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facebook killed the blogger

Well, it's that time again.  The time when I remember that I have a blog and think about writing something. With coffee in hand, I've sat down in front of this screen and, I'm not joking, within seconds Abe is crying in his room.  Fortunately, for me, I can ignore him.

We have a mountain behind our apartment.  It's literally behind our apartment.  I walk out the back gate, up a short road and BOOM, there's the mountain.  I like our apartment but I sometimes think about all the other apartment complexes that seem better.  Some are closer to the girl's school. Some have lots of other expat kids that the girls could be out playing with.  But none of them have their very own mountain.  And so, even with the things I'd like to change about this complex, I'm praying we can live here for a long time.  Phil tires to climb the mountain everyday.  I was inspired and I try to climb it every other day - I don't want to get too buff.  I never have a bad hike.  One time just as I started out my MP3 went funky and I was already grumpy so I thought it was going to be a bad one but it was still awesome.  I really, really like our mountain.

A friend asked me what makes me really happy, what refreshes me and I didn't know how to answer.  My family makes me happy but not always and refreshing isn't the word I'd ever use to describe the nightly bedtime routine.  I've never been a very good stay-at-home mom and so summer vacation just became pure torture for at least the last week.  I have a great husband and some of my closest friends live here in Xining and I find lots of joy in them and there are times of refreshment...but it still doesn't seem like my answer.  It was pretty depressing not having an answer. But yesterday when I was hiking I knew my answer.  Hiking on my own makes me really happy and totally refreshes me.

Studying sociology makes me happy, too.  Phil helped me see this the other night when I was telling him I couldn't answer my friend's question.  I really doubted my ability to do grad level work.  Then I did so stinkin good that first semester!!  And when I read my classmates introductions on the first day of class, and this is going to sound really nerdy, I felt like I had found my niche.  I loved how all these people thought like I did and wanted to talk about it.  And I still love it.

So, there's my answer.  Interesting that one exercises my muscles and one my mind.  Hmmm, maybe I could study the reasoning behind that...



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