Training Week and Moving to Utah

On Friday I left wicked early from home with my car packed full and went to Friendly Pines to visit. The horse staff were doing vaccinations and de-worming so I helped out as much as I could. I felt kind of bad barging in on their staff bonding so I mostly just played with the horses and helped round them up. There were new bunnies in Pet Farm so I went over there and played for a while too. It was really nice to see everyone again but a little awkward cause everyone there was getting to know each other and there were a bunch of new people that I didn't know. Will was a sweetheart, we did a running hug when we saw each other which was funny. Emily and I got to hang out quite a bit, I kind of followed her around cause she was one of the few people I knew. We went out to breakfast with Em the next morning and had awesome omelette's and talked about everything under the sun. The night before that me, Lilly, Em, Brannon, and a whole bunch of other people all went out to dinner at Garcia's and had a really good time even though poor Brannon's food took ages to come when he didn't want to be there anyways. It was fantastic to see Lilly again, it feels so weird that she's back at camp and I'm not, I miss her and Lindsey terribly.

On Saturday I left camp after having breakfast with Em and spent the night in St. George. Then the next morning I headed up to Loa and moved in to my new apartment. The place is actually pretty nice, plenty of room for me. TV doesn't work but its ok cause I bought a bunch of DVD's and Law and Order SVU season 6 so I've been entertained. The kitchen doesn't have an oven but it does have a stove top, fridge, and microwave. I'll try and post pictures when I can but my new camera card wont load on the old USB connector I have and I wont have my new computer for a little while.

Monday was the first day of staff training at the Aspen Ranch, basically a lot of sitting and filling out paperwork. Tuesday was more exciting, we got to go down to the barn and play with the horses. They had us pick out any horse that appealed to us and of course I pick the spazoid with some serious issues, he was adorable thought, named Pokey. At the end of the session they told us to compare the horses we chose to ourselves and that 90% of the time the horses personalities match the person who chose them....so apparently I'm a spaz with issues....haha, got that right. Then we went on the ropes course and I belayed someone up their Jacob's Ladder which was fun. Today we recerted our CPR and First Aid and then participated in some staff meetings which were mostly ice breakers and obstacle courses. It was fun but I got to see all of the staff and well...lets just say its going to be an interesting time. I'd say 3/4 are married and mormon or one and the other. This is probably good for me, I can just take a step back for a while and not date and not drink alot and just spend time with me, which sounds a little creepy but its good.

Tomorrow and Friday we do PCS training which is the non-violent methods of deescalating situations and restraining people if necessary. Then next week its shadowing residential staff and the week after we start real work. We'll see what happens then. Feel free to write stuff so I can live vicariously through you all.