McCall Winter Carnival (and my need for alone time)

This weekend, I went with some friends (Karen, Leslee, and Michelle) to the McCall Winter Carnival. We stayed at Leslee's sister-in-law's family cabin in Cascade on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night, we just settled in and hung out. On Saturday, we went to McCall to check out the parade, ice sculptures, and booths.

(The Great Wall of China... McCall style!)

We didn't get to see all the ice sculptures, since it was really crowded and rather spread out. But there were some neat ones that we saw. Like this one. And a pyramid. And a pretty adorable abominable snowman. We had a really late lunch at the delicious Pancake House. (They have cinnamon rolls the size of a dinner plate!) Mmm. Then we headed back and took naps because we were all so tired. (None of us had slept particularly well Friday night.) Saturday night, Karen and I escaped to the Gold Fork Hot Springs. It was really nice, though a bit hard to see since it was so steamy and crowded. But the stargazing was AMAZING! Seriously. Sunday, Karen and I went to Sacrament Meeting at the Cascade Branch. Everybody there was really nice. Then we just kind of hung out at the cabin until we headed back to Boise.

Super brief summary of the weekend, I know. It was a good weekend. Nice escape. I just don't know what other details to fill in.

But what this weekend really helped me to discover how much I need alone time. I definitely identify as an introvert, but I guess I'm generally able to get quite a bit of alone time that I haven't really noticed, even if it's journaling or reading alone in my room before I go to bed or eating a bowl of cereal by myself in the morning. I didn't get really any alone time this weekend, as all four of us slept in the same room and we all came in the same car. Plus, no matter where we went (ice sculptures, eating, church, at the cabin, etc.), we were SURROUNDED by other people. There was no real place to escape to and be by myself. Which isn't a bad thing inherently. (I do like having friends.) But it was a bit rough for me. And I didn't realize how hard it was until we got back to Boise and I went to a stake fireside last night. I felt myself getting antsier and antsier and when refreshment time hit, I really couldn't stick around. I dashed out to my car and went home.

So work today was also a bit rough, since I still haven't really recovered (from lack of alone time and from lack of sleep). And in my job, I'm around other people quite a bit. I was able to keep it together okay at work, but then when some things went wrong after work, it was a bit harder to deal with. Simple things I normally would just shrug off almost sent my anxiety levels through the roof.

But after home evening, I was able to come home and be alone and listen to my "Ocean Waves" Pandora station. So I think I'm mainly recovered. And now it's time for bed. (I'm definitely still not caught up from my lack of sleep. But that's okay, right? I'm having fun and making memories.)

Bowling League!

I'm doing a bowling league again this winter! And it's awesome. Each week, we get three games of bowling, a pizza to share with the team, and plenty of fun... all for $10 a person. Doesn't get much better than that.

I must say, it's interesting to see how people react when we say we're in a bowling league. People seem to automatically assume we're awesome. (We apparently even had some people from Karen's work fighting over us to be on their team at their work party.) But... we're really not that amazing of bowlers. Seriously. After the first week of the league, we were in last place. (Though we somehow won last year because of our super high handicap. Which was really funny, because we had no idea we were doing so well because we didn't understand the whole handicap thing. All we knew was that the other teams kept scoring higher than us each week, so we figured we weren't doing that well. Someone eventually explained what was going on, so all the other teams taking note of who the Queen Pins were suddenly made sense.) And I am a terribly inconsistent bowler. It's a bit frustrating to me, though I still have plenty of fun. This week, I scored 104, 73, and 111. Last night when I went bowling for Karen's work party, I got 128 in the first game (and even within the game I was a bit inconsistent... getting a spare or strike several frames in a row, and then bowling into the gutter the next frame). We weren't quite able to finish the second game (the place was rented for two hours, not two games), but I ended the ninth frame at 65. Oops.

However, what's rather exciting (and what I really wanted to share) was last week's bowling... our first week of the league. That week, I got 81, 99, and then finished off the night with a 150. No idea how I managed to get the 150. It's the highest I've ever scored before. But I took a picture for proof. (Actually, Karen took it for me, since she brought her nice camera.) And I was super happy because I got to check another thing off my 101 list! (I wasn't sure if I'd be able to check that one off... but woot!)

Hopefully I'll be able to become a bit more consistent of a bowler this season. But if not, at least I'm having fun!