Sand, sun, sea...see?

So, the beach was very nice, my only complaint being that it was so salty. For whatever strange reason that fact hadn't even crossed my mind, so when I got splashed in the face with salty water something very suddenly (and rather painfully) clicked. Right. The ocean is salty. I knew that. And salty water in one's throat, nose, and eyes is painful. So I didn't end up going in very deep for very long. If it had been freshwater I would have put up with getting water over my head once in a while, but that was just too painful. I stayed kind of on or near the edge instead.

But the beach itself was still fun. It was nice to get wet, and sit on the edge of the beach, and get nicely sunburnt... Not my back though, I religiously applied sunscreen to my back, but figured my legs never burn anyway, so they didn't need any. Ha. I applied sunscreen later, but probably too late at that point. My face got burnt too, which I'm not sure how to explain because I did definitely put sunscreen on it. But wow, I don't recall ever burning the back of my legs before, and I was pretty much unable to stand up straight Sunday night because it pulled the skin too much. Yeah, don't mind me, I'll just be sitting on the floor. (Yes, seriously.) I think almost everyone in our group got burnt though, even the ones who applied sunscreen multiple times, so I'm not sure what was up with that.

We drove over to the beach (Atlantic Beach) Saturday afternoon, and got there in the middle of a rainstorm. So we checked in to the hotel and proceeded to get settled in and then went down to the lobby area and played games. We didn't end up going out on the beach until after dark, but then we stayed out there until around eleven, walking on the beach and the pier...and then still stayed up later talking and eating popcorn when we got back, I think. We got up Sunday morning and stayed out on the beach until mid-afternoon (yes, decided to be heathens and not go to church), then went to a friend's house and cooked shrimp and potatoes and talked and played Scattergories into the evening.

Then Monday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at five to go to the beach and watch the sunrise (after stopping in the lobby to get large cups of coffee of course). It was definitely a "Why are we doing this, again??" moment. It was certainly worth it though.

I built a sandcastle. :)

Then after we got back we ate breakfast and headed home, stopping to see friends and drop people off on the way, which made going home seem like less of a bad thing.

All in all it was a great three days, lots of fun and laughter. When I get together with this group I always seem to end up laughing my head off or giggling helplessly. I kind of wonder whether some of them even have any idea how reasonably quiet and sane I can be. :D It somehow worked out really well, all the people we had. We all (nine people) managed to get along well all weekend, so I guess it was a good mix of personalities.

Also, the beach seems to insist on lingering with me...I'm still finding sand in things. Ugh. I'm not a big fan of sand where it's not supposed to be. Oh, interesting note: I think I actually tanned! I thought my legs were tan after the burn wore off, but then they started peeling as bad sunburn always does. But that cleared up pretty fast and when I got back from the gym tonight my mom was pointing out that I am actually at least a little bit tan. Wow, well okay, I've got the beach to thank for the fact that I'm not quite as blindingly white as I usually am. ;)

Valerie's Happy Restroom

I unknowingly wandered into Valerie's Happy Restroom in the Charlotte airport, and thanks to the fact that she also self-promotes, I looked up her video on YouTube like she suggested. ;)

I've been annoyed by bathroom attendants before, but she was actually keeping the restroom clean and was very nice. A couple of the little kids in the bathroom really liked her singing too. :)

Busyness and even more to come

It is...Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday. I finally figured that out for sure, after wandering around the house for a little while last night, holding my alarm clock and trying to remember if I needed to set it so I could get up in the morning or not. Long weekends really mess up my calendar...yesterday felt like another Saturday because Dad was home. Yes, it's Tuesday, and I'm going dancing tonight, which I'm looking forward to, because I haven't been in a long time and the next two weeks I will either be gone or very busy. I'm hoping to maybe go to contra in Cincinnati though...

Ah, let's see. For starters, I'm going to the beach next weekend with some friends! I'm very excited about this because I haven't been to the beach since I was about two, and of course I don't remember that. Mom was sort of feeling bad about that, but I pointed out that this trip will be all the more exciting because of that.

I'll get back Monday night and then I'm leaving Wednesday to fly up to Ohio to see my cousins, drive to Chicago with them for a wedding, and then back to Cincinnati for a few days before I fly home again. I'm quite excited about this too. :) I get to see a new airport in the process and see all the interesting people in the airport. Interesting/weird/however you want to put it.

So that's what's up with that. Travel! And I think my cousin Rebecca is just a bit excited that I'm coming... See? :D

On Saturday I went shopping because I realized that not only did I not have a nice dress to wear to the wedding, but I was rather low on dressier summer clothes anyway. Most of my summer stuff is skirts that I've made and such, and some of it is...well, more casual. So I went to Goodwill first of course, got up way too late for such a venture and was there at the busiest time of the day. I found a pile of dresses to try on, then found that the dressing rooms were all very full. *sigh* Finally got one (with no mirror), narrowed down the selection to four dresses, and was able to come back later and find a dressing room with a mirror...and got one dress out of the deal. :P It's a nice pale blue sleeveless linen dress that is a little bit too big, but I washed it and that made it shrink a bit. I also found a men's shirt to use as a swimsuit coverup.

But still I didn't have anything that would really work for the wedding. So I went to a few more places...found a pair of black sandals, which is nice because all I had were some with about 2.5 inch heels, and you know those weren't comfortable! But still no dress. I finally went back home, picked up Mom, and we went to a consignment store near us. The lady (and her daughter) there helped us look around and I ended up finding one dress there. It's a sort of burgundy...tunic sort of thing. I'd post a picture here, but the photo didn't turn out very well. Mom and I decided to still go look at Target too, and I found a black sleeveless dress that fits very nicely and looks very classy. Score! Two nice dresses, a pair of shoes, and I'm all set now! And both dresses are material that won't wrinkle much, so I should be able to smoosh them into my suitcase without worry.

Friday night we all went to watch the fireworks after the baseball game downtown. That turned out to be a disappointment. We watched from the parking garage up at the hospital, so we had a good view, but the fireworks were very insignificant. So Dad and Colin and I went up to King on Sunday night and saw some much better ones! I took pictures (of course).

You can see all of the pictures here: Fireworks 2010

In other news, we visited a church Sunday morning. Now, I don't mind more modern worship, as long as what they're singing has good words, but oh my. I felt horribly out of place because I didn't know most of the songs, so I couldn't sing, and the music was VERY loud. You know, music that's almost concert-level loud, and you can feel your whole body vibrating so that it feels like your heart can't beat properly? I don't find that particularly enjoyable. Goodness knows I listen to music fairly loudly, but nowhere near that loud. So yeah, that was a bit different. They finally sang two songs that I knew, "Blessed Be The Name" and a hymn with the tune modernized a bit. I want to say it was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", but that doesn't sound quite right. Anyway, the sermon was very very good, which I was quite honestly a little surprised by, but I don't know if I could deal with being deafened every Sunday. But anyway, that was an interesting first experience, and I'm going to be gone the next two Sundays, so I don't know where the rest of the family is planning on going.

Ah, what else? Oh, I'm trying to sew a sunhat, and I'm hoping to have it done by this weekend. I figured out last night that I needed some stiffer interfacing to get the brim to stay up, so I got that this morning. With any luck I will have a hat by the end of Wednesday.

Now, I need to take a quick nap and then find some paper and starting writing a packing list. No, make that two packing lists. Packing is going to be logistical nightmare, since I'll have a suitcase of stuff when I get back from the beach and will probably need to wash and repack some of it, adding it to other stuff (which I should have packed already) in my suitcase to go to Ohio. So yeah, I need to find some paper and start writing. Yes, I have a computer but I cannot write a packing list on the computer. I have to have real pen and paper. :D

A few thoughts from my brain

Oh great, I decided to write a blog post and every thought immediately left my brain. Hmm...let's see.

iPads: I got to see one in person the other weekend and I was a little more impressed than I expected. Usually I have trouble with touchscreens, and on Mom's iPod Touch, the keyboard is so small I can't use it at all because I always hit the wrong keys. But this had a large enough keyboard on the touch-screen that I could actually use it. On the other hand, it worked fine sitting on the little plastic stand in the Apple store, but it was too big for me to hold in one hand comfortably (kind of defeats the purpose of the nice big keyboard too, if you have to type with one hand) and I can see how using it either flat on a desk, or on your lap could really mess up your neck and back from looking down at it all the time.

Pros:
Large touch-screen

Wonderful for Google Maps. I'm very very fond of Google Maps, and this was just about the perfect device for that. Large enough that you could see a pretty big piece of map at a time, and very easy and intuitive to move around on. Easier even than on a computer where you have to click and drag with the mouse to see more of the map.

Slightly more portable than a laptop...I could probably fit one in my purse. 

Cons:
Touch-screens get smeared up very fast, and it's a glossy screen so it really needs to be clean to see it properly.

Awkward to use

Not the most convenient thing for getting typical computer stuff done...not if you already have a laptop anyway.

I can't justify paying $600+ for something just because it's awesome for Google Maps. :) BUT I finally got to see one anyway! And it really was great for maps...

In other news...there are extreme disadvantages to being pale. Because of wearing two different swimsuits to the pool (switching up the strap placement on my back), I now have an awful sunburn right where my back had been protected by the straps on one swimsuit and therefore had no sun-exposure until the other day. It burnt, then it blistered and peeled, and right now it's getting better, but I'm avoiding normal shirts as much as possible and having Mom put cortisone cream on the burnt part. Ouch. Why, oh why do I always have ridiculous injuries like this? Oh, and I get to go to the pool because it's days I work and I take the little girl to the pool. :) So much more enjoyable than playing outside or walking in this heat!

I cleaned my room up the other day, getting rid of some stuff and organizing the rest, and I'm very glad to be able to see the top of my desk now. As usual, I'll see how long that actually lasts...

I'm also trying to make plans for next month. I have some time off and I want to go see my cousins, and then there's also a beach trip with some friends somewhat tentatively planned. So, fun stuff. I think this may be the busiest summer I've ever had. Which is fine with me. :)

So I guess life in a nutshell right now is work, reading, getting together with friends. Except, surely there are more things going on than that...? I guess that's the public version of what's going on. This was going to be a good post, but as I said, every decent thought left my brain and I'm left with, well, that up there. :D

Oh, to people who are commenting: I'm sorry about the annoying word-verification thing. I turned it on a while back to deal with all the spam comments I was getting, just turned it off last week and immediately started getting spammed again. So, I know it's annoying, but I have to have it on.

From Psalm 42

This hymn was in my head all day yesterday...I think I read something that referenced Psalm 42 or something, and immediately thought of this.

It's a beautiful hymn, both the words and music. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a recording of it anywhere online, so I took a picture of it from my hymnal, so if you can read music you'll have an idea of what it sounds like anyway. 662 in the Trinity Hymnal if you have one.

(Click to enlarge.)

As the hart longs for flowing streams,
So longs my soul for thee, O God.
My soul does thirst for the living God;
When shall I come to see thy face?

My tears have fed me day and night,
while men have said, "Where is your God?"
But I recall as my soul pours dry,
The days of praise within thy house

Why do I mourn and toil within,
When it is mine to hope in God?
I shall again sing praise to Him;
He is my help, He is my God.

They taste good too

I made these yesterday afternoon:

The sesame ones turned out better than the cinnamon raisin ones...looks-wise anyway.

Yum, bagels. They're the most bizarre things to make too, since you boil them before you bake them...

My latest knitting project

I finally finished my knitting project! It was going to be a whole dress, this pattern: Little Black Dress but I didn't have enough yarn, plus I knit very tightly, so it was ending up smaller than it was supposed to be anyway. So I made a tunic-y top instead. I finished it last week I think, and finally got around to taking photos of it.

(Speaking of which, I'm annoyed at how fuzzy the pictures came out. I'm guessing it was because I was using the 2 sec. remote setting, so it wasn't able to focus very clearly, or I managed to move after it did.)

Another disadvantage of the timer? Looking tense because you're trying to take the picture and hold still at the same time. Oh, and I look like I have a Barbie doll hand, because I'm holding the remote in my right hand. :D (Seriously, Barbie dolls always have their hands partially open like that...always makes sure the sleeves of their outfits get caught on the thumb...very annoying. But I digress.) 

And could my arms look any longer and skinnier?? Goodness. Maybe sleeveless isn't such a good look after all. :P

I couldn't figure out what other color of ribbon to put in it, so I just went with black. Anyway, I finally got that done, and now my only knitting project is a pair of socks that I started knitting and will have to make myself finish. I'm not too fond of how the first sock is turning out, but I'll have to make another one the same. And then I can go onto a different pattern and some awesome green sock yarn I got. Unless...hmm. Maybe I'll start on the green yarn with a different pattern and if I like how they turn out then I'll rip out the current sock and make a different pattern with that yarn! Yeah...that's sounding like a better plan.

8-15 depending on how you count

I'm never quite sure what constitutes having been to a state...staying there for a day or more? Staying overnight on a drive through? Stopping for 30+ minutes? Driving through?

I've been to 8 states if you count staying there for at least a day/sightseeing, etc.

visited 8 states (16%)

15 states if you count driving through or layovers on the way to other places/staying overnight. I'm not sure about Tennessee; it's not the most direct route, but I'm guessing we've gone through there to get to Illinois at least once.

visited 15 states (30%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Extremely long weekend

I haven't blogged much about what I've been up to the past, er, month or so, but just last weekend will require a whole blog post to itself. A whole...long...blog post.

The homeschool conference was Thursday through Saturday and there were several things I wanted to go to there, plus Mom and Dad and Colin actually ended up going this year too. I think Colin was a little disappointed in the conference; I'm not really quite sure what he expected, but he seemed a bit surprised about what it was. We all went two years ago, but apparently it was somehow much more exciting that year.

I also got to meet Lizzie and Sarah from The Random Digressors! We've been online friends for...what, two years or so? and finally got to meet in person, so that was fun! We went out for supper together Thursday evening. (I'm obviously terribly attached to my computer...and phone...and camera...)

 












Thursday night at the conference was the teen and alumni dance, which I went to last year and enjoyed despite the fact that I was older than a lot of the kids there. This year I think I was older than most of the kids there even though they split it up so that there was nobody younger than fifteen in that group. I don't have any problem hanging out with any age group, but it wasn't a whole lot of fun having hardly anyone my age to dance with. Plus I think I slightly freaked out a seventeen year old when I told him my age. We were talking some and I asked how old he was, because I thought maybe he was a little older.
Him: *cheerfully* "I'm seventeen"
Me: "Oh, I'm twenty..."
Him: *awkward silence* "Oh...! I see..." *awkward silence resumes until I get a new partner*

Um, okay then. Well, I complain about people saying I'm young, but that just made me feel old and creepy. :D Sheesh, only a three year difference (and I usually get along well with anyone younger than me!) but apparently this guy had a problem with that. At any rate, it didn't improve my feeling that I was older than just about everybody there and didn't exactly belong.

The dance was okay, but nobody ever really got a chance to figure out what they were supposed to be doing, so it was all a bit chaotic and not really in a fun way, at least not for me. It was supposed to be line dancing and swing dancing, but my friends who have gone swing dancing before said it wasn't the usual type, and that I need to try real swing dancing sometime. :D Comparing notes later, my we came to the conclusion that we had all three been thinking "This is making my legs hurt and isn't really that fun...why am I doing this?" So, no dance next year, I think.

What amused me was that after dancing, standing around talking, taking my friends home (Laura to the house she was house-sitting and her little brother back to their house), I didn't get home myself until nearly midnight I think. Whoo, I was out late after a....homeschool conference? Isn't that supposed to be all conservative and sedate, etc.? Well, maybe not...homeschoolers, ya know...unpredictable.

Friday I went to several sessions, bought books in the bookfair, and went to the talent show in the evening. Decided once again that I do not understand worship/liturgical dance at all, and that the videographers they had taping the show were going to have a very cheesy finished product if it looked like it did on the screens. :P I was lucky to be sitting by Laura's younger brother though, so we were able to make faces at each other about the acts that were...sarcasm-inducing, shall we say? Nah, there were some really good ones too. Some little kids who played the piano wonderfully, a group of girls who did fancy jump-rope tricks, and some guys who played guitar.

Saturday was busy: I went to one session with my brother, walked around the bookfair with the rest of my family, got lunch on the way home, got home, changed clothes, turned around and went back to meet up with Laura for the graduation. Our friend Lauren was graduating, as was Lizzie. Anyway, we sat through that and it was very, very long! It was amazing how many people were graduating, and that was only half of the group in that room because they divided it up. Then we all squished into the crowd in the hall afterward and took photos.

After the graduation Laura and I met up with her brothers and a group of college students/alumni that they hang out with and we had supper at Wendy's (I ate entirely too much fast food this past weekend. Bleah.) then went and hung out at Laura's house for a while.
One of the girls who was there is an osteopathic medicine student and she was able to do something to my neck/shoulder to make it feel a whole lot better. I'm not sure what the technical term is, but she moved my arm so that the muscles could go back to where they were supposed to be, and held it there long enough for them to relax. My back felt great after that! Laura was a little worried though...she walked in and decided it looked more like I was being tortured. "Ahh, why did I ask my friend to come over with all of you here?! Maybe that was a bad idea!" I assured her that Kim was by no means torturing me and that I was perfectly fine. :D

After we relaxed for a while and drank tea we went to play ultimate frisbee by the light of parking lot lights at Reynolda Gardens. The frisbees had lights in them too, like these: LED discs (maybe they weren't those exact ones, but something similar.) Pretty awesome!

Now, I enjoy throwing frisbees and ultimate frisbee even though I'm not very good at it, so I was having fun until I reached up (to actually catch one, surprise, surprise) and it hit my fingernails instead, bending my right ring finger fingernail back about a 1/4 inch. Not fun. At all. So after yelling in pain as it hit, and trying not to use any very bad language, I managed to tell everybody what had happened and a couple people took charge since I couldn't think straight to know what to do. Oh, and since the usual male reaction to injuries seems to be "SOMEONE'S BLEEDING?! Let me see!" several of the guys had to see my finger. :D

Stop reading if you get grossed out easily......but Laura had to bend my fingernail back for me. It hadn't broken, just bent backwards and stayed there, and there was no way I could make myself endure the pain and push it back myself. Thank goodness she's not grossed out by stuff like that. I'd been fine up until that point (I mean, apart from being in pain and bleeding!), but after that I started feeling faint. I don't pass out right away from a painful injury, but if it keeps up it's too much for me. So I sat down in the grass with my head down while Laura and our friend Rachael went to find something to wrap my finger with. Anyway, after all that I was still feeling sick and light-headed, so I didn't think I could drive home. So someone helped me to the car and Rachael and Laura took me home, although once I got sitting down I was starting to feel a little bit better. Anyway, they were all so nice about it, but I hated to ruin the game and all. Last thing I wanted was to be the drama queen getting injured and passing out. Ugh, me and my freak hand injuries. A broken finger from volleyball and now this. Yet I've played volleyball and ultimate both several times without injury, so it's not that I can't play sports or something.

So that was Saturday, I got home late, Sunday was church, a nap in the afternoon, and then Monday I pretty much sat around all day. Well, no, I made waffles for breakfast and brownies sometime in the afternoon, but other than that I think I sat around editing photos from the past few weeks. Not, however, 365 photos, because I've sadly stalled on that. I may start up again the beginning of next month, but I'm not sure. I hate to not finish that, but it seems like I've been busy with lots of little things and had hardly even taken any photos at all until the past few weeks.

To top it all off I woke up Tuesday morning a half hour after my alarm was set for, and had to rush to get ready for work, sniffling and sneezing multiple times in the process. At some point last weekend I managed to pick up a nice cold, so now I have an annoying summer cold. :D *cough, cough*

And that, was last weekend. All in all an awesome weekend.