i wasn't sure if i was gonna have more work this summer than just one cleaning job a week. a few jingles in my pocket, speedily vanishable. it would've been okay, because i have a school teaching job coming up with good pay. however, i was thrilled when a friend told me of the opportunity to work part-time at christian light publications! not that working in the mailing department is my dream job as such . . . but it's a paying job!!!

i actually like it. best of all, i get to stay with my dearest friends, raymond shenks, those two nights a week i'm in harrisonburg. it really cuts down on driving time, since clp is around an hour from our place. i'm digging the new job! bernice breckbill trained me in, and she's so patient with me . . . it was really cool cuz i'd known her from long ago.

what i do is sort of like a shopping experience, you take your list and find things on shelves you need and put in cart. only i have an order form and i need to hunt up what's on the order and put the desired quantity in the right order with spines facing center, and try to make a minimum of mistakes. bernice is one of the checkers before the order gets pkged, so she radios me if i need to pull extra lightunits or whatever. i am trying to remember to wear dresses with tie-belts so i can hook my radio! a lot of the employees at clp are still there from when i worked in the bindery around ten years ago. but when i ate lunch with my co-workers at the picnic table i confess i felt very strange, odd, and out of place. so i hope that can change in a week or two.

i have also been doing the usual amount of hanging out, tripping, going to concerts, and such things. it's been awesome learning to know the staff from faith mission home in our journeys to harrisonburg to hear concerts. we have so much fun together! we went to hear the oasis choralle one night, and the next time we went to the program for shenadoah music camp. last night i could've gone to hear the music camp chamber choir, but i was tired of running around. my brothers and i opted to go hiking on skyline for a little family time.

the weather was perfect. the falls magnificent. the trip back up rigorous and ardorous. esp. that shortcut that dad, my brothers, and i took! almost straight up and down! dad hiked behind me to catch me if i fell. that was the best part, even if i flopped down on the trail at the top, puffing like a steam engine. it was a very long hike and at the end, i made it up by sheer willpower. what a good workout! our family went to a picnic table then and ate a wineberry pie and several gallons of popcorn. memories . . . memories . . .

and saturday i puttered over to aroda in my lovely foceye with the good gas milage and splendid sound system. after picking up phyllis, we headed over to farmville to spend the day with tammy. over three years ago, we girls hit it off together when working at mountain view nursing home. this was a wonderful day of renewing our friendship and making many wonderful memories together. we visited one of tammy's friends (that was awesome), went to a dessert shoppe together to meet another of tammy's friends, went shooooooooooping, then to dq for food and a loooooooong talk, more shopping, then back to tammy's house. there we jammed out, talked, and looked at photos. it was an awesome day! i would do it again if i get a chance!

life is good!

oh, and for all you on xanga who like pictures, my appologies, but it takes literally hours to post a photo blog with dial-up, so i will be putting photos on facebook only until i get DSL again.

cheers to good times with the youth girls! we made some super-awesome memories . . . headed to david hostetler's cabin around 5:00 last night. made many memories . . . fooseball, phase ten, introductions, deep talks with karen til 1:00 am . . . the next day we went rafting. we had lovely weather! i might post a sequel to this note later after i catch up on my sleep.