Maybe this latest chapter in my Journal will be a nice change from the current events going on in America.

First, a quick note of explanation. As some of you know from reading the forum, my Web site is now being visited by people who should not see some of the more personal -- or even interesting -- things I would like to publish on my Web site. But, once I started posting this Journal on my site, there was no turning back or changing my plans. Instead, I came up with a different solution. At the bottom of this post, you'll see a link that leads to pictures. That page contains the same information found here, only with photos included. However, if you read the version of Day 8 that's linked from the public page, you'll probably see that it's a bit different. All RinkyDink references are gone, as are a few other details.

And, now that you're mildly perplexed....

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-Friday, July 27, 2001-

8:22 a.m.

Sam's wearing his admin shirt that was a Christmas present from a bunch of us RinkyDinks (orchestrated by Ticia), and Leen will wear her matching shirt after she gets done with her barn duties. I'm wearing my "Eat at Sam's for green eggs and ham" shirt.

9:36 a.m.

We are now on our way home from the barn, where we saw the wild horses and donkeys--or burros, as Leen referred to them. They didn't look especially wild, but I guess they don't show their wildness when they're in small, fenced-in areas. Leen had to hose Timmy's leg for 15 minutes and then poultice him while Sam and I stood back and watched.

2 p.m.

We're on the road to Manchester now, after stopping to drop off some clean wraps for Timmy at the barn. There were a lot of cars there because of the wild horses, and the auction isn't even until tomorrow. This is the furthest east that such an auction has ever been held, and it was being promoted as far away as Boston. After that, we stopped to get gas, and it just barely reached eight gallons, the minimum number of gallons you must buy in order to get a free Reese's candy bar. Leen tries to only go to the gas stations offering that promotion.

"Smithereens" is a cool word, and I discovered that "smitherleens" is a funny word.

2:20 p.m.

Sam just asked if I had written this part down. I hadn't, but I'll do it since he's so proud of himself and it was funny. We were saying that the weather is perfect for the RU, and Leen said maybe we shouldn't say too much. I agreed, adding, "Knock on wood," then looked around jokingly for wood. Sam then knocked on my head and received a, "HEY!" and a funny look in return.

We're at the Comfort Inn in Manchester now.



2:32 p.m.



We just met Cynthia! We went into the Comfort Inn but couldn't get into our room yet, as it was reserved under Amy's name. As we walked out of the Comfort Inn, a woman, a teenage girl, and a little girl came toward us. The first thing I noticed was that the woman and the teenager were both about five feet tall and were wearing turquoise shirts. Then the teenager stopped, we stopped, and I think we all simultaneously realized that we should know one another. "Cynthia?" I asked. Yes, it was Cynthia. She, her mom, and her sister had flown in from Kentucky earlier in the day, and her mom was exhausted. That's probably why, less than two minutes after making the rounds of introductions, she let Cynthia leave with us.



2:37 p.m.



We're at the Econo-Lodge hotel and looking for Matthew and Ayako, or "Matthako," as we've nicknamed them. They both arrived last night, and we knew they were staying at that motel. I asked for Ayako at the front desk, but the man said there was nobody registered under her name. We realized that nobody knew Matthew's last name, but we didn't think we could ask for "a guy with a British accent named Matthew." So, even though our odds were slim, we wandered the halls of the Econo Lodge with the hopes of seeing them. Led by Sam, we periodically said, "RinkWorks, RinkWorks," throughout the hallways, but our search was unsuccessful.



3:35 p.m.



We returned to the Comfort Inn and sat in the lobby for a while. It's got nice furniture, but there are about five feet between each chair. We occupied four chairs and waved at one another across the distance.

Cynthia just made us laugh when we were talking about gremlinn's huge game he's creating. He's doing huge amounts of coding for it, and Cynthia said, "It makes me want to go feed him!"



4 p.m.



We're across the street from the Comfort Inn at BagelWorks. Leen got a bagel with cream cheese, and all three of us are sitting at a table, hearing about Cynthia's cooking adventures, and her family's opinion of her culinary skills. "They don't let me cook anymore," she said.



5:55 p.m.



Mia and famous (referred to as Amy from this point forward) arrived half an hour early, but we happened to get to the airport before they arrived. Their flight landed, and it seemed like hours before I saw someone who had to be Amy. She was followed by a tiny thing who was obviously Mia. I think Amy hugged Leen first, but I got the first Mia hug. She was carrying a bag that was nearly as big as she was, and she really wasn't more than five feet tall. I finally got an Amy hug, and then we went to the baggage claim to get her luggage.

We're checked into the Comfort Inn now, room number 320. Amy is providing entertainment for us by imitating her attempts at mowing her lawn. Her mower is very "janky," a word that is apparently similar to "junky." She also says "dag-gone it" instead of "dog-gone it," and the slight Southern twang is hilarious.

I'll try to catch up on more things now. Okay, no, I won't. We're having too much fun.



6:28 p.m.



Amy says "toe-let" instead of "toilet." Her reasoning: "I don't say toilet. That's too much work on my mouth."



7:20 p.m.



We keep seeing AIM smileys everywhere we go, other than places like Wal-Mart (which has a yellow happy face as its logo). We just saw yellow smileys on a Jeep, and it happened to be right near a sticker that was partly covered so that we could only see "IRL." In other words, we were seeing AIM smileys In Real Life, which struck our fancy.



7:45 p.m.



Leen and Amy went to Burger King, then came and met the rest of us at Subway. We went back to the Comfort Inn, checked at the front desk, and people had been looking for us. The room was reserved under Amy's name, but people were asking for Sam. The lady behind the counter said the people had gone across the street, so we went back across the street yet again. There we finally met up with Stephen, Mia, Issachar and his wife, and Mousie. Mousie made a running dash for me and gave me a big, long hug. She saw a lady and her red-haired son and exclaimed, "Oh, look! You'll have red-haired kids like that, too!" This was Mousie. (I'll call her Heidi from here on.)

Issachar was just like he was on the RU video, and his wife seemed nice but was very quiet. Then Iss and Jacqueline went to eat and Mousie, Stephen, and Mia headed to Boston to see the city and eventually pick up Dave at the wonderful hour of 1 a.m.

Now we're discussing famous' -- no, Amy's -- use of "y'all."



8:32 p.m.



Iss and Jacqueline just came up to our room, so we're all talking. Sam just gave Jacqueline another hug, but said he wouldn't hug Iss. Then he changed his mind and gave Iss a hug, too.



9 p.m.



Ayako just called from the Econo-Lodge, and she and Matthew are on their way over. Apparently they left a message for Sam much earlier, but the hotel never figured out where the message should be delivered to.



9:15 p.m.



Ayako and Matthew just arrived. We did the round of hugs, and when Matthew got to me, he paused and said in his British accent, "You're not going to kill me, are you?" I laughed, said no, and hugged him.

Matthew's quiet, but very funny. An engine "fell off" the plane, or stopped working, but he made it to New Hampshire in one piece.

We were just talking about my fear of bats, and Amy just told us not to sit "real hard" on a certain spot on the chair because something is poking out of it. That amused all of us.

And now we're discussing "pants," which are underwear if you ask Matthew and jeans if you ask Americans. Amy was thoroughly confused and asked Matthew, "So what do you call the things that are longer than my shorts?" That discussion came to a natural end when Matthew had the last laugh by saying, "Will you please stop talking about my pants!"



-Saturday, July 28, 2001-


12:40 a.m.



I'm going to have to settle for taking notes and writing a longer account later. With 26 people at the RinkUnion, there's no way I'll have time to write. We're in our hotel room, and Amy is asleep -- or nearly asleep -- to my left. On the bed to my right are Sam and Darleen. All three of them lay down and went to sleep almost instantly.

Before I forget, I'm going to mention the context in which we met Faux Pas and his wife, or "Mrs. Pas," as Sam calls her. Sam, Leen, Amy, Cynthia, Matthew, Ayako, and I went downstairs to see if we could get into the conference room yet. We took the model horses Leen had brought and carefully entered the elevator. We got to the lobby, and there was Faux Pas. He looked like his picture, I thought, and he later said he figured a large group of people carrying model horses must be a RinkWorks group. We made the introductions, then went on our way, only to find out that the conference room wasn't ready yet. So we went back up to our room, carefully put the horses back, and at some point we went back downstairs to get food for Ayako.

Ayako, Matthew, Faux Pas, and Cynthia went to Subway while Sam, Leen, Amy, and I went to the nearby Store 24 for ice cream. After some hard decision-making, we made our purchases and went back to Subway. Sam talked to the other group while Leen, Amy, and I sat at a nearby table. Amy was very tired, and Leen began to react to the sugar in her ice cream, so our table was full of senseless, fun laughter. We eventually went back to the hotel, and Cynthia soon went back to her room for the night.