Adventures Con Mi Familia

Formal night on the cruise ship. Hold on girls, its waiter time! This is much more significant when you have seen the sign that says Sacramento 3073 in Ocean City, MD. I have seen the MD sign countless times, and this one only once.

Best pizza and SD. (But really people go for the hot chicks.)

Oh, I haven't invited you to our park yet, have I ?

Mas aqui!

My internet addiction is not porn...

I realize it's been several weeks of not blogging. I have been busy people.

Last few weeks included

• Waiting for my sister to arrive
• Finishing up every assignment that I have for school besides the ones that have to wait until finals week
• Trying to figure out how to pay for school next year, and getting some good feedback
• Seeing a friend I haven't gotten to see regularly for years on an almost daily basis
• Doing a "homeless ministry", witnessing a fake seizure, and buying hand sanitizer after holding hands with a man who insisted on praying for us
• Having a bed made up with fresh rose petals
• Working at a citizenship fair and helping 40 people complete their applications
• Dreaming in Spanish
• Planning a cruise for that I am going on with my family in two weeks from tomorrow
• Buying my plane ticket from LA to Spain to Dublin and back
• Feeling really good because I have so much free time on my hands (if only I had free money as well)
• Becoming totally addicted to shopping for travel on the Internet

Yep. I am completely addicted to expedia, priceline, kayak, cheaptickets, carnival, you name it, and I have probably spent a few hours on it. If only I had the motivation to research school funding as much as I did trips that I might never get the chance to take....

So the next few weeks include a cruise to Mexico, a trip to San Fran, and a trip to Baja Mexico to a much anticipated orphanage where Jare is, and eventually I will be spending my third Easter weekend in Julian with David, and you know what that means? Apple pie, delicious food, lots of birds (including turkeys), and Friends. Wooohhoooo.

Looking forward to breezing through the rest of the quarter and enjoy mi hermanita mucho.

Precious Gifts

I have gotten some really awesome Birthday gifts this week. Tonight I got to put one of them to good use by making my friends some yummy waffles for dinner. I realize that while it is so nice to get gifts that the real gifts that are the closest and the most beautiful in my heart are the times with I have with my friends. I am so thankful for the pot of tea that a friend made me this week and for the small gathering another friend offered to have for me this weekend to celebrate 25. I am glad that I can celebrate 25 years that have included so many friends that have made my life rich, complex, and beautiful.

More Gatsby Glam

(These pictures show my costume a bit better.)

Great Gatsby

Minus the demon eyes, this is what I looked like when all decked out for a speakeasy- Great Gatsby Style. I think there might be better pictures showing fishnets and all.

It was a friend's boyfriend's birthday party, but she didn't know that it was also a surprise engagement party. It was certainly one with lots of style. I am glad she will always have such an awesome memory of last night.

The Value of Time with Friends (Thoughts on the Holiday Season)

This picture was taken by John, who is linked on my sidebar at Mind on Fire. It was taken during a post-Thankgiving Anti-Consumer Party, which makes a point of spending time with friends playing games, eating good food, and enjoying each others company instead of waking up at 5am to hit those huge black Friday sales.

As Christmas is just around the corner, I have been thinking about how most of the gifts I purchase for people will ultimately be bought with student loan money, which isn't the most comforting thought. A friend of mine called me yesterday and asked if rather thank buying gifts for her and her husband, D and I would want to get together with them and make dinner and have a game night. I liked her proactive approach to this and the fact that her idea took the emphasis off purchasing something for each other and put it on spending time with each other, which is really the point of the holidays.

So I am thinking of extending this offer to some other friends because to cook dinner and hang out just sounds so much better than shopping for junk and worrying about money. Perhaps nearer to the holiday and when my finals are finished I will get a creative spark in me, but recently during the holidays I have kind of lacked the energy for that, so I guess we will see.

My Christmas present this year is going to be all about spending time with loved ones, and will include a trip back east with D to meet my family, and take a road trip cross country in the new/used car that my mom has to kindly decided to gift me. So yeah I am getting a big gift, which is really great, but I will honestly be more excited to spend the time with my family then to have a new car.

I value the time I get with friends and family so much and parties like the one in the picture are just a reminder or how much fun that time can be. = )

I am thankful for...

- canned cranberry sauce. Whenever people gush over the homemade stuff I tell them that I grew up eating in the can, and love it that way. My sister and I used to open up a can and eat it with a spoon. The first thanksgiving I spent away from my family they had homemade stuff and I felt like there was just something missing.

D and I were invited to several places to have Thanksgiving this year but have opted to stay at home and cook a huge meal only for ourselves. The goal is to relax, roll with the punches, and not have any stress over this holiday. In fact, right now he is making me lunch (which I am also thankful for) so that we can relax a bit more before we start cooking the fake turkey log and dressing in a few hours. Other dishes include creamed corn, mashed sweet potatoes, and a pumpkin cheesecake. I know it's a lot of food for two people but I think leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving, so I am willing to suffer for the excess of food.

I am thankful for many other things.
I am thankful for Christmas I will be able to spend the holiday with my family and David.
I am thankful that I will spend tomorrow playing games and eating more yummy food with good friends.
I am thankful that the quarter has almost come to a close, and I have a manageable amount of work to get done in the next few weeks.
I am thankful that I got to spend time with Jare on her way to Portland.
I am so thankful for this relaxation right now. It feels nice.

Friday Night- Fighing with Myself

I think that the major beast I am fighting tonight is exhaustion, and I should just go to bed, but I am sitting up here looking at my best friend's stuff that is all over the living room, and I am thinking about how starting tomorrow she will no longer be my roommate, and how it's a very sad thing for me.

I have most certainly taken for granted the fact that I had such a wonderful living situation living with my best friend. I have two other roommate besides my current roommates, and although they both remain friends neither one of them was my best friend, like Jare is.

We wait for each other to get home and catch up with each other at home almost everyday. We have gone to Portland together twice and San Francisco together once. We have never had any major drama in our relationship, and I think that we have always been very honest and open with each other. Although we sometimes have really insightful wisdom to offer to each other, we mainly just listen to, empathize with, and share with each other.

I didn't even meet Jare until I was a senior in high school, but when I moved out here she helped me move into my house, and basically put my bed together for me. She is awesome, strong, smart, and has an amazing heart, and I am so happy that she is going somewhere that she needs to be, but at the same time I might be crying a little bit because it's hard to realize how much you take people for granted until they are leaving.

So I am really sad, but happy at the same time. I know we will email and keep in touch, and really she is only about an hour (I think) across the Mexican border, so it's not like she moved that my farther away than David did. I need to get over my fear of driving across the border and just do it.

So maybe I am not going to sleep because I am sad, and wishing that she would walk up the steps to hang out for a little bit on the last night that she lives here, but I think it's late and she probably spent the night at her home in Riverside.

I'm pretty sad, but very thankful that I have been so blessed by amazing friends (who feel like family) like Jare.

Also if you are interested in donating to her or just learning about what she is going to be doing in Mexico there is a link to her blog here. Again, she has an amazing heart and will impact so many people in the future. The kids at this orphanage are going to love her so much, but I don't know if they will love her as much as me.

Her look definitely says...

We went to a wedding this weekend and we have photos.

I cannot wait to see Bri's photo's from the event. She is such a wonderful photographer and always has so many shots I would never even think of.

Good times, people getting married, cheers.

Without you...

Who would I be?

Stress Busters

I realize today that something I have known for a long time. I have a really hard time not letting the pain/stress of someone I love become my own pain/stress.

But I am working on changing that, because it makes me a healthier person...

So my stress busters for today included

• Freshly chopped watermelon from the Farmer's Market.
• Having an Italian Dinner at The Soprano's (with Jare) while doing my wash at the laundromat next door.
• Swimming laps for about 25 minutes at an apartment complex's pool. (close to me)
• Losing myself in the final book of the Twilight series at lunch and after my post-pool shower.

I think I will sleep well tonight and that tomorrow will be a good day because after work David will come over, give me lots of hugs, and play TtR with me until I am ready to snuggle.

Oh, so much to look forward to...

Black and White Friends