An Ordinary Radical.

I have another blog that's been a long time in the making but still isn't finished. It's regarding all my new intern friends and it's taking a little more thought and energy than I anticipated so I decided to give you a little something to chew on in the meantime. Perhaps you will have digested this before the next one comes out.

It's 3:30 in the morning and I'm awake because why? Because the Lord is tugging my strings again. He's tugging the ones involving money matters. You know those strings? The ones burrowed deep in the core of your heart. They get tangled and they snag on other more vital strings, ropes in fact. The ropes of love, and compassion, and humility. The money strings ruin everything. And I am ready to whip out the scissors and just start snipping. But for now, I'll let God try and untangle them for a bit.

I just spent the past 4 hours writing letters. Hand-writing letters. People don't do that much anymore and I fully intend to bring this archaic form of communication back into existence. Nothing warms my heart more than receiving a bit of snail mail. So I figure, everyone has to feel the same way as me, right? Don't you all appreciate letters? Well I hope so, because I'm pretty sure almost everyone that frequents this bloggy site of mine is receiving one soon...and if you don't, it's simply because I don't have your address.

What do these letters have to say? They're simply asking for money. Simply. How can one simply ask for money? It's not simple. Not simple at all. It's gut-wrenching and it puts your dignity in check. It takes courage and humility beyond any other task. It's tough. And sticky. And I used to hate it. But God changed the bulb and cast a different light on this so-called "raising of support" for my glossy eyes. I'm not simply asking for money, I'm simply presenting an opportunity for God's chosen people to give to the kingdom. And I bare no shame in that. I lose no dignity. I shall lack no courage. If you say no, you say no. But I cannot, and will no longer, refrain from presenting that opportunity simply because of my own human insecurities.

That said, I am reading a book that is tearing my world apart...in a fantastic and staggering way. It's called The Irresistible Revolution. I'm sure many of you have heard of it. It's pretty popular among the Jesus lovers of today. And if you haven't heard of it or if you have and haven't read it or don't own it, stop reading this measly blog and go buy it right now. Amazon.com. Brand new. $10.19.

I have to share one passage with you that has pinched a nerve, severed a string. It's a quote from Rich Mullins. He was giving a talk at Wheaton college (which is apparently the Harvard of Christian schools? who knew?) And here goes, "You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I need to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too...[and he paused in the awkward silence] But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest." Put that egg in your shoe and beat it.

So ever since I read this I can't get it out of my head. I mean...if what I'm deciphering is truth, God wants me to sell everything I have and give it to the poor. Talk about money matters and heart strings. Shane Claiborne, the author of this book, presents this idea of followers of Christ becoming ordinary radicals. We're nothing special. Just because we have chosen to accept the gift God has for us does not exalt us. We are ordinary. As ordinary as ordinary can be. But we are called to act in a radical way. To love when no one else will. To give when there is nothing left.

So here's the brewery. The thoughts bubbling in my brain. You all know me. I'm a planner. I love to plan my life years in advance and guess what...God changes those plans..and that has consistently affirmed me in my faith and will continue to humble me. And that's why I choose to plan anyway...knowing full well that Jesus will butt in and quake it up a bit. So here's the plan...the idea...the inkling...

Krista and I are gonna hike the Pacific Crest Trail in the spring of 2011. Which gives us 6 months after the internship before the hike to plan and sell. That's right...sell. It's heavy on my heart and I'm prepared to be obedient. I'm going to sell everything I have and put the money in a savings account for when I get done with the trail...Immediately upon finishing the trail, Krista and I are planning on hitting the road. I want to be an ordinary radical. I want to obey the commands of Jesus and go frolic with the poor. I know this seems lofty and you probably scoff at the ludicrosity. But pray for me. I want to be free from the bonds of money and I think this might be the only way. If I don't have any of it...maybe it can't shackle me any longer.

So this year I'm going to get out of debt. I've created a budget. An incredibly strict one. And I will adhere to it. I have accountability and I am an adult. I'm prepared to act like one...while still holding onto my imagination. I've always had lofty aspirations. And I will continue to do so.

You're all invited to come along. Come live life loudly with me. You don't have to be audibly loud in order to create loud reverberations among your peers. A couple other things that have been sparkling in my life lately...

1. Make it a conscious daily effort to make someone's day. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. Regardless, you will end up making your own day in the process. Guaranteed, you will be more blessed within the interaction, than the person you were attempting to bless.

2. To sacrifice is to be truly human. I'm learning about sacrificial love. Sacrifice. Do things you don't want to do in order to love the way Jesus does. I've battered and bruised my body more times in the past month than I have in my whole life. I'm convinced. I can't go a day without pinching a finger, banging an elbow, bumping my head, or knocking my knees in or on something. It's incessant. It's inevitable. But this body is a gift. Who cares how battered it gets. It's a gift and I will choose to sacrifice it in order to serve the God who gave it to me.

3. Our God is a God of details. So the word of the day, the week, the month, is NOTICE. Notice your neighbor. Notice the sunrise. Notice leaves dancing in the wind. Notice smiles. Notice the intricate ways our God has provided for us. Just take a moment and notice.

That's all I got for now. I'll be back later. I have to sleep. It's 4:08am. What?!

Mom Jeans and Dirty Knees.

Last you heard of me I was sleeping in cars and playing in snow. This week I've been laughing in laundry rooms and groveling in the grass. It's been a long week and my body is tired, but yet the Living Water is quenching my parched remains.

On the way back to camp from Sisters Krista and I just had to do it. We had to stop at the plethora of thrift stores in Madras on the way home. Little background on Madras. It's small, decrepit, and full of unhealthiness. Let's just say a lot of poor decisions are made there. But the poorest of all involves their decisions to throw away some of the most phenomenal treasures known to man. Krista and I went to four of the most phenomenal thrift stores I have ever been to. All in the same square mile. I came home with three old lady sweaters, one of them actually has grandma knitted on the front. I found some red and orange and black spandies that make me feel really

fast when I run in them. I bought a florescent purple Pepsi hat with neon green stitching for 35 cents. And what was the most amazing and somewhat life-changing purchase I made, you ask? I found not one, not two, not three, not

even four, but five, count em five porcelain unicorns all in one store. I nearly cried in amazement. I was on the phone with my friend Brent when I discovered them and I completely and accidentally lost all interest in the conversation purely because of this life-changing find. I know I'm weird. But one man's junk is another man's treasure and I will forever be indebted to the people that found it in their

hearts to discard those lovely unicorns. They all now live comfortably on our DVD player down in the living room. I had to enclose a picture. I just had to.

We stopped by the Madras library to get library cards but they wouldn't let us so we had to settle for the free books out in the lobby. We took a tattered children's book entitled God, I've Gotta Talk To You! and we intend on putting pages of the book in all the staff's boxes. So thoughtful we are :)

Tuesday night we skipped our run and went to bed at about 8 o'clock because we obviously had plenty of rejuvenating rest in the coffee shop parking lot in the back seat of my car while it was snowing outside. Wednesday we learned how to operate the magnificent and altogether baffling washing machines and dryers. We could probably fit about 17 of me in each machine quite comfortably. Thursday we spent the entire day in the washboard. Krista and I folded approximately 900 flat sheets. Not exaggerating even a little. We folded so many sheets that eventually broke the counter that they were all resting on. The bracket literally pulled out of the wall. I felt terrible but at the same time, just a little proud. Some very funny comments were made throughout the day, none of them appropriate. Sonia has this thing where she pulls up her pants so that she has a mom butt. It's gut jiggling. I seriously laugh so hard everytime she does it. So in the washboard we were planning on how we are going to go to the thrift stores in Madras and try to find a pair of mom jeans that will fit us all so we can recreate the sisterhood of the traveling pants. We also blasted the Newsies soundtrack. Epic. I got work drunk again and then we had core group after work. I was exhausted but super excited for our first small group/bible study.

We arrived at Jen's house at 6pm sharp. Jen Milsten is our intern coordinator in case you didn't remember. We had hot beverages and Jen shared her life story and it was beautiful. We had intern worship after that and Rich Ellered is the camp manager and he talked at our meeting. He's wise and stoic and quite possibly going to be one of my favorite people while I'm here. He has a unique sense of humor and his wisdom just emanates out of him. I wrote down some little "nuggets" as people out here like to call them...and I would like to share some quick snippets with you...

1. God call us to step out of line.

I hate the idea of lines in the first place. I love that when Jami and I would sometimes go scouting around at local preschools when she was just starting her own, she would be able to tell everything she needed to know about the school based on whether or not the children were made to stand in lines when they were going anywhere. So needless to say, I'm more than happy to step out of line and be different.

2. Nothing matters if your heart's not right. You get out of it what you put into it.

This past year my heart hasn't been right. And nothing mattered. I lost sight of my morals, my love for the Lord, and my purpose in life. This year is my effort to get my heart right again.

3. This year will be the crossroads of my life, where I will learn to live sacrificially.

And I desire this with my whole heart and my whole mind and my whole body and my whole soul.

4. Focus on what is good and honorable and pure.

I get caught up. All the time. And to hear this was like a breath of fresh air. What is good. What is honorable. And what is pure. That's all we need.

5. Allow God to be sovereign in your life. Only in that place, is life how God intended it to be.

Sovereign. Such a great word.

6. Simply cease.

Cease. Another good word. A quote I've heard and never learned to heed, "If Satan can't make you bad, He will make you busy." Sometimes we seriously just need to chill the heck out. Simply cease. And listen to the still small voice.

7. We have to live a life consistent with the life God has called us to in order for unbelievers to notice that we are different.

Otherwise we are just the same. So many times we are caught up in the world and we become just as cold and miserable as those who have not tasted the living water. Gandhi said, "I will become a Christian when Christians live the life that Christ has for them."

8. God's rest goes on forever. It's a surrendering. The sabbath rest is a noun, not a verb.

We don't rest enough. Plain and simple.

Another new perspective that I fully intend to take on for the rest of my life is truly one of a sacred romance with the Lord. Rich suggested that we seriously consider our quiet times as legitimate dates with Jesus. And I fully intend to do that this year.

Alright so Friday. Friday we deep cleaned the Orchard Inn. Deep clean. Two words that will probably haunt me the whole year but yet I love them at the same time. We have to deep clean each building at the ranch once a year. That means completely stripping every room and cleaning every nook and cranny. Every spot, every blemish, every drool stain, and dead skin cell. All of it. Sonia and I had to Pac Vac for the first half of the day. Basically means we were synonymous with the Ghostbusters. We had giant vacuum backpacks and at first she had the one with the super long hose and I had the one with the extremely short hose. We had a laugh or rather a guffaw, and then switched vacs. Remember Sonia is barely pushing 5 feet tall. We bumped the tunes and busted it out. The second half of the day Krista and I made beds and talked about evolution and creation and dinosaurs and the like. Twas grand.

Friday night, which would be last night, the single ladies got invited over to the Ellered's for dinner. We had this amazing chili soup that had sweet potatoes and hominy and pork and lots of other yumminess in it. Today at work Darren, who has already done the internship, made a comment about how we could probably go the whole year just popping over to all the other staff's houses for meals and never have to buy our own food. Seriously considering. Oh I forgot to mention that Krista and I ran 6 miles at 6 in the morning yesterday and I got to break in my brand new headlamp. It was a very scary run though because we were running in the wilderness in the dark in the unknown and there were strange noises and I'm reading a book right now about hiking in the woods and bear attacks and the like so I was a bit paranoid. But there was a fog and the moon was still out and almost touchable and the sunrise was glorious and again, God is just too good. We escaped the run unscathed.

Last night Krista and Ashley and I had quite the scare though. The three of us went over to Deanna's house for craft night and Sonia had said that she would be right over after she made some quick calls. She never came over and when we got home her car was gone and there was no note. We didn't get too worried at first, but then it was 11 o'clock and she still wasn't home. We called her cell phone to see if maybe she had gone to town and it was ringing so we assumed that she had gone to town but she wouldn't call us back. We called some other staff people and no one knew where she was. We thought maybe she just left because she needed some alone time because her auntie just passed away not too long ago. But the roads out here at camp are a little wild. There are elk, deer, and cattle running rampant all over the place and I could not get the image of Sonia in her little Saturn hanging upside down in a ditch after hitting a cow. So Krista and Ashley drove out to try and find her. I had already fallen asleep after an hour of tossing and turning and worrying about her. This morning I wake up to find out that she had taken Daniel to the emergency room because he had fallen on his longboard and needed stitches. And basically his fall was Krista and I's fault because he had seen us skating home from work so he took his board out and totally bailed. Bad news bears. Serves to confirm that worrying is no good. We worried about Sonia for no reason at all.

Today was all intern landscape day. We literally spent the entire day digging out grass around the fence line so that we could lay bark chips. It looks incredible but it was insanely draining and I don't think I've ever been so dirty in my whole life. But I loved every minute of it. My favorite part was when Sonia came up to me and told me that Josh told her she looks like "the girl that's never invited but always shows up" from back in his hometown. Epic. The arch of my right foot is throbbing because of how many times I pushed the shovel into the ground and I know I will be sore without a doubt tomorrow. But I love it. I love the unity. The strenuous way we serve our God. I love being stretched to the point where there is potential for me to snap back but it all comes back to the fact that we have a choice in every situation. You could snap or you could continue to improve your elasticity. I choose to be elastic, like Mrs. Incredible.

We leave on our intern retreat tomorrow. We're all heading out to Breakaway which is a YoungLife property out on the coast. I plan on taking plenty of pictures and getting you some better bios of the interns so get ready.

That's all for now.

Eat your vegetables and smile at a stranger.

Sheer Amusement.

One Flip Flop and Some Snow Chains.

My brain is a jumble of letters and emotions that I'm trying to sort into words right now. I left you with my obsession with the pits. Since then my heart has been learning to do cartwheels of ecstasy. Now if only the word ecstasy could be used without your mind immediately jumping to pills and raves and unhealthy amounts of energy.

The past couple days I've gotten a taste of the ecstasy of Jesus. Krista and I have had some truly rich conversation these past couple days along with some pretty wild adventure. Here's my attempt at conveying this life of mine to you...

You know that indescribable feeling you get when you pick up an activity that you're super passionate about but haven't had the time or motivation to do in awhile. I picked up a basketball Saturday night and I immediately plummeted back into senior year of high school when I loved the game and the way the ball in my hands just felt right. I shot around for hours and played with my post moves and my pump fakes and my two dribble lay ups from the half court line. I even did a little 14 spot shooting. All was right with the world in those moments...my feet squealing on the court, the ball pounding off the floor into the cradle of my overturned hand, the whisper of the net as the perfect shot flows through it. Krista has asked me to teach her the fundamentals of the game so I taught her proper layup footwork and how to box out. I showed her how to drop step and we even got to a little up and under maneuver.

As you know, there is a skate park here at camp. One of my worldly goals this year is to be able to at least drop into a halfpipe, if not make it out on the other side. Krista used to skate in middle school and the beginnings of high school. She has volunteered to teach me how to skate.

Saturday was the epitome of joyous fellowship. All the single interns just frolicked and played in the sportscenter and threw basketballs and put on smelly elbow and knee pads, we danced to MC Hammer and we talked about life and love and all the things that really matter most.

Sunday was all intern housekeeping day and I discovered another subtle obsession of mine. I adore folding camp blankets. If you only knew the puzzle they present, you could maybe know how good it feels to fold one properly. The poor man's iron is my new best friend.

Towards the latter end of Sunday afternoon, I started to get a little work drunk. My energy was gone, seeped out all over the floor. I stumbled over things that weren't there. My words didn't know how to hold hands and make sense. I couldn't stop giggling and my feet felt fit to fall off. But then it was time to be off work. Krista and I had an utterly unsocial evening. Everyone else went to the marrieds house to play games and prank call and explore the depths of camp. Krista and I sat in her room. She looked through extremely old pictures while I colored a picture in my spongebob coloring book and we just talked about what it means to truly taste the heavenly gift that has been presented to us. A friend of hers from awhile back has completely renounced his faith and she raised the question of how can that happen? We are reading Hebrews right now and the author of the book writes that once we have truly tasted the heavenly gift, it is impossible to forget it. Are we not tasting the real thing then if it has become so easy for people who were once followers to simply deny the existence of Jesus? It's a healthy question and I've struggled this past year with remembering what it was like to be in the unadulterated presence of the Lord. To bask in His untainted light.

Monday morning we woke up at 7:30ish to hit the trails for a 4 miler. The cold wasn't as gnashing as our 6:30 run the other day, but it was still painful. After the trails we hit the pavement, on our two hour adventure to Bend. Krista and I drove together because we really wanted to spend the day at a cozy coffee shop in Sisters and the other interns just had a few errands to run before heading back to camp. As Krista and I drove out of camp, she got a taste of the real me as I bumped my raunchy hip hop CD that I made at my friend Chrissy's house. I've come to the realization that most of the lyrics within the hip hop music I listen to don't really register with me. I listen to the songs for the beats and not for the lyrics. Krista is the same way. We don't wholly realize what's being said until someone asks us, "What the heck are you listening to?" And then we actually make an effort to understand the messages that are being poured into our young and absorbent minds. That's my disclaimer for the inexcusable music I listen to. The beats move my body. The words don't move my soul. Unless it's Lupe Fiasco. Now his lyrics rock me to my core.

And then we made it to town. After some incessant laughter over mad libs. Two memorable statements, "Three blind hookers, see how they run" From the nursery rhyme mad lib...and "Aren't you going to give me a transvestite killer first" from the visit to the dentist mad lib. Epic.

We indulged in homemade peanut butter and pickle sandwiches as we ran some quick errands around town. We ran into the other interns at the Goodwill superstore (not my kind of thrifting) and then we headed over to the coffee shop in Sisters. The town of Sisters is made up of 1700 people. It's quaint, cozy, and very Northwestern. We sat in the shop until they kicked us out. We wrote letters, had meaningful convo, and caught up with friends via f-book and cell phone. At 6 we drove back to Bend because we had ultimately decided that we weren't done at the Sisters Coffee Company and that we wanted to come back in the morning. So we went to Bend to invest in a warm blanket as we would be spending the night in my car.

Don't get me wrong, we definitely had options as far as people to stay with and warm beds to sleep in, but really, how adventurous is that? I looked in my trunk to see if I had any blankets or anything warm that we could utilize, even the beach towel that I used as a blanket in the Best Western parking lot, but alas I had nothing. The only two things in my trunk were a solitary neglected flip flop and some snow chains. So Krista and I went to Wal-Mart and after much debate, settled for a 10 dollar sleeping bag, some sourpatch kids, and some gummi bears. We hopped back in the car to go play at the local Dairy Queen. They didn't close until 10 so we sprawled out in a booth and wrote some more letters and read some more scintillating facts about Jesus. We also had a photo shoot with the creepy decor. I'll share the results with you guys later. Krista got a hold of her friend Dan who lives in Bend and was a year long intern when she did her summer internship two summers ago. We made plans to meet him at Townshend's Tea in downtown Bend because they supposedly didn't close until 11:30. We're just floaters.

We got to Townshend's and Dan bought a tasty pot of tea and we sat in the warmth and talked about life and I made a new friend. Then Townshend's pulled a fast one and decided they were closing at 10 so we headed to Shari's, which is the Northwest's version of Denny's, which means they are open 24 hrs. We ordered dessert from a stoic old woman named Pat, Krista-warm apple pie with ice cream, Dan-single scoop of vanilla ice cream, and me-a chocolate milkshake of course. As we sit down and get comfortable another waitress starts running the vacuum by us as we're talking. It was pretty comical. Later, a couple guys, about our age, come into the restaurant, and one of them has the most absurdly long mohawks I've ever seen. Dan goes on to tell us a little bit about Bend, since he was born and raised there. Apparently they have the best golf course in America, nominated by four different magazines and Dan is a caddy there and his dad is the caddy manager. Thoughts of being a caddy girl for a month or two after my internship have been brewing. Dan also shares that the heiress of Pepsi just had a 27,000 sq ft house built for her near the golf course that he works at. The highest number of Porsches per capita are owned in Bend and the wealthy dress like vagrants in Bend. Needless to say, it's an intriguing town. Finally Krista and I decided to head back to Sisters to sleep in the coffee shop parking lot so we can finish our work that we didn't get done on Monday. Little did we know that we'd be taking a little detour.

I noticed that we were taking the 20 E but I didn't think anything of it. Sisters is west of Bend. After driving for over a half hour when Sisters is only 18 miles from Bend, I realized my mistake. But Krista and I were totally engrossed in conversation about the Lord's plan for us in this next year that we didn't even notice, nor was it a burden. We ended up turning around in the middle of nowhere at a dilapidated gas station called Millican and it was perfectly eerie. As we headed back toward Bend, we talked about how to decipher between desires that are placed on our heart by God and desires that are purely of ourselves. My sincere desire for this year is that I would be obedient to the commands that Jesus calls me to and to know the difference between my own worldly goals, and the goals and plans that God has for me.

Finally we made it to Sisters and blasted the heat for about five minutes so that we might stay warm until we could fall asleep. We crawled in the backseat and our 10 dollar sleeping bag was worth every penny in that you pay for exactly what you get. It had synthetic nylon on both sides. Certainly not warm at all. And we are both pushing 6 feet tall trying to cram into the back seat of a Corolla. It was tragically entertaining. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. We tossed and turned for hours as the temperature in the car continued to plummet. We moved from the backseat to the front seat back to the backseat. And let's just say Krista and I got closer than we ever intended to. At one point, her head was in my lap while her arms were wrapped around my legs. She made a comment about how her eyes felt like there were little tiny plungers stuck to them because she couldn't take out her contacts. No matter which way we turned we couldn't be completely warm, nor were we ever moderately comfortable.

At about 4:30 in the morning Krista whispers, what's that watery sound? Is it raining? I didn't think anything of it and we fitfully fell back asleep. At a little after 6 I wake up and can't sleep anymore. Low and behold, it's snowing outside. SNOWING! We slept in my car while it snowed on us in little tiny Sisters, Oregon, population 1,700. Now that's what I call adventurous.

We are currently upstairs in the coffee shop, listening to family conversations, watching the snow fall, fireplace crackling, the smell of freshly brewed coffee permeating the air. It's good to be alive.

I want to leave you with a final word that I think I might be engraving on a coffee table that I'm going to make sometime in the future.

Hebrews 13:2-Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Sing. Dance. Frolic. Life is good.

Conclusions and Contusions.

It's Friday night. Time to party. At my very own aerobic center. Dass riiight. This camp is my playground. But it's not just any playground. It's an elite playground. I really had no idea the freedom I would have upon coming out here. I have keys to pretty much everything and I have friends that are certified to operate all the fun toys.

For example, tonight I am going to work out at the sportscenter weight room. It has pretty much everything that your local gym has, but I don't have to pay to be a member. I have access to a skate park, a rock wall, a zip line, a ropes course, and what is called "The Pamper Pole"...aka you're gonna need a heavy duty diaper when you climb up this tall skinny pole that sways when you climb it. And that's not even the scary part. Once you reach the top of the very high skinny pole you have to somehow stand up and while it's swaying and jiggling, you have to jump off to grab a bar that's hanging out in front of it. I have yet to try it, but as I mentioned I have friends at my fingertips that are certified to operate it. And I'm certainly going to take advantage.

I have endless mountain biking trails to roam. I have endless dirt roads to run and each and every one of them ends at something glorious, aka the John Day River. I have hills and mountains galore to hike and frolic and explore. I have beautiful people smiling at me everyday. I have a lake and a pool and creeks and rivers and reservoirs to swim in. I have basketball courts. I have my very own book nook. What more could I ever possibly ask for?

Alright enough of all that bragging and excitement...I'm sure you guys are totally jealous right now so I'm just gonna move on...

Alright so remember that guy Jesus and how He can brew up these little things called miracles? Well let's just say I've experienced a couple of my own small miracles. One of them involves one of my single lady intern friends who lives across the hall from me. Her name is Krista. You remember her as the one who eagerly agreed to let me train her to run a marathon. Ok well we already discovered that we want to hike the PCT together, which was pretty darn miraculous for me but here comes a funny story...yesterday Krista and I have come home from housekeeping for our 45 minute lunch break. I go in the cupboard to get my peanut butter because I really want a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. I know, you all probably just threw up in your mouth a little bit, but I sincerely love them. So I go to the refrigerator to get out the jar of pickles that Krista and I are sharing because we decided there was no point in buying two jars when we both absolutely adore dill pickles. Once I realize she has the pickles I go to borrow them and realize that she has peanut butter out on the counter with the pickles. At that very moment Krista and I knew that we were "lifers"...friends that would indeed be friends for life. We both love peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Seriously? And we were both pulling out stuff to make them on the same day for lunch? God, is that you? You silly guy, pulling those little miracles like that...

So that was pretty much the highlight of my day on Thursday. We also had all staff worship last night where the entire property staff and some of their wives and children cram into this little building known as Condo 50. We literally cram. It's sorta funny considering there are thousands of acres of property around us and yet we choose to cram into the tiniest building to praise Jesus. Guffaw.

After all staff worship there was a Meet, Greet, and Eat in the Sassy...which is actually called The Sarsaparilla, which is our camp snackbar. We got free Big Muddies and it was sort of a big fat welcoming party for all us new interns. I got a gummi bear and reese's Big Muddy and nearly threw up all over myself, but boy was it delish. I'm pretty good with names so I could probably tell you the names of each and every property staff person I met, along with their wive's names and all their children. I stood at the doorway when we were on our way out last night and tested myself. It's sort of a little game I like to play.

Went to bed early last night because not only did Krista and I have an early 5 mile run this morning, but I'm just an old lady out here at camp and if I go to bed past 10, I'm exhausted the entire next day...well, pretty much regardless of what time I got to bed, I'm exhausted the next day. I'm really hoping that I'll start adjusting...or maybe I'm just slightly anemic.

This morning my honking alarm went off at 6:15am. It's one of those alarms that startles you awake. One of those alarms that has the capability of playing the radio and soothingly rousing you from sleep. But I live in a world where there is no radio so I get slapped in the face every morning by my abrasive alarm clock and this morning was especially painful. I put on my retro Reebok spandex among other layers and I got slapped in the face again when I walked outside. The cold is like hundreds of little tiny daggers jabbing at you. Have you seen that movie The Borrowers? I felt like hundreds of Borrowers were pressing their borrowed thumbtacks into my body, every inch of it. I tried to run fast to warm up but Krista kept repeating her favorite phrase that she says at the beginning of every run, "I ain't lookin' to sprint this." Krista likes to talk in this amazing voice that she considers a thug voice, but I consider it a little southerny hick voice. It's quite comical and it's definitely rubbing off on me. We went out for our five miles...and the sun hadn't even really peaked out yet. We were running by moonlight still...which was pretty majestic.

After our run we had to book it to work. As a kitchen intern I have to wear Chefwear to work every Friday and Saturday when we have campers in. It's really quite glamorous. I inherited a pair of flying pig Chefwear pants and they're phenomenal but everyone thought I was still in my pajamas today. So fun.

I've made a couple conclusions about the beginning of this year, which is sort of contradictory but whatevs. Conclusion number 1...God really does have our best interest at heart. I've doubted it for years, and I'm sure I'll continue to doubt it in the future, because I'm only human. But I'm convinced, nonetheless. It's almost as if he has a special pair of glasses on that allows Him to make our hearts transparent, so that He can see exactly what we truly desire at any given time. For instance, I have been desperately wanting to learn how to cook, sew, and build things for the past couple years. And then I arrive at camp and come to find out I'm the kitchen intern, with an 80 yr old neighbor who's a phenomenal seamstress willing to let me be her apprentice, and her husband who is an equally phenomenal carpenter, who teaches a wood shop class once a week in the winter. God, you are just too good. Conclusion number 2...Friends are everything. And everywhere. As hard as it was to say not goodbye, but see ya later, to all my dear friends in Riverside and Santa Barbara, I have this entire new community of friends and God has sincerely placed each of us here. I can just picture Him standing on His tip toes, super excited like, peeking into our lives with a big fat grin on His face, just waiting for us to unveil all the uncanny things that we have in common with one another. Conclusion number 3...I'm getting in the best shape I've ever been in this year because not only do I have endless trails and mountains to play on and an aerobics center at my fingertips, but I have an accountability partner named Krista who inadvertently keeps me accountable by allowing me to train her. Just knowing that I have to hold up my end of the bargain is enough to get me out of bed when it's still dark to go run amidst the shards of glass also known as 30 degree weather.

Conclusions and contusions. Today in the bakery...I nearly lost my right arm. I was making some bread in this little guy we call the Hobart. It's really not little at all. It's a huge mixer that we use to mix all our breads and bakery treats. I pulled open the safety guard which automatically kills the power on it. I reached into the mixer to see if I needed to add more flour to the dough when out of nowhere, here comes the dough hook, to eat my hand. It pinched my wrist up against the side of the mixing bowl and had it been going even a little bit faster I would have gotten my hand crushed, all the little bones becoming powder in what was left of my right hand. But Jesus just wanted to warn me about the anger pent up inside of Mr Hobart and that he is waiting to unleash it on innocent hands and arms. Needless to say, I have a fat contusion on my wrist. My right arm took a heavy beating today. I also slammed it in the bathroom door and burned it while making iced tea in the giant vat that pretends to be a pressure cooker.

And another glorious day comes to an end. I think I'm starting to develop callouses from vacuuming. If it wasn't for the knife cutting glove, I would have chopped off my left pinky today. And I officially am obsessed with doing dishes in the pits. Pits actually stands for People in the sink, I just found out, and it's where we send every dirty dish and utensil and I sincerely love it. The other day a work crew girl from the pits was washing her hands next to me and I asked her how she was doing. She sort of grimaced and I said, "You're actually really lucky, I absolutely love the pits." She threw her head back and laughed and said "Ohhhhh, the irony." And as I walked away I was like, No but really, I really do love the pits. She didn't understand my weird obsession. It's something about the quick fix, cleaning each individual dish gives me this little sense of accomplishment. I know. I'm weird. But I'm just being honest.

And that's where I'll leave you. Go wash a dish or something.

Unicorns and Colored Pencils.

Oh heyyyy...Tomorrow will be a week here at camp. Feels like a month. So much information. So many new friends. So much ground explored already.

First of all, the most exciting addition to my life...I recruited a new marathon training buddy!! Of course of course. I'm always out recruiting, I just didn't think that I would be so convincing so quickly. Krista Schultz is her name and she has committed to running the ING Georgia marathon with me on March 21st. Today was our second day of training. We went out for about a 4 1/2 mile run. Krista and I also just discovered yesterday while we were standing in an REI outdoor equipment store in Bend that we've had a life long ambition to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. So we decided that we are going to hike it together starting spring of 2011 when I get back from New Zealand. The PCT is a 2600 mile trail that stretches from the border of Canada and Washington to the border of California and Mexico and it takes 4 to 6 months to hike the entire thing. I can't describe the elation that shoots through my body whenever I think about it. Gaahhhhh!!! God is just too good. I've contemplated trekking it alone because I haven't been able to find anyone willing to commit to hike it with me. And then here she is, Miss Krista, with the same dreams as mine.

Ok so those were my most exciting tidbits of the last couple days...let's talk more about the day to day adventure. After I left you last time I had to go to work to meet my weekend work crew that would be in the kitchen with me. So the way it works out here is that during the summer it's all week long younglife camps but during the school year/off season there are various organizations that could be anything from church groups to men's retreats to FCA groups or anything else, that come through and use the camp for weekend slots. They bring their own speakers and program and work crews. So each weekend I get a new work crew in the kitchen to help me prepare the meals.

So Friday night I went to the work crew training and the work crew seriously looked like they wanted to be anywhere but with us. It was a Lutheran youth group that was visiting and the work crew was composed of college students from Concordia University along with some older people that work at the Lutheran Church in Portland. So the college students were unaware that they were actually going to be working at camp. They were told the day before they arrived that they weren't just going on a retreat, but that they would actually be helping to run the retreat. Which explains their lack of enthusiasm. Tim Dillman is my boss in the kitchen and he was giving his little shpiel, informing the work crew about safety and etiquette and all that good stuff involved with food prep and an older man who was basically the work crew boss cuts Tim off and tells him that he needs to hurry up with his talk because they are trying to get to the key note speaker to hear him talk. He didn't say it quite so bluntly but it was basically like that. Tim was stunned for a second and then he tried to cut the training short but there are certain things you just can't go without saying. And all the college students were finicky about whether they were going to AM kitchen, PM kitchen, pits, or dining hall because they had papers and tests to study for...like they're really gonna study at this place. I thought that was quite comical.

Anyway, all that to say that the weekend was pretty interesting. I had three college girls that I was pretty much in charge of for all of saturday. One was a junior and the other two were freshman. The junior girl, Sarah, was great! She fully engaged in conversation and seemed pretty enthusiastic about serving but the other two girls, Wendy and Michelle, were a little lacking in the enthusiasm department. They just didn't really want to talk much and everytime I would ask them if they had preference as to which job they wanted to do they would just stand there frumpy and dejected looking and say "it really doesn't matter" "I don't care" "I mean seriously, it really doesn't matter." And I would come over to check on them after giving them a job and ask how they were doing and how things were going and they would answer "fine" with absolutely no emotion whatsoever. It was sorta sad. I tried real hard to get them to open up. Granted I only get to be with them for a day, but still, I wanted to hear about their lives but they just didn't want anything to do with it.

So that was Saturday. These days are long here. The work, not that it's super physically strenuous or anything, but it still takes a toll on my body. I'm exhausted everyday after work. Just being on my feet from 8 to 5 straight and always moving, my feet hurt and my body is just tired all the time. But I think I will adjust eventually, hopefully. I'm learning to truly love the kitchen though. Everyone I meet here on property says I have the best boss and so far Tim is seriously phenomenal. He's very laid back and completely disorganized but he totally gets the job done. And he's hysterical. For example, the other day we were pulling bowls for hamburger meat for tacos and he pulled out the exact number of bowls that he needed and after counting and realizing that he had pulled the exact number that he needed he got down on his knees thanking God and just made this big extravagant deal out of it and it was epic. I love it. The kitchen is grand. And believe it or not, I'm going to be investing in some Crocs pretty soon, despite how hideous they are. Comfort over glamour.

Sunday was my first day in housekeeping. So I'm in the kitchen two days a week and housekeeping three days a week. Sunday we had to be into work at 7am which was rough but Sundays all the interns get to work together to turnover camp for the next weekend. I learned how to properly clean a bathroom and successfully fold a blanket. YoungLife is a phenomenal thing. Not sure if you knew that. I got to see and learn all the different extremely intricate and borderline insane ways that we serve the campers. We stamp the toilet paper with a YL logo. We fold everything so that the tags and edges of all towels, sheets, bathmats, blankets, pillowcases, toilet paper and everything else, are buried and away from sight.We clean and shine every nook and cranny and we do this thing in the bathrooms called cleaning from the pooper perspective. We have to sit on the toilet and look around and clean all the obscure things that you can't see from above but you can see from the toilet. It's epic. We learned all about the washboard, which is the laundry room. I learned how to fold all types of sheets and towels, bathmats and washcloths. I learned how to grubbercise, which is pretty fantastic. Grubbies are the rags that we use to clean everything. Geronimo is the name of the housekeeping building and sometimes we have to clean the floors of the G-Ro. We grubbercise by putting some grubbies under our feet and sliding around the room, cleaning the floor. Amazing. I learned the proper lunge stance when vacuuming under beds and the proper technique for cleaning several cubbies in cabins at the same time. I learned how to lower the lift on King Tritan, the laundry truck. I learned how to stainblast. My brain was completely and utterly overwhelmed. But I have a whole year to practice.

Yesterday was our first day off. Oh rewind, Sunday night we were invited over to Curtis' house. Curtis is one of the intern leaders and he's the landscaping boss. The intern leaders had a potluck for us. The leadership team is really somethin. There's Jen Milsten, our main coordinator. She's very quirky and wonderful. I told her that she has a good cartoon voice because she has this really amazing dynamic voice that just makes me really happy. She's also a very touchy person, which I'm trying to appreciate. Never really been a toucher. And then there's Kathi and Craig who are married and amazing. Craig hunts and says really inappropriate things sometimes. And Kathi is an amazing artist and phenomenal photographer. Then there's Dina and Bill. Dina is the school teacher out here. All the property staff kids go to a school, that's actually a public school, and Dina teaches all of them all subjects. She's really sweet and Norwegian and fun. Her husband Bill is hysterical. He's the water guy here, who makes aure all the water works everywhere, ya know, safety and stuff. He likes to tell lies a lot and he's insanely full of useless information. For instance, we were playing a game called Partini Sunday night, very similar to Cranium, and he knew that shepherds little cane things are called crooks. There's Curtis who I already talked about and then there's Sarah McCracken but she's on vacation right now so I don't know much about her yet but I do know that she's in the kitchen with me so I'll be getting to know her real well real soon.

But everyone has been providing for us in unimaginable ways. Tim made a fat basket of snacks for all the intern houses. One couple made each of us our own banana bread. Someone else brought us cookies. Someone brought muffins. Another couple invited us over for brownies last night. I guess they think we really like food. Or maybe it's just that something really magical happens when people sit down to eat together. Tim shared a little bit of his vision behind working in the kitchen and why he thinks it's the best place to work and I'm starting to catch the vish.

So yesterday all the interns except for Stacy and Nick, headed into town. It really was a wonderful day. We all started in Bend and had lunch together at Red Robin. We played at REI, the outdoor equipment store, my new favorite place in the world. And then we just hopped around to a bunch of random spots including Bed Bath and Beyond, Michael's, Fred Meyer, Target, Wal-Mart, and Safeway. At Michael's I decided we should all make each other friendship necklaces so we bought these really fun bead bags that were a buck each and we all made them for each other. Of course I got a unicorn one, made by Josh. Sonia also found me a unicorn stained glass project and she painted it for me last night. I bought a bean bag for my book nook at Fred Meyer which is quite possibly the most amazing store ever. I could live there. I'm quite sad they don't exist in California...which reminds me, I think I was meant to be an Oregonian. I'm obsessed with this world up here.

Back to our Monday adventures. At Fred Meyer, Daniel and I decided to buy coloring books. We both got spongebob. I bought colored pencils. He got crayons. And we colored together last night during our movie night. Everyone came over to our house and watched Miracle and ate pizza rolls and just laughed and had fun together.

I really can't describe to you the emotions bubbling in my body right now. There's a jumble of joy and contentment and eagerness and excitement. I'm happy all the time and we really do have a great group of people interning together this year. I did a summer staff at Lost Canyon in '08 and we called ourselves the Super Staff because we had an incredibly compatible group that worked hard and got along really well. I have a feeling this experience is going ot be quite similar. Maybe I will call us the Incredible Interns. Most friendships within YoungLife are pretty instant but there's something different about our group. It's so incredibly easy to just be myself around these people. And be vulnerable and honest and just...myself. Which is something I've really struggled with around my Christian friends in the past.

This year's gonna be good. I spent the last couple months before I got here trying to convince myself of that simple sentence. I would say it at the end of every qualm that I voiced about this year. "But it's gonna be good." There's no cell service, but it's gonna be good. It snows and it rains and it's unbelievably cold, but it's gonna be good. I'm an hour from the closest grocery store, but it's gonna be good.

Now that I'm here, I can't stop exclaiming to the people around me that this year's gonna be good. I think I've said it to all the interns at least once but seriously, this year's gonna be good. God has affirmed me in that and I can't say it enough.

Ya'll gotta get out here and experience the good for yourself.

Peace and rainbows.

Like a Hurricane...Just Coastin' Along.

Alright alright alright...soo it's day 3ish at camp...but I have to rewind and get you updated to this moment.

After I left you in Carmel, I went out to the beach to practice a little pass-time of mine...it's a little thing I like to call people-watching...also known as stalking, or creeping. I prefer people-watching.

Some boys were playing baseball with a hollow bat and a tennis ball and so I watched them for a bit, because quite honestly, kids talk about the most amazing things and they sing and dance and are absolutely wonderful to observe. I also watched a really old couple for awhile. If you don't already know it, I love old people. I someday aspire to work at an assisted living home and practice functional fitness with the elderly. So I watched this old man sitting at the edge of the breaking waves while his wife stood next to him with her cane and all her precious glory.

After leaving Carmel, I very spur of the moment, decided to pop into San Francisco before heading to Walnut Creek. Sort of a bad decision. I can't stand driving in SF. I got lost, and had to turn around multiple times, and seriously ended up on a street that wouldn't let me turn left or right for like 4 stoplights. It was absurd. I finally made it to my friend Tiara's house and she had ordered a pizza for me and so we walked to go pick it up...and guess what, I ate the whole thing. All 6 pieces. Girl can grub.

After SF, I shot over to Walnut Creek where I got to see one of my greatest friends Miss Casey. She is one of the sweetest most joyful people I know and we got to sit and share about our summer travel experiences. She went to China. I went to India. Together, the countries we visited, populate half the earth. Wild, huh?

After spending the night in Walnut Creek and indulging in a fat ham and cheese omelet the next morning, I headed out on my three hour excursion to South Lake Tahoe. The drive was transcendental. I had my window rolled down while I drove through the beautiful forests of central cali and listened to Bon Iver and Aimee Mann, while making waves in the air with my hand, the wind swirling through the car, the sun shining, ricocheting off the branches of the trees. I really do love driving.

So I made it to Tahoe and my cousin Jason wasn't home..so I took a nap on his couch and waited for him to arrive. He took me to Jalisco's and bought me a Super Burrito. He gave me some great painting tips since he's an aspiring artist and he let me import his copy of Adobe Photoshop. He also burned me three underground hip hop cds. Score.

I left for Reno at about 4 and arrived a little after 5. I got to see my brother for the first time in 6 months. I almost cried. I also got to see his two little half brothers that I haven't seen since they were tiny. The younger one, Erik, was an infant, and the older one, Nikolas, was 2. They are now 5 and 7 and they came out and hugged me. It was so amazing. I asked Nik if he remembered me and he said, "Yeah, cuz brother Robert reminded me. " My heart melted.

My brother and I cruised the streets of downtown Reno. Pretty life-changing. We took pictures with the "biggest little city in the world" sign and played by the river and got harassed by several homeless people. It really was quite grand. Then we got dessert at Sonic where all the really good roller-skaters work. Then we watched the sunset together and I cried as I drove away from his house. I love that boy so much and it hurts me to see him hurting the way he does because of the wonderful parents we were blessed with. That was unnecessary sarcasm but seriously, sometimes I have to ask God why.

Anyway, after praying for my brother and for the wild expedition I was about to embark upon, I turned the music up really loud and rolled down my window again. I was already exhausted, barely keeping my head raised enough to see over the steering wheel. I made a very very smart decision and decided to drive from Reno to Corvallis, OR (a 9 hr drive) overnight. I left Reno a little after 7 and drove 85mph as long as I could. Then I made it to the 89. The treacherous 89. There are deer crossing signs every two seconds and I was sincerely paranoid that I was going to die in a freak deer accident..so I drove the speed limit...65.mph..for the majority of the 89. I finally made it to the 5 and thought I was home free...or deer free. I was terribly mistaken.

I was driving about 85 again and I'm in the fast lane racing along when all of a sudden, there's a FAT piece of roadkill. I tried to swerve but it was so fat I hit it anyway. And right after I hit it, the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow comes on. Not the one by the big Hawaiian guy. The old one by Judy Garland. I seriously felt like I was at the end of a horror movie, you know when the main characters are driving away from the bloody gore, but the killer is still at large. It was perfectly eerie. I have to fastforward for a minute to the morning I was leaving Corvallis to head to camp. Sooo I went to go get my oil changed as I was leaving town and the guy at Oil Can Henry's asked me "So...umm..are you on a road trip by any chance?" I said "uhh...yeah" and he goes on to ask "did you by any chance, hit anything, on your road trip?" and I said..."yeah, ummm..I think I hit a dead deer on the 5." He goes, "Yeah, it's lookin' pretty burly under there...all the guys are coming out to look at it...it's like nothing I've ever seen before....you might want to go to the car wash down the road because it's splattered all underneath your undercarriage and if you don't take there of that it's going to start smelling reeeal bad."BAhahahahaha...I hit a dead deer.

Ok rewind. So after I hit the dead deer, I was amped for a little while, exhilarated, I got a second wind, but then I crashed again. And I decided I should be smart for once and pull over to take a nap. I decided to sleep in a Best Western parking lot in Ashland Oregon. Classy. It rained and it was frigid and I was using a beach towel as a blanket and my car was so packed that I couldn't scoot the seat back so I slept in the upright position. To call it sleep is an overstatement.

I got up at 3am and popped over to the Chevron next door...picked up some hot cocoa and a banana nut muffin and hit the open road again. David told me it would take me 4 1/2 hours to get from Ashland to Corvallis. It took me 3 hrs and some change. Let's just say I have this condition that makes my right foot a little heavy.

I made it to Corvallis at 6:30am and crashed on David's couch. We spent the whole next day sleeping and lounging because David had food poisoning from a dirty grilled cheese sandwich. Tuesday night I slept at David's ex-girlfriend/best friend/ almost a sister Leann's house. The bed was phenomenal and the hospitality was again, overwhelming. She even brought me ear plugs and a glass of ice water before I went to bed.

I meant to leave Corvallis by noon but got stuck at Mr. Oil Can Henry's for two hours...when I was finally able to leave, I had another transcendental experience driving the empty highways of central Oregon...the central parts of our states are really something you know that? It's like, because they're in the middle, no one takes initiative to dig in and enjoy them, so they're serene and blissful and for lack of a better word, magical.

I got to Madras, which is the closest city to camp, and filled up my gas tank. So in Oregon, it's against the law to pump your own gas. So this woman comes up to my window and I ask her to fill up the tank and she proceeds to look in all my windows and says, "You movin?" And of course, I reply "Yes." And then she looks into my windows some more and makes a comment about one of my purses in the backseat. When I don't reply, she badgers me asks me why I didn't immediately tell her how much it cost and where I got it from. I didn't know how to respond so I just smiled and nodded. I'm pretty sure she was on drugs of some sort. I think gas station employees are fascinating. I was just telling David the other day that I really want to write a novel about the secret lives of graveyard shifters...you know, the people that work all night and sleep all day. They lead such terribly interesting lives. I would love to travel the country interviewing various truckdrivers and gas station attendants and 7-11 employees. Wouldn't you buy my book?

So I finally made it to camp 1 minute before dinner. I was the last intern to arrive and I was frazzled and complete with knitted brow and damp armpits. I stuttered over my name. Who does that?

So camp. It's wondrous. Gorgeous. Immaculate and astounding. I'm every bit as nervous and anxious as I was before I arrived but somewhere deep inside me I feel a little seed of peace trying to grow. So I'm the kitchen intern right. And we all know I don't cook. So there's a moment of stretching right there. You're so funny God. But I really am unbelievably enamored by the depth and majesty of His love. Today was one of my hardest days in a long time. There are only three of us in the kitchen right now and there were only two of us for most of today. We are preparing food for 230 campers this weekend. I baked poppy seed bread, boxed sandwich bread, pokey cake, and banana bread today...and that was all before lunch. I scooped 350 snickerdoodles and my thumbs felt like there were shards of glass trying to fight their way out of them. I panned potatoes and cracked eggs...by the way, I'm perfecting the art of cracking four eggs at a time...since I've been warned there will be times during the summer where I will have to crack 500 eggs for one meal. And Alpha and Omega have become my best friends. A and O are our sanitizing cleaners that we use at least 74 times a day. One right after the other. My feet hurt. I was covered head to toe in flour. And I could feel myself sliding to the end of my rope. But then I got off work and Jesus grabbed my chin and looked me in the face and said "you can do this girl." Ok ok that didn't really happen, but I felt like it did. A pastor at a church we went to in India said something that has stuck with me these past couple weeks...God's will will not take us where His grace will not sustain us. Hmm...I would love to use some Christiany jargon and say that statement just spoke such truth and really spoke volumes into my life, but I really can't stand that, so I'm just gonna say that I liked it and I am reminded of it right now as I lay in my bed, trying to psych myself up to go in and meet my weekend work crew tonight at 8:15. Yes, I have to go back to work. And I'm soooo excited ;) God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

Ps. I went for the weakest run ever last night. I endured about 13 minutes and then I was done. How pathetic is that. I'd like to say that I would have continued running if the sun hadn't gone down, but even if it hadn't I probably couldn't have made it much longer. And oh yeah, I got to ride The Screamer, this big giant swing, three times last night. My throat was a little sore this morning.

I'm almost finished decorating my new room. It's pretty fantastic. It's much larger than I thought it would be and I have my very own book nook!! Ecstatic about that one. So there are only four of us living in this seven bedroom condo. It's absolutely amazing. We have plenty of guest beds because there are bunk beds in two of the spare rooms...so feel free to come visit!!

And about my new roomies..There's Sonia from Wisconsin who has this phenomenal sense of humor. She has me rolling all the time. She's my bathroom buddy which sounds sort of inappropriate but the way the building is designed has two rooms sharing a bathroom on each side of the house. Funny story...Sonia is about 5'2'' on a good day and so she had a little mishap in the shower last night because I forgot to put the shower head back down after I used it. Apparently the water shot straight over her head and ricocheted off the back wall and onto the bathroom floor. Epic. Sonia got the job I wanted. She's the dining hall intern and I'm definitely not jealous at all. Not even a little bit.

Then there's Krista who's 5'10'' and 3/4 she insists. She pretends to be a basketball player with her gangster apparel but she apparently never played. But because everyone assumes that she plays, she goes along with it. I like her style. She's from Spokane and is a WFR native. She did the summer internship in 08 and knows everyone out here really well so we all sort of feel a little inferior but we'll get over it. Krista's the house-keeping guest services intern.

Then there's Ashley and she's about 5'2'' also. She's from Georgia and is the cutest little thing. She hates the fact that her car is a two door and her parents road-tripped all the way out her with her. So precious. She's the store intern and she wanted the dining hall position too.

The boys are pretty funny. There are three of them and they are from Michigan, Florida, and Alabama. Quite the dynamic. Then we have The Marrieds. There are two married couples and theirs condos are at the back of ours so I almost feel like they're in another neighborhood, whereas the single boys live right next door to us. There's Deanna and Darren Driscoll, married in May and Stacy and Nick Graves, married on Saturday!

So let's just say this is going to be an epic year. The cold is already beyond my comfort level and it's only October 1st. :)

I have this really ambitious goal to run up Communication Hill every morning before work but I doubt that's going to happen...but I can pretend.

That's all for now. I have to go back to work. I'll be back for more later. Love love.