Last Adventures of August

left to right: speedometer, temperature, fuel, oil, rpms

Imagine you are driving down the road with a full tank of gas, going somewhere around 65 mph, and this is what you see. Apparently you are going 0 mph and you're totally out of gas. Luckily for me, I'm pretty used to having cars crack out on me while they are in my stewardship. For those of you who don't know, last year while I was living in Boise my stick shift car would randomly "click" off while I was driving down the freeway to get to work, or driving anywhere for that matter. I'd have to put it back in neutral and restart it going 75 mph. This "clicking off" action almost cost me my life one time driving down Eagle road at rush hour, and by that time I called Dad in tears of frustration that he was totally chill about me driving a retarded car that almost killed me. This time around I was completely isolated as my car stuttered to a stop in the middle of the Arco desert. The battery was completely exhausted. The thing is, after leaving Terreton, I was 100% confident the battery would die before I got to Arco, but I decided to just let it happen because I needed to prove to my dad that this car needs to be donated to the high school car bash for homecoming.  Seriously it needs to die!! I waited in my car on the side of the road listening to my ipod until Mom and Dad showed up to give me a jump to get me to the auto shop in Arco.

I shouldn't have washed it...its cleanliness is probably giving you a false image of its functionality.

Panorama of the Buttes

Dad to the rescue...thanks Dad!

The funny thing is, my car's battery had died just the day before. I went to the temple in the morning, and I noticed it was acting strange, but when is it not? When I tried to get in my car later that day to pick up my free loaf of bread from Great Harvest Bread for volunteering at the triathlon, there was zero life. My good friend Justin was with me and he was able to give me a jump to Auto Zone so they could charge it up. We hung out all day that day by fixing my car, making French toast for dinner, playing board games and going to the gym. He and I toss the Frisbee constantly. Thanks Justin; you're the best! =]

So why was I driving to Arco, you may ask? I landed a job with The Development Company here in Rexburg, and they are conducting a survey in Arco to prove that it is a low-to-moderate income community. If the survey proves that, it will go into the application process for the city to receive a grant to improve the water sanitation. I was driving over to start surveying, and after all the car mess was taken care of, I did just that.

Note the pepper spray on my hip...I mean business!

My first time surveying I was totally awkward, but as my sister in-law Christy would say, "Fake it til you Make it!" They put an ad in the paper that this would be happening so most people were receptive, but then I'd run into a couple characters. At one of the houses, a dude asked me, "Do you want to know what I think?" I told him I absolutely did, and he continued to tell me his bold opinion about what I was doing and all sorts of other "blah blah." One guy had to get a smoke before I could survey him...apparently he thought it would be a rather stressful questionnaire.

The most exciting thing about my first day was the big golden lab that chased me. I got out of my car and took about 10 confident steps toward a house where I could see two men watching me like "what the heck does she want?" The next thing I heard was a dog that let out a very grown up bark. I then saw the said dog (that comes up to my waist) running toward me. I started to back off, and then I realized as the owners tried to call him off that there was no way that dog was listening. I turned around and booked it back to my car (this was the scariest part...would I make it before he took a bite out of my back? or would he go for my heels? And don't forget the terrifying moment where you have to stop to open your door and the agonizing time it takes to get inside and close your door to safety!). I am happy to report I made it just in time! They called the dog off and answered my survey, so that was awesome. I tried to play it cool and just drive away, but once I was out of sight I pulled over and my whole body was shaking. My foot on the clutch was rattling. . There are so many other houses with "Beware of Dog" and "No Trespassing" signs...maybe I'll buy them one.

This weekend I was able to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with Justin's team in Boise. He plays on a club team here in Rexburg, and they had a girl who couldn't play at the last minute. Friday in the late afternoon I got a text asking if I wanted to play. The clocks in my head started turning as I tried to figure it out, and pretty soon I was OFFICIALLY going. ;)

Saturday morning at 4:30 AM I got up and by 5 I was on the road for Boise. I was running on a few hours of sleep, but I was pumping with adrenaline as I made my way across the state! It was cool to drive as it got lighter, and sunrises are WAY COOLER than sunsets. But enough of that...I got to the field in time to warm up, and we basically played Ultimate from 9AM to 6PM. That's not 100% true because we had a bye and there are breaks in between games, but if we weren't playing in an actual game, we were tossing with each other, so it was one of the best days of my life! My sister Trisha thinks it's funny that of all fun things I've done at college so far, playing Ultimate has been at the top.

Primitive Disc Monkeys

Me with Justin

my attempt to lay out for a disc

A highlight of the tournament was the other teams' personality! One team from Montana had some weird "highlighter color" theme and they were all wearing the most ridiculous things. Another team's "get pumped up" cheer involved very colorful language, and by the end of the day there were players who would toss the frisbee in one hand and hold a beer in the other. As they got progressively more drunk, part of the game was to keep from spilling their beers all over themselves as they tossed. So yeah...it was a pretty hippie day. Some of the time I felt like we should've all gathered round in a big circle, maybe sung a few verses of "Cumbaya" and smoked a bong or two.

I went to see my sister who just had her new baby (making me 19 years old with 19 nieces and nephews) but she was still in the hospital so I didn't get to her. Serious cudos to Mitzi: she went all natural!! Welcome Piper Cannon to the Beal clan! 

Sunday I saw a lot of this action. I drove from Boise to Rexburg all in one day which was a first. The only thing that kept me awake was singing along to the love of my life Mr. Justin Bieber! Tomorrow I'm doing peaches with my sister Trisha. She asked me to accompany a choir in Rigby that will be singing in a couple weeks, so I've been practicing like crazy. I'll miss being able to play the Grand in the Hinckley building whenever I want since school starts soon. I'm involved in Get Connected is this week which is where a bunch of students volunteer a few days to help welcome the new students to the university. I'll be headed to Arco this weekend to survey again, and I'm pretty sure I have a date somewhere in between all that.