Back from Hawaii and off to New York!

It's been a while, eh? Parents had a great time on their cruise and spending time in Barcelona. They were home for a few days before heading out again, this time for Hawaii. I spent the next few weeks after that finishing up school and work, work, working. I finished painting my room (yay!) so it is now a lovely shade of light grey! I'm excited to get started moving all my stuff in and actually making it my room. However, that will have to wait until I get back from New York which I leave for tomorrow! SO EXCITED!!!

I met the family in Kona on Jesi's birthday (happy birthday, Chicky!!) and we spent almost two weeks doing, like, NOTHING. It was fabulous. We spent most of our time laying around the condo, sometimes going out to sit by the pool. We watched two seasons of Downton Abby and some pretty awesomely ridiculous action movies. Every few days, we'd venture out into town to go to Walmart or check out some local shops. Mostly we just relaxed, though. Which is just the way we like it!

We did one snorkel trip which was awesome. We didn't see very many colorful fish, but we swam with wild spinner dolphins!

It was really cool.

We also saw a tiger shark (from the boat, of course)! Dad took a video of it swimming around and it's posted on his Facebook.

Now, I'm just finishing getting ready for my trip to New York. I am all packed, I just need to make my lunch for the plane and set up my music on my iPod, maybe get another book for my kindle, then I'm all set! I am so ridiculously excited for this trip! We are going to go so many cool places, and I am already set to see two fabulous Broadway shows (my favorite part!). You can bet that there will be lots to talk about when I get back. Hopefully I'll remember to take lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Well, I'm off! I have to leave for the airport at 3:30am tomorrow (Thank you, Sister Fisher, for the ride!).

Loves and hugs!!

Sabbatical Begins!!

Today has been a fabulous day. Well, it started off a little rocky, but that's only because I stayed up helping the rest of the family pack and move things from the old craft room and into the new craft house (which is "done" by the way!!). Then I had to get up early to take the fam to the max station so they could go to the airport.

Let's ignore the fact that they left me to go on a two week Disney cruise through the Bahamas and then across the Atlantic. Let's IGNORE the fact that they will then land in Barcelona and spend almost a week touring the beautiful buildings by Gaudi, eating tasty paella, and shopping for cute stuff. Without me.

Ignore all that.

Let's focus on the fact that I got to do WHATEVER I WANTED TODAY!! I had a little bit of homework to do and at some point before work tomorrow I need to mend the pocket on my work apron. But that's all I HAD to do.

Dishwasher needs to be unloaded? Meh. I can pull dishes out as I need them.

Laundry to put away? Whatevs. Jesi isn't here to get her clothes mixed up with mine.

Granted, I put these things off all the time. There's just no guilt right now thinking about what Mom would say if she noticed such things haven't been done.

What DID I do? I finally got a chance to watch some more of Rooftop Prince (the Korean drama I am currently working on). I also played with some makeup trying to do something that might work with an Ursula costume. No, I'm not posting pictures of my drag queen makeup. It still needs some refining. Namely the eyebrows. How do you cover up the real eyebrows so you can draw on the really high black ones? I don't know.

Now I'm thinking I might go see a movie (Ursula makeup has been removed and replaced with my more normal routine). I'm torn between Oblivion and Star Trek. I really want to see both of them... but I don't know which one to see tonight! Probably Oblivion and then see Star Trek next week. We'll see.

So, while the family is gone, I plan on doing some fun things. Like... um... reading up on the prevalence and treatment of borderline personality disorder? No, that's homework. Writing a report about examining the results of a NEO PI-R and STRONG assessment? Nope, also homework. Work, work, work... Well, at some point I should have some time for fun!

Dad was able to move some of the big things out of Mom's old craft room and make it possible for me to paint in there!! Did I mention that I get her old craft room for my new room? Yay! I'm so excited!! I'll be moving out the smaller things while they are gone and painting around the large furniture that's left in there (Dad was able to get it all into the middle of the room for me). I might even start moving some of my own stuff into the shelves. I'm REALLY excited about my new room. It's going to be super cute. ^_^

All in all, life is good. I got promoted to assistant store manager and we got some new people at work so things, as usual, are pretty busy over at Dream Dinners. I'm doing great in all my classes, though they definitely keep me hopping. A few weeks ago I was inducted into Chi Sigma Iota (the counseling honors society), which is also pretty cool. I got a pin with Greek letters on it and everything.

And that's about it. Not much else going on around here. But, really? Isn't that kind of enough? <3

38 days til Hawaii!
56 days til New York!!

2 terms down!!

What a great end to my second term of grad school! I have been feeling really great, academically speaking, this week.

We had our final in Assessment and Counseling, which I spent much of the weekend studying for. That went fairly well. There were a handful of questions that were much more specific than I had anticipated. But, considering I got a 95% on the midterm, I think I will at least get a B in the class.

After the final in Assessment, we were able to pick up the graded paper for our Practicum section of the class (in short, Assessment in Counseling is broken up into two classes. We only meet for the single class period each week, but the paper gets its own class and grade.) I was a little worried about it. I had looked at several people's papers and mine was very different and I felt like I was either going to totally BOMB the paper, or get an okay grade. So, when I opened the paper to look at my grade I was a little in shock. After I saw that I got 100 points, I had to double check what points it was out of (100, in case you wondered), and then double check that I had picked up the right paper! 100%! I was so happy!!

Then on Thursday, I had my group project presentation. We presented a module for counseling LGBT students based on an Adlerian model. It was a fun project and we were the last group to go so I feel like we might have had an unfair advantage since we got to learn from all the other groups first. Still, I enjoyed it. Since it was the last day of class, we decided to bring the class cupcakes, as well. The professor gave us our feedback during the break and pretty much told us we were all amazing. Midway through her notes there was a comment that said, "You are all 1st years?! Wow! :)" (There are people in the class who are in their second year of the program.)

And then some of us went out to Rogue Hall for some drinks (it apparently has great beer with cool names like dead man's ale and stuff... I had diet coke).

There was a theme in all of the comments and compliments I got this week on my work. Lots of people complimented me on how well organized and laid out everything is. I get the same compliments when I do a talk in church. No joke... people seriously come up and tell me that my talk was well organized. An interesting thing to consider as I continue in my grad program.

All of this self-esteem building was well needed. Last week I decided to google search school counselor job postings just to see and what I saw was scary. I was reading them and thinking, "Dear, God. Can I actually DO THIS?! I'm going to get a job and just seriously screw my kids up WORSE!" It wasn't good. And I'm sure this will happen again. Everyone has doubts. But now I have some pretty concrete stuff I can look back on and say, "Hey! I CAN do a good job on some pretty hard stuff. Go me!" Hopefully that will come in handy as I struggle through the next term.

In other news: I'm officially going to Hawaii!!! Yay!! Only 94 days until two weeks in Hawaii! And then it's only a few days after I get home from there that I head on to my next adventure in New York!! Only 112 days until that!!

So many things to look forward to. I'm very excited. ^^

The Max

I was once the smelly person on the max.

I was on the train to school after finishing at work, and I kept smelling something sour. My immediate though was, "Ugh, who's the wine-o?" I looked around, trying to figure out who smelled like cheap wine. I forgot about the smell until I got off to switch lines when I smelled it again. I looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the smell. It was only once I smelled it again on the second train that I realized it was me, that I smelled like the white cooking wine from work.

I was the smelly person on the max. The rest of the day I kept getting wind of the smell of cooking wine, inwardly wincing and hoping that other people didn't notice, though, really, I don't know how they couldn't.

This story brings me to the point of today's post: my love-hate relationship with the max. For the most part, I love being able to take the max to school. I don't like driving (especially freeways at night) and parking at school costs about the same as taking the max anyways. It's also nice to have the 40 odd minutes on the train to do a quick review of my text book (not as often as you'd think) or to sit and just listen to my ipod and relax (most often). I was once even given a free ticket by a lady who had purchased her ticket before finding out that her friend was able to come and pick her up. How nice!

However, there are some things about the max that really make me wish driving was my most favorite thing in the world and I drove to and from school every day.

And because I love lists so very much, here is a list of things that I dislike about riding the max:

1) Odorous Individuals
Yes, I was once the smelly person on the max. And I understand that sometimes you just smell and then you ride the max. I feel no ill will towards the smelly. but I still do not take pleasure in their smell.

2) Garbage
People are gross. They leave coffee cups, bags of lunch garbage, cigarette butts, all sorts of trash all over the place. It's not the norm, but you would think with garbage cans at each and every freaking stop, people wouldn't feel so hard pressed to throw their garbage away in an actual bin rather than setting it on a seat on the max.

3) Space Hogs
Also known as inconsiderate jerk faces. When the max is busy, these people will sit on the outside seat and put their bag on the seat next to the window so unless you expressly ask them to move their crap, you are left without a seat.
Jerks.

4) MUSIC
For me, this is THE most annoying thing about riding the max. Talking on your phone? Annoying, but whatever. Listening to music with headphones but I can still hear it? Frustrating, but I don't dislike you or even think you inconsiderate. But play your music on your phone speakers so you don't have to wear headphones because, I don't know, you just couldn't bother? There are no words to describe your rudeness. What are you even thinking as you do this? That you want to help entertain us by playing your annoying music? That you might get paid somehow for helping advertise the artist's music? Because pretty much all you are doing is annoying the hell out of me and most of the other passengers around you.

And then coming up afterwards and telling me to cheer up and "give you a smile" because you thought I look sad (true story)? Nope. Just, no.

Now that I have that off my chest, I'm off to take the max to class. It will probably pass uneventfully and I will most likely have a nice trip. But you never know. ;)

Happy Singles Awareness Day!!

Happy Singles Awareness Day!

Or, as some people like to call it, Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day has never really been a big holiday for me (and not just because I'm single forever... shut up), but I usually make some kind of Valentine for my parents and sister. And for my class when I was little and they did Valentine's Day exchanges at school. The main thing I like about Valentine's Day is the colors. Pink, of course, is my favorite color (though I fought to deny that fact for a long time), and being able to clashingly pair it with all shades of red is really fun.

For this Valentine's Day, I made three Valentine's. One got sent off to my sister earlier this week and featured a cute little robot. I couldn't for the life of me think of what to do for my parents for the longest time. Cards, of course, but I needed a gift of some kind for them, as well. I wanted to make something, but I didn't know WHAT.

After thinking about it FOREVER, I finally decided to make them healthy little snack boxes!!

It was a lot of fun to make. I got these cute little strawberry shaped lunch boxes when I was in Korea, each with two levels. I filled one level with veggies one with fruits!

On the bottom level, I put yellow peppers, celery, and radishes cut out like little hearts. I also made a ranch veggie dip out of low fat Greek yogurt. It's really yummy and has fewer calories than sour cream.

On top, I put sliced strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries. And a little animal shaped pick to eat with.

 

Of course, no Valentine would be complete without the card. So, I drew them little cards to match the animal sticks in their little snack boxes. Dad got a cute little panda.

 Mom got an adorable bunny.

Each got a little not so healthy treat as well with their gifts. Dad got red vines (it's traditional) and I found this cute little ice cream thing for Mom when I was at Uwajimaya the other day. You mix up some frosting and decorate mini ice cream cones. Well, I think it's frosting. It might not be edible... but it was sitting up front by the candies... so I assume it's food. If it was in Korean I could at least read it and look things up. I know nothing about Japanese so I don't even know where to start.
 

Oh well. I got one for myself to play with as well, so we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll take pictures and tell you. Maybe I won't. Depends on how much time I want to spend avoiding this evil paper of death for my assessment class.

Ease on down the road...

Can I say how much I love that it's Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in this? I used to love "The Wiz." What can I say? My taste has always gone for the cheesy.

Anyways... the whole point of that title choice is just that life keeps on going and going and going and doesn't slow down after landmarks.

Like midterms of DOOM.

I had a midterm yesterday for my Assessment in Counseling class and I was SUPER stressed about it this week. I spent most of my free time this last week at my computer going through my notes and getting them all condensed and studied. Woof! I got super tired of trying to remember the difference between the different types of reliability. I'm glad I studied so much, though, because the test got into some REAL specific details, some of which I'm not sure if I remembered or not (such as the difference between standard error of difference and standard error of estimate). We'll find out next week how I did. Crossing fingers!

Then, right after we finished the exam, we talked about the specifics of our assessment research paper. We have to examine three different test manuals and decide if they would work for our demographic (I'm not sure how specific we are supposed to get for our demographic... he just has us listed out by track: rehabilitation, marriage and family, etc. I'm on the school counseling track.). We have to keep the manuals in the library so I'll have to write a great deal of my paper on campus. Joy. We'll see what days work best for getting into the library for me.

Other than school, not much else is going on as far as immediate activities. I HAVE been busy making plans for my New York trip this summer. Woo hoo!! I am ridiculously excited about the trip. My friend Maggie and I will be going a few days early and staying a few days after the class itself to do some extra things while we are there. The class is on Multicultural Counseling. We'll be going to the different burrows and talking with leaders of different cultural communities, going through museums, eating tasty foods, seeing some presentations and a Broadway show. I'm really looking forward to the experience. I think I will get a lot more out of this experience than just taking the regular classroom option.

Also, my boss has a friend in the show that the group plans on seeing together: Cindy Lauper's "Kinky Boots." It looks really fun and I'm super excited to look for her friend on the stage. I plan on going to see a few shows by myself as well, buying last minute student tickets.

I'm freaking out excited, people.

And that's the update on Jen. There will probably be more exciting pictures and stuff once I start helping Mom move into the craft room, getting my new room all set up, and then Hawaii and New York this Summer. Yes!!

Loves and hugs, peoples!! ^^

Happy 2013!

As of Tuesday, vacation time will be officially over with the start of the new semester. I got my grades back for last semester: all A's!! Yay!! I am very happy with this. Hopefully I can keep this trend up for another few years.

It was a really long and wonderful vacation. Jesi came home from school for three weeks and we had an awesome time hanging out and being nerds together. It was fun. We went shopping, watched movies, ate treats, and did all the dorky fun things we like to do when we are together.

On Christmas, Jesi and I decided we were going to surprise our parents with a fabulous stuffed french toast casserole. It... didn't work out. So we had danishes instead. Jesi got an iPhone for Christmas (yay!). Just in time, too, because her old phone had just died, like, Christmas Eve. We made her work for it, though. All of us have iPhones already, so we put some of her little stocking gifts inside the boxes from our phones, wrapped them, and placed them strategically in her stocking. She'd get excited, open the box, and it would be gum or nail polish. Mom had opened a bag of cookies, put the phone (inside of a ziplock bag) in the bag, and then used tacky glue to put the bag back together. Jesi didn't realize it until Mom asked if she could have some of the cookies and then, when Jesi opened the bag, she found the cookies. It was great.

We can't just give gifts, you see. They need to be all tricky.

I got a fabulous present, as well. Dad taped a bunch of pictures of New York all over a cookies tin and on the inside was a word puzzle spelling out "New York" and a Southwest Airlines gift card (not a real one, though... it was just for show). They are paying for my New York tickets for this summer! Yaaaaaayyy!!! I'm so excited!! I've been talking to a student who went on the trip last year and she has only good things to say about it. I'm stoked! Get ready for a jillion pictures this summer. ^^

After Christmas, I was in charge of a freezer sale at work, which went great and bumped our numbers up for December pretty well (we made over $3000 in sales which is pretty dang good for us). Jesi and I went to see "The Hobbit" with some friends, which was REALLY GOOD. I love Martin Freeman. He makes an adorable Bilbo.

The Sunday after Christmas we headed to Seaside and stayed over for New Years. Nothing really special. It's not a big night for us usually. Jesi and I watched a movie and cheered at midnight. Yay 2013! 

Jesi's last few days at home were fairly uneventful. We did get a chance to use our gift cards from Christmas (JC Penny shopping spree!!) and ate dinner at Benihana's the night before she left for Utah. I'll miss my Chicky, but I know she loves school, and I'm doing pretty good with my own stuff right now as well, so we should be good until April when she comes home. ^^

I also bought a new computer. His name is Wesley and he's a Google Chromebook. I've discovered this last semester that having a computer on campus is really useful. Typing notes makes them easier to read, professors post power points/study guides online, etc. My old laptop was great, but starting to die. It was also crazy heavy. The Chromebook weighs about 2.5lbs and is very small. It's not a PC or a Mac so it doesn't run the same way as other computers I'm used to, but it does what I need it to do and it only cost $250 so the price was right.

And that's all for now. I'll be starting up school this week (2 classes this term), and I'm really looking forward to getting more into my major.

Wish me luck!!