Settling in and Surgeries

Hi all!

Yesterday I flew in to the promised land of Washington, where every breath you take smells fresh, woodsy, and cold, where the tallest, most glorious trees line every street and nearly overwhelm you. Mhmm. My family went out for dinner last night at this delicious Mexican restaurant, where I received a beautiful graduation present: a silver watch. Afterwards, at the house, we mocked a portion of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and the awful commercials that interrupted before turning the TV off and playing a round or two of Pictionary. I love my family.

Today, I spent the entire day unpacking and rearranging my new room...that I will be living in indefinitely. Such a weird thought. But I love my mom's new house! It's the perfect size, with lots of cozy little rooms.

And, as my mom and step-dad are obsessed with The Teaching Company and have, literally, bookcases of their lectures, and because I have to keep studying something or I'll go crazy, I have spent the evening picking out which ones I want. They all look fascinating and it's hard to choose!!! Do I want the lecure series on the Vikings or the one on the history of ancient Egypt?  Or From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History? Oooh, ooh, or one on Africa (From Lucy to Mandela)?!! And that's just involving history! There are lectures on literature, classical music, and astronomy and a million other things. I think I'm going to pick one of the histories, and one of the music studies to start.

This is kind of a random switch, but my mom had surgery back on Wednesday...and you wouldn't know it looking at her. She's had almost no pain, which is a real miracle, and she's been running around the place with her usual amount of high energy. It makes me happy to see.

***But right now, and this is the most important part of this entry, my sister's brother-in-law, Keith Gravley, is going through a very long and dangerous surgery due to an aortic aneurysm and the doctors are telling my sister and her in-laws that Keith has a 50/50 shot. So if you see this entry tonight, please pray for him. He ran the marriage ceremony for his brother and my sister back in June of this year and he really is a great guy, with a wife and two young kids.***