Almost home…
Have you ever been writing a really long post or E-mail when something happens and you lose the whole thing? Well yeah, that just happened to me. It sucks. I’ll try to recreate it a little for ya.
I’m staying in Kansas with some friends that used to live out by us. “Little Zacky” who we used to trick with an unplugged video game controller, making him believe he was actually playing with us, is now beating me in Halo. And don’t even get me started on baby Brittany! She’s 8 now! Time flies, let me tell ya. And I feel older and older as it goes by. 22 is a big number to me. No matter, I’ll be alright.
I’m leaving here on Monday, and I’ll be home that night. I get to see Joy, Jeff, Melissa and Tabitha! I’m still not sure how I’m gonna break the news about Rachel to Tabitha. Tabby’s young and I’m not sure she’ll understand. Maybe I’ll just log her onto Stevish and let her read for herself. I think that would be the best way.
I definitely miss having Rachel around. I’ll sit down on a couch and close my eyes, wishing that she’ll plop down next to me and snuggle in to make room for TJ for a “Rachel Sandwich”. But she is back in Michigan and I’m more than halfway to Colorado. I can’t say I miss her completely, ’cause we’re not completely separated. We get to talk more than I had predicted and more than many long-distance couples do, so I am very thankful.
Justin, I’ll be in the Springs soon, I’ve got tons of stories from the summer to tell you. I heard mention of your house situation, so I’m sure you have a couple stories for me too. We’ll have to sit at a bar and talk over some chocolate milk. 😉
Alright, I really wanna end with a story, but the last two times I tried to write it I got halfway through and lost it. So this will be the last time I try. Hopefully I won’t forget to save after every paragraph.
It happened during one of the first two weeks that I was at camp. Ao-Wa-Kiya hadn’t started yet and another church was renting the camp, so TJ, Natasha, Rachel and I kept ourselves busy with odd jobs to help prepare for a full summer of camp. One evening, probably during the second week (everything blurs together), we were trying to decide what we should do to wind down after the days tasks. Natasha had wanted to walk to the beach of Lake Michigan (about a mile or two from camp). We all liked the idea of going to the beach and ended up deciding to take a golf cart instead of walking, thus giving us more time at the beach before the girls hit their midnight curfew. We got to the beach and walked around a bit. Natasha pointed out a swing she liked to sit in and a tadpole pond, which we examined and walked/played around in. We went for a swim in the channel, then laid on our towels and half talked and half watched the beginning of the sunset. Well I was getting visibly cold, and had to curl up to stay warm, ruining my view of the sunset. So I decided I wanted to walk around a little to stay warm. Rachel and I got up and announced that the four of us would now walk north along the beach so that we could watch the sunset while remaining mobile. TJ and Natasha followed.
It wasn’t long before we passed Natasha’s swing and her and TJ stopped following us. I have to admit that I didn’t notice for a little while. My plan was to walk that direction until the beauty of the sunset had faded into night. Round about 1 and a half to 2 hours later, we decided to turn back even though the sky was still changing colors, and we hadn’t seen TJ or Natasha since they had broken off not 5 minutes into the walk. This was my first real quality time with Rachel since I had met her. We got to talk about all sorts of things and about our lives in general. I think that’s when I really began to fall. In fact, I would probably call that the point of no return. After that night I’m not sure if I could have ever been satisfied living without her.
Steve sits back and assesses the situation. Convinced that the sappiness levels of this post have exceeded the normal operating limit, he apologizes to his readers for sharing this all with them, and then moves on.
When we turned around we were a considerable distance from where we had set out on this journey. See, neither Rachel nor I are meanderers. When we walked down that beach we walked as if with purpose. Like a secret agent who just planted a bomb: “No sense wasting time.”
When we arrived back at the parking area, Natasha and TJ were nowhere to be found. After looking around for a bit, we put together all the clues we had and deduced that they had, without reasonable doubt, walked back to camp. This meant that the golf cart was ours to take back. No problem, right? yeah…
So it was very dark, and the golf cart had no lights, nor did a single inch of the country roads leading back to the camp, many of which had significant tree cover so that not even the starlight could offer any help. We drove back at about 3 miles per hour, laughing hysterically. Rachel was sure we would hit a deer. “Maybe,” I said “but if we do, it will just turn and look at us and then walk away.” I was more concerned with wandering off the road and ending up in someones backyard. It was so dark that if it was winter I could have ended up in the middle of the lake before realizing I had left the road. Fun times.
We finally arrived at camp, found our two hikers (who had arrived only minutes before we did) and went to bed. It was a good day and a very fun adventure.
Alright, it’s killer late and I finally got this story written down without deleting it all. Have fun, kids, I’ll see you around.