One more for February

Yes yes, I know. It's been faaaarrr too long. Here's why I haven't been on in a while... The weekend after Valentine's day I had a horse show. My parents and sister came up for a visit AND it was Chris and Raisa's 21st birthdays. So that was a busy weekend altogether.
That weekend in a nutshell:
Thursday- family got in and I went out to dinner with them.
Friday-Prep for the show, cook dinner for family, mice got in a fight and there was blood everywhere.
Saturday-Show all day, team won 1st, I won 3rd, DK and Rochelle both came to see me (THANKS!! I really appreciate it), buy a second cage to separate mice, and get ready for the birthday party. The party theme was superheroes and there were SOOOOO many people who showed up. Everyone got incredibly wasted because, well let's face it, two of my best friends are turning 21 one day apart. You just have to party hard.
Sunday-Walk a horse, piece together last night, and breakbeats practice. I also had to say bye to my wonderful family but I will be seeing Mom and Rendi soon (spring break to be exact) and Dad I'll see in May for grad.

The next week after that was the death of me.
Monday-Chris's real birthday. I took him out to a bar to use his ID for real.
Tuesday-Massive headaches and midterm for Sociology of Emotions (of course I stressed).
Wednesday-Low and behold, I'm sick. FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC.
Thursday-Fever and body aches. Stayed in bed through breakbeats.
Friday-Supposed to leave for Philly so that I could present my capstone at the Eastern Sociological Conference. But of course the weather decided to bring in snow and cover the ground in gross icy snow so that we couldn't get to the train. I end up not going because by the time I would be able to get into Philly, I would have missed my presentation timeslot. Too much stress to try and figure it out, I just said no :(
Saturday-I go to the hockey playoffs and watch Skidmore get their asses handed to them by Babson. Sad, but still and exciting game nonetheless. Their season is officially over but so it goes. The lacrosse game which was supposed to be at Skidmore on this day was moved to Sunday at 3 at Babson (yea hockey ended their season with Babson while lax started with them).
Sunday-Wished Tyler luck at the game saying that Babson's hockey team pissed me off so I wanted them to kill their lax team. They ended up winning but it was close. Good thing a win is a win. Their next home game is not until March 19th and I won't even be here for it. Spring break ends on the 20th so I won't be back on campus until then. But I will be cheering for them all season!!

So now on to the future... What is there to say?? Mediation training is being completed this weekend so that's very exciting. There's also a Hartwick Show this weekend. WISH US LUCK FOR ALL THAT AND MORE!! Also, spring break is coming up in 2 weeks and I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. I'm flying to San Fransisco to see Fink for a couple of days. I get in on March 11th and get to spend the weekend with him :) I've been counting down the days since December!! Just a little background on him, he graduated from Skidmore and he was on the baseball team. Yes, he was one of the ones I danced "on" in the stairwell of Wilmarth my freshman year. He went to Australia to study abroad (just like me!!) and we met in intro to teaching last spring. So we've known each other for a while but never really hung out until the pen game in ed103. Then I'm going up to OSU-Cascades and UPS with Mom and Rendi (I think). Then it's back to Skidmore for the Lax and Baseball seasons :D This semester is wrapping up fairly fast but of course I'll keep you updated through all of it.... Well at least I'll try. You'll DEFINITELY get an update for spring break :) And as soon as I hear from OSU-Cascades and UPS, you'll hear from me. Until then... Laters!

Happy Valentine's day

Am I allowed to be cynical today?? I know it's supposed to be all about love and happiness but honestly, IT'S A HALLMARK HOLIDAY!!!!!!!! All this day represents is the fact that Hallmark wanted more revenue so they created a day to celebrate love, which btw should be celebrated EVERY DAY. There are about 20-30 deliveries of flowers on the 3rd floor of case where I work. I have the lovely task of signing for them, calling the recipient to come pick it up, and handing it over when they arrive. Is it a sign that I'm actually feeling kinda sick from the overwhelming smell all the flowers are leaving as they pass in and out of the office?? I know I'm from Hawaii and flowers should be like my second soul but really, having to sift through 30 arrangements searching for the one that belongs to that person standing in front of me awkwardly waiting for a delivery they didn't know was coming on the most ridiculous holiday of the year, makes me a little nauseous. Call me a cynic if you want, but I prefer the term realist. So I don't believe in romantic love. I'm not the only one who doesn't believe it. Chris is my Valentine but I made him promise he wouldn't do anything for me. I just wanted to be able to say that I had a Valentine so I wouldn't sound like such a cynic of I HATE VALENTINE'S DAY. To all of you who are in love, I don't judge you for being super lovey dovey happy on cloud 9, so don't judge me for not wanting to celebrate this "holiday." I'm happy for you and congratulations for finding happiness. Just stop telling me that Valentine's is a special day to celebrate it because it shouldn't be. Every day should be special enough to spend with your special someone. Think about it: do you really want flowers when you expect it?? Or would you rather have flowers sent to you when you're not expecting it?? Would you rather have a present just because?? Or a present because s/he is told to give you a present by a random holiday that says, "Don't forget to love your partner today"??

I know so far this hasn't been an update but since the last time I updated you only two things happened.... 1: I placed second in my class for riding (it was a practice show so it doesn't count towards or against anything). 2: I helped out with mediation training this weekend. I LOVE MEDIATION TRAINING!! It makes me feel so much better about everything. This coming weekend my parents and sister are coming up to visit for the real show on the 19th. EXCITING!! Cookie G's birthday is on the 20th and Chris's bday is the 21st. We're gonna have a ton of stuff to celebrate this weekend. I feel like time is going by so quickly but at the same time so slowly. I don't really know what to think. I can't wait until spring break. I get to visit Fink for a little bit in SF, how awesome!! Can't wait to see you sweetheart!! (For the record, we're not dating or in a relationship, we just call each other sweetheart.) I think that's all for now. Until then... Laters

Update you?? Update me!!

Hey everyone?? I know I haven't been updating you in a while but I have a very good reason for that. First, life. Let's take this category by category.

Classes: Not terrible, not awesome. Sociology of Emotions is turning out to be quite the interesting class. So many majors thrown into one class to learn from one another. Dance for the Child is kinda amazing. I'm in the class with so many of my friends that I thought I would never see before I graduated. Of course my ex and his current gf have to be in that class acting all couple-y together (BLEH!!) but I still have fun regardless. She likes to give me dirty looks because she's also in my Pilates class with me. Oh and did I mention my ex is also in my singing class too?? WTF mate?! (Yes I just stole that from the end of the world). Oh yea I should also probably remind you that my ex doesn't like to acknowledge that I exist. So.... recap, this semester will be entertaining to say the least. One thing's going for me though... SO377 Presenting sociological research. I absolutely LOVE my major and the people in it. We've gotten pretty close last semester and we will now be getting closer when we travel to Philly together in 2, count 'em, TWO weeks!! We'll all be presenting our projects (or something we've done for our major) and we'll have a blast. Too bad it's on the same weekend as so much more... Which brings me to my next category, Grad School.

More like grad school apps: I heard back from OSU Cascades and I am invited to the personal interview day. This means that I qualify to be accepted at the school, I'm just waiting to hear back from the program to see if I got in. EXCITING!! But again, too bad it's the same weekend as my presentation in Philly :/

Riding: I'm showing this weekend and next weekend (both home shows). This is the first show of the semester and it's a practice one but one that matters nonetheless. I've fallen in love with the sport and can't help but want to ride all the time (regardless of how many times I complain that going to practice is such a pain). There are 4 shows this semester and only 3 of them can I possibly go to. The fourth is the same weekend as the conference, the interview day, AND West Point's Formal (yea I was invited but of course life gets in the way and says "too bad so sad, you can't go"). Like I said, the weekend of the 25th just has wayy too much going on. But on the plus side, my parents and sister will be visiting the weekend of the 19th for my home show that counts towards my points :) again, EXCITING!!

Friends: I made some new friends this year and this semester I am thanking every God that could possibly exist for them being in my life. The first one I am so blessed to have in my life is Chris. He has kept me so incredibly calm for the first month of school. Everyone knows that I stress way too much. Chris has been the one to somehow manage to get me to breathe, take a step back, kill him if I must (JK), and just relax. It really helps me out to be part of Fight Club with him because we're both trained mediators and conflict coaches so it's nice to be able to talk to someone and have him surf back what I say without letting his own biases or judgments rule what he wants to say. Thanks Chris (who btw is my valentine this year :P). Also I'd like to acknowledge Fight Club for being the crew to step up and help me out with my newest passion of helping high school freshmen. Nick, Nat, Johanna, and Chris are so great in helping me give conflict resolution and awareness workshops. I couldn't have done it without you guys!! I can't wait for our next adventure together :)

I think that's all I have for an update for now. I'll keep reminding myself to update this blog as the semester goes on.... Until then, Laters!

Update 3

DC, here I am!!

Saturday: New Year’s day. Everything is closed and there’s nothing to do but rest up and eat.

Sunday: Sightseeing and navigating the city. First stop, Smithsonian. Union Station and the Postal Museum were first and the international spy museum was after. There are a million and one things to see and do in every museum so we only made it through about half of every museum throughout the week.

Monday: Tour of the Pentagon and Capitol. The Pentagon was AMAZING!! I have always been interested in learning about the military (and now with my new friends and reconnected friends I can learn more) but after the Pentagon tour and all the museums that praise our troops I am incredibly fascinated and impressed with the military. I like learning about them and especially love seeing them all doing what they love to do. They’re so passionate about protecting our country and speak so highly of everything… I’m just inspired by them (I know it’s cheesy but hey that’s me). Of course I would NEVER consider going into it because I’m WAY too soft and too much of a mediator, but it’s still interesting to learn about. At the Capitol we had one of Senator Inouye’s staff take us on a tour. This means we went to a bunch of offices and the appropriation room of Senator Inouye. I can’t really remember what else we did because after a week of viewing a ton of museums and trying to do as much as possible they start to blend together.

Tuesday: Tour of the Archives, visit to the natural history museum, visit to the American history museum, and tour of the Washington monument. The butterfly exhibit was closed until Friday so I was pretty upset at that. Everything else was pretty amazing though.

Wednesday: INAUGURATION TODAY!!!!!! We spent all day in the Capitol watching the inauguration of Representative Colleen Hanabusa. It was amazing. So sorry to Senator Inouye’s staff who had to be trapped in his hide-away office with our crazy family. I hope you enjoyed yourself laughing at us haha.

Thursday: Department of Interior tour. From 9am to 4pm we toured the city. We went to the WWII memorial, Arlington Cemetery, Korean War memorial, Vietnam War memorial, Lincoln memorial, lunch at the old postal building, Washington Monument, Jefferson memorial, and FDR memorial. It was a lot of walking, a lot of cold, and a lot of fun!! Again, I am VERY impressed with the military after visiting all these memorials, especially after visiting Arlington Cemetery. I loved the stones being all perfectly aligned like soldiers standing at attention and the changing of the guard of the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was so amazing to watch and feel the power of the entire place. I wanna visit the cemetery again soon. I absolutely LOVE it there, as weird as that sounds haha. I also came down with a terrible toothache, which exhibited all the symptoms of an absist (or something like that). Idk what exactly it is, but as far as I understand, it’s an infection that is causing me a great deal of pain in the root of my tooth. I haven’t been able to sleep through the pain and I actually resorted taking Tylenol. Yes, I’m taking medicine to ease pain… but it’s not very helpful because as soon as I eat, it hurts again. I’m hungry and tired but I can’t really do anything about it until I get it checked out.

Friday: Tour of the White House and visiting the air and space museum. I enjoyed it a lot but with the pain from the tooth I couldn’t help but go back to the hotel early. Although, I did get to visit my butterflies before I left :) that was pretty much the highlight of my day and when my tooth didn’t bother me as much as it had been. Of course, when I left my tooth was killing me once again. I didn’t go to dinner this night. I took a shower and packed and then passed out… hard core.

Saturday: I woke up and my tooth hurt EVEN MORE!! It’s ridiculous how much more pain you feel after being numb for a couple of hours. It started to snow just as we were leaving the hotel and my family ran out to take pics in it. I couldn’t move because the pain paralyzed my body a fair amount. We loaded up the vans and went on our way to the airport. Uncle Walter called his son who's a dental specialist or something like that so that I could get the pain all figured out.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig: I was in a TERRIBLE amount of pain. I was airsick and nauseous and my tooth hurt a lot. I went straight to Uncle Wade, Uncle Walter's son, and told him what was going on. He went to work on my mouth right away. Turns out I have an abscess. For a few months or years (when ever it was that I got my filling on that particular tooth) bacteria has been eating away at my tooth and has finally reached the roof of my mouth and behind my nose, which is why I was in so much pain. Uncle had to open up my tooth to clean it all out and after he was done I could barely breathe from the pain. It went all the way the center of my brain. I couldn't stop crying and I still had to wait for a while to get my pain killers. BTW I'm finally able to swallow pills... it's amazing what you can do when you're desperate. Anyway... now I'm feeling MUCH better but I still get nauseous and dizzy when I take my medicine (stupid side effects) but it's better than feeling a crap load of pain. I think that's everything to bring you up to date... so I guess I'll keep writing as my break continues on its adventure. Until then... Laters!

update 2

Christmas was when the REAL exhaustion took place. I had to try to schedule a bunch of hang out sesh’s with my friends since they left before I got back from DC. Special shout out to Zan for being there for me through EVERYTHING despite being blown off and ditched by me…. Why ARE you still my friend?? Haha JK. I know I don’t acknowledge you enough Zan but I really do love having you as one of the few I still talk to from MPI.

Sunday and Monday night: Hung out with Isaac and the Kalaheo crew for Jed’s 21^st birthday. MAN-O-MAN was that fun. Jed, do you remember what happened this night?? I have some of it on film :) again, a lot of it is on fb for your records lol. It was a crazy night of Kailua bar hopping. For the record, yes I was one of three girls with 15-20 guys, most from Kalaheo if not all, and majority of them in some branch of the military. There were even four of Jed’s friends from the Naval Academy out here to help celebrate. On Monday there was only the crew I knew… the ones from Miss Outstanding. I liked that night a little better because it was more my pace and I wasn’t with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Nevertheless, I made some new friends and reconnected with old friends I never thought I would see again :). Also on Monday night I went to Colin’s house to hang out with a bunch of MPI kids who, again, I never thought I’d see again. It was nice to see them all again even though I didn’t hang with them in high school that much (I didn’t have a life in high school and I still barely have one). It was interesting to see how everyone changed. A pretty eye opening experience haha. *For the record, I saw Zan this night so I didn’t TECHNICALLY ditch out on him completely :P. I promise we’ll meet up again in the future Zan… Even if I have to fly to where ever you’re stationed when you become some crazy Navy officer haha.

Tuesday: Hung out with my Tony Stark and went to dinner with the fam. Not much to say here since Tony and I talk a fair amount… even if I am drunk dialing him 75% of the time haha ;) I’ll see him again when I get back from DC.

Wednesday: Saw Erin and Dr. Grandpa Moose Kelso :D This was a fun day. We hung out and talked and just got caught up with everything that was going on. We talked a lot about the future, which seemed a lot more daunting this time since it was literally just a hop, skip, and jump over to the present. Kelso is headed to med school—CONGRATS!! And Erin is gonna apply to become a CSI (So exciting to hear that she’s doing that since I’m obsessed with that show. Just please don’t ruin the show for me, Erin haha).

Thursday: Packed and cleaned the birds’ cages. That’s pretty much it.

Friday: LEFT FOR DC!! So sorry to everyone who left already and I didn’t get to hang out with you. Mandi, I’ll be sure to come see you sometime in the near future. Idk when or where but I’ll track you down after graduation and visit again just for you :). Leanna, I’ll hang out with you when I come back (you too Erin). Carolyn, WE MISS YOU!! Stop saving the world for a couple weeks and come hang out with us!! Everyone else, keep reading for the updates on the exciting week in DC. Until then… Laters

Update 1

Hey everyone. I know it’s been a while since I updated so here’s some week-by-week stories of what I’ve been up to since leaving toga town. If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you’ve got pretty much the jist of everything, but here are the deets :).

I came home a couple days before Christmas Eve… and I do mean a couple literally. My flight was on the morning of the 22^nd and I arrived on the insanely humid island of Oahu later that night. 8:30pm HI time to be exact. I was exhausted and I had just had my braces tightened so I couldn’t really eat anything. So my dad took me to a fro-yo place since you all know how obsessed I am with frozen yogurt (not sure when or why this came over me… but it did and now I spend SO much money on it every week haha). I looked like such an out of place East Coast chick when I got home because I was wearing my favorite denim skirt/leg warmers/black boots combination with a Skidmore Hockey shirt on (my favorite shirt… Go figure :P). So I was rep-in’ Skidmore pretty hard.

The next day I woke up and sat in the jacczzi for a couple hours and then fell asleep in the sun. Bad idea on my part since I hadn’t seen sun for a good 2 months at the very least. Needless to say I was a bit burnt when I went to work that night haha. Yes I know, home for a day and I was already at work. Hey, that’s how I roll… sorta haha. I worked the chips at the bumbucha stand at the UH men’s basketball. I was the one who gets to ask if there are special orders and collect their poker chip and deal with all the stupid jokes like “all in” or “what’d I win?” I smiled and played along of course because they think that I don’t hear that all night long and that it’s original (when it’s definitely NOT).

Then came Christmas Eve. Of course the family tradition continued and we opened our presents from family and friends that evening. My favorite gift was the pearls my mom, dad, and sister gave to me. I finally have riding pearls :). Some other gifts I received included a bebe hat, a tropo shirt and hoodie, hello kitty pj’s, and a nail polish kit. I got some other stuff too but you know, Christmas Eve was kind of a while ago so I forget already.

Christmas day: I woke up and unwrapped my Santa presents. My favorite Santa present was the kindle. I love it and read from it all the time. I also got a lacy headband, a lacy dress (VERY riskay), and a water bottle that you can fold up. Again, I got other stuff but can’t really remember off the top of my head. Then the fam headed back to Millilani for BINGO time. We had lots of fun and laughs. There are pics and vids up on fb (hint you should check ‘em out). It was rather exhausting since I had jut come back from the East… Regardless, it was an amazing Christmas. Be sure to check the next few posts for the updates of the rest of the weeks. Until then… Laters.

Greetings from the 808

Hey everyone!! Exciting news :D I got home safely.... AND on the same day I left. This is one of the first times I've gotten home when I was supposed to!! The flights were close together and I got to the gate just as they were boarding and on the last flight I literally got there as they were calling final call. PHEW!! What a close one :P But hey I made it all and I'm home at last. Granted I'm jet lagged and I have been up for the last half hour.... it's 6:22 am.... LAME!!

Agenda today:
*Lie out by the pool to try and get some color in my skin again.
*Pilates
*Work at the arena at the UH men's basketball game (Come visit me!!)

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and I'm so excited!! I get to meet Ryden, my cousin's baby. And then we're into Christmas and New Year's and before you know it, I'll be headed out to DC!! I can't wait to get out of this house again. It's crazy crowded and WAY too hard to clean because we just have too much stuff. *Sigh* Welcome home... haha It's so hot here. But that's what you get when you come home to Hawaii for winter break. Well I don't really have much else to share with you... So happy holidays everyone!! I'll be sure to update you if/when things come up. Until then... Laters!