Hips wide, organs spread out.

Those are the (paraphrased) wise words of my mother, said in response to the brief time in my life where I wanted to be a truck driver. After putting in nearly 50 hours in the car these past few weeks, I can easily see how this can happen. My lower half feels pretty flabby, to say the least. And I feel like I'm going to develop some pretty serious varicose veins at any second. Cute, huh? Yeah. Needless to say, I'm VERY glad to be back on solid ground once again, and don't have any long road trips planned for the near future.

To try and sum up these past few weeks might take me awhile. I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I landed in Columbus on August 7th, after spending 2 months away at camp. I got home on a Sunday (technically Monday morning at 2am), and went right to work at Baires Deli, a local Argentinian restaurant at 11am that same day. (I hope to start blogging about my experiences there...it's been a pretty great place so far and I already have stories to share). I spent that next week learning how to be a waitress, with a lot of help from my boss, Marcela, Jeff, another cook, and Kelly, who does a variety of things around the restaurant. Thankfully I didn't have too many slip ups, and all of the customers were very patient with me. I then left for a 5 day vacation to North Carolina with my mom, and had a great time bummin' around the mountains with her. We haven't gotten to do a "girls only" trip for a few years, and it was nice to watch movies, talk about life, and generally just relax. I was only home for 3 days before I left for a 2 week trip down South, which I like to call the " 'Sip Trip." After almost 4 months of not seeing Daniel, you could say we were both REALLY ready to spend time with one another again. I also loved spending time with my former roombug, Marie. It's SO good to be with a kindred spirit and laugh and talk like I never even left. (Pictures to come regarding the special house warming gift I made for her new apartment).

I went on many adventures during my 2 weeks, and at ate a few places that I'd never been to before, such as Basil's and Cherokee Inn. YUM. You would think that after 4 years of living in the chunkiest state in the union that I'd appreciate some good ol' fashioned fried food, but I just really don't, so Cherokee Inn just wasn't my style. But I really appreciated the small town feel the restaurant had and how the owner takes orders and mingles with the guests. I think my brother would REALLY enjoy such a place.

When it was all said and done, I stayed at 6 different houses during my stay, and even slept on a couch one night. This morning I left Louisville at the early hour of 5:30am, after spending the night with a lovely friend, and FINALLY completed my journey, getting home a little after 10am. I can't tell you how good it felt to turn into my driveway. You know what else is going to feel good? Sleeping in my OWN bed tonight. Not that I didn't appreciate the kindness of my loved ones in MS for putting up with me for several days on end, but there's just something about your own sheets, the smell of your room, and your own lamp on your night stand. I can't explain it properly, but I think you know what I mean.

Now that I'm home and have access to the internet more consistently, I vow to update this blog as much as possible with my creative endeavors, in both the cooking and crafting arenas, "Things That Waitressing Is Teaching Me", what returning home after 4 years away feels like, thoughts on my future (as God brings them before me), and a variety of other fun things. One of which may be a video of me singing an original song, inspired by all of the songs about clubbin' that seem to be floating around these days (i.e. Katy Perry's "Friday Night" and pretty much anything written by Ke$sha). There are similar themes throughout these tunes, and I had TONS of time to think about lyrics and song ideas on my drive home. Stay tuned. :)

In closing, here are just a few of my small "goals" that I hope to accomplish during this season of my life, as I try to find peace and joy living with my parents and returning to a town that I often make fun of. Goals are as follows (and will probably change frequently):

-Remember to take my reusable shopping bags with me to the store. I ALWAYS forget, which led to a very awkward and frustrating experience at Save A Lot the other day.

- Store leftovers in glass containers instead of tupperware. We've had ours before the "BPA free" days, so I'm sure they're teeming with germs and other unhealthy things.

-Finish my MANY crafty projects. This will be done. I'm already speaking it.

-Repurpose/build my own craft table for my room. This will de-clutter my tiny space GREATLY, plus give me an area to learn to sew.

-Clean our attic. With our without my parents' permission...we've got a buttload of junk of there. They'll thank me later.

-Try a new recipe a week. My mom will learn to appreciate my style of healthy cooking someday...

-Blog. Duh. Hopefully make my posts more focused and interesting and not just write 50 posts about the same thing.

And maybe the most urgent...

-Finish applying for Teach for America. It's been quite the process thus far, and from what I hear, this is only the tip of the iceberg. It's quite scary to trust that God will put me in the right place for the next 2 years, but I'm learning. He's working on my heart daily.

This is all for now. With how long my posts are, another one of my goals should be to finish writing a play I've started. We'll see. For now, have a lovely evening, and I hope you return to read more soon.

Rosie, my travel companion.