Too much information

I have just returned to town from an amazing mind and thought clearing weekend. It began Friday evening and is not quite over yet. I won't bore you to death with details of Starbucks and shopping Friday night, to H.I.N.T.S. at church on Saturday morning and now my arrival from ShowLow. So, I will just have to leave you with a few highlights. The weekend has left me with an amazing new bed set (courtesy of the Poosch's :) and a mind full of ideas for table pieces, parties, scrapbooking and decorating. Basically it was about an entire day of fantastic girl stuff. The weekend has also left me with a new outlook on God. Saturday as soon as H.I.N.T.S. was over I threw my duffel bag together, jumped in my jeans and baseball cap and traveled to ShowLow with my best friend. It had been some time since we had really spent time together and I needed some time to process some ideas I had been chewing on.
Five P.M.-we found out 1 hour before leaving my family had changed the locks to the door and I did not know how we would get in. Somehow I managed to get a hold of a guy about 20 minutes outside of ShowLow that had our key. We were going to meet him at about 9 p.m.

Eight forty five P.M. -We arrive at extremely sketchy gas station called Spears Market. I am a bit freaked because the place is dark except for one light outside. The parking lot is dirt and there are two pumps for gas. The market is fairly small and seems deserted but the truck parked off to the side makes me rather nervous. I was totally wishing we had a guy in the car but instead I relied on God. Then I had to call Charlie as we had just driven about three hours and he was not answering his phone so we though we would have to stay in a hotel for the evening.

Nine five P.M.-Charlie answers and finally is on his way to meet us as I am now extremely uncomfortable in my present surroundings. (In fact when I am nervous in dark scary places I do not put my car in park in case I have to drive quickly away from something though my foot remains on the breaks and I change my direction every couple minutes)

Nine fifteen P.M.-Charlie arrives with my keys in a dirty white pick-up smoking a cigarette next to the gas pump. (This seems safe.) He hands me the five new keys to our new door and then proceeds to tell me that we probably have a rat in the house and so there is bait out but he found one drowned in a bucket. Right about now the sign lit up before me displaying a hotel with a indoor jacuzzi is looking pretty good but to save money we trudge on to our little house.

Nine thirty five P.M.- We arrive at the house and excitedly find the water turned on. This is helpful as I don't particularly enjoy trudging through trees alone in the dark to find the turn on. Next Mandy helps me grab some wood from the woodpile for a fire as the heat is not on and it is about 5o degrees. It is dark and so I am a bit nervous but we take two logs from the top and enter the house.

Ten thirty five-I have finally managed a fire using a burn log and some newspaper. (I am a girl what do you expect. Oh, and now I have some particularly attractive black soot marks all over my arms and hands and jeans) Now I sit until the flames have died and then to bed.

Sevenish A.M.- My "best friend" just happens to be a morning person and can not fathom that some of us our not. She bothers me until I finally get up though I am not happy about it.

Eight thirty A.M.-I am not happy but am ready to go. We jump in the car and head to the only Starbucks in Pinetop. (it is non-corporate by the way) N

Nine A.M. -We drive and I decide to take this road and travel all over through cool woodsy areas. I then stumble upon a lake and a rather cool path. We decide to park, put on our tennis shoes and then go for a nice walk/hike. So pretty.

Ten forty five A.M.-We go dollar store hopping until our favorite restaurant, El Rancho, opens. After lunch the clouds have rolled in and though I would really like to find something to go off roading in the storm will not permit it.

Twelve thirty P.M. -Still no chance for boating, fishing, or off roading we decided on a nap. The windows opened the rain begins. It rained for the entire night. In fact it was still pouring that evening.

Four thirty P.M.-We are up from the nap and off to this really cool restaurant that overlooks a very small lake. We stay there and drink coffee in front of the fire till 6:30

Seven P.M. - Off to purchase a book for the duration of the evening. I purchase the latest Harry Potter. Then we arrive back at the house and it is pouring. I was wondering how I was going to get the wood in the house dry. Funny how God even provides the tiny details. A plastic black bag was located on top of the pile of burn logs. So outside I went. It was really dark and I suddenly became nervous about the log pile so I went inside to get a flashlight. I turned it on to the pile also to discover God had also provided a very large wolf spider as well as webbs everywhere. I froze unable to move. Finally I snuck closer and was able to get one or two small pieces of wood before Mandy came out and helped me with two more.

Seven thirty P.M- The fire was roaring and I was set for the night. I spent some moments in prayer with the Lord and then planted my self in front of the fire until I had read through about 160 pages. Then to bed.

We spent much of today traveling to Christopher Creek and swinging by Saguaro Lake. It was so beautiful and now tonight, we are off to dancing. What a perfect weekend. However the amount we traveled this weekend also reminded me of one extremely unhandy problem. This is the part where you will really get too much information. I just have to tell you how problematic it is for girls to have to go to the bathroom. Guys, I have never been jealous of anything except sometimes your ability to control your emotions. However, it is very difficult to always have to be searching for a bathroom because it is not so easy to squat in the middle of the woods while it is cold and rainy. And let me just tell you there is something scary about most outhouses...sometimes I prefer the cacti to the inside of those. They are often secluded, can be very dark, full of spiders, smelly and not to mention a million other things. I am afraid to touch anything in them including the toilet. How often do you have to mummify the toilet seat? Oh, goodness what an interesting problem. Oh, and in one particular bathroom at Woodlake there were no doors on the stalls. This may not be new for guys but think of how potentially awkward it is when you are a female, there are two stalls, and at any moment someone could walk in and see you. Yep, it is great being a girl.