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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

life is certainly throwing me curveballs.

i enjoyed a very lovely spring full of travel and adventure. i saw family and friends. i spent a lot of time outside. i even made it to my first weekend music festival in joshua tree.

i'd be lying, though, if i said that life has been peachy keen.

at the end of may, a tragic accident ended the life of my coworker, roommate and friend, heather. this isn't the first time i've tragically lost a friend, but it still hit me hard. she was struck by a truck while jogging and killed instantly. the accident happened two days before the end of the high trails season. i only had a few days to pull myself together before traveling up the coast to start my summer job at the hidden villa summer camp. i still don't quite know how i eventually packed my things up in storage in big bear, loaded up my car and drove up the coast.

the coast was beautiful. i travelled with my friend victoria, and we spent a couple days finding the perfect beaches nestled away from civilization to camp and begin the healing process.

after those days, though, i found myself in an entirely different world at hidden villa with curveballs being thrown in every direction.

at high trails, i've become so accustomed to the high desert with it's dry foliage and lack of green. hidden villa is a lush farm (still dry, but not a desert) where i can't escape the sounds of chickens, pigs, goats, sheep and cows that surround the house i share with dozen other camp staff and farm interns. town is only a 10 minute drive away. my job as the food service manager is much more demanding than i thought. once i finally thought i had a handle on everything, i broke my toe and found out one of my kitchen staff had to be let go from background check issues.

i spent the first month at hidden villa thinking i would give up, pack up my car and head home. dealing with the emotional roller coaster of grieving without a reliable support network, starting a new job i struggle to find joy in and not doing a great job of taking care of myself has taken a toll. i decided to stick with it, though, and i'm glad i have. although i'd like to stop dodging curveballs life has thrown at me lately, i'm slowly letting the beauty of this place and the people i'm surrounded with fill my heart.

i've always prided myself on being a positive person, but somewhere in the past month, i've lost my positivity mojo. i'm seeing it come back in small doses, though. i feel it when i laughed for ten minutes straight about nothing at all. i feel it when i visited the farm of a close friend and saw the joy she lives in every day. i feel it when i saw fireworks on the 4th of july and laughed so much that the couple in front of me turned around to smile.

i'm looking forward to the days when my heart feels stronger and my self-confidence returns. when i feel content and happy again. when i can accept that everything in life happens for a reason. until then...i'm going to keep dodging the curveballs.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

time for another transition.

holy moly! it's been a while since i've written here. let me try to sum things up...

contra dancing: i went to two weekend festivals - one in pasadena and one at mt. baldy. i enjoyed seeing friends i met last year and getting to know them better. here's the group! fun times.

parents: my parents came to visit for my spring break. we went on a bunch of fun adventures...sunset in big bear, huntington library and botanical gardens in pasadena, joshua tree national park, and hiking around camp.
mt. baldy contra dancing folks!
big bear sunset.
ocotillo in bloom at joshua tree national park.
dead ironwood at joshua tree national park.
catalina island: right after i dropped my parents off at LAX i headed out with some work buddies to catalina island. emily, shannon and i enjoyed 2 lovely days of sun, sand and adventures. we explored town, had a spa day and even went parasailing!

around town! we loved happy hour margaritas.
harbor and old casino at catalina.
catalina island snack time!
pier at catalina.
palm trees along the beach!
beachy beach.
not too shabby of a view.
being sneaky.
bison!
parasailing.
up in the air!

being an LA tourist: at the end of april, my friend, jordan, came to visit from michigan. he made the trip really fun by doing all of the planning himself. he came with a whole list of things to do and i just filled in the cracks of where we could eat and how to get there. highlights included visiting the LAX flightpath museum (crazy folks work there...) where i learned all about the history of flight in southern california, watching a puffin launch a stream of poo into the water, fighting with all of the small children at the aquarium of the pacific to pet the sharks, serendipitously running into some fellow high trails folks out to dinner in town, taking the aerial tramway up to mt. san jacinto state park (very cool!!), doing the quick and dirty drive-through of joshua tree national park, and having front and center seats for the tonight show with jay leno.
a blue heron!
sea lions on the harbor tour in long beach.

it was int'l children's day at the aquarium.
that meant madness and lots of small children. everywhere.


at the top of the tram.
chollah garden in bloom at j tree.
chollah blossoms!
at the nbc headquarters for the taping!

life now: i'm 2 weeks shy of finishing the season at high trails. along with making sure all the food is eaten in the kitchen, i'm getting ready to move up to the bay area to be the kitchen manager of the hidden villa summer camp. i'm working with 2 other high trails folks in the kitchen who also happen to be the two new cooks at high trails in the fall. i'm trying not to be stressed with all of the transition time, so i decided to get away for the weekend and spend time at my friend karis' in ventura.

i'll write more about my thoughts of the school year at high trails but wanted to get this out with some updated photos. enjoy!

Monday, February 13, 2012

where is winter?

i am down the mountain today and while the sun isn't shining, it feels very far from winter. january came and went without a snowflake from the sky. with february half over and only a few chilly days, i fear i may experience a winter with the least amount of snow in my life!

we had a nice smattering of snow this weekend...and a tiny bit this week, but that's been it.

january was uneventful. work was busier and more stressful than i anticipated, i got a gnarly sinus infection, and finally submitted an application to my dream summer job cooking for a summer camp on an organic farm south of san francisco.

highlights from the mountains include driving a giant blue diesel truck filled with nearly $1000 worth of food, being slightly impulsive with some of my social plans, and finding a pair of black cowboy boots for $7 at the thrift store.

we have a break coming up soon which i hope to be able to do a lot of contra dancing and catch up on this fast paced life. although i came to the mountains to slow down life a notch, this year keep flying by at warp speed.

in the meantime, enjoy some photos...