Senior Fall!

Some pictures from the last week or so, enjoy!

I have not abandoned my blog!

So I'm not going to say I didn't think about it. After a semester abroad I came to a point where since I was no longer able to write about my weekend trips to Italy and Switzerland, blogging seemed pretty boring. BUT I started this as a freshman in college and I want to finish it how I envisioned. A neat 4 year summary of all of my experiences, memories, pictures, and friendships.

I don't have any pictures to share quite yet, but I do have updates.

First and foremost, last week I said hello to my last year of college. I am a senior. What in the world? Honestly, I can so vividly remember my freshman year; moving in during a 110 degree heat wave, rushing, pledging, playing tennis, meeting best friends. It seems like the saying holds true, time flies when you're having fun. And oh has it flown.

As I said before, I am pledge mom this semester and I truly CANNOT WAIT. Rush starts next week and on October 2nd I will have little delta babies to call my own.

Class wise I am swamped with what every senior goes through. Their senior capstones, final workshops, senior portfolios, blah blah blah. I only have one assignment in my final fiction workshop and that is simply to write a novel. Write a novel, the professor said, as if she were telling us to color a picture. Write a what? I asked Amy, one of my fellow English majors sitting next to me. This was announced last week during our first class so I guess I've had a week to get used to the idea but not really. Ha.

I also decided to join the 2010-2011 staff of the Redlands Review. The RR is our university's literary magazine and it is a full year commitment. I'm really excited because this is the only taste of journalism I have gotten since I've been here and I love the process of literary journalism. Everything from copy editing to layout.

I also am embarking on a new chapter in my life... yoga! I am currently going through an emotionally draining and hard break up, so I thought it is as good a time as any to make a few changes and get happy again :)

Today was my first class, 9-10:30am and I loved it! I have never EVER sweat so much in my entire life. I mean it. I was dripping, my hands were slipping on my mat, and my vision would periodically become temporarily blurred by my salty toxins as I trying to relax. Relax? I felt like someone just threw me in the pool and then laid me on this mat ON LAND. The girl next to me was lightly dabbing her face with a cool towel while I, yoga-virgin and towel-less, sent limbs and sweat flying while I tried to remain cool, calm, and collected. Oh, and breathing.

That may seem like a headache of a class but minus the profuse sweating-no towel part, it was amazing! I feel rejuvenated and ready for the day.

So there's my little post. More to come, I promise! Stick with me as I conquer senior year and finish this whole college thing up the right way :)

Gotta have faith

I haven't posted in what feels like ages. I guess, as of late, I've been reading more than writing. I'm in Bali right now, the third part of Gilbert's well known novel, Eat, Pray, Love. I think I talked about this book in a January post. My best guess is that the book and the progress that was made on it was abandoned once spring semester picked up. So here I am, a handful of months later, giving the story the time it deserves. With Julia Roberts starring in the film, I know it is one I won't be able to pass up. But I told myself I would not indulge in the movie until I have spent time with the book. And the movie comes out the 30th. Ready, set, go.

Of course anyone who is reading this and has read the book, you know what I'm going through. A path of self-existentialism? A re-thinking of the word, God? A craving growing so big and deep in my chest to just run off after college and pave my own path through the streets of Italy and the culture of the Balinese? Or all the above? I am not finished, so no book report yet. But what an incredible journey Gilbert has already painted. I can only hope some of her writing style is being mentally sticky-noted so my brain can effortlessly refer back to her voice when need be.

I have also read: The Girls from Ames (non-fiction) and True Colors, (novel).

My days are filled with working at a retirement community just across the bridge. A job that I could never have expected effecting me the way it has. I was going to blog through out the summer about my job and the hilarious stories/situations I find myself in daily, but between work and training for the race and reading/family time, blogging is usually near the bottom of my list.

But anyway, working with seniors is something I never in a million years saw myself doing. And never in a million years saw myself liking.

Bear with me, but before this summer I didn't especially care much for the 85+ crowd. I felt uncomfortable, out of my element. What do you even do with them anyway? Treat them like capable adults, only talk louder? Treat them like little kids, except they can tell me what to do? After all, they have 60+ on me. In my past experiences, I have also found that they smell like food, always look confused, make you repeat yourself like 30 times, and run over your heels with their walkers.

But against all odds, I fell into it. Into this small, smiley community. And have come out the other side with many more friends eligible for the early bird special. I take Dorothy grocery shopping and out the the seven things on her grocery list, we find five and it takes an hour. Barb usually comes to craft time, and at 88 is one of the busiest ladies I know. Chuck walks to the beat of his own drum, and never lets me clear his morning dishes. Leonard, at the ripe age of 95, still refuses to use his walker on a regular basis, and enjoys taking strolls outside and examining the trees, more specifically the leaves on the trees. Joan is suffering from dementia and her husband Tom is becoming increasingly agitated by her declining heath. At first you want to blame Tom, tell him he needs to be patient and supportive of Joan. But in Tom's eyes, it's not as much him getting angry at the small things just out of agitation, it's the frightening reality that he is slowly losing the one he loves. And scared that without her, there might not be a lot left for him to hold on to.

So yes, as you can see I am forming personal relationships with these people, and that is another reason why I didn't ever see myself entering this field. I am emotional. Whether it's PMS or any other random day of the month, I am a classic offender of the: care too much, worry too much, carry too much. Once I am emotionally invested in someone (which doesn't take long), I carry what they carry. Not because I want to, but because I truly feel like I am just the kind of person who is hardwired to. I carry another's loss for days, I sit with it and talk to it and try to understand it. Why does she have Multiple Myeloma? Why did he have to lose his wife? Why can't she remember?

Taking this into full circle, I feel like I could not be reading a more perfect book for what I am experiencing in my life right now. Faith.

As Gilbert puts it, "Faith is a belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking full-speed and face-first into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy."

I guess you just gotta have faith.

Long time no post

Well I haven't posted in a while probably because I haven't found much that screamed blog-worthy. I am working/interning 5 days a week in Gig Harbor (Not working today because it's the 5th and I got the day off... waking up at 9am felt soooo good!) Two weeks ago Dad and I decided to embark on something new: running a 1/2 marathon: The Tacoma Narrows in August. August 7th to be exact. So we've been training for that.

Liz is here for the summmaaa so that has made me a happy girl :) She spent all weekend with me, we met up with some old friends at a bar on Saturday night, and went up to Seattle and did a cooking class Saturday morning. ONE SET BACK: We had tickets to go see Rihanna on Friday night, something we had been looking forward to for MONTHS! and it got cancelled. What a bummer! We have no quite forgiven her, it'll take a few more weeks I'm sure. ;)

Our French exchange student is coming in a week for two weeks. We planned a long weekend to Whistler, Canada as something fun to do. Zip lining, hiking, and shopping are some of the things on the agenda.

I am also getting the ball rolling on my abroad scrapbook. I went out and bought everything craft-wise for it with mom the other weekend and today I am planning on getting my pictures developed. Woooo, I am SO excited :)

Well, thats all for now. If I take some blog-worthy pictures I'll be sure to put them up!

I ♥ grey days

It wouldn't be home without the grey days of June. With a cup of coffee, the TODAY show and a antsy puppy that sits longing for that rainy morning walk, I am so happy to be home for the summer. Next week I start work, so this week is full of doctors apts and other odds and ends to get done before my schedule gets crazier. LIZZIE IS HERE! Finally. And I get her all summer! Which is fantastic. I'm already itching to get out to good ol' Vashon :)

Monday night some high school friends and I met up at the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor. We were definitely the youngest people at the bar but it was really fun. Pitchers of beer and hilarious conversation... I think I'm adjusting to this whole 21 thing very nicely.

On the calendar:

Putt-putt date, doctor apt, coffee with Megan!, planning a trip to Forks, WA. Hello, Twilight. Engine-house karaoke, banana scrabble, baking with sissy, much needed hair apt., and the scrapbooking begins!

ps: If anyone is looking for a good book, I'm reading True Colors by Kristin Hannah right now and it is fantastic! I would also recommend Eat, Pray, Love (the movie is coming out soon!) and The Girls from Ames by Jeffery Zaslow (non-fiction, wonderful... mom: read!)

Summer's here... well almost

Well, Friday had to come. After an amazing few days, Jordan left yesterday (and I already miss him!) We went to Pike's Place, took Hank for walks, booze cruised on our boat, hot tubed (and jumped in the still freezing cold lake...) watched movies and just spent time together. I was so nice having him here and being able to show him around home, good ol' Lakewood, even if the weather didn't really pull through for us. But it was sunny on Tuesday and that's the day we picked to wander Pike's Place and boat so it worked :) It was perfect. It has been one day and I miss him.

But even with Jordan gone, it's still a madhouse over here. Megan had Baccalaureate last night which mom and dad went to and they had a great time. Austin still had a final this morning so Hank and I stayed in and I quizzed him on vocab. And tomorrow is the Big Day... my little sister is finally graduating high school. Wow. I thought she was going to be a freshman forever but surprise surprise! She is in fact growing up and headed off to New York in August. I am so excited for her to start this new chapter. If she even has close to the college experience I have been lucky to have she is going to love college and the friends she makes there just as much as everything she is leaving behind.

♥

I'm back!

To say I owed a post would be an understatement. Since my last update, I have moved out of my apartment and said goodbye to Junior year, loaded my car and made the 19hr trek back home, spent a week in Maui, and helped celebrate my little sisters near graduation with a wonderful open house! Woooh!

And now I am sitting here, coffee in hand, home for the WHOLE summer, getting ready to tackle the obscene amount of luggage and clothing waiting for me in the laundry room. I am forcing myself to make today a productive one because tonight JORDAN IS VISITING!!! :) He is taking the train from Portland and getting in a little after 8pm and staying until Friday. I am so excited to see him and show him around my neck of the woods. And the sun is supposed to make an appearance tomorrow so I'm thinking that might be the perfect day to explore Pike's Place. :) yay

My friend Bret came over last night after Megan's open house and it was very nice to see him. We sat out on the dock and drank beer and talked. My first official night of summer, and however yucky it was outside, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way :)

My mom took this picture of the trees across our lake and it was too pretty not to post. I missed this incredible sunset when I was in Hawaii, but I guess I can't complain ;)