It’s been a little while since I checked in with everyone to tell them how I am doing!  Don’t worry, I’m here to fill everyone in on what they have missed in the past month!!  (Spoiler alert, I’m doing great!)

I have had to do a LOT of stuff to do this month, and it felt like everything that was planned was back to back (probably because it was).  So what all have I had to do..?

 

I took my driving test to get my licence!

Talk about an anxiety trip!  In all honesty though, I wasn’t anxious at all.  (Pro tip: I put peppermint oil on the bottom of my face mask before I took the test to help with my anxiety.)

I had to take a temperature test and clean out my car with this cleaning solution they gave me before I could do any driving.  After that was my parking test..  Like every other human in the world, I was terrible at parallel parking!  However, I passed the parking test non-the-less and got to go on the road.

When it came time to get on the road I was expecting the driving instructor not to talk much, except to give me directions on where to go.  My instructor ended up talking the entire time!  We mainly talked about College and Agriculture/Farming (funny enough), and the test ended up being way shorter than I thought!  (Or maybe it just felt short because of the good conversation?)

Most of the people I talked to about this driving school told me that they like to take people on the ‘big highway’ for the test, so I was confused when we only drove to the next town, took a few turns, and said we could make our way back to the school.

“Umm, what about the highway..?”  I asked hesitantly, worried that he may have ‘forgotten’ and now I have just doomed myself by jogging his memory.

“We like to switch up our routes every now and then so that people don’t know which rout we’ll take them on.  You got lucky and we took the short route today.”  He responded.

“Not that I’m complaining!”  I clarified.  “I was just curious..”

“You know, it’s funny.  Most people think that they’ve failed the test because we get back to the driving school and I didn’t take them on the highway.  But It’s just because we like to change up the routes.”  He respond with a laugh.

Yeah, some joke..  I worried about getting on that highway for months!  Now I’m being told that I got the short route and don’t have to take it?!  Talk about over preparing for a test…

The great news: I passed with flying colors!

The bad news: Every DMV within a 50 mile radius was booked for MONTHS!

I managed to get a slot for the end of September.  Until then, no licence for me..

 

Camping / Tubing Trip!

Something that had been planned for months was a camping/tubing trip with friends..  With things opening up again, I decided that I would only go along with the intent of camping, not tubing!

The campground was PACKED!  It was a tight fit to get even a simple car in the campground, let along a camper!  How we managed to fit two campers side by side in that tiny campground is still anyone’s guess, but we did it!

The campground had a little lazy river running through it that people could tube down.  Sadly, this wasn’t the river WE were going to go down, but it was still cool to see other people going down it!

The campground also had some cool art around it as well!  These ‘totem poles’ were painted up on the bathroom walls outside and ‘Indian Valley’ painting was up by the rec room.

As for the tubing trip..  I don’t know if it was pier-pressure, or if my friends are just that good at convincing me to do crazy stuff, but I ended up going after all.

It was a LONG wait for our turn to hop in the white vans and be taken down the river (about an hour wait).  It then took another 10-20 minutes after getting there to decide who was being tied to whom, and in what formation everyone was going to go in..  My friends Kenna and Isabel and I all decided that we would be tied together, separate from the parents (whom had the food).  This turned out to be both a good and bad decision.  Good, because we got to talk out of ear shot of our parents 😉, but bad because the parents had all of the food 🥪!

On the way back to the campgrounds, us girls got to ride in the bed of the truck!  Fun fact, apparently as long as you’re over the age of 18, it’s perfectly legal to ride in the bed of the truck here in Michigan!  (You learn something new everyday!)

When it came time to go home the next day, I was the only one who had obviously checked the weather..  I had warned everyone who would listen that it was supposed to rain that morning, but no one knew just how bad that rain would be.  My mother and I started packing up as soon as we woke up, and we had almost everything packed by the time breakfast was done.  After breakfast however, it started sprinkling, and then down-pouring..  Thankfully, my parents had managed to get the camper popped down before it really started to downpour.  After that, I was stuck inside the truck with the cat, while my parents were in our friends camper watching the news and trying to figure out how long the rain would last.  (That’s right, my parents brought along a cat to our camping trip..)

The sky turned pitch black and thunder shook the truck.  It honestly reminded me of that scene from Jurassic Park where the T-Rex was lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone to move so that it could eat them..

Thankfully, the storm only lasted about an hour or so and we were on the road for home in no time!

 

House Sitting:

The day after we got back from our camping / tubing trip, my parents had to leave to go down to Virginia.  They didn’t want their cat Skunk (yup, that’s her name) to have to make the long journey there and back, so I was recruited to house sit for them.  Honestly, it was pretty fun to get to live by myself for a few days.  (Good preparation for the future. *wink wink*)

Skunk doesn’t really get along with anyone but my parents.  She likes to hiss and claw at anyone who isn’t them, but she is more used to me than anyone else in the family because I come around the most.  That being said, when that evil cat decided to attack me on day one and I couldn’t hit her on the butt and tell her ‘no!’ without her clawing me, we came to an understanding..  (AKA: I hit her with a tiny pillow and she fell in line.)  She didn’t stop clawing me after that, but at least she was a ‘little’ nicer.  Her favorite game to play with me was for her to hide under the bed and leap out at my feet every time I walked around the edge.  In a little 10 foot by 10 foot cabin, it’s impossible not to walk around the edge of the bed!

Needless to say, my ankles barely survived the trip.

 

I got a job!

(For legal reasons, I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell y’all what company I work for yet, so from here on out I shall refer to it as ‘my job’ or ‘work’ until I know more..)

So last week, I got a call for an interview for this job I applied for in town.  I was so excited that I might have a chance to work and make some extra money that I didn’t even give my anxiety a chance to worry about it.  The interview was set up for the next day, and all went smoothly.

After an eternity of filling out paperwork online, and a few days of waiting, they gave me the ‘all clear’ from the background check and I got to go in to schedule my first day of work!  Hurray!

Today, was that first day of work! 😁👍 It was a little hot working in a mask, but all went well!  I’m surprised at how well my anxiety has been doing this month with all of these new things.  I think that that was a big factor in why I decided to apply for my first job, because my anxiety was doing so well and I knew I could handle something like this.  I know that my anxiety is ready for this, and I’m over the moon happy that I finally got my first job!

 

Well, that’s mostly all of the big stuff I’ve been up to this month!  I’m glad my amazing readers have been so understanding with my lack of updates recently, but things have been crazy with one thing after another..!!!

I shall be back soon with a homestead update so that I can show all of you my pretty flowers that are finally blooming!  Until then, smile, have an amazing day, and I hope that you have a smile on under your mask!