I am finally home. I will try to be brief in my summary of the weekend, but I have no guarantees.

So, I am on my way there and encounter a few interesting things while driving. I came across a dog with suicidal tendencies and a car over-turned in a ditch. Both got my heart pounding. I discovered that drivers on I-35 are more congenial than those on I-80. And I also realized I must be the only person in the world who sings along to the music while driving. I got so many odd looks at stoplights.

I arrived in Ames at 10:30 and went to Alissa's first. I went with her to Spanish tutor. They actually spoke English for all but 15 minutes, so I'm not sure she is getting her money's worth. I filled her in on my life and about the saga of Little Fucker. Turns out she is less than thrilled with LF too. We had a few good laughs.

Then it was off to Adam and Roy's place. Turns out they live with two other people. Adam had neglected to tell me this. Oh well, no biggie.

We went over to Roy's old apartment and cleaned it up so he could check out of it. It was beastly hot all day. The heat index was well into the 115 degree range. We cleaned and I was dripping sweat while being attacked by a shiny blue flying thing. Very large and scary creature.

Adam's friend, Alissa (not the same one) came over and we went out together. They took me to Studio Café, which is a "happy" bar, if you catch my drift. *wink*

We hung out there for awhile until heading over to the mall. We went into a shoe store to visit one of Adam's friends and he instantly found myself in a chair with Ken, the friend, cleaning my shoes. I found it odd, but it was a free shoe cleaning, so I went along with it.

Then we ended up helping some other people Adam knew move. We were carrying couches and furniture down stairs in the horribly hot weather. One of the boxes I was carrying decided to break open on me and everything came crashing out. I felt like an ass.

We got them moved and went back to the Café. Hung out there a bit. Then we went back to the apartment. It started storming. Bad. It was seriously the worst storm I had been in for years. I was very very frightened. I don't do well in storms. Well, then the power went off. Lovely. So, we were plunged into darkness at about midnight. After two hours of sitting there making conversation, we all went to bed.

Woke up the next day at about 11:30. I drove Ken to work. Came back and decided to take a shower. The bathroom had no windows in it, and since the power had STILL not been turned back on, I was forced to take a shower in total darkness. This was very difficult. Could't see where the knobs were. Couldn't see where the shampoo was. How much was in my hand. Etc....

Adam was at work so Roy and I hung out all day. We went to get something to eat. My breakfast was a burrito. What a breakfast! It was good though and since it was 2 by this time, it all made sense.

We went to the mall and just walked around. I think Roy knows absolutely everyone in the mall. He was constantly stopping to talk to people. It reminded me of going grocery shopping with my mother.

Ok, it's now about 5:20 and the power FINALLY comes back on. After 17 hours of no electricity, we finally have air conditioning again!

Carie came over. I adored her. She was so much fun. She has become my "St Ends." That's also how I will refer to her now. So Adam and Ken both got off work and came back to the apartment and wanted to bleach their hair. So, we sat around while they did that. Once they were done we went to a birthday party. Only stayed a few minutes. Back to the apartment.

Hung out there. Tension started to rise between people, so while Roy talked with Adam on the deck, Carie and I went for a walk to a playground. Ken just played on his laptop. We played on the swings and exchanged stories about our lives. I felt like I had known her forever. Playing on the swings at midnight was actually kinda fun. On our walk though, I noticed a LOT of damage from the storm. One giant limb behing their apartment had fallen. If it had fallen the other way, it would've landed where I was sleeping. Kinda creepy.

At about 2 in the morning, we went to Perkins. Had a nice piece of pie and had whipped cream sucked off my finger. Ooo la la. All this while the person next to me is tying cherry stems with only use of the mouth. Very suggestive if I do say so myself.

Finally got to bed at about 4:30. Woke up at noonish. Had a shower, with lights. Got some breakfast (again, it was actually lunch) at McDonalds. Hung out at the apartment until about 5. This was the moment of truth. I went and pierced my ear. Oy. I now have a small silver hoop hanging from my left ear lobe. The best thing is Mom said, "I like it." She may have just been saying it to be nice, but I don't care. It still makes me feel good.

That is the story of the weekend. I left out a LOT of details which are normally necessary, but it is not my place to advertise some of the stuff. I apologize for this. I know how much I hate it when someone tells me they can't tell me something. But in this case, I really have no right to go into detail or say a lot of things that should be said to make this summary more understandable.

This was quite a weekend though. I can't decide if it was a good one or a bad one though. I know that I never want another weekend like this to happen again, but I also want every weekend to be just like it. Does that make ANY sense?!