What's Next???

Good question. That has been the question since I finally finished my Graduate program officially almost two weeks ago! The answer is yet to be determined. I am looking for jobs and trying to figure out where I need to be, whether staying in California, back to D.C., Texas, Spain, Italy, Brazil ... who knows? I'm working on it.

So for anyone who used to follow my Blog and gave up on me actually updating it, I'll try to get back to letting you know what's happening. And for now, here's a quick summary of what happened to me and why I sort-of disappeared from the Blogging world or even with keeping in touch and letting you all know what was going on.

In April, I turned in my program Portfolio, which didn't pass. It was a bit devastating for me, but honestly, I didn't have time to complete it the way I had wanted to nor in a satisfactory manner that would allow me to pass. I had been working too much and carrying 16 credits at the same time, which is insane for this enourmous elephant of a task. Therefore, I sort-of dropped out of communication with most people and buried myself in a hole of devastation at first and then a pile of work. I worked like crazy to try to make ends meet all summer. The summer was insane with many jobs, including Program Coordinating and Teaching for a language teacher training program for a group of Elementary and Secondary teachers from Korea. It was the busiest job of the summer, but was made busier by carrying at least two or three others at the same time. Of course, this all had to end and I had to learn to say no to other possible teaching jobs or other work in order to re-do my portfolio. At the end of the summer, I basically had 3 weeks to complete the whole portfolio! I felt like I had about started over with the two main theses, the position paper and the B1 Revised project. I somehow got it in and three weeks later found that I had passed, pending a million revisions. I felt like I did the portfolio a third time! But, luckily my revisions were approved and the portfolio conference (similar to, but not as intense as, a thesis defense) went well. Then, I found out about a week and a half ago that it was official as far as my department was concerned ... I was done and received my Master's!!!! Now that it is official, I can post my graduation pictures, even if I didn't actually walk or even pick up my graduation robes that I had paid for. My roommate, Nicole, made me put her's on so that I could at least document the event that won't ever happen because I was too proud or embarrassed or whatever at the time, when I didn't feel I deserved to walk in a graduation I wasn't actually graduating in. Whatever ... hindsight is 20/20 ... and I missed out, but here are a couple of pictures in celebration of actually graduating.

You can tell that the robe was not mine, but Nicole's (a bit too short :))

Just a switcheroo for documentation purposes.

It's finally official!

So now, with the lovely economy the way it is, I'm looking for employment, hopefully with benefits and also sufficient to cover my insane grad-loan debt payments! Since the portfolio has been done, I've been extremely busy with doing freelance copyediting and yes, for those who know me well ... I've continued to be stressed and lacking in sleep in order to do it. Well, that is the way deadlines go. But of course, the deadlines were all at the same time ... last week. Now, there is a lull, so this week is when the really serious job searching will happen. And something has to happen quick ... or I've got to get a lot more copyediting freelance work soon.

Alright, there is a bit of an update for ya'll. I hope that you are all doing well and that you'll forgive me for having dropped off the face of the earth since April, seven months ago!

Sidra is Pocahontas, but who am I?

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Less than three weeks left!!

I am tired of looking at my crazy monkey picture of myself from over a month ago. Actually, I'm not really looking at it ... but I'm sure you might have been and would be sick of seeing such a psycho picture. So instead I'm including two of my photos I placed in a photo contest here at MIIS. I received a third place for the "Seasonal View of Austria" but nothing for the butterfly. The butterfly is my favorite though.

Just a quick update, so I can get back to my 10 projects I have left to do or finish. Besides the 10 projects, I have a comprehensive final and the expected revisions on my Portfolio once I get it back this Friday and find out my fate.

I am staying in Monterey for most of the summer at least. I'll be working more hours for the Modern Language Journal and possibly teaching a Business English class for the English for Academic and Professional Purposes Intensive English programs here at MIIS. If the enrollment for the class isn't high enough, they are going to pay me to come up with the curriculum anyway for future use. Beyond that, it is still a mystery ... Some things have popped up as possibilities and I'm waiting to hear from others that I've applied for. I haven't really had time to apply for the majority of the ones that I've been interested in, unfortunately. Well, rather than tell you about my lack of time, I'll get back to my projects and applying.

Graduation is May 10th!!! Then, that is it for school for me!!! I've got a line up of books I want to read, places I want to go, people I want to see, and as my Dad told me to do ... my blank calendar for the week after graduation now has an "S" an "L" an "E" an "E" and a "P" on Monday through Friday! Great advice! I don't know what that is, so I'll find out!

My Birthday

Birthdays ... who wants 'em? Well, they come anyway, so we may as well enjoy them! Nicole planned to take me to dinner with some friends and then we had cake and ice cream at our house.


Me the scary monkey, on my birthday. :) (Oh and Nicole gave me some great monkey slippers as part of my portfolio writing outfit, for our many late nights ... so I guess I'm monkey from my head to my toes.) My actual birthday is tomorrow, but the day is booked with my "singing tour" as Nicole, my roomie, calls it, so we couldn't celebrate tomorrow.


Nicole, me, Anna, Gunnar, and Elizabeth at my birthday party.


Anna, me, and Chris and Rayna (my cousins).

East Coasters/Former East Coaster Family

Washington DC LDS Temple with Stacy and Kelley and David and Tira and families at Christmas

I keep seeing this picture on my Desktop and have wanted to add it to the Blog. Yes, it is now March and this was Christmas, but it was a pretty good half-of-my-family picture.

Earthquake in Nevada

Just for anyone wondering about my family in Nevada. I had a few people asking me how they are. As you probably read that the earthquake in Wells, Nevada, about 40 miles as the crow flies from my parents house didn't cause any deaths or serious injuries, but a lot of structural damage. My parents house just had a few things fall down, but they certainly felt it. My Dad described the 6.0 earthquake as a ride down the rapids of a river. Hundreds of aftershocks have continued and the last one he noticed was yesterday. Sixteen or so of them have all been in the 5s or 4s. But everything is ok, just so everyone knows who was possibly wondering about my family.

Sea Kayaking, Getting Engaged (not me), etc.

So this was the last adventure in January before beginning into the semester. As mentioned in an earlier post, this was the day I kept true to my track record ... another roommate engaged. I've lost count now, but I think it has got to be upwards of twenty. I've again started to have people ask for the applications to be my roommate.

The Story:
Si'i insisted on getting a sea kayak even if he was going to be deployed for a year and planned this whole day where 4 of us (later turned into 6) would be going sea kayaking down in Big Sur where we would hike down to the beach with the kayak. He brought lunch to barbecue on the beach and other details. This picture is the before picture. So to make the story a little shorter, while we were all on the beach in between runs out to the ocean, I noticed a full clam shell sitting behind Nicole and Si'i and asked whether they had found it. So Nicole was admiring it and others were telling her to open it. Well, she slowly opened it and it was full of sand and a black pearl ring sticking out of the sand. So the rest of us jumped back as she dropped the shell and Si'i whispered his proposal to her. Then, he said he'd put the ring on and pulled another ring with a sapphire and a diamond filled and carved band out of his pocket to put it on her. He later said he nearly got three rings! Who gets two rings? It was a great day, made better with perfect weather in January and a grey whale that hung out in the bay where we were all day. Two of the times I was out, the whale came within about 20 feet from our kayak!! It was so exciting!!

Buried again

Here are a few pictures from my last couple of days at Stacy and Kelley's house with the kids.

Occasionally, I will try to add something here just so you know I'm still living and still staying ridiculously busy. I've only been back in Monterey for 2 1/2 weeks and back in school for 2 weeks, however, enough has happened to make it seem as if I've been here for 2 months.
A few minutes after I walked in the door, I was informed I had a ticket sitting on my car awaiting my return. I was really blessed that this silly ticket was only placed on my car the previous day, because the ridiculous California laws strike again. It is difficult to even park on my own street most the time and I have to have a "guest" pass in order to do so at all. All the parking in Monterey is timed and they are extremely happy to drive their mini parking truck around 24/7 to give tickets to bring in plenty of money into this city. So this time, my ticket said, "no person who owns or has possession, custody or control of any vehicle shall park such vehicle upon any street or alley for more than a consecutive period of seventy-two (72) hours." After 72 hours from when they place the ticket, they will then tow, then I would have had to pay $300 plus to retrieve my car. Since I was gone for a month, I am extremely lucky that they didn't decide to put it on there much earlier. Of course, this was extremely upsetting anyway, 2 days after getting a $100 parking ticket in downtown DC the one day I went there, because I misread the sign saying I needed to leave by 4:00 rather than 4:30 to open up the commuting lanes.
By the way, for those who I didn't see when I was there, which is 99.9% of you, I'm sorry. Work and spending time with my family in Southern Maryland seemed to take precedence.
Now since my return, my Portfolio has especially overwhelmed me not to mention the other classes and MLJ work, which are being treated as "other."
But, I have to say that the most exciting thing that has happened since I returned is witnessing the engagement of my roommate Nicole and Si'i, who leaves Monday for deployment to Afghanistan. The details are fun, and I'll add them once I get someone's pictures, because I was surprised and thus, without my own camera. You might be thinking that I'm keeping up my trend of marrying off my roommates. Yes, this is two since moving to Monterey, both of which, I witnessed the engagement. People are beginning to ask me again if they can apply to be my roommate, which has happened in every other location I've lived. It is fun to be a part of it, I have to say.
Back to the books I go.

Michael's personal impression of his Dad

My nephew, Michael, saw his Dad, my brother, Stacy, taking a nap one afternoon. He looked at his Mom and pointed at Dad making the perfect imitation. It was so funny. Ever since, his brothers and sisters ask him what Daddy does or says and he'll do it.