California Girl

Whelp...I am back in California.  Physically, at least.

It has been a little bit of a strange road, to be honest.  Right now I am living in 2 houses, and my stuff is piled up in my aunt and uncle's living room.  I am driving back and forth from the Modesto area to the bay area and it is tiring!  (but I am absolutely LOVING my time in San Francisco!!!  Love that city!!)  I have school in Stockton (which, by the way, is 45 minutes away from Modesto)....so I stay at my Aunt's house about half the week for school, then I drive back to the bay area for work in SF a couple days a week and stay at my dad's house.  He has an air mattress set up in his computer room for me that is taking over the whole floor space, which I feel way bad about...and my aunt has a spare room in her garage that she's letting my grandma's brother sleep in until he goes back to Ohio in a few weeks (but after that, it is mine), which means I am sneakily trying to shove things in the nooks and crannies of the room without getting into his space....

And I, consequentially, haven't settled in a ward yet. I've been to 3 different wards in the last 3 weeks.  Yuck.  I just have 2 more to go to and then I can pick out of them which one I want to have my records sent to.

I just want to say how grateful I am for my dad right now.  Coming out here, I had no job, only a small amount of money in my bank account, and suddenly, the battery light in my car has been on (so we changed the battery and it still comes on so we think its the alternator...), my tires are bald, my car is terribly misaligned, I have to RESIGN UP FOR CAR INSURANCE (because I changed states...come ON people, I already spent 350 on that!!! There goes another million bucks!!), my car gets a freakin ROCK thrown at its front windshield on the freeway, making a big splotch that will probably spread and crack my entire windshield (another 300 bucks), I have to also pay for registration in California (153 dollars) and get a CA driver's license (about $30), a smog check (60 bucks)....not to mention the fees that I'm about to be hit with loan fees and car payment fees and cell phone payment....

With all this stress I have been in over my head.  I go to pull out my credit card for the alignment and tires (about $540), and my dad says that he will pay for it.  AH!! I was literally in the hospital last week because of serious pains in my stomach that they think is an ulcer (which comes from stress) so this was such a relief to me (I was also scared I'd get hit with a huge emergency room bill, but due to my situation they gave me assistance and I don't have to pay for it yay!!)....I am so grateful for my dad, who is doing everything he can to help me out without taking away my autonomy. He got me a part time job at his work (granted, it isn't much, but its something....), he does so many little things for me like make me dinner and check up on me while I'm sleeping before he leaves for work...he changed my spark plugs for me and aired up my bike tires and went on a bikeride with me....he is such a great dad and so loving and kind to me, I am so grateful for him, especially at this time when I have felt so alone and all over the place and honestly, not super happy to be here...I don't know what I would do without my daddy. :)

Anyways this has turned into totally a complainer post, which I wasn't intending....

Something my professor said today in class was comforting to me, though. She seems to be quite the liberal (with, oddly enough, some conservative beliefs tied in there), and she said "You know, I was on this trip to Europe this summer. We were supposed to be at this conference, but the transportation situation got so mixed up due to a lack in communication, so we missed our flight, had to sleep in the airport, and then had to take a bus.  Then someone miscommunicated which city we were supposed to be in, so we drove about 5 hours out of the way, found out once we got there (already 2 days late) that it was the wrong city, so we turned around and made it on the final day of the conference....the Mayor checked up on us, and he found out that the bus we were originally supposed to be on got in a huge accident, and every person on the bus was injured.  So, you never know.  Things happen for a reason. It may be absolutely miserable in the process, but you never know what worse things could have happened had you been where you thought you were supposed to be."

Huh....maybe the Lord is aware of my situation after all and He sent this teacher to remind me of a very important lesson.  :)