of road tripping

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bed.

of normalcy and Omaha adventures

Today I got up and really hit into my homework before getting ready and going to work. Four hour shift. I'm moving up in the world. Haha. While I was there, Donna called me to the back saying how she really liked my work ethic. I'm fast, a quick learner, and I retain stuff, and I'm not stupid about things, and I'm energetic with the other employees and happy and polite with the customers. She wants to start giving me closing shifts, and then eventually opening shifts, and more hours over all. Sweet.

Got home, finished watching Black Hawk Down while eating lunch and then attacked homework. It took me longer than I was hoping, but it's alright. I got that done, showered, cleaned my room, and got ready to go out with peoples from church to go up to Omaha. ETA: 7:30pm. Happy hour at Blue starts at 10... or so we thought. Once we got there, at 9:30, we found out that it didn't start until 10:30, but they let us go with it anyway, which was awesome. We just had to wait about half an hour or so. It was such a hip, trendy, and urban place. Everyone was super tricked out and dressed up. Stilettos up the wall. It was intense. But I kinda liked it. It was fun. There is a place upstairs called Red (same restaurant, obviously, lol), but it's the bar and night club. We stayed down in Blue and ate outside. Needless to say, it was quite the experience - not to mention lots of fun.

It was me, Josh, Josh's mom, and Mandie, a girl from chruch. Josh was his normal skater self, his mom was sweet, and definitely his mother (lol), and Mandie is this super sweet, super bubbly and giggly girl. She kept whipping out her batman mask (it's actually for kids halloween costumes), and looking at people with it on while we were driving up to Omaha. Slightly ridiculous, but awesome none the less.

On our way to Omaha, we went through Emerson and then went over this old bridge that goes over the Missouri river to get to Omaha through the southeastern route through Bellevue. We passed by the Bellevue Masters Commission, which is an Assemblies of God school of ministry that both Josh and Mandie attended. Blue is located down in the old town area of Omaha. The streets are the original brick cobblestone, and the buildings are super old and awesome looking.

Blue had AMAZING sushi. Thinking back on it, I think I've only actually had sushi twice or something like that, but regardless, I've never had any that was this good. It was awesome. Not to mention the good company and exciting atmosphere.

After our late dinner, we walked down to Dodge Park, where we walked along the water for a bit, and Josh boarded for a bit, then we kept going over down to the Missouri River and walked along the boardwalk for quite awhile. We walked for awhile, Josh boarded for a bit but walked with us for most of the way. Then we walked up onto the pedestrian bridge and walked most of the way across it. We chilled out there for awhile. It was so awesome. Everything on the bridge was massive, and it was swaying slightly with the wind. So. Tight.

Then Josh boarded back to the car, and we walked to where we were he was to pick us up. The street we stopped at was just outside this restaurant that had a live jazz band playing on the deck. It was fun. There may or may not have been an impromptu improvisational dance session by yours truly.

Then we made the drive back to Shenandoah. Josh played some more music, and we found out that we're both ridiculous music junkies. He even likes Moby and Massive Attack. I about flipped out. It was awesome. He played a ton of popular Christian music. I was impressed. Also, he has so much drive and passion for it. It was so awesome. I know so many Christians who are so mellow or luke-warm, or even cold towards Christian music, that it was almost like a breath of fresh air to notice that about him. No, more than that: he couldn't seem to get enough of christian music. I loved it. It made me realize that it really is good music, no matter what other people think about it - and I really shouldn't let other's negativity affect my love for it. Done: listening to more good Christian music now. Looking at Josh at first glance, one would probably not think he was super intense about God or Christian music. Such is the beauty of Jesus Followers. We may not dress as the "quintessential christian" but we are who we are because God has made us that way, and it's that part of us which allows us to be open to non-believers, and share our love and passion for Christ with them.

We're hoping to hang out again before he leaves for Minnesota on Sunday after church. His Fiero needs some work before he leaves so he's going to work on that a bit tomorrow night (he's a grease monkey). The bearings on the wheels are busting off because the engine he put in it has too much torque or something. Might go over to chill and help out or something, we'll see... :P

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 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.

of strobe lights and cannon fire... or something like that

Got up today, and it was ridiculously humid. I thought it was raining. But no. Just like, 80 degrees and super humid. At 6am. Talk about insane. But went on my run anyway. It was harder than it was a few days ago, considering everything I've been doing lately, but it was still good. Then I showered, read some in my book, ate some cereal and headed out to work outside. It was super hot already, and not even 8am. Jim and I put the pool together for the chickens. I seriously don't understand. I asked where he got the idea. He just said he wanted something to keep them in, and there are going to be ssooo many of them, and he wants to keep them safe and in something that's durable and that they can't get out of. How we're going to get IN is another challenge all in itself. I don't understand it at all. But all the same, I know he's sick of me questioning his motives, so I just left it alone. Maybe I can research something that would be less expensive and easier: ie: appliance boxes?

There is this SUPER intense storm outside right now. It's insane.

Then after working outside for hours, Jim said he wanted to put the lettuce mix down... erm, he wanted me to. But I said I was about to call it a day. Between the work I was doing, being on my knees for so long, and in the hot sun and everything, you just can't work much past noon before any sort of work outside is just out of any sort of sane question.

Finished my few rows after replanting the rows Robby had done yesterday afternoon as many of the plants were on their sides and sticking out into the aisles. Sad.

Then I showered (again), had lunch, took a nap (glorious, glorious sleep), and headed down to the library to work on my internship papers and send a TY note to Aunt Loraine. I ended up staying later than I thought I would. It's nice and cool there. The AC works soo well. It's not working super well at the house, but supposedly someone is coming to work on it tomorrow.

With the humidity calculated into the heat index, it was 120 today. Yeah. No joke. You step outside for half a second and you start sweating literally buckets. I've not sweated so much in my life, ever. It's insane. You can't drink enough to keep up with it.

After librarying it up, I didn't really have time eat anything before worship practice before Wednesday night church, so I hit up Maccas again for a smoothie. Sadly, they'd just run out of yogurt (didn't know they were actually that legit... figured they were more of a healthy excuse for a milkshake (which really, they are, but anyway) but apparently not).  So they offered me a blended coffee drink. Coffee? Um, YES please! Haha, when I was working out in the garden today, I realized that I've only had coffee 6 (now 7) times since I've been here. In the last 4 weeks, I've had coffee 7 times. How insane is that? Can you count that? I mean, of course, I have enough time on my hands to think about such things when I'm out in the garden all by myself for 3-7 hours planting tomatoes, but still. It's slightly ridiculous that I think and add up such things. Lol...

The power keeps dipping. I'm starting to wonder when it's actually going to go out. Got my handy-dandy LED flashlight out just for this potential. I was hoping (power dip) to read tonight before going to bed, but if the power goes out, I might just eat my mexican (power dip) salad and go to bed. Goodness knows I need the sleep anyway.

I'm trying to decide if I'll still go for a bike ride/run tomorrow if it's raining like this.... well, actually, if it's raining at all, there really is no sense to even get up in the morning as all (power dip) my work is outside, and with all this rain, it's going to be miserable tomorrow. Humid like mad, and thick, nasty, sticky clay mud.

Worship was good Erica (worship leader) was having trouble with her voice, which was sad. I kept hitting one of the songs in the wrong key. Felt pretty stupid for that. Stupid D#... Then, after the message, we split up into smaller groups to discuss introducing small groups to the church to help people connect together. Pastor Dan asked me to be a group leader. I was kinda surprised, but I also wasn't as nervous as I thought I might be. It went really well.

Then I hung around afterwards, talking to various people at the church (wednesday services are a smaller crowd than sunday), and hung out with the youth group and some of the younger kids. It was good talking to them, and I can kinda tell that they think I'm "cool" because I'm different, and from Oregon (which makes me exciting and exotic), and in college (even more exciting)... WOAH. INSANE thunder crash just now. Sounded like, a million garbage can lids just smashed into the driveway all at once. Rain is pelting down like there's no tomorrow.

God, protect us! ahhh!!! o.0

Towards the end of service, a storm started heading in (the same one that's still over us), and there was rumor that there was funnel clouds in the area and tornados to the east and west of us. Still not sure if those are just rumors. But thankfully, it's not been more than a severe thunderstorm.

Video'd my drive down Airport Rd. It's not much, and you can hardly see anything, but it's kinda the general idea of how it is. It hasn't let up at all in the last 2 hours. Wind. Rain. Thunder. Lightning. It's at moments like these when you know that God has to be real. (Huge thunder crash that made me jump). The flashes are pretty much constant.

If fireflies are God's glitter, then this thunderstorm is God's strobe lights. Maybe it's a rave, God style? Ha... kidding... :P

When I finally headed out to my car about an hour after church, I had to run through literally 8 inches of water rushing to the drains. It just wouldn't let up at all. I was soaked by the time I got in the car -- and I wasn't parked more than 50 yards from the church front door. IN.SANE. Once I got home (took forever as I couldn't go more than like, 20mph and still have relative visibility) I had to close the garage doors and pull all my stuff out of the car and run into the house. I looked like I'd taken a 20 minute shower in my clothes once I finally got in the house.

...and when I walked in the back door. Guess what. All the doors and windows were still open. Jim and Jan were in their living area watching a movie on Hulu. So I ran around the house, closing everything up because with all the wind, the rain was just streaming into the house. There was a good half inch of standing water just inside the back entryway. I'm serious here, intense storm.

Oh! and Jan came to church! She came because I was playing on the worship team and she wanted to hear me play, sadly she didn't get there in time for it because she'd wanted to take a cold shower, but she stayed for the rest of the service. I didn't see her til about a third of the way through the message, but I quickly jumped up and went over to sit by her for the rest of the message.

Going to the Garrison Coffee House tomorrow for coffee/dinner with Ashley and Tricia after worship practice at church. I'm super, super excited. :) Apparently the coffee house is a Christian place and is usually only open til the mid afternoon, but Thursday nights they have bands come play music in the early evening. So that should be fun, and I'm looking forward to our outing.

Ha, even if the power does go out, I'm not even sure if I will be able to sleep with how intense this strobe-light-and-cannon-fire storm is.

of bike rides, longboards, and aviator kid

So I must say, that I am sitting here, now laughing quietly to myself. I was, however, laughing a bit more out loud a few minutes ago. Why you might ask? I will tell you...

My day started out not unlike yesterday. Alarm hitting off at 5:45am and me deciding whether to attempt an exercise thing of sorts in my  room, go for another run (went for one yesterday, see), or go for a bike ride. The bike riding won, so I headed out. Wasn't too unlike yesterday, except there weren't any clouds. Just the standard midwestern haze along the horizon. The sun hadn't come up just yet. Once I got into town, I decided to hit up the Wabash Trace bike trail... at least for awhile anyway. Sounded like a nice enjoyable thing to do. When I was almost towards the trail, the sun started to arrive just above the horizon. It was beautiful. Not much was lit by it just yet, but it was the deepest orange-pink, and it was literally massive. Maybe the humidity, the smog, or the general concept that it's on the horizon is what makes it so big at sunrise and sunset (probably), but it's such an awesome thing that you basically never see in the Pacific Northwest (yeah, at the beach, but seriously, peoples, how often is it clear enough at the beach to actually see the sunset, lol). Went over the Nishnabotna River, across Hwy 59, and a bit farther to whatever 170th is... hwy? road? driveway? no idea... it was gravel (not that this fact helps anything). Anyway, I just looked it up on google maps and it says I apparently went around 12 miles. Did not know I went that far. Regardless, I really enjoyed my bike ride. Plus, as I was only gone for around an hour, I was still able to do some stuff before starting in on planting again.

Oh, and if you were like, seriously wondering where in the world I am:

There you go, now you're not in the dark about where I am, lol.

After my bike ride, I had some cereal and got ready to start planting more. Set up my handy-dandy ipod stereo again and was able to plug into some of the Solid Rock podcasts. Always awesome. Also, managed to get up to The Way event, so I listened to those again. Really awesome.

Then around 10 or so, Jim needed me to follow him into town with the Buick so he could drop off the Saturn at the glass repair shop because the windshield is miserable on that car and needed to be replaced. So after dropping off the Saturn, I drove Jim around to a few clients for his computer business of sorts to drop off and pick up some stuff before heading back home. Then when I got back home, I called Lydia. Her phone isn't working right, which is mega lame. :(

While I was on the phone with her, Lexx started barking, so I walked around from behind the garage to see what was up. Team Green drove up in a van... didn't know what it was until I saw the key, magic word on the van: Plumbing.

THE SINK!!!

I'm getting a real sink upstairs! I could not be more excited.

Out from the van pops your typical construction worker and a younger kid. I knew immediately he was checking me out - me with my sweat, caked dirt, work clothes, and all. Ridiculous kid, flaunting his intense aviators. I guessed he might be in high school no way to tell though, I mean, I look like a high schooler myself, so who am I do judge? lol... Then I got back to working and kinda forgot about it.

After awhile, Jim came back with Robby. He watched me work a bit before I was done for the day - I'd let Jim know before he got Robby that I was about to call it a day after finishing my current row of carefully planted and watered tomatoes.

Once I'd gone back inside, showered (somehow, this clay does not want to come off my arms. it's weird and kinda frustrating), and went back to my room to just chill before getting something for lunch and heading to town to go to the library to finish my grad school application. I already applied and got accepted to my program (agriculture education), but I'm technically still not in the graduate school of OSU, so I have to apply to that as well. All I need to do now is get some letters of recommendation and my transcript.

While I was bumming on my bed, reading a book, the house vibrated with a drill bit. The plumbers were back (haha, no no, they were installing something overhead, so no suggestive/retarded comments :P ). Meant I had to walk past them on the way downstairs, because they were working in the stairs because the mini bathroom is actually above the staircase. They were also working a bit in the kitchen too because of pipe connections and such. I could tell that apprentice plumber dude was still upchecking me out. Whatever.

I grabbed some food and headed back to my room to finish watching the last 48 minutes of Harry Potter 6. I realized, I hadn't seen it since last summer - in the theaters. And I was really cold, and didn't want to be watching it when I saw it, and I saw it with a total non-HP fan, so it was too long and depressing to say the least. But this time: this time, it was good. And I had to wonder why I was so weird about it when I first saw it: circumstances <--- that's all. Anyway, no more movie dates (w/guys) for me, that's all I can say, lol. They're just no bueno. BUT! this time, I loved it, and I kinda want to watch it again, but at the same time, I want to be done with watching movies for awhile. I'm soo into reading books right now, and I'm in the midst of like, 5 right now (hate it when that happens, actually), and I have at least 9 more waiting to be read on my shelf. So excited (like, you have no idea).

Then headed out to the library to return HP5 and HP6 before finishing my grad school app. Got it in! Happy about that, but now I have to work on the rest of everything.

Also? I'm kinda of the opinion that people out here don't know about Starfield, Telecast, or Phil (ridiculously-awesome) Wickham, and this, my friends, is a very upsetting fact. A fact that must be remedied soon (and very soon).

After the library I got a smoothie at McDonalds (apparently it's a new feature, and goodness, although it was sweet, it was goooood and just what I wanted... well, besides salad. I'd been craving salad like mad for the last few days, apparently I'm not getting enough veggies) and headed over to McComb park and read some more in my most recent fun book (book #3 of the summer so far). Then I played on the zip-line thing at the park before finding the worlds most awesome slide ever. it's not really a slide, and I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but it's almost flat and made up mostly of free spinning rods. Goodness, it's so awesome. It's like a rush, no joke. Then I went down like I was boarding. It made me really miss snowboarding. I went down it like that probably 10 times at least. Must have looked absolutely ridiculous to the neighbors, lol. So then, I got a sudden idea that I really wanted to get myself a longboard (nothing new, I might add). No sporting stores like that in town. Lame. So I headed to walmart to check out what they had. for $15 I could get myself a how-to-train-your-dragon themed 28" skateboard. Not really what I'd had in mind... but it's an option. How would I get it back to Oregon? Take the trucks off, of course. But I'm still not set on getting that one, I'm going to craigslist it up a bit and maybe see if I can look for one up in Omaha or something and tag along with someone.... it's a thought. I love longboards, and I wish I was more proficient. Not many people board around here at all, it's kinda sad. Food for thought, not doing anything major as of just yet.

After that adventure, I headed back to the farmhouse. I noticed Jan had picked up some salad makings, and it was around 6pm, and I'd been up since, well... for the last 12 hours, and I really can't wait til 8 or later for dinner as is the norm around here. I tried to decide between making myself a burrito (something I've been craving like mad because they don't have real mexican food here. Muchas Gracias date when I get back? Yes please, like right after I get back - thank goodness they're open 24hrs. But I also really wanted a salad. I opted for a taco-ish salad. Hot refried beans, salsa, ranch (no sour cream), avocado, lettuce, sweet corn, carrots (weird, but still on the crave list). So. Awesome.

Took some pics of the garden and such. Jim is currently out plowing. It's kinda still really hot, but anyway. Then I headed upstairs, walked into my room and set my stuff down and started pulling a few things from my backpack. Made sure that the dogs hadn't managed to wander upstairs and take off with one of my shoes and wondering why it's so ridiculously hot when we have air conditioning in this house, I walked in and out of my room. Looking down, I noticed a blue rubber bracelet. Thinking it must have been something Jan or Jim had left for me, as I was wearing two today (one, my orange Identity one from The Way event, and the other my new, black JSAW bracelet I got at church the other day... orange and black, perfect, no?), I picked it up. It's really plain, so I wonder if it must just be a misplaced rubber band from the plumbing guys? but why would they have rubber bands working with PVC pipes? Nope. There it is. Noticed the key thing. Wow. A phone number. Tricky, aviator kid. Haha, good one. Placed, I realized, directly in front, and in the middle of my door. Adorable.

This, my friends, is why I am laughing right now. I'm not super sure what to think about it, haha. So cute. Quite the smooth move. Still not positive this kid's not in high school, lol.

Anyway, now it's super hot in the house, and I'm sweating like mad, so I asked Jim why the air isn't on... apparently he just forgot. Um, anyway, Jan was super excited when she remembered too, so now the air's on, but it's still a million degrees in here.

of plants and evening bike rides

After doing homework, or attempting to do my homework, but actually in reality I did a lot of research on growing a garden and doing a CSA in Iowa and looking for other people doing the same in the Shenandoah area (nope, no one around).

Then I went to Walmart and got some envelopes to send my internship information back to Dr Velez every week.... which I still have yet to start sending anything. Really need to get on that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, around 9am, Jim and I are leaving to go talk to this one guy about the algae project. I'm supposed to dress nice. Sounds important, lol.

then I got home and all the plants were in the yard!!! Apparently the manager at Earl May Nursery thought that we gave him a pretty good bid for the lot of plants. I started sorting them by type, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, broccoli, eggplant, and then set about counting them. Found out we actually have cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and a few other plants besides what I originally thought. Awesome. Didn't get to finish counting them because Jan wanted to go get dinner. With the big purchase of all the plants, she didn't feel like cooking - plus, it was really hot in the house because Jim forgot to close it up and turn on the AC, but considering, it probably wasn't more than 80 degrees inside and out.

We went down to HyVee (they had me drive, lol) to the little deli to get these pork tenderloin sandwiches, but apparently they were completely sold out. So instead we went over to Godfather's Pizza and got the Ultimate Pizza combination thing. Hot stuff pizza, italian sausage pizza, and apple streusel pizza. Really good, and a lot of leftovers (yum).

Came back to the farmhouse and I did some reading for my summer class and when I got tired of swatting off mosquitos, I took off on my bike down towards the end of Airport road. Didn't mean to go that far, but I ended up going down the other way on Airport road and went all over Shenandoah. It was really nice out, and I had my bike lights, so I wasn't too worried about being out in the dark. Plus, there isn't really a thing that even remotely relates to traffic out here.

Rode through down town and passed the movie theater. It was packed out with high schoolers there to see the newest installment of the Twilight frenzy. A couple of boys were outside drinking energy drinks (because that's the cool thing to do when you're in high school, lol) and one yelled across the street "hey! do a wheelie!!!" another said to him "she's a girl, she's not going to do that, she probably can't," so I jumped a curb and actually got some major air off the other side. "WOAH!!!" "That was awesome!" "I toldja she could do it" hahah... it made me laugh and kinda happy.

I really, really miss social interaction with people my age (<--- I seriously can't say this enough!).

and it's only 11, but I'm peacing out to bed.

of algae, libraries, and plants

Talked with Jim last night about wanting to look over at the main part of Earl May Seed and Nursery, also Green Plains (the ethanol plant) while I'm here. He said he knows some of the people at both places and will look into getting me a potential tour of both. But at the same time I'm not giving up on contacting them myself.

Jim and a few other guys have been working on this project for years where they want to present it to the government and the head-honchos about how you can produce vast amounts of algae protein by utilizing the CO2 from the various large-operation plants around the nation, therefore cutting the carbon footprint to nearly non-existence. I understand their idea and it sounds not unlike some of the things some of the people in the classes I took at OSU want to see happen, but they don't exactly know how to go about it.

Anyway, Jim asked me if I'd be interested in doing a bit of work on it while I'm here, and I said I would be alright with doing some work on it. Jim called one of the guys this morning and it looks like they might even be able to pay me to work on assembling a presentation binder for their project. We'll see how it goes...

I'm currently at the library. I like it here. It's small (they have neither Hornblower or Master and Commander books... it's a royal shame. I might be able to get them from another branch though) and reminds me kinda of the old Hood River library. I'm sad that it's about to go under. Hopefully not for long though. But anyway, like the HR Library, they have a huge plan to renovate this library in the near future. I'm just hopeful that they'll be able to keep it up an running for longer than the HR library has been since the renovation.

Anyway, they have a few events every so often here at the library, and it just so happens that on July 22nd they're going to have a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon starting around 12pm and ending, goodness knows when. They'll have snacks and such and I can bring my own dinner if I want to stay for the whole thing (who wouldn't???). I'm considering going. Could be fun, and Jan might like it too. I'll bring it up later when I get back to the farmhouse.

Got up later than I planned... again. Think it's from the benadryl-coma I was in again last night because I had a few new bites that were really starting to bother me. I really need to get better about going to bed sooner too. It's just that it's so hot and light out until late these days, and then i want to stay up and call people or do stuff online, or read my books. But that aside, I just need to prioritize sleep a bit more I suppose.

After getting up, doing some more crunches and push-ups (I'm up to 50) and re-organizing my room, Jim and I went down to the house in town to clean up the backyard a bit more and then went over to the Earl May retail store in town and offered the guy $550 for all the rest of the vegetable and herb plants he had sitting out on sale (it's around 500 really nice plants. mostly tomatoes, but also various peppers, broccoli, eggplant, and sweet potatoes). The guy just said he'd work some numbers and get back to us in awhile. Then we went over to The Garage Sale Guy, which is this old building packed chock-full of random stuff. It's like a thrift store, but with endless amounts of stuff. It's actually kinda like living history because people just bring all of their stuff there. It was kinda funny, I found some shot glasses from the Portland Rose Festival and Gresham --- when does that happen in small-town, Iowa?

Thinking about bringing it up to Jan that I could streak her hair or highlight it or something. She'd actually brought it up to me and I guess I'd not really thought about it, but then mom mentioned it the other day and I thought: Hey! that's actually a good idea. Plus, leaves potential for more aunt-niece bonding time, lol. :)

Added some more pictures to my first facebook album and then created and uploaded more to a second facebook album. Check 'em out (but you don't have to comment on all of them...!!!)

Of moving, heat indexes, and homework

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: “Yup, that, that right there. That’s a black widow.”

Me: O.O *jaw drop*

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: “Yup, you got black widows here it looks like”

…a little while later in the basement, me, slightly shaken from seeing my first ever black widow live and in the flesh.

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: “Oh! And that! That guy’s a Brown recluse.”

Jim: “Is he alive?”

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: “Yeah.”

Jim: "Is he alive?"

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: "Yeah, he's moving."

Jim: “No, but is it alive?”

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: “Blow on it.”

Jim: “Oh! Yup, well there you go.”

Lead-Mormon-Guy-helping-with-move: "Toldja"

…then a bit later with jan

“isn’t that great. We have the stars here. It’s always fun to add deadly spiders to the mix”

The sarcastic comments she throws out are just fantastic. They always catch me off guard, and I love it.

Yeah. So, I thought I’d be too terrified to sleep, but apparently, after the guys went back to the Shenandoah house  to get more stuff with the moving truck, I went upstairs to my room to listen to some music, chill out, and maybe post on my blog or stalk people on facebook. But alas and alack. No internet. Not even a network that I could potentially mooch off of. Drat. So I closed my computer an just sat there. The next thing I realize is Lexx walking in my room super excited about life and followed shortly by his tag-a-long, Lacy. I fell asleep on the floor.

About five guys from the local mormon place came to help us move. Two were young guys about my again, serving their missions. I didn't feel right calling them "elder" when they were neither my elder, nor did we believe the same things, so I opted for calling them Dude1 and Dude2, or just "hey you" whichever was easier at the time. Nancy and John couldn't be there because they were at this Republican convention up in Des Moines, so being the kind people and generous mormons, they gave us money to get everyone who helped move pizza, so I ordered that and picked up more gatorade for everyone. People were stressed and not thinking clearly, and I knew it was beyond the time when people should have lunch, so I went on ahead and ordered it so that by the time Jim was actually ready for a break, there'd be food for the guys.

Jim was able to pick up a used washer and dryer for the house for around $75 for the set. So far they work really well, and it's great that they don't have to figure that out later.

About an hour or so later, Jim went around the whole house with super intense, but live-with-able insect and spider spray. Getting all the windows and baseboards of all the rooms. He wasn’t super happy with the real estate agent or the house inspector they had come through the house awhile back. They were supposed to check and warn them about such things, but apparently they were overlooked… I mean, you know. No big deal right? I mean well, I don’t know about you , but I’d rather not die of a spider bite while I’m in Iowa. Does that sound like too large of a request to you? Doesn’t to me.

I am now sitting in a white and green wicker chair in my rainbow paint splattered room. My stuff is lying on the floor in the center of the room. Music playing the Almost Alice album.

I finally figured out why there wasn’t a breeze coming in the windows. They’re super old fashioned double paned. You have to raise an inner window as well as the outside window. It was confusing, but I’m glad I finally got a breeze going through the upstairs. Not that it’s not cool enough with the AC on… the AC just isn’t very powerful, and the upstairs kinda smells like a combination of mold, general mustiness, dead bugs, and maybe other unknown scents.

But honestly, even with the windows finally open, it's hotter upstairs than it was before. The weather was suuuper hot today. With temperatures at like, 95, and the humidity at like, 80%, the heat index was out the roof at around 125, but with the breeze that was blowing it only supposedly felt 105. No big. 

It’s actually quite a large house. I’m surprised. I mean, I knew it was going to be 5 bedrooms, but still. It has several other rooms that “aren’t bedrooms” that just make the house bigger than I’d imagined.

Currently, there’s 1 and ¼(?) bath in the house. The one is downstairs in the master suite area, which is going to be “Jan and Jim’s” part of the house, because they’re actually leasing a portion of the house from Jim’s mom, Rose. Anyway, the upstairs has a “half bath” which is actually just a toilet in a closet and-nothing-else. It’s actually rather comical.

I’m trying to figure it out…. How does one deal with paint spatter on really crappy walls? Just start over with new walls? Sand over the paint and put on primer and then color? I don’t even know… thoughts?!?

The upstairs has what looks like industrial ceilings (like at Gloria Dei… I believe its for insulation reasons and also to hide all the pipes and such), and it’s the same with the lights. Makes it kinda feel like a dorm up here. Which, honestly, this house would be an awesome house to share with a bunch of young people because of all the rooms and how big it is. OH MAN!!! Just thinking about it makes me SO excited for this fall when I’ll be living with some fantastic people in our little Corvalils-House (does it have a name yet? Because we should really get on that…).

Good grief, I should really, really get some benadryl, real bug repellant, and anti-itch cream of some sort. I though the stuff I was using was working fine, and it was, until I started getting weird allergic reactions to the bites I’ve been getting. They don’t do normal things. They swell up over a period of a few days into these huge 6-inch welts. It doesn’t itch too much unless it’s super hot outside, thankfully, but at the same time, it’s so swollen and hot that it constricts the normal motion of my muscles and kinda makes walking painful.

....a bit later

Got some Benadryl and am over at Nancy’s, attempting to do my homework. It’s due at midnight, PST tonight. Which equates to 2am here, but hopefully I’ll be done long before then.

Rachel is bouncing about, playing her Zoo Tycoon 2 with arctic tundra, Rose is busy with her Sudoku game, and Robbie is making plans for building a campfire.