Employed

I have a job, as of yesterday! It's a dream job: a little silver shop down in Capitola Village (read: tourist central). I can ride my bike to work (downhill, mostly), and it's easy, the coworkers are great, and the customers are nice, for the most part. I get a 70% discount on everything in the store, which is going to be a challenge, but I just have to chant to myself: "saving for France! saving for France! saving for France!" and I hope that can work.

Why is it that when I'm unemployed I'm stressed about not having a job, but that once I get one...I'm working! This is going to be nothing but chill, though: the nicest bosses in the world, the easiest gig, in the sunniest place. The biggest challenge is going to be keeping hydrated on the bike commute!

Last night we had a party for the biology department faculty of the college my aunt works for. These people were great...apart from the fact that they feel some affinity for science...ew! They do have a penchant for travel, and I heard some great stories about Cameroon, Johannesburg and Harare. One guy was even from France, and I was stoked to tell him I'm going there in a few short months! Some lab tech even gave me his number. He was the only other unmarried person at the party over the age of 15, so it's not like it was some great feat on my part or anything. For many reasons, I threw it away today. Nice gesture though, I guess?

Apparently I'm the unhappy owner of 3 credit cards right now. That sucks.

My brother is going to Iraq in less than a month now, I guess. I'm going to see him in a week and a half. It's weird, but ever since he joined the army a year ago now, "family member of military" has become a huge part of my identity. How could it not?

To relax is a challenge. There is so much I want to read and do and be!

Family

Weird. Bona fide crazy. Fun. Sometimes. Always yours.

Everyone has a family, whether they want them, acknowledge it, even like being around them, or not. The function of family...to be a model of how to go through life. Or exactly what you don't want to be when you grow up.

My cousins currently are teaching me to be present, often, everyday. In the moment. Like I really left everything and everyone in Corvallis there in Corvallis: you can't take it with you. My life now consists of helping, reading, and being. And I like it. I've always been one to be where I am in that moment/month. I'm in California now, with people here, and not with people who aren't here. But no matter where I go, or for how long, my family will always be somewhere, look-up-able if I so desire.

It's weird to think that in a few months I will hopefully be trekking into THE Siberia, all because someone who has some of the same ancestral lineage as me is there. I don't know if I would ever get to Siberia if I didn't currently have a cousin there.

Lately, family has mostly been a topic of conversation. What is everyone doing, currently or in the near future? What is the latest drama? Who said what about whom? Who's engaged/giving birth/etc.? Family are people you talk about, fret about, laugh at, hope for, and in the end, will probably always be no more than a few phone calls away...

The first week

In a new place. Santa Cruz, (and Soquel, and Capitola, and Watsonville, I suppose, to be more exact) is amazing. This first week has been a whirlwind, involving a bladder infection, a drive down with the mom and a great cousin, a birthday party for my aunt, grading anatomy papers, good god!, turning in a job application, watching my aunt take the brain out of a cadaver, hanging out with Reid and Madeleine, reading a weird book about the end of the world, watching the first half of the 6 hour Pride & Prej (the good one, with Colin Firth), finally going to the beach, joining the gym, and beginning the arduous task of learning how to drive stick shift. Oh yes, and finding out that I'm going to the Aix-Marseille region in France next year, which was both amazing and my first choice. WOW! I've been busy, and waking up early, but loving life, and I only plan on it getting better! My aunt and I will sign up for a triathlon and start training for it. I will find a job...somewhere! I will continue reading and edifying myself, and perhaps even learn to prepare a few meals for myself here and there.

Becoming a better person. Everyday.