Stay Tuned...

Martinez, California

Ok, so I've done a few adventures that I'm working on getting on this blog. Here is just a preview of what is to come:

• "Running for Seals" race event.
• The Cherry Blossom Festival. I took a lot of video that I want to post but it is taking FOREVER to upload!
• My dad's trip to Ecuador. He will be a guest writer. :-)
• Weddings! I've had a couple friends get married this last year.
• Bon Fires

 Don't go too far now.

Update

Martinez, California

Well I guess it’s time for an update. I feel bad; it’s been so long since I’ve written anything down in more depth than in Facebook statuses. And you know what? It feels pretty good to write things down again.

Ok, so the main questions I get from people are about my job at the Hospital. I’m a temporary employee at Alta Bates Hospital in Oakland and Berkeley, California. Yes, I go to both campuses depending on where they need me. Right now I’m helping out with the Charity Care Program. That is basically the hospital reimbursing the doctors for all the patients they see who don’t have insurance. I get to do all the logging and paper pushing for it. It can get kind of mind numbing but when you step back and take a look at the big picture, (especially at the sheer volume of patient invoices) it’s kind of cool to see how a part of the financial process works in the hospital. And I’m a part of it! Totally not what I thought I’d be doing after college but you know what, it is paying the bills and I’m learning a side of me that I didn’t know was there: I’m not that bad with numbers as I thought I was! 

Along with this, I’ve been getting told by the executives of the good word they’ve been getting about me. Wow! Talk about an ego boost! I’ve even had a kind of a job offer. I was told, “Come talk to me when you’re assignment is over.” Cool! The only problem is my assignment keeps getting extended. I don’t what to think about that. I just hope they still want me when this assignment is over. Man! You just never know where a road will lead you once you take those first steps.

Grad school is still in the plans. I just put it on the back burner for a while. Getting my previous debts paid off felt more important to me than getting into more debt right now. So its just put on hold. Unless the hospital hires me and is willing to invest in my education for them, then I'll start that process a lot sooner. :-)

The other questions I get are about my relationship status. Yes, I was in one for a while. All I can really say about it is that it was a whirlwind. It started fast and ended just as fast and was just as intense. (“Slow Me Down” by Emmy Rossum seems very fitting to explain how I felt towards the end even though that may not be the purpose of her song. Honestly, I didn’t know I felt as strongly as that during the time till after the breakup.) *sigh* Go slow, folks who are still single. There is no need to rush when it comes to matters of the heart. It’s just too fragile to run with in my opinion. But life goes on and wounds heal. Especially when you start moving at the pace you want to go.




(For those interested in what the song is, here is the music video. I love how honest she is in this song!)

I've Moved!

Martinez, California

So I moved. :D I actually moved about two months ago. I’ve been slackin’ with my blog so sorry for the late post.  And to top it off, I don’t have pictures to show for it yet.(Sorry!) I will soon. Sooo, wanna know what my favorite part of the house is? MY NEW SHOWER CURTAIN!!! Courtesy of Sister Ogden who was looking for someone who needed a shower curtain and it was my pleasure to be that person. Well its never been used but sitting around for about a year I think. ITS OF A WORLD MAP!!! My kind of shower curtain! I smile every time I see it. You know how some people just turn on their favorite movie or their favorite song to go to their happy place? Well, although movies and songs help me get to my happy place, I also go to a map. I know weird, right? But its true. I dream about all the places I want to go and a map helps me do that. 

Oh! So in other news I have made an IMPORTANT decision. I decided to go the Master’s route. I’m looking at grad programs in the Bay Area for Counseling Psychology. So far my favorites are Cal State East Bay and San Fransisco State. I taking my time to really check out all the programs and making sure it will be a good fit. Who knows, I might end up somewhere outside of the Bay…. Maybe.

Right now I’m temping at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in the Admin department. Working in a hospital actually helped me  decide to go the Master’s route. I really like the nurturing feel that hospitals give and I want to develop my skills in it in the psychology department. I’m told that if they decide to hire me somewhere, not only will I get benefits (I want that sooo bad!) but they can pay for my schooling too since I’m getting a degree in a health related field. When I heard that, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “how can I get in on that!” That is definitely something worthy of further investigation…

Girls Camp, Temp Work, Temple, Relief Society

Richmond, Oakland, and Rucker Lake, California

Well, its been a couple of months since I’ve posted anything. It feels like things have been a bit routine and boring. However, at the same time it feels so busy and exciting! Meh, I guess maybe to me. 

In a nutshell, Since my basic guide training, I went to Girls Camp as a leader, had a couple of temp positions, started serving in the Oakland Temple and putting activities together for Relief Society. That is pretty much about it. But for those who want a little more, below is my more in depth thoughts on each event. :-) Enjoy!

It was great to walk down memory lane at Girls Camp. Especially since this time, my little sister was there. It was a lot more exciting packing for camp with someone than just doing it yourself. However, being a leader is HARD WORK…. especially if you got left in the dark beforehand. I went up as the dirty duty Assistant and I nor the leader knew what we were doing except for a few ideas. Needless to say, it was quite the challenge.  I learned that thinking of solutions and staying calm work a lot better than getting mad and pointing fingers.

Being a Temp is soooo….. temporary. (Clever, I know) Its cool in the ways that I get to meet lots of people, get to rub shoulders with pretty successful people, and get to go to many different locations, (I love that!). But I always feel unsettled knowing how temporary each position is when I think of my bills.  Thankfully, Nelson Staffng, the temp agency I work for, is keeping me pretty busy with jobs. Although, I feel at ease when there is consistency. So my plan is to go back to school. I want to become a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. I really enjoyed my time learning the subject (I took a few classes in my major by choice though I didn’t need to) and volunteering in it. I feel like this is where I should take my career instead of Education. However, it means getting another bachelor and not necessarily going to grad school. I'm not sure if that’s a step forward or just a step sideways. Huh…. Lots to think about in this one...

Speaking of Consistency, I absolutely LOVE serving in the temple. It is a Rock Solid place. There is just no place better I’d rather spend my free time. I get to be there once a week. I gotta tell ya, I’ve gone in to work my shift a couple times just struggling through my day and I go in and begin serving and all the worries shouting around in my head just quiet down. They don’t necessarily go away but I begin to see things in a much bigger perspective. I am so happy there. I feel as though I am complete. My favorite part is running into friends that I haven’t seen in a while there. What a great place to run into each other! 

Relief Society has kept me pretty busy. I’ve had this calling (RS 2^nd Counselor in this branch, who is over activities of the RS) for about a year now and I just NOW feel like I’m understand all that it entails. I’ve always felt unsettled about how I was doing my calling. I felt like I could do more but didn’t know how. Well, after a lot of prayers and counsel in the presidency, I feel more sure in what I’m supposed to do for this calling. I have great plans for the activities (of which I have began).

Well that's about it for now. Till next time!

PGO Guide Training

Coloma, California

Wow! what an intense week! And totally worth it!  I was so tired by the end of the loooonnnng rafting week I think I slept for 2 days straight when I got home. (Seriously, they were a blur!) I thought about how I can share all of my 10 days worth of experience and quite frankly, the entry would probably never get posted. There is so much to share and just so little time as I begrudgingly found out. So, a glimpse of my training seems very appropriate.

Well, here it is folks, a glimpse of my PGO white water rafting  basic training....

This is my most memorable run and my biggest highlight (out of the many) of my whole experience. I had to put all the pictures the photographer captured in (you'll see why...) Just posting a few pictures here and there didn't seem to do the experience justice. This is my run on a rapid called Hospital Bar in the Gorge run of the South Fork of the American River. :-D If you scroll quickly through the pictures, I won't be offended, I understand. This is mainly for my purposes.

Here I am guiding this boat at the beginning of this rapid calling a, "FORWARD!"

Here is Dustin, sitting next to me,  leaning over to tell me that I just took the very conservative route, meaning I pretty much missed the rapid. (whoops!)

I still wanted to try and get in it though...

And everyone was still smiling.

Until now. I'm not sure what Danny, a fellow guide-ling, was thinking in this moment but I'm pretty sure he saw what was coming....

Notice how my mom and Jake are leaning in together? Yeah. I'm pretty sure they were bracing for impact. Meanwhile Jeremy seems to be having a grand 'ole time...

This rock, my friends, is called Catcher's Mitt. And it caught a hold of my boat pretty good. Catcher's Mitt is known to catch many a-boat for those who take it conservative (whether intentional or not). If you notice Dustin's (back left of boat) hand gesture he is calling the command, "HIGH-SIDE!" We call a High-side to keep the boat from flipping. That means everyone goes to the "High" side of the Boat.

And here I am copying Dustin's command. You learn from the master right?

My family are just enjoying the experience.

Especially Sam. I am so glad they were enjoying themselves.

Here is Dustin coaching me on what possible ways we can get off Catcher's Mitt and which ways to try first. I'm smiling here cause I have no clue! It was one of those moments where you could just laugh or cry. I chose to laugh. Whatever humor there is in the situation helped me to move into problem-solving mode. Crying would just cause me to shut-down and ball up.

So, under the coaching of Dustin, I try a turn (as pictured above). That didn't work. (meanwhile everyone was laughing and cracking jokes.) Then I tried moving people to the back to get the weight off the rock. As I had people doing that, our gracious photographer who took these pictures said, "May I offer a suggestion?" Dustin, "Yeah." Photographer, "Don't move to the back. Stay up front." So we all begin to move to the front of the boat.....

After getting up there,  Dustin says, "Its like taking a family photo!" (and here it is in the above picture.) :-) There couldn't have been a more odd yet perfect moment while perched on a rock in Class III waters. That's what I call enjoying the moment no matter what the situation is.

Now it was time to get off Catcher's Mitt.

"Back to positions!.... if you can."

Notice Danny on the right side of the picture. Yeah, he's half in and half out of the boat and asking for help.

I kept calling out, "Somebody help Danny!" and then decided I should help Danny too cause I thought we were in the clear... Ha! Little did I know....

BAM!!! The boat flips on its side.

All I was thinking at this point was Self Preservation. Earlier in the week we practiced flip drills in an Eddy (slower/still water). I knew I had a hard time pulling myself into the boat so if this boat completely flipped over, I wanted to make sure I was at least in a good spot to find something to grab to climb on top of the bottom.

I didn't know Dustin held on to that rock. I'm pretty sure that what kept us from completely flipping.

And there goes the majority of my crew. This is what we address in our safety talk "what to do in the event when you are no longer a paddler and now a swimmer...."

Check out Jeremy (white T-shirt). I love his expression! I enlarged the picture so you can see it a little better.

And we land "Butter-Side up." Phew!

Most of my crew got to have an "Out-of-Boat-Experience." (Thankfully it wasn't all of my crew.)

Honestly, I think we all did great. Both the swimmers and the rescuers.

Poor Danny had just got into the boat (as shown in the previous pictures) and was now knocked back out. AND he had to pull himself in 'cause I was rescuing my mom first (which, by the way, was awesomely cool to do!). Sorry, Danny! I knew you could do it! :-D

They say that there are two types of guides, those who have flipped their boats and those who will. I have the privilege of having my first "half" flip documented. This day was the most memorable for me because I learned to laugh when things don't go as planned. Laughter diminished my fear. Fear had always (and still does a little to be honest) froze me in place and I wouldn't do anything when things get choppy. Dustin taught me that day to just do something in these moments. If I make a mistake, I can learn from it. Its not the end of the world. I have had a lot of cleaner runs (beautiful even) than this one. But this is the one that makes me smile the most. Its the one I learned the most on. And it was the most requested to see.

A New Quote I Love

Richmond, California
 
I found this quote while on a friend's page. I just love it.

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.” - Neil Gaiman

Yes, I have felt much like Mr. Gaiman here. However, because of this, I have gotten to know myself more. Like, getting to know how strong I really am. Even strong enough to let myself "fall in-love" again. .. when I'm ready. :-)

Massage and PGO Guide Training Begins

Richmond, California

Got a massage for the first time last week. First time I've ever paid for one from a professional. They offer them for a $1/minute and I had to take advantage. I could spend at least $10 right? I asked Galina, the massage therapist, if she would focus on my shoulders and neck because thats where I tend to get knots. By the end of the ten minutes, I felt loose and tingly in that area. My favorite part was when she pulled on my arms and shook them. That felt goood. Galina said I have a lot of tension in my shoulders and neck. That didn't surprise me. I think they may be what triggers  my migraines. You know whats weird, earlier today, I felt stressed and sleepy over small things that seemed to have piled up. After the massage, I felt pretty relaxed and less grumpy. I must hold the stress in my body. Especially the shoulders and neck. I'd like to find out what a full body massage will be like. Its around $100 for a full hour full body.... hmmm.... I'll have to look into it and research it...
 
On another note, I started my Guide Training with Project GO. So far, its been awesome! The story to come after I complete training.