live well. laugh often. LOVE much.

i keep hearing from people how terrible the weather is. why doesn't this weather bother me? i don't particularly like it when it rains for weeks at a time, but i only dislike it because it's inconveniencing to me. but gloomy weather like this doesn't bother me. i know people where weather like this depresses them. i don't get that. like there are so many OTHER things to be depressed or sad about... how can weather affect you that much?

i'm really so tired. i really need to catch up on my sleep. i need a vacation to rest up from my other vacation. :) how funny is that?

it's been 7 years. it's amazing the things that have happened in these 7 years. stuff that he's missed. stuff that we've had to do without him. stuff that i always thought he'd be here for.

what i really need to do is start researching grad schools again. whoa nelly, that makes my head spinski. i'm opening up the areas i'm applying to this time to be north dakota - south and west of there. cross your fingers that i don't end up in nebraska... shit, i probably just jinxed myself.

oh, it's so nice to be back home. it's nice to see paved streets (as opposed to roads built with rocks and dirt), grass, no random animals running around, and all the fabulousness that is our country. seeing poverty is always hard to swallow, and it's good to gain perspective when you get to see how good you really have it.

mexico was fun, but after about the 5th day i was so ready to come home. while we were there, we got to go to different islands, one of which we had a buffet and saw a show, the other was where we went snorkeling/snuba diving. we got to take an ATV ride throughout the city/towns, and we got to go horse-back riding through a different part of the city/town which i've never done before. they were all such new interesting experiences. i learned a little more about andy's dad and stepmom and their backgrounds.

i'm really very tired though. you can either do relaxing vacation or high adventure, and we seemed to do the high adventure. and then i didn't rest when we got back either. we drove up to LA for crissy's bachelorette party, drove back down to san diego and got home at 5am, then at 11am on sunday we went to the fair. got up this morning and went to work. i wonder when i can recoup. hmmm....

i'm gonna go home now. i keep trying to figure out what american food i want to eat that i had missed out on during the past week. i've also missed out on news... you know, in puerto vallarta you get 2 channels on tv that are in english? it's like being shut out from the world. god bless america.

de nada para ti.

yes, we are having muy muy bueno time. this vacation will be long enough because i'm having fun, but i can feel myself ready to come home. i really miss my dogs.... and not to mention my king size, wonderfully comfy bed.

we went on a 3 1/2 hour ATV tour of the city yesterday. it was really neat. we got to see parts of the city that we wouldn't have normally seen staying near our hotel where it's very touristy. almost towards the end of the tour, we got to stop at a tequila factory and try different tequilas. it was super! and i'm neither a fan nor a hater of tequila, but it was neat to see how it was made and get to try different ones. i even bought a bottle of their coffee flavored tequila liquor. it was so good, it wasn't even like it was alcohol.

there is no agenda for today, so i think me and andy are going to try to find some shopping places. that's what i've been wanting to do this whole time. tomorrow, i think we're going to do what neneng recommended and go horseback riding. i'm thrilled about that. and it's fairly barato.

as far as traveling, i realized that i would love to travel, but i want the places i go to to be like America. i want the comforts of America, i want people to speak english and i want the cleanliness. that's a harsh reality. because that's not what it's going to be like. we're supposed to go to europe within the next year or two for our delayed "honeymoon" and i'm a little worried what that's gonna be like.

okay, i have to log off because my half hour is coming to a close. if you want a souvenir, let me know.

que no?

i'm burnt to a crisp. we were on a boat today for at least 7 hours. i'm not really sure how long we were out there, mostly because it's difficult to keep track of time when your watch is 2 hours ahead and you refuse to change it to local time. anyway, it was a really long ass day and i'm fried. (btw, it's very difficult to use a keyboard in mexico because some of the buttons are different. why that suprises me? i'm not sure)

oow, i just figured out how to enter to a new line. damn, this is tough.

anyway, i went snorkeling for the first time in my life. it was interesting. it was also interesting that i got stung THREE TIMES on my arm by a JELLYFISH. WTF????? the best part is that i was trying to be tough and stayed in the water until other people were like "i got stung!" then i was like "okay, this is nuts... i probably got stung, i'm getting out." it hurt like a mother. nobody got to pee on me, but i did put vinegar on my arm. andy got to go snuba diving with his dad, and had a grand time.

my espanol is getting better. yeah, right. i sneak out what i've got so far and everyone is like "wow, good job." and i tell them it's because i'm in the spanish immersion program here. being here has made me really evaluate what i'm like in a different country. it's not very easy to adapt. there's food here that i want to try, but then i remember how chicken and germaphobic i am and i change my mind. lame.

i think me and andy are gonna go back up to our hotel room soon. it's 3oo pesos for half an hour at this internet cafe. that's equivalent to $3. i need to get out of here because it still feels like i'm on the boat and i can't seem to find my center of gravity. we're gonna go next door to the market and get some haagen dazs ice cream... ah, the comforts of home.

muy bien.

i'm in mexico. i'm in an internet cafe with internet access better than dial-up. who knew?

anyway, it's a smidge humid here, but interesting. i had a 510 peso lobster dinner here last night. it was delish.

okay, i'll blog again tonight when i log back on. adios!

whew... i'm leaving work REALLY soon. i'm far beyond excited. i can't wait to go and relax and just get some time away from work. i've heard people say "i definitely need a vacation" and boy that is some serious shit. i seriously need to get away. andy, too. work has been a bear and i think he really does work too hard. damn, hand over that tequila, cervezas, carne asada, and fish tacos..... YIPPPEEE!!!!!

i've been working like a maniac all day trying to get all my loose ends tied up. i've never left for vacation for this long. usually it's just one or two days out of the week, added with the weekend, but this time it's a full 7 days. and for some crazy ass reason this week has been a nightmare. i'm so ret to go.

anyway, have a good week everyone. crissy have fun next friday. we'll see you on saturday. oh, and a tooth nuggie is that stuff that gets stuck in your teeth that you need to pick out with a toothpick. nice, right?

vive le mexico!

sometimes as crazy as my work is, it's really funny too. i had a subject who insisted he wasn't any "race" but only part of the "human race." one of my co-workers (who is in fact white) told me that i should have told him "you're white... and i KNOW it." as if he was trying to hide it from me. hm... you learn new things when you have to deal with a schizophrenic.

we're leaving for a week-long vacation in 2 days and i haven't packed one single item of necessities. i need to go home and do a crap load of stuff.

my birthday came and went with a small splash. on monday neneng took me to dinner at mimi's. i got a lot of calls and messages from people wishing me a grand old birfday. then on tuesday we went to dinner at fresh restaurant in downtown la jolla with just the fam. then on wednesday, i went to extraordinary desserts in little italy with my two friends from work. ah, to be loved.

okay, i have to leave work now and go home.

today's my birthday. how's about it. i'm just about ready to leave work and i'm so tired. almost everyone i talked to today said i should have taken the day off, but really, there's wasn't anything i had to do today anyway, except sleep. meya and fidelis certainly weren't going to throw me a party. a bunch of people called me today and work, they made me cookies and sang. very nice. tomorrow, we're going out to dinner to fresh seafood restaurant in la jolla. i'm thrilled. 27 doesn't feel different. not at all. also, all year i've been telling people that i was already 27, so that's probably why there's no change.

so anyway, one last thought: hot beef injection. lol.

some of our twins say the craziest things. teeth nuggies... so so gross.

i can't believe how tired i am. it's almost incomprehendable. it's like i've been up for a thousand hours and now i'm crashing. but i've been sleeping. i actually didn't sleep very well last night. and not to mention that i elbowed andy in the nose at one point when i turned over. oops.

mexico is just around the corner. speaking of around the corner, my birthday is coming up quickly here. dude, i'm so ready to call it a day here at work. i still have like an hour left. the morning went so fast and now the afternoon is taking so long.

oh, i drove yesterday with fidelis in my car. i had my top down and fidelis had his doggie seatbelt on. it was hysterical.

"I think that the film Clueless was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness." - Alicia Silverstone, Actress

for crissy... voila: The Brass Ring

last night was my last night of princeton review. i'm so glad it's over. i'm so used to having my time to myself and not having to worry about my "schedule" and it was making me crazy going "oh, i can't, i have class that night." granted, the class was very short and could have been tremendously longer (princeton review for the MCAT is ridiculously long - like 6 months) so i'm thankful in that respect. but i'm so glad it's done. now, i have a little over a month to study on my own and i really need to dedicate time to that since i'm not being forced to from a class/teacher. learning to change your mindset can often be difficult.....

i need to go get my hair did. my roots are strugglin. but i really don't feel like paying for both a haircut and color. ugh, hair maintenance. it's not easy being beautiful. :)

i'm so ready to go home. i've been putting together our bar shelf for the dining room and i'm excited to get it done tonight. the shelf is gonna hold all our liquor and "drink-making" equipment and i think it's gonna be neato.

andy is having a big of a quandry with his current employment situation. i, too, have been giving my future occupation a lot of thought, and "the brass ring" came to mind. i think i've always been pretty driven. but sometimes i wonder if that has been a detriment, or if that's really where i want to go.

it's so cold in my office. i really would like some coffee. but at the same time i'm dying for marble slab. would eating ice cream and drinking coffee be a weird combination? weird enough for people to give me a strange and curious look?

i have been perusing (as an aside, for those of you who think "peruse" means to look something over superficially, it actually means the exact opposite. merriam webster defines it as: to examine or consider with attention and in detail. just so ya know) that website that cit put on her blog. it definitely got me thinking about secrets. i even thought to myself "wow, i don't think i have any secrets." at least by the definition that i've NEVER told anyone else. information might be divvied up amongst a small group of people, but i don't have ANYTHING that nobody knows.... but guess what, the more i thought about it, i DO have secrets. it's funny, too, though because after i realized i did have secrets, my first thought was "i wonder why i never told andy that." and if i told him, it would no longer be a secret. such circular thinking, i love it.

i'm having one of those really tough days. you know, when you can't stop being so hard on yourself that you just want to curl up and snuggle with your dogs. okay, maybe not everyone gets that feeling, but the anxiety i'm feeling is palpable.

i just had to reschedule my GRE exam. i had it scheduled for the 13th of this month, but i'm now going to take it in july. my princeton review was 7 classes and on the 4th class it got cancelled, and i'm positive i lost my momentum. i told myself that i would dedicate all of this weekend and all of next weekend studying and reviewing, but i sat down to work this morning and i couldn't focus. i couldn't get past ONE problem. it was like it was foreign all over again. i'm just being really hard on myself and it's just one of those days.

andy had to work overtime this morning and i've been struggling with what to do about this by myself. sometimes life gets in the way and rearranging things sucks, but that's just the way it is. you would think i'm sitting a little easier now that my test is a month away rather than a week away, but i'm not. i need to figure out what to do with myself.

this too shall pass.