Si Dios quiere.

There's a phrase they use in the Dominican Republic, si Dios quiere. It translates to mean something like, "If God wants it," "If God wills it." (When I was there last summer, the locals used it so often that it almost became comedic. Pase buen dia, they'd say, ...si Dios quiere. "Have a good day...if God wants you to").

But regardless, I knew what they meant. Deep down, it was an expression of their faith in something -- someone -- bigger than themselves to get them through the day, whatever that day might bring. Maybe here and now, we know this thought better as the idea that everything happens for a reason. We spent our fair share of time using the phrase jokingly, but in my quiet time alone, I remember thinking how special it really was.

The faith of the people there will forever surprise me, confuse me, and most of all, inspire me. Many of them have never even heard of half the things I'm sure I couldn't bear to live a day without. There's no indoor plumbing, electricity (if you're lucky) for just a few hours each day, a shortage of healthy food and sanitary water, and diseases that most Americans won't ever have to encounter.

I'm applying to be a coordinator for the program again next summer, and hoping that I'll be able to work it into my Internship for my master's program that I have to do. Lately I've be

been really struggling to find that same purpose and faith and inspiration that I had during my first time there, and that I was so excited to bring back with me. And so, I'm just trying to remind myself of my experience as much as possible, and keep it alive in my life everyday.

Some of my favorite pictures from the DR:

october

it's finally october, my favorite month. no matter where i've lived, october has always been my favorite, but tucson october might be my favorite-est (at least these first 7 days).

this october is a busy month, with lots of fun things planned:

-tomorrow i leave for the acui- region 13 conference for the next three days. i wasn't particularly excited about it in the beginning, but there are some fun people from work going, and there's a pool, and we're close to good shopping, and so, it might not be so bad.

-i'm doing the 10k for AIDSWalk next Sunday! yay!

-kevin and i are going here for pumpkins and apples!

-we're celebrating our 18-month anniversary at the melting pot in a couple weeks :)

-"the laramie project: 10 years later" is coming to UofA, and the read-through is on the 12th

yours, mine and ours.

sometimes i have such a hard time with the fact that this was kevin's city first, and sometimes it still feels like i'm just tagging along, or just on vacation, and that i don't really live here. but i've been trying lately to focus on all the things about tucson that we've made ours:

-a certain spot on mt. lemmon where we alway

s sit and reflect on how beautiful life really is

-the new self-serve frozen yogurt place on speedway that we often go to after dinner

-saturday morning brunch after my long run and kevin's bike ride

-adding movies to our netflix queue

-the random weekday where neither of us have meetings and we can sleep in :)

-stopping by starbuck's or canyon cafe on the

way to work

-the saturday early-bird movie for $5

-having a beer at kevin's apartment after a lon

g day at work and class

-mass on sunday afternoons (currently we're church shopping), and a dinner out afterwards where we can relax before our busy lives begin again the next morning

new favorite picture: kevin, a weiner, and i at the tucson beer festival a few weeks ago.

perspective.

sometimes i think i'm not motivated enough or focused enough, and that i don't work hard enough, especially at school.

but then i remind myself that life is so much bigger than not doing well on a test, and that in less than two years, finally, nobody will ever care again what any of my grades were.