Some Tahoe Snow to get You Through the Day

I finished "Waiting" by Ha Jin. It was good. I enjoyed it. I like the open-ended endings the best. That way I can make up my own ending of how I think everything should turn out. I'm now enjoying "The Eleventh Commandment" by Jeffrey Archer. It's a thriller and starts out with an assassination. Pretty cool so far! I've got quite a few books in line for me to read. I think I'm going to read "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink next. I saw the movie when it was in theatres and loved it. I hear the book is amazing.

This past weekend was a family weekend for me. On Sunday I went to my niece's first birthday party. Then that evening I went to my boyfriend's sister's birthday dinner, then Monday night was first night Passover Seder at my Aunt's house. It was all fun. I can't believe my niece is already a year old. She's getting more and more cute. And my cousin's baby was at the Seder, she's almost 2 years old. She's super cute and funny. She's now talking up a storm and is a little parrot repeating everything. But she's so much fun. We played for half an hour with these bead necklaces that she loves. She was having the greatest time taking them down, putting them on, then showing everyone, then taking them off and putting them away. Over and over again. It was fun for me watching her. She's such a little doll.

It's nice to have babies in the family that I can play with and be the fun Aunt or cousin. Maybe one day I'll have one of my own. But for now I'm enjoying playing with the ones I have around. I'm not ready yet and want to finish school and get myself a little more stable before I can be a Mom.

So, of course I'm still enjoying my Nano. Still the coolest thing around. I also bought an outlet charger so I don't have to keep plugging it into the computer just to charge. It's awesome. I went to volunteer yesterday at the library and was so loving having my Nano while cataloguing. It's the best. Some of my great finds yesterday was this cool kid's book in Swahili that was published around 1920s and some pamphlets published around the 1860s. So awesome. I love that I get to go back and work with them more too. How cool is that! Well it's all pretty amazing to me. It makes me so happy that Mayme collected all this stuff, so that years later I got to come in contact with it all. Wonderful. I'm thinking one day I'll do some sort of collecting myself. Maybe old dictionaries or something that interests me. We shall see where that one takes me.

I went to spin/yoga yesterday morning to a class by myself, which is awesome to have my own personal trainer and get my form exact. But it also really sucks in the respect that I had to work really, really hard since all eyes were on me. It's nice to be made aware of certain things you do that are not great for your form. So I can make a conscious effort to correct them and make sure I don't hurt myself. And I signed up for Sunday's spin/yoga at 9:30, but because it's Easter Sunday they are doing a special and asked if I'd like to go to an 8-9:30 class instead. It's going to suck so early, but I haven't tried their holiday hour and a half special classes yet (they are usually an hour) and they do a tag team with 2 instructors that switch with each song. Should be interesting and hard. I think I'll be dead by 9:30. Then I have Easter Sunday brunch to go to. I might need a nap on Sunday.

I have a quiz and homework due on Tuesday night in Statistics and am having a little trouble with these chapters. I think I need to reread the chapters again as I'm a little hazey on these z-scores and how they are used with the bell curve. Ugh, I'm not even in grad school yet and am already having complications with classes! Well, I guess the good news is that this prerequisite is getting me ready for all that in a way. And I have my Nano to keep me company while I figure it all out.

Grr has been sick off and on for the past 6 months or so. I think we are finally at the end of all the sickness with just an ear infection in one ear. We're on ear drops again. Monday we go back to the vet, hopefully for a clean bill of health since I'll be starting my Census position soon and she & I are both sick of trekking to the vet every week or every other week. It's a bit of a pain.

That's all I got for now. Over and out.

Grr & Hippo take a look

I'm preparing for grad school and have already done a little bit of shopping. I decided to get a new backpack and replace the one I've had since I was in Jr. High. I used it all through high school and college and figure that getting into UCLA means that I should start a new leaf and treat myself to a few things. I think my buys are more of an investment than anything else. I also splurged and got an ipod nano. Ok, so I've never had an ipod of any sort and am a little behind on this technology train. I'm definitely not a fore-runner. I like to sit and watch the prices get a little lower, the technology to get a little better and for me to actually have use for it. I have to say that I am so in love with my nano already. I'm listening to it right now. I've loaded in about 250 songs from my CD collection and am not even close to having half of my collection in it yet. This is why I bought the one with more memory. I love music. And my CDs and music are pretty priceless to me. I remember going & studying in coffee shops with my walkman. I miss that. I am able to study much better when I have good music on in the background. I kinda forgot that. It's also another way to block out the world and my thoughts. Helps me focus on whatever I'm studying while having the music to focus on in the background. I read my next chapter in my statistics book today while listening to what I've already loaded in on shuffle. All I can say is that my walkman couldn't do this. And I am so utterly amazed. It even has a video camera. Really?! And it has games! Remember when cell phones were first popular and they actually had games on them? Nothing big, but they had "Snake" and "Mancala" and some sort of "Space Invaders". What happened to that?! Now if I want a game on my cellphone I not only have to pay to get it on my phone, but have to pay for the time that I play it. Why?! It's so mean. But my new, favorite toy has music AND games and it's tiny and I love it!

Ah, my nano and I will go places together. Now we can study together, ride the bus together, and just have a nice time. Who knew that less than $200 could give me such happiness? I would've bought this much sooner if I knew how happy it would make me. So, my next big investment is going to be a laptop. I've never had one. And because I have this nifty nano, I'm thinking a Mac will suit me best. It's going to be expensive even with a student discount (which I hear is pennies anyways). But I think that it'll be very useful. One of my friends had some great advice about the subject, so I'm definitely going to look into it and ask her some more questions to make sure I get something really worth while. My boyfriend and I share his computer, but I think it's time I got my own.

Grad school, new backpack, Nano, laptop,...oh my, I'm definitely growing up!

I'm reading "Waiting" by Ha Jin right now. I'm about halfway through it. It's a pretty good story. I'm not completely in love with it, but am enjoying it. It's about a man living in Communist China as a doctor in the military, so he's far from home. But he never loved his wife as she was picked by his parents. He wants to divorce her to marry one of the nurses, but he keeps getting denied by the courts for a divorce. Although after 18 years of marriage he will be eligible for the divorce. It's a strange love story. The man and the nurse are only best friends and cannot have an affair because they would get shamed and thrown out of the military. It's tame, but still tugs on your heart strings a bit. You feel so badly for all involved, but there is no clean solution; someone is going to be hurt by what might happen.

So I start UCLA this fall. I have to admit I'm a little overwhelmed by it all. Like the fact that it's quarters and not semesters. I'm not a fan of writing papers & to have to do them twice as quickly. I have to take a boot-camp Computer Programming session and am really hoping I get into that class. It's like a week long class 8 hours per day. It's going to suck, but at least I'll be with the people starting in the same program with me. I can start to make some friends. That's exciting. I'm going to take the bus there & back, so I need to do a test run sometime soon. I have to find a part-time job; hopefully something on campus. I'm hoping I get work study and some kind of loan. This is going to be so expensive. Eeek, I'm going to be in so much debt in 2 years.
I am very excited I will get a Masters and even more excited that UCLA accepted me! It's been 2 years in the making. I still don't believe it sometimes. I graduated from undergrad a little over 8 years ago. Wow.

Here's what my nano is playing for me right now...a little of... Minus the Bear, Snow Patrol, Doves, Save Ferris, Elliott Smith, Sarge, Creeper Lagoon, Pinback, Tegan & Sara, Trainspotting soundtrack, Candlebox (you know you love them & are very, very jealous that I have all their CDs!), and many, many more with much more to be put onto the computer and then put on my nano. Aw. Love. This is true love. I knew I'd find it one day. It's on the list of technology I can't live without (caller ID & call-waiting caller ID, DVR, microwave, toaster-ovens...ipod).

Still without a job, but I did get into grad school, so I'm not so worried about finding a job anymore. Too many other things to worry about now. Way too many. Although, before I knew I got into UCLA (let's see how many times I can mention I got accepted into grad school in this blog entry...yes, I am so happy!) I applied to work for the US Census. I took this really easy and fun test about a month ago. I wish the GRE was like that, but then again I did get accepted into UCLA so I don't have to worry about that anymore! I finally received a phone call yesterday from the Census and called them back today. I have a paperwork interview in another month and then the following week is training. I think the job is for only about 6 weeks, but it beats unemployment checks and truthfully I think it'll be fun to tell people I worked on the 2010 Census. (Remember I'm going to Library school, so things I find "fun" is not the same for others) I don't think it's completely full-time, but truthfully I'm really, really liking being unemployed and should enjoy this before I start at UCLA and get really crazy. Talking to the Census today was pretty funny because this woman who was talking to me is reading this script to me to ask me questions about what hours I can work and tell me a little bit about being an enumerator and such. I must've been one of the first she read it to, because at some point she says, "Um, ok...oops I already said that...um, so...wait. I don't understand this part, let me put you on hold. " Ha-ha. And she asked me the same question a few times (for some reason, it's listed a few times in different ways) and I'm answering the same way and she says "Huh? It kinda repeats, doesn't it?". Anyways after she told me all the information I need to know, what to bring, what to wear, that they will fingerprint me and where I am to attend in a month the phone call is finally over. It was a tad amusing.

That's the gist of my life right now. Lot's of new things.

A long time ago...

in a land far away...when Grr played with her blanket...ok, ok so the picture isn't too old. Maybe a year or two. And she still looks that cute.

It's been almost a year since I last posted. Things have been crazy and 2009 was not the greatest year for me, by far. I'm now 31, unemployed and starting graduate school in the Fall. I got laid off from my job on Thursday November 19 2009, a week before Thanksgiving. And I got an acceptance letter from UCLA on Monday March 8 2010 for the Masters in Library and Information Sciences program. I quit Martial Arts and have been taking spinning and spin/yoga and went to my first pilates class last Friday. Martial Arts just got bad for me. It got to the point where I had to push myself to go and was miserable after it. Basically it was me and 4 teenage boys. So it sucked. But I am loving spin/yoga and pilates. I feel like a grown-up and actually get a pretty good workout.

I'm looking for a job for at least the next few months, but it's not easy. I've barely gotten interviews and it's very disheartening. And unemployment is less than a third of what I used to make. So it hasn't been easy. And Grr has been sick. The good news is I've had time to take her to the vet, the bad news is that she is costing me a lot of money. But I love her and cannot even imagine letting her get too sick. She's a good, fat kitty. She's on a diet and has lost some weight, but we still have a few pounds more to lose.

In other news. I'm reading up a storm. I read pretty much every Nicholas Sparks book. He's amazing! I never knew an author to write people so well. I am still blown away by his novels. Sometimes I wish I still had some more of his to read. Then I also got turned onto and read Mitch Albom's books. He's another amazing one. His non-fiction is fabulous. And I read his first fiction which was wonderful. I just finished Bridges of Madison County. What a great love story. I'm reading an in-between book right now while I wait to visit my Mom on Sunday and borrow some books from her that sound great. I read the newest Dan Brown book, it's so much fun. The only problem I had was the ending. It was lame. But everything leading up to it was just really amazing and a lot of fun.

That's all I got for now. I'm going to try to start posting again. I think it might be fun.