An Amazing Way to Spend Easter

I'm incredibly spiritual. In my own way. Definitely Christian, but not really affiliating with a specific denomination.

That being said, this was the first Easter that I did not go to a church building.

I specify building, because I feel that I went to church on Easter. I have never before experienced the wonder of God's creation like I experienced it in Karijini National Park. It was such a religious experience being in this amazing place on the day that defines my faith.

We woke up with the sun again and ate breakfast before driving to the visitor's center as soon as it opened. We were unsure if we had enough water to get through the day because we were going on an even more intense hike, and it was even hotter than it was the day before. After purchasing several bottles, and a new calling card to be able to talk to Tyler more, we drove forty minutes to Hancock Gorge.

Once again, as it had been on the day that I went cliff diving, my fear of heights was tested. Instead of a staircase to get down into the gorge, this time it was simply a ladder. It was not a very tall ladder, but I was still frightened because I had no way of knowing how sturdy it was. We got to the bottom in one piece and discovered the wonders that awaited us. Luckily, a random adventurer warned us not to take our cameras with us. He said that there was way more water than there was in Dale's gorge, and at times, we would have no choice but to submerge ourselves to continue along the gorge. Also luckily, Mallory had a water proof camera, so we were able to still document what ended up being the experience of a lifetime.

The person who told us to leave our cameras behind was right. We did have to submerge to get across. Mallory, Terry, and Elizabeth were able to rock climb to get to the other side. My pack was too heavy, and I'm not that steady on rock walls. I only do those when I have to. Therefore, Becca and I put our packs on our heads and headed to the other side.Two seconds after this picture was taken I slipped and fell and my backpack went under anyways. Not to mention the fact that as you can clearly see in the picture, the strap got stuck around my neck. Terry almost jumped in to help me but I got it untangled quick enough. Close call! But not the closest call I had that day . . .

This gorge was the perfect one to do on a day that was so much hotter because there was so much more water to cool off in. We did not end up drinking as much as we thought, but we did not need to either.

Hancock Gorge was a much tougher hike than the day before. There were times where we had to trek through water, times where we were forced to climb on the walls. And Reebok did nothing to help me. I love my tennis shoes. I have a pair of the Reebok Easytone shoes that are supposed to help tone your legs as you walk. I don't know if they work or not, but one thing that they do not have is traction. But I adjusted. And I took them off a lot too. And I definitely slipped and fell a bit. But it was all part of the experience. For the most part anyway. One of the most interesting part was the Spider Walk. This was one of the times that we were forced to climb on the walls of the gorge. I was slightly nervous, but we got some great pictures.
At the end of the Spider Walk, was the rope ladder. And this was where I had the closest call of the trip. Change that. The closest call of my life.

I realize that in this picture it looks like it is water at the bottom of this rock wall. It isn't. It's rock. Slippery rock. And at the top, more slippery rock. And my shoes didn't like it. I slipped at the very top, and fell down the wall. I grabbed hold of the metal railing at the top. It took a few seconds for me to register that I hadn't fallen all the way down. I had NO idea how I had time to grab hold of the railing. I should have been on the rocks below.

Enter my savior. Terry had almost thrown himself to the ground when he saw me start to slip and he had grabbed my arms, allowing me to have time to grab the rail. I do not know how he had time to process what was happening and manage to save me, but he did. I definitely owe him. We talked about it later, and we aren't sure I would have died. But one thing was certain. I would not have made it out of that gorge of my own free will.

After bursting into tears for a minute or two, I was able to regain my footing and make it down into the pool. On the other side of the pool, we took a much needed breather. I needed a break after my near death experience, and all in all, we were pretty exhausted.


After the long hike back, through the spiderwalk, rock climbing around the water this time since I was hesitant to slip in water again, and back up the ladder, we were fairly satisfied. It was the end of our time at Karijini, and on to the more restful parts of our vacation. My Easter dinner that night consisted of rice and beans, which I ate because nothing else was bought for me that I would eat.

We took stock of all of our red stained possessions and got ready to pack up the tent long before the sun rose the next day, and then went to bed.

It was the most amazing two days of my life, and it is going to be fairly hard to top it. I have been very fortunate in my life and seen a lot of amazing things. I have seen a snow storm at the top of a mountain in Colorado. I have seen the beaches of Hawaii. I have seen the sand dunes at Sleeping Bear national park. I've seen the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean.

But I've never seen anything like Karijini before. And I doubt I ever will again.

And that is okay. Because the memories I have of the days I spent there, of the people I went with, and of camping in a tent for the first time since I was a toddler will last me a lifetime, even if I lose all of the picture I have from there.

Those two days were enough for a lifetime. And I'm completely satisfied.

Sleeping On Rocks is Not Comfortable

We set up our tent in the dark. I know I have stated that before, but I wanted to reiterate that fact. So that it is clear that we have no idea how rocky the area that we set it up in was.

And it was. We spent the first night trying to sleep as rocks jabbed into our backs. Eventually we found a way to curve our bodies around the rocks, almost like completing a maze, and got to sleep. However, morning was not far off, and due to extreme heat (Karijini is REALLY far north), we got up at 7 so that we could be out hiking by 8. We ate breakfast, which is odd for me, and packed up our water bottles. We did our best to make sure that everyone had 5 liters of water with them so that we could hike in the 90 degree Fahrenheit heat. Armed with heavy backpacks and swimsuits, we locked our trash in our car to deter dingoes, and made our way to the first gorge of the trip, Dale's Gorge.


The views were breath taking. I thought I could be satisfied to live forever on the edge of the gorge and never see another landscape for as long as I live. However, I'm glad I didn't, because the view from inside the gorge was even better.

We spent the entire day hiking. We went down on one side of the river to one end, and were rewarded with a beautiful pool, called the Circular Pool. Before we stopped for lunch, we stopped for a swim.


It was a nice relief to be out of the heat and into the chilly water. There was a ledge to jump off of, and some nice sun to dry ourselves after. All of us girls decided to just do the rest of the hiking in our swim suits, though we were sure to use sunscreen!

I suppose now would be a good time to introduce to my fellow travelers. A nice man at the pool took our picture before we left for Fortesque Falls and the Fern Pool, on the other side of the gorge.
From left to right, we have Elizabeth, an awesome American from Ohio, Becca, who came with me from MSU, Mallory, who came with Elizabeth, and Terry, our Tasmanian life saver. I mean Terry's title quite literally, but more on that later.

We had lunch not far from the pool, and then continued on a tougher trail to the waterfalls. We passed the waterfalls to go to another pool, but by then we were all too exhausted to swim. We found our way back to the falls, which was also by an alternative way out of the gorge, and stopped for a breathtaking breather. Oxymoron, I know, but seriously. Look at the view.


For a glimpse of what I was actually looking at:



But a short rest was not enough for adrenaline junkie, Mallory. She was keen to cliff dive. So she climbed across the side of the gorge (pretty much holding onto ledges) and jumped off.



That's here on top. The guy below her helped her down and then jumped with her. It was insane. At the same time, I spotted the dingo that I posted a picture of in my animals post a couple of days ago, so I didn't actually see her jump. But I got some great pictures of the dingo!

This was our last stop at this gorge, and we climbed out with about an hour of daylight to spare. We made dinner (beans and rice for them, mac and cheese for the non bean eater, me), and then tackled another issue. There was no clean drinking water available at the camp. Terry, Elizabeth, and I all drove down to the water tower and filled a huge jug to bring back and boil. While we were down there, we stopped at the pay phone at the visitor's centre to call Tyler. Partially I wanted to talk to him. However, I also wanted to get him to send an email to my dad telling him that we were alive, and all was well.

With all messages passed along, we returned to camp, and used up our entire propane tank boiling water for the next day. Oops.

We went to bed fairly early, since we had no lights other than the stars. But man were they bright. I know I posted that Perth had the brightest stars I had ever seen, but that no longer holds true. I've NEVER seen so many stars in my life. I'm not sure it is possible to find an area so deserted in the US to see these kinds of stars. I seriously can't describe it and do it any justice, so I'm not even going to try.

Let's just say that that night, it didn't matter how many rocks there were jabbing us in the back. We all slept JUST fine.

Five People in Car for 16 and a Half Hours is NOT Comfortable

On Friday, April 2, I embarked on the trip of a lifetime. After hugging Tyler goodbye for a final time, since he was leaving to back to Karratha while I was gone, four and my friends and I all packed into a tiny car and drove 1422 km.

In one day.

Because I had gone to the Lady Gaga concert, and had gone clubbing after, we were not able to leave until 5 am on Friday morning. We did not arrive at our campsite until 1030 pm.

The time in between? Well, it was an adventure.

Almost as soon as we got out of Perth, we realized that this was not going to be your average American road trip. First of all, there were four Americans who were the ones driving, so we had the whole, other side of the road thing to deal with. Secondly, there is nothing in Western Australia between big cities. I literally mean nothing.

Well, okay. so maybe not nothing. There were a few cows, over 50 dead kangaroos on the side of the road (after 50 we stopped counting), and a petrol station about every 300-500 km. Which means you have to stop for gas at EVERY station you get to, even if you don't think you need it. Because it's quite possible that while you have half a tank or maybe even three quarters left, you might need to drive another 500km before you reach civilization again.

If you can call this civilization:




This was a picture of the first place we stopped at. There was literally nothing there but the petrol station. That was it. The prices were actually fairly reasonable, considering the fact that they could have jacked it even higher since they were our only option. Oh. Also, it kind of looked like the type of petrol station you would find in a horror film. Just saying . . .

The landscape to each side the entire way was dessert and red dirt. A few trees. But that was it. It was kind of refreshing to get out of the city, but after 17 and a half hours stuck in a car with only brief stops, we were excited to get to the camp site.

Our end destination was Karijini National Park. And when we got there, we were exhausted and eager to get out to stretch our legs. But there were bugs everywhere swarming our lights. And we knew that we had to get the tent up as soon as possible.

The only problem was, while we all had experience putting up tents before, this one was massive. And it was pitch black outside due to the lack of civilization and the fact that we were the only ones camping in our vacinity.

But we managed to all work together and got it up pretty quickly. I'd say we were able to all be in the tent with all of our stuff unpacked within an hour.

We all fell right asleep, which was a good thing, considering what was coming the next day.

(Author's note: I made it easier for people to post comments now, so those of you who were having trouble posting them shouldn't have a problem now.)

Oops

Okay so my mid semester break story will begin tomorrow. Today I am too tired.

It was the anniversary of my mother's death, which was especially hard since I am so homesick. However, a HUGE shout out to Aunt Catherine who talked to me for forty minutes on the phone until I forgot to be sad anymore. Actually I didn't forget, I just wasn't anymore.

Today I spent the day relaxing and reading. I finished the third Dexter book, and moved on to the book, Hunger Games. It should be an interesting read.

My good friend Tessa brought me home a delicious chocolaty brownie type thing from the cafe to cheer me up, and my friend Stephen gave me an early birthday present of a ticket to my favorite musical, The Last Five Years, so that was how I spent my evening.

I will check back in tomorrow after teaching my students that boats float because air is lighter than water, and if we fill a clay boat with wooden blocks, it will sink. I look forward to getting soaked at the water table!

Animals Animals Everywhere!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I promise I'm going to be updating at least every other day for the rest of my trip, so please keep checking!

Australia is famous for its animals. The kangaroo, the koala (not a bear), the emu, the dingo. I have now seen all of the above, most of them in the wild.

In March, I was lucky enough to get to go to the Caversham Wild Animal park. I was unsure at the time if I would be able to see any kangaroos in person, and they assured me that here I would be able to pet them and feed them.I never imagined that kangaroos would be so soft! They literally felt like cotton. It was incredible. I always thought that they would feel something like a Black Lab, instead of like a Bichon. While it was called a wild animal park, these kangaroos were anything but wild. The second we walk through the gate, they came running up to us, expecting to be fed.

The animal park also had dingoes. A dingo is a type of wild dog that seems to be like a coyote.


Dingoes were the subject of a court case in the eighties, where a woman was arrested and accused of murdering her six week old daughter on a camping trip in the Australian Outback. However, she claimed that she was innocent, and that dingoes actually ate her baby. For those of you who are Buffy fans, this is why Oz's band is called "Dingoes Ate My Baby". The woman was convicted of murder, but several months later, some clothing that matched what the mother had said the baby was wearing showed up in a cave that was known to be a common place for dingoes to gather. All of the charges were dropped and the woman was released from prison. However, among the general public, people seem to think that the woman was indeed guilty, and it has become a running joke, especially when someone is trying to make you believe something that is unbelievable.

This is what a dingo looks like in the wild. This one was in Karijini National Park. It came right up to a group of people, grabbed a hat that was next to them and then ran in the other direction. They had an infant with them, but I assure you, it left it alone. They actually are fairly skittish around humans, even though they are indeed carnivores.

My favorite part of the animal park was being able to pet a Koala.


It did not feel at all like I expected it to. It was very spongy and coarse. I had expected them to feel more like my old dog Finley did, instead of like a hair brush. But hey, I guess you learn something new every day. Also, please note that they are NOT bears! They are actually marsupials, just like kangaroos!

One Christmas, my mother decided to ask my brother what he wanted as a gift. He was only interested in being a smart ass teenager at the time, so he cheekily responded that he wanted a wombat. He maintained that that was all he wanted for Christmas for over a month. I don't remember all of what he got that year, but one thing was for sure. He definitely got a wombat stuffed animal.
Well I got to see one in person, and I had no idea they were that big! They are all muscle, too, even though they look fairly fat. They can run over 40 km per hour, despite their stubby legs. It was incredibly interesting, and I am now able to say that I have seen Mike's favorite animal in person!


This is a Tasmanian Devil. They are only located on the island state of Tasmania, and unfortunately, a lot of them are dying off. There is a terrible cancer that is spread through bites that causes tumors to grow on their faces and it is quickly killing them off. There are only about two populations of them that are completely unaffected. They are located on islands off the coast of Tasmania. Scientists are working on a cure and hope to stop the disease before causes them to go extinct.

When we went to Monkey Mia, we saw a lot of wild life. I had never seen a pelican this large before. Its eyes literally looked like they were painted. It came really close to us, so we were able to observe it for quite some time.

We also saw dolphins! Three times a morning, the park rangers would pick people to participate in feeding them, even though they were technically wild as well. There were about four dolphins that came every single day, and others would sometimes join them. There were about seven or eight on the day we were there. It was really exciting!
I never thought I would see an emu in person. I had seen one in the animal park, but these guys decided to visit our campsite. They were welcome visitors, since I hadn't seen them before!


And now we come to my favorite animal of Australia. I'm incredibly lucky that I am in Western Australia, because this is the only place where these little guys can now be found. They don't have very many defenses, so they are ideal prey for larger animals. Therefore, they are now only found on small islands without any predators. They are called Quokkas. They are a member of the marsupial family, and look like little mini Kangaroos. They have almost rat like tails and are about the size of your average house cat.
And now, I would like to introduce you to Q.


Q moved into our cabin that we were staying in on Rottnest Island. He was cute and adorable and soft. We weren't supposed to pet him, we couldn't help but see what he felt like! He walked around our cabin for a bit and then decided to take a shower. We literally could not get him out of the bathroom! We finally had to take a plate of water and lure him out because it seemed that he was thirsty. We fell in love and contemplated putting him in our backpack and taking him home. If these little guys were available as pets, I would most definitely have one.

So there you go. A little summary of the wild life here in Australia. Tune in tomorrow (or possibly the next day) for an exciting adventure tale of the first day of my mid semester break!

some thoughts as we approach the upcoming holiday

Forgive me for this coming a bit early. I would post on Sunday, but I'm going out of town.

Three years ago tomorrow, I got on a plane and embarked on a trip that would change my life forever. I was slightly doubtful of the trip. After all, 4 days in Chicago, shopping and sight seeing with my mother whom I rarely got along with for long periods of time (especially not while shopping), seemed like a high price to pay to get to see Wicked for the second time. But I went. I had hope that maybe it would be worth it. At least maybe I could get her to buy me a few things while we were there.

What resulted were the four best days of my life. We shopped, we saw Wicked, she bought me behind the scenes tickets, and we went to the Aquarium. She took me out to a fancy dinner, and we got to know each other better than we ever had before. She hadn't been feeling well, so there were things we would have done but weren't able to. It didn't matter. I assured her we would return at the end of the summer to do everything that she couldn't do then. She had her doubts, but I knew it was what she wanted to hear. I bonded with my mother so much that week, that I actually couldn't wait to get back.

However, again, I had my doubts. I knew that with our history, something would set us off within two weeks that would have us unhappy with each other again.

She didn't make it to two weeks. Nine days after we got back, she was dead, from a reason completely unrelated to her not feeling well in Chicago.

I'm thankful for that trip. It allowed me to have no regrets, because while we were at each other's throats as often as we were friends, we were able to completely put it behind us and forgive each other. And that was where we left it. I never thought I would be able to say that if my mother died suddenly, we would be at peace.

I have learned that what I lost was irreplaceable.

Two years later, though, I took another trip. It was to the same place, again with a selfish reason. I wanted to go to Chicago to see the Harry Potter exhibit that was at the Museum of Science and Industry. And it was on this trip that my eyes were opened to another lesson.

What I have gained is irreplaceable.

It made me realize that I have so many women in my life who have stepped up and taken me under their wing.

My aunts did more for me that year than I ever realized at the time. My birthday was exactly two weeks after my mother died. My mom's side of the family used to do family birthday parties, one in February because a bunch of us were born then or March, and one in June because the rest of us (except for Amy for some reason) were born in late May-July. We stopped doing these a long time ago, because we just got too old. Cousins got married and started having families of their own. Some moved a bit further away. My Aunt Judy threw one that year, on my birthday, and did her best to make it seem like it was for everyone, even though I knew (as did everyone else) that it was to distract me. My Auntie Ann made sure to put all of the May, June, and July birthday names on the cake. Everyone waited to see how I was doing before gauging how they acted around me. When they saw that I was determined to have a good time, my aunts made sure that I did. When Thanksgiving came around, my Auntie Ann cooked the turkey at her house, and came over the night before to make sure that I was all ready to host my first family get together on my own. My Aunt Judy came over the day of, several hours before everyone else, to help even though she even admitted that she wasn't sure she would be much help. She was an amazing help, at least to help distract me from the fact that I shouldn't be the one in the Scheuber kitchen that morning burning the stuffing.

As I adjusted to being the woman of the house, I bombarded them with questions constantly over the phone, whether it was something that I had found in my mom's room that I didn't know the story that went with it, or if I didn't know which foods I could ignore the expiration date for a few days and which ones I couldn't. I needed my Auntie Ann to tell me that my mom actually used the recipe for pancakes that was on the Bisquick box and that I could stop searching through all of her recipe books looking for her secret recipe. Whatever I needed them for, they were there and continue to be there, even though the times that I need them now are getting to be fewer. I never appreciated how awesome my aunts were, until my mom died.

My Aunt Catherine and I share a special bond that no one should ever share. She also lost her mother suddenly much earlier than she should have. And because of that, she has been an indispensable assistance. Every time I am in Colorado, we take a girl's day where we go and get pampered. And we talk. We both share our grief, and our good times. We both share our revelations. I am closer to her now than I was before. And I have my mom's death to thank.

I met one of my best friends, Megan Grieve, the September after my mom died. As we grew closer, I met her family. Every single time I went to her house, her mother had cookies waiting for Megan to take back to school with her. And there was always a plate for me. When I had no jeans to take to Chicago in March with Megan because I had torn a hole in my last good pair, her mother mended them for me when we stopped overnight at her house. Last Easter, when Megan came back, she brought with her a chocolate covered peanut butter egg that her mother had sent for me. I wouldn't appreciate this as much, if I still had a mother sending stuff back with me.

I have known my best friend, Andi, since I was a freshman in high school. Yet, oddly, even though we were terribly close, I never met her family until May 18th, 2007, after my freshman year of college. My mother died on May 19th. Her mother came with her to the funeral home. She gave me a giant bear hug and talked to me as though she had known me forever, instead of just a few days. As that summer went by, I spent a lot of time at the Ernst house. Possibly too much time. It's amazing I didn't over stay my welcome. Yet every time I was there, her mother made me feel as welcome as can be. She always asked me how I was. For some reason, she was the only person I felt I could be honest with. I felt like I could answer "Eh, I'm okay. Not great." She wouldn't try to make me feel better. She wouldn't give me advice, or words of wisdom of how I could make it easier on myself. She never tried to tell me that my mom would want me to be happy. I vividly remember her one day saying, "Well, that's all you can expect. It's better than what you said yesterday, and it hopefully isn't as good as what you'll say tomorrow." The next day when I was bawling, she simply said "You'll have good days and bad". It was amazing because with everyone else, I was scared to tell them how I was really doing, because they automatically felt awkward around me and did their best to cheer me up. Mrs. Ernst realized that sometimes you can't cheer a person up, and that was awesome. The second Thanksgiving that I cooked for my family, I greatly resented. I haven't admitted this to my family until this blog post, but I was pissed beyond belief. Help wasn't offered as freely as it had been the year before, and I was finally getting beyond my shocked point and really into my grief. I resented them more than I should have. Way more than I ever will again, even if they make me do all of the holidays for the rest of my life. I spent almost every night on the phone with Andi bawling my eyes out. Mrs. Ernst invited me to Thanksgiving that year. So I cooked for my family, I spent a decent amount of time visiting, then I left, and I went to Andi's. I was taken in as one of the family and I got to eat a dinner that was cooked for me, instead of the other way around. And it was exactly what I needed. I will forever be grateful to Mrs. Ernst for what she did for me in that year and a half. I'm not sure I would really know her today if my mom hadn't died. I wouldn't have had a need to escape my house that summer.

My parents' best couple friends were Karen and Steve Faine. I didn't find out until two years after my mom died that Karen had bought a ton of books about what to say to daughters who are grieving the loss of their mother, just in case I went to her for help. I never did. I kind of regret that, but that is part of what makes what Karen did so wonderful. She did not buy the books because I had come to her and she hadn't known what to say. She bought them just to be sure that she would know what to say if I did come to her. And she didn't pressure me. She let me do my own thing, and then two years later, she gave those books to me so that I could read them. I actually did read them, which I didn't think I would at the time, and they helped more than words can say. I never appreciated how much Karen cared about me until my mom died.

My best friend from middle school's mom, Mrs. Skrzycki has always acted like a second mother to me. I still remember the day that she found out Amanda and I had been eating buttered noodles and olives every day for dinner when she was at work. Man did we get lectured, then given chicken and milk to try to make up for the protein we hadn't had all week. She still lectures me to this day, whether it was when she found out I still wasn't driving after my mom died ("It was not the car that killed her, Kate. You can't let this interfere with something as important as that") or when I turned 21 and she wanted to make sure I was safe. I always wrote it off as her being just your average mom. My mom's death has taught me that there is no such thing as "your average mom".

Then there is Diane. Diane Knas is my dad's girlfriend. She came into his life, and made him happy again. I cannot describe the change that occurred within my dad after he met her, but it is visible to anyone who knew him at the time. That alone is enough to make her welcome in my family, if you ask me. But she took it one step further. She took it further than she ever had to. She stepped into my life as well, and she does everything she can for me. If I need anything, I know that I can go to her. On my birthday last year, she promised she would take me shopping for yarn, as I had recently started knitting like crazy. We didn't have time to do it until August. I figured we would go to a yarn store, I would pick it out, and that would be it. Instead, I went to her house in the morning, and we spent the entire day going from yarn store to yarn store, looking at the different options. I found what I wanted at the first store, but she wanted to make sure that I was completely happy. We ended up going back to the first store, after going to about five different ones, to buy my original pick. But that was what she wanted to do. I hadn't had a girl's day out with a mother figure all to myself for two years. And it was one of the greatest feelings in the world. We went to lunch, she took me to meet her daughter, even though it was only visiting her at work. Then my dad came out and took us out to dinner. It was one of the greatest birthday gifts in the world.

Right now, my room is being completely redone because one day in January, we had a crazy idea that might have gotten a bit out of hand, but it ended with a complete redesign that (hopefully) will be done by the end of summer. She sent me an Easter card telling me how much she misses me. She continually sends me fun emails like the ones my mom used to send me.

This is a woman who would most definitely not be in my life if my mother were here. But it is also a woman whom I will be indebted to for the rest of my life, no matter what happens. Because she has completely gone above and beyond what I could have expected out of anyone. And continues to do so.

So what does this have to do with a trip to Chicago to feed my Harry Potter obsession? It has everything to do with my trip to Chicago to feed my Harry Potter obsession. It has to do with the woman who went with me.

Ann Lusch.

Ann Lusch has been a part of my life since I dated her son, Adam, in the Spring of my freshman year of high school. She works at Mercy, so I saw her on a day to day basis. She was my best friend, Laura,'s advisor, so I saw her every morning at sign in time. Over the years, I became really close with Adam, even though our relationship didn't make it through the summer. Through him, I became really close with his sister, Carolyn, as well. They are regular visitors to my house every single school break, or now as the case may be, when Microsoft can spare Adam for a week and he comes home to us.

Mrs. Lusch stepped up more than anyone else after my mom died. She became my adoptive mother, as I call her affectionately, and she calls me "second daughter". That summer, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was devastated. It seemed like terrible things were happening to everyone I loved, or got close to. I felt like I was being punished for something. Time went by and she took time off work to go through treatment.

That October, I received a package in the mail. It was from her. It came with an entire batch of her homemade (unrivaled, in my opinion) most delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the entire world. It came with a note, which I still have in my desk. The note said that she had run into my dad and brother at the mall, and realized that my mom might have sent me care packages in the mail. She didn't want me to feel sad that I wasn't getting any if that was the case, and if my mom hadn't, then she wanted to surprise me anyways. She was going through treatment for breast cancer, yet it was me that she was thinking of. If I was in her shoes, I would have been thinking of myself. I would have expected people to be sending ME cookies, instead of making them for other people.

But that is what makes her so special. She never thinks of herself. She is constantly trying to figure out how she could make other people feel better. And she always takes my phone calls when I need some motherly advice. Since she joined facebook (when she isn't in denial that she is addicted and tries to prove a point by deactivating it for a while), we have been able to talk even more than before. And I am overjoyed by this fact. She is constantly sending me messages telling me to use more sunscreen (I promise, I am!), and just making sure that I am not too homesick. I got a letter from her on Easter too, which I never would have expected. But it came. And I'm grateful.

So when I tried to figure out who to ask to go to Chicago with me, the answer was simple. So I went with Mrs. Lusch and Carolyn. Once more I found myself in my second favorite city in the US, with a mother figure, having the time of my life.

And on that trip, I realized that none of these aforementioned people had to do any of this for me. Mrs. Lusch didn't need to slow down the trip when I got a migraine the entire weekend.

In fact, the treatment I have come to expect from these women should amaze me every time it happens. Because all of these women have gone out of their way to make my life a little bit better.

So thank you, to every woman in my life, whether I mentioned you in this post or not, whether you taught me that I could handle cooking Thanksgiving for over 20 people, or if you taught me that I didn't have to.

And Happy Mother's Day.