Maybe I could use pinecones to spell out the words 'big jew' in letters 15 feet tall across my lawn!
So, as promised, here is the remainder of my trip update.
I was gone for two weeks. Jared drove me up to Union where I spent two days before borrowing the parental's car and heading up to Portland. I had a dentist appointment scheduled on Wednesday. I went and as expected, it was a pointless one. However, I explained my predicament to the office and they were super cool. They managed to get me in for two more appointments that day, and another the next. While that meant that I spent an entire day at the dentis with my mouth wedged open, it also meant that I got all the work done that I needed. Some of this work included building up one broken tooth, a couple of fillings, and a root canal. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed the root canal. Especially the part where 10 minutes before he was done he had to numb up a little more by sticking the needle right in the roof of my mouth. Half of my face was numb, including my lower eyelid and half of my nose. Odd sensation, that. I kept meaning to get a picture of my deformed smile but I forgot. Suffice it to say, it was intense. And I now have basically a silver tooth. Very pirate. But, the very best part of this is that for all the work I only had to pay a total of $15, $5 every day I visited. How fantastic is that?! My dad has good insurance.
So, all my dentistry lasted through the end of the first week and on to Tuesday of the next. In my non-dentisting time I got to hang out with Mandi quite a bit and that was absolutely fantastic. She is, hands down, one of my favorite people in the world. And I'm not just saying that because she reads this blog (hi Mandi!). It's true. She is one of the sweetest people I've ever met and is never embarassed to give a compliment. Can't wait to see her when she comes down here in a day or two with her mom. Anyway, we watched a couple of movies and went to Powel's (the dinky one round Cedar Hills but still totaly awesome) and she made me dinner. We also had a rootbeer drinking party at which we watched our particular favorite movie, She's the Man. It was awesome. And also, Jasmine cut and colored my hair for me. Looks very awesome if I do say so myself. What's funny is that even though it's a heck of a lot darker about half of my friends didn't even notice it. I take that as a sign that it is a totaly natural color for me. It is, at last, the perfect color for which I have been searching for ages. A nice rich auburny brown. Not too red, but definitely reddish. I'm a fan.
Along with Mandi, I also spent some time with the father and his wife. I got to play with the little corgi puppies that are in the house at the moment. Very adorable. And best of all, I got to see my kitty again! Ol' Bruce seems to be doing really well. I really think he might be one of the nicest tempered cats in the entire world. I give myself partial credit for this. I treated him well in his youth so he managed to escape many of the neuroses of other cats. He's totaly chill to be picked up. He plays with the other dogs. He's pretty much the greatest cat ever. His only flaw is his long hair. He was shedding while I was there and I came home with many souveneirs. But a good daily brushing would solve most of that problem. It was really nice seeing him. I haven't given up hope that I will find somewhere down here that will let me have him. Good luck to me.
So, Tuesday being my last dentist appointment, I headed back to Union on Wednesday. Jared (with Daniel) was coming up the same day for Kami's wedding and my understanding was that we were heading back either Monday or Tuesday of the next week. So, I was looking at almost another full week with the parentals. As it turned out, I came back Sunday as Daniel got a call about a possible job for which he needed to interview on Monday. This was sad in that we weren't able to have the big family dinner planned for Sunday. Erin and the girls were going to come out, and grandma and grandpa as well. But Saturday Dan and I went over to visit the grands. Those visits are always somewhat bittersweet as you can't help but see how both of them are hardly a fraction of what they were. Grandma is going crazy and Grandpa is getting so very old and tired. He used to be a giant to me. A huge, hardworking man. Now I'm taller than him. How can I be taller than him?! And grandma is no longer the clever funny woman I remember. But, this is a happy post so I'm not going there. Suffice it to say, we saw them and on the whole it was a nice visit.
One thing I took from their house was a new practical appreciation for abrynne and narniadear 's favorite Bear Grylls. Man vs. Wild was on at the grandparents. I've never actually seen the show before, just heard about it. As it turns out, there was a whole marathon going on. I got to see quite a few episodes, including one where he butchers a yak, drinks it blood straight from the throat, rips out its liver and eats it, and munches down the eyeball. Perhaps one of the most disgusting things I've ever witnessed in my life. But I think my favorite thing about the show is how he'll say something like "Now, one of the most dangerous things that can happen to you is "x". I'm going to go ahead and do it so you can see what to do if this happens." Fall in a giant ice crevasse? He'll show you how to get out. Get burried by an avalanche? He did it first, on purpose. I'm just waiting for him to purposely break his own leg to show you how to make a tourniquet out of bamboo shoots and walk out 7 miles on it. The man is absolutely insane! I can see why people love him.
Mom's pet project while we were there was cleaning out the shed in which all Dan and my stuff was residing. Daniel loved the fact that he was taking barely a fraction of the space that I was. But in my defence, half of my space was devoted to my books. My mom tried to force me to get rid of some of the books. No deal. In my own defence, as we went through them even she had to admit that I couldn't get rid of any of them. So, we just ended up consolidating them all from individual (mobile) boxes into one massive trunk that will never move again untill I pack them back out into more individual boxes. But aside from the books I did get rid of a bunch of stuff. All my papers and things from high school are now trashed (this is a wee bit sad in that all my sucky high school writing is now gone forever) as well as three boxes of really quite hideous clothing. I mean, I've always known that I dressed like a hobo in high school, but really? Some of tha stuff was so awful. But super cool! I did find my LOTR miniature sword replica letter opener! I think it is Aragorn's sword but it's been so long I'm not sure and there's nothing anywhere that says. But how cool is that?! Yeah, brought that back with me to open all my mail. Very exciting.
Anyway, other than the shed cleaning, I think the only other activity worth mentioning would be out shooting venture. It's a long tradition that when we come home we go shooting. Mom and dad save all their bottles and such between outings and we test out abilities. Even mom came this time, which was unusual. It was very fun and everyone managed to stay in a good mood for the whole thing. And that was my visit home.
The drive back to Provo was mostly uneventful. We had to leave early so we could drop Kara off at the airport in Boise, and then we just drove almost straight through to Utah. The only bit of excitement came at out one stop in Tremonton where a hitch hiker was standing on the side of the road. Daniel decided that we were going to give the man a ride. I was not especially keene on this plan, even having hitch hiked once myself, but Daniel set his heart on it so we stopped. In the end we didn't have enough room for his stuff so we had to leave him there. But Daniel gave him a bottle of water and his bag of gardettos (and then spent the rest of the trip whining that he wanted them) and we left him there.
And that was the trip. There is nothing more to say, so I won't say anything more.
I was gone for two weeks. Jared drove me up to Union where I spent two days before borrowing the parental's car and heading up to Portland. I had a dentist appointment scheduled on Wednesday. I went and as expected, it was a pointless one. However, I explained my predicament to the office and they were super cool. They managed to get me in for two more appointments that day, and another the next. While that meant that I spent an entire day at the dentis with my mouth wedged open, it also meant that I got all the work done that I needed. Some of this work included building up one broken tooth, a couple of fillings, and a root canal. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed the root canal. Especially the part where 10 minutes before he was done he had to numb up a little more by sticking the needle right in the roof of my mouth. Half of my face was numb, including my lower eyelid and half of my nose. Odd sensation, that. I kept meaning to get a picture of my deformed smile but I forgot. Suffice it to say, it was intense. And I now have basically a silver tooth. Very pirate. But, the very best part of this is that for all the work I only had to pay a total of $15, $5 every day I visited. How fantastic is that?! My dad has good insurance.
So, all my dentistry lasted through the end of the first week and on to Tuesday of the next. In my non-dentisting time I got to hang out with Mandi quite a bit and that was absolutely fantastic. She is, hands down, one of my favorite people in the world. And I'm not just saying that because she reads this blog (hi Mandi!). It's true. She is one of the sweetest people I've ever met and is never embarassed to give a compliment. Can't wait to see her when she comes down here in a day or two with her mom. Anyway, we watched a couple of movies and went to Powel's (the dinky one round Cedar Hills but still totaly awesome) and she made me dinner. We also had a rootbeer drinking party at which we watched our particular favorite movie, She's the Man. It was awesome. And also, Jasmine cut and colored my hair for me. Looks very awesome if I do say so myself. What's funny is that even though it's a heck of a lot darker about half of my friends didn't even notice it. I take that as a sign that it is a totaly natural color for me. It is, at last, the perfect color for which I have been searching for ages. A nice rich auburny brown. Not too red, but definitely reddish. I'm a fan.
Along with Mandi, I also spent some time with the father and his wife. I got to play with the little corgi puppies that are in the house at the moment. Very adorable. And best of all, I got to see my kitty again! Ol' Bruce seems to be doing really well. I really think he might be one of the nicest tempered cats in the entire world. I give myself partial credit for this. I treated him well in his youth so he managed to escape many of the neuroses of other cats. He's totaly chill to be picked up. He plays with the other dogs. He's pretty much the greatest cat ever. His only flaw is his long hair. He was shedding while I was there and I came home with many souveneirs. But a good daily brushing would solve most of that problem. It was really nice seeing him. I haven't given up hope that I will find somewhere down here that will let me have him. Good luck to me.
So, Tuesday being my last dentist appointment, I headed back to Union on Wednesday. Jared (with Daniel) was coming up the same day for Kami's wedding and my understanding was that we were heading back either Monday or Tuesday of the next week. So, I was looking at almost another full week with the parentals. As it turned out, I came back Sunday as Daniel got a call about a possible job for which he needed to interview on Monday. This was sad in that we weren't able to have the big family dinner planned for Sunday. Erin and the girls were going to come out, and grandma and grandpa as well. But Saturday Dan and I went over to visit the grands. Those visits are always somewhat bittersweet as you can't help but see how both of them are hardly a fraction of what they were. Grandma is going crazy and Grandpa is getting so very old and tired. He used to be a giant to me. A huge, hardworking man. Now I'm taller than him. How can I be taller than him?! And grandma is no longer the clever funny woman I remember. But, this is a happy post so I'm not going there. Suffice it to say, we saw them and on the whole it was a nice visit.
One thing I took from their house was a new practical appreciation for abrynne and narniadear 's favorite Bear Grylls. Man vs. Wild was on at the grandparents. I've never actually seen the show before, just heard about it. As it turns out, there was a whole marathon going on. I got to see quite a few episodes, including one where he butchers a yak, drinks it blood straight from the throat, rips out its liver and eats it, and munches down the eyeball. Perhaps one of the most disgusting things I've ever witnessed in my life. But I think my favorite thing about the show is how he'll say something like "Now, one of the most dangerous things that can happen to you is "x". I'm going to go ahead and do it so you can see what to do if this happens." Fall in a giant ice crevasse? He'll show you how to get out. Get burried by an avalanche? He did it first, on purpose. I'm just waiting for him to purposely break his own leg to show you how to make a tourniquet out of bamboo shoots and walk out 7 miles on it. The man is absolutely insane! I can see why people love him.
Mom's pet project while we were there was cleaning out the shed in which all Dan and my stuff was residing. Daniel loved the fact that he was taking barely a fraction of the space that I was. But in my defence, half of my space was devoted to my books. My mom tried to force me to get rid of some of the books. No deal. In my own defence, as we went through them even she had to admit that I couldn't get rid of any of them. So, we just ended up consolidating them all from individual (mobile) boxes into one massive trunk that will never move again untill I pack them back out into more individual boxes. But aside from the books I did get rid of a bunch of stuff. All my papers and things from high school are now trashed (this is a wee bit sad in that all my sucky high school writing is now gone forever) as well as three boxes of really quite hideous clothing. I mean, I've always known that I dressed like a hobo in high school, but really? Some of tha stuff was so awful. But super cool! I did find my LOTR miniature sword replica letter opener! I think it is Aragorn's sword but it's been so long I'm not sure and there's nothing anywhere that says. But how cool is that?! Yeah, brought that back with me to open all my mail. Very exciting.
Anyway, other than the shed cleaning, I think the only other activity worth mentioning would be out shooting venture. It's a long tradition that when we come home we go shooting. Mom and dad save all their bottles and such between outings and we test out abilities. Even mom came this time, which was unusual. It was very fun and everyone managed to stay in a good mood for the whole thing. And that was my visit home.
The drive back to Provo was mostly uneventful. We had to leave early so we could drop Kara off at the airport in Boise, and then we just drove almost straight through to Utah. The only bit of excitement came at out one stop in Tremonton where a hitch hiker was standing on the side of the road. Daniel decided that we were going to give the man a ride. I was not especially keene on this plan, even having hitch hiked once myself, but Daniel set his heart on it so we stopped. In the end we didn't have enough room for his stuff so we had to leave him there. But Daniel gave him a bottle of water and his bag of gardettos (and then spent the rest of the trip whining that he wanted them) and we left him there.
And that was the trip. There is nothing more to say, so I won't say anything more.