To love and be loved [entries|friends|calendar] Rows [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

Wishlist! [Thursday, December 24th 2009] [ mood | tired ] Okay, so even though I could really just use some money right now for necessities and whatnot... there are a few frivolous things I'd like, so if you really want to buy me something for my birthday, Christmas or graduation, here's what I'd like most. ( Cut for pictures ) Also, I still have an Amazon wishlist, and there are still lots of things on it that I want: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/103-5920989-1953419?id=3NV9BQ911FZIO I'll leave it at that for now. I will possibly add to this later. ETA: Tickets to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in Berkeley in March 2010. I'd prefer to go on March 9th or 10th since the Sacramento Lindy Exchange will most likely go on that weekend and I'd need to have the weekend open for that. I'm not super picky on seats, so whatever you can afford is fine. :) More: Musical Charis "Electra City Church Bells" EP 7

Busy work [Monday, November 30th 2009] [ mood | busy ] To do before Shades tomorrow: • Write assessment rubric for Engl 125B • Write one or two dance critiques • Write three-page paper for Spanish • Piece together and write the rest of Shakespeare script (it might be long enough the way is...) I can do it!

Lindy friends on SYTYCD! [Tuesday, November 24th 2009] [ mood | lazy ] Tune in to So You Think You Can Dance tonight to see a lindy hop routine choreographed by my friends Carla Heiney and Bromley Palamountain! The Boilermaker Jazz Band will also be featured, and they are an outstanding jazz band. :D I'm so excited to see my friends on this show! Not quite as excited, however, to see dancers try to pull off doing the lindy hop after just one lesson... that's always a train wreck. Hopefully it won't be too bad, though. :) 1

Yay ... ish [Tuesday, November 17th 2009] [ mood | relieved ] I finally got an offer I liked from the insurance company! It took long enough, but finally I was able to convince them to give me around $4500 for my car. Now I just have to fight to get my money back for the few days of the rental car I am supposed to pay. Other than that, I need them to pay for a Carfax account for me, and I'm set to shop for a car. My friend Adam has offered to go shopping with me, and I am very appreciative of that because he did a lot of work on Girl Alex and I trust him a lot when it comes to cars. Now hopefully I can get another car by the end of the month, or at the very least, before I graduate. This whole not-having-a-car thing is annoying, and even more so now than it was before I ever owned a car, because now I'm used to the lifestyle of owning a car. Thankfully though, I was able to borrow an awesome car for several days, since my friend Mike was out of town and offered to let me borrow his 2006 Honda Civic Si while he was gone. It was a lot of fun to drive, and good for me to practice driving stick on. :) I had to give it back tonight though, since he got back into town. The other nice thing, though, is that I have nice friends who are willing to give me rides places a lot, and I've mostly covered getting to and from school, at least for my busiest school days. In other news, I really don't know what I'm doing for Thanksgiving. I have no family here really, except an aunt and uncle in Vallejo, and I work on Black Friday so I can't exactly go visit them and spend the night there or something. I'm sure I'll figure something out, but I definitely want an excuse to try out the bread pudding recipe I got from Aaron. I was also thinking of making pumpkin bread from scratch, but I can't seem to find any pie pumpkins in the stores! It's weird. You'd think they would have them this time of year, but maybe people are just too lazy nowadays and buy the canned stuff. Who knows. Now I'm going to watch my Monday TV shows and wait for my hair dye to finish setting. Goodnight! 1

Miley Cyrus portrait listed on Ebay! [Monday, November 16th 2009] [ mood | cold ] Check it out. If you like it, you should buy it. :)

Congratulations, we don't want you. [Saturday, November 14th 2009] [ mood | confused ] I got this e-mail yesterday about the job I interviewed for in Hayward on Tuesday: Congratulations! You passed the oral interview for the Paraeducator-Bilingual (Spanish). Your score on the oral exam was 84, and your rank on the eligibility list is 14. Current and future vacancies will be filled from this list during the next 6 months in order of rank on the eligibility list. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at the below number. --------------------- To me, this means that although I passed the interview, I wasn't chosen for the position and I was the 14th best person to take the interview. I'm not entirely sure if I'm interpreting it correctly, though, so I e-mailed them back asking for clarification. Still, I'm taking this as a "thanks but no thanks". I'm not sure why they say "Congratulations!" as the very first thing in the e-mail, cos it seems misleading. The job hunt continues. 4

Update [Wednesday, November 4th 2009] [ mood | okay ] I talked with Melissa today. I told her that her list of comparable cars contains too many cars in the Bay Area, and I had her completely eliminate the car from her list that has 230,000 miles on it. I told her that I noticed most of them don't have VIN numbers listed, which is a red flag to me, and that if they expect me to shop for a car in the Bay Area they'll have to compensate me for a day of work and for the gas I'll need. She said she wouldn't be the person to talk to about that kind of compensation, but I think my assertiveness did get her to listen. She said I should fax her ads that I find for cars I think are comparable, and she will review them. I hope she takes everything into consideration. I feel like I need to talk with her more and help her to realize exactly what kind of value I lost in that car. I had work done on it, and it was a very reliable car. Putting a money value on it seems like an almost impossible task, because there's no telling how much longer my car would have lasted, but I'm willing to bet it would've lasted another 100,000 miles. I felt good about the way I handled things on the phone today, and I didn't even have to get bitchy at all. I was rational and respectful, and so was she, so hopefully this is a sign that things will smooth out soon. That said, I am unhappy that I will have to return my rental car on Saturday. Apparently the insurance company can't fund a rental car for me beyond five days after I get the initial settlement offer. To me, this seems unfair not only because there's no way I'm going to find a replacement car in five days, but also because their initial offer is too low and I'm having to haggle to get it to be where it should. So already, I wouldn't have had enough time to find a new car with only five days, but they're making it take even longer for me to get a new car when I have all this haggling to go through before I can even seriously shop for a car. As far as everything else in life goes, I'm feeling a bit less overwhelmed now, and reminded of some of the good things in life. Today I was counting my blessings that I was not injured, because that means they didn't take my dancing away from me. I went dancing tonight and had a great time, and I'm so glad I'm still able to dance. :) I also finally heard from the HR lady I have been trying to contact at Hayward Unified School District about the bilingual paraeducator interview. She said that it's still postponed because she can't get enough people to be on the interview panel yet. This kind of frightens me, because it sounds like she needs these people all day, and so I'm wondering if this is a really long interview that involves a bunch of people all asking me questions. Sounds kind of intimidating. :/ But we'll see. I just hope that whenever the interview happens, I'll have a car to be able to get there. I might end up having to rent a car just for a day to be able to do it. The other nice thing that has been happening is that friends of mine are stepping in and offering me rides to and from school. I have next week pretty much covered, although I'm unsure if I have a ride home on Monday night after my class that gets out at 8:15, so I'm hoping I can get a definite ride home then, since taking the bus at night is creepy. I will probably end up taking the bus to or from school some days, but at least it's what I used to do all the time, so I do know my routes and all that. Just not really looking forward to having to do it again. This is why I bought a car in the first place. Tomorrow I've got friends getting together for a lindy bomb at the university union. :) I'm excited about it. It's the second time I'm organizing one to happen there, and the first one was pretty successful, so this one should do okay, too. It's fun to be able to dance on campus and show people what we do, when they're not expecting it. All right, time to watch last night's Heroes and then go to bed. Goodnight! 2

Behold the shit-tastic letter I received from Mercury: [Monday, November 2nd 2009] [ mood | stressed ] Dear Ms. Connally: This will confirm our conversation of October 30, 2009 wherein I advised you that I had completed the market evaluation of your 1998, Honda Civic, VIN#: [number], License # [number]. The settlement amount is as follows: $3,354.00 Actual Cash Value ( $532.45) Less Salvage Retention --------- $2,821.55 Taxable Amount $246.89 Sales/Lease Tax (8.75%) $15.00 DMV Transfer Fee $18.00 Salvage Certificate Fee --------- $3,101.44 Net Settlement Please be advised your vehicle will be issued a salvage certificate and will need to be re-registered. Enclosed is a copy of the California DMV Re-Registering Requirements. Please find enclosed the comparable vehicles used in determining the value of the loss vehicle. Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact me between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday at (800)827-1570, ext. 3416. Sincerely, MERCURY CASUALTY COMPANY MELISSA MILLER Total Loss Appraiser MD Rancho Cordova So. Yes, I'm pissed. And I'm going to fight for a fair settlement instead of this one that is way too low. I paid $4000 for my car, and all the cars I've looked at online that are comparable to my car (read: not shitty, as good or maybe a tad better than my car) are at least $4000, but most are closer to $5000. And why am I being charged for salvage/junking fees? It isn't my fault my car has to be sent to a junkyard. She did include a list of "comparable vehicles" that she apparently used in determining the value of my car, as she said. This list contains cars that are almost exactly the same as mine in year, make and model, but not all of these cars even list a VIN number, which is basically a big sign saying "I'm a POS" or they are already sold, which doesn't help me one bit. These cars are also mostly located in the Bay Area, which doesn't help me, since I can't exactly take the time to go down there and shop for a car. One of these "comparable" cars also has 230,000 miles on it, whereas my car had about 166,000 miles on it. How is that comparable? If they're going to give me money to compensate me taking days off work so I can drive down to the Bay Area and look at these cars that are most likely pieces of shit, I might take a stab at it, but as it stands, I do not want to take this offer and will do everything I can to fight for more. They just aren't taking into consideration the fact that my car was extremely reliable, and it's difficult to find a car that is comparable to what I had because of its reliability. And to find something comparable, I need more money. I feel lost and overwhelmed with everything right now. I don't have time to deal with this, nor do I even know how to go about it. I have too much schoolwork right now even if I didn't also have this to deal with, and on top of that I have been having really bad allergies today, which has prevented me from getting the reading done that I desperately need to do. Right now I'm letting some Benadryl hopefully start to work. I'm wishing I hadn't taken on the role of script writer for this group play project we're supposed to do in my Shakespeare class, because the teacher is requiring the script to be due tomorrow, which is way too early. I haven't even read the play yet, and we're not even supposed to perform our little play for the class until the end of the semester. I just don't feel in a state to deal with this, and yet I must. I'm already not going to my Spanish class tonight because I need the time to work on this Shakespeare shit, among probably talking with my dad about the problem with the insurance company, and I also have to write a short paper for my Senior Seminar that's due tomorrow. When do I breathe? I mean, I guess I took time out to have some fun this last weekend, but it was definitely not restful, and right now I pretty much just need rest. I need a day to just sit and relax and do nothing. Maybe I'll get that on Wednesday? I hope so. By the way, I love the way Melissa worded this part of the letter: "Please find enclosed the comparable vehicles used in determining the value of the loss vehicle." I did not find any cars enclosed, nor do I think any of them would have fit into the envelope the letter was in! 6

Whew [Wednesday, October 28th 2009] [ mood | relieved ] After many phone calls, and very much of being the "squeaky wheel", I got my car to a repair shop and got a rental car today. Yay! I'm so glad to have this taken care of today, when I had no school and not too much going on. My car was not fun to drive to the repair shop; it was wanting to scrape parts against itself or against the ground, so I had to go like 20 MPH all the way there, but it made it. :) The repair guy said he could probably have it fixed in a week or a little more, and he'll have an estimate for me tomorrow. I'm just really glad to have reliable transportation again, and I'm going to use it first to go dancing tonight! :) I need a good night of dancing after this ordeal.

Epic fail [Tuesday, October 27th 2009] [ mood | annoyed ] FYI, car accidents suck. Yep, I know, cos I was just in one this evening. Everyone is okay and there were no injuries, so no need to worry, but it is now just a huge hassle that I don't have the time to deal with. Here's what happened: I was driving down Marconi, which is the street I live on, going the speed limit, which is 40 MPH, and I was in the left hand lane (there are two lanes going each direction on this street). There is also a two-way left turn lane running through the middle of the street, between the oncoming traffic and me. As I was driving, a car that was going the opposite direction went into the two-way left turn lane and made a left turn in front of me. I saw it in time to brake quickly and swerve towards the two-way left turn lane to try to avoid it, but the passenger side front corner of my car still ended up colliding with the back passenger side corner of her car. My dad was in the car with me, since he was in town for a business meeting and we were on our way to dinner. I was so glad to have him there with me, since most of my driving is done alone and it would have been even more frightening to go through that by myself. Clearly the accident had been entirely her fault, and I had done everything right, even to make the situation less bad. CHP officers came out and took reports, and it was an easy open-and-shut case, since the other driver was very honest and apologetic. I actually kinda felt bad for the lady, since she was on her way to a funeral, and had simply been trying to read a sign outside of the church to see if she was going to the right place. I feel much worse for myself, though, since I did nothing wrong and now I have all this hassle to deal with. I've made the necessary insurance claims, and since it wasn't my fault, hopefully her insurance will take care of me. I really, REALLY hope I get a rental car for the time being, because I cannot stand being without a car and I have a lot of other things on my plate this week. Thankfully, the one class I would normally have on Wednesdays is being furloughed tomorrow, so I have absolutely no reason to go to school tomorrow. It was a big relief to realize that. However, I don't know if I'll get a rental car within 24 hours; it might not be that quick. If I don't, my dad will at least be in town until Thursday morning, so he can spot me the money for a rental car until the insurance picks it up, he said. That is, of course, if the insurance company offers me one, which they definitely should. The only other thing I had going on tomorrow was going to be my very last shift at Hallmark, from 5 to 9:30 PM, and I've already pretty much figured I won't be going in for that, unless I do get a rental car before 4:30 PM, so I called one of my coworkers already to ask if she could cover for me, but I had to leave her a voice mail. If she doesn't call me back, I'll just have to call my manager tomorrow and tell her what happened and that I can't come in. I'm not too worried about it since it's just my last shift there, anyway, and I'm sure my manager will be nice and pissy about it, too. This also challenges my plans for Halloween. I was planning on going to a house party in San Francisco with my friend Christie, who is going to be in town visiting from Seattle, and now I clearly can't drive my car down there. I have to find out if she will have a car available to her, or we'll have to get someone else to take us... or else we can't go. It sucks cos it was going to be a really good party from everything I was hearing, and I had lots of friends going. It was going to be my next time dancing in SF and seeing my dancer friends there. :( Anywho, I guess I should just mostly be thankful that I'm okay and that no one was hurt, and also that the people who were in the car behind me were able to brake in time to not hit me. It's nice to know I'm not the only attentive driver on the road. :P It was also nice to see my dad, and we did end up going to dinner after everything, and we even had kangaroo and gator burgers! Yes, we went to Flaming Grill, where they make all kinds of unique burgers out of different kinds of meat. It was very tasty and a good way to relax after the accident. Oh, and I wanted to go dancing tonight. There goes that... :( For those who want to see photos of my car, go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54579&id=507990967&l=d06cc40f4b and it should be visible to anyone, even non-facebook people (whoever you are). 1

:) [Wednesday, October 21st 2009] [ mood | cheerful ] This makes me smile. A lot.

Updated wishlist [Wednesday, October 21st 2009] [ mood | dirty ] So, the Swingin' the New Year thing I wanted to go to in San Diego is looking less feasible now that I'm looking at how my finances will pan out... That means that for my birthday, Christmas, and/or graduation, I'd really just like some money to go towards living expenses/moving expenses (if I get to move). I'll be somewhat poor when I graduate, and I'm thinking of replacing the new year's eve dance weekend with a workshop weekend in SLO that is much cheaper: http://www.sloswing.com/*/ I haven't been to SLO in a long time (almost a year!) and I miss my SLO friends. I have seen them at various events since then (when they travel to Sac or SF) but it'd be really nice to return to SLO for some dancing. I have friends teaching in this workshop, and I'd easily have a place to stay, with my friend Maya. :) I'm just hoping that maybe I can get the money to go to this thing in time, since it's a bit less than a month away. At least if I don't get the money from other people in time, it's feasible enough to spend the money out of my own pocket for now and hope for money later. Now I'm off to shower and sleep. :)

I start on Friday! [Tuesday, October 20th 2009] [ mood | relaxed ] I love reading good things about the place where I'm going to be working. :) http://kcra.cityvoter.com/fair-oaks-blvd-nursery/biz/61823 1

w00t! [Thursday, October 15th 2009] [ mood | pleased ] I got the job!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I'm going to be working at Fair Oaks Blvd Nursery starting next Friday! I'm really excited about it. I love working with plants, pumpkins, poinsettias, etc and the gift shop is really cute. I'll be mainly working in the gift shop I guess, but around Christmastime I'll be helping out with selling fresh garland and Christmas trees. I can't wait! What I loved most when I worked at Target was selling the Christmas trees at Christmastime - they smell so good, and it's fun to help people pick them out. :) Not to mention it's fun to see the looks on people's faces when a 5'2", 115-pound girl breaks out a chainsaw to make a fresh cut. ;) I went right over to Hallmark after my job interview today and put in my notice. I really was hoping my manager would just be okay with me not working at all there anymore, since she seemed to not want to schedule me much ever anyway, but she seemed to want a full two weeks' notice, and she already had me scheduled for a shift this next Wednesday. It kind of sucks since originally the nursery wanted me to come in on Wendesday for a bit of introductory training, but they're okay with me starting on Friday since I have to work at Hallmark on Wednesday. So for now, I have two jobs, but I'm pretty confident I'll pull it off just fine until the Hallmark one runs out, since I've been pretty consistently scheduled for Wednesdays there, and the nursery will just want me working on weekends (which is awesome, btw). I'm so glad my weekend hours are finally going to be used for working - it feels so packed in to have work hours during my school week, even if it's just a four-hour shift. I will be working about 16 hours a week at the nursery and getting $8.50 an hour, which is 12 hours more per week and $.50 more per hour, so I am pleased. On a tangent, I wanted to share that I feel like this semester is going by really easily, even more so than other semesters have gone for me. I guess it makes sense, since it is my last semester, so I should have this whole student business down by now, right? But I haven't gotten any assignments back yet with anything less than an "A" on them, so I'm pretty happy about that. I'm just hoping to continue in that trend, especially in my Spanish class. I have a test on Monday, right after I get back from Denver... I'm going to try to study on the flight back to Sacramento, and I will have time that afternoon to study, too. That's it for now, and I must be off to start packing. :) ETA: So there was a cute guy working at the nursery today whom I met... and after I added my new job to my facebook profile, I clicked on the company name to see if anyone else who worked at the nursery was on facebook... and the cute guy is on facebook, but his profile picture is of him in a suit holding hands with a woman in a white dress on a beach... I'm guessing he's married. Bummer! :P 6

Job? [Tuesday, October 6th 2009] [ mood | hopeful ] [ music | Company of Thieves - Like A Book | Powered by Last.fm ] Hampton Inn & Suites in West Sacramento is hiring, according to Craigslist! YAY! I'm going to go over there tomorrow morning and hope to get an interview and get hired. I used to work at the one in Paso Robles, if you guys recall... so hopefully that gets me a job at the front desk. :D 1

Hate vs. Love [Wednesday, September 30th 2009] [ mood | optimistic ] Today in my Writing & the Young Writer class, we watched a film called "Night and Fog", a half-hour documentary on the Holocaust. It was horrifying and disturbing, and there were definitely times when I wanted to look away. Being reminded of the grotesque and awful things humans have done to each other in the past is quite sobering, as I'm not exposed to these things most of the time... for the most part I censor myself from viewing these types of things, because I don't like being depressed or crying, and I already know that these things happened... but at the same time, I really don't know the extent of it, and that's what my eyes were opened to today. However, I found it to be quite the juxtaposition today after having found out that my friend purplesquirrel is donating his kidney to save a friend's life. The knowledge that such hatred existed in the Holocaust, and yet people can still love so selflessly, is really, really nice. It's so good to know that there are still great people in this world, after all that has happened, and that we hopefully have evolved to be more caring about humanity in general. I'm not sure how Scott would feel about me sharing his story, but I'd like to link you to the article and video about his donation: http://wcco.com/local/kidney.facebook.man.2.1191773.html I'm so thankful for amazing friends! 2

Graduation/Birthday/Christmas [Saturday, September 26th 2009] [ mood | hungry ] I will most likely be graduating on my birthday this year, which is also six days before Christmas, so that's three separate events that people may or may not want to give me gifts for. If you are so inclined, this is all I'm going to want: http://www.2plyswing.com/Z_NYEinSD/NYE_HOME.htm I want to go to that, and it will take money. Right now registration is $180, but the price will go up over time, eventually reaching $290. That, of course, means that I will hopefully have the money to just register myself out of my own pocket, and then money I get for graduation/birthday/Christmas can go towards the trip. It will cost me money as well to fly down there and possibly to rent a car (although I probably won't need to). So... there ya go. Don't tell me I didn't tell you what I wanted for my graduation/birthday/Christmas! :) 16

Life is good [Saturday, September 26th 2009] [ mood | calm ] I feel like things are starting to come into view for me... slowly but surely, things always tend to work themselves out. :) I have an interview on Monday afternoon at Discovery Tree Learning Center, which is a preschool downtown Sacramento, and the interview is for a temp position. I was referred to them by my friend Brandon (whose children go there), which was awesome of him. I'm realizing how good it actually is that I only want temporary work here in Sacramento now, since temporary work is easier to find than permanent. This way I will hopefully have work until I graduate from Sac State, and then I can move to the Bay Area (hopefully) and get a full-time job, ideally at a school (and there are a surprising number of job postings on EdJoin.com, which is encouraging). The timing would work out well, too, if I had to quit whatever full-time job I had at a school to go into the credential program, since I'd be starting that in the summer anyway, and that's when the school year would end at whatever school I'd be working at. As far as getting into a job at a school and getting into the credential program, I've already got one letter of recommendation coming to me from the principal of the school I used to work at, and I know I can easily get one or two more from other people at that school. Things really start to look less overwhelming when you realize that a lot of things you need or want, you can get just by asking the people you know and networking. I'm really starting to realize how important the time is that I've invested in friendships and other people in general... we do all take care of each other. As cynical as a lot of people like to be about life, I really can't complain much with how lucky I've been and how much I've just been handed for free. I can't wait til I'm financially well-off enough to be able to help out more people than I already do. :) 3

Taking care of business [Thursday, September 24th 2009] [ mood | okay ] Why do people gossip? I'll admit, I do gossip from time to time, but when I do it's among friends whom I trust not to spread things around, and it's usually with a purpose or a point I'm trying to make... Anyway, my point here is that I'm annoyed at my coworkers. I talked with my manager today on the phone (finally) about why I'm not getting any hours, and the reason is threefold: 1)She doesn't have many hours to give out, 2)She failed to read my school schedule thoroughly so she assumed I was unavailable during a time I am actually available, and 3)I happened to be a tad late in asking for time off for SFLX, so I had to get my shift covered... and in the process of trying to find someone, I made a remark about how I wouldn't be able to come in that Saturday regardless of if it got covered or not... and some coworker of mine gossiped about me saying that and it got back to the manager. She took it as me having a bad attitude about being at work, acting like I didn't really want to be there and it's not important. Of course I want to be at work, but I'm not entirely motivated to come in for my whole 4-hour shift of the entire week, when I've already paid to go to a lindy exchange and I'm already not getting the hours I want. She doesn't know how I was feeling, though, nor the intent behind my statement - I was really just meaning it to be matter-of-fact, as in I was letting them know that I would not be able to come in. I wasn't being sassy and going "Oh, well if no one covers it, I'm just not going to come in" and having attitude about it. It's not like I'm a 16-year-old at my first retail job. But that's the point; this job really can't be that important to me when I don't get hours anyway, and it is just a retail job. And yet all of it gets misinterpreted as me not caring about my job and not wanting to be there. I think I did successfully smooth things over with my manager, but God, I hate when people misconstrue things this way. I apologized for coming off that way and for asking for the time off too late. However, I did feel good when my manager actually found my school schedule today and admitted that it was "her bad" for not realizing I was available on Wednesdays when I am. All of that said, I really do hope to get a new job soon. I called Target today about my application and they said to call back on Monday to give them more time to process the applications and look through them. I did find out they're not hiring for the Garden Center, which sucks, but I'd much rather work salesfloor at Target and actually get money and hours than deal with the bullshit that is my current "job". I will call back on Monday and hopefully get an interview. In other news, I did go to CSU East Bay yesterday, and it was somewhat of a letdown. I found out that because of budget cuts, they are only accepting students into their credential program in the summer, and no other quarter. This means I'd have to wait until May? June? to start on my credential if I go there. I'm starting to realize that just about anywhere I go, I will have to wait a quarter or two, or a semester to start there... so I figure I might as well just go for CSU East Bay since my CBEST and CSET scores are being sent there anyway, and I can use the time in between to sort out situations of moving there and getting a full-time job to support myself. It won't be easy, but it has to be done, so I will just take things one day at a time and see what I can do. I feel like I already know so many people in the Bay Area that I should have an okay time of at least finding somewhere to live, if not finding a job as well. I am excited at the prospect of moving there; I'm already there so much that it feels like a second home, and I love the dance community there. I'm hoping that between graduating from Sac State and going into a credential program I can get more experience working with kids (hopefully in a school) because I'll need recent hours of experience to cite in my application to the credential program. So I'll have to figure out something, even if it's just volunteering at a school or after-school program. And guess where I'm going tonight? Yep, San Francisco again! Haha, I think this will be a record for me... three times in one week! But a friend of mine is going to the 9:20 Special, so I couldn't resist hitching a ride with him and going dancing there yet again this week. Yay! Now I must go feed myself so I'll have energy to dance tonight! 6

I'm going to Denver! [Saturday, September 19th 2009] [ mood | excited ] Oh my God, the most ridiculously surprising and amazing thing happened to me last night!! As a result, I am now going on a trip to Denver, CO in less than a month (October 16-18) for Lindy Diversion!!! I went dancing at Midtown Stomp last night, as per usual for my Friday night. I was having a good night, feeling energetic and happy to be there, so I was in one of those states where I didn't mind asking guys to dance at all, and I was doing so for about every other dance. I happened to see Ed, a guy whom I'd danced with a total of once (at Club 21 on Tuesday), sitting in a corner drinking some water, and contemplated whether I should ask him to dance or if he was resting, but I figured I'd give it a shot just in case he wanted to dance. He's an older Asian guy who has been in the lindy community for a long time, so I knew who he was before I met him on Tuesday, and he is a really good dancer. During our dance last night, he started talking to me about Lindy Diversion, and asking if I was going to go. I told him I had no money for it, and I'm a college student, and he started telling me that he could give me the money to go. He took me aside afterwards and started discussing costs of things with me... registration price, airplane ticket, car, etc. Of course I was unsure if I could go and I was skeptical at first; I was going to back out of the conversation the second he asked me for any piece of information about myself. He made it very clear he wasn't trying to pick up on me and that I would be going by myself and not with him, and his intentions seemed very genuine. He said he wanted to give back to the lindy community, and when he was younger, he had people helping him out, too. I finally could see no reason to say no to his offer, when he said he'd give me the money then and I could return any portion of it I didn't end up using for lindy... and he opened up his wallet and handed me $500 in cash, in hundred dollar bills!! It was ridiculous! So, yes... I now have myself registered for Lindy Diversion, and I have a plane ticket and a rental car reserved, and it turns out my friend Courtney moved to Denver without my knowledge and she has already offered to let me stay at her place!! This couldn't have turned out more perfect, and I still can't believe it is happening. After getting back from the San Francisco Lindy Exchange, I certainly was excited about lindy hop and I wanted to try and plan to go to my next event, and hopefully something I hadn't gone to before... but I couldn't come up with any plans since I couldn't spend the money for anything, and I wouldn't know what kind of situation I'd be in past December, when I graduate from Sac State. So this is completely perfect, and it is even more perfect that it's a workshop weekend, because I was really wanting to go to a lindy workshop since I've never actually been to any lindy workshops, only exchanges. This will be AMAZING. Skye and Frida will be instructing there, and the Cangelosi Cards will be playing there... I am so excited to see how I can improve my lindy and I'm excited to dance in Denver!! I've heard awesome things about their scene and all the Denver dancers I've met have been really fun to dance with. :) Now I must go get ready for my trip to Oakland... gonna go rock climbing and then dance tonight at The Rent Party! 2

navigation [ viewing | most recent entries ] [ go | earlier ]