blog blah

ha! the title reminds me of bob loblaw. anyone know what i'm referring to? heh heh!

anyway...this blog CLEARLY needs some asethetic help. anyone out there know how to fix it up for me? or know someone who does?

help!

i know some girls...

Sunday my roommates and I were over at the house of some of our good friends. The Ducommun House as I like to call it. We were chatting with our friends IH and MM*, MM had just finished telling us a story when his roommate IH announced that the sister missionaries were coming to dinner on Friday night and that they needed to have a few girls over as well - clearly hinting from inflection and eye contact that he meant me and my roommate. MM responded with an oblivious "I know some girls I could invite", not thinking about the two girls sitting on his couch. My roommate, IH and I burst out laughing. Bless little MM's heart. He still didn't get it and instead asked why we were laughing at his previous story.

This is my friend MM. Sweet and childlike. It's hard to not like him. And even harder to not laugh anytime he is around.

*Initials have been used to protect the naive - I mean innocent!

i'm baaaaack!!

Decided to start blogging again. My year hiatus was partly due to an anti-blog revolt. After it was referred to as online scrapbooking (ugh!) I started noticing that blogs were becoming weekly versions of Christmas letters. Got a little turned off. That isn't the only reason for the hiatus though; I started a Masters program in Special Education in October and found myself too busy to blog. And then came Facebook. And then this and that. But here I am again. I suppose the first thing is to update you on what I've been doing for the past year. Instead of boring you with a LONG post I'll explain my year in pictures. Enjoy.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

home for the holidays

Just bought my ticket home for Christmas!! I'll be home Dec 20-28th so be ready to play :) Seems hard to imagine winter with the flaming sunburn I have going on right now...

the govenator

Really? Is the Terminator really the governor of my new state? I know it is old news and it doesn't phase most people but every once in a while I am a little tripped up by the fact that Kindergarten Cop is responsible for the state I live in. I had a work meeting last night and one of the directors informed us the state budget has not been signed by the Governor and if he doesn't sign it soon the SD Regional Center will suspend services for many of our clients- yada, yada- long story short my director ended staff meeting by encouraging us to contact our legislator & Governor Schwarzenegger's office and urge him to sign the budget. All I could think was, "It's not a too-muh!" And then I laughed about the reality of situation...because really...who can be serious when you're talking about Danny DeVito's twin brother??

29 years, 368 days

Wow, it's official. 20-10 as I like to say. Turns out it ain't so bad after all. I was determined to not be bothered by thirty hence the bucket list I came up with at the start of the year. But sure enough, as the dreaded day approached I became more and more cranky. On Friday I had my "oh my gosh I'm really turning 30!" breakdown. The tears came when I became frustrated driving around looking for In-N-Out. Yep, that's what set me off, being lost without a burger. Just be glad you weren't the one taking my order...ha ha!

My birthday was actually really great. After a little post breakdown, wind down I got dressed up and went out with some friends. We went dancing which I don't ever do but it was a lot of fun. Saturday I treated myself to a Spa and had two friends join me. Can't have a birthday or Saturday without the beach so that was next and then dinner with friends and a bonfire at my house after dinner.

Thank you all for your birthday wishes! Hearing from friends and family always makes things better :)

top ten

What better way to sum up the past 5 weeks then a top ten list? Here are some of the highlights of my time in SD - not necessarily in order of importance, excitement level, etc.

10) Spending the first week and a half in SD at the beach. The place I was staying at the time was 15 minutes from Pacific & Mission Beaches. Sadly I haven't been to the beach to soak in the sun for about two weeks.

9) Socializing with people in my ward. In SLC my ward wasn't necessarily my social connection. Big change for me in SD. I've been to almost all of the ward activities (even FHE!) and spend time outside of those activities socializing even more fellow YSA peeps. There is always some kind of party, sporting activity, dinner or get together of some kind.

8) Attending my first Republican Party Meeting! Let me explain...a while back a letter was read from the First Presidency in all wards in California. The church is advising all members to vote for Proposition 8 - declaring marriage between one man and one woman. We are being asked to donate time and money to the cause. It is a rare request - but clearly an important one. A couple weeks ago a town hall meeting was held by the Republican party in which leaders of several faiths spoke about why prop 8 is so important. It was interesting and overall a good experience. For more info check out 'protect marriage' on the web. The pic is of me and a few girls from my ward.

7) Attending the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach. I went up with some friends to watch the competition. We stayed with my friend's dad who lives in a condo right on the beach. It was fun getting to know some new friends a little better.

6) Moving into my house!! Sorry no pics but I officially have a place to live. No more staying with friends and ward members. I have my own space!! We have a spare bedroom so please come visit! The house on Huggins Street will be pretty amazing :)

5) The number of times I get lost each week! I don't really get lost so much as I just make wrong turns or forget my exit or think I am taking a short cut. All of which usually end up in me wasting a lot of gas and time. I am getting better each day though.

4) Went up north 2 1/2 hours this weekend to a cabin on Big Bear and did some boating. My roommate and I were invited by some guys in the ward. Wake boarding was a lot of fun & the tubing was even more fun. We held on tight - even tried to ride standing up for a bit - took the boat driver a good 20 minutes to flip us off the tube. When he did we flew a good 3 feet into the air and landed upside down. Here are a couple fun pics!

3) Had my palm read by some guy at Barnes & Noble. I was minding my own business, looking for a running/hiking trail book when a guy walked up to me and told me I looked really familiar. Can you tell where this is going? He asked where I was from and I of course lied. He introduced himself, shaking my hand and then turned my palm over. He said it was very interesting. Apparently I'm conflicted. I'm conservative but have an adventurous side that often conflicts with the conservative side. Hmmm.... I kinda think he was just creepy and has really bad pick up techniques.

2) Went on a date to my first Padres game. We got there late but had awesome seats 20 rows up on the first base line. Sadly the Padres had an embarrassing loss to the Giants. Also tried a great dessert place called Extraordinary Desserts. Very yummy :)

1) Missing family and friends. Yes its true, I do miss you :) I've met some really cool, fun & friendly people but still miss the familiarity of home once in a while. Hopefully I'm missed a little too ;)

1/2) Finally getting the Internet. No more sitting outside the library or walking around with my laptop trying to find a connection. Also part of why I haven't posted much. Now that I have permanent access I'll do better with updates.