sun

We were in Steamboat Island for Nathan's friend's wedding this weekend. The sun was setting right over the ocean...I can't wait to live on the ocean. 10 months from San Diego!

I'm back to reality after vacation and can't help but wish I was on vacation forever...really not even vacation, just in the same city as Nathan would work for now! 10 months again...

My little brother is in town and needs a ride to the airport for his 6:50am flight so it's off to bed. I'm not too happy about getting up that early and then working...but such is life. The things I do!

planted

I decided I will never be a plant person. I will never let plants control my life. In the past week I have witnessed 3 women in my life who have freaked out about leaving their plants without water and were beyond devastated to find they were starting to die when they left town. I just can't be held back by something like a plant. My roommate wanted to come all the way home just to water them while I was gone for 2 weeks. My mom shouted, "Oh NO!" like my brother had just died when she looked out the window to find her tomatoes keeling over...I don't understand!

Granted I do not have a green thumb or anything close to it and actually am pretty proud of myself for keeping a plant alive for 11, going on 12 months...But if it died? I wouldn't mind. It's huge and it was expensive but really...I think there are other things that would pain me more than the death of my spider tree or whatever it's called. I think my mom may be a bit disappointed to know I can't bear to follow in her gardening footsteps but right now I just...can't bring myself to do it!

In other news I turn 24 tomorrow. Life hasn't followed the path I thought it would but I'm pretty happy with how it has gone so far. I'm sad no one makes a big deal about birthdays though. Somewhere around age 12 birthdays become less and less of an event and more of an obligation. I love birthdays so I hope my kids don't mind my going all out for them. Barbie-themed party when you're 21? Mom will do it! Ninja Turtles and a bounce room for your 18th birthday, no problem! I want to go out to dinner tomorrow at least but I'm not sure I can convince anyone to leave the lake to drive into town for that. If not I will settle for a bbq as long as my mom will make me a cake. A balloon or two would be nice too. ;)

wish you were here

Well it's been like ten years since I've updated this thing. It's summer time and I'm taking one class online where I do just enough to get by because I hate summer classes and I'm a very bad procrastinator when the deadline is so far away. But we already knew that.

Nathan and I are pretty confident we will be moving to San Diego next year. Probably right after my graduation in June. We decided we'd like an adventure, go somewhere we've never lived, stay for a few years, live on the beach, experience a different life...see how we like it. Who knows what it will bring. It's not exactly a cheap place to live and I'd like to own a house within the next 5 years so we'll see how good we are at saving while we're there. If we love it we'll buy a house, if we experience enough of it in 3 years we'll leave and settle somewhere else. Right now we're young enough to pick up and go and try it out. We don't have kids and even if we did they wouldn't be old enough to have to move to a new school or anything. I'm excited. I'm nervous because San Diego and Kalispell Montana and basically polar opposites...But I think I could do it.

Nathan is pretty deadset on living as close to the beach as possible. Rent is about $1500 for a one bedroom place in this kind of location so we'll probably squeeze ourselves into something small for a little while. We'll have good jobs though too. He'll be able to work from home with Expedia and I've already researched social work jobs in San Diego. No problemo. Especially if I can get going on my Spanish fluency.

I can only imagine how wonderful sunshine will feel and how happy I will be to wake up with the option of taking a morning walk on the beach. I know San Diego has its downfalls too but right now we're up for whatever.

Tomorrow we're heading to Montana for two weeks to spend some time at the lake. Nathan will be working from there but it's still vacation when your "work" involves sitting on the dock, sipping a margarita and jumping in whenever you start to get hot. Oh and every so often looking back at the computer to make sure the Expedia website is running okay...I think he'll enjoy the "vacation" just as much as I will. I will be attending Morgan's 1st birthday party and snuggling his cheeks up to get my baby fix (and hold off my urges for a couple more years), going to the dentist, the eye doctor, finishing my summer class and working on my tan most importantly...oh and hopefully learning to slalom ski, that's my summer goal. I hope the good weather holds out. It usually stays nice right up until my birthday on August 13 (Oh yeah I guess I'll be turning 24 while I'm there too). We are visiting Nathan's dad on Flathead Lake for a couple days as well and of course spending time with family. It'll be good.

Speaking of Morgan, I need to go to WalMart- Jessie realized the WalMart here has way better baby food then the one in Kalispell so I need to come home with the goods.

Pizza

My conversation with the pizza guy:

Me: I'm just wondering how big your 10 inch is. Is it just more like a small personal size pizza?

Pizza Guy: Yeah it's small. It's a 10 inch.

KThanks.

Back to reality

I think I am being a bad updater here...Most of my updates have been in my Peru blog but now that I'm home that one will be retired...eventually. My parents apparently sent the address to all sorts of random people so I didn't even know until I got home that people had been reading it. It was really nice though because I felt like they were all there with me and thinking of me and I could really feel that on the trip. It was an amazing trip to an amazing country and I promise myself I will go back. I also am itching to keep traveling but even more to do more volunteer work through Global Volunteers. They have some trips in South Africa and Costa Rica that are catching my eye...

Nathan and I are hopefully planning a Mexican cruise in June to satisfy our travel needs. We also want to do a little mini-vaca over Memorial Day weekend since we both have it off. I need to start becoming a better money-saver so I can do all of this travel! This is quite an impossible feat when, 1) I'm a grad student and don't really make much money and 2) I am pretty bad at saving because I'm bad at waiting for things...But maybe this is a new skill I can work on.

My last quarter of this year has begun and already I am predicting it will end so quickly. I love how fast quarters zoom by. Semesters seemed to drag on. It may also mean that I actually kind of like school. I loved MSU and my program but I think my masters is even more me doing what I want to do so I love being a part of it all and seeing the final product in sight.

My youngest brother has the lead in a school play so I'm going to go home for it next week. I am excited to see him in a play as theater and making movies is what he loves to do (he wants to go school near Hollywood and make and produce films). Also, as the youngest child, he has spent a good 17 years being forced to attend every single one of my plays, concerts, presentations and other random involvements...So the least I can do is make the trek home for it. It will take 4 hours at the most to drive so I find it very worth it.

Not Sick

Lots of people in our group are starting to get sick so think good thoughts for my stomach of steel...So far I feel fine. I notice when I am getting dehydrated but nothing as drastic as what other people are experiencing. Ive been very cautious about what I eat and drink so I think I can hold out two more days. Knock on Peruvian wood! I have a sunburn which I am now learning I would gladly take over the SNOW in Washington. Yuck. Definitely not what I want to come back to!

We ate at a restaurant called Beer Chicken for dinner tonight. They had the best rotisserre chicken I have ever had! And a bonus, we get ice cream after lunch every day here. You know that means I am basically in heaven. I could do this every day for sure...

Up and at 'em

It's 3:40am and I am up and ready! I think I got about five hours of sleep last night so I don't feel to terrible. I wished for my dad and boyfriend's magical powers of being able to fall asleep in 2 minutes or less but unfortuantely I just can't do it. I'm a lay there for 30 minutes kind of sleeper and it sure gets in the way!

I am as packed as I think I can be. I have no idea what I'm missing, if anything. Hopefully nothing because I have no idea how easy it is to get things like contact solution or tampons in Peru.

Nathan insisted on coming here next weekend to greet me when I get in. He's only staying one night and then heading back to make a Sonics game. I think it's crazy for him to come all the way here but he says he can't wait that long to hear about my trip....What a sweet boy I have. As much of a hard time as I've give him about coming, of course I am overjoyed to get to have him there to welcome me home.

So I guess this is it! I'm going to dry my hair, pack everything in and head to the airport...Peru, here I come!