Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Hello North Bend

Well, It seems that I have yet again, neglected to write in quite sometime. I always have things I want to say and somehow just get too exhausted to actually write them...hmm I wonder why.

Gold Six finished out round one strong. There was some Site Sponsor drama but that is bound to happen no matter what and my team handle it extremely well. We then had to survive transition. I could only remember how much I loathed transition last year. It seemed to be full of people whom I realized throughout the round, I didn't really care about, or they didn't really care about me and transition was just a game of avoidance and survival. As a TL it's not much different but the relationships are fewer and the work load is MUCH higher. I felt like I was running around with my head cut off but we survived and I finally got to fly home on December 18. I have never been so happy to be headed back to Des Moines. The full day of travel was excruciating as I anticipated landing and the babies waking me up in the morning.

The first week of Christmas break was filled with all sorts of family things and mom reteaching me how to vacation. I worked for approximately 6 hours. This is the most consecutive days off I've had since high school. It was so weird. I literally had to be retrained into relaxing. Lucky for me my house is very comfortable and small blonde children were around to keep me busy. We went to the Leonardi DiVinci Exhibit which was amazing. We say Jolly Holliday Lights, which was fun. I hate way too much food and had Christmas. I got a Nook! I was very happy but all of the christmas gifts were overshadowed by the arrival of Sara and Iman!

 We went sledding, out to eat, played sega genesis and scrabble. In true Go1d fashion we just sat around and talked, laughed and made fun of each other. I haven't seen Iman since the beginning of July and Sara since the end of July. I nearly cried when they pulled into the driveway. It was so easy to fall back into Go1D comfort and happiness of all last year. When they left, I was definitely depressed but I am going to strive to hold onto that happiness. I feel like I am lacking these sorts of connections this year. I've been pining for last year intrinsically a ton. New orleans, Malibu, St Bernard, Burien. Just feeling, accepted, connected and like I belong. I have a much more minute sense of that this year. I miss it.

Going back to campus was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I realized that as much as I LOVE this program, I also am getting tired of living out of a suitcase. My family is making some big changes and I should be there for these. I just have to wait go home til August now. SHUCKS!

We transitioned our way through the first three days and today Gold Six and Green five left McClellan (finally!) for our one night stay in Eugene and then onto North Bend. Laura (green five TL and my roomie) and I had an EPIC meeting tonight trying to orchestrate the logistics of merging our two teams, our two units, our two leadership styles and twenty two personalities. Not to mention we have a TON of matching names. We have Lauren, Lauren and Laura, Krista, Kristin and Kristina, Lauren and Lauren, Steph S and Steph S, Brittany and Brytnie.  This is going to be a rather EPIC game of "yours mine and ours" this entire round.

I am very excited about this opportunity to pick up learning styles and connections but I kind of just want my team alone and bonding. I feel like I'm still going to be left out. Working on becoming Ms. Independent I guess.