This post is long overdue, sorry for the delay. I've been adjusting to working full-time, living away from family, doing new things and meeting new people, while doing my best to keep up with the P90X schedule, get enough sleep and spend quality time with people, including my Heavenly Father. It's been quite challenging.
The two towns I live between remind me of Eugene, my hometown, in a lot of ways. Some of the more "natural" people here have influenced me already. I haven't washed my hair for a week, eat a lot of vegetables, make hummus, grow spouts, and use vinegar to clean instead of common cleaning products containing chemicals. One of my friends from the Campus Crusade group gave a persuasive speech in a class recently about the harm to hair and on the environment from chemicals in shampoo. After hearing some of the information I decided to jump on the bandwagon. It's not as disgusting as it sounds. I still rinse it daily, just don't use shampoo which strips hair of its natural oil. Incorporating the healthy additions to my diet have been pretty fun, make me feel more alive, and help me perform better and recover faster from the P90X workouts. Vinegar works so well as a cleaner, I had no idea! And it's cheap, so that's cool.
The church I attend has a men's Softball team that plays in a league with other local churches. I heard about it a few months ago and thought it sounded like fun, but sadly, it is a men's team and I am not a man. I soon found out that each team is allowed up to two female teammates. For those of you who don't know, I'm not a softball player. I've played a few times in PE class, but rarely was able to hit the ball, couldn't throw very far or slide into base. Pretty much the only part I could do justice was run. That and yell, usually when they were chasing me with the ball. A few weeks ago, the coach of my church team (who I know from the Campus Crusade group) asked if I'd like to join the team. I laughed. He explained that they don't always have enough players show up to the games to make a full team so I'd be a valuable player merely by showing up. I decided to go to practice and give it a try. I enjoyed the two practices I was able to attend. I like the athletic and team sport aspects of it as well as the challenge of it all, and the coach and fellow teammates were most helpful in giving me tips and advice. Our first game was this past week. Beforehand I was pretty nervous, but it felt good, similar to pre-race jitters. I played about half the game since we had a full team plus a few extras show up. I stopped a couple balls in outfield and actually hit the ball when I was up to bat! I have a lot of improvement to make, but it was a good start to the season.
Now for the ranger scare abbreviated story. Last week I went hiking in a state park with a group of girls from the Campus Crusade group. Shortly into our hike a few girls from the group broke a park rule that none of us were aware was a rule. Two rangers showed up out of the blue and harped on the girls for a good half hour, additionally falsely accusing them of some things as well as threatening to enforce an array of penalties, most of which we later found out were not applicable to the misdemeanor. All that to say, it was a sad, disappointing, and disheartening experience. That two grown men in authority would treat a group of young, well-intentioned girls the way they did was somewhat astonishing. Granted, I don't know their personalities, past experience, or all their job responsibility entails. If I did, I might understand more why they responded the way they did.
Later that day, it happened to be Mother's Day, I talked to several of my family members back home and ended up crying when they asked me how I was doing. The confrontation at the park shook me up more than I realized and was the last straw. I'd been keeping a lot of emotions and stress to myself. It was good, although pretty painful, to let it out and begin processing.
On a more positive note, I'm continuing to make connections at church and in the community. It's so nice and refreshing to start to get to know people and see some of them regularly.
For the privacy of the family I work for, I haven't and don't plan to include many details about them. But I will say the baby I care for is in an exciting stage right now. Well, exciting in baby world. She's starting to eat food, stay awake longer, make more vocal sounds, and pay attention to books being read. It's a blessing to be with her, witness so many special moments, along with her daily development.
Thanks for reading. Goodnight.
