best vacation ever.

i'm coming towards the end of the best vacation ever.

this makes me very sad.

part 1 consisted of southern california goodness.

forest home

disneyland

wine tasting in temecula

midnight beach madness

bonus day bowling

VERY hot weather

oh so much fun...

part 2 has been very different, but not any less awesome- enjoying the "tri-cities" area of washington state w/murphy

hanging out at cheese louise w/ murphy (and hope and alex!)

wine tasting at northstar on the most BEAUTIFUL fall day ever

going to see 'where the wild things are'

great conversations and good times

seriously

i never want it to end.

*sigh*

early sunday morning i begin my travels back to the mitten state.

we'll see if this flight is any less dramatic than the last 2. united airlines, i dont really want to fight anymore.

for realz.

the end.

it's always an adventure.

i sometimes judge people who just stand there on the moving walk at airports. i've always felt that the purpose of the moving walk is for those who are in a huge rush to dash by like superman, propelled by the force of the long treadmill-like belt. it's also a great way to people watch more people per minute if you're sitting on the sidelines staring at the walk like i am right now.

but i became 'that guy' who just stood there like an idiot today on the moving walk- completely defeated by the airport system. you win. you've broken me down. congratulations.

i'm supposed to be in california right now, hanging out with evan and a bunch of other friends. that is why i woke up at dark thirty to catch a plane from detroit. if i wanted to arrive in california late at night i would have arranged for that.

united airlines didnt get that memo.

our flight to denver was nearing an end. i had to pee really badly and passed the time by reading "cold tangerines" by shauna neiquist and listening to 2 sermons on the beattitudes. my seatmate mitch did offer to let me watch a movie on his laptop with him. i kindly declined.

i was feeling pretty satisfied with my productivity for the day thus far as we began circling the denver airport... 45 minutes later we were still circling, then rerouted to wyoming since we couldn't land due to the fog.

i know what you're thinking... "WHAT!?"

yes. wyoming. not an exciting place. i thought the rhinelander airport was the smallest i'd ever been in. then i thought the green bay was the smallest. ladies and gentlemen, the airport i was in today is by far the SMALLEST airport i've ever been in. oh my. so that was delightful... but at least i got to pee.

so we reboarded and by then we'd pretty much all missed our connecting flights.

joy.

they communicated to us that we should make our way to the "customer service" centers upon arrival to find out the flights we'd been rebooked on.

we rushed off the plane... and i stood in a line with over 100 people ahead of me. NOT JOKING. i stood there for 2 hours... and even then i didnt really make it to the front, i had some sidestep moves with another passenger. (i did try to call united to expedite the process, but the lady on the phone was NOT helpful at all in any way and just made me very angry) i got booked on a flight to leave denver at 9pm. yes, i was supposed to leave denver at 11am.

you do the math.

so i sighed and went to find some food, which i had to pay for on my own because they informed me they did not issue food vouchers. thank you united airlines, please steal an entire day from my vacation then leave me hungry, undercaffeinated, and dehydrated. jerks.

this angered me so...

i thought i'd go for some mexican food at this place that looked mildy like qdoba. it was the nastiest food i've ever had. (ok that may be an exaggeration, but i'm grumpy)

thankfully i have my computer and was keeping myself entertained by facebooking and writing a strongly worded email to united airlines and then decided to check what time the flights were leaving today.

much to my surprise i found that united airlines online was selling ONE ticket for the 6:50pm flight out of denver to cali and i quickly raced back to the customer service center in hopes of switching flights.

after waiting in line about 10 minutes i suddenly realized my jacket (containing my wallet) was not with me. yes, i left it at the table where i consumed the nasty burrito. i literally RAN to the table (up an escalator too) and thank GOD it was still there, wallet and all. i almost cried.

i headed back to the service center, waited in line a half hour or so, then begged the ticket agent to switch my flight. i was seriously on the verge of tears at this point as i explained my situation. the man worked some magic and printed out the very last seat on the 6:50 flight to cali!

as a reward i headed to TCBY for some frozen yogurt. this is actually when i noticed that my wallet had been in my jacket the whole time. i overpayed, er, i mean ordered a strawberry frozen yogurt, because that's what i remember getting from there when i was a kid. but i think when i was a kid i got sprinkles with it... i decided i am jittery enough today, i dont need any more sugar.

i then began heading towards the terminal where i will be able to begin boarding at 620, only to realize i was headed in the wrong direction. but i'm in no rush.

... so there i stood- my blank gaze fixed on the moving walk ahead, as my entire sensory abilities focused solely on the cool strawberry goodness on the end of a cheap plastic spoon.

i was that guy and i didn't care.

the spoon and the yogurt were my pacifier completing the full transformation as i reverted to this childlike state today. temper tantrums, tears, overtired...

i watched a little girl ahead of me, probably 4 years old, leaned with her head on the railing of the moving walk, staring behind her as blankly as i was staring ahead. i wished i would have had some strawberry yogurt for her.

and now i'm that guy who's sitting against a wall near an outlet charging mac and my phone, shoes off (and my feet do smell), with a melted dribble of strawberry yogurt congealing in the bottom of a paper cup next to me, as i'm half heartedly watching the people on the moving walk go by, wondering if they've had a day like mine.

*sigh*

"i think i'm safer on an airplane than a world without love..." copeland, safer on an airplane

9 fingered typing...

yesterday was... eventful.

i had to go get my car 'fixed' (a fuse replaced) and oil changed. the most amusing part was the mechanic telling me that next time my boyfriend could probably fix it.

um...

i'm sure he could if he existed, mr.mechanic. and if he couldn't i'd make HIM take my car in anyway.

jeeze, but really, WHO SAYS THAT!?

i laughed inside.

also yesterday i stopped by rei (and didnt purchase anything) and whole foods. then i went to the tittyung's house for wii and dinner.

well, that's where things got interesting... and caused my current typing predicament.

since they were making dinner for the 3 of us and i was already at the store i thought i'd bring something along. i found some tasty bread and thought i'd go biblical and bring wine too. bread and wine. why not?

welllllllll when krystl tried to battle the wine bottle with her opener, the corkscrew broke off inside the cork. oops. but we were determined women (geoff just rolled his eyes) so we used his multitool's screwdriver to chip away at the cork so we could then use the pliers to pull it out.

this was working well.

until...

i guess my brute force collided with the edge of the mouth of the bottle, because before i knew it i was gushing blood. i thought i had just cut my hand on the screwdriver. oh no, it was the broken glass from the bottle's mouth.

whoops.

so krystl assisted me in tending to the very small lacerations on my left hand (the webbing between my index finger and thumb) as well as the gash on my right hand's pointer finger top knuckle. yes, gash. it was definitely a bleeder. so we sent geoff to my car to get my first aid kid and i cleaned myself up- laughing the whole time. we did try to ask google on our phones whether or not i needed stitches... but never got a great answer, and i hate the idea of needles, so i decided i'd probably be ok. i think it's healing ok so far, i'm keeping it super clean and not bending the knuckle. this is easier than a hospital run and the obnoxiousness of caring for stitches right before my vacation tomorrow!

i'll be more careful today... promise.

"it's hard say that i'd rather stay awake when i'm asleep, because my dreams are bursting at the seams." - owl city, 'fireflies'

grrrr... the man....

so here is what i don't understand

copyright infringement.

i mean, how is it okay to quote published literary works and not have to pay any sort of royalty or worry about getting your pants sued off, but even THINK about using music/video and you're in big trouble??

i'm really annoyed. because i made this video tonight that i thought was pretty sweet and it's got a bunch of outdoor ed pictures/video and background music to liven it up... well apparently that is not ok. after trying to upload it on facebook, i got a mean message from them telling me if i try to pull that stunt again i could get my account deleted. ouch.

i'm all about respecting an artist's rights to their music/media/etc., but i think things have gotten a little overkill and we just love to sue each other.

lame.

hey there october.

life's just moving right along, now isn't it?

this week is our last week of "adventure camp" (battle creek 6th graders) and we have the next 2 weeks off! some people are disappointed by this, because apparently days off = days not paid, but for me days off = adventures. i leave for california a week from tomorrow. :) SO excited. and 2 weeks from yesterday i head from california to washington. also exciting.

last weekend was women's retreat at springhill. it was a lot colder and rainier than we would have liked, but still a good time. i very much enjoyed my time at the top of the zipline-- there's a special connection you get with people when they're standing on a 40 foot tower staring at the 1000 ft long cable they're about to head down attached by various pieces of equipment they've been assured are safe, but they still have their doubts.

sunday i hung out at trina's for much of the late afternoon-evening. i didn't get back to battle creek until midnight. whoops. good thing i was on late shift yesterday so i got to sleep in. today's another late shift day.. i like late shift a lot. especially considering i'm potentially fighting a bit of a virus right now and i need all the sleep i can get. i got about 10 hours last night. hopefully that will help my immune system battle it out. go body, go.

i wish i could play around on my computer for an entire day and learn everything there is to know about it. i'm excited about imovie- i did the most simplistic project in the world just now (put 3 videos into 1) and i'm overly thrilled. so much potential here... yay!

that's the end.

"i'd rather forget and not slow down than gather regret for the things i can't change now..." - relient k forget and not slow down

currently reading: cold tangerines by shauna niequist

"friendship is acting out God's love for people in tangible ways. we were made to represent the love of God in each other's lives, so that each person we walk through life with has a more profound sense of God's love for them. friendship is an opportunity to act on God's behalf in the lives of the people that we're close to, reminding each other who God is. when we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life. we get to remind one another about the bigger, more beautiful picture that we can't always see from where we are."

yes.

yes yes yes yes yes.

authentic love, true community...

oh my heart is overflowing.

THIS is what it should look like.

i want to live with friendships that look like this.

wind and rain and cold- oh my!

it's 7am. the wind has been absolutely howling outside for the past 24 hours. we've had a lot of rain too. what a quick switch from last week!!

i have to be at high ropes inspection in 20 minutes... but i have this feeling that we maybe won't be able to do high ropes today. i just have this image of children being blown off the elements... whoops.

each week the kids just seem to have a different kind of feel to them. this week's kids are sooo spacey and not very good listeners. it's kind of like they're from another planet. they're going to require a lot of patience and firm discipline. i had to use my hardcore teacher voice yesterday and it was only the first night! ah i hate that. i secretly miss having kids i can just hang out with and enjoy and not really have to discipline very much. yes, that means i miss my advance camp kids from the summer.

i keep writing in my journal how much i'm thankful for life at this moment. i've been able to reflect a lot back on what i learned and how i grew at honeyrock and it makes it all the more worthwhile. but i'm also glad to be in this new season of life. God's recapturing my heart in some awesome ways... i love it.

more thoughts in my head, but i need to leave in 4 minutes... and i'm still i my pj's.... yikes!!

"i'm alive... i can feel you all around me, thickening the air i'm breathing, holding on to what i'm feeling, savoring this heart that's healing... take my hand, i give it to you, now you own me, all i am, you said you would never leave me, i believe you." - david crowder band, all around me