Long Weekend...

Hey all, I'm back! I spent the last three days (Sunday, August 12th - Tuesday, August 14th) in Lincoln City. I was staying in a rented beach house with 12 people! Me, my mom, my sister, my mom's boyfriend, and my mom's boyfriend's mom, sisters, brother-in-law, kids, niece and nephew were all there...a lot of people! At first I wasn't too pleased...I don't enjoy being around a lot of people, especially people I don't know. And I really wasn't in the mood for a "vacation" either. I knew I would miss my pets a lot (I'm a geek, I know) and missing my riding lesson on Monday was not making the situation any more enjoyable. But actually, when it was all said and done, it wasn't all bad...here's a quick rundown of my long weekend.

We left for Lincoln City around noon on Monday. The drive wasn't overly long - a little over two hours - and I spent most of it listening to my iPod. When we finally arrived, we went to the grocery store to pick up some food for the weekend.
I am a people watcher; which, I guess, makes sense. I'd much rather sit back and observe a person (that sounded awkward) and figure out things about them that way than actually talk to them and have them tell me themselves. Why? Well, one, I hate talking to people I don't know. And two, who's actually honest anymore? So, while we were in the grocery store...I people watched
One thing I noticed about the people in Lincoln City was that near to none of them wore long pants. Sure, we were on the coast, but I'm not talking Cali Surfer here...I'm talking Pacific Northwest. You know, 50 degrees all year, 99% chance of rainstorms, the least warm place in the US of A? And they were in short pants! I was shocked. Here's the girl who wore blue jeans in Hawaii, watching these people walk around in basketball shorts or capri pants. It seems the adult men were then only smart ones in the whole store...power to the blue jeans!
I also noticed they were all really, really pale. I guess that was to be expected from people who live in a place where the sun is covered in clouds 364 days a year. But it seemed the only color these people had to their skin tone was the redness that came from the wind whipping at their faces. Creepy.
Thirdly, all the people moved really slow. I'm sure the fact that 80% of the residents were retirees had something to do with it, but beyond that, it seemed the whole atmosphere was just, slow. Very annoying.
Finally...everyone was very polite. People who didn't know me - and never would - smiled and asked me how my day was. It was a kind of polite-ness that you don't find around anymore. Small-town hospitality, I guess. I don't know.
The rest of the day was spent doing...not much.

Monday was more eventful. My mom's boyfriend's sister (that's a mouthful) offered to take me and my sister to the Outlet Mall to go shopping with herself, her daughter, my mom's boyfriend's daughter, and her mother. My sister passed on the opportunity, but I decided I wanted to go. I am not a shopping kinda girl, but I needed something to do; I was already bored of being stuck in the house. Mom gave me $20 and I was good to go.
I hate fashion. Always have. It seems that I always hate the new "in thing". Like these knee-length, skin-tight "shirts" paired with leggings and flats...eww! Oh, and don't forget the massive amounts of chunky, plastic jewelry. Always a must. And it seems like you can't find anything out there for normal sized people anymore....unless you're built like a fence post, you ain't gonna fit in any of the new "trendy" clothes. Therefore, you won't fit in much of anything.
This is why I usually buy my clothes at Wilco Farm Stores. Jeans, tees, hats, belts, even shoes on occasion...I've worn entire outfits from Wilco. Expensive? Yes. But so is the brand-name crap that everyone wears now.
Sadly, the Outlet Mall did not have a Wilco. I wandered aimlessly through all the high-end stores and got snotty looks from the salespeople; oh well. I stopped at a bookstore to look for Eclipse, and found out ten minutes later that it was a closeout bookstore; figures. I left book-less. I must have gone in and out of claire's eight times, debating whether to buy some of their earrings or flats...but I passed. I went into Old Navy and bypassed all their disgusting pink clothing...but on my way out, something caught my eye.
In the Men's department, I found a rack of camo cargo pants. Finally, something worth wearing! I immediately skipped to the back of the rack and looked for the biggest size; after all, guy pants + girl hips = difficult fit. I finally found a 34 waist x 32 long and took it to the dressing room. The saleswoman looked at me funny when I wasn't carrying armloads of skin-tight pink clothing, but obliged when I asked to try on one pair of camo pants.
They are waaaaaay too wide in the waist. I can literally pull them up past my belly button if I want to. But I needed the extra room to accommodate my hips, and after I button them up, I can pull them back down to a normal level and they actually look OK; good enough, in fact, that I bought them. They are really really comfy and I've practially lived in them since I brought them home. I might need another pair ;)
Sadly, spending $12 on my cargo pants didn't leave me much left for matching shoes...I failed to find a pair of decent shoes for $8 and therefore left all the shoe stores empty handed. However, I was very happy with my pants...and happy I found something at all worth purchasing. Freddies is having a sale on Converse, so maybe I'll check there for some matching shoes...what with the hoodies I always wear, I could just cut my hair and pass for a dude :D
After our shopping experience was over, the whole group went down to the beach to have some fun. The little kids kept themselves busy by running through the waves and playing in the sand, and I joined in until I got tired of trying to keep my jeans legs rolled up. I finally sat down on a driftwood log and watched the action from afar. When watching the little kids got boring, I started drawing little designs in the sand with my finger. Pretty sweet, I know
After a while of staring at the sand, I pinched a little bit between my fingers, and let just one grain fall into the palm of my other hand. I looked at that tiny grain of sand, barely visible to my own eye, and imagined that that was me; just one person in a great big world. Then I dropped the rest of the pinch of sand into my palm. It was just a pinch of sand - not even one hundredth the amount of sand that was on the entire beach - but it was enough so that the lone grain of sand couldn't be seen anymore. When I dropped that handful of sand back onto the beach, there was no telling my handful from the thousands of grains of sand around it.
There are so many people in the world. It would be so easy for one of us to be forgotten, alone. And yet, none of us are. The Lord loves each of us, and knows us all by name; He knows everything about us, even what we don't know ourselves. And even when we feel alone in this great big world, we can take comfort in knowing that He loves us, and always will. He loves each of us unconditionally, and no one more than the next; even though there are so many of us and alone we are so small, He never forgets about any of us; not one. For God has a place in His heart for all His children; big or small.
That evening, we built a fire on the beach - yes, it was legal ;) - and the whole group enjoyed the warmth and light that it gave us. It was another moment of reflection for me; listening to the sound of the fire crackling below me and the waves crashing on the beach behind me was extremely soothing. Fire has always been something that fascinates me; I just stared into the open flame and let my mind wander wherever it chose to go.

On Tuesday it was finally time to go. I woke up relatively early - 9 AM - and even then people were packing bags and getting ready to leave. I got ready to go in about ten minutes, and finally we all packed up, said our goodbyes, and left the beachouse behind.
My mom, my sister and I were the only three in our truck. My mom wanted to go rock hunting - she collects agates - and so she convinced us to go with her. We spent a couple hours down on the rocky beach, looking for agates; we found quite a few, along with some jasper and petrified wood. I enjoyed climbing around on the large rocks the best; I've always enjoyed climbing. After crossing a small jetty that appeared to have been created by rocks falling from the cliff above, I heard a distinct bird call. Looking up, I saw a huge bald eagle sitting in the branches of a tree on top of the cliff. He was a beautiful bird; I am not a patriot and therefore do not associate this eagle with our country or freedom or anything of the sort, but I can certainly respect his dignity and pride. The giant eagle stayed perched on his branch, even with us walking around below, and was still there when we finally left the beach.
For our last stop we headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and ate. I was starving; I don't typically eat breakfast and we left the beachouse before lunch. I had not eaten all day and devoured my cheeseburger and fries. After that we went to the gift shop and bought some souvenirs we didn't really need; I did get Lil'emo a tee shirt, which I gave to her when I got home. When we were finally done touring the Factory - we'd only been there, what, three times? - we bought a ton of snack food and headed back out for the trip home.
Note to self; lack of sleep + Franz animal cookies = really really bad mix. I was extremely tired, and just about hyperventilated when I read the history of the Franz animal cookies.
Turns out this dude named Engelbert Franz (omg, that's enough to make you laugh right there) and his brother Joseph (ok, what kind of sick parents names one kid Joe and one kid Engelbert?!?!) moved to Portland, Oregon from Austria to work in their uncle's cookie factory (how sweet). Well eventually Engelbert and Joeseph bought out their uncle's factory (wait...what happened to the uncle?) and made millions selling cookies. Apparently they have factories in cities from Spokane to McMinville. Then Engelbert had a son, who he named Joe (apparently he doesn't hate his brother too much if Engelbert named his son after him) and Joe in continuing the cookie business. Awww.
It really wasn't a funny story, except that the dudes name was Engelbert. We kept thinking about how the poor guy must have been traumatized as a child when he had to write "Engelbert Franz" on the top of all his papers at school. How the attendance would call "Franz, Engelbert". How he must have been hideously made fun of as a high school student. Poor, poor Engelbert. So we kept eating cookies and making fun of Mr. Franz, and we decided that he and Mr. Whats-his-name who made the cheese popcorn we were eating would be good friends. Then we decided that someday I will get a bumper sticker that reads "I Blame Engelbert". I don't know why.
Finally we got home and got to relax after our Engelbert episode. I went and said hello to all the animals, and delivered Lil'emo her souvenir shirt. Then I sat down and chucked a two-liter bottle of Pepsi...which may explain why I am here right now, at one in the morning, telling you about my trip to the coast and Engelbert.

That is where my story ends. It was a fun trip...much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. The frosted animal cookies made the whole weekend seem more bearable.

^^ My Bumper Sticker ^^