Getting Ready

I've felt it for the past month or so. There's that pressure building up that soon I'll need to be ready to be a wife. No, there have been no proposals, but I feel my time is getting near. Day after day I look at my life and think about what areas I need to work on before I become a wife. My first step has been to sort through all my stuff. Those of you who know me know I'm a packrat. Ever seen the show hoarders? Sometimes I feel like those people, I just tend to be more organized about it. My stuff is sorted into neat boxes and I know exactly which box to get into if I need something. Over the years, though, the boxes have been growing in number and have found homes in other places outside of my room.

About a month ago, my sisters decided to split up. Instead of sharing a room, they wanted their own rooms, and they wanted to have none of my stuff in either of them. This means I got back my children's books (7, 18 gallon tubs of them), my boxes of bags, and all my games. With all my stuff in one room, I began to realize just how much I'd slowly accumulated.

Last weekend, Paul told me (quite bluntly) that when the time came for us to be together he didn't want our place to be a storage facility for my stuff. Ouch. To do him proud I raided my closet and sorted three boxes of childhood toys into keep and sell piles. In the end, I was left with one keep box. It felt oddly good knowing that I could, in fact, get rid of stuff (of course, some things I just had to take a picture of before tossing such as my 8 nano pets/tamogatchis which I wore all the time when I was 10).


Mid week I was lying in my bed staring at my bookshelf and wondered if there were any books I would never read again in my life. I came up with about 10 "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and a handful of other reading material that was so poorly written I imagine I got them as presents at one point in time.

This weekend I remembered the Barbies I had kept stored away in the attic for 15+ years. I spent a good 1-2 hours today sorting through the 5 boxes we pulled out. As a tribute to my barbies I had to dress each one of them so they were modest when it came to garage sale time. I also assembled all their furniture and proudly displayed the number of cool recreational vehicles they once cruised around my house in. My efforts left me with one ziploc bag of my favorite Barbies and Barbie clothes and 1.5 tables of Barbie items to sell. Of course, as typical, I can't part with them forever, so they'll have their photo op in the near future.

I hope to accomplish the following things next as I strive to become better marriage material:

1. Trim down the number of clothes I have
2. Sort through the 2-3 boxes of school papers I've kept since high school
3. Browse the magazines I've collected since middle school and cut out articles to save, throwing the rest away
4. Download my CDs to my computer and sell the discs and their cases
5. Sort through my bags and only keep ones I'll use the most
6. Trim down the college dorm cups, utensils, plates, and decorations
   

All this seems like an impossible task, especially to a hoarder such as myself. I'll keep you updated and post pictures as I slowly tackle what I've set out to accomplish.

A True Adventure

Wow. What a week. I know all of this is going to be hard to believe, so I put up pictures to prove it! Here's a quick preview:

Week in Review:
1. Crashed the car
2. It was deemed totaled
3. Slid across the asphalt
4. Paid an arm and a leg for mechanic repairs
5. Found out my credit card info had be stolen
6. Found out my tires were damaged by idiots in Lebec
7. Wheels almost fell off my car

READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE!

Saturday, February 6, 2010
I began my drive from Escondido up to a wedding in Paso Robles. The plan was for me to attend the wedding with Paul, stay in a hostel in San Luis Obispo, and then slowly make our way back home down the coast on Sunday, stopping in Moro Bay, Solvang, and Santa Barbara. Unfortunately, my plans weren't going to happen.

3 hours north of home, only 2.5 hours away from my destination, I was headed down the Grapevine on I-5 North when it started to rain hard. The truck in front of me was kicking up quite a bit of water, so I moved over into the slow lane. Just as I entered the lane, my tires hit a puddle, began hydroplaning, spun me around, and I landed in a car-sized bush on the side of the freeway. Looking at the damage on the car and how I landed in the bush, my best guess is that I headed backwards into the bush, tipped on to my right side, almost flipping over, but then righted so I was right side up on the bush.

The one car-sized bush on the side of I-5 for miles. My car was so deep in there that the tow truck passed me before turning around on the freeway to drag me out.

Pulling out my car as it continues to rain. The next few pictures show just how much damage was done. I'm so fortunate that God decided it wasn't my time.


Notice the mirror is completely gone. The bush ate it. The other mirror is hanging on by 3 wires. It reminded me of a loose tooth.
The brunt of the impact was on this panel.As you can see by the debris, at some point, my hood was sliding across the bush. There are many little scratches on it...my poor paint!

After a flurry of calls, it was decided that Paul would drive down in his rental car and get me, and although he'd miss the wedding, hopefully we'd still be able to make the reception. In the meantime, I was left to hang out at a mechanic shop in Lebec, CA. The ladies there seemed nice enough, and I had plenty of food packed to make myself a PB&J for dinner. About half an hour away from Paul's arrival it began to get dark and I realized just how lonely I was and how I just wanted him there by my side. He ended up arriving at around 6 pm (5 hours after my crash).

We drove up to where the wedding reception was being held. I don't remember much of the 2.5 hour drive as I spent most of it crying and worrying about the fact that it was still raining as we were driving and that, at any moment, we might spin off the road again.

When we arrived in Paso Robles, the reception hall was being cleaned up and there were very few people around. Fortunately, the friends Paul wanted to visit with were all going out to Denny's together, so we had a late dinner and drove to the hostel and called it a night.

Sunday, February 7, 2010
I called the mechanic in Lebec who had my car and they told me to drive back to get it and by then they would have determined if it was drivable or if I'd need to pay to have it towed back home.

The drive was beautiful. I wish I would have not been so angry and sad that I would have thought to take pictures of it all. On a straight stretch of road Paul let me practice drive the rental (a cute mini-cooper) since I hadn't driven since my crash (almost 24 hours). I seriously drove like a grandma. We're talking both hands on the wheel, checking all my mirrors, while driving 55 mph. My muscles were so sore after driving since I was completely tense.

When we got to the mechanics they said they'd checked out the car, replaced the front tires, and believed it to be drivable. All I needed to do was pay them $85 for the work they'd done and go next door to the NAPA store and get a mirror and some duct tape so we could jerry-rig my side mirror and make my car legal.

After ghetto-fying my car, we paid up and drove off towards Burbank in order to drop off Paul's rental. Now, mind you, it was still cold and cloudy, and with my mirror taped on around my door frame, we couldn't close the window. It made for a very cold and loud ride for 5+ hours that day. Also, there was a tinkling sound coming from the passenger side wheel, which will come into play later in the story. Luckily we made it home in one piece and had a restful evening.

Monday, February 8, 2010
Paul and I drove my car over to the auto body shop arranged by my insurance in order to determine the damage done. The vibe I got from the lady at the shop was that the damage was extensive and the car was old and she didn't think the insurance would fix it.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
My insurance agency (AAA) called to take a recorded statement from me regarding the accident. Despite the fact I was doing everything I could to adjust my driving for the weather (slowing down, moving over a lane, using my wipers, etc) AAA's determination was that I was at 100% fault for the accident, meaning my premiums would increase and it would forever be on my record.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The body shop called to let me know that the price of the body work ($5291) exceeded the total cost of my car and was thus going to be unrepairable.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
It was Sarah's 10th birthday and I got up to see her off to school. As she went out the door, I noticed she forgot the cookies she was going to give her class, so I decided to wave down my mom as she left the driveway. She couldn't hear me or see me, so I figured she was still within running distance and I could hit the windows. As I began to run, my upper body gained more momentum than my lower body, and I slid across the asphalt. She ended up getting her cookies, but this is what resulted:
Yeeeaaaah...that's road burn near my elbow and on my hand. And no joke, that's a huge bruise on my hip. It hurt so bad when I returned to the house I started feeling dizzy and having dry heaves. Poor Paul had to calm me down and help me find all the necessary bandages and get me fixed up so I could go into work. I spent the day with an ice pack on my hip to reduce the swelling. We also decided to pull my car from the auto body shop since it didn't look like I was going to be able to get it fixed there.

Friday, February 12, 2010
We took my car to our personal mechanic early in the morning for a complete check up to make sure it was really safe. He reported that, aside from a broken seal that was causing my car to leak oil, the car was fine to drive. Unfortunately, to fix the broken seal, the transmission had to be pulled out, leaving me with a $450 bill.

I gave our mechanic my credit card information, and, it was denied twice. I thought it was odd, considering I have a $6,500 credit limit and didn't spend nearly that much yet on my card. When I accessed my account online, there were a good 3 dozen $14.99 charges over the past two days from blizzard.com for WOW (which Paul pointed out was "World of Warcraft" and not some amazing DairyQueen treat).

While my car was being fixed, AAA called to let me know that my car was essentially useless and they'd need to arrange for a tow truck to come pick it up from my house and then they'd pay for it. I most emphatically told them I could NOT part with the car. Then the story became "oh, well, then...." and they went into details about how my car was now salvage and I'd need to make necessary repairs and re-register it with the DMV as a salvaged car. Why did they have to get all serious in the beginning about taking my car from me?! The assessor is supposed to come on Wednesday to determine how big of a check AAA will cut me in order to make my repairs.

When I went to pick up my car that evening, the mechanic left a note on my bill saying the clinking near my tires was actually something IN the tire and that I needed to have it looked at ASAP and that my left front tire was slowly deflating for some unknown reason.

Saturday, February 13, 2010
Paul and I got up and brought my front tires to Discount Tire Co. for them to look at. Yay! It was free for them to check them out! Unfortunately, an hour later, they didn't have very good news. They said one tire's bead was broken (which I learned was a seal on the tire) and that the other needed a new rim. They rang me up for two rims and a tire, totaling $270. I talked them out of one rim and the price went down to $170. Still, the repairs they wanted to make didn't seem right. After asking question after question and explaining my situation, they went back and took a closer look at the tires. Come to find out, only the tire with the broken bead needed to be replaced and I didn't need any rims. The reason behind the bead being broken? The mechanics in Lebec damaged it when they put it on. And the noise in my tire? A 1 inch rock that was tumbling around, left in there by the mechanics in Lebec. Ooh. I was so mad. Because of the mechanics in Lebec I was out $78 more in repairs. (I'll post a picture of the rock once I find it).

So, we returned home with my new/repaired tires and put them back on the car. There were a few more errands we had to run before I dropped Paul off at the airport, so we decided to take my car and test it out. It worked well except for a rubbing sound we thought was the axel. I had my dad test it out when we got home to see if it would be ok to drive down to the San Diego Airport. He drove circles in our cul-de-sac and said it should be fine. Paul and I packed up the car and headed down to the airport. Unfortunately, as we traveled and joked about how the week couldn't get any worse, the noise began to get louder, and the car began to shake. We were almost to the airport when I had to slow to 45 mph on the freeway, throw on my hazards, and find the nearest exit. When we got off the freeway, I had Paul stick his head out the window and see if the tire was flat. To his surprise, the wheel was shaking! We pulled into the nearest parking lot, where Paul got out, shook his head, and told me that my lug nuts were almost completely off! Like a true gentleman he jacked up my car and tightened all the nuts.

So, that's been my week. Hope you enjoyed reading about it! Enjoy the following encore of photos:

People Watching

I love watching people. Call me a stalker, but I find human behavior to be extremely interesting and sometimes too predictable.

For instance, as I sit up on the fourth floor of the library and look down on a remote part of campus, I see a guy and a girl, most likely boyfriend and girlfriend, meet together, focused only on each other and not on anything around them (especially their fourth floor onlooker)...typical of passionate lovers.

They put their school bags down and begin to dance with each other. Yes, dance. It starts as a middle-school-distance dance. Most likely the guy is serenading her as the girl bends at the waist as if girl-ishly giggling at him. Unless he's got some silly song playing on an ipod I can't see, it's the only explanation I have for the music they dance to. As she laughs and leans in he pulls her closer.

As the slow dance continues they circle and circle and move closer and closer in their embrace. Why don't people today have actual dancing skills? Slowly the dancing dies off as they begin to kiss. I see a person begin to approach the area the two are dancing in. Knowing the nature of girls, I estimate their make out session will cease as the passerby pretends to pay no attention to them. Lo and behold it happens. The girl temporarily pulls away and gives her man a smile. The passerby doesn't even glance over. She probably knows they're there, but, true to human nature, doesn't acknowledge them. To break the resulting tension, the guy does a goofy little dance at which the girl playfully hits him and moves in closer. The kissing once again begins.

Suddenly the girl's phone rings and she leaves her man, undoubtedly to share her excitement with whoever is on the other end. Or, perhaps, her parents are calling and she doesn't want them to know about her escapades, so she has to temporarily escape the situation. The guy, meanwhile, props himself against the building out of sight of his girl, probably in attempt to slow his racing heart and hide the excitement he feels (after all, guys have to play it cool, right?).

After the phone call the two begin taking pictures of the area...remembrances, perhaps? I tottered between whether the couple was Mexican or Asian (based off of their hair and skin color). However, after seeing the flurry of random pictures they just took of a remote, unsightly part of campus, I know they must be Asian.

Slowly the couple leave the area to return back to campus civilization. Step by step they climb the stairs. My grandpa, if he were still alive, could climb the stairs faster than these two. Obviously they don't want to leave, but must have somewhere to go. Two sets of stairs later and the guy leans in for another kiss. She pulls away though....the nature of a girl to have decency in public. After all, apparently two flights of stairs makes a difference in whether or not people can see you?

After one last embrace, the two return back to campus, without a hint that anything even happened. This probably won't be the last of their escapades in remote parts of campus. And to think...they probably never considered their meeting would be analyzed, hypothesized on, and then posted on the internet...odd how life is.

Do something random today. You never know who's watching. You may inspire someone to write and prove their hypotheses on human interactions completely wrong, adding intrigue to their otherwise uneventful day.

Feeling so disconnected

So, for those of you who don't already know, I'm jobless and spend most of my days at home reading, knitting, watching TV or filling out job applications. Then, at night I head off to night class. Although I have stuff to always keep me productive and busy, I just feel so disconnected from everyone except my family (who I still live with) and Paul (who I talk to every night).

How do people stay connected? I spend time on Facebook reading peoples' updates and seeing what they're up to, but do people actually do that in return? Are there people out there who are really tracking my life through my status updates and the pictures I post? Are there those who really do secretly care what I'm up to and I just never realize it?

I'm just really feeling at a loss lately. I feel like I have so much time on my hand right now that I should be using that time to deepen friendships I had a year ago when I was living at college. If anyone has any idea on how to effectively do this, please chime in and leave a comment. It'd be a lot of help!

Spreading Sickness

Kids+close living quarters = spreading sickness

Day after day here in LA kids are being sent home from CTY left and right. Yesterday alone I had to pack up 5 different student rooms so they could go home. Most of the students are running high fevers (over 100 degrees) and showing flu-like symptoms. Because of the ever-spreading H1N1 virus, we are being required to quarantine and then send home any sick students.

The sickness has been hard on students and staff alike. Students cry after finding out their roommates, camp friends, or hall mates have been sent home for being sick. There's widespread paranoia here as well concerning the spread of the illness. Students are afraid that they too will succumb to what their roommate has which, in their minds, inevitably leads to being sent home. Many students here are now afraid to go to the nurse's office. They see her as the bad person of camp. After all, she's the one that sends everyone home.

Additionally, staff is beginning to get sick. Already we're one RA down. Yesterday we had another RA have a fever. Luckily he's ok today and can be back around the students. The past few days my partner in crime, Christian, has been getting worse and worse. First he had a fever, then felt really tired, and today has a really bad sore throat.

So, between working side by side with a sick guy, walking past the infirmary every day, and packing up the items of students having the flu, I'm left to wonder when sickness is going to hit me. Pray for myself and my co-workers that we can all stay well enough to enjoy the second session of camp! Prayer combined with lots of fluids, vitamins and hand washing should just about do the trick!

Gladiator

CTY has many traditions scattered here and there. There are certain songs that must be played at dances, certain things to do during particular songs, various theme days, etc. However, my favorite thus far has been the Gladiator battle that topped off Time Travel Day.

Here's the premise: the students are supplied tape and cardboard boxes and must create armor for their RA to go battle in. During battle an RA is out when all of their armor has been ripped off. With that being said, here are the results:

The ladies are ready for battle.

Jon and Will begin to reconsider their scant amount of armor.

Chaos ensues

Dane takes out Kate...and not in the nice, dating sense of the word.

Rahsaan collides with Dane...perhaps payback in the name of Kate?

Dane karate chops Will...why are there so many pictures of Dane? He didn't even last that long!

The final three taunt each other. It's Doheny Bikinis vs. Sullivan's Black Magic...who will win?

Seriously Rahsaan...it's not football.

Jon goes for the quick take down.

True to his word, Rahsaan has no problem "going there" in order to take off Jon's armor.

The Doheny Bikinis take the win in the end and all the students joyfully celebrate.

CTY

The past 2.5 weeks have just flown right by! For those not up to date on my happenings, I have been working with Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth (CTY) summer program. The program is all about giving gifted students a place to not only grow intellectually but socially as well. Being a Senior Resident Assistant, I'm in charge of assuring students are being given opportunities to socialize inside and outside of the residence halls. It's back to college life with living in the dorms and college night life with late hours and early mornings. How I'm surviving, I have no idea...I just enjoy what I'm doing and it gives me the drive to keep going!

The first day I was here it was all about unpacking and moving in. The staff quickly changed a hall of dorm rooms into functional offices. My partner in crime, Christian, and I had to unpack and organize three different office spaces (our office, a sports supply room, and an art supply room). After the first day I was exhausted, and not feeling at home. My dorm room walls were white, my bed was too hard and too high (I still have to get a running start to jump into it), and the dorm food just plain sucked.

There's no way of sugar coating the awfulness of the food I ate the first day here. The cafeteria only offered one meal option: pre-cooked hamburgers and hot dogs. By the time I got there, there wasn't even cheese for my burger. Moving on to the soda machine, I found they were only supplying us with 7 ounce cups to drink out of (these later changed to 5 ounce cups). No sandwich bar, no salad left at the "salad bar," and to top it all off, no desert. After day 2 I was so sick of the food I dreaded eating. I must report, though, that since the students arrived a week and a half ago the food has gotten considerably better. It's still not as good as Concordia's and we're still drinking out of 7 ounce cups, but it's definitely better than the first week here.

The first day I also met my wonderful roommate Michelle. She's the camp nurse. I actually made a joke before coming out to CTY hoping I'd be rooming with someone older and more mellow, such as the nurse. Looks like I got my wish! I wouldn't necessarily describe Michelle as mellow, but she is definately the kind, caring, nurse-type. I've come home from late nights in the res office to find notes on my bed wishing me sweet dreams or a bag of chocolate to make up for the ones she ate from the candy dish in our living room. She also affectionately greets me in the morning and at work with "Hi roomie!"I know that if I ever come down with something she'll know how to take care of it right away! I'm really glad to have her as a roommate.

My RA staff here is amazing too! Small problems aside, they really get their jobs done well. There are so many stories I'd be dying to write down here about them, but it would take so long to get them all out! In short, the ladies are wonderful, sweet and genuinely caring. They've gone out of their way before to be sure I take a break and have personal time amidst the chaos of residence life. The gentlemen...well...they're guys. I love them all. They continually make me laugh. I was thinking today about how nice it's been to go to work everyday knowing that there'll be something to smile about and take joy in.

Some of the staff takes the time to imitate the way Christian dresses and poses - very unique.

The other Senior Resident Assistant I work with, Christian, is a God-sent. He's been here for five years now and has helped me figure out in the ins and outs of the program. He understands my sense of humor, and ever since the first day we've just clicked. It's actually kind of creepy that at times we'll finish each others' sentences, say the same things at the same time, or anticipate what the other person will do before they do it. Even creepier is the fact that our birthdays are only one day apart. His is July 6th and mine's the 7th...two cancers aren't supposed to get along so well! We're pretty much an unstoppable duo. I'm the girl version of him and he's the guy version of me.

Watch out CTY...Brandi and Christian are on duty, watching for trouble at the dance.