the whilrwind that was september

Well, September, you are just about gone! Real life is turning out to be just as chaotic (in a much, much different way) than my life this summer. I suppose that's just how it goes, right? In any case, lots has been happening around here. But first, I will start with the one thing that hasn't been happening lately: my car. No word from anyone, although JP did think he spotted it on his way home from work the other day and stealthily followed it for a few blocks...alas it wasn't my car, just one of the thousands that look exactly like mine minus the good old MN rust and the snarky bumpersticker. I've let it go for the most part, and the insurance company will let it go as well this Thursday if it hasn't been found by then. Finding another vehicle for me should be interesting, and I am sure picture worthy as well, so don't think for a minute that I would leave you all out of the fun when the time comes.

What else...I passed my CNA recertification exam with flying colors!

Well, since it is just a pass/fail thing, I am left only to assume that the colors were flying, but either way I am done with the anxiety that comes with preparing for a practical exam with just youtube and some hastily scratched notecards. PHEW. The elise-goes-to-PA-school planets are finally starting to align and a job at a hospital is hopefully soon to come! Passing this exam of course just means that it is time to study for the next exam(s), which seem to be never ending. Luckily I am doing alright in my classes, and with no job for the moment I can use this time to start studying for the GRE. The fun just never ends when you are a perpetual student!

In other news, although you already know that I survived Hwy 50 in Nevada, otherwise known as The Loneliest Road in America, this summer, I now have Nevada's gift to me on my refrigerator to prove it:

and on my lapel (if I had one):

As part of the tourism schtick for Hwy 50, you can get a passport when you enter the sate and get a stamp for each of the towns along the route.

Since there was nothing else to do while in that state other than bike forever, I got my passport filled up and after moving and unpacking I found it at the bottom of my camelbak and mailed it in for a present from the state of Nevada. Somehow it redeems the state just a little bit, and it reminds me how proud I was of all of us for making it through such a challenging place in one piece.

Lastly, I have gotten in a bunch of family time lately. A few weekends ago I flew to Ohio for my cousin's wedding and had a great time catching up with everyone and getting to see my parents again for a few days! Weddings are my favorite, and growing up in an Irish Catholic family we went to four or five every summer. I got to see my cousins all the time! It's slowed down a lot since then, and the last wedding on that side of the family was over two years ago. Needless to say, it was a beautiful celebration and a much needed mini reunion of sorts to boot! I also got to see some cousins this past weekend in Boulder for Sep's third birthday! Molly and Phil and their little brood were in town from Chicago and we celebrated Sep's birthday with a picnic and a hike that for some included a bear sighting!

Here we are post-hike, but somehow without catching a glimpse of the bear that we apparently hiked right past..

So that's the compacted update for the past few weeks of settling back in. I am ready for fall to be here, and am getting in the mood for baking pumpkin bread and knitting some christmas presents. I'm plotting out my Halloween costume already, and am really excited about it! Oh, it is going to be great. I'll put up some pictures of the preliminary supplies and crafting soon so you can get in on the excitement as well.

surprise!

Well, I like surprises. I like gifts that I am not expecting, seeing people randomly that I haven't seen in a while, or class getting canceled out of the blue. Unfortunately, my most recent surprise was a bad surprise, and one that I have experienced once already. After wheeling my bike out the front door yesterday morning I looked up to an empty street. Well, it wasn't quite empty, empty. In fact it was quite full except for an elise's-car-shaped spot right at the end of the curb. My car was stolen! Yanked! Snatched! Borrowed indefinitely! Sad day. Some of you might remember back in 2003 when the same thing happened to my trusty old Buick Century that I inherited from my grandmother. This was back in the days of my culinary career and among the more frustrating things to be stolen with the car were my knives and some irreplaceable photos and letters. It was an irritating ordeal, and even though the car was finally recovered everything in it was wrecked when the thief decided to christen the by then ripped up upholstery with urine and beer and who knows what else. In the middle of a hot August. With all the windows shut for days. It was pretty gross. This time around I knew what to do and after a brief moment of brow furrowing and disappointment in humanity, I called the police to file a report, my insurance to file a claim and my sister for some indignant outrage. I'm not really sure why I haven't been more upset about the whole thing. Maybe it's because this summer I had so few possessions, and even those I did have weren't too relevant when I was reduced to the basic needs of simply eating and sleeping through ridiculous exhaustion. Maybe it's because I didn't have many things in my car that aren't replaceable, and I am so glad that was the case. I mostly just feel weirded out picturing other people in my car, probably drinking in it, hopefully not peeing in it, and generally being in my space. It's a disconcerting feeling. I suppose I will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.

home again, home again

I am back in Denver, back to the ol' real life again! It's been chaotic learning how to transition out of b&b mode and back into other things, odd to be able to get so much sleep and pick out what clothes I am going to wear that aren't the same clothes I wore the day before! Everything kind of happened at once when I got back. I missed the first week of school while I was in San Francisco, so I jumped into that pretty behind and confused. I forgot how much ground can be covered in a few lectures! I took some time this weekend to slowly catch back up and am starting to feel confident that I won't entirely bomb my exam tomorrow. I'm working on finding work again, trying to get my foot in the door at one of the hospitals in the area. In the meantime I've been babysitting for a few of the families I used to help out, and it's been nice to be back in the baby section of life again. All the kids grew so much while I was gone!

School stresses aside, things have been really busy but great! JP and I moved in together, which is a big step for both of us, and it's been fun! Well, the packing/moving/cleaning/scouring/driving all over portion wasn't fun, but that is all over and we now have so much space we can barely fill it up! I don't have many belongings with me in Colorado, as you might remember I moved here with just a car load of things last fall, and both JP and I were living in studios that didn't exactly leave much room for extraneous possessions. We are now in a 2 bedroom house and are gradually finding chairs to sit on (previous count = 1 computer chair from JP's desk), a table to eat at, and other necessities at the many thrift stores in the metro area. We've even got a yard now, which Yin is beyond excited about. She spends most of the day moving from sun patch to sun patch, just lounging about taking in the scenery. It's a pretty hard life.

One of the first things to unpack was my Grandma's owl that always hung in her kitchen and now hangs in mine.

My bike arrived shortly after I did, a little worse for the wear, but mostly fine.

Transition-wise, I think I am doing alright. I miss everyone, and am constantly reminded of the trip everyday, but I think it was the exact right amount of time and I was ready for the end when it came. We e-mail each other multiple times a day, are busy uploading pictures to facebook and are planning the reunions to come. It should be good.