Feels Like Home to Me

So, I'm sorry that it has been a while since I posted. It has been a wonderful past few days and I'm excited to share it. I had a moment this week where I finally began to feel at home in this place. I feel comfortable, I feel happy, I'm having fun. It will most likely still be really hard at times, but I feel like we've finally gotten to the point where we're excited to be here. So it's awesome. Thank you all for being behind me and being the people that I can always turn to and feel completely myself around. You're awesome.

So, the last I blogged, we were in the middle of Work and Worship which was really fun. On Sunday, we had morning espresso again and then I was scheduled for vending for the rest of the day. Turns out that only takes a couple of hours. So after I got done with vending, I spent the next few hours in the Store with Sara deep cleaning. We had such a good time, jamming to music and talking about our lives. Sara is super cool and so sweet and I feel like we have a lot to learn from each other.

After I got off work, I hung out for a while and then headed back down to main camp for dinner. This was the first weekend I made it a point to get to all the meals and it was definitely worth it, just to hang out with people. After dinner, we went to the last worship of the weekend. Almost all of us went, so it was fun to sit in a row in the back and be the obnoxious intern kids. Ben's talk was again great and Judy was again funny.

After worship, a bunch of us went to look around in the store. A bunch of the guys came and ended up buying the $1 Zubs we still have in the store from 2002. Zubs are those stretchy material tubes that they have on Survivor that you can wear as a headband or a hat or a tube top. They're very versatile. Anyway, all the boys got them and have been wearing them and it has been pretty funny. And we now have a contest to see who can end up with the coolest Zub by the end of the year. The only rule is that we can't buy them on Ebay. So please send me Zubs if you happen upon one.

Monday I was in Housekeeping and it was a great easy day. I spent the morning deep cleaning in the Ranch House which was pretty nasty. We then had checkout and All Clean, but since checkout had been so staggered, a bunch of the All Clean was already done. So we ended up getting off work a half hour early! Such a little thing, but it was so great.

After work, we watched Love Actually and talked about first kisses and other awkward moments. It was a lot of fun. We also played Nerts. I dominated, of course. Actually, I beat Mike by 4 points. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was another relaxing day. I was supposed to go to Madras. I didn't. Instead, I slept until 12:00 and hung out without changing out of my PJs all day. We watched movies and spent all night playing games including Nerts, Scattegories and a game called Bang! which is much like an extreme version of Mafia. It was my kind of night.

Today, I got up and went into Madras with Lacey. She had a dentist appointment, so I chilled in the waiting room and read. And then we went to Safeway and I finally bought real food. I have been bummed that I haven't cooked for everybody, so I decided to fix that. I bought food for all kinds of meals and tonight made Mama Gore's tortellini soup and some cornbread. It was a lot of fun and the boys came over and ate with us. Then we played another game of Bang!.

After dinner, we had the Lady's Tea at Judy's house. Almost all of the women who live on property came to the tea and we got to get dressed up and eat yummy food. It was really fun to just hang out with all the women and get to know people better. The ladies here are so varied. It's crazy to me how all these random kinds of women ended up out here. There are stay-at-home moms and career women and athletes and women with Masters degrees and young women and old women. It really makes me feel validated in being here to see all these brilliant woment who also see worth in being here. Sometimes it's easy to think that I should have a real job and that people think I'm hiding out here or something. But the more I get to know the other people here, the better I feel about being here. These are brilliant, educated, smart people who also realize the importance of being out here in the middle of nowhere. It's great.

Becca and I were talking tonight and both realized that we had the same moment this week where we started feeling completely comfortable here. I think that we're all in the same place, which is great. I'm excited to go into the winter together, ready to grow and have fun and be cheesy. I love the cheesiness.

I love you all and I miss you a ton. Please call me because I don't have any more minutes on my phone card and I can't call you.