Remember last week when I thought that recovering from wisdom tooth extraction surgery would include lots of time blogging and being productive?

I had this ideal picture in my head about how I would recover over the weekend. Lazily staying in my cozy bed with books, magazines, Netflix, occasionally being productive and catching up on blogging or researching my next project.

In reality, my body was so angry with me for the anesthesia and pain medications it was circulating that the moments where I wasn’t nauseously holding a bucket to my mouth, I was completely knocked out. After two decades of medical procedures, my body is pretty resistant to any forms of medicine and it certainly didn’t appreciate having four impacted molars pried from my jaw bone.

Originally I planned on returning to work today, but my jaw pain and swelling had other ideas. I’ve taken my antibiotics, aspirin and mouth rinse for the morning so I thought I would finally take up some of that “productivity” on day 4 of my recovery time.

The night before my surgery, four of my friends from work and I went to a local corn maze and pumpkin patch. We wandered around the dead stalks of corn and took pictures of the sunset and pet the farm animals. It was a gorgeous night out, perfect sweater weather but not too cold or windy. We didn’t end up so lost in the maze that we had to call the emergency help phone number so that was considered a win. And at the end of the night, we did what all millennials do, and posted our favorite pictures to Instagram.

Which made me realize: none of us knew each other just 3 short months ago. In fact, 3 of us just moved to Idaho in 2016. We all began working for the same company within 3 months of each other, and quickly became a “coffee group” with our weekly Wednesday coffee shop dates together. Isn’t it crazy how some things work out?

And I am SO THANKFUL for finding these fast friends so quickly after moving across the country.

When I left California this summer, I knew that starting over in a new state wouldn’t be as  glamorous as it’s made out to be in all of the movies and novels. Making new friends after college (especially in this digital age where people are less social to begin with) isn’t exactly a piece of a cake.

Making a change, starting new, exploring and traveling – it’s everyone’s dream, right? We’d all gladly pack up and find our dream home in our dream town tomorrow. But practically speaking – it’s expensive. It’s inconvenient. Sometimes it’s lonely. Navigating new streets and new traffic laws is tricky. (HOW did people relocate before smart phones?!) You start out with the “Vacation Mentality” where everything is perfect and then slowly you start to notice the little quirks of the new environment.

Like how everyone here takes twice as long to bag your groceries. Or the drivers all come to a complete stop to merge on to the freeway. Or how every one has the exact same bizarre haircut. And (hopefully) eventually you go from feeling like you’re on vacation to feeling like you’re “home.”

And four months in, I’m so happy we made this blind leap into Idaho! I have never been surrounded by such beautiful landscape. I swear, I have more pictures of trees on my phone than parents have of their children.

The way my home faces, I get to watch the sun set over our neighbor’s farmland every night and that will never get old. I’m sure some day a commercial investor will come in and start building houses on the land, but for now we are soaking it in.

We left the corn maze and the pumpkin patch after the sun had set and I went home to eat my last REAL MEAL before having my wisdom teeth surgery. It was just one of those fun fall nights that felt exactly like back in college a little over a year ago with my teammates and roommates.

2014 Senior Year Throwback

And now I’ve had a solid four days at home with puffy cheeks and applesauce and smoothies, lots of Friends episodes, and plenty of time to think about what I’m excited for next! As the weather starts to turn, I foresee lots of treadmill miles in my future and I want to make sure I have a goal to work towards that will keep me from burning out or falling off the fitness wagon until after the holidays (#beentheredonethat).

Once I’m totally healed, there’s nothing stopping me from finding a springtime race to train for! I haven’t really decided if I’m ready to train for a half marathon or a full, but my best running buddy will be running the Boston marathon this year so I’d have a training partner for whatever I choose.

Now I just have to pick a direction and GO! Okay time for another Tylenol for this girl. Your turn – find a corn maze and GET LOST.

XO Kenz.