The Grand Finale

Awww... I write to you today on the eve of the first double-digit day of August. When Briana started packing up her belongings from our apartment last night and this morning, I finally agreed to let the realization that summer is officially coming to an end sink in. :( In fact, I travelled to Walmart with her at 10:30 p.m. last night to pick up moving boxes and then talked to the woman in charge at school and requested keys for my room so that I could officially create a mess of it on Friday. I even went so far as to stop in the bookstore and give myself the initial scare on book prices. I wasn't yet brave enough to throw the towel in and buy them though...maybe tomorrow. :)

Despite my promising steps towards preparing myself for the first semester of my senior (OH MY!!!....) year, I did not put any of those boxes together and actually pack up anything yet. I felt that after not working out all weekend I needed to take some precious minutes this morning to run around like a wild child and work up a sweat and a runner's high. Then, feeling very much refreshed I decided the sun and some beach time were in order (because summer is slipping away) so I lounged by the river for a bit over an hour and had a wonderful conversation with my sister who is leaving on a mission trip to South Ameria on Thursday! I'm kind of very much jealous. It was then off to work for me...I guess packing will wait another day...

Before I can pack, I need to order my thoughts. I need to back up and tell the story of my weekend! I traveled across eastern South Dakota with Briana and Sarah (my roommates) and Jordan (our fourth roommate...or something like that..) to Onida to visit Joey Stahl and surprise him and his mom for her 50th birthday! The surprise was a complete success and it was a great weekend. The four hour drive wasn't even bad. Jordan gave me the voice-over commentary on the South Dakota towns I had never seen before, we saw three of his houses (two past and one present), I was mesmorized by pretty sunflower fields and fricken huge wheat fields in central SD, and we had the whole gamout of music genres going on. Onida itself was a cute little town and the Stahls were a gracious and fun host family! We made a brief appearance at the Sulley County rodeo on Friday night and then sang some songs inbetween interesting conversations until about 4:00 a.m. On Saturday we lounged around, tried and failed to appear as good tennis players, and went out to the farm to shoot real guns. I have never shot a gun in my life or even held one, and I WAS SCAAAARRRRREEED!! But, beings Bill Stahl (Joey's dad) is a sheriff, I figured his instructions were probably safer than any I'd receive elsewhere. My first pulled trigger ever was from a 357 handgun (I think that's what I was told it was...forgive me crew if I am wrong..). I definitely gasped at the kick and it took me about 15 shots to hit the target (a Hawaiian punch jug filled with water). By the end of it, I was shaking quite thoroughly and when I finally hit it, I held the gun away from me and announced that I didn't want to hold it anymore! Before the night ended I also shot a rifle of some degree..a 223 maybe? That thing was heavy and intense, and I felt like a rebel shooting the thing. The guys all enjoyed the evening and they made a mess out of some interesting targets including an old fan, weedeater, mailbox, and frying pan. It was fun in a unique sort of way, and a very interesting experience, but I'm pretty positive hunting will not be my forte now or in the future! I was a girlie-girl and too intimidated by the deadly capabilities!

It was a great weekend! After church on Sunday the Stahl's treated us to a scrumptous breakfast and it was back to the highways. We took a much more scenic route back and stopped in Pickstown to drop Jordan off at his lovely home where we had a friendly, though brief, chat with his parents. Briana then thought it would be cool to show me the dam (which was BEAUTIFUL) and then attempt to find our fellow friend and MMC student, Cody, who works at the camp grounds. Long story short, we drove around on random campground roads and left after only catching a glimpse of his arm. :P When we arrived back in Yankton on Sunday I was exhausted and fell into one of those "I don't remember falling asleep and I have no idea where I'm at now that my alarm woke me up" hour naps before driving to Norfolk, NE to attend a wake service for a friend's sister.

And then I came back. And now I'm back to the stories of the beginning of my blog. And then I found $10 (just kidding...but this blog kind of turned into a play-by-play and I fear you may be bored..)

Tomorrow = work in the a.m., hopefully packing at least one box, and then driving home for the grand finale of my presence there before school resumes. Actually I need to drop off some apartment stuff and pick up the dorm room boxes and say farewell to a couple of good friends who are moving across the state for college. Wednesday and Thursday = work. My mom and dad are coming up on Friday to help me move and I work Saturday and Sunday. AND THEN>>> ORIENTATION TRAINING BEGINS!!! oh...and packing....???? um I'll just do it randomly in random moments between running around I guess... :)