It's a blustery day...

I'm sitting in the Miracosta College computer waiting for my Health Lab orientation to start in and hour. I had big plans to do my online Spanish homework while I waited.... but I've forgotten the password and am stuck internet surfing instead.

Classes started this week. So far I've had Spanish (Como te llamo?) and Health. Tomorrow I have Guitar and American Political Institutions. I'm nervous for the guitar class, but glad that I'm finally getting a chance to take it. I've been telling myself for ages that I'd learn to play and eventually be able to strum a folk song or two. I just hope the teacher is patient...

The idea of growing up has been very off-putting to me lately. There's still so many things I'd like to do before I finish with school and enter the real world of adult jobs and responsibilities. I'm pretty sure that's what I love about Maui... it seems to be filled with so many twenty and thirty something that somehow managed to avoid the stressful process of growing up. Good for them.

The job hunt is still in full swing... or half swing anyways. I've personally handed in one application, and emailed my resume to two postings for servers that I found on craigslist. My bank account has seen better days, that's for sure. Regardless of how broke I am, I don't see how anything that horrible can come of it...

I'm determined to stop consuming things made with refined sugar. Missy brought home some homemade chocolate chip cookies from her mom's the other day I'd managed to eat about ten of them before the evening was through. Those were appetizers... Rocky Road ice cream was the main course.

I am hungry though, so I'm going to go hit up the food court before the orientation.

I'm a little tired, given it's still before noon, so forgive me if some of this turns out to be nonsense. I gave up my caffeine fix a while back, and it's still catching up with me.

I've been back on Maui for just over three weeks now, and am sad knowing I'll be leaving as soon as this upcoming Wednesday. Flying out, I wasn't entirely sure how this part of my summer would go. So many of my good friends are gone now and have taken up roots on the mainland where they're going to college. Despite having moved out to the mainland, I certainly haven't taken up roots anywhere, which explains why MiraCosta College in Oceanside will be college #4. Maybe I keep moving around because I haven't found anyplace on the mainland that's quite as nice as Maui, or maybe I keep moving just to keep from being bored.

I think there's been a total of two days when I haven't made it out to the ocean, and they were both due to bad sunburns (which have now turned into a nice tan, thank you very much). I've made it out surfing a couple of times, and am going out again later today. I wasn't sure how much I'd end up paddling out. Since I'm not the greatest surfer I usually try to take my dad (or any guy friend who is big and intimidating) out in the water with me. I've witnessed enough riffs in the water between surfers to know better than to piss some of them off. I'll be honest... I'm no Laird Hamilton (ok, my name and Laird Hamilton's don't even belong in the same sentence), and I know that I'm more than capable of pissing some local guys off. Despite that, I have been catching waves. Right now my goal is to catch one wave per session... and sometimes even that is setting the bar high. It's just nice to be out in the water having fun.

Melissa and Janine are both still here, which is nice. Janine introduced me to Lahaina night life last week when we went to the Oyster Bar, and I have to be honest and say that I wasn't that impressed. I think I'd take a laid back place like Blue Lagoon over the bumping, grinding, and loud music of the Oyster Bar any day. It was still fun since it's pretty difficult to ever hang out with Janine and not have a good time.

Edward attempted to teach me how to hit some golf balls down at the Ka'anapali driving range the other day, and while I'm not necessarily bad, I am certainly not good. It's a little bit harder than Tiger Woods makes it looks. (is Tiger his real name?)

A couple of weeks ago I ran into Petey, an old friend and coworker. He was getting ready to leave for Hana in a couple of days time, and their group needed one more person to go. Any time I have free time and a chance to go to Hana, I'll take it. They'd rented a a van, and a 3BR house in Hana for two nights. I wish I'd had a camera with me because the house was amazing. Considering I've only ever camped in Hana, a one bedroom shanty would have been nice, so this house was extremely comfortable. I would have stayed there for months if I could have.

After being away for a year and a half, it's more than just nice to be home. I felt like as soon as I got off of the plane and stepped into the airport in Kahului, I immediately got back all of the positive energy back that's slowly been drained out of me by California's fast paced, consumer-driven lifestyle. I love California, and I always will, I've just come to the realization that I don't want to live there. Ok, well if I were choosing between California and, oh say Nebraska... then I would choose California. When it's between Maui and California, I think I'll take Maui.

So I made an appointment and met with a counselor over at MCC the other day about their nursing program. I'm glad that I did because it turns out that the nursing program on island looks much more enticing than any of the ones I'd checked out in California. When you take into the into account the wait lists in the California programs, along with the prerequisites, it usually takes upwards from six years to become an RN. At the school I'm at it would take about eight. In Maui, from the time I begin my prerequisites to the time I graduate with my Registered Nursing Degree would only be four years.

The new plan is to finish up my associates in California over the next semester, and then head back out here in December. I might even take a semester off since I'll have a year of non-residency once I get back.

I'm going to head down to the Harbor and get my tea at the world cafe. Whoever you are, I hope you are having a wonderful day... and I also hope that immediately after you finish reading this that you will turn off your computer and go enjoy the day outside. I promise it'll be way better than anything you will find on your TV set (...unless your TV happens to be hooked up to a Nintendo Wii. Then I might stay in too.).

Two weeks of Biology left until schools done for the summer, and not a day too soon. It's nice to be getting it out of the way this summer, and I needed something to feel productive about since I'm not working until I get out to HI.
I legally went to my first bar last night and had a beer . Kyle's pops asked me when I saw him if I felt any different now that I'm 21, and I can honestly say no, not really. It probably has to do with the fact that I've had an ID and access to bars for some time now, but it mostly has to do with the fact that I can usually find some place or something that I'd rather spend my time and money on. It was nice to order a drink for once though and not feel sheisty about it.
We ended up in Newport for my 21st/the fourth of July. The Palmdale crew got together at Chris and Andy's condo on the beach and havoc ensued. A bunch of us ended up in the ocean around two or three in the morning which was a nice way to end the night.
I finally made it to the gym today like I've been promising myself I would for the past month, and once Kyle got off work we took the beast to the beach and threw disk around for a little while. By the way, there is an awesome New York pizzeria over in Del Mar. It reminded me of Tony's pizzeria that my pops, sis and I used to hit up after spending the day at the beach in Ventura.
Anyways, I'm tired and I'm going to pop American Gangster in the DVD player. G'Night:]

Thank goodness for San Diegan Mexican Restaurants that stay open til 2AM

Do you ever look through Best of Craigslist, Casual Encounters, or pretty much any of the personals on the Craigslist website in your downtime? If no, then you really should from time to time. You'd be amazed and amused by some of the things you find.

I'm ridiculously hungry, but the kitchen is scary and we don't have any Hot Pockets, Tostinos, or equally easy to make items. I've become addicted to the veggie burritos at the drive thru Mexican restaurant down at Solano beach... pretty much Veggie burritos from any hole in the wall mexican place down here. They're amazing and I eat far too many. Plus, this particular restaurant stays open until 2 AM, and since I tend to get really hungry right around midnight or so, it works out well.

I bought my ticket for Maui yesterday and I've been in a light and airy mood ever since. I fly out on July 25th, at which time it will have been just over two years since I've been home. The trip about a month and then I'll head back here and start searching for a place in San Diego.

Jordo and I cut most of my hair off on Tuesday and then colored what was left of it
before taking off for Ventura for the night to hang out with her mom.

I have a lot more I could write about, but I've just reached that point where I'm so hungry I can't really concentrate.

We're going to EDC tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

"I would rather have one of my pet's die than have that puck go in my goal"

After this week I'm going to need a vacation from everybody elses vacation. Kyle came up for four days last week and then I drove him back to San Diego. On my way back up he coast on tuesday I picked up Jordo, and she'll be staying with me until I move on the 11th. Luke and danielle arrived on wednesday and are planning to be here until monday. My mom arrived yesterday and will be here until sunday. I can honestly say that I love having everyone here, especially since I don't have any work or school for some time now.

I picked my mom up yesterday morning at about 7AM and we went ahead to Louis diner on the Great hwy for breakfast. I'm going to miss that place. It's where Jordo and I always go at the start of our epic days. It's classic diner food and looks like it hasn't been redecorated a bit since the 60s. The best part is it sits directly on the edge of a cliff, so you have the most amazing view the whole time you're there.

Afterwards we headed down to Haight, but everything was still closed, so we decided to hit up the SFMOMA. We got lost on foot in the tenderloin for a while before finally making our way to the museum, and then spent a good couple of hours walking around. I love that place. Love, love, love that place. You'll just be strolling around going from painting to painting and then all of a sudden... Picasso, or Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Pollack. It's exciting.

Then there were the questionable pieces... like "The Fountain". "The Fountain" is a urinal. In the middle of the room, up a top a pedestal, is a urinal. The plack on the side of the pedestal reads, "this is not art because I made it, but this is art because I chose it". And since choosing the original fountain, he has gone on to authorize some 25 more urinals to be "fountains". I think I should clarifly... this is not literally a fountain. This is a porcelain urinal, laid flat, that looks like it was picked up at the local home depot and dropped at the museum. Thats all. Nothings been done to it.

Afterwards we grabbed a bite at John's Grill, whish apparently is the setting of a sherlock homes novel.

After dropping mom off to get checked in, I met up with Jordan, Luke, and Daniel at home then met my mom and headed for little Italy for dinner. Dinner was amazing. We found the cutest little Italian spot right off Columbus and got the works. We hardly had room on the table between the wine, the bread, the cheese, the polenta, the salads. Luke and Daniel left afterwards to meet with a friend while Jordan, Mom, and I made a bee-line for Ghiradelli square. After a few irish coffee's at the Buena Vista we hopped on a cable car and headed home.

It's feels a little weird going to a bar with my mom.

Today we're making the walk from the Golden Gate down to pier 39. Man, right now I need some coffee though.

Oh, and the headline is a recent quote pertaining to airhockey.

I'll be going to school for the rest of my life...

Lately I've been looking a lot into nursing programs. By the year 2016 it's predicted that there will be a nursing shortage of around 500,000 nurses, and most likely far more than that.
It only requires a two year associates (which is actually closer closer to 3-1/2 when you count the programs' prerequisites). The downside though is that the majority of the programs have waiting lists of two to three years... and you can't apply to the program until you've finished the first year or so of prerequisites.
So here is the new plan...
I was originally going to transfer to San Marcos state for Mass Media. Well, by majoring in Mass Media I'm pretty sure I would end up selling my soul somewhere down the line to a corporate advertisement agency, and while I'm fairly certain that I would be really good at it, and I could make very decent money, I think I'd be pretty disappointed with a life of promoting the consumer lifestyle.
So I'm changing my major to Social Sciences, which actually works out perfectly. I get to choose a primary field and two subfields to study. My primary field will most likely be psychology, and the subfields will be economics and political science. The major comes with the option of a single subject credential which would allow me to work as a high school teacher upon graduating and getting my credential.
So that's the first part of the new plan. Over the next six months while I'm waiting to transfer to San Marcos in the Spring I plan on taking the Licenced Vocational Nursing Prerequisites so that I can make it onto the two year waiting list by the end of the year. That way, upon graduation from San Marcos I can begin the LVN program almost immediately if I still want to. I'll have options. After becoming a LVN, there are programs to transition to becoming an RN. After that there are plenty of programs designed for RNs to obtain their Bachelor's of Science in Nursing which opens a lot more doors.
It's a career that has job security like no other right now, and has great entry level pay, but the thing I'm most drawn to are the career options. There are more work and volunteer-abroad options for nurses than nearly any other profession.
I'm planning on taking Spanish and pharmacology over the summer.
I'm completely aware of the fact that this whole "plan" will probably change drastically, and probably within the the next six months, but for now it's something that I'm excited about.
I have work at 7:30 tomorrow morning. I'm liking these early morning shifts. I should get to bed though. I just needed to clear my mind.

Finals, Wrapping up, and Moving to San Diego

It's been at least a couple of months or so since the last time I updated this, and there's more than enough to update it with.

Coachella was a couple of weeks ago, and I'm already excited for next year. Kyle and I did the onsite camping and met up with some friends from Ventura. Vampire Weekend, MGMT, The Raconteurs, Rilo Kiley, Flogging Molly, Death Cab, Jack Johnson... I felt like someone turned my iPod upside down, shook it a couple of times, and a bunch of my favorite bands fell out and landed at Coachella... then I got to go and see them live. It was an amazing weekend, and it was really nice to get away from he city for a coupe of days.

School's been going well, and it's even better now that I'm coming up on the final week of the semester. I had my first final yesterday, and I have four more over the course of the next week. As long as finals go well (and I think they should) I'm likely to get three A's, a B, and a C, and two more credits for work study. The C is in Geography, and while I won't make a big deal about it on here, I will say that it's the first C I'll be getting in my college carreer and I'm not happy about it. I hate geography, and I never understood what the hell was going on in that class. Over all the semester has gone really well, but I'll be happy to put it behind me and start enjoying my summer.

My last day of work at the preschool was on Thursday, and it was hard to know that I won't get to see the kids again after I move. It's a relief to have one less thing to focus on, but after spending a year with the kids it's hard not to form a lot of attachments.

My final day at the Beach Chalet is the 27th. It's strange to think that I've been working there for nearly a year now, especially considering the fact the I couldn't stand the place for the first few months. I love it now... well I like it now, but I love my coworkers. I also have to face the fact that I'll be hard pressed to find a job where I walk with over $150 a night... unless of course I take up stripping. I'm thinking about applying at some of the country clubs once I move to San Diego. There's a picture from inside the Chalet above. You can see the water and the view out the window. It was definitely nice location.

Someone is coming to pick up our couch in about ten minutes. Alison and i have started the process of selling everything we don't want anymore, and clearing the apartment out. We're going to move my bed out to the living room once the couch is gone, and I'll sleep out here and we'll use it as our "couch" until we move in a couple of weeks.

I've just realized that i didn't mention where I'm moving, or when and why. In a little over two weeks I'll be moving down to San Diego. It's the Carlsbad area, so North County San Diego if you want to get technical. I have one final semester at a JC before I'll be transfering to San Marcos State for Mass Media. I'll be living a lot closer to Kyle, which will be a nice change, and I'll finally be back in the warm weather. I love San francisco, but the cold weather is just too much for me to handle.

So my last day of work is on the 27th, and on the 28th Kyle's flying up. We've got tickets to go to The Giants-Padres Game that Friday, and then we'll drive down to San Diego a couple of days later.

After I drop him in SD, I'm headed up to L.A. for a night, and then Jordo and I are going to drive back up to SF for a week just to enoy it and then take the last of my things south. It's funny, a year ago Jordan and I were driving up to san Francisco to move me in, and now Jordo and I will be driving up to move me out.

I convinced my mom to come up for a couple of days before I leave, so she'll be here the same time as Jordo. It'll be nice to show her around where I lived and workd for a year.

I'm still going to try to make it out to Maui ove the summer, only now I don't know for how long. I'll be 21 the beginning of July, and I want to be in california with my friends for that. I'm not making any big plans for my birthday... that's still over a month away. I'll probably try make it out to Maui for the last three weeks of July, and then make it back in time to start school in the fall.

Ok, well this is getting ridiculously long, and I have some lauudry that really needs some doing. Wish me luck with my finals over this next week...

Nooow, I remember why I don't go out very often...

The way I fet when I woke up today helped me to remember why I don't go out on school nights, or much at all for that matter. I've felt pretty useless for the better part of the day, and after last night at the Mucky Duck I've come to this conclusion: I pretty much am-and always will be- a light weight.

I like waking up early and feeling motivated. I can't stand waking up feeling useless.

Despite how I felt today though, last night was definitely good... and interesting to say the least. If you were there then you know what I mean... I'm sure the poor girls embarassed enough without me going on about it, so I won't mention names. I'll just say that some people really do become friendier after they've got a few drinks in them...

Anyways, I'm on break in between classes and I came home to take a quick nap before going back for bio-anthro class. Instead I've been messing around online for the past half hour, so I'm going to go take that nap.

I hope you're having a great day, whoever you are that's reading this. And I hope you're feeling more usefull than I am.

Xanga's been pretty much abandoned by everyone post-highschool, including me for the most part. Now everyone's writing there deep dark secrets over here, and I'm behind the times. I might try to transfer some of my old blogs over here from my old site, but right now that just seems like too much unnecessary work, especially since I have a five page paper due in film class tomorrow that I haven't even begun.

You can go here to look at the old ones until I add them to here: http://www.xanga.com/MorganDanielle74

I do think tht I should clarify that most of the ramblings you'll find in my blogs are much more for my entertainment than anyone elses. But if you can derive any enjoyment out of them, then all the better.

Alison's sitting on the other side of the room doing homework, and I'm on the couch thinking about doing homework. It's a start. Our apartment is pretty disastrous, but I've gotten used to it. The kitchen is filled with the remnance of the chocolate cake I made last night. Our living room floor is covered in texts books and five pairs of Alison's shoes.

We're planting flowers at the preschool tomorrow, and I hope I know what I'm doing. I guess it doesn't really matter if anything grows. The kids love anything that involves playing with dirt and getting messy.

So I've figured out that I'll have one more semester at a JC left after this. Then I'll be able to transfer into CTVA (Cinema/ Telivision Arts) at Northridge. I'm thinking come end of May I'll go back out to Maui for the summer, work and save money, then go back to Palmdale to finish my lower-division before transfering. The AV is a good place for school... because there's really nothing to do there. There's no distractions.

The nice thing about next semester will be my classes. Screenwriting... Photography... Mass Communications. I'll finally be able to take the tennis class I've been wanting to take, and if I have the time then I'll definitely take another PolySci class... especilly with the election coming up.

The Oscars were last night. Usually I watch them with my mom and sister. We order pizza and eat Hagen Dazz Coffee flavored Ice Cream. Anyways, I didn't watch them this year. I read about them this morning though. I mosly just glad to see that Javier Bardem won for best supporting and Daniel Day-Lewis wan for best actor. They were my favorites.

Oook, I have a five page paper to go write about a film still. Have a good night, afternoon, or morning..