It’s been busy these past view days. My oldest brother recently moved his business Conscious Box up here. If you don’t know what Conscious box is, it’s a monthly subscription box that contains organic, sustainable sample products. They even have a vegan box, for all you vegans out there. Check it out at http://www.consciousbox.com

Now that I got the advertising out of the way let me begin to tell you about these past view days.

Everything began on Thursday, a Pod was delivered to a storage unit here and it contained a lot of boxes, some with products some with boxes inside the boxes. We (my brother, his two friends, his friends dad, and me) worked a few hours unloading everything into the storage unit. I pushed my body and lifted more than I probably should have. But, the more you carry the faster you get done. I didn’t realize how sore I was until the next day when I could hardly get out of bed. When you lift pounds and pounds of boxes you don’t realize what muscles you work. You usually only notice your lower back aching in pain. But when I woke up the next morning, man were my legs, arms, and back sore! I couldn’t let that stop me though, my brother needs my help. So I rubbed some muscle lotion all over my body and got ready for our second day of work.

Friday was the day all the people we hired to pack the boxes arrived. We were expecting them at 12:00 that afternoon. But we still needed to bring all the products to the building we were packing at. So we got up at 6:30 ate a quick, hearty breakfast, and headed out to rent a big U Hal truck. It was just my brother, his friend and I who went to the U Hal place. And to get there we got on the freeway. I’m mentioning that for this next part. When my brother got the truck he turns to me and hands me his car keys and says “here, you’re driving my car back. It’s time for you to face your fear. Follow me.” Now let me say right here was when my legs went numb and my heart started to pound. I lowered my self down (which I tend to do when I get nervous) and sucked in a deep breath. I don’t drive on freeways that much. Normally I take back ways. Plus I was going to drive alone on the freeway. But I sucked it up, took deep breaths, climbed into the car, turned on the radio and pulled out to begin following my brother. While we were on the freeway I thought to my self. “man am I stupid for freaking out, this isn’t that bad!” and it wasn’t bad at all. I keep forgetting Portland freeways are so much better than LA freeways. I managed to make it all the way back. And it felt good to accomplish something and to get over a fear of mine.

When we got back to the place we were packing at, it was around 9am. We had 3 hours to unload the truck and get everything ready. Again, I pushed myself harder than ever. After awhile my body just got numb and I became a machine, automatically carrying boxes twice my size. But it caught up to me. I never stopped moving or lifting boxes all day. Finally when it hit 5 o’clock we ended for the day and we ( my mom, brother, and his two friends and I) went to get some dinner. By that time we were all starving. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I got a hamburger and devoured it faster than a rabbit running a race. When we got back home it was around 7 and by then I was wiped out. My feet were killing me I could barely walk on them and my body ached in places it never ached before. I immediately took a hot shower, put on my owl flannel pjs and made a cup of stress relief tea. Then I crawled into bed with my two cats and fell asleep. At least I tried to. My dreams were literally replaying the day and everything that happened. Just dreaming of unloading boxes and stacking them made me feel wiped out. However overall it was a great day and we had a lot of people show up to help pack. My brothers friend Shane and I were the box managers, we made sure everyone was doing everything right and keeping up. We were literally good cop bad cop. And I was actually the bad cop. Everyone in my family was shocked to see me speak up and tell people they were doing something wrong or to work faster. But honestly I felt good! Haha I’ve never felt more free. I’ve realized it’s helped me overcome a lot of some of my fears and anxieties. I’d never think I’d be the “bad cop” in these situations but man do I like it.

Now on to Saturday, again I crawled out of bed, or really rolled out. My body was so sore I could barely walk. But I was not going to let that stop me. I had to do my usual morning routine with the animals. Feed the cats, clean the litter, take the dog out, feed the dog and give everyone fresh water. It helps having to do all that when I wake up because it really wakes you up. After all that I was already exhausted. I felt like I had the flu where you get the achy body. But I made some black tea with a little honey and that made me feel better. Actually I made two big cups of that. And two glasses of water. We didn’t have to leave the house until 9am so I made my brother and mom some gluten free pumpkin waffles and we all had a green, protein smoothie. At 9am my mom and I walked up to our packing center and again I moved boxes, boxes, and more boxes. Ok a couple of them I threw maybe more than a couple. I was grumpy. My pour mom having to be around me when I’m stressed. But it helped throwing the boxes and kicking them. They just had soap in them anyway.

At 12 people started showing up and we started 2 assembly lines this time. And it went fasssst!!! Shane and I were refilling all the bins for the people and it never stopped. I’d refill one then another would need some then another and another and another and so on. I never stopped moving. At all. Right now is the first time I have sat down today. It was a crazy but a very productive day today. I didn’t have to boss too many people around.

At 5 everyone left and my family and I headed over to my grandmas house for some dinner and a presentation of her and my aunts trip to Budapest. It was really neat! We finally went home at 8pm and I did my usual end of the day stuff with all the animals. Now I’m in bed. With achy feet and sore body. Only 5 more days of this. I’m really craving a massage right now. But I’m really enjoying this, my soreness and all. I’m working muscles I haven’t worked in a long time and even though I can hardly move it feels great!

Time for me to get some sleep and prepare myself for another busy, fun filled, lifting boxes day tomorrow. I have two cats waiting for me in bed. I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.

Our very first day of packing boxes.

Part of the conscious box crew.

Please excuse any grammar and/or spelling errors and even punctuation. I’m not very gifted in that area.