Somewhat better now

I was sent to Milan on the 26th and was able to meet up with my high school friends. DB and DI went there well over 4 years ago with their respective families. I haven't seen them in 10 years! So we were able to go to the night mass and had dinner that night. I didn't get back to my hotel room until almost 11pm. During the day, one of the ladies I worked with was able to explore with me. We went to Duomo (thank goodness she was good at directions and trains) and we went to see the castle. We left the hotel at around 1pm (we got there at around 9:30am) and we barely slept when we went out. We went to grocery store afterward and got back at the hotel around 5pm and I met with my friends 20mins. after that.

More goodwill:
http://www.kiva.com/ is a site designed to lend loans to enterprenuers of poverty stricken country. Loans could be as low as $25 and the rewards are priceless.

Anyway, when I went home to see my family last weekend, I left one of my tote bags at my parents' house and brought my backpack instead so I can start training for my big spring hike. When I was transferring stuff from bag to bag, I found this poem that I wrote when I was jumpseating to go home last year. It was dated January 25, 2007:

In my mind, the time stands still with no comprehension of the buzzing and bustling around me. Thousands of feet above the earth, as I swim along the clouds, I find myself disconnected from everything, including my body. As I try to wake my senses and instill memories to my oxygen-deprived brain, I notice that with a dettached being comes the numbness of my heart. How I long to be free from the jail cell of my own spirit; how I long to escape the greyness of my soul. Yet the comfort of who I am always wins over the dream of who I've always wanted to be.

*

Wow, I must've been in serious funk when I wrote that. But I'd like to think that I'm somewhat better now.

Charity Works

On to charity works...

For the videomakers, there's a contest to put up a video in youtube pertaining world hunger:

http://www.youtube.com/hungerbytes

And word games to accumulate rice:

http://freerice.com/

Have a tree planted as a gift or as a memory:

http://www.arborday.org/index.cfm

Would I look back in my life and regret it?

Well, I got some of my memory relapse back so here it goes:

I met up with some of my friends from the bay at NYC because they were spending new year's there. We went ice skating and watched a play (sort of) called Fuerza Bruta. It was a really good play.

Last weekend (the 4th), I went to the bay area to visit the same friends and then some. We watch 'Atonement' which was suprisingly really good and so sad. D.A.L. turned 21 on Christmas day so she celebrated it on the 5th (saturday). It was a wholata drama with S.V.T. for the reasons unbeknownst to people but M.C.V. and I were caught in the middle because we ended up being the mediators of some sort. They called us instead of each other to relay informations. Anyhow, long story short, S.V.T. got uninvited to the party. The bday girl wanted a formal dinner so we went to a restaurant that has the view of the bay in cocktail dresses, heels, coats and ties. Food was good and it was fun. After the dinner, some of us stayed at the hotel nearby and played drinking game. Long story short, bday girl got drunk and could not remember half of the things that happened that night...but I got pictures ;)

We had breakfast then we checked out at noon. We drove out to meet for lunch but we got lost for like half an hour or so before we were able to find our way. After lunch, I met up with S.V.T. and we went wall rock climbing. C.P.T. couldn't make it because he was too tired. That night I caught a red eye back to my home base.

Monday was rest day and thank goodness! My arms were so sore from rock climbing because I hadn't done it in a while. It was fun, though I had to take aleve twice.

I only worked once since. I went to Manchester, UK on Wednesday. That was eneventful. On the flight back there were a couple of passengers asking what there was to do in NYC at night. I told them I couldn't help them because I'm not a night life kind of person. They were shocked. They even looked at my hands to see if I was engaged or married. I told them that I'm an outdoors person - hiking, kayaking, etc. - and not life is not something I indulge very often. Guess I'm really weird.

Anyway, I started learning French via my roommate's Rosetta Stone and learning to knit after my trip. I'm making (or trying) table runner for my mom for mother's day. I figured 4 months would be enough to have it finished because I know I'll make mistakes and will be so slow. I know (well, a little) crochet and I finished my friend's scarf last week that I would give to her bday next month along with a white wine that I bought in Portugal.

I'm nervous. This is another year and the pressure of personal success is becoming more paramount and I could only pretend to know what I'm doing for so long. In the end, would I look back at my life and regret it?

I've been truly happy

Well it's been a while since I've written here because I forgot my username/email so let's see what I can remember.

First off, I wasn't able to come home for Christmas even though I had Christmas off because scheduling won't release me on the 24th because apparently we were short staffed but they still didn't use me. So I couldn't fly to back to make it to the Christmas Eve dinner and the Wii tournament that my cousin was hosting. Well, my friend who lives in the front building crashpad couldn't make it home to her house either even though she was released already because her flight for home got weight restricted. So since misery loves company, we ended up eating at Applebee's because that's the only one open for dinner. We called it a night at 8pm. But having a big family somewhat paid off because I have cousins near where I lived that I never knew about and I was able to have lunch with them on Christmas day.

I also didn't make it to the city with my friends for the New Year's Eve countdown because I was stuck in the airport for the AA meeting (gah, airport appreciation???) and my shift ended at 11:30pm. Ewe.

So, old new year's goals are still not complete with exception of traveling. I still have snow boarding, scuba diving, bunjee jumping and sky diving on the list. I guess I'll try to make some progress on those this year. But I added 2 goals this year: learning to knit and speak french. I've started on both so we'll see at the the end of the year how well I did with all these goals. Or if I even get a boyfriend. Sigh.

I'm going home next weekend and my younger brother would be coming home also from Iraq for vacation so that should be fun.

Anyway, time flies so fast and I don't really want to play catch up. But I know someday life will catch me head on and I just have to brace my self from the whirl wind that it would do to my life. Maybe then I can say that I've been truly happy.