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 road tripping

Soo… I worked today for a few hours and then talked with Susannah. Tons of facebook messages and posts later, we finally figured out a potential time for us to hangout/meet up. I’m so excited. I can’t even begin to say. How incredibly. Excited I am.

I ordered a book for Kali, but three weeks later, and it’s still not here. It’s too late to order another one online, and there are no, zero, zilch bookstores around here. The closest are in the big cities around an hour away. So, decidedly, I realized I still needed to go through with my plan and get her the book. I called Borders books up in Omaha. Didn’t have the book in stock. Barnes and Noble closed too early for me to make it there on time. So I started calling Christian book stores in the Omaha area. Parables. Had the book. Open til 9. Perfect. Deep in Omaha. Not so awesome. But at the same time, I wasn’t too worried about it. After getting permission to drive up to Omaha in the Buick, I quickly showered and headed out. Slightly crazy, yes, but basically just what I needed at the moment. A road trip. I love road trips. I don’t take long enough ones, or take them often enough.

So there I was, driving through a city I’d really never been in before (I’d been in Council Bluffs a few times, and the downtown area of Omaha, but there is a huge part of Omaha that I’d never seen in my life). I was in the Buick. On a five-lane interstate. Awesome. Probably the largest interstate I’ve ever driven on by myself. But I wasn’t too afraid. I didn’t have the use of one of my mirrors because it wasn’t working and only showed me the sky, but I didn’t let it bother me and just checked my blind spot when I needed to. All I had for direction was my open laptop with a google maps page still up, but no further internet access and no other map.

I just want to say: I got there without a problem. So, yes, I did not turn left when I was supposed to at 114^th, but at the same time, I will have to say that I was 3 lanes over (and there were two more to my right). So I just went up a block and turned around. No problem. It was an adventure for sure. Good gravy Omaha roads are insane.

I just want to say though; I was not expecting Parables to be such a massive store. It was awesome. My book was waiting for me at Customer Service (they asked if I wanted them to hold me a copy when I called up there). After getting my book, I walked around a bit and looked at everything. It was fun. Then I headed off back towards Shen, but before leaving the area, I stopped into the Target (and Panda Express: the most tricked out, huge Panda I’ve been in) and got myself a few things.

I really didn’t want to go back to Shenandoah. I wanted to hop back on to I-80 and go west. Back to Oregon. I wanted to drive the whole way. I didn’t care that I didn’t have any of my things with me, or that it would take me a few days. I wanted to drive it. But I knew that the car would not make it that far and that I also had a paper to write.

Maybe next time I come out this way I can drive? That would be so awesome. Maybe I could make a country voyage out of it. Dipping down even to Mississippi to visit people? I don’t know if my Subaru would make it, but I don’t really see why not. It’s worth the idea anyway.

Anyway, I will just have to say that this Omaha adventure is one that I’ll likely not forget for quite some time. It was pretty epic, even though I didn’t actually do much, I did it all by myself (haha: I’m a big kid now).

After getting back up to Shenandoah, I contemplated being an awkward creeper and doing my homework in the car in front of the library, but decided against it as the light from my computer would likely bother me after 20 minutes, and I still have to use other sources from my textbook and that would be difficult without a proper light.

I have this awkward pain on my abdomen. I have no idea what to make of it. It’s hot, cold, itchy, and just there, but invisible. I have this epic bug bite on my back, but it’s almost like the bite hit me in the back, but then went through my body and hit on the inside wall of the front of my body. No idea… and not that you really needed to know that anyway.

…the Benadryl I took for my bites is starting to kick in. I know this because I’m getting tired and my typing skills have gone to pot.

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 little work and an evening in Clarinda

Noting that virtually no work could be done in the garden and there was no further plan to put forth any effort into setting up the compost bin, and the chicks had yet to arrive, and everything (be it a pool) is already set up for that. So I slept in. Granted, it was only til 9, but then I bummed around and finished my most recent book. It was a good morning. Ha, though, I must admit that I woke up at my usual time of dark-thirty to go outside out of habit. Didn't actually get up though.

Cleaned my room - something that I was behind about a week in doing. It was sad how long it took me to pick everything up... I mean, I don't even have all that much stuff here, but it'd managed to find its way all over my room.

Worked on a bit of homework, but didn't really get to anything productive, which is kinda lame - just means I'll have to complete it all tomorrow, but that's ok, I can do that. Might go to the church to work on it. Cool, quiet, little distractions. Uncertainty of wireless = potentially very productive day ahead of me tomorrow.

Little known fact about me:
I've been keeping track of how many days I have left, by the ever dwindling quantity of gummy vitamins left in the bottle I got a few days after my arrival.

The chicks arrived today. I didn't really want to go down because I'm not really for the whole empty swimming pool idea... but anyway, managed to go out later and saw them. Yup, cuteness overload to the max. Wanted to name them, but there's just too many, and I don't want to get attached to them like that. It's sad, really. I'm going to try to care for them as much as I can, but other than that, I can only pray that they survive to full fledged chickens.

Jan went to her support group out in Clarinda -- I only know this because the car I was going to take into town to do some homework was gone. But it's not a problem, I mean, I can do stuff here, or take the bike.

Then around 4:30, I realized I should be heading over to the church for worship practice... going outside, the car was gone again. Jim was out getting some things at the feed/hardware store in town, and I didn't know when he'd be back, and considering how I'm still lacking the skillz to drive a manual (will anyone with a manual in Corvallis please teach me how to drive their car this next year?) I just took off with my bike; violin in tow.

Worship practice went a bit longer than anticipated, so Erica and I weren't ready to go to the Garrison House until 6:38, and Ashley was already in Clarinda waiting for us... kinda a bummer, but we headed out in that direction with Tricia anyway. Once we were almost to Clarinda, Ashley called saying that they'd changed their hours and were only open til 7... it was currently 7:02pm. Bummer. So, no cute coffee house, or fun music. But instead, since we were just about 2 minutes outside Clarinda, we went to J's Pizza instead. It was good pizza, and a lot of fun just talking with them. J's Pizza is really cute. Tacky wall paper, paneling, and oddly/obnoxiously pink tables and chairs. Not to mention all the people packed inside talking across tables and laughing amongst everyone. It felt like one big family reunion (who knows, anything might be in this area... kidding).

After pizza and talking about life, church, weather, family, and everything in between, we went over to McDonald's to hit up their smoothies. We sat outside, taking in the evening and continuing our conversations of the evening before heading home.

of driving, Times Square, and almost-full moons

After sleeping in some, I cleaned my room because a ridiculous amount of dog hair blows in here at night. It’s insane. I took a nice long shower and then called just about as many businesses in town as I could. Pretty much all of the ones listed in the business section of the Shenandoah website.

Then, after finally giving up with a lack of more places to call, Jim and I went out in the ’93 Saturn and he showed me some of the ins and outs to driving manual. The first thing he said to me when I got in the car was: “alright, well, the first thing you have to do is adjust your seat” I blinked. Seriously? As if I haven’t been driving for the last 5 years without a single ticket or accident, and I don’t know that I need to adjust my seat? Ridiculous. I just brushed it off with some sarcasm and we took off. I drove over to a small parking lot to practice more on starting and stopping, and then we took off to a country road. It was super cute. I was more interested in the countryside than driving. It was these shallow rolling knolls. I loved it. Nothing at all like mountains or anything in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest, of course, but still. It was also amusing to me how the road just continued on straight over these small hills. Up and down, gently each time. The car, of course, letting off this disgusting amount of bluish gray smoke the entire time. But trying to ignore my current carbon footprint, I enjoyed it and didn't do too bad with the shifting and such. It was fun. 

Afterwards, Jan and I walked into the downtown area for "Thursday Night at the FlatIron" where Jara Johnson, a local of Page county sang and we all had free hotdogs and root beer floats sponsored by Bank Iowa and served by The Depot. 

I swear, there are NO cute guys who are my age and not married with kids. It's depressing. Oh well... I mean, I'm not here for that by any means, but still... lol. It's also kinda weird to think about how many people get married at so young of an age out here and just settle down. It makes me feel weird for still being in school and... yeah. anyway...

When we got back, I did some homework and then got too antsy, so I went on a run. It was nice, but I was just super stressed. I stopped about half way at this little park, did some pull-ups on the monkey bars and then sat on the swing. Let me tell you, I was dizzy after awhile, but it was really good for me to just be doing nothing. I started crying and just not knowing what to do. I have been super frustrated about the move and all the unknowns regarding whether or not we're actually going to be able to move this week, or goodness knows what. Then I got up and started my run again, going a bit farther than normal. Once I got back to the house, I just couldn't bring myself to go inside. I just didn't want to go in there again. Everything in me wanted to stay away. So I kept walking. I walked over across Hwy 59, which is ridiculously never busy normally, and mostly dead at night. I walked along Airport road for awhile. I didn't get much farther than Eaton, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be away from city lights, and do something - myself. To just get alone with me and God. Away from the house, the stress of the move, everything. I was so sick of being by myself all the time, but the least I could do was get a bit closer with God.

I sat down on the road. No one was driving this late, and even if they were, I would know far in advance because the road was so straight and flat. I lied down on the road. It reminded me of The Notebook, minus, of course, a cute guy... or even just a friend. The moon was out and almost full. It was beautiful. There were hardly any streetlights to get in its way. I loved it. I stared at the stars, noting how they looked from the different angle that Iowa is at. After awhile, I decided I had probably head back to the house so they wouldn't think I'd disappeared on them. As I was walking back towards the house, this younger guy in a truck stopped and reversed until he came up to me and asked if I wanted a ride (no one walks here, especially at night, even though that's the only time it's cool here). I said I was fine and not far from home, and that I was just out for a walk. He wasn't sure, and made sure I was completely fine before driving off.

When I got home, Cory had called, so I called him back and we talked for awhile. I went back outside and just walked around the neighborhood while talking.

aaaand bedtime for me.

In case you were wondering, I'm in Iowa!!!

So, I actually really want to go to bed, but I figured I should probably post something now because if I don't, I probably just won't at all.

I got up this morning at 6am struggled around to pack up Kim's sleeping bag (I hate leaving it everywhere...) and got the rest of my personal things together. Put on some clothes and went to say goodbye to Kim. She got up, which really took me by surprise, but it meant a lot to me that she came to the airport with me to say goodbye there. Then we loaded up the car and headed off. The airport was decently busy with people. The typical morning hustle and bustling about of people with far too much luggage to handle normally and TSA security officers at every turn. The longest wait was probably for security. I really didn't care. I had plenty of time before my flight and wasn't concerned about getting through immediately. Then, knowing that my gate was C21 (why so far???), I began to mosey my way down the C concourse towards my gate. I, of course, took all the walking sidewalks I could (which are actually moving, not walking, because as we all know, sidewalks, don't actually walk of their own volition). Stopped at Wendy's for breakfast, contemplated coffee, but oddly enough, decided against it. Then I continued to mosey on over to the gate where I waited for about 10 minutes before boarding.

The flight wasn't actually that bad. I managed to sleep through a good portion of it. Strangely waking up just as we flew over Bend, again over the Steens Mountains, and then again over the Grand Canyon (that was a surprise, haha BAM!!! canyon!). Phoenix is hot. Need I say more? Yes. It's hot. And it's dry. It's pretty, but in a really different way. I liked it, but not in the sweater and jeans I was wearing from the previously drizzly Portland.

...anyway

The Phoenix airport is quite a bit larger than PDX, and I always manage to forget this, still not sure why. Anyway, had to walk from the A gates to the B terminal, which wasn't that big of a deal (more walking sidewalks). Got lunch and boarded my flight pretty much directly without any additional waiting. I found out post getting completely on my flight that we were supposed to check our bags that were of normal carry-on size and only keep our "personal" items with us, but I just managed to walk past that dude and got both my bags on. Really, I didn't really realize it and also, I guess it may have crossed my mind, but I basically didn't care. My duffle bag still fit under the seat *boosh* which was an exciting discovery. That flight seemed to be longer. Maybe because it was hot in the plane, I was hungry (ate my Quizno's), and generally done with flying for the day. Plus, the sun was super reflective on the wing of the plane into my window, which was lame. 

I did take a few pictures of the first flight. I was basically too lazy after awhile to even just struggle with my bag to get it out. No worries, I'll try not to let that hinder my picture taking again.

After getting to Omaha, I got my bag and waited for about 15 minutes outside the airport for Jan and Jim to arrive with their relatives whom they were getting a ride with (unfortunately, the car they were using to get their other car fixed with, broke down on their way to check up on the one still in the shop. most unfortunate).

So it was Nancy (sister-in-law to Jim), Robbie (teenager), Jan, me, Jim, and Rachel (7-9, super fun, adorable, and obsessed with reading, cats and dragons) in the van. Nancy and Robbie had Karate there in Council Bluffs, but on our way, we stopped at The Mall of the Bluffs to get some food at Panera, no less. Then we stopped back at HyVee (which is like the mid-west version of Winco, I've decided) and got some groceries. On our way out we got some pizza. $1/slice. I got italian sausage. I swear, it tasted exactly like the pizza we used to get at MidValley Market after doing our laundry (with coke slushies). Such a memory trip, and so good.

From there (around 8:45pm) we headed down to Shenandoah, which is about an hour drive, or so. The quintessential giant, dark red sun set to the west. It's flat, yes, but it's pleasant. Maybe that's because I've decided that I'm doing to enjoy this trip, but maybe also because I've been away from anything like this for so long and have readied myself for a change. But I guess you could also say that I really needed something different. Long stretches of road, gentle rises and falls, endless corn, millions of deciduous trees. Every thing is super spread out, and huge. Between the parking lots, the roads, and the buildings themselves. Massive. Because they have the space. But also? the roads are beyond crappy. Especially in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. If you were in Oregon, you would wonder if you got lost on a weird back-alley that's really someone's old driveway. But no, that's the interstate.

On the drive back, I noticed what appeared to be a lot of roadside reflectors. 'Must be for the ditch or something,' I started thinkin--- NO!!!! those are FIREFLIES!!! If you would have seen me, I'm sure you would have laughed your head completely off. I was literally staring out the windows, jaw dropped for a good 20 minutes.

Once we arrived at the house in Shenandoah, Jan showed me that she had already gotten the air mattress set up for me in the side bedroom. Super sweet of them. Their house is kinda in a sad state, currently, because of the moving thing, but that's the way moving always seems to be. I know it was that way for me just a few days ago (and yeah... the upstairs is still a mess). Then we had some chicken salad (oregon-style... you know, lettuce, chicken, and cheese with dressing? not some weird mid-west craziness of chickeninwhatlookslikepotatosalad) out under the carport with some candles. 

Also, with two dogs upinmygrill all the time, I've decided to get over my college pet-less whatevers and be completely covered in dog slobber and hair 24/7. It's going to happen no matter what I do anyway. Not that I really mind though. 

After salad, Jim and I took the dogs out for a run on some coaster bikes and rode out to the farmhouse. Due to some official house-closure issues, I think the move-in date has been shifted til the 26th orsomewherearoundinthere. But I can't complain, and I'm not upset in the slightest. I'm glad I can still help them move, although I am sure it is awkward all around for everyone living in a mostly-packed house, and with me being a guest in it. The farmhouse is super cute. It's really nice, dark, and quiet out there. Just across the street from the airport with lots of room for the dogs to run around and do whatever they please. Plus, with it being dark and away from the city, there are 10,000 fireflies

(well, that's awkwardly too large for the blog window. oh well. just listen that's the purpose of it)

Then after the bike ride, I watched a movie about this tragic climbing event on Mt Everest with aunt Jan. It made me really cold. Didn't help that my jeans and converse were already wet from walking around the wet grass in the future garden area of their farmhouse property. (my feet are currently still cold, for the record, as i write this).

OH!!! might I say that it's hot an humid here? Not quite as humid as I was expecting, but then again, it is only what, day one? yeah... and only June. I'm not letting myself think anything but hot-and-humid thoughts, haha.