rest stops.

So there we were, on our way to West Virginia for a wedding when we realized that our ETA was ETWrong. This was mostly due to my penny sized bladder and love of coffee.  My dad, the camera man, had been asked to film the wedding and needed to be there at least a half hour before the ceremony commenced at 4. To our discomfort, the GPS had us arriving at our hotel to get ready around 3:30. With about a 20 minute drive from there to the church, going to the hotel first dropped off the list of options.
What did we decide to do? You know those "lovely" rest areas you pass about every half hour when you are on the interstate? You know, the ones that are perfectly clean and void of people ;)? We put our three brains together and decided that stopping at one of those to get wedding ready was as good an idea as any.
Imagine this scene... three road weary people walk into a rest area looking tired, wrinkled, and hurried. Barely recognizable, the three emerge 15 minutes later looking fit for a special occasion.
A tip I never thought I would have experience enough to give is as follows; never get ready for a wedding in a rest area bathroom. If the nasty bathroom floor isn't enough to deter you from this, then let me be the first to tell you... it should. Did I mention, most rest stops do not have AC, openable windows, or trustworthy mirrors? I laugh often when I look at myself through rest area mirrors. They are like funhouse mirrors. You either look 10 ft. tall or 2. When you get closer, your forehead looks like it houses the largest brain around.
All things considered, even though rest areas are hot, nasty and smelly, I sure am thankful for them. Without one, we would have gone to the wedding as we were; sweat pants and all. I'm sure the funny looks we got at the rest area as we scrambled to look presentable would have been nothing in comparison to the looks from wedding guests trying to understand how we could possibly think wearing sweat pants to a wedding was a good idea. Thank you rest area, thank you.

We ended up looking pretty good

...not as good as these two though! Congratulations Wes and Rachel Dean! 

coffee and blogging.

pe·rip·e·ty [puh-rip-i-tee] 
a sudden turn of events or an unexpected reversal, especially in a literary work.


My mother loves this word. 
Normally she comes home from Bible study and talks about a few main points that touched her personally, but never with as much enthusiasm as she had when she came home that night. With a room brightening smile she told me about her new favorite word. "Peripety, P E R I P E T Y, peripety. It basically means hinge or turning point. I think it is the most beautiful word I have ever heard."


Life is full of peripeties. Big and small decisions that change life as we are used to living it. Most of us call them defining moments. "That is when everything changed. I became a different person over that year.... month.... day... I made a 180 and nothing was the same as before that moment." 


My life has been packed with peripeties. I can think of ten off the top of my head and if I took inventory of my whole life experience, many more would come to light. Peripeties in faith, love, location, friendships, etc. have made me who I am now. 


With several people telling me that I should be blogging, I have finally decided to do it. So, this is the beginning (maybe a peripety). Coffee in hand, wrapped in the softest sweater I own, I'm blogging.