Four Day Week

I am very excited about this week for a few reasons:

1. I have NO midterms this week.
2. This is the last week before spring break
3. I only have a four day week

Let me elaborate on the last reason a little since this is probably going to be a short post. I have work today and Wednesday and school tomorrow and Thursday. I actually have Friday off because Sam and Dr. Billy are taking the kids to Tahoe for their spring break. So Thursday is going to be the last day I have to do anything for the next week. Anyway, it sounded like my kind of week.

Half Way There; Going Nowhere

This last Tuesday marked the halfway mark for this semester. Actually I think technically, it is a little before half, but I finished off my midterms on Tuesday which makes me think that I am halfway done. I had three midterms on Tuesday!!! It was WILD! My first was in Human Physiology (actually her test is more of just an exam cause she gives four, but Big tests are basically midterms anyway). I felt that I did well on that test which left me confident for the rest of the day. My next midterm was right after the first; History of Latin America. For this midterm I was supposed to read two novels/historically based books on Latin America and the first half of our text book. Seeing how I only really read on of these books and just skimmed the other two, I have to say I was a little worried. It's always nice knowing the essay questions before hand though so you know what you should or shouldn't be preparing for. I felt alright after that test and got to relax a little in Dance (hehe, yeah relax... you should see me in that class... it's hilareous; actually I am getting quite good). My last final wasn't until 4:30 so I got to spend my boring break studying. Again this was an essay exam in which I was given the questions before hand (she gave us 8 questions, said only four would be on the exam, we had to write on two of them; then she told us that two specific ones would definitely be on the exam... meaning those were the two I was going to study). I actually planned out both of my answers before hand while sitting inside Starbucks which left me feeling super confident for the actual exam. I got to class and my professor told us that she wasn't going to lecture after the final after all (she was originally planning on lecturing after the final). After going over our new syllabus, we were able to take our midterm which I charged through with the utmost confidence. I finished early feeling that I had sufficiently answered my two questions and then I went home. I was so fried from my three midterms I couldn't handle my last class of the day so I ditched. I actually called my sister to motivate me to go to class, but she was too busy to talk to me so I just went home. Oh well... I know I didn't miss much. But all in all it was a good week.

WICKED!!!!!

Last night I had the wonderful pleasure of seeing the award winning musical WICKED! I saw it once before when the touring cast came through LA, but now that it is in LA on a semi-permanent stay, and I was required to see it for school (well... I was required to see a "professional production"... she wanted us to see Wicked but it didn't really matter what "professional production" we saw). I got to go down and see it with my sister Janae (Sarah was supposed to go with me, but she got sick and very selflessly gave her ticket to Janae - Sarah saw it with me before and Janae had never seen it).

I have to say that this was a superb production (I know you're jealous cause I just got to use the word "superb" - how many times do you get to use that word?). Eden Espinosa (she played Elphaba - the Wicked Witch of the West) was absolutely amazing. I definitely liked her performance a lot better then Stephanie J. Block's (she played Elphaba when I saw it last time). Megan Hilty was also amazing in her role of Glinda ("the Ga is silent" - sorry, you have to see the show to understand what that means) the Good Witch of the North. Among the other cast members are Carol Kane as Madame Morrible, John Rubinstein as the Wizard, Jenna Leigh Green as Nessarose (the Wicked Witch of the East), and Adam Wylie as Boq (for full cast bios just click on the link). I can't really say what my favorite part of the play was because there were so many! All the little Glinda-isms are always a knee slapper (a Glinda-ism is a normal word that Glinda will throw some random suffix on to make it a word that doesn't even exist). I also love all of Elphaba's little smartalick remarks ("Well not everyone can travel by Bubble!" and "Well... There's no place like Home right?").

I could talk about this show for hours and hours, but I have midterms coming up (three on Tuesday!!!!) and I need to spend this time studying. But it was definitely a great night that I will remember for a long time!

Lazy Day

Well, today I had a little bit of a lazy day. Instead of going to church today like a good Christian (sorry Ryan) I decided to stay home and relax for a little while. Well, I got to relax until I had to drive to Fry's with Sarah to get her phone fixed. They couldn't fix it there so we had to go to the Cingular in the Mall where we found out they couldn't fix it, but now it's working again (go figure!). My cousin came into town for a couple of hours which was nice. She is 6 years old and lives in Texas. It's my Mom's brother's daughter. It's actually a really sad story. He was engaged to her (my cousin Ambriel) mom, but her mom got really sick awhile back and passed away before they got married. Ambi's grandma has custody of her (they live in Texas), and my uncle lives in Palmdale, so whenever we can see them it's great. So after our huge phone run around we went and hung out at the beach for a little while.

Tonight was sort of interesting. Actually it went pretty well. Sarah's boyfriend (yes Sarah has a boyfriend and if you would like to hear more give me a call) came over and made sushi (my dad bought some fresh fish from the Harbor). It was nice to sit down and relax a little for the day, but tomorrow it's back to craziness of my life.

Bye Bye Burby!

Well, after a good long service of over 10 years, we finally put the good old Burb to rest. Well, we didn't kill it if that's what you think. We traded it in for a new car. I am now driving a 2004 Dodge Neon which we got a great deal on from my Dad's friend. I am so glad I don't have to spend $80-$100 dollars a week on gas (ok, so it was more like a week and a half, but it was a lot of money). Although I was excited about my new car, I was still kinda sad to see the Burb go. It's been part of this family for over ten years. I will always remember driving back from snowboarding and missing my exit because there were three butts hanging out of my windows. Priceless!

On another note, my Mom got her results back from her CAT scan and it came back clean. The cancer is gone! She will probably still do some light chemo to prevent anything further, but it was great news. My Dad tried to scare us about the whole thing. We got home from somewhere and he said in a very serious tone, "girls [just me and janae] I need to talk to you. Come and sit down at the table." He started saying how the doctor called and told us about the results from the CAT scan... yadda yadda (he drew it out so long I was going to strangle it out of him). Finally my Mom walked in and heard what my Dad was talking about and she screamed "there's no more cancer!!!!!" It was an exciting family moment!

Other then these two moments of joy, I have been kinda down lately. Not really worried about anything, just kinda bummed out about some stuff. So please pray that I can again find joy in the little things of life. Don't get me wrong, a new car and a cancer-free Mom are two things that should make me very joyful and they do. I couldn't be happier about those. It's just in the quiet of my day when I feel like I am doing the same thing over and over again that I begin to lose excitement. Please pray that I can find that excitement again. But for now it's Bye Bye Burby!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

THE GOOD
Tuesday I finally brought a bicycle to school. My normal ten minute walk between each class was cut down to a 2 minute ride. Yay for not being exhausted from power walking to get to class on time.

THE BAD
My favorite class (World History Since 1500) now has a new professor. Almost five weeks into the semester and they switched professors on us. I was so angry, but what can I do? It's too late to drop the class so I guess I am stuck. But everything happens for a reason right?

THE UGLY
I really don't have an ugly. I just thought that was a cool title. I saw two ponies being walked across campus the other day which was kinda funny and kinda ugly. But yeah, nothing really ugly going on here.

Worry No More!

Last night I came to the painful realization that I worry way too much! The last two months or so I have not been sleeping well, having terrible nightmares (and I NEVER used to dream), and more recently been making myself sick with worry. Things I worry about:

1. School; midterms coming up; getting accepted to the Athletic Training program
2. Not having friends; Ok, I have friends otherwise no one would be reading this blog, but it sucks sometimes to be stuck at school and not know anyone; having to sit at Starbucks for 3 hours alone is not really all that fun.
   
3. My car; the Burb is all fun and games until I am spending $80 on gas a week
4. Moving Out; I am almost 20 years old and I still live at home; yeah it's cheap, but I pay for it in stress
5. My sisters; as they grow into young women and hope that I did them justice as their big sister.
6. My Mom; one word - CANCER
7. and so much more

It's amazing how much we (if not we, at least I) worry about stuff. All throughout Matthew and Luke (and many other places in the Bible) Jesus tells us not to worry about things, but it is so hard to let go of wanting control over our own lives. Like I said earlier, last night I came to the painful (there's nothing like a crying hangover; eyes burning, head pounding... you know) realization that I worry way to much. So here marks my new quest (I guess you can call it a new years resolution) to worry no more.

Same Ol' Stuff

Wow, it's been some time since I have updated my blog. It's actually been 10 whole days... man am I lazy or what. I guess nothing really exciting has happened lately so I just didn't feel a huge need to say anything significant. School went well this week. I had my first midterm (well, it's not really a midterm; it was a big test of three tests in the class) in Physiology. It was fairly easy considering that most of it was just review from biology classes I have taken in the past. I am excited about getting into the meat of the class and attempting to understand the complexities of the functions of the Human body. Dance was also pretty exciting this week as we finally started actually dancing instead of touching each other. I have to say that after watching some of the other people in my class attempt a pirouette, I didn't feel nearly as bad for sucking at dancing.

Things are going very well with my Mom. She saw the Oncologist last week and he said pretty much the same thing as Dr. Davis. She goes in for a CAT scan on Wednesday to make sure there are no other tumors. Depending on how the CAT scan goes, it's sort of up to my mom as to which direction she wants to go in as far as chemo and that sort of stuff. But she is in high spirits and is recovering very well.

Contact

Today I was thinking about human contact. There is a certain amount of human contact that everyone is comfortable with. I walk around school and see couples who obviously have no problems with contact (PDAs) and I see other couples who barely hold hands (like just holding each other's pinkies). I really have never been a huge hand holder (well, I have never had a person's hand to hold but my Mom's). I occasionally like a hug here and there from friends at the appropriate times (like last Tuesday at 11 o'clock at night when I found out my Mom had to have surgery) but that's about as far as my human contact goes. Today in my Dance class we had to get in partners and later we found out we were going to be giving each other massages. We were supposed to work on the trapezius, the rhomboids, the sternocleidomastoid, and the pectoralis minor. My partner's name was Jesus (like the Mexican way to say it; not like the Son of God). I gave him his massage first and then he gave me mine. It was awkward to say the very least (and he didn't even give a good massage cause my back is killing me). So I was wondering if anyone else is as uncomfortable as I was today with some human contact.

On a little note, my Mom is doing really well. She went in for her post-op appointment today. She has to go see the Oncologist later this week to see what will happen as far as possible chemo or some other treatment. The doctor also gave her the go ahead to walk, drive, and eat anything she wants (he also took out the staples; I got a cool picture of it before they took them out but I am not allowed to post it so ask me about it). Other then that my Mom is doing really really well! Thank you again for all of your prayers, thoughts, cards, dinners, and prayers.

Another Day

Well, at first I kinda hated this huge break between classes on Tuesdays (I still hate it kinda), but it certainly gives me some time to write in my blog on a regular basis. It's funny how missing one day of school can make you feel like you haven't been there in over a week (I actually haven't been here in a week, but it feels like it's been a long time). My morning classes were just as boring as ever. Dance was funny because we had to prance across the room. Well, we learned how to jump up first, then we began to prance across the room. It was the funniest thing I think I have ever done, and I am sure that's not the last of it. I am beginning to have a routine in my afternoon breaks. What I mean by routine is I go and read at Starbucks around the corner. It's not much of a routine, but I believe it has the potential to become one. I was supposed to go looking for a Thrift Store on Reseda today, but I didn't feel like driving around and wasting what precious gas I have left in my beast (the "Burb").

My Mom is doing very well. She is already getting a little cabin fever. From being at home all day and night. Last night Janae and I took over her bed while my dad watched TV in the living room. I kept offering the bed to my Mom, but she shot me down every time (she's so sick of that bed and it's only the first week). Other then that she is doing very well. As for me, I am getting a little cabin fever of my own sitting here waiting for class to start, but what can ya do?