8 days and counting...

It has recently come to attention that I leave for South Africa in 8 days. Please understand, the date has always been the same, but I have been so busy that I failed to grasp the small amount of days until I leave. And then on top of that, I got sick. So I haven't really had time to think about it. But now that I have thought about it, I am trying not to get overwhelmed with the details. Not the details of the actual trip and the time there, but the details that I have to take care of before I leave. I am working on making a list, which is quite long and involved. Anyone who knows me knows my love for making lists and crossing each thing off as I accomplish it, so there is a part of me that is looking foward to getting it all done. Plus, when it is finished, it means that I am getting on the plane for South Africa! I have to think of it as a great reward for a long, busy week. Bring it on!

Long live VIND!

To the fellow members of the VIND club...
We will not know the fate of our dear friends until April 19! What happened to the promises of coming back in March? For this and other offenses, I say we find J.J...I have a few questions for him.

Life outside my 4 walls...

Today was day 5 of my nasty illness...it was a horrible little virus that was floating around here and I just so happened to catch it...lucky me. I have been in my bed since the middle of last week. I felt, sounded and looked terrible and finally today I felt ok enough to walk out of my house. It was a big step but a necessary one.

Not only was I feeling a tad stir crazy, but our interns arrived today so I needed to greet them and show them where to go. I could not have gotten sick at a worse time because we were trying to finish preparations for the internship to start, but I had to leave it in the hands of the people I work with because, well, I couldn't get out of bed. And so now they are all here and I think things are going to go well.

I will write more tomorrow and tell you a little about them. But for now, I have overexerted myself as it is and I need sleep. Adios for now...

Ode to Ebony

As you can probably guess from the pictures above, Ebony was the name of the car...my friend Karisse's car. And I just so happened to be riding shotgun when the car went from looking normal to the damaged state it is in now. I was coming back from the store with Karisse's sister, Kristel, when she looked away to check the next lane to try and change lanes and looked back because she heard me screaming. Thankfully we were all ok...a little shaken up and a little sore the next day. But all in all, we are fine. A moment of silence for the car though...

Ok, well, Karisse was so kind to be a pseudo chauffer for me for a year before I got my car out here...now I get to return the favor.

This has certainly not be the best week because not only was there the accident, but I got really sick the next day, leaving me to lay in bed for the last 3 days! I have to admit that I am not a very good sick person because I feel very overwhelmed by the littlest of things and I just get impatient and want to start doing things when really I need to be relaxing and getting better. And I have way too much work to do to be laying in bed, but alas, none of that matters when you can't actually sit up for longer than 10 minutes at a time and have temperature over 100. That is when you have trust the people you work with to get stuff done because you aren't much help to them then. I am praying to be better by Monday because that is when our internship starts. Everything is coming so quickly!

What is going on here?

I never claimed to be the best at remembering to update my blog on a regular basis...but this was something that just had to be shared! There is snow on the mountains right behind the base and some of my friends saw what appeared to be snow on the ground and on cars in the little town 5 miles away from us. It has been so cold and rainy that we have had small pieces of ice/hail dropping all over the place and today it snowed. I know there are a few of you skeptics out there that figure it doesn't snow in southern California...well, today it apparently did. I will see if I can't get a picture of it tomorrow. And I would like to add that this Florida girl does not exactly cope well in the cold weather and is admitedly the biggest wuss when it comes to the cold. I am just not prepared or built for it! :-)

I will manage though and I am looking foward to the warm weather of South Africa. T minus 3 weeks (and counting) from today. Can you tell I am excited?