11.3

Happy Friday! I woke up in a great mood this morning and have been trying to ride that out all day. My mama sent me a lovely package this morning and a cute little note that made me smile (thanks, mama, i love u very much). Our room is a disaster zone because we have to be all packed up by 1 pm today, which is in an hour, despite the fact we're not leaving until Monday. I think all my stuff is pretty much ready to go. I've already been complimented multiple times since being here on my packing skills, which is a bit surprising to me. Maybe it's all those years of impromptu trips to Vermont, where I didn't have much time to think about what I needed and got used to the low maintenance lifestyle. Anyway, it's nice that what I view as a last minute, thoughtless mess of a process, others view as organizational finesse.

We had our real induction today, which was an exact replica of what we did yesterday for 2 hours. Except this time there were real guest speakers who actually gave nice speeches that gave me goosebumps and made me all hopeful that I really am on an amazing adventure that will change my whole life. Afterwards we got cupcakes and took tons of group photos. I can't help but feel I'm where I need to be.

I'm super excited about the route we're taking to get to ol' Florida. We're driving past a bunch of national parks, including Yosemite, and I think we'll be able to stop there for a while. We're also driving through the Grand Canyon, which has always been on my list of places I need to go, and which I remember hoping I would get to see during my year here (hooray for mini dreams coming true). And one night, we're staying in Las Vegas!!!! Like, what? How is any of this real? And it's all free? Obviously, my optimistic thoughts on these adventures may change after at least10 hours in the van each day. But as for now, I'm pretty hyped.

 I'm afraid this will have to be my last blog post for a while, because I'm not allowed to bring my laptop with me to Florida. We will most likely be staying on cots in an open area, like a school gym or something, with a bunch of other disaster relief teams. I'll try to blog from my phone if I can, but not sure how diligent I can be about it. This is a bit of a bummer, cause I've started to make a nice little hobby out of this! It's nice to be able to document all the silly little mundane things that happen and that I think about. That's alright, I'm sure I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

Florida, I'm comin for you!

~V

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