30 Days in Pictures: Day Seventeen

Day Seventeen – A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently



This is the view of Snoqualmie Valley in Duvall, Washington. I spent 3 months here. Most of my mission. I'm still trying to process exactly how my mission affected me and what I want to take from the whole experience. Some days I wake up and think, "I should still be in Washington wearing a black name tag and knocking on doors." I still can't shake the ever-present sense of failure that came complimentary with my plane ticket home. But that's not how I want to see my mission. I want to remember the good memories and the people I helped and the things I learned. I'm hoping that eventually I will get to a place where I can do that. I hope my 4 months in Washington will follow me gently through the rest of my life as a learning experience instead of a giant what-if and should-have.

30 Days in Pictures: Day Sixteen

Day Sixteen – A picture of someone who inspires you



Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells. Mormon. Suffragist. Sister wife. Feminist. Editor of the Women's Exponent. Relief Society President from 1910 to 1921. I plan on naming my first born daughter after her.
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Things have been super crazy recently. I keep waiting for this year to produce less awfulness but the total aggregate suck only seems to be increasing. I have 6 more weeks of a job that slowly eats at my soul, I'm kicking myself for not pursuing EFY counselor contracts, and I'm in the middle of a bunch of baby mama drama with BYU admissions and trying to get the communications department to let me take a class I need and et cetera. HOWEVER each day is one day closer to when I will be in Provo doing things I enjoy, like TAing logic and being a student and not getting yelled at for needing to reschedule patient's appointments to September. Which, beeteedubs, is probably somewhere in between watching kittens drown and having lit bamboo shoots shoved under your toenails on the fun scale. So, yeah, 6 weeks. You can do anything for 6 weeks, right? Right?... At least I love the people I work with.

I've been consciously trying to do things recently that I enjoy and destress me. I've really gotten into taking baths this summer, which is weird because I've never enjoyed taking baths since I was like 9. But I got a ton of stuff from Lush a while back and some bath stuff from Bath and Body. I am now a serious bath advocate.

Reading. I bought a Kindle this summer because my love for fiction has started taking over my life and I really don't need any more books to figure out how to move around. Right now I'm working on the Hunger Games series (in the 3rd book, but taking my time because I've heard it isn't as good at the first 2), and I decided to join the human race and read Harry Potter.

I also discovered that I. love. pedicures. I had my first ever pedicure on my mission of all places and have since become addicted. Spa/mall pedicures are crazy expensive, but yesterday I decided to try out a local beauty school and it was wonderful. She spent an entire hour and it only cost me $13 plus tip.

I've been trying out natural methods to manage my anxiety and overall suckiness, including St. John's Wort, Kava, and private yoga lessons. I notice the Kava making more of a difference than the SJW, and yoga is pretty awesome.

I have a Jeffrey R. Holland quotation written on a piece of paper taped on my desk:

"If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now."

This whole entire year has been pretty much nothing short of awful, but what helps is knowing that skies can't always be gray and so many things are only on their way to getting better.

30 Days in Pictures: Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen – A picture of something you want to do before you die



Run a marathon.
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This year is proving to be one of the most complicated yet. Coming home from a mission and having my BYU application appeal denied and having to fill out a million petitions for evening classes and the communications department and everyone else my age graduating and running away from plans I thought were faultless.

Dang.

30 Days in Pictures: Day Fourteen

Day Fourteen – A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without



Brad got home from his mission yesterday. I got to talk to him on the phone last night for 45 minutes. It was pretty much the best 45 minutes of my life in, oh, I don't know, about 2 years.

30 Days in Pictures: Day Thirteen

Day Thirteen – A picture of your favorite band or artist



I first saw The Bouncing Souls live when I was 14. The summer after my freshman year of high school, I traveled back to where I used to live in Georgia to go to Warped Tour with my friends. I originally got to the stage to see Anti-Flag and ended up seeing The Bouncing Souls before them. I fell in love. They've been my favorite band for almost 7 years. And in case you're wondering, my favorite song is Night On Earth.

Passed some time walking around
looking for something to be
when I stopped to look around
all the music was different to me
All these places we used to go
when I loved you I didn't see
I'll miss you but now I'll know
better next time because I found me

30 Days in Pictures: Day Twelve

Day Twelve – A picture of something you love



True fact: doing a Google image search for chocolate cheesecake will trigger cravings like nobody's business. Lucky for me, I will be going to Cheesecake Factory this Saturday to celebrate my sister in law's birthday.

30 Days in Pictures: Day Eleven

Day Eleven - A picture of something you hate



I did a google image search for "passive aggressive" and this came up. Passive aggression is my absolute least favorite rhetorical tool. It adds nothing to an argument other than hostility and condescension. Working as a medical receptionist, I get a lot of people who call and say things like, "well I guess I'm a patient of Dr. So-and-So, but he hasn't called me back so I must not be too important" or "well it just seems like he doesn't want me as his patient anymore." When people say things like that I want to reach through the phone and poke them in the eyes.

(You might have noticed that I skipped day 10. I did that in purpose. The day 10 prompt was stupid and I do what I want.)