The Magic Number

You know you move around alot when someone hears you're planning to stay somewhere for 7 months, and they say "WOW! Thats a long time!"

Norman and I have been living in Kelowna for almost 4 months. And I have discovered: the magic amount of time for living in a certain area is 3 months.

In the first month, you're just getting your bearings. Figuring out where the essentials are. What the best eateries are. Where to go see movies where the popcorn is fresh and not stale. (In case you don't know, popcorn is MY FAVORITE. And movies are EVEN MORE MY FAVORITE.) That sometimes, the chickens escape from their coop down the road and come chill in the orchard where you like to do yoga in the morning. 

Here's a photo from the top of a magical hike!

In the second month, you get to discover the extra little surprises - that every morning, there's a wind just after sunrise that makes all the fall colors shimmer like something out of a fairy tale. Or that there's a COOL little board game place where the owner can't organize to save his life, but he knows everything there is to know about all the thosuands of games in his shop. That there is a candy shop that carries every flavor of nerds.

In the third month, you get to benefit from your knowledge. Spend every day enjoying the magical little parks you've found, traipsing through the shortcuts you're sure no one else has figured out, and visiting your favorite breakfast place and chatting with the owner.

Then comes month four. The shininess of the place has worn off, replaced with a fatigue that has less to do with sleep, and more to do with needing a change. You're sick of that stupid wind. And the candy shop is always out of blue and orange nerds. The movie theater is too crowded sometimes. You're sick of the parks you've visited a thousand times, and don't have the energy to find any more. 

I go on a walk with Jewels and Lana every morning, and I walk by these homes of people who have lived there for long enough for their homes to have stone signs out front, proclaiming the name of the family that lives there. And I wonder what it's like to "put down roots". I picture these families as giant, sturdy, twisted oaks - strong, and deeply rooted to the ground. I wasn't built for "putting down roots".

I'm a tumbleweed. This is me:

The Count

Here's the current count:

Days it has snowed so far: 2
Times I have cried because I was cold: 1
Types of warm beverages purchased: 5 (4 kinds of herbal tea and hot chocolate)
Percent of leaves that have fallen off their mother tree: 65

Level of happiness: 5. Of 6. Higher than it's been in a long time.

Life is good. I have figured things out. I feel healthier than I have in a very looooong time.

Things I have realized change about my needs in winter:
1) I need to cry. On a regular basis. Just because

2) Carbs. I need them. Eggos are amazing. So are homemade baked goods.

3) Sleep. In the summertime, I need very little sleep. When light is scarce and the temperature lowers, I have my own version of hibernation. I just eat a whole bunch of food and sleep for about 12 hours. I function optimally when running on 9 hours of sleep. I function on a basic level at 7. Below that and you are looking for angry, frustrated, emotional, or in any other way unpleasant.

4) Hobbies. Winter forces me inside, so I remember that I play the accordion, and that I like to sew and write. And bake.

SO. This begs the question: What, if anything, does a change in the seasons mean for you? What random needs do you get as the days shorten (or lengthen)?

date of the up variety

So. Let me just tell you about my ridiculous life.

Did I tell you I almost got run over by a deer? Yeah. Almost impaled by a buck. It came galloping towards me as I nonchalantly strolled out of my apartment, and was going SO FAST that it tripped, fell, SKIDDED, and then got up and kept running. awesome. After the deer almost killed me, 2 guys from my ward came running by and it turns out they had terrified it into running. Awesome.

Scampering deer not do it for you? How about a capstone course SO INTENSE it makes me people cry? Yup. that's my major. The professor looks for your weaknesses, your buttons if you will, and he presses them repeatedly until you can't take it. And yet you're supposed to. Awesome. Every thursday for the rest of the academic year, people.

Or how about the fact that my job is to represent mormons as a whole? When you click on "chat with us" on mormon.org, you get me. At least on the shifts that I work. So when people decide they want to ask any question to a mormon, they ask me. Which is excellent.

And try this on for size: 4 of my best friends got married. Which means that consistent nighttime hangouts are pretty much gone. Who's a loser from 7-whenever I go to sleep? Oh that's me. Yup. The redhead in the corner.

Basically, here's the deal: all the chance happenings, that are supposed to be rare and unplanned, happen to me. It's fine.

In other news, life is pretty good. Provo is prematurely turning cold, which is fine, except that I HATE the winter. And I haven't yet budgeted for boots. FOr the coldness. I have budgeted for a blender though, which means it's smoothie for breakfast time everyone!. Yeeee haw!

Yeah. Don't know what that was about. It's fine.

It has finally hit....

The winter slump. I swear, there is something about the cold that takes away my appetite, sucks all my energy and makes my emotions rise close to the surface. All I can think about is going home and crawling back into bed and disappearing. which wouldn't be such a bad think if I didn't have a test to take on subsaharan africa..... but all is well. Basically I am feeling desperate for rest, but I spend most of my free time doing just that. Maybe it's a mild form of hibernation.

This weekend was really busy; friday night I got picked up from work and we went straight to a concert. It was actually pretty funny; I had to change my clothes in the bathroom at the MTC because there is NO WAY I'm going out in sister missionary clothes. On my way out the door after changing from a mid-calf length skirt and cardigan to leggings and a hip scarf, one of my elders saw me. He was like "SEESTER, what are you wearing?!" I was like "go plan. Why are you out of the classroom?" So it was a moment of realization for the both of us; he saw that I have a life outside of work, and I saw that when I'm not there, he doesn't do what he's supposed to.

Saturday I slept in, which was much needed, and then headed off to work. One of the other teachers got a concussion, so I took his class for part of the evening. Then, my sister picked me up from work with her husband and we went out to dinner at the cheesecake factory - my treat - for her birthday. It was really delicious! I seriously could eat there every day.

So now, here I am on the bottom floor of the library, exhausted for no reason and unable to find the energy to continue studying for my africa exam. I just want to crawl into a humid, heated hole and sleep for the rest of winter.