Uh, this is kind of
awkward. That first post after you haven't posted in a really long
time. And I already felt awkward enough about not having posted, but
now people are commenting too . . .
I never promised to
be good at this (see first post, lol), and I've partially written at
least 2 posts since the last one, just never finished them and never
posted them.
So it took me awhile
to figure out how to proceed. So here's what I came up with. I
thought I would give a quick list (actually its not so quick) of all
the things that have been going on, for those of you who are trying
to keep up. Some were the usual kind of stuff I generally post, like
friends visiting, ect. Some is really real life stuff, the kind that
has been hard and sad and isn't the most fun to write about. But
since it is called “Adventures and Real Life”, and since I mostly
post stuff that is more adventurey, I'll tell you the real life stuff too.
So here it all is.
In some semi-kind of order, but not exactly. Sorry for how long this
is. I guess a lot happens in a year.
In February my
friend Christy, who first debuted on the blog on the move to
California, came to visit. It was awesome to have her back. I pretty
much wrote a whole post about this, and I think I'll just post it
next, kinda like those throwback thursday things that happen on
facebook. :)
Then in March my
friend Jennifer followed for her second visit to San Diego, which was
great. Always glad to have people back!
My grandfather, whom
I was close to and had lived near to for 4 years of my grad school
career, passed away in April. This was hard. I was very grateful to
be able to go home for the funeral. It was a good time of remembering
him and spending time with family.
In May, my friend
Ashley, (who is the one who got me to start this blog) came with her
husband and I got to hang out with them and Tomomi, so that was cool. I was so looking forward to posting about that since she
was the blog instigator, but I didn't get to it, and I think she
still has the picture of us all! Hey Ash – if you are reading this,
if you send me the pic of us all outside the Mexican restaurant, I
will put it up!
A couple from church
that I was good friends with (the ones I went to Six Flags with),
moved to the east coast. I miss them.
I had the pleasure
of being in the wedding of two other friends from the UCSD Graduate
Christian Fellowship. It was great to celebrate with them. But then
they moved to the east coast too.
My parents came to
visit at the beginnig of July. We had a great time! Some highlights
were touring the Taylor guitar factory and trying to watch the San
Deigo fireworks. . .
In July, I moved out
of my apartment and in with Vickie, a gal from church. I'm renting the
spare bedroom in her adorable house in the North Park neighborhood of
San Diego. She has a cat, Peepers, and an adorable new black lab
puppy, Ninja. They keep us both on our toes. And give me plenty of
amusing stories to tell people at work! But now I do have a 30min
freeway commute to work. Which has been different but is
working out okay. (got rear-ended on the on ramp the second week of it all though. could have been much worse)
Oh, but before I
moved in with Vickie, I was “in transition” between places for 2
weeks. So I had fun living with Cynthia, my friend from lab, and her
absolutely adorable kitties, Jorge and Marcus. (they are the best
kitties ever! Don't tell Marcus, but Jorge is my favorite) :)
My friend Erin also
came for her second visit to San Diego. We had some fun despite my
getting sick. She is the first visiting friend to see the new place!
My (now no longer) boyfriend got a
faculty position, also on the east coast. (notice any patterns
here?). He moved in August. Sadly, we broke up some weeks
following the move. Still hurts, not gonna lie. But I guess that's
what these things tend to do. Hurt for a while. I'm hoping the "and
then get better" part is not far off. Feels like it is taking its sweet time.
Sometime earlier
this in the year, maybe March, I added in a new project at work.
Although interesting, the nature of it was for me very exhausting. I
have great respect for all the scientists who do this type of cell
project, but after feeling very mentally and emotionally exhausted
from the nature of the project mixed with everything else going on in
my life at the time, I took a break from the project in September.
Don't know if I will rejoin it again or not. . . I sure feel better
without it. And its not like I don't have other things to do.
I got some much
needed rest and relief from these exhausting and sad parts of life in
September by going to visit my friend Cari and her family in
Colorado. I hadn't seen them since I stayed with them on my drive out
to California, so it was great to catch up with them and all the
changes in their life. Nothing to make you feel better than an a good
friend you've known for a long time!
I had another
birthday. Cynthia made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (both
things I love!). And my housemate took me to see Wicked, which I have
never seen before! It was really cool, I had a great time!
Now its almost
Thanksgiving, and then almost Christmas! I'm looking forward to going
home at the end of the year.
So that's pretty
much it. I'm sure I could have elaborated more on everything, but
maybe just putting it all out there and then moving on with present
life (except for maybe a throwback post or some pictures) seems like
a good way to go. Until next time, which I hope won't be that long
again!
