So I just got back last night from my week long trip to California. Leg 1 of Operation California consisted of 4 days (Thursday through Sunday) in LA to apartment hunt. I stayed with Emily (*woot*) in her grandmother's house--which is currently unoccupied--and she and her amazing family helped cart me around LA looking for a place to live. My roommate-to-be, Sonia (some of you might know her?) wasn't going to arrive in LA until Friday afternoon, which was fine--I looked at a few places myself, and we had a few places lined up to look at together. The goal, of course, was to sign a lease that weekend before I began Leg 2 of Operation California. And I was having a great time with Emily and her family, and Sonia and I had some really decent prospects for apartments, and I was finally letting go of my paranoia a bit.
But of course...
At 8:30 on Saturday morning I got a phone call from Sonia. Bear in mind that she literally had been in the state for about 15 hours, having driven 3 days from Texas. The basic gist of the phone call was that she didn't want to move to LA anymore, and she was going back to Texas that afternoon.
You can imagine the not good things that ran through my mind.
After a few hours of freaking out, crying, talking with my family, Emily and her family, and various other people (saints, all of them), and combing Craigslist with a whole new purpose, I found a place. That's right--I now have a place to live! In one afternoon, all my fortunes turned around! *Amen* Emily can attest, it's a fabulous little house in a really nice neighborhood about 15-20 minutes away from UCLA and 4 miles from the beach. I'll be living with 2 other people in the house--I just found out one of them will be a dude, so that should be interesting--and the girl who owns the place has her own separate room off the back. I'm so relieved! Plus, it allowed me to enjoy the rest of my trip. :D
Before I forget, let me share the hilarious story of how I managed to lock me and Emily out of the house. (I take 100% responsibility for that!) We had dinner with Emily's family and got back to her grandmother's house around 11:30, only to find that about half the lights weren't working. So we find the circuit breaker outside and, with the aid of the most heavy-duty flashlight I've ever seen, we reset it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the doorknob on the back door had a lock that allowed you to twist the knob from the inside, but locks it from the outside. You can guess what happened--yeah, I closed the door. We rang a few doorbells of neighbors, but, as it was about midnight, no one answered. As a result, we walked about a mile to the nearest gas station to call Emily's family for a spare key. I thought we were going to lose it when the gas station attendant said they didn't have any payphones, but Emily explained the situation and he let us use their phone. Emily's mom pulled up shortly thereafter, laughing her head off, and made sure we were inside before leaving us for the evening. I bow to my own awesomeness.
Btw, the lights were in fact burned out, thus meaning our foray outdoors was completely unnecessary.
On Saturday, Steve and his brother drove down 5 hours from Modesto, and he met up with me and Emily at this music and art festival in Santa Monica. We didn't hear much music, but we saw a lot of weird modern artsy stuff and made our own crappy art on projectors, hehe. Then Emily handed me off to Steve, and we stayed with some family friends of his before heading back North on Sunday morning to being Leg 2 of Operation California. I won't go through every excruciating detail of what I did with Steve and his family, but suffice to say I had a great time. We stayed in Mariposa for a night and went to Yosemite, chilled in Modesto for a few days and saw The Dark Knight (REALLY GOOD, but really scary!), then headed over to Benicia on Wednesday to go to a wine tasting before I flew back home from San Francisco on Thursday. And here I am!
Edit: By the way, this is quote from my time with Steve's family just never stops being funny AND pretty much sums up exactly how huge the home-school bubble that Steve and his brothers are from. :P
(ME): Joe, do you even know any minorities?
(JOE): [pause] No.
In other random news, I just got a beautiful new laptop (GO ME), saw The X-Files: I Want to Believe last night/technically this morning at the midnight premiere (I seriously can't express the full extent of my disappointment, as I'm so emotionally invested in the series that to do so would probably send me spiraling into a deep depression), and I now have Skype (now that I have more people to talk to overseas, it seemed only logical)! Shock of all shocks, my username is aznsong50--send me contact info, por favor! Hope all is well elsewhere in the country...Love!
~Jenni
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Prayer Request
Hey friends, this request is not for me, but for three students who were shot earlier today at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. SMCC is one of ten community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College district here in AZ. My summer job for the past three years or so has been working for grants at the district office, so while I've never been to SMCC, I've looked at grants for the college, and our office is close to the campus itself.
An official story with some links to video about the shooting can be found here:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2008/07/24/20080724kpnx-collegeshooting0724-CP.html
and here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390984,00.html
Thanks! Hope everyone else is having a great summer.
An official story with some links to video about the shooting can be found here:
http://www.azcentral.com/c
and here:
http://www.foxnews.com/sto
Thanks! Hope everyone else is having a great summer.
Monday, July 14, 2008
it goes like this
Hello all.
So, for anyone bored enough to read this, here is how my summer has gone. My mom's birthday was on the 4th of July, so we all went on a cruise for that. And by all, I mean the four of us, my grandma, and my mom's 4 brothers with their wives and children. Mom and I didn't really want to go on a cruise, but somebody or other decided it would be fun, and who cares who's birthday it is anyway, so that was that. Parts of it were fun, and I'm glad I went, but honestly I'd still rather just go somewhere and vacation in one place, you know? But it was fun to see all my cousins, and some of them got rather drunk the first night and ordered a whole buttload of room service and it was kind of like being at a stoner party. Then we went to the nightclub thing on the ship and my cousin Joey told the bouncer that I was actually 12 years old and should not be allowed in. Turd.
Otherwise, I've just been hanging around, reading and writing. I looked for scholarships on fastweb, cuz I figure by the time I graduate med school I'll be about 400 grand in debt, and I found this writing contest. It was supposed to be a fantasy or sci-fi short story/novelette, so I wrote the whole thing in like 2 days to send it off by the deadline, only to discover, after my dad looked at the address on the website, that it is a contest named after L. Ron Hubberb (or Hubbarb or Hubber or something). ANyway, the guy who started scientology. So my dad got scared that if I sent it, scientologists would start calling the house trying to convert me. I sent it anyway.
Oh ya, and my trip across the west and to LA was oodles of fun, even though I got deathly ill and the car broke down in Arizona. But I got to see a bison and hear hot british guys with hot british accents at the grand canyon (before nearly dying 4 times on my way down the steepest trail) and went to disney land with Emily. ANd it sounds like you're all having fun summers too, traveling the world (and the midwest, woowoo) and getting married and reading all sorts of good books. luv to hear from ya
Liz
So, for anyone bored enough to read this, here is how my summer has gone. My mom's birthday was on the 4th of July, so we all went on a cruise for that. And by all, I mean the four of us, my grandma, and my mom's 4 brothers with their wives and children. Mom and I didn't really want to go on a cruise, but somebody or other decided it would be fun, and who cares who's birthday it is anyway, so that was that. Parts of it were fun, and I'm glad I went, but honestly I'd still rather just go somewhere and vacation in one place, you know? But it was fun to see all my cousins, and some of them got rather drunk the first night and ordered a whole buttload of room service and it was kind of like being at a stoner party. Then we went to the nightclub thing on the ship and my cousin Joey told the bouncer that I was actually 12 years old and should not be allowed in. Turd.
Otherwise, I've just been hanging around, reading and writing. I looked for scholarships on fastweb, cuz I figure by the time I graduate med school I'll be about 400 grand in debt, and I found this writing contest. It was supposed to be a fantasy or sci-fi short story/novelette, so I wrote the whole thing in like 2 days to send it off by the deadline, only to discover, after my dad looked at the address on the website, that it is a contest named after L. Ron Hubberb (or Hubbarb or Hubber or something). ANyway, the guy who started scientology. So my dad got scared that if I sent it, scientologists would start calling the house trying to convert me. I sent it anyway.
Oh ya, and my trip across the west and to LA was oodles of fun, even though I got deathly ill and the car broke down in Arizona. But I got to see a bison and hear hot british guys with hot british accents at the grand canyon (before nearly dying 4 times on my way down the steepest trail) and went to disney land with Emily. ANd it sounds like you're all having fun summers too, traveling the world (and the midwest, woowoo) and getting married and reading all sorts of good books. luv to hear from ya
Liz
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Globetrotting
Well I've been back from my week-long whirlwind tour of Europe for about a week and now that jetlag is wearing off, I thought I'd post about the trip. It was a lot of fun and I've got a ton of pics up on facebook, having made my first photo album (first three actually) ever. My brother Paul and I visited Florence (1 day), Rome (1 day), Berlin (2 days), and Paris (3 days). While I'd been to all but Berlin, I wasn't going to say no to another chance to travel!
I revisited the Uffizi with my brother in Florence and he actually was able to explain to me some of the pictures since he took an AP Art History class in high school and probably remembers about 95% of the material. In Rome it was blazing HOT. We were there on Sunday, and a feast day...Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul no less. The Pope said Mass but sadly, we missed it. The Vatican Museum was also closed and my brother opted not to stand in the massive line and die of dehydration to see St. Peter's. So we went Church-hopping for the rest of the day and found a treasure: Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa de Avila.
It was absolutely stunning. Also, St. Teresa is my confirmation saint and Bernini is one of Paul's favorites, so it meant something special to both of us.
Berlin was a lot of fun. It was also a lot cooler and there weren't as many tourists as in Rome. We got to visit the Pergamon Museum and the Old National Gallery the first day, taking in relics from Greece, the Middle East, as well as paintings by German artists. The second day we took a look at the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, both sites of where the city was divided during the Cold War. My favorite mural on the Berlin Wall involved quite an unlikely hero.
After a relaxing time in Berlin, we headed of course to the ever marvelous Paris and boy did I ever get my fill of art. Our first day we visited the Musee d'Orsay, which is chockful of beautiful Impressionist art by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir. It even had Whistler's Mother! And of course on the second day there was the Louvre and while everyone crowded around the Mona Lisa my brother and I looked in as many wings as we could. We spent six hours in there and didn't come to close to seeing everything.
Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower and went to Mass at Notre Dame to end our time. Paris had many tourists but with more time, it seemed a lot more relaxed. Of course the entire trip was a bit spoiled at first because the airline LOST MY BAG and though I arrived on a Saturday, I didn't get it until Tuesday evening. Otherwise though, the vacation was great and I returned home with a lot more info about art stuffed in my head.
Now things are pretty much back to normal. Our pool finally got finished while I was gone and it is so nice to relax in it. Work continues as usual. I'm now a registered Rice grad student and have a random roommate. In less than a month I'll be heading to hot and humid Houston and I'm getting a little nervous and excited. I hope everyone else is having a great summer! Take care guys!
I revisited the Uffizi with my brother in Florence and he actually was able to explain to me some of the pictures since he took an AP Art History class in high school and probably remembers about 95% of the material. In Rome it was blazing HOT. We were there on Sunday, and a feast day...Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul no less. The Pope said Mass but sadly, we missed it. The Vatican Museum was also closed and my brother opted not to stand in the massive line and die of dehydration to see St. Peter's. So we went Church-hopping for the rest of the day and found a treasure: Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa de Avila.
It was absolutely stunning. Also, St. Teresa is my confirmation saint and Bernini is one of Paul's favorites, so it meant something special to both of us.
Berlin was a lot of fun. It was also a lot cooler and there weren't as many tourists as in Rome. We got to visit the Pergamon Museum and the Old National Gallery the first day, taking in relics from Greece, the Middle East, as well as paintings by German artists. The second day we took a look at the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, both sites of where the city was divided during the Cold War. My favorite mural on the Berlin Wall involved quite an unlikely hero.
After a relaxing time in Berlin, we headed of course to the ever marvelous Paris and boy did I ever get my fill of art. Our first day we visited the Musee d'Orsay, which is chockful of beautiful Impressionist art by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir. It even had Whistler's Mother! And of course on the second day there was the Louvre and while everyone crowded around the Mona Lisa my brother and I looked in as many wings as we could. We spent six hours in there and didn't come to close to seeing everything.
Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower and went to Mass at Notre Dame to end our time. Paris had many tourists but with more time, it seemed a lot more relaxed. Of course the entire trip was a bit spoiled at first because the airline LOST MY BAG and though I arrived on a Saturday, I didn't get it until Tuesday evening. Otherwise though, the vacation was great and I returned home with a lot more info about art stuffed in my head.
Now things are pretty much back to normal. Our pool finally got finished while I was gone and it is so nice to relax in it. Work continues as usual. I'm now a registered Rice grad student and have a random roommate. In less than a month I'll be heading to hot and humid Houston and I'm getting a little nervous and excited. I hope everyone else is having a great summer! Take care guys!
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