Yay weekends

Yay for awesome weekends! This weekend was so great! I spend the entire weekend with John (yeah, the WHOLE weekend - Friday through tonight at 9:19pm), and it was so nice. It was one of the most relaxing weekends I can remember! Friday we just vegged, went to Café on the Corner down in Dover, then just hung out at my apartment the whole night. Saturday morning we had pancakes for breakfast! Yum! I haven't made pancakes in over a year! Then we vegged for most of the morning (note: vegging will be a common occurrence in this update), then went to look for a wedding gift for a friend of mine who's getting married a week from today (yeah, I know, I should have started looking like a month ago), then we went to his house and vegged. That night we went out to Olive Garden with Mr. and Mrs. Graichen (aka Dave and Alison) and it was a ton of fun! It was great to see Dave and Alison, and catch up with the two of them. It's amazing though, how quiet I felt I was through most of the dinner though, when they were all talking about music and teaching music and stuff... and I'm like "okay... I should have been a music major..." It was funny, we (John and I) got there at about 5:30, and ran into his friend Nick and Nicks girlfriend. So we got to catch up with them for a little bit, then Dave and Alison got there, and Nick got seated. We still had to wait an hour. Fortunately the food was good. The service left something to be desired, but oh well. Anyway, we got back to my apartment, and John and I were both exhausted... we pretty much fell over dead by 10:30. Then this morning, John had to teach a lesson, so I did homework (or, pretended to, is more like it). Then at 10 I went to his house so we could go to mass together. It was okay, but the priest used the whole sermon to plug the RCIA classes which are starting on Thursday. That wasn't too exciting. The rest of the day we spent at Johns house, I did a bunch of homework and he worked on outlining the new 6th-8th grade general music curriculums. Then he updated some of his RK websites while I finished reading the chapter I needed to read in the most boring textbook ever. We didn't do too much for the rest of the day. His mom made soup for dinner, then we taught her how to play Roll Dem Bones, so that was fun. Then we just chatted in his room about a ton of stuff tonight.
Thi weekend was kind of interesting though... I talked to John on Thursday about this, and now I'm putting it out there for all to know. I'm going to be doing the RCIA classes and Johns mom is going to be my sponsor. She was so excited when I told her/asked her! I am looking forward to them too. It will be a lot to learn between now and the Easter Vigil, but I believe this is something I'm ready to take on now, and will be good for me. I need to ground myself in my faith during this time in my life, and I wasn't getting the "grounding" I needed from the UCC/Protestant church. I've noticed, though, that each week I get a little more comfortable at mass, and I feel like I am getting so much more out of it... I'm not sure why, but it feels like it fits.
Anyway, it's getting late... (I know, 10:30's wicked late!) I'm pretty tired (don't ask why, I didn't do much this weekend), so I need to get some sleep.
Peace and love, all!





580!

Stuff

It's so strange what a difference a couple of days can make. I feel so much better today compared to how I felt on the 7th when I wrote. I just had to make it through another week of classes I think, and get my schedule figured out, and now I've got the other stuff I was worried about figured out too, so that ALSO makes me feel good. And now I'm just waiting to hear back from Brooks to find out about that Rx Tech job they might offer me, hopefully I'll know sometime today. So now I just need to eat some lunch and go to the laundromat, otherwise I won't have any pijamas to wear to bed tonight! I can't have that. So I'm going to bring my 622 book with me since I have like 40 pages of reading to do this weekend in that book alone, I'll do that at the laundromat so I don't get (overly) sidetracked. Seeing as how there is a CSI marathon on Spike TV right now, it would be very tempting to stay inside and watch that all day, but I don't think that would be a wise idea. Fortunately I have gone out once today, and it's BEAUTIFUL out. I was able to get my add/drop form signed and handed in, so I'm officially in every class I should be in now. That is a big relief. One of the classes doesn't even have a textbook! How cool is that?!
Anyway, it's time for lunch. I just wanted to update everyone to let you all know that I'm not as much of a wreck as I was on Tuesday!
Shalom!

Crazy Weeks

I started my classes last week, and holy craziness batman! I'm taking 4 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one on Wednesdays. One of the classes I was trying to get into on Tuesdays and Thursdays I had to add, and so did 15 other seniors, when there was already 50 people in the class. We all needed it to graduate, so she can't give any of us priority. So after finally hunting things down and getting stuff situated, I was able to add the "same" class, only through a different department. So I had to start that one today. It was weird, I've never had to do that before. Now I'm working on trying to swich one of my classes from Tuesdays and Thursday nights from 7-8:30 to the morning from 8-9:30. I know, it's crazy right? Well, its either that, and have all of my classes back to back, or have this 4 hour window of time which drives me CRAZY because I don't want to bring 8,000 textbooks to campus with me every time. So I e-mailed the department, and I'm trying to get THAT squared away. But since I've already highlited the textbook for the section I'm in now, I can't actually return it, they'll do a buy back, so I'll get less money, which sucks. But I can't find the textbook for the other class either, so I don't know how much it is! Ugh. I want to swich sections though, because then I can have my nights to do homework and spend time with John - which is something I've already really started to miss this semester, and I KNOW it will get worse as the time goes on, since I'm taking classes that confuse the hell out of me. Seriously, I don't think anyone knows how much of a headache I leave these classes with because I don't understand them! Well, I mean, I understand them, but for some reason, nothing is registering with me right now. I have a feeling I know why, and John would probably know too, but I'm not going into details about that on here. It's a little too personal. Sorry guys.
I'm also looking for a new job. Yes, I have a job at Bath and Body Works, which is great, BUT, I'm not getting the hours or the pay I need to... well, get myself out of the debt that I am in right now and still maintain all of my rent and utilities and car payments and such. So if anyone out there knows of anything that's paying well and I can get decent hours at, please let me know!
I miss John. I know he's going to read this, and I know a lot of other people are going to be like "eewww, I don't want to read that," but sorry guys, I don't care right now. I miss getting to spend the time together that we got at the end of the summer. I'm not sure how we made it through all the weeks I was at the camp, but we did, and for some reason, now, just going one day is hard. I don't know how you all do these long distance relationships... I guess it's that I know he lives so close to me, or I live so close to him, whichever, and I can't see him as often as I'd like. I feel so much better when I'm with him, like everything is okay, and all of my problems will have an answer, and it will all work out okay. I hope I never lose that feeling with him. I'm afraid it could happen, and he knows why, but I'm going to work my hardest to not let it, as long as he promises to do the same.
Anyway, I'm going to go eat "dinner" before class (dinner consisting of a granola bar and a yogurt).
Shalom y'all.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday, and I've hit the ripe old age of 23. Yay! I celebrated with my parents and grandparents last night, they both gave me money for my birthday (well, seeing as how all I asked for was money for textbooks - kind of sad, huh?). But now I'm at home with just Katie. John should be getting here in a few hours, so I'm busy doing a bunch of stuff around the house. Actually, I'm packing to go back to my apartment on Monday. Then, if I have time, I'll mow the back yard, or at least part of it. We're having a ginormous family reunion this weekend, so my parents want the place to look all spiffy (woah - I used a Kerry word!). Tonight, John and I are going over to my friend Theresas house to see her and her fiancé Chris and their dogs and stuff. Tomorrow John and I may go kayaking on Willard Pond, and Saturday is Old Home Days. I can't wait! That afternoon we have our family reunion/clam/lobster bake in the back yard. Then Saturday night it's off to the Jaffrey fireworks! YAY! I can't wait for those, it's been so long since I've been to them.

I'm still having a little bit of a hard time getting used to being back in the real world after living at Horton Center all summer. It's just strange to walk into a room and have the TV on, or to not have to worry about making sure everyone is quiet when the bell rings in the lodge and all that good stuff. Although, a very welcome change is not having to either walk to a different building or pee in the woods when you wake up in the middle of the night because you have do to such.

Anyway, that's about all I have time for now. I'll be back in Somersworth on Monday the 23rd, so look me up after that. I want to hang out with people!
Shalom!

Off the mountain

Well gang, it's been a long and highly eventful summer, but I am now officially off Pine Mountain! I came to the realization this morning that it's been a good summer, even though I did pretty much nothing but complain about it for most of it. I got to go up to Chapel Rock today before I left, and that's when I really decided that it was a good summer... like, I wouldn't have traded it for anything type of summer. I mean, come on, how many of you can say you dressed up like a ringwraith and got to scare the crap out of little kids?! I also went on 7 hikes, which is more than I've done in the last... umm.... yeah. I got to have water spit at me by about 8 different people, I got hosed down playing kickball, I did a junkload of arts and crafts stuff and I am now the queen of tie dye!
So, hindsight being 20/20, it was definitely a good summer. I hope everyone else had a good summer as well. I'll talk to MOST of you soon!

Last Week!

Well, here it is, Wednesday night, 10:04pm of my last week on the mountain, and the week ends on Friday, and I might be out of here as early as Saturday afternoon! It's been a very trying week and I am ready for the summer to be over. I'm just overtired and everything is getting to me. I got into a huge fight with John today about stupid stuff that I shouldn't have even panicked over, and I feel like I've done nothing but yell at kids all week.
Tomorrow I am hiking with my cabin (Cabin Bethany, again) up the Rattle River trail. Supposedly it's very easy, but neither Lynda or I have done it before. Fortunately, it is only a half day hike and we should be back during siesta. Then during the second activity block I'm doing the "HC Hair Salon" for an activity - basically doing kids hair for the Agape meal. It should be fun, and if we have time, I'm going to see if I can get one of the other staffers to do something to my hair. I got yelled at today by someone who told me they wouldn't put braids in my hair because I washed it to much so they wouldn't stay in. Whatever. I am too tired to deal with stupid stuff like that.
Today I lead a pet rock activity with Alissa, we let kids paint rocks they found today, so it was pretty cool. Yesterday I did prayer flags and Monday I did Kickball. That was the best activity I've done all week. I found out a girl here knows John, and will actually be one of his band kids in the fall. It's pretty funny. Of course, now she's become my cling-on, so that's been interesting to deal with.
Anyway, now I'm just trying to kill time between now and the time I can call John, probably in another 1/2 an hour. He sent me an e-mail this afternoon talking about how he figured something out that I didn't really want to work on today because I just couldn't deal with it today, but of course, now I need to know what he came up with, so I have to find out. Anyway... I'm just glad I'll get to talk to him tonight. I feel bad for jumping down his throat about everything today, but I was just in one of those moods where I needed to be mad... Oh well...
Okay, I'm going to go update my ACTUAL journal and work on my present for Johns birthday for a little bit...
Shalom all.

Awesome summer!

So far my summer has been super! I've hit the halfway point (well, now just past it) of my summer living on top of the mountain, and it's been going really well up there. I miss all of my friends and especially my family, but it's amazing how much I miss the mountain now that I'm not there for the weekend. This past week (starting on the 11th) we had really little kids, 3rd through 5th graders, up as campers, so they left on Thursday morning, and I get off until tomorrow at 10 am. Fortunately though, I will be a unit leader this coming week, so I am not absolutely obligated to offer activities in the afternoon, AAAANNNNNDDDD I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep every day! I don't have to be at my first meeting until 7:30 instead of 7 on Monday morning.
Anywho, it's been a blast working up there. It's amazing how fast the summer is going by, especially since I function on "mountain time" and have no idea what's happening in the surrounding world. We don't have TV there, so my only link is the internet, which I never think to check for news, so I've been getting all caught up this weekend. The junior high kids we had the week before this one that just ended were really awesome, but these little kids absolutely take the cake! They were soooooo adorable! Monday I lead an activity with them making spirit sticks. That was in the afternoon block. Monday morning, Joel, Ashley and I worked with them on unit challenges, name games and stuff like that. That was fun. Tuesday we did a 1/2 day hike on a trail called Lost Pond trail, which was only a little over a mile, something like 1.1 miles or close to that. That afternoon, Nick and I lead a game called Golden Child, which is a kickball variation, but you can score like 80 runs in a single "inning." It's craziness I tell you. I also did some tie dying with Ashley, and made a couple of shirts while in the process of helping out. Wednesday we did some more unit challenges with the cabin we worked with, and they went really, really well. That afternoon I lead decorating for the Agape meal (our last dinner together), which was great, because half way through, Nick and all the kids that were playing with the parachutes for an activity came running into the Spirit Lodge and started "making jello" with the parachutes, trapping myself and all 10 of my kids under the parachutes with them... it was hysterically fun!!!
So, now I'm at Johns house, I got a long weekend, which was much needed, and I think, well deserved for the whole staff. I got off the mountain at 1 on Thursday afternoon and was in Laconia to meet John at 3:30. We went from there to my parents house, so it was great to spend time with all of them. I was feeling really homesick, so I'm glad I got to be home for a couple of days. Now I am getting some quality "me and John time," which was also much needed, and also well deserved. I'll be kind of sad to go back to the mountain tomorrow, but at the same time, I do kind of miss it when I'm not there. Plus, we'll have campers coming up tomorrow, so I won't have time to breath, let alone think about other places I could be or would want to be.
Okay, I'm done now... Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you next weekend at the big wedding (finally!!! We've only been watching this evolve for HOW long?!?!?) and if not then, then hopefully when I come off the mountain at the end of the summer. If you want to see some photos of what I've been up to this summer, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the link to my online photo album!
Peace!!!