Having the time of my life

I'd like to take a short break from my letter-writing project to talk about how awesome the past week or so has been. And how great life is in general.

I'm currently sitting out on a deck at a condo in north Myrtle Beach, with the beach literally being RIGHT THERE in front of me. And the breeze is gently blowing and the waves are crashing and the water is actually blue-ish here, unlike the gross murky gray of Delaware, and I love it. The beach is a wonderful creation.

I'm so grateful for my job. Really really. From mid-July to about a week ago, we had this summer camp thing, and I was kinda nervous about it. But it ended up being SO fun. I love the kiddos, and I love the people I work/have worked with. And this is exactly the kind of experience I wanted to get to prepare me for grad school. And ok, getting a paycheck is pretty awesome too. For awhile I was legitimately sad that I'm missing the first week of school right now to be at the beach. Who does that?

So two Fridays ago was the last day of our summer camp, and afterward a bunch of my coworkers and I went out and I was just so happy to have people I like working with, and to have successfully made it through a summer that I was a little afraid of at the beginning. The next day Mom and I went shopping at Park City and I found a piece for my Halloween costume at Hot Topic. I'm keeping the costume secret til Halloween, of course ;) Then that Sunday after church, (great ward conference and I only had to teach 3 moderately well-behaved 5-year-olds instead of 938274626 naughty ones) I went over to my bff's house to keep her company while she was packing her life away to move to Arizona. We're all grown up now. It's weird. I went home the next morning, and then later that afternoon went with Dad to the Phillies game. It was a tragic loss and it was a little rainy, but I still had a great time. I love live baseball games. And we had awesome seats, 30 rows up right in front of the pitchers mound between 3rd and home. Seeing all my faves play up close, not on tv, is amazing. Win or lose.

Last Tuesday was institute, and I got to see and hang out with some friends, always a good time. And one of these friends and I had a good talk and decided to make the extra effort and use some teamwork to go retrieve a lost and wandering sheep in my life. The one I miss most. I'm really nervous, but praying it all works out. I haven't seen said sheep in a looooong time. Where there's a will there's a way, and I won't stop hoping for the best. No matter how long it takes.

Wednesday I went out for breakfast with bff and bff-mom at that dinky little place across from the state police barracks. And then a few hours later I drove over to Steelton and the 2 of us spent the evening in Hersheypark. This is something we've been doing since as long as I can remember. We got on all the good rides, and it wasn't too full, and the sun came out for the first time in a week, and we ate yummy bbq-ness, and got our caricature done together. I had such a good time, and ended up crying on my drive home that nite because I'm gonna miss her so much.

Thursday Sam and I went to visit Brookie Cookie. ;) It was good seeing her and hanging out with Navie and talking about the good ol' days of young womens and dances and roadshows, etc. I miss her, especially since we only get to visit like once a year. The hour and a half drive was totally worth it. =) Sam and I also got to have a good talk/therapy session on the drive home. I do love therapy time with Sam, she understands me. Or at least pretends to. ;) I'm so glad we have each other to talk about all that stuff. Love both of you girlies.

Friday was dance party nite, which was great except for me feeling kinda old and almost falling over from all the strobe lights. I'm 22, this should not be happening. And a bunch of us went to see the Takers which was kind of a wee bit terrible. See, the beginning was this fantastic bank robbery and I thought it was gonna be all awesome like Ocean's 11, but it ended up just being disappointing and lame. Fortunately Chris Brown's attractiveness kept me going. He's such a cutie. And it was nice to see Hayden Christiansen play a role besides an annoying, overly-powerful, whiny little brat like in Star Wars haha.

Saturday I went out for lunch with bff and her (as of Friday nite) "more than boyfriend" haha. And then we said our goodbyes, as they go on to the land of dry and hot. And then Sunday we left for Myrtle. And now here we are.

So in short, I've had a super busy week or so of no work and lots of friends and family, and life is good. Do I have everything? No. Do things always go the way I want? No. But I love what I have and I'm grateful for it, and I don't want to forget that, or the events of this week and how happy I felt.


One more addition: Tonite on our way to Broadway at the Beach, the Mystery Machine passed by on the highway. Literally, the very same vehicle as seen on Scooby Doo. And I said, "hey look! the Mystery Machine!" and that was that. THEN, on the way back home, we were driving behind a Delorean, and I said, "hey look! a Delorean, just like the one from Back to the Future!". And then I looked at it more closely and realized, it really was like the one from BttF. It had all the additions just like the time machine did in the movie. And then I saw that the license plate directed you to a website, "bttfcom". And I said, "oh hey! It really IS the delorean from Back to the Future!". And then we decided that there must be some convention down here at the moment, or else random people like to drive up 17 in vehicles straight out of movies. OR maybe my dreams are coming true. I'll know for sure if I see Harry Potter fly by on a broomstick, or a dragon, or something cool. I'd even settle for an owl flying by with a letter attached to its leg.