recap

i just washed the dishes, so yay me.


may totally flew by with such vigor that its impressive, and even though i posted 10 times in may, i pretty much feel like i havent.
so now that june is upon me without any warning whatsoever, i will do a quick recap on how my lovely month of may went. complete with a few pictures.
i will skimp on many details, or else this post will be about 6 pages long, and i dont really want that =P
in one word, it was: fabulous.
i loved it.
i feel like i was all over the place, and ive been SO happy.
i think its safe to say it was my happiest month so far.


here is what happened, in snippets.
on the 14th and 15th, i was in jacksonville
a group of people from church (including Girlfriend) went there to do a passover play, and i accompanied them because i had  that day off. i got to wear hebrew-looking costumes, and hold palm tree leaves, and dance. it was such fun.
whilst in jacksonville, we met a most interesting group of guys, and we hit it off with them immediately. we talked and talked and talked, and then we had to go to our hotel and sleep. but the next day, we saw them again, and had them sit with us for lunch after church, and talked some more.
side note: a lady that went with us asked me if i knew the guys from somewhere. i told her no, id never seen them before in my life, and had just met them. she couldnt believe it.
we found out that they live in atlanta, and went to a purple church. a PURPLE church (purple=obsession color). i made plans immediately to visit as soon as time would allow. Girlfriend was all for it.
on the 15th, we said goodbye to our new friends, and promised that we would visit them. soon. (they wouldnt tell us so, but they didnt really believe that we would come). that night, we came home, and departed to our separate homes. both of us informed our parents of our atlanta plans with no hesitation. her parents were okay with it, my mother did not quite agree. the next 4 days were a huge hassle. convince mother to allow, make sure Girlfriend was still allowed, work out obstacles and such, and whatnot else. finally, FINALLY, on that friday night (the 20th) we were definitely able to go. we were ecstatic. i went to her house and helped her pack. her mother let us use their gps. she alone packed about 7 bags of stuff. i took her to my house to stay the night.

we were up by 5:30am, and we couldnt be more excited. mother helped us a bit with packing the car up, and pops tended to the car. made sure the oil was normal, and all that good stuff. we left right around 7:20 or 7:30, right into the rising sun. it was very pretty. we filled up the car, got ourselves on the road, and drove for a straight 3 hours. then we made our first stop, mostly because we really had to use the ladies room =P also, we took some pictures. see below.

then we were off again. around 10 or 11, we decided to stop for breakfast at waffle house. she has never been to waffle house before, WHAAAAAATTT!!!! anyway, we had our delicious breakfasts. i had a chocolate chip pecan waffle, she had a chocolate chip strawberry one. and a cup of coffee each. yum.

from there, we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove the last 3 or 4 hours all the way to atlanta, with one more stop. for gas. and some more pictures. hanging out on bridges and stuff.

 maybe i should mention that we told ONE of the guys that we were coming for sure. just one. and maybe i should also mention the fact that one of them was having a birthday party. and we were totally going to show up. without him knowing. so anyway, we got to the hotel, unpacked the car, packed the room (its so nice having a lovely brother already checked into a hotel, and its even nicer if the lovely brother kinda lets you TOTALLY CLAIM his room), changed, did our hair and makeup, and practically ran downstairs, because we were sooooo excited, and completely ready to shock the socks off a person we met a week ago by showing up at his birthday party. the receptionist took this picture:
im in the orange. Girlfriend is in the white.

we may as well have exploded, what with all the excitement going on inside of us. we almost got lost on the way to the house, but it was all fixed up with a quick phone call and person-given directions. we arrived to the house. said our hellos and hugs to the one guy who knew we were there. he pointed out the house to us, so we ran off. we didnt even know what to do. we were so nervous, and so excited, you cant even imagine. soooo we knocked on the door, and stood there. it was opened by one of the guys we met. us: "hello" him: blank stare. then, "WHAT!!???" we asked if we could come in, so he stepped aside, and we came in. and were greeted by 6 unbelieving stares in our direction. there was silence for about 15 straight seconds. birthday boy, who was not in immediate view of the door, saw that his friends were acting a bit peculiar, so he went to investigate. as he saw us, he also gave us the unbelieving look of OMGWOWICANTBELIEVETHIS!!! what he said: "wow!! are you guys serious????"
what i answered: "no, we're no, actually. this is actually all a big joke. we're not actually here or anything." my word, their faces. it was the best thing ever. the look of pure surprised disbelief was probably the greatest highlight of that trip. they all spent the next 5 minutes wrapping their heads around the fact that WE WERE THERE!! and then we talked a lot and laughed a lot, and they "wow"ed a lot. then there were more pictures. that is, in fact, birthday boy.

then there was more talking and laughing, and games and lots of fun stuff. we went home that night feeling very very tired and very drained.

evidently.

the next day, we went to the beloved purple church, and i was not very disappointed in all the purpleness. but alas, shame on me, i did not take picture of it =/
we also visited a hibachi grill, which was very interesting. our cook threw eggs at us and expected us to catch them. with our teeth. we also went swimming, fully clothed. neither of us had available swimsuits, so we improvised, and used the guys clothes. also very interesting. and we made a spontaneous choice to stay till tuesday instead of the originally planned monday. later that night, we visited a houseful of guys (think 8 guys living in one house) and cooked for them. borsch, a russian/ukrainian soup was our treat.
went home that night exhausted.
the next day (monday), we had to check out of our hotel. sad =(

the saddest part about it was that we were officially homeless for the night, until we found a definite place to stay. =D
that day, we visited the guy house again, stocked their fridge, cleaned their garage, organized their pantry, and went shopping. then we came back, and cooked for them again. this time it was chicken alfredo. i had no idea i could cook that deliciously. it was so good. we all ate, and then went to a bible study, and found a place to stay the night.
the next day, tuesday, we basically did nothing. woke up, ate, sat around, talked. i had met birthday boys cousin at the party, and he wanted to learn russian, so i was teaching him an array of words. then we went shopping one last time, and i acquired for myself................... a mustache shirt. oh yes.

i think its very sexy.

ha

and under the stache, it says "INCOGNITO"

we then went home, packed the car, said our goodbyes, and left. to the guy house. 3 or 4 of them were actually home, so we said our goodbyes, passed hugs all around, and finally left. the drive home was much much longer than the drive there. maybe it just seemed way longer.

but anyway, it was definitely the weekend of a lifetime.

then, this past weekend (27, 28, 29th) (3 days after coming home from atlanta), i was at camp. church camp. it was great fun. i helped in the kitchen again, and had a great time. a cook from last year was there again, and he recognized me, and remembered me. and spent a lot of time poking fun at me. and just plain yelling at me (in a joking matter, though, so it was okay). "dont you have some dishes to wash?" "those dishes aren't gonna wash themselves, you know" "you BROKE my dishwasher!!!" "dont you have hair to maintain or something?" have i ever mentioned that my hair is long? well, i dont think its very long, but its not short. and people kept asking how i manage to take care of it. in case youre wondering, the answer is: with lots of patience.

i made a best friend (actually, i met a very cool kid, and he was very very cool, and he referred to me as his best friend, soo), and ALL i know about him is that his name is jason. thats it. i even forgot to ask where hes from. =( what a forgetful pea. ah, well. things like that do happen. i did have a wonderful time, though. it was fantastic. oh, and on the way home from camp, we stopped somewhere and had delicious sushi. it was sooooooooo good. yum.

and in the month of may, i must have given at least 15 spontaneous massages. haha, i suppose word gets around that i dont mind giving them, so people say "hey, you wanna give me a massage?" and so i say sure and go along about it. ive been told that i give very good ones, but i dont know. i guess i have to take their word for it.

and that was my may in a nutshell.

or a cap.

=)

oh, one more thing.

i made strawberry jam today.

its so delicious.

come over for tea.

ill let you take a wild guess at who

will have a very hard time

ingesting storebought jam

from now on.