Spring Break: The End

Part 4:

I could write at least 6 blog posts about spring break. But, I guess I can condense it down to just 4. Part of me feels embarrassed to want to write down every detail about this week, but honestly, it’s just been so good I don’t want to forget it.

On Saturday, I went to Spokane with Charli, Hannah, and Ruth in hopes of finding masquerade masks. It didn’t work out as planned, but we went to a few interesting stores, found some great items at a big thrift store, stopped for burgers, and went to Trader Joe’s. The drive there and back was nice too, it was a good clear driving type of day. By the time we got back (a little later than planned) it was time for the big sleepover I had planned with the two apartments. Before long, everyone was at the house and we were having a good ole fashion slumber party. We made ice cream sundaes, did face masks, watched chick-flicks (and Juno), and lots of other top-secret girl things that only girls at sleepovers can know (heh). The following morning, we all had a nice breakfast together and went to church. 

On Sunday afternoon, Charli and I decided to go to dancing at the barn (or rather, I convinced Charli since Bobby texted me that there were only two girls there). It was both fun and exhausting being 1 of the only 4 girls there. I understand why the guys usually sit a lot of dances out, it quickly becomes tiring having to dance every dance. But anyways, it was super good. I did the polka for the first time and didn’t mess up! I was so surprised with myself. On the drive back, I got my turn standing out of the sunroof, arms opened wide and the country wind whipping my hair every which way. 

Charli and I decided to go to the Arboretum and have a hippie day. We went to my favorite willow tree, sat on a comfy blanket, and enjoyed the day. Charli worked on some jewelry and fiddled around on her guitar, causing me to pause from my coloring to sing along with her. Quite fittingly, we sang “Wind In the Willows” by Captain Dipper and the Strawberry Girl. 

We lost track of time and before we knew it, we were quickly heading back to the apartments for Rachel’s movie night. We walked into an apartment full of all my favorite people, got some snacks, and settled down to watch Baby Driver. I had never heard of it, but it was good. Not just good, but an overall well-done movie with one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard. 

The rest of the week has been a bit of a blur. Most evenings, I’ve had one or more of the girls over to the house with me to watch movies or just hang out. I think it was Monday that I decided to go to East City Park to write (that’s when I wrote part 1) and ended up running into Emily, Sarah, Hannah, Rachel, Christy, Ruth, and Joelle. You know it’s 50+ degrees in Moscow when everyone in town subsequently ends up in the park. They all came over for a movie and dinner that night. Tuesday, we went to Pullman and thrift shopped. I can’t even remember Wednesday, but Rachel and Hannah slept over that night.

It was Thursday that I woke up with a stomach bug so bad that I was out of work both that day and the next. Rachel stayed with me and nursed me back to health (aka, stayed on the couch with me and watched The Great British Baking Show). I felt better by Friday afternoon and we went to get our ears pierced together, then talked at Bucer’s until she had to go to work. I went home, cleaned, and laid down for a while. The Hill apartments were then invited to 6^th street for a movie, so I decided to whip up some brownies beforehand. Hannah, Ruth, and I headed over there, watched Ocean’s Eleven (another to add to the list of really good movies I saw over break), and hung out for a bit afterwards.

Now that brings me to today. This morning, I woke up bright and early to make a cheesecake for my mom’s birthday (tomorrow). It was the first time I’ve made a cheesecake from scratch in a good while (I guess I won’t know how it turned out until tomorrow, but I’ll update ya). Then I cleaned and cleaned some more. You can’t have the place a mess when your mom is coming into town. That’s a rule everyone should know. 

After I finished cleaning the house, I went to the apartment to do my weekly cleaning duty over there. I finished just in time for Ben to pick me up. I was headed to the Palouse Falls with Rachel, Ben, Abi, and Lindsey. I could write a separate post on that, but I wont for two reasons. 1: I think my blog can only handle so many posts about 1 given week. And 2: I’m going to be too busy spending time with my mom this coming week to be writing. But to sum it up, we went to the falls and they were too beautiful for words (a common theme due to my inability to describe sights in a way that would do them justice). We also went to Walla Walla and got dinner (best bacon burger I’ve had in a long time). Now I’m back at the apartment, anxiously waiting for Charli and my mom to arrive (Saturday the 17th).

Again, I apologize (kind of) if this 4-part blog series was redundant, boring, or too personal. These are the things I want to write about right now because this is what’s on my mind. It’s experiences and memories like these that I want to share with my friends and family far away, as well as be able to look back on and remember the little details. I’m incredibly thankful for the week I had, for the people I spent time with and the places I went. I’m also incredibly thankful that I get to now spend my own spring break showing my mom the same places and people I’ve grown to love so much. 

The End. For now...

Spring Break: An Unexpected Turn

Part 3: An Unexpected Turn

The drive back was just as good as the drive there. We listened to music, talked, laughed, and slept (except me, or at least you’d hope not). At one point, everyone was asleep, so I was following the GPS instead of taking directions from Handerson. However, Leaf woke up as I was making a turn, and told me we were going a different way than we came. He was pretty sure he recognized it, as did Handerson, and they both assured me it’d be fine. 

This is where things took an unexpected turn, quite literally. I turned, then missed a sharp turn, turned around, and corrected myself. It was at this point that we became concerned. No one could recognize the area and we could see on the GPS map that we were on a road full of sharp twists and bends. It was a steep country road, each turn popping up out of nowhere, unable to be seen with the headlights until it was almost too late to turn the wheel. To make matters worse, there were steep drop-offs on both sides of the road, making it all the more important to turn fast enough. Although I felt embarrassed, I drove slowly. I had to be careful with the car and I’m not used to dark, back country roads such as this. It seemed like the road would never end, and each bend made my heart race and stop at the same time. I can only imagine how confused the car behind us was. 

Finally, the turns became a little less sporadic and I was able to relax a bit. This didn’t stop us from being confused as heck as to where we were. However, we managed to have fun with it all the while. We began coming across large groups of deer along the countryside. At one point Leaf stood out of the sunroof again, hoping to shine his flashlight on them. It was around this time that I realized the sky was clear and the stars were out. I sadly made a comment about how I wish we could just stop and star gaze for awhile (star gazing in the country has been one of the top things on my bucket list since I can remember). In response, everyone told me to just pull over and do it, to which I happily obliged. The other car pulled up next to us, still confused as to where we were and why, or why we were stopping. We simply responded that we took this detour just to star gaze (heh).

We all stood around in the cold and looked up. It was astounding. I have never seen that many stars in my life. A few of us, including myself, saw shooting stars. But atlas, all good things must come to an end. Despite my protest, everyone was cold and wanted to get back on the road. I could have stared at that big sparkling sky all night. As we were about to leave, we all decided to get Grub Truck when we got back to town. However, by the time we finally made it to Moscow, we found out the other car had changed their minds. So I dropped everyone off, one by one, until it was only Charli and I. Her and I decided to go to Sheri’s and get pie milkshakes (I had tried convincing the group back in the hot springs, and again in the country, to get these amazing milkshakes, but they were scaredy cats).

So Charli and I went. We got pie milkshakes and loaded hash browns and sat there talking for a long while. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. 

To be continued...

Spring Break: The Long Awaited Destination

Part 2:

I love driving and oh, how I missed it. Going for long drives is one of my favorite ways to spend free time, especially when you’re the driver and you’re heading towards an exciting destination. Our drive was over 3 hours, and I loved every minute of it. Not long into it, Leaf and Handerson told me to take a turn for a more scenic descent down this one steep hill. I was apprehensive because they said I would have to lower gears and I wanted to be as safe as I could with the car. Nevertheless, we took the scenic route and I’m so glad we did. It was called the Old Spiral Highway and spiral it did. Slowly, turned and glided every which way down the side of this country hill. As we went down, my riders discovered the double sunroof in the car, which Leaf thought would be fun to partially climb out and throw food at our friends behind us. It was quite funny, although I wish I had been able to climb out as well and enjoy the fresh air. 

By and by our drive continued. Everyone fell asleep for most of the time, but that was okay. I enjoyed singing along to the music and looking around at the beautiful tall trees and hills. It only got more picturesque as we got closer to the hot springs. About halfway through the drive, I had to pee. I was freaking out just a little bit inside because we were on back roads and I hadn’t seen a gas station or anything of the sort for a long time. Every so often I’d see an outhouse on the side of the road, but always too late to stop. Finally, I quickly hit the brakes, turned around, and went back to the shoulder with the porta potty. There were some semis behind Christy that were not too pleased with my sudden braking and voiced it with their horns. When I came out of the bathroom, everyone was gathered on the side of the road shouting and laughing. Apparently, Leaf had climbed down into a pipe and was going to the other side of the road. We all decided to climb down the side of the hill and wandered around the rocks along the water, some of us trying to find rocks to skip. Before long, we were back on the road, oohing and aweing at God’s creation once again. I think there was a solid hour where all we said was “Oh, guys look over there!”

As we approached the hot springs, we noticed an increasing amount of snow on the sides of the road. When we reached the parking lot, there was at least two feet of snow around us. Although I love the snow, I was slightly alarmed when I saw this. I was wearing boots with literally no traction. I’m talking 100% smooth on the bottoms. The worst boots that were ever made. On the bright side, I wasn’t the only one unprepared for a snowy hike. Handerson was wearing moccasin slippers and John was wearing open-toed sandals. Yep, we were screwed. 

We hopped out and began the treacherous hike. And treacherous it was. It wasn’t the fact that there was a lot of snow, it was that the path was so packed down that individuals (heh) with poor traction on their shoes were often walking in place rather than forward. To make matters worse, on the righthand side of us was a steep drop-off into the woods. There were many occasions where we slipped and almost went over the side. The trek was slow and cautious. At one point I was trying to go up a slope and could not get farther than two feet. Leaf and Christy (bless their souls) had to literally push me up this slope because I was running in place. 

Thereafter brought the challenge of going downslope. By this point, I had caught up to the group in front of me, who decided it was best to just slide down. I crouched onto my feet and quickly flew down the grade. However, I caught too much speed and started veering to the right, towards the edge. Luckily Bobby was at the bottom and he quickly jumped to the side, reached out, and stopped me from falling to my death. As we went along, we passed a group of people coming back from the springs, all of which were decked out in full-on hiking gear. I’m pretty sure they were chuckling at this group of stupid college students (that was fair). 

By and by, we finally made it to the hot spring. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it. It was incredibly beautiful, a small pool made of glistening rocks hanging along the side of the hill. At the bottom of the hill ran a shallow creek, with a few other small hot spring pools scattered about. Tall trees towered around the clearing, making the space feel secluded and special in a way. We all quickly stripped down to our bathing suits and hopped in. Well, everyone except Leaf, who decided to go swimming in the cold creek first. Bobby and John followed his lead not long after. The water was so warm. Almost too warm at times. 

After a while, Handerson, Charli, and I decided to go down and cool off in the creek. The rocks going down were slippery with wet moss, so we had to crab crawl, trying our best not to scratch ourselves on the rough edges. Handerson and I didn’t even make it to the main creek before our feet were numb and our bodies shivering. Charli, of course, went all the way in, because she’s Charli. We weren’t sure how to get back up, as it was too smooth and steep to go the way we came down. Charli decided to lead us up the front side of the hill, where we basically rock climbed up, carefully finding niches and handholds as we went.

It was truly amazing, words can’t do it justice. Relaxing in the warm water, surrounded by friends, talking and laughing. I’m not sure how long we stayed there, time didn’t seem to exist or matter. At least, until we realized it was just about dark and we were going to be hiking the awful trail in the pitch black. Oops. 

We finally decided to head out when the sun was just about gone. Most of the group wanted to change before they went back, but Handerson and I decided to just go in our suits and jackets. Froh (bless his soul too) came with us. He had a flash light, and walked along the edge of the path, trying his best to stay between us. I lost count of how many times he caught both us from slipping and falling down the side of the hill. I don’t think we would have made it back in one piece without him. 

We made it back safely, with the others not far behind us. We changed into dry clothes, then gathered together to eat banana bread and cookies. Before ya know it, we were packed in the cars again and headin’ home. Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus - we came, we saw, we conquered. The adventure was finished, the surprises over. Or so we thought…

To be continued…

Spring Break: Running On No Sleep

Part 1:

I’ve been itching to write a blog post for at least five days now. I’m happy to finally have a moment to breathe. And oh, how breathing feels so good right now, as I’m sitting again a big tree in a park, with the clear blue sky above me and the Spring breeze whistling through the trees.

I think this might be long, so prepare yourself for a rambly narrative with far too much detail. 

It all started on Wednesday night (I guess early Thursday) at 3am. I got picked up at 3:30 to drive a family to the airport and then drive their car back. I went back to their house and was able to squeeze in an hour or so of sleep before I had to wake up, feed the dogs, and head to work. By the time I got off work, 5 hours of babies screaming at me (they were having a Monday, on a Thursday), all I wanted to do sleep off an ever-growing headache. But atlas, I went back to the house and let the dogs out, then headed down to the school to see if anyone had survived the last of their finals. I wasn’t surprised to find few survivors, just Hannah and Charli. It seemed that there were no plans for the day, bummer. I went to the apartment and loaded the car with enough clothes and food to last me the two weeks I’d be gone. 

As I carried heavy bag after heavy bag, my headache grew and grew. I finally sat down for a couple minutes and contemplated sleeping instead of hanging out with anyone. Then I saw Charli post on the class page about taking part in the 40 Days of Life prayer vigil. This was something I had really wanted to be a part of, so I grabbed my stuff and headed back to the apartments. We were hoping to recruit other people, yet sadly no one responded so we headed out. It was a nice drive to Pullman, the perfect gloomy rainy day. We met Nate in front of Planned Parenthood and began to pray together. I had never done anything like this, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But we just stood together and took turns praying for an hour. It was beautiful. Halfway through, a group of people (I think they were Catholic, as they sounded like they were praying rosary) began praying on the other side of the parking lot entrance. It got really cold and rained on us, but I didn’t care. I’m so thankful I was able to be a part of such an amazing movement. 

As we were driving home, I noticed my headache was gone and I felt completely rejuvenated. Somehow, I always manage to be amazed by the Lord’s work, even though I should never doubt His capabilities anyway. On the way home, Charli’s apartment decided to host a Juno movie night for their screenwriting class. When we were setting up, we realized Rachel had taken her DVD drive with her. But aha, not all was lost. We decided to watch Tallulah, a very similar movie, in style and characters, to Juno. It ended up only being our two apartments watching, but Leaf showed up not long after it started. We all chatted for a bit after the movie, but that’s another thing. I had to head to the house to prepare for Friday’s adventures. Charli and Hannah decided to come with me and keep me company as I made cookies for the long drive. Thank goodness they came too, as I was so tired that I started crying when I couldn’t find a hand mixer or parchment paper. Charli just about saved me from having a full-on cookie meltdown. We finally went to bed, snugged into a big king size together. I never appreciated how comforting it is to sleep with other people, especially when you’ve been sleeping in a big house alone. 

Friday morning, I sprang out of bed (as much as one can spring on 5 hours of sleep) and headed to work. I felt antsy with anticipation as the hours went by. When 12:45 hit, all that was seen of me was a blur rushing out the door. I had 15 minutes to go to the house, let the dogs out, change into my bathing suit, gather snacks and towels, eat something, and be at the school to pick people up. I managed to make it only 1 or 2 minutes late. However, only Leaf and Froh were there so I was safe. By and by, people arrived and soon enough, we were packed in the two cars (with Leaf, Charli, and Handerson with me, and Christy, Joelle, Bobby, John, and Froh in the other) and on the road to the hot springs.


To be continued...

Face to Face with DEATH

February 25^th
 

It was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon that I came face to face with death.

I should probably start from the beginning. It was a Sunday just like every other Sunday. By some miracle, we all made it to early service. When we got out Charli, Hannah, and I decided we needed to go for a drive. Not wanted to. Needed to. It was too gorgeous out. It was probably the first Spring day in Moscow. The sky was clear and pale blue. The sun warmed up the Earth’s frozen bones from the bitter winter. A refreshing breeze blew occasionally. We needed to drive. 

So, we did. We headed out, not knowing where we would end up. Somehow, Charli ended up driving us in the direction of Troy (or maybe it was Lewistown? I’m not familiar with other towns around here soo...). We were happily driving along back country roads, windows down and tunes blasting, when we were rudely stopped by snow. Snow? This was our Spring Sunday, how dare it interrupt. Somehow, this road missed the memo that it was Spring now, as there was enough piled in the road to block our path. Reluctantly, we turned around. 

Nevertheless, this did nothing but lift our spirits as we were now forced to go on a different unknown adventure. We began driving aimlessly again. We ended up on Paradise Ridge Road, parts of which still had snow that missed the memo as well. When we were almost to the end, Charli got a text that beckoned her back home, so we turned around. 

This is where everything went wrong. As we were driving back, we began sliding on the parts of the road covered in snow. We were surprised because it hadn’t seemed that bad on the way up. It was manageable at first. It was on this one sloping bend that death himself stood in the middle of the road, waiting for us. Charli lost control of the car and we began spinning as we went down the hill. Luckily, she had been driving slow and careful, so our spin was slow. However, I think this made it more terrifying. Slowly, as we spun, we started heading toward the side of the road where there was no shoulder, just a drop off. It felt like time stood still, as my heart stopped, and my stomach sunk, we watched as we painstakingly moved towards the drop off second by second, wondering what was going to happened to us. 

Luckily, we had made it far enough down the hill that we reached a point where a snow bank was blocking the drop off. As we did a complete 180, the car slid against the snowbank and stopped, now backwards. Silence, then Charli telling Hannah and I to get out of the car. We were only half way down the hill, Charli had to try to turn the car around and get to the bare gravel. I refused to get out at first, telling her I didn’t want her to die alone. Reluctantly, Hannah and I got out and slipped our way up the road, a few feet from the car. We watched as Charli began maneuvering the car around, backing up and pulling forward as much as she dared. She had only gotten the car turned sideways when she began going down the hill again. We watched in horror as she slid completely sideways down the middle of the road, about 10 or so feet. But, Charli is a boss, so of course she was able to gain control. She stopped and began her slow turn around, then slid until she reached the clear road. I glided down the ice and hopped in, finally feeling my heart begin to pump again.

We found ourselves laughing the whole way home, recounting the experience and marveling at Charli’s boss a** driving skills. The ride back was all the merrier with the victorious feeling of dodging the reapers devious trap. Now, of course this is a little dramatic. But, in our defense, this is how we felt as it happened. We felt triumphant, unstoppable. We felt immensely thankful for the life God has given each of us.