employment

it has been nearly a month in the making, but tomorrow i finally start my new job!

no, i'm not leaving my current job.
for the past two years i have only been working 30 hours a week, and i've made it work. but now with paying rent and such, it just wasn't enough any more.
my new job is another 10 hours a week. in a different position that is in the department i already work in.
convenient, eh?
i now get to spend 10 hours a week learning how to prepare and submit proposals and applications for federal grants.
it sounds rather dull, but i'm actually really excited to learn about this. i think it has a lot of potential to be useful to me in other areas in the future. can anyone say NEA?

well anyways, no more getting off work at 2 in the afternoon for me...

pain

there is nothing quite like back pain to make you instantly feel geriatric.

friday morning i rolled over to turn off the alarm, and everything fell into just the wrong place. you know that sharp pain that literally takes your breath away? yeah. like that. i spent most of this weekend flat on my back. yay. oh, and a surefire cure for insomnia would have to be muscle relaxers. i think i spent all of friday in a coma.

this happens to me every so often. as a result of the untreated 'marching band drum incident of 1992'.

i made it to work this morning, but still have a case of what i call 'batman neck'. (i have to turn my whole body to look around.)

i should start seeing a chiropractor.

beach

i spent the day yesterday at corona del mar.
i love the beach.
i'm not a big fan of sand.
especially when there is a 2-year-old who likes nothing better than to kick it all over you at every possible opportunity.
oh, and then dump shovel-fulls of it into your bag. which contains your cameras, ipod and phone....
he's lucky he's cute.

coldplay

last night micah took me out for my birthday present. not to brag or anything, but we went to see the coldplay show. oh, ok. i am bragging.
there really are no bad seats in the forum. and chris martin and his band of merry musicians put on quite a show. i was already of the opinion that it was a great show, and then near the end the four of them put down their instruments and (surrounded by a garrison of security guys) started running through the auditorium, up the stairs, and...

to a little media-booth stage area about 10 feet away from our seats.
wow.
us little people in the nosebleed section were treated to two songs up-close and personal. it was amazing.

i would have to rate last night as one of my top 3 concert experiences.
thank you micah!

restful?

ever have those eventful weekends, that when they end you feel more tired than when you started?
this was a long, fun, and tiring weekend.

started friday after work when i took micah out to the pantages for her birthday present. that's right, we saw wicked. and it lived up to all the hype. i would love to go see it again.

saturday morning jon, kathy and i gathered up heather and jonathan and his kids and trekked down to the santa ana river for some communing with nature. hot, sweaty nature.

saturday evening we convened at the riverside art museum for the sea no evil art show that was put on by jon's work.

and this morning micah and i drove up to big bear to attend the community church and then spent the rest of the day with aaron and emily foor and their kids. i haven't seen them in almost 2 years, and it was so wonderful to see them. and as we were driving down the hill we realized that neither of us had remembered to take any photos. genius.

it was a great weekend.
i need a nap.

small

i just finished watching you've got mail for the zillionth time while working on knitting micah's blanket. (slowly but surely, micah.)
ok, the movie.
i'm a sucker for a well-crafted chick flick, and you've got mail certainly fits the bill. i cry at the end every time.

and yet i digress...again.

there is a point where kathleen kelly is writing an email to joe fox where she says that she lives a small life. and she doesn't know if her life is small because she enjoys it or because she hasn't been brave enough.
i have heard this dialogue more times than i can count, but tonight was the first time that i felt like i really heard it. this is something i've really been struggling with recently.
i feel like i live a very small life.
i feel like i should have accomplished much more by this point in my life, and that i am more than capable of it, but that i just haven't been brave enough.
i feel like i really have nothing to show for how i have spent the past 32 years.

there really is no profound conclusion to this post. i just wanted to share what has been weighing on my mind recently.
shalom.

adventures

interesting fact about me...i love to spend time with people and i love to go exploring, but i am also retarded and almost never call people up to go do things. and my disdain for the telephone has seemed to keep the exploration at a minimum.
so i am excited to be living with friends who are always out finding new things to do and places to go and aren't phone-retarded like myself.

this afternoon i went with jon and kathy to the santa ana river and we went exploring. i had a lot of fun trekking through the brush and wading through the river. it was a lot more fun when i didn't think about all the bacteria that live in there. ick.
even though, it was good times.
and i look forward to many more adventures.

a moving experience

i thought this day would never come, but i did it.

i moved.

and not in a rhythmic kind of way.

in an 'i'm 32 and finally moved out of my parents' house' kind of way.
the planets have aligned and i am making enough money, along with good friends deciding that they needed another roommate.
i'm just glad that the actual moving part is mostly over, because the process makes me slightly anxious and very restless.

it feels like i have closed a chapter of my life and am starting a new and much more promising one. i'm excited to see what happens next.