September troubles!!!!!!!!!:)

What the heck is it with Mussoorie, September, and hikes going not as planned!!!!!:) Let's recap a certain hike from last year with Matt and myself!!!! We hike down to Thatyur in the early morning, get there around noon and decide we're big boys and can hike back up by ourselves!!!!! Long story short, we take a new way back, get completely lost, get stuck in the monsoon, stay at a nice couples place until monsoon is over, then see the lights of Mussoorie and return home around 9:45pm!!!! All in all an AWESOME hike now that's it is over with!!!!! Fast forward to yesterday!!!!!! Which is kind of a oximoron (I don't know what that means but it sounds good)!!! How do you fastFORWARD to a day that already happened previous to this day?!?!?! THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!:) Anyways fast forwarding to yesterday, girlfriend (yes she will remain NAMELESS until I am positive everyone at Woodstock knows who, until that happens KEEP ON GUESSING) and I decided to go on a hike!! I picked out our destination and we left around 11am!!!! Had an amazing time heading towards our trailhead!! Trail head being a point where it goes from cement to NATURE!!!! Well we reach our trailhead after about 3 hours of walking!! Now you're wondering, holy crap how far did you go?!?! We went about 18.4 miles!!!! Okay not really, our destination could have been reached walking in about an hour!! BUT that is not our hiking style!! Which I love!!! We take our time and walk a wonderful strolling pace!! Let life slow down, take our time, and enjoy each others company!!!! No rushing here!!! Well we reach the trailhead, start walking through the forest and head for the ridgeline!!! All in all from trailhead to destination on the ridge is about a 20 minute walk mostly uphill!!! REMEMBER that!!!;) So we set up lunch, eat and then sit and talk for about 4 hours!!!!! Now we're heading into sunset and still talking away!!! It was a perfect night! Cold but perfect!!!! We talked about all sorts of stuff!!! Well now the sun was setting even more, but we were still talking away, when finally the sun has almost completely set and we decide to head out!!! Of course this being the night the moon decides to come out LATE!!! So now here we are with no flashlight and pitch black sky with a plethora of stars!!!! Now I've done this decent before, always daylight however and with contacts in!!! COMPLETELY different with no light and blind as a bat (no contacts)!!!!!! We start off, I'm leading the way and she's close behind!!! This is almost crawling speed, cause literally I was crawling to see the stupid path!!! We make it down the ridgeline in about 20 minutes!! In normal daylight would have taken probably 5!!! Now we get to a part where it looks to me like a dark yellow blur!! I ask "can you see a path??" She says Yes and takes lead!! THANKFULLY!!!:) Cause honestly I was struggling!! So she takes the lead, I'm holding her hand here cause I have no freakin clue what's ahead!! It's literally blind as a bat vision for me!!!! She does an amazing job finding the paths and giving me heads up about holes, rocks, and other various obstacles!!! Even though I was blind as a bat I still knew the general direction we had to go, that wasn't being affected!! So I kept pointing in that direction and she would find the best path to go!!! We're walking slow and safely but on the right path!!! Now there were 2 points of the walk that was really cool!! Both with the same occurance!!! There was one time when we were unsure of which path to take and at that EXACT moment a jeep would drive by on the road below and light up our options!!! THEN the same exact thing happened another time when we were stuck on a decision!! So that was really cool!! Oh might I mention too, taking a hike FULL of freakin stinging nettles in daylight turns into a BAD idea on the way back!!! Obviously every plant looks the same with no contacts and in pitch black!!! Wearing shorts on the way back, lets just say OUCH!!!! At least 4-5 different occasions got stung!!! And if you've never encountered a stinging nettle before, it does NOT take much when rubbing against it!! It could be a little brush of the tiniest part of the plant and BAM!! OOOOOOOOOUCH!!!! IT BURNS!!!!!!!!:) Anyways we're at a point now that we can CLEARLY see where we started and happy to be almost done and back on road!!! This after butt sliding down so many freakin mini hills to get to new paths!!! And let me tell you, butt sliding in dirt = dirt in the pants!!!! Continuing, not 50 feet before we reach the ending of the trail I step on an imaginary path (path not there) and FREAKIN FALL 30 FEET DOWN THE SIDE OF THE HILL!!! I go head over heels like 6 times!!! My face is all bloody, my arm is broken/shattered, and both ankles are mildy sprained!!!! Okay not really, we make it back to the road safe and sound and give a nice big hug of RELIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) A hug similar to the hug Matt and I shared after we were lost, but obviously this one being WAY more special!!! Sorry Matt!!:) So after an HOUR of crawling speed down the ridgeline, which in daylight would have taken 15 minutes, we were headed back home via CEMENT road!!! Lesson to be learned?!?!?? Always remember to shower the night before a hike!! Cause if you do get lost or really slowed down, at least you'll smell good!!!!!;) Oh and probably also bring a torch (flashlight) no matter the time you leave for a hike and expect to be back around 4pm!!!!!!!!!!:) Sometimes time itself gets away from you!!! OKAY THAT'S ALL!! HAPPY SMILING EVERYONE!!!!!!! AND HAPPY SEEING!!!!!!

MINNESOTA COUNTDOWN: 2 MONTHS 20 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Such a difference a year makes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

I was looking and reading some of my older blog titles and its so weird to see the transition in the blogs from this year to last!!!!!! Last year at this time it was all about adjusting to the monsoon and being like a baby seeing the world for the first time!! Every and any new experience I would blog within a day!!!! Which, in India, there was SENSORY overload that first month or two!!!!! So there was a lot to blog about!!! Now I'm noticing a shift in blog content!!! It's gone from new experiences to a more personal life/settling in basis!!!! I think I'm finally settled in and ready to go for the long haul in India!!!!!!:) What were new experiences are now everyday life!!!! What was once a goal to do my 3 years single and loving life, has now changed to being in a relationship and loving life EVEN MORE!!! YES I SAID IT!!!!! I'M IN A RELATIONSHIP!!!!!!:) That last blog was true!!!!! Life is SOOOOOOO much more amazing when you have someone special to share it with!!!!! Someone who makes your already ginormous smile increase to a magnitude unheard of, for the sake of words though let's use VInormous!!!! I'm literally scared my jaw muscle will be able to eat metal because the strength it is at now with all the smiling!!!!  Who it is though will still stay confidential because I know some of my students/coworkers read my blog from time to time and they're trying to figure out who!! So all you students and teachers out there, IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!!:) But getting back to the difference a year makes!!! It's amazing how you have these goals and thoughts in your mind when taking a new path/journey in life!!! When I signed the contract I thought, okay 3 years at Woodstock, single the entire time, come back retire in Shako teaching and coaching summer tennis of course!!! NOW, it's 6-7 years at Woodstock, not single, who the crap KNOWS where life will lead!!!!! However, that what makes life SOOOOOOOOOO awesome and interesting!!! One year ago I would never have dreamed this is where life would take me!!!! But on so many levels I am ECSTATIC to be at this point in life!!!!!! I am also very happy the USE OF !!!! HAS INCREASED 10-fold!!!!!!!!!:) I'm very nervous though I'm getting to a point where I'm going to need so many ! that it'll be like math and using a squared ! in my sentences!!!!!!! For now I'm hoping it doesn't break!!!!! ALSO its so nice to have a solid group of friends here!!! People you can feel comfortable with and know will probably be here in the long run!!!! I can see why the veteran teachers stay so close to one another, because its so hard to, every year, make new friends and then say goodbye a couple years later!!! Its exhausting!!! And this is only my second year!! I couldn't even imagine doing this for 5-6 years!!!! Of course it doesn't help HALF of the staff you arrived with left after a year!!!! Lame!!!! ON THE BRIGHT SIDE 3 MONTHS OF MONSOON IS DEFINITELY OVER WITH TOMORROW!!!! Looked at the forecast and I do believe it has SUN FOR FRIDAY!!! SUN FOR SATURDAY!!! SUN FOR SUNDAY!!!! SUN FOR MONDAY!!! SUN FOR TUESDAY!!! SUN FOR WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After 90 straight days of rain, IT IS OVER!!!! I'm predicting a sudden SHIFT in moods starting next Monday!!!!!!:) Good ol' Vitamin D is BACK and taking over!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure if my smile can get any bigger, or what will happen to it if it tries, but LOOK OUT WORLD WE HAVE A 150% CHANCE INCREASE IN SMILES!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) Did I mention I'm loving life right now!?!??!?!? If not, LOVING IT AND THE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY SMILING TO ALL AND TO ALL A FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC NIGHT AND WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

p.s. SECOND BEST STAFF TALENT SHOW I'VE EVER SEEN TONIGHT!!!!!!:) And yes this is my second one!!!!!!!!!!;) We'll see how we do TOMORROW NIGHT when the Senior School is attending!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOO TALENT!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

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What I never thought was missing.........was!!!!!!:)

End of August and 2 weeks into September will be a time I will NEVER forget!!!!! Possibly because the future may be effected because of it!!!! The feelings you have when you're alone (single) in a place can be good and depressing at the same time!!! Good because you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want, fart whenever you want to, and not have anyone around that cares where you are!!! I mean obviously people care, but not in the relationship type of way!!! Well here's the catch side to being single!!! You don't have that one person that really cares about you at all times, to talk to whenever you're feeling down in the dumps, to look at across the room or hallway and feel a special bond!!! So yeah, of course being single would seem awesome and care free, but that's only because you are forgetting about the one true need every single human being needs: to feel cared about!!!! I believe that is one of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, in fact one of the necessary ones!!!! And once you get those feelings in side of you, those "care for someone" feelings, it feels like you're on top of the world again!!!!! I wouldn't trade that for anything, even if that means being single the rest of my life and being able to do anything whenever, without any objections!!!!!!! Because having feelings for someone, and I mean really having feelings for someone, is the greatest part of life!!!! When I arrived at Woodstock, I was so bent on living my years here single and free to do anything that I wanted to do, that I forgot one can do the same thing single or in a relationship!!!! However, in a relationship, while you have the freedom to do whatever, you also have someone that cares about you and you care about them!!!! That right there is one freakin spectacular feeling!!!:) And should NEVER be forgotten!!!! Being single for a long time makes you forget real quickly!!!! However, once you get it back it's like the sun is shining every single day, EVEN during monsoon!!!!! The way your eyes meet in the hallway makes the day 10,000 times better!!! Or their smile when looking across the room, lights up everything inside of you!!! Including your gallbladder!!! Yeah it's pretty much the most AMAZING feeling ever!!!!! Well there is a billion things more to be said, but I think that is a decent start for now!!!!!!:) Now you have to ask yourself, am I still single and reminiscing on the times of relationships OR have I found that special someone?!?!?! You can always ask me!!!!!!;) For now HAPPY SMILING AND NEVER FORGET TO FLOSS!!!!!!!!

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