Cue That Ole Timey Rocky Music

I wanted to post some pictures of the festivities I mentioned, but unfortunately every single one had my last name or a student's last name. So, enjoy this picture of me cuddling a student's pet wallaby the last week of school.

As of last Friday, I finished my internship. I also cried the entire week prior, and was showered in love and hugs and sweet cards and letters and surprise going away parties from students. I have diligently saved all of said cards and letters and will be scanning them and saving them forever and ever amen.

To say that my last week was a roller coaster of emotion would be an understatement. On the one hand, yes, it was incredibly stressful and I was ready to not work so hard for free- absolutely. I was also over the moon to know that this process, which started in January of 2011, was finally finished. On the other hand, and both feet, and all 20 toes and fingers, I was really sad to leave the students. I adore them, no doubt. The growth I have seen in them this year has been amazing and I'm so proud of everything they've accomplished.

I had put off a pretty tedious and vital task until the Saturday after my last day. I had to upload virtually all of my grad school assignments from the past year to a website aligned with Colorado's educational standards so that the CDE could verify that I had demonstrated competency in each standard. Thankfully Bobby helped me with the organizing and uploading and it only took us 2 hours. It's all been signed off on so now the final step is for me to submit my official "Hey, Colorado? I've done all this work to become a teacher, can you take a look at it and give me a license?" request. I've already ordered my transcripts for that purpose, and I submitted my leave of absence form to my college for the fall. Let's get real- I need a break and I'm not interested in starting another grad class in the same month that I move to Albania, start a new job, and begin the process of figuring out my day to day work life.

This past week I've been tying up loose ends, crossing off things on my seemingly interminable to-do list, and making plans for my upcoming road trip. Tomorrow morning we're getting up early to hike Horsetooth, so for now I'm cutting this reunion off short. Bobby has booked our ridiculous No Plane-ia to Albania trek, but that's another topic for another post. I'm also still trying to figure out what I'm going to do for a blogging space as we travel around. A part of me is considering starting a new blog altogether, but I'm loathe to leave this one behind, so I may just take it into more of a travel blog direction. Fair warning, a huge portion of traveling and teaching will be paying off student loan debt, so there will be more personal finance things thrown into the mix, too. I'm also just still so leery of blogging after stumbling onto some pretty intense snark sites that a part of me is afraid to ramp up the blogging again. I think people who blog sometimes think that everyone blogs, or knows about it, but in reality it's still a relatively small sub-culture and far flung spaces of the internet can collide in really harsh ways...

Whoa, sorry. That was a weirdo ramble upon which to end this post. Here's another picture of that wallaby.

I'm cute and have nothing to do with internet snark sites

Lowered Expectations and Absences, Illustrated via Cupcakes

I might need to adopt this kind of attitude to stay sane through this injury...

 I've either been in bed with my foot propped up on a pillow, or sitting at the table with my foot propped  up on a chair, for the last two weeks thanks to a stress fracture. I think stress fractures should be called "ninja injuries", or, to make it really roll off of the tongue, "ninjuries", because this thing came out of n.o.w.h.e.r.e. Seriously, I was strolling around the farmers' market on a beautiful Saturday, caressing heirloom tomatoes and shoving chard in my re-usable bags, after which we ate some lunch, came back to the apartment, and lazed around watching some shows on the computer. Nothing extraordinary, heck, I didn't even work out the week prior other than weight lifting- twice, instead of my usual three times.

Yet somehow I woke up on the very next day to a throbbing in my right foot that hurt so badly I was whimpering and crying. Upon inspection, it was swollen to twice the size of the left foot, so much so that even the sheet rubbing against it caused pain. Lots of ice and ibuprofen got me through Sunday, and a doctor's appointment on Monday confirmed a stress fracture. I was pretty heartbroken about missing out on all of the hiking, camping, and biking to be had in the last month of summer/first part of fall when I was told that October 1st was when I would be back in commission. Now, I know that a broken foot has nothing to do with my hands, and my hands are all I need to blog- especially given the inordinate amount of time I have spent sitting/sprawling around- but honestly it just really bummed me out and I kind of spent the last two weeks pouting about how my summer was ruined. I had planned on doing Warrior Dash but had to stay home last weekend instead, and right now, as I type these words, Bobby is at Red Rocks seeing Death Cab for Cutie with a girl from work because I just couldn't crutch my way up to row 42. So, yes, a bit of a bummer. But I'm shaking off the funk, looking on the bright side and all that jazz.

Please, on my behalf, get out and hike and bike and walk around the neighborhood and swim and play in the park as much as you can. Know that someone is very jealous of you. That someone is me. Just to clarify.

Life in Boxes, Blogger on Vacation

 Bobby and I returned safely to Colorado late on Tuesday. Since then I've been sifting through boxes and arranging and re-arranging and re-re-arranging furniture. Wednesday was mostly a bust, but yesterday was great and so far today has been also. I'm taking a procrastination break (although, if it's a purposeful break, I don't know that procrastination is the correct way to describe it, right?) because Blogger is finally working after skipping off on a spur of the moment, two day vacation. I hope you enjoyed yourself, Blogger, because every time I tried to update my blog over the last two days you kept shooting me down with your vague "unavailable" message...

I'll be back with something more substantial later (that's about as vague as "unavailable", huh?). I just wanted to take advantage of Blogger's availability to make a post, on principle. The boxes are calling my name, and I can't live another day with our enormous suitcase squatting in the entryway. Next stop: organizing our closet. I know, the awesomeness of my Friday is blowing.your.mind.