(no subject)
I miss having aim, but I have had a lot of great phone conversations lately. I am slowly, but surely, conquering my fear of talking on the phone.
I realize my last entry was rather emo, so I'm going to make this one a bit more upbeat. Because, overall, things are going really well. I'm just homesick. I don't forsee that going away until I am back at home, but I am trying to make the best of my experiences while I am here. I can already tell it is growing and stretching me as a person...in good ways.
Anyway, so here are some positive things that have been happening in my life.
Ryan and Zach came to visit me this weekend...which was awesome! I miss them (and all of my friends) so much, so it was fantastic to see them! They were really only here for Saturday since they got here at 11:00pm on Friday and left at 11:00am on Sunday. But we had fun on Saturday! I took them to the beaver marsh. We went to a vineyard that is nearby and sampled some wines (although that wasn't nearly as interesting as when Kati and I went to a vineyard when I went to visit her....). I showed them where I work, and took them on a hike and taught them a little bit about the watershed (and in the process realized just how much I have learned in the past two months, and just how much I enjoy my job, and how cool it is that I get to spend my days hiking around the woods with kids). Then we went to dinner with Ellen and her sister Emma (who happened to be home from Miami for the weekend) and then we all watched Sky High - which is a fantastic movie, I highly reccommend you watch it if you haven't seen it. I've seen it at least five times, and I love it every time!
So, that was pretty much my weekend. It was fantastic :)
Last week at work, I worked in the kitchen instead of taught. We all have to take turns working in the kitchen - so every tenth week I have to work in the kitchen. I enjoyed it. The kitchen staff are probably my favorite co-workers. Plus when you work in the kitchen, you get off at 7 every night (as opposed to 9) and you get a two hour break in the middle of the day - so I did things like watch Greek (which is a fantastically ridiculous tv show on ABC Family) online and go to the grocery store (which doesn't sound all that exciting, but I wouldn't have had time to go otherwise). It was also a nice break from teaching - if only a week long break every ten weeks could be built into the regular school calender...
I went home for my birthday two weekends ago. I don't think I ever wrote about that. It was a really great weekend, filled with all of my favorite people. Friday night I went to the Norwood Homecoming football game with Michelle. We were playing Ross, so Bethany was there supporting her brother. Norwood won by a lot. My mom gives me updates on the football team periodically and it looks like we are going to do really well this year - they have only lost one game so far. I went after half time, so I missed the marching band performance, but they are looking pretty shabby this year. I wish kids would get as excited about music in Norwood as I remember them being when I was in eighth grade (remember how obnoxious I was, Sal?) Saturday I went to the Grace in Your Face hockey game with Ryan. That was pretty fun...like old times :) Because last year I went to almost all of their games. Later that evening was my birthday party - which I was 45 minutes late for...partially because I thought it started half an hour later than it actually did (as did my ride) and partially because I didn't want to drive myself. But, it was a lot of fun and I got to see all of my favorite Cincinnatians and a few Columbusites- we had dinner at BW3's first and then went bowling - which I did miserably at, but no surprise there really. There are pics of that activity on facebook if you are interested. Sunday I hung out with the fam and then stopped in Columbus on my way back here to have dinner with Lauren - a friend from college that I haven't seen in a year or so. So, that was pretty cool!
Hmmm, the last few tidbits for now.
The library here had a book sale last weekend and I got some awesome new (old) books, including a book about knitting and Where the Sidewalk Ends. And some VHS (for 50 cents apiece) - Clueless, Wild Wild West and Mighty Ducks 2. Not excited about them being on VHS, but I am excited about the price and the awesomeness of the movies.
I now have a song written about me! Which is pretty awesome. It's not a very interesting story, but I'm gonna write it anyway. Ryan called me last Friday night as he was driving home from a party or something. And we talked about life and things for awhile. When he got home he said that Luke was just getting home from work as well, so I asked to talk to Luke. Which I did for awhile. While I was talking to Luke, Ryan was playing his guitar and somehow or another, either I told him to write me a song or he said he was going to write me a song (I don't really remember). And so he did - I wasn't expecting him to. I thought he was kidding. But, he recorded it and emailed it to me a few days later, so now I have a song about how I live in the woods and teach kids about nature and about how much my friends at home miss me :) It's rather catchy, and I have had it stuck in my head several times in the past week.
I hung out with Kyle again last weekend. We had fun - went to dinner and watched a movie.
Hung out with a few of my co-workers on Friday before Zach and Ryan got here - I think I'm starting to make friends. Plus I finally hung out with Ellen too. That should happen more often, esp. since she is the only one I know in the area that gets ABC - aka Jeopardy - on their tv ;)
Eeeek, it's almost dinner time! I have to head back to work!
Hope you are all doing well!