. Thennnn I watched more Chuck, bummed around online, played with my puzzle some more, texted and called a few peoples. Talked for awhile with Josh, which was fun because we haven’t actually talked in awhile, but he had to go before too long because he didn’t want to wake up his roommates (found out that he cohabitates with some of his fellow missionaries, which is awesome, but they’ve been basically fasting for the last few days because well, they’ve been short on funding and that’s at the bottom of the totem pole. Which is sad, but reality folks. He’s afraid I won’t have time to talk with him when I move back to Oregon in 2 weeks, which might and might not be true. I do have friends back home, but it’s not that I won’t want to keep in touch with my new friends from Iowa – it’s a weakness I have. I miss people like crazy-insane. I’ll miss everyone here quite terribly once I’m back to the good ol’ OR. And I don’t even mean that lightly. Even though I’ll be crazy busy with school and state fair and teaching, I’m going to still want to keep in touch with all of my friends – those from school and those from everywhere else around the world, lol. Duh.

I need to send in my internship update… hmm awkward.

Played some unfortunate phone tag with Kara… drat. We srsly need to actually talk soon, lol. Emailed mom a bit. I miss hommmeee. Can’t wait for normal food. Like Burritos, wraps, pork steak things, salad, meandering through the garden in the cool of the evening, lying on the pavement with the kitties, driving through the Gorge, cruising around downtown in my bombtastically awesome Subaru, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceannnn, fruit trees, negative humidity, cool evenings. 

Yup, I miss it.

I thought I might.

When I was planning on coming out to Iowa, I kinda figgurd that I’d miss Oregon after awhile and enjoy it all the more once I returned. Sometimes being away like this is a good thing. You stop taking things like the awesomeness of Oregon for granted.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m actually kinda liking Iowa. It’s just that at times, it’s in the evening, and I’d like to hang out with someone, but I know no one to hang out with, and it’s too hot to go out on a bike ride, and we live over a mile from town and this road is super straight and boring to walk along, and infested with mosquitoes, and everything in town closes at either 2pm, 5pm, or 11pm… so the options dwindle as the day progresses, which is lame.

And then it gets even more lame (spell-check wants me to correct this to “lamer” but I like it the way it is) when I try calling friends from back home, only to remember that they, like, but also unlike me, have lives – work, school, friends, family, church. And don’t answer their phones… or call me back… and they aren’t available for skype-chatting like they say they want to be. But I can’t let myself be upset, because the truth is that they have lives! And I can’t be mad at them for that, lol. I knew communication was going to be difficult when I was planning to fly out here back in May, so I’m dealing with it. It’s frustrating, because as much as I want to hang out with people, like, all the freaking time when I get back to Oregon, I have no $$ to do anything or go anywhere (gas and all that…), and I’ll pretty much be hitting the ground running. As of this moment, I’m not even completely positive that I’ll even be going back to my parents house before I rocket off to the Oregon State Fair for the startings of my AgEd program.

of the art of bumming

I think I’ve generally been able to perfect the art of being a bum… today I slept in til 11, then I moseyed around and finally started to clean my room (and by clean, I mean legit cleaned. I haven’t cleaned it so much since I’ve been here, basically), I worked on my puzzle a bit, only to later realize that it is too big for this card table that I hoarked from the downstairs area, so I tried working on it more on it, but then decided to move it back to the floor. Well, that’s not entirely true. I now have it on the backside of my Alice in Wonderland poster that Kim got me for my gradumation (it would be up on my wall, did this town have anything to put thins up on the wall with), and it actually doesn’t even really fit on it… it’s a panoramic shot, lol.

Talked to Lydia on the phone for awhile… I miss her a lot (“a lot” is too short a phrase for the extent that I miss her). Then I went down to HyVee because I was bored and hungry (we have little to no food… I’m talking broiled hamburgers and one uncooked one left uncovered on the same plate together, spoiled salad greens, numerous varieties of beer, diet Mountain Dew, diet Coke with Lime, water, Gatorade, light Gatorade, HyVee brand cinnamon Life cereal…. Yeah I think that’s about it besides some milk, orange juice, and assorted sauces and salad dressings. I was going to get something to eat, but I ended up just going for some ice cream. Found the HyVee brand for $1.48/box. So picked up Cookies and Cream and Butter Crunch. I wanted cookie dough or mint chip, but I didn’t see either. And while I was there I remembered that I had another handy-dandy frozen Totino’s in the freezer to pop in the new, fancy schmancy toaster oven.

I still need to figure out what I want to do for my birthday. Aunt Jan said they’d be down with doing whatever I want, but I don’t know what it is… and I have to work 4-8 on my birthday… AND it’s on a Sunday. So that rules out a lot of the day.

I still need to quit my job – if nothing else then simply after yesterday, I have nothing wrong with just leaving it as it is. As much as I didn’t like working back at the MD Lounge in Oregon, it was actually decent compared to the super crappy management and constant blame-shifting that goes on here. Misery.

For the rest of today, I ended up attempting to update my blog (hence, this post, finally, after a ridiculous amount of delay), but… mostly I just watched too much back episodes of Chuck and ate too much ice cream, worked on my puzzle a bit, and missed hanging out with people, working out and being generally active in life.

It’s so retardedly hot anymore. It’s pushing 100 every night – for the whole night (like, you know… from sunset to sunrise? Yeah… 100 outside during those hours), and just gets hotter during the day. It’s frustrating. I can’t do anything outside. It’s too hot to even go for a midnight run or bike ride to the park to sit on the swings (even though the park actually closes at 10 and I have been kicked out by the cops before… haha).

Sometimes I wonder what people would think and/or do if they knew if I was a secret agent or a spy or something. I mean, really? How many people come to small town Iowa for the summer? And work on forming friendships and relationships with the people in town, get involved with the library, go for road trips around the area, but don’t really do a whole lot else? I mean, seriously, I could be top secret undercover if you didn’t know better. Ok, so, by you reading this, you automatically know that I’m not undercover (I wish…), but there are times when I just take in everything. Seeing who is where, how many of this and another thing, how things go down, watching how things play out, thinking about various ways they could potentially play out if I wanted them to be that way… etc, etc, etc, lol. I am a dork…

of friends, biking, and decisions

Got up, showered, and then biked into town and stopped by the church to pick up some music for worship on Sunday. I missed worship practice last night and just had Erica leave my music for me there. Then I biked over to Fair Oaks, which is an assisted care facility and just asked if I could talk to the people there. I know people in homes like that get so often forgotten, and it kinda reminded me of the home where Grampy and Grammy were in Hood River. Perhaps it was one of those weird things that you never think remind you of home, but pulls on your heart so hard that you have to go back. So I sat on the couch and talked with Betty and her friend. It was a challenge for me. They didn’t know me from Adam, and here I was talking to them. They had memory issues to boot, which made it doubly awkward, but when I said that my only friend in town just left for Minneapolis, Betty patted to the couch and told me to sit myself right down because if I was in need of a friend, I had come to the right place. We didn’t talk about much. Knowing that they didn’t know anything about me and might be weirded out about me, I just started telling them about myself and the things I had been up to here in Shenandoah. Betty told me that she’s always lived here in Iowa, and grew up on a big farm back in the day. It was just a sweet and pleasant conversation. We watched part of Oprah and talked a bit more, and then I headed off to work on homework. From there I went to McComb park and hung out on the swings for awhile before biking over to Nancy&Co's to borrow a few puzzles (Nancy said I could borrow some last night at Robby's bday party) the library to work on homework for awhile.

Then I biked around town for awhile before heading back to the farmhouse to really power out my homework.

…until I ran into a mega-problem. Our internet went out. Right as I was turning in my assignments. Flip. No bueno. So I waited around and got it turned in and all figured out.

I have two options of what to do tomorrow:

Why am I saying this? Don’t I always have options. Yes, I do. However, tomorrow, we are bug bombing the house (we have fleas… and I’m getting eating alive) and we have to vacate the premises for at least 4 hours. As it happens, Jim’s high school groupies are in a band, and they will be performing up in Glenwood tomorrow night, and it’s kinda like a mini reunion for them all and other high school groupies who live in the Midwest area. So they’re going to that and I can go along. They might go up to Omaha, which would be fun. I’d love to go there. I could hang out with Josh, but he’s no longer in town. Same with Nancy&Co, but they’re leaving on vacation tomorrow for Chicago for a week or so. Laame. I could also just bum around town, hang out at the library, maybe see a movie with me, myself, and I, or do homework, or walk around town (it’s a tad warm out, but you know, it’s cool [well, no, it’s not. Not literally anyway]).

Decisions, decisions….

of getting back to things and birthday parties

NOTE: there are at least three posts that I'm currently working on updating/writing about that will show up on their respective days so that this blog remains mostly in chronological order. Sooo, I'll get those up and letcha know so you shouldn't just read the most recent one! there might be more new ones below that you've missed!!! (not that i have a huge fan base... or any response or interest in my blog at all, but it's easier than an email update every so often that i probably would never keep up with.... /rant).


Today I got up, blogged about yesterday (see below) and then oh-my-goodness, I exercised. CONCEPT!!! I miss it so ridiculously much, it's not even funny. I've gotten so ridiculously out of shape in the last like, 3 weeks, it's pathetic and down right depressing. Lotsa crunches, pushups, 8-count grande-plies (aaaahh feel the burn you ballet dancer!)... among other things. Next in order was shower. Yup, it was marvelous. Then I had some cereal before listening to more music (I'm not even sure if I really need to be blogging about this as I almost always am listening to music, but you know, the generalities of shuffling through various songs on my itunes takes up too much of my time.

I spent a good amount of time deciphering between the differences in B.o.B. (ft. Hayley Williams)'s Airplanes (5:11) and Airplanes pt2 (3:01) and Moby's Extreme Ways (3:57) and the new Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum) (4:22). It was entertaining and insightful. I like them all and I like each one for different reasons.

Then I went to work. It was pretty basic. I worked the computer and some veggies. I'm still not completely proficient on "bread" just yet, but I'm sure they'll have me on that soon enough. I also found out that the store will be closed from Sunday through Tuesday. The exact reason, I'm not entirely sure... my one guess is that the National Guard in town is having this huge shindig catered by Subway, and we might be near-to-completely out of anything afterwards. Again, I don't actually know the real reason, but that's my current guess, lol.

After work, I came home and ate lunch while poking around on my computer a bit before changing to go to Robby's 16th birthday party over at Nancy&Co's (what I feel like I always call their place... or at least when I'm thinking about it; don't ask).

I had a really good time over there again. I should seriously visit more often than I do. It's kinda lame of me. Robby had the whole evening planned out just perfectly. We were to play three rounds of Bingo in 25 minutes, then we were to order pizza and proceed to play other various games (with their respective directions and proper number of players laid on the top of each box) for the next hour and half or so while we waited for the pizzas to arrive. Haha... there were even prizes for the bingo games. aka: candy. Jan won the first round, grabbing the Reese's, I took the second game, choosing the Mixed Berry Skittles, and Nancy claimed the third round. After that, candy was passed around to everyone present (me, Jan and Jim and their family). Then I went over to the living area and played Boggle with Nancy and John while the rest of them played Chinese Checkers at the table. A short while after the pizzas came (and we interrogated each other throughly about the ridiculous lot of three letter words we'd found), Robby opened a few gifts and we had pizza. Then we headed downstairs and watched a movie called Next, which features Nicholas Cage and, lacking names: a character from 30Rock who has this thing for Jack, and Ellen (the girlfriend... who was a "wait an see") from Elizabethtown. It was interesting... not awesome, but not horrible either. Nancy and I spent most of the movie finishing up her current puzzle. Super fun. I should borrow some while I'm still in town. I'm a nerd, and a nut, I know, but I love putting them together. Half-way through the movie, we breaked to have rootbeer floats. Never, ever bad.

After the movie was over, we talked for a bit while Nancy and I continued working on the puzzle a bit more - we were so close to being done!!! it was a little more than exciting to say the least, then Jan and Jim were getting up and heading out, so I followed suit because, well, it's only logical that I head out with them considering they were my ride, I live with them, and yeah... just made sense. Plus I wanted to call some people (am I turning into a phone person??!? weird...).

But it was weird, they never looked at me or said anything to me, but I hurried out the door behind them, but when I got out the front door, they just jumped in the car and took off without me. It was the weirdest thing - although, not super unlike what happened when I'd first gotten in the car back at the farmhouse before we were leaving to go to Nancy&Co's. Jim had no idea I'd jumped in the back seat, so we sat in the driveway, Jim talking to Jan about the garden for like, 5 minutes before he noticed I was there. I mean, I guess I could have said something, but there really wasn't anything for me to say, and I wasn't like, sneaking around, it was obvious I was there...so weird. Anyway, he drove off with out me... well, more like, leaving me running after the car, and then standing in the road, wondering what in the world had just happened. So ridiculous. So then I called Jim, and he didn't answer - I was actually surprised he even had his phone with him. Had he not, I probably would have gone back inside, or walked down to McComb park and called a few friends anyway before just walking home.... as it's really not more than 2 miles. Annoying, but nothing impossible. After trying to figure out what was going on, Jim just stated that he had assumed I was going to stick around... or something like that. and just waited up at the stop sign for me to walk up to them. awesome. I was kinda upset on the drive back, but I tried not to let it really get to me. He probably just wasn't thinking about anything but his computer work that he wanted to hurry up and get back to (I mean, they left Nancy&Co's so fast that Jan even forgot her shoes...).

Once back at the farmhouse, I called Aunt Linda and we had a fun conversation just about some stuff. I mean, I had called because they live up in the area where Josh is now, but like, I dunno... it's almost more that it just made me think of them when I found out that they live in the same area. Not that I want to like, use them or anything, but that I legit miss them -- I mean, yeah, I miss Josh a whole freaking crap-ton too, but that's really and honestly why I called. It was awesome to talk with her. I'd realized that I'd really not had a legit conversation with her since.... ever? So it was kinda trippy to actually talk with her about what I'm up to with school and life and all that. Before too long though, she had to go because she had to be to work super early, but it was still good to talk, and because of all that, I was thankful to have called when I did and not any later.

Then I kinda guess I just bummed around more on my computer, researching this-and-that and stuff-n-such. I was going to call a few other people, but just didn't find the motivation as no one really ever calls me back (with the exception of Danielle -- she's off the hook until next month, love you girl!). Around 10:30 or so, I took of on my bike just because I was bored and wanted to get out of my room. Before I headed down Airport Road, I did feed the chicks though. they're getting so big!!! I really need to take  more pictures....

In other news that's not super relevant. I'm spending an ungodly and extremely unhealthy amount of time on facebook. It's bad. I mean, any more, I'm just there begging for something to do. But it's not true. I have other stuff I could be doing. So I should look into doing... that other stuff. Like, now. Yup. done.

oh, and might I add that the cicadas have really started to set in? I heard this weird noise for the longest time tonight and couldn't for the life of me figure out what in the world it was... no, it wasn't that water bottle, or that other one, or that other one, no it wasn't music, or the fan... yup. a bug. outside. like, super ridiculously far away. dumb. that's all.

Oh, and tonight, after that late-night biking adventure, I decided I need to be biking around more than I already do. Yes, it's -- it's almost 2?!?! i thought it was only just 1. Wow... mega lame, but that aside, I used to bike in the morning, and that hasn't happened in awhile. Must restart.

I watched a ton of Bill Nye the Science Guy clips on YouTube. #1, always hilarious and classic, but #2: remind me of people, places, things... and yeah. from Oregon to Japanese Chinese food.



...any more brill ideas about me going up to Minnesota?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?

No...?
drat...

on to plan...

um... H?

otherwise: plan primero: God. as He is pretty much the ultimate of awesomeness.

of general boringness and epic phone conversations

Man... waking up after taking 2 benadryl is hard. But I took 'em last night (makes me sound like a druggie? awkward...) because I have, no joke, at least 50 mosquito and/or other bug bites on me right now. It sucks. Ulgh. Misery at it's finest. Can't get away from them.

Yesterday after I got up and showering, I bummed around on my computer for awhile before working on updating my blog some, then I headed over to the library and worked on a bit of homework and my blog some more before going to walmart and hitting up some chocolate and stamps. Chocolate in this weather is just no bueno, however, chocolate is always bueno.

After that adventure, I went by the church because my violin was still over there, so I went into the office area where I'd put it back on Sunday morning after church so it wouldn't roast (or get kidnapped) in the car while I helped Josh work on the Fiero all day. Talked with Pastor Dan for awhile and then practiced my violin in the sanctuary for awhile. It's been a long time since I've actually practiced like that. It was good. Well, not really... I sound miserable, and that fact is very depressing, but otherwise, it was good to get it out and play and stuff like that.

Went back to the farmhouse to work on homework, but I was slightly hungry, so I popped some of the light-butter pop corn that Jan got for me awhile back (I don't know about you, but I'm just not into mega-buttered popcorn... just the way I am) and read on the couch and tossed a few pieces of popcorn to Lacy every few seconds. It was ridiculous and hilarious to say the least. She likes popcorn.

Then I had to head back out to the church for Wednesday night worship practice before service tonight. Practice was definitely lacking and depressing without Josh. No one to give awkward glances to, or rock out like bandies. Lame. We kept playing songs  in ridiculous keys, but ended up switching at the last minute to different songs. They were all awesome, regardless. Then church started and we played away, and it went really well, and I managed so sound kinda awesome - schweet! Then we watched this new video series for the church on the book of Romans and the Apostle Paul and how it's comparable to New York/America as a whole today. Very interesting, and quite true. Then we broke up into small groups as always, to answer a few discussion questions, and Pastor Dan had me be a group leader. Went well.

Then I went home, but I was restless and really needed to get out and so something - and Jill said she'd call me back after church, so I was super stoked to talk with her. I don't think I'd talked to her on the phone since I've been out here, which is mega lame. So I rode out to McComb park and called her. No luck for awhile, but finally got through. I sat on the swing tonight, mostly. I like that park for some reason. Can't really say why. Maybe it kinda reminds me of Sorrosis Park and Jackson Park, only minus the hills and.... just about everything... but perhaps it's more because it's the largest park in town. Yeah. That. Anyway, I ended up calling a lot of people because I just miss people, and want to be doing something more with my life than just bumming around on my computer every evening (which is lame).

So, after having sat on a swing and actively swinging for, give or take, two hours, needless to say, I was a bit dizzy (and kinda sick to boot), and attempting to ride a bike while still on the phone, much less walk in a straight line is near-impossible. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing for quite awhile. Anyway, I rode around town for awhile because I was still on the phone with Kim and didn't really feel like going back to the farmhouse just yet, but I did eventually and shared a few links with Kim before watching the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland (my fav) and heading to bed.

of spontaneity, realizations and questions

monday? no, it's tuesday. good grief.

I've realized I need to afford more grace with people here, and that I need to get things back together and keep up with the original way things were planned when I got here instead of bumming around so much.

Today I got up, showered and all that as normal, bummed around a bit on the computer, cleaned my room and vacuumed it (needed it), listened to too much music (wait... is that even possible? I think not...), then went to the library and dropped off the movies I'd picked up a few days before (Elizabethtown, which I'd watched, and the first of the Narnia installments, but I'd not watched it because I didn't find the time). Then I went to Walmart to look for some sticky-tack to finally (!!!) put up stuff on my walls... but, alas! they do not have it there. I don't understand it, really. It was so weird. So... I don't know quite what to think about that as of now. I could make a cool collage, but I'm lacking anything to put it up with... perhaps it will just have to wait til I get back to Corvallis....

As I'd talked with Kali about hanging out the day before, she shot me a text saying she was free and interested in doing... something. There's not a real whole lot of anything to do here in Shenandoah - this, as more time goes on, I am realizing more and more. So we resorted to spontaneity, which went well, I would say. We talked a bit about what I'd been up to in the last few days, and she said she had a long story about her past that was kinda associated with people I'd been around recently. Small town. People know everyone. Everyone's lives are connected in one way or another. I love hearing peoples back stories, because it gives more depth and meaning to why they are where they are today, and why they are who they are. But I don't force it out of people, and she offered it, so we picked up some ice cream at McDonald's and headed out to Manti Park to walk and explore a bit.

Once we got to Manti Park and after walking through this incredibly mosquito-infested forested area, the trail opened back up to a grassy area surrounded by acres upon acres of corn. There was a small, super old cemetery there, which we checked out for a bit before walking further in the grass and sitting down to just talk. It was a really good conversation - deep, and flowing all over and around topics on life and faith and God and family and such. Then we goofed around a bit more and I shared some about where I live back in Oregon, and some of the silly things me and my friends from OSU do together. Then after awhile she wanted to go down to Brown Shoe Store (or something like that) downtown because they were having this big sale. Ulgh, on the walk back through the forested area, I got hounded by mosquitos. It was horrible. I must have to have sweet blood or something. I just don't get it.. Super obnoxious to say the least.

After finding out that Brown's was closed, we drove around town a bit, found this awesome old barn that looked like it was from an episode of Wishbone before we headed over to Walmart to well... hangout, because, like in Hood River, that's what you do in a small town. Hang out at Walmart. They don't really have the fun downtown area with parks and awesome views downtown, so no one really hangs there.

After bumming out at Walmart for a bit, we went over to Casey's and picked up some sodas before finding our way back over to the church lot, where we'd met up a few hours before. Then we just kinda sat outside the car and blasted some christian rock music before heading our separate ways for the day. It was fun to hang out, and I'm really glad we did.

Then I was about to head back to the farmhouse, but I just didn't have the motivation to do that... there really isn't much for me back there, and I didn't want to just bum around on the computer for the next few hours before going to bed. So, I went over to McComb park. Once there, I called a million people, but no one answered, which was lame. Then I called Kelly, and we talked for an awesome-tastic 10 minutes before she had to hang up to finish her last corner and unload the combine (she was at work). Then I called dad and we talked for around an hour. It was awesome to talk to him, and I found out that Aunt Linda and Uncle David live up in Chanhassen, MN. I hadn't realized that's where they lived... I'd figured it was somewhere like, super far north, but no!!! I'd love to visit them, and plus, I dare say that's not far from the vicinity of where Josh is.... which would be mega awesome beyond the world to see him again before I go back to Oregon. Especially up there, because we pretty much ran out of anything to do down here in Shan... haha.

Then I went home, and watched part of a show with Jan on Hulu - haven't done that in a long time... then I went upstairs. I wasn't super hungry, as has been the case for a few weeks now. Lame, as I'm not a fan of feeling nauseous all the time, but otherwise, I don't really care because I don't really notice. After I was upstairs, I hit up the computer and chatted with Stephanie and Erin on fb for a bit. It was awesome to talk with them. I miss them a whole freaking lot.

But the weird thing is that the longer I'm here, the better things are... I don't really know how to describe it. Shenandoah is really boring, and there aren't many people in it, and there's not much for me to do, and the garden is kinda well, not needing any work hardly anymore, but I'm loving Shenandoah Assemblies of God, and some of the people I've met there, and the more I realize it, the more I'm going to miss it when I leave. It's going to be hard to pack up and go back to Oregon: where my life is planned out like processed cookies for the next year.

I meant to go to bed soon after going upstairs as I was actually quite tired, but somehow, I managed to stay up with that all too common problem/addiction that I have: music. Yup. I am still up and it's almost 2. I had planned to get up and go for a run and be generally productive tomorrow, but goodness knows, I'm not even going to attempt to get up at 6 tomorrow after being up so late.

I looked up bus, train, and airfares to Minneapolis... it's all about the same. The great debate is: should I go? and if so, how long? or should I not go?

To go or not to go: that is the question.

of county fairs and epic adventures

Hmm, long freaking day.... got up, showered and mostly just bummed around my room. Had such a good time last night. Woke up just thinking about it all and listening to TobyMAC some more (new album: Tonight = awesome). Then after awhile Jim came upstairs and said they were planning on going to either or both of the county fairs in the area today.

I had to pick up some stuff at the library -- really, really, really wanted to watch Elizabethtown, so I was hoping it would still be available when I got there, and I really wanted to have it to watch on Sunday after church because I'm going to be super, super, ridiculously bored when Josh leaves for Minnesota after church on Sunday. Because after then, there will be no random outings or drives, or random shenanigans to look forward to. Lame.

Anyway, after dropping off a few items and picking up Elizabethtown, the first Narnia movie and another book, we headed out to Clarinda via Hwy 2 to hit up the Page County Fair. There was hardy a crowd, no parking fee, and you park on the street (or wherever), but there were animal barns galore! First off we walked through the cows and then tried to find the open class building to find John's (Dr Bowery) photographs, because apparently he'd won "best in show" of sorts. We finally found it in the 4-H building - actually, the only building with static things... it was super small, which kinda made me sad considering the fair should be about the same size as the Hood River County Fair. We found his pictures, which were definitely the best ones there, and he'd won a "champion" award on one, and the rest "blues" which is awesome. Best in his category/class. Not bad :) Then I looked around more at the rest of the displays in the building, but Jan and Jim were itching to get out and look at the animals. Once out in the barns, Jim asked just about everyone if they had a Dexter cow, which is the breed he wishes to purchase for the farm here eventually. I figured that no one did, and that the kids wouldn't likely even know what he was talking about (yup), but it was worth asking about, I suppose. We walked through the pig barn, the small animal barn with chickens, turkeys, ducks and rabbits, and the cattle and sheep & goat barn. They have a really nice show ring. Only one, but it's super tricked out. I was having show-ring envy, haha. But it had to be covered and super nice for the risk of rain that they get out here during the summer, whereas the Hood River fair doesn't need such a cover because it pretty much never rains much during the fair.

Then we felt like we'd seen everything there was to see. Jim asked if we wanted to stay for the carnival, but really, it was just two really, really small rides for little kids, so we headed out. Once in the car, Jan suggested we stop for something to eat on our way out of town, so we stopped for Chinese food there in Clarinda. It was quite good, but I actually think that Jan and I were given the wrong plates of food - not much difference, really, chicken, spicy, good... yeah, we didn't really care, and I didn't say anything and I don't think Jan even noticed, lol. whups. There was and advertisement for The Snoopy play which would be showing in a few weeks - we might just have to try to go to that here in Clarinda when it's playing.

After lunch we headed all the way over to the Fremont County Fair over in Sidney. This fair was about the same size (?) maybe a bit smaller. The sun was shining over there though, unlike when we were out at Clarinda. Same, only one, small building for all the static displays (I think Hood River has like... three, yeah?), building for horses, another for cows, and the last for small animals. It was really pretty there. The fairgrounds are in the same location as the Sidney Rodeo (which is in like, a week!). There was a talent show going on after awhile, and all the 4-Hers were dancing and goofing around on stage. It was cute.

We drove home after that and I just kinda bummed around for awhile. I was super tired, but didn't want to nap in the car... just because I didn't want to. Got home and was no less tired, which was lame. I knew that Josh might text me around the hour of midnight to help him work on his car because he was up in Sioux City alllll day talking to people about JSAW (Jesus: Snow-Asphalt-Water) schtuffs (to start skate ministries and get the word out about their organization and to raise funds). So, I bummed around on my computer for a bit before picking up a few snacks in town before all the stores closed up for the night and went home and took a nap at like, 8 for a few hours. Got up again later to the dogs barking at... goodness knows what and bummed around on my computer for a bit and then texted Josh for a bit because he was still on his way back town from Sioux City but wanted me to run by the church to see if the garage was still open because that's where the Fiero was parked and needing to be worked on (he'd taken the Impala up to Sioux City). Locked. No bueno. Tried all the doors. Drat. So we went about deciding if we should wait til morning, or try to see if someone was up and would open the door for us. I ended up getting ahold of someone - felt kinda bad for the late hour, but we got the door open, which was awesome. It was to be a long night working on the car, but I was down for the epic adventure (as I called it, because, I mean, as hard and stressful as things can be when you're doing them all night can be fun... somehow, don't ask for a better answer to that, lol).

Josh was still around an hour out of Shenandoah, so I went back home and read Captivating for awhile before he called because he was super tired on the drive and only about 10 minutes out from town. Poor guy, he'd been up since seven that morning from driving up to Sioux City, was up super late the night before from having gone to Blue in Omaha, and was up the night before that when we went to Tarkio and skating around town after we got back. So we talked for awhile and then I headed over to the garage to help him with the car.

We go in the garage and move some stuff around to make more work space around the car and set up my stereo system to help us work by rocking out to some awesome music (Phil Wickham anyone? yes please!). He was kinda grumpy from the drive and being frustrated about the car in general needing the work, but after I handed him a Pepsi I'd picked up earlier (snacksss) he improved, lol. Oh the miracles of Pepsi late at night. But then we were both bummed out when we couldn't find the part we needed to get the car apart. Really frustrated, actually, because this would mean that it would delay his departure for Minneapolis til later. As it was he had been hoping to leave Sunday right after church, but this would put him out several more hours to go to the store to get the part during church (as stores in town are really not open on Sunday here in SmallTown, Iowa, with the exception of a few hours mid-day) and then work on it after finishing up worship at the end of service.

So, frustrated about that, and tired, we call it a night - to be continued the next morning... we were at the garage til around 3am trying to get various different ways to work, but the spindle is so busted and bolts are broken which is majorly no bueno, so we have to get the new ones on before he can drive up to Minnesota.