Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Crafting Makes Me Happy




One of the major things that this job hunt has taught me is that if you don't take breaks from it, it'll drive you crazy. Now, I know that this concept might not seem too deep for some of you, but let me explain. When you're searching for a job the hunt pervades your life in every way. It's all you can think about, even when you're not directly thinking about it. Not only that, it makes you feel guilty. You could sit at your desk all day applying for jobs, calling your contacts, seeking out new avenues to find employment, yet still at the end of the day it's there...that nagging feeling in the back of your head that you're not quite sure what it is and then BAM! It hits you. You still haven't found a job. And shouldn't you be looking for a job right now. And no, it doesn't matter that it's 11 at night. No sleep for you until you've found a job!

Phew, thinking about it is exhausting. Which is why I'm grateful that camp is starting up again soon. I was hoping that I would be able to move onto a new profession this year, but the down economy had other ideas and I'm just really thankful to have had the standing offer to come back to camp on the table. Knowing that camp is just around the corner has helped lower the stress of the job hunt as well. Now when I call people for information I can honestly say that I'm just looking for information to weigh my options for the future. (There was truth in that statement before, but also the weight of needing to find a job immediately.) And I'm glad to know that I'll have several months before camp is over to search high and low for the perfect job for me.

But, in the meantime, I intend to start making a little bit more time to do the things that I enjoy doing. And one of those things is crafting. I lovvvve crafting in any way shape or form, but I am especially fond of scrapbooking (paper AND digital now thanks to my newfound wealth of photoshop knowledge), sewing, and generally making things more beautiful. So this week I have been doing a little bit more of that. I created a Happy Easter sign for our front door out of wooden "eggs," paper, ribbons, and mod podge. I have so far this week created 3 scrapbook pages. And I have an art piece in the works made of twigs and paper flowers with buttons in the center. Okay, and relax...Yes, I do feel better now...ahhh...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Weekend Update

We had a fantastic weekend of fun, new friends, and relaxation. We spent Saturday at the beach playing some volleyball with a bunch of people (most of whom we'd never met). Today I'm feeling it it my "volleyball" muscles that haven't been used since last summer. Annnnd, we both were reminded of the power of the San Diego sunshine in all the spots that the sunscreen didn't cover. Last night one of Daryll's new co-workers and her boyfriend came over for a backyard BBQ and we had a genuinely great time with them (no work talk! a first amongst the coworkers). Today we went to church in the morning, then I had a phone informational interview with a wonderfully helpful lady named Annie Revel. (Another one scheduled for tomorrow at 8...pounding the pavement here...) Then we did some furniture painting in the garage, played with the puppies, and relaxed a little bit before watching The Amazing Race. Perfect mix of work and relaxation this weekend!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Live. Laugh. Ellen.

Yesterday Amy, Mom, Ashley, and I got to go to a taping of the Ellen show. We had a great time in the audience dancing and laughing. The guests for today's show were Jennifer Hudson and an 8 year old basketball prodigy. If you've ever watched Ellen, you know that one thing she loves to do is dance and that was reflected in the audience warm up and in the commercial breaks. We were on our feet dancing or cheering for dance-off contestants whenever the cameras weren't rolling. There was some good energy going on in that studio (it's pretty hard to be in a bad mood when you've just watched 2 girls in sumo suits race to grab a coconut). At the end of the show Ellen came out to announce that there was a special surprise. One of her guests for next week couldn't be there to film on the day they were going to be taping the show, so they decided to film the segment yesterday. The special guest was Halle Berry and she was even more beautiful in person than she is on tv. Now to the part that I know you all were wondering about...did we get any freebies? And the answer is: of course! Ellen gave us covergirl and oil of olay products, Jennifer Hudson's new cd, and a bottle Halle Berry's new perfume. We had such a great time at the show and made a memory that we won't forget.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Informational Interviews- Not So Intimidating After All

Today I had the opportunity to meet with a wonderful woman named Shelby Williams for an informational interview. She works as a corporate event planner for a Destination Management Company down here in San Diego. We met for lunch and she talked passionately and positively about her career for over an hour, answering all of my questions and giving me advice when appropriate. She was delightful and super helpful and I was very pleased to have met her. We discovered that we both majored in Poli Sci at UCSD and actually had quite a few common connections, including a friend who was a roommate to both of us a different points in college.

I have recently been meeting with a career counselor at UCSD and also a career meetup group and both parties have been strongly advising me to conduct informational interviews in my career research. I have always been pretty hesitant about the prospect of informational interviewing anybody, with reservations about bugging people, contacting them out of the view, seeming like I'm begging for a job, etc... BUT, I must say that today's meetup was nothing like any of those negative things I had imagined it would be. Instead, it was extremely informational and fun. So the lesson here is that I should just be brave and do all of the things on my to scared to do list, because really, what do I have to lose?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Vanessa and Jake's Wedding



Wedding season had it's official kick-off this weekend at Sunset Cliffs where Jake and Vanessa took their vows. They were so lucky to have a beautiful afternoon where the sun broke through just in time for the vows. We had a great time at the wedding and reception reconnecting with a bunch of our old "Crusade friends," some of whom we hadn't seen in several years. Jake and Vanessa's wedding was overall beautiful and fun :-)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Random American Idol Thought

I was seriously disturbed by Adam Lambert's performance on Idol tonight. Super creepy and super disgusting. Serious misuse and abuse of a Johnny Cash song. I might have nightmares to that soundtrack tonight.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Welcome Spring


If I had to rank the seasons, spring would probably come in third place. I know, kinda weird right? I do love flowers though (but not the allergens that come with them). And I definitely like spring cleaning. I spent a good chunk of time today packing up my sweaters for the warmer months (and picking out several for donation) and moving out the tank tops into their spots. Out with the old, and...well, actually just out with the old. Daryll and I took the pups out for another hike this weekend and we found a sure sign of spring: fuzzy caterpillars. Honestly though, fuzzy caterpillars kinda gross me out (and if we're being real honest here butterflies sometimes do too, especially when there are large quantities of them migrating in front of my windshield when I'm driving or when they land on me). One thing that I do love about spring is that it's the start of summer weather down here in San Diego! And really, you can't beat that.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Seeing Green




The luck o' the Irish was with us as we headed up to Burbank on Saturday for a quick trip to George's infamous St. Patrick's Day celebration. Much fun was to be had by all at this grand gathering! Amy, Conor, Dad, and Melanie joined us there for socializing, laughter, a pint or two, and of course FOOD! George prepared a wonderful meal of Split Pea soup and Corned Beef and Cabbage (and don't argue with me George, it was delicious!) I surprised George by providing my own handmade soda bread (my first time, but won't be my last) and chocolate cupcakes with green frosting. Amy and Conor had to eat and run, but the rest of us spent the rest of the evening telling stories and laughing. It was a delightful way to spend Pre-St Patrick's Day!

p.s. Saturday, March 14th also happened to be our 6 month wedding anniversary! (We patted ourselves on the back...)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Kyle Visits San Diego!


Daryll and I had a great time when Kyle came to visit Friday night! Daryll and Kyle grilled up some steaks and caught up in the backyard while I worked on the rest of dinner in the house. It was so great to see Kyle (we hadn't seen him since November!). After dinner we played some Guitar Hero and we were especially impressed that Kyle was excellent given that the game is based on hitting the right colors at the right time and Kyle is color blind! After G.H. Daryll and Kyle showed how old they're getting when they BOTH fell asleep on the couches (for a quick power nap). Well, at least I'm still around to keep those guys youthful :-)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Delightful Weekend


Daryll and I had a wonderful and mostly relaxing weekend. After spending a few hours at work Saturday morning, Daryll came home and we set out for the St. Pugtrick's Day Party in Coronado. The only problem is that w misread the times and showed up at the end time instead of the start time! We were a bit bummed to have missed it, but decided to make the best of it and take the dogs to the beach instead. The dog beach there is a great stretch with a lot of space for the dogs to run around, so Ella and Lulu had plenty of opportunity to get all their energy out. They had a lot of fun running around and playing with the other dogs there (including another pug that rivaled Ella in the energy department). And Daryll and I were both excited to see that Lulu went in the water! But poor Ella is still terrified of the water and ran the opposite direction anytime it seemed like the water was encroaching. We finished off the evening with some glow-in-the-dark ultimate frisbee with some friends (and we have the bug bites today to prove it).

This morning Daryll made us some pancakes and then we decided that since it was such a beautiful day we should take a hike. So we took the dogs with us and set out for the canyons behind our house. Once we got into the canyon we let the dogs loose and they had a great time running ahead of us and checking out the landscape. They were so cute though because they never got too far ahead of us before they'd turn around and run back to check on us. It was really nice to get out there and nice to know that we have a good trail practically right in our backyard. This afternoon we spent some time reading on the back porch (where I got a bit sunburned, but at least that means there is sun!). Just the relaxing type of weekend that we needed!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Grease is the Word!

Last night Daryll and I went to see Grease at the Civic Theater. It was so fabulous! I'd always wanted to see the musical after growing up loving the movie, so when we heard it was coming to San Diego we didn't pass up the chance. As an added bonus Taylor Hicks was starring as teen angel and sang a bonus song after the curtain dropped. Overall we had a really great time!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Reality TV Musings


I am so upset with my normally trusty reality television shows. Where do I even start? I guess I'll tackle the big one and talk about how extremely upset I was at the finale of The Bachelor (me and the rest of the world from what I've read online). What a waste of my life watching that show and thinking that they finally got a decent guy to be the bachelor after so many seasons of scumbags. Oh ABC sucked me in and made me suck others into that crazy little show. And then they made us watch as Melissa had her little heart torn out and stomped on in a live taping. Yes, I feel bad for her, but I must say that I am more fired up about Jason being such a jerk. Amy and I talked about this online for the good majority of the day yesterday and it fueled my strength at our softball game last night. And last nights show with all the phony happiness and closure just made me think the whole thing was even more stupid. At least that season is over and I won't be wasting any more of my time being led on by a false hope.

Next onto American Idol. First off, I do not like the way that the top 12 are being picked this season. Definitely an advantage if you got air time during auditions and definitely more of a popularity contest to start out with. As if it wasn't bad enough enduring the past 3 weeks of 70% bad singers, tonight they announced who would be able to sing tomorrow night for the wild card spots and they picked singlehandedly THE most annoying contestant of this entire season (if not ever). I was so upset that they would put their audience through that again after America had clearly spoken that they did not want her on the show.

So BOOOOOOOO to all this reality tv ridiculousness (please see the angry picture above with my nice wrist bruise from softball last night). Now I must go and get back to my recording of the Celebrity Apprentice...

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

We Are The Champions Again!


Tonight Daryll and I played in the softball championships for his Mr. Copy team and I'm happy to report that we did it again! In a complete 180 from last season the team only lost 1 game the entire season (the first game) and tied one as well. Tonight we had to win back to back games to clinch the title. The semi-final game started out rocky, with our offense unable to produce runs and our defense making errors that were unheard of the rest of the season. Going into the bottom of the 7th we were down by 3 runs. Finally our offense turned it on and we were able to tie up the game without wasting any outs and with runners on 1st and 3rd. When I came up to bat the umpire announced that the runner on 3rd was the winning run. After fouling off 2 balls, I hit a line drive to the 2nd baseman who dropped the ball. When they threw it to second to get the runner out our runner on 3rd took off for home...and was thrown out! Suddenly we only had a runner on 1st and 2 outs. Luckily Grayson came up to bat and hit a perfect shot to right field. I ran with all my might and crossed home just before the ball got there!

Our championship game was more fun and less pressure. The team had been undefeated the entire season with only 1 tie (to us). Our defense was right on target and our offense produced enough runs that we were up by 10 going into the bottom of the 7th. Well, the rest as they say is history! 2nd Vavi league and 2nd championship!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Dad's Retirement Party




Saturday evening Daryll and I joined Amy, Conor, George, and my Dad and Melanie for Dad's Retirement party. It was a fun-filled casino themed event and we all had a great time. The fire department honored Dad and 3 other retirees with brass plated axes. After dinner and the ax presentations they opened up the "casino" and gave us each $400 to play with (if it was real money I would've taken it and ran then). Dad and Melanie tore up the dance floor while Amy really raked up the chips at the Texas Hold 'Em table and Conor did the money dance for us with his handfuls of chips. George and I nearly lost it all but were on our way towards the most amazing comeback when they closed us down (I thought that Vegas never went to sleep). We all had a great time, especially Dad, and we were glad that we were able to make it up for the occasion.

In not so great news, our cable froze and wouldn't defrost tonight. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but tonight was the season finale of The Bachelor and I've been waiting for weeks to find out what happens. Now I'm avoiding facebook and other social sites like the plague for fear of the spoiler. Oh well, I'll have to watch it online tomorrow instead.

Update: In the past 5 minutes my laptop cooling fan has broke. Now I'll have to go buy a new one in the morning or else my computer will overheat and I'll never get to watch all of The Bachelor. Sad day.