Intense enjoyment

I don't like intense. Never have. I can't even watch figure skating. I will walk 12 miles around something or someone to avoid conflict. Just too much for me to handle - unless there's some Excedrin and/or a Diet Coke nearby, because my head will ache, and rarely have there been times when I have been suffering from intense-ness AND still been able to pull the day out of the crapper. I know, just so lady-like for me to say that, huh?



Today has been one of those days where my shoulders are up right next to my ears. Let's just say that there's tension in the air - or in my shoulders, rather.



Day 2 of State Pony League baseball games. Jay's team is doing great. They lost, then won yesterday, then this morning they didn't only win the WON BIG! 21 - 0. So the tension building games continue tonight and into tomorrow. What am I going to do when the competition gets more intense? I think either my head will explode or disappear between my shoulders.



I don't like intense.



Then there's TREK. Not THE TREK. Just TREK. Our Stake goes to Wyoming next week for a few days for youth conference where we will re-enact some of the handcart labors performed by the faithful, obedient, strong, admirable pioneers who came to Utah with the fateful Willie & Martin Handcart Company. Will was asked to be one of the two company captains. Quite fitting for Captain Biesinger (almost - any day now). You would think that with information in black and white and in bound form that the people involved in this activity would mostly be in the same page. Not so.



Will has his shoulders up to his ears as well. And his hands are in throat choking position. He's a little overwhelmed.



Since Will and I are going on Trek as well as Jay and Katie Jane, I have had to come up with a lot of pioneer looking clothing. This is where the enjoyment part of my day has come in.



Everyone has been telling me to go to D.I. (Deseret Industries) to find clothes for Trek. I've been procrastinating to the very end and I'm pretty much out of options. I know it's a good idea, but I have the hardest time with D.I. because I'm not a good bargain finder. The store overwhelms me. If I was a pioneer, I would be like Harriet Olsen on Little House on the Prairie, except nice and not snooty (but I would still be nosy!). I would rather buy something already made instead of making it myself. I'm not good at it. The last time I sewed, I sewed my middle finger. The needle went right through my fingernail and came out the other side of my finger. I'm REALLY not good at it.



Katie Jane and I walked into D.I. this afternoon and a wave of overwhelmness came over me. Where in the world do you begin to look for...anything? Katie Jane and I found a couple of things, we laughed at a couple of things, saw some EXTREME people (think of Rodney/Starman, but with tall, yellow - bright yellow - big bird yellow new wave hair...I had to tell Katie not to stare.) Then the realization as to why I don't like D.I. came over the intercom system in the store.



"Will the custodian come to the shoe department...and bring a mop."



I stopped breathing out of my nose when I heard that announcement.



We found some pants for Will and Jay that we can laugh at them in, and Katie got two skirts and two blouses (must be button down - check!) one stinks, the other one doesn't. Katie and I both had an intense desire to wash our hands as we came out...I know it's not that bad, and I know that families can save so much money by shopping at D.I., but I was in total fear that I was going to come across something that I, myself, had donated. And the music was weird like the music you hear when you're laying back in the dentist chair and you're inhaling laughing gas. Kind of spacey-weird dream-out of body experience weird.



I think that was the first time I had purchased something from D.I. I have donated about half of the store volume, but never purchased something to go back into my house. As Katie Jane and I were walking to the truck, a little lady - who spoke no English because she came up to me and held a little piece of paper about 4 inches from my face that had "tamales $1.00" on it, was selling tamales in the parking lot. How can you say no to a sweet little woman like that who is face to face with you asking you to purchase her, I'm sure, famous tamales? I couldn't. If I get sick soon, you'll know why. But Katie Jane and I enjoyed a hot, very good tamale in the parking lot of D.I. - AFTER we washed our hands, of course.



And you might as well just call me Harriett Olsen, because I went to another store and bought me a pioneer skirt and apron. Done. How easy was that? Thrifty for the rest of my family, but cha-ching for me! I'm really not like that...it only seems like it.



But to end the middle of my day before going to work and another baseball game...which is normally a full day(?)...Katie Jane and I stopped by The SweetTooth Fairy and I tried my hardest to narrow down my choices to 1 - but ended up getting 4 cupcakes. Coconut, Strawberry Lemonade, Orange and Peanut Butter. Katie Jane got a melt in your mouth lemon bar!! Shhh, don't tell my kids because I fully intend to eat 3 of the four...by myself, and give the 4th to my wonderful, deserving husband.



My mouth just started to water.

The day must end with more "intense" though. Back to baseball. But I sure enjoyed my middle-of-the-day with Katie Jane. As intense as life gets, it's nothing that a heavenly cupcake can't cure.