a little bubbly

i guess a couple a things. we had an open mic/art show the other night in the UC and it was a success. several people brought in art work to display, including paintings, photos, poetry, and mixed media. peter encouraged me to sell my photos to help fund my missions trips. then i went to dillon and spent time with some artistic friends who were also very encouraging about my pictures. it made me very excited and inspired to do more. then lastly, i just miss slovakia. hearing scott's stories, seeing his pictures, and reading sara's newsletter from there just resounds in my ears the calling.

Jack Everlovin Foster

i raise my proverbial glass to this boy, who loves freedom more than anyone i have known. Jesus offered us freedom, but so few of us know how to take it. this kid, though, took and ran with it. all the way to puerto rico, where he just up and move to, aparently. i'm sure his hair is blowing in the breeze there, just the way he likes it. here's to fearlessness.

fat dave's

here is a sweet little joint known as fat dave's. it's open 24 hours a day. it has a juke box. it's juke box contains red, red wine. it has a stained glass window that says "fun." it is all out of pie except for coconut cream meningue. it's waitresses allow us to play scrabble there. it is katie's boyfriend's favorite restaurant. it was the site of their first date. it is pretty sweet if you ask me. and speaking of 24 hour joints, we drove by but did not get to patronize a 24 hour drive-thru fast food mexican place named muchas gracias. i think i am going to open one in missoula. and lastly, we did get to go to a 24 hour donut shop. it has an open sign...that's permanent!

Blue like jazz church

it's a crappy pic, i know. but i just had to do something to make record of my visit. i'm back from my long weekend in portland. it was really good to see tot and her boyfriend, despite the rain. and i mean RAIN! i don't think i could ever live in portland. but the church service at imago was really good. i enjoyed pastor rick's sermon immensely. they have a lot of cool things going on there. writing classes, discussions on faith in film, making meals for families of sick kids at the ronald mcdonald house...it challenged me and inspired me to think of new ways to spread the love of jesus.

the cutest baby on the planet

this is isaac. a son of a friend's sister. well, a son of some friends' sister. last night we celebrated one of the aforementioned friend's birthdays. his 19th. he maintains that when he and his wife have a baby, "people will come from millions of miles to see 'the cutest baby on the planet,'" but i think he has some competition with his nephew, don't you?

katie potatie

this was the last time i saw my friend katie. this is 6:30 in the morning, the day scott and i left for slovakia last year. it was also katie's departing day from the garden city, her home for many years. she had blonde hair then, but has had many different colors since, and when i see her this upcoming weekend (yay!) i am not sure what color it will be. no matter what happens this weekend i hope: scrabble, twin bings, and/or homestyle bakes are involved. can't wait to see ya, tot.

hardin, mt

here was our first destination. the purple cow. after having been disappointed last presidents' day weekend when the p.c. was closed due to p.d. it became a much-anticipated locale for those among us who had, you know, been previously disappointed. and though none of us partook in the legendary "dozen egg, loaf of toast, gallon of oj and pound of meat (or whatever) breakfast" for twenty bucks (or whatever) it was still a friendly little joint with waitresses that called you honey (which, by the way grew less and less frequent the further east and south we drove) and let us return to the salad bar if we wished.

Wyoming at night

this picture is real. i didn't just cover the lens on my camera and snap. i literally pointed the camera out the window and took this driving through wyoming at night.

The pizza bandito

this is where they raise pizza. iowa. on the pizza ranch. it's home of the pizza lover's pizza aparenly. just one lover. and the home of his or her pizza.

Southern(illinois)belle

i don't think many would disagree that this bed topper was kind of creepy. luckily the owners weren't. brighton, illinois' vi and wayne graciously opened up their home to three of us, fed us like kings, told us some stories and sent us on our way.

Missouri loves company

quick, find something that says where we're at on it. oh, yeah!!! the lottery!!!

Quality inn!

yeah, we were all really excited about the swimming pool and eighties video games until we discovered that the
q-inn had a sizeable moisture/mold problem. and when something keeps james outta the pool you KNOW it's got to be bad.

I saw the sign

almost there!!!

Purrfect

Kentuckat. otherwise known as ken or kenny. "borrowed" off the Christmas tree at our hotel. friend for life.

Its good 2b staff

well, dessert translates a little better than real food, which is the primary reason that i make it the majority of my diet. and by "diet" i don't mean restriction of fat and calories, thank goodness.

Mmmmm

food never translates in photographs, which is why they use elmer's glue on cheerios in commercials. but let me tell you, the staff dinner was incredibly edible. and i don't ever eat real food.

Good mornin

i thought it was going to be a good morning until i discovered that this was not a REAL dunkin' donuts, rather a little corner of a gas station that sold a few of their donuts and some coffee. furthermore they had changed the design of their cups, which had previously been making me happy since childhood. i'm hoping it was just a seasonal design and soon they'll be back to their 60's looking pink cuteness.

Rael in arabic

rach and lacey got free henna tattoos at a eurasia booth. as mentioned in the title, this one says rael in arabic. pretty sweet.

H.n.y.

what else is there to say?

Twig and leaf cafe

the pride of louisville...or should be. run by one johnny-rotten-esque punk waiter and and one indian-as-in-from-india cook whom no one could understand but he didn't care and just talked to you as if you could. delicious vanilla malts.

Fon definitely do

as much as you can tell from this crappy camera phone picture, yes, that is a fountain of chocolate behind krysty. and let me tell you, she was not upset about it. the city of louisville graciously paid for us to have chocolate fondue on new year's. what a town.

In-n-out-wannabes

ahhh, white castle. renamed by lacey to be off-white shack. or the armpit of mcdonald's. it really was quite atrocious. and certainly no replacement for the sonic we so heartfully searched for and never found west of des moines.

Look who we found

on our way home we stayed with marco in des moines, ia. he took us to this quaint little chinese restaurant where the food is cheap and the guy behind him calls you "buddy." hilarious. the fortunes left something to be desired but who can complain when you're surrounded by pink? we all took a pretty good liking to mark's grandpa, too, who wore a little blue hat, loved coconut macaroons, and slipped us twenty five bucks for breakfast.

Corn palace

here it is!!! the most famous palace in the world...made of corn, that is. i just don't know how mitchell, sd can sustain such a landmark. we were there about 4 in the afternoon, and i'm telling you nothing! was open. nothing except the pizza hut where we ended up eating. i really hate to go to chain stores or restaurants on the road if i can help it. with so many good ma and pa joints to be experienced, why would you? james was really feeling sorry for leann rymes, who will be playing the corn palace soon. as she said, "probably three people will show up." as a side note, cuchillo thought the corn palace was "a-maize-ing."

Our lady of mitchell sd

you might think that the corn palace is the destination in mitchell, sd. but you would be wrong. no matter what happened on this trip, what the disappointments, what the let-downs, we could (and did) always say that we saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a bath tub. and that made it all all right.

Closed drug

yes, we were mighty disappointed to find that the most advertised place on earth closes sometime before 7:30 in the evening. we conjectured that it was, perhaps, never open. and all that was inside was free icewater and the gaudy (albethem awesome) cowboyandgirl boots in the window. but i suppose it was worth pulling off the freeway just to say we'd been there.

Home sweet home

hey, i guess i'll work backward since the way a blog works is by putting the most recent posts at top. since i am a big fan of the chronological order i think i'll start here. wednesday morning at about 9:45 we returned home after driving just over 23 hours from des moines the previous morning. the montagnes have scarcely looked better to me.

not tedious at t.d.s.

and so i'll start the record of our journey to "the dirty south" with the night before when four of us girls and lancelot-link ate some pre-trip grub at taco del sol. we were celebrating because natalushka was in town all the way from korea for Christmas and since filling up the geo with junk food from costco makes a girl hungry, we had to stop and have "the lance." otherwise known as a taco wrapped in a burrito shell so as to keep the taco price, but to sneak in the burrito size. yeah, "it's because it's less messy that way."