Up North Trip-o-rama!!

Have you ever felt like you needed a vacation when you get home from vacation? I am taking a day off tomorrow to get some stuff done around the apartment (Darin has a full day of class to keep him busy).

Our trip was jam-packed full of activities. On Saturday, we drove to the cabin we rented on Spider Lake. The cabin was cozy, comfortable, and about 90+ cement steps away from the actual lake front. Spider Lake is awesome. It's very remote and quiet, surrounded by woods. Saturday night, we drove to Odewa Casino in Petosky, where I lost thirty dollars, mostly on video poker.

Sunday, we spent most of the day exploring downtown Traverse City. The strip on Front Street is pretty standard tourist commerce, but not over the top. We ate delicious middle eastern food for lunch. The afternoon consisted of a drive up the Old Mission peninsula, visiting the lighthouse and stopping at Grand Chateaux Traverse for some wine tasting. We finished the day with pizza (and Oberon, for me) at a local joint right by our cabin.

Labor Day was devoted to Mackinac Island. I loved it! Such a great little vacation spot. I want so badly to stay for a whole weekend and go biking and horsebackriding around the island. We bought a crapton of fudge and did the whole carriage tour deal. They were selling bikes for way cheap! I wish I would have brought extra cash. After we left the island, we found a local family restaurant called Darrow's that had nothing vegetarian, but the homemade bread and coleslaw made it worth it.

Darin and I did our own thing Tuesday morning, stopping at local markets and food stands to acquire all the local fare: dried Traverse City cherries, real maple syrup, honeycrisp apples, North Peak summer ale, homemade all-natural dog treats, etc. We cooked in at the cabin that night and played some friendly family poker (I've come a long way since first learning, but I still lost).

It was most definitely a great trip, making me fall in love with Northern Michigan for the fourth or fifth time now.

Labor Day!

I love Labor Day, almost as much as I love Memorial Day. Darin, his parents, his brother, his brother's girlfriend, his nephew, and I are all traversing to the Traverse City area to celebrate. We're staying on a cabin on Spider Lake (wherever that is) and taking time to explore the area. We're even heading up to Mackinac Island for the day. It'll be my first trip to the island; I'm excited.

The last few weeks, I'm been babysitting one of the kids from day camp. It's been great because she is a fun-loving, creative kid who can pretty much make friends wherever she goes. It's surreal to get paid to have fun with a five-year-old all day. But she had her moments just like any other kid. I like to think of it as "mom practice," should I need that.

I'm excited to start subbing again in the fall. I'm hoping to see some of the same kids from last year. We'll see.

Everyone has been asking me...

...did you get a job for the fall?

No. And honestly, I haven't been looking. Because I want so desperately to be a speech-language pathologist. Should I be looking for jobs just in case? Probably.

I am talented. I am able. I am valuable. These are things I have to remind myself when I get to that place in my head that says, You aren't doing anything. You haven't started a career yet. But here's the thing: I'm happy. I'm excited that I found my true calling. I have great friends and family, many of whom have great things happening to them right now, too. What else can I really ask for?

August

The day camp is over. We had a great run. I'll miss the campers and being able to swim in a nice pool every day. But I'm ready for the school year to start, and to get back to work as a sub.

I was asked to babysit one of the campers for the next three weeks. It's a good gig; four days a week hanging out with a fun, intelligent 5-year-old. She has been at camp all summer, so I've gotten to know her pretty well. Also, mom and grandma said we could take trips to the waterpark and what not, so that should be fun.

This weekend was the deadline for graduate applications for Eastern Michigan's Speech-Language Pathology program. I had all of my paperwork in by last Tuesday. Go me! I'm hoping that the admissions committee in the department can see my potential and give me a shot. I desperately want this.

I've also been doing some spiritual work on myself. I've been seeking ways that I can improve my outlook on life and my relationships to people. It never hurts to put an effort towards self-improvement, and I have been in kind of a rut this last year. I'm ready to get myself back out there again, into the community, doing productive and creative things with my time.

We just finished our fourth week of day camp, which means that this job is halfway done for me. It's been nice to have a full time job for the summer, and the managers at Bob Evans have been kind enough to let me work every other Sunday, to avoid burnout, and letting me pick up extra shifts here and there.

The work setting of the day camp job is interesting. My boss, the camp director, is also a future teacher. He is doing his student teaching in the fall, so it's been great experience for him because he's learning how to manage elementary-aged kids. He was having doubts about the job in the beginning, which was actually a challenge for me because I have a tendency to want to control every situation that I'm a part of. But I decided to step back and just give him only the suggestions that I knew could greatly benefit his experience, while I just do the best job that I can as a counselor.

I'm glad I chose to work at the camp this summer. I'm staying in touch with young people, and I get to enjoy learning about kids in a non-school setting. Plus, it's 40 hours a week, with weekends off, and I get a free lunch and snack!