October

In case you didn't realize it, or you're in your own little world, it is now the month of October.

Speaking of being in your own little world, we met someone in Australia who is kind of like that. I'll call her Mary. Anyway, Amanda told us ahead of time what Mary is like. For instance (and you can correct me if I get this wrong, Amanda), you know how you can get an extra hour of sleep when you're coming off daylight savings time? Well, Mary decided that instead of getting an extra hour of sleep on Sunday night like everybody else, she wanted to get it on Monday morning before she went to work, so she basically lived an hour ahead of everybody else for an entire day before re-setting her clock. But that's not all. Another time, when there was a holiday on Monday, she decided that when she went to work Tuesday morning that she would convince herself that it was Monday, Wednesday was Tuesday, Thursday was Wednesday, etc. That way, when she came to "Thursday" afternoon, she would suddenly "remember" that it was Friday and therefore the weekend, and boy what a pleasant surprise that would be!!!

So then we got to meet this incredible girl Mary. She is very friendly, but she had hardly met us when she unwittingly proved Amanda's stories to be correct by making an announcement: "I've decided that since my twenty-sixth birthday is coming up, that I'll tell myself that I'm turning twenty-eight instead, and that way when I turn twenty-six it will sound so much better! In fact, I was talking to my sister the other day and I told her that I was about to turn twenty-eight, and she said, 'No you're not, you're turning twenty-seven!' and I said, 'No I'm turning twenty-six!' hahaha!" Oh me oh my, how that dear girl cracks me up! I think it must take talent to be able to do things like that.


Anyway, as I was saying. . . . in case you didn't realize it, it is now the month of October. You might not have thought that I knew this however, for until today if you had walked into my room you would have observed that my calendar was still on the month of September. Why so? You see I have a Narnia calendar, and last month I had a fine picture of Peter with a cut on the side of his head and looking intense, but this month's picture is no Peter. In fact, it's this black, swarthy-skinned monster with an ugly snarl stretching out his face and crouched on a rocky hill like a frog trying to stand up. To the best of my knowledge, you don't even see this shady character in the movie! To make matters worse, I keep this calendar right above where I lay my head and night, and if anyone thinks that I'm going to let this crazy creature leer over my head until my dreams are scared silly, then you are much mistaken! Sooo. . . . now I have finally solved this problem and brought myself to the current month by putting another picture from a different calendar over it, so instead of this hideous thing, I get a more serene glimpse of a pinky-blue sunset and a Bible verse on God's might. Much more soothing on your dreams, don't you agree?

Somewhere along the way in my predicament with the grotesque being, Craig made the sardonic comment that it probably has something to do with all the people who are born in that month. Hmm. . . that would be giving a bad name to Meredith, Van Lora, TJ, Nika, Cara, Pedro Martinez (Craig might be right in his case), and Amanda (plus I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that come to me right now). Do I let this slander continue? Never fear! I, Kayla, now come to the rescue to save the month of October and all those who were born in it!

Honestly, as I came to the beginning of this month and became more fully aware that summer is over, my disappointment was overcome by the anticipation of the enjoyable things that often occur October. Here is a list of but a few of them:

First though, as I already mentioned, some wonderful people were born in this month, so of course I'm thankful for all of them, including Meredith, Cara, and Amanda, for what would I do without these great friends?

October means. . .

the Dublin Rummage Sale

the Trinity free clothes giveaway

the Salvation Army sale

artist palettes smeared all over the brilliant trees

Apple Sauce Day

the Harvest Party

leaf catching

raking (which actually can be fun)

jumping into the piles you raked (which actually can be even more fun)

Indian Summer--this means the gorgeous warm days that you weren't expecting inbetween the cool ones

fresh cider, and juicy apples that don't taste like they've been artificially preserved

grapes on Fairwood's grape vine--and grape juice!

warm pumpkin candles cosily burning during the longer evenings

marigolds lending special warmth

delightful crisp mornings

shuffling through dead leaves and drinking in their familiar scent

getting to wear bright orange when you take a peaceful walk through the woods

pulling out your camera several times in a week

Mt. Monadnock seeming prettier than ever--if that's possible

pumpkin carving

candy corn

trick-or-treaters

Lots more could be said but why bother? I've made my point: I'm loving October!



p.s. confession time: I'm afraid I didn't take these pictures THIS year, but that's because I haven't gotten my film developed yet, and these are from the digital camera.

A Prickly Saga

Yesterday a rather singular occurence did something very singular--it occurred! What's more, this singular occurence has never happened that I can recall in all of Fairwood history (but since I can only recall about fifteen years of it, I realize that my memory is somewhat limited). Forgive me if you've already heard about it, but I cannot resist the urge to tell it again. Now are you curious?

It all started with my little childhood phobias of being outside alone in the dark. In case you don't know, our house has a bit of woods surrounding it, and a road/driveway goes by and over the hill and down to the more populated--and therefore more well lighted--areas of Fairwood. Well, naturally I have had to make this trek millions of times, and as can be expected, necessity forces me to take it when darkness pervades our side of the globe. Very often there are places at times where you can't even see the ground you walk upon, let alone your feet, and a big field stretches out on one side of this dark pathway, and you never know what could be watching you, or darting silently toward your unaware person until it's practically on top of you. Hmm, taking this walk is one thing to do it when your twenty-seven, and quite another thing to do when you're just seven. Since I think every kid has been afraid of the dark at some time or other, I of course went through my little qualms. A flashlight sometimes assisted me, but most of the time I would brave the dark unaided, all alone except for the comforting sound of my own voice as I fiercely sang to not only comfort myself but also to hopefully dissuade any intruders from attacking me (and I could never decide if they would flee just because I was making noise, or because I sounded dreadful). What I would like to observe as a sidenote is that Laura, who had the same anxiety as me, decided not to sing but to run, and I've noticed how much she loves to run and how much I love to sing. Peculiar, is it not?

Oddly enough, some people may be surprised to note that I wasn't afraid of being abducted or anything. In fact, the only humans I feared in the dark were Craig and Clyde and only because they were known to try to scare me (luckily I noticed Craig's creeping shadow as I approached the lamp post at the end of our driveway, so I was spared from experiencing the undesirable alarm that my wicked brother had designed for me). The things I feared were less wild in nature: mountain lions (one was spotted at Fairwood last summer), bobcats (we've heard them scream in the woods), bears (our bird feeders have been raided by them), wolves (which I don't even think we have any of), and. . . . stepping on porcupines. Sometimes I was even hesitant to eating a cookie on the way home from the Main House, in case a ferocious cat would smell it and come to attack me so that he could devour it himself and then have me for dessert.

One day however, my dad told me earnestly that pretty much all of the animals here in the woods are scared of me. This pleased me, in a fashion, to know that most likely the animal will race headlong away as soon it heard me coming, and basically I have nothing to fear except fear itself. So I think I can say that from then on I was cured of my phobia of the dark, at least along that road, and it never has really bothered me since. But I must admit that I am still wary of things I may see or need to make my distance from. Of course it still has occurred to me that maybe someday a suddenly bloodthirsty mountain lion will maul me, but it is comforting not only to realize that I'm not going to die unless God wants me to, but also such notions are absurd. So to this day the closest I've come to being mauled is when I reached the end of our driveway one time and then I heard something take a few steps in the woods. I don't need to say that I didn't think twice about running all the way to our porch.

My dad's "talk," however, didn't immediately relieve me of my worry of stepping on a porcupine. As I said earlier, there are times when you can't even see the ground, and stepping on a porcupine is probably the most drastic I thing I could think of as a result. However, it wasn't long before I convinced myself absolutely that the very idea of stepping on a porcupine was ridiculous, and the chances of doing it are about 100 to 1. Voila, now I am worry free! Or am I? All this I probably wouldn't have blogged about if it hadn't been that my chances were about to increase to 5 to 1.

So that brings me to a week ago. My dad and I were driving home at about quarter past ten from the campfire on the ball field, and what do we see waddling in front of us at its own sweet pace? A koala! (hehe bet you weren't expecting that one!). Actually it really was a porcupine, as I'm sure you already guessed, and there he was, all bushy and illumined by overpowering headlights. Finally he figured out that he was a little too slow for us, and he scuttled onto the Hansen's lawn. Now this was very interesting, but not too remarkable since we see a porcupine every once in awhile on the ball field or something. But apparently this wasn't the only time this porcupine decided to blaze a trail on our road, because Ruth told me Sunday morning that she had seen also seen one of these prickly critters one night, and I later found out that my mom had as well. Hmm, maybe my distant phobia of stepping on a porcupine in the dark wasn't so childish anymore. All this, however, would have gone on unnoticed and unwritten if it weren't for a fateful evening.

I was walking home Sunday night, at about ten o'clock, past the Men's Dorm and right up above the church, when Danny drove by me in their mini van. Now he and Ruth live next door to us, just beyond our house, so occasionally Ruth might offer me a ride or something. Well, oddly enough, I didn't feel like riding, so I fervently wished that Danny wouldn't offer me a ride, even though it had been raining. I needn't have worried, because he didn't offer me a ride anyway (and I'll tell you honestly that I don't expect him or Ruth, or anybody else for that matter, to offer, so it wasn't rude or anything). I continued on, in my own brisk yet plodding way, and watched him disappear over the top of the hill. Nothing unusual. As I neared the top of the hill--wait, is that a dark shape in the road? It was a still, large black lump. Of course if it was a porcupine, it would be moving, unless it was afraid of me. Could it have gotten hit by the car? No, Davie's dog Buffy was sitting by the road too calmly for her to have just witnessed a slaughter. I was probably just making things up. I backed up down the hill a little bit, thankful that the lamp was shining at the end of our driveway otherwise it would be like descending into a valley of pitch. Yes, it did almost look like the light was silhouetting a black shape, on the left side of the road. Or maybe I was just seeing things. Nonetheless, I stayed on the other side of the road as I passed, reminding myself of the priest or Levite who ignored the wounded Samaritan. Except this wasn't a Samaritan, it was just a porcupine, if it was a porcupine which I wasn't even sure it was. Therefore I didn't feel any pangs of guilt to leave the shapeless black thing to its blackness. I would find out in the morning.

However, I had almost completely forgotten about it in the morning, until I was walking up the road and saw it. This was going to be interesting. I ran forward. Wow, so I actually wasn't seeing things last night, and it really was a koala! Whoops, I mean a porcupine. I had never had such a good look at one before. It lay in a spiky hump on its side, with quilled fur that almost looked soft, it's curved paws curled up, it's little black eye (it was his profile remember) open, and bright red blood coming out of--his nose? Already the packed dirt at his head was stained with his blood in a pool about a foot long. Now I actually had a first-hand experience dealing with a literal pool of blood! Oh I'm sorry. . . . too many gory details. You see that although I did indeed feel sorry for the poor chap, my utter fascination with the whole situation far outweighed my remorse. Here was real live--I mean dead roadkill, at Fairwood! I don't think we've had anything larger than a snake or just maybe a chipmunk. No, no, I am not celebrating the fact that Fairwood now has had roadkill, but just that it was about the most interesting thing that has happened to me since Australia. And I had almost witnessed it! Uuuhh, I shudder to think what would have happened if I had stepped on him the night before. . . but no matter.

Now do you laugh at me for worrying about stepping on a porcupine?

Fact or Fiction?

I have discovered one of the most common questions ever asked by someone
who should decide to visit Australia. "So, did you ever see a kangaroo?"
No, I'm afraid I did not! I saw several in the zoo and sanctuary, plus
many crossing signs for them, but I never saw one in the wild, in person.
I may have mentioned that I did see an echidna, however, and in case you
don't know what it is, it looks like a hedgehog with a snout. So. . . .
I'm just saying this so you don't need to be bothered by embarrassing
yourself to be like the billionth person (well maybe the third or fourth)
to ask me the ridiculously common question "have you ever seen a
kangaroo?" because I did not!

Now, I would like to share for your own interest or amusement, some
slightly unusual facts about Australia that perhaps you did or did not
know! So here goes:

1. Taxes in Australia are always included in the price. Very convenient I
assure you!

2. The yogurt in Australia is alcoholic--I wondered why it tasted so
good!;)

3. In the country I am speaking of (and I'm already tired of saying "in
Australia" so just assume it) they set their table places upside-down!
Meaning that the knife is pointed blade downward along with the fork,
etc. I think they said it had something to do with Australian's feeling
their uniqueness of being the only country completely Down Under, so they
wanted to have a certain ironic characteristic about them. Don't worry,
this practice is generally only used just occasionally in the home, not
in formal restaurants!

4. Most public schools require their students to wear a uniform--imagine
if we tried to do that! I think some rebellious students would start
protesting about their "rights". . .

5. Victoria (the state where I stayed) is the only state to drive on the
left side of the road because of their dislike of Sydney.

6. If you had a bloody nose, you wouldn't say so exactly, but you would
say, "I have a blood nose." That's because like in England, "bloody" is a
swear word.

7. The correct way to pronounce "aluminum" is not "a-LOO-mi-num," but
"a-loo-MEN-yum."

8. You know how Victoria drives on the left side of the road? Well, when
they have turnarounds, they go clockwise instead of counterclockwise. As
a result of this, Australians decided to change some of their volleyball
rules so that they rotate the other way! They just prove their sense of
uniqueness.

9. Some Australians may eat beetroot or tomato sauce on their hamburger
and have brown "vegemite" on their toast (but NEVER on their biscuits).

10. If you were to order a pizza, and you wanted half to be pepperoni and
the other half to be just cheese, they would put the pepperoni on the
opposite side from that which we here in America would put it on! Talk
about different.

11. Many scented candles that you buy can serve as a flavored cigarette
as well. That doesn't seem to be the greatest encouragement for your
lunges!

12. They never call the restroom a bathroom, washroom, or a toilet--but
"the relief room." It took some getting used to--it was a few days before
I finally asked Amanda what those signs were for.:D

13. About seven years ago a movie was made in two weeks with a very low
budget--it was eighties style and a sattire on redneck Australians; this
movie is still one of the most popular movies in Australia, and I believe
has made more money than they spent. It's called "The Castle."

Righto, I'm sure there are more I could say when they come to me, but
this is the list for now. Hope you enjoyed them; and by the way, you get
to tell me which of these were fact and which of these were fiction! Good
luck.

p.s. Amanda don't give them away just yet! :D

The Longest Day of My Life

This is just a little post to inform you all of Kayla's death. We're not too sure of the particulars but we have heard that her plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean, just two hundred miles southeast of Hawaii. The people evacuated to the life rafts but I guess some vicious Australian termites had lately taken a fancy to rubber so there were holes in the rafts and eventually everyone drowned, because the termites had eaten holes in their life jackets as well. And now I don't really know why I'm telling you this except to be random! But in case you actually cared enough about me (or were just gullible enough) to be worried, I can assure you that I am alive and well.

And that is exactly what this post is about: to inform you all that I have officially returned from faraway lands on the opposite underside of the globe! Our flights went well, though we were nervous about missing our flight in LA and I was nervous about missing my flight in Detroit as time got tight, but the Lord really watched out for us and answered prayers tremendously. So thank you so much if ever just once you thought to send up a prayer for me! It is greatly appreciated (and I appreciate it even if you thought of me once as far as that goes as well).

Hmmm, the strangeness of sleep is a very strange thing (I should be written down in history books as being profound). At one time you want it so badly you're drooping, then next thing you know you can't catch a wink! As for me, coming over I literally experienced the longest day of my life! Time zones are a mystery, they are. Anyway, I figured that it was about thirty-three hours from the time I got up at 5:30 am Tuesday morning (Australia time) to the time I got to bed around 12:30 am late Tuesday night, and in that time I went with about three hours of sleep. Granted, I did get an additional three to four hours of rest, but it still shouldn't be too surprising when my mom had to wake me up at two o'clock the next afternoon! The problem is that the night afterward I got about one hour of sleep. Go figure. Hmm, now do you agree with me that sleep is a fickle thing? Fortunately, I had my first night of normal sleep at home just last night! It was wonderful, and it was amazing that I could actually go to bed at the whopping semi-early time of nine o'clock! Maybe now I'm on the road to a normal life.

Concerning savages, mysterious food, corpses, and old maid vagabonds

We took a walk in a rain forest the other day. And it was a real rain forest, because it was rainy! ha ha ha. (that was such a corny pun, in case you couldn't already tell) It was really neat though, with the almost jungle vegetation and fern trees, myrtle, and whatnot. It made me feel like a savage again. . . .

The other night it was also interesting because we ate out with a Vietnamese, an Indian, a Portugese, and a half Egyptian! All of whom have grown up in Australia. Quite the exposure to unusual people I'm getting, eh?

Yesterday we went out to eat for Yum Cha. That was rather unusual--you know when you're eating at a real Chinese restaurant when most of the people eating there are Chinese and you have to ask for a fork and spoon! Basically Chinese waiters would drift by you with a tray of food and then tell you in nearly unintelligible English what it was they were offering. Some of it was guessing, since we didn't know what a lot of it was, and Kendra and I just kept looking at Amanda to see if she would accept it or not. If she did, we would usually get a small plate with three of the mystery items of it and we would each take one (very often we were vaguely aware what was in it however). You know something is gormet when you don't know what it is!

Now the rest of our time in Australia is running short. We leave Tuesday morning! We have a fourteen hour flight to LA, fly four hours to Indy, then I fly to Detroit, then on to Manchester, and get back late Tuesday night, even though it will have been twenty four hours or so since we left! Pray we won't be corpses at the end of it!

Tomorrow should also be busy. We plan to ride the train into the city with Amanda on her way to work, then go to the State Library to copy the article on the Coronet, and if we have time and the weather is okay we hope to go to the Botanic Gardens and the zoo, which is said to be one of the oldest in the world or something. It will be scary with just Kenny and me on our own though, so hopefully we won't become lost, mere old maid vagabonds to wander the streets of Melbourne in desperate confusion for the rest of our lives until insanity relieves us of our misery.

Then comes the grand challenge of packing! heh, heh, heh. Somehow I have to fit everything I brought and everything I bought back into my back without crushing anything or being overweight. Luckily coming over I had about fifteen more pounds to spare before my suitcase reached the fifty pound weight limit. I'm not sure if Kendra will be so fortunate, but we shall see.

So maybe, just perhaps, this will be my last post in Australia! We'll just wait and see.

p.s. I'll bet my title tricked you into reading my post, eh? hehe I guess it worked!

The God next door

Do you realize that as soon as we were conceived, we were given a certificate of death? It's similar to a birth certificate, only the date is left blank, and we're left to wonder when that day will be. . . .

Do you realize that when God became flesh, He lived right among us and nobody recognized Him?

Imagine having God living next door.

"Honey, there's a new neighbor moved in beside us, can we give him a cake or something?"

"Sure no problem sweety."

Knock knock.

"Hi my name is Bernie. We live next door and we'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood. What's your name?"

"God."

"Oh that's nice; here's a cake."



Jesus was invincible, but He chose to die for us. The grave couldn't even hold Him! And now my certificate of death has been canceled, ripped, burned, destroyed so that it's zilch, nothing, nada!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you got a church sermon before most of you people at home have even gone to church today! Ah, the advantages of being ahead of you guys (excepting Jane of course) is strange but blissful.

my wee report

K, here I am again!

Yesterday we got back from our two day trip on the Great Ocean Road. It was gorgeous! It reminded me of Cape Breton a little bit, with some cliffs, arches, and beautiful blue green water. We had a bunch of rain with the sunshine, but we saw nearly ten rainbows. Wowsers, God's creation is truly amazing!

On the way home we saw an echidna! It looks a little like a hedgehog but it has a long pointy snout. I wouldn't have known what it was when we passed it except that we went to the Healsville Sanctuary last Monday which had most of the Australian animals. We even got to see platypus! I had a lot of fun taking up close pictures of the animals (telephoto zoom works wonders), until Amanda's cousin George started joking about leaving me there overnight since I seemed to like it there so much.hehe

On Tuesday we went to the Vic Market, which was really neat. It reminded me of the Suq, King David Street, a flea market, a delhi, and a food court all in one! Inside was mostly food with their keepers set up in stalls, hurriedly supplying the demands of the waiting crowd, or just standing there bored with a couple yells or polite offerings of free samples. The place was fairly crowded, and as we dodged our way through the sporadic mass, a variety of smells hit me. Some of it was fish, but mostly it was odors I couldn't name, only guess at.

Large fish lay behind glass covers, or bright red meat tempted the bloodthirsty as their keepers frantically handed them out, for a price of course. Soon we started passing bread stalls, a cheese shop, or colorful candy places, all spread out confusedly one after another.

We soon left the indoors and went out under a huge covered pavilion, under which brightly colored fruit was arrayed, plus vegetables and such. Then we went under another covered area, larger than the last, with numerous very long aisles lined with a conglomeration of goods. T-shirts, Pooh blankets, boomerangs, wallets, jewelry, scarves, hats, postcards, calendars, stuffed animals, ties, shoes, and many other trinkets to amuse tourists, plus more practical stuff like baby clothes or sports team jerseys. I even saw a Red Sox jersey!!! I guess it just proves that Red Sox Nation rules even in Australia (true, I did see other teams, but Red Sox was most prominent and I didn't see any Yankees, which is very remarkable). Here we wandered and searched and browsed, making up our minds as we made our purchases for ourselves or others. We spent probably three hours there, but I didn't think it was near enough time!

That afternoon we went to a suburb called Brighton where they have a whole bunch of brightly painted boathouses lined up on the beach. The lighting was great, and they were so pretty! I think photographers Craig and Clyde would have drooled in contentment--I know I sure did!;) I snapped away, but only took like fifteen, when maybe I should have taken a roll (well, maybe; Craig probably would have:). We were only there just under half an hour though because Amanda had to get home and go to her Arabic lesson.

Today has kind of been a catch up day. We went to the supermarket and took a quick trip to the mall, but mostly I've been hanging around writing post cards or writing in my journal--I still have to catch up! Tonight we're going out to have Spanish donuts with a friend of Amanda's and two of her "Uni" friends. Speaking of donuts, we've discovered that people over here think it's nearly ridiculous to have donuts for breakfast! I think they think we're close to crazy or something, maybe. Amanda could hardly believe it when Kendra and I told her, and she went so far as to ask the lady at the gas station if she would ever eat donuts for breakfast. The lady replied no quite emphatically, and, since she was the friendly sort, she started to say that you would only eat donuts for breakfast if you were a "big fat guy" with nothing else to eat ("um, are you implying something?"). Okay, fellow Americans; prove I'm not crazy (maybe we all are): would YOU eat donuts for breakfast???

I'll leave you to ponder that question.

brief updates

I have added some new words to my vocabulary: "sunnies," "chewy," and "workmate." Can you figure out what they are?

I met a whole bunch of Aussies at an Italian restaurant for a birthday party. Pretty interesting. . . . they were rather interested in what I thought was the biggest difference between our countries. One of them somehow got it into his head that we were from Arkansas! "Doesn't Bill Clinton live in Arkansas?" he asked. Ah, maybe that's why I've never been there. . .

I've had my first real fish and chips meals, and I got to eat shark. . .

Went to a cheap souvenir shop yesterday. . .

Saw a couple great lookouts and visited the water. . .

Saw my first kangaroo crossing sign today. . . .

And now you've heard my very brief update from Down Undah!

From Aussie Land

All right, here I am!!! This is going to be fairly quick; perhaps I can give a lengthier report later. So far I am really enjoying Australia and Australians. Kendra and I are forever pointing at flowers, trees, and birds, and saying, "What's that called?" Other than that, driving on the left side of the road (very freaky!), and accents, Australia is mostly like my home in April. Well, maybe.

So far, I've heard Root Beer compared to fly spray, American coffee compared to burnt rubber, and Starbucks compared to dish washer fluid. Hmm. Australians' general opinion of Americans? We're "tall poppies" that need to be cut down to size. Despite this, Australians are certainly not rude; they have a great sense of humor, are quite friendly, and have great accents. I'm working on mine!

Yesterday we took the train to Melbourne took a little look at the city. We even went to the State Library and found an article about the Coronet's visit in their newspaper archives! Uncle Tim is probably very proud of us.:D

Another thing we did was go to China town to get some Chinese with Amanda's (our friend) Vietnamese friend. We silly Americans think we "like Chinese" but little do we know! The stuff that we call Chinese is barely the real deal. It was hard choosing from the lengthy menu. Hmm. . . fried eel?. . . seaweed?. . . pig's stomach? Kendra and I ended up ordering duck with noodles in boiling soy sauce.

All right, perhaps I'll write something more another time! Ta ta for now!

Flightplan

Today has been a bit frantic, as I've been making valiant attempts to pack everything I may need. Oh yeah did I mention that I'm going to Australia? Oops, I think I'm being a bit too repetitive! But as you can imagine, it's been confusing what things you can take on the plane nowadays, so that is something that is definitely a semi-stressful factor in my thinking!

Hmm, I haven't been on a plane since I watched Flightplan or Red Eye. That's a little spooky. At least I don't have anyone to lose but myself (oh dear until I hook up with Kendra), and I'll be sure to take a pen in case if I'm forced to stab somebody. Ugh. My brothers also helpfully pointed out to me that when I'm flying back from Australia to LA, it will be practically the same route that the people from Lost took when their plane crashed. Double hmm.

So as you may have guessed, the closer and closer the time comes for leaving, the more and more I'm realizing that I could use prayer in torrents, if any of you dear people happen to think of it. For one thing I have to change flights all by myself, which may be no problemo for a seasoned flyer, but I've never had to change flights when I've been on my own, and it seems to be a daunting experience. For another thing our flight is very long. We're talking nearly eighteen hours from LA, including a stop in New Zealand. Then of course there's the coming back when I come directly home and I have to change flights alone at night after I've been traveling for ages while I'm exhausted. Whew! So if you happen to think of it, your prayers would be greatly appreciated (though there's absolutely no pressure).

Hurray, now that I've asked you all to pray, probably some terrorist or assassin reading my blog will change his mind about doing some disaster on my flight! Ah, the power of prayer striketh terror into the hearts of those who would bring terror themselves!

I'd still rather that a terrorist wouldn't be reading my blog anyway. . . .

Brunette Brilliancy

I was walking along one day, minding my own business. How many stories start this way? Anyway, I was walking along the water one day with Craig during our vacation, when I saw a sign. It was on some sort of trash can (which I didn't notice at first, but since this thing was cylindrical, it explains what happened next), and it read, "BE VERAGE." This puzzled me exceedingly. What in the world does "verage" mean? And how am I supposed to "be" it if I don't even know what in the world it is? The next instant (and I do mean like literally two seconds!) it all came clear.

duh!

The sign didn't read "BE VERAGE," but actually read "BEVERAGE." (which I'm sure you figured out ages ago) Somehow or other since the sign stretched around to the other side of the rounded trash can, I thought there was a space in there somewhere. No wonder I couldn't figure out what "verage" meant!

My brilliancy doth shineth from my gleaming brunette head, doth it not?

And some people think blondes are empty headed. . . .

For Kim

I think that perhaps another person on my favorite people list is my dear second cousin Kimberly. She has just moved down to Florida for college (not before we had an outing to Chilis as a farewell party), and I know I am going to miss her. Somehow she has just always been a part of my life, right from the beginning, even when many years ago she frightened me in a game where she put on eye shadow and talked about icy fingers around my throat. What I've especially enjoyed the past few years though is getting to know her more and more as a special friend.

I even recall when they were making up decathlon teams, I actually prayed that I would be on Kim's te am because I knew that if anyone could make me feel comfortable and be an exhorter even if our team didn't do well, Kimberly could. This especially happened after a stressful game of indoor soccer that we lost partly because one of the points had been made when the ball bounced off my shin and into the goal. I was on the verge of tears, and Kimberly gave me a big hug and told me honestly that it really didn't matter.

I also remember the time she was editing a movie for us that I had actually already seen (unedited). She actually took the time to pray before the movie and I think I enjoyed the movie triply more than I expected!

I also loved roaming the mall with her last Christmas season when I couldn't be with my mom for shopping reasons but I wanted to be with somebody. We spent the whole time together and talked for most of it! She even took me into her confidence and later had me deliver gifts to her earthling so that Elizabeth wouldn't suspect her. What's more, Elizabeth never did!

There's a lot of positive things I could try to say about Kim, but they would barely skim the surface.

However. . . . . .

Kimberly is fun

encouraging

friendly

great at volle yball

witty

athletic

speedy runner

good conversationalist

interesting photographer

strong singer

has a good taste for clothing (I've thought so anyway)

willing to pray and testify genuinely (always something I appreciate in a young person)

sensitive

joyful

diligent

seems to love everybody

and is loved by everybody

I appreciate her

she'll leave a hole in the Fairwood circle

I love her

and I'll miss her a lot!

(if you love Kimberly like me, you can comment lots and lots!:D)

Catalysts

Yesterday I read something unusual in my biology book. Here it is: "It is often said that a person 'burns' up his food or 'burns' off fat. These expressions are not merely figures of speech; they are accurate. The food is combined with oxygen for the release of energy, almost as if the food had been set on fire. The difference, which prevents a person from cooking himself as he digests his dinner, is a complex system of organic catalysts."

Oh me oh my! Has it ever occurred to you that without these vital catalysts we could all be dead meat, literally speaking? Somehow the proposition of cooking oneself seems an extraoridinary one. I recently finished reading Robinson Crusoe, so I kind of have cannibals in my mind. I suppose if any of the cannibals in South America had been really smart, they would have removed these catalysts and fed their victims, saving themselves the problem of cooking their dinner. What a morbid thought. . .

But thank the Lord for our organic catalysts!

A Briefly Very Long Summary of My Vacation.

I travel far and see quite much

I now fly home, the ground I touch

The sky is pink, and golden too

The clouds and mountains both are blue

My house is familiar, though strangely still,

It calmly welcomes, at its own will

I've seen much beauty; but wherever I roam

I now come to realize that the best is at home!

These words of the soon to be famous writer--er, me, hit home in a bittersweet way. I've been away for awhile, and I've been inclined to feel sad and sluggish that my longed for vacation is now over, but at the same time I appreciate the greatness of being at home, even if I am busy. So even if I do feel a little bit blothpick----but this is ridiculous!!! Why should a sensible girl like me feel sad over leaving Canada when in less than a week I'll be in Australia!!! Hello?! I think I should take some sort of sanity test or something. (Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to knock Canada in the slightest, but I think my reader will understand)

But I've gotten ahead of myself. If perhaps you never read Craig's blog (which is very unlikely), you may have absolutely no idea where I've been, although I've hinted at it. So, although I don't know what others in my family have written, I shall write as much or as less as I jolly well please, and you may be able to read someone else's blog in my family for a more rounded view.

We set out a week ago last Saturday, our mini van being a bit overstuffed. We then proceeded to pick up my brother at his condo. . . and we realized that it was a good thing that Kendra wasn't with us!(no offense to you, dear sister) Not only did we have our roof top carrier loaded with sleeping bags, camping supplies, and cooking utensils, but the back was practically stuffed to the ceiling with all assortments of things. Although I may have at first felt bad for packing a bulky duffel bag, my guilt dissipated much when I saw what some of my brothers were bringing. I thought I was bad! Okay, okay, do we really have to take three lap tops in this family? A keyboard too? Now why do you have to take such a humongous backpack on top of your camera bag, computer, squish pillow, and suitcase? You must also remember that we had to take all our own regular pillows as well, not only because many of us prefer to for travelling, but we were planning on some camping. Now maybe Jacob is okay with a rock for a pillow, but I certainly am not! To top it all off, it doesn't help when so many big guys in our family wear size thirteen in shoes, so they have to carry those separately as well, then there are the usual snacks, blankets, etc. I suppose you probably got the picture a long time ago, especially if you've ever had a fair number of people cramped into small quarters for a long time! My poor brothers have had to train their legs to become accordions so that they can fit in the car! ;)

Next we drove down to Gloucester, after taking a wrong turn into some random private company ("Neil I don't think there's any other way out of here," my mom attempted to persuade my dad to turn around). Here we picked up Craig who had been doing music for a friend's wedding reception. Clyde got out of the car to "stretch his hoppers," (that is certainly an expression I seem to have missed) and pretty soon Craig came out in his stocking feet because he didn't want to take his dress shoes all the way to Canada with us (he left them with another friend). Hmm, problem is, we didn't know where in all the clutter were his shoes, so when we came to a rest area he was rather puzzled. I gamely suggested Chad's water shoes, which he wore, and although they proved to be wet, it was just as well because that's the only use those shoes got all vacation.

That night we stayed at the Randall's camp, and here we experienced a new appreciation for running water since we had none, and we soon found out that this was an appreciation that was to be stirred in us at least twice more on our trip, as we stayed at campgrounds and also had a time when our running water stopped running! We all went to bed at similar times and gave each other salutary good nights like, "Good night John boy," just like the Waltons.

The next day we headed on up to Canada, but we took a fairly out of the way route to go visit the easternmost point in the United States. No, that point is not in New York or Massechusetts, as some interesting bibleschool students were guessing in a game of quiz boll, but in Maine itself. There was actually a lighthouse (called West Quoddy, for those of you who may be interested), and here we once again enjoyed the refreshment of taking photographs of yet another lighthouse. I have seen so many lighthouses this year I am tempted to be sick of them, but this one had red stripes which made it all the more delightful.

After our little detour we headed on up into Nova Scotia to stay in a town. Now this town has an old legend. When the Irish were settling in those parts, they built what is called Irishtown (which later became the town dump), as well as a town right next to it by a small bay, where they later became famous for their salt and silver pewter. Well when they came to the naming of the town, they were quite stumped. It seemed they had used up all their puny imaginations when they christened their other town, and when it came right down to it they couldn't think of any good name except Irishtown, which of course wouldn't do since that was the name of the neighboring town. So the leader (who soon became mayor, if Canada has such things) asked his council of trustees what they thought they should name the town. There was a silence, and then a small voice called out, "Oh, pugwash!" And thus it was officially called for lack of a better name. Now later the story came out that the name Pugwash was not suggested by any of the trustees at all, but rather by a little boy. He had been having a quiet argument with another little boy at the back of the room, concerning whether pugs are blue or pink. Well, this little boy got so fed up with the other boy's theory of pugs being blue that he searched his brain for the best exclamation. Of course he meant to say hogwash, but since he couldn't remember it properly, instead he cried, "Oh, Pugwash!" Here we must point out that a careless exclamation can often have drastic, and sometimes tragic, effects. And now I should probably stop making up stories and get on with the facts.

. . . on up into Nova Scotia to stay in a town called Pugwash. Now who ever came up with a name like that? All I can figure is that it means something in some language, someone was really weird, or people actually liked to wash their pugs in the bay there. Anyway, here we had arranged to rent an old house. I have no idea exactly how old it really was, except very old, but I do know that since the time it was built someone tried to redecorate it in the fifties and that was just the way it had been left, in good old fifties style. Some of the doorways were low or crooked (the boys bumped their heads occasionally), and we did have a little mountain in the living room floor and a slant where the kitchen table was located, but other than that the place was very satisfactory.

The next couple days were spent in hanging around and exploring the town, including a friendly dinner visit with Mr. Phil and Mrs. Bev (an odd way of putting it but I'm trying to be discreet:). Nothing too much to report except relaxation bordering boredom.

On Wednesday we set out for Cape Breton Island. This was truly a marvelous trip. The weather was pretty, and we took great pleasure in the grand look outs we had over the blue blue ocean far below and the dramatic cliffs. We were frequently reminded of Norway and Scotland (even though none of us have ever been to the latter). Also on this sometimes precipitous drive we were extremely thankful that our breaks worked, (even if we were having problems with the car battery) as well as the seemingly functioning breaks of the semi truck in front of us creeping up a hill, or the one coming barreling down in the other lane. We weren't as concerned with the Porche's breaks in front of us, because probably if it had fallen backwards they wouldn't have flattened us like the truck would have.;) We camped that night, reliving our camping days which we hadn't experienced for roughly four years, and we even made the standard fire with s'mores, even if the campground was cheap in selling us wet wood.

The next day we broke camp and set out of the national park, taking the longer but more scenic route home. Here I will note that we observed a peculiar Canadian love for brightly colored Adirondack chairs. It wasn't too unusual for us to pass an array of neon green, pink, yellow, and red chairs sitting casually in front of someone's house, or by a random pond. Occasionally if the opportunity arose, we would take advantage of these picturesque subjects using our cameras, capturing yellow or red ones by a beach or next to the water. Perhaps someday you will get to see them yourselves, after I get my film developed.

After stopping at a relaxing, though jelly fish strewed, beach for lunch and strolls with our cameras, we eventually meandered on to our temporary home, after a stop at Dairy Queen of course.

On Friday we went down to Halifax. Here we got to see Peggy's Cove with its flocks of tourists, plus an odd older lady singing and playing the accordion right next to the lighthouse. After browsing here we went on to the city of Halifax itself, where we got to watch the busker displays along the water. Here we observed a man flipping a teapot with a stick he held in his mouth, as well as him transferring the teapot from one stick on his chin, to another stick on his forehead, without using his hands. This was impressive, but more impressive still I think were the break dancers. There was quite a crowd around this little group from the Bronx, New York, and this group consisted of what we believe was a black family of three boys (one of them being about eleven years old perhaps) and a father. Now the guys were the break dancers, not the father (he was a little too wide in the girth for that sort of job), but he announced and directed the group still. I had never seen real break dancing before, so this was a new and interesting experience. First they mostly took turns doing tricks, frequently with music in the background, but sooner or later they were doing synchronized stuff. Now, I have seen people do flips off of trees, but I have never seen them do it off a person, and that is just what one of the guys did with his dad. That was unusual indeed, at least for me. Then they began calling for volunteers from the crowd, to come forward and do things like little contests with their own kind of dancing. This was a scary part actually because they were picking some tall guys, and when a guy got called upon right in front of us, my brothers were a little bit nervous. Craig went so far as to remove his baseball cap since that was often used as an identifying factor to single someone out from the crowd. Luckily, they didn't get called upon. A lot more could be said about the whole thing but I'm not going to bother. After all this we then had another friendly dinner visit with Ken and Marea, plus their whole family. We met Graham's (sp?) wife, who is very sweet and talkative, had some laughs, then went back "home."

On Sunday we left our rental house for good and headed out for Prince Edward Island. I've been there before but it's been about nine years, so I didn't really remember it extremely well. Our stay there lasted for two nights and it went all right, but we were disappointed with car trouble and that it rained both days we were there, then started to clear up the morning we left. One of these damp nights was a camping night, which left us (and our sleeping bags) a bit uncomfortable, but nothing soaking. Fortunately we stayed in a motel the next night. Despite all these negative factors however, we still had a good time. We took some windy strolls on the red beach, Craig and I visited Green Gables and took a bunch of pictures, plus Clyde, Craig, and I went to the Woodleigh Replicas and Gardens. This was really interesting because it consisted of a lot of fountains, gardens, and outdoor miniatures of famous buildings, estates, churches, and castles in England. Some of them were big enough to go inside of, so we got to explore the nooks of a fortress, admire the crown jewels, see St. Paul's Cathedral where the bird woman in Mary Poppins sat, traverse the spooky hall of a dungeon, or go into a bloody tower, or under the Tower of London. On Monday evening a bunch of us went to see Anne of Green Gables, the musical. This we enjoyed immensely, although it was rather expensive, and now I'm raving about the songs, the book, the movie, and everything! L.M. Montgomery actually had her first poem published when she was fifteen! That makes me feel like I better get busy.:) Anyway, concerning the play, it truly was amazing how someone that was twenty could transform themselves to look and behave like an eleven or twelve year old! Of course it wasn't wholly convincing at first, since I could tell that Anne and others were a lot older than they were supposed to be, but once I decided to see them as being much younger, it came quite naturally. That is what I would call either talented or uncanny.

Finally, on Tuesday we got up and drove on home, although we faced some car trouble and had to be jumped a couple of times. So that is a briefly long summary of our vacation. I realize that a bunch of my narrative may have been boring, but I've considered it and decided that it's still a part of my life anyway, and you probably wouldn't be reading this if you weren't a wee bit interested in what's happening in my life, and plus you really don't have to read my blog at all, so there! Whew! Pep talks to myself can be a bit tiring.

So now, just in case I don't post on my blog before I leave, I shall say farewell until my return! Unless if I find extra time on my hands along with some internet access over there, who knows? Maybe I'll surprise you with a post from Down Under!

A tiny glimpse of D.C.

As I look over my pictures once again, I am reminded that I was blessed enough to make a trip to Washington D.C. this year twice. I've been there a fair number of times throughout my life so far, but I have never been privileged to take pictures like I did this time--in fact, I think I may have had more interest in taking pictures than going to museums!

But anyway, I particularly recommend that you visit our capital in the springtime, because it can be sooooo beautiful! Especially when we went at the tail end of March and the cherry blossoms were out everywhere! That made us very happy indeed.

So, in case you haven't already guessed or noticed, I have just a few of the many pictures I had fun snapping:

Lighthouses!

In case the info may or may not have reached you, I got a new camera!!! Like over four months ago. Anyway, it's a film Nikon N75 (it's like Clyde's for those of you who don't know cameras but have seen his), and when I compare it to my former $14 Wal-Mart camera, it's practically using a piece of heaven. Ahhhh. . . . anyway, as you can imagine, I've taken a few pictures with it.:) However, since it is a film camera it's taken me awhile to get around to scanning any so I can share them with ya'll. Well I haven't even begun to scan all of them, but I've done about fifty of them, and maybe gradually I'll post a couple here and there so you can take a peek of what my life has been like lately--through pictures.

Last March we went lighthouse hunting--and here are a few pictures! hehe *surprise surprise*

True Living Fountains. . . . . take my advice and don't drink!

Zarah was the one who started it. Why am I not surprised? We were in Concord, MA, in a rather stately courtyard with a large circle of stones in the middle, when Zarah perched herself on one of these and took the elegant pose of a fountain. Instantaneously this inspired Diane T. and me also, so much so that when I looked over at Diane I was rather horrified to see a little foam trickling around her lips. That sure wouldn't do for me! So instead I leaned out and added a more Grecian flare by shooting a graceful stream of spittle out from my mouth. This amused, and not to mention shocked, everyone. As I was doing it again for the sake of Meredith's camera, Andrea, who was on the other side of the circle, jumped back with a squeal.

Oops.

I must have spat a little farther than I meant to.

I was just apologizing when Zarah turned to me and said in an impressed, conspiratorially manner, "Hey not bad--that was like nine feet man, slap me five!"

Only Zarah could make me not feel bad for accidentally spitting someone like Andrea.

The Miracle Purse

My mom brought me home a purse the other day. She picked it up at the PRC (which stands for Pregnancy Resource Center, and it's an organization my mom volunteers at), and since they were just going to get rid of it, she snatched it for me in case I wanted it. I was a bit unsure as I looked at it. It's red, with brown leathery handstraps. I don't have anything against red, but I know there are at least four other colors above it in my favorites list. Besides, I actually have two purses that I like quite a bit: a purple one that I picked up at Good Will in Florida, and a colorful striped one that Diane R. gave me. So I was a bit skeptical as I took the purse, although I was grateful that my mom thought of picking it up for me, and I still liked the purse even if I don't really need it. Supposedly it was brand new, though I don't know where it came from, and opening it up I saw some white tissue paper inside for stuffing, plus something else. . . . .

"Why is there a twenty-dollar bill in here?" I asked my mom. She didn't know, but we promptly took it out and she put it in an envelope to return to the Care Net (or PRC). I wondered a little bit at how it almost seemed divinely appointed that there should be a twenty-dollar bill that I certainly could use with my trip coming up. . . but I never really questioned that it should definitely go back to where it came from, that is to a good Christian organization that I'm sure could always use the money. So I let the event pass from my mind, with only a little wonderment.

Yesterday after my mom got back from her volunteering, she said to me at the dinner table, "Oh, I have a nice surprise for you." I honestly had no idea what it was. Did she buy me the environmentally shampoo I had been thinking about getting so I can wash my hair in the lake? Was it candy? Were my reprints in early at Ritz? Or what? I sat in suspense as she went over and fumbled in her purse for what seemed like ages. She came back and handed me something. You guessed it. The twenty dollars. Then she explained that her "boss" had said that we could keep the money, because as far as she knew it wasn't given to the PRC, and if we hadn't taken the purse it would have gone to Planet Aid and whoever would have received it would have gotten to keep the money, so why shouldn't we? My mom didn't argue.

That was a pleasant surprise indeed!

So remind yourself next time you open a new purse or wallet to make sure there isn't any money in it! Maybe God put it there for you.

I'm thinking that just maybe I'll keep the purse now. :)

Convincing Infestations

I was eating my salad, minding my own business. Then I thought I saw a tiny bug crawl under my lettuce.

HORROR OF HORRORS!!!!!

Or, a more eloquent way of describing it is:

Eww!

Then I found out that it wasn't a bug after all. It was just a tiny seed of sorts swimming in my Greek dressing. Isn't it amazing how your brain can convince you of strange things, even for a brief second?

That was anticlimactic.

Winner of the Beauty Pageant

If you remember (or maybe you most certainly do not, with very good reasons) I wrote a vewy vewy long time ago (like a year or more) about A Little Lass Named Olga. If you wish to read that post, you can probably find it in my archives. However, I never posted a picture of my little Olga so I thought I would now. Isn't she a beauty?