Trying to change things

I'm sorry for being such a neglectful blogger, but my summer became very busy, I'm not going to go into details really, because as busy as it was, it wasn't overly exciting to the passer by. But I feel that I've had a major life change this summer, I think I'm finally getting into a life that I love, and everything is falling into place in due time!

At the end of July, Ryan and I embarked on a trip like none we've taken before. We drove the the middle of nowhere in Quebec to attend a weekend long hippie psy-trance camping rave, with absolutely no idea of what to expect. We were actually pretty worried about going due to a forecast of nothing but rain for the entire weekend, 8 hours of driving, and a million and a half complications that occurred along the way. However what we definitely didn't expect was to have the best weekend of our lives to date. The weekend was spent surrounded by the most incredible environment of friendly, welcoming people who's only goal was to have an amazing time, and make sure you had an amazing time, beautiful scenary in the rolling hills of the apalachines on the shore of the Gatineau River, and music that when I listen to, feels like it's mimicing my heartbeat, and clears my mind.
Upon returning the city, and feeling like we had been completely detatched from society for a lifetime, both Ryan and I felt we needed to do something in our lives to keep that experience with us. But what? We both felt our lives were changed, and we needed to change our lives, but we had no idea how to explain it to anyone that hadn't had the same experience as us.
We started with cleaning our apartment, getting it re organized after a summer of letting it go, and a new roomate moving in. That helped clear our frustrations with the apartment, but that's where things stopped for awhile. There's a local cafe that I love going to, and as you know by now from reading, I'm quite sick of my current carreer path. The cafe is organic, fair trade, and the closest I will come to feeling like I'm surrounded by the same people that were at the festival, because the owners also attend the same festival. I dropped off a resume with them, knowing that they probably couldn't afford to hire me on, I mainly offered my services voluntarily to help them wherever they needed. I really just wanted to just help them succeed.
Another change that Ryan and I made, was we made a pact, that every time we have some free time, we will both spend one hour on our hobbies, mine being sewing, his being creating music on his computer, we've had a bit of a hard time keeping true to this because it's so much easier to just look at facebook for awhile, or to pick up a video game controller, but we're trying, because it's a productive and rewarding experience in our lives.
Last week I chose to give blood for the first time. My blood type is in need right now, and other than my fear of needles, I have no reason not to. And believe it or not, I already felt so comfortable and rewarded with praise by the nurses about what a good thing I was doing, that when it came time for the needle I actually got complimented on how I didn't even flinch - to be honest it hardly even hurt for once. Sadly at the end I came close to fainting, but the nurses once again were so supportive that when I finally pulled out, I didn't feel discouraged, and come November 6th, I will be donating again.
That same day, some solicitors came to our door, annoying right? But they were working for a company that helps sponsor children, and it was something Ryan and I've been wanting to do for awhile now, we're doing really well for money, so we really can't not afford $20 a month to help make a difference in someone elses life!
I'm a firm believer in Karma, it's been a month and a half since Eclipse, and we're finally making changes, and I feel they are starting to pay off for us. On Sunday Ryan and I decided to go on a random camping trip at a provincial park about an hour away, but as we were grocery shopping to go, my cell phone rang, which is actually a rare occurance (unless it's a text message) It was Linda from East Village Cafe calling me, she and her brother were going to be doing the coffee for the London Ontario Local Arts Festival, and wanted to know if I could give them a hand, it was hard to hold back my excitement on the phone, but I definately agreed, and let her know I would be in in a few days with my schedule for that weekend so we could work something out. Sadly I got scheduled quite a bit, but we were still able to work out some times that I'll be able to give them a hand with everything. I really hope this will be an in for possible employment with them too, I'm attending a staff meeting tonight there, so I hope to find out more of what I'll be doing, I'm really just happy to be helping, and really proud of my favourite little cafe. The festival actually booted Starbucks to bring East Village on board as their coffee provider!
So even though it didn't feel like I made changes in my life, I feel know that I've looked back on the past month, that I really am changing, Ryan and I are both really growing together, as we are both making progress to our goals of being the best we can, and happy with our lives. And even though we had no problem with our relationship before, I feel our growth as people is really improving our growth as a couple as well, I feel closer to him than I ever have. I feel like our life is finally taking shape!
Time to go make dinner though, I have to leave for the staff meeting in an hour! Wish me luck!