of epic an all-nighter

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

of airplanes and shooting stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of school bashes and missing Oregon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yup, I miss it.

I thought I might.

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

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

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

of sandwich artistry and evening adventures across state lines

Got up today around... isn't important. I got up today and started in on my homework. Did some reading and watched a video for about an hour before getting ready and heading to work for my second day.

Now, I can officially say, I am a sandwich artist.

First thing, they put me on veggies. So I put all the veggies everyone requested on their sandwiches and slathered on the mayo... and man, people like they're mayo. It's disgusting. It kinda reminds me of the ladies in the back of McDonald's back in Oregon, how they have to keep everything stocked, first in-first out for everything (typical), and it was kinda funny because they thought they were going to have to teach me everything, but it's pretty basic. First in, first out, keep everything stocked, keep your ears open for the hard-to-hear customers, and the toaster oven, and the microwave, and stay out of peoples way, and tell the person at the register what people ordered, especially if it's extra meat or cheese, welcome everyone who walks in the door, learn the different kinds of sauces, figure out how to assemble salads, put sides of onion and sauces together for people.

Then after awhile, it started dying down, so Donna showed me how to work the first half of the line where you select the respective kind of bread, cut the bread, and assemble the sandwich based on the desired kinds of meats and cheeses, and then use the microwave or toaster if they so desire. It was kinda stressful, but I just took it as it went and tried to be kind to the customers and just let them know I was still learning the ropes of everything, and they, for the most part (except for two customers, one who was this old lady who wanted double meat and was super picky and impatient and I happened to be the only one working at the time, the other was this Indian dude, and I couldn't understand a thing he was saying, but he wanted no meat... or something like that, lol), were pretty good about being kind and patient (although, I will have to say that I was pretty quick, and my manager kept being surprised with my work, and how fast I was catching on to everything, and how I would ask to do other stuff... that's, well, normal, like sweeping and checking the lobby, lol).

Got home and watched part of Black Hawk Down... man, I still need to finish that, and then went to worship practice. Josh and I kinda just poked around on our instruments, made faces at each other, and joked around while the other ladies were trying to figure out the proper keys and timing to some of the pieces that were pretty straight forward for us, so we were kinda bored.

After worship, Josh mentioned that they were still going to this place called Blue that had been mentioned on Sunday, I said I was down, even though I didn't really know what it was... lol, then he realized he'd forgotten to save my number to his phone, so I called him, and we were both sitting in our cars, watching each other, laughing at me, who was having the worlds hardest time getting my sunglasses on and to stay on my face and I mentioned how I was off to the library to work on homework (oh-the-joy), and you know, such a thrilling thing, then he said that if I was interested, he had some things around the area that we could do after I was done. So I shot him a text after I was done at the library and headed home. We were going to go up to Bellvue, Nebraska, but ended up hitting up the BK Lounge (good old McD Lounge was closed for construction... the nerve), then we headed south for Tarkio, Missouri. I kept thinking he was saying "turkey" or "Tokyo" but no, Tarkio. Ridiculous name for a city, but anyway. He told me a few of his crazy stories from when he was in high school and before he was a Christian, not unlike corn-boarding, but a bit more extreme, but he'd repaid all his debts; but it was sad, as much as he want's to turn around and help the community of Shenandoah, he made such a negative name for himself back then that it's kinda stuck that way, even though he's changed a lot since then.

They have the most amazing amount of windmills there!!! It's insane. We drove up next to one and I got to stand under it. It was turning, and it was awesome. So cool. So huge, and the stars were out... yeah, it was awesome. Then we went on into Tarkio itself. Every street in that town, is named for what's on it. College? Yeah, that's the super creepy old Tarkio College that used to be a legitimate school, then got run down and then was reused as a mental hospital, and now there's just nothing but beautiful, but creepy old buildings - especially at night. It's super dark. Apparently they have a super intense library that's still full of books. So cool, but also soo sad. Park street had a park, and we hung out there for awhile after going down Main street a bit and picked up some sodas and snacks at a store. Josh stuck his finger in the radiator fluid to check if it had been leaking... it was hot. Really hot. I felt bad. But um, yeah, not such a good idea.

On the way back to Shenandoah, he talked about driving on Route 66, because, you know, everyone wants to do that, right? He was hoping to find that... city from Cars, Radiator Springs, yeah? Haha... yeah, but I said something about how he might not want to go there because it's probably too hot anyway. awkward. hilarious. i'm so mean sometimes... Anyway, he said that Route 66 was actually really boring and super horrible; it was full of potholes and at times the pavement would drop away and you'd be driving on gravel for miles on end of boring Nebraska prairie. Then he explained some to me about Blue and the historic area of Omaha along the Missouri River, and some things he did after he became a Christian and was at a ministry program.

It was really fun to hang out and see a bit more of the area. Goodness only knows I would have spent that time just plunking around on my computer, so it was awesome to get out of the farmhouse and hang out with someone.

of work, church, and chicks

Today... today, today, today, today. What did I do? Lol, goodness.

Got up, checked on the garden a bit - the plants really need to be put on something like a trellis of some sort. It's pathetic, and I'm not above thinking that some of the plants have some sort of ...something. Plus, the rain we get is just so torrential that it blasts the top soil off everywhere, and it's all flown all over everything and moved about, it's quite weird (so is this sentence).

After that, I checked up on the chicks and went back up to my room to clean it up a bit (it's been demolished again since), then showered (so far that water bottle barrier has worked with Lacy), and got ready for work. Work. Weird. What is also weird is that I felt like I did when going to class... I rushed around my room getting ready with enough time, but I was so distracted by the world that I was rushing out the door with just enough time to squeak in the door early.

Got there, and was kinda nervous about it. I've had so many first days of work that I've been humiliated to the worlds end and back. But I walked in the door and three ladies were standing in a back corner, smiling and waving me back to the employee door. It was kinda cute. Then my manager looked at me, said something about me being super small and skinny and needing a smaller shirt than they had available for me, passed me my work shirts, apron, visor, and employee handbook. Then the set me to work slicing green peppers, onions (goodness, it was horrible! they are so potent. I felt like Julia Child, in tears, but dramatically slicing onions), then doing dishes, and then cutting more cucumbers and assembling properly weighed teriyaki chicken portions.

They were all super surprised at how well I was working and learning everything and not asking mindless questions. They kept noting "how the manager actually hired someone had a brain!" They couldn't get enough of how good of a worker I was. I didn't really get it, I mean, I just did what they wanted. It was super basic, and everything, although much less organized and also smaller than the McDonald's I used to work at, I was still pretty new to the whole thing. But it wasn't too bad. Just don't cut myself, and do what they tell me to do. Basic stuff, really. But apparently they get a bunch of bums or something... no idea. Regardless, I'm not sure if it's something special for this place, or that it was my first time, or what, but I got a complementary sandwich, which, I got to assemble myself.

I am a sandwich artist.

Well, okay, not quite just yet. They don't officially have me on that part of the store yet, as I was just doing prep stuff in the back, but I'm sure I'll be able to move up in rank soon enough. Haha...

After work, I ate my sandwich, read a bit for my class (goodness only knows I have to the other side of the world and back left to read), watched part of the new Sherlock Holmes movie (so good), and then took a nap. We were going to the Fremont County fair as the a/c went out around noon today, and the only place that has window units in stock is in Nebraska City, which is just past Sidney, which is where the fair is. But as it turned out, Jim ended up needing to work a computer job down in Farragut, and Jan took off for the pool (good choice), and the a/c place would only be open til five, which didn't leave enough time for everyone to come back to a central location and head out. So, that was a wash. But I ended up being able to play at church again tonight. I biked there because... I guess because I thought I would have to when I was heading downstairs, but when I got outside, both cars were home, but I wanted to go out on my bike anyway. It was hot out, but I didn't really mind. Jan came to church tonight :) She really loved the music, and I'm really glad. She stayed through the rest of the service and said that she'd like to come again.

Josh longboarded to church in skinny jeans... like girl-ish skinny jeans.
that's all.


After church, I biked home because I had biked there and all, then checked on the chicks. They're basically growing by the minute. It's crazy. Every time I go in there, they're bigger. They need a new coop soooooon. Gave the more food because they've been eating like mad-birds again. Also refilled the smaller waterer. Jim gave them some fresh grass clipping to play around in. They've also been sleeping a lot. I go in there and they're all in this massive chick-pile of sleepyness. It's pretty much adorable.

Made an epic Mexican-ish salad for dinner. Fantastic. Now to write one of my papers before heading to bed.

Was asked to come into work tomorrow at 12. That's all I know. Um... yeah. lol. I'm kinda excited about it. Gives me something to do and a way to get out of the house without spending money and all that. Plus, the ladies I worked with today were super fun and friendly.

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.

welcome packet

So I got my welcome packet. I won't lie. I looked for it several times a day. I'm excited, ok?

There's really, actually, not all that much to say about Shenandoah. But also? I'm getting the feeling they call it "Shen" which is adorable, but at the same time I'm afraid to call it that because who knows what the locals call it, lol.

Part of me wonders if this whole experience will be anything like Drew from Elizabethtown. Everyone knows who I am. Or will it be like no one cares and I'm just some random freak from out of town? No idea.

5,000 people and a 24 hour Wal-Mart. I know where I'll be hanging out, haha.

The Official Visitor's Guide to Shenandoah Iowa offers a whole directory to businesses in the area. So excited. Hopefully I'll actually call some of them Thursday. I would say today, but the key personnel are usually in during the morning hours, and it's nearing closing as it's what, 4pm there by now?

I also still need to talk with someone about which church I should be pursuing.

I am  so excited!!!

job...?

I'm switching between ultimate stress, fear, and excitement about the whole thing. I can't really do much about much right now in regards to the whole thing. I have a lovely pile of homework to accomplish tonight. Mostly referring to this stupid paper I have to write and an exam that is at 8am tomorrow (did he really post the 2010 key and think he posted the 2009 key??! hmm...).

I'm hoping to try to call some businesses in town tomorrow if time allows. *keeps fingers crossed* hope I'll remember to do so BEFORE 3pm, otherwise the best time to do so might be Tuesday morning. Ridiculous time difference, lol. Also praying hard that I can actually get a good job: one in agriculture, perhaps or even in a cafe or coffee shop (is there really only one?!).

I'm so stoked to paint and decorate my room! I'm not positive my budget, and I'm ok with only working with a little. But still... should I go modern? insane? country? other...?