The day has come.

And the 13-page beast of an application is almost done.

Family matters.

FINALLY visited this tiny little independent theater I've been wanting to check out for a couple of years now! Me, 3 sisters, the local cousin, and the faraway cousin all went and saw "Burlesque" together tonight at this old school place. And let me just say, I thought High School Musical 3 was about the lowest of the low I would ever spend "big money" on and go see in the theater. It's amazing what you'll shell out in the name of family bonding.

New eats.

I've lived in the same area pretty much all my life, and yet I really don't know it as well as a local should. For instance, I'd never heard of Le Creperie until a group of friends from church invited me to come along for dinner tonight, didn't know anything about this oh-so-tasty place down on 2nd street. (Apparently, all my friends did, though. As I got up to walk the 3 feet to the bathroom from our table, I heard my name...and turned around to see a former camper. And as I was talking to her/her mom and her friend/her mom, yet ANOTHER old-church acquaintance walked out of the bathroom! Small world...) Anyway, now I'm in the know, and glad of it. Dinner was delicious, the walk around Naples looking at lights afterwards was fun (slightly damp, but fun), and I am now home and thankful for the friendships God has put in my life in the last couple of years. And crepes. Always thankful for crepes.

Just 'cause.

Instead of going around, tonight I ran straight through the big rain puddles. Because I had my boots on. And because I really wanted to. And it was great.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Today's school should have been canceled. When the buses pulled up this morning, we had an oh-so-steady heavy misty rain falling, and the site I was at has NO shelter for our stations. But they wanted to stay, so teach we did: on the bus and in the eaves of the bathroom, oh goodie. After mucking through those two stations, they finally decided to call it and reschedule ("What? We can't go to the tidepools? Ok then, we'll reschedule..."), much to all of us naturalists' joy. It was a day. And now I am sick. Oh joy.

Take 2.

2 days ago I forgot the equipment box and swore I'd never do such a thing again.

Today I did it again.

Thankful for coworkers (and friends!) who swoop in to save the day time and time again, oh so graciously correcting and rebuking and forgiving my rookie mistakes. And thankful for a fellow coworker who forgot the gear right there along with me today; it was nice to not be in that spot alone.

All in all, I can't complain; after the rough start, I taught the new (for me) program and now have 2 in my arsenal. And I do love my job.

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out
Sometimes there's bull**** that don't work now
We are god of stories but please tell me
What there is to complain about?

Oh, this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be the good life, good life...
[Onerepublic, Good Life]

Stranger in a strange land.

Went out to eat tonight with some friends and friends-of-friends. Definitely a different crowd than I'm used to--they were definitely a bunch of sports nuts and we definitely ate at the biggest sports bar around. Oh yeah, and the people I actually knew sat at the other end of the table from me, so I was sitting with complete strangers in this totally out-of-my-comfort-zone situation. But as luck would have it, the girl next to me and I had some things in common and hit it off pretty well. And when the big game came on the big screen, she didn't seem to mind my occasional questions about the players and flow of the game (I was oh so thankful for my teensy bit of hockey knowledge--at least I knew to call them "periods" instead of "quarters!"). The night wasn't quite what I expected--I didn't get much interaction with the friends I went to see. But at least it wasn't a total loss.

Rookie mistakes.

This morning I saw the sunrise in the canyon...as I scurried about throwing various reptiles and amphibians into their respective travel cases. It was my first morning going [almost] solo in my expanded role at work, and I almost pulled it off without a hitch. Got the animals--but forgot the equipment box (yay for friends who notice and other friends who drive it out at a moment's notice!). Looked up directions--but somehow wrote down a wrong turn somewhere. Made it to the school in one piece, though, and taught 2 of the 3 programs on my own. And my Jedi Master's assessment of my teaching: "Great. Keep doing what you're doing, don't change anything."

Success.

To speak or not to speak.

Had an interesting chat at work today: about God, religion, spirituality, church. And had it not only with a friend, but also with one of the more intimidating coworkers I know of--one who's known to tear people apart with his words sometimes, just a bit. Definitely a, "Ok God, here we go...!" moment.

Frog in my throat.

Today I took the crazy kids at work. And now my voice is paying for it. Is it Friday yet...?

Definitely no Van Gogh.

Had a church staff Christmas dinner tonight; guess that's one way they make us poor middle school group interns feel special. And it worked on me--delicious dinner, fabulous friends, shorefront seating...it was a beautiful night!

Except for the game. At one point I got ever so slightly stressed about the game. We were supposed to draw the person sitting across the table from us (and then later figure out who the mixed-up pictures were all of). It was stupid, really, I mean we were supposed to complete our artwork in 3 minutes and create them with crayons. Regardless, I got sorta kinda self-conscious about my artwork and started to stress out internally, just a little bit. But thankfully, I caught myself, pride got swallowed, and fun was had. And my ridiculously stupid little drawing brought much joy to the table. The end.

Slacker.

This week I've...

>Watched a scary movie [Shutter Island] that turned out to be not so scary after all.

>Ventured out on another training foray into an elementary school with about 7 different scaly and slimy animals in tow.

>Put myself out there creatively on a project at work...and people loved it!

>Visited my work's favorite biker bar.

>Gone out of my way to take the initiative on something at church...and it went great! (moral of this week: don't let fear of what others think stop me from expressing myself--creatively, intellectually, whatever.)

>Spontaneously attended a concert with a friend +2 complete strangers...and the one stranger was a little bit of a scary driver--a not-so-tiny danger in this case!

And I've been totally slacking on the self-discipline of writing here every day. Gotta try to fix that this next week.