That's When the Crazy Started ...

UPDATE: Unlikely Merger is available now! We will offer

the book FREE on Kindle July 1-5, 2015.

My Craziest Summer

Guest Post by Julie Arduini

I was in my early 20’s, fresh out of college and ready to start a new life. I was at a crossroads because I was new in my relationship with Christ but clueless how to live in a way that was pleasing to Him when I was still hung up on what others thought of me.

Entrusted
Available on Amazon & Kindle

I was also new in my first real job, matching senior citizens with not-for-profit agencies. It was a position that gave me the opportunity to network with the community. My friend wanted to help me along, so she invited me to join the local service club in town. Although I felt young, awkward and lost amidst a sea of older men, I decided to participate with her.

That summer the club was having a big meeting at the local hotel. It was a big deal and the members were expected to be there. Enough time has passed that I don’t remember what the agenda was, but I do recall being bored.

Bored and me never have a happy ending.

The leaders called for a break so I decided to explore the other conference rooms in the hotel. Another woman joined me and together we headed for the hallway where the walls seemed to shake from the rockin’ music.

“I think it’s a wedding reception.” I gestured for her to follow me as I decided to walk by.

And that’s when the crazy started.

A man from inside the party, where alcohol was definitely flowing freely, pointed to me and waved me in. I shook my head, panicked that I would be the pioneer wedding crasher long before Hollywood decided to make a movie about it. The guy wouldn’t take no for an answer and went into the hallway. He begged me to join him, taking me by the arm, and leading me inside.

Part of me was excited, it was the kind of unpredictable fun college had been. Yet, as a new Christian, the place was full of choices that were going to lead me down a path I didn’t want to go down anymore. Most of all, trespassing.

“I can’t be here. I’m not invited.”

He grinned, his glassy eyes full of spunk. “Don’t worry. I’ll vouch for you.”

I tried to back out. “I have a meeting. I really can’t be here.”

He reached for my hand. “C’mon, let’s dance. Bob won’t mind.”

I looked around trying to find who this “Bob” was.

The stranger continued. “He’s my best friend from college, the groom.” Then he dropped Bob’s last name. A name I knew.

I jerked my hand away and headed for the door. “That’s my dentist. I can’t be here.” I thought about when my next appointment was. Of all the times to have an appointment, it was Monday. I had a hard enough time facing the guy. He was young and resembled Top Gun Tom Cruise. Something my mom didn’t miss when she sent his news article to my college mailbox.

“You know him? You have to dance with him. Let’s go.” Oh this guy wasn’t giving up.

By then I was in an all-out panic. I back-pedaled out of there so fast that the college friend couldn’t keep up. I high-tailed it back to the stuffy meeting prepared to sit straight and pay attention for the rest of the day. And I breathed a prayer that Dr. Bob would never, ever know I crashed his wedding.

Monday came and I felt confident I was in the clear. I wasn’t sure why the guy was cleaning my teeth instead of being on a honeymoon but I wasn’t going to ask. He asked how I was and I gave the most uninterested tone I could muster.

He continued getting the tools ready, fixing the seat, turning the headlamp thing on. “Anything interesting happen this summer?”

I opened my mouth and he inserted the plaque-scraper-thingy. Even if I wanted to talk, I couldn’t, so I shook my head. Nope. Not one thing. Especially not Saturday at the hotel where his reception was.

“So, Julie. How did you like my wedding reception?”

Busted.

Thankfully, he laughed and asked why I didn’t dance with him and made sure his friend in his state treated me right. But I could never look Dr. Bob in the eye again.

That was a crazy summer.

****

Julie Arduini’s passion is to encourage readers to find freedom through surrender. She knows it has to start with her so she admits she’s surrendering “the good, the bad, and---maybe one day---the chocolate.”

She desires in her fiction to not only bring hope to those struggling with surrender issues, she wants to highlight the various Upstate New York settings she enjoyed for over three decades. Entrusted,Entangled, and Engaged pay homage to the beautiful Adirondack Mountains.

Julie is also one of the authors in the sequel to A Dozen Apologies,The Love Boat Bachelor.

She holds a BA in Communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo and is a graduate of the Christian Writers Guild. She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the 2011 winner of the JournEzine Christmas Contest. Every other Wednesday she blogs at the popular site Christians Read. She enjoys reviewing books and encouraging others at juliearduini.com.

When she’s not writing, reading or blogging she enjoys taking amateur nature pictures and nurturing youth. With a heart to encourage others, she enjoys interacting with readers through social media and can be found throughout social media @JulieArduini.

She resides in NE Ohio with her husband and two children and is blessed to be a step-mom to two adult children and son-in-law who reside in Wisconsin. All of them know not to mess with her chocolate stash.

Behind the Scenes of Unlikely Merger:

Monday, June 29:

            

Fay Lamb: Who Wrote Whom: Meet the Authors of Unlikely Merger: Jennifer Hallmark

Sunday, June 28:

Fay Lamb: Who Wrote Whom: Meet the Authors of Unlikely Merger: Patricia M. Dyer

Saturday, June 27

Fay Lamb: Who Wrote Whom: Meet the Authors of Unlikely Merger: Carole Towriss

Friday, June 26

Fay Lamb: Who Wrote Whom: Meet the Authors of Unlikely Merger: Julie Arduini

Thursday, June 25

Jennifer Hallmark: Traveling with Others by Phee Paradise

Fay Lamb: Who Wrote Whom: Meet the Authors of Unlikely Merger: Marji Laine

Tuesday, June 23

Write Integrity Press: Marji Laine's What’s a Boom-Hunt Road Trip?

Jennifer Hallmark: Why I Keep Saying Yes to The Proposal by Julie Arduini

Marie Wells Coutu: The Ultimate Bucket List

Deborah Dee Harper: DeeTrails ~ To Love a Weed

Monday, June 22

Write Integrity Press: Let the Road Trips Begin

Deborah Dee Harper: The Only Thing We Have to Fear ... Getting it All Wrong

Saturday, June 20

Write Integrity Press: Vote for the Hero!

One Moose of a Summer

UPDATE: Unlikely Merger is available now! We will offer 

the book FREE on Kindle July 1-5, 2015.

My Craziest Summer

by Deborah Dee Harper

It was the summer of 2008, specifically August of 2008. I remember it like it was seven years ago.

I was living with my daughter, Darice, and her husband, Ron (as I still do), and it was in the days before Molly, their little three-year-old girl, was born. We moved from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi to Ron’s new assignment on Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska. Ron’s first year of this four-year tour would be spent in Korea, so it was just the two of us to keep the home fires burning and try to stay out of trouble.

Darice and Ron had previously spent four years on Eielson AFB near Fairbanks before our tour in Mississippi, and I’d joined their household during the last year of that Alaskan tour. That made Darice a relatively knowledgeable Alaska resident and me still a newbie. We soon discovered that living in the middle of the last frontier vs. living farther south near the ocean changed everything from the weather (a bit warmer and lots more snow) to the number and kind of wildlife (vastly larger) we’d encounter.

Ron left for Korea and we set out to explore our new home. Since we lived in military housing, we were relatively safe as far as marauding human beings went, but the wildlife did whatever they darned well pleased. One day I leaned against the family room side of the kitchen counter while Darice worked in the kitchen. Suddenly her eyes widened and she pointed behind me. I turned to see a huge bull moose walking about a foot beyond our backyard fence. He meandered through the backyards of our neighbors and off to parts unknown. It was wise to look both ways before leaving the sidewalk to make sure we weren’t in the path of one of those magnificent animals.

The memories blur together, but during that summer and in the three years beyond, we saw fin whales, humpback whales (and their babies), gray whales, and Belugas. There were sea lions, dall porpoises, dall sheep, eagles, wolves, moose, fox, otters, great horned owls, and bears. Glaciers, icy glacial rivers, towering snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, granite cliffs, caves, and thousands upon thousands of acres of pine forests surrounded us wherever we went.

Although all wildlife was abundant, the moose were the ones we ran across most frequently, sometimes in our own yard. This one wandered past our living room window and through our front yard while I ran out barefoot to take her picture. She was not amused. I went back inside.

           

There was one other time when my daughter and I ran across a moose and her brand spankin-new baby mooselet. She rested on the side of the road while her baby slept nearby. We discovered her on the short road to the base hospital. Normally well-traveled, the road remained empty, aside from the two of us (well, four counting the snoozing baby and its wary mother giving us the evil eye), and we able to spend a full 45 minutes drinking in the splendor of God’s beautiful creatures and reassure Mama Moose we weren’t a threat. She must have believed us because any other time, a new mama would’ve charged an intruder, stomped on his/her head, and eventually taught her/him a lesson they wouldn’t soon forget. God was surely with his foolish children that day.

The next three years included several earthquakes, an erupting volcano and the resulting ash fall (don’t get that stuff in your eyes, for Pete’s sake), long, dark, snow-filled winters, short, but breathtakingly beautiful springs, sunshine-filled (and very long) days of summer, and crisp, colorful autumns that ended with the Termination Dust—that first dusting of snow visible on the mountain peaks signifying the end of fall and the beginning of a much longer and darker winter.

Eventually, our years in Alaska came to an end when Ron completed his years of service and retired. We moved to Tennessee, a beautiful state in its own right, but will never forget those  glorious memories of that first summer in Alaska.

We will return.

**********************

Deborah Dee Harper resides in and writes from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Besides writing her humorous and inspirational Christian fiction, she enjoys agitating wildlife, taking her life in her hands, and in general, doing foolish things from which her Heavenly Father has graciously rescued her time and again. She plans to eventually learn her lesson and behave.

Deb has another daughter, son-in-law, and three grandsons in Kentucky, and a son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons in Michigan. In addition to writing, she enjoys being a child of Christ, visiting her loved ones, herb gardening, reading, astronomy, and photography.

Her Road’s End series will be published soon by Write Integrity Press, and her children’s adventure series, Laramie on the Lam, which includes the story of a trip along the ALCAN Highway, is slated for re-release in four separate books. It’s available now in print compilation of all six stories. She maintains three blogs: www.deborahdeetales.blogspot.com,

www.deetrails.blogspot.com, and www.laramieonthelam.blogspot.com. Her website can be found at www.deborahdeeharper.com.