day 11: orange you glad we're orange?

this morning we went on a hike called "scout cave". it was actually pretty easy with only a few inclines on the way to a cave. the cave was probably the only exciting part, and my camera ended up fogging up (since it sucks more than anything) so i didn't even get to capture scout cave. oh well, didn't take me long to get over that one. one thing about this trail that for some reason kind of bothered me was that it was covered in ants. i know ants are strong, but i felt like i was stepping on them a lot... and i really don't like that.

i get made fun of here a little bit because of the whole, "we-don't-kill-bugs-in-my-family-if-it-can-be-avoided" thing. people are a little relentless towards insects, which isn't fair because they can't fend for themselves. (yikes! guess i sort of understand why i get made fun of.) on the hike, my friend ed from brooklyn and i spoke about grammar. we went on forever and he started to tell me about his job as an assistant principal at a school in brooklyn. he's such a funny guy. he has absolutely no filter to what is okay and not okay to say publicly. i'm kind of used to his rudeness, i feel, but most people aren't. he's harsh but i think he's hysterical (maybe just because he never stops).

breakfast was hot muesli with raisins, walnuts and a little bit of almond milk. then, i headed over to a the "health and wellness workshop", which was about having an emotional toolbox. i still don't think i know what that means. i'm not sure if the lecture was helpful, i'd probably have to take a look back at my sheet to find out. i think that might be a hint that it wasn't too touching (as a lot of the lectures are). afterwards, i went to stretch class.

lunch was a squash soup and a caesar salad pizza. the soup was absolutely incredible and the pizza was all right. quickly imagine how hard it is to eat lettuce on top of a thin crust pizza. i bet i looked super sophisticated while i was eating.

after lunch we had open gym and we played volleyball again. sione is shadowing as a trainer now and he "supervised" our volleyball game. we played music from my ipod and i was really nervous, which might surprise you. a skrillex song came on and i went to go change it when one of the trainers that was in the gym, robin, was like, "i know skrillex!" i almost died until she explained she has a 17 year old daughter. even so, i still appreciated that.

next i took kickboxing twice in a row instead of taking mountain. shanelle and i dance through everything here. we tried to turn volleyball into zumba-volleyball and kickboxing into zumba-kickboxing. sharon probably won't join in on our idea but it keeps us moving and laughing. sometimes people even join in! after two of those classes, i hit the pool.

my color this week is orange. there are 3 colors assigned: purple, orange, and yellow. the colors don't mean anything except that they assign the order in which we take our afternoon classes. for instance, yellow would have kickboxing first,  then orange would have it second, and purple would have it last. a lot of the time you can stay through two classes, but the only class we are not allowed to change is pool. too many people in the pool is a bad thing, and everyone wants pool to be their last class. i think there was about 30 people in the pool today, which would make it the biggest pool class i've ever had. it was so hard to move around and be comfortable. a ton of people ignored the "rule" about switching your pool class. i thought it was a little rude, considering most of the people here are adults and should know better.

dinner was grilled turkey and yam fries. dessert was chocolate covered strawberries! kateri sat with us tonight and i love when she's around because i never stop laughing. i'm so glad she's here another week. we didn't get to play tennis tonight because she had a hair appointment. i was a little disappointed because today was a pretty low calorie day, i didn't burn more than 2800. i know you think that sounds like a lot, but it's not at fitness ridge.

kateri asked me to bike into st. george on saturday. it's about 1.5hrs each way. i told her i was down before she told me how long it'd take but she's so fun that i can hardly imagine being bored. she tells me that she needs a picture with me and a note that reads "your mom is not boring" before she leaves. she has 3 (or 4?) sons that she's adopted in africa. one of her sons right now attends the college of new jersey. isn't that so cool?

around 7 i went to go learn to crochet some more with kathy. i'm still not very good but i know 3 stitches and i finished a tiny square i'm going to call a washcloth. now i've started a tiny drawstring bag. kathy calls herself "the yarn chef". i think that's really clever. she makes all sorts of items, from baby hats to shawls. these tiny bags are really cute and they seemed pretty easy. i still love knitting though, don't worry.

off to bed. love you all. goodnight!