Last night, I stayed up ridiculously late talking with Kim, Jeni, and Lydia. We ended up sharing goodness knows how many links and youtube videos. It was a lot of fun, and the time just got away from me -- until I realized the hour and how tired I was (and how tired I would be in the morning).
After getting up, I just kinda bummed around for awhile. It was too wet outside to do much in the garden (again, it's been raining about every few days, keeping things nice and wet). Played the guitar (not well, mind), but still, it's entertaining, and I'm getting somewhat better. Then I watched movie trailers online. Then the phone rang at 11. It was Subway? They wanted to know if I'd be free and interested for an interview today at 2. Sure, I'm not doing anything. Um... cool.
Showered and got ready for the interview and showed up early. She told me a little about the job requirements, but mostly about how she didn't want me giving anything away to customers or family members and thereby stealing things and then lying about it later. She apparently gets super uptight about things like that. Good to know.
I wasn't sure if I should mention the fact that I'm going to be around for another month, but I decided not to really worry about it and just play the whole thing by ear. I mean, seriously, I haven't had an actual job interview for a long time... a few years, perhaps? My most intimidating one, by far, was for YMA, but that was like, 5 years ago.
She had two open spots, and four applicants. I was the last to be interviewed because I had turned in an application most recently. She seemed to be super distant about the hiring process and said she'd call tomorrow about her choice and such. Then we talked for a few more minutes about the job, and she seemed to be deciding something as we were talking. The next thing I know, she says she'd like to hire me and pulls out her schedule and puts me down for 11-2 tomorrow. Woah. Happened so fast. Trippy. I have a job. Man, I almost don't want to leave now. Between church, and now work... cool.
I was kinda in disbelief, but there it is. Wow, crazy.
I went by ShenAG to say hi to Ashley. We talked for awhile, and we might get together for lunch sometime this week. Awesome :) Then I went by the library and returned some books I didn't actually want to read... one was large print (which is just awkward), and the others were more by the same author I've been reading, and they're good, just slightly formulaic, so the whole thing gets old after awhile.
Then I went by the little guitar store downtown to pick up myself a capo so I can play more songs that I haven't really been able to play, lacking the correct key. Dude, that guy in that store was so creepy. I could tell he was just checking me out the entire time. No bueno, creeper. But I was willing to overlook that and just get my capo. But his card machine wasn't working, so I said I'd come back soon to get it... Once I got in my car, I realized I wasn't going to come back. I'd either send Jim, or look at another store, or go to another town, or try ebay.com. No way I was going back to that creep-stop. So I went by Walmart and actually managed to find a decent capo there. Weird, but awesome. Plus, it was cheeper than the one had been at the guitar shop. Bomb-dig.
Went home and played the guitar for a long time. Again, not well, but better than I had been a few weeks ago. Then went down to dinner with Jan, Jim, and Fred, who came over for dinner. Fred is quite the interesting character. He has three or four exwives, was a trucker, has been all over the States with that job, he has a lot of toys in his yard: truck, jeep, 4-wheeler, lawn mowers, RV, and his little dog, Jessie (very protective of him, it's adorable). He joined the Marines back in 1953, was in it for three years before switching to the Army for another four years. He said he was stationed in France for a long time where they had this massive building to surface the U-boats. So awesome to hear about.
The whole baby-gate-to-keep-lacy-out-of-the-upstairs idea didn't work super well, as she still had the landing to use... so I put up some empty water bottles on the stairs to both block the stairs more, and to fall on her/down the stairs, making a massive amount of noise, were something like that to potentially occur in the future.
When I was at Walmart, I also got some red vines because they remind me of Lydia... It's super weird eating them all by myself. Not the same. But still reminds me of her a ridiculous amount. I keep thinking she's just in the next room or something *sigh* nope...
The chicks are eating like mad-birds. It's insane, but I guess it's a given. They're young, growing, and are hungry, plus, there are so many of them. Chicken Little was doing very poorly the other day, and I actually thought he was going to die just like the first one had. He is ridiculously tiny. I think he must be a bantam or something. He's at least half the size of the rest, but bosses them around like none other. It's adorable and really funny. But I didn't know what to do, then I got the idea to check and clean his vent... and then just pray. And viola! He's better and back to normal! It made me super happy, but also kinda frustrated at myself for not having checked that with the other chick. All of the chicks were taking a nap together and on top of each other this after noon. It was most adorable.
I have a ton of reading to catch up on for my class. It's depressing. Ulgh. Why do I get so behind?!? For starters though, I will for sure have to say that this class has been a ton more work than I had anticipated. It's so insane. Read this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and then summarize and synthesize it all into 1000 words every week, and then respond in 400 words to 2 other student's papers from last week. Baaaaaaaaahh. It's driving me crazy.
The Page county fair started yesterday, and I think the Fremont county fair starts today. I really want to go to both, even if I don't like, help or work with them in anything for my FFA interests, I'd just love to go to them as something to do and all that. I'm endlessly sad that I'm going to miss the HR county fair this year.
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
7.19.2010
of nasty habits and caffeine
Woke up this morning, and had a large argument with my alarm clock... so I guess I should say that I didn't actually wake up, but instead, I fought with my alarm clock in semi-consciousness for several hours. That aside, the weather wasn't too bad with the exception of a flash storm for like, 2 minutes, complete with wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Then it blew away. No big.
After dinner, I talked with Jim for a super long time about everything that's going on with the farm, what I thought was going to happen, what has happened, is happening, and what needs to happen... and other stuff. Including "training Lacy not to chase the chickens" it was an eye opening experience to say the least. To give you an idea, here is a quote that was running through my head about this very thing:
It's been raining on and off for the last week, so the grass really needs to be mowed, but the downside to all the rain is that the grass is too wet to cut... and now it's almost getting too long.
Read a chapter in my book for my summer class. I really need to get cracking at all that reading I have for that class. Top priority now. Then I motivated myself enough to get out of bed and shower... noticed a unique scent of dog poop on my way down the hall towards the stairs. Glanced in the pink-and-blue room, and what do you know. 3 lovely deposits. Great... Apparently we're all distracted enough to not realize how often Lacy is getting outside and when she really needs to go out, so she's been using the upstairs for this purpose. Someone was in the bathroom, and I was kinda upset about the fact that Lacy has been using the upstairs and not being supervised properly in a new house as a puppy, so I just went back to my room, got dressed and headed out. No shower (heaven forbid, I know). Otherwise, no one was around to talk about the dog issue... later, I eventually found people again, so Jan picked up a baby gate to put at the top of the stairs to keep her from going upstairs to continue in this habit.
I went to HyVee and picked up some cookies and coffee for a snack. Mmmm coffee. It was a bottled Starbucks Frap: Not my favorite, mind. Definitely not my first pick, but it was better than nothing for sure. Man, it put me on SUCH a caffeine high too, because I haven't had it in so long.
Headed over to the library and drank my coffee while just messing around online, formulating a playlist for Kim to run to, until I remembered that I would have to find all the files for the songs in order to email her the list... more work, so I'll work on that later. I'm so slow at this, lol. It's sad... also? it's kinda a long list.
Then I got bored with the library and felt like I'd been there for a long time, so I headed out and called Kara. She was super busy with Pearl's Place sorting cherries and helping customers, so I let her go, saying I'd call her later... crud, should do that as I still haven't...
Then I drove over to McComb park (I go there a lot) and called Danielle. It was awesome talking to her. We talked for like, an hour. It was fantastic. I miss that girl so much. We talked about goodness knows, everything. It was great. (I mean, I guess. It could have been a lot better, but you know...) lol. :-P
Ohmygoodness, my new favorite song is Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. I've listened to this song allll day, it's slightly ridiculous, and some might say overkill, but I love it.
"Orcs are roaming freely across our lands. Unchecked. Unchallenged. Killing at will."
- Éomer, LotR: TTT
7.18.2010
of ice cream sundae sunday
Ulgh, last night there was the WORST storm. I mean, it could have been worse, I realize, but still... it woke me up, and not a whole lot will actually disturb my sleep enough to make me actually wake up, much less get out of bed anymore (thankyoucollegeformakingmesleepallthetime). The wind was super intense. The whole house was creaking and part of it, I am serious, was even shifting slightly with the wind. It was crazy. Not to mention all the groaning of the house and everything. Plus the trees outside were just blowing around and all over everywhere. Then the pieces of the shed that has yet to be put together were picked up by the wind and blew into part of Fred's yard - quite far, actually. There wasn't any rain, which was kinda the weird part, but there was definitely thunder and lightning. I couldn't really see anything with the exception for when there would be near-constant flashes of lightning. It was terrifying. I had a really hard time going back to sleep. But I just had to figure that the house has stood for well over 100 years, and it's not likely to blow away to Oz in one more storm.
When my alarm finally went off, I was still pretty intimidated by the storm from the night previous, but I got ready for church regardless. The weather had calmed down to pretty much normal by that time.
Church was good, but before I left, I checked up on the chicks, and one wasn't doing so well. I was afraid it wasn't going to make it much longer. It was just really lethargic and uninterested in running around, food, or water. It also kept lifting it's wings. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. It was really getting to me. But all the same, we have 50 chicks. at least 20% are going to die before they reach full maturity.
Worship practice and church went really well. I'm always kinda nervous about playing songs and such, especially because Erica kinda goes off and repeats stuff, but I just have to kinda sazuki it up and memorize the chord progression and keep to that. The message during church was on the Pearl of Great Price, it was really good, but something I've been noticing about here is that the sermons are super short! We're talking like, 20 minutes max. I'm so used to the hour + messages of The Way and Solid Rock. I kinda miss it... I'll have to podcast them up some more here soon.
After church I caught up with a few people, which was good. I have yet to actually have coffee there at church. I think I'm a little intimidated by how they have someone there to serve it to you... weird, lol. Then Josh wanted to show me his new car that the church help him get. It's a super cute two-seater, silver, Pontiac Fiero. Engine in back, trunk in front. It's super adorable. Definitely a boy-toy. Then he invited me to go along with another friend to El Portal, the only (mostly) mexican restaurant in town. The food isn't really the greatest as far as mexican food goes, but it's better than nothing. He said he'd pick me up at my house so I wouldn't have to drive over there and wait because they weren't heading over just yet.
So I headed home, and noticed that the sickly chick was doing worse, which was frustrating. But I knew it was inevitable.
Then I got a call from Josh saying he was here... but he wasn't in the driveway, so I was confused. Apparently the road was confusing: and I'll give it to him, it is. Airport Road curves south into Manti, but it also goes straight into the Dead End of a gravel drive. We're down the latter. Haha, on the phone "gravel road....? Tiny car!!" hilarious. But it was fun to hang out, and lunch was actually really good. He used to work there, so he said to go with anything steak. I chose the fajita burrito w/ steak. It was a good choice.
After lunch, he took me on a local's tour of the town. It was great. But kinda sad at the same time. He told me about how many businesses were now shut down and vacant, and how many of the houses were pretty much the same story. Shenandoah is full of wealthy families, but people are leaving the town left and right and not caring for it well. Also, because there isn't much in the way of things for the youth to do in this town, most of the high schoolers are getting involved with serious drugs, or ending up pregnant. He said he spend the day previous with a kid a few years younger than him that he knew from when he used to live in town. The kid kept trying to sell him drugs. It broke his heart.
We rounded another corner and I kept asking what other things he used to do in town. Suddenly, he made a last minute turn north of the downtown area, pointing to large silos and grain conveyer-belts, he said: oh yeah, we used to go corn-boarding here all the time. I didn't really know if I'd heard him right... Corn... Boarding?!?! Yup. Cornboarding. You take a snow board, and climb up a grain conveyer-belt and strap in and go down this massive mountain of corn. Of course, you often hit giant pockets of air and fall in to about your waste, so it's kinda scary, but that's half the fun (well, that's what he said). I asked if he ever got caught doing this... Apparently all the cops go home around 3, so you just gotta know how to plan stuff right. Oh, the life of a local.
As soon as I got home, Jan told me we were going up and over to Randolf to the museum to an ice cream social - they were especially hoping it would be with home-made ice cream. I was up for an adventure, so I tagged along. After getting lost on the way with our lack of maps, and the sever lack of road signage in this part of Iowa (you just have to know where you're going... meaning you know where you are by land marks, curves and hills in the road, and other.... things.... ...?) we stopped and asked for directions a few times before landing on the museum. It was this really adorable old house restored to look like it did for normal life back in the 1930s. I loved it. It was beautiful. I also found an ad on one of the desks for spoon rings!!! It made me so happy... it was an ancient advertisement! It also made me want a spoon ring even more than before...
Then after ice cream (blue bunny appeared to be from costco or something of that giantly bulk nature), I checked out the wash house, and then called Lydia just to chat and say hi. It was fun talking with her, but once we were back on the road, my signal kept dropping out because we were, well in the middle of BFE going through goodness only knows how much corn. So I called her back once I got home. The ride was so boring, hot and tiring. The a/c doesn't really reach the back very well, and leather seats are not cool by any means. But it was alright, thankfully the ride was only about half an hour.
Got home, had some celery, and found out that the sickly chick died while we were gone. I was super depressed about it. It was so beautiful and perfect, and adorable. *sigh* but chickens die, and more frequently than that, chicks die... so, depressed more than I was before, I went back to my room to read more of my book, got bored with that, so was going to get coffee even though it was like 5 in the afternoon, but the cars were gone, so that idea was scratched because i didn't want to go out on my bike just yet. so i read my book some more before finally taking out on the bike. I went up Clarinda Hill and then back down, then went to various parks, hitting McComb up first, then Priest Park over by Shenandoah Assemblies of God church. I just bummed out on the swings for awhile and the laid down in the grass. Then I saw that Annette and family were over by the church, so I rode my bike in that direction, and we got to talking. Pastor Dan and Annette's house is literally, right next to the church, so we went in and had some sun tea and drank it while sitting on the porch. It was really good just to talk and stuff. Annette has a daughter who is right about my age, so I can tell she misses her and such. Plus, her other kids are a blast to talk and hang out with.
Then we went inside and Annette put out some various food items for me to assemble into a sandwich. Oh my goodness, I have not eaten so much since I've been here. It was wonderful. Just basic home made food, egg salad sandwich, home made jalepeno poppers, and ice cream, but still. It was beyond wonderful. Plus, the fact that there was the food combined with talking to Annette, it was awesome. They are such amazingly wonderful people. It meant so much to me. and when I rode my bike home later that evening, I just remember feeling soo rejuvenated and so happy, and so blessed to have been here in Shenandoah this summer, and to have found that church too.
When my alarm finally went off, I was still pretty intimidated by the storm from the night previous, but I got ready for church regardless. The weather had calmed down to pretty much normal by that time.
Church was good, but before I left, I checked up on the chicks, and one wasn't doing so well. I was afraid it wasn't going to make it much longer. It was just really lethargic and uninterested in running around, food, or water. It also kept lifting it's wings. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. It was really getting to me. But all the same, we have 50 chicks. at least 20% are going to die before they reach full maturity.
Worship practice and church went really well. I'm always kinda nervous about playing songs and such, especially because Erica kinda goes off and repeats stuff, but I just have to kinda sazuki it up and memorize the chord progression and keep to that. The message during church was on the Pearl of Great Price, it was really good, but something I've been noticing about here is that the sermons are super short! We're talking like, 20 minutes max. I'm so used to the hour + messages of The Way and Solid Rock. I kinda miss it... I'll have to podcast them up some more here soon.
After church I caught up with a few people, which was good. I have yet to actually have coffee there at church. I think I'm a little intimidated by how they have someone there to serve it to you... weird, lol. Then Josh wanted to show me his new car that the church help him get. It's a super cute two-seater, silver, Pontiac Fiero. Engine in back, trunk in front. It's super adorable. Definitely a boy-toy. Then he invited me to go along with another friend to El Portal, the only (mostly) mexican restaurant in town. The food isn't really the greatest as far as mexican food goes, but it's better than nothing. He said he'd pick me up at my house so I wouldn't have to drive over there and wait because they weren't heading over just yet.
So I headed home, and noticed that the sickly chick was doing worse, which was frustrating. But I knew it was inevitable.
Then I got a call from Josh saying he was here... but he wasn't in the driveway, so I was confused. Apparently the road was confusing: and I'll give it to him, it is. Airport Road curves south into Manti, but it also goes straight into the Dead End of a gravel drive. We're down the latter. Haha, on the phone "gravel road....? Tiny car!!" hilarious. But it was fun to hang out, and lunch was actually really good. He used to work there, so he said to go with anything steak. I chose the fajita burrito w/ steak. It was a good choice.
After lunch, he took me on a local's tour of the town. It was great. But kinda sad at the same time. He told me about how many businesses were now shut down and vacant, and how many of the houses were pretty much the same story. Shenandoah is full of wealthy families, but people are leaving the town left and right and not caring for it well. Also, because there isn't much in the way of things for the youth to do in this town, most of the high schoolers are getting involved with serious drugs, or ending up pregnant. He said he spend the day previous with a kid a few years younger than him that he knew from when he used to live in town. The kid kept trying to sell him drugs. It broke his heart.
We rounded another corner and I kept asking what other things he used to do in town. Suddenly, he made a last minute turn north of the downtown area, pointing to large silos and grain conveyer-belts, he said: oh yeah, we used to go corn-boarding here all the time. I didn't really know if I'd heard him right... Corn... Boarding?!?! Yup. Cornboarding. You take a snow board, and climb up a grain conveyer-belt and strap in and go down this massive mountain of corn. Of course, you often hit giant pockets of air and fall in to about your waste, so it's kinda scary, but that's half the fun (well, that's what he said). I asked if he ever got caught doing this... Apparently all the cops go home around 3, so you just gotta know how to plan stuff right. Oh, the life of a local.
As soon as I got home, Jan told me we were going up and over to Randolf to the museum to an ice cream social - they were especially hoping it would be with home-made ice cream. I was up for an adventure, so I tagged along. After getting lost on the way with our lack of maps, and the sever lack of road signage in this part of Iowa (you just have to know where you're going... meaning you know where you are by land marks, curves and hills in the road, and other.... things.... ...?) we stopped and asked for directions a few times before landing on the museum. It was this really adorable old house restored to look like it did for normal life back in the 1930s. I loved it. It was beautiful. I also found an ad on one of the desks for spoon rings!!! It made me so happy... it was an ancient advertisement! It also made me want a spoon ring even more than before...
Then after ice cream (blue bunny appeared to be from costco or something of that giantly bulk nature), I checked out the wash house, and then called Lydia just to chat and say hi. It was fun talking with her, but once we were back on the road, my signal kept dropping out because we were, well in the middle of BFE going through goodness only knows how much corn. So I called her back once I got home. The ride was so boring, hot and tiring. The a/c doesn't really reach the back very well, and leather seats are not cool by any means. But it was alright, thankfully the ride was only about half an hour.
Got home, had some celery, and found out that the sickly chick died while we were gone. I was super depressed about it. It was so beautiful and perfect, and adorable. *sigh* but chickens die, and more frequently than that, chicks die... so, depressed more than I was before, I went back to my room to read more of my book, got bored with that, so was going to get coffee even though it was like 5 in the afternoon, but the cars were gone, so that idea was scratched because i didn't want to go out on my bike just yet. so i read my book some more before finally taking out on the bike. I went up Clarinda Hill and then back down, then went to various parks, hitting McComb up first, then Priest Park over by Shenandoah Assemblies of God church. I just bummed out on the swings for awhile and the laid down in the grass. Then I saw that Annette and family were over by the church, so I rode my bike in that direction, and we got to talking. Pastor Dan and Annette's house is literally, right next to the church, so we went in and had some sun tea and drank it while sitting on the porch. It was really good just to talk and stuff. Annette has a daughter who is right about my age, so I can tell she misses her and such. Plus, her other kids are a blast to talk and hang out with.
Then we went inside and Annette put out some various food items for me to assemble into a sandwich. Oh my goodness, I have not eaten so much since I've been here. It was wonderful. Just basic home made food, egg salad sandwich, home made jalepeno poppers, and ice cream, but still. It was beyond wonderful. Plus, the fact that there was the food combined with talking to Annette, it was awesome. They are such amazingly wonderful people. It meant so much to me. and when I rode my bike home later that evening, I just remember feeling soo rejuvenated and so happy, and so blessed to have been here in Shenandoah this summer, and to have found that church too.
7.16.2010
of homework, chickens, and a bbq
Today, I didn't work as I'd already put in over 40 hours of work either actually in the garden, in homework, research, and setup for the chicks by noon on Thursday. I'm living work. It's kinda insane at times, but I manage to get away from it a bit by doing stuff with the church, going on bike rides, and studying adventures.
I checked up on the chicks and watched them for a bit. They're super, super cute. I'm having a really hard time not getting attached to them. I know that a percentage of them will die before they reach full maturity, but still... they're so cute and so full of personality.
I then drove to Pioneer Park, a location I'd spotted on our way to Clarinda last night. Upon further investigation, it's a small campground, surrounded by farmland, with a small lake. All in all, it was a very good break from everything and I was able to get in some serious reading for my class. I witnessed a guy catch and release a small fish. It was cool. Lol... I'm easily amused.
Then I drove back to Shenandoah and kinda filmed my driving back. Not super exciting, and I have yet to post it. Might soonish...
On my drive, I was just craving an all American burger, so I got one, or the best I could get, once back in Shenandoah before heading over to the library for homework. Sadly, I didn't get much done in the time I was there. I really need to figure out studying habits... that are well, ...better.
Then I went back home to work on more homework, but got interrupted by a potential tour to Jason's farm. Jason is the guy who came to plow our garden. Nancy was going to come give us a ride, I wasn't sure why at first, but then later found out it's because none of the houses out where he lives have any sort of identifying feature or road signs or numbers at them, so it's kinda like: you have to live there or really know where you're going. But when I got downstairs when Nancy pulled up, Jim wasn't home and the Buick was gone... weird, so we decided to go over there anyway, then Jim showed up and just followed us. *shrug* anyway...
Jason has a really nice chicken coop. Complete with lots of perches, feeders, waterers, lots of nest boxes and the like. The chickens were running around the yard, along with this really, really annoying black duck that had iridescent black/emerald feathers on its head. There were also two cats, one orange tom cat and another smaller tabby kitten. Both were adorable, sweet and loving, but also very much independent farm cats. They also had a rabbit who looked like Benny, only smaller, and four homing pigeons in another pen. The garden was a bit smaller than the one we're working in out at our farmhouse, but it was definitely well developed so far, well, especially because they have had their plants in the ground for several months now.
The main idea of going there was to scope out the chicken coop, as we have to build one ourselves in the very near future. But some forgot to notice it, so I managed to look at is as much as I could to memorize it's features. Then we went to HyVee to pick up some items for a BBQ to have at our house. Then we went back to the house and Nancy + kids came over and we hung out and talked for awhile. Actually, Nancy and I talked for a long while and started getting eaten by mosquitos, so we moved into the house, but it was really good to talk with her.
Then when they left I realized I still had homework to complete. Drat. So I managed to get it turned in, but not til super late, and my last paper, the 4-pager, I threw together in 20 minutes. Not good, peoples. This is just no bueno. I will have to say that I was surprised how amazingly it came together, but definitely not my best work, and not something I should do again. A God thing, for certain, but still... never, never, never, never ever again. Bad, very bad.
I checked up on the chicks and watched them for a bit. They're super, super cute. I'm having a really hard time not getting attached to them. I know that a percentage of them will die before they reach full maturity, but still... they're so cute and so full of personality.
I then drove to Pioneer Park, a location I'd spotted on our way to Clarinda last night. Upon further investigation, it's a small campground, surrounded by farmland, with a small lake. All in all, it was a very good break from everything and I was able to get in some serious reading for my class. I witnessed a guy catch and release a small fish. It was cool. Lol... I'm easily amused.
Then I drove back to Shenandoah and kinda filmed my driving back. Not super exciting, and I have yet to post it. Might soonish...
On my drive, I was just craving an all American burger, so I got one, or the best I could get, once back in Shenandoah before heading over to the library for homework. Sadly, I didn't get much done in the time I was there. I really need to figure out studying habits... that are well, ...better.
Then I went back home to work on more homework, but got interrupted by a potential tour to Jason's farm. Jason is the guy who came to plow our garden. Nancy was going to come give us a ride, I wasn't sure why at first, but then later found out it's because none of the houses out where he lives have any sort of identifying feature or road signs or numbers at them, so it's kinda like: you have to live there or really know where you're going. But when I got downstairs when Nancy pulled up, Jim wasn't home and the Buick was gone... weird, so we decided to go over there anyway, then Jim showed up and just followed us. *shrug* anyway...
Jason has a really nice chicken coop. Complete with lots of perches, feeders, waterers, lots of nest boxes and the like. The chickens were running around the yard, along with this really, really annoying black duck that had iridescent black/emerald feathers on its head. There were also two cats, one orange tom cat and another smaller tabby kitten. Both were adorable, sweet and loving, but also very much independent farm cats. They also had a rabbit who looked like Benny, only smaller, and four homing pigeons in another pen. The garden was a bit smaller than the one we're working in out at our farmhouse, but it was definitely well developed so far, well, especially because they have had their plants in the ground for several months now.
The main idea of going there was to scope out the chicken coop, as we have to build one ourselves in the very near future. But some forgot to notice it, so I managed to look at is as much as I could to memorize it's features. Then we went to HyVee to pick up some items for a BBQ to have at our house. Then we went back to the house and Nancy + kids came over and we hung out and talked for awhile. Actually, Nancy and I talked for a long while and started getting eaten by mosquitos, so we moved into the house, but it was really good to talk with her.
Then when they left I realized I still had homework to complete. Drat. So I managed to get it turned in, but not til super late, and my last paper, the 4-pager, I threw together in 20 minutes. Not good, peoples. This is just no bueno. I will have to say that I was surprised how amazingly it came together, but definitely not my best work, and not something I should do again. A God thing, for certain, but still... never, never, never, never ever again. Bad, very bad.
7.15.2010
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.
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.
7.06.2010
of running away
EDIT: you are under no obligation to read this... it's more of a straight-up blog post than the mundane goings on here in Iowa.
For the first time in my life, I actually left.
I am fine, I'm not hurt or anything, nothing else but emotionally/mentally. But it's alright, again, nothing really major. I'll survive. I just really needed time and space away from everyone and everything there. I hated leaving Jan, because I didn't want to hurt anything about our relationship together, but I just couldn't stay. I don't know how things will be when I go back, but I can't really say that I care.
The long and short of it is that Jan and I were enjoying some otter pops and just hanging out on the front porch and Jim started getting into depths about work and the farm and such. It was kinda awkward, as per usual, and as per usual, I wasn't very comfortable with how things were going, but I was putting up with it anyway and just sitting there and continued to be polite. Then he mentioned something about how the main reason why this guy from the chamber of commerce wanted to get me involved with the community and working here had to be because was because I was a young female. I didn't understand what he meant. I mean, coming from a college town, I'm surrounded by guys who just want to hook up with a girl for the night and move on with their lives like nothing happened. So I figured it must just be that this town is supposedly void of attractive young women? But why should that matter? Why does that give me reason to stay? Are there not any young women in this town? I mean, there are young families? What? Is it a bad thing that young women my age are moving to big cities or going places to get jobs or moving for family or getting married or just traveling? Jim said it was because I was not just a sexual object, but that the people in this town deserved to be treated to an attractive young woman staying in the area to work (what with no prospects of a real relationship herself? and just guys having full permission to gawp at her? sounds awesome...) and that was wanted... and then went on to school me about how the "reality of civilization" is that so many country girls were going to colleges in the big cities, getting "used" by city boys who only wanted them there for that, and dumping them when they were finished, and then proceeded to tell me that I would have no idea what that was like. Only, he wasn't clean about his choice of words and they did not come out in a polite matter, much less a decent tone.
I told him not to try to school me, that I didn't appreciate him speaking to me that way and do not want him to ever speak to me in that way or about such things ever again because he has no idea the things I've been through in my life and he has no place to speak of things that he has no idea.
...
...
edited for content
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...
I realized what I should do. Just go to Nancy's. It wasn't too much farther down the road, so I turned away from the park and headed to the house.
After composing myself a bit, I walked in the side door of the garage and parked my bike before walking inside. I saw Rachel first, so I said hi, and asked her if her mom was home. Yeah, somewhere, probably downstairs, lol. Then I saw Rose and John. Rose is still in town to get some other details with the house figured out. Then they asked me how I was and when I started talking, I just started crying. Rose beckoned me to join her over on a chair, so I just collapsed into one and cried. I was just so stressed. So tired. So exhausted. So disgusted. So frustrated.
Rose, John, Nancy and I talked for over an hour about how everything is going down, and how much stress is being put on me. They pulled out some bedding for me to borrow for the rest of my stay here and gave me a few bottles of water to take with me. Rachel bounded about telling us about her computer game and asking me if I was going to spend the night. Nancy made me some food and we talked some more. After awhile more of discussion about the whole thing of me being here and working the farm and getting my college credits and how much of the massive amounts of work and stress are being shoved in my direction, we managed to sum things up and went downstairs to just relax, bum out and watched an episode of The Bachelorette, while I snuggled with Love Kitty (one of their cats, and yes, that's her name).
As it happens, because I rode my bike and the late hour, and such, I'll just be staying the night here. Nancy said that I am more than welcome to stay and come over whenever I want or need to. She also wanted to make sure that I was getting properly fed over there and that if I wasn't she'd help me figure things out.
They were all really kind, and it was good to just talk to them about the whole ridiculousness that is the farm situation and everything that is going on with it, and all my work going into it, and all the work that is being expected of me and everything else.
Earlier today wasn't as dramatic (lol, I guess if you want to call it that). Got up late because I'd stayed up late instant messaging with my friends, Zach and Zach (lol). Then I cleaned my room - it'd gotten a bit disorganized from the long work day on Saturday and then all the time I spent away from my room on Sunday. Talked with Jim some about some farm stuff. Talked with Jan about a few things. Went back up to my room. Watched the rain. Wanted to go outside. Went outside. Came back in. Noticed it'd stopped raining, wanted to go for a run, but didn't want to get super sweaty. Went for a long bike ride instead, came back over an hour later and had some shrimp, but really wanted salad, sadly there was none. Went back up to my room, noticed that Rachel and Rose just drove up so I went down to say hi, jump on the trampoline a bit with Rachel and have some watermelon with them.
Hopefully things will go better from here out and I can actually plan things and get at least something done while I'm here. Here's to hoping and praying that tomorrow will be a better day.
_____________________
I am fine, I'm not hurt or anything, nothing else but emotionally/mentally. But it's alright, again, nothing really major. I'll survive. I just really needed time and space away from everyone and everything there. I hated leaving Jan, because I didn't want to hurt anything about our relationship together, but I just couldn't stay. I don't know how things will be when I go back, but I can't really say that I care.
The long and short of it is that Jan and I were enjoying some otter pops and just hanging out on the front porch and Jim started getting into depths about work and the farm and such. It was kinda awkward, as per usual, and as per usual, I wasn't very comfortable with how things were going, but I was putting up with it anyway and just sitting there and continued to be polite. Then he mentioned something about how the main reason why this guy from the chamber of commerce wanted to get me involved with the community and working here had to be because was because I was a young female. I didn't understand what he meant. I mean, coming from a college town, I'm surrounded by guys who just want to hook up with a girl for the night and move on with their lives like nothing happened. So I figured it must just be that this town is supposedly void of attractive young women? But why should that matter? Why does that give me reason to stay? Are there not any young women in this town? I mean, there are young families? What? Is it a bad thing that young women my age are moving to big cities or going places to get jobs or moving for family or getting married or just traveling? Jim said it was because I was not just a sexual object, but that the people in this town deserved to be treated to an attractive young woman staying in the area to work (what with no prospects of a real relationship herself? and just guys having full permission to gawp at her? sounds awesome...) and that was wanted... and then went on to school me about how the "reality of civilization" is that so many country girls were going to colleges in the big cities, getting "used" by city boys who only wanted them there for that, and dumping them when they were finished, and then proceeded to tell me that I would have no idea what that was like. Only, he wasn't clean about his choice of words and they did not come out in a polite matter, much less a decent tone.
I told him not to try to school me, that I didn't appreciate him speaking to me that way and do not want him to ever speak to me in that way or about such things ever again because he has no idea the things I've been through in my life and he has no place to speak of things that he has no idea.
...
...
edited for content
...
...
I realized what I should do. Just go to Nancy's. It wasn't too much farther down the road, so I turned away from the park and headed to the house.
After composing myself a bit, I walked in the side door of the garage and parked my bike before walking inside. I saw Rachel first, so I said hi, and asked her if her mom was home. Yeah, somewhere, probably downstairs, lol. Then I saw Rose and John. Rose is still in town to get some other details with the house figured out. Then they asked me how I was and when I started talking, I just started crying. Rose beckoned me to join her over on a chair, so I just collapsed into one and cried. I was just so stressed. So tired. So exhausted. So disgusted. So frustrated.
Rose, John, Nancy and I talked for over an hour about how everything is going down, and how much stress is being put on me. They pulled out some bedding for me to borrow for the rest of my stay here and gave me a few bottles of water to take with me. Rachel bounded about telling us about her computer game and asking me if I was going to spend the night. Nancy made me some food and we talked some more. After awhile more of discussion about the whole thing of me being here and working the farm and getting my college credits and how much of the massive amounts of work and stress are being shoved in my direction, we managed to sum things up and went downstairs to just relax, bum out and watched an episode of The Bachelorette, while I snuggled with Love Kitty (one of their cats, and yes, that's her name).
As it happens, because I rode my bike and the late hour, and such, I'll just be staying the night here. Nancy said that I am more than welcome to stay and come over whenever I want or need to. She also wanted to make sure that I was getting properly fed over there and that if I wasn't she'd help me figure things out.
They were all really kind, and it was good to just talk to them about the whole ridiculousness that is the farm situation and everything that is going on with it, and all my work going into it, and all the work that is being expected of me and everything else.
Earlier today wasn't as dramatic (lol, I guess if you want to call it that). Got up late because I'd stayed up late instant messaging with my friends, Zach and Zach (lol). Then I cleaned my room - it'd gotten a bit disorganized from the long work day on Saturday and then all the time I spent away from my room on Sunday. Talked with Jim some about some farm stuff. Talked with Jan about a few things. Went back up to my room. Watched the rain. Wanted to go outside. Went outside. Came back in. Noticed it'd stopped raining, wanted to go for a run, but didn't want to get super sweaty. Went for a long bike ride instead, came back over an hour later and had some shrimp, but really wanted salad, sadly there was none. Went back up to my room, noticed that Rachel and Rose just drove up so I went down to say hi, jump on the trampoline a bit with Rachel and have some watermelon with them.
Hopefully things will go better from here out and I can actually plan things and get at least something done while I'm here. Here's to hoping and praying that tomorrow will be a better day.
7.05.2010
of Independence Day
I love 4th of July. It is by far my favorite holiday. I don't know what it is. I just can never get enough of the whole thing. Perhaps it's the fact that it hits right in summer, the picnics, parades, runs, patriotism of the town and people - the fact that maybe, just maybe, people are actually proud to support the red, white, and blue old glory. Maybe it's the heat, the sunshine, the freedom of the day to do whatever you want, the barbecues, the popsicles, pop and chips, or maybe it's just the fireworks. I don't really know how to tie it all together other than I just love the 4th of July.
I woke up at 7:38am to a ridiculous amount of humidity. I felt like I was in a swimming pool without being submerged at all. Then I heard the rain. Crud. I get up and close the windows on the south and western facing walls (the floors by the windows already wet), assuming that either Jim and Jan already got the ones downstairs last night, or that Jim is already up. Regardless, I just don't really care if they don't and go back to bed. Only to wake up a few hours later to go to church.
The plan was to go to to Shenandoah Assemblies of God at 10am for church. I struggled out of bed, not being any more tired or uncomfortable than I ever have been while I'm here (perhaps a bit more damp, but that was from the rain). Checked the online schedule of Shenandoah to double check for the schedules for the day. Found out that everything, aside from the indoor pancake breakfast, had been canceled and that the fireworks display would be postponed until Saturday. Seriously? It's not even raining at a significant rate or anything. I was bummed. So much for a traditional 4th of July out in the midwest for me. Bummer. Had I been in Oregon, I doubt anything would be canceled, but then, I suppose that's the difference between the constant rain that western Oregon usually gets, and the occasional downpour that the midwest gets.
After going downstairs to get breakfast, I noticed that nothing had been closed up for the rain, so I proceeded to shut both doors and some of the windows. Lexx was mega depressed because of the rain, and therefore nothing to do outside. Plus, both dogs are almost always ultra lethargic in the mornings. They are too adjusted to sleeping in until noon. Ate some frosted mini spooners and headed back upstairs to finish getting ready for church. It's not really an issue. I don't have much in the way of clothes here (today I chose jeans, gladiator sandals, teal tank and my fun super epically floral tank over that), and even less if you count that over half are almost always needing to be washed.
But, I managed to either take long enough, get distracted by my music (as always), and stall on the internet to realize that it wasn't until about 9:56 that I was ready to go. At this point, I debated not going at all and just going back to bed - but I'm already up, and I do not want to work on any of the farm stuff today. Or, I could go to another church with a later service. No, Hannah, just go to church already! You didn't go last week, you really gotta go! You sometimes showed up late to Calvary back in Corvallis, and no one minded. But it's someone else's church, and what if I'm the only one?!? But really? who cares...
So I went anyway, and I just want to say right now, that I don't know that I've made a better decision in a long time.
I walked into the building (after walking through pouring buckets to get to the door) and the foyer was empty, but really pretty, and then went on into the sanctuary. Worship was already underway and they were playing a song familiar from Real Life (the college youth group that I go to at OSU). I find a chair in an inconspicuous place, hopefully not taking any late comer's usual spot (knowing small churches and all...) and set my bag down.
I started singing along, but I kept finding myself tearing up. I couldn't hold it back. I didn't want to look like a freak, being a visitor to a new church and all, but this was real. Everyone here loved Jesus. They were passionate about him. Sure, it was a bunch of midwesterners, and I was from Oregon. Sure, I didn't go to church last week, and I've been really inconsistent about keeping up with my Bible reading and personal studies, but these people - they shared something with me. Something that I was passionate about. They were real people. And we were worshiping together. We shared something more than just a phone call, more than an instant message, more than distant relation. I'd never felt closer to a group of strangers in my life.
The decor of the church was fairly basic. Reminded me of a smaller version of Calvary Corvallis. There were huge windows directly behind the worship team with water flowing down in a constant stream with the words "Streams of water will flow from within him" on the wall above them. Flags were hung all around.
A few worship songs with beautiful harmony later and we sang Proud to be an American. I've never sung this in church, but I honestly can't tell you that I can think of a single reason why it shouldn't be sung in church on Independence Day. It was at that point that I gave up trying to be any sort of normal, and just cried. Between people actually standing up and celebrating God, but also praising the fact that we live in one of the most prosperous and free nations in the world, and that we could all be here together, having the freedom to worship God how we want, read the Bible, and have such a culture where people are able to believe and say what they want politically and otherwise. We can, because we're Americans. It just seems that people don't take our nation for granted out here. Maybe because they're actually accustomed to working the land, maybe it's because they're deeper in history and closer to Washington DC and the other original colonies. I'm not sure what it is. But these people openly love America than anyone back in Oregon.
Then we sat down, and kids from the youth group came up and shared their experiences from a church camp that they all just got back from. It made me realize - made me jealous that I never got to go to one. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it is because they were never the right denomination? There just weren't any? Too expensive? Conflicted with YMA? Was I too obsessed with YMA to pursue something like that? Probably... did I want to just stay away from anything like that? not really, but considering life growing up at Gloria Dei, yeah, I kinda didn't want anything to do with a church camp, because they might not have the right doctrines (and that's all that matters when it's hammered into your brain day in and out with the catechism, right?). But then I started thinking: how would my life be different now, how much more in love with Jesus would I be right now, how much more passionate would I be? Would I want to go on missions? Would I have already been involved in any by now? Would I not have made the huge mistakes over the years, getting stuck in ruts with high school and college and emotions and actions and getting involved with the wrong kind of boys? I can only assume so... But maybe I was supposed to go through that because God wants me to use them to help others. I don't really know, and I can't really say. All I can say is that I was very envious of these students for having such experiences this last week, and wishing beyond anything that I could have been involved in a camp like that, or at least be a part of one now, and be a counselor at one.
Afterwards, they showed a video from the camp. It was awesome. Then Pastor Dan got up and gave a really good message about freedom and bringing in points from our Declaration of Independence, a few points of history, and some science-nerdy stuff about that oil spill out in the Gulf of Mexico.
The service ended with another familiar worship song with just piano and voices: no shame, I cried again. After the service, I didn't really know what to do with myself. A few weeks ago, at Cornerstone CMA they all just packed up and left directly afterwards. They had coffee, but for some reason I didn't really want coffee. So I started heading towards the door and Pastor Dan was shaking everyone's hand. Good, traditional church thing to do, I thought. He was saying hello to everyone as they passed and such. I shook his hand, and he said: "I don't know that I know you, but I know I've seen you around recently."
"Yeah, well, I mean, I haven't been here to ShenAG before, I went to Cornerstone CMA a few weeks ago and wasn't able to go anywhere last week, and I don't know if you noticed, but I just started breaking down throughout worship because I've just been away from fellowship for so long (at this point, I almost start crying again) and just people in general. But anyway, I've been in town for about 3 weeks now"
"Oh? What brings you to Shenandoah?"
"Helping relatives move to the house at the end of Airport road and helping them get a really big garden started"
"Oh, how nice, where are you from?"
"I'm from Oregon, actually"
"Really? I have a daughter out in Seattle. Yeah, she's in nursing school"
"Oh, awesome."
"Yeah, you guys would really get along, but she's staying out there"
"Cool"
"You should come by during the week sometime to talk to us here"
"When are you around?"
"Well, a lot of people are out of town - out of town, you know with the holiday and, I mean, we have a few guests, but there are a good bit of people missing, and you should come by and talk to us"
At this point, a blonde woman who has been standing at the outermost of the doors to the church leans over.
"I haven't really been catching much, but I'm Annette, Dan's wife, can you catch me up a bit?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm Hannah, I'm 21, just graduated from Oregon State University, but need to get more agriculture experience, so I came out here - do you know James and Jan Bowery? Dr Bowery? They're his relatives... anyway, I helped them move to the house out at the end of Airport Road last Saturday, and I've been helping them set up a really big garden/farm, I'll be here all summer."
"Oh, wow. Have you gotten to meet many people around Shenandoah?"
"I haven't. I really miss people. I mean, I've basically spent the last 2.5 weeks alone."
"Oh, wow, that's really hard. Well, we have, as I'm sure you heard, events in the church. We have Sunday school at 9am and church, as you know, at 10, and then we also have something Wednesday evenings at 7, we also have a youth group - I know you're kinda in between ages, but anyway, then we're also going to AdventureLand out in Des Moines this week and a Royals baseball game in Omaha next Sunday."
"Yeah, I'd like to see if I can go to those. I'd really like to get involved and meet people and do things"
"Hey! You know, we have a girl who works in the office here who is about your age. I bet you guys would hit it off well right away. Have you been over to the Sanctuary?"
"Yeah"
"Mmmh, yeah, it's a really great restaurant. You two should get lunch!"
"That would be awesome"
"Have you been to the Garrison Coffee House out in Clarinda?"
"No, I really haven't been anywhere outside Shenandoah since I've been here."
"Really? Well, we should go on a coffee date."
"That would be so great, wow"
"Here, let me, give you my phone number and you can give me yours."
"Ok, awesome - wow, yeah."
"You know, when I saw you there talking with Dan, I thought you had to be from Oregon, and then you said you were! You just look like you're from out there, and you dress - have you read this magazine...? I can't really remember what it's called...umm..."
"heh... probably not"
"well, anyway, you're just dressed and look super cute, and you just look like you're from Oregon"
"Thanks"
"So yes, our office is open Tuesday through Friday and you're more than welcome to come over anytime"
"Yeah, I will. Definitely. I really want to get involved and meet people and start really doing things with other people"
It was amazing... I walked through the rain back to the car in a completely different attitude than I'd walked into the church. But when I sat in the car, I just cried. I was happy, but sad, but really happy all at the same time. Just soaking everything in, mostly.
Then I drove over to HyVee and picked up a box of those amazingly fluffy and wonderfully frosted cookies (complete with 4th of July sprinkles), and a few Budget Gourmet frozen entrees before heading back to the farmhouse. When I got to the signal at Airport Road, I cant tell you enough how badly I did not want to have to turn right. I wanted to go somewhere - anywhere but back there. But I went back anyway.
Jim started talking to me about growing a "live mulch" of sorts with the tomatoes, such as the lettuce mix, or trying something else like plastic, and what I thought the expense of that would be (a lot). And then telling me all about control groups (yup, been there, done that with numerous experiments in all my science labs) and their importance (why, of course).
I kinda felt rude, but I just had to take the day off, so I took my food upstairs and watched Howl's Moving Castle (as per my long-standing desire to see it, my love for Spirited Away, and Jeni's recommendation). I loved it.
Not long after finishing it, Jan popped through my door and asked if I wanted to go to that new vampire movie. I was all for it. I mean, I'd kinda been wanting to see it (it's my fav of the books, and a few of my friends had already seen it and said it was good [at least the battle scenes anyway], and I know that the music is good because I already got the soundtrack).
It was good, but depressing (as per usual of the Twilight saga). Jim fell asleep part-way through and started snoring, so I asked Jan if she could elbow him or something because the girls behind me were getting slightly annoyed, lol. Apparently he didn't know it would be so much of a chick-flick. um.. anyway
Then we went over to Nancy and John's for our 4th of July BBQ (inside b/c of the rain). It was mormon family night again, so we got to hear about how some prophet did something and said something that got into some scriptures saying about how the US Constitution is actually a sacred document and that this idea or revelation or something has to be therefore true because it's in their book.... ummm yeah.... anyway... For dinner we had pineapple kabobs, shrimp kabobs, rice, salad, steak, sauteed mushrooms, and strawberry shortcake. Needless to say, we had a lot of very good food. No fireworks, but still good food. After dinner, and after helping Nancy with kitchen stuff, I went around the house with Rachel, talking about assorted randomness. Then we went up to her room and she showed me her pets again and her room, and we went into the cubby hole under/behind her loft bed and then sat on her bed for awhile and she told me all about her favorite books and stories related to them, and all about her pets, and all about family stuff, and all about other stuff too. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age (only, she's a bit more outgoing than I was). Then we went back down to the basement and finished watching the first episode of Surface (you know, that show that was on like, five years ago and only went on for one season).
Then on the way home, I kinda mentioned how I'd like to have a real bed... after being on an air mattress for almost three weeks, it hasn't been the best sleep that I've gotten, all other things aside. So, perhaps that is something that might happen in the next two weeks.
I took a few pictures tonight, but I'm too tired to post them right now, will do so tomorrow, hopefully.
Rain here is weird. I expect it to always be cold. But it's not. It's still just as hot, were it not raining. So there is really no need to wear layers. And even were you to wear a rain jacket or anything, it wouldn't really matter, because your clothes dry within minutes anyway because it's already so warm out, so you aren't left wet and cold much at all. However, as a creature of habit, I did manage to wear sweats and my striped sweater when I was watching the movie this afternoon, also because I just wanted to be comfortable, and I liked the fresh air, so I kept my north-facing window open, but there was a bit of a breeze, so it wasn't completely hot in my room.
The Buick is an interesting character of a car. It has no parking break. The front left tire is low on air (and ignored). All the interior lights are on all the time (you know, breaks, air bags, check engine... etc), the dash is falling apart, no seat belts in the back (I'm the only one who uses them anyway, regardless of them being present or not). The exterior is missing a good amount of paint, so it's been kinda spray painted over in a few places, and part of the siding has been falling off, so it's kinda missing a few pieces. In order to start it you have to turn the ignition while the car stalls and idles into starting, which can be anywhere between 2 seconds and 2 minutes. It's not trustworthy to drive distances other than just into town, because apparently it just shuts down and stops working until you let it sit and rest for about 10 minutes and then try it again (not sure how far the distance for this has to be... 30 miles? 80 miles? no idea..). Otherwise though, it drives fairly well (lol).
After arriving back at the farmhouse, read the most wonderful email from Grandma Mary, then I talked on the phone with mom and dad for about an hour. I can't say enough how much I love talking with them, and hearing from or talking to people in general. It's great. I'm really, really looking forward to hopefully getting connected and involved with people at ShenAG this next week. I seriously can't say it enough. So. Excited.
I woke up at 7:38am to a ridiculous amount of humidity. I felt like I was in a swimming pool without being submerged at all. Then I heard the rain. Crud. I get up and close the windows on the south and western facing walls (the floors by the windows already wet), assuming that either Jim and Jan already got the ones downstairs last night, or that Jim is already up. Regardless, I just don't really care if they don't and go back to bed. Only to wake up a few hours later to go to church.
The plan was to go to to Shenandoah Assemblies of God at 10am for church. I struggled out of bed, not being any more tired or uncomfortable than I ever have been while I'm here (perhaps a bit more damp, but that was from the rain). Checked the online schedule of Shenandoah to double check for the schedules for the day. Found out that everything, aside from the indoor pancake breakfast, had been canceled and that the fireworks display would be postponed until Saturday. Seriously? It's not even raining at a significant rate or anything. I was bummed. So much for a traditional 4th of July out in the midwest for me. Bummer. Had I been in Oregon, I doubt anything would be canceled, but then, I suppose that's the difference between the constant rain that western Oregon usually gets, and the occasional downpour that the midwest gets.
After going downstairs to get breakfast, I noticed that nothing had been closed up for the rain, so I proceeded to shut both doors and some of the windows. Lexx was mega depressed because of the rain, and therefore nothing to do outside. Plus, both dogs are almost always ultra lethargic in the mornings. They are too adjusted to sleeping in until noon. Ate some frosted mini spooners and headed back upstairs to finish getting ready for church. It's not really an issue. I don't have much in the way of clothes here (today I chose jeans, gladiator sandals, teal tank and my fun super epically floral tank over that), and even less if you count that over half are almost always needing to be washed.
But, I managed to either take long enough, get distracted by my music (as always), and stall on the internet to realize that it wasn't until about 9:56 that I was ready to go. At this point, I debated not going at all and just going back to bed - but I'm already up, and I do not want to work on any of the farm stuff today. Or, I could go to another church with a later service. No, Hannah, just go to church already! You didn't go last week, you really gotta go! You sometimes showed up late to Calvary back in Corvallis, and no one minded. But it's someone else's church, and what if I'm the only one?!? But really? who cares...
So I went anyway, and I just want to say right now, that I don't know that I've made a better decision in a long time.
I walked into the building (after walking through pouring buckets to get to the door) and the foyer was empty, but really pretty, and then went on into the sanctuary. Worship was already underway and they were playing a song familiar from Real Life (the college youth group that I go to at OSU). I find a chair in an inconspicuous place, hopefully not taking any late comer's usual spot (knowing small churches and all...) and set my bag down.
I started singing along, but I kept finding myself tearing up. I couldn't hold it back. I didn't want to look like a freak, being a visitor to a new church and all, but this was real. Everyone here loved Jesus. They were passionate about him. Sure, it was a bunch of midwesterners, and I was from Oregon. Sure, I didn't go to church last week, and I've been really inconsistent about keeping up with my Bible reading and personal studies, but these people - they shared something with me. Something that I was passionate about. They were real people. And we were worshiping together. We shared something more than just a phone call, more than an instant message, more than distant relation. I'd never felt closer to a group of strangers in my life.
The decor of the church was fairly basic. Reminded me of a smaller version of Calvary Corvallis. There were huge windows directly behind the worship team with water flowing down in a constant stream with the words "Streams of water will flow from within him" on the wall above them. Flags were hung all around.
A few worship songs with beautiful harmony later and we sang Proud to be an American. I've never sung this in church, but I honestly can't tell you that I can think of a single reason why it shouldn't be sung in church on Independence Day. It was at that point that I gave up trying to be any sort of normal, and just cried. Between people actually standing up and celebrating God, but also praising the fact that we live in one of the most prosperous and free nations in the world, and that we could all be here together, having the freedom to worship God how we want, read the Bible, and have such a culture where people are able to believe and say what they want politically and otherwise. We can, because we're Americans. It just seems that people don't take our nation for granted out here. Maybe because they're actually accustomed to working the land, maybe it's because they're deeper in history and closer to Washington DC and the other original colonies. I'm not sure what it is. But these people openly love America than anyone back in Oregon.
Then we sat down, and kids from the youth group came up and shared their experiences from a church camp that they all just got back from. It made me realize - made me jealous that I never got to go to one. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it is because they were never the right denomination? There just weren't any? Too expensive? Conflicted with YMA? Was I too obsessed with YMA to pursue something like that? Probably... did I want to just stay away from anything like that? not really, but considering life growing up at Gloria Dei, yeah, I kinda didn't want anything to do with a church camp, because they might not have the right doctrines (and that's all that matters when it's hammered into your brain day in and out with the catechism, right?). But then I started thinking: how would my life be different now, how much more in love with Jesus would I be right now, how much more passionate would I be? Would I want to go on missions? Would I have already been involved in any by now? Would I not have made the huge mistakes over the years, getting stuck in ruts with high school and college and emotions and actions and getting involved with the wrong kind of boys? I can only assume so... But maybe I was supposed to go through that because God wants me to use them to help others. I don't really know, and I can't really say. All I can say is that I was very envious of these students for having such experiences this last week, and wishing beyond anything that I could have been involved in a camp like that, or at least be a part of one now, and be a counselor at one.
Afterwards, they showed a video from the camp. It was awesome. Then Pastor Dan got up and gave a really good message about freedom and bringing in points from our Declaration of Independence, a few points of history, and some science-nerdy stuff about that oil spill out in the Gulf of Mexico.
The service ended with another familiar worship song with just piano and voices: no shame, I cried again. After the service, I didn't really know what to do with myself. A few weeks ago, at Cornerstone CMA they all just packed up and left directly afterwards. They had coffee, but for some reason I didn't really want coffee. So I started heading towards the door and Pastor Dan was shaking everyone's hand. Good, traditional church thing to do, I thought. He was saying hello to everyone as they passed and such. I shook his hand, and he said: "I don't know that I know you, but I know I've seen you around recently."
"Yeah, well, I mean, I haven't been here to ShenAG before, I went to Cornerstone CMA a few weeks ago and wasn't able to go anywhere last week, and I don't know if you noticed, but I just started breaking down throughout worship because I've just been away from fellowship for so long (at this point, I almost start crying again) and just people in general. But anyway, I've been in town for about 3 weeks now"
"Oh? What brings you to Shenandoah?"
"Helping relatives move to the house at the end of Airport road and helping them get a really big garden started"
"Oh, how nice, where are you from?"
"I'm from Oregon, actually"
"Really? I have a daughter out in Seattle. Yeah, she's in nursing school"
"Oh, awesome."
"Yeah, you guys would really get along, but she's staying out there"
"Cool"
"You should come by during the week sometime to talk to us here"
"When are you around?"
"Well, a lot of people are out of town - out of town, you know with the holiday and, I mean, we have a few guests, but there are a good bit of people missing, and you should come by and talk to us"
At this point, a blonde woman who has been standing at the outermost of the doors to the church leans over.
"I haven't really been catching much, but I'm Annette, Dan's wife, can you catch me up a bit?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm Hannah, I'm 21, just graduated from Oregon State University, but need to get more agriculture experience, so I came out here - do you know James and Jan Bowery? Dr Bowery? They're his relatives... anyway, I helped them move to the house out at the end of Airport Road last Saturday, and I've been helping them set up a really big garden/farm, I'll be here all summer."
"Oh, wow. Have you gotten to meet many people around Shenandoah?"
"I haven't. I really miss people. I mean, I've basically spent the last 2.5 weeks alone."
"Oh, wow, that's really hard. Well, we have, as I'm sure you heard, events in the church. We have Sunday school at 9am and church, as you know, at 10, and then we also have something Wednesday evenings at 7, we also have a youth group - I know you're kinda in between ages, but anyway, then we're also going to AdventureLand out in Des Moines this week and a Royals baseball game in Omaha next Sunday."
"Yeah, I'd like to see if I can go to those. I'd really like to get involved and meet people and do things"
"Hey! You know, we have a girl who works in the office here who is about your age. I bet you guys would hit it off well right away. Have you been over to the Sanctuary?"
"Yeah"
"Mmmh, yeah, it's a really great restaurant. You two should get lunch!"
"That would be awesome"
"Have you been to the Garrison Coffee House out in Clarinda?"
"No, I really haven't been anywhere outside Shenandoah since I've been here."
"Really? Well, we should go on a coffee date."
"That would be so great, wow"
"Here, let me, give you my phone number and you can give me yours."
"Ok, awesome - wow, yeah."
"You know, when I saw you there talking with Dan, I thought you had to be from Oregon, and then you said you were! You just look like you're from out there, and you dress - have you read this magazine...? I can't really remember what it's called...umm..."
"heh... probably not"
"well, anyway, you're just dressed and look super cute, and you just look like you're from Oregon"
"Thanks"
"So yes, our office is open Tuesday through Friday and you're more than welcome to come over anytime"
"Yeah, I will. Definitely. I really want to get involved and meet people and start really doing things with other people"
It was amazing... I walked through the rain back to the car in a completely different attitude than I'd walked into the church. But when I sat in the car, I just cried. I was happy, but sad, but really happy all at the same time. Just soaking everything in, mostly.
Then I drove over to HyVee and picked up a box of those amazingly fluffy and wonderfully frosted cookies (complete with 4th of July sprinkles), and a few Budget Gourmet frozen entrees before heading back to the farmhouse. When I got to the signal at Airport Road, I cant tell you enough how badly I did not want to have to turn right. I wanted to go somewhere - anywhere but back there. But I went back anyway.
Jim started talking to me about growing a "live mulch" of sorts with the tomatoes, such as the lettuce mix, or trying something else like plastic, and what I thought the expense of that would be (a lot). And then telling me all about control groups (yup, been there, done that with numerous experiments in all my science labs) and their importance (why, of course).
I kinda felt rude, but I just had to take the day off, so I took my food upstairs and watched Howl's Moving Castle (as per my long-standing desire to see it, my love for Spirited Away, and Jeni's recommendation). I loved it.
Not long after finishing it, Jan popped through my door and asked if I wanted to go to that new vampire movie. I was all for it. I mean, I'd kinda been wanting to see it (it's my fav of the books, and a few of my friends had already seen it and said it was good [at least the battle scenes anyway], and I know that the music is good because I already got the soundtrack).
It was good, but depressing (as per usual of the Twilight saga). Jim fell asleep part-way through and started snoring, so I asked Jan if she could elbow him or something because the girls behind me were getting slightly annoyed, lol. Apparently he didn't know it would be so much of a chick-flick. um.. anyway
Then we went over to Nancy and John's for our 4th of July BBQ (inside b/c of the rain). It was mormon family night again, so we got to hear about how some prophet did something and said something that got into some scriptures saying about how the US Constitution is actually a sacred document and that this idea or revelation or something has to be therefore true because it's in their book.... ummm yeah.... anyway... For dinner we had pineapple kabobs, shrimp kabobs, rice, salad, steak, sauteed mushrooms, and strawberry shortcake. Needless to say, we had a lot of very good food. No fireworks, but still good food. After dinner, and after helping Nancy with kitchen stuff, I went around the house with Rachel, talking about assorted randomness. Then we went up to her room and she showed me her pets again and her room, and we went into the cubby hole under/behind her loft bed and then sat on her bed for awhile and she told me all about her favorite books and stories related to them, and all about her pets, and all about family stuff, and all about other stuff too. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age (only, she's a bit more outgoing than I was). Then we went back down to the basement and finished watching the first episode of Surface (you know, that show that was on like, five years ago and only went on for one season).
Then on the way home, I kinda mentioned how I'd like to have a real bed... after being on an air mattress for almost three weeks, it hasn't been the best sleep that I've gotten, all other things aside. So, perhaps that is something that might happen in the next two weeks.
I took a few pictures tonight, but I'm too tired to post them right now, will do so tomorrow, hopefully.
Rain here is weird. I expect it to always be cold. But it's not. It's still just as hot, were it not raining. So there is really no need to wear layers. And even were you to wear a rain jacket or anything, it wouldn't really matter, because your clothes dry within minutes anyway because it's already so warm out, so you aren't left wet and cold much at all. However, as a creature of habit, I did manage to wear sweats and my striped sweater when I was watching the movie this afternoon, also because I just wanted to be comfortable, and I liked the fresh air, so I kept my north-facing window open, but there was a bit of a breeze, so it wasn't completely hot in my room.
The Buick is an interesting character of a car. It has no parking break. The front left tire is low on air (and ignored). All the interior lights are on all the time (you know, breaks, air bags, check engine... etc), the dash is falling apart, no seat belts in the back (I'm the only one who uses them anyway, regardless of them being present or not). The exterior is missing a good amount of paint, so it's been kinda spray painted over in a few places, and part of the siding has been falling off, so it's kinda missing a few pieces. In order to start it you have to turn the ignition while the car stalls and idles into starting, which can be anywhere between 2 seconds and 2 minutes. It's not trustworthy to drive distances other than just into town, because apparently it just shuts down and stops working until you let it sit and rest for about 10 minutes and then try it again (not sure how far the distance for this has to be... 30 miles? 80 miles? no idea..). Otherwise though, it drives fairly well (lol).
After arriving back at the farmhouse, read the most wonderful email from Grandma Mary, then I talked on the phone with mom and dad for about an hour. I can't say enough how much I love talking with them, and hearing from or talking to people in general. It's great. I'm really, really looking forward to hopefully getting connected and involved with people at ShenAG this next week. I seriously can't say it enough. So. Excited.
6.29.2010
of updates and books
I really didn’t want to update my blog and go through with more detail about the last week or so, but I figured that if I didn’t’ do it now, I probably never would. So, if you are wondering, there are a lot more posts here and yes, I technically just put them up today, I didn’t actually write them all today, I had them in a word document, but I’ve been too lazy and lacking internet enough to go through the effort to update and publish them. I just figured that it’s been too long since I’ve really updated, and that if I don’t now, I never will. Plus, I’m getting tired of everyone asking me what I’m up to… lol. No kidding. I haven’t been updating you :P sorry…..
Got up this morning to goodness knows awful crampness. Took a shower, did some cruches, and lacking my awesome microwave flax thing, I did the next best thing. Outside. I went out on the sunken trampoline and read my book for several hours, just generally taking it easy and calming down too.
As I read, I would periodically get distracted by an airplane flying high above me and cotton fluffs floating towards the sky, wanting to float with them somewhere else. I noticed how loud it was here. It wasn't. I love it. With the exception of the slow, low rumble coming from the ethanol plant that is about a mile down the road, all you can hear is the bugs and the birds going about their daily business.
After awhile, I was just contentedly ready and getting warm in the sun when I heard a growl. I looked up to see this little white dog sitting back on her haunches, fore-paws in the air, looking at me. "Jessie!" I called, and she loped towards me, super excited that I actually know who she was. She's our neighbor, Fred's little dog. She appears to be a Chihuahua/Jack Russell cross of some sort. She licked me when she got close and then proceeded to run all over me and around the trampoline about three or four times before stopping to get a few more pets and then taking off again towards Fred's garage. Soon, I could hear the faint sound of country music coming from Fred's Jeep Wrangler and before too much longer I saw him driving on the grass towards out soon-to-be garden with the disker in tow, little Jessie joining him in the passenger seat.
-------Newsflash-------
Internet is working at the farmhouse
PTL
(pray it doesn’t go out for any reason!!!)
I did some homework for my summer class, worked a bit on my paperwork for my internship, and then read more in my book. I actually finished it today. Heh... Then I cleaned and organized my room. I'm so much happier now that I am able to have My. Own. Space. Still no bed, but Jim did get slats for the bed frame today, which is a step in the right direction. He kept thinking it was a Queen size... it's a twin, lol.
Then I went to the library and moseyed around there, looking at the books. Picked up a few that were for general entertainment to get into another world and away from movies or the reality that i'm in right now and then came back to the farmhouse.
At one point today, apparently when I wasn't paying attention, Jan went out and got more groceries. She picked up some more cereal and a lot of veggies at my suggestion. I'm soo glad to have veggies again! I can't tell you enough how much I've missed them! We've pretty much just had cereal, pizza, rice, and meat for the last few days. Had a fantastic salad with my chicken kabob for dinner, and I've been up in my room, updating this blog ever since. Maybe now I can break out another one of the books I just got.
6.22.2010
of dining rooms and madeline
Here's a few pictures from yesterday that I should have posted... well, yesterday.
and also....
Introducing: Madeline
side/dining room before
side/dining room after
(note, I moved almost all the boxes from the living room, kitchen and entry into here to aid in further cleaning of those respective areas and for ease of walking around the house)
and also....
Introducing: Madeline
She's super sweet and her favorite spot to hang out is on the kitchen counter. She loves attention, but not while the canines are around. If you are around and not paying her proper attention, she will rub against you, meow kindly, and roll around on the floor (or counter). Most adorable.
6.21.2010
of bbq's, thunderstorms, and bedrooms
For the rest of yesterday we went over to Nancy's house for the BBQ (sorry, forgot my camera!!! super sad about this... next time though!!!). Sunday night, as it happens, is the traditional Mormon Family Night. The idea of a "family night" is nothing bad in any way. Just the fact that they plug "mormon" on the front of it that bothers me. They gave their father gifts because it was Father's Day, then everyone talked a little, and then Nancy read out of a book for awhile before prayer and dinner was started. For dinner we had salad, home-made baked beans (left over from a missionary feed of sorts), and steak. It was all really good. Then we went up to Rachel's room, which is painted the most beautiful shade of royal purple and overlaid with sparkles (at her request), adorned with leopard wall paper, and featuring a fun, full-sized loft bed, 3 toads, a tree frog, a pet bearded dragon and a hamster. Needless to say, Rachel loves her pet. She loves cats and dragons and could talk for hours about the video games she plays and the books she loves to read. Then we went down to the basement and watched the pilot episode of Kings while eating home-made popcorn. Very good.
Then we came back to the house, and I attempted to go to bed, but there was such an epic thunderstorm out that I just couldn't sleep. So I watched "Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging" (made me think of Jill because she said it was super cute. wished i could have watched it with her!) which was an adorable British chick-flick of sorts while the sky flashed constantly (which I video'd and you can see below... it's not nearly as epic on youtube than it is live).
This morning I was going to get up super early and go for a run, but that was postponed due to the incredible storm that was still going on outside, with growing intensity. Giving up on that idea, I went back to bed.
Got up a few hours later and cleaned (like, swept, mostly -- can't really clean it until the boxes are out of it) and organized the spare room that I'm currently living in. Realized that I could actually be keeping all of my stuff in the closet (with shelves!) instead of at the mercy of the dogs (were Lacy to get in again, I try to keep the room door closed as much as I can anymore, regardless of where my stuff is).
Then I showered, organized things a bit more, and with the added space in my room, I moved some of the boxes from the kitchen and main walkways into my room.
Then we all went to Walmart and I was able to pick up some things I've been missing (you have no idea how much you love floss until you don't have access to any after eating a ton of corn!!!). Then I set to work cleaning out the side room, which I can only assume was intended for a dining room. Moved boxes, scared the cat with the vacuum cleaner. Vacuumed that rug on the floor to death, then did a Cinderella job on the floor. Now waiting for the floor to dry before moving more boxes into that room. I think one or both of the dogs, and perhaps the cats as well used one of the side walls in that room for marking purposes. Disgusting.
Got my syllabus for my summer class. Ew. Not looking forward to working on that in addition to cleaning and moving, and looking for a job. But that's just the way things go, I suppose. No way around it. I also need to turn in my internship paperwork.... should get some envelops for that.
After cleaning some, Jan and I tried to hit up the pool, but it was occupied by a swim meet, which was a bummer. It was a perfect day to go swimming. Nice and boiling hot.
Then I finished cleaning the dining/side room and then Jan and I went out to this mexican restaurant in town that's over by HyVee and Walmart. It was really small, but the food wasn't bad. I can be kinda picky when it comes to Mexican cuisine, I suppose. Got a Quesadilla de Fajitas, but it tasted kinda like the cheese was a cheese sauce instead of actual cheese. No harm done, and I was only able to eat half of it, so I brought the rest home with me, which will either be happily devoured later this evening, or saved for the lunch hour of tomorrow. :)
Going to try to run tonight and hopefully *fingers crossed* actually get out and go around town some more by myself tomorrow morning/afternoon.
I've been here almost a week!!! How crazy is that? Insane. But also? I've made some new goals for myself because, although this is "summer break" it's not really a break for me because there is so much I have to do, so many goals I have for myself, in addition to everything I have to do with helping Jan and Jim, and then moving, and then summer class, and internship, and work (please, God!!! give me a paying job!)
Jim's mom has kinda gone AWOL about the whole closure on the house thing. Kinda frustrating because we're trying to move in on Saturday (after the move-in date already got moved several times), and I have a lot I have to do, they don't want to be stuck in the house here in Shen longer than they have to, and his mom is the one who is doing the main part of the financial stuff in regards to the house. Plus, they were trying to go to Iowa City next Monday to get some more trial meds for Jan, but that might have to be postponed anyway with the car trouble they've been having, and the short time they'll have between actually moving (if we do move on Saturday) and the road tripping there on Sunday for their Monday appointment.
*sigh* I guess just more prayer that everything goes smoothly and according to the current plan is something I need to be doing.
Well, now on to more organizing of the dining room, and perhaps a few pictures of it when it's finished.
Can't wait til we move and I can put up my wall decorations and maybe actually sleep in a real bed! This air mattress is starting to get the best of me... :(
Then we came back to the house, and I attempted to go to bed, but there was such an epic thunderstorm out that I just couldn't sleep. So I watched "Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging" (made me think of Jill because she said it was super cute. wished i could have watched it with her!) which was an adorable British chick-flick of sorts while the sky flashed constantly (which I video'd and you can see below... it's not nearly as epic on youtube than it is live).
This morning I was going to get up super early and go for a run, but that was postponed due to the incredible storm that was still going on outside, with growing intensity. Giving up on that idea, I went back to bed.
Got up a few hours later and cleaned (like, swept, mostly -- can't really clean it until the boxes are out of it) and organized the spare room that I'm currently living in. Realized that I could actually be keeping all of my stuff in the closet (with shelves!) instead of at the mercy of the dogs (were Lacy to get in again, I try to keep the room door closed as much as I can anymore, regardless of where my stuff is).
Then I showered, organized things a bit more, and with the added space in my room, I moved some of the boxes from the kitchen and main walkways into my room.
spare (my) room before
other side of side(my) room before
spare/my room after
other side of spare/my room after
(notice the location of the light switch. i think someone was drunk when they designed this room)
another view of spare/my room.
you can see my stuff in the closet, and my awesome speaker system on top of the wardrobe (which is where I keep all my electronics, actually)
View out the northern facing window and the backyard
view out the eastern facing window (and our neighbor's house, lol)
Then we all went to Walmart and I was able to pick up some things I've been missing (you have no idea how much you love floss until you don't have access to any after eating a ton of corn!!!). Then I set to work cleaning out the side room, which I can only assume was intended for a dining room. Moved boxes, scared the cat with the vacuum cleaner. Vacuumed that rug on the floor to death, then did a Cinderella job on the floor. Now waiting for the floor to dry before moving more boxes into that room. I think one or both of the dogs, and perhaps the cats as well used one of the side walls in that room for marking purposes. Disgusting.
Got my syllabus for my summer class. Ew. Not looking forward to working on that in addition to cleaning and moving, and looking for a job. But that's just the way things go, I suppose. No way around it. I also need to turn in my internship paperwork.... should get some envelops for that.
After cleaning some, Jan and I tried to hit up the pool, but it was occupied by a swim meet, which was a bummer. It was a perfect day to go swimming. Nice and boiling hot.
Then I finished cleaning the dining/side room and then Jan and I went out to this mexican restaurant in town that's over by HyVee and Walmart. It was really small, but the food wasn't bad. I can be kinda picky when it comes to Mexican cuisine, I suppose. Got a Quesadilla de Fajitas, but it tasted kinda like the cheese was a cheese sauce instead of actual cheese. No harm done, and I was only able to eat half of it, so I brought the rest home with me, which will either be happily devoured later this evening, or saved for the lunch hour of tomorrow. :)
Going to try to run tonight and hopefully *fingers crossed* actually get out and go around town some more by myself tomorrow morning/afternoon.
I've been here almost a week!!! How crazy is that? Insane. But also? I've made some new goals for myself because, although this is "summer break" it's not really a break for me because there is so much I have to do, so many goals I have for myself, in addition to everything I have to do with helping Jan and Jim, and then moving, and then summer class, and internship, and work (please, God!!! give me a paying job!)
Jim's mom has kinda gone AWOL about the whole closure on the house thing. Kinda frustrating because we're trying to move in on Saturday (after the move-in date already got moved several times), and I have a lot I have to do, they don't want to be stuck in the house here in Shen longer than they have to, and his mom is the one who is doing the main part of the financial stuff in regards to the house. Plus, they were trying to go to Iowa City next Monday to get some more trial meds for Jan, but that might have to be postponed anyway with the car trouble they've been having, and the short time they'll have between actually moving (if we do move on Saturday) and the road tripping there on Sunday for their Monday appointment.
*sigh* I guess just more prayer that everything goes smoothly and according to the current plan is something I need to be doing.
Well, now on to more organizing of the dining room, and perhaps a few pictures of it when it's finished.
Can't wait til we move and I can put up my wall decorations and maybe actually sleep in a real bed! This air mattress is starting to get the best of me... :(
6.20.2010
of bathrooms, puppies, and modern technology
Today, we attacked the bathroom. Well, I guess I did. I was going to get up early and start the day. Resetting the alarm three times and I got up before noon. Well, it's better than days previous I suppose.
Yesterday I'd taken to listening to Solid Rock podcasts while cleaning the kitchen on my ipod. I used it in my ipod arm-band so that I wouldn't weird Jan and Jim out with the teachings I was listening to. I mean, I guess everyone assumes 20-somethings listen to pop music while cleaning, yeah? So, today I opted for using the awesome speaker system my way-cool friends, Kim and Jeni got me for my graduation because I was in the bathroom and could shut the door. Plus, without the arm-band, I have more motility of my head/arms, haha.
I've been doing my best to keep Lacy out of my room. I'm of the belief that she used to use the rug in there for a potty spot when people didn't notice she needed to go outside because the first night I was here, it smelled incredibly and overwhelmingly like dog urine. Rug removed, but her habit remains. Thankfully, nothing like that has happened yet, but she started to wander back in that side room. I didn't want her confiscating anything, but apparently, I wasn't on top of it enough.
Death to my left black Old Navy flip flop and the necessary connection to my ipod arm-band. Right about the same time I found this out, I realized I'd gotten bleach on my favorite TWLOHA shirt.
I was super frustrated.
It was almost like I was super mad that after all this time, it seemed like everything had gone pretty much alright. But now, the fury of Hannah was to be unleashed.
No. Not that. Seriously. That's ridiculous. The shirt was old, and I knew there was a possibility of it getting dirty or bleached. The flip-flop was also old, and worth only a few dollars. Same with the arm-band. I got it on ebay for under $5 thanks to my thriftiness.
My next thought was to God. Asking for grace. Patience. Especially towards Lacy. I could see myself hating her for the whole rest of the summer. Over what? Her being a 6 month old puppy and chewing up a plastic flip-flop? *sigh*
I forced myself to 1) eat something, 2) take a deep breath, and 3) keep cleaning the bathroom.
I was listening to the podcast on the story of Jesus, Part 5, "Demons, Pigs, and You" taught by Mike Erre. I'd already heard it at least twice, considering I was able to be there for the teaching, and I listened to it again when I was back at OSU. In it, towards the end, he asks us to find the 3x5 cards placed around the sanctuary, write "God has" at the top, and then list what God has done for us in our lives. Redeemed, Forgiven, Loved, Graceful... endless amounts of things could be written.
It made me think, made me realize how much I'd started to think about myself. Me. My trip to Iowa. This whole thing had been about me. How I could benefit. How I could help people. I'd started back up with my Bible study and was planning with full hope to go to church on Sunday, shouldn't God give me things? A boyfriend, or at least some friends, perhaps? Something... anything? Me, me, me. I was helping Jan and Jim, yes, but I was so involved with myself.
Between realizing that "yeah, it was just a stupid plastic flip flop" and "yeah that arm-band was awesome, but you probably won't use it that much while you're here anyway, it's too hot to run with anyway" and "give her grace, she's just a puppy," was completely mind-blowing.
Being out here is different. Not everyone has a cell phone. Not everyone has an ipod, much less even know what one is. Not everyone has a laptop, or even a computer, much less one with good internet access. Even fewer people have all of the above. I never really think about how fortunate of a place I come from. Yes, I might be a low-middle class college student, swimming in student loans, but I also hold a degree (well... for technicalities sake, almost), I have a laptop, internet, an ipod, a speaker system for my ipod, a cellphone, nice clothes, a car back at home. I have a lot. Way more than I could ever be thankful for.
I've started to miss the simple.
iPod arm band? Awesome, yes, but really? I should be spending my time with family. I'm here with Jan and Jim to do just that: be there with them. Why should I be like those stupid teen-agers on those tv shows and in those movies who are absorbed into their texting and solitary tunes.
It's also a wake-up call. I need to be fearless about sharing my love for Jesus. I'm surrounded here by family, some of which are mormons, others, non-believers, others clueless about anything. It makes me sad. But I shouldn't be afraid. It's almost like God let Lacy chew up my arm-band so that I wouldn't be afraid to listen to the teachings from Solid Rock to myself. If I want to hear them, I either need a pocket, or an open potential to sharing them with everyone in the room. I guess you could almost say it's God being like: "Duh Hannah, don't be afraid! You want to share my love? Share it! Don't be a slacker! You think you want to back off and just bring it along gently? Well, think again, you're going to do it my way."
Needless to say, cleaning the bathroom is very cathartic. I went in half-way through after scrubbing and getting super asphyxiated by bleach, soap, and pine-sol. But man, between cleaning and listening to teachings form Solid Rock. It's amazing what a few hours can do. I went in, the floors basically black, the tile orange and black, toilet super cruddy. It looked beyond hopeless. But, never fear! Nothing an aggressive cleaning can't remedy!
The other thing is that I'm not mad at Lacy anymore. They might call her The Criminal, but really? she's just a 6 month old puppy, learning the ropes of society.
I guess I can also be thankful that it was the little things that she attacked (and even the shirt... it's replaceable). All the rest of my belongings are still safe and untouched by puppy jaws. :) Just a reminder that I now, more than ever, need to keep my door shut, and my stuff together so that there is no opportunity left open for anything like this (or worse) to happen again.
Also, I just want to add that it's been attempting to rain with thunder and intense lightening for the duration of me writing this. I do count the seconds each time there's a flash to see how far away the storm is from us (it's about 10 miles, if seconds per mile is correct).
Also, the most adorable thing ever is when Jim calls the cats. He calls their names and then meows.
>^..^<
As for the rest of my day, after getting up and preparing myself to clean the bathroom, Jim and I went out to investigate the local gym. It's locked from the outside, so apparently one must get a membership on a weekday :P Then we went down to the pool. It's super nice. Either way, Jim said that they'd be willing to pay for pool or gym membership for me and Jan this summer because I'm super active and encouraging to do stuff with Jan. So we opted for the pool because it's cool and swimming is always fun in the summer. We can also always go out on bike rides on the Wabash Trace trail, and walks around town. Neither happened with us today, but there's always tomorrow. :) The BBQ with family has been postponed til tomorrow evening as we're still super busy with packing and Nancy's deck was getting re-stained today.
Rain is exciting. Lightning intimidating. Thunder is ominous and rattles everything in the house.
I kinda like it. :) kinda makes God feel more present somehow.
Yesterday I'd taken to listening to Solid Rock podcasts while cleaning the kitchen on my ipod. I used it in my ipod arm-band so that I wouldn't weird Jan and Jim out with the teachings I was listening to. I mean, I guess everyone assumes 20-somethings listen to pop music while cleaning, yeah? So, today I opted for using the awesome speaker system my way-cool friends, Kim and Jeni got me for my graduation because I was in the bathroom and could shut the door. Plus, without the arm-band, I have more motility of my head/arms, haha.
I've been doing my best to keep Lacy out of my room. I'm of the belief that she used to use the rug in there for a potty spot when people didn't notice she needed to go outside because the first night I was here, it smelled incredibly and overwhelmingly like dog urine. Rug removed, but her habit remains. Thankfully, nothing like that has happened yet, but she started to wander back in that side room. I didn't want her confiscating anything, but apparently, I wasn't on top of it enough.
Death to my left black Old Navy flip flop and the necessary connection to my ipod arm-band. Right about the same time I found this out, I realized I'd gotten bleach on my favorite TWLOHA shirt.
I was super frustrated.
It was almost like I was super mad that after all this time, it seemed like everything had gone pretty much alright. But now, the fury of Hannah was to be unleashed.
No. Not that. Seriously. That's ridiculous. The shirt was old, and I knew there was a possibility of it getting dirty or bleached. The flip-flop was also old, and worth only a few dollars. Same with the arm-band. I got it on ebay for under $5 thanks to my thriftiness.
My next thought was to God. Asking for grace. Patience. Especially towards Lacy. I could see myself hating her for the whole rest of the summer. Over what? Her being a 6 month old puppy and chewing up a plastic flip-flop? *sigh*
I forced myself to 1) eat something, 2) take a deep breath, and 3) keep cleaning the bathroom.
I was listening to the podcast on the story of Jesus, Part 5, "Demons, Pigs, and You" taught by Mike Erre. I'd already heard it at least twice, considering I was able to be there for the teaching, and I listened to it again when I was back at OSU. In it, towards the end, he asks us to find the 3x5 cards placed around the sanctuary, write "God has" at the top, and then list what God has done for us in our lives. Redeemed, Forgiven, Loved, Graceful... endless amounts of things could be written.
It made me think, made me realize how much I'd started to think about myself. Me. My trip to Iowa. This whole thing had been about me. How I could benefit. How I could help people. I'd started back up with my Bible study and was planning with full hope to go to church on Sunday, shouldn't God give me things? A boyfriend, or at least some friends, perhaps? Something... anything? Me, me, me. I was helping Jan and Jim, yes, but I was so involved with myself.
Between realizing that "yeah, it was just a stupid plastic flip flop" and "yeah that arm-band was awesome, but you probably won't use it that much while you're here anyway, it's too hot to run with anyway" and "give her grace, she's just a puppy," was completely mind-blowing.
Being out here is different. Not everyone has a cell phone. Not everyone has an ipod, much less even know what one is. Not everyone has a laptop, or even a computer, much less one with good internet access. Even fewer people have all of the above. I never really think about how fortunate of a place I come from. Yes, I might be a low-middle class college student, swimming in student loans, but I also hold a degree (well... for technicalities sake, almost), I have a laptop, internet, an ipod, a speaker system for my ipod, a cellphone, nice clothes, a car back at home. I have a lot. Way more than I could ever be thankful for.
I've started to miss the simple.
iPod arm band? Awesome, yes, but really? I should be spending my time with family. I'm here with Jan and Jim to do just that: be there with them. Why should I be like those stupid teen-agers on those tv shows and in those movies who are absorbed into their texting and solitary tunes.
It's also a wake-up call. I need to be fearless about sharing my love for Jesus. I'm surrounded here by family, some of which are mormons, others, non-believers, others clueless about anything. It makes me sad. But I shouldn't be afraid. It's almost like God let Lacy chew up my arm-band so that I wouldn't be afraid to listen to the teachings from Solid Rock to myself. If I want to hear them, I either need a pocket, or an open potential to sharing them with everyone in the room. I guess you could almost say it's God being like: "Duh Hannah, don't be afraid! You want to share my love? Share it! Don't be a slacker! You think you want to back off and just bring it along gently? Well, think again, you're going to do it my way."
Needless to say, cleaning the bathroom is very cathartic. I went in half-way through after scrubbing and getting super asphyxiated by bleach, soap, and pine-sol. But man, between cleaning and listening to teachings form Solid Rock. It's amazing what a few hours can do. I went in, the floors basically black, the tile orange and black, toilet super cruddy. It looked beyond hopeless. But, never fear! Nothing an aggressive cleaning can't remedy!
The other thing is that I'm not mad at Lacy anymore. They might call her The Criminal, but really? she's just a 6 month old puppy, learning the ropes of society.
I guess I can also be thankful that it was the little things that she attacked (and even the shirt... it's replaceable). All the rest of my belongings are still safe and untouched by puppy jaws. :) Just a reminder that I now, more than ever, need to keep my door shut, and my stuff together so that there is no opportunity left open for anything like this (or worse) to happen again.
Also, I just want to add that it's been attempting to rain with thunder and intense lightening for the duration of me writing this. I do count the seconds each time there's a flash to see how far away the storm is from us (it's about 10 miles, if seconds per mile is correct).
Also, the most adorable thing ever is when Jim calls the cats. He calls their names and then meows.
>^..^<
As for the rest of my day, after getting up and preparing myself to clean the bathroom, Jim and I went out to investigate the local gym. It's locked from the outside, so apparently one must get a membership on a weekday :P Then we went down to the pool. It's super nice. Either way, Jim said that they'd be willing to pay for pool or gym membership for me and Jan this summer because I'm super active and encouraging to do stuff with Jan. So we opted for the pool because it's cool and swimming is always fun in the summer. We can also always go out on bike rides on the Wabash Trace trail, and walks around town. Neither happened with us today, but there's always tomorrow. :) The BBQ with family has been postponed til tomorrow evening as we're still super busy with packing and Nancy's deck was getting re-stained today.
Rain is exciting. Lightning intimidating. Thunder is ominous and rattles everything in the house.
I kinda like it. :) kinda makes God feel more present somehow.
bathroom before
bathroom after
(lighting is the same in both pictures... yes, the colors actually changed!!! talk about rewarding!)
tub before
tub after
floor before
floor after
(yes, it's a completely different color)
toilet area before
toilet after
check and check
6.18.2010
Friday morning
Last night I got a text from Kenzie. It was super encouraging. As much as I've texted or called a few people, it's still not enough. I might not have a whole lot to say, but I get pretty sad knowing that just a week ago I had 50 other girls around me at all times. Now I'm often alone in what I do. Jim is usually busy with his computer business or organizing more things for the move, and Jan is here and about, usually absorbed in a book on goats or watching the latest episode of her favorite show. Not bad things, of course, but even yesterday just biking around down was fun, but slightly discouraging because I was all by myself for over four hours. What I wouldn't do to have someone to bum around town with who was at least somewhere around my age and wouldn't mind doing weird, stupid, and silly things.
Anyway, this text from Kenzie was about how she was praying for me. It was really encouraging, and it made me realize that all the preparation I had gone through for the trip, I'd pretty much forgotten about when I got here. I just focused on not overstepping and being weird when I got here. You know, all the pleases and thankyous in their right place as I really am a guest of Jan and Jim.
But after I got the text from Kenzie I remembered that I had brought my Bible and some study books to go through. This one in particular, I've always found it (weird as it sounds) to fit perfectly with my life, no matter what I'm doing. It always matches up exactly. It's so weird. But super awesome. I pulled it out my suitcase. The next one was about accepting God's call in our life. Wow, talk about true. It was super encouraging, and made me rethink how I am going about this adventure in Iowa, and how I should go about things from here on out. God is amazing. It's seriously incredible. I love it.
I'm super excited to go to church on Sunday. Hopefully everything will go well. :) Sunday can't come soon enough!!!
This morning when I opened my computer, I got an email from Cory. The title of the email? "An awesome, inappropriately over-the-top gift!!!" the message itself was quite hilarious, and the gift was music. Need I say more? Yeah, probably. I love music. It's one of my favorite things ever. 'Soundtrack of my life' is not even a question, it's a definite given. Yes, I will say that it's some more country, but I'm not opposed to it. I've always said that I'm not against it, but more that I'm not super into it. In the last year I've gotten more okay with it, which is interesting. Some of you might be screaming "noooOOOOoooooo" right now, but you can just get over it. Others of you might be shouting cheers of joy (haha, Danielle ;) ). I'm actually really excited to get all this music, and I will admit that I had been contemplating getting some of my own volition. But it's even more special to have received it from a good friend. I'm in the process of downloading all the files as I type this. It will soon join my iTunes collection, and after that, my black-hole ipod so that I can play it on my bomb-dig sony speakers.
Ha, just saying that makes me realize how much my friends and family have realized I love music. For graduation, what did I get? A 120GB iPod, a really awesome Sony speaker system just for my ipod, and now, more music!!! What else could a music addict ask for?
I was going to go around town this morning to go downtown to check out some of the shops and maybe get more applications because mornings are usually the best time for that kind of thing. My alarm went off this morning and I rolled over thinking "you have got to be kidding me" and decided at that moment that I could continue fighting with my alarm for the next 4 hours, or just let myself sleep. I opted for the latter. Getting up knowing I missed out on that was a bummer, but it's still not too late, and there's always tomorrow, so I'm not super worried about it. I still need to take back my applications to the other places I got some from yesterday.
I'm going to try to take some pics of the downtown area for you guys. It's super cute!! Also coming will be pictures of the pets. Madeline has really warmed up to me. I love her, she's adorable. Dusty still isn't too sure of me and likes to keep his (her?) ...it's distance (haha). Lexx knows who I am, sometimes when I first wake up, or walk in the front door after being gone for awhile he'll give me a warning bark until I talk to him, and he remembers who I am. Lacy, not so much. She's still unsure who I am most of the time, unless we're out for a run, or lounging on the couch for a long time. She consistently forgets who I am, but it's ok. I'm intruding on her little puppy-territory, and I'm completely new blood to her, so it's only natural that she'd think it weird that I'm not only still here, but around at all.
In the next day or so, I think Jan might be taking me out and around in the Saturn. Why? It's a manual. Ever since Scooter took me out in his little Toyota behind the LDS church, I loved it, but never got the chance to learn again. Well, now I have to learn because the Saturn is the car that I will be driving. I'm actually kinda excited about it, but a little nervous at the same time. Thankfully there aren't many stop signs and all the roads are straight and there really aren't any hills in town.
Anyway, this text from Kenzie was about how she was praying for me. It was really encouraging, and it made me realize that all the preparation I had gone through for the trip, I'd pretty much forgotten about when I got here. I just focused on not overstepping and being weird when I got here. You know, all the pleases and thankyous in their right place as I really am a guest of Jan and Jim.
But after I got the text from Kenzie I remembered that I had brought my Bible and some study books to go through. This one in particular, I've always found it (weird as it sounds) to fit perfectly with my life, no matter what I'm doing. It always matches up exactly. It's so weird. But super awesome. I pulled it out my suitcase. The next one was about accepting God's call in our life. Wow, talk about true. It was super encouraging, and made me rethink how I am going about this adventure in Iowa, and how I should go about things from here on out. God is amazing. It's seriously incredible. I love it.
I'm super excited to go to church on Sunday. Hopefully everything will go well. :) Sunday can't come soon enough!!!
This morning when I opened my computer, I got an email from Cory. The title of the email? "An awesome, inappropriately over-the-top gift!!!" the message itself was quite hilarious, and the gift was music. Need I say more? Yeah, probably. I love music. It's one of my favorite things ever. 'Soundtrack of my life' is not even a question, it's a definite given. Yes, I will say that it's some more country, but I'm not opposed to it. I've always said that I'm not against it, but more that I'm not super into it. In the last year I've gotten more okay with it, which is interesting. Some of you might be screaming "noooOOOOoooooo" right now, but you can just get over it. Others of you might be shouting cheers of joy (haha, Danielle ;) ). I'm actually really excited to get all this music, and I will admit that I had been contemplating getting some of my own volition. But it's even more special to have received it from a good friend. I'm in the process of downloading all the files as I type this. It will soon join my iTunes collection, and after that, my black-hole ipod so that I can play it on my bomb-dig sony speakers.
Ha, just saying that makes me realize how much my friends and family have realized I love music. For graduation, what did I get? A 120GB iPod, a really awesome Sony speaker system just for my ipod, and now, more music!!! What else could a music addict ask for?
I was going to go around town this morning to go downtown to check out some of the shops and maybe get more applications because mornings are usually the best time for that kind of thing. My alarm went off this morning and I rolled over thinking "you have got to be kidding me" and decided at that moment that I could continue fighting with my alarm for the next 4 hours, or just let myself sleep. I opted for the latter. Getting up knowing I missed out on that was a bummer, but it's still not too late, and there's always tomorrow, so I'm not super worried about it. I still need to take back my applications to the other places I got some from yesterday.
I'm going to try to take some pics of the downtown area for you guys. It's super cute!! Also coming will be pictures of the pets. Madeline has really warmed up to me. I love her, she's adorable. Dusty still isn't too sure of me and likes to keep his (her?) ...it's distance (haha). Lexx knows who I am, sometimes when I first wake up, or walk in the front door after being gone for awhile he'll give me a warning bark until I talk to him, and he remembers who I am. Lacy, not so much. She's still unsure who I am most of the time, unless we're out for a run, or lounging on the couch for a long time. She consistently forgets who I am, but it's ok. I'm intruding on her little puppy-territory, and I'm completely new blood to her, so it's only natural that she'd think it weird that I'm not only still here, but around at all.
In the next day or so, I think Jan might be taking me out and around in the Saturn. Why? It's a manual. Ever since Scooter took me out in his little Toyota behind the LDS church, I loved it, but never got the chance to learn again. Well, now I have to learn because the Saturn is the car that I will be driving. I'm actually kinda excited about it, but a little nervous at the same time. Thankfully there aren't many stop signs and all the roads are straight and there really aren't any hills in town.
6.16.2010
first real day in Shenandoah
I woke up this morning at what I think was 7something to the sun shining in my room (I managed to not close the blinds last night, but that's not really an issue), but that was the time on my iPod. Then I woke up again later to Jim knocking on my door. I managed to struggle out a "mmyeah?" and he just said he wanted me to not sleep the day away considering we're going to this farmer's thing at dark-thirty in the morning tomorrow because farmers are insane and sleep only when it's dark outside. I looked at my iPod. 10. Meh, not too bad. Then looked at my phone: noon. Oh crap, time change.
Oh yeah, you know how in the South everyone drinks sweet tea, and in Germany it's beer? Well, I don't know about the midwest, but at this house, they drink coffee. The kitchen sink leaks out the pipes, and well, it takes too much effort to empty buckets, so why not just brew coffee all the time? Seems ideal to me. Their normal coffee pot broke awhile back, so Jim perfected the art of cold-brew coffee. Which is where you stick the grounds in a pitcher of water and just leave it there for hours and then strain the beautifully strong drink into canning jars for your enjoyment. So taking room temperature coffee, 2% milk (yes! they love real food here!!! we must be related or something...), and some form of artificial sweetner (that will probably melt my brain at the rate of how much coffee I've been having), I can't really say that I mind. Also? My typing speed is up by like 5000x because of all the caffeine I've consumed without real food. heh... Lunch consisted of beautifully bbq'd pork loins and grapes. And more coffee, of course.
Jan and I are going to go out on our bikes soonish to go look around town. I would like to go over to the Walmart at some point to get some things like mosquito repellant (got the first hit last night).
It's actually not as humid as I was expecting. Perhaps this is because I'm used to Mississippi, and it's crazy humid down there. The weather has actually been fairly pleasant so far. Warm, yes, humid, a bit, but with a gentle breeze. I will admit that the sunlight is more intense here than it is in Oregon. This might be because of the added moisture content constantly in the air making it like a greenhouse, or just the fact that we are farther south in the world and the angle of the sun is more direct than that in Oregon.
Lacking a surge-protector as of now, I've decided to only leave things plugged in while I'm awake and home. I'm super not into power surges on my electronics (because of the extreme thunderstorms they get in the area). Especially my computer or speaker system. Which, btw, is BEYOND awesome. I love it. I listened to some music last night, and right now I have some Nora Jones gently playing in the background. Also, because there are two canines and two felines roaming about (especially the little criminal), I've decided to mostly keep my stuff together and up high if at all possible. Just so that there is no question about my stuff getting confiscated or tasted.
I showered, which was nice to finally do. I have some rather intimidating looking blood-blisters from carrying around my black duffle all of yesterday. My back is incredibly sore. The bed is comfortable, so it's obviously not that. I think it was just all the packing and lifting and moving I've been doing for the last week. Plus sitting in an airplane all day is never the best on your mental sanity or your body. Plus, my duffle weighed like 30lbs and my violin is around 20 with all the stuff I have in the case right now (t-shirts for padding and books because they wouldn't fit anywhere else).
You know you're in the Midwest when grandma drives a big fancy pick-up truck, kids drive beaters and blast country (often trucks), everyone walks everywhere or rides coaster bikes, giant semi's loaded with corn are headed to the ethanol plant, bugs are weird and everywhere, and no one locks anything -- ever. It's quite the culture difference. I guess it's a good thing that I planned on it being different and readied myself for a change.
One could say like it's almost a midwest version of the Peace Corps. Kinda in a home-stay way. Good thing I'm not offended by dogs, insects, or dirt. :)
Oh yeah, you know how in the South everyone drinks sweet tea, and in Germany it's beer? Well, I don't know about the midwest, but at this house, they drink coffee. The kitchen sink leaks out the pipes, and well, it takes too much effort to empty buckets, so why not just brew coffee all the time? Seems ideal to me. Their normal coffee pot broke awhile back, so Jim perfected the art of cold-brew coffee. Which is where you stick the grounds in a pitcher of water and just leave it there for hours and then strain the beautifully strong drink into canning jars for your enjoyment. So taking room temperature coffee, 2% milk (yes! they love real food here!!! we must be related or something...), and some form of artificial sweetner (that will probably melt my brain at the rate of how much coffee I've been having), I can't really say that I mind. Also? My typing speed is up by like 5000x because of all the caffeine I've consumed without real food. heh... Lunch consisted of beautifully bbq'd pork loins and grapes. And more coffee, of course.
Jan and I are going to go out on our bikes soonish to go look around town. I would like to go over to the Walmart at some point to get some things like mosquito repellant (got the first hit last night).
It's actually not as humid as I was expecting. Perhaps this is because I'm used to Mississippi, and it's crazy humid down there. The weather has actually been fairly pleasant so far. Warm, yes, humid, a bit, but with a gentle breeze. I will admit that the sunlight is more intense here than it is in Oregon. This might be because of the added moisture content constantly in the air making it like a greenhouse, or just the fact that we are farther south in the world and the angle of the sun is more direct than that in Oregon.
Lacking a surge-protector as of now, I've decided to only leave things plugged in while I'm awake and home. I'm super not into power surges on my electronics (because of the extreme thunderstorms they get in the area). Especially my computer or speaker system. Which, btw, is BEYOND awesome. I love it. I listened to some music last night, and right now I have some Nora Jones gently playing in the background. Also, because there are two canines and two felines roaming about (especially the little criminal), I've decided to mostly keep my stuff together and up high if at all possible. Just so that there is no question about my stuff getting confiscated or tasted.
I showered, which was nice to finally do. I have some rather intimidating looking blood-blisters from carrying around my black duffle all of yesterday. My back is incredibly sore. The bed is comfortable, so it's obviously not that. I think it was just all the packing and lifting and moving I've been doing for the last week. Plus sitting in an airplane all day is never the best on your mental sanity or your body. Plus, my duffle weighed like 30lbs and my violin is around 20 with all the stuff I have in the case right now (t-shirts for padding and books because they wouldn't fit anywhere else).
You know you're in the Midwest when grandma drives a big fancy pick-up truck, kids drive beaters and blast country (often trucks), everyone walks everywhere or rides coaster bikes, giant semi's loaded with corn are headed to the ethanol plant, bugs are weird and everywhere, and no one locks anything -- ever. It's quite the culture difference. I guess it's a good thing that I planned on it being different and readied myself for a change.
One could say like it's almost a midwest version of the Peace Corps. Kinda in a home-stay way. Good thing I'm not offended by dogs, insects, or dirt. :)
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