Friday:
Commence thought-filled portion of weekend - I got up and very reluctantly went to school. I was supposed to go down to Olympia to visit family later that evening, and honestly I was so excited to go and see everyone that I really just didn't want to be anywhere that had anything remotely to do with a classroom. But I went anyway because I'm a good kid, and for it being "Friday the 13th," it actually wasn't that bad of a day. I got an A on my pop quiz in Philosophy (I still say f**k you, Plato), and by some miracle the quiz that was scheduled to happen in my French class got cancelled. Well actually that was because my prof.'s daughter got an ear infection, which is really sad because her daughter is adorable, but still...her ear had good timing on my part. Anyway, once I got done with choir at 2pm, it was finally time to unwind and pack for the two nights I would spend at my aunt's house in Olympia. Yeah let's review that sentence again..."Anyway, once I got done with choir at 2pm, it was finally time to unwind...unwind...unwind..." In all actuality, this unwinding never really happened. As soon as I got back to my room, I called my mother. Now normally when I call my mother it's very pleasant conversation; her and I don't really fight about much of anything, except when it involves me driving long distances, she's weird about that. Except this time, it wasn't so pleasant. She informed me of the fact that I got rehired to work at Yellowstone National Park again next summer. (Insert creative sentence that makes creating a new paragraph a little less awkward). Story time!
For those of you who know me (or have read this blog...), you know that I spent last summer working in the Grant Village area of Yellowstone National Park. As I have said before, working there really wasn't all that bad. I made a handful of friends who I still talk to today, and thoroughly enjoyed my job(s). But regardless of that, I had a lot of issues last summer. Not only was I almost 1,000 miles away from home with no foreseeable way of getting back, meaning I didn't have a car or money to fly so I was essentially "stranded," (or at least that's how my mind interpreted it), but it was really hard to be away from my friends and family for so long, especially during time that was meant to be spent with them. I missed my best friends from Eugene (who I didn't see so much during the school year) all so much, and I missed my mom. Of course I had dealt with the feelings of missing people when I went off to college my freshman year, but it was never that bad I guess, because I really clicked with a lot of people at school. And in Seattle it's not that hard to go home for a weekend, or have someone come up and visit you. Also it gets harder and harder to miss people because there's so much to do and so much going on around you that you just kind of get lost in the mix. When your out in the middle of nowhere however, the feelings all sink in and eat at your heart like some kind of parasite.
The thing that really hurt the most though, and mind you I am a little weary about writing this, was the fact that last summer, the summer of 2011, was the one summer in I think seven years that my aunt and cousins (who live in Michigan) came to visit us all in Oregon. I'm not blaming them for anything here because honestly flying places is uber-expensive and my parents and I aren't exactly fantastic about going to visit them either. But yes, they came to visit the first week of August-ish, which is ironically, my birthday week (my birthday is August 5th, in case you were dying to know). It was unbelievably hard, knowing that I was in Yellowstone and they were in Eugene, and there was nothing I could do about it. And my mom, I think unknowingly, was not really helping the situation either. She would call me or I would call her, and she would be on a day trip with the whole family either to Sisters or to the coast. Or I would see pictures on Facebook of the family together without me. Honestly, I miss my aunt and cousins so much and really wish I was able to know them better. We haven't seen each other in seven/eight years now and it's horrible. Horrible. I was so happy that they were able to make the trip out to Oregon because they deserved it, but for me it was just hard. And then there would be people who told me that I "made the choice" to move to Wyoming for the summer, so any pain I felt was self-inflicted; I'm sorry if I needed to make money to be able to do things like get an education, and I didn't really have a lot of other options. Ugh.
So yeah, I got rehired to go back out to the Wild Wild West that is Wyoming next summer, to work as a Server Assistant in the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room. I really really wanted to work at OFI last summer, but didn't get placed there, so this year I am doing some serious debating in my head about going back. I large part of me just wants to spit at the application and say no, I am not doing this internal emotional roller coaster again, no matter how much my wallet may hurt at the end of the summer. But then the small part that's left over says to go for it, that I've always wanted to have the experience of working at OFI, and that I could make good money, which in the long run would get rid of a lot of stress in my life. So I don't know. I don't know yet what I'm going to do. The point is that I got rehired, and I have a choice to make. A very emotionally invested choice.
But it doesn't really help that OFI is absolutely wonderful and gorgeous:
(Front view)
(Interior)
(More interior)
(Dining Room)
Saturday:
Commence fantastic portion of weekend - first full day spent in Olympia. I ended up meeting up with my aunt the evening before at around 7pm, and we went to dinner at this restaurant by the water in Tacoma that was so delicious I think my taste buds had an
You won't regret it. I promise. Anyway, Saturday was just a really good day, and I was able to get away from all of the little pesky things I am stressed about. I love my family. Oh! And it snowed that night. Here's a picture of my aunt's street at about 1am (Sunday morning):
Sunday:
Commence stressful portion of weekend - I spent basically the entire afternoon sitting and either reading for my Japanese history class, or working on this pesky application that I will not talk about what for until much, much later on. Needless to say, neither of those things were particularly easy. For my Japanese history class, I'm supposed to have by next Thursday my topic picked out for my 12-15 page research paper due at the end of the term, and as of right now I am still having issues with what to pick. There are just so many options! I think what I'm leaning the most towards the most though is a focus on the blind peoples of 17th century Tokugawa Japan, and the groups they formed, and the ways in which they went against greater powers, like the government. Hmm...sound good? I don't really know yet. As for the application, it's a supplement consisting of three questions that one would think would be easy. Not so much. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the college-related questions that ask you about yourself are always the hardest to answer, because you want to be thorough, truthful, and portray yourself in a positive light, but you also don't want to come off as having a big head. It's kind of a Catch-22 if you ask me. Anyway, I managed to finish the first two questions (after two freaking hours), but I'm still working on the third. Here's what it is:
3. Identify and describe a personal habit or idiosyncrasy - of any nature - that helps define you.
Well fuck if I know. I mean, I have a tendency to gnaw at my right thumbnail, does that count? Could that define me as a person? ...don't answer that. But seriously, how do I answer something like that? I really don't have any special habits that set me apart from the masses. I eat normally, I sleep just about as much as the average college student, and I don't do any weird rituals or anything before classes. I asked a few people about this question today and most of them told me pretty much the same thing - that I should write about how loyal I am, or passionate, or determined, or caring, etc etc etc. And I mean those are all good things, but I feel like those are the things everyone else is going to write about too, and I would like to maintain some sort of individuality throughout this process. Maybe I'll write something about my musicality; I was kind of toying with that idea earlier, like writing about how music/singing shapes my life, and how I use it as a stress reliever and to help me study, and how I associate specific songs with specific memories, regardless of whether or not the lyrics are appropriate for said memory. I don't know. I'll let you know when I get that question down though.
In the evening, it was finally time to leave Olympia and go back up to Seattle. Naturally, I decided to take the train. Normally I have no issue with trains, I love trains, I worship trains, (okay not really, just dramatic effect here), but this particular train that I had to deal with that night, was awful. First, it was over two hours late which in itself stressed me out. Granted, that was in part due to the weather since it has been snowing like crazy here in western Washington for the past couple days, but still. There were other factors involved, like the train just generally not being on time. Once I got on, after sitting in the station with my poor aunt who so graciously waited with me for two hours, it was pretty smooth sailing to Seattle. We got in at around 10:45pm (we were supposed to get in at 8:45pm), and it had finally stopped snowing in the city. Said snow however, did not thaw out. No, who would have thought that after it snows and then drops down below freezing, snow turns to ice? Wowza! So what did I do as I was getting off the train, why I took one step onto the little step that's connected to the car to "help" you get down, slipped, and completely biffed it, with bags and all. (And mind you I had a small suitcase, a purse, and a heavy backpack on my back with all my schoolwork). I fell straight forward and luckily stuck my hands out to avoid hitting my head on the concrete, but sadly slammed my poor knee caps right into it instead, thus forcing them to take the full impact. It HURT SO BAD (the right more so than the left). But as I was in the middle of a train station I told myself I would buck up and not start sobbing in front of hundreds of people who were apparently already staring. Luckily there was no breaking of bones involved in this fall, but now I do indeed have three or four very large red goose-egg looking things on my knees and it hurts to both bend them or keep them entirely straight, and I can't really walk correctly at the moment. So that's fun. I think I will meander (and/or hobble) up to the ER in the near future to have an actual doctor look at them, because those bumps are starting to freak me out. And I'm still in pain, which is never a good sign. Sigh...I really really do not like hospitals, they give me the willies. Anyway, yeah Sunday was kind of a stressful day. Homework, applications, transportation failures, and injuries. Dang, I really think Sunday should have been my Friday the 13th...maybe now I should always fear Sunday the 15th. Ha.
Well, if you read all of this, you really are a kind and dedicated soul. Believe me, I will have much more to write about in the near future that should be somewhat interesting, so get ready. For now, I am going to leave you with this very long entry that I hope you enjoyed, or at least used to help procrastinate on homework or whatever, because Lord knows that's what I would do.
~Erin
P.S. Here's a picture I took from the Seattle University skybridge on Sunday night, after I got back. I went out with some friends for a midnight walk...er, hobble in my case...in the snow. It was absolutely beautiful.
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