Feeling at Home and So Far From It

This has been yet another busy and amazing weeks! This week at work we got a couple of new interns and on Wednesday it felt like Intern-Palooza with all the interns out numbering the office employees at least 2 to 1 but the awesome 90s jams got me through the day. The week wasn't anything too amazing at work but I truly love all the people I work with and come Friday instead of running out of the office as soon as I could I found myself staying later just to spend more time with the crew. They are just so fun and with mentions of an office Six Flags trip I was super pumped at the opportunity to spend more time with them all outside of work. We are expecting Meghan back this week so there will probably be lots of cleaning for me this week...yay! With the celebration of our half way mark of our internships Caroline and I went to IHOP Friday night for a yummy sugary dinner. I seem to be missing home a lot this week. With the half way mark upon me suddenly these past few weeks that have seemed to fly by now seem reflecting back that they took forever. I just miss my family and the idea of spending my first 4th of July without them is a lot sadder to me than expected. I have plans to spend the 4th at Newport Beach where there should be lots of people my age and lots of fireworks but I don't think it is going to make-up for my entire family nearly blowing each other up on accident...something about it just isn't as fun. This Monday I went to FHE at my ward for the first time and it was very fun. I very small group of five made up our FHE group and we headed up to the Griffith Park Observatory. It was amazing from up there. We all watched the sunset and once the sky was dark it looked like we were on top of the world. It was absolutely beautiful and the first time that I realized just how small I was is this big big place. I stood up there in amazement and the unsettling feeling of knowing I was truly in a place where I was just another face in the crowd. It was quite amazing to see how many people were there from different countries. As we walked to our open spot I passed so many different languages and so many young people in love helping me realize again just how alone in this world I am and just how much I DON'T want to be anymore. On Thursday I also ventured with some of the Relief Society of my ward to the Santa Monica Temple to do some baptisms. It was beautiful!! So big and it was awesome to see so many members everywhere doing the work! Amazing! Afterwards we girls were hungry and I got to venture with them and have my first In-N-Out Burger in Westwood and I'm in love! It was so simple and yet so delish. I also fell in love with Westwood! It was so cool there and so many people my age just on the streets enjoying being alive together! Perfect! So, this weekend we ventured to Hollywood! It was a fun time getting to see the Hollywood walk of fame, which we realized was the entirety of Hollywood Blvd. I'm not sure what we had imagined but we didn't realized just how many stars there were! We also found the Grauman's Chinese Theater and put our hands and feet in some stars prints, but I think were a little disappointed with the lack of stars that we knew or really liked in it. We had a fun time until we realized that we had seriously lost my car! With the stars on the walk to look at we quickly were just watching the ground and not looking up at all and so this made it really hard to remember what things were around where we parked! And of course we didn't remember what streets we parked on. It really is a good thing the stars are on the ground though because their are just so many adult stores it was ridiculous! I mean how many does one street need! We finally found it and drove around trying to find Melrose street and then figured out that it was not the part of Melrose that Caroline had thought it was and headed home for a very late dinner. We got lost on the way home which added to my poop mood that had formed at this time from the aimless driving previously. But I quickly realized that we were driving into Pasadena and was able to get us back on track pretty quick. I mean that's not too bad, my first time to get lost was 4 weeks into my stay...pretty good I say. Church today was lovely and I was invited to the UCLA ward which I think I will be visiting next Sunday! I also venture to Griffith Park to meet my new girlfriend from church, Ashley, for her birthday picnic. Apparently lots of people like to get out on Sundays her in LA. The roads were packed and so was the park and I never found Ashley; after 30 minutes of searching I headed back home for dinner. I also found out today that my Bishop at my home ward, Bishop Barnes, was released from his calling and will no longer be my Bishop when I get home. I want to welcome our new bishop but I don't feel like opening up to someone all over again. Bishop knows everything about me and is the only person that I ever want to talk to. I have never had such a great realationship with a bishop and I think our whole ward would agree. I'm just so sad to see him go and the fact that I was not there is even more heartbreaking to me! I just want to be at home with my ward. I will have to be positive and not sad when I get home to a very changed ward. This week has been an amazingly busy one and I can only hope that the other half of my time spent here will be as happy and enjoyable as the first. Oh and I don't think it would hurt to keep movin along quickly...I hate to rush time along so I will enjoy it while I have it!

Xs and Os!

~Leslie