West Coast, Baby!!!

sooooooooo.

I'm moving. To Oregon. In a week.

.....who knew that this would happen after returning home from working in Italy?! Oregon...the west coast. I never planned on the west coast. Then again, that is the fun in life right now- things happening that I never planned on. Let's just say that it's God's way of showing me that I can't ALWAYS be in charge and know it all. He has a sense of humor.

I'm super pumped about my new job working for ICPE Mission. It's an international Catholic/ Humanitarian Organization, and I will be working at the first branch in America. The job description seems endless, which lends to its exciting (albeit daunting!) nature.

Here I come.....

An accomplished, yet forgotten, desire

Clearly, my brain is really screwy sometimes. While at work at the Olive Garden the other day, in a moment of enlightenment, I realized something. It was something that I had forgotten all about while trekking to the OG almost everyday to pounding music in attempt to pump myself up for another few hours of work.

I had always wanted to serve at the Olive Garden, at least for some time.

Don't ask me why. I think it was because I have a tie fetish (not so much now that I wear one everyday), I thought the ambiance was warm and inviting, and that the servers seemed older and professional. Hah! Now, after seven months as a server at that ...ahem...place, I consider my previous self to have been juvenile and pathetic to set that as even a little goal in life.

At the same time, I did find it all pretty funny, and chuckled at myself for a few minutes. I had accomplished a goal I had set for myself, fully forgetting that I had really wanted to serve there. As I refilled another glass of Peach Bellini Iced Tea, I once again forgot about the job's attractiveness as I submerged myself into my guests' needs.

How ironic.


*L*

The reality of Italy

I did it.

I bought the ticket that I have longed for, dreamed about, sought after, and desired above all else.

I am going to Italy.

The other week, I was sitting in my car eating a McDonalds McFlurry ice cream sundae in the middle of the snow-covered town of Sinking Spring. I was just sitting there eating cold ice cream on a cold, dark night, watching the cars pass by intermittently as the stop lights went from red to green. I had made a joke with the drive through guy that he must think im psychotic, ordering ice cream right after its been like negative degrees and snowing the past two days. He had just laughed.

So as I ate, I thought. I had just prayed a 9-day novena for my decision of whether to go to Patagonia or not. On the 8th day, I got a call from the manager saying that they unfortunately had to withdrawl their invitation to come down because they were filled to capacity with the interns there already. What an answer. It made my mind up fast. So, I wasn't headed there. I wasn't headed anywhere fast except to my second home of the Olive Garden in a few hours come morning. But as I licked the chocolate off my plastic spoon, I decided that that was okay with me. There was a reason I wasn't going to Chile right now. Something else was headed my way, and I knew it was in God's hand. I was okay with it, and so so happy to finally at least 'know' what I was doing. Or, in the present case, not doing.

And tonight I booked a ticket for Italy. I will be in Italy for a month. For the first week, and old housemate from when I studied abroad in Perugia will be going back to Perugia with me to relive old walks, embrace remembered friends, and create new memories. After she leaves, I will be there another 3 weeks. My good friend, Aby, has graciously opened his extra room in his house to me. I don't really have set plans for my whole time there. And I am actually ok with that. I just need to find 'me' again. I feel like part of me has been missing for a long time. When I lived there, not that it was all peaches and cream, but I felt alive, vibrant, joyful, and me. I've really missed all of that for a long time now. What I would like to do while I am in Italy, aside from being with friends I've missed for 2 years now, is go on the few job interviews I've set up so far, meet up with Franciscan's group in Gaming's Rome/ Assisi pilgrimage and have a mini-pilgrimage myself, and to visit some other places I feel called to go see- such as Pier Giorgio's tomb, and where St. Rita of Cascia was from, along with Bl. Columba of Rieti, and stay in a few monasteries. Also, I may visit my German friend in Munich, which would be wonderful. Other than that rough outline, I just want to live. I want to go where I feel God wants me to be, and meet the people He wants me to, and hopefully set up a job for in the Fall. We'll see.

So, that's my update on life so far. It's very surreal to me that I will be back in Perugia in 2 weeks. When I think about it I freak out, just a bit. I'm so excited.

Ci vediamo a presto.

A new time for life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! 2009 here we come!!!!!

It's a new year and I simply cannot wait for the potential that it holds. Unbeknown discoveries, fulfilled dreams, enticing affairs... a wholly-new slate for each person to do whatever they want with it! Yet, adversely, it's all what one wishes to make of something that determines its worth.

I, for one, have fantastic expectations for this year. I aspire to make it grand. I hope to follow what God is leading me towards in life- in the little things that all combine to create who "Laura Monica Ross" is. It's my first year as a college graduate. Time to delve into greatness!

I missed many people on New Year's Eve. I was with fantastic friends in Philadelphia, and we had a marvelous time, but little pieces of my heart are peppered throughout the world like sections of a popcorn path. It doesn't make for a whole me, but that's ok. I guess it's all in the realm of what it means to love others. They always take a piece of you with them.

My New Year's Resolution?
---To live each day.

Yep, that's what it is. It might sound like a cop-out, but it's not. That resolution has a deep meaning for me. It encompasses being positive about life and difficulties and situations, it means taking advantage of every opportunity that comes my way and yet not taking advantage of anyone, it means being present in the moment and not in yesterday or tomorrow, it means being unafraid, it means being open to everything and not writing anything off, it means listening with my heart to my Heavenly Father, and especially it means loving.

It'll be hard. I'll forget my resolution, as I know I have already. Hopefully I'll bounce back often.

I think no one encompasses my resolution more than one of my favorite writers: Thoreau.

"I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."~Henry David Thoreau

Amen!

To live at the bottom of the world....

Do I want to live at the bottom of the world for 3 months??????

I've been seriously pondering this question for the last few days. To clarify, by the "bottom of the world" I mean Punta Arenas, Chile. It is in Patagonia, in the very south of South America, and it is one of the southernmost towns in the world that people inhabit. I applied for and was accepted for a journalism internship with Nomadas Outdoor Services, a company that covers the annual Patagonian Expedition Race- better known as "The Race at the Bottom of the World". Marta's question posed to me was, "So, when you think you could come?" .......

So, how cool would it be to live surrounded by unrivaled beauty, where nomads and adventure-seekers alike flock to experience just how small they are in the grandeur of the eiptome of creation? I bet it would be rockin'.

I had been planning on going to Italy to job search at the end of February. Yet, the Patagonian Expedition Race is in February, and it would be best if I could go as soon as possible before all the craziness of the race time. The internship is at least 3 months, and I can decide if I would want to stay longer. It is unpaid, and they provide housing and all meals. I would just have to buy the plane ticket down there, which IS a pretty penny.

Sooooo, as of right now, I'm not sure what I will do. I'm just blown away by the reality of actually being offered this position, and trying to discern if it's definitely what I want to do right now. Also, I'm thinking of if I have the money to do this. Hmmm......

Potential

I'm thinking of joining the Peace Corps.

I want to make a difference in peoples' lives. I want to help them, to feed them, to give the poor a little bit of another culture and lifestyle that they couldn't get without assistance. I feel like I could do so much, that so many people can do so much, but that they don't do much at all. Unfortunately, most of the people I know here at home have lives revolving solely around a job, drugs, and alcohol. What is that going to do for themselves or anyone in the long run? Niente.

So, I don't know if I will actually do the Peace Corps as my medium of volunteering abroad. I hate to say this, but it seems so cliche. I know it isn't, and that it's probably just that complex I have about being "different" from the norm, but I'm just not sure I would want to go through that organization.

Maybe a Catholic Relief Services job is on the horizon for me.
But, first of all, I plan on returning to Italy and working there for a little. Then I would do some volunteer work.

I'm just keeping myself open to anything. I really want to make a difference and to live life to its fullest. It would be nice if all people realized their potential.....

The first real job offer. I made it go 'kaput'.

So. I turned down my first real job offer today. It was such a whirlwind. I met the lady who my mom is friends with on Sunday, when she had given me her card, by Monday we had set an interview up for Wednesday at 9 AM, and by 2:30 PM on Wednesday the job was offered to me. Now, mind you, this was my first "real job" interview- not one sitting in a restaurant or walking around a stable meeting people and horses. The lady made me an offer with a nice salary, and..........................



I didn't take it. I refused. I told her that I wouldn't want to take a job that someone else would be better suited for, and that I did appreciate how nice it was of her to schedule me in and give me this opportunity. And that was that.

I could have been a technical editor and word processor in merely a few weeks. But I chose against it, the reasons for myself being that I would be utterly bored with a job like that, find no excitement in the office, location, nor position, and would be burnt out and mad at myself for another false start in about a week. I'm glad I didn't take it. But what the f***? Why did it have to be this way? Here I remain, serving at the Olive Garden.