InstaForever

I meant to do some sort of InstaFriday post last week, but then the days got ahead of me. A friend encouraged me to do it anyway, so here is a far too large collection of Instagram photos from the last few weeks of my life around the Bay Area.

Let me introduce you to the beauty that is “the tire swing”. This baby can be thrown up by my outdoorsy Canadian friend Dane in about 5 minutes, and can entertain campers/staff/LITs for hours. I’ve spent many hours this summer swinging to and fro and pondering life with new friends.

My beautiful bud Betsy celebrated her 23rd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and we and her coworkers surprised her with ice skating! And the creepy zamboni driver surprised her by saying she could ride the zamboni for her birthday. She looks excited, but trust me, it was a long and awkward ride…

Pretty pretty orange lights wrapped around the palm trees outside of AT&T Park. Lots of Giants games have been attended this summer!

In fact, you can combine the last two pictures (Betsy + Giants games) and get the above image!

One Saturday, we hit up the Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It was artsy meets weird.

Earlier that same Satuday, Kim and I joined Betsy and the whole PCC summer staff on the Duck Tour of San Francisco. It included a lot of loud music, dancing, a tour of the city, and a jaunt into the bay. Here is a shot of the Bay Bridge from the water.

Christina and I biked to work one morning (to be repeated tomorrow morning) and treated ourselves to some iced venti vanilla soy light ice chais upon arrival at Peninsula Ave. It rained that morning unfortunately, but it looks like sunny skies for tomorrow!

We also then biked IN the building…

On one Thursday evening, Laura and I embarked on a dessert crawl through downtown San Mateo. This shot marked the beginning of our voyage, with Funfetti gelato at Sweet Orchid. The crawl was completed with many more stops at various Asian dessert locations.

My BEST friend Kim has a new s’more maker that she found for $5! She had already tested it out, but we gave it a good test last Saturday morning before I embarked on some serious crafting. Along with the s’mores, we had some decaf herbal teas.

Above are a few of the things I began that Saturday and finished that Sunday. The left three are mason jars that I spray-painted and then potted with flowers, and the right mason jar is a desert terrarium that I am really excited about!

Patrick Tucker, whose claim to fame is that he has known me since I was three years old, had a baby! Well, his lovely wife Emily had a baby, but still… Her name is Hayden Elizabeth and she is so fun! Above was the day after she was born, and I saw her two days ago again and she is a beauty!

Later that same day, we replaced Chipotle Sunday with Sonic Sunday, because there is a new Sonic in Hayward! We spent over 80 dollars. It was ridiculous(ly good).

Last Saturday, I had a great evening with some old(er) friends, a couple of whom I don’t get to see often. We went to a great taco place, and everyone but me was able to order alcohol but I had to settle for a Mexican Coke. I thought I may as well try my hardest to make it look like theirs…

Last Tuesday I went to a Mat Kearney and Owl City concert at the Warfield in San Francisco with Jessica, Dave, Val, Mark, and Bryan. So basically a triple date, but I was the youngest by about 15 years. I tried to get them to love Owl City, but he just was not great live. So, we bounced about 4 songs into his set, and began walking back to our car. On the way, we happened to run into Mat Kearney. The above picture is me jumping for joy after meeting him. He. Is. Great.

Head over to Jessica’s blog to see a full recount of us meeting Mat.

http://keepupwiththejohnsons.com/2011/07/hey-mat/

And so begins the long string of Instas that pertain to camp. Enjoy!

Kite flying with Earth Explorers.

One of my favorite campers from last week on the tire swing.

Building rock towers at the beach.

I don’t understand why this picture is smaller, but… That’s Max and Dane getting all Matrix-y. Silly boys. (They’re my favorites. Shh.)

Super muddy camper at in the marsh.

We have all become addicted to T Pumps, a new bubble tea place on 1st and B Street in San Mateo. It is pretty fantastic, and last week I got a huge stuffed panda after buying 10 drinks! Taking everyone’s orders has its perks!

Lastly, on our way to a staff dinner at Celia’s. We were also riding in Dane’s bright blue Volvo, which made us pretty much just a large blue mass.

We have been doing a lot of fun things as a whole staff recently, including dinners at Celia’s, Pizza My Heart, game nights, movie nights, an adventure at House of Air in the Presidio (this awesome trampoline place), and soon Laser Tag. This only makes it harder to accept that I am headed back to Azusa next Friday. I will miss the guys and gals I work with! I wish I was there for the last 2 weeks of summer with them.

But, duty calls… Literally.

Gotta get used to spending my nights on RA duty instead of going to bed early to prepare for long fun days biking to work and playing around!

Today Is Just Today

During my trip to Ireland a couple weeks ago, I was fortunate enough, once I was able to get out of bed, to escape away on some pretty awesome walks up the countryside. Occasionally I remembered to bring my camera, so I got to capture some pictures like the one above. Thankfully I always remembered to bring my journal and Bible, and was able to spend some sweet time in surrender before the Creator of such a gorgeous landscape. I treasure those moments, and although I love spending time with family I don’t see often, reminiscing and catching up on what we’ve missed in each others lives, it is those quiet times up the Black Road and down by Lough Allen that will stick in my memory for years to come. Plus, the pictures and journal entries help to document the spiritual realities that God made real.

I freak out about dates, I really do. Not dates, but dates, like the ones on a calendar. I have the memory of an elephant (usually), and can remember dates from years and years back that I really should forget. Honestly, for my own health and well-being I should really forget the painful dates that I remember. For weeks months I have been psyching myself out about today, thinking that it would be among the most painful of days in my young life thus far. It wasn’t something I was consciously doing, but rather I would occasionally remember that day in July and just shove that memory back into the billionth layer of my intricate memory.

Through honestly sweet quiet times in the dark mornings and light evenings of San Mateo, reading Scripture and writing while sprawled out in the green fields of Country Leitrim, encouraging conversations with friends who know much about the character of the faithful God we serve, and walking through a very trying time period with my family, God has turned today into a drop in the ocean that is the rest of my life. He has shown me how to love and forgive, and to mold each and every day around Him. He has given me new perspective of the cross, and revealed to me just how much I still think I can do this life on my own.

I am nothing without Christ, and all of my relationships need to reflect that truth.

I’m thankful for today, and the pleasant memories that it brought to mind. It has been hard to come to understand this, but the last two years were not pointless. They are a crucial piece of my present and my future. Thank you, Jesus.

“O praise the one who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead…”

Sum-meration

So I go back to school two weeks from this approaching Friday, and I have blogged, what, once this summer? Here’s what happened, ready?

Training started. Met and reconnected with some awesome people. Learned to handle lots of wild animals, and how to run a camp that teaches various ages to become animal keepers. Two weeks later, camp began. Two weeks later, I became deathly ill. And my whole family had already left the country. I was diagnosed with strep, had lots of blood taken, was told there is something funky with my liver, and had an EKG done to analyze my tachycardic heart. The results came back confused, but I was told I would be okay to fly. I began one antibiotic, and then was switched to another that made me nauseous for 3 hours every evening. Like, incapacitatedly nauseous. I went to Ireland for ten days, eventually recovered from the deathly illness, and had the best trip I can remember. I came back, and had the worst jet lag to date, taking over four days to recover. Work began again, and one week later here we are.

I’m alive, I’m well, and God has been faithful to heal me physically. Not only has He knit back together my ragged throat, calmed my tachy heart, and given me back the physical energy to get back to work, He has also helped me to choose joy this summer.

Also, not having a Facebook has really helped, so… I suggest it, if you ever need to de-stress and re-focus on Christ.