In The Beginning

Day #1
Sunday, May 18th 2008

"We only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. What a crazy few weeks this has been...

Last night I broke down and just cried for 20 minutes. It's real now. I'm on a train to Seattle and Mom & Dad are moving to China in 1 week. Growing up could not have come more suddenly and simultaneously. Yet at the same time, I could not and probably have never been as excited as I am right now.

THE TRAIN...

My perspective changed on older people today. Indefinitely we should respect our elders; however, to love everyone recklessly and equally seems more accurate to some ideal of a state of "correctness"... All this venting sparked from a grumpy older woman that, when Ryan and I didn't see her behind us is the aisle said in an insistent or [obvious] tone "Yeeeeah...Hummmph!" when we finally noticed her and moved out of her way. I suppose what I actually realized is that NOT ALL OLD PEOPLE are sweet, innocent, and helpless...

I sit next to a 1-year-out-of-college theatre major named Tyler. He's really cool and went to Nebraska Wesleyan College. Maybe the Lord will bring opportunity in this short-lived relationship.

Ryan and I met a girl named 'Lily'. I first noticed her in line for our train back in Chicago because she was carrying what looked like a wooden spear. It turns out that Lily is carrying a well crafted longbow. She goes to some wilderness school in Albany, NY and is on her way out to the Olympic Mountains to do a "survival period". She's only taking a knife, her longbow, and several other items in her backpack. Lily taught Ryan & I how to make, essentially, rope out of the inner bark of a plant called dogbane (?!):
(1) Buffing period- to remove external bark. Methods: rolling in palm; segment twisting
(2) Seperate the buffed, slightly adhered strands into two sections.
(3) Make an -X- out of those strands...Twist to the right; lay over bottom strand; REPEAT

*I'm already craving a steak dinner, and it's the first day still. The powerbar and half-can of tuna will be well worth the wait..."