Life has seemed a bit crazy this past month or so. I started back to school, I'm taking 4 classes. They aren't really hard or anything but two of them have required a lot of reading and one of them is stats. (Health and Human Relations; Anthropology of Judaism; Social Stats; and Cultures of Africa) So far stats hasn't been difficult and I feel like I'm keeping up, but we'll see. We have our first exam on Thursday. In my Cultures of Africa class we've already had a quiz and have another one on Tuesday. The first quiz was identifying where all the countries of Africa are and 8 of the more prominent rivers. (side note, the other night I was at the Trax station when I realized I'm missed the last one for the night and met another girl in the same situation. We started talking and decided to walk home together since we lived just one block away from me. She was in the library late studying for Arabic! Anyway, she had an accent and I asked her where she was from and she told me Africa but I had to guess which country. I got out of her that it was West Africa and from there I just went through the list in my head. She was quite impressed. However, I think she was less impressed when I explained to her why I knew the names of every African country.) Our next quiz in that class is on the African Kingdoms. We have to identify 3 and give the years, region and five facts about accomplishments and why they are considered accomplishments. I really like this teacher a lot. I've had her before for the Anthropology of Food and she's a crack up. She can never figure out the video projector or ANYTHING technical and always says the funniest things. Plus, she's an actual anthropologist, she's not just a teacher. She only teaches classes in the Spring and the rest of the year she's being an anthropologist. Currently her work is in Papua New Guinea, but she had done extensive work with the Bushman in Africa too. In my Judaism class we will be getting our take home exam on Tuesday and will probably have a week to do it. It just feels like this semester has started off fast and just keeps gaining momentum.

There has also been a change at work. I sort of got a promotion two weeks ago. I am now a fully benefited employee (3/4 time). I'm driving the night route now. I kind of hate getting home a midnight now but it's nice to have my days free. I only have classes two days a week and the earliest starts at 9:10 so I haven't been TOO tired either. The night routes are pretty easy too. When I drive the Blue route I have about a 8 minutes layover every 30 minutes and with the Red route it's about 10 minutes, so I have plenty of time to read! Which is how I am able to keep up with the reading for my Judaism class.

I also decided last week (Sunday to be exact), after talking with my friend Zack, that I need to move. In May when the semester is over I'm moving. I know this is not in line with the usual way I live, which is only planning one semester at a time, but I figured who cares? It's my life. Plus that's just barely over 3 months away, pretty soon, yet it feels so far away. I've decided to move to D.C or if I don't get a job there it'll be Alaska again for the summer and then to DC. We'll see how everything plays out. I just think I need a change. I'm comfortable here and that's how I know I need a change. I have no out of this country travels planned for this coming summer (like I have for the past 4 summers) so this is my alternative. Double plus bonus: it's exciting AND can help my career. It's a win-win...I think.

There's just about 19 million things I want to do/experience/be that it becomes just so hard to make a decision. Plus I'm hardly ever certain of anything. I mean, I'm certain I love traveling and anthropology and the Middle East, my family and clean sheets, but besides that I'm just not certain what will make me happiest. Or more importantly, what will make God happiest. It's hard to give your will over to Him when you just don't know what exactly it is He wants from you. I've never really gotten a personal revelation of what I'm really supposed to do or to be. Honestly, the closest I've ever gotten to personal revelation has always been after the fact. A few months ago I was talking to my bishop about what I was thinking about doing and how I just wish that the Lord could give me a little more help in knowing what's right and my bishop said something that has actually REALLY helped me out a lot. It's really quite simple but perfect for me. He told me that GOD TRUSTS ME. He said that God's known me for longer then I've known myself and knows that I'll do the right thing. He said that's why some people (me) just don't receive the revelation they need until after the fact.

I guess it's just so simple that I couldn't see it. Of course trust works both ways. The more trust we put in Him the more trust He puts in us. It's just like any other relationship we have. Trust is a two way street.

Anyway, that's not really where I was planning on going with this post, oh well. I guess it's not the worst thing in the world for me to open up to people a little more. People who are really emotionally closed off drive me crazy. Hmm, I wonder why? On a much lighter note...

My friend Marika thinks my life should be made into a graphic novel. She feels like I live a very captivating life as a bus driver. This is her first drawing of Super Hero Me.

She says that when I was born I had black skin and my parents wanted me to be a super hero so they dipped me in a vat of toxic waste. However they unknowingly dipped me in bleach instead. Hence the extremely pale skin and curly blonde hair. But to this day I still live the life of a half super hero. Or something along those lines.

Goals and things of that sort

I sort of think New Year Resolutions are stupid. Does anyone even stick to them? However, I am a proponent of making and sticking to goals. What's the difference? you may ask and the answer to me is simple: a new years resolution is something you feel you have to do and a goal is something you chose to do at anytime because you feel you need it. I suppose it's the non-conformity in me speaking. I don't think I've always been this way, so non-conforming that is, but the more life I've lived the more I've felt it. And I'm going to be 27 in March, I've lived a long life. The point I'm trying to make is this: I've set 13 "Goals" for the new year. Is thirteen an unlucky number? Is is still unlucky if I set these goals while in sacrament meeting on a church bulletin? I'm thinking thirteen may be my new lucky number (it's currently 8, for you nosey heads). I suppose the idea of telling you what they are is so that I will be help more accountable for them, I hope it works.

1. 4.0 GPA this coming semester (If I get a B in math that's still going to count). I've been thinking about going back to school this semester and retaking a couple of classes I didn't do so well in the first time around. By doing this I would significantly raise my overall GPA and thus making me more competitive for grad school, should that be what I choose.
2. Pay off my loan.
3. Accrue no new personal debt.
4. Go to Mexico
5. Increase my physical activity level (ie. work out more)
6. Eat at least one serving of fresh fruits and vegetables with every meal
7. Become far more spiritual (ie. daily scripture study, temple attendance, keep the sabbath day holy)
8. Attend Institute regularly
9. Laugh everyday
10. Learn to sew
11. Go shooting more, improve
12. Learn to hold back more tears (by this I just mean to stop crying at sappy things in movies and books and on TV).
13. Read 2 new books a month (this will be increased if I end up NOT going back to school this semester).

I also don't believe in blanket goals. By that I mean vague goals that could potentially cover a lot of ground. If your goal is to "read more" you need to set a goal of what "more" is. Or if your goal is to get a 4.0 GPA you need to (in my case at least) set a lot of mini goals to allow you to achieve that bigger goal. Duh I know this is all basic stuff we all learned in Young Womens, but I just don't think everyone gets it. That's what bugs me so much about New Year Resolutions. And that's also probably why they never end up being kept. So, many of my goals have more parts to them that I have just chosen not to blog about. Best of luck to all "Goal" makers and keepers.

My Christmas Break pt 2

John, my sister's (Riana) boyfriend, took us shooting one afternoon. It was a lot of fun and (double plus bonus) I was good! especially with the sniper rifle. P.S. Nothing living was shot. I still don't think I could ever shoot an animal.

I just love this picture and oak trees. This shot reminds me of the cover for Big Fish.
These cows were very suspicious of us.
John looks like a little boy in this picture
John forgot to bring enough earplugs, so in this one he's plugging Riana's ears with his hands and his own ears with his shoulders. What a good boyfriend.
I'm always a lady, even when shooting a sniper rifle.
I just think this is a cool shot of us shooting. Thank you Riana.

This gun is a German WW2 rifle. Pretty nifty.


John and I and his truck
I just like the point of view of this one.

This llama was just walking around.
Apparently if you cross a cow with a golden retriever this is what you get. A Scottish Highland Cow
Emu
Who would of thought Emu eggs looked like this?!
Three happy girls

Natalie and I also took a short hike behind our old elementary school in the Orcutt Hills.








There is the photo essay of my Christmas Vacation.

My Christmas Break part 1

My Christmas was fantastic. Lots of time spent with family and lots of good food and relaxing. My photos will tell my story of my vacation in California.

The following 2 are from Christmas morningMarshall The Dog
Patrick, Elijah (Ed) and Nathan

I absolutely love going home. I love California and I adore and am mesmerized by the beauty of the Central Coast. With that said, Santa Maria is boring for those in their mid-twenties. There really isn't anything for us to do in the evening. This is what we ended up with:Natalie and I decided to recreate our lives in Santa Maria of Past...at night.
Natalie in front of our elementary school alma mater
Jacks is an Orcutt classic
Sometimes I like to dance like an umpa lumpa in front of my old high school
Natalie knows how to represent
Remember when this was Camelot? THOSE were the days.

We went decided to go to the Guadalupe Sand Dunes and Lake Oso Flaco. It's very pretty out there. However, I recommend not going right before sunset, give yourself more time.