Immature and Shallow

I stayed up last night til 4-ish because I needed to finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy even though I'm not much of a fan of that last movie.

And then I got up at 7:30 am to join some friends celebrate Janice's birthday ... in the States. Shopping. And having tea.

Unfortunately Clint's truck is too long to fit in my garage. So it was a frozen block of machinery when I started it up. My ice scraper is in my truck and he doesn't have one, so I used my Visa to scrape the ice off the windshield BOTH INSIDE AND OUT. His truck is higher than mine, so I couldn't do the entire front or back windshields - just the edges.

His heater doesn't work (maybe I've mentioned this?) and I lent my gloves to Shannon yesterday and we forgot them at Sandra's, so my fingers, in minus 7 degrees? Were frickin cold. And as soon as I got into the truck, my moist warm breath fogged up the window and because it was so cold, FROZE IT IMMEDIATELY.

After 15 minutes, I thought it'd be safe to drive.
I was wrong.
When I made a left turn, I was directly facing the rising sun on a perfectly clear day and it blinded me. The windshield, which had frozen over again, reflected sunrays in every direction and I couldn't see anything. Nothing. Nada. Just a white glistening, sparkling, frost-covered window in front of me.

So I stopped moving. In the middle of the road. The windows were frozen shut, so I couldn't open them, so I opened my door and tried to move off to the side a few inches at a time.

I waited for the sun to warm up the windshield, then pulled out my visa again, and scraped another peek hole in front of the steering wheel.

Seriously. I have to get this heater fixed.

Anyway, I slowly made my way to Janice's house, completely overwhelmed by the absolutely breathtakingly beautiful area I was driving through. Frozen fields, covered in snow, twinkling and shimmering with the layer of frost reflecting the morning sun. My response was simply to say, "Oh, God. THIS is spectacular. SO very beautiful. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. So crisp and white and pure and glittery and peaceful and wonderful and You are so creative and this is awesome and thankyouthankyouthankyou."

If it'd been safe, I would have stopped and taken a ton of pics.
Unbelievable.


I should probably get up earlier more often.
It's probably always out there.

I just might be missing out on a lot of things, being so lazy n all....

Anyhoodle -
We crossed the border at 9:30 and were at Fred Meyer's by 10 am. I am not much of a shopper. Got 10 huge Crunch bars for $10 and 2 boxes of Trix for Drew. Everyone else was loading up.

From there we drove to Fairhaven (2 exits further south down the freeway):

which was a delightful little town.

We shopped at the Village Book Store (swoon) then had our tea/lunch:

I had a 'cream tea' (Scone with cream and jam & Earl Gray tea) and some tiny sandwich triangles (Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese and Egg Salad.) Oh My Goodness, YUM.

We walked around until we turned into popsicles:

It was very cold.
I don't have a coat. Or a winter jacket. So I'm wearing 5 layers, making me deeper and wider than usual.

Happy BDay Janice. Thanks for letting me celebrate with you...

Then.
Then. Afterwards.
Then, afterwards, I returned the DVD's I'd rented. And got 6 more to take me through the weekend. Plus I spent my Chapters Gift Card and bought 4 books.

And now? At midnight?
I'm watching

and reading

during the "slow" parts.

What am I?
15 years old?

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Crispy mornings
2. Unexpected encouraging emails
3. New adventures

Shalom,