Katy Perry

Isn't it funny how looking back four years you realize that things can change a lot?

Four years ago, I was in community college and working on our campus newspaper. 

I was covering the presidential election that year.

I watched both Nation Conventions, I researched countless differences in both party's policies, and when it came time for the Presidential Debate (which was tonight if you don't have a Facebook or Twitter or live in a hole in the ground) I was all over it. Now mind you, I don't like politics.  I'm not outspoken about them, I really don't follow them that well, and when it came time to take a class about it I was still not super stoked.

Fast forward to tonight.  I could have watched the debate, but do you want to know what I did instead?  I watched the Katy Perry - Part of Me movie.  It's not because I wasn't interested in hearing what Obama and Romney were gong to spar about tonight, but I was more interested in watching someone who has made their dream a reality.

See, my dream is to be a journalist.  Maybe not a political one, but one that delivers news to people everywhere.  A couple of days ago I sent off a e-mail to the editor of an online newspaper here at Ft. Bragg.  I was super nervous because I haven't applied to any jobs here yet and I even said a little prayer before I sent it off with lots of hope.  There hasn't been a response yet.  I'm debating whether or not to send another e-mail...it's hard to show up in person when you're still out a vehicle. 

That being said...

Sometimes I get caught up in the overwhelming talent of others.  

I get lost in other peoples' success and their gifts and then I start to throw myself a pity party.  Why do their dreams get to be a reality, when mine is still sitting on the ground waiting for its chance to take off?  Why was this student offered a job right out of college and I wasn't?  Why does this blogger have over a hundred followers and I don't?  Why can't some amazing breaking news happen right in front of me so I can jump start my career?

Then I have to stop and think logically for a second.

My life...is pretty damn good.

I have an amazing husband, family, and friends.

I have more support than I could ever need.

I have a God who has a plan for my life.

I might just be a little talented myself.

My career might not be taking off at lightening speed, but good grief, I'm only 23.

There is still time and there is no reason to give up hope.

  I'm also a firework...just kidding.

Day 8

Day 8- short term goals for this month and why

Hi lovelies!  I'm really enjoying this thirty days of blogging and I think I convinced my best friend to join as well! 

My first short term goal for this month is not to stress out.

This is an important one because there's many things that I could stress about in February.

So my other goals are as follow:

1. Write two kick @$$ poems which are due on the 8th.

2. Get a good, solid rough draft of my poem paper which is also due the 8th.

3. Come up with the idea for and write my 10-15+ page short novel that's due the 15th.

4.  Get my mass media law book and catch up on the 100 pages that I'm already behind on by no later than next week.

5.  Get a lot of clear ups at work.




There's another short term goal I have for this month that I'm praying will happen, but I want to go to NC. It's kinda crazy considering how much work I just listened above, but I really want it to happen.  We'll see.


Tomorrow's Friday! Are ya'll excited, cause I know I am!

Mother's Day and the Coming Weeks

Yesterday was Mother's Day! First off, I love my mom.  I think that she's amazing and if I end up being half the mom she is I'm gonna be super lucky.  This Mother's Day was a little different than those of past years.  All three of us girls, Candace, Becca, and I weren't able to actually be with mom.  The girls were on a Haiti retreat with their team and I was, well, here working.  Mom, dad, and Matt did however have a good weekend in Vegas!  I've been getting picture messages all weekend and it's been pretty cool.

In other news, my school semester is wrapping up with rapid speed!  I've got papers to write, poems to revise, and stories to create in a little under two weeks.  I think I can do it without panicking...I hope.  My job at the gym is wrapping up too.  My last shift is this coming Saturday.

Honestly I'm kinda sad that I'm leaving that job.  I really like all the weekend members that I've come to have relationships with.  Phyllis and her husband brought me a set of earrings a few days ago because I let them in ten minutes early when I get to the gym to open and get everything ready.  Ursula, a woman old enough to be my grandma, who comes in once a week to swim and calls me Mandy and always tells me that I have pretty hair.  Then there's Bruce who teases me about never leaving the gym because I'm always working when he comes to work out.  Jimmy is super funny and recently gave me a riddle that I'm still trying to figure out and he refuses to tell me what the answer is!

Anyways, there's a couple more members that I'm going to miss too but those are some of my favorites.  My manager is luckily keeping me as an active employee while I'm gone and hopefully he'll need me when I come back in August.

Well, that's about it for tonight.  Hopefully these last two weeks will go smoothly!  Goodnight everyone.

I'm Back

Spring break definitely put me in an internet funk.  Facebook has dropped seriously low on my list of priorities and unfortunately so has blogging.  I will make an effort to be back.

Break was great...yes it rhymed. I got robbed of some Christmas vacation time so it was great to go home for a while.  The highlight of the trip was the Wicked day.  Wicked as in the Broadway play that we saw in San Francisco.  It was amazing and the perfect first Broadway play.  The day was complete with a 15 seat van full of my favorite people ever and an amazing dinner and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.

Since I've been back it's been all about hittin' them books and working hard.  Speaking of work! I picked up another permanent shift at the gym and decided to quit Hollister, where I was working three hours at the most a week.  I feel very good about this decision.  It was going to be four years since my first shift this coming August and it was time for a change.

Well that's about all I've got.  I feel bad for saying this but I had a furlough day which means no school and I've thoroughly enjoyed being lazy.  Have a good rest of the week!

  

Clear Ups

A huge part of my job at LA Fitness is what we fondly know as clear ups.  These are phone calls made by myself and the other operations staff to members who are having issues with the credit cards or bank accounts and haven't been making their payments.  The goal here is to get them to "clear up" (see we're clever) the issues and get their status back to OK with the club.  If we do get these members to OK, we make $5.00 each on top of our hourly salary which can stack up and make some nice money.   

Our manager's goal for us at my club is to make no less than 15 calls an hour.  When you work a 4 hour shift you're on the phone a lot.  Unfortunately not all members are eager to resolve their billing issues.  Since working there I've been hung up on countless times, yelled at, cussed out, and other people will clear up but they'll just be super rude about it.  Most of the time however, you make all these calls and no one will even answer.  If that's how your whole shift goes it's super frustration and discouraging.

That's what my shift was like last night.  I made pretty close to almost a 100 calls and only one person answered their phone and it wasn't even the member that I was calling for.  I had no clear ups and wasn't happy.

Today I got to work and immediately jumped on the phones.  For the first two hours of my work day I got nothing.  No answers at all.  I literally kept hanging my head and rubbing my temples in frustration every time I had to hang up the phone without getting anything.  My manager went to lunch around noon and then magic happened.  In that hour I got 4 clear ups and the possibility of two more later when people got off work.  Then it just kept getting better.  A new list dropped, which means a whole lot of brand new issues were posted which means that people were more likely to clear up.  All of a sudden I had 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 clear ups! I was so incredibly stoked!  I had needed to get 9 clear ups over the course of 3 days to catch up to my coworker who was at the top of the clear up board and I passed her in 1!  Not only was I stoked but my manager was super happy with me.

So now I have tomorrow and Sunday to keep up my awesome clear up roll and hopefully it'll keep going like today did.

How are your weekends going so far?  I know it's only Friday but do you have any big plans? 

Case Closed

Thank you all for your advice two days ago.  I would have written sooner but I needed to be in the right frame of mind first.  If I ever have any other advice needs I'll make sure to post again.  The funny thing is that we can think that we know the right choice and what would be best but ultimately God's just gonna do what He wants.  

After I posted my question I went to work at Hollister and was pretty sure that I was going to take the job there and try it out.  I show up and start doing the lead stock duties when my store manager makes a comment that I would be training a girl on the lead stock job later on that night.  I was a little confused but everyone who works in the back needs to learn most everything that the lead stock does so I really thought nothing of it.

So eventually she shows up and I started showing her the ropes and we started talking.  She asked how long I had been working at Hollister and then proceeds to tell me that she's been working there for a month and suddenly she drops a bomb on me...she's the new stock lead.  What?!

Apparently my SM didn't feel like waiting to hear my answer and because I don't really live here, I just go to school here they decided to hire someone who is local.  She had been given the position over the weekend. 

Can you hear the door shutting (or slamming)?  I sure did...still do actually.  Another kick in the pants is now that because I know the job already and she doesn't, I'm training her.

I start working at LA Fitness tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it goes.

So that's the story.  Case officially closed.  Thanks again for your help.

Attn. Former Full-Time College Students: I Need Your Help

Here's the dilemma, after months of job searching and applying for random jobs around town I recently was offered no just one, but two jobs and I don't know which one to chose.

The first is a part-time job as a receptionist at LA Fitness in Garden Grove.  I'm guaranteed 20-25 set hours a week, which actually would be Thursday-Sunday, and I'll be making $8.00/hr with the potential to make commission on selling and renewing memberships.  I could continue to work at Hollister a few days a week and it seems like they're pretty flexible as far as taking time off goes.  The appeal here is that it's something new and I can come home or go somewhere if I need to.

The second is the lead stock position at my Hollister (The job I've pretty much been waiting for since the beginning of last semester when things were easier).  I'd be working 32 hours a week, Monday through Friday, (3:30 to 10 or 11 p.m.) and I'd be making over $10.00/hr.  I already have the job down and I like my bosses a lot.  I would have to balance those hours and a full, 15 unit and upper level class/homework load and there is pretty much zero flexibility when it comes to taking time off.  The major appeal here is I would be 99.9% self sufficient as far as money is concerned (I would make rent with one check!).

Other factors that are adding to the struggle of deciding between the two are I was thinking of coming back home for the summer and/or going to North Carolina for awhile, I want/need to make more friends down here and be able to spend time with the ones that I already have, and I've been known to get so stressed and overwhelmed that my body cannot handle it and I'm in a constant state of sick.  To me a part-time job would be easier to quit at the end of the summer than a full-time job.  I have had one of my friends at Hollister offer to take the job over the summer and give it back to me when I come back down for school but even that's not a for sure deal. 

Basically in my mind it comes down to two decisions.  On one hand with one job I would have money to be financially independent and to start actually saving some of what I earn for the future or with the other job I would have freedom to be with people that I love and devote myself completely to school.  I know this probably shouldn't be hard decision but this is becoming a huge struggle for me.

The idea that I could support myself is amazing, especially when I'm failing at that right now, but the thought of not being able to escape back home or to visit James on the rare, long weekend just horrifies me.

I wish you could know the amount of hours I've spent thinking and praying about this and how much angst it's causing me.  I need advice.  Did any of you work full-time while going to college?  Was it really hard to keep up with your school work?  Was your social life more important so you just worked part-time and relied on your parents for money?  What would you chose in my situation?  Help me out.  Led me some wisdom that I'm totally lacking.  You can leave me a comment here or send me a message or comment on Facebook.

Thanks in advance and I'll make sure I'll update ya'll on what happens. 

So far so...good?

I have exactly fifteen minutes to blog.  Why fifteen? Because in fifteen minutes it'll be midnight and I will be turning off my light and going to bed.

I've been living in the sunny Southland for 2 months and 13 days although it really feels a lot longer than that.  My transition from Salinas to here has been one filled with ups and downs.  For example...

• Down: For the first few weeks I thought my address included a house number, that wasn't my house at all.  That address was on my new checks, my textbooks (that were not delivered until three weeks into the semester), my Wall Street Journal subscription, a scholarship check and many other various forms and job applications alike.  Luckily it was just the house next door and my neighbors were cool and put up with my mistake and I was able to switch over everything to my new address quickly.
• Down: I've filled out almost, if not over, 20 job applications in four cities (Cypress, Long Beach, La Palma and Lakewood) and have never received a call back from a single store, restaurant, or babysitting seeker.  
• Up: I was the "new girl" at the Lakewood Hollister for all of about a day.  Now I'm once again being called the best in the store and really love working for my managers there.  I don't really know exactly how to describe it but when I walk into work down here I feel like I'm home.  I've really realized how much I value working and how much I truly do enjoy it.  
• Down: I had a lot of downtime for the first month that I was here.  I didn't know what to do with myself!  I'm not used to being in a house all by myself.  In Salinas my home seems to be always full of people, whether they're related to me or not, and that's what I'm used to.  It was a really big challenge for me.  The television was always on just so I would have some background noise.  
• Down: I watched a lot of TV...ugh.
• Up: I went to a school event with Hannah Elliott and we got free t-shirts and our picture was posted on The Nugget's (a restaurant on campus) website.  We were sipping our "mocktails" and it's really cute.  
• Up: I've been going to Rock Harbor church since I got here.  My roommate Angela has been going there for a few years now and Stephen Paulsen recommended it to be long before I moved.  I love it.  It's very geared towards people my age and their worship is amazing.  

• Major Down: What would my life be like without car trouble?  I can't even begin to tell you because I don't really know.  I drove my car around for two weeks with a major gas leak.  The guy at the repair shop said that I was lucky that my car didn't explode.  I unfortunately couldn't agree with him...I wish the dang thing had exploded.  Two days after I got that fixed Corinne and I were on our way back to Salinas when my radiator cracked on the Grapevine.  We had it towed to the nearest shop, left it there for the weekend, got a ride back to Northridge to get Corinne's car, and by the time we were on the road again heading home it was 7:30 at night and if things had gone right the first time we would have already been home.  That weekend really was not the best for me.  Now my ABS light is on and while I'm driving on smooth, paved roads it feels like my car is going down some unpaved, country road.  I swear this car will be the death of me and my parents.

Well it's now 12:08 a.m. and I need to get some rest.  I have many more stories to share with you and I'm making blogging a priority now.  I need to write.  It feels good to write something that I know I'm not going to be graded on.  Goodnight world.