two months of recovered life

So Lufthansa lost my bag somewhere between Hyderabad and Colorado and just can't seem to find it.  Besides some certain journals and notes that I'm pretty bummed about not having, my adapter cords for my camera and my camera charger were MIA for two months.  Now that they finally decided to compensate me, I splurged and replaced my cords and charger so I can finally get pictures off my camera. Yay!  

So here are some pictures of the last couple of months of my life!

Colorado hiking with Ashley!

And then my train adventure from Colorado to Nebraska.  Who knew that America still had such cool train stations??

Finally in Nebraska with Amy and Megan!  

And then camping in the Smokies!

Then life back in Ohio.  

The girls all dressed up!

Me and Hannah!

Me and Lile!

Stalking

have you ever been car stalked?  When the parking lots are incredibly full and a car follows 3 feet behind you in hopes that they can have your parking space?  It happened to me a lot at Akron, but the mixture of me not driving for ten months, and then not attending college during the typical school year prevented my car-stalking exposure for the last year.  

Then I started working at Summa.  Summa likes to spoil it's employees, which as a current employee, I love :)  Since the staff parking lots are on the far corners of a vast campus, they supply shuttles that can take us from our cars to our building.  It's wonderful if you're in a hurry, or if it's raining, or if you just don't feel like walking.  But I spend most of my day sitting at a desk inside, or in a stuffy classroom, so I typically treasure these brief spurts of walking in the sun.  I pull into the parking lot and spot a shuttle.  It's sitting discretely (as discretely as a huge half-bus can sit) in the shade on the far side of the parking lot.  As soon as it spots me it begins to follow me around the parking lot until I pull into the empty space of my choosing.  It stops.  Waiting ominously for me to board, I almost feel guilty for waving it by as I begin my long trek in heels to the office.  That poor shuttle-driver just really wanted to help me, and I shot her down.  

Happy List

My best friend and I used to play this game whenever one of us was having a bad day and felt like everything was falling apart.  Whoever was feeling bad had to make a list of 10 things that made them happy that they were thankful for.  Over the next few days, the other one of us would send this list as a reminder of all the blessings we have.  

Well, I actually had a pretty spectacular day, and I want to make a happy list for great things that I saw and that happened.  

1)  It's gorgeous out--nice and warm and sunny

2)  Running at 6am.  It may sound awful, but being back in the wood when everything is serene--just priceless.  If the exhilaration of a morning run wasn't enough, a deer walked out in front of me and just watched me as I stopped and walked by her.  I've seen a lot of deer in my short life, but for some reason they still awe me when I see them up close

3)  making progress at work--I typed some little summaries into a computer and started figuring out my email and scheduling.  Little things, but I feel excited about my work.  I'm already learning so much about the health system and special needs of older adults and how the geriatric field of medicine works.  I enjoy researching these things 'cause I'm learning so much as I go and am being challenged and pushed.

4)  It's AA Founders Week this week!  Which means Akron is overrun with motorcycles.  Honestly, my favorite weekend of the year in Akron.

5)  Summa has pretty much the nicest librarian.

6)  a man was walking in front of me and Hannah tonight with a coat-hanger slung over one shoulder with fifty-some hemp bracelets dangling behind him.  

7)  I ate a bowl of ice-cream while sitting out in the sun chatting with a friend and people-watching.  Really, how does an evening get better than that??

8)  the guy in the bagel line kept trying to joke around with me.  yeah... I don't really get jokes early in the morning.  

9)  my grandparents got me special highlighters that they saw on Oprah.  

10)  Someone was riding a scooter around downtown Akron.  Serious joy.  

11) There are about 400 different shades of green in the world right now. 

12) I finally finished a book on Wednesday after my 6 week reading-block!!

13. People I really love:

14) ahh I love them.  good memories :)