Well, I've been home for almost a month. Crazy. These past few weeks have gone by so fast.
Christmas and New Years were a lot of fun, and as always, I got very lucky in the gifts department ;)
Among my favorite new things are my American Eagle convertible boots and Vera Wang Perfume (from Dan!),My Monterey Calendar (so thoughtful!) from my Aunt Lynne and my new Oversized Egyptian Cotton White Down Comforter and 4" thick down featherbed from my mom. I haven't had a nice bed in years...before I left for California my bed at my dad's was broken and my bed at my mom's didn't have a mattress. Of course, the beds supplied to students in on-campus housing suck too...so it's amazing to have such a comfy place to sleep now!
I started a new job, which has been great. I now work at Anna Street Studio in downtown Portsmouth selling handbags. Although I definitely miss Calef's and my old co-workers, Anna Street is really the perfect job for me; a mix of fashion and computers, and of course talking with customers, which I honestly really like. One of the neat things about Anna Street is that customers have the option to design their own bag from the 200+ fabrics and gazillion ribbon/bow choices we have in the store. I've enjoyed being creative in that respect; helping people mix patterns and colors. I really wish I was more visually artistic and gifted. I love being creative so much and it would be amazing to have a job in the fashion field (other than a sales associate or retail position!).
I thought school started today but it actually starts tomorrow and since I only have class on M,W and F (workshop), I don't have to go until Wednesday. I plan to start up my workout routine on Wednesday too and make my school days the days that I go to the gym and tanning. I know people are always harping on and on about the health risks that tanning poses, but I've done a lot of my own research about tanning in moderation (for one's skin type) and there are a lot of benefits. Since I'm almost positive that I suffer from SAD (seasonal depression), I think that the Vitamin D benefit is good for me. I've had a hard time being home only because of the weather but everything else has been great. It's amazing to be able to see Dan almost everyday and hang out with my parents. My dad re-did much of the house when I was away and we now enjoy a plasma TV with high-definition and wireless internet (we had NO internet before...which made research for school such a pain in the butt). He also hung up the chandelier I bought last summer in my room and fixed my bed (with my new comforter!) so my room is finally finished. I love it!
While I'm not in California anymore, I think I'm going to try to blog every now and again here just to keep everyone updated. It's been fun to get feedback and I like to share my pictures and thoughts with you all. I'm really broke so don't be surprised if a million pictures of things I WISH I could buy begin to surface... :)
Hope you are all doing well!
I can't believe I leave to come home to New Hampshire tomorrow!
I'm getting really excited but a tiny part of me is sad to leave Monterey. I have made so many friends and memories here and it was such a great experience to come out West. This week has been really fun, especially since I have my sister here with me! At the beginning of the semester I made a list of all the things in California (the whole state) that I wanted to see, and I've spent the last few days doing things that I can finally cross off.
Brie came on Monday and that night we went to California Pizza Kitchen with everyone to celebrate Christmas. After dinner, we did our gift swap. I got a scarf, a book and picture frame from Jaclyn, a Christmas bear from Yuria, a beautiful necklace from Steph, a picture frame with pictures from Amber and tons of delicious peppermint bark from Amy & Caitlin...and then I ate everyone else's too. Haha.
Tuesday,Denise, Jaclyn, Megan, Brie and me headed for San Francisco. At first I was nervous because it was raining in Monterey...and it would have been such a bummer to have bad weather in the city. It was ironic that it rained on that day because it seriously never rains in California...this was maybe the third time that it had the entire semester! Luckily, by the time we got up to San Francisco, it had cleared up pretty nicely :) Denise gave us the grand tour (as always!) and we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge, Alamo Square (the old Victorians featured on Full House) and then Union Square to see the Christmas tree and do a little shopping. I didn't really buy anything except a pair of $4.00 earrings at Forever 21, but Brie was able to find the sneakers she wanted at the four floor Nike store.
Wednesday was kind of a chill-out day, I had tons of homework to do and then Brie and I walked the 2-3 miles to/from the beach. I showed her my favorite spot and we took a ton of great pictures!
On Thursday, Brie and I brought Jaclyn to work since she was nice enough to offer us her car for while she was working! We went down to the famous Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, drove down 17 mile drive (which is 17 miles of tiny road through the Del Monte Forest and along Pebble Beach and the ocean. I had really wanted to do it all semester and it was nice to see everything with my sister! After the drive we stopped at Pizza My Heart for lunch and got the T-shirt deal, which is when you buy a T-shirt for $5.00 and get a huge slice of pizza free!
Last night, we (me, Brie, Nicole, Paul) went to one of my favorite places ever, the Santa Cruz diner, and then to the boardwalk. Even though everything was closed, we had such a fun time :) Afterwards, we stopped at Target and Best Buy and we got snacks and watched Hairspray. I decided I definitely DO NOT like musicals and I have no idea why I was ever in them. I hate watching them!!!
Today I have to clean the apartment and check out of the building. All of my roommates are gone and I miss them already. Luckily, their friend Nicole is here (she's from Hawaii!) and Paul is staying until tomorrow night so Brie and I have some company :)
Our flight leaves at 6 p.m. tomorrow night...so we'll be back on the East Coast in a matter of 48 hours! I can't wait to see everyone...
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This project stressed me out more than any paper ever could have. I think the thing I like about my major (History) is that I always know exactly what I will do. I know that my grade is under my control and as long as I do the research and follow the guidelines, I can get a good grade. Art is completely unpredictable; and as much as that would seem therapeutic and wonderful, it isn't when your grade and 4 college credits are resting on it. So, for the found object project, I ran through about 20 ideas. I didn't like any of them...or think they were creative or time-consuming enough. I really had no idea what my instructor was looking for and until I just gave up and said screw it, I wasn't able to make a thing. I ended up constructing a hanging mobile-type thing out of an old picture frame holder (turned upside down), beaded wire (that I unraveled from a beaded lampshade) and glass (that I broke from wine/martini/shot glasses).
My roommate, Denise, is an extremely creative person! She makes amazing sharpie drawings and designs shoes too. Today she made a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train, both of which appear to be straight out of a Martha Stewart or Real Life magazine spread.
While she was doing this, I went (walked) to the new Target/Old Navy plaza that opened on Fort Ord (about 1.5-2 mi each way) because I needed to get some stuff for my portfolio for my Ancient Maya class. I ended up scoring a bunch of amazing deals and picking Dan up some more Christmas presents which I'm really excited about (but can't mention here because he will read it!)...I have had such a fun time shopping for him this year! At first I didn't want to do Christmas because I was stressed about money and I had no idea what to get him :( Then I realized, wow, it's Christmas and those things really don't matter. So I've just used my judgement and I hope he likes all the gifts. It's nice to love someone who loves you back and want to make them happy. I have to say this is a real first for me, and there is no way to thank him for having been so understanding and supportive for the past four months. I am a VERY lucky girl.
I guess that's about it for now...I realize I haven't posted much lately but I really haven't done anything exciting. Brie comes Monday, just in time for dinner at the Olive Garden/Christmas swap party with all my roommates and friends and a Tuesday day/night trip to San Francisco. I'm finally going to see the Golden Gate Bridge! I've been to the city three times and I just never saw it...I guess after I do my California trip will really be complete (as I've been just about everywhere else) and just in time to head back to New Hampshire for what I'm sure will be an amazing holiday season...
Stay posted this week for more pictures of mine/Brie's adventures :)
I just realized I haven't updated this journal on a regular basis in a while! I think I've just grown so accustomed to living in Monterey that I forget to take pictures of daily things and talk about them. I can't believe I've been here for just about four months...and that I'll be leaving to go back to New Hampshire and UNH in about two weeks!
I also can't believe how close Christmas is. It's such a weird feeling to be in a place where it never snows; where people complain (yes, me included) about the temperature dropping to 40 degrees at night. I have had some trouble getting into the Holiday spirit this year simply because the difference in weather makes me feel like it can't POSSIBLY be December! Last night made me realize that it really is getting close to Christmas as we went to a Christmas party for Steph and Amber's work.
They work at a place in Carmel called Homescapes, which sells worldly and antique home furnishings and furniture. It's actually a really beautiful store and it was so gorgeous all lit up for the Holidays. There was food and wine, carolers and upper-crust types with their little dogs (complete in Christmas attire). The store was absolutely packed and I was scared to move without knocking over a $200.00 lamp or bumping into one of the $1,000.00 Christmas tree decorations! The city of Carmel (It reminds me a lot of downtown Portsmouth) was all lit up and it was just beautiful.
It was nice to have a reason to dress nicely and get out on a Friday night and just walk around with good friends, I had a really nice night :) Here are some pictures that Jaclyn took from last night. I had to steal them since my camera hasn't been working!
...and it is 70 degrees and sunny in Monterey today.
Quite the contrast from the 20-30 degree/frost over your window in the morning/1-2" of snow in New Hampshire and the lack of greenery in the Hi-Desert of Southern California.
It was good to go home for a couple of weeks. So nice to drive and work, be able to see Dan, my parents and my little Fiona Marie! I was also able to catch a UCONN soccer game too! They played Wake Forest at BC and advanced to the Sweet 16. Brie played awesome and I was so excited I got to see it :) They have since traveled to California and beat #1 seeded Stanford 2-0, so they play Florida State this week (in Florida) as part of the Elite 8. Root for the Huskies!!
Thanksgiving was wonderful, full of too many treats that I definitely gorged on (but it's Thanksgiving...and that's what you are supposed to do...so who cares!) and then from there I flew into Ontario, CA to meet up with Amber and Jaclyn. We stayed with her aunt and uncle who were very nice and great hosts and we just spent time driving around the different parts of the region. Amber lives in a small town in the Wrightwood Moutains, elevation 5,000 and populations <3,000. It was so neat to see and and the snow they were blowing on the ski resort. We also saw the hi-desert, which was where her uncle lives and the commerical part of Ontario. Saturday we went to Amber's alumni soccer game (she scored 2 goals!) and her aunt's birthday party. Her cousin was a phenomenal cook and I had myself a second thanksgiving dinner complete with desert (pumpkin pie and HOMEMADE whip cream!). That night we went up with Steph and went to Newport Beach, located on the Balboa Penisula and home to my old favorite show, The O.C. It was dark so I didn't see much but it was a gorgeous night and a fun car ride in Steph's mustang :)
We left early Sunday morning to come back to Monterey and it was quite a ride. Lots of desert, mountains and sand. Southern California is just so different than the part of CA near where I am, it's so weird to me that its still the same state. I can't get over how big it really is...if I drove for 6-8 hours at home I'd be in New Jersey or Pennsylvania!
So here we are...back in Monterey!
Enjoy pictures from my journey down South.
Well, I made it home in one piece...aside from the horrible sinus infection and 2 ear infections :(
I'm feeling much better today and going out with my parents, I'm so excited :)
I am here until the 23rd but probably won't post anything (since this is a journal about Monterey!)
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. :-)
Halloween has finally come and gone and somewhere in the last week a witch crashed into my door, I ate about 2+ bags of candy corn (by myself), made a wire skeleton and pranced around Santa Cruz as a leopard in the company of Harry Potter, a Greek Goddess, 80's queens and a bunny rabbit.
This year was especially fun because I loved the celebrations and costumes in Santa Cruz. People were absolutely wacky. There were monsters on stilts hovering above the crowds and tons of super weird and original outfits. The weather was really foggy (you can see the particles in some of my pictures!) but it felt so spooky and halloween-ish! It was also Yuria's first Halloween and she loved it. Santa Cruz is quiteee the trip for a first Halloween!
We concluded our night at the Santa Cruz diner; which is seriously the best diner I've ever been to in my life. They have anything and everything someone could want. I got a turkey burger and fries (dipped in ranch!) and it was amazing.
Here are some pictures that I took in our apartment when we were getting ready and then some once we got to Santa Cruz :)
Just thought I would poste a few links that people have forwarded me about the earthquake last night...it's pretty interesting stuff.
I also found this news video as one of the top five stories on the front page of MSN.com.
"A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles)." -Taken from the USGS website
About an hour and a half ago I was sitting at my desk and my laptop monitor started to sway back and forth (it needs to be tightened). I thought it was just me since I've been feeling under the weather and dizzy all day but about 10 seconds later my entire desk and chair started to shake. I went out to the living room and Denise said, "Krista, this is an earthquake!" It was the weirdest feeling ever. It only lasted about 30-40 seconds or so but it was enough to knock my body spray off my desk (it's in a plastic bottle, not glass) and I saw the lamp posts outside swaying a bit. It was such a weird feeling! The maps above and below are of the quake itself...it apparently measured a 5.6 (moderate earthquake), making it the biggest earthquake listed since 2004. It occured near San Jose which is about 50 miles from here (and I mentioned a few entries ago). The map below is also from USGS (click here for information about this one) & shows where the shaking was felt; Monterey is listed as category 'V' having felt moderate shaking.
I guess my California experience is offically complete!
