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!

Excuse me for a minute while I step back into my girly self and take a few moments to reflect on my personal life.

I’m not really one to write about my relationship, because I’m always afraid I’ll jinx it or something and I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to be a relationship guru. Or it must be the fact that I like keeping at least some things private. Especially the most important, but there is something I want to mention when it comes to spending time with your significant other while you both have a lot on your plate. Sometimes it becomes SO difficult to spend time with one another, so I love when when we always find ways to make it work out.

In between all of the things I have going on which are traveling, homework, work, studying, social events, and just basic “me time”, one of the most important people I worry about is my boyfriend, Robert. Spending time with each other is not always an easy task, because we both do so much of our own stuff, so most of our time is spent finding ways we can communicate during the day. I can tell you that small things like a text to say good morning and a phone call during the day are always much appreciated. Going over how each other’s day went and talking about what we did that day keep the sparks for me. So when people ask me how my boyfriend and I make it work, I tell them. It’s those little things and just enjoying each other’s company when you have time to do things together that make it work. I’m seriously not even big with spending that much money. An evening at home or going out to watch a movie is probably one of my favorite things to do with my boyfriend. Also, the calls of support for each other on a bad day and having someone to discuss it with is always a plus. With that said, if the Boyfriend reads this, he’ll know much extra he is appreciated if he didn’t know already.

My life has been going through spirals lately, because of all of the stress I’ve had to deal with in my career, school, and personal life. After so much time has been spent feeling like a weight is on my shoulders and just taking too much out of me, I basically feel like it is time to sit back and evaluate what is going on.

This time I turned to my friend L, because it never seems to stick on me when I do it myself. It is also always good to have another person looking from the outside, because they aren’t clouded in the situation and it isn’t you judging yourself. L began to tell me how I needed to get rid of all the negativity in my life. To sit down and look at the good and bad of all things going on around me. Was it really necessary to keep doing what had been bothering me for so long? To let go of all the negativity would make my life turn into more positive being generated. I was able to start a new life in a new city, new school, and a new job. This was an opportunity that most people aren’t given and I should take advantage of it. Everything L said made complete sense, so I decided to take on the challenge.

I began to look at this like throwing out the clutter that was overwhelming my life. So I began to write down what needed to change. Starting with work, school, and finally things in my personal life. Things I needed to learn how to say “no” to and things I needed to actually start saying “yes” to so that I can make my life easier. Trust me, evaluating your life is never an easy task. Especially when you’re not accepting of sudden changes. Luckily for me, I love change, so starting fresh is always something I look forward to. It is mainly why I love the start of a new quarter or project. I’m hoping the start of this new project will help me accomplish turning everything negative into a positive by going with this theory of getting rid of the things that are actually negative in my life or figuring out a way to fix them upon impact. Wish me luck!

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 don’t consider myself an idiot when it comes to technology, but there is still one thing that I haven’t quite figured out and that is mastering my email inbox. No matter how hard I try to filter my inbox with dozens of labels and specific places it for it to go, I still can never get it to zero. Knowing that I probably have an OCD, because I can’t stand the number that is still climbing, staring back at my face. Red numbers that are visible as missed calls on my iPhone or sitting in my voicemail always need to be cleared out too, so I get to those also. So you can obviously see my ongoing need to keep things clear and done. On a daily basis I have usually more than a hundred emails coming in and about as much time to get maybe half completed if I am lucky. I started having to “star” things in Gmail to save the important things for later if necessary. One thing that has helped relieve some of the inbox is the recently found Dropbox, where I can receive documents in shared folders instead of through email. I find it very fast and reliable, so that is a big plus!

If you have any suggestions on how you get through your email without finding yourself sinking in it let me know. Hopefully after mastering it I can then buy myself the Nerd Merit Badge that means “Inbox Zero“!

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.

One of my favorite places in San Francisco is Q Restaurant for a number of reasons, but the main reason is because the food is awesome.

My friend E (from Sacramento), decided it would be a great place to try, because she had seen it on the Food Network of all places and it had been given rave reviews. It was my first time being in San Francisco in this area actually, so it was a completely new experience for me. My friend L and I drove to meet her, P, and B around 12:30 for lunch. L and I took in some of the scenery prior to her arrival and thought it was an interesting area with all the shops, food places, and people walking around with their dogs. We had no clue how packed Q would be, but I guess we should have thought of that when it had obviously been mentioned on the Food Network. Luckily after putting our name down we only had to wait about 20 mins while catching up (E, P, and I had not seen each other in about 3 years).

Inside, Q had a bar area with different drink ingredients adorning its walls which was along the center of the wall, so your eyes immediately were focused there. We were seated at a window seat where some of our backs actually had the window as a chair rest which made it feel even more open. I glanced around the restaurant and noticed the amazing paintings on the brightly colored yellow wall and a huge mirror that made the restaurant look like it went even further back. The menu was very simple and not at all highly priced. I chose of all tasty looking things on the menu, a cheeseburger. Which when it arrived, was completely amazing tasting. Made with fresh bread, stacked with cheddar cheese, veggies on the side, where I chose a side salad instead of their awesome fries, and of course don’t forget the bacon I added onto my burger. I looked at everyone’s meals which also included various burgers topped with blue cheese or swiss, a salmon burger, and a great looking sandwich. Our table was completely satisfied with service, the amazing food, and great conversation among us friends.

I definitely recommend checking out Q if you’re in the area and I am positive I am going back to sample from more of their awesome food.

I used to feel like blogging about a product was sometimes a piece of fluff in a blogger’s posts.Then I realized that when you really like something and you want other people to know how much they would also like it, you have to share. This is where my post comes into play:

After a long day at work, one of my co-workers pointed out to me that my trusty laptop bag of the past 5 years (which is the amount of time I’ve ever owned a laptop) was officially dying on me. The strap on the bag was ripping at the seams and it was only time until my bag decided it would drop my lovely MacbookPro. Obviously it was time to replace my bag, but after weeks of searching I had no luck, because there was nothing I wanted. Then a friend reminded me of the Timbuk2 gift certificate I had, so I decided to check out the store and see what the bags were all about online. To my amazement I was completely excited about how stylish the bags were, as well as provided enough protection for a laptop, had a lot of pockets, and claimed to be very sturdy. I asked a few of my friends what they thought of their bags and all were very pleased, so I talked to an employee at the Timbuk2 store on Hayes in San Francisco where he gave me a walk through of all the bags that were available and we even talked about how easy it was to customize one. I ended up settling on a Commute 2.0 which has a pocket where the laptop goes that is TSA friendly. This is crucial, because it is really annoying having to take out your laptop in the middle of the airport along with your sweater and shoes, only to find out how hard it is going to be to put it all back in and on. There is also plenty of pockets which allow me to put my Air Card, earbuds, paperwork, external hard drive, etc. neatly in my bag. I am also impressed with the comfort of the shoulder strap which I have going across my chest that makes me feel like I am barely carrying anything. (My previous bag only allowed putting it on your shoulder which added weight on whichever side I wore it which made me hate taking my laptop anywhere.) The price was totally worth it for a bag with great quality that was going to provide everything I needed. I am pretty positive my next laptop bag purchase if I ever need one will be a Timbuk2 and I recommend checking one out if you are ever in need.

I’ve been finding myself working late at night with absolutely nothing to do, but heads down typing away and finishing a load of projects. To keep myself semi-entertained while my shows are still recording on the DVR (I hate watching shows live and not being able to fast forward commercials) and making sure I’m still in the mood to work, I’ve been using my Xbox like crazy. So I thought I might actually inform you of my two favorite things to do on my Xbox that have been keeping me completely happy lately.

If you already have an Xbox you would know that Netflix is now available to be streamed through your console and onto your TV. Recently, I just discovered Heroes for the first time, so I’ve been catching up on the all of the old episodes until the current season. It doesn’t have much to pick from as far as new movies go, but it does great with favorites or television shows, including the fact that anything playing on Starz will now be available, so that’s always a plus. It is also fun to start up a movie with any friend who has Xbox Live and also has Netflix. You can suggest a number of movies and then agree on one to watch together. My second favorite thing is Connect360 which is basically a program I have installed on my Mac after paying 20 bucks for an activation code. Basically it installs onto your Mac and allows you to play movies, music in iTunes, or pictures you have on your computer, right onto your TV through the Xbox. Which is pretty amazing, because it makes you feel like there is really no need to have cable. Especially if you download.

Anyway, this is basically what has been keeping me busy and happy lately in the at home entertainment department. I hope you find this of use to you if you want something else to do on your Xbox. Getting the most out of your console is always awesome and I just had to share.

I have actually checked off one item in my list of 23 things to do in 2010!

I’ve debated getting a camera for the longest time and basically got through about three months without one, but it was so depressing. I seriously felt like part of me was missing. Before you think I am completely crazy, I’ll explain. I like to spend my weekends going to new places to take pictures of the new places I visit. It’s very relaxing for me and I believe sometimes a picture is way better than explaining it in words. After plenty of research and asking a few people (specifically Helena, blog writer of Queen of the Pavement who takes amazing photos) which camera they thought was best. I settled on the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS. (Excuse the photo quality of it, I had to take it with an iPhone.) After going back and forth about purchasing a DSLR, I decided that since it wasn’t a very serious job and just a hobby, this camera would do just fine, but in pretty awesome quality. I really can’t wait to enjoy this camera on my next outing which will probably be this weekend, so I’ll keep you posted!

It is amazing to me how stressful and what a bummer this week started out with and seemed to have pretty much failed me, but I have decided that I can’t let this get me down. Even if things don’t seem to be going my way or looking up for me right now, I have a lot of other things to keep in mind.

I have interviews scheduled in February for jobs that I have applied to in the Bay Area. Preparing for those and hopefully gaining some that will temporarily make me an actual full-time college student. Not that I haven’t already been, but working full-time as well does not let you put everything you can into your school work. I have managed to keep up the good grades (A student!), but as classes are getting harder and I’m reaching the next pivotal point in my education I need to focus more. I know I can’t always be the girl who has never studied. (Photographic memory.) So I plan for my next quarter to be a full out process by keeping up with the reading, work, and important school events. I feel like I am beginning to sound redundant, but you can never remind yourself enough to stay focused on what you set out to do. I know that in the end this will all be worth it.

Having to keep my mind on school and partially on the future can sometimes make my twenties feel like I am planning for when I have the out of school life. Where I focus on my career and plan for the rest of my future. Yes, of course most of it is about that, but the only other thing that I should remind myself is to remember to have fun while I’m doing it. There is no way my twenties has to be all work and no play!

I decided to take some courses at the local community college which are based on a 10 week short semester length along with whatever I am registering for at Stanford in February. I am not sure if it is the lack of money at this community college with the poor economy, but I had the most horrible experience trying to do so. It is the first time this college-that-shall-not-be-named seems to be integrating online registration and looking up every course online. The UI also looked like my 5 year old cousin could have done a better job putting it all together. Besides that, I also went ahead and added some courses only to find out that I have been “waitlisted” before I am registered for that course which doesn’t make any sense to me. Apparently waitlisted does not mean what it normally means at a college. Typically to me, waitlisted would refer to being put on hold in the application process and not necessarily being accepted after the long wait. In this case, waitlisted means the class has already been filled, but you wait to see if anyone drops and you are given a position number to find out whether or not you will be added on to the class. Now I am confused as to whether or not I should even go ahead and buy the book or just drop the class instead. I suppose part of it is my fault for having registered to this school so late, because I would have been the first group to pick, but I still wasn’t sure if I had even wanted to take these classes.

So for now I’ll just say waitlists for classes are for sucks, college-that-shall-not-be-named.

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 have never done this before, so I’m trying it for the first time this year. I always have a list of New Year’s Resolutions to go by which I am pretty bad at keeping up with or I lose the list along the way. So, I thought why not list 23 (my age) things I actually WANT to do in 2010 which are kind of like resolutions, but not necessarily something like giving up carbs (which is ridiculous) or learning to curse less (hey, I play Call of Duty and Halo with a bunch of guys and win don’t blame me for kicking ass).  So here goes:

1. Purchase a new camera for more photography adventures.
2. Find a new job that will help support the following: me, going to school, and still being able to go out with friends.
3. Find a new recipe at least each month if not each week, cook/bake it, and blog about it.
4. Keep school as a priority and let everything else (except being in love) fall second.
5. Finally take an overnight trip to Napa.
6. Go on at least two vacations not within California.
7. Take a photo a day for a new Flickr project that I’ve always wanted to try: 2010 in iPhone Photos
8. Start walking/biking around more.
9. Start swimming again. (My favorite thing to do in the entire world.)
10. Read a new book every month.
11. Attend SXSW and stay for the music also.
12. Try a new restaurant at least a couple times a month.
13. Learn how to snowboard/ski or both.
14. Start using Google Docs, Calendar, etc. more to make my life a little more organized and easier.
15. Go to more mixers/networking events to meet more people in the tech industry. (Making friends is also a plus!)
16. Experience a sunset all the way through while getting amazing photographs.
17. Go sailing.
18. Learn more Photoshop techniques to become a pro at it.
19. Eat at French Laundry.
20. Go to more concerts/music festivals.
21. Write more even if it isn’t on the blog, because I love to.
22. Go camping. (I haven’t been in so long!)
23. Explore SF and experience everything I have been wanting to.

Yes, it does look like a long list, but I am hoping 2010 is a great year for me. Almost all of these are completely obtainable if I make the time and effort, so I’ll let you know at the end of this year how it worked out. I’ll probably even blog about it along the way.

October through December are always the craziest months of the year. So many holidays and birthdays are jam packed into those three months that it is hard to catch up. Christmas has just passed and I feel like I am still not done with it, but that brings 2010! A decade has finished and brings a new year with new experiences and plenty to do. I really wish I would have kept up with my resolution of blogging constantly in 2009, but as all things in life occur I did not get to as much as I had hoped which I plan to tack onto 2010.

Looking back at 2009 here are some of my favorite moments:

• being accepted to Stanford
• my 23rd birthday
• changing my blog’s name and hosting it on my own domain
• Vegas trip
• all the time spent with my boyfriend
• the road trip to SF
• deciding my transition from LA to SF
• witnessing the first African American President inaugurated
• moving day to SF
• reacquainting with old friends who have become my best friends
• the Sandoval Holiday Party
• spontaneous photography trips with friends

Of course there are probably plenty more where that came from, but that’s as far as I could go without getting carried away. So I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and exciting New Year. That’s What Sam Said will see you in 2010!!!

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.

Every single year around the holidays, my family makes our famous Rocky Road Candy which melts in your mouth at the first taste. It is a blend of chocolate, peanuts, and marshmallows, that leaves you with a peanut butter after taste. I debated posting the recipe for the longest time, because it is my favorite thing and it is something that has stuck in our family for years. I have seen numerous recipes for it online which have never really been exactly the same, but it is probably out there somewhere if I bother searching long enough.

The history of making this basically started after attendance to our first family reunion. Every five years there is a “family book” with an update of each family and how they are doing. One year, they decided to include family recipes so we all could share. My Grandma Connie put her famous Rocky Road Candy that she made every year for the holidays and my Mom continued on with the tradition which then led to my little brother, CK, also continuing the tradition. Below is the recipe for you to enjoy this holiday season:

Connie’s Rocky Road Candy

Ingredients:

• (1) 12oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• (1) 11 oz bag butterscotch chips
• (1) cup chunky peanut butter
• (2) cups salted peanuts
• (6) cups miniature mashmallows

Directions:

• Melt first three ingredients over double boiler (you can also do this in the microwave).
• Stir until well blended.
• Add peanuts and marshmallows, mix together, and spread into a 9×13 buttered pan (or any size that fits the concoction).
• Chill until firm, cut into squares, and serve!

Let me know if you have any questions about the process and I’m more than happy to help. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Let’s face it, my Thanksgiving weekend was lame.

I somehow developed a flu that the rest of the family decided they would be so kind to share with me. Four people being around you while they are sick is not a fun thing. When I realized this many people around me were sick, I knew I had it coming. There was no way nearly a year without having the cold was going to work this time. So of course, I went back to my room Thanksgiving night and started to already feel the sore throat coming on over a game of Call of Duty:MW2. By the time I woke up the next morning, all signs of a healthy me were lost. About 48 hours of sleep, cups of Theraflu, nightly shots of Nyquil, and a box of tissues later I am almost better, but still not feeling it. On the bright side, if you consider it one, I’m stuck with hardly any signs of a voice and my computer. (I recommend communicating with me via texts or IM at this moment in time.)

Anyway, hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to blog about soon once I am able to get out of bed, stop coughing, and speak. Here’s to a healthy me for Christmas and the New Year coming around the corner!

I went back and forth deciding whether or not I should write a “I’m thankful for…” post for Thanksgiving, but I wanted to be able to thank everyone and everything that has been there for me in many ways this year. With that said, I am thankful for:

• Friends and family – Most of my friends have particularly been here for me throughout my whole life, but recently I have run into old, but newly reacquainted friends who have made this year even more special. Being able to have someone to talk to and just have a good time with is always a plus. Family, specifically my brothers for brightening up the day when I looked like I was stressed after a long day of work and school.
• Acceptance to Stanford – I have been blessed with a brain and a photographic memory. The way I have shaped it and filled it with knowledge to apply to my school life still baffles me. I have honestly worked my butt off when it comes to school and achieving acceptance to Stanford is something I can say I am very thankful for. I am looking forward to what it will bring me in the future.
• This might be totally funny, but… Technology (specifically the Internet and computers) – The Internet is full of a lot of useful and useless information, but it is where the world is going. Almost everything you do today has been touched in some way by a computer. Not only does it spark my curiosity every single time I use it and make me love to be involved in the tech industry, but I use both the Internet and my computer on a daily basis. How could we ever possibly go back to the old research methods or ways we accessed information? Technology is only getting better.
• My spontaneity and life – My life has never been led boring or simple. Even though I grew up in a middle class family and we didn’t really have much, I never let that stop me. I have always been pushing to go where I want to go in life. Feeding off of those that tell me I couldn’t do it and making sure I did it anyway. I love being able to spontaneously decide where I want to go and what I want to do every single day of my life.
• And a few things that don’t need any explanation: a place to rest my head, my animals, photography, the ocean, the written word, and the capability to love.

This list could have been much longer and never ending, because I am thankful for a lot of things, but maybe this list will inspire you to write your own. Happy Thanksgiving!

I am currently writing this blog post courtesy of the WordPress app for the iPhone. I thought I might give it a try and inform you of the new things that have been done to my blog if you haven’t already noticed.

One obviously is that I can now update via my phone while I’m out and about. This means more updates and I am also able to approve comments directly from the app so I can respond to them quickly as well. The next is not so new, but I never told anyone that if you are able to view my blog on an iPhone you will see a completely different theme than on your laptop. Also, my Twitter feed has been added to my page so you can read more of my random thoughts. (Thankfully I don’t tweet more than five times a day.)

I’m happy that I have actually decided to keep up with my blog for this long and all of its new features. Here is to the future posts you will continue to read on That’s What Sam Said!

The following blog post is not something I usually write, but intended to help my fellow readers and close friends who always ask me how I get everything done and where I find the time to do it all:

I recently spoke with a friend who had been completely stressed with what life had decided to drop on her plate. She began to explain her problems having a full time job, attending school, social life, family, making sure her boyfriend wasn’t neglected in the process, and anything else that had been thrown her way recently. I began to immediately relate and think back about all the times I had exactly the same problem. I began to give her advice about learning how to say “Sorry, I can’t make it” or “No” when it is absolutely necessary. Recently I have found myself falling into the same pattern as I had decided to take on so many tasks and in the end found myself not content with the amount of time I had to myself or what I was prioritizing. So I take a breath and go back to my organizational drawing board.

It becomes hard when you have so many things to do and never enough time to do it. Of course we all want to make every event, because we probably don’t want to miss out on the opportunity or we don’t want to let someone down. Although, when you become tired and you find yourself deciding whether your sleep is less important than the fifth social event you might attend that week, it is time to take a step back. Which is always the worst part for me specifically, because then I have to decide what comes first. Of course I know that school and work should take a priority in almost everything I do, but when it has been a while since you’ve seen your friends and you wouldn’t mind going out to that one networking event, your priorities become an option. Meaning, you start to find out where you are going to squeeze in work and school around the event rather than declining the invitation or leaving early and/or arriving late. This usually means the quality of work you put forth is not as great as you know you could have done and in the end leaves you dissatisfied.

I have worked on this by looking around and seeing what is most important. The key to all of my problems is usually organization. When school is in session it takes more of your time than when you only have to work during the summer. This means you have to make a list and say ok, this is what needs to get done. Then decide where you are going to fit all of the social events in after work and school are accomplished. (Don’t forget the time you need to get ready, eat, and rest. Most people forget these three important details.) After you have laid everything all out on the table and decided what is going to be done at what times, look at your list and see if you can shrink down any of it into a smaller time frame. What about spending more time on homework a specific day so that you don’t have to work on it another day so you give yourself some time to relax. (There should always be at least one day of time to yourself.) Or if you and your significant other usually go out to dinner and a movie, spend some of your time at your/their place and watch a movie and fix dinner there. You can both get some study time done [hopefully ] and spend time with each other. And if you need to, say no to a few social events each week. You can’t attend them all and no one expects you to be in three places at once. (How you can respond to these in a positive and appreciative manner I will discuss in maybe a future blog post.)

Without making this too long, those are just some of my tips in the whole scheduling and organizing process. Once you find yourself getting on a schedule and making sure you stick to it, the work flow usually comes naturally and you find yourself not as stressed as you first were. You are able to go out without regretting it and making time for yourself.

October 29th has just passed and I am now 23! My birthday fell on a Thursday this year which obviously sucks, because you can’t possibly do anything on a weekday, but maybe a dinner. I happened to make it all work though and I enjoyed the low key atmosphere of it all.

I spent the day sleeping in from a previous night of working and receiving “happy birthday” phone calls until about two in the morning  So the morning of, I stayed in and worked some more.. My Mom surprised me with my favorite cake which happens to be the most simple of all… yellow cake with chocolate frosting. She improvised with a random candle she found since we were short of the traditional birthday candles. I made a wish and was really appreciative of everything. Dinner with my Robert at our favorite place was a pizza of my choice (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and bell peppers) with bruschetta as the appetizer and of course some cherry coke. (We happen to go there all the time for italian food.) He got me flowers and the balloons which was really nice and very unexpected. I love how he awesomely surprises me at times.

Of course my evening didn’t sound too exciting for a birthday, but I loved every minute of it. Spending it with some of the people I love is exactly what I wanted to do. It might have been a good thing too, because today I had to work and this weekend is going to be pretty busy. And since I don’t really consider my birthday over until about a month from now, there will definitely be some partying involved during the weeks to come! So here’s to another year and hoping 23 is healthy, gives me time to accomplish more things in my life, and fun times!

I’ve been going back and forth about my blog again which seems like it has been a little redundant, but with very good reason in my opinion. Deciding whether or not I want to keep it or what I should update about.

Most of the topics I would choose to write about almost seem like they would go in a journal which is probably something you wouldn’t particularly post for the online world to see. It made me think about the numerous blog feeds that are in my Google Reader which vary from tech information to cooking. The blogs all seem to have a general area where their focus lies or serve a specific purpose to those that read it.

I went ahead and took a look back at some of my blog entries which varied from reviews of restaurants or venues, baking, personal situations in my life, things I like in general, and school. My blog is definitely ALL over the place. I also didn’t see the point in using my free time to update, because I thought… well, maybe what I’m saying isn’t interesting enough to random people stumbling upon my blog. I started trying to find something that I could generally write about that would stick and I could also relate to, but I realized my blog is called “That’s What Sam Said”. It is about what I say. Which may sound selfish, but I’m not particularly looking to make it in the world as a so called “blogger” (even though I love writing and love reading certain bloggers’ masterpieces of the written word), but to inform my readers of my current standing in life. My readers come to my blog to see what I have to say. Of course my blog is going to gravitate toward my personal life and the problems I am facing, but that is what makes it my blog.

With that said, I hope that anyone looking to start a blog or thinking about giving up on updates to their blog finds this to be of some help in their thought process.

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.

Procrastination has won. I seemed to have been caught up with most of my homework and the things I needed to get done to keep everything stress free, but I spoke way too soon. I have already noted to myself that having a full time job puts strain on the studying process. It starts getting worse when I find myself getting ready to travel for work or when the rest of the department is getting ready to. It is my responsibility to have certain work done before a deadline and the amount of time it needs to be done in can sometimes be overwhelming. Which means that when I get home I am usually not in the mood for any studying, because all I want is down time. And on the weekends, I of course want to maintain my social life as well as get personal errands done, work around the house, or go to family events. I have decided that is time to break open the Google Calendar (which is also synced with iCal on my Mac and my iPhone). I have not been using it, because I have so many other things going on, but that is the key that I am missing in this struggle for time and organization. I seem to forget what things I need to do until the last minute so putting the things that are important on a schedule seems like the best idea at this point in time. If I will continue to follow through with it is a whole other issue. I’ll let you know how that turns out. In the meantime, here’s to the rest of the quarter and more updates to come!

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!

Those of you that know me, trying new places is always on the top of my list. Especially in Los Angeles, because the county is so huge that there isn’t anything you ever have to try twice unless it is too awesome to pass up the second time around. Although now my life has turned around to get to know San Francisco as well.

I get a lot of crap for being from the Los Angeles area when I am in the Bay Area. There is apparently this “rival” between San Francisco and Los Angeles that I had never heard of until talking to some of the Bay Area inhabitants. I for one think they have just not experienced Los Angeles like I have, while I also expect myself not to understand how they feel about their city. Growing up in Los Angeles could never really be explained in words unless you happen to have lived there your whole life. The city can only speak for itself upon your own experiences. I am still to this day experiencing new things in the Los Angeles area, because there are so many things to do there. Whether it be a drive up Sunset or time spent traveling down Pacific Coast Highway to one of the many beaches I love to surf and visit. Sure LA has its bad moments which consist of the shitty smog, occasional fires, or bad traffic, but every city has its faults. It still doesn’t change how much I love the familiarity of where I grew up. The amount of culture and diversity is as vast as San Francisco’s, but I can name some of my favorite places that have so many of my own personal memories. My memories consist of nights I drove through WeHo, Sunset, or Melrose for the first time. Or when I was driving back home, looked up at the Foothills, and noticed that the snow on top of the mountains glistened clearly while you were driving up North 605 toward 210. UCLA has been a campus I haven’t even begun to experience after having attended only a year, but the Westwood area is beautiful. I could go on forever, but that would be a book in itself.

Of course I love Los Angeles, but San Francisco made me fall in love after my first trip. Driving 5, 152, and 101 for the first time up to the Bay Area was of course different than any other place I had been in Southern California. It was quite possibly the most boring drive of my life. The car pool lanes were completely different and dashed with white instead of the double solid yellow I was used to. The people were different to me and the look was almost too peaceful compared to the hustle of LA. As I drove into the city though, I knew it was where I wanted to be. The weather was crisp and cool, just the way I liked it. The architecture was completely different than LA and the access to every area by means of public transportation was completely logical and seemed easy. It was a Saturday and of course Embarcadero would be busy as fuck, but a drive to Dolores Park and then on over to the Golden Gate Bridge made it all worth it. I loved that people were jogging, biking, and seemed to generally be enjoying themselves. My flight from LAX to SFO for the first time was also beautiful. Flying up the coast with a window seat is something I could do over and over again, because seeing where ocean and land come together is breathtaking.

Here is where the problem comes in… I love both areas and I will always miss LA, but I have obviously already chose the Bay Area to go to school and will live here until further notice. Dealing with friends from both areas is sometimes a little difficult, because both like to bash the opposites of my amazing homes. The appreciation that it takes to come from both sides is obviously hard, because most of my Bay Area friends have never lived 20+ years in LA. As most of my LA friends have never lived in SF. I can safely say that I love each equally and always miss both when I go visit the other. I can also say I hate things in LA as much as I hate certain things in SF, but I have never felt at home as much as I have in both areas. The problem being that I am always at a stand still when it comes to where I want to be at that moment in time. That will probably never change, but hopefully I’ll be able to cope with being so homesick for each while I’m away.

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!

Today marks the one year anniversary of my blog! I can’t believe I actually kept it up for a year, but I think with the amount of things I have been experiencing it has allowed me to keep my readers updated. That’s What Sam Said has been through a lot of changes since day one. Originally starting on Blogger with the title “Living In Los Angeles, One Day at a Time”, with a whole different perspective on writing has been a big change. I went from making a blog very impersonal to adding my very own touch when I purchased my very own domain and had decided to move to San Francisco to attend Stanford. Of course updating has been very hard while being a full time student and working full time, but sharing my experiences has given me the opportunity to reflect on it and share it with everyone. Hopefully I can keep it up when the school year starts later this year. So, here’s to yet another year of blogging!

July is apparently National Ice Cream Month which I didn’t know until I started reading Scott’s food blog. So he, Savor The Thyme, and Tangled Noodle decided to have an Ice Cream Social that would carry out until the end of July. Prizes would be given out as well to those picked among the many entries they will have received. I haven’t had as much time as I thought I would this month to make good eats, but in honor of the Ice Cream Social (#icsocial) that my friend Scotty Snacks informed me of, I decided to share some of my favorite treats for the summer instead of making them.

If you don’t know me already, my favorite ice creams are anything with strawberries, cherries, or mint flavored. In my house, I always have to have ice cream on hand – especially in the hot summer months to keep cool. I particularly enjoy ice cream on the hot days and oddly enough, when it is raining. So when I found Ben & Jerry’s miniature ice cream treats at the store, I thought it was just the right amount for a tasty ice cream treat in its own individual cup. It comes in all of their regular flavors, but a personalized size that includes a small spoon as well.

My second favorite treat is something as simple as Otter Pops called Ice Tickles which I normally buy in a box of 36 at only .65 cents a piece. You can normally find these at your local ice cream truck or liquor store where they sell ice cream by the box. You just stick them in the freezer and have a treat that you can cut in half, because they are pretty big in size. They come in Cherry, Bubble Gum, and Lemon Lime flavors. I didn’t have such a great picture for it, but laid it next to my laptop before I ate it so I could show you how much more there is in one than an Otter Pop. This picture obviously didn’t do it justice.

My third favorite treat is actually something you can make from yogurt. I like to buy popsicle sticks from a craft store and use them to put in yogurt and stick them in the freezer for a healthy popsicle. Of course, you know how many flavors yogurt comes in, so the possibilities for a popsicle are endless. Although, I would recommend mixing around the yogurt first if it has fruit chunks in it or else the fruit will all stay at the bottom. (And of course, you’ll find me using my favorite strawberry yogurt the most.)

I hope you find these ice cream treats enjoyable like I did if you decide to try them out. Good luck to everyone who submits to the Ice Cream Social and I hope you enjoyed the ice cream month of July!

I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know that I love living in California because of my access to the vast amount of great beaches. I could never move from this state, because the separation between the city and ocean is really not that far and the weather is amazing. The Bay Area is almost completely surrounded by water and if I go back down to Southern California, Orange County has some of the best beaches I’ve ever surfed at. I can remember getting up early on Saturday mornings to wander on down to Huntington Beach and stay until sunset. The Laguna Beach area is actually my favorite, because it has coves for you to explore and a private beach that I love to walk on. The smell of the ocean mist alone is enough for me to be happy with where I am at. No matter how many times I have went to the beach, I never grow tired of it. It has always been the one thing that I can come back to when I need to relax and enjoy my time. That is why lately the beach has been my location these past couple of weeks. It isn’t because the weather is absolutely gorgeous and it is the summer, but walking and listening to the ocean is where I can be at peace. I can sit for hours with my own thoughts or hang out with a friend and enjoy taking in the scenery.

I have found myself thinking a lot about Stanford lately and where my life is taking me. The amount of time it is going to take to complete medical school is overwhelming. The thoughts about financial aid, student loans, study time, and working has added to the amount of stress that is called life. Preparation to transfer into a new school is difficult and it never comes easy for anyone. I have wondered if Stanford was the right choice for me or if I do belong in Los Angeles at UCLA, but I think it might just be me worrying about the sudden change. The move from the Los Angeles area to Burlingame to attend Stanford is obviously one of the biggest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life. Who was I going to know here? I was leaving all of my friends and family behind and starting fresh. So trips back and forth between Los Angeles and the Bay Area always make me miss home. Then I remember how hard I have worked to get to where I am today. The hours of making sure my papers were right. Is this a clear thesis? Does the MLA formatting look correct? Is your argument backed up by enough evidence?

This makes me find myself at the beach with my thought process. Being able to clear my head and push all of the stress off of my shoulders helps. I already know that you should not expect life to come with ease, but I wasn’t expecting to feel the amount of added pressure so suddenly. Your life does not pause for you and it is always a constant uphill battle to get to the specific goals you want to achieve. Even though I seem to be coming back to this same subject frequently, I know a small break and releasing pressure is what is necessary to keep myself from going insane with stress. The amount of time and effort I have put into Stanford and my studies in general make me happy to know that this will all be worth it in the end. It may seem like a set back, but it is another one of those stepping stones I need to reach my end result. To those of you in my personal life, if I’ve been very busy lately or hard to get a hold of, you might want to check out one of your local beaches. I might be sitting there on the sand trying to relax. Feel free to join me.

I went to the Getty Center a couple of weeks ago which is right by UCLA settled in the hills of Los Angeles off of 405. I couldn’t believe that after all of the time I had lived in LA, I had never been there. If you may have read in previous posts, I am a big fan of museums and art in general so the Getty seemed like the perfect place to go on a hot summer afternoon. It happened to be one of the first weeks of the summer too, so of course everyone was in summer dresses, shorts, and flip flops.

When my R and I arrived, we had to take a tram that takes you across the hills of LA that overlook the freeway. (The tram reminded me of the BART system in San Francisco which I don’t really use unless I am coming to or from the airport.) Right when you walk into the Getty Center you are immediately surrounded by art in the forms of sculptures and the scenery is absolutely amazing. There are multiple buildings that you can walk through to check out Western from the Middle Ages, all the way up to the present. There is beautiful handcrafted furniture, fountains, chandeliers, paintings, and sculptures as you walk through each area. The gardens are also decorated beautifully and a lot of students in the area happen to be laying across the lawn or sitting in the cafe tables enjoying their studying in the tranquil environment. I captured photos of the LA views with one of my cameras there, but I am probably going to have to go back some time for the lights at night. I enjoyed the peaceful time that I had at the Getty Center and I hope to visit the Getty Villa that is located in Malibu soon. Both are apparently very different when it comes to what art is in them. (The Getty Villa is full of Greek art.) Admission is free here, so it is not costly at all if you want to enjoy a peaceful Saturday afternoon like I did. It is also open until 9 PM. Parking has also recently decreased to free after 5 PM. I suggest taking a visit and hopefully soon I will be visiting the Getty Villa and blogging about that museum too.

I posted the rest of the photos from my visit to the Getty on my Flickr in case you want to check out some of the pictures I took. The only thing I wish I had was my other camera that has a better zoom for things like wide landscape views. I guess you can never really plan ahead for something as spontaneous as my trip to the Getty. I always happen to decide where my friends and I are going when we jump in the car and start driving. Hey, what can I say, that is part of my enjoyment of random adventures.

I am so backlogged with blog posts and finding the time to put them together, so I am going to try and get a lot of them done within the next couple of weeks. Expect a lot of posts in your feed if you subscribe!

My brother CK turned 20 on June 30th and always requests a cake for his birthday. Of course he picks an all chocolate cake. One funny thing I have to add in here is that, I asked him if he just wanted cupcakes and he says, “No I don’t like cupcakes.” I look at him strangely for a few minutes and ask him if he realizes what a cake and cupcakes are made out of. Obviously the same ingredients, just in a different form. His response? “I want a BIG cake, because I want a BIG slice. Not those small things.” His point was made. Anyway, on to the chocolate cake…I am actually not a big fan of chocolate, because it is too sweet for me, but he wanted a Double Chocolate Layer Cake. Which I think for him, is almost a continuous tradition. Anyway, those of you that don’t know how to make a chocolate cake, it is actually pretty simple if you don’t do it from scratch like we did. You can just go out and buy your favorite cake mix and some frosting and they usually have the directions on back. But if you want the whole baking experience, you can find a recipe online like this one. The cake ended up coming out pretty well for the quick amount of time that it was done in and frosted. Yes, the frosting was applied very fast, but all chocolate cakes are better messy. I do have to get a cake platter though for serving, because it was left on a regular large dinner plate.

VERY important side note that you must do or else the cake won’t taste like awesomeness: Part of the baking experience includes licking frosting off of your fingers afterward. It is the best part. Trust me.

I know I wasn’t supposed to be blogging about Los Angeles and this post is a little overdue, but oh well, I love sharing new places I discover or find along my way.

Usually late at night when I am craving something, but don’t know exactly what, I call up my friend Gio because he is an insomniac like me and he is as spontaneous as me. We were driving down Melrose from 101 and ended up at a fairly famous Los Angeles location. Canter’s Deli, located on North Fairfax. I had Canter’s before when I was in Las Vegas, but decided I had to find the original because the second usually doesn’t do the original justice. When the waiter came out he brought a menu crammed with a whole bunch of items, but they are particularly famous for their pastrami sandwiches. I couldn’t believe that they actually had that many items to choose from on their menu. Usually when a menu has too much on it, the food isn’t that great, but I was very pleased with my meal. I also hadn’t realized it was a Jewish deli until after looking at the menu. (When I go out to eat real late there isn’t much to choose from, but maybe only fast food so when I find a place like Canter’s it makes the foodie in me happy.) The thing I was most surprised at though, was that they had Matzo Ball Soup on the menu. They also brought pickles to the table to munch on before dinner which is very rare. I laughed though at the amount of “hipsters” inside the restaurant, courtesy of the bar right next door called Kibitz Room, where a band was playing. The restaurant has also been there since 1931 so it still had the old look to it, but the atmosphere was great.

As we left, I noticed their bakery was also very busy. It was filled with an assortment of pies, cookies, cakes, and more. Hopefully next time I visit I will get a chance to try out their tasty looking dessert selection and a few more items on their menu. By the way, excuse the bad photography skills. I took this picture with my iPhone and it didn’t have the iPhone 3GS auto focusing technology in it. I will try to bring my camera with me next time I’m on a random adventure in search of a food destination.

This is a very different and personal post, but I couldn’t help but think about this after the last couple of months and I don’t mind sharing.

Ask anyone that knows my family, if you stick my two little brothers and I in the same house together, you get a lot of noise from our bickering. Remove one from the equation and you get complete silence. Normally, I am the quiet one who observes and tries to keep the commotion to a minimum which is probably surprising. We’ve been like that ever since we were little, but I’d say that as we’ve gotten older, the arguments about minor problems are rare. Instead of arguing about who did what amongst each other, it is now who did what to my brother or sister with everyone else. As the three of us have continued “growing up”, the bond between us as siblings has also grown.

Being a big sister has always come with its hardships. You’re the mediator for the fights between the boys and you’re also the one who will set an example for them as they are learning how to deal with their own life. I’ve helped them with school, personal issues, and life in general while dealing with my own. It has not been an easy task, but someone had to teach them the ropes. While we sat there at dinner the other day, I couldn’t help but think that they are both adults now. CK just turned 20 which obviously means he is no longer a teenager. I still help him with college classes and girl advice from time to time, but he has begun to take on his own personality. He’s not that shy little boy he used to be and I’m proud that he is more assertive when it comes to experiencing new things. AK will be 18 this November and graduated from high school last month. I’ve been helping him with financial aid papers and college applications this year. It feels like I took a step back in time and I can remember that I was the one who did this by myself and I was able to make this process simple for him.

This feels like the end of being that big sister for the both of them, because they are finally able to do everything without me, but I know it isn’t really over. I’ll still be there when they need advice for anything that needs to be overcome. I’ll probably still be the one that they call when there is a paper due and they need help with MLA formatting. And I’ll always be the person they can talk to when they don’t want Mom and Dad to know something. I know I’m only 22, but I hope that they both know that there is a lot to growing up and life is not always going to be easy, but with a little hard work everything ends up falling into place eventually. In the future, we might be living very far apart from each other, but I’ll always be your big sister and I’m just a phone call away. (Good luck C and A, I love you guys!)

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 am a huge fan of Italian food, but my favorite Italian dishes are pastas that are stuffed with cheese. (I am a big lover of cheese too. ) So I decided to try something I had never tried before and went with Manicotti Florentine that was filled with cheese and spinach. I had seen a recipe that called for mushrooms, cheese, and spinach, but I am not a big fan of mushrooms so I took those out of the recipe. Italian foods are usually very heavy, so make sure when you are hungry you are VERY hungry, because a few of these on a plate can fill you up big time! I also have a bread maker, so I did accompany it with some bread and butter which is always good to eat with the marinara sauce. Here is the recipe if you want to try:

Ingredients You Will Need:
1/2 pound spinach, chopped or frozen and thawed
1 pound ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
16 manicotti noodles
2 cups spaghetti sauce

Steam chopped spinach until wilted (or use thawed frozen spinach). Combine ricotta, mozzarella, 3/4 cup of the Parmesan, eggs, parsley and spices. Add spinach and 3/4 of saute to mixture. Fill uncooked manicotti shells; place filled shells in a single layer in a greased 13- x 9-inch baking pan. Add remaining saute to spaghetti sauce. Cover manicotti with sauce. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.

Excuse the picture quality, but I grabbed whatever I had nearby before I grubbed on the tasty spinach and cheese filled Manicotti. Next time I’ll make sure to have my new camera around for a clear picture.  If you’re wondering what I have on top of the marinara sauce, it is freshly grated Parmesan which is way better than pre-packaged. Anyway, if you do try let me know how it comes out!

Keeping up with these “Video Game Nerd” posts that I have going on in my blog, I thought I’d update on the latest one I’ve been playing. It wouldn’t typically be a game I would play either, but it seemed to have a lot of people talking when I had first heard of its release, so Prince of Persia was added onto my Gamefly queue.

Prince of Persia is obviously not a shooter type game, so I had no high expectations for this game either, but it ended up being very addicting. It is a action/adventure game set in ancient Persia where you play as the Prince who ends up having a girl named Elika traveling with him. I had never any Prince of Persia games before, so it was odd that this guy never really died. The character Elika would always save him from falling off cliffs with magic, so I immediately thought … Ok this game is going to be easy. Not only does he never die, but he climbs and slides on objects to get to his destination like a spider which is strange but cool. Using his spider-like techniques you have to figure out how to get to destinations, but as you progress in the game they become more difficult to get to. It became addicting for me, because it felt like a puzzle that I absolutely had to complete. After a while of being very redundant I did end up getting bored of the game and decided to send it back. If you are really in need of 360 achievements though, this is a very easy way of getting them. You get an achievement for almost everything you accomplish even if it is running up a wall, so that is a plus.

Overall, I do recommend trying out this game, because it is fun and you can get a lot of achievements for yourself.

First of all, I promise this has not turned into a food only blog. I have just had time to actually blog about these awesome recipes and make them myself. This past weekend we had a BBQ at my place and the food was delicious as always. Those of you that do not know me, I am of Spanish descent and the food at our BBQ is probably a little more different than most. While of course we love our steaks, chicken, salmon, etc., my family sometimes cooks a carne asada meal. Carne asada means “roasted meat”, which is normally cut very thin or shredded and marinated a specific way. My family also normally includes this main dish with Spanish rice and refried beans (no it is never from a can – we do everything from scratch). Although, the condiments that go with the meal are the most important to me. My family has always ate their carne asada with tortillas and some type of condiment which is where the Pico de Gallo comes into play.

Pico de Gallo, which means the “rooster’s beak”, is not actually what it sounds like. It is basically a condiment made fresh from tomatoes, onions, chiles (normally jalapenos or serranos), cilantro, and lemon or lime juice. It gives the meal the sort of kick that it needs to keep your taste buds satisfied and the spicy taste is a good complement to the meat. No, it is not that spicy and you won’t be burning your mouth. Sometimes we even eat Pico de Gallo with marinated chicken, so it can be used on other dishes as well. If you’d like to try this out I’m leaving the recipe below to enjoy Pico de Gallo with your meal. Serving size does matter, so add your ingredients according to how many people you might be entertaining:

• 6 medium tomatoes diced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1/4 cup of cilantro chopped
• 2 to 4 fresh serrano or jalapeno seeded and minced
• Juice of 1 lemon or 2 limes
• Salt to taste

I am so happy I have been able to share all these recipes with my readers lately, because it means I have been able to have time to myself and to keep everyone updated. I am planning a few more posts soon, so stay tuned!

I was craving something sweet tonight, but didn’t really feel like having an ice cream. I wanted something refreshing, tasty, and really easy to make. So I decided to make some type of smoothie because I had saw ScottySnacks, but didn’t want to get the blender down. So I remembered, that my brother decided to get my Mom one of those Magic Bullets a while back. You know, the one that you see on infomercials all the time? I really think it was his own little obsession, because my brother happens to be a big “foodie” too. (Which should be a blog in itself, because he is an excellent baker at only 19 years old.) Anyway, my Mom happened to give it to me since she really didn’t have any other use for it and I never really need an actual blender. I had frozen a pack of strawberries and raspberries last week, but couldn’t decide what to make with them, so I thought this was the best opportunity to use them. My favorite flavor for almost every dessert is always something that has strawberry. I can never go wrong with it and whatever it is in always tastes good to me. So, I made a very simple Strawberry Banana Smoothie. It was not only very refreshing, but very healthy, because it was only a few ingredients. If you want to make your own Strawberry Banana Smoothie, you can follow my recipe below which is based on one serving size, so add more according to yours:

• Handful of strawberries frozen or fresh (4 to 5 depending on your serving size)
• 1 Banana (cut up to make sure it will blend properly)
• 1 Cup of Ice
• Splash of Orange Juice

You can always change up fruits and different concoctions in your smoothie, so I’m sure this works for most smoothie beverages.

(By the way, this is one of my first times taking pictures with my new camera and I’m very happy with the quality that is coming out of it. Taking pictures of the food up close brings out the color more than before and it isn’t even blurry!)

The past couple of months I have been buying video games like crazy. A lot of new ones were coming out, but then after a while I tend to get bored of them if they don’t have online play. So, I ended up giving in to a monthly subscription of Gamefly. Those of you that don’t know what Gamefly is, it is basically the same as Netflix, but with video games. You can let it know what type of console you have or what type of games you like and it will suggest some for you too. I thought paying a monthly fee would be way cheaper than going to a video store and I can rent it again or send it back whenever I want. So I added some games to my queue and already tried out my first rented game!

I’m not a big RPG fan, so I wasn’t expecting too much from Fallout 3 when I put it on my list. I had heard so many good reviews from friends and it had been out for a few months. You can pick a female or male character to play the game where you grow up in a vault after a global atomic war in the United States. You start off as a an infant and progress into your pre-teens, to your teens, and so on while completing various tasks as you move along in the game. You do end up venturing outside of the vault where the whole word is taken over my giant mutant creatures. The way you decide to play also changes the outcome of the game. I thought it was ok, but the game moved along so slowly for me, I ended up getting bored of it very fast. As I had said before, RPGs really aren’t my thing. I suppose I could say that it would be a good one for people that actually like those types of games, but me being a big first person shooter fan, this was just not it.

I apologize for the shortness of this review, but I guess it wasn’t as easy writing about a game I didn’t enjoy. Hopefully, the next game will be a lot more interesting!

So I did it again. I have always been a big foodie if you haven’t already noticed with my reviews of restaurants in the past, but learning how to make food yourself is even better.

The weekend of Mother’s Day, I found my time to be a little less consumed with work and more time for things I wanted to do before I spent Sunday with my Mom. I have a ton of cookbooks that were handed down to me from my Mom, so I decided to look around for a good recipe online where I had almost all of the ingredients and could make something really tasty. I ended up making some miniature Cinnamon Streusel Cakes and Chocolate Chip Cookies. The two snack flavors of chocolate and cinnamon ended up being a good mix in tastes and eating them while they are still hot is even better.

Streusel basically means something that is scattered or sprinkled normally on top of muffins, cakes, or breads. Normally people make their streusels in a bundt cake form, but I changed these up to make them an individual snack for everyone by putting them in cupcake form. It had a light cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of it and was baked with cinnamon on the inside as well. This was a recipe I found in a cookbook, but I found one online that was similar here.

And of course the chocolate chip cookies are a very simple and have to be almost everyone’s favorite cookie. They are very simple to make and is a recipe everyone should remember, so I am throwing in the Nestle recipe as well for you.

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?

So I debated blogging about this, because I didn’t want to steal the snack thunder from Scotty Snacks, but I just had to mention how awesome these were. I was preparing a big meal and did not know what types of desserts to include in the mix, so I walked past the baking aisle of Safeway and noticed a cake mix package of Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes. I ended up finding one and the cupcakes came out amazingly tasty. My lemon glaze came out a little lighter than the picture in Cupcake RN’s blog and I did not use as much, but rather a light drizzle. The lemon flavor was not too sour at all like most lemon flavored foods are, so I enjoyed these even more. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the cherry ones, but I ended up making those out of a plain yellow cake recipe I already had and making a cherry flavored glaze that turned out delicious! If the recipe wasn’t called for the cupcakes to be made this specific way, I would have actually thought they were muffins instead. They were very light and didn’t taste too sugary like most cupcakes do. I absolutely recommend trying out this recipe if you get a chance.

I was particularly surprised that I had enough time to actually bake something, because of all the work and traveling lately. I know it is a bit funny that I enjoyed the short time it took to make this, but being able to sit still for at least an hour without working or doing homework is a very rare find for me. Hopefully with work calming down, I will not have to travel as much and will be able to not only make tasty foods, but find time to myself and get all my personal things done that have been waiting for me.

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!

I am starting to wonder if I actually have too much time on my hands or if I find just enough time to shake the stress away through my Xbox. Not even sure if it is ok to be a girl who can hold her own in an online match against 90 percent of the male video gaming population. In other words, it is very rare when I play a game on Xbox Live that another girl is in. Anyway, I have been playing two games recently. One only for achievements and the music and the other because I apparently like shooting things in games.

So, my most recent purchase was Resident Evil 5 which I had purchased right before the Las Vegas and San Diego trips, but didn’t have any time to actually play it. So about a week ago, I broke it out of the package and played a co-op game with a random person on Live. You’d probably be surprised at how much zombie gore I could stand in one game, because the game is covered in dead things. I have actually never played a Resident Evil game before this, so I had to get used to the new controls and the way everything in the game handled such as reloading a weapon or stomping on a zombie. Throughout the game you play as one of two characters. Both of the characters set out to basically as said before, kill zombies. Overall, I have had a pretty good time playing this game and was really happy with the co-op option, because it is always fun playing with someone else.

The other game I have been embarrassed to admit I was actually playing, is Guitar Hero Aerosmith. My little brother called me one afternoon to tell me Target was selling it for ten bucks and if he wanted me to pick it up. I had no intentions of purchasing it, but ten bucks was a deal, so I told him to bring it home. It sat on the shelf for about three weeks before I actually picked it up and played. The game is basically another addition to Guitar Hero, but full of Aerosmith and other classic rock songs. I am actually a fan of Aerosmith and classic rock, because I grew up listening to my Dad play it all the time and I enjoyed it. Even though it was fun, I played this game merely for the music, and the achievement points, I do not suggest buying it. In my honest opinion, you could rent it and be done with it in about two days.

Well, hope you enjoyed my geek out on video games. I hope to publish some new entries again in the next few days. I have a LOT to catch up on.

Originally, I was supposed to publish this entry after the last post, but couldn’t immediately. I ended up moving my blog to a different server and it took about two days to get everything handled. My friend was very helpful with the whole process and happened to move everything for me in a few minutes. I was especially amazed by his speed.

Anyway, my first time in Las Vegas at a legal age was absolutely awesome. When we arrived we checked into our hotel at Treasure Island, we sat around in the room for a bit and settled in. Then we immediately set out for the casino floor. With so many places to choose from to blow my money, I sat at a blackjack table and immediately was asked if I wanted a drink. This began my first time being carded in Vegas, which everyone laughed about. I stuck to the blackjack and roulette tables, but wandered around some slots as well. Thankfully, I was very lucky in the gambling department. Not losing, but hitting the jackpot numerous times. Eventually we ended up wandering around Vegas and went to the Hard Rock Hotel as I had mentioned in the previous post. Hard Rock after 8 PM has a dress code, because that is basically when all the partying starts. I guess it was a good thing that I was dressed to go the club later, so I didn’t feel left out in my black dress and high heels. Almost everyone there was in their twenties and met up at the center bar which is so amazingly packed that it is hard to make your way up for a drink. Among the hot Go-Go dancers entertaining the blackjack tables, the Rock Star Lounge, the Poker rooms, and the loud music playing while you gamble, it is pretty much a non-stop party. The next day we wandered around Treasure Island (referred to as TI now) for the whole day while we ate tons of food, had a lot of drinks, gambled, and enjoyed the rest of our time before we headed on over to the Venetian and Mirage later that evening.

As a kid I remember coming to Vegas and having nothing to do, but sit by the pool or in the hotel.  I always thought Vegas was a boring place and I could never understand why adults spent their time there. Obviously, when you’re of age, you realize there is so much to do it is ridiculous and time goes by very fast when you’re having fun. Las Vegas is obviously the city that never sleeps with it basically being an open bar and giving you tons of offers to spend your money in more places. And no, I still have not lost my “beerginity”, even though there are plenty of you who are plotting different ways to successfully get me to have my first beer. (Seriously, there are bets going on about this.) Of course, I’m definitely coming back to Vegas, so who is up for the next trip with me?