California

Okay, here it goes.
I'm in Bakersfield, California this summer to work and save money for school in the fall (I'll be a senior! Is anyone else wierded out by that?). My wonderful friend Brittany found me a job and I'm staying with her parents.
So I left early in the morning two saturdays ago, and it was pouring rain, which seemed to me like exactly the right mood. I had done most of my frantic packing the day before and after putting everything in the car I said goodbye to the fam. It didn't seem real to me that I was saying goodbye for 4 months, I've never been away from my family for more than a week so I just don't think it really registered. There's lots of other people I didn't say goodbye to, so if you're one of them, sorry and hello/goodbye :) I hugged everyone extra tight and not gonna lie, I cried, and then I set out with a stomach full of butterflies. I've never driven further than Salt Lake and back, so this was gonna be interesting. I took Jaime's car, having wrecked mine the week before...so it was extra good of her to let me have it, considering my track record. Don't worry Jaime, I've been taking good care of it :)
The drive was loooooooooooooooooooooooooong. I discovered that I really love driving on my own, I don't mind driving for hours and hours, but about after crossing the California border I was pretty much done. And the California stretch was just ugly and boring. And my butt hurt like no other. But I listened to John Bytheway for pretty much the whole 10 hours, so I was feeling very spiritualized. I FINALLY made it to Thad and Brittany's, and it was SO good to see them! It's been so long and I missed them so much! And Andi is so very big and very talkative now.
I moved in to Brittany's parents house, just 4 doors down, and have started going to the local single's branch, where Thad's dad is the bishop. I've got the hookups :)
Brittany's parents are amazing and they've been so nice, and they have a pool in their backyard (BOOYAH!!). The spirit here reminds me of home, so that feels good. Oh and they have like 8 cartons of ice cream in their fridge, which I am supposed to take care of. I plan on coming back to Utah Polynesian style--fat, brown, and happy.
The single's branch is....interesting. I'm sure it will grow on me :)
My first week I thought: the bad news is, there aren't any cute guys here. The good news is, if there were, I wouldn't have any competition (I know, I'm a horrible person). But in the last week lots of cute guys have shown up and I've gotten to know some people. And one of them is in love with me.
Let's see...work is great, I actually really like my job, the people are very friendly and mostly crazy, which is very entertaining. Seriously, I have so many stories, and I've only been there a week. I work in the operator's room and in the medical records department, and mostly scan and pull charts. It's the kind of thing you can do without using a whole lot of brain power, which leaves me free to talk to my coworkers/listen in on their conversations, and have deep conversations with myself :) I love love that I get to wear scrubs everyday, I hate having to pick out clothes. They're so shapeless and wonderful, it's like wearing pj's all day. I'm going to be so sad when I go back to school and have to wear actual clothing. I think that's about it...
Oh and I bought a camera, so there will be pictures coming and all my posts won't be so wordy.