Stokes Stomp

My friend Amanda asked me after church yesterday if I wanted to go to an arts & crafts fair (the Stokes Stomp) with her that afternoon, so after deciding I could survive without a nap, we went out for lunch and then to the fair/festival.

We ate lunch at Qdoba, which I had never eaten at before, and I got some really delicious tacos. I highly recommend them; they were seasoned perfectly and the pico di gallo salsa I got on them was quite fresh and yummy as well.

I wished I had my camera with me because while we were eating there was a little mouse outside the window, looking for crumbs under a table on the patio. "It's Ralph!" said Amanda. We didn't see the motorcycle though. :D

The Stokes Stomp was fun. Like at most craft fairs there were lots of things I saw, but didn't want to pay as much as they were charging for them...that's the one problem with knowing how to make things yourself. I did buy a pair of earrings though, and Amanda found a bracelet. We got some really good ice cream too: Oreo, in a waffle cone. I managed to somehow drip ice cream on my shirt, from which it got onto the camera screen, because the camera was hanging around my neck, but it cleaned off the camera alright. In warm weather an ice cream cone can apparently get away from you very quickly. :)

The park where the festival was is right next to the Dan River, so after we finished our ice cream Amanda and I waded in the river. Or rather, she was going to just walk across the rocks to a little island in the middle, but I took off my sandals and got in the water, so she did too. :) I forgot she hasn't ever taken me on any outdoor activity before. If there's water to wade in, I will wade in it if it's warm outside, and I should remember to warn her before we ever go hiking together: I venture very close to edges and climb things. Haha. :p And yes, my parents are well-aware of my mountain goat ways.

So we waded...I think Amanda took a picture of me out in the water (from the island). We were a little dubious about taking our cameras out into the water.

I didn't end up taking very many photos at the festival, but we stopped and took pictures of a tobacco field and barns on the way back.






















































Dan River:











Barn with Sauratown Mountain in the background:


































Her car looked sort of out-of-place...I'm not sure what sort of vehicle one should have for pulling over and taking pictures, but that's not necessarily it. Maybe some sort of CUV, or compact SUV.

Wake me up when September ends

Nah, actually September's going great so far, I just needed a title.

My birthday was last Friday...I am now twenty. Yes. Twenty. I'm pretty happy to not be a "teenager" anymore, but on the other hand for the next ten years I'll be "in my twenties", which is sort of cool, but a little bit scary as well. To a certain extent it hasn't sunk in yet.

Singings of "Happy Birthday"? Grand total: 4. I'm not a big fan of being sung to, but it wasn't too bad. I went to contra on the 1st and everybody sang to me there...wow, that was a lot of people. It was fun though because people also wished me happy birthday during the next dance too. :) Then I got sung to by my family on Friday, got sung to after the canoe trip on Saturday, and because not everyone from church was there then, got sung to again Sunday night.

So, canoe trip. On Saturday I went canoeing on the New River with my friend Zoe and her parents, and we met up with the Beasleys who were already camping up by the New River. We just did the shorter 5-mile trip, instead of the 10-mile one I've done before. It was kind of cool up there; overcast when we started and eventually getting sunny, but not too hot. It did get sunny enough at one point that I know if I didn't have sunscreen on my arms they would be getting fried. (Made me glad I went ahead and applied sunscreen even though it was cloudy earlier.)

And the water was deep enough for a comfortable canoe trip...we only got stuck twice, and I only had to get out and push the canoe off a rock once, which I was happy to do because I got all the way in the water and got cooled off. :)

Group photo :) :Hannah, Maria, Zoe, and me.

















Zoe and me:


















Adorable photo of the pastor's youngest daughter, Lydia. Little gal should wear black all the time, with her red hair. In fact, I think 95% of people look really good in black...how nice it isn't only meant for mourning anymore:
















Best photo I got out the window on the way there:













I had a wonderful birthday. I did have to work on Friday, but then my grandparents came over for supper and we had Mexican food: tacos with all the fixin's, and rice, and all that good stuff. Well, Mom made that all at least, I just made myself a big plate of taco salad... (does it count as taco salad when there's technically no lettuce on the concoction?)












Rebecca got me two stuffed hedgehogs from Ikea. :)












This goes in the "You're...twenty...really?" file :P *cough*















Mom and Dad got me a camera bag. Hurrah, hurrah! I was toting my lovely new camera around in a purse...with not much padding. This is MUCH better.


















Grandma got me a neat scarf:


















And my Grandma Roth got me a set of glass bowls...this would be me exclaiming over the smallest little bowl in the set, while Grandma B....looks at the rest of them, I guess:











And finally, my birthday cake, which is actually frozen tiramisu from Costco, because I decided I wanted that instead of the cheesecake my mom was going to make. The cheesecake would have been really yummy too, but she can make it another time. :)












Then Sunday night I had a sore throat, pretty mild, mostly just an irritating lump in my throat, and I started worrying that I had strep throat. Normally I wouldn't have worried about it at all, or thought maybe I had allergies, or a cold. I get a sore throat whenever I have a cold, and this wasn't anywhere near as bad as some I've had. But my friend Zoe had had strep and I had been around her before she knew that was what was wrong, and it started out the same way I was feeling. Great. Just great. I felt worse Monday morning: sore throat, tired, so we went to the minute clinic at CVS. And waited.

It was Labor Day, so of course no other place was open, so there were quite a few people there. Including one little kid in there with his father, and I guess the kid must have been sick. He seemed fussy, but I kind of figured that was his normal temperament. :/ Will, his name was. It's never a good sign when you end up learning a little kid's name out in public. It means they're getting into too many things. :D As they were going into the room he was fussing, which turned into "No, no, no!!" as he realized he was going in to see the doctor.

I finally got in there, and started wondering if this had really been such a good idea after all. The nurse was...I dunno, of Russian descent or something. Russian, Greek, something like that...her name was Elena and she had an accent. Anyway, she asked me how to spell "ivy" because she was still filling out the information for the guy before me, who apparently had poison ivy on his face. Then she was going to swab my throat and was asking me if I saw the swabs anywhere... "They look like this" she says, holding up an unopened package. Um...maybe those right there on the shelf?? It was one of those situations where you start feeling like it must be some sort of test because surely the other person isn't really that loopy...? Hi, what's next, Rorschach tests?

Anyway, the strep test came out negative, so she said I must just have a cold. Okay...that's good. If it's just a cold I won't pass anything too dangerous on to the baby when I go to work. So I finally get out of there, after figuring out the insurance, which supposedly covered this, with no co-pay. I really have a feeling I'll be getting a bill in a couple weeks though. So, Dad and I spent the whole morning there practically, I took an Advil, soup, and a nap when I got home and felt a whole lot better when I got up. Tired? Well, I HAD been up late and on the go all weekend... To add insult to injury, or lack of injury, I felt pretty much well by that night, and completely well the next morning. I didn't even have a regular cold it seems.

Okay then....I feel like a probably slightly poorer hypochondriac. Sheesh. But, I had to do all that since I had been exposed to strep and I didn't want to get the baby sick. It just irked me because I don't go to the doctor at all usually. Oh well. :D

Anyway, that's been September, so far. Eventful.

Hugs?

Five types of hugs, or rather "church hugs" as defined by the Stuff Christians Like blog:

#613 Church Hugs

This makes me laugh, because I like giving hugs, I'm a huggy sort of person, except when I don't think my hug will be appreciated. In other words, I don't give unsolicited hugs, because there's nothing more awkward than giving or receiving an unwanted hug. (By the way, the more often you say or read the word "hug" the stranger it sounds/looks...)

But while different people definitely do get different types of hugs from me, I hadn't bothered to categorize them...nor do I necessarily use the categories as defined by the SCL blog. :D For instance I don't do "The Multitasker"...no, wait...I do occasionally. Okay, scratch that. I've probably done all those types of hugs, but never bothered to classify them. All the same, I found that post amusing. :)

And if you're a hug-liking person and I haven't ever hugged you, my apologies...initiate a hug next time you see me. I may not seem like a hug-giving person, but I've been told I give good hugs.