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 missing alarms and watching movies with persons

Apparently my alarm went off at 8 like I set it for, but I honestly do not remember it at all. No recollection. None. Whatsoever. So lame.

So anyway, my attempt to get up early and do something with my life ended up in me missing out on the entire morning and then also missing out on most of my shift at work, and thaaat when on so far as to me calling in to work asking if they still wanted me to come in (my shift had been switched yesterday afternoon without even so much as a concern as if it would be alright with me to switch it like that) so I just said that I’d forgotten about my switch and stuff, and they ended up not needing me anyway (I was kinda surprised that they hadn’t called me earlier, but apparently they had not been super busy so it wasn’t really even an issue) it was Thursday after all, and those days aren’t super busy at lunch time.

Then, realizing I didn’t need to worry about going into work, I cleaned my room a bit (one would think it would be ok by now, but apparently I manage to destroy it on a daily basis anymore), and then showered before having Jan drive me down to ShenAG early because of her needing the Buick before heading off to Clarinda for her bi-weekly yoga class. Plus, I figured that I could at least attempt to whip out some homework before worship practice started. Which didn’t end up even starting on time because Erica had gone down to Maryville and had gotten stuck in construction on her way back. Not an issue though because we were all there. So then we practiced the songs we will sing on Sunday, and she included a few pieces for me to do solo work. They are mainly just the chorus line of a few hymns that I’m actually familiar with, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

After worship, Erica mentioned that she really wanted to see Dinner for Schmucks, so we met up with Tricia at the theater (Thursday = student id night special. w00t. such are the benefits of always flashing my student id at movie theaters). The movie actually wasn’t the greatest, but I suppose it could have been worse (somehow…) but the thing that made it all worth it for me was that Roy from the IT Crowd played a blind, French fencer. So ridiculous.

After the movie, I noticed that I had a new voicemail, so after Erica drove me home (since I drove my invisimobile) I listened to it. It was from Jim. He mentioned they were going to watch Princess Mononoke over at Nancy&Co’s around 9:30pm. I thought I had missed it, but it was only just after nine at that point. So, as I had walked through the majority of the house and seen nor heard anyone, I called Nancy&Co’s to see if the party had already started without me (which would be weird, considering both cars were still in the drive). No, she said she had expected them to be there by now, but no one was there yet. So I went downstairs, and it was like magic. People that weren’t present were there (lol). So, as I knew I was not going to get anything productive done, I might as well be social and watch the movie with peoples, so I went over. Plus, I hadn’t seen Princess Mononoke before.

When we got there, we had salad, and Robby vented to me about how he hates being a sophomore because it means he has to go to bed all the earlier and has a lot of homework and the work is harder. But I’m sure he’s doing fairly well, and well, it comes with school. Going to bed early… well, at least in high school. And sleep is always good… perhaps I should try to go to bed by 10.

Ha.

Like that would happen.

It’s a nice idea though.

Got back to the house and skyped with Kim and facebook chatted with Kali for awhile and generally bummed out on my computer for far too long. Tried to potentially get something together to meet up with Susannah before I head back to Oregon – which is like, 5 days away!!! How crazy is that? So crazy.

Its after 1. I should go to bed. But am I? no… dumb.

In other news, this is my new favorite song. Who knew that Zac Levi from Chuck could sing? So tight.

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 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 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 church, baseball, and fireworks

Got up pretty early, granted, not like I wanted to... regardless, got ready and headed out to church for worship practice which started at 8:45am. We went through several of the songs and it went well. Erica printed out the lead sheets for me, which was considerably better than working through the music with just guitar chords. Met Josh and Michael who are also on the worship team for the most part. After playing through the songs a few times, we took a short break, and then it was time for church to start up. It was really awesome playing. Goodness, I was sore though. I'm so out of practice, it's pathetic. I miss it.

After the sermon, we got up again and played When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and then we all headed out. Oh my goodness, I got so many people talking about and to me regarding having played my violin during worship. It was incredible. It was almost as if their appreciation for it all was as much as I was elated from having been able to play with everyone. Then I got talking with Josh, he works with JSAW, which is a missions program (JSAW = Jesus, Snow, Asphalt, Water) to reach out and have events for skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing. It's pretty awesome - especially considering his incredible testimony.

Then I rode up to Omaha with Ashley and Tricia and some others and we met up with the rest of the church to go to the Omaha Royals minor league baseball game at Rosenblatt stadium. It was fun. Kinda boring, lol, and pretty hot as we were in the sun, but overall it was good - mostly for just hanging out with people and such.

Then on the way back home we stopped at some restaurant that we don't have out west and got concretes - reminded me of Bops down in Jackson, MS. Made me miss my occasional late-night outings with Kyra, Ruthie, Susanna, Joanna, Kim, Lydia, Susannah, Adie, and Martha.

When we got back to Shenandoah (which, btw, people call it Shan, and Shanandoah, not Shen... just something I've noticed since being here longer... not unlike how Corvallis is called Cervallis by those who are from there, lol) I was ridiculously tired. I just wanted to go to bed right then and there, but the fireworks were later, so I made myself stay up as much as possible.

Then, when I was just about to settle down to the 4th Harry Potter movie, Jim called up the stairs saying they were heading over to Nancy's to hang out and such. So I didn't want to be completely antisocial, so I tagged along. As per usual, I drove. I guess it might be the only thing that kept me awake on the way over there.

Then I managed to talk with Nancy and goof around with Rachel before their Family Night. We sang a song and then the reading tonight was more on mormon stuff, which was hard for me, but I did my best to sit quietly and say a few kind things every so often.

Afterwards, we didn't have time to eat dinner before heading out to the continuously delayed fireworks display, so we just took off for that. It was fun. Pretty laid back, but pleasant. They blasted various patriotic songs, some Sousa marches, a medley of some military themes, and quite a few country songs. Rachel spent half the time describing things to me such as her personal description of each firework, how they probably made each, followed immediately by her ducking to the noise every time.

When the fireworks finally (and sadly) finished (I love fireworks... so much), we were going to head back over to Nancy's, but it was late, so Jan wanted to head home, so we did. Then I pretty much went straight to bed -- well, after talking to Lydia on Skype for about an hour or so and playing around online for a bit.

of breakfast and improvisational pies

This morning I got up somewhat decently early (think it was around 8:30 or something), got ready for the day and walked down to Mondo’s Family Restaurant. I got so ridiculously many weird looks for walking, but it seriously wasn’t very far, and I didn’t care. I felt kinda like an idiot when I got there though because there wasn’t anyone else there and I just stood there, not really knowing what to do with myself. Then this waiter walked up to me and asked if he could help. I just mentioned how I just moved to the area and wanted to check everything out. He said I could sit wherever and he’d be right over with a menu.

When he brought over a menu he asked me if I wanted coffee. Now, usually I say no, but I haven’t had coffee in forever, so I went for it. Heck, why not, right? He brought me a pot of coffee and I ordered. A few minutes later a bunch of retired folks walked in and sat in a booth across from me. Their conversation ranged from their relatives, what their kids are up to, when they went on a morning walk (6am), and when they had breakfast (before that walk), and when that one guy got hit by that gravel truck about eight years back. It was amusing, but I felt kinda awkward for listening in.

After I was almost done with my food, I leaned over towards their table and mentioned how I didn’t want to be rude, but that I was new in town and wondered how they liked the area and what they enjoyed about it all the most. They were all more than happy to talk to me. One even tried to suggest that they should set me up with Brandon, our waiter, lol. One of the ladies mentioned how she felt bad for me because I don’t have any friends in the area and don’t really know anyone my age, saying how it had to be hard and she really hoped that I would be able to connect with some people soon.

I had to head out because I knew Jim wanted me to help him with… something. Can’t remember what, but when I was on my way back home he called me from Walmart, saying another thing had gone wrong with his bike and that the wanted me to come pick on out because I’d likely be riding it more than him anymore anyway. So I crossed Hwy 59 and headed over there, picking out a mountain bike that was about the same price as the one he originally got. I filled the tires with more air when we got back to the house and took it for a test run. It freaked me out at first, but its got pretty good shocks on the front. It’s awesome. So much fun to get air with that bike. The downside is that the bike seat is beyond-this-world uncomfortable.

Then I went over to Nancy’s to pick up my textbooks that had arrived so I could start into my homework, thinking I would just drop by to get them and head out again to work on it. But I ended up staying around helping Rose, Jim’s mom, who was now in town, edit a lease for renting the house to Jim and Jan because it was in PDF form and she didn’t know what to do, or how to work computers as well as I did. I was happy to help her in that way.

Then Rose and Rachel made a Mulberry pie from scratch. Rachel said she wanted to make it and that her mom was going to make it a  few days before, but hadn’t, Rose set right to it. They didn’t have a rolling pin, or a pie pan, so we improvised and used a jam jar to flatten the pie crust, and then baked it in a square pyrex pan, but it was still really good.

Rachel was all too excited to have me there and got me into playing her Zoo Tycoon 2 computer game where you build a zoo and then have to manage the upkeep of the grounds and animals. She said I was horrible, so I went with it (and I kinda was) and let her finish building my zoo for me (it’s saved as Hannah’s Habitats, in case you were wondering).

I finally had to head out, and helped Jan pack up a bit more of the house and packed up my stuff so that it would be more organized and together for the big move. Jim BBQ’d some steak and chicken for us and I created my choice combination of both into a salad. It was good.

Then I rode my bike around town and out and over to the farmhouse. I can’t wait to get out there!! And I cant believe it’s actually happening!!!

I got back to the house, watched Alice in Wonderland, couldn’t stop thinking of Lydia and Kim and Jeni for some reason, missing them all of course, can’t wait to put up my poster now either (!), and bed.

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.