Summer's End

I’m writing this on the way home from Las Vegas right now to reflect on an awesome past few weeks.

Summer’s end has been the best part. After a summer of not doing a whole lot besides work, a lot of fun has been jammed into the past week and a half or so. I want to squeeze in as much as possible before I leave for Spain.

About a week and a half ago, I started to realize how quickly my departure date is approaching. I started to panic when I realized how long it'll be before I'm able to see some of my school friends again. So one night, I drove up to Santa Barbara to say hi and goodbye for now to some of my old housemates. I got there around 10 pm and left the next afternoon, but it was perfect. It was a blast laughing about old memories, telling stories, and getting caught up on Leah and Stacey's lives. Driving through Isla Vista and seeing our old house made me so nostalgic! It was weird to think that I couldn’t just go inside, go into my room and sit on my bed. It was odd to think that I couldn’t just walk two doors down and knock on Tyler’s door and say hi. None of that exists anymore, and it kind of blew my mind. Being there, reminiscing and catching up with Leah and Stacey, and sitting on our old couch in their new apartment made me realize how much I do miss Santa Barbara. It was an awesome visit.

Later that week, my brother Joey, his girlfriend, her sister and I all got to hang out. We’d been talking about doing this for so long, and it finally happened! Even though they all live about an hour away, the one night we spent there felt like a vacation. We went to this restaurant called Stacked where you can build your own burgers and sandwiches on this iPad app at every table. Totally awesome. After that, we went clubbing in LA., just about one year after they first took me. Dancing all night is one of my absolute favorite things to do, so it was of course a blast! The next morning, we went to Universal Studios. We hadn’t been in awhile, so we did a lot of stuff there for the first time. That new King Kong 3-D experience was incredible and unique. The Simpsons ride was really neat too.

The next day, I had my last day of work at Wild Rivers. My shift ended at 2:30, and not until 2:15 did it hit me that I might never be back to this place I’ve spent these past seven summers. I’ll always look back on Wild Rivers memories as good ones, and I feel lucky to have met all these people and to have made all these memories there. I’ve been really lucky to be able to come home to a job every summer.

The day after that was the last day of the fair. I’d say that working with my parents at the fair was the highlight of my summer. Like I mentioned in the post before, it’s just been awesome to be able to spend all that time with them before I don’t see them for a few months (until they come visit!). Plus, it was a great way to make some extra money when I wasn’t at Wild Rivers.

This past weekend has been a great one. Thursday morning, I flew up to the bay area to see Lauren, one of my best friends from school. I was only there for a little over 24 hours, but it was perfect and so beyond worth the trip. It felt so good to talk about everything we hadn’t talked about since school ended. Venting and talking to her about everything that we see eye-to-eye on was amazing. There’s so much we can talk about that makes me go “THANK YOU! Finally someone gets it!” It’s like free therapy. We walked the Golden Gate Bridge, I got to see where she works, and I got to hang out with her really sweet family. So Lauren, if you’re reading this, thanks for an awesome vacay!

I flew back into Long Beach on Friday morning, and then flew out of Orange County that night with my brothers to meet my parents in Vegas! My brothers got me some drinks on the plane, and then we made some drinks when we got to the room in Las Vegas. I hadn’t drunk (yes, I believe the past participle of “drink” is “drunk”) in awhile, so it was fun to get a little buzz going! So you know how the ads on the side of your Facebook profile are shockingly relevant to your life sometimes? One of the ads on the side of my profile said something about a gay club in Vegas that was 18+ on Fridays… perfecto! It was right on the strip at Planet Hollywood, close to our hotel. My brother Dustin was nice enough to take me, and nothing could’ve been more fun! I ended up meeting this nice guy who’d lived in Granada for a couple years when he was a kid. I only found that out because he said that he spoke Spanish and I asked how he learned Spanish. WHAT are the odds? My family and I spent Saturday at the pool and then went to the buffet at Paris for dinner. It was so good! I’ve finally tried crêpes, and they’re awesome.

Now, like I said, we’re on the way home from Vegas. I’ve got tonight, tomorrow, and then I’m off to España this Tuesday! I know I’m going to miss my family like crazy, but I’m going to really savor these memories with them and keep in mind that it’ll only be a few months before I see them. Other than a lot of packing and a little bit of last minute shopping, all I want to do in the next day or so is enjoy family time.

I honestly have no idea what to picture, think, or feel about the fact that I’m leaving in a couple days. I’m just bracing myself and getting ready to enjoy all of the unknown headed my way. 

Summer's Middle

Life's been really great lately. I've been busy, which always makes me happy. The prospect of free time to fill with meaningless TV (gotta love E!) and coffee on the couch sounds really appealing when it's finals week and I'm too busy to even sleep, but when the free time comes it's not long before I get the itch to do something meaningful or productive. All that free time and nothing productive to do starts to make me feel down. I felt a bit of that toward summer's beginning, but now I'm a rolling stone collecting no negative moss!

I went out dancing with some of my friends from Santa Barbara the other night. I've been wanting to go clubbing for so many weeks, but it kept falling through. We ended up going for my friend Carter's birthday. There isn't much that takes me higher than dancing to my favorite songs in an awesome setting among some of my favorite people. Song of the night: Scheiße by Gaga. I get so surprised and excited when they play a song I love that's a non-single. I'm still smiling inside over how much fun that night was. These guys are leaving for the Netherlands tomorrow to study abroad for a semester, so I'm really glad I got to see them one more time before they leave. Hopefully the next time I see them will be in Spain, the Netherlands, or somewhere in between.

I've been working at my usual job pretty often, I think I've gotten ~30 hours/week the last few weeks. On top of that, I've been working with my parents. I'm really, really enjoying it. I've worked a few mornings and a few late nights at our booth at the fair selling aged balsamic vinegars. I'm having fun people watching, learning something about balsamic vinegar and olive oil, saving more and more money, and getting to hang out with my parents. It's pretty fun being in the loop about what they do now and being able to talk business with them. Plus, since they work literally seven days a week, this is the perfect way for me to spend time with them while I'm home for the summer.

I worked at my usual job and at the fair today. I'm so satisfyingly tired! Wild Rivers highlights: It was busy for a morning shift, I worked with my favorite supervisors, and a guest called a cabana a "cabaña" with the [ñ]... I always get a kick out of that.  Fair highlights: I laughed a lot with my mom and my brother, I waved affectionately at a lady that works with us and some stranger behind her thought I was waving at him and waved back (embarrassing but awesome), my old roomie called me, and I had this frozen mocha drink that was probably the most satisfying thing I consumed all day.

What else is up? I've done some shopping, I've started to like the Sex and the City series, I still Love Lucy, I look forward to Good Morning America every morning and have a little crush on 37-year-old anchor David Muir, my dog growls at me (now more than ever) every time I leave the house, and I've pretended to be interested in trying a couple new gyms so I could sample them and keep my workouts interesting.

It's been a great day. On that note, I will hit the sack. T-minus thirty days until departure!

Summer's Beginning

Today's been a significant day. It was first full day back from a weekend up north with my cousins. The weekend was awesome, it was the first time that my cousins' family, my whole family, and everyone's girlfriends have all been together. It was really special. Weekends like this one are what I live for. I think the next time that whole group will be together will be at someone's wedding.

The few weeks leading up to vacation were up and down between awesome and fine. Going from finals week to boyfriend time to a breakup and then to the sudden lack of responsibility that came with the first weeks of summer was a little bit hard. I start to go a crazy when I have nothing productive to do. It makes me want to do nothing. It's really just a dangerous, unfulfilling positive feedback loop. When my work schedule picked up, it did wonders for my sanity. Work's been really enjoyable and fulfilling. I'm lucky to have a job to come home to every summer. It's been enjoyable to be busy again, reconnect with my work friends, and make money for the first time since last summer. It's also worth mentioning that I got a promotion! In a nutshell, I'll be making a bit more money, probably getting more hours, and I now get to make my schedule. That's been another highlight to being back at work.

I seem to have balanced work, exercise, and leisure time in a way that makes me happy. Finding that balance usually takes me some time. It's something I need to do every new quarter when I'm away at school, and it's certainly something I'll have to do when I'm in Spain next year.

That brings me to why today was significant. I bought my plane ticket to Spain today! For fear of jinxing anything, I never like to count my chickens before they hatch. That being said, it's never been more official that I'll be spending the coming school year in Spain. I've been accepted to the University of Granada, made the first payment for the program, gotten my Spanish student visa, gotten some scholarship money (thank you!) on the basis that I'll be staying in Granada for a year, and I now have my plane ticket. I'm thinking it's going to happen!

There's lots of big stuff coming my way, stuff I know I can handle. I need to take my current state of happiness, protect it, and hang onto it through whatever my new adventures bring me. Some of the most rewarding experiences of my life have involved some difficulty at a point, but pushing through the difficulty pays off in huge, life-changing ways. This experience calls me. Studying abroad is really something I've been preparing for since my freshman year in high school, even if I didn't always know it. Ten Spanish classes later, I'm ready to go learn the language in a way that'll stick and help me put it to use.

I'm looking forward to the adventures that await! In the meantime, I'm looking forward to spending the rest of the summer at home and enjoying family time here. I think it's going to be a wonderful rest of the summer.