School Bag in Hand

Last week I went on a little adventure to acquaint myself with the community college campus where I'll be starting class soon. I got my parking permit, paid my tuition, bought my textbooks and found my classes (both of which are in the same classroom, so that's easy!) I am slowly -but surely- adjusting to the idea of going back to school.

Then, over the weekend I went and got new pens and highlighters as well as a new notebook. I got my old backpack out from the back of my closet, and pre-organized everything.

The 2012 wall calendar I got has a dry-erase board segment, so I can leave myself memos and stuff. In fact, all of this is kind of starting to make my bedroom feel like a dorm room. Really, the only thing missing is the poster of Orlando Bloom I had up during my Freshman year at CLU.

Hmm...I wonder where that poster went...

Let the wine of friendship never run dry

...or in our case, the margaritas of friendship!!

Back during our sophomore year, we went to this comedy club. One of the comedians was this guy who was gay...when he saw the group of us sitting in the front row, he said "A group of women on a night out? In my neighborhood that's a lesbian bowling team." We've since embraced that moniker, and this weekend we got the 'team' back together.

When the four of us get together, we get transported back to old times. We cooked a 'family dinner', talked about our lives, our loves and the things we do to pursue happiness, and you can't forget the pitcher of pomegranate margaritas we shared! So many things have changed since we've graduated from CLU, we've been through weddings and engagements, an international move and a baby, loss of job, and loss of family. I can't imagine what life would be like without these fabulous women in my life. Well...I do imagine I might have a lower credit card payment, but it's so hard not to buy that dress when your friends are telling you how great you look in it. Increasing debt is a small price to pay for the best friends a girl could ask for (and a dress that fits like it was made just for me!!)

Then on my way back up on Sunday, I stopped to see Jennie again and to officially meet her baby (last time I saw him he was sleeping, and only a week old). Three amazing friends, and the cutest 'nephew' ever...I am so lucky!

Working Girl

Four months have gone by and I still haven't found a job, which is really a bummer. However, a couple years ago when I was in a similar situation, I was able to pick up a few subbing jobs at a preschool. I got to play with cute little kids for a few hours and get a nice little check at the end of the month. Well...a call from the preschool director and a re-instating of my fingerprints and I've got my 'gig' back as an on-call preschool aide.

I get to work about 30 or so hours this month. Yeah, not a TON, but way better than nothing at all! I get opportunities to leave the house. I get a few dollars for my bank account. And possibly the best part, is the preschoolers themselves. I love how these little three and four year olds can tell that you're there to care for them and care about them. If you love them, they will love you back. They will crawl into your lap and then ask your name. These little sweethearts feel so comfortable with you that they will even use your arm to wipe their nose. Yes...that happened to me today.

And the crazy thing is...I still want to be a preschool teacher. I have decided that that's what I want to be when I 'grow-up'. Starting this spring I'm going to be taking Early Childhood Education classes. I just wish I'd realized this before. Like when I was still in college. So I wouldn't have to spend more money on my education...especially since I haven't finished paying for my first diploma yet.

Oh well...

Where East meets West

I can't believe it's been almost four years since I went to Turkey. It was such an incredible experience. The 'following in St. Paul's footsteps' of it, and the 'ancient meets modern of it'. Being somewhere with such a rich history, and such friendly people. I was there for two weeks, and it wasn't enough. Just 17 students, a college professor, Turkish guide fluent in English and our bus driver Mustafa (I'm not even kidding, that was his name.) I ate real Turkish delight, and delicious baklava with apple tea. I saw gorgeous mosaics with so much detail they looked like paintings, beautiful mosques, bazaars that were like a scene right out of Aladdin, and ancient temples in various states of ruin. I absolutely LOVED the experiences I had in Turkey.

And now my TV is taunting me. Showing Turkey tourism commercials when there is no way I could afford to go or even have the time off from work to do so is just plain mean. I am itching to go somewhere. Anywhere. I vowed when I got my passport that I was going to get as much use out of it as possible before it expired and it has been collecting dust for the past 4 years. While part of me would be perfectly okay never leaving my apartment except to visit my parents every once in a while, another part of me just wants to be a nomad and go EVERYWHERE...

But I have no money and too many responsibilities so I'm here.

Me (with long hair) in front of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul

Once Upon a Time

Day 17-Favorite mini series
I've never been a big mini series person, therefore my favorite is the only one I've ever seen. But it's good!
Sometime during my freshman year of college I got sick. Like, sick-sick, not just the sniffles. Luckily it was a weekend, and my horrible roommate was out of town...so y'know...silver lining and all that. This was my first experience being sick away from home, and I didn't much care for it. I didn't know how to take care of myself when I was sick, that was always mommy's job. So here I am, this pathetic sick mess of a person when my friend who lived across the hall came over to like, hang out or something, and she ended up taking awesome care of me. She brought me ginger ale and introduced me to The 10th Kingdom to help me feel better. I love how well she knows me.

It is a mini series that follows a father-daughter combo from NYC through a portal to fairy tale world. The trolls are trying to take over, and are in league with the evil queen who has turned her princely step-son into a dog. They are joined by a wolf-man (half man, half wolf, all handsome) and they have to stop the evil queen and the trolls and get the prince-dog back in his human body. A myriad of fairy tales and nursery rhymes are incorporated or alluded to, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, The Emperor's New Clothes, Little Red Riding Hood, The Story of King Midas, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Bo Peep, Jack and the Beanstalk...and several others that I can't remember right now...they are all jumbled together and mixed up and thrust into a somewhat modern word...in short, it's awesome!!

Day 01- A show that should have never been canceled

I bet you were expecting me to say Pushing Daisies. I kind of expected myself to say that too, after all, it's the most creative, whimsical show that has ever existed. The wonderfully quirky characters on this show were delightful, and the writing was genius. A 'forensic fairy tale'...it's so novel and innovative. The show was bright, colorful and witty and I do miss it a lot. However, if Pushing Daisies had never been canceled, Kristin Chenoweth wouldn't have been able to do Promises, Promises which means a)I wouldn't have been able to cross 'seeing Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway' off my 'things to do before I die' list; and b)I wouldn't have gone to New York for my birthday. That 36 hour trip was probably one of the craziest things I've ever done...and it was fantastic.
I also could've gone with Ugly Betty, because it too, was an endearingly cute show that probably could've gone longer...but for this category I choose the short-lived FOX show Reunion.
It came on after The OC my Sophomore year of college. This show followed the lives of 6 friends and the things that they have gone through in the twenty years since they graduated from High School. What we find out in the first episode, is that one of them has been recently murdered and (presumably) another one of them did it. The show flashed back and forth between present day (2006) and a different year each episode (the first ep was 1986/2006; the second, 1987/2006 and so on)...but NOT so on, because the show was canceled after 9 episodes, and it took us the first 6 just to find out which friend was murdered. Most of what bugs me about this is that we never find out who did it and why. Yes, the acting was terrible. And the make-up crew had their hands full trying to get these twentysomething actors to bounce between high school/college aged students to their present day 38 year old selves...
I don't even know of anyone besides me and my college roommates that even remembers this show, much less watched it.

I Wish I Could Go Back to College...

This is the title of a song from the musical Avenue-Q. A show I haven't seen yet, and could probably give or take, to be honest. Most of the songs I've heard from this show are pretty raunchy (even if they are mildly entertaining). But some of them are pretty applicable (I've thought about adopting 'There's a Fine, Fine Line' as my personal theme song several times), and about a year ago, the song 'What Do You Do With A B.A. In English' seemed to echo my thoughts exactly. In fact substitute 'English' for 'Religious Studies' and that song described my plight to a 'T'. Now, I've moved on. I have discovered exactly what to do with a B.A. in Religious Studies. I became a youth director. And a grown-up. Which means I have more responsibilities than I have ever wanted in my life. I hate being an adult. I love being a youth director though. Especially on the third Thursday of the month...Network Lunch day. Today's lunch, however, was held at CLU. It was so strange to be back. On my drive over, all I could think about was the pressure of Rally Day this Sunday and the thoughts that kept going through my head were I wish I could go back to college, life was so simple back then and I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door
Then I got there, I drove through campus on my way to the chapel and then end of the song came to me But if I were to go back to college, think what a loser I'd be-I'd walk through the quad, and think "Oh my God...these kids are so much younger than me."
Really...I'm three years old than the seniors, which means I am six years older than the average college freshman. Being back on that campus made me feel so OLD. The campus hardly looks the same, there are so many new buildings, and yet somehow it seems so much smaller.
I see all these students in their tank tops and flip flops and cut offs, and I drive in in my grown-up car in my khaki pants and my knit top and my flats. I looked like an adult, and I looked older than these...these...kids. I didn't feel older than them though, or I didn't want to. I am definitely hitting my quarter life crisis. This is the worst feeling ever. I am rebelling against adulthood as best I can, and it's not an effective rebellion...

TGIF??

It has been so long since I have had a day off that has actually been a 'day off' that I have no idea what to do with myself this weekend.
I honestly don't know how I am going to occupy my time today or tomorrow. My apartment is clean, because I had company last night. So I don't need to clean. I went grocery shopping earlier in the week, because the company I had last night was for a dinner party. So I don't need to grocery shop. My children's sermon for this Sunday is written. Check.
I almost want to go to Disneyland since I have my pass, but I'm not sure how much fun it would be to go by myself. I guess I could read. Or watch a few DVDs. Or organize the files on my computer. Not sure what else there is to do.
I was going to use today to prep for having my girlfriends over for dinner tonight, but we bumped that to last night.
Two of my college roommates came over and I made baked ravioli (which was delicious...ifIdosaysomyself). I hope we are able to get together more often, esp since one of these girls is moving to The OC soon...which means instead of 20 minutes to get from her house to mine, it would take 1 1/2 hours...sad day. It was so great to have them over last night, it was almost like college all over again. 'Family Dinner', walking to 'sevies' (7-Eleven) for dessert and massage trains in front of the TV!! And what did we watch after our 'grown-up dinner'?? Glee, of course...duh!
My mug doesn't tie-in with any of this, so instead of trying to bridge the gap between the above paragraph and the photo below, I will use this sentence as an awkward segue. Here is my mug of the day:

I got it at the Rainforest Cafe...the frog's name is 'ChaCha', which I found amusing, since my newspaper-nickname in high school was Cha...because since there were two Laurens, that's what they would write on the assignment board. (Opinion>golf carts on campus>Cha)...and eventually they started calling me that too!

Once Upon a Dream

I've had this re-occurring dream ever since I graduated from college, I hadn't had it in a while...but I dreamt it again last night.
The dream has a few variations, but mostly it is me realizing near the end of the semester that I am registered for a math class (it's always a math class) that I haven't been attending. Not because I was a ditcher, but because I had forgotten that I was in that class. I usually show up, and the professor will say something snarky like , "Ms. Chambers, I'm so glad you were able to make room in your obviously busy schedule to join us." The other students are all 'judgy judge' because I'm never in class. I feel stupid because I went to class on the first day, and forgot for the rest of the semester (until that particular day, for some reason).
And instead of Cal. Lu, the 'college' in the dream is actually my high school campus.
Last night though, I had to take a test. I've never taken a test in my dream before, it's usually the registrar telling me that I'm not going to graduate because I was never in class. Also last night, the role of the professor was played by Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schuester from Glee). That's the weird part. I'm pretty sure if Matthew Morrison was my teacher, I would show up to class.

I don't know where this dream comes from, I only took one math class in college and it was my freshman year, so I wasn't in the habit of cutting class yet. (Although my senior year I had very patchy attendance in my philosophy course...hmmm)