Big Things.

Big things have been happening in my life lately, and I haven't had time to write about them because I've been trying (and failing? ...unclear.) to write a novel. (To update on that, I'm about a week behind schedule. Things aren't looking great, but I'm still hoping I might get back on track. Obviously writing this blog post isn't actually helping me at all.)

First off, I got accepted into and offered a position with AmeriCorps! Woohoo!

 Unfortunately, the position they offered me was at the Maryland location, which is one of the two that I've said right from the beginning that I didn't want to do. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to do AmeriCorps was to explore an area of the country that I hadn't been to yet, and the "Atlantic Region" is where I spent the first twenty two years of my life. So yesterday I officially declined their offer. Gulp.

Part of me really wanted to accept anyway, because I really do want to do AmeriCorps. And this was my only option for it. But the other part of me, the part that won, is extremely stubborn and refused to accept a position that I didn't really want just because it was the only option. "I am better than settling!" that part of me screamed silently. And I listened. So now I'm going to stay in Minneapolis for the next year or so, which I'm equally excited about (minus the next five months of frozen-tundra-hell).

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In other news, (part of) my family came to visit me for 36 hours. It was really wonderful to see them. My incredibly generous and thoughtful bosses let us stay in their house since they were out of town and their house had ten empty beds (though Jon still chose to sleep on the couch, of course). I got them all up at four in the morning and dragged them to work at the coffee shop with me and then we did fun things like get breakfast/early lunch with Kendra at Groundswell, visit some stores that I've always wanted to take my mom to, and walk across the Stone Arch Bridge. Then we headed back to my house where my mom took a nap (understandable- I usually take one myself), I straightened Britt's hair, and Jon listened to music in headphones so loudly that we all thought his ears would start bleeding.

We then headed over to Psycho Suzi's, everyone's favorite Minneapolis tiki-bar, where Britt and I split a tiki drink and we enjoyed some cheese curds (classic!) and pizza. Then we headed back to the Johnsons' house and we girls watched Silver Linings Playbook while Jon stubbornly sat downstairs alone because he refused to watch it after we ignored his selection input (classic!).

Overall, it was a really enjoyable 36 hours. I'm really glad that my family spent 48 hours in the car just to make it here for that short amount of time. Here are some pictures of us being cute and stuff.