We made it! We made it all the way to Florida with only one close call in New York where we almost splatted Natalie. It took us 28 hours, but after 14 states down the east coast we rolled into Tampa, FL at 3:00 in the morning. To become better women, as they put it, Natalie and Liesel held their pee until they started sweating and didn’t happen to tell me (the driver) until we almost had us an accident. I am a champion camel as well as a very good strategic dehydrator, and they tried to get on my level. It is not a good idea to do that unless you’ve had as much training as I had. On Saturday night we made it to C.P.’s in-laws house (which, oddly enough, I have been to before on our way to Tennessee) and they let us stay the night there. In the morning, we went to church and hit the road. We ate a lot of snacks, had many a deep conversation, and took turns sleeping in my backseat.

It was December of last year where Natalie and I conceived a cross-country trip, but nobody has enough time for that. So we thought about a “down-country” trip instead, and the rest was history. Follow through is one of the most important qualities of life.

I think my friends are getting accustomed to my family (the first of my friends since I came to college to actually meet my family) and we’re eating a lot of good food. I’m very excited for them to open their Christmas presents-I’ve knocked it out of the park this year for them. Please keep praying for our safety on the way up (we still need a place to sleep on the night of the 27th in Raleigh!) and that everybody in my house doesn’t end up killing each other at least by tomorrow.

I’ll have way more things to talk about in part 2, as we will be stopping in Atlanta, Raleigh, and NYC and doing some sightseeing and such. Merry Christmas y’all, and I hope you’re having a quieter one than I am.

~J

Liesel eating a pepper on our way down

My favorite type of clouds (altocumulus) in PA

Natalie got a salad at Cracker Barrel-can you believe that?

I taught them how to play Backgammon

Liesel is in season down here in FL. Just go up to a tree and find her growing!

P.S. One little rant before I wrap things up-a lot of people are still hunting around this time as I believe deer season is still open in some states. In Colorado, I met a lot of people who like to hunt for sport, and most do eat the animal. It is a legitimate hobby, people hunt with their families (yes, even girls do!) and I laugh at people saying they’ll “unfriend” people if they see hunting pictures on their timeline. I don’t condone killing animals like bears or other top predators of the sort by any means, nor have I hunted myself (I would like to someday), but don’t be judge-y about what people like to do in their free time. One could also say, pun intended, buck up. That’s just my opinion, you can have a different one, and I hope you get exactly what you’ve been wanting for Christmas, whether it’s a new gun or a comic book.

Oh, having fun-I’m really abysmal at it. Not for a lack of trying, but because of a terribly ruthless inner critic that tells me that having fun is unproductive. Do you ever feel that way? I think she kicked in right around when I started college; I would like to blame structured education for the immense pressure that I put on myself, because that would mean once I graduate (in 161 days, but whose counting?), that pressure would disappear and I would be free to just be me. However, I’m very afraid it won’t just magically go away once I have a degree, but that the works based mindset will continue into my professional life. It’s pretty hard to see yourself as anything else but a number when all your worth is based on how you perform in school from age 5-22. It is one of my biggest fears stepping into this new season of not being a student anymore.

However, I got a quick break from my Atlas-heavy load on Thursday and Friday nights this past weekend. After work on Thursday, my babysitting gig got cancelled, and I was left with a decision (I should also mention I’ve been terribly indecisive these past few weeks, a trait unlike me). I could either go to a double class at the dojo, or hang out with my friend Cristin. I’ve been pretty good this semester at going to the dojo at least once a week, and that double class on Thursdays is just icing on the cake after doing one on Monday nights as well. Plus, I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so an intense workout with Renshi John followed by God knows what else in the second class was not seeming so appealing. So I decided to hang out with my girl Cristin, and after grabbing dinner from the crack, I headed up to her room. While we ate she relayed to me one of the funniest medical misfortunes that I have ever hear that happened to her a while ago, and I tell you, tears were streaming down my face from laughing so hard. I won’t tell you what it was, but here’s a picture of her reenacting it.

After I collected myself, we watched Pixar shorts, Encore (an absolutely fantastic show about reuniting high school theater productions and putting on the show again with the cast 30 years later-I highly recommend it), and 10 Things I Hate About You all on Disney+. It was such fun having down time and Cristin and I haven’t hung out in a very long time.

So what I did on Friday night requires a little backstory, and is really nerdy, so take off your judging hats. Last year in the second semester, Jake and I were recalling how unoriginal the new Pokemon designs are. So after about a month, we had a whole game, generation designs in the works, and a possible play through on our hands. So that May we did it, and it was an absolute riot. And not to mention, Jake, all on his own-

1. Designed, illustrated, and implemented all the new Pokemon
2. Came up with a plot for the game
3. Did stat and math calculations, and other things in real time so we could actually battle and stuff like that

We helped him design some of the Pokemon, but 99% of the credit goes to him for bringing them to life. So we decided to do a second generation this year. Kate so graciously fed us dinner, and we set up shop next to her TV ready to go. Our Pokedex is now up to 90-something completely original Pokemon. I designed the evee-lution and came up with a couple of the others. Most famously, the Pokemon, Squimp, was conceived during a boring BSO meeting and scribbled on a post it while they were talking and me and Jake were giggling about it. The story this time around was even better, the Pokemon more surprising, and overall it was an amazing time. Down below you can see our teams from the combined playthroughs and Jakes amazing artwork in them. We played from 7pm to 2am.

The crew!

Our game packets (again that Jake made all himself)

My beautiful team!

Denver’s stacked team

The garden of Carl-kind (an inside joke I cannot even begin to unravel) as he mainly chooses grass types

The bad guys team!

DM Jake

We always joke about our “Bud Knights”, but I always forget constantly how important they are. The term comes from that stupid Bud Light Super Bowl commercial 2 years ago. Jake went home from the party we were at and actually sketched it in its full armor. Henceforth, a Bud Knight is creating or doing something you love that will please you primarily and others as well. It’s just something you would do that would bring you unique happiness. We have several benched right now, like a radio show about regrettably hilarious and useless superheroes that I still very much want to create. Creating this game was way above the standard amount of work one would put into a Bud Knight.

I used to paint in my free time. I used to play piano whenever I got the chance. I used to sketch and read and write all the time, but now I don’t. This is all extra hilarious when you consider that creativity is one of my 3 core values. It’s not that I don’t want to have fun anymore, but that I feel like I have forgotten how, amongst these tangled vines of pressure and lies that choke the lighthearted spirit right out of me. Don’t forget about your Bud Knights, friends. They are so important even though they may seem silly.

~J

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” -Luke 18:17