From Harry Potter to Amicalola Falls

I was not let down by the final Harry Potter book. It was AMAZING. I had already guessed at parts of it, or else heard what other people had suggested. Some of it I had not believed and it turned out to be true, others I had thought true but turned out to be the case. J.K. Rowling is a fantastic storyteller though. She had me completely enthralled. After finishing the 6th book two years ago, I didn't know HOW Harry was going to accomplish the task he was setting out to do in this final book, and I won't say any more so as to spoil it for those who want to read it still, but it was wonderful. A delightful "ending" to an enchanting story.

Moving on to perhaps more significant news. I lost my job. I suppose it's been coming for a while. They have been trying to find a place for me at EPS, but while they like the work that I do, they can't produce enough of it to make it worthwhile to keep me there. They let me go on Thursday. I can't say that I'm sad about it, in fact, I'm not sad at all. It was not a job that I loved. I enjoyed aspects of it, but I did not love it. I never really completely fit in there, regardless of how hard I tried. I decided after that to take Thursday night completely off. I turned my phone off and I stayed at home. Neither of my roommates were there that night. It was very good for me. That may seem a little drastic, to turn one's phone off, but honestly, detaching myself from the world for an evening and just spending it with myself gave me a lot of perspective and kind-of recharged my batteries. On Friday morning when I woke up, I decided that I would find somewhere to go hiking and be in nature. There are lots of places to go hiking in Georgia, and so I just did an internet seach and picked one that seemed interesting: Amicalola Falls. Apparently they are the tallest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. I discovered only later that this is not the height from the top of the actual waterfall to the bottom, it's the vertical distance that the water falls altogether. It's actually a series of waterfalls. I packed a cooler with some sandwich stuff and headed up there. It was an hour and a half drive, but it was beautiful! Once I got more into North Georgia, I was surprised to see how much it resembled the area of New York that I grew up in. Babbling brooks, trees, sprawling lawns, towns completely free of subdivisions ... ahhh that is the life. I will always be a country girl at heart.


The hike to the top of the waterfall was about a mile. I didn't take any of the add-on trail loops, but I did hike all the way from the bottom to the top and back down again. It was something like 800 steps to the top of the waterfall! That wasn't including the first 3/4 mile of path, part paved, part earth. By the time I got to the top I was literally dripping in sweat. It had rained earlier and the air was very humid. I was proud of myself for finishing the strenuous hike. I admit, getting to the top it was a bit anticlimactic. If you just think about it for a second, you will logically deduce that the top of a waterfall is really just a lovely little stream that suddenly drops over a large precipice. That is exactly what I discovered when I got to the top of the waterfall. A quaint stream that very suddenly gets to go on an exciting journey. At least, it's exciting for the water, and not so much from the observers point of view looking down. The view of the mountains, however, was breathtaking! I took several pictures of this.

So, I will now be looking for a new job. I think the route I want to go is teaching, although I think it may be too late to get a job this fall. I may have to substitute teach until I can take the exam and get temporary certifiication. Then I will have 5 years to take the classes for a professional certification. I think this is what I have always wanted to do: become a teacher. In fact, I think it is my calling and talent. I don't know why I have been so afraid to embrace this part of my "destiny". Then again, I have always been a bit afraid of truly excelling at something. What is my deal?

Time is going by way to fast. I know the next couple of months are going to fly by, and will be followed by a very boring and slow 2 years. (Maybe.) We'll see what happens. I know I am going to miss Joe terribly when he goes. I guess I'm going to have to make some new friends! He's become my best friend over these last several months. Seems like he's all I talk about lately too ...

Okay, so what else is going on in my life?

Work is going all right. Things are a little slow right now. We are overstaffed for the summer and consequently there's less work for everyone to do. It's very frustrating, but I can't do anything about it. I really like my job when I have stuff to do! I imagine this will go on for about another month and then I will become very busy probably. That will be about the right time too, since Joe is leaving in 2 months. And it all comes back to Joe ...

I went over to see Jonathan, Austin and the babies for a few minutes on Saturday. It was so much fun! I can't believe how those babies are growing. I was mighty impressed with Scooter's conversational skills. He was saying words and I was actually understanding them! I was amazed at his memory too. He named every person in the pictures we looked at! They are growing up. It is so fun to watch! I love being and aunt. I just wish I could see them more often. In fact, I wish I had my whole family closer. Family is so important to me. There is such a closeness and bond with family that I'm not sure really exists with friends; at least for me. And luckily for me, I have a wonderful family that I know I can always count on. I know I am extremely blessed to have the family that I have :-)

The Mission Call

After months and years of ___________________ (fill in the blank), Joe's mission call has finally come. He'll be serving in Los Angeles, California, Spanish-speaking. He reports to the MTC on the 26th of September. Congratulations and best wishes to Joe!!

Happy Independence Day!

Okay, so the 4th of July was 2 days ago, but in my time-warped world where I go nearly a month without blogging, 2 days is like 2 minutes. Anyway ...

Joe should be getting his mission call any day now, maybe even today. It's in the mail, so whenever the US Postal Service gets around to delivering it, we'll know where he's going! I never thought this day would come, and yet here it is. We're working on going back to being just friends which is interesting to say the least, and that's all I'm going to say about it, other than I'm glad to discover that there is in fact a friendship under all this attraction. He's become my best friend these last several months that we've been dating. We still see each other every day and we even joined a gym yesterday. We're going to try to work out every day together and whip ourselves back into shape before he leaves. We bought racquetball rackets and we're learning how to play. I am going to be SOOO bored when Joe leaves. I'm sure I'll be quite lost without him. Still, I know that it's finally time for him to go; he's ready and the people he's going to teach are ready. I am grateful for him and for this time that we've had together. I know a few of the reasons why we've needed each other these past few months and I am grateful for the blessing he has been in my life. I'm may never know all the reasons why but I'm grateful all the same.

Last weekend I flew to Las Vegas for Kylene's wedding. Kylene has been my best friend since we were freshman in college. She is currently going to grad school in Philadelphia and she met a really neat guy who is now her husband. Despite being sick for most of the weekend, and travelling complications which included the bride and groom's flight being cancelled at the last minute, etc. etc., the wedding was beautiful and I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to go. I took pictures for the first time in a couple of months (*feeling sheepish*) and i posted a couple above.

Wednesday was of course the 4th of July and like most people, Joe's parents decided to put new roofing on their house on Independence Day *wink*, so I went over there and helped with that. I did NOT get up on the roof; I stayed down on the ground and picked up old shingles. Man there were a lot of shingles to pick up. I couldn't believe how many shingles there were everywhere! We still didn't even have all the felt on by 5pm but it was just too darn hot to do anything else. Most people pooped out by noon. I gave up around 2:30 and went home to take a shower. I was so dirty and I had fiberglass crystals stuck in my skin all over. That was a bit uncomfortable! We rounded off the day with a swim in the pool, mooching off other people's picnic foods, and watching fireworks.