wandering sails

a roadside adventure.

we haven't heard from my car lately, have we? wonder how she's doing no longer.

i've been a little suspicious recently that she wasn't feeling well and last night, on my way home from joel and kathy's at about 9:30, she really seemed to be ailing. her lights were really low and getting dimmer, the radio had become full of static and her power was becoming increasingly less. i knew with a fair amount of certainty that it was my alternator, so i prayed really hard, lord, please just let me get home. i was on hwy 25, between monticello and buffalo, when my prayer changed to, okay, god, i just want to make it to the walmart. i started up a small hill when she she started to chug a bit. and my speed was rapidly declining, despite my pleading. just as i was cresting the hill, i knew. i said, this is it. she's gone. i pulled over and threw my hazards on right away, hoping the truck that had been trailing me would stop to help. he didn't.

in classic girl car thinking, i decided to let it sit and hope it might charge up enough for me to finish the two or three miles to walmart. i waited about 15 minutes and nodded my head at the complete deadness of it, knowing it really would never work. but it was cold out last night. remember? cold. i grabbed my camera and my purse, locked the doors and started out along the cold, dark highway. after about 15 minutes of walking, i could see walmart. a car pulled over in front of me, obviously with the intention of giving me a ride, so i made a pact with myself. if it's a man, i don't get in. if it's a women who doesn't look nice and is big enough to maul me, i don't get in. it was a little old lady named marjorie whose dashboard proclaimed that god was her pilot. i felt okay about accepting a ride for the last three blocks.

on a side note, i'd like to point out that once upon a time, it took me twenty minutes to run a mile and it only took me 15 minutes to walk over two miles. i think this is really sad.

so i had a nice four minute chat with marjorie and she dropped me off at walmart. i called my dad, told him what i knew and ran my plan by him. charge the car up enough to get it somewhere other than the side of the road and call my grandpa in the morning to see if i could borrow his car. he came. we charged. i started the car.

my dad said to me, 'okay, wait until i turn around and then start driving, but don't turn on your headlights.' okay, but i should drive on the shoulder, right? no, drive on the road. oh. but i should go really slow, right? no, go as fast as you can and still see.

what??? this goes against all that i believe to be true about safe driving at night. this seems wrong. but i trust my papa, so i did as he said. i think the fastest i ever went was 45, but it was tough to see the speedometer with the lack of light, so i can't be sure. we passed one cop and i thought for sure this was the end of the line for me. i sent up a giant thank you when he turned off and not around.

we made it to the garage and dropped her off. i got home and crawled into bed. so today, i have my grandpa's large car and will leave work early to go meet nicky, drive both cars to maple lake and drop nicky back off at work before driving myself back into maple grove for the american idol party tonight. oh, what i put up with for this car.

posted by julie @ 4:05 PM 3 comments

369 days later.

i missed it. it didn't even occur to me that it was coming up. i remember thinking about it back in february, but this year is flying by and april crept up on me. well, it's almost crept by me. but cindy's post about her big day reminded me.

friday was my one year anniversary.

i remember creating my blog. i was nervous. i had to have a few posts written before i even told anyone i had one. i wanted to feel settled before people came over to visit. mandie was my first reader; julia and jan soon followed. being admitted into jan's blogworld is like being asked to hang with the popular kids. soon, people i didn't know were commenting on my life. and i liked it. i loved being able to write without walls. it was easier to open up my dark corners to these strangers than to the people i had known for years. but then, these people i didn't know became a part of my everyday world. i looked forward to checking blogs like sleeping with bread each morning. and then, i met some of them. we introduced ourselves by our blog name. are you wandering sails? i'm the gathering room. after meeting jaime, i started reading her blog more because i really liked who she was. standing in the kitchen at jan's with her and tonya was my first introduction to community at open door outside of people i worked with. and i have loved making far away blog friends like cindy, patrick and steven.

before i knew it, i was in the groove. blogging was something i did. making time for it was almost a priority. there were definitely times when the posts are sparse, and times when i was close to prolific, but it all seems to even out. it's been a great way to keep in touch with people, like matt and diane (who i didn't really know before, but now am waiting for her return) and for reconnecting with old friends, like kim.

i have enjoyed being a blogger. it seems like yesterday and years ago that i started and i am looking forward to the next year.

and in true copycat form (since cindy had the idea first), let me throw a few of my favorite posts and big moments your way again.

fish, dizzy g., 2, maple grove (the fish i never knew)
how to sell cherries. (a classic harvey experience)
baby sam. (the beginning of an era)
l'amour qui n'était jamais. (the end of a differnt era)
accidental grass trimmage. (one of those things you shouldn't do in a skirt)
changing homes. (perhaps we should ressurect this, erin...)
my arkansas bathroom experience. (there are no words...)

and when you're done, i highly recommend reading between the posts. happy anniversary to me!

posted by julie @ 8:53 AM 6 comments

unfortunate tissue incident.

last weekend, i washed my climbing pants. i had worn them kayaking the week before and gotten them pretty dirty. i know that sounds silly... playing on the water and getting dirty, but trust me... you go kayaking with amy strom and you get dirty. and your kayak gets really full of garbage.

so, anyway, i washed my pants. and what i had forgotten about has come back to haunt me every day this week. since it was still a little chilly, and there was still ice on the lake, i knew that i needed to pack the kleenex. so i did. right in the pocket on the side of my leg.

only i forgot to take them out. and then my washing machine shredded them. so now, every morning, i have to get up extra early to pick kleenex off of my clothes. and that's how i'm spending my mornings these days. i listen to my alarm clock for ten minutes, get up, get dressed, brush my teeth and pick the facial tissue off my shirt. it's great.

posted by julie @ 2:17 PM 4 comments

audience of one.

i'm a car singer. i'm a shower singer, too, but we won't get into that. in my car, i sing along to my radio. but only when it's me. i'm certain that not infrequently, i have been passed by someone who says to the other occupants of the car, 'look at that girl!' because in my car, by myself, i am a superstar. sort of.

this morning on my way to work, i was sitting at a stoplight and i saw one of my own. he was behind me in a white thunderbird. he had this great sort of scraggly mustache and he was singing along to the radio. i smiled and then i did a double take.

what?

wait.

is he singing the same song that i am?

i had to watch him for a while to be sure, but we had the same radio station on and it was so fun. i have never had that happen. it was like we were singing a duet. the two of us. the car stars.

posted by julie @ 11:15 AM 4 comments

meet my ugly.

my youngest brother has been dating this girl named tabitha since last summer. last summer, ben was doing some thinking. he was realizing that he needed to stop drinking as much as he had been and he made the observation that most of his drinking was done with our cousin tony when he visited him in brainerd. ben told me about a conversation he had with tony in which ben said, 'i'm going to get a girlfriend. i just wanted you to know that so you knew why i wasn't coming up as much.' now ben didn't have someone in particular that he was going to start dating, he just figured it would be a way to keep him from going up north so often. there was a girl who attended his church named annie and ben had a little thing for her. he hemmed and hawed about asking her out, since she goes to school out of state and would be leaving at the end of the summer. also, ben was feeling a little like she was out of his league. we had a few conversations about annie (this was back when my brother was also one of my closest friends) and then one day, he mentioned tabitha. she is the stepdaughter of one of his coworkers and had met her one saturday. she lives at home and worked at a gas station. she wasn't really going anywhere. she was very, very convenient. we talked a bit about her and i asked him if she was a christian. he thought probably not, but he wasn't sure. we talked through some pros and cons of both girls and when the conversation ended, it really sounded like he was going to ask annie out.

he didn't. and, as already mentioned, he asked tabitha out. who my brother became after that, i don't like. his world got really small, with his comfort being top priority. and he doesn't laugh. it's so rare these days. and, i lost my friend. i never see him anymore.

because i don't like who he became when he started dating tabitha, it's natural that i don't like him dating her. i sat him down a while back and let him know how i felt. i did it because i care about him. i knew he would get mad at me. i knew i risked losing his friendship for good. but i love him so much, and i don't like to see him convinced that he's not settling.

last sunday, he says to me, in the middle of joe & kristi's livingroom before dinner, 'oh, by the way, i got engaged last night.'

in my head, i asked, 'are you an idiot?' my mouth said something different, something fake.

sunday night, i was so angry about the situation, for various reasons, that i couldn't sleep. i thought, i need to give this over to God. and then i thought, but i don't want to ever be okay with this. and then i started to pray. but i stopped because i realized i was about to pray that i would come to like her and the situation. and i don't want to like her. so i didn't pray.

meet my ugly.

posted by julie @ 10:38 AM

my mom's homerun.

i'm not good with gifts. it's really hard to buy them for me. i have a theory about it that revolves around gifts being the least of my love languages. i can really do without them, but if i'm going to get them, they should be perfect. because, again, i can do without them. now to those of you who see gifts as very important, this may not make much sense. but think of it this way... if your love language is touch and not words of affirmation, you likely don't save handwritten notes. or if your love language is time and not touch, you probably get a little irritated with really huggy people, right? and i, i'd rather get no gift at all than one i won't use.

this is why, when i make a list for christmas every year like i'm asked, and receive nothing off that list, i get frustrated. i make the list so that those who asked for it will know exactly what i want. i appreciate that they want to get me something, but i don't need anything. i'd so much rather have their time.

my mom went to indonesia for a couple of weeks on a mission trip and brought back gifts for all. she pulled me into her bedroom and told me she wanted me to pick first, in case i didn't like what she had gotten me (she knows me well). she picked up a beautifully stitched handbag in this incredible green that had just a touch of sheen to it. she said to me, now this is what i picked out for you, but feel free to pick anything. i said, no, i'll just take the bag, i love it! to which she replied, well, i have this bracelet or this other bag or this or this... i said, i like the bag.

my mother nailed this one. but it's like she doesn't quite believe it. because she asked me again before i left if i was sure that was what i wanted. and then she called me the other day and told me she had found some other things that i could have instead if i wanted to trade. i so don't. i absolutely love this bag. and i just wanted to share it with you.

posted by julie @ 2:15 PM 1 comments

redemption of a day.

okay.

i came in this morning with a whole whiny post just waiting to be typed up. i spent my whole commute composing it and let me tell you-it was good. whiny, but sure to be funny.

instead,

let me say this:

i was cranky. for many varied reasons, i was not in a pleasant place this morning/latter half of the weekend.

but just now, this beautiful little girl came peering around the corner, picking up speed as she saw me and gave me one glorious hug after another.

oh, sweet maggie mae, i needed you this morning.

posted by julie @ 10:39 AM 2 comments

amy and jermaine.

i was blessed on saturday to be able to shoot my friend amy's wedding. it was so fun and i have to say that the combo of my new camera and shooting with two other photographers makes me like weddings a lot more.

it was so wonderful to finally meet the man who makes amy's world so much sweeter. what a fantastic couple!

posted by julie @ 9:10 AM 2 comments