end of the week

So, having made it through one of the longest, busiest weeks of my summer, I've found some time for reflection.

Laura and I packed up the car and drove to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't too bad of a drive, but definitely longer than I've driven in a long time. And, I also discovered that truckers that drive through South Carolina seem to be particularly nice. How do I know? I was passing one at about 80 miles an hour and he honked at me (which, to be honest, at first I thought was rude) in order to draw my attention to the cop with his lights on at the top of the hill I was approaching.

Needless to say, I slowed down, restarted my heart, thanked God that I wasn't given a ticket, and did not speed nearly as much for the rest of the drive.

Mrs. Lanier had an amazing dinner waiting for us, and we spent several hours talking about Europe and vocations and life. I am so glad I was able to spend more time with Kasey's mom!

The next morning, Laura and I braved morning Atlanta traffic and headed to the French consulate. We got there before the consulate even opened. Once it did, however, the very polite (cough sarcasm cough) security guard promptly informed my sister she could not accompany me inside. He then proceeded to look through my papers, marked a few things, and sent me into the smelliest, smallest waiting room. I waited for a good thirty minutes with several other young adults who looked nearly as terrfied and nervous as I must have looked. After the guard thoroughly terrified all of us by fussing at a boy who'd accidentally made two appointments, the process began.

And by process, I mean walking to a window, handing in your stack of carefully organized papers through a tiny slot in a window, then paying, then leaving. Maybe I just had completely naive expecations, but after allllll the trouble it took to get all the paperwork completed, and the longggg drive to Atlanta, it was a little bit anticlimactic to simply hand in the papers and pay. Anticlimactic and also begging the question, why couldn't I just mail them in?

Oh well. Its done, I know the papers safely arrived, and its out of my hands!

After we left the consulate, Laura and I walked around a fancy mall and then hit the road. The drive back was harder just because we were both tired, but we made some sweet music videos and got ChikFila, which ALWAYS makes me feel better.

Work the next day was really rough just because I was super worn out. Friday wasn't too bad, but I am definitely glad to have a weekend!