weekend update

it’s been literally months and months since i engaged in a large group activity of any sort. i could use the work excuse, but it wouldn’t be entirely honest. mostly, i’ve just not been in the mood for the ‘scene’. sometimes i can put up with the superficiality of it better than others..you know, having a million ‘friends’ who are good for chatting up at parties, but if you ever needed something in a pinch, might be conveniently unavailable. it’s the nature of the mormon singles scene, and sometimes my tolerance is higher than others. lately, it’s been low, and my social time has been spent with close friends in small gatherings.

but i love halloween. it is probably my favorite holiday, next to christmas. i think it is the theater girl in me who loves a holiday where you get to pretend to be something you are not. but a costume this year was stretching my willingness to invest in a large social gathering. almost every year i drag myself to the barn dance, and i usually have a good time. i knew if i was going to force myself into a costume though, i would never do it. especially since i was without a wing-man.

so, i dressed in normal clothes, and if anyone asked, i was going to tell them i was a reality show contestant. my handy dandy gps unit got me there via some back roads about 30 minutes earlier than planned.

so what did i do? i sat in my car trying to convince myself to go in. i gave myself a little pep talk. it went like this:

‘tara, get out of the car. you have friends in there that you haven’t seen in a long time and who will welcome you with smiles and open arms! why are you hesitating? you are a 30 year old woman who feels good about herself. this is ridiculous. you are being a baby. just get out of the car. if you go in and don’t see anyone, you can turn around and leave. but you’ll never know unless you give it a chance. get OUT of the car.’

apparently, i give good pep. i got myself out of the car, and was relieved to almost immediately see a couple of familiar faces--and even better, some of my favorite familiar faces. i ended up knowing less people than i thought i would, but i still knew plenty, so the fact that i was flying solo wasn’t so painful. all in all, it ended up being an enjoyable evening. however, it did remind me why i have been avoiding the large group gatherings. it’s just not my scene right now. i am more content and fulfilled spending time with the old faithfuls who have been there through everything and are still willing to put up with me!

saturday was a perfect example. the last open weekend at king’s dominion, and even better, fear fest. lara, corey and i all have season passes, and jill joined in for the fun. after all the rain and cold weather here recently, we were concerned that it would be a less than ideal day, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. the sun was out and it was absolutely stunning. we enjoyed all the usual, the volcano, funnel cakes, tomb raider, boardwalk fries..you know, the usual.

in the evening some of the rides turned ghoulish and we settled on the antique car ride. the scariest thing about the haunting was the park employees screaming at corey and i to (in his case) give them the camera and to (in my case) stop taking photos. now, keep in mind, nowhere did it say no photos. nowhere. and even in the instructions they gave us (hands in the car, etc.) absolutely no mention of photography. so these two park employees chased us throughout the ride, and that was pretty scary. i can’t for the life of me figure out why they would care, apparently dead people have bigger issues than, um, death.

the weekend was capped off (or completely destroyed) by having to teach on sunday. i haven’t found a groove yet and it just feels awkward and uncomfortable, and draining. but i got through it, and after church made a stop at the willis home to spend some time with julie who was here from nc all pregnant and stuff. and that was a much better way to call the weekend done.


for more pics of the barn dance, click here.
for more pics of fear fest, click here.