Drumroll Please

Ok to all me beloved fans I am so sorry for the wait, but the suspense of when my next post is going to come out is over. I know how much you all love hearing about my exciting adventures and the wait has been killing you, so I am here to end your pain and suffering. To shorten a long story, I love Nebraska! It is hard to believe that I have already been here for over a month, only 24 more days and I am Washington bound. The drive out here was so fun I can hardly wait to drive back, I guess that's where I will start.

On June 19 Sam and I started our trek east at 7 in the morning. There was a GPS in the car but Sam's dad said that we "needed an adventure" so he pulled the GPS and the only that got Sam and I halfway across the country was an old, beaten atlas. Once we crossed a state boarder we flipped a couple pages and got to our new state. Driving for 5 hours and seeing that we only moved 4 inches got pretty depressing during the trip. By the time Sam and I got to Spokane we were already tired of having to change radio stations so we stopped and got a radio transmitter for our ipods, and that seriously saved my life. I was lucky enough to drive the 1 to 8 in the morning shift, Sam slept the whole time. So a couple monster energy drinks, sorry mom, and bumping my ipod was my friend that kept me up. There were a couple times along the way I got a little nervous about gas because I90 gets pretty bare in spots, the gas needle kept dropping and there weren't a whole lot of gas stations popping up in nowhere land. Somewhere in Eastern Washington I got on the freeway going the wrong way and the next exit wasn't probably for 20 miles so, well, thank god for police turn outs on the freeway. In Billings, MT Sam got on the completely wrong freeway and lucky me noticed within the first 10 minutes so we didn't lose a whole lot of time. That night before I took over I took a little nap and I woke up and Sam was driving down a gravel road and I went off, are you kidding me Sam! So I had to get us back to the road. I am seriously that kids dad out here!

We finally got to Omaha at around 11 I want to say. We went straight to Jim and Sharon's, the people we live with, restaurant. It was so funny because after hardly any sleep and 27 straight hours of driving Heartland Cafe always has Sunday brunch, so Sam and I went to go eat and Sam looks at me and says something like breakfast for dinner? So I go yeah I don't know either, ah well. We didn't realize until we sat down that it was actually breakfast time. It took a couple days to get the biological clock back in order. I pretty much slept the rest of that day, which was also my birthday. We were supposed to be at Rosenblatt Stadium at 8 the next day to hand out newspapers but we didn't get up to til 930, I wasn't very happy. Fortunately for us it wasn't a big deal.

Before coming out here I was told I was going to be cleaning pools and valeting. Apparently that is code for doing physical labor, pulling weeds, pressure washing, and painting, because that is all that we have been doing, and in the Nebraska sun it is exhausting! There is still no sign of a valeting gig and supposedly that is where the money is. This past week we had to paint a pool at a retirement home so it was a pretty good sized pool. The pool was in a glass case so it was a sauna in there. The thermostat read 103 at the highest I think I remember and it was humid just from leaving the door open trying to get a breeze. We would walk outside and the 90 degree heat would actually feel good.

It has pretty much been everyday 8 to 4 which is really good hours but I will never be able to wake up at 730 excited to go to work. Sam and I both are definitely not morning people so the ride to work is pretty quiet. I always have to drive to work because Sam sleeps and I have to wake him up because "his alarm doesn't wake him up." Are you starting to see why I tell him to call me dad? I feel like I'm babysitting, except he's 17.

A couple weeks ago I pulled off a first, I dropped my phone in the lake. Sam's uncle's mother-in-law owns a cabin on a lake in Iowa so I was falling in and out of sleep on the dock and my phone was sitting on my lap. It fell off my leg and of course went straight through a crack in the dock, plunk. I was dumbfounded, I had no idea what to do. Lucky for me lakes out here are very shallow, like 8 feet at the deepest. So I found some shorts, the owners aren't exactly in their youth so the shorts I had to use were for a 5'8" 230 pound man, I'll let you picture me in those shorts. I jumped into the lake and went under the dock which was not fun at all. There were nails sticking out everywhere. Oh and lakes out here are really dirty because the water isn't really moving so that made it even better. Under the dock was probably close to 8 feet so my first dive down I was feeling around and it was so muddy and nasty, I tried opening my eyes but the water was so muddy that at only 8 feet it was pitch black. After my first dive I thought there was no way I was going to find. Two dives later I was feeling around and I found it, I was shocked. The keyboard was still lit up but the screen was out. So I pulled everything out and I guess the trick is to throw your phone in a bag of rice when it gets wet. I let it sit in the rice for a couple days and nothing. I was able to find the phone I wanted on craigslist for way cheap in Portland so trying to get my mom to meet this guy in downtown Portland while I was in Omaha was fun. I was probably a lot more excited than I should have been when my phone got here but who cares. You trying going a week without a phone, it's tough. I did lose all my contacts and stuff so that is still a bummer but I'll survive.

Last week Megan drove down from Fargo to come pick me up to spend the weekend in Minneapolis with her friends. She came down Thursday and we left Friday after I worked for a couple hours. We ate at the restaurant, it's so nice having the hook up at a restaurant, free food! I found 20 bucks on the sidewalk on the way back to the car and I was way too excited! Because I had it for about 20 minutes then it went into the gas tank. It was about a 6 hour drive to Minneapolis, remember that. Saturday we went and did the Mall of America and that was awesome! We met up with Tina from school and her friend Molly, you PLU people better laugh at that. We also met up with Ashley from school so it was one giant PLU reunion in the middle of the Mall of America. That place is so huge, I was definitely tired after that day. We had to wait in downtown until 10 to wait to meet Ben to take us to a house where there was "a large gathering of people." That was a fun night. Waiting until 10 though Megan and I were sitting in a sports bar right across the street from Target Field. We were getting ready to leave the bar at about 8 when Ben texts us and says there is a massive tornado heading for downtown Minneapolis, then the weather got crazy. It was raining sideways for probably close to 2 hours and we were parked 10 blocks away so we weren't about to go out in that, so we had to sit it out.

The next day Megan, Paige, Ben, and I all went to the Twins game and that was awesome! Target Field is gorgeous, after that weekend I am kind of a Twins fan now. The Twins plated 4 in the bottom of the 9th to win it, it was off of my fantasy closer so it was a bittersweet feeling but oh well, it was awesome! Before I left I was planning it with this guy who lived in Omaha but was buying a van in Fargo that I was going to drive his van down from Fargo for him and he was going to pay me. Sunday night he sends me an email "oh yeah sorry I didn't get the van." So I was stranded. I looked everywhere for carpools or maybe a cheap plane ticket just trying to avoid greyhound. At 11:45 in the morning Monday morning I found myself getting on the greyhound, it was very depressing to me. The people on those buses are, I don't even know what to say about them, they are characters. I met way too many drug addicts and ex-cons, or current cons for one day. The second bus from Des Moines to Omaha had to get pulled over so some guy could get arrested. I guess there was a knife threat and they were asking us all questions and searching the bus, wow. Nine and a half hours later I was finally in Omaha, remember how I said to take notice to how it only took 6 to drive there? It was a fun weekend and I guess the whole greyhound thing just adds to the adventure.

So it's not all work out here, were having some fun too. Last week Sam, Ryan the son, Laurie his girlfriend, and I had a couple beers by the pool and Sam showed his age. He was passed out after maybe 5 and so Ryan and I drew all over him. Waking up the next day at work I was hoping he wouldn't notice and would just go to work that way so I was trying to shove him out the door but I failed. It was so funny he goes into the bathroom and shuts the door, it's quiet for a couple seconds then he goes "I hate you Nathan." I'm usually not laughing at 7:30 in the morning but this time I was. So he got all the writing off.

Well I have to go finish doing the laundry and try to find something to eat. There is no food in this house, I swear it's a curse. I promise I will do my best to make sure my next post isn't in a month. To everyone back home, I love you and miss you!

Nathan...out