Birthday Celebrations Part 2

In my family, birthday celebrations get spread out over about a month. For exmple, the week I was home after finals and went shopping at Kohl's with my mom, that was the official start to my birthday month. Likely some event or outing that happens in mid July, will also be counted for my birthday. It's kinda fun that way.

Anyway, since Tad works starting in the afternoons Thurs-Mon, he agreed to take me home Thurs afternoon. Before coming up to PQ though we cashed in some of my birthday coupons. We shared lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (they gave me a zebra print cowboy hat to wear, it was interesting) and shared an icecream from Baskin Robbin's.

Tad dropped me off and visited a little with my mom before heading off for work. About an hour later, my cousin Michelle and her sister Kim's little girls Jordan and Madison arrived. I helped the girls make melty bead designs, and then it was swim time. Swimming pools are so much more exciting with little kids in them. I watched Jordan do about half a dozen summersaults and then tossed diving rings for her. Kim and the girls' dad Doug arrived just in time for dinner.

I got up bright and early on Friday to go to the train station. My mom dropped me off a little earlier than I neede to be there, so I had plenty of time to sit and people watch. My ride was uneventful (as some train rides can be very eventful). I sat next to two older ladies who were both going to visit family in the San Bernadino area.

I arrived in Fullerton pretty much on schedule and Valencia spotted Becky immediately after deboarding the train. Lunch was a special treat, we went to The Olde Ship, a very cute English pub not far from the train station in Fullerton. I had heard of this place on multiple occasions while a student at Biola, but had never been. Becky had been one time, and thus thought it would be fun to go again. The large group of people at the bar watching the World Cup definitely added to the atmosphere, as did our sweetheart of an English lady waitress.

We took a bit of time deciding what to have, but eventually Becky settled on the Dungeness crab cakes and I decided on the chicken curry. The food was excellent, and we spent quite a bit of time chatting and catching up. Quote of the day "Is there a capital of the Yukon? Are there even cities in the Yukon?" "Maybe, if you count trading posts and railway crossraods as cities. The rest is well..." "Nothing and snow." "Exactly! I've seen Balto, I know what it's like up there!"

After lunch we went to Becky's (kind of) townhouse. Becky is going to be living there in the fall for her second year of grad school, but is saving money by living with family in Rancho Cucmonga for the summer. For these couple weekends while she was playing in the pit orchestra at Biola, her roommates agreed to let her stay over. (Rancho Cucamonga is a good hour from Biola). I dropped my stuff off in the townhouse living room, and then Becky suggested we go for a walk outside. It was certainly a gorgeous day for a walk. We walked around the landscaped areas of the townhouse complex (which I hadn't seen before), walked around the La Mirada Veteran's Park, and then walked around the block.

We spent about another hour upstairs in Becky's room talking and cooling off, and then watched a couple episodes of friends before dinner. For a second year in a row, we picked Red Robin for our birthday dinner. Krista, Dorothy, and Melissa (another roommate of Becky's and Dorothy's) joined us to celebrate. I had a coupon for a free burger, and since Becky and I had had a large, late lunch, we split a bbq burger as well as a mint brownie shake. yum! Red Robin is definitely one of my favorite restaurants. After having our free icecream Sundaes, Becky and Dorothy took off to get ready for call time.

I rode with Krista to campus and we sat and talked by the fountain until it was time for the show, Cats, put on by Biola Youth Theater. Cats is an interesting show, there is only a very loose plot line; most of the show is individual songs about different cats. I did not know this going in, and spent the first act waiting for the plot to start. The cast gave a great performance though, the singing was good, and the dancing was amazing. I do believe the dancing was my favorite part :)

Krista came back to Becky's to hang out for a bit after the show. Becky opened her birthday gift from me, and we did some more chatting =) Saturday morning both of us slept in. When we did get up, Becky made us oatmeal. I packed my stuff up after breakfast and went to lunch (i get hungry very shortly after breakfast, lol) at Wendy's with Dorothy and Krista. Krista drove me back to Fullerton where I just caught my train. Unfortunately, there was track work being done this weekend, so I had to get off the train in Irvine and take a bus back to San Diego. Quote of the day: Conductor "If you are going to San Diego, you need to get off the train in Irvine and board a motorcoach...motorcoach being amtrak's word for 'bus'" lol

The bus ride went fine, long because of traffic, but decent enough. My dad and Steve picked me up from the station, and the rest of my weekend was spent relaxing at home.

Birthday Weekend

Today is my 23rd birthday, and I've had a fun weekend celebrating it.

Thursday I went with the girls to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Valley. We had to wait quite a while to be seated, but the service was fine after that. My roommates Ana and Anja came, as well as my co-clinician this semester Liz, whose birthday was on the 12th. Also attending were Angel, Erin, Carolyn, Dorothy, and Nicole. Most of the girsl got dinner, I however went straight for dessert. Anjaand I split a slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake, and a slice of raspberry chocolate truffle cheesecake. Both are extremely delicious.

Friday morning, Raelene picked me up from the condo. We got bagels from Golden Bagel and went to enjoy our brunch at the beach. We didn't stay too long, but it was wonderful to see the ocean! I can't imagine living somewhere not on the coast. After Raelene dropped me off, I had to go to a dentist appointment, and then had a few hours free to do some homework. I got my haircut in the evening, and on our way home, my mom and I picked up burritos from Cotijas for dinner.

After dinner, my parents and I went up to my grandparents for a short visit. My great Aunt Dorothy is in town and staying with them, so we got a chance to catch up with her, and eat zucchini bread.

Saturday morning, Mom and I ran some errands, and picked up things to make my birthday gift for Becky. We worked on that at home after lunchtime. Tad somewhat surprised me with a visit (I knew he was coming, but he didn't tell me when). We played with Valencia int he backyard until he had to go to work. Fairly shortly after he left, we left to go meet the families from my mom's ladie's Bible study for dinner. They had selected Hodad's in Ocean Beach.

This was an interesting cultural experience. OB was the center of drug culture in the 70's, and is still a very hippie place. There were guys up and down the street with petitions to save the whales and such. Hodad's had an interesting surf shop atmosphere. It's decorated with license plates all over the walls. It was a bit dirty, and once the music changed from Van Halen and Journey to screaming heavy gutiar music, it wasn't so enjoyable. But the food wasn't bad. I took a nap when we got home, and then did a bit more homework.

Today we had church in the morning. I relaxed for a couple hours at home until Tad picked me up to go to lunch. My mom was sweet and gave me the lei that my dad had given her for their anniversary to wear. We went to Claim Jumper because I had a coupon for a free entree. We shared chicken fried steak, yum! For dessert, they brought me out a red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and a candle, it was cute :D

Sadly, Tad had to work today, so he came in to say hi to my fam when he dropped me off, and then had o leave. My grandparents and Aunt Dorothy came as did my second cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boy Jason. My dad bbqed chicken and we had a lot of fresh yummy summer fruit. The birthday/father's day cake my mom made was my great grandmother's applesauce cake, which is a favorite of mine. We opened cards and presents, and then it was time to go back to the condo.

A very different birthday from last year, but enjoyable. I look forward to year 23 of my life :)

4 Day Weekend

As an addendum to my last post, maybe June isn't going to be so crazy after all, haha

I certainly am extremely busy Mon-Wed, but after I posted Thursday, I finished my session plans for this coming week, and then realized "...I have nothing that has to be done for school until Monday." And thus the relaxing weekend began.

Thursday itself wasn't great, Tad and I had been fighting in the morning, and that kinda set my mood for the whole day. I did get to have Starbucks with Raelene, and get some grocery shopping done. Friday I went on a cleaning spree, I did laundry and vacuumedmost of the condo. I had a phone interview with one of my off campus placements, which went fine.

Chores out of the way, I had some time to read (something I haven't had time for for a LONG while), went to the mall, and finished out my day with time in the hot tub. Saturday morning I spent with Tad, we patched things up and had lunch together before he was off to work. On his way, he dropped me off at Daniel's and I got to hang out with Lindsay and Daniel for the afternoon. We chatted, listened to a random German radio station, and got Ben & Jerry's.

This morning Tad and I went to church at Mission and out to lunch with the college group to Chili's. I think I will spend the end of my weekend doing some more reading, and watching anime on hulu.

Oh summer, how I love thee!

My Crazy Schedule

At one point, one of our professors observed that they only tell us that the next semester will be easier so we don't quit the program...I'm starting to believe her.

You would think that with only one class and clinic, life would be less hectic. But it's one class and clinic, squeezed into a very short amount of time. I am fortunate, however, in that my schedule is all squeezed into Mondays and Wednesdays, so theoretically, I have 4 day weekends. The downside is that Monday-Wednesday is a blur.

Here's the breakdown of my schedule:
Monday
12:00-1:00 staffing
2:00-2:45 client with autism
3:00-3:45 client with artic disorder
4:00-7:40 class
Tuesday
Prepare for clients on Wednesday
Wednesday
8:30-1:00 Regional Center (diagnostics with little toddlers)
2:00-2:45 client with autism
3:00-3:45 client with artic disorder
4:00-7:40 class

My class at least only goes through June 30th. July will just have clinic, which will help tremendously. Also adding to the hecticness of June is the fact that we're doing our interviews for our adult off campus placements. I had one this morning (phone interview), have another phone one next Tuesday, and an in person one the following Tuesday.

In the meantime, I've been spending as much time as possible at home to at least pretend that I'm on summer vacation. I think it's been working pretty well :)

Car Trouble

There are times in life where everything is going well and all seems right with the world...and then something happens to shake things up.

Last Friday after a meeting on campus, I went over to Tad's to spend some time hanging out. We played some wii, watched a little anime, and then set off for dinner. I recently signed up for a bunch of birthday club things at restaraunts online (I am prepared for lots of free food in a couple weeks, haha). Joe's Crab Shack sent me a coupon for a free appetizer just for signing up, so Tad and I decided to treat ourselves to that for dinner.

We had a lot of fun. We arrived early enough to beat the Friday night crowd, shared delicious crab jalapeno poppers and mango jalapeno chicken. I even splurged and we shared a virgin mangotini. Tad and I talked abotu fun lighthearted things, and then proceeded down to Tad's car to get groceries and then call it a night.

To our surprise and dismay, nothing happened when Tad put his key in the ignition. The engine didn't even turn. Hmm, this is worrisome. Tad being somewhat knowledgable about cars, popped the hood to take a look at things. He deducted that it must be a blown fuse and set about trying to find which one it was.

Shoot, he decided it was one of the relays, which he didn't have spares for. So we called my family and my dad offered to get one for us. Shoot again, the car parts place was already closed, hmm. Tad tried rearranging fuses to see if we could get the car started...nothing.

Finally haven given up for the night, we set about moving the car to a spot to leave it overnight. Given that it was dark, and I wouldn't trust myself to steer a car even in daylight, I had to be the one to push the car. Fortunately for me, the car was on a bit of an incline, and a couple of girls helped me. Also fortunately, we happened to be at the Hazard Center, which has a trolley stop. We caught the trolley back to my place and Anja's fiance James was kind enough to drive Tad home.

Saturday morning, Anja and I picked Tad up, brought him back to his car and we tried to jump it, to no avail. The engine was at least turning, but not starting. Tad had the car towed to a dealership nearby and we picked hime back up. Unfortunatley he had to wait until Tuesday for them to look at it, since it was Memorial Day Weekend. Turns out, it was the battery, it was just very dead.

The weekend in between was enjoyable. Saturday was Raelene's graduation party. She and Nate picked me and Tad up from my condo and took us back home. It was a fun party, I got to meet Nate's sister and brother in law, and adorable niece and nephew. And I saw one of the teachers from my elementary school. Sunday, my mom offered to pick Tad up so he could spend Memorial Day with us. He stayed over Sunday night and Monday we had swim time and a bbq with my grandparents.

Tad was just thankful to have his car back before his trip home, and to not have to pay too much for it. And hopefully now it won't need repairs for some time, knock on wood

8 Days of Summer

Such is the life of a grad student that we don't get the whole summer off. From June 2nd to July 7th I have my dysphagia class two nights a week for 3.5 hours, and from June 7th to July 30th I will have clinic on M/W afternoons. I'm really looking forward to clinic, and the class shouldn't be bad, I'm just bummed I don't get to spend the time at home.

Anyhow, as I have a meeting on campus tomorrow at 9 am, I have to go back to the condo tonight. However, I've managed to have an enjoyable week here at home. And the summer bliss can continue in August.

My mom and Dave picked me up from the condo Thursday morning. We stopped for lunch at In N Out on the way home, and relaxed the rest of the day, including some jacuzzi time before bed. Friday I caught up on my tv shows for the week, and then had a CCLVI conference call. It was a much more exciting day for my roommate Anja, who got engaged that evening :D

On Saturday morning, my mom suggested we check out the sale at Kohl's. I came home with 3 new pairs of capris, and several cute, clinic appropriate shirts. We spent the afternoon at home, and then set out north for Biola. I wore one of my new shirts, and we snacked on edamome on the ride up. Needing a little more in our tummies before Christine's recital, we got strawberry cream scones and iced tea at Panera.

Christine gave a beautiful recital. She performed works from Brahms, Beethoven, Saint Sans, and Bizet. After the recital was a delightful reception with sandwiches, fruit, veggies, cake, and punch. I got a chance to catch up with quite a few people, including Monica, Becky, Krista, Dorothy, and Justine. And my mom got to catch up with Christine's parents and some oher friends.

Sunday after church was quiet until dinner time when Tad picked me up and we headed over to Del Mar to meet my friend Justin. I met Justin at a summer program I did at the California School for the Blind. We've minimally kept in touch over the last 6 years or so via IM and facebook. He happened to be in San Diego for the weekend visiting another friend, and offered that we could get together. Tad and I took him to Rubios (a SoCal favorite) and chatted over our tacos. After dinner, Tad brought me back home and I watched Old Dogs with my family.

On Monday, mom asked if I would go with her to volunteer at Braille Institute. After her job ended, she started thinking about volunteer opportunities and started volunteering in the talking books library at Braille in April. Now her friend Liz goes with her too. We picked Liz up and got a delicious lunch from Real Texas Barbecue beforehand. I was able to spend some time chatting with a couple of the other volunteers I know, and helped a bit with odds and ends things.

The rest of the week was pretty mellow. Tad came by for a bit on Tuesday after work. I went with mom to her Bible study on Wednesday morning, which ended up being just a potluck and chat time. Thursday afternoon I got frozen yogurt with Raelene, and then went back down to the condo.

Summer classes already? August, you can't come soon enough!

On Forgiveness

I told Tad a while ago that I wish we had had a debriefing class before leaving Biola. Something like the debriefing we did before we left Romania. The class would cover what you'd learned and how you'd grown at Biola, and would prepare you for life back outside the bubble again. Life in a world where people don't pray before the start of class, where out of the 38 people in your program, only 4 of you are Christians. The class would be about what to expect, and how to cope and stay close to God.
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Unfortunately, such a class does not exist.

I was fine for a while, mainly last summer. I was at home, and spent much time with my Biola friends. But as grad school began, and I grew busier and busier, and more stressed, I began losing track of things with God. I knew I was struggling, but at least I was clinging on.

I was a wreck by Christmas. The fall semester took an awful toll on me emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I started to pull myself back together after I hit what I thought was bottom. I had managed to haphazardly patch myself up by the time spring semester started. And then all the trouble with my roommate crashed in on my shaky structure.

In that week or so after the drama, I clung to God, I looked at it as a growth experience. It was certainly one of those times that forces you to the foot of the cross. Those moments are humbling, and can truly set you on a new course in your walk with God. But problems come when, rather than picking yourself up and starting down the road with God, you continue to lie in your heap.

To be sure, I tried to get up. I would work through my feelings and be on my way to forgiveness for the hurt my roommate had caused me, and just when I thought I was ready to move on, she would do or say something that would bring all the pain back. And back into a heap I would crumble.

After repeating this cycle 4 or 5 times, I grew tired of the painful effort it took to pick myself up. The anger and bitterness and hurt began to eat at me and slowly pushed me farther and farther from God. The pain and separation I felt began manifesting themselves in arguments and fights with Tad. After about two weeks of off and on fighting, I finally admitted to myself the real problem. I was no longer walking with God.

In the week and a half since, I have been working my way back to the cross. It is slow progress, but I'm making it. The biggest obstacle by far is to let myself forgive my roommate. I am so blessed that God never leaves his children, and blessed to have a very loving and forgiving boyfriend.

Please pray for me as I move through this process. I am still incredibly shaky on my feet right now. Living with and forgiving someone who continues to hurt you is extremely difficult. I know I will be relieved when this part of my life is over, but I also hope to be a better person for it. My fear is that I will be a more bitter person for it