Mirage...

A friend once called me a mirage. He said that it got to a point where he never saw or heard from me anymore so he began to wonder if I was a mirage because I didn't seem to really exist. This is kind of how I've been feeling lately. I run around so much and things are so crazy that I don't have time to see or talk to people. Needless to say...I haven't had time to update the good old blog either.

This last October was the one year mark as far as graduate school and with this came the realization that I will be done with my program this spring. I can't begin to tell you how much anxiety this caused! While I will be happy to be done with school...I worry that I won't be ready or have learned all that I need to. I guess this comes with the territory when you end up completely switching fields career wise so it's a good thing that I really enjoy what I'm heading into.

The only challenge right now for me is juggling working full-time and going to graduate school full-time. Yes I know this is something I've dealt with for a year, but this is different. Many of my specialized courses require so much more time and effort on my part. I'm really enjoying some of the hands on experience working with other organizations and all the other things I've gotten the chance to experience, but I'm starting to run myself ragged which is probably how I ended up as sick as I am right now. Plus, I'd really like to have some time to volunteer to gain more experience and the chancer to work with senior consultants. I have a feeling I'll be needing to make some life changes in the near future.

Summer School...

While others were having some summer fun this weekend, I started summer quarter at school. I wasn't really looking forward to school again as the last quarter kind of kicked my butt. I knew when I started graduate school that my program would mean I would lose one summer, but things like this always seem so far away in the future. Going into this weekend there were a few positive things. I no longer have school for 4 days in a row. Yay! I now have Saturdays with no school. I kind of wish all of my classes were in a row though, but one less day is better than nothing. Plus I knew that I would now be taking classes specific to my program which I was sure would be awesome.

Classes have actually been pretty great! So far....all the content in classes has been pretty fascinating stuff for me! Sadly I really do get excited learning about Conflict Management. I'm such a geek! The other cool thing is that I am getting the chance to work with people that I haven't worked with in the past but wanted to and working again with people I only got to work with for a short amount of time. Let me just say though...that it was nice to have such a good experience considering how my week started with medical drama.

A brief recap of my medical drama:

• Lost hearing in left ear last weekend that began to get sore
• Made an appointment and went to new doctor
• New doctor used water irrigation that fixed hearing
• New doctor is crazy because I also made to go have lab work, EKG, and chest x-ray done even though I came in for ear issue
• Lost hearing again a few days later and had intense pain in left ear
• Skipped crazy doc this time and went to ENT doctor
• ENT doctor said I developed severe ear infection from what crazy doc did earlier in the week and I now needed antibiotics

Other than school and ear issues I've had a quiet last week or so. Friday was Katrina's birthday so I headed down after class to celebrate with her Kent style. Saturday I spent studying and then decided to give myself the night off and did a movie and wine night with Anna & Sarah. We were celebrating the start of Anna's new life and new condo.

A funny thing happened though. Anna had discovered a box of old highschool stuff in her move and found a box of memories I had made for her. Sadly there were a couple of things she and I couldn't even remember why I had put in the box. I guess I should have put labels or a note. Who knew our memories would be so bad!?

Happy Birthday America...

Once again...the 4th of July was upon us and this time we even got a 3 day weekend. The last week or so has been pretty busy. Gina was in town from NYC so I spent some time hanging out and catching up with her. I took a half-day off of work so we could do the total relaxation day with manis and pedis followed with happy hour and hanging out at Madison Park. It was so good to see her! I really miss her being across the country!

Well as for the 4th of July itself. Mine started down at Steve & Airi's for some BBQ goodness. Kim was in town from England so it was good to see her and catch up! Got to hangout with baby Mia and baby Lauren who are two of the cutest babies!

Afterwards I headed out to the Cababtits for more 4th of July festivities. Joe was in town from NYC for the holiday so it was good to see him! Had the usual relaxed hanging out...BBQ...fireworks...and just a good time all around as is the norm at the Cabatits.

Back Again...

So it was brought to my attention that it may have been awhile since I've updated the blog. I guess that is true. Welp...it's now summer and life has been a blur.

I am enjoying the last of my break before I start summer quarter. I am about at the half-way mark with school with 1 more year to go. Woohoo! Work has been....well....work. Never anything that exciting on the work front. I did start doing some volunteering with the Metrocenter YMCA with their career mentoring program for at-risk youth. Other than that...have just been enjoying catching up with people and hanging out. Oh...and enjoying the fact that we actually have been getting somewhat of a summer. Yay!

Spring Fever...

So I think it's been quite awhile since I updated the good old blog. I'm actually just getting over an awful cold of some sort that I picked up at the office. What a way to bring in the Spring season, huh?

Well as you probably imagined...I didn't really have that great of a Spring Break from classes as I was passed out on cold meds for the couple of weeks I had off from school. I guess it's better than being sick during school.

I started classes again this weekend, but it was actually a pretty good weekend. I have some amazing classes with some instructors that are also quite amazing so far! I'm pretty excited heading into this quarter. The reality of getting to work in a field I love seems to be a little more real now. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Other than being sick, going to work, and going to class....I've mainly just been trying to catch up with people. Not very exciting. I had a little reunion with my Argosy friends out in Monroe and had to dig out my car beneath an inch or so of snow. Gotta love that Global Warming huh? I also ended up finally getting to go to Bahama Breeze. I went with Anna to celebrate her birthday. She's one of my BFF's from highschool and we've been friends for about 20 years. Anywho...Bahama Breeze has some mighty fine drinks! The only weird thing was the guy they had playing music in the bar. It was a little cheesy. It was one lone guy with a guitar with steel drums synthesized into his music. He took us on a little trip while we were there. We went to Jamaica with One Heart, then to Kokomo, Key Largo, and even journeyed to Hotel California. See what I mean about cheesy?

Anyway....I think that's it for now. I so need to get some sleep tonight! I stayed up way too late last night and fought sleep all day in class today. This was even after a Full Throttle Fury energy drink and a quad-shot soy latte. We're talking...needing toothpicks to keep my eyes open!

A Funny Thing Happened...

So I thought I'd share a funny thing that happened to me. A few days ago, I had plans to meet a friend for dinner. We agreed that we'd meet at Cedars Restaurant after work. Now I'd never been to Cedars, but vaguely remembered passing by it during one of my excursions to the U-district. So after work I headed north to the area around the University Ave. thinking that I would easily find the restaurant. Okay so the restaurant wasn't on the street corner I thought it was on. My next thought was maybe to find parking and then plan my next course of action. Bad news...parking sucked that night! During one of my various circlings of the area, I finally spotted the restaurant on 43rd. Now all I needed was parking still. I do a time check and realize I was going to be late. I was just about to call my friend when my phone rang.

My friend was calling to say she was having parking problems as well. She asked if I saw parking. I said...no and asked if she saw anything...she said no, but she thought she saw something by Safeway. Okay so this totally puzzled me as Safeway was on the other side of 45th from where I was so in my mind...she was still far. I asked if she was still on her way. She said she was circling the restaurant. Now I was really confused. I asked if she was still by Safeway. She said yes and I said she was not where she was supposed to be. This exchange went on for awhile. We both stated that we were by Cedars Restaurant near Brooklyn Ave. Eventually I made my way over to my friend as she'd been to the restaurant and thinking I'd been confused.

It turns out there are two different locations for Cedars. Neither one of us had realized that there were more than one of them. My friend only knew the location on Brooklyn Ave by the Safeway and I only knew the location on 43rd Ave.

The moral of the story is to make sure that everyone is on the same page when making plans to meet. Oh and check that you are actually going to the SAME location.

Procrastination...

So I've noticed a pattern that I have lately. It seems that I tend to procrastinate during times when I really need to not be procrastinating. This is one of those times. I've got a huge assignment that needs to be done, but just seem to try to find things to distract myself from doing it. I've searched the web, checked all my email accounts, channel surfed, worked my way through calls I needed to make, and now it's time for updating my blog.

Well...I survived yet another residency weekend at school. It feels really good to have a few things behind me like our presentations. There was one negative thing that came out of this weekend. This was the loss of Jackie from our program. I know this was a loss that was felt by my whole cohort, but it was one that was very personal for me. When I entered the program, the first people I met were Jackie and Cindy as we were assigned to carpool together to our retreat in Seabeck. My whole experience has been one that has been shared with them so it is difficult moving forward without Jackie. She's an amazing person who truly cares about everyone and was one of those people who always made you smile or laugh. I'm sure we'll keep in touch, but I'm sad that I won't get to share the rest of my experience in the program with her. Despite this negative factor, I am feeling good about my classes. I feel that we are finally moving to a place where we are gaining a lot of applicable knowledge and experience. At least for my program and goals anyway.

Due to the tight deadlines and incredible amount of time I've had to spend on school the last few weeks, I haven't had time for much else. Well...even less time if you consider how much I have to work.

I did take a break for a nice night out to dinner and movie with Katrina and Laurie a week or so ago. We checked out this really great Thai place down the hill from my place. I'd heard it was the best Thai place in Issaquah. It was really good, but to be fair...there are only really 2-3 Thai restaurants in Issaquah overall.

One other thing I did was go to a presentation in a Global Issues series. The speaker was a Sustainable Business Consultant. Okay so I had no idea what that was but it sounded interesting. What I found out was that the speaker works with businesses that are trying to be more green and helps them implement processes or gives suggestions on how to improve the Ecological Footprint. The speaker also provided background information on Global Climate Change and its impacts on businesses. There were some scary statistics he shared about what's going on in the world. I won't go into details on this, but overall it was an amazing presentation.

Well...I think that's it for now. I think I should probably do SOME of my work so hopefully the procrastination bug won't bite again.

Some Random Thoughts...

Well this new year has gotten off to a hectic start! We just started the new quarter last week and this one seems to be jam packed with work in a short amount of time. Since our quarter started so late this time, we have major deadlines that have to be met in like 3 weeks instead of the 4 or more weeks we'd usually get between in class time. The strange part is that I feel a lot more calm than I did last quarter despite the pressure we're under. Maybe I'm just used to it all now.

So my latest frustration in all the chaos of school...has to do with my laptop. While I love the laptop itself, I'm still struggling to get used to Windows Vista. On top of that...my laptop came with Microsoft Works. Okay so I don't even remember the last time I had to use a computer with Works on it. Yes..it's been that long. The only problem is...all of my homework has to be posted online in Word. So I've been having to do all my assignments and then converting them so I can post them. While it may not sound like it's a lot of work, it tends to get annoying. I have 3 classes which require weekly postings of assignments for each class. I decided I couldn't take much more of this so my brother is going to install Microsoft Office on my laptop. So yay for computer/tech savvy siblings!

Other than working crazy hours and school...I haven't been up to much else. Laurie and I did go check out XXX Rootbeer Drive-in down the hill from us in Issaquah. Okay if you like Rootbeer or Rootbeer floats...you totally have to check this place out! I got a "regular" size Rootbeer float and the big old frosty mug was ginormous! I can't imagine what the bigger size was like. Anyway...they have like the really good old fashioned Rootbeer with soft serve vanilla in it that is like really thick and creamy. Seriously...it was REALLY good!

I think that's it for now. I'll leave you with a few facts that I learned about Brazil in the last week or so because I just feel like sharing.

Random Facts:

- Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.

- The most common language spoken in Brazil is Portuguese which makes it different from most South American countries that speak Spanish.

- Shares common boundaries with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

-The only country to have played in every World Cup soccer tournament.

-Has more species of monkeys than any other country.

Another year done...

Well a new year is upon us once again! The last few weeks went by way too quickly! There were so many things to do and so many different people to see. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do everything I wanted to or see everyone I wanted to. That's the problem with the holidays...you try to fit in so much into such little time. Fortunately, I did get to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in awhile and got to visit with folks that came out here for a visit during the holidays.

Christmas was pretty low key this year. Well part of the reason for that was that I ran myself ragged from all my activities and wound up getting sick on Christmas Eve. I always have such great timing! Had a lovely dinner at Steve & Airi's and felt so bad at how sickly I felt and ended up eventually just heading to mom's for a nice night's sleep. Was going to visit Anna & Sarah's parents on Christmas day, but was pretty feverish and I didn't want to expose the little ones to my germs. So Christmas mainly involved a lot of laying around and relaxing with the fam.

With the passing of Christmas it usually means that New Year's and my birthday are right around the corner. As I was still sick...I really hadn't been looking forward to either. I decided to pass on the parties this year. I ended up having a nice relaxing evening with Anna and Sarah for a wine, cheese, and movie night. Perfect for my sickly self! After midnight, they brought out some champagne, presents, and the cutest little cake for my birthday.

The next day I had another lazy day with the fam. We did eventually get our butts in gear though and my mom, my bro, and I ended up heading to Seattle for dinner. My mom had just bought a new car a few days earlier so we were taking it for a spin. We ended up actually hopping the bridge and going to dinner in Bellevue. Yep we went to good old Crabpot which I love when I crave seafood. It was a pretty good day. Oh! One of the best things about the day was that my mom and brother bought me a laptop for my birthday! I couldn't believe it! They thought it would be easier for me for school. That was pretty awesome since I'd been saving up and looking for a laptop for myself for a couple of months!

Not much else has been going on. Still trying to fight this cold and just get back into school mode as we start in another week. I have an insane amount of pre-reading to do so hopefully I can get it done! To quote one of my classmates..."Nothing says Happy Holidays more than 700 pages or so of pre-reading for class!"