On The Road

I'm writing this from the desk in my hotel room in Abbotsford on the night before I move into my new home. Shortly after arriving here early this evening (and after heading out early last evening), we went and found the house I'll be moving into. That's when the panic started coming in droves. I'll be okay though.
Our trip, so far, has been good. Quiet, but good. We ended up camping in Golden, BC last night in a campground with a grumpy manager. Our site was barely big enough for our tent and Highway 1 was rising right next to us so we got to hear the semi's downshifting all night long. But it was a place to sleep, and that we did. It was beautiful there too. I have some pics that I'll link up later.
The 5 hours of driving time today seemed to drag on though. It was tough. I didn't want to miss a thing, because it might be a long time before we drive out here all together again. I ended up snoozing, reluctently, for a couple of minuets though.
There are so many thoughts going through my head; some scare me, and some comfort. The ones that scare me are mostly of what is going to happen after my travel mates leave me here on Monday afternoon. What am I going to do? I'm already feeling lost and overwhelmed. I can't even find bus tickets! But I hear this anxiety is normal, so that counts as a comforting thought. It'll pass and I know I'll be okay. Hope that I settle in here quickly though, and find something to find familiarity in. There is a farm here, with cows and a big red barn. Right in the middle of the city. Maybe that will qualify. There are so many people though! I mean, I've travelled out here a couple of times, but travelling here and knowing that you'll be staying here for a couple years is a touch different. Just, please, keep praying for me.

Circa 2007

Two days out from my big move to BC, and I feel like all I am left with is the question, "Where did the last four months of my life go?" Between going to Toronto, Saskatoon, DEMO in Calgary, the West Coast, Edmonton, and State-side; between my roomies being gone; between late evenings at the Robinson's (which passed all too quickly)--when was there time for time to pass by?
I'm feeling somewhat sullen at this point. Tomorrow, my best friend leaves and I am not good at tear retention. Then I leave the next day, and I have to say bye to EVERYONE, while working. Note to self: invest in a lot of waterproof mascara. I mean, have no doubt, I am beyond ecstatic about my upcoming adventures, but the present is more than overwhelming enough to distract me.
Thursday afternoon I leave Linden 9just an hour and a half after I finish my last shift at the coffee shop), and I don't know for sure when I'll be back. I'm hoping Christmas for sure, but I can't say I will be financially set for that at this point.
I did find a house though (thanks to a fleet of prayers), and it seems pretty awesome. I'll have to put pics up here when I can. And my grants and loans and bursaries are all coming in. Everything that needs to be signed either is or will be shortly. The boxes are nearly all packed, the laundry just needing one more go, and the van is ready. We have our plans set, and the next two days of my life are not mine, but belong to everyone but me. I want time with everyone I can; I want to savor my last guaranteed moments with my friends and families.
UCFV starts on Tuesday, and I can't wait to be learning again. But does anyone know how to make this transition easier? I feel like I'm breaking up with everyone, and we all know how crummy that feels.

Becky Laslo

My Dad told me this morning that someone I grew up with in Beiseker died. She was 20 years old, and I don't know what did her in (other than that it was a disease, not an accident), but she died a couple weeks ago. We had the same name; her brother and I even share the same birthday. Our two families were close up until the time the moved away (I think I was going into Grade one or two) and have somehow found each other off and on again over the years. Talk about a surprise though.
Otherwise, life is back in working order. No more holidays for me, but that's okay. I really want to work again. Work that I should probably get back to now. I feel like swatting the thousand flies that keep flying into my head.

The Great Sliverwood

So, remember how I said I was heading of to Spokane for the weekend? Ya, that didn't exactly play out as planned. We had ventured down on the plan to catch some nitro drag racing at their raceway there, and turns out, the raceway hadn't even planned to show nitro drag racing (which was gay, being that their schedule had read so, and we had been told that it would go down as such). All in all I ended up spending a whole hour, maybe hour and a half in Spokane. Instead, our journey took us to northern Idaho.
Rather than come straight home (which would have wasted the 8 hours it took us to get down there), we decided to camp the night somewhere and go to the sweetest amusement park I've been to yet: Silverwood. It's got some pretty intense wooden roller coasters, which is what made it so cool. One went 55mph, and the other 65mph. The faster one even went underground 4 times, but I was too much of a sissy to do that one. I went on the slower one and came off shaky enough. And I wasn't feeling the greatest either, really.
It was a good trip; I kind of lost my wits at the end after being stuck in a car for hours when I REALLY didn't want to be. After the theme park, we had planned to camp another night in Yahk, BC, but the campground was full. As were all of the other campgrounds on the road home. And every single hotel, motel, lodge, and inn. We tried to find a place to stay up until 3am Sunday morning, before utterly giving up and deciding that no matter how tired we were, we had to go home. I don't drive, but still don't know how our 2 drivers made the trip happen. We pulled up in front of my house at 6:30am, which means our trip home was nearly 12 hours. I slept in my own bed (second or third time in 2 weeks!) until 1:12pm this afternoon.
So now I am home for three weeks and a bit, before we make our "last" road trip to move me out west. I have a week to myself too, in that time, which I'm really looking forward to. Some alone time, you know, to reflect and ground myself again. It'll be nice. Anyway, my typing skills are rapidly depleting, so I shall sign off.

It's Been a While

I almost had trouble remembering how to sign into blogger it has been so long since I've been here! The past month has been almost out of control. I've been multi-tasking to the nth degree, or so it feels like.
July started with 2 of my coworkers going to Mexico for 2 weeks. Being that there are only 4 people staffed at the coffee shop, this meant I had to do twice as much work. It was worth it though. The two weeks were an incredible amount of fun, however, and flew by far to quickly.
As soon as my co-workers came back, I took off to the city for four days. I volunteered to help lead the church's youth group while away at an inner city "missions"/ intensive volunteering program. It basically came down to this: 17 hour days of working and sweating your posterior off and slowly losing your ability to be naive and blind to the fact that we live in a broken and hurting world, and then doing literally all we could to better the life of someone else. In this case, we helped the homeless population of Calgary. It is made even more intensive in that the experience basically demands and develops into a need for complete selflessness. Intense, but so worth it. I have done the program a couple of times before, and was blessed again this time in meeting some amazing people who live on the streets.
Not saying that I am entirely selfless (nor am I by far), but I was lucky enough to have grown up in a struggling household; one that provided for itself at one point, and then couldn't later down the road. I've seen both ends of the scale, and guess what, I learned that there is now difference. I can not honestly see how 2 people can be comparable other than in the fact that they are both human. Nothing separates one from another, other than their personalities and uniqueness, and perhaps that is why I love going down the homeless shelter. I love people, and I love meeting them, regardless of any circumstance or conditions they're in. I mean, we're all people right?
The day after I got home from Calgary I took off to Vancouver for the weekend with a couple friends. We went to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (worth a listen to if I do say so myself) and got some sight seeing and "vacationing in to. We left at 10pm Friday night and got home 4am Tuesday morning. But boy, I can not wait until I move west!
That reminds me. I had some upsets a couple of days before I left for Calgary. I had about 3 days to find a buttload of money, or find a place outside of the dorms at school to live. I've ended up taking the latter, but trying to figure that one out in 2 days was a slightly hair raising experience! I asked a couple people to be praying that something would come up for me, a place to stay for cheap (I'm moving in less than a month!), and that my loans would come through soon, and both have basically been answered! I think I have found the perfect place to live, and the day we were leaving for the coast I got a package from the Government with pages needing signatures from someone at the school in Abbotsford (we stopped there on the way home and got that all taken care of) and now all I have to do is mail it and they will through the loan into my account. So thanks for the prayers guys.
Tonight I go off to Spokane for a couple days to take in some drag racing at the speedway. It's my last official vacation until I move, and my last chance to get away, so I hope things go well. I'm working a solid 3 weeks here, and then I'm done on the 30th. I can't believe that I'm saying that! Saying good-bye to the coffee shop is going to be impossible. I grew up here, in this building. This is where I transitioned from girl you young woman. It is my sanctuary, and I am going to deeply deeply miss it.