I'm currently sitting in my living room, sipping hot chocolate and watching the movie "White Christmas," after walking through the most extravagant Christmas light bonanza on one block that I have ever seen! Tomorrow the weather forecast calls for 1 inch of snow. This is mind-boggling because lately the weather has been on average 60 degrees and sunny. Also, the housemates and I are going to be heading to DC to spend the evening, meet the fellow NY VSers, and see the monuments lit up. I can feel the holiday cheer!
Work has been very busy this past week, coming back from a mini break for Thanksgiving (which was so wonderful, by the way. I'll touch on that a little later), I've been slammed with things to do and stuff to accomplish. Many things kept me in a positive mood and motivated. Having different events to look forward to and spaced out every few weeks for the next 3 months is going to be such a great relief, I think, and will definitely help get me through the winter season. A Christmas party with tacky sweater theme, a break from work and time at home for the real deal holiday itself, Friends are hoping to visit me, my birthday is coming up, and a mini-retreat is planned for a weekend in the Poconos! All of these great things will keep my head up while having to get through what's suspected to be "a very bad winter." I'll keep everyone updated on how these events go, don't worry!
So back-tracking a bit to Thanksgiving time-it was sooo great! I was able to meet up with 2 dear friends, Carrie and Annie Yoder and shown so much generosity from them, their family and my host family from church. All of these people have been great and I'm so happy for them! The whole weekend was a bit of a blur with a random assortment of activities. I was an adopted family member to the Yoder clan for a few days. We had a breakfast of donuts and baked oatmeal, met up with Sol one night for coffee, went to Philly for a Mountain Goats concert (hadn't really listened to them much before, but they were pretty great live), and then came back to Bmore where I gave an unofficial tour of parts of the city that I hadn't actually been before (Little Italy and the top of Federal Hill). Then sadly, friends headed their separate way after a quick dinner of T-giving leftovers consisting of stuffing and cheesy potatoes. At first, during the last day when thinking of the departure that would soon be happening, I would become sad for a few moments, but then force myself out of it telling myself just to enjoy the company. So when they left for good, I was surprised to find myself at peace and filled with joy at the fact that these short few days made me feel the most like myself and connected to life once again than I have since being in VS. It has definitely been very challenging for me to just be comfortable where I'm at in life. I think I've got a much better hold on that now. But that's also one of the reasons why I decided to do this-to be challenged. I'm happy to say that I'm learning for this experience.
I'm also learning a lot about myself from the GED class I help with at Project PLASE, which isn't really where I expected that to happen. I've been studying different learning styles and how I learn and about my personality and just reading about all of the different traits I have has made so much sense as to why I do certain things. It's made me much more comfortable in being me. I find it very interesting and would love to talk about it with anyone who is interested as well! So if you have any questions, just ask!
This entry to getting to be a bit long, so I think I'll end it here with the promise of pictures to come soon. Good night and Happy Holidays to all! :)
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