OA Command: Day 1

Lost droms, forgotten food, paddles stolen by rivers, road closures, van miscommunications... An eventful day in Command like always.

(On a trip forgetting *all* their perishables)
Elan: "Didn't their packs feel a little light?"
Rick: "Didn't their brains feel light?"

Paul: "I did JW underscore Wheezy hashtag hashtag!"

Elan: "*repeating* Is Guatemalan food Japanese?"

Paul: "There was a bug, or a small dragon..."

*On ordering Chipotle in the spreadsheet*
Rory: "We forgot beans!"
Paul: "No, you have to put it in the right order!"
Erica: "But rice comes before protein!"

Chris: "Who spelled 'no' wrong?!"

Erica (slightly hysterically): "Guys life is wonderful! 
Everyone: "..."
Erica: "We have an extension cord!"

Safeeyah: "I got this. Please create a friend... How do you create friends?"

Central desk: "They checked again and they have less water than they thought."
Caroline: "Good, because they should have been drinking it for the past four hours."

Van: "So the parachute cord... Is it like shoelaces?"

Van: "Is it in a brown box?"
Erica: "No, it's in a small red triangular container."
Van: "No, we get that. But is it in a brown box? Because we got a turkey and a brown box." (This is the huge cardboard box with everything that we gave the vans in it.)

Erica: "The fuel pump, is it small, medium, or large?"
Rick: "No."

-dies-

Back to Command!

I've been so amazingly bad at updating my blog this summer... Wow. Guess life just got a little crazy and busier than I expected.

Well, since my last post, LA was amazing and I had tons of fun exploring and meeting up with SoCal friends. Ate tons of food and generally had a great time.

The rest of the internship went well too. Got more interesting data, got to go to beamtime (experiments weren't working too well though), grew closer with my lab group. I was really blessed to be in the environment I was in. High expectations but still lots of camaraderie - I feel like this upcoming year is going to be pretty crazy in terms of independent work. And classes are going to be insane... Feeling a lot of anxiety honestly, so prayers for that would be great...

Speaking of this upcoming year though, my room is amazing. It's absolutely huge and I don't even know what to do with most of the space. It's going to be such a blast rooming with Michelle, Christie, Kellyn, and Michelle. =] I'm crazily excited. I preliminarily moved in (OA storage, stuff at Elizabeth's, and the stuff I brought from Cali - mainly clothes) but this is what it looks like now!

Highlight of Command today:
"Hey Rick, why did you want the backpacks sorted by color again?"
"I was talking about internal and external frames. I don't really care about color."
"Ohhhhhh... That makes a lot more sense."

God's Love and Care

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:13-14

Had an eventful (and dusty) start to the LA trip, with a huge reminder of God's care for us. I can't even express how amazingly blessed and thankful I am. God is good, and He looks after his children. All the time God is good.

But oh so true...

It's so beautiful!

The Summer Theme: Red

Red perylene bisimides, and a red shirt for the poster session today! Small reminder of a reason I didn't end up going into business: not a big fan of pencil skirts and heels. They're only fun for Mock Trial. =] Leanne and I matched though! It was pretty amusing - she was pretty much the average of PJ and me, in terms of color and attire (and also height and race). But it was a pretty chill time, and infinitely less stressful than presenting at facilities meeting. I had fun explaining what I had done to people who dropped by. The cookies and seven layer bars helped too!

It's a bummer to think that most everyone will be gone after this week though... At least Albert's still in the area, and most of the Crossroads people aren't going anywhere. Still going to miss those who leave though...

Well, at least I'll have some more time to do research. =]

Everything seems so muddled right now. I'm happy, but should I be? Happiness, yes, but where is the joy?

Had my facilities meeting presentation yesterday. People seem to think I did well, which surprises me, but I'll take it. =]

Edit: This is really weirding me out. For the most part, when people praise me, I thought I've done okay with things. This time, I really thought I did a really poor job. I talked too fast, I didn't give enough background, I didn't present the data well... But I had people tell me I was a really good speaker. Is this just in context of an intern presenting for the first time, or did they actually think I did a good job? And what does that mean if I thought I did poorly?

All the Exercise!

Went bouldering and hiking on Saturday, and played Frisbee/spun my rifle a bit yesterday. I think I fell off the wall a few too many times on Saturday though - my entire body hurts. Especially my shoulder blade muscles. Anyone know any good ways to stretch those?

I've really been so amazingly blessed by the CFC/Crossroads community here. God's put some amazing people in my life, from all directions. They're all so loving and such fun people to be around. It's definitely a change from GrX last year. I felt very much like a little sister there, and I learned so much about relationships. Crossroads has taught me more about how to learn alongside others. To give as well as take.

God is good, and God does good.