Broadcasting Life

the weekend: part 2: SATURDAY

so...as i left off...saturday morning. woke up at 6 to my alarm clock. turned it off. went back to bed until 6:30. got up. showered. got dressed. finished packing my bag. ate some yogurt. talked to square online. said i would meet her at the newman at 8ish. went downstairs. packed up the food. piled it all into my car. and off to the newman.

when i got there square had beaten me. we took all the food, coolers and all that fun stuff and put that in her van. nate showed up next and we packed up his stuff in the appropriate cars. as we packed we made a list of what all we would still need to get before we left town. we all agreed to that we had no idea of how to get to itasca state park from where we were at. once everyone showed up we split ourselves up between my car, square's van and dave's station wagon. square gave me a walkie talkie so we could "communicate" (when the habifam has walkie talkies we tend to act a little strange. i think it's the excitement of this technology.) then square and dave went off to walmart and i followed nate to his house so he could drop off his truck and climb into my car. then we meet up at walmart. nate and square ran in to get charcoal, lighter fluid, film and batteries. then after we had that settled...off to itasca! we found the exit out of town we wanted and just prayed that we would find it. after some talk, some backseat sleepers and a round of "piano man" sang in piano ann's name, we found east enterance road to itasca in one piece.

once we got to where we were supposed to be and payed for car passes and a site for the night, we went and meet the leader of the clean up for itasca that we were doing for the day. becky showed us where to sign in, get our name tags and gloves and free stuff. after that she explained all that we were going to do for the day. we had 12 people from habitat that were participating in the clean up. we split into 2 groups of 6; one group headed to do "deer things," and the group i was in went off to plant trees. i have never planted so many trees in my life. our mission of the day: we had a group of people who moved trees over to us and we were planting them around the cabins to provide more privacy for those who want to rent the cabins. there was also another group that was clearing trees so that people staying in the cabins could see the lake. as one of the guys operating our mission told us: "this place is all backwards...we have tree's in the front and none in the back, all people can really see is the gravel road that got them here. they should be able to see the lake!" so, we planted trees. me, stann (who is the same as paino ann and stoic ann) and joanna. on some of the tree's we had to put protective fence with rebarb wire to hold the fence down. we had to use our manly muscles for this; pushing those poles into the ground...i told the girls to "work the pole." got faces of bewilderment from that.

after some more tree planting, we all hopped in the back of a pick up truck for a ride back to the main headquarters for lunch. it was a good lunch with hotdogs, chips, potato salad, cookies and pop. unfortuanatly we didn't get to see the other group around. so we ate. nate brought up an old joke which has to be the most hated joke that anyone can ever bring up for me. i'm won't even go into full detail about it. basically because the joke isn't necessarily against me. it's more against a certain person who they (about half of the habifam) thinks likes me. because of this i feel like i have to watch my actions, i have to watch what i say, i can't treat this guy as a friend. i know that this isn't what they intended to happen, but it's not like i'm trying to act this way...it's just how i respond to these types of situations. and it doesn't help that this has happened to me plenty of times in my life and it's the one type of joke that i hate. people mess with other people's feelings and emotions and after many years of dealing with this type of joke, i just want it to stop. because i can't handle it and i just want to be able to just be me, not someone who has to watch what they say or do because it may instigate something. but, because i'm a person who cannot stop laughing and smiling and i can take a joke, i can't help but give nate "the look" which comes with a big smile on my face and the eyes that say, "you better not!" and after some laughter and a couple more of "the looks" exchanged, life went on. or so i would have thought.

after lunch, our group went and planted more trees. "the joke" was brought up again. another person was let in on the joke, they thought it was funny as it was new to them. good thing stann and joanna were on my side. nate could tell i was good and mad when i didn't talk to him. he would apologize and bring it up soon after or would joke around with me again. not that i don't mind joking around with people. i actually love joking around and laughing with people. i can take a good joke. i love to laugh and i can usually always laugh at myself, but some jokes...grrrr. anyways, i got apologies from nate, "i only tease people i like." more about the many apologies later. at one point in the afternoon while i was planting trees, i saw the other group in their vans, going to get lunch. square saw us, leaned out her window and yelled, "oopa!!"

after our group had finished, we went swinging. i have a picture of nate and dave swinging on swings...great pic. then the other group met up with us, we said thank yous, had a pic taken and then we took off for our camp site. if i haven't said this before, the habifam doesn't do a very good job on making decisions. we will usually have half of the group wanting something, the other half wanting something else and no one can come to a conclusion. i'm told that's where i come in. i am the mediator. so, we get to the campgrounds in itasca and we drove around for awhile...and after some input from both groups and a look at all the campsites and a parade of our 3 cars for all the other campers, we finally decided on a site. we all got out, set up camp (3 tents, campfire, kitchen and a wagon - yup the pimp pad where dave slept). square, nate and i athletic taped up nate's tent which he has never seen before. once everyone was set up, we decided to go see the headwaters of the mississippi, which is what itasca state park is known for.

the headwaters is basically lots of mississippi river water and a bunch of rocks which indicates the starting of the mississippi river. there is a narrow, narrow, wooden bridge, without railings for people to cross to the other side, plus there is the rocks which you can cross. most of us decided we would cross the rocks. publicity girls went first. well, amy made it...but theresa had some trouble. she slipped, tripped and landed head first into the rocks and water and then had trouble getting up! at first we were all in shock, thinking she was hurt. but as soon as she stood up, laughing with a her hair, face, shirt and one leg of her pants completely drenched, we all started laughing! since it was kind of cold out, us girls made a human curtain and amy handed her her sweatshirt to change into. we had decided earlier that nate needed to be thrown into the headwaters but a good opportunity never came up. plus i didn't want anyone getting hurt, so unfortunatly he didn't go in. square and i crossed the rocks and i had someone keep an eye on nate so he wouldn't come and shove me in. my shoes got a little soaked. we also witnessed some drunk guys on rollerblades. they thought it would be cool if one of them crossed the rocks as they would probably be the first guy to cross the mississippi on rollerblades. he didn't get to far as he tried to crawl across. then we decided to leave and on the way back we got another group picture.

getting back to the campsite, we found that ike had made it there in one piece. those who were wet changed into dry clothes. then we got the campfire going and started preparing supper. we heard from booty, d-dog and caitlyn and they were on their way out to join us. it's so much fun to go camping and we had fun cooking and getting supper ready with our limited amount of supplies. we tried cooking the baked beans in their can, shoved them into the fire...eventually we found out that the can was burning before it allowed for the beans to cook so we gave up a pan that we were cooking the burgers on for the beans. it was a very interesting meal.

later that night, after all was cleaned up, a bunch of us found a trail and went walking. square and i talked for the first part of it and then we turned around to head back to camp. i led the way and ended up power walking back and leaving the rest in the dust. i was just thinking and i turned to a mellow mood and since i didn't have a smile on my face or was giggling, the habifam feared for the worst. when we got back, i was given a bear hug by square and then i was thrown over her shoulder and carried to the campsite...i ended up shrieking at the top of my lungs! o, that was fun...i haven't been thrown over anyones shoulder in a long, long time! haha! square and i sat down and talked for a little bit on the picnic table since there was no room around the fire, it was ok. plus, i would rather have everyone happy and around the fire anyways so i wasn't going to say anything. eventually i went to make a smore and then i brushed my teeth and when i came back, room was made for me and square around the fire. we started a game of open forum around the camp fire. when it was your turn (we were picked from the previous person) you were to let everyone ask you any question they wanted and then you had to answer. at one point i was picked because everyone was curious in how old i really was and i wouldn't say because it wasn't my turn yet so eventually we ended someone's session and they all picked me to go next. they all found out how young i was (19...20 in 2 months!) all about my major, what i want to do with my life and many other questions were answered. by the last couple of people we were all tired and wanted to turn in. so crawling into my sleeping bag in the dark, i was reminded of how cold it was outside. somewhere around 24 degrees, cold enough to snow! i had on a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and a huge fleece pullover, a pair of wind pants and slipper socks, a huge sleeping bag and a blanket on top...square had given me her nalgene bottle filled with hot water for my feet since she was better off with her mummy bag and polypropoleen(whatever they're called) long underwear. eventually we all settled down and somehow found sleep amist the coldness of the night.

at four in the morning, i woke up, wondering how i was going to make it through the night. i have never been so cold in my life. i wanted to stretch out but there were parts of my sleeping bag that were not warm and so i stayed in my balled up position. i contemplated making a run for the backseat of my car. but i toughed it out. i woke up the next morning at 6:30 and then again at 7:30, not being woken in between from ike's car starting up. i found out later that's what woke most of the habifam up. i crawled out of bed at 7:30 and made a run for the fire that was started thanking God i was still alive. and then starts part 3: SUNDAY.