Cal Game Day #1 and #3

It's cal game day! It's crazy, its bustling, its full of loud screaming and lots of junk foods. It's fun and I love all of it. I went to the game with a friend of mine Mr. C, he had just returned from a mission and I am sure he enjoyed it as much as anyone would have and he seemed to have a deep love for the game and socializing as much as I did.

We won the game against UC Davis and just watched them get beat to a pulp. It was a good game and I am glad I got to make friends with someone new in the ward from this trip. Game day is always fun here at CAL.

I missed game 2 because of the Ward Yosemite Half Dome hiking trip. But it was fun and I am glad I went to that over the game. Nothing beats time doing wilderness stuff in the ward.

Game #3 was against UCLA... there is a trend with these football games I attend apparently. It was a beautiful game and I went with Turner and it was just a bunch of laughs and fun. There are personality clashes that we have, but we are great friends and I am so glad to have been able to go to the game with him.

This game was also the Homecoming game so it was twice as packed as usual for this game.

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I posted. A long while since I posted anything really worth reading. The reason being that I have experienced something life changing, yet something so small and innocent, it doesn't seem to need to be blogged about. However, I also have a new answer to what life is all about. I also have been busy with school, with life, with parties, with church, with football and luckily with the world series!

The Children

Elizabeth and Mason Kramer

Benjamin, Sophie and Henry Lee

Kian Christopher

Molly Beth

Emmalee, Emmalynn, Emmalani and Emmalia

Jennifer Ann

Faith and Patience

Emily and Lissa

Lucy, Rose, Kolbie and Kiran

Sophie, Sarah and Esmeralda

Kobi, Kadi and David James

Andrew, Aiden and Emmyleah?

Dear Mr. Perfect

Dear Mr. Perfect,

I am writing you to ask, why it is that you exist. What is it about you that drives me absolutely crazy? You drive me crazy with your inability to shave on some days. You drive me nuts because you have these darn flaws that I understand. You make me feel real because I am not infatuated with you. How is that possible? Why can't I be obsessed with you the way the movies make it seem? I don't want you to change your hair, or shave everyday. I don't care if you have chest hairs or occasionally shave your legs. I find it charming that you want Miss Perfect for a wife. I think you broke my heart when you asked about me to a friend. But made me wonder if that is your way of caring. I want to doubt you and be infatuated. I want you not to exist in my world. I want to be nervous at the sound of your voice. I want to wish you were charming but in reality inconsiderate. You don't complain about your parents. You think your sibling(s) are super cool. You look at me with those soulful eyes. You greet me with smiles that make my heart break. For every moment I want to walk away, it tears me to pieces to have to say, that I am falling for you deeply Mr. Perfect, in a way that I can not explain.

Sincerely,

The Girl that No Longer Dreams

I'm Back!

Gosh... it has been a crazy summer. I hate being sick, and this summer seemed to chalk up a lot of sick days on my work tab. Gosh I am glad I have a flexible job. Or else, I might be very well dead and broke. I appreciate the essence of being back at school... but I don't really love what comes with it. Which is the moving to a new place. Starting new classes, looking for a new job. Making new friends, and once again struggling to balance every semblance of a well balanced life with well balanced meals and mental stability. Because really, when you are out of the house 12 hours of the day juggling annoying people, crazy professors, public transportation, the patience not to run someone over with your car and a lot of church activities, it doesn't get easy. It just gets harder. My new place is a mess. I am skipping meals for the pure convenience of not having to cook or clean, and have slept for 2 nights without a pillow because I simply can't find mine nor do I have time to go buy a new one at the store. Thank goodness I have a million towels.. they are soft, and catch the drool.

Oh Berkeley... how I am not in love with you. 2 years I have lived here. Going on year 3 here... moving on to a new level of education, a new degree, a new job... how you never change, even though I seem to grow up without you.

Yikes!

I am super awesome about updating this blog when I am super busy. It's been a crazy two months, and a lot has gone on. Including my world travels. So I am going to need to blog about NYC, Atlantic City, Washington DC, Fourth of July, Disneyland twice and the Nordstroms anniversary sale in pieces.

Someone Special

There is something special about having someone special in your life. Many of us think of our eternal companions, our husbands, boyfriends, fiances, significant others. But there is something special that a girl needs. A best friend. Best friends are not always in the form of your best girlfriend. But it is most of the time. There are relationships built from infancy that last forever. There are high school friends who retire together. Friends are the ones who cover your butt when your dress is too short. Who run to your rescue when your heart is broken. Who stand up for you when you least expect it. Friends are ones who never back down no matter how much you fight.

For me, its Missy. She is my best friend. She will forever be my best friend. I feel like that is something special, like its a step in your life that you take when you can say you have a significant best friend. It's funny I say this. It's funny because my mother laughed everytime I said I had a best friend as a child. Simply because friends come so easily when you are little. Everyone is your best friend and you change them like you change your underwear. And for me, that that happened a lot. There was something about having best friends when I was growing up. It was just that nobody was quite my best friend, I was just theirs. I always felt like my best friend had someone else that was just slightly more important. And if you know me, you know how much I invest in my friends. How selective I am in who I befriend and how little I trust. I think this stems from my childhood. How I never felt secure in anything. So when Missy and I became friends, it was like things changed. We might have been in our high school days, but we were friends. And we have stuck together for years. We still stick together to this day. And we are each others best friends, nobody else's.

I have friends that I have known from before Missy. I have friends that I gained after her. I have a bunch of friends that I treasure dearly and she has the same. But we have each other and that is more than enough. We are with each other. We lie for each other, we understand each other, and we fight for each other through everything. I know Missy will be there at every important event, just as I will never miss hers. We feel lost sometimes when we enter each others seperate worlds outside of our friendship, but it never lasts for long, because we cling to each other like nobody knows. We are each other's best friends, and nobody quite understands the other like we do. And that is something to be deeply cherished in my opinion. Our friendship is unique to us, in the fact that we are on the same page with each other at all times. And after all the parties, the girls nights and separate lives, we come home to each other and we are comfortable. Nothing stands as strong as we do, and nothing will ever stand between us. We have fought, we have battled, we have held grudges, but our friendship comes first, and we are brutally honest. We have each other, and that's all that matters.

She is my someone special. My husband will forever know who to call when I am in crisis, my children will always know who will be there for them when Mommy isn't around, and my pieces will always be kept together by the glue that Missy is to me. As I am to her.

She has always accepted me as I am, accepted my decisions, been there to hear of my mistakes, and watched as I grew as a person. I have never felt judged, compared, or demeaned by Missy, and I think those are the clues to this friendship puzzle. You are yourself completely, without worry, without thought, and that makes you complete.

5 Fast Fixes for a Stronger Relationship

I was reading this article on how to have a stronger relationship, and I thought I would share them, they seem easy enough, and I think they will work, or at least my naive mind believes they will. I figured I would jot them down somewhere that I could access at all times. My blog! So here are some lessons from the article.

IF YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS…. Hit pause. This will come in handy the next time he’s really bugging you. Say, when he’s dawdling, making you late again to visit your mother. Before one righteous word flies out of your mouth, FREEZE. Just watch him for 10 seconds. Visualize yourself in his shoes. Visualize him as he looked the first time you fell for him. Pause the action. (In email terms, it’s a kind of a Save As Draft so you don’t actually send the inflammatory message). Ten seconds gives you time to flash on, “Oh, he’s very uncomfortable with my family,” or “Hmmm, he’s been whipped at work and needs to be in control of something (pathetic as his choice may be.)” It might occur to you that “a few minutes late” isn’t worth a fight. Then again, you might conclude that, yes, he is a total jerk. At least you tried.

IF YOU HAVE A MINUTE… This is from a great article in the current Scientific American Mind by Robert Epstein (do it with your guy): Embrace each other gently and gradually synchronize your breathing with his. Just stand there inhaling and exhaling together, as if you were one being. A minute or two of this, apparently, lowers your inhibitions—and that can help people bond.

IF YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES… Jot down three things he’s done lately that you appreciate (OK, one?). Send the list as a note to him in an email at work. Or slip it under his coffee mug in the morning. Or just casually mention, “You know, I dug the way you handled that surly waiter the other day.” Yeah, it’s a tad corny, but experts say it really works. Certainly, if there’s one thing the research on happy long-term couples shows, it’s that they figure out how to accentuate the positive. “When you say or list what you appreciate in him, it brings those things more to the forefront of the mind,” says Gail Saltz, MD, Today Show commentator and author ofThe Ripple Effect: How Better Sex Can Lead to a Better Life. “It also prompts him to say what he really appreciates about you.”

IF YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES… Here’s another good one from Epstein: Standing or sitting fairly close to your partner, start moving your hands, arms, and legs any way you like—but in a fashion that perfectly mimics his. “This is fun but also challenging,” Epstein writes. “You will both feel as if you are moving voluntarily, but your actions are also linked to those of your partner.” See if this doesn’t activate your empathy circuits.

IF YOU’VE GOT 5 MINUTES… Try a daily forgiveness ritual, suggests Sharon Salzberg, a revered spiritual teacher and cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. It's like a little shot of immunity to prevent you from fighting. Find a quiet spot to sit, and let these phrases go through your mind: If I have hurt or harmed you, knowing or unknowingly, I ask your forgiveness. If you have hurt or harmed me, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive you. “You’re not saying, ‘It's all right that you did that,’" Salzberg explains. You’re just opening up your mind to ideas like, "I let go of seeing you solely as the perpetrator; I understand the conditions that led to that action,” and, “I am not identifying myself only as the person who was hurt; I’m bigger than that.” You may even realize, “I have to let go of unrelieved anger to have any space for love to grow.” See if 5 minutes a day doesn’t warm up the love dynamic. For a real intimacy boost? Get him to do it too.

Sand Castle Mania

Stanford and Berkeley came together this past weekend to have one majorley cool activity. That would be, Sand Castle building. As young adults, I think many of us were in for the competition, but being YSA, I think we all forgot about the competition and were just in it for the glory. So we built, nothing was judged and some very cool sand castles came about it. We had a professional sand castle builder come and teach us how to build sand castles. It was amazing, the things you learn from a guy like this is amazing. Also, we experienced some major attention from the public as we were learning the lesson and as we were building. Everyone asked what it was all about, and many people just walked around taking pictures of our master pieces. And when I saw masterpiece, I really mean masterpiece. These are the sand castles that vacation photos are made of.

This is where we started, with buckets full of water and sand, and this was the beginning process, watch it grow!

This was Turner's bridge, of course he would make some over the top bridge that looked like a highway ramp from dubai.

This is the castle that the instructor made in a 15 minute lesson on how to build sand castles, what technique to use and what tools make great castles.

Every corner of our castle has a different theme, probably because it was different people building it. The castle was like Hearst Mansion, different houses for different views. This was my attempt at an arch through the entire "building".

Leave it to Naug, our own personal artist/sculptor, who missed the entire lesson and whipped out some amazing paving skills, he would probably make a great brick layer one day, or cementer (if thats a job). He smoothed that sand out and made steps that rivaled the great pyramids and Myan temples.

And oh yeah, he made this Eiffel tower looking thing, apparently its something out of Epcot. Not sure how that reference correlates.

This thing is finished, scary huh? Those dirt mounds became this. What 4 hours, a handful or artists, engineers, and computer geeks can do with sand.

After finishing the castle, it turns out our geeky boys decided to dig. A moat. Yep, thats right, I said it, the three amigos here spent a good 30 minutes digging a 3 foot deep trench that hit actual water. Water was actually filling this trench from the ground below because they had gone so deep, and this was the goal. Let Boys, be Boys.

Here are some other castle building projects, this would be the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. I was starting to notice there were a lack of actual castles.

This castle was built by a bunch of kids and like 2 adults. Pretty amazing!

I think this was supposed to be gotham city? Not sure, it was apparently the first castle to have all its builders quit to do something else.

And last but not least, my favorite. This was an homage to Berkeley. Its San Francisco with the Bay Bridge connecting to Berkeley. Apparently Berkeley didn't get built because the Campanile (big UCB clock tower) kept collapsing, but thats a building that people recognize as apart of the city of Berkeley, so it works out perfectly.

Lucky Me!

Sooo, Turner walked into the institute about 10 minutes ago and said, "Hey, I have something for you". Me, being very drained from an early morning and lots of rain, became very giddy at the thought of something just for me! So I bounced around the couches like a 5 year old and asked what it could be! Low and behold, its cake! Not any cake, but gluten free cake! A 4 layer, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in the middle and strawberries! Apparently, Turner has a father and sister who has celiacs and was kind enough to bring a quarter of the cake with him back to school to share with me! Because he said its easy for everyone to get cake, but not so easy for me! How sweet is that! Kes said that Turner is a booger, but I think he is awesome! Well, usually he is a booger, but today, he is awesome!

Hot Dogs

So for linger longer yesterday, we enjoyed a fabulous goodbye school year meal among the ward, and it was picnic like. Considering it is May, and the end of the school year and technically supposed to be sunny and shiny (which is a haha in Berkeley). So everyone apparently was supposed to eat 2+ hot dogs. And so there were many left over. So Connie gets up on the mic and tried to promo hot dog eating:

"Everyone, we have lots of hot dogs, please feel free to eat more, we the linger longer committee highly support seconds."

Pix responds with, "But your doctor does not".

Keith wittingly responds with: "The bishop brick is nor supportive nor unsupportive of your decision to consume mass quantities of processed meat". (He will make an amazing lawyer one day!)

Mormon Helping Hands Day

So across the state of California, Mormons had a huge a project called, Helping Hands. It's pretty well known across mormon circles. It's all about helping out in your communities. This is probably why mormons are known for their philanthropy and service. This past month alone we have participated in weekly service projects to better the city of Berkeley. So for the May 8th extravaganza, we cleaned the shoreline of the Berkeley marina/ dumping ground. The story behind this shoreline is that it used to be an industrial dumping ground. After the big SF earthquake, many folks refused to live in homes built of bricks and so they tore down the homes and dumped all the bricks at the shoreline. You can also find pipeline and many other industrial dumping here. It's become kind of a warzone, none people friendly place. However, the worst part of the shoreline is that there is plastic everywhere. This is a dumping ground in all sense, and so all the plastic trash that will never biodegrade ends up here where the animals end up eating it and being poisoned and die. So our job was the find all the plastic floating around the shore or mixed in with the seaweed and get it out so that the animals we all love, don't end up ingesting it. So for a good 4 hours, the stake cleaned the beaches for Helping Hands day. It was fun in all aspect, especially when the Bishop makes it seem like we won a prize every time we dug around and found more trash.

"Ohh, Golly, look at that!"

"Good Job KC, thats a fabulous amount of plastic you got there".

"SJ, over there look! A straw!"

"See that boulder? It was once over here, now its over there, and the Nips bag is now properly disposed of".

Along with coming out for a good cause, KC our coordinator for the ward, motivated all of us to show up by putting a little competition together. Elders Quorum versus Relief Society, whoever has the most people show up will receive a bunch of home baked goods. The sign up list originally consisted of an even amount (give or take) of Elders and Sister, but on Saturday morning at 9am when we all rolled in, KC said we no longer needed to sign in to prove which group had the most people, it was bluntly obvious, with 3 girls and 18 guys, the Elders had won. Relief society apparently is either a group of girls who have commitment issues, or ones who didn't want to wake up before the crack of dawn.

It was also a freezing cold day, we had wind chill of freezing degrees on top of it and most of us (myself) were dressed for a spring-like day.

Boys... they moved rocks and boulders in an attempt to pick up one small chip bag and a straw. We have to give them credit for working though, and showing up.

SJ found a little figurine, she wanted to keep him, but we decided that "one man's trash, another woman's treasure" did not apply during helping hands.

Gar found a happy tooth amongst the trash. She also found a series of bouncy balls that all ended up in KC's pockets by the end of the day, apparently those could not be trashed.

Not sure if bird will ever consume something this big, but it might break down and then many birds will consume it!

What the Future Looks Like...

This is what B will look like when she is working hard for a big company.

This is what Pez will look like in her spacious office with a window.
And I think this is one of my favs, what the future holds for always busy, get going Elyse who works too hard and is always hard working. She will be the best office worker you have ever met.

It's scary how quickly our lives change, and how quickly the little kids we once were become the working professionals that live off coffee (or cocoa), and get into the office at 8, leave at 5 and then join the massive amount of single people who eat over the sink by themselves. I thrive on the social life that is around me, and I thrive on the penances I make at my job. But it hits me, I am still not living that 8-5 life yet, and I am not eating over the sink alone in my business suit. I still have a couple years, and a view like this, really makes a girl think that she should enjoy her last couple of younger years.

Rocking...

I am sitting criss cross in bed, with both elbows on my knees and my hands tucked under my chin while I catch up on blog reading, and as I am sitting here reading, it dawns on me, I am rocking. Just back and forth. How odd is that? When you sit in a ball like form, do you rock? Or am I having a miniature spams?

Why DUI?

So it was 9:16pm on the night of Friday, April 30. When I was driving down the street to get some dinner, and ran into a DUI checkpoint. 1.5 miles from Campus. In the city of Berkeley, where do you think the most alcohol is consumed? I will tell you, its within a 5 block radius of the university. Across the street from the university has one of the biggest fraternity party houses. One so big on partying that it was unchartered from the University and lost its affiliation, but yet, the national committee of this Fraternity, doesn't see that as a problem.

Well, its 11:20pm, and guess what rumbles I heard in the hallway?

"Pick her up"

"I am trying"

"Use her Shoulders"

"I am trying"

"Why don't you hold the door..."

"No! Hold the door and I will carry her..."

My curiosity got the best of me, and so I opened the door, and low and behold, I saw someone literally so drunk, they were passed out. I left at 9:05 and saw a large group of people heading towards the university all dressed in black formal wear. At 11:20, there is a passed out drunk girl who can't stand, is being hauled (dragged is more like it) down the hall, what miniscule dress she is wearing now looks like a mini tee shirt, and it has to be the most humiliating thing in the world... (if she were sober), but she isn't, so it doesn't matter, and her friends aren't going to say anything the next morning, and she isn't going to remember her tidy not so whities hanging out for the world to see.

Now its 11:37pm.... and guess what I see? (Scroll for photos, don't scroll if you are already ashamed and worried this is you).

Oh great amazing Berkeley, how taxes are high to pay for ambulance runs like this. Yep, its about 2 hours since I left, and probably no more than 1.5 hours since some party house or another started their party and yet someone is being saved right now. Oh I think so, look at all those medical supplies. Cool!

And there it is. Someone is being hauled off. How often has this happened this semester? What, at least 9 times? Last year, I don't think I saw this ambulance even once. Now I see it at least once a month, if not once every other week. I have seen in twice in one night also. So sad to be seeing problems like this so young. How happy are your parents going to be when they see this bill? Someone got a nice IV too, I saw the huge bag being hung. What a night.

Now someone explain to me why they don't just do DUI checks near campus? I mean, this is it. This is the drinking problem and if they were more diligent on safely, maybe they would do WUI (walking under the influence). It might instill fear better. So far, none of the drunk people I have seen or run into have a car, or are in one. So maybe we should rethink the DUI plan in a college town.

Time check: 12:13am Saturday morning. The lights are flashing as "bus" number 2 pulls up for the next drunken soul

When Exams Happen...

I received a friend's update on my phone yesterday, it stated: I think I preferred my one month of ignorant bliss, mcat scores = reality.

Then I read connie's blog about what she saw when she looked in the mirror. And it hit me. Why did I not blog about this last week? When I was assumably a mess?

I was blowing through movies, in a sad attempt to disembark the hounding sounds of "must not fail" chants running through my head. I was procrastinating to a whole new level. Homework was half hazardly strewn all over the place. I was even in the library more than once last week and turned down a movie premier and free lunch to study! This is what happens when exam time rolls around. We all become this infatuated with perfection, forgetting about the vanity and showers we so adored in the beginning of the semester. I mean... Sunday! I wore a repeat dress! I haven't repeated dresses for a long time now since I got myself a bunch of new ones. Which just means, its time to buy some more. But really, I didn't wear the new dresses because I haven't done laundry for 2 weeks, and everything is piled in the bag. So five loads will be done today, if its the last thing I do anyways. It's pitiful what happens when you let yourself go in the aggressive ploy to be a great student! Oh... the rambles have come. Time to log off!

Gratitude Greedy?

So this is going to sound and seem very petty. However, I was reading about this somewhere and it starting to make me think. I have a "friend", that I am not sure I can call a friend. However, for now we will just state the person as "friend". I sent "friend" a nice birthday gift, hoping "friend" could make good use of it and enjoy it and I thought maybe with a nice birthday card and note or what not, that they would at least call, or write an email or send a note to say....thank you. 2 months later. Still nothing. But "friend" raved all about using said gift for the world to hear, and yet, I am still waiting for the "thank you".

I know its petty to want a thank you, but I have seen this on other people's complaint walls, and I thought, it happens, sometimes people forget, but you let it go, however, "friend" who has an issue receiving gifts is suddenly without gratitude. I am just a little irked by it I guess. Its minimal, and maybe its going on with the flowing emotional stream running through my system right now, but it kind of got to me when I "heard" "Friend" go on about using said gift, and I still haven't heard from "friend" in MONTHS. (insert bitter here) I guess if friend no longer wanted to be friends, this worked. I am so over trying.

[It's at the end of ones life that we learn to appreciate the littlest friends we love and want to hold on to.]

I don't think if this was anybody else in my spectrum of friends it would bother me, but "friend" for some reason makes me just bitter on this subject.

Rebuilding Together

A great project where we rebuilt and installed new appliances into the homes of the elderly and disables. There are different projects run every Saturday, and each one of them is for a different person or family that is in need of home repairs to make their lives easier. Usually these are elderly people living on their own or disabled in the same situation. This was another service project for the ward that we really enjoyed coming together and doing. However, I think RT underestimated how many people were going to show up because our group was shuffled around a lot, as they tried to find places for us to work and things for us to do. Who knew there could be too many people wanting to help better the community.

So our location that we ultimately ended up was an elderly lady who needed her kitchen repainted, a new stove installed and a new dryer installed along with the roofing of her house redone. Her yves were rotting away and so was her roof due to poor drainage and water damage. So the problem was, how do you fix a roof that is just falling apart? You cut off what's bad and replace it with something better. However, after reviewing the roof, it was found that the roof was previously fixed, but it was a poor job that has now damaged the roof even more than thought. So for once my vast amount of useless knowledge and facts, became a blessing. To save on money and supplies, I recommended just cutting back the rotting yves clean the gutter since the new California laws no longer require an extended roof. I was genius apparently and got my fair amount of praise, yeah! for useless schooling facts! It was fun, we painted, we hammered, we drilled and lots more. I had a lot of fun, and even though it wasn't the best run system, it was a fun day, and I will definitely come back and work with them again.

Turner working hard!

Midnight Snack?

Its 1:01am on Saturday morning.

I smell barbaque.

Its hot dogs.

I am hungry.

Ideally... I can find the source.

Realistically... I am smelling it from the comforts of my bed.

...still hungry.

(Enter new thought here)

Emily is running around somewhere on campus in the dark, in the middle of the night, with drunk marching band members, playing capture the flag. I wonder if we are going to need to send a search party for her in the morning.

(Thinking, Thinking, Thinking)

Probably not. Just because she is going to be the only sober one, will probably win the game, and go home to bed a reasonably college student justifiable decent hour. Plus, she pre arranged with us to send a search party in the morning if she doesn't show up at 8. I wonder how many of the drunk people who would be running around in the dark thought to do that, their likely hood of needing to be found has dramatically increased, (hasn't it?).

I am Going to...

TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!

It's a beautiful day to be able to say... you are going to the temple. It's taken me a while to be ready to this mentally. It's never been a matter of being able to go, its always just been a matter of wanting to go. At one time in my life I was all about going, but then it changed, and I was less about going and more about the outside life... the time I could save doing something else. But I have thought this through for a while now, and have made my covenants, and I am ready, and excited.... Wednesday is going to be amazing!

Happy Tax Day!

So in the celebration of Tax Day... I decided to use my PF Chang's gift cards and have a tax day dinner! It was 15% off on this day also, so that was extra fun. And so we gathered many friends together to have a fabulous dinner! It was a lot of fun and we ate a lot of chinese food. So I really enjoyed being able to laugh with friends and see their quirky and really hungry sides.

Here are two prospective Priesthood Holders you probably don't want to date.... Naug and Rotc are showing off what the difference in men and women are in photos. Naug is "Man" and Rotc is... what is supposed to be a "woman". Oh love... apparently its faked.

Black Eyed Peas!

So after returning from my week of Nature, children and drama... I was gifted (blessed) with the opportunity to attend a Black Eyed Peas concert for FREE! They were amazing seats, we got to experience the concert first hand, and it was just mind blowing fun. I really needed fun like this, and I was so blessed to be able to receive these tickets from a friend. Her husband and herself were too tired to be able to attend and so they thought of me first! Aren't I special! No cost, nothing, they just handed them to me! So my first reaction... call someone to attend with me. 5 friends later, I finally settled on Naug. And he agreed and we made the hour long trek to the concert.
Fergie was amazing live, she has real talent.... not really as beautiful as she is in pictures in real life, but she is amazing on stage.
This is how many people were crammed into one place filled with lazers, fog, and yelling. If I haven't lost some sort of hearing, it will be a miracle.
Here is Naug and I, haven't seen him in FOREVER, glad that we got to hang out and catch up.

Into the Woods

Spring Break about killed me... from not only pure over relaxing, but from the whirlwind of having to get back on track after the best 9 days of my life. However... running back to school was not the plan... and instead I went to outdoor school with my beautiful niece and had a blast spending it with sixth graders as they learned about recycling, food waste, and how to save the planet, one meal at a time. So the last week of March was spent in the wilderness with not so small children, who enjoy drama and talking back.

Here the kids in my nature group are learning about composting and helping the environment with worms, air, dirt and waste. Interesting enough.

These are the girls in my cabin... we had a diabetic, a non english speaking, one cheerleader who was embarrassed to be a cheerleader, and gothic emo in the making, my nieces 3 best friends, a overdramatic 12 year old, a pair of twins (which took me two days to figure out), a spritely little one, and a pair of quiet, good, reserved girls. That's the make up of 16 girls, 5 days, and a lot of wilderness.

When twelve year olds dance... this is what happens. They split into groups, they have the one awkward boy who will probably either end up with one of these girls, or being the best shopping buddy ever. It was nice to see my nieces world outside of just the two of us doing things together.

It was weird to be at Walden West, it is the only outdoor school I haven't been a counselor at in the Bay area. This was also the first time I went to outdoor school for a specific person and not just because of the kindness of my heart. I was there for "Spunky"... who 10 years ago could barely string full sentences together, and now... she is going into junior high... sniffle. Something else dawned on me. It has been 10 years since I was a camper. I have been doing the counselor thing for 7 years now.. and its easy to forget that 10 years ago... I was the kid in the boots and pancho, following the Naturalist around with bright eyes. Great memories from this week... I also the flu this week and hiked so much I thought my legs were going to fall off.

Lesson learned: Don't pack for Spring Break and forget that once you return, you are going to be in the freezing raining wilderness where flip flops and sun dresses are not compatible and no Mother Nature caters to your needs.

Reasons Why I Love and Despise Teaching Second Graders

10 Reasons I Despise Teaching Second Graders:

10. They ruin each others homework in an attempt to spite each other

09. They fight over who is older for hours on end.

08. They whine about doing their homework.

07. They whine about not being able to do their homework.

06. They forget that they take the bus and end up missing the first and second bus.

05. They fight over ONE pencil even though there is a box of pencils in front of them.

04. They lie about finishing their homework, WHILE handing in homework for me to look over.

03. They forget their homework in the classroom, in the car, on the bus, in their backpacks, in the garbage.

02. They have the attention span of a fly.

01. They believe listening to directions is optional, even when its repeated 9 times by nine different people.

10 Reasons I Love Teaching Second Graders:

10. Their smiles when they accomplish something.

09. They are always excited when they learn something new.

08. They have the most creative imaginations.

07. They can play non-stop.

06. Their favorite thing to do is draw.

05. They have pretty stylish clothing.

04. They can turn sticks into money and a playground into a five star resort.

03. They are always smiling and wanting to give hugs.

02. They are so excited to see you when you walk into a room.

01. They go home at the end of each day.

We are 10 weeks into the semester and I have to say, sometimes these kids run me thin, but other days, man, these kids make my day.

SPRING BREAK!!!!

Angels we have heard on hi!

Spring Break has kicked in! And I can not believe I survived it until this moment. I was almost for sure I would not survive until the Friday rolled around for Spring Break.

Festivities this week adding up to the moment:

Making 3 runs to drop off people at Spring Break start destinations (ie.. airports and homes).

3 days of exams and studying

1 lunch with the Institute Secretary

20 extra hours of sleep

One and a half hours of clearing out my room to kick of a clean spring break

3 trips to Mariposa Bakery

2 hours of guilt tripping S into Disneylanding it with me

90 minutes of rampant crying and fighting

2 hours of fighting with 7 year olds to focus and do their homework

1 hour of running around playing kickball with rotating short attention spanned children

4 skipped meals

1 St. Paddy day run to In and Out Burger and the Booze Shop

4 cuts on someone's fingers for attempting to open a beer with a key while in a drive thru

1 very pleading text message for someone to buy me a beer bottle opener key chain

And finally a 6 hour drive, ending in a 900 square foot 2 bedroom 2 bathroom marble countertop, jacuzzi bath penthouse across the street from disneyland.

Food Crime!

So in the attempt to survive the disaster that is my exams, work and volunteer schedule, I have attempted ways to make sure I had healthy organic, gluten free meals to eat. Because seriously, cereal was getting old, and so was the yogurt. It dawns on me that its so easy to skip meals, over eat and indulge in the junk of all junk gluten free foods because of time constraints and pure laziness. So taking one from Amy's page, I am whipping up some frozen meals. One flaw! Gluten free does not freeze well. At least the pasta doesn't. Its gross when you thaw it out. Really really gross. I forced myself to eat it, but man was it just gross. I think anything with cheese is kind of gross also. So here are the following items I made recently:

Gluten Free Linman Lasagna

Gluten Free Pasta and Meat Sauce

Gluten Free Amy's Chicken Pot Pie Filling

Gluten Free Biscuits

Gluten Free Brownie Truffle Cheesecake

Everything I made turned out pretty well at first go, but the following items should not be frozen.

Gluten Free Pasta

Gluten free pasta gets really mushy, really fast normally, so when you freeze it with sauce, I feel like it just becomes strained peas after you thaw and reheat. I prefer al dente pasta, which means that I prefer the expensive corn pasta, but rice pasta tastes good if cooked right and ice bathed out of the pot. Still though... frozen sucks.

I am a little iffy on if the Brownie truffle cheesecake turned out well, but thats also because I kind of overcooked the brownie layer. We will see how the biscuits turn out in the next entry on food. I am trying different things here, but for some reason, I have this inkling that gluten free alfredo isn't going to work frozen. Which is cool, I think that is something I can whip up fairly quickly.

So the dilemma this week is, I have to eat another 5-8 meals this week before going back home to my family where I will suffer a different torture, I have 4 single servings of pot pie in the freezer, 2 servings of lasagna in the freezer, 2 servings of salad and have a scheduled lunch on Wednesday. I can substitute 3 of those meals with cereal and yogurt. Should I make anything else to eat this week, or should I just eat my leftovers and get it over with? I am wondering if I will survive eating healthy for the last 3 days of this week or if I will cave and make See's Candy and a box of juice count as a meal. I did however purchase 3 bananas today, so my goal is to eat those. The salad and three bananas are going to be the most vegetable I get in a month I am betting. Geez, I am worse off than a picky 5 year old.

Busy Busy Busy

So its kind of dawned on me that I need to update the blog, I have a massive amount of half finished blogs, photos that need to be posted and many other fun things. So there will be a large influx of pre-dated blogs coming through. It might seem weird I know, but its going to happen, and I since I like everything to be chronological, I will keep it that way. Since they were saved on the days that I wrote them, they will further be posted on the days that I first started writing them, even if they don't. I know that sounds weird.

Anyway... I decided I am going to justify being a horrible horrible updater by stating the following reasons why I have been so horrible at keeping up to date on my blog.

1. I am in school Monday and Wednesday

2. I am at the Elementary school Tuesday and Fridays

3. I work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to pay for said #1 excuse.

4. I have taken an interest again in some more extreme forms of activities.

5. Monday night is Bachelor night

6. Thursday night is Grey's Anatomy night

7. I have a new found addiction to Grey's Anatomy... only 29 hours left to watch plus this week

8. I am behind in 1 episode of Bachelor, and about 14 hours of crime scene shows and Greek

9. I had to get my car tuned up

10. I cooked a major amount of food for the freezer

11. and Lastly... because I spent the last 10 minutes making excuses for why I am not updating

Yeah... well, thats my blog for you.

Engagement Humor

She stares are her ring all day and during class when the lights go out Phyllis yells:

"Can we not turn the lights out? I can't see my ring sparkle in the dark".

The Big Moment!

This was the biggest moment of my week! This was the moment that I was waiting for. It took me a 36 minute drive at 90 miles an hour on the Freeway from Salt Lake City to Provo and almost ran over some BYU students to make it home in time to see this moment!

Additional note: Is it odd to anyone how much squealing comes with a moment like this and how it bothers no girl that is surrounded by the scream, that is screaming, or being screamed at?

A True Understanding of the Economy

Lisa: If I had a penny for every time someone said that...

Chase: A PENNY?! There's inflation, you should ask for a nickel.

A Cougar Day!

So today was interesting, it was my first morning in Utah, I woke up excited to see what Utah had to offer. But it also turns out that Phyllis has school on this lovely Monday morning and so, Phyllis and I went to school at BYU. We walked up what they call the 300 steps and up the hill even farther and it was not a pretty sight the both of us huffing and puffing up the hill, not to mention, just for Phyllis's fill of Irony for the day, I wore my Cal gear. Scarf and Sweatshirt made its appearance on the campus of BYU on the first day of school. We went to a building called Joseph F. Smith Building, acronym(ed) JFSB.... but apparently the maintenance crew have nicknamed it, JFSOB because off all the windows that the building is covered in. Good lesson learned. It apparently is also called the Mommy Major building because it houses the family life major. Which I think is cute. After class we met up with Phyllis's main man, Chandler and we made it down the hill (also known as Rape Hill at night), but during the day its "The Hill", and we walked by the duck pond so I could see what they call the "Jesus Ducks".

So apparently "the duck pond" is well known, and during the winter season, the pond freezes over in certain parts and so the ducks walk upon the water while some ducks sit on the frozen pond and others like in this situation, just swim in the non frozen water. This photo documents the "Jesus Duck", amongst the regular floating/ swimming ducks.

After our little trip down duck pond lane, I got a chance to go shopping in Utah at a store called Macy's and that was one interesting trip.

This place was not a Costco or Whole Sale store, this was your everyday grocery store, but with a Utah twist. They have great sales. Ones that you would never want to pass up, if I wanted to work on food storage, I would come out to Utah, because I can get everything I need for cheap and stock up by the plenty. We purchased five 12-packs of soda for under $2 a package after the sales, and if we used coupons and other deals, I am sure we could of stocked up on amazing soup deals for food storage.

Things are also larger in Utah. This soup can for instance that Phyllis is modeling for us, is not any soup can, its an extra large family size soup can. This is just so much larger than I expected and it was a pretty good deal if I ever needed this many cans of processed condensed soup. Or a serving the size of my head. After our little shopping adventure buying soda and chips and other junk food periphenalia, we headed to lunch at this great place called: GURU's. It was quite the interesting place with their very California-esqu decor and healthy green for you foods. I almost wish there was a little place like this in Berkeley, and then it dawned on me that there are places like this all over berkeley, just not combined to make this awesome place.

Their sweet potato fries are amazing. I had the fish tacos (which remind me never to eat seafood in a place where there is no touching sea), and Phyllis had the teriyaki bowl ( a little reminder of home).

This was the sight I saw after lunch, heading back to the apartment. This is a sight I wouldn't mind seeing everyday on my way to school or work. What a great first day in Utah!

Hello Utah!

So I decided kind of last minute, kind of not, that I would visit many friends in Utah. Along with that was the fact that my best friend Kia was returning from her mission and going to school at UVU, and another of my friends is going to get engaged very soon. But also because after seeing Amy for the first time in 3 years, it made me really miss the friends that are so far apart and sometimes, the best moments in life don't come to you... you have to make them yourself. So Sunday morning I jumped in the car and drove to Utah.

The weather started off foggy... which wasn't making me any more willing to drive to Utah. It was just gross outside and I was not in anyway excited about this. But then the sun opened up and this was a beautiful sight.

Snow covered mountains. I ended up stopping midway through the drive for a 2 hour nap and then I continued on with my travels and drove the remaining 8 hours of the 14 hour drive to Utah. Once I arrived I was welcomed by some loving friends:

Phyllis and Chandler were awake at 11pm and waiting for me to arrive. And proudly they have all 4 feet on the ground. The day was pretty uneventful and the night was just a pretty straight shot to bed. So far... I have not seen much of Utah. Except the inside of Phyllis's apartment and something called Rape Hill at BYU?

Reflecting....

Since Christmas was a disaster, I thought I should at least make sure New Years Eve was more than just me sitting alone in my bed reading a book. So I thought I would at least reflect on the year before, even though its quite cliche.

This year was a roller coaster of a year. I celebrated a lot of firsts... really cried my heart out over some painful moments and memories, and really felt the feeling of completely being alone. I also played a sick game of chicken with my Faith, which I think hurt me more than anyone. And I also learned to open myself more. To be free with who I am and less closed off with the real me. As a writer, as a creative person and as an actress... its very easy to be yourself in a different persona. I can share all the secrets about myself, and divulge all of my deepest darkest fears and feelings without feeling threatened to doing so and getting hurt because in some sick way, my mind feels like I am not really divulging anything. But I am trying to give up method acting, give up hiding who I am behind a persona and just accept myself and everyone else's acceptance of me. Its one thing when people accept you, its another when you accept that they accept you. I spoke with a friend about this, who really felt sometimes that she settled for her husband because he was the first person to accept her for who she was, and all that she was... and she wondered sometimes, if she was less scared to share who she really was to other men... would she be married to another man... possibly someone better than her husband.

I learned a lot this past year, and with age came wisdom, faith and acceptance. I truly felt alone and independent for the first time this year. I went home hunting on my own, found a place, moved it and am paying for it every month. All on my own. No cosigner, no recommendation, it was all on my own. I am proud, I mean, I have done this with college applications and dorms and stuff, but I felt like I got some help when doing that, I had some outside influence, this time, its all me. I chose where I wanted to live, and nobody could stop me.

I went to my first real college sports game... or better yet, my first Cal game. It was amazing. I also went to Basketball and that was fun. It was a new experience.

This year was a big growing up year. I learned to gamble for the first time... I am not repeating that mistake over. I did Las Vegas and learned its only fun if you have money to blow and a lot smaller sense of your moral worth or self respect.

So lets just say, 2009 worked with more travels, more adventures, a deeper detour with faith, a harder lesson learned with faith... a deeper understanding of why I do the things I do and a stack of new experiences that will be moments to repeat and moments that are just not worth remembering.