Crowded at Castles and Coasters

16 October - 22 October 2023

Monday night was the huge Castle and Coasters event! I met with clients beforehand, quickly finished up notes, then took myself out to dinner for Thai food. I ate it on the long drive to the event, so luckily I arrived in one piece. It was kinda hard to eat Pad Thai while trying to drive and merge onto the highway. The event that night was SO crowded! I had brought bags of canned food for a food drive they were doing, and I had to park across the street at Walmart because the C&C lot was full. As I was carrying the bags across the lot, one of the bags broke! So then I had to try to divide those cans among the other two bags and hope and pray they didn't break too! Luckily I made it to the entrance and put them in the container without further mishap. And the people waiting out by the drop box were SO happy to see all the cans I brought (courtesy of a bunch of cans Briesa wanted to get rid of). It became a lot more fun once Val showed up, and I hung with her and a few other girls in the ward for the rest of the night. I ran into my cousin Cassidy and we chatted for a while. It was cool because we hadn't really talked or interacted since we were both kids. I ran into my friend McKenna and we went on the tower of terror drop ride. I had to wait SO LONG in line, but it was fine. Definitely not worth it in the long run, but oh well. Overall, I went on 4 rides total. There were maybe two other ones I wanted to try, but we just ran out of time/lines were too long. So we just left and went home.

On Tuesday, I was really tired and not in the best mood at work, but I survived. I was kind of grumpy that night and didn't want to do much. On Wednesday, I went to work in the morning and then had clients all afternoon and got back late in the evening. I had a conference planning meeting I had to hop on Zoom for after I finished with my last clients, and after I drove home, I listened in while finishing client notes. Fortunately, I was able to give my best to my clients, but after that, and other than that, I was dead. Tired and not feeling like I was in a good or positive mood. Thursday, I was in a slightly better mood and was doing better. I made sure to take a break from work to get lunch and got Pad Thai from another place, but it wasn't as good as I remembered, but better than the one I had on Monday. I was still low on energy and not feeling well.

On Friday, I had a busy afternoon, so after my work meetings, supervision meetings, and meeting a new client, I had a gap in my schedule, so I went down the road to a new Thai place and got... you guessed it, Pad Thai for dinner! LOL. It was the best one out of the three I had this week, but it was also the most expensive one.... oof. But at least I didn't go hungry between sessions. I stayed late into the night with my client. That session was also very emotional, and I don't know that it was related to that session or was just an accumulation of the week (and all the pad Thai I had), but my heart felt like it couldn't beat normally as I was driving home, like it was pressured or being squeezed. I couldn't get in a full breathe. Fortunately, I made it home in one piece. I didn't do any client notes, though, so then on Saturday, I had to buckle down and do SO many client notes. But at least I got to sleep in. I also had the workshop with the couple for two hours. I went out for frozen yogurt with Kimberly and we had a nice visit, then I went back home to finish notes... blah. 

Sunday was good. I finished working on meal plans and am going to try a diet with gut-healthy foods. A lot of them are dairy products, which are supposed to help give you the healthy gut bacteria you need, so we'll see what side effects I have, or if it helps my gut issues. We got a new bishopric because the YSA second counselor is getting married next month, and Brother Keadle is no longer the first counselor in the bishopric, but he is the ward executive secretary at least! So I'm just happy he is staying in our ward. We now have two YSAs as the first and second councilors, which is kinda weird, but I'm sure we'll get used to it and I'm just going to trust in the Lord because He knows what will benefit His children best. I got a priesthood blessing after church from Brother Keadle, and it was comforting to be reminded of how special I am to my Heavenly Father and how aware of me that He is. I also had a really good talk with my mom that evening and was able to process through some things. I went with Val to stake choir, and that was good. I really enjoy spending time with her.

Gracelyn went along with Aaron and Briesa to Hawaii on Wednesday, and they will be there for a whole week. Bri has been sending me some pics, and I made a funny meme out of one of them! We all sure miss that cutie pie. I also started teaching myself Korean this past week. It has surprisingly become a motivating thing that has gotten me through some rough days this past week, and I'm excited to see how much I progress!

Much love,

Emily Burnham