Shrimp, family, cows, veggies, friends, cake, chicken, professors, beans, kafka, potatoes, fruit = gumbo.

It's strange. I just feel so happy, in a sad knowing sort of way, that I could cry! My chest, err I'm a Mormon- my bosom, is brimming with a weight, a happy weight! You see, I am back in Buena Vista, VA- the lovely town I went to college in. I missed it so much and it was hard to leave it last year, but I feel like I have grown up so much in this last year in St. George, UT.
This year has been strange. I feel like I have done so much, and yet so little.

I went on my first foreign trip- Europe.
I am officially graduating.
I'm deciding what sort of 1st career path to head in.
I have made a new group of friends in Utah, and they're wonderful.
I've repeated the same romantic sort of mistake I made when I was 18.
My father has undergone a lot of health problems from stroking to practically croaking.
My mom was laid off and and then hired, but looking for more.
My sister came home from Au Pairing in Holland.
My niece Lucy is growing up and starting to talk.
I watched more TV than i would ever like to fully contemplate or figure out.
I hiked some, but not enough.
I ran some, but not enough.
I hated southern Utah, I love southern Utah.
I found out I am severely allergic to Zofran, a anti-nausea medicine that thousands of people get at the hospital and are never allergic too. I got some nasty hives.
I lost 15 pounds.
I became blonde.
I came to love astronomy.
I did not create enough.
I ate too many cookies.

So I am back at college, getting ready to walk this Saturday. It is so strange and surreal being back here. It's like I never left. It's like I was just here last week or I was just gone for the summer. I've talked to and visited with friends and mentors. I've heard stories about people from my past, stories that change my present in a way.
It's weird, I'm only 22, soon to be 23, but I feel like I'm at a place where I can look back and see the different phases of my life so far and evaluate and learn from them.
I wish in my childhood and adolescence I would have known that being mean to people does not make you friends. I wish had focused on learning as opposed to grades alone.
I wish I was more rational and thoughtful when making decisions during my years at SVU.

If wishes were fishes I would have salmon or fish sticks because they're my favorite.

I apologize for this muddy mess of a blog. I have so many thoughts flushing through my mind right now and I haven't organized them properly.

It's just so strange being here and getting some closure. When I first arrived I felt like, "oh no! I miss this place and now I might hate southern Utah because I love VA!" Luckily I have transitioned to a more sane thought process. I loved and love Virginia, but I love southern Utah too. SVU was fun and it made me who I am, but it's done and time to move on. I'm okay with that. I do plan to stay in touch with several people from college, there's no reason I shouldn't. I have so many blessings and I can't wait to explore life and see what happens! Life is hard and long, but it is also so short and wonderful!

Talk about blogumbo!

Laura

PS. I don't know how to pronounce my own name.

Life on Mars?

Well it's like I said, I need to blog about myself.

Life has been great as of late. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was quite sick for a couple weeks following my trip to Europe. I slowly and eventually felt better and better, and I can now happily report that I am about 98% good to go! I got a test on my stomach etc. and the doctor found nothing wrong with me. Apparently I just had some sort of virus and it's gone! Yay!

Here I am at the bottom of Notre Dame in Paris- There are a mondo load of stairs in that mother!
As annoying as the whole illness ordeal was, it has blessed me greatly! While I was ill (and traveling) I felt as though I had been separated from my life, like 2 months of 2008 disappeared. When I came out of my sick-coma I felt afresh and newly motivated to reinstate several good habits that had fallen by the wayside. I guess that's how life works. Sometimes we get so caught up in the nothing that we become stale, stagnant, and overly redundant.
Now I'm not saying that I have magically joined the gym and started working out, or that I haven't been watching my share of TV (see previous blog...), but I have made a few changes. With the re-introduction of a good habit or two, I have since been more grateful and all around chipper! I can only think of one brief cluster of time where I was sad since "the illness" passed (my professor seemed to be telling me I wasn't going to get a good grade, but he later said I would at least get a B so I felt better). That small nugget of Edward Cullen esq. EMO left like the rain in St. George and was soon replaced by the high that comes from flirting with a fresh crush on a tasty man!

One of my 2008 Valentines.
Life is short, life is long.
I have a few friends who are...Hmong.
So maybe I should wrap this up better somehow,
but I don't want to- I'm as lazy as a sow.