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!!