UGH!!!

FUCK ucla!!!!!

It's my lucky day

Don't you just love when you get a pleasant little surprise on a day that otherwise seemed pretty normal? Well today has been a pretty plain day in the office. My coworkers and my boss are all out doing either field work or administrative tasks, so I'm here alone just doing my own thing which is fine except lunch time is not all too exciting when you don't have anyone to join you. So I decided that I would take a quick walk down the street and pick up some sushi to bring back to the office. I took the back exit which I don't think too many people around here take because it's kinda a maze and you have to walk thru the roof then down a dark stairwell. Anyway, I got my sushi and headed back to the office and took the back entrance again. Well, right as I opened the door to the dark stairwell there was a $20 bill staring me right in the face with some spare change sprinkled around it. I thought that was weird cuz when you drop change, you usually hear it fall on the floor. So I'm wondering why someone would let a good amount of change fall on the floor and not notice that a $20 fell with it as well. Unless it was a set-up. But I waited around and looked back outside the door to see if anyone was coming back to get it. But nope! So that totally made my day! Well like I said, it's a pretty quiet day today. I kinda like this every once in a while because I can actually get work done without any distractions, do my own thing at my own pace, play music, etc. It's nice :) It's actually a pretty exciting time here because our company just signed the lease for a new Pasadena office. The one we have right now is really small and barely fits 5 people. The new office is only a few blocks away, and on the 7th floor of a building where half of the walls are windows with a gorgeous view! And this office is going to be muuuuch bigger. I visited it with my boss a few weeks back and helped her decide on the interior decorating. I think it is going to look pretty sweet. I also attended the USC engineering career fair with my boss last week and I had so much fun! It was a weird feeling to be back and be the recruiter who all the desperate students try to impress by giving the usual "sell yourself" small talk. I can't believe I was in that position just a year ago...how time flies. It brought back those feelings of nostalgia. I really do miss my USC days but things have only been getting better and those days have paid off by putting me in a position in life where I am truly happy.

As you can probably tell, things have been pretty busy, hence my lack of posts. I would think I have more time to just be lazy, but I have found that no matter how hard I plan to do absolutely nothing on the weekends and free evenings, unexpected things will always come up and/or things that I absolutely cannot say no to. I feel like I've been a bad friend, too, because there are so many people I want to hang out with and just spend quality time with but I have to plan it like weeks ahead. And then I'm taking the Engineer-In-Training exam on the 28th of this month and I have been soo pressed for study time. I have no idea how I am going to pass this exam..it's going to be 8 hours of math, science, physics, ethics, DEATH. I guess I should have started studying months ago but like I said I have no time!! ugh, I just cant wait for it to be over so I can be stress free. I plan on getting my masters eventually, but geez I can't even study for one measly exam that I've known about for months already how could I ever manage school again? lol Or maybe I just need to be more disciplined with myself. That's probably it. Oh well, if I dont pass I can always take it again.

On to more, exciting news - I have confirmed my first real vacation! I'm going to Costa Rica from January 20-27 and I am soooo excited!! Everything has been reserved and paid for, so now I am just waiting very patiently for the days to pass. It shouldn't be too bad though because holiday season is about to start up and we all know how those days just fly by. I'm telling you, life is not going any slower. But that's a good thing - I wouldnt want to live a dull and boring life anyway :) And even more exciting news: I get to celebrate 3 years of amazingness with Felipe next month! haha..I really try not to get all mushy/lovey on here but I really am excited for that! Feel free to ignore it, but at least it makes me happy :)

Well I really should get back to work. My sushi is all gone - that means lunch time is up :( Until next time, friends... by the way - does anyone still read this?

Stunna Shadez

I want to buy some Stunna Shadez just so I can say that I "put my Stunna Shadez on." That will automatically make me a million times cooler. Then, I can wear them at night and be the shit!

haha
Really, in all seriousness...I want some Stunna Shadez! Maybe not pink ones, though..

Lunch Break

So I thought I'd take advantage of my lunch time in the office to give you all a little update. Lunch time makes me happy, so this shall be a happy post :)

Happy Thursday, by the way! That means only one more day until the weekend..woo hoo! I have learned to appreciate and fully savor my weekends as a result of working. Last weekend was spent with my one and only. The Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia holds summer concert series every other Saturday with the California Philharmonic. So Felipe and I got lawn tickets for the concert (the theme for that evening happened to be "Phantom Goes to the Opera.") We left early to make a pit stop at Whole Foods (my fav grocery store) to stock up on goodies and of course wine. So we had our little picnic and listened to classical music composed by Andrey Lloyd Webber. It turned out to be a perfect summer evening and date!



Relaxing on the lawn before the show starts.
Here is Felipe with our picnic - Argentinian wine, cheese, bread, pasta, mangoes in raspberry sauce, and tiramisu creme brulee..all of which constitute the perfect picnic!







If you've never paid a visit to the Los Angeles arboretum, I highly suggest it -especially during the summer when the weather is at its best!
After the concert ended, we headed back to downtown LA. We stayed at the Bonaventure Hotel - I love their elevators, and the hotel itself is simply classic.
We spent Sunday driving around Beverly Hills and ended up finding this sweet park in the middle of the city. I couldn't resist the temptation to take some cheesy couple shots...hehe











Later that night, I went back to Stevens Steak House with my Mom for my weekly dose of salsa dancing. Monday began the weekly grind...but I like to keep myself busy so that the days go by quicker. I hit up the gym every day after work, and then I try to go out to dinner with friends for some catching up. On Tuesday I went to Chilis with my 2 honeys, Becca and Jon! They are the best and I love talking to them :) Yesterday I got a phone call from my good friend Antonio. We were both in the CAHSEE internship in Washington DC two summers ago. He called me because he was in the area for work, so I headed over to Anaheim last night to grab some dinner at the Yardhouse. YaY, I always enjoy meeting up with old friends that I haven't seen for a long time! So that was very cool.

My dear ex-roomie-of-4-years, Kim, is back in town after spending 2 months in Paraguay. So tonight we have planned an outing to Cafe Sevilla in Long Beach for tapas, sangria, and most importantly - salsa dancing! I hear that place is awesome on Thursday nights, and I am so excited to go! Can't wait till 5pm!!! Ahh Kimmay will be leaving again in about two weeks to spend her year abroad in Greece and France....sooo jealous. I really need to start doing some traveling of my own. After my 6 month period of no vacation days are up, I finally start to get my well-deseved time off. Ehh...but I have to wait until the end of November. I plan on spending lots of money on traveling because you're only young once and one of my philosophies on life is that one should travel young. We've gotta take advantage that we still have our youthful energy! Hmmm...I am definitely planning to take two big trips within the next year. I'm thinking about visiting Kim in Greece or Paris. And when Felipe graduates from his Masters program next year, we're for sure vacationing somewhere. Maybe South America for that one...

For the meantime, my regular weekend trips will have to suffice. I've done Vegas and San Francisco so far this summer. Coming up will be Ensenada for Labor Day weekend and San Francisco again at the end of September!! Woo Hoo!

Stay tuned for more updates!

The grown up life

Well this weekend was spent doing something that has become one of my new favorite pastimes – salsa dancing. I love it, I love it. I went to the Rumba Room again on Saturday and had a blast. Kirstin joined us this time – my true dance buddy. It’s so much fun to dance with her because she’s just as crazy as I am…ah good times. On Sunday I dragged my Mom with me to Steven’s Steakhouse in the city of Commerce. I’ve heard that it is one of LA’s hottest salsa spots and I was not disappointed. Too bad it was a Sunday and I had to go home early, but I will be back. If anyone ever wants to come salsa dancing with me, holla atcha girl!

Besides keeping myself entertained during my off-time, I have been quite busy at work. I am slowly adjusting to this new lifestyle and learning to appreciate the benefits of being a working woman. Sure, I still miss the college lifestyle and it is something that I now look back on as one of my fondest memories. But the future is proving to live up to my expectations thus far. I can honestly say that I enjoy my job. It is something that I never saw myself doing, but life takes crazy turns and I am one to believe that they happen for a reason. So what if I majored in biomedical engineering….environmental engineering is really growing on me. Maybe it’s my work culture. When I first go the job, I was a bit worried that I would not meet very many people and would quickly get bored at my job because I work for a very small firm with about 100 employees. In fact, there are only 5 people in my office since we are the Southern California “satellite” office. But a good friend told me that it was great that I took a job with a small firm because they really focus on developing their employees professionally. He was absolutely right – I have learned so much for only having worked there for about two months. I wasn’t put through a company training or anything of the sort. I was simply given responsibilities plus a little more since day 1, and I do feel like I am being challenged. I guess that keeps me from being bored with my job. Plus, my coworkers are awesome and have been sooo patient. I really did luck out!




Here is a pic that I took during some field work that I did last week. One of the best parts of the job is that I am not stuck in the office 24/7. My boss is making it a point to get the other new hire and I out on work sites as much as possible so that we can get real hands-on environmental experience. I must say that it is pretty nice to get to wear the hard hat and safety vest and be the cool “engineer-in charge’ during field activities. They send me out with a more experienced field geologist and I pretty much learn field protocol from them. For this particular field project, we supervised the subcontractors as they dug 7 feet holes in the ground and installed a probe inside so that we could measure methane levels in the soil with a cool field instrument. I was also the designated picture-taker as you can tell!

I am happy. I guess I should admit that my one true complaint is having to wake up at 5:30am Monday through Friday to get ready and head out on the daily 1-hour commute. God I hate waking up early…I was never a morning person…never have, never will be. But that is what weekends are for – sleeping in until noon and unwinding after a long week of work.

In other news, I miss my boyfriend. He comes back from Mexico on Thursday and I cannot wait to spend this weekend with him!

Guess who's back?!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to update this thing AGAIN. I told you I suck.
Ooops

Well, I'm back. Let's take a moment to appreciate that at least :)

Soooo much has happened since my last update. I really don't know where to start. How about...I'm officially a college graduate as of May 2006! Yeeeaah. That definitely goes down on my list of great personal accomplishments...well, not just for me, but for my family and those who have supported me in so many ways my entire life. I'm finally done, with undergrad at least... Of course I want to get my masters, but that will come in due time.

But sheesh since I left you all hanging from my last post, maybe I'll do a little reminiscing about my incredible senior year at USC.

Here are some pics from my Spring Break road trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sure it wasn't your typical beach bash, lounging-by-the-pool type of Spring Break but it was fun and very memorable.

We did some snowboarding in Taos where the conditions were amazing! It was like a Winterwonderland...in April heheh

We stayed with Eliana's cousin and his wife, newlyweds who were sooo much fun to stay with. All in all, it was good company and great times!

Aaand now...Spring Break #2!! Who gets to go on two spring breaks?! The USC Competition Cheerleaders! So about two weeks after the "real" spring break, the team headed over to Daytona Beach for Nationals! woo hooo...it was crazy times with all of my fellow USC cheerleaders who I miss so much! Who cares if we sucked and got beat ten times over by all those midwest schools, we freakin partied it up in Florida and stayed in a beautiful mansion for a week (thank you Mr. and Mrs. O'Meara) :)


Here are the flyers getting ready for competition day 1.


The team chillaxin by the pool...this is the life.


Suntanned and exhausted after playing in the lake...a girl needs her Oceanspray.

Of course I cannot leave out the Senior Fountain run! I waited four years to participate in this night of complete insanity and man was it crazy! Imagine the USC campus filled with hundreds and hundreds of drunk and wet seniors running and jumping in all of the fountians at 12am toasting to their final days as a college student. Hahah...we for sure ended this one with a bang.



Here we are posing in one of the fountains.
This was definitely one of my favorite nights and memories at USC...sigh...

Finally the big day arrived! Graduation..woo hoo!

Here are my fellow Biomedical Engineering grads showing off our fake diplomas right after walking. Look how happy we are...no more BME undergrad bullshit woot!


This one was taken at the Latino Graduation...soooo much fun! So proud of all of us!

Of course, no graduation is complete without some kind of trip or traveling (at least in my books)! So, I went with a group of friends to Puerto Penasco Mexico for a week of some serious relaxing.




The beautiful Puerto Penasco...


Dining by the ocean with my baby!


They even have "Yamba Yuce" there. haha

So there you have it. A quick summary of key events from my favorite year at USC..ahh it miss it already. :( This is in no way a comprehensive account of the past year..believe it you all wouldn't get an udpate for another 5 months if I even attempted it..but this is all you get for now suckas!

Ahhh I wish I could be a lazy college student my entire life minus the homework, exams, stress... Buuut we all know how I hate to be broke and my material needs dictate that I get my lazy ass a job. So I did! And now I am a working woman...woot woot! The whole job hunting was pain but it was totally worth it. I have a great & real engineering job and I am finally livin' well. My job is in Pasadena, so the commute kinda sucks but I absolutely love the area since we are in the middle of downtown. I really have no real complaints about life right now. I like what I am doing and even better I don't have to worry about homework and exams anymore!! And to top it all off, I still have my amazing boyfriend by my side who continues to make me complete and I couldn't ask for anything more :)

So there you have it...my short re-introduction. Mark my words - I will be updating this regularly now! I don't know how I let myself slack for so long especially cuz I love keeping some type of "record" for all my crazy adventures. Soo expect more people!!

Peace for now!

Ok so I lied...

...and I'm a horrible person who can't keep a decent blog. Call it what you will, I decided that I will not force myself to update this every living day of my life or every time I do something cool on the weekend. I'll update it when I feel like it (which happens to be now)...or if someone really really insists and keeps reminding me of how outdated my blog is (cough,coughADANcough,cough).
Ah well here I am. Well into the second semester of my senior year. Ahhhhhhh That's my life right now summed up in one expression. Maybe senioritis is real? Who woulda thought... I never experienced this in high school probably because I knew exactly what I was doing afterwards. Now, it's a different story. Who knows where I'll be a year from today or what I'll be doing...Ahhhhh Hopefully I'll be doing something productive... For the time being, I'm actually taking time to enjoy my final semester as an undergrad. I'm dedicating a lot more time to friends and my family - something I've deprived myself of the past couple of years. Now I realize how pointless it was...the whole having no life and stressing out over school bullshit. I'm so over it. It's time to worry about me! Hey, I'm actually taking a fun, non-engineering class this semester with Eliana - one of my best friends since 4th grade who I NEVER saw at USC even though we've been going here for the past 4 years. This class is awesome...we watch new (and GOOD) movies before they premiere and discuss them with guests. The guest can be anyone who worked on the movie (the director, an actor, editor, costume designer, etc). And the professor is a freakin famous Hollywood critic. It's so exciting to take a fun class..I can't believe I missed out for so long! To top it all off, Eliana and I spend the hour before class having some drinks at the campus bar getting ready for our weekly movie. Heh...the pros of going to a university that has the #1 cinema school in the nation. Good stuff...
I even took up a directed research opportunity that I'm getting degree credit for! I'm sad that I never did research before this, but it's never too late to start! So a couple times a week, I ride the USC tram over to the Health Science campus where I help a graduate student. Basically what he does is place electrodes on the eyelids of rabbits who have been paralyzed in the face. Then they test the electrodes at different electrical impulses and durations to force it to blink its eye. It's all an effort to solve the problem of loss of vision due to facial paralysis. Really cool stuff...

Soooo we all know what I should be doing right now. STUDYING for my Microbio exam on Monday. But shit...that's on Monday..and it's Tuesday! (er..technically Wednesday) Still...midterms call for procrastination. So here I remain.

Hey so if anyone wants to say a little prayer for me, here's your opportunity! I applied for an awesome international opportunity sponsored by the Whitaker Foundation for biomedical engineering. The program itself is a bit complicated to explain. Pretty much if all goes well, I could be living in Mexico City starting August for an entire year! Not only that, but I'll be doing some great research and getting biomedical/rehabilitation engineering experience at the Universidad Iberoamericana. I really hope I get the fellowship, but I won't find out until April. It will definitely be a big change for me. Of course, change and new experiences are always things I look forward to...even if it means spending time away from my family, friends, and boyfriend. Yeah the whole missing each other sucks. Hell, I did it 2 summers in a row (except only for the duration of 2 months). But I'm strong enough of a person and confident in my relationship to know that things will last. And, hey, if I don't get the fellowship then it wasn't meant for me :) Best of luck to my fellow biomedical engineering buddy, Adrian, who also applied for the program in New Zealand!

Alright...I think it's late enough for me to begin my study efforts. Until next time...who knows, maybe "midterm season" will inspire me to update this blog more often than usual. heheheh..