Oh Edinburgh, you showed Grandma a good time!

The best memories in life tend to be the ones you NEVER expected. This was no exception. After leaving Small Town X and starting anew, I got to go to France and Scotland! It was incredible, and I am so lucky to have gotten to see some amazing parts of the world. There is almost no way to describe the experience that we had. Museums, history, architecture, new friends, and crazy shenanigans were only the tip of the iceberg. However, there was one experience in particular that skyrocketed to the top of the list of best memories of all time. It took place in the beautiful city of Edinburgh in Scotland. To begin with, Edinburgh was my favorite part of Scotland. The sights, the people, the sorted history and this experience were not to be outdone. One evening the four of us girls (that being myself, my best friend, her mom and her 84 year old grandma) decided we wanted to experience the Scottish nightlife Edinburgh/ Mormon style. Which translates into heading over to the Grassmarket where there are a number of pubs to search out some live music and Irn Bru (the most popular soda in Scotland, even more so than Coke). We started out at one called the Last Drop which featured a good ole fashioned noose and was packed full of people, but alas no live music. So we made our way down and ended up in a pub called the White Hart. After finding a booth we discovered that indeed mission accomplished, there would be live music that night. So we laughed and talked and waited for the night to begin. The music started and the man playing an acoustic guitar set was pretty spectacular. Little did I know that the night was only beginning. The pub began to become very crowded as people packed in for the entertainment and lively atmosphere. It was easy to get swept away in the moment, and perhaps do something that may be deemed of questionable judgement later on. Who knew that that moment of madness would come from none other than... Grandma.

Some may say that I played a significant part in the way the following events played out. I say that yes my hand was involved, but there was no way for me to have foreseen what would take place, you be the judge. Somewhere amidst the merriment of this exciting new experience, I found myself enveloped in the arm of a significantly older gentlemen with white hair and mustache, who was more than willing to take this opportunity to make some new friends. I want you to picture this in your mind, so you can truly understand the following conversation. Older man, probably in his sixties, white hair and mustache, thick Irish accent and moves like you would NOT believe. This is what transpired next (as he has his arm wrapped around me I might add):
Irish man: Oh good evening my ladies, I am looking for me next wife and she's got to be rich!
Us: (while laughing hysterically at what he has just said) oh is that so, how can we help you?
Irish man: Well ladies who's available???
Mom: Oh I am married, definitely married (flashes wedding ring)
Irish man: (looking at me and my best friend) oh my wee lasses, you are just to young for me...
Now this is the part where my questionable participation perhaps egged this exchange on.
Me: (now extending my hand to grandma) this is Edith.
Irish man: (now glowing with delight) oh Edith! Show me your bank statements!
Perhaps if this is where the conversation had ended it would have been a funny anecdote, but not the story that will start me laughing at the mere thought of it. After some serious lines and flirting by this Irishman, in a pub in Scotland, the true shock came as he bid us farewell to get a drink. As he quickly hugged and kissed me, my best friend and her mom on the cheek, he got to grandma and do you know what he did? He planted one on her! Oh if I could only capture that moment and her facial expression and post it right here, life would be complete. Let me just say when an Irishman knows what he wants, he goes for it. And what was Grandma's response to this throughout the endless heckling we put her through, "you can't prove a thing". So the moral of this story: when in Scotland, drinking an irn bru and listening to live music, it is not your daughters you need to keep an eye on, but rather the grandma's of the group that are really going to get the party started.

How did I get here anyway?

I thought it would be fitting to share the story of how I left Small Town X. Surprisingly enough, it was very similar to how I came to be in Small Town X, divine intervention. Now there may be those of you that do not believe in such a thing. That believe that life is random, left without order in seemingly organized chaos. However, I would disagree. I took the position in Small Town X because I felt that I was meant to be there, to learn something. I was absolutely right. I learned a great many lessons, the most important of which was trusting in timing that was not my own. The greatest lessons I learned there included being more patient, realizing that even alone in a new place I could survive and most importantly, that I was never truly alone after all. Once I understood what I needed to gain from the experience, things began to fall into place better than I ever could have imagined. Recognizing that I had experienced and was taken away what I was meant to from Small Town X, it was not three weeks when I got a call about a position in Las Vegas. I thought ok, this is where my next adventure will be taking me. But throughout the interview process and getting ready to look into housing, it felt wrong. I just knew that I was not meant to play out the next chapter of my life on the strip. But I was ready to take the first offer that got me out of Small Town X. After a great deal of prayer, I knew that something had to happen and it had to be out of my hands. The last thing that you want to do after a year and a half of asking to leave somewhere is say no to the position that is offered. I asked with all sincerity of purpose that if my gut was right, let it not work out.

The very next morning I was four hours from Small Town X visiting a friend and expressing my concern over leaving for Vegas that Sunday, when I missed a call that said the position was on hold and to cancel my trip down for the time being. I was overcome with relief and just thought, please let something that feels right come along before the position opens up again. Not 30 minutes later I got a call from a woman on the other end of the phone that said, there is a position just north of Salt Lake City that I was wondering if you would be interested in? The tears came as I expressed my interest in being considered. She then asked if I was ever in the area to meet the staff? At that moment I had just driven past the exit for the facility. She being as shocked as I was at this series of miracles, asked if I would turn around and go to the facility at once to meet the staff and interview. When I got to the building and walked in, I knew this was where I was meant to be. I just hoped that they felt the same. It was a whirl win of excitement and nerves. I left and was scheduled to meet the area manager the next Wednesday, until two days later when I got a call saying that he did not need me to come back up, in his mind the decision was made. The final step was getting approval from headquarters. They met the following Monday. I spent the long weekend on the edge of my seat as this group of individuals held the decision that would literally change my life in their hands. Tuesday came and I got the call, I was officially being offered the position. To top it all off I would be moving in a mere 10 days. With joy and panic all sinking in at once, I needed a place to live. Three days later I drove up, found an apartment and signed a lease. Seven days later I moved. So when I hear that life is random, that there is nothing greater than myself, I think of where I am right now. How it came to be. And that there was no set of coincidences that brought me here, but rather a plan that I was unaware of, but am indescribably grateful for now. In my moments (or sometimes hours, days or months) of uncertainty, I hope that I can always remember this experience. Remember that as insignificant as I may feel, or unimportant as it may appear, that there is a greater purpose in store if I am patient enough to trust in something greater than myself.

Guess who's back, back again!

Ah to begin again, tabula rasa, a blank slate. I spent the last year and a half spinning the tales of Small Town X, and the experiences that small town living had to offer. But now I have left and that chapter of my life has come to a close, yet the next has begun to unfold. So after a brief hiatus, the blog writing urge has begun to re-surface and I find myself missing the catharsis of sharing life lessons and a good laugh from time to time. The focus of the last blog was on the every day antics I would experience, I suppose this is the same. The good, the bad and the humorous. It is not that anything extraordinary occurs, but that it is in the little things that I find what is really important. So to wrap this little introduction up, here I am. A little strange, yes, but none-the-less here to share the parts of my world that will be footnotes in the story of my life. Perhaps one day something that is shared will make some small contribution to another. Whether is be a smile, a chuckle or a realization that we all have more in common then we thought. Until next time, here we go again!