OBX

I have "old blogger's x-haustion" or rather OBX. I returned from our marvelous trip to the Outer Banks/Greensboro, with a lifetime of memories and 500 photos, and have been a failure at bloggerizing it. I even kinda DREAMED about it last night. In my dream I had a great idea for a novel. I was struggling so hard to make myself wake up so I could write it down because I KNEW I'd forget it. I didn't wake up or write it down, but I didn't forget it either. The idea was that I was writing a scholarly article and needed to interview an expert. I found a blogger, and quoted them in the article, only to find out, and here's the twist and dramatic tension, THE BLOGGER WAS LYING AND WASN'T AN EXPERT AT ALL!! So, yeah, I'm having issues.

When I returned from our trip, I realized that using my home computer was giving me carpel tunnel. BAD! When I went on vacation, my wrists/hands/arms were relentlessly bothering me, fire, tingling, cold, numb. I told Grandpa Hiatt I thought I had "peripheral neuropathy." Say it syllable by syllable - it's fun. Not fun to have though. I had started squeezing my fingers for relief. But while I was gone, the symptoms blessedly disappeared, only to return when I came home and started using my computer. So now I don't have a new set-up figured out. And I have sworn off playing Words with Friends endlessly on Facebook (insert sad face here). 

Last week I started writing about the trip using "notes" on my ipad, and it was a blast to use the bluetooth keyboard Angie gave us. I propped myself up IN BED and with the ipod under the covers next to me and  held the untethered keyboard separately on my lap and TYPED!. I was riding high, pouring out all sorts of stuff. At the end of my writing session, and it was a doozy, pages and pages, I copied and pasted over to my email, but it didn't work. So I tried another route, and in the process deleted everything. I'm so ticked. And now I can't make myself do it over again.

So, this attempt is a lurching, unorganized mess. Case in point, try making rhyme or reason out of the following:  I love looming dark afternoons when a summer rainstorm comes rolling in and I'm home ironing. It happens every so often. I'm making myself laugh out loud right now thinking about teasing Andrea about ironing, actually teasing the younger generation about ironing, which is something you aren't a slave to and neither am I; but you've grown up with synthetics so it's not in your lifeblood like it is in the veins of we, your mamas. While I was in NC, I got go attend Sunday Relief Society with Andrea and they passed around a sign-up sheet asking for household items for sister who was moving into a new apartment. One of the needs was an iron. Andrea perked up and whispered to me "I can give her mine!" Just made me giggle.

There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon, one of my favorites, Alma 48: 17, that reads: "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

Well, yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all gospel doctrine teachers had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Andrea, behold, the very powers of hell and Sunday School would be shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." We loved being able to attend her gospel doctrine class. I got to play the organ in their ward too! I LOVED it. And Brandon gave a talk and he seemed like a young man, like a missionary-in-training, like a man/boy. I beamed at him the whole time. It was awesome.

And I got to see my sister Julie's dear friend Dee who lives in Andrew's ward.She told me stories about when she and Julie were roommates in San Franciso- back in the day -and were starving young professionals trying to cobble together a life in that expensive town. She said she spent the year changing jobs and Julie spent the year fending off men. At one time there were 8 or 9 guys who wanted to marry Julie. And then she told me a story about needing 43 cents to buy a bar of soap so their houseguest would have some, and only having 41 cents and finding the other two cents on the street!

Here is me and Dee at church, and also a selfie Brandon took of all of us in the parking lot, right after we said our final good-byes at the church, and were headed to the airport in Raleigh (and Brandon found my earring in the parking lot that I didn't even know I'd lost):

Okay, I'm going to write a little about our long, luxurious trip. I will feel better for at least starting, and will add more in the coming days as I can.

OUTER BANKS TRIP 2014!!!
Since we were going to be gone for two weeks, we decided to ask friends and family to take us to the airport and pick us up so we wouldn't have to pay for airport parking.Our neighbor Roger took us to the airport, and Denny picked us up when we returned.

Roger is a retired fireman and the class clown of our ward. He has that gift of being funny in the moment (like Forrest) and he makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis. Roger lives four houses down from us and as we pulled up to get him he was standing outside holding up this sign. He cracks me up.

Roger dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Atlanta where we were to make our connection and fly to Raleigh/Durham where Andrew would pick us up. At least that was the plan..............until we found out our plane out of Atlanta was delayed because of weather, and they actually gave the plane away to another destination. So we listened to a guy playing live music which was a treat.

Dennis assumed his Kindle pose, and I bought a book and some snacks. We called Andrew to let him know of the delay. With his vast experience on planes being delayed, he told us to be prepared for a looooooooooong wait. He said they will tell us they should have us leaving around 9:45 pm then they'll change it to 10:15, then 10:45, then they'll say we won't be leaving until the morning. REALLY? I called him back and said they had a plane for us and he said in an ominous voice, "But, do they have a CREW?"  Well, yes, they did have a crew and we flew into Greensboro in a terrifying lightening and thunder storm. I thought I was going to die. It's the only time I've ever had a fear of flying. It was scary. But there were no announcements about impending death from the captain and nobody else seemed scared. I was never so glad in my life to feel those wheels touch mother earth. We were seriously playing dodge-'ems with lightening.
It was so fun to see Andrew Boppy Sweat's tall self waiting there for us at the airport. (side note, man he's tall! He said he gets comments about his height on a daily basis). I provided him with comments every day while I was with him. Andrea has created a brand new guest room (here's a photo from her blog). She even had books for us to read and a basket of toiletries. Heaven! Well, heaven for Dennis, because we don't fit so good in one bed any more, and I fit better on the hide-a-bed. It seemed a crying shame to waste this room on a guy. Not that he didn't deserve or appreciate it, which he did and did, but, still. I took many daytime "resting my eyes" moments in the room whenever I had the chance! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!