the Weekend

Friday was another rather strange day… I don’t know why there’ve been so many lately. :/ Classes seemed to DRAG; even Ethics, which usually goes by relatively quickly. I just kept looking at the clock and the minute hand seemed weighted! I tried to reassure myself that that was a good thing; it meant that time wasn’t rushing by as insanely as it had been; it meant I had time to do what I needed. But alas, time only goes slowly when you either can’t be doing what you need to be doing or when you’re in a classroom!! :( (…not that I dislike school. Don’t get me wrong…)

So, anyhow… Friday! The day was really slow and after school, it was my turn to help clean. So I helped Marianne dust, sweep and clean the chalkboards in the top floor classrooms. I got done with that a little after five and took care of a couple errands. Rose and I met up with some friends outside the college building about 5:40. We trooped off toward the tire swing, Nick, Adam, Christa, Rose and I. In the end, we went to the rope swing instead since most of us had never been there. It took a bit of tramping through brush to get to but we arrived in one piece. :) Of course, in keeping with the way the day had been, the rope was caught in the tree from which it was hanging and we couldn’t reach it. (The rope swing was tied into a tree that extended over a ravine in which there was a creek.) After many, many tries, Adam succeeded in snaring the wooden handle on the thing and yanking it out of the tree. YAY!! :D He tested its strength and then took an experimental jump. He was successful so all seemed fine. He swang a handful more times and then asked Nick if he wanted to do it. (We girls were somewhat hesitant about it.) Nick asked him to show him one more time what was involved and then he’d do it. Adam ran and jumped. It would be the final time. As he got over the creek, about 15 or 20 feet above the ground, the wooden handle broke!!! It was a heart-stopping moment as we helplessly watched him crash onto the opposite bank. He landed squarely on his back and the wind was completely knocked out of him. He rolled into the creek, face down and wasn’t moving. Fortunately, by this time, those with quick instincts (I was just standing there, looking on dumb-foundedly. I had just gone to take a picture when it happened and I couldn’t seem to move. :/ ) ….i.e. Rose, Nick and Christa… had gone racing down the very steep incline to get to him. Thanks to Nick, he was very quickly pulled out of the stream and half-dragged up to the side of the bank where we were. He was laying there on his back and I was sure he was unconscious. To our great relief, he began to breathe again. Rose asked him if it would be better if he sat up and he responded negatively with a slight movement of his head. So he was conscious. Still, it was a VERY nerve-wracking couple of minutes (seemed more like half an hour!) before he opened his eyes and tried to sit up. At last, with Adam in much pain, we crossed to the other side of the creek and made our way back through the fields. Back at the college, we waited while he took a shower and then we left for my house. The guys stayed outside on the back deck and patio while we girls worked on getting a Friday dinner of eggs and toast ready for them. Cookies followed the meal as well as guitar-playing and singing by Adam and (the former by) Joey. It was a VERY enjoyable evening, just relaxing outside on a Friday night with beautiful weather. *Aaaaahhh* :D The sole downside was that Adam was still in a lot of pain (though he wouldn’t say as much). :( …Time went quickly this time (when it would’ve been nicer if it had dragged ;) ) and about 10, Christa and Adam took their leave. (Nick had left earlier.) What an awesome Friday evening!! It was a pity the day preceding it had been so horrendous!

Naturally, Saturday followed Friday. We had a lazy morning around the house, while trying to iron out a plan for the afternoon. Joey’s guitar lesson was called off and he had Frankie over (well… I guess he’s called “Frank” now but I can’t quite get used to that ;) ). Rose, Adam, Christa and I left for Topeka a little before one. We went to Panera Bread for lunch. Yummmm!!! :D Then Rose and I went to Walmart for groceries while Adam and Chris went to T-Mobile in the mall to see about a replacement for his phone, which had gotten wet when he fell. We eventually met back up in Walmart and ran out to the car in blowing rain. Taking a detour to get cheap(er) gas, we got back to St. Mary’s shortly after 4. We dropped Adam off at the school since he had other plans and then went to the house to get Frankie. He wasn’t ready to leave yet so we unloaded groceries and put stuff away. Then proceeded to get very silly. :P Fortunately, I was behind the camera for most of it. ;) Rose and Christa were great fun, though, and some very funny pictures resulted! :D Meanwhile, Joey and Frankie were being very strange downstairs as well. It must’ve been in the air or something. :) …We took the Mionis back about 6…

The next couple of hours were spent preparing things for Mom and Dad’s return from Ireland!!!! The house wasn’t horrendous but it definitely looked lived in. ;) So we worked together to clean the kitchen and start dinner for them. We turned on relaxing music, set the table, started a fire (first one of the year!! :D) and all such things. Much to our dismay, Mom and Dad arrived home later than we thought they would because they had stopped for dinner on the way back from Kansas City!!! :( :( :( Sooooo, we ate dinner ‘by ourselves’ while they got stuff slightly put away, after getting in the door. They showed us some of the things they’d gotten and we babbled at one another for awhile. :P Then, they called it an early night at 9:30, because it felt like 3:30 am to them!!! I was up for a bit longer and, as it got later, a storm came up that got pretty fierce!! It had been raining off and on all afternoon, but this was a THUNDERSTORM!!! There were several cracks of thunder that were just heart-vibrating! Just a few minutes after I went to bed, the power went off for the first time. It woke me up twice again throughout the night… so I know our power went off at least 3 times, the last time about 3 am.

I woke up in time to go to the 9 am Mass but there was NO water pressure in the system at all. So I had to wait until it built back up in order to take a shower… thus, I went to the 11 o’clock with Mom and Joey (who was scheduled to serve). Rose had a scrumptious brunch ready for us when we got home over which more stories were forthcoming. :) And that’s about all that has gone on today so far… it’s probably a good thing too, as this post is getting really long! ;) If you’ve made it this far, you’re a brave soul. ;) Thank you for reading! Feel welcome to comment! :) And I'll be back when there is more to tell. :)