Hittin' It Hard

Yesterday was sort of an interesting day. I got up, went to class and then went to Kinkos to print some of my recent photos. When I got there I went into my backpack to get my USB drive where ALL of my photos are right now and I couldn't find the drive. I seriously almost died trying to figure out where I had left it. Then I remembered that I was working on some photos at OVS the night before and left the USB in the computer I was working on. So I drove back to OVS and grabbed my drive and then drove back to Ventura to print my images (I have to mount my images today so I sort of needed to print them yesterday).

After printing my images, I went over to the Coffee Shop to hang out with Cory for a bit. After Cory left, I waited a little while longer to pick up Nae from school. While waiting, There was this other guy at the table across from me (definitely a hippie in his linen clothes). He kept staring at me until he finally said "Hello! How are you?" "I'm good thanks. How are you?" He said he was good and asked me what my name was. I told him to which he responded, "Michaela, you have a very good energy coming off of you." I said thank you and asked him his name. He told me his name was River (which I totally believe). He told me that he had been gone for 3 months and now his computer wouldn't start. He asked me if I knew any good "Computer Wizes" in town (which I don't... well, other than Ryan who just knows everything). We chatted for a little while about how our computers hate us (mine really hates me and I think John keeps making fun of me whenever I plug in the PC...) and how crappy the stock market is right now and how we could care less.

Later in the evening I went to Sumo Sushi with Cory, Holly, and Carl. The evening was pretty funny with Cory hitting all of the Taboo dinner topics (religion, politics, and money). After dinner we went over to the new frozen yogurt place, Tuti Fruti or something like that. The whole day was pretty great and I am glad I got to hang out with friends.

Soap Stories

This weekend of work was really nice. A bunch of my kids went home so I actually only had about 19 girls. Friday night was kinda just a hangout night. Once it was too dark for the kids to be outside, Lauren and I sat outside of the girls dorm and played some guitar until it was too cold to move. Saturday we took the kids down to Hollywood and Highland to watch the Chihuahua movie at the El Capitan Theater. The movie was pretty stupid but hanging out in Hollywood wasn't bad. After the movie, we went up to Universal City Walk (which is one of my favorite places!).

One of my favorite things about taking a Saturday trip is being able to take the kids to the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I actually ended up not having any kids so I got to walk around and pick up some great veggies for dinner. While I was wandering around, I ran into my boss Dave who was chatting with one of his friends. He called me over to introduce me to his friend. After I introduced myself, his friend turned to Dave and said "It looks like you have a very competent assistant. It's important to have someone who is respectful and reliable as an assistant." There was some more back and forth stuff about me (while I was standing right there, feeling awkward that people were talking about me right in front of my face). Dave then started talking to his other friend and I was trying to find a good way to walk away in the least awkward way. Before I got a chance to leave, Dave's friend asks me, "Can I gift you with something? I would like to gift you with something." I politely said "Thank you so much, but no thank you. I'm ok." After insisting, she asked me when I was born. I told her September 22. to which she responded "Hmm, right on the edge... Are you a Virgo or a Libra?" I told her Virgo (funny cause I had just looked at some magnents at City Walk that fully described each sign... interesting). She asked "Are you really very much a Virgo? Does that describe you well?" I said yes (because I saw it on the magnent the day before). She picked out some amazing soap and put it in a bag for me. I thanked her and went on my way. The soap smells fantastic and I thought the whole story was pretty good. Only in Ojai right? Next Saturday is Ojai Day and I can't wait!

PS: I though this was the funniest picture of soap! So Great!

C.S. Hopping

Today was pretty funny. I woke up at 7:30 (after not sleeping super well for two nights now... I feel better, but at night I can't stop coughing) and rolled over to Coffee Connection around 8... I spent a few hours hanging in the back patio. Around 11 Holly, Cory, and I decided that it was far to hot to continue sitting there, so Holly and I went down to Bad Ass Coffee in Ventura. The place was practically abandoned but we hung out for an hour or so before I had to head over to my Digital Photography class. There I finished my 3rd assignment (I think I finished it... I think I am as happy as I can get with these photos... it's just time for a new camera...). I cut out two of the photos and decided to stick with the color.

'Guitar Man'

'Music Man'

'Anything Helps'

'Book Club'

After class I dropped off some paperwork at the Business Office before, yup, heading back to Coffee Connection to wait for Nae to finish with a test. So... a few cups of coffee later, It's time to try and go to sleep. Please let me know what you think of the photos. The assignment isn't due until a week from Monday, but I have to print them and mount them next week so any suggestions would be great!

Benches

This last week was kinda wild. I guess it started last Friday night at work. I was hanging out with Lauren after putting all of the girls to bed and Lauren kept telling me I should really try and get a hold of one of our co-workers from Summer camp. I told her I had tried with no response and I was just tired of pursuing it. She eventually let me know that this person had a secret wedding the previous weekend and was 4 months pregnant and that I REALLY should try and get a hold of her. Now, my first instinct was shock, followed quickly with anger. Not anger that she got married and was pregnant, but anger and sadness that this co-worker that I considered a pretty good friend didn't feel it necessary to tell me herself what was going on with her life. The next morning I got up at 4am to drive Holly to the airport so when I got to work, I was pretty tired and still really bummed out about the news from the night before. Then, I saw that this person was calling my cell phone. Because I was kinda pissed, tired, and working, I pushed ignore because I didn't feel like having that conversation right then and there. A couple minutes later, this person came to hunt me down in the Girl's dorm (and I hid in the hallway to avoid her for almost a half an hour). She later cornered me in the Health Center and said stuff like "Sorry I haven't returned any of your phone calls... A lot has been going on... A lot of things are changing... And I wanted to tell you this before you found out through the grape-vine..." I told her she was too late and I already knew... the conversation was awkward from then on. I told her congratulations (even though I don't think it was very sincere). I really am happy for her because this is what she has wanted for a long time. I am more just bummed that she didn't feel it necessary to let me know what was going on...

So the rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. We went to State Street on Sunday were I took a ton of photos for my Photography class (Assignment 3... look at them and please tell me what you think... Not just "I like it or I don't like it" but what works and what doesn't). We also took the elementary kids to the SB museum of Art. It's free on Sundays and there was a great exhibit of Picasso Drawings. Later I got a wonderful visit from my friend Elissa at Borders which made the weekend extra special!

The rest of the week was pretty mellow. My mommy was gone camping so it was just me and Nae at home all week. My Dad was coaching so I really didn't get to see him that much. But the house was quite and I was fighting off allergies that later turned into a little head cold around Wednesday. Now I am work again trying to enjoy the rain!

The Jerk

I love the movie The Jerk ("The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!" So funny!), but this time I was the Jerk and it wasn't really funny. It was sort of busy weekend I suppose. I went to work Friday night and we had a social. It wasn't too bad this time around even though a ton of the kids were super moody this weekend. Sunday we went to the Mall (WooHoo! The mall). It's actually one of my least favorite trips that we do, but Nae came with me and we had fun playing and taking pictures in the toy store. After work my mom made dinner for my b-day.

Yes Monday was my birthday and I have to admit I was kinda a jerk (ok, maybe a lot a Jerk). Amber had planned out a wonderful day of hanging out with friends and I wasn't super happy. I guess I have never really liked my own birthdays because I really don't like having the attention on me and usually that's how birthday's work. So the first half of the day was kinda painful for the people around me (I am sorry for being a lame face) even though we enjoyed Coffee, Pedicures, and Lunch. After a hour of resting and thinking, I realized how much of a jerk I was being and realized I just needed to get over my insecurities and enjoy the love and company of my friends. So later in the early afternoon my wonderful friends picked me up in the "Party Bus" (Martha's Astro Van) and we enjoyed a wonderful night hanging out with each other.

In addition to being my birthday Monday, It was also my mom's best Friend, Shelly's first day of Chemo. She was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer and is starting her fight. She lives in Elk Grove (a town south of Sacramento) so it makes it a little difficult to support her being so far away. In order to help her feel supported through this, we are all wearing our Stand Up 2 Cancer Shirts on days she has her Chemo treatments.

In other news, I finished my Second Assignment for my Digital Photography class. The first half of the assignment was to take compositional photographs (Rule of 3rds, C curve, S curve...). The second half was to take the top 6 photos and make them absrtact. Check them out!

You Suck!

Ok, so the title is a little rough, but I honestly have been sucking at blogging lately. Not too much has been going on so I haven't really had anything to blog about. School is... going. I love my digital photography class! I will probably be posting some of my photos tomorrow... I have to touch them up a little and then save them as JPEG's before I can upload them. Spanish is... really easy. I am taking Spanish 2 (which I have taken maybe 5 years of Spanish in my lifetime, plus I grew up being babysat by my abuela who only speaks Spanish) so to say the least I am kinda bored, but it's nice to kinda start to brush up on my unused Spanish skills (that's right... I just called them Spanish Skills). My two other classes are online and start in October so I will let you know how those are going once they start.

For now I am just hanging out at the coffee shop with Holly, Tim, and Nicki. The Big 21 is on Monday and everyone is freakin me out, but we'll see what happens... Haircut Sunday and i am hoping to get a new look (everyone has the graduated bob now... it's time for a change...)

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho!

It's off to work I go this weekend. Last night was the start of weekends at school. I was so excited to meet all of my new kids (which there are several of them by the way) and super excited to see some of my old kids. We have a ton of girls this year (well, it's the same number as last year... it just seems like there are a lot of girls this year) and about half of the boys we had last year. About half of our girls are new to OVS which is super neat but also sort of difficult as far as transitioning. We have a very lively bunch of girls who feel the need to yell a lot (sometimes too much, but it's their first weekend so they are excited). But for the most part they all seem like nice girls so we will see how this year goes. Last night we started off the weekend with a pool party, today we go to town (Big Town... yeah, that's just downtown Ojai... not big at all), and tomorrow we will go to Skating Plus (I will probably opt out of skating since I broke my arm there years ago). But, so far (knock on wood), so good.

Excited?

Staff meetings are this week for work and the kids are supposed to arrive on Monday. I haven't really had a whole lot of feelings about work starting up again. Well, maybe I have kinda been dreading it and wondering why I signed my contract to give up my weekends (or worse, my Sundays) for another year. But today I got to go to my first staff meeting and, upon seeing the resident student list, I kinda got... Excited? Really? Yeah, I am kinda excited about work. Funny how just seeing the names of the kids I am going to be spending my weekends with got me excited about my job. I thought it was funny... The meetings sucked and I have to go to more on Friday (I am supposed to go tomorrow but I have class... never thought I would prefer to go to class than a meeting). Friday's meeting should be short and then I have to do my CPR certification that afternoon, but it hopefully won't be too bad. But yeah... I'm kinda excited... Go figure...

The Root of All Evil

Today was our first Community back after a summer break. It was so nice to not have to walk into big church and feel awkward and uncomfortable in those pews, but to actually walk into a room full of people I love and who love me (not that people in big church don't love me... many of them do, it's just... so dull) and feel comfortable.

The popular phrase is "The love of Money is the Root of all Evil." Is that really true. True, money causes many of the problems in our world today, but really... ALL problems... it's a little extreme. Actually, money makes a lot of good things possible in our world today. We looked at one of John Wesley's sermons where he talks about the use of money amongst Christ Followers. Mike Kingsley mentioned it in his last blog, but it basically can be summed up in three short sentences: "Gain all you can. Save all you can. and Give all you can." Now, without going into great depth on this topic, it pretty much means that we should be hard workers. As Christ followers we should be hard working because we serve a higher master. We should use every minute of our day to work hard and earn as much as we can. Following that is "Save all you Can." This doesn't really mean to stockpile all of your money just because you can. It's more it's better to save our money than to continue spending it and pouring into this giant consumer economy that we find ourselves in. And the third of course is "Give all you can." It's pretty simple right. So why can't we do it? Why can't I do it?

John Wesley died with only a saddle. The reality of our finances is that 100% of what we have is God's. Not the 10th that we give to the church (even though that is important), but every penny we have is God's. That means that anything we purchase with our money is (or should be) an offering to Him (pleasing in His eyes). John Wesley wraps up his sermon with this:
"Brethren, can we be either wise or faithful stewards unless we thus manage our Lord's goods? ... Then why should we delay? ... At this hour, and from this hour, do His will: Fulfill His word, in this and in all things! I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling!"

It might not all make sense because it doesn't really make sense to me right now either. Here I sit typing on my poop HP computer dreaming of owning a new Macbook Pro and a new SLR camera for my digital photography class. So what do I do with that?

Thin Moments

It's been so nice to be able to go to church this summer. I've been almost dreading going back to work in a couple of weeks because I know it means no more church. I've been kinda bummed that Community took a break for the summer (I'm glad I get to go to two before work starts) because I really have a hard time in "Big church" (I call it big church... I don't know why...). I don't know if it is the Honky Tonk/Patriotic Worship music or the sermons that seem to go on forever about nothing... sorry, a little bit of venting going on there. Anyway, all this to say I actually liked yesterday's sermon. Even though most of Paul's sermons feel like I am in a history lesson (and don't get me wrong, I like a little bit of the history stuff... but not an hour of it...), yesterday's was pretty good. He has been talking about this "Thin Moments" in life where we find ourselves the closest to God. At conference (and it seems like everywhere), a lot of people have been wondering "Where God went?" He seems so distant to so many people and the reality of it is, He hasn't gone anywhere. We have built up this thick wall around us with the business of our lives, the school, the work, the meetings, the soccer games, whatever is filling our lives. We have pushed Him away and we have to thin out our lives in order to draw nearer to him. So the sermons have been about ancient ways of making ourselves thin to God. This week He talked about the "Jesus Prayer" which is one of my favorite prayers. There's just something so powerful in saying "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, A sinner."