Living in a small town

 

      As I slowly get more settled into the new small town living I am finding a lot of interesting fun things that I am definitely not used to, which I thought I would share with you all.  So far these are my top 3 things I've noticed.  I will periodically update the list in new blogs as I discover them.  But for now, here are my top 3.

1)  This one is not such a shocker but everyone knows everyone along with their personal business

2) People have tabs!! I go to this local coffee shop almost daily now to sit and observe people and use the internet.  And I am amazed that people go up, get their coffee and then later in passing say "hey should I pay now or just put it on my tab?" Just amazing to me!!

3)  Everyone is REALLY nice!  It's a little jarring to be honest, I'm used to people being very cold.  However, I myself have just been totally stepping outside my comfort zone and to everyone I run into I go "hi! I'm Erin and I just moved to town, what's your name?"  It's been really awesome to totally put myself out there, especially because the responses have been so open and inviting.  Its actually really refreshing being so social and just striking up conversations with everyone.  I fell into this awful bubble back home where I didn't go out, and none of my friends wanted to ever go out.  I had a feeling that this would happen once I moved into a place where I didn't know anyone, and I was right!! So cool.


    Have a great evening (or day!)

Orientation Recap

   This past week my orientation happened up at Rivers Bend Retreat Center.   It was such a beautiful serene place to be, though I do admit to going a tad bit stir crazy..... this whole MUCH slower pace of life thing is going to take some time to adjust to.  I really do like it a lot, but I am most certainly not used to it.  I'm sure my dad and anne can relate a bit??

    We did a lot of team building exercises and get to know each other games of course.  There are people from all over the United States! I am the second oldest one as I pretty much expected would be the case.  But I really like everyone in our group.  We have a bunch of fun activities planned as a group.  Lots of runners!! So overall I am very excited about this upcoming year.  It would be boring to list everything we did, but I do have pictures!!

The Beautiful Garden ( I took LOTS of pictures in there as you will see)

View from my cabin

The River!

Getting a free fish pedicure! Lol

Lavender drying

   As you can clearly see, it was just gorgeous up there.  And its about 10 minutes away from where I live! So I can go up there anytime I want, especially now that I have a friend who works up there now :-)  Woohoo!!

Cross Country Pictures (part 2)

Leaving Colorado, heading into Wyoming

Utah!

Utah

Salt Lake City near the salt flats

Welcome to California!! (don't mind the squished bugs on my windshield, they are purely decorative)

Leslie and Owen's back yard! So beautiful

more of their back yard

and more

So pretty and happy!!

   So those are all my pictures from my cross country road trip! Orientation pics coming up soon!

Cross Country Road Trip in Pictures (part 1)

Driving out of Arlington, VA

Here I go!!!! (Day 1)

West Virginia

 

West Virginia

West Virginia

Diana got me some friends (she's pooh bear, I'm piglet, she even put our faces on them!)

Wind Farm on the way to Louisville

In Louisville!! I miss my own crazy Daisy

Bored!!

Chicago!

 

North Avenue Beach (Chicago)

Lots and lots and lots of Volleyball nets! (Chicago)

What a fantastic running/biking path! right on the beach, so jealous (Chicago)

Had to put my toes in the water :-) (Chicago)

Stopped for lunch (In Iowa)

Wide open fields

So many Sunflowers!

Driving into Colorado!

View from my friend Jordan's back deck! We had dinner out there with that back drop.... quite breath taking

More views

and more

As you can tell, I was quite captivated by this view

 


    ** These pictures are taking a really long time to upload, most likely because the internet here is suuuuper slow, so I'll upload the rest when I can.  But I wanted to at least get as many as I could uploaded for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!! :-)