Well, hello again.
Hello again LiveJournal friends. I've been keeping up on your lives all this time, but not sharing any of mine. That's not very generous now is it? I've been neglecting LJ for various reasons... in some areas I haven't had anything to say. In others there's been so much (that's happened so quickly) that I'd barely been able to wrap my head around it, let alone write it down.
But now I have some big news to report, so I figure the announcement might as well be an excuse to catch you all (all three of you!) up a bit.
I'm going to Germany in September! For three months! This is a trip that I've been thinking about in various iterations for a long time now. I've regretted since even before I graduated the fact that I never studied abroad in college. But who needs college to study abroad? A friend named Sara, who I took psychology classes with and now sling cheese with, also studied German and wanted to go over there. We've been plotting for a while now, and reserved our tickets last Friday. We leave early in the morning on Tuesday, September 4 and won't return until December. The plan is to take a language course for four weeks in Munich (www.tandem-muenchen.de), travel for about four weeks to Italy, maybe Malta, perhaps Croatia and various other as-of-yet-undetermined locations, then take another four week language course in Berlin (www.tandem-berlin.de), then cap off the trip with another couple weeks of travel. I am delighted by the fact that the years of German studying I've done might actually amount to something... I might just come out of this being able to speak the darn language. I know I'll come out of it having met some awesome people from all over the world and with some amazing experiences under my belt.
This will be the trip of a life time and I'm proud of myself for making it happen. I can't wait!
I've already started overwhelming myself with the thought of how many things I need to get done before I go... I plan to take the GRE and perhaps even start getting an idea of what I want to do in grad school. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on August 3. I need to find a doctor, get a physical, figure out how to get a bunch of BC pills all at once, and see if there are any shots I should have (I should get the HPV vaccine). I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my stuff while I'm gone and move out of my apartment! And those are just the first things that come to mind...
At the beginning of June I got a second job to help fund this insanity. I still am slinging cheese at Beecher's (and still less than happy with that) but I am also, as I once put it, the highest paid accounting assistant's assistant in the city. I must say that filing, coding invoices, sorting mail, and calling for copies of invoices is kinda nice after dealing with babysitting staff and corralling customers all day. Especially now that summer has started... I won't lie: I cannot waitto quit Beecher's and take off. I've most definitely been there too long and I most definitely need a change.
On another note, I've been single since sometime around March or so. I broke up with the boy who I, at one point, thought might be The One because he had starting acting in ways that I promised myself I would never put up with from a guy. In the span of a few weeks he turned into a completely different person; he essentially self-destructed in more ways than I care to list. He was a danger to himself, completely disrespectful to everyone and careless with the feelings of his friends, parents and his girlfriend (who I must say, saw him through an awfully large number of hard times throughout the relationship). A little while later, once he was finally convinced to move back to Wyoming to stay with his dad, he was diagnosed Bipolar. This was not a surprise to me and I am glad there has been some progress toward treatment. I have never experienced a breakup like this... it's been confusing, to be honest. There was practically no closure, it felt as though the boy I knew had just completely disappeared and I haven't seen him since. I've dealt surprising well, if I do say so myself, and while I'm not yet recovered from the situation fully, I'm on my way.
I've spent a lot more time with Jessica, which has been awesome. The two of us are headed to New York, in part to see Romeo & Juliet in Central Park (with Lauren Ambrose as Juliet!). We auditioned for a musical together (she got in and I didn't), which I hadn't done since high school. We took a trip with some of her high school friends down to the Oregon Coast over Memorial Day weekend. We got our hair cut and colored (colored for the first time) together at Greenwood Academy and I have a rockin' new haircut that I love (I also have the email address for the sexy and straight stylist that did my hair). She's been helping me keep busy and it's been great getting to know each other better. I've also gotten to know a little better the friends I met through Ian, the engineering crowd as I call them. We get together for happy hour once a week or so. A few of us are heading down to Vegas at the end of July. I've also spent a lot of time alone, and that's ok.
I finally have something, a big event, to look forward to in my life again, and I'm so grateful for it. In my experience, the hardest part not being in school is not having those ready-made milestones to see down the road. But now change is in the air and, somehow, all the emotions that stirs create in me a strange contentedness. For now at least.
Goodnight LiveJournal.
But now I have some big news to report, so I figure the announcement might as well be an excuse to catch you all (all three of you!) up a bit.
I'm going to Germany in September! For three months! This is a trip that I've been thinking about in various iterations for a long time now. I've regretted since even before I graduated the fact that I never studied abroad in college. But who needs college to study abroad? A friend named Sara, who I took psychology classes with and now sling cheese with, also studied German and wanted to go over there. We've been plotting for a while now, and reserved our tickets last Friday. We leave early in the morning on Tuesday, September 4 and won't return until December. The plan is to take a language course for four weeks in Munich (www.tandem-muenchen.de), travel for about four weeks to Italy, maybe Malta, perhaps Croatia and various other as-of-yet-undetermined locations, then take another four week language course in Berlin (www.tandem-berlin.de), then cap off the trip with another couple weeks of travel. I am delighted by the fact that the years of German studying I've done might actually amount to something... I might just come out of this being able to speak the darn language. I know I'll come out of it having met some awesome people from all over the world and with some amazing experiences under my belt.
This will be the trip of a life time and I'm proud of myself for making it happen. I can't wait!
I've already started overwhelming myself with the thought of how many things I need to get done before I go... I plan to take the GRE and perhaps even start getting an idea of what I want to do in grad school. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on August 3. I need to find a doctor, get a physical, figure out how to get a bunch of BC pills all at once, and see if there are any shots I should have (I should get the HPV vaccine). I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my stuff while I'm gone and move out of my apartment! And those are just the first things that come to mind...
At the beginning of June I got a second job to help fund this insanity. I still am slinging cheese at Beecher's (and still less than happy with that) but I am also, as I once put it, the highest paid accounting assistant's assistant in the city. I must say that filing, coding invoices, sorting mail, and calling for copies of invoices is kinda nice after dealing with babysitting staff and corralling customers all day. Especially now that summer has started... I won't lie: I cannot waitto quit Beecher's and take off. I've most definitely been there too long and I most definitely need a change.
On another note, I've been single since sometime around March or so. I broke up with the boy who I, at one point, thought might be The One because he had starting acting in ways that I promised myself I would never put up with from a guy. In the span of a few weeks he turned into a completely different person; he essentially self-destructed in more ways than I care to list. He was a danger to himself, completely disrespectful to everyone and careless with the feelings of his friends, parents and his girlfriend (who I must say, saw him through an awfully large number of hard times throughout the relationship). A little while later, once he was finally convinced to move back to Wyoming to stay with his dad, he was diagnosed Bipolar. This was not a surprise to me and I am glad there has been some progress toward treatment. I have never experienced a breakup like this... it's been confusing, to be honest. There was practically no closure, it felt as though the boy I knew had just completely disappeared and I haven't seen him since. I've dealt surprising well, if I do say so myself, and while I'm not yet recovered from the situation fully, I'm on my way.
I've spent a lot more time with Jessica, which has been awesome. The two of us are headed to New York, in part to see Romeo & Juliet in Central Park (with Lauren Ambrose as Juliet!). We auditioned for a musical together (she got in and I didn't), which I hadn't done since high school. We took a trip with some of her high school friends down to the Oregon Coast over Memorial Day weekend. We got our hair cut and colored (colored for the first time) together at Greenwood Academy and I have a rockin' new haircut that I love (I also have the email address for the sexy and straight stylist that did my hair). She's been helping me keep busy and it's been great getting to know each other better. I've also gotten to know a little better the friends I met through Ian, the engineering crowd as I call them. We get together for happy hour once a week or so. A few of us are heading down to Vegas at the end of July. I've also spent a lot of time alone, and that's ok.
I finally have something, a big event, to look forward to in my life again, and I'm so grateful for it. In my experience, the hardest part not being in school is not having those ready-made milestones to see down the road. But now change is in the air and, somehow, all the emotions that stirs create in me a strange contentedness. For now at least.
Goodnight LiveJournal.