a real update? sweet.
so there's been a lot going on in my life since my last post, and i figured i'd try to give a quick (ha) update on what all has gone down since last april.
Let's start with school. It looks like i'll be walking in May! I might have to take a summer class or two in order to finish up, but walking in May!!! oh God, graduation. Finally. I'm so tired of being in college, i loved every second of it, but it's time for me to grow up and move on. I'm excited about graduation instead of terrified (i was scared before, i wasn't sure where i was going after graduating, and i didn't know what was going to happen) and i can't wait to have that degree i've been working so hard for. The last couple of years have been especially difficult, since I was already behind from changing my major, and then i ended up working full time and going to school part time - balancing earning the money to pay for school and actually taking the classes is rough. but i'm there! so close! :-D
Work. Hm. I worked as a preschool teacher with Gymboree for a while, teaching music and play classes, but to be honest, the pay wasn't very good and they weren't very good to their teachers. after a while i got frustrated with the class schedule - they seemed to keep screwing with my classes and i didn't have a stable set schedule, which i can't handle - and i quit. i'm still available to them as a sub, but that's pretty much it. I got a job teaching voice, piano, woodwinds, strings, theory, and diction (and pretty much anything else i think i can handle teaching) at A&A Music in Ashburn, VA. the pay is excellent, i love my students, it's a good work environment, and i'm extremely happy about it. I love teaching, absolutely love it, and I feel so lucky to be making a living doing what i love to do :)
In personal news, I'm dating someone that I'm really happy with. (wow that was the biggest understatement i have ever made...) His name is Christopher, he's an aviation electronics technician with the Navy (just got promoted to AT3) and is stationed in Norfolk. He got back from a 6 month tour in Italy a few months ago (at Capo, actually, the same spot where my parents and i were stationed when we lived out there). He used to go to Mason, we met about three years ago, before he joined the Navy. (He was a music ed major, plays woodwinds, brass, piano and voice.) We met through my best friend Brandon - they've been friends forever or something like that. We reconnected over Thanksgiving break when we hung out, and by the end of the night, we just knew that we were right for each other, and we started dating shortly after that. To be perfectly honest, I'm happier than I've ever been. It wasn't the best timing in the world (my boyfriend of two years, James, and I had just broken up) but when you know you know - and Chris and I have known that we would be happy together from the beginning. I've never been with anyone I could joke around with so much (we laugh so much together!) and he's playful and fun and sincere and stable and sweet and loving and affectionate and responsible and thoughtful and a million other things that are making me go all gross and mushy right now. I've never been like this (I don't think I've ever gushed about a guy quite like this before...) and I couldn't be happier. We've both got a pretty good hunch where our relationship is going to go, but we also want to give ourselves time - with the distance and his job, we want to allow ourselves time to go through things together, such as managing the distance, surviving a 6-month deployment (he's probably getting sent out again this summer), and to just BE together and make sure we're right about each other.
Well...this blog entry seems somewhat off balance. *teeny entry about school* *teeny entry about work* *huge paragraph about chris* oh well. that's the update on how things have been going.
i had a good christmas and new years. chris came over and met my parents on christmas day and seems to have made a good impression on both my parents (that's a big deal to me, i don't think they've ever been so receptive to a boyfriend before) and my mom invited him over for new years. on new years he came over and cooked with me and my mom and hung out with us and my dad for a while, had dinner with us, and then he and i went out. got to see friends over break, including kevin (we went to his birthday party) and brandon (hooters yay) and my brother (bryan/ni-chan/whatever).
now i'm just getting reacquainted with my regular work schedule and missing chris like crazy (he's back home in norfolk, but hopefully he'll be up here on friday night to spend the weekend). I guess that's all I've really got.
I hope everyone's doing well (especially you Loyola cousins, I know i haven't really kept in touch and i'm sorry - we need to talk more!) and that everyone had a good holiday season :)
<3
Cristina
Let's start with school. It looks like i'll be walking in May! I might have to take a summer class or two in order to finish up, but walking in May!!! oh God, graduation. Finally. I'm so tired of being in college, i loved every second of it, but it's time for me to grow up and move on. I'm excited about graduation instead of terrified (i was scared before, i wasn't sure where i was going after graduating, and i didn't know what was going to happen) and i can't wait to have that degree i've been working so hard for. The last couple of years have been especially difficult, since I was already behind from changing my major, and then i ended up working full time and going to school part time - balancing earning the money to pay for school and actually taking the classes is rough. but i'm there! so close! :-D
Work. Hm. I worked as a preschool teacher with Gymboree for a while, teaching music and play classes, but to be honest, the pay wasn't very good and they weren't very good to their teachers. after a while i got frustrated with the class schedule - they seemed to keep screwing with my classes and i didn't have a stable set schedule, which i can't handle - and i quit. i'm still available to them as a sub, but that's pretty much it. I got a job teaching voice, piano, woodwinds, strings, theory, and diction (and pretty much anything else i think i can handle teaching) at A&A Music in Ashburn, VA. the pay is excellent, i love my students, it's a good work environment, and i'm extremely happy about it. I love teaching, absolutely love it, and I feel so lucky to be making a living doing what i love to do :)
In personal news, I'm dating someone that I'm really happy with. (wow that was the biggest understatement i have ever made...) His name is Christopher, he's an aviation electronics technician with the Navy (just got promoted to AT3) and is stationed in Norfolk. He got back from a 6 month tour in Italy a few months ago (at Capo, actually, the same spot where my parents and i were stationed when we lived out there). He used to go to Mason, we met about three years ago, before he joined the Navy. (He was a music ed major, plays woodwinds, brass, piano and voice.) We met through my best friend Brandon - they've been friends forever or something like that. We reconnected over Thanksgiving break when we hung out, and by the end of the night, we just knew that we were right for each other, and we started dating shortly after that. To be perfectly honest, I'm happier than I've ever been. It wasn't the best timing in the world (my boyfriend of two years, James, and I had just broken up) but when you know you know - and Chris and I have known that we would be happy together from the beginning. I've never been with anyone I could joke around with so much (we laugh so much together!) and he's playful and fun and sincere and stable and sweet and loving and affectionate and responsible and thoughtful and a million other things that are making me go all gross and mushy right now. I've never been like this (I don't think I've ever gushed about a guy quite like this before...) and I couldn't be happier. We've both got a pretty good hunch where our relationship is going to go, but we also want to give ourselves time - with the distance and his job, we want to allow ourselves time to go through things together, such as managing the distance, surviving a 6-month deployment (he's probably getting sent out again this summer), and to just BE together and make sure we're right about each other.
Well...this blog entry seems somewhat off balance. *teeny entry about school* *teeny entry about work* *huge paragraph about chris* oh well. that's the update on how things have been going.
i had a good christmas and new years. chris came over and met my parents on christmas day and seems to have made a good impression on both my parents (that's a big deal to me, i don't think they've ever been so receptive to a boyfriend before) and my mom invited him over for new years. on new years he came over and cooked with me and my mom and hung out with us and my dad for a while, had dinner with us, and then he and i went out. got to see friends over break, including kevin (we went to his birthday party) and brandon (hooters yay) and my brother (bryan/ni-chan/whatever).
now i'm just getting reacquainted with my regular work schedule and missing chris like crazy (he's back home in norfolk, but hopefully he'll be up here on friday night to spend the weekend). I guess that's all I've really got.
I hope everyone's doing well (especially you Loyola cousins, I know i haven't really kept in touch and i'm sorry - we need to talk more!) and that everyone had a good holiday season :)
<3
Cristina