Stepping Out of the Boat

On Tuesday night, we went to the Monroe County Fair with my parents, an event we had both been looking forward to. The allure of the fair has always been a mystery to me - but this year, the mystery completely baffled me. All evening, these two questions riddled my mind: Why do people like competing in the fair? Why do people like going to the fair?

When you compete in the fair, you raise an animal, brush it, dress it up, and show it around - not to mention the fact that you pretty much have to spend the week in a barn. Then, after all the hullabaloo is done, you either kill and eat the animal, or sell it to some one who will kill and eat it. Where's the fun in that? If you make food for the fair, it gets judged before the fair even starts and then sits for a week getting stale and moldy while the flies have a hay day - you don't even get to eat your grand champion apple pie!

When you go to the fair, you fight through throngs of sweaty people to stand in long lines in order to pay way too much for gross and greasy food. (John gets excited about the elephant ears, but not I.) When you finally get your food, you have to stand up somewhere and scarf it down because there is nowhere to sit down. You walk through the super stinky barns and look at all the stressed out chickens and bunny rabbits, the nibbling goats, the cows, and the horses - and if you have allergies, like I do, it will reak havoc on your sinuses. Then (this is the best part) you walk through the gigantic buildings with all the booths. I could supply myself with free pens for a lifetime by making one pass through. So, at the end of it all, you have a runny nose, an upset stomach, aching feet, a whole bunch of unnecessary "freebees" that will clutter up your living space, and all your clothing and exposed skin is covered with a thin film of dirt that I'll call "fair grit". Why is this fun?

But every summer, when that time rolls around, we'll always say, "Hoorahh! It's fair time! Let's go tonight!"

All things considered, it was, at the very least, a cultural expxerience. John won a T-shirt from the National Guard because he made 28 baskets with mini-basketballs in one minute. We didn't end up seeing much of my parents, though, since they know the whole county, they stopped and talked every few feet, and we had to just leave them in our dust.

We just returned from our last visit to Claire's grandparents in Van Wert, OH. We had a wonderful time shooting the breeze and playing Yatzee and Skipbo with them. We also ate lots and lots of really good food.
I've heard people talk about comfort food before, and I haven't been able to truly understand the concept - food that makes you feel good, makes you feel like you're at home. Yesterday in Gramps and Granny's kitchen, I fully understood the concept of comfort food. With our move coming up so quickly, I've been thinking about things I'll miss, and Granny's chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes is most definitely one of those "home" type things that I'll miss. Granny was kind enough to make pumpkin pie for us, too, which is great because we're going to miss Thanksgiving this year. Every bite of that food made me feel warm inside and completely at home - but also a little sad. I know what I'll crave when we're in the DR: Granny's chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes finished off with a big slice of pumpkin pie.

We all bought the popular "Life is Good" shirts during our weekend together. I have never paid $20 for a T-shirt in my entire life, and probably never will again, but it certainly makes for a good memory. In fact, the owner of the Life is Good store gave us two special stickers because Dad Roth told him we were moving to the DR. He said it was his good luck gift to us. We appreciated it.

In this picture, we are at the second Concert in the Park at Bryan Park. We listened to Chicago Style Blues - and it was great! My only regret is that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't convince John to dance with me. It was a very warm night, and his excuse for refusing was that he was sweating just sitting there, and he didn't want to know what would happen to his new shirt if he were to bust a move. So, we sat and listened. The Pontius parents met us there, however, Brad was socializing elsewhere when we took this picture and Gail is the one behind the camera.

During the Roth's visit, we went to Lake Monroe. Apparently, geodes cannot be found in or around Angola, Indiana. Because of that odd fact, the Roths are completely fascinated the pretty, but common rocks. We spent quite a while on the shores of Lake Monroe digging geodes out of the sand and smashing them open with other rocks. The Roths took some choice specimen home with them for their rock garden. This picture is of John and Joe digging the mother of all geodes out of the sand.

After a long day of shopping, digging, and swimming, we went to the Irish Lion - an Irish pub - for dinner. Nothing washes down a good lamb burger like beer, so John and Joe decided to share a "yard of beer." In reality, they only got a half-yard. They had enough difficulty drinking out of the half-yard glass. I can't imagine how they would have managed a glass twice as tall.















There's nothing like a good Irish beer!! (Actually I think they ordered German wheat ale.)

The Roth family came to visit us in Bloomington! This was the first time since the wedding that John's brother, Joe, had come to visit us, so we tried to show them a good time.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Bloomington Farmer's Market, one of our favorite things to do. It's just so interesting to watch the people there, to smell the fresh herbs and veggies. I could spend a fortune there.


After the Farmer's Market, we walked around downtown Bloomington and shopped around a bit. Lucky for us, in the outdoor paraphinalia store called J. L. Waters, it was FREE CLIMBING DAY! So, all of us who had never climbed rocks before got to have a try.


I was so proud of Mom Roth because she gave it a gallant try. I don't know many women her age who would try something like that, but she was brave enough. John, Joe, and Narissa scurried right up the wall with no trouble, and now they can proudly say that they have experienced indoor rock climbing.


We had a wonderful time. I think Joe and Narissa really enjoyed their time here - we certainly enjoyed having them!

This is a not-so-great picture of a beautiful sunset oustide of our apartment. Exactly two weeks from today, we'll be moved out of our first home. It's quite sad, really. All of our rooms are looking less and less like a place where anyone would want to live. It no longer looks like "home" when we walk in the door, but more like an empty shell of an apartment with ugly carpet. We have loved every moment of our two years living in this little apartment. It's sad to say goodbye.

In a few weeks, we'll be saying goodbye to our faithful (although old) cars. Each one has its own quirks, and we'll really miss the freedom of having transportation, but we've been discussing the other kind of freedom we'll feel when we have no cars - no insurance payments, no oil changes, no new tires, no break downs - it will be nice. Our feet will be our primary mode of transportation, and that may be good for us.

Here is John with the Green Machine and Daisy.

We hope our families will benefit from our faithful cars.

I'm currently sitting at the Ellettsville public library enjoying really fast free wireless Internet access. We have the Internet at home, of course, but it is dial-up, which I think should be called "molassas" instead. But, if I have a need for speed, a desire to get instant gratification, all I have to do is take my laptop down to the library. What a wonderful country I live in! I can go to the library and get online for free. As much as I dislike the politics of my country, what my country does to others in the name of "freedom," and the extreme consumer mentality of my society, it really is a great place to live. There is no refuse in the gutters. There are street signs and public restrooms everywhere. The water that comes out of my faucet is sanitary. I should be more thankful.

Bloomington is such a great place to live! The Parks and Rec Department puts on all sorts of free entertainment in the parks. We went to enjoy one of these benefits of living in B-town on Saturday evning. I (Claire) had read in the paper on Friday morning that the Bloomington Symphony would be performing at Bryan Park at 6:30 on Saturday evening. We had a wedding to attend that day, too, so we ended up rushing like mad to get to the park with our picnic dinner. When we got there, we found an empty stage. This picture tells the whole story.


As it turns out, the concert was really on Sunday night, but I didn't know that. We enjoyed our picnic nonetheless.




On Sunday, we had some people over to watch the World Cup - in High Definition, of course. Here we are cheering loudly, "Viva Italia!" or something to that effect.


After the World Cup Party, during which we both ate way too much yummy food, we packed up some bing cherries (one of my favorite fruits) and headed to the park. Thank goodness this time there were hundreds of people at the park sitting on blankets and enjoying picnics awaiting the start of the concert. I was very happy - not only because we arrived on the right day at the right time, but because I got to eat bing cherries with John while listening to live music on a balmy - but not too balmy - summer's eve.

We spent the 4th of July whith John's family. It was a blast. While we were there, we made Memory Stones for the Roth's garden. Each person got a slab of wet concrete to decorate with their name and whatever design they chose. We had a great time being creative together. The whole thing was Mom Roth's idea. I hope those stones stay in the garden for a long time.

This is the long delayed beginning of the story about our garage sale. If you want to see the rest of the story, look for "It's Just Stuff...Right?" further down on the blog. You may even have to look in an archive.

The day before the garage sale, we were able to move all the stuff we were going to sell into the garage of the house where we were having the sale. All went well.

Then, when 6:30 a.m. dawned the next morning, we went to the house to start setting things out - and believe me, as soon as you even look like you intend to start to put things out, people stop to look. Unfortunately, we encountered an obsticle before we even started: The garage door wouldn't open - hence this picture of John and my legs under the stuck garage door. John ended up driving back to our apartment to get some tools, and then he took the door apart. At least it was open.

We had a whole bunch of stuff to sell - furniture, kitchen stuff, and all sorts of junk. By the end of the day we had sold almost everything.

See the other Garage Sale post to see an "After" shot of the sale. Pretty much everything in these pictures was sold.

Much to our surprise, the jewelry was a really big hit. Here, Jamie and I are trying to sort through all the unmatched earrings to make pairs.

All in all, it was a good day, and we made quite a bit more money than we had expected. About three days after the sale, when John and I were fixing lunch, he said, "I think I like having a lot less stuff." I agree. It's funny, really, that we work to buy stuff, we want certian things, and then when we have to be rid of our stuff, we suddenly feel free.

We are currently enjoying a few days with John's family in Angola, Indiana over the holiday week. Happy 4th of July! We arrived here late Sunday night after a weekend in Van Wert, Ohio with Claire's family. Her grandparents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary with a big party at their church. Here we are at John's Uncle Ted and Aunt Claudia's house with John't cousin Joel.
Here is Joel with his niece Ellen- so cute! We got to eat homemade ice cream. All the kids really enjoyed it - and I daresay the adults enjoyed it just as much. Like so many other homemade things, ice cream is a completely different experience when it has been made from scratch.At the big family reunion on the 4th, we were able to go swimming in a little pond. We had a blast together. Although it rained for about 15 minutes, the rest of the day was lovely. In fact, we played a new game called "Horseballs." (Don't worry, it's not as perverted as it sounds.) It's like horseshoes, but with balls instead.
We visited Joe's work, which was very fascinating. Joe works at a firewood processing plant, and we got to see all the big machinery that they use to process the wood. Joe helped to build most of it and get it running. He has a dangerous job for sure.