Squeeze'n it In

I know, it's been a while again, but this time I am bound and determined to get another post out before December 1st. And thus...here it is!

As always, things have been busy. I just find it so hard to balance the blogging and photo-posting with school and work assignments, job applications, this new semblance of a social life, and exploring Boise with the little time I have left. I can't even imagine that I graduate in exactly two weeks from today. Ahh!

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These last few weeks at work havnen't been overly interesting. Gina and I spent a lot of time practicing the puppet show for a school re-entry presentation. The show went pretty well, but we were both nervous, and I was slightly disappointed in my performance. At least the students seemed to enjoy it, and they were all very well behaved, which was nice. I really enjoyed the opportunity to finally spend some time with Gina, since we never work the same schedule. She's really a cool girl and I'd love to get to know her better sometime.

Oo! For all you CBC staffers out there, you will appreciate this... I got to a see a cardiac cath lab procedure for the first time ever. woot!! I've heard about the cath lab for the past three years at camp and in conversations with my heart defected friends (:-p), but never had much idea what they were talking about. As it turned out, procedure was a few hours long and rather complicated, but I did stay for a good while, so now I finally have some general idea of the cath lab stuff. Soo exciting!! ...Especially considered that this was practically the first and only cardiac patient I've seen since starting the internship. My heart will always have a special place for heart kids, though! :-p

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Last weekend (Nov. 21-23), Chris Nowicki, my 4-H friend from Georgia came to visit. (Yes, this is the guy who works miracles with Delta Airlines and flight arrangments...and yes, I love him for it. Seriously, if you want to get something done in life, being friends with Chris is the way to go.) Chris is also friends with Jeff (my first Idaho friend, whom I also met through 4-H), so he stayed at Jeff's house for the weekend, considering my apartment is already pretty cramped...and he's a guy. lol.

Friday, I made some Cajun spaghetti with the yummy sauce that Nanna mailed me last month. Jeff came over to eat and hang out before we picked Chris up from the airport at 8:30 p.m. We hung out at Jeff's for a bit, and then met up with a lot of the soccer team guys (and Tessa) at The Front Door downtown. It was one of the soccer guys' 21st birthdays so the guys were out celebrating. The festivities were pretty low-key and didn't last very long.

Saturday, Jeff and Chris came over to eat left over Cajun yumminess, then Tessa and I joined them to explore Boise for most of the day. Our most memorable stop was Table Rock, my absolute favorite place in all of Boise. It was pretty chilly out and very overcast, but the cool thing was that we could see the storm/cloud system moving across the city from where we were standing. Earlier, I'd heard from Kim that it was sleeting in Nampa, so I joked about how awesome it would be if it started snowing. Well, low and behold, we watched the clouds move some more, and suddenly IT WAS SNOWING!! Oh em gee. It was just the coolest thing ever, that it happened all of a sudden. We took some pictures for a bit and then headed down to explore more of the city. Amongst the other sites were an outdoor nature center, Simplot Hill, the Boise Depot, and Lucky Peak Reservoir. Then we returned to my apartment to play Wii for most of the afternoon, and finally went out to dinner at a hole-in-the-wall hamburger establishment called Big Judd's (sounds appropriate, right? lol.). That evening, a small group of Jeff's friends hung out at his house to watch WallE and play cards. Chris and I had some time to catch up with each other, too, which was nice.

On Sunday, the boys went out shooting with Joey and one of Joey's friends. I spent the day doing homework (my NSU assignments were due Monday) and cooking a good-bye/thanks-thanks-for-coming gumbo. Jeff and Chris came over to eat some dinner before Chris headed out to his red-eye flight home (leaving at 7 pm MST, arriving Monday at 9:30 EST--crazy). I had a lot of gumbo left, and wasn't really interested in eating it, so I invited what remained of the boys house over for dinner...so Kim, Tessa, Joey, his friend, and Stew all ate some of my yummy gumbo. Woot. I decided I'm really starting to enjoy cooking...or at least keeping my ties to Cajun food and home. :)

Originally, Chris was supposed to visit over his Fall Break in October, but when that fell through, I was really sad about the change in plans. However, he figured things out and was finally able ot visit in November. I truly enjoyed his visit, and hope he did too. Now, it's time that he visit Dawn and I in Louisiana. ;0)

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As for the Thanksgiving holiday, I worked every day this week. This was SUCH an adjustment to me, as I've always been off of work/school for the entire holiday week. At first, it wasn't so bad because it kept me busy and my mind off of missing home (not that that's a real problem lately). Later in the week, though, it became annoying because everyone else was off of school, having fun, and taking vacations. I was super jealous, to put it simply. It was slow at work, though, so I guess that was good.

Because I was scheduled to work every day, I didn't really plan on celebrating the holiday. However, as the days passed, it began to seem like I might have gotten off early enough to do something somewhat fun, at least. Thus, I accepted Nathan's invite to eat dinner with his family, so that I wouldn't be alone on such a family-oriented day. (Later, I was also invited to spend the day with my supervisor's family, as well as Jeff's. Thanks to you both!)

Fortunately, I got off on Thursday after only an hour of working--we checked on all the kids and there wasn't much going on at the hospital, so we left. hehe. Getting off super early was really helpful because it gave me the opportunity to get a lot of work done on the job applications I have been doing. Nathan picked me up around 12:30 p.m. and we headed to his parents' house in Nampa for lunch. One of his brothers' and his sister-in-law and their daughter were there, as well as his grandparents. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and I am very grateful to have been able to spend the day with a loving family such as this one. Afterwards, we came back to my apartment because Nathan had to work (from his computer) until 7pm, but since it was slow we just watched movies for the rest of the evening, basically.

I got off an hour early yesterday (Friday), too, which was super nice. Again, it gave me more time to get some things done with my job applications. Then it was time for relaxation and more movies. Today, I've been doing most of the same--relaxing and job application details. It's soo nice that my recommendation forms finally came in, so now I can mail them...just as soon as someone with a car comes around sometime soon.

I guess I should explain the job applications in more detail, since I've mentioned them a few times in this post. For a while I've been planning to apply for the Program Assistant position with Wonders of Washington in DC. That application is due on Monday, and it's taken me forever to get things ready for it because the recommendation forms took a long time to come in the mail, and it required three essays, as well. The other job I found was a part-time position working with the 4-H Operation Military Kids program here in Idaho. I'm super pumped about that one because I'd get to stay in Boise, and with the part-time flexibility I'm hoping I would have more time to travel to cool places in the region, since I haven't gotten to do any of that these last few months. It'd be really great, too, if I could go to National 4-H Conference again...

Regardless, I am going home to graduate in ...less time than I want to remember... and I'm not sure where I'll be going from there. The good news is that you all can continue reading the blog if you're interested in keeping up with my cross-country adventures. Hehe.

Until next time,
-Lauren

P.S. Wishing everyone at National 4-H Congress the best of times this week...have fun and stay warm!