Happy trails to me!

Yesterday I went hiking for the first time since I hiked the Camino de Santiago two years ago. It was Fun Times.

The hike was about eight miles long and took around five hours to hike, so it was shorter than the shortest hike I did on the Camino. But it felt just right.

Hiking brought back many memories from my adventures on the Camino de Santiago two years ago. And as I was enjoying the hike and the scenery, I began to ask myself if I would ever consider hiking the Camino de Santiago again. Well, the influence of the exhilirating fresh air, the chorus of birds, and the surrounding beauty, combined forces to gently persuade me that, just maybe, I would.

But while I mentally formulated plans for my next hike through the North of Spain, I began to grow tired. As I struggled uphill, my legs began to burn and my lungs cried out for more oxygen. I started feeling that telltale rub that indicates a burgeoning blister.

And I changed my mind.

I remembered why it took me two years to get around to hiking again.

The fact that I started out on the hike yesterday feeling healthy and whole did a lot for my enjoyment of the hike. This happy circumstance was only true for the first two days of my eleven-day hike along the Camino de Santiago. On the subsequent days, I mostly just felt tired and in pain.

I'm not saying that I regret going - quite the contrary! I enjoyed the time that I spent with my fellow peregrinos, and it was a one-of-a-kind experience. We saw some amazing scenery and a side of Spain that I had not seen before. Not to mention the fact that it was rewarding to see what I was capable of.

That said, I think in the future I will most likely stick to one-day hikes. I greatly appreciated the fact that I was not completely exhausted by the end of the day and I was able to come home, shower, and sleep in my own bed. I definitely plan to hike more this summer - but not necessarily for eleven days at a time.

Highlights (not the magazine)

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, blah blah blah, I’ll try to do better, blah blah blah. Well, now that that’s been said, let me catch you up. Life in Jersey has been eventful and uneventful all at once. Although it has its ups and downs, overall, I am definitely enjoying it. Most of all I am enjoying paying off my debts. Due to low expenses and good pay, I have been able to put a substantial amount of money towards this cause every week. It excites me to think that at this rate, it should only take me about 35 years to become debt-free, instead of the 70 years I’d been planning on! Seriously, though, I’ve discovered that student debt can be an extremely intimidating and overwhelming animal. Especially if one spends one’s college years gallivanting around Europe… But I don’t regret a minute of it. My experience was worth the crushing weight pushing down upon my chest, forcing me down into the depths of the ocean. I can hold my breath for a long time.

Exaggerated metaphors aside, I really don’t regret any of it. But I digress. Umm..I think I was trying to catch you up on my life in NJ? Ah, yes. I’ll give you the highlights:

My weeks fly by out here. I am up at 6:30 every morning* and I only take enough time to throw on some clothes and put my contacts in before starting work. Although I typically have a couple of hours free after the kids are off to school, my day doesn’t end until 7:30 at night. Recently I have been so busy with work that I haven’t had much time to myself in the morning. I enjoy my job, and this, coupled with the quantity of hours I’ve been working, results in weeks that fly by. I take it easy on the weekends, though, so it sometimes seems like my weekends are as long as my workweek. Not bad, right? It may not be the case, but if that’s what it feels like, that’s what counts, right? Of course right!**

Ok, so, that wasn’t really a highlight. It was more like a description of my everyday life. So? What are you gonna do about it? I’m 26 years old, nobody tells me what to do. WHAT?!?

Highlights. For real this time. I got a 4-day weekend because of Thanksgiving this year. Woot woot. Last year I worked on Thanksgiving, and the last time I had 4 days off in a row was before I got a job after coming back from Spain. So this was definitely a treat. I went over to Christin’s house Wednesday night, then on Thursday she and I went with Brian (her fiancé) to Connecticut to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. We did some shopping and chillaxing on Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday, our church didn’t have a service. Instead, we had a community outreach which we called “Gas Buy Down, Prayer Fuel Up.” The church bought eleventy-billion*** gallons of gas, then sold it to the public for 99 cents/gallon. We also washed people's windshields and tires, gave out coffee, cider, juice, water, and donuts, and prayed with people who had any prayer requests. It was very cool. I must say, though, while it was an act of service we were doing for the entire community and everyone was welcome, there was a part of me that was a bit indignant at the Hummers that rolled through. Oops! Forgot to mention something. Saturday my boss called me and asked if I wanted to go to the ballet with them - they had an extra ticket! Of course I said I’d love to. After a delicious dinner in Little Italy, we sat in the 8th row at the New York City Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. It was Very Fun Times.

Those are the main highlights. The one that is just beginning is my Christmas vacation. I started today. Right now I am sitting in Newark (evidently pronounce “Noork”…) airport waiting to be let on a plane that was supposed to depart an hour ago : ( It’s not all bad, though. I’m posting a blog! Tonight (or at this point, maybe early tomorrow morning) when I arrive in Seattle, my parents and Jess will pick me up at the airport and we will head to Port Townsend where we’ll meet up with the rest of my family at the condo we’ll be staying at for the week. Yay! I’m so excited! Then I’ll go back to Centralia with them for a few days before I return to NJ on New Years Day. I think we’re going to board soon, though, so I’m packing up the old lappy until next time. Good night, San Francisco. You stay classy.


*By this I mean that I should be up by 6:30 every morning - my alarm starts going off at 6:15 but sometimes it is as late as 6:50 when I finally drag myself out of bed. Some things never change.

**10 points to the first person who names the movie I’m referencing. 20 points to the person who names the character.

***This number is approximate.

The Bi-monthly Update

Hey folks. I'm back. Yes, I know, it has been nearly 2 months since my last post. I was going to apologize, but then I glanced at my last 5 posts and took note that there is nary a comment. So I owe you nothing. Ha. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

But out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to post anyway. My last post was just one week prior to moving back down to C-town. I moved in with Julianna for a month, which was Fun Times. However, she does not have wireless internet (gasp!), so I was forced to utilize a dinosaur that lives in her house which she passes off as a computer. Add sporadic connectivity to the above-mentioned dinosaur, and you have a recipe for blog famine.

By mid-July, Julianna needed the extra bedroom back, so I moved to a cozy nook underneath an overpass. Well, that was the plan, anyway. But then I found out that my dear friend Hannah was moving into a little 2-bedroom house and she didn't have a roommate. So I moved in with her. This has also been Fun Times. Although we don't see each other nearly enough due to our busy schedules, it's fun to have her as a roommate. However, we do not have internet access (double gasp!), so I rarely even check my email, let alone blog.

So those are my excuses for not blogging, what are your excuses for not commenting?

Right now, I am neither at Julianna's house, nor at Hannah's house, nor at that lovely spot under the overpass. I am in North Jersey (not to be confused with South Jersey - two different worlds, people).

I got here yesterday and I'll be here for a couple of weeks working as a nanny/household manager while the current one is on a trip to Europe. If everything goes well (and I believe it will), I will be moving back here in late October/early November.

So that's basically what has been going on in my life for the last couple of months. I'll probably be blogging more over the next couple of weeks.

*Hint* If you want to hear more from me - feedback helps :)