I can’t believe I’m about to publish a very semi-personal post about my oddities, but there is something that has been bothering me lately. The amount of anxiety I have before an interview. Of course you think that is normal, right? Yes it is, but when you’re experiencing a very high amount of anxiety at that moment, you feel like you’ve got a big problem on your hands and no one can fix it. Thus, you feel very… not normal and like you’re walking into the unknown.

I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve been on in my lifetime, because I’ve had a great amount of jobs for my age. The experience I’ve gained throughout the years has a lot to show for it. Although, no matter how many times I’ve heard the same question, an interview is never the same for me. Of course there is the fact that not every company is the same and not every person you interview with is going to be cool and laid back like your previous boss where they made you feel at ease. That makes sense, because you’re here for an interview, which is basically a chance to sell yourself and prove that you are what this company needs.

So there I am sitting in my chair, when the interviewer asks, “Why do you want to work for Company X?” You remember that you prepared for this prior to the interview, but all of that is shot out of your head at lightning speed, because you can’t prepare for an interview. You really can’t, no matter what anyone thinks. This isn’t a multiple choice test and no answer is actually right or wrong. This is what makes me nervous. The unknown. You don’t know what is going to happen, if you are saying the right things, or if the person interviewing is understanding the message you are trying to convey about yourself. Knowing this is always going to happen in an interview makes me very anxious prior to interviewing up until the first five minutes in the hot seat. How does one get over that? I do not know.

What does all this tie into? I am scheduled for a few interviews within the next couple of weeks. You are probably saying, but you just got a new part-time job, right? Yes, but it never hurts looking for bigger and better things that might have come along the way that you can gain more knowledge and experience from along the way.

After a bunch of soul searching and trying to decide exactly what I want, one of my girl friends pointed out that I needed to make a decision and stick with it regarding work and school. I was giving myself too many options. She was completely right. I’ve been prolonging my definite decision since fall of last  year and I had basically already made my decision by January of this year, but didn’t really notice. I was unhappy with how things were falling into place in my life and that I was not focusing on the things that were most important to me. So after consulting my family, boyfriend, boss, and close friends about the things that had been going on in my life I finally did it.

I walked into my office yesterday to discuss my options prior to actually making a final decision. My boss had explained how my whole life I had been working and used to the order of things around me like having a job to go to in the morning, making money, and focusing on that before I went to school. He was right, because he knew I had to pay my way through school since I was 17 and working for this job since I was 19. He said that even though he would miss the employee that I am and everything I had done for the company, that I should focus on school and make sure I got what I needed out of life and to enjoy school life. I was very appreciative of his encouragement.

I gave my two weeks notice late this morning to my boss and as of March 31, 2010 I will be a full time student focusing on earning the rest of my degree. So here comes the “kind of” part… Of course I plan on looking for part-time work, because I couldn’t possibly just make no money. There is obviously minor luxuries like my cellphone and going out money that my parents aren’t exactly willing to pay for and it is definitely nice that you can do with your own money as you please. I am happy that I decided to make this decision in my life and look forward to what the next couple of years is going to bring to my plate. I’m also looking forward to the many doors that will be open after I finish.

**Side note: I get to enjoy funemployment for the first time ever! Woo hoo!

A few days ago the Executive Director for the company I work at, has released the freeze on the hiring process. Which basically means transfers to different offices, promotions, and new hires will be accepted again! For those of you that don’t know, I have been struggling with my current position, because it travels so much and I feel like I am not really going anywhere. Being able to challenge myself and take on new things is almost necessary in a company I am working for. To me it proves what sort of job I can do and leads me to bigger and better things constantly. I do have to admit one thing though… this job has great benefits and I always have the same amount of hours every week. I am salary and have been working in my department for three and a half years so it only seemed right to stay with the amount of time I have invested and the seniority I had achieved.

Now that the freeze has been released and I can start transferring, I feel like I am a little less stressed about finding different work in the Bay Area. The job I am transferring to is actually in another department which has room for growth and will provide me with multiple challenges on a daily basis. One thing I really miss doing is helping clients and having the satisfaction of knowing you helped that person with what they needed.

Right now what is important is a steady income, school, and getting everything done so I can accomplish more in my future. Either way, I’m so happy about this positive change and looking forward to concentrating on Stanford for the next quarter!

February is on its final day and I am already overwhelmed with March. Besides rain and very little sun, this month was filled with Valentine’s Day fun, interview prep, meeting up with old friends, checking an item off my 2010 list, and much more. Today I spent the day all to myself taking a trip to Starbucks, getting a much needed haircut (only cut off an inch, growing it out ), trip to the Apple Store, walked around downtown, treated myself to a great burger, and came home to do things around the house. I had dubbed Sunday as my “to-do” day and thought it was about time I got much needed things out of the way before a fresh start and a new month.

This past month I have done a lot of resume building, cover letter editing, and talking to people who are familiar with the industry I work in. I found all of the peer help to be pretty interesting and very much needed in my quest for another job. I know myself that I needed to build a few things before I started interviewing so that I would be prepared when questions were asked. Quick and knowledgeable answers are always a plus in the interview process and being prepared is something I have never done before. I felt it completely necessary this time around, because there are plenty of people out there who are unemployed that are looking for a job like me. The competition has been raised a bar and as you find yourself moving further up the ladder, you find the job market a little more cut throat (factoring in the crappy economy also). With me, it is a little more complicated than also just interviewing, because I also have to include what benefits are out there (dental, vision, and medical). After a few interviews this past week, I wait to hear back and see how I have done and whether or not I am moving on to the next round of the process.

School preparation for the start of a new quarter at Stanford is also under way and I’m not so stressed about that, so that is a great thing for me. Being able to focus on other things before school starts is beyond needed for adequate stress relief, because I know when that hits I’ll be drowning in papers. Already looking forward to spring break!

I’m so pleased that even though I came home a few days with migraines this month and things seemed to be moving too quickly for me at times, I was able to catch my breath and relax a few days. Hopefully March is as nice to me.

I keep coming back to this:

I always notice after a conversation on the phone with an old high school friend who I haven’t talked to in years, things always come up that I never realized about all the changes that have been going on in my life. Mainly with the different person that I have become. It is always a little surprising to hear about how things were in the past and what people are going through in their current life to make you stop and evaluate yours. I have been out of high school going on a couple years now, which may not be long to some, but very long to me. People are getting married, talking about starting families, and finishing up grad school or getting started on it. It always makes me wonder if this was the right path and if I should be choosing a different career. My move to the Bay Area has not been as easy as I thought it would be and I seem to be trying to piece back my life together after hitting a little bump in the road along the way. With girls I think it is a little different when you’re thinking about how much older you’re getting and how you still would like to eventually plan out the rest of your future career and including a personal life. Frustration seems to get the best of me these days with all of the constant falling behind when you’re trying to stay on top of things. I suppose this is where the “life is never easy and will always throw you curve balls”, comes into play. Continuing to work full time is something I never really planned on doing when I was setting out to medical school. I also had planned to go to medical school since I was fourteen. With all the technology around me and related work I can’t help but still wonder if the tech industry which I feel so comfortable in, is the route for me. I know I’m still young and I have a lot of my life ahead of me, but to me I don’t have all the time in the world. I’m hoping a little break to sit down and figure things out will help me think about what it is that I really want my outcome to be. So I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that whatever I choose it is the right one for me.

We’re now two-thirds of the way done with January and the year is already flying by so fast! School starts soon for most people this week that are on semesters, while others are still in the middle of Winter quarter. The fact that I have been working non-stop and getting a lot of things done has been a big help to keep me occupied and not exactly notice the speed of time. Which can be both a good and bad thing if you look at it from two different angles. Either way, I have spent most of my January stressing out about current projects at work and wondering if what I am doing with school is right for me. I considered going a different route for a brief moment in time and I’m still on the fence about it. Hopefully within these next couple of weeks I can make life changing decisions that I’ll stick with or keep on track with the way I have already been going. I suppose most of my decisions are coming from the fact that I am obviously getting older and about two years away from twenty-five. To some people that are reading this, you’re probably saying… you’re worried about turning twenty-five? You’re still young. But it is not necessarily the age that is getting me worried, it is the thought that I should know by then exactly what I want to do. I suppose this is where the “quarter life crisis” comes into play. (A friend gave me this article she stumbled upon recently while she was going through hers. Read it here: Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis.) I am not sure when I decided this would be one of the main turning points in my life, but I suppose it is because I would have hoped after all this hard work, I’d know by now. It kind of makes me wonder, how many other confused 20-somethings are in the same boat as me right now?

I understand everything I read when it comes to the current status of the American economy and how hard it is for people to find jobs right now. The unemployment rate is extremely high and a lot of people are struggling to get by. Believe me, I understand that completely. Although, you don’t completely understand it until you are going through the same situation. I wouldn’t particularly consider myself one of the many in dire need of a job, but I also wouldn’t throw myself off of that list. I am supposed to start school again after winter break and finding a job in this economy is difficult. Not only are you now struggling to find a job like everyone else out there, but your skills might be almost the same as almost half of the people that are applying for the position. Selling yourself in this case is even more important so that you can secure that position.

Right now I am employed, but I am looking for a job that will not only pay me almost as much as I am making right now, but something that will allow me to comfortably go to school as well as pay rent, bills, and the necessities. My current job requires me to travel at least 25-50 percent of the year and that is something I am not going to be able to do while I go to school. It is also based in the Los Angeles area. So you can see exactly why I need to find something quickly.

So, currently I am faced with the fact that it is already December and school starts in January. I have always been the person companies have gone with after an interview, because of certain skills I have acquired, my work ethic, and the personality I present. When jobs are scarce and you are feeling worn out from all the looking you start to feel like it is never going to happen for you. After plenty of resumes, interviews, and company correspondence, I have finally took another step in the right direction and hopefully it is a good one. One of the top companies in the United States (and possibly the world) has decided to give me a security clearance check and a second interview. Basically it was explained to me that after the background check, which I am positive I’ll pass, there is a second interview with a hiring manager which is basically going to end positively as long as you had passed their security investigation. I can’t explain how this has lifted a major weight off of my shoulders. It helps me look forward to the future with optimism and also that I am definitely getting somewhere in my search even if it has taken longer than usual.

I really can’t believe we’re already in the fall and a few weeks have already went into October! The fall months normally mean a lot of busy times for me, because three members of my immediate family, and I celebrate our birthdays in October and November. Lately I have been busy with a lot of personal things which vary from looking for a new job, leaving my current job, get packing done for officially moving everything out of my parent’s place, helping plan my mom’s birthday party, school, etc. I probably shouldn’t be keeping this busy, but with the amount of things I have to do, it is impossible to do anything different.

My current job has already been informed of my departure and is very supportive of the new opportunities in my life that I have decided to embrace. That being looking for a new job , school coming first, and going on interviews when necessary. Making my complete move into the Bay Area which has obviously taken some time has been held back mostly by my current job which is based in Los Angeles and Sacramento. I have decided that looking for a new job where I can branch out and focus all my time in the Bay Area will help me out when it comes to school and the future. I guess you can say I have already made up my mind about making San Francisco my permanent residence, but I’ll always miss Los Angeles in ways that can’t ever be explained to a SF inhabitant.

Planning ahead for the end of October and all of November comes with its problems. Specifically because my Mom and I both have our birthday in October (24th and 29th) and Halloween is also almost in the same week. Then AK and my Dad have their birthday in November (12th and 23rd). Among birthday cakes, parties, and family get together time, I have to squeeze in time to myself to keep focus on school and personal things. Not to mention that I will need to make sure that I am ready to leave for Thanksgiving when it comes around. Plane tickets are already being considered, so hopefully I will be able to set a date and make a purchase this week. I have already designated days that are considered “homework” days which give me a lot of room and time so that I know what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. Finals are right around the corner as well, so I will be taking time to study which I doubt I will need, because the information has been seeping into my brain better than I had hoped for. I have to love that photographic memory of mine.

I hope October doesn’t leave me in the dust after the all the plans are done, but there is always catching up in November!

For those that don’t know me, I grew up in a middle class area of Southern California living in both Orange and Los Angeles County. Ever since I can remember, both of my parents have worked full time jobs to support the three of us and themselves. When it came to school, it was either scholarships or working to pay everything on your own. According to financial aid my parents make too much money to qualify and scholarships only cover so much. So as you all know I have been working full time as well as going to school full time. Which has not been an easy task to come by at all. I can tell as I’m stepping closer to medical school and getting ready to completely give everything to it, I have decided that I need to put school first before the career that I have now. Recently I took the time to sit down with my Mom to discuss school and where everything is going. I expressed to her that I was basically stressed out having to work a full time job and concentrate on school. That I wish I was able to work a part-time job and go to school, so I asked if she would be willing to pay half of my rent. She agreed with me and decided to pay half of my rent as long as I stayed in school full time. You wouldn’t believe how ecstatic I was when I realized I would be able to FINALLY take a little stress off of my shoulders by having more time to study and get homework done.

My current job does not support part-time work, so I am now on a new job search. I have sent out applications, heard back from various places, and I am going on interviews soon to explain what I can offer companies and see what they can also offer me. I am kind of nervous seeing as how I haven’t been on a job interview in about three years, but I have become comfortable being exposed to different workplaces and people while I experienced traveling to different offices with my current job. I feel like this has helped me grow as a person in the business world and an interview should probably come easy to me once I am sitting in the room answering questions and selling myself. All I hope is that this process decides to fall together with ease, because I am looking forward to be able to take more classes during the day and getting a move on with everything I need to do to reach my end goal.

A few weeks of classes have went by already and my first couple of tests/quizzes have already been turned in. So far I have received an A on all of them which is great! I have never been this good at keeping up with my homework or staying on schedule, but maybe it was all the procrastination stress I had learned from in the past. The stress seems to be a bit minimized when it comes to keeping up this quarter, but I would still like to find better ways to keep myself organized to stay on track. The main subject I would like to keep up with is my math course, because once you are behind in math it is hard to catch up again.

The thing that I am most surprised about this quarter is that most classes are half online and half taken in a classroom setting. (CK [brother] is not happy about this at all, because he hates online classes.) They are referred to as “hybrid courses” where you basically do homework and tests online which allow the professor to correct a minimal amount of work and more than likely saves the school money. These tests are timed and are based on the material you have just learned in class. Although my math class is completely online which means that I have to learn the material myself with aides such as lectures on CD or reading my book. Most people are impressed with the fact that I can take any class online, but most of them don’t understand how I can take a math class online at all. Believe me, it is no joke. As I had mentioned before, making sure you are keeping up with the material is the hardest part. Teaching yourself proves itself to be more difficult, because there is really no one there to help you understand it. The lectures are a great help, because it is actually someone writing it all out for you on a whiteboard going step by step with each problem, but I find personal interaction is better. At least he Math and Science Center at the school where I take proctored exams at the end of each module, has tutors available for free.

Other than school, I hope to find out soon about what the possibility is of me getting laid off in my department or what my job is going to do about budget cuts. I am one of two who works in my position and the other person only has nine months of service, as I have three years. Apparently this has happened numerous times at work when money gets tight, but they never actually layoff anyone. I can only keep my fingers crossed, not get too far ahead of myself, and hope for the best.

I don’t normally stay at work until about 4:30 PM, so I wasn’t one of the lucky ones that received the latest email regarding budget cuts to go home with, but I did have it to start my day with the next day. I am not sure whose bright idea it is to send their employees off to think about layoffs for the rest of the night at home, but I suppose it is better than being at work with it on the brain. So the email basically states that they will be sending notices out for possible layoffs to 1,100 employees starting this weekend. Then this Saturday in the mail I received a lovely package stuffed with my potential lay off forms asking me how many years I had with the job. So now I have a few weeks to basically find out what my job is going to do. Of course it might be nice to have a vacation that lets me get my school work done, but the lack of a paycheck is not a good thing to look forward to. Sure there is unemployment, but a handful of friends are on it due to being laid off from their jobs as well, who explained that it takes weeks to get a paycheck back and it is only a percentage of what you were getting paid. As most of you know, I am a full time worker as well as go to school full time. I can’t necessarily afford a cut in pay after a specific amount of time or lack of health insurance. For now I will cross my fingers that I am kept at the job and hope they can’t afford to lose me.

To end up on a more positive note… the MacBook Pro did end up getting fixed. I couldn’t believe that the Apple Store could ever fix something in a short amount of time, but having the equipment there and the part to fix it with, helped them out. The guy helping me at the Genius Bar looked at me funny when I looked wide-eyed and stunned that my MBP would be fixed within 30 minutes. “30 minutes? Done at 2… PM??”, I asked him as he assured me that what he had said was in fact, 2 PM. So I walked over to have a delicious cheeseburger that I am currently obsessed with and will blog about eventually. And yes, as I walked in at 2:05 the MacBook was ready for me to take home where I waited a total of five minutes talking to the awesome store manager. I thanked him and his store for the quick service and was on my way to install Snow Leopard on my laptop which I am very happy with.

So school has started and two weeks have successfully flown by without leaving any room for me to breathe. (I am pretty lucky that I have been able to have any sort of time to socialize.) I have been running around most of the time, but getting a lot of things done with a minimal amount of stress. I managed to buy all but one textbook for my classes, but plan to get that done tomorrow. I sat in on a lecture for a math class, but decided the best thing to do with my full time work schedule, as well as a full load of classes, was to take an independent course. Which basically means you teach yourself the material, complete homework online, and take exams in the Student Math Science Center. It takes a lot of self control to actually complete a class this way, because you have to determine when you do your work before the end of the quarter smacks you in the face with due dates. I have learned to pace myself from future experiences so that I am not stressing about it come final exam time. I will also be enlisting some of my nerdy math friends to help me learn the material if I find myself stuck.

In other news, my MacBook Pro has decided it does not like me. Seriously, I can’t think of any other reason why it has failed me multiple times since my purchase (thank you AppleCare warranty). I have taken it in more times than I ever did my last Macbook. This time I went to install Snow Leopard onto the MBP and it decided it didn’t want to take the disc. Trying one more time it sucked the disc in, started the install, and twenty minutes into it, it spit the disc back out. Leaving the disc with an array of lovely markings making it unreadable. I am extremely frustrated, because I was just in about a week and a half ago for a display problem which was never fixed due to the fact that Apple’s Genius Bar does not allow you to fix it unless you can reproduce the problem. Me being an avid computer user who hates being away from it at any length of time due to work and school, I have no reason to make up problems with my MBP. So, I am off to the Genius Bar for another appointment where I know this time I better get a new Snow Leopard disc and my drive will hopefully be fixed as soon as possible or I have no clue what I am going to do. A laptop with the amount of classes I have is crucial and I don’t expect ALK (little brother) to let me borrow my old MacBook forever.

Two updates in two days after a long disappearance you might be asking yourself? Yes, I had some extra time and if I keep on top of my homework like I have been I will hopefully find myself doing more updates than I have been, but I really doubt it. Wish me luck!

I haven’t been able to update again with my crazy life going by faster than I can keep up with, but I have managed to create a few site specific browsers (SSB) with Fluid that includes my blog. Hopefully this will help me with the amount of browsers and tabs I always have open on my laptop. For those of you that haven’t used Fluid, it is a simple way to create the normal everyday sites you go on. I have one for Facebook, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, and now WordPress. I plan to create more when I get to it, but I have to get around to creating an icon for all of them.

Lately I’ve been really stressed about finding a job in the Bay Area. I have my current job and I have been there for three years, but I am not able to stay where I want and work. With the current job freezes due to the economy turning to complete shit I have found myself not able to transfer to a different office. (The closest offices would be San Francisco, Oakland, or San Jose.) So, I have set out with applying to different places. I have a total of twelve applications floating around in the mail right now into the hands of hopefully my next job if I am lucky. It makes me nervous knowing that I will be waiting for a call back, because I know that I need this move. Interviewing is never a problem for me, because I have had a lot of jobs before this one that prepared me for all the questions you could ever think of. I just want to be considered as the candidate for the next step in my life. Many of you might wonder why I am even applying to work, but student loans only go so far and I need to be able to pay bills and rent. I am not one of those lucky people able to only go to school, but I make it work when I need to.

School is starting in a few weeks and I am most comfortable about that right now, because at least that won’t throw as many curve balls. I know what to expect and this is just an event that I have had too much experience with. I do wish for ease with my first quarter at Stanford though when it comes to keeping my academics up and working full time. With determination and a lot of schedule organizing, I will get through it. Wish me luck!

I think May burned me out, because I haven’t had any motivation to do much of anything this week, but I have pushed myself through it. So I’m taking a deep breath before I get started on this post, because May was a very bumpy ride for me and it is already the middle of June! Time has been flying by and refusing to give me a few seconds to catch up.

I have made the decision to change a few things in my life which deal with work and school. The amount of focus and time I am supposed to be giving on both is sometimes hard when you have your own personal things going on. I was not feeling the fire being lit from beneath me for a while, but having people around you that support you and congratulate your achievements is a big plus. I decided to organize my time more efficiently as well as gain a study/work partner to get through all those hours of procrastination. For some reason having another person along side me that is also focusing helps the motivation process. I have amazed myself at how much I have been getting done and how much less frequently I become stressed by the end of the week when deadlines are approaching. Moving from programming to marketing and public relations was a big step. It was also a very big promotion that I was ready for at this stage in my life. Being able to work directly with bands and help them get where they want to be is such an amazing experience for me at this point in my life. I know I am going to school to be a doctor, but you never know if I might actually step into the music industry permanently if things keep moving as well as they are.

My scholarship papers have been going pretty well. If medical school ends up being the decided option for me then I will have to find out ways to pay for it rather than out of my own pocket. I have won two so far this year and am continuing to hear back for a certain amount as well as receiving invitations to apply to different colleges, but I still think I am going to stick with Stanford. It has so much to offer and the programs are amazing. I am attending there this summer which starts on the 23rd as well as another college that I have been completing online classes for. I know I am a busy girl, but knowing I am going places is making everything worth it.

Beyond work and school I am making sure to take weekly breaks to enjoy my time hanging out with friends and going on our small adventures. Specifically baseball games, meeting up for drinks, vacations, catching up with friends from high school, surfing, dancing, and hanging out by the ocean (my favorite). The year is halfway through and I have gone through so much these past six months, but I am finding myself happy with the person I have become and looking forward to the person I am still to become. Either way, wish me luck and I hope to keep you updated!

I know this is coming a few days late, but it is only the beginning of May and I needed to look back for a bit. I am not exactly sure where all my time disappears to, but it has to go somewhere, so I think these recaps are not only a nice thing to keep my readers updated, but also a good reminder to myself of all that I have been doing.

I have dubbed April as my travel and catch up month. Of course, the end of March was my trip to Vegas which rolled into some more traveling in April, but I have been to San Diego and stayed in San Mateo County for work assignments as you may have read previously. My work life has been keeping me busy and bestowing me with experiences that I need to challenge myself. I am constantly presented with new tasks and I feel like I am getting the job done well. Working for the State of California has given me the managerial skills that are rare to find at my age. I love the amount of responsibility that is attached to both jobs and the positions that I have acquired. While most of my peers are graduating from college and setting out on their specific field, I have been working and going to college at the same time. I feel like this might give me a little more heads up when I am done with medical school, because I will have had the work experience that some do not right out of college.

In other news, Stanford seems to be coming up sooner than I expected. I have been visiting it occasionally and making sure I still want to go there. I know this is a little strange, but visiting the campus makes everything a reality and helps me appreciate it more. I have honestly worked my butt off to get here and going on a full scholarship is more than I could have hoped for. I am still continuing to write essays for more scholarships in hopes that medical school will be paid for completely. I know this is a longshot, but a girl can hope for the best!

I really hope that May decides to give me some sort of break pretty soon, because this girl is tired. Maybe there is a short weekend vacation in the works? We will see.

**Question: Am I still a Bruin if I transferred from UCLA to Stanford?

This week I have been working in San Mateo County (specifically Redwood City, San Mateo, and Burlingame) on one of my typical job assignments. I was actually really excited to be here, because I would be home for the whole week without having to go anywhere else. I have been going back and forth between the Bay Area to get ready for my start at Stanford in the fall and I am REALLY looking forward to it! Experiencing new things always makes me nervous, but so excited at the same time.

This time, I found myself actually familiarizing myself with San Mateo County which I haven’t really done before. Some might think that it is not so exciting getting to know the new place you will be living, but it has actually been a new adventure for me every single day. I am always discovering new places and trying them out to find out exactly what I like. I am so happy that nothing has disappointed me so far about the area, because this is where I plan to spend the next couple of years for medical school. The only thing that has bothered me is the commute into Redwood City. It gets a little packed around 92 and 101 as people are transitioning between each freeway. The commute that I will be doing from Burlingame (where my apartment is) to Stanford might be a drag, but I am looking forward to the new beginning there, that I really don’t mind as much as I would have in LA. And it is nowhere near the amount of traffic there is going anywhere in LA. I also find it to be very laid back compared to LA which is a very nice change of scenery for me.

Overall, I am very happy that it is finally feeling like home to me already. I’ll update you as soon as possible on the rest of my progress in school and life in general as soon as I can. I’ve been very bad about blogging which I should have included in my New Year’s Resolutions, but better late then never, so I’ll add that to my list right now. For now, I allow you to blame my busy life!

Ok I lied. I promised myself I would write more, but it seems like this past week I found myself with more work than I could manage. On top of the fact that I got sick with the worst fever I’ve ever had. I blame the fever and procrastination on myself, because of the amount of time I spend doing other things when I should be getting more sleep at night and focusing on work. I have so much homework to catch up on it is ridiculous. I am actually staring at the list of Spanish that is due tomorrow before the end of the day. I will more than likely be cramming it all in after the work day is over. After pondering this all for a few days I have decided to set myself up with three important rules I should start following more often – especially with the MCAT coming up sooner than expected.

1.) Pick a work/study area. This will help me get into the studying “mood” and tell myself that I mean business. My favorite studying area is my desk at home which I have to clean off before I start working on anything. Too much clutter annoys me when I am trying to place my laptop, books, or paperwork near me for easy access. I also like some sort of noise depending on what I am doing, so I tend to have a Skype call going with a friend on the other end who is also working. Trust me, it really helps when someone else is in the same working mood.

2.) Set a schedule. To designate a specific amount of time a day to concentrate on my work for every day of the week. I constantly find myself getting preoccupied with things that I shouldn’t be doing when I know I should be working/studying. If I actually go through and look at my Google calendar I have nothing on it and that is probably why I am so bad when it comes to remembering things I need to do until the last minute. The less I procrastinate the better I am when it comes to taking a test or the quality of my work.

3.) Get more sleep. I know you are probably laughing about this one, but sleeping is a necessity. The less I sleep the more lazy I am and the more inclined I am to lay on my bed and ignore all my work. Which results in a few hours of television and absolutely nothing crossed of my to-do list.

These are all my own personal opinions on how I need to organize and manage my time, but I will let you know how everything is going on down the road. This leaves me wondering, what do you do when you need to get yourself in the working/studying mood? Loud music, food, drinks, cleaning your space? If you have any suggestions feel free to leave me some. I’m always looking for improvements in this area.

I recently took a trip down the coast to San Diego for personal reasons. Leaving around ten in the morning was great, because I managed to avoid all the traffic. The weather was also absolutely gorgeous on the way up. It was exactly how you’d want to spend a short trip to a beach area. Surprisingly I haven’t been there in about seven years, so everything looked completely different to me. Typically we would spend our time down in Mission Bay, but my hotel was on Hotel Circle, less than ten minutes outside of downtown San Diego. To me, it is always funny to see the “downtown” of any city in California, because they never compare to L.A. or San Francisco. (Except that San Diego apparently has a pirate ship in their downtown bay area. See picture.) The only thing I wasn’t too pleased about in San Diego was the lack of good restaurants. If you have been to San Diego or live in the area and know of any good restaurants let me know. I’ll actually be going back for work next month for two weeks. This will give me an even better chance to actually take the time and see many other things. It does offer a lot of tourist attractions, such as Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and the House of Blues down there, but I am obviously not going to find myself at those places during the work week. Luckily, I do have friends living there to keep me company during my next stay. Feel free to add any recommendations in the sight seeing department.

Side note: my favorite part about traveling is not only being able to explore a new place and being completely out of my element, but actually sleeping in a hotel. This might be funny to most people, but I actually get better sleep when I’m not in my own bed. I’ve actually contemplated emailing Marriott hotels or wherever else I stay to ask them what kind of matresses they use. Yes, I know this is completely odd, but getting around 5-6 hours of sleep during the week, my sleep is very important to me.

In other news, I feel like I am doing pretty well in school. The winter quarter ends sooner than I thought, but I have managed to keep up to date with all the work which is a very good thing. I am getting worried about how soon I will have to take the MCAT and how much of my time will be spent studying for it. I am already preparing myself for a non-existent social life, so we’ll see how that goes. As you can tell, I also put up a new blog design which I am still in the process of working on and will probably take me some time to work out all of the kinks, but I am loving it. Let me know what you think.

For the past four days it has been raining off and on in the Los Angeles area. (Check the few seconds of video below if you don’t believe me.) Even though nothing has been able to dry itself off, I am finding myself able to stay inside and out of the wet weather. Most people hate the rain, but I actually enjoy the cozy warmth of the house and the soothing sound of rain coming down on my roof. Being able to work in this environment happens to allow me to get a lot of work done. Including a rising stack of homework that has begun to pile itself on me for the last two weeks. I have promised myself to get a lot of it done, but I will see how that works out. I usually get sidetracked if I have a lot of other things on the to-do list.

This time I took the bare minimum of twelve units so that I could actually travel for work while going to school. (They are all online classes. The invention of the internet is awesome.) Every winter and spring quarter propose a bit of a challenge for me, because this happens to be our busy months for work, but I still need to work on my degrees. The journey to medical school does not come easy and neither does continuing to have a life while making everything happen at the same time. The one thing I hope to accomplish this quarter is the same as it always is. Staying organized and keeping on top of things. Organization is something I constantly crave and something I am continuously working on. I have taken organizational skills classes before that I hoped to carry on with me, but I am beginning to believe that my “style” of organization is as chaotic as the weather that L.A. has been having. I still manage to tough it out through all my procrastination and get everything done though, so that must be a good thing.

This being my last month actually living in L.A., I hope that February will find some sympathy for me while I try to squish my personal trips, life, Valentine’s Day, and even more work trips into it. March does leave me to work in San Mateo County though, so I will be looking forward to living in my new place and only having to drive about five miles to work. It will be one of the nicest things that the Bay Area will have given me as a housewarming present. To be rid of L.A. traffic is going to be awesome! Stanford and Burlingame here I come!

I happened to spend from about ten in the morning until about five in the afternoon today in the city of Huntington Beach. I went specifically to help someone with a computer consulting job, but ended up staying for lunch with a friend and then walking down on the beach.

I got hired by a family member and then a few of her friends in the same day. I came just to show my Aunt how to download pictures from her camera and how to save them, as well as showing her how to set-up user accounts, and downloading software for her. A few of her friends happened to be there as well and asked me to come to their houses within the next few weekends to teach them how to do things as well. I am not sure how much I should be charging for consultations, in case this happens to turn into an extra job of mine. I have also taken on the job of being called “Nerd” lately, because I happen to know what to do with a computer.

Afterward, the friend that I brought to keep me company joined me for a lunch at Island’s for a burger and then we drove on over to the beach. The sun was out and it was absolutely gorgeous. I was very happy I planned ahead and brought my bathing suit. I frequented this beach as a child when my family and I used to go almost every Saturday morning from 7 am until 2 pm. It is where I learned how to surf for the first time. We took a walk on the pier to check out some of the action going on and we walked by to see what the fishermen had caught for the day. One of them had a baby Hammerhead shark inside his bucket, which was amazing to see up close.

Even though today ended up being exhausting, I am happy it turned out awesomely.

Los Angeles finally got its first dose of rain yesterday. The day was full of clouds hanging over it and not allowing anyone to really enjoy their day, but I definitely didn’t mind mine. I happen to be the opposite of everyone. Though I do enjoy a nice sunny day out on the beach, I can actually get a lot of things done on a slow Saturday full of rain. Besides getting over my cold, I have found myself getting all sorts of things done.

I happened to stay in all weekend and catch up on a lot of work that needed to be finished immediately. The only thing I am really behind on is a lot of homework that has been inching towards me every week, but I keep putting off to the side. With midterms coming up I will find myself cramming pretty soon so that I can make sure to get that A. I also have been helping my brothers with their essays lately. Being born with the family awesome-ness in writing English papers, I have taken on the lovely task of making sure their essays have a good thesis and proper grammar. (This might be one of the reasons I like to take a red pen to everything.)

I did manage to take my car into the collision center where it will be fixed because of the accident you may have read in an earlier post. There was nearly seven grand in damages, but I will only be paying the deductible which is very low. The insurance company also found me not at fault so I will be getting that back, along with the other insured paying for my car rental. This has made me breathe a sigh of relief, because I really can’t get around L.A. without a car. It is just completely impossible and you know if you are from here.

Tomorrow it turns out I will be working from home (one of my favorite things to do) so this will help me get even more things done and I can continue to check them off from my list.