wheels

I was a little reluctant to buy a car for myself. I need one. I live in Texas - this isn't the land of public transportation. But, I'm not at all sure what I'll be doing when my commitment with Wycliffe for this next year is over. If I were to buy myself a car, and then wind up not needing it anymore next year...then I have to sell it, I guess. But it seemed that the cars I would buy, that is, the cheap ones, wouldn't be worth anything when it came time for me to sell them. I don't know. It seemed like a lot of hassle and wasted money to me.

But then, I found out about some people who were going to spend this year in China and had a vehicle that they wanted to come back to. They wouldn't be driving it for a year. I needed something to drive for a year. A match made in Heaven!

It's a Toyota Tacoma. I never drove a pick up before. Of course, after I bought Penny (my old Saturn sedan), they had to do some work on her at the dealership, and let me drive a Trailblazer for 2 weeks. I'd never driven one of them before either. I nearly cried when I traded the Trailblazer back for Penny. I didn't have a name for the Trailblazer. I thought it would be Studmagnet, but even with that the boys still didn't come-a-runnin. I think I probably look pretty hot in the Tacoma though. Eventually, I'll get someone to take a picture of me in it.

I found a picture of one online that is pretty close to the one I'm driving. (I feel weird calling it "mine" because I don't own it.) So, here it is: the silver Toyota Tacoma, single cab. I'm sure the one I have isn't exactly like this one. Without having it in front of me to look at, I can't really tell what the differences are though. Besides the fact that the one in the picture doesn't have a bed cover and mine does. And my apartment (which I can call mine since I am paying for it) isn't pink, yellow, and blue, and doesn't have palm trees. My apartment is earth colors. The bottom part of the walls are rock. It's called The Canyons, so they make the building look not really like canyons but they would match or at least coordinate with the way a canyon would look.



I need a name for this truck. Not this one in the picture. This one that's sitting out in the parking lot by my building. Any suggestions?

pond scum

Today was the day for cleaning out the pond in the back yard. The bottom of it was covered with several inches of decomposing plant matter and fish crap, basically it was slime ... muck ... sludge ... goo ... other icky things that I can't think of. The fish, especially the new baby ones, could hide in the slime. It was disgusting.

Before we could clean it out, we had to catch all the fish. It took all three of us (Mom, Dad, and I) to catch the fish and put them in a smaller pool so we could empty the pond and clean it. I got to touch almost all of the fish. I like touching fish. They feel cool.

me, touching a fish

The part I'm trying to forget about is the slime. First, we would be trying to scoop out fish and scoop out slime instead. Sometimes we would actually scoop the fish up, but we couldn't tell at first because there was so much slime in the net. Then we started cleaning the slime out of the pond - Dad would suck it into the shop vac or shovel it into a bucket and Mom and I would haul it to dump it in different corners of the yard, of course getting plenty of slime on ourselves. We weren't as bad as Dad, though, he was actually standing in it.

a baby fish covered in slime

Dad's slimy sock feet

I couldn't wait to take a shower. Now, I feel good. I feel great. I feel clean and slime-free!

the cleaned pond, filling with water again

apartment

Do you realize how happy I am to be having my own apartment again? Do you understand how huge this is? Huge in the sense that it's very important, and huge in the sense that, compared to having a 55 square foot cabin, an entire apartment, with multiple rooms, is very big. I signed my papers, got my keys, and started moving some stuff in this week. I'll start living there on a more permanent basis once I have my own wheels.

It's not all mine. I share the apartment with 2 other girls and one puppy! Yea!! I love puppies! So, here's some pictures:


my bedroom, with a great closet


the kitchen, where I can cook stuff


living rooms


and the puppy!! ooh, theres' my leg, too

So lately I've been trying to get my old domestic skills back. I've cooked some meals, run the dishwasher, and did laundry. All I haven't done yet is grocery shopping. I didn't like that before I left the real world, now...it's scary.

Also, there was a wedding a week ago. Here's a few pictures from that:


Claire, Matt, and the attendants


me and my bouquet of bluebonnets :D


at the rehearsal - my happiest moment... (yeah, I'm wearing a kimono - that's a Japanese dress/robe, not a sword.)

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!

[Some people are wondering about the twitching eel. We didn't actually eat it while it was twitching. It was cooking in front of us while it was twitching. Once it's cooked all the way through, the twitching stops. Quite convenient for eating! Here's a picture of it. Too bad you can't see it moving...]



I am FINALLY home!! I loooved my adventure and sailing the seas and all that, but it is sooooo gooooood to be home. Ah...

So many great things about being home. Food I was missing, dairy products, good water to wash my hair in (my hair was so icky on the ship it was like millions of tiny daggers, now it's soft, bouncy, shiny), my hair straightener, good sleep at night, and of course seeing all those people I love. That's not to say that I didn't love people on the ship. There are sooo many people from Doulos that I miss A LOT. A lot of them I'll probably never see again. It's very sad. Buuuut...not so sad that I regret coming home. I'm so glad to be home. Have I said that yet?