Memoranda

What I've been up to this summer:

• Organizing a theater company
• volunteering at the library and a local historical site
• visiting Margaret's college

This one needs elaboration. On the way, we stopped in Iowa for a baby shower, Sioux Falls Sou' Dakota to meet another homeschooling family, the Badlands, Sturgis, Sou' Dakota, and the Black Hills. Once in Wyoming, the vicinity of the college, we visited Thermopolis, South Pass, Popoagie Falls, Popoagie Sinks, and (naturally) the college itself. Making our way to Colorado by way of Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Register Rock, we stopped in Colorado Springs to visit our Aunt and Uncle. There we saw Pike's Peak, Florissant Fossil Beds, two tornadoes, our THIRD hailstorm in two weeks, Garden of the Gods, and went rafting. We thus began our journey home - through Agate Fossil beds, Wind Cave, Mount Rushmore, and once again, the homeschooling family in Sioux Falls.
To continue with my list:

• Reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories
• Counseling for a summer camp
• Going on a mission trip!!!!

Once again, elaboration required. I went with my Church youth group, 32 teens in all. Our mission site was Logan, WV, a diminutive, impoverished town. When finally there, after two days of driving, we split up into two groups, to take on two different tasks; painting a house and running "Kids' Club", a local summer camp for kids who couldn't afford the usual thing. I did Kids' Club. We made friends with some remarkable children, put on Bible story skits, sang at nursing homes, and played 4-square. With the people we met, the experiences we faced, and the friendships we made, it was unforgettable, and the fun goes on.
Came home and:

• Bade a prolonged and pathetic farewell to Margaret, who is contentedly installed in college. (how anyone can be so joyous without their younger sister is a mystery to me)
  
• Spent a week on my Grandparents' farm while Margaret was shuttled out West. A major highlight of this visit was learning to mow the lawn, on a joystick-controlled machine weighing about a ton. I described it in an email to Margaret.
  

"... Seeing Grandma cruising, whipping, barreling, veering etc. in her nifty, handy-dandy pocket-sized lawn mower....Lurching, zig-zagging, plummeting, lashing, etc. myself on that identical vehicle. At best, I was redoubtable. At worst, I was a mortal danger to all living things within a hundred yards, including trees, bushes, flowers, and corn. You might say even to rocks, railroad ties, and the mower itself. But man, I loved it."

• TRIED AND LIKED SUSHI. I am the princess of picky eaters. My palate rejects turkey and all variety of cooked fish. It is therefore a cataclysmic phenomenon that I can enjoy fish uncooked.
• participated in a music camp
• went to Six Flags with my friends from South Dakota
• seized the last few days of summer to morph back into my scholastic self, and catch up on sleep.