Entry Three (and 1/2)

Sweet dreams, self. I signed offline this morning and slept for three hours . . . well, I laid in bed and half-slept for about 3/4 of that. The day turned into a somewhat frustrating (mapquest didn't work well) but overall quite fun/fine day. I let the cat in from the garage when I got up, and put her out on her leash. Then I drank a glass of milk and watched the last 3/4 of Sweet Home Alabama -- which is currently my favorite movie.

I went over to a friend's house at 2:00 and hung with her for awhile. Then we walked over to a JV soccer game in which her best friend/ex-boyfriend was playing. We drove with his younger sister (who is actually a bit older than I am) back to his house to grab his water jug, which he had forgotten and needed; we returned a few minutes into the game. At half time we escorted my friend's little sibblings and a couple of their friends back to their house, and headed off to a piano-playing gig of my friend's. After that we went to Chill House, and discovered that we were the only ones who showed up. (Chill House is our Wednesday Night Youth Group.)

We had planned to paint our Enduro Race Car (Enduro Race = fancy name for a demolition derby we're entering) but it was raining. I was wearing a shirt belonging to my friend, because I had worn nice clothes -- things I can't afford to get paint all over.

Having had very little sleep, I mixed myself a potent and caffienated drink: 3/4 of a cup of coffee, one hot chocolate packet, and a scoop of cappacino powder. I dipped mint creme Oreos in that, and enjoyed the sugar and caffiene which went totally against the rules of my diet. It was a bit chilly in the garage where Chill House meets, but I didn't care. The atmosphere was warmth and comfort and friendly banter.

Our youth leader showed us a video he had put together of us (and quite a few of our absent friends) on The Manta Ray . . .

The Manta Ray is a tube -- the kind you pull behind a boat. It has wings. You lay down on it, hold on for dear life, let the boat rev up, and then you pull back - I liken this part to standing up - and you FLY. It is the scariest thing I've ever done. Scarier than parasailing, riding a waterbuffalo, and all those other insane things people have convinced me to do. And then Martini showed up. (Don't ask about the nickname, please.)

So . . . my friend asked me to play Air Hockey with her, fully expecting me to refuse. Because I had had way too much sugar and caffiene, I said yes. After 3 cups of coffee and goodness knows how many Oreos, I get pretty agressive, although that is not my usual nature. I almost won against Martini. Almost. He won by one point. The other couple of games I got creamed . . . so I'm planning to practice.

My friend drove me home. The sun was setting and it was beautiful . . . the clouds were dark, hovering after the rain. They reminded me of mountains. Fog covered the windshield more than once, and we drove with the windows open and the music blasting; the wind whipped through our hair as we chilled to the music and let the beauty of the outside sink in. Mist covered the road, appearing, in the headlights of the car, to be snow . . . it was as if the ghost of winter had come to remind us that we have a week of freedom before school begins.

I gave my friend back her shirt (and another I had borrowed weeks ago), photo copied a couple of things, and said goodbye to company and hello to the lonely, dark house. Then I cranked the music and signed online to update this journal.