The Cheviot Scavenger Hunt

For years I had talked about doing one. I am not joking it was years. At least 2 or 3. Allison can attest to this. My parents use to organize them and talked about how great it was and I wanted to do. Finally I sat down and said we were doing it and on a whim Allison came along with me. I am not too sure she realized what she got herself into. We planned the date two months in advance. Honestly I didn’t think it was really going to happen when we set the date. But it did and surprisingly people had fun.

This year we finished our THIRD YEAR, which I can’t get over how strange that is. Three years of silliness for the sake of being silly. Not only was it our third year but seriously it was the first time it actually made any money. All of the proceeds went to the great and marvelous Tina Singler. It is just so strange though because the previous two years we hardly broke even.  The money doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t. I am just overwhelmed with happiness. I just remember at the end of the night wrapping everything up with Allison and having that realization ecstatic moment of, “Holy Fucking Chocolate Goodness. We did it!”

There is a great deal of planning that goes into this. No joke, we started planning next years that night while the current scavenger hunt was still happening. There are a lot of big ideas we have floating around for next year. It is scary and fun at the same time. While I hope what we are thinking can take place, if it remained the same I wouldn’t mind at all. Because what it currently is and what it has been is sheer silly fun with my friends and family. Who doesn’t love that? If it gets bigger the more the merrier. If not, that's cool.

Again, I just had to say I am so happy everyone had fun! I know Allison and I had fun planning it. Thank you guys so much for being awesome. We look forward to making you do fun, silly, off the wall things at the 4^th 74^th annual Scavenger Hunt next year.

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Sincerely,

Laura

Typing to type

It is fall incase you didn't notice. You probably didn't. The leaves haven't changed yet. But Starbucks has pumpkins spice lattes and Kroger has Halloween candy and it is colder.
So yay fall.


If you haven't noticed I am just doing this stream of consciences. Not going to let me fingers stop moving or edit while typing. Well I am going to try not to. I spelled Stop in the previous sentence Soap for some reason and it was bothering me so I had to change it. But from here on out not editing.


I don't really know what to say. Fall makes me feel like I have to write but there really isn't much to say. It will come to me eventually. Currently I am listening to music by Brian Eno and drinking sleepy time tea. Well not really drinking it yet. It is still in the tea pot brewing but I will come the end of tonight have drunk my tea and gone to bed.


I've been in a strange mood lately. Not either happy or sad just vanilla. I don't think it is bother some just annoying. I am the quiet girl at the party absorbing everything but not really saying much. Not that I am not interesting I just have a fear of boring other people. I also enjoy hearing other people talk.


While we are on the topic of other people talking I hate it when I get steam rolled in a conversation but I have to do it all the time at work now and it has slowly leaked out into my personal life. Dear close friends I am sorry for that. I love you but bossy Laura sometimes gets ahead of herself.


Type type type fingers keeps moving. I saw a deer today. Michelle and I went to get gelato with baby buddy. It was a lovely fall afternoon and we sat outside and talked as sisters do. Then I walked her home and on my way back I saw them. A momma and a baby no further than three houses down. They obviously saw me before I saw them. I couldn't remember if momma deer were like momma bears at the time. The sight was pretty, unexpected and a bit tense since I didn't want to scare her and find out. I walked in the street and the deer ran away across to a fence line where I saw the baby deer's tail reseed into the distance. It was quite pretty actually. I am happy I didn't have my phone because the camera wouldn't have done it justice.


Tomorrow is a day. Nothing special really. I will make it special in my own way. But still nothing of note happening. Life is what you make it. I want to make it awesome.

I Was Cold So I Traveled to The Beach In Meijer's Parking Lot

Meijer Parking Lot! WOOHOO THE BEACH!

I am sick of the cold. I am sick of the words "Polar" and "Vortex" being put together. I am tired of snow. I am tired of salt making my Soul dirty. I am just done with it.


So the other day I decided to go to the beach. With ventures to Florida actually costing money, and my schedule being what it is I had to be creative. I went to the beach Time Lord Style.


I live very close to a Meijer. This Meijer's real estate was created by blasting into a hill. In doing so it uncovered an old sea bed. Incase you didn't know or forgot, Ohio was once under the sea.


On a total whim after I had been grocery shopping I went to the far end of the parking lot and picked up three rocks. Three rocks at random completely caked in dirt to a point where I didn't know what I had. All I knew is that I would have something. The past in my hand. An ocean long gone but an ocean all the same.


I carried my cache upstairs and promptly placed them in a hot soapy bucket and began scrubbing them with an old toothbrush. Slowly the dirt began to come away revealing more dirt. I began to realize I hadn't just picked up 3 rocks but quite a bit more that were plastered together with dirt. The more I scrubbed the more the details came to life.


I honestly made a point of not looking anything up on the internet about my findings or about how to clean them. I wanted to discover everything on my own. I wanted to scrub and clean them, not expecting to find one type of a fossil or another. Instead of searching for a certain something, I wanted to discover all that I could on my own. I was not disappointed.


One of the rocks has a very fun pattern to it. Little perfect circles randomly spaced with shell patterns placed in-between. Another appears to be just a huge rock completely made out of pushed together shells. They have a little sparkle to them. A few of them were a little plain on the surface so I hit them with a hammer. Again I didn't look up the proper protocol on how to do this. I simply grabbed the hammer and put the rocks in a plastic bag and just started swinging. It felt good. My roommate came in halfway through my experiment. When he asked what I was doing I simply proclaimed, "Science." Again, I wasn't disappointed at what I found.

I often study the stars. In doing so I feel very small. Insignificant really. Looking up at the sky does give you great perspective with the general scheme of things. Solar systems come and go. The lifetime of our Earth pales in comparison to that of the universe. I'll stop there before I start quoting Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" spiel. But what I am getting at is often when I look up at the sky it gives me the feeling that my problems don't matter. I know I will not make such a difference in the universe, or even the human race, that I will be remembered when humans are living on Saturn's moons. Strangely enough this thought gives me the freedom to simply relax and enjoy my life for what it is. No pressure to impress the future Titanians. I can breath easy.

But looking at these rocks, looking at these fossils, I see a life that I am certain didn't even know it was a life. They are dead and really are simply imprints of former life. These shells and pieces of coral are really an accidental reminder from millions of years ago of what was here. The creatures in the shells millions of years ago fell in just the right place that they are now preserved sitting on my desk. They had very little aspiration in the general scheme of the world. From what I know of shells they eat and reproduce, that's about it. Yet the Earth saw fit to preserve these little guys.

So while my general perspective is that the universe doesn't care about me, these fossil show that the Earth just might. One day millions of years from now, I might be fossil sitting on some future beings desk, while they ponder whether or not I knew I was alive. That makes me smile.

I now have what I like to call my mini beach. It might be snowing outside. The weather may have put a damper on some of my plans tonight. But I am a little warmer now that I am surrounded by the remnants of life from the Ohio Sea bed.