After a long drive home alone, I was ready to crash. I slept very well that night--my bed is so much better than a cot or a plastic matress! Then I took a day off and hung out by the pool at my apartment complex. It was wonderful.
Then the next day, I was off again. I went to California for a week to visit Paul. I was in Los Angeles for a day before driving up north to Daly City (just south of San Francisco) to meet his family. It was a long, hot drive (no A/C in the car), but it was a good time to chat and listen to music. When I arrived, I had dinner with his parents...then his grandparents as well...then his aunt, uncle, cousins, and brothers. Then we had an adventure heading up to their lake house the next day. Halfway there, Paul's car died (something he had just been waiting to happen). So we had to get a tow back to Daly City and borrow his brother's car to complete the trip. But we did finally make it. We got to spend some time on the boat with his family, and I attempted to learn how to wakeboard. That just confirmed how out of shape I am! So then Paul had to rent a car to make it back down to L.A., and we arrived late afternoon on Sunday...which meant we had until about noon the next day to get him moved out of his apartment and into his new house before I had to get to the airport and he had to head to Japan for summer project. It was crazy and exhausting. We did get it done, but I was actually thankful that my flight was delayed for once. So I headed back to Austin, to life as usual.
Most people were still on summer project, so the office was a little lonely. But it was also nice and relaxing. I actually got to spend my first ever 4th of July at home since living here! My sister Tiffany and 4 nieces also came for a quick visit. Then at the end of July, I had to pack up my own apartment to move for the second year in a row. One of my roommates got married in April, so we needed to find a new roommate, or a new place. We ended up finding both. My remaining roommate, Rebekah, had a friend whose rommates were moving out, leaving 2 open spots. So we moving into a duplex with Fara closer into town. It's in a great neighborhood, it's very homey, and I can walk to the grocery store! The transition was crazy, because there was some overlap with the girls moving out, but I love my new place.
Soon after the move, Paul came to visit me. He got to stay for 2 whole weeks! I was working, so he just got to hang out at the office and try to entertain himself. We drove up to see my family over the weekend. My mom had a birthday and my sister Tiffany hosted a Brockett family get-together at her house. It was fun taking Paul to see my family. Small town Texas ranch life is a little different from what he was used to. My brother-in-law even gave him a crash-course horse riding lesson. After the weekend, we headed back to Austin for another "normal" week. The following weekend, I was involved in the wedding of my friends Kim and Amar, so I got to drag Paul along to that as well.
After Paul left town, the pace started to pick up a bit. I had plenty to do at work to get the new year started. A couple of weeks ago I went to Orlando to our headquarters to meet with other Finance Professionals (that's what my "official" title is these days) to learn new skills and work on projects together to improve the financial operations of the campus ministry. It was a good time to connect with others that I have met before and share many emails with. And it's always nice to talk to other like-minded people who share the same desires to serve the ministry.
After the week in Orlando, I went out for another visit to California for the weekend. This trip was shorter, but I did get to go to Disneyland! I'd never been to a Disney theme park, so it was fun to go back and act like a kid again. We had a lot of fun, but now I'm back to business as usual.
Now it's just a matter of getting prepared for upcoming conferences. I'll be sharing more about those in the days and weeks to come. If you've made it this far in this very long post, bless you. Thanks for being a part of my life and continuing to pray for me and the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ!
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