Greasy potstickers.

Do you ever discover a cut on your hand that you decide had to have been painful once it occurred, and you're disappointed you weren't allotted your whining time because you didn't realize it when it became?

I'm feeling a little bit of that right now.

Camping this previous weekend was a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed having both a hatchet and a water filter. The hatchet made me feel a lot like Carrie Nation(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nation), and the water filter meant we didn't have to lug thousands of gallons to our campsite. The giant 8 person tent was heavy enough for me, thank you very much. The hatchet came in handy when I was chopping wood, which I looked adorable doing. We went mountain biking the second day we were there, and I managed to bike over a very large lip on the edge of a bridge, and in my excitement, went off the trail, unclipped my right foot, and fell down on my left side. My poor elbow took the brunt of it as it went crashing down into the loose rocks. That was one I got my allotted whining time for. Three cheers for that.

Speaking of mountain biking, I'm going to be doing a race next Saturday, and according to my sources, there are usually only about 4 entries in the beginning women's catergory, so I won't do worse than fourth in my first race. Hot dang! To prepare for it, I've been biking every day (except for today... was a little late getting out of the house) to my internship/class/work, and I had no idea how many miles I was putting into my commute. On Tuesday, I clocked 24.25 miles. That's almost a gallon of gas! I'm going to keep the biking thing up to try to save us some money.

Little Chuckles seems to have come down with something. He's been really stuffy, sniffling a lot, and has sneezes that could knock someone over. I'm hoping it will go away in a couple days (he's had it since Monday) and trying to ignore the articles that say it could be a symptom of Feline Leukemia. I had a cat die when it was 2 years old from that, and she was vaccinated against it (as was Chuck). I would be absolutely devestated if I lost Chuck. If it's still going strong this weekend, to the vet he goes.

We got a visit on Monday from Bobby's paternal grandparents, and it was an absolute joy. They're the perfect people to go to for advice, and I was discussing with them my sorrows about living in Provo. They talked to me about the very things I'm learning in my social work classes, and how to look for the good in people rather than focusing on all the rotten. It's difficult for me, especially since I've been trained to notice social injustices and what needs advocating, but it's something that I certainly need to work on. We were supposed to come to Provo for a reason, and perhaps that reason is just this. I need to learn to be more positive about it and stop letting everything that bugs me... well, bug me.

Next week, I get to start teaching at the Boys and Girls Club's summer program. Can I tell you how absolutely stoked I am? The Scera Park Elementary School kids are adorable. Instead of doing homework with them, I'll get to teach them fun stuff, like soccer, drama, gardening, and how to develop healthy self-esteem. I love it! And now, I must frolic off to re-learn CPR and discover the mysteries of First Aid, so that while I'm enjoying teaching them all of those fun things, I know how to rescue them if I get a little too carried away. Ta!