Shout out to Grandma (and various other updates)

Alright I know it has been a long time since my last post, I apologize for that! I keep putting it off because I know there's so much I want to say, but then of course more things happen and it's a whole big spiral.

Here goes--

Lacy's Wedding: I flew home for this two weekends ago, and had such a blast. It was sort of a strange feeling being at home. My room had almost none of my stuff in it, yet it was still my room. Puppy was cute as ever. Always good to see my parents. The wedding was fantastic. One of my proudest moments was recognizing the wedding photographer as one of the stars of the Disney Channel Original Movie "Double Teamed" about twin basketball players (circa 2002). Yes, I may be the only person that would have recognized her (and googled the movie on my phone to see if the names matched). Lacy was beautiful, Gordon and all the Brits were charming (and of course drunk!), and the band was one of the best I've ever seen at a wedding. Everyone started dancing early and didn't quit until the band left. Also thanks to Lacy for asking me to be a bridesmaid, I was honored to be a part of it all!

Idaho: Last weekend I went to McCall Idaho on Saturday and ran a 5K Sunday morning. I went with my friend Katie that I met from soccer here who has been nothing but gracious to me, inviting me basically to everything she does and sharing her awesome boyfriend with me (no, I don't mean like that). The cabin we stayed at was beautiful, right on the lake, which reminded me a lot of Big Bear. There were 8 of us there and we spent the night like mature 20 somethings playing Spoons. I sustained a "spoons related injury" after I got out on the FIRST round on the first game of spoons we played (anyone who knows me knows how much this hurt). I realized no one was messing around and that I had to get aggressive. So the next game, in order to save myself from embarrassment from going out first twice in a row, I threw my entire body into grabbing the spoon, bracing myself by throwing my left leg out, and thus re-straining the calf I had hurt earlier in the week. No worries though, it was fine during the race!

The race was fun too. Everyone did the 5K except Katie who did a longer 8.5 mile race. It was really cold out, I'd imagine in the 40s, but the run was through beautiful pine trees and ended along the lake, and was downhill or flat almost the whole way. The altitude did get to me a bit though. When Katie asked me if I wanted to do the race a week ago, I immediately went online and checked the results from last year. There were two girls in my age group who finished in 20 and 21 minutes (too fast for me) and one in 40 (really slow). So, because the top 3 finishers in each age group get a prize, I decided I was assured at least third place and thus would do it! However, two of the other girls I was staying with this time were in my age group and both ran cross country in High school. So I was not expecting to place. However, I pulled through! I ended up 3rd place in my age (one of the girls we stayed with finished ahead of me, one behind--the one behind just had surgery and was running her first race since that haha). Anyway my amazing prize was a generic medal that said "Third Place-Age Group." Still worth it!

BSU Game Day: BSU had a huge game against VA Tech on Labor Day. Katie and her boyfriend Jeff were having a party to watch the game with all Jeff's family. They are all huge BSU fans. Man was that a blast. Nothing I love more than intense sports fans. Since I have to be so far from my Bruins this year, I've adopted BSU for the year. The whole town was buzzing--remember, Boise has literally NO other sports than their football team :). At the market two hours before the game they were announcing how many minutes there was until the game started. Anyway it was an amazing game, and BSU ended up pulling out the win at the last minute...just the way I like it!

Karaoke: Jeff hosts karaoke at this dive bar every other Thursday. To keep it short, I performed 4 songs. Raps are really my zone, and I did both Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" and Eminem's "Real Slim Shady." The crowd was definitely not as loud as my London performance of Real Slim Shady, but it was still a blast. Also performed a group rendition of "Bye Bye Bye" complete with dance moves, and did a duet of "Piano Man" with Jeff.

Work: Work is going very well. Things are getting busy right now because we just got a whole new batch of cases we have to write up. I really love my co-clerk Steve, who is just as sarcastic as I am. Also enjoying hitting up coffee breaks and happy hours with the other clerks in the building.

Muggles: is also doing very well. We both are still adjusting to each other, but it's amazing to watch the rate at which she learns. All said and done, she is a really good kitten. She doesn't wreck anything while I'm gone, she doesn't cry when I go to sleep (I used to keep her in the bathroom but now let her roam around the living room too and she's fine), she always uses her litterbox, she's eating enough, and she sleeps a lot. My only complaint is getting scratched by her when she's in a "crazy" mode, and her jumping on the counters, but she's still a kitten! I've started to just remove her from my lap anytime she tries to get on and start playing, and move her to the floor or her kitty condo and play with her with a different toy. I hiss at her when she jumps on the table or counters and she knows she isn't supposed to and runs right down. She's sleeping right now...we watched football together almost the whole day. She really is possibly the cutest kitten I've ever seen, and is getting bigger every day!

Shout out to Grandma: So I heard through a little birdie (aka Mikey P.) that my Grandma prints out my blog and reads it and really enjoys it! This honestly gave me more pride than anything else could have I think. I love that with 35 grandchildren and 10(ish--I don't have this number down yet) great grandchildren, she still invests as much interest as she does in each of us. It'd be really easy to become a number and sink into the background of cousin-dom with my Grandma, but she has never let that happen with any of us. I feel lucky every day that I got her as my Grandma, and feel so inspired and impressed by her life (and not just the birthing 14 kids in 17 years part). Love you Grandma!! You also got the honor of having this post named after you, because really you're the most awesome thing among all this other stuff.


Deep Thoughts: I have gone through a ton of emotions since moving to Boise, and still do every day. Some moments in the day I feel totally hopeless, and some I feel totally content. And it can change in an instant. Dealing with these uncomfortable feelings is really good for me I think. When I come back home to California after this year I will have been battle-tested, and will know how I respond to certain situations, and how I can "fix myself" when I am feeling horrible.

Anyway, I've gotten a lot of good advice from a lot of places in my life, but there's been one thing lately that has kept coming up in my mind. Years ago when I was going through a tough time, one of my favorite Aunts (#14 on that Grandma line up) told me to remember the importance of being "present." At the time I laughed and said that didn't even make sense. Of course we are always present, we are alive, participating in whatever we are doing. But it isn't true. How much of anxiety and bad feelings are caused by either worrying about the future or harping on the past instead of just dealing with whatever is right in front of you in that moment? I've actually gotten myself to have a change in how I was feeling by forcing myself to be in the present, to deal with whatever I was feeling right THERE and THEN instead of thinking "will this last forever" "was this a bad decision" "what will I feel like tomorrow/next week/next month/next year." So I just wanted to write something down about the idea of being present, because it went from being a joke to me when I first heard it to being what I think is the most important component of finding peace.

Okay, sorry this was so long, I will try my best to not let as much time pass before I update again so I don't have as much to say! Til next time.