Saturday, November 22, 2014

At long last?


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!