subtitle

maybe "rants" isn't the right word. these are simple thoughts about my life. some may be more colorful than others. some language may be offensive, but it depends on your definition of offensive. consider this your warning ;)

24 April 2012

Back in the saddle


There are several other tasks I should be doing right now, including writing, but right now I write for someone that hasn’t been written for in a too long of a period of time—myself. Yes, the latter half of that statement referred to Marlon in the third person, as does the former half of this one. And so, in conjunction with the first two sentences, Marlon has successfully referred to himself in the third person (wait for it…) three times.

If a Baker’s Week contains one more day than the regular 7-day week, then it’s taken me three Baker’s Weeks to look back on 2011 in a Year in Review/Recap Blog. By no means was this intentional, and I’ve been quite busy this month in my new position at work (which actually feels like THAT position sometimes), but I did realize something quite interesting about my unintended blog negligence—I’m much more excited to look to the future than I am to my past. Not to say 2011 was a bust, far from, but with the road ahead (although even more uncertain than some in years past), I’m positively anxious and sometimes downright giddy about my future (or should I say “our future”? Confused? Maybe this Recap Blog will help).

New Year’s Eve 2010. Fred’s in Huntington Beach with Pocahontas and the Padre. Midnight hits, a documented kiss, popped collars and high fives everywhere. Balloons fall, noisemakers squeal, and the goal of 11 margaritas before 2011 fell short. Not that I intended to start the year with a missed target, let’s just say the stakes weren’t high enough to really drive the progress. Taxi home, everyone’s safe, hello new year.

Winter Session at CSULB witnessed a few internal promotions at the Forty-Niner Shops, and my transition from Corporate Receptionist to Viral Marketing Assistant began. Facebook flipped from a time-wasting distraction to a foray into the endless field of Social Media. Twitter seeped into my life and my online pulse began to rise. By the time I had settled into a groove with social media, internal communications, and PR, the Spring semester had started and I had survived my last first day of school of my undergraduate career. Yes, almost 12 years since I graduated with the first senior class at Deer Valley High School, I was finally starting the home stretch towards the diploma of a finish line.

Spoiler: I graduated, kept my job on campus, turned 30, got engaged (below is the last pic we took before the proposal ;) , and went back to Fred’s in HB for New Year’s Eve.

Yeah, it finally happened. A long path that started with an encouraging spirit in 2005 that introduced me to Beth McBrien at Diablo Valley College led me through a series of life-changing semesters with some great people at DVC. Thanks to the financial support of the 9/11 GI Bill and the mental momentum from the ‘A’ Train experience at KCACTF, I headed down to 562 with two of the coolest people that transferred in 2009. May 27, 2011 I was conferred a Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Directing. A few weeks before that I had received my class ring in the mail, something that I had wanted since high school, and with that it began to feel like a reality. I was the next to last person to walk at our College of the Arts ceremony.

My dear friend, Bethany Lynn Bunce was determined to be the last person to cross the stage, and I stuck by her to run interference and to usher late comers to go ahead of us. It wasn’t easy, but she succeeded in her goal, to her and her sorority sisters’ delight. As for me, with a couple of winks, waves, handshakes, and hugs from the faculty and staff (including President Alexander and Dr. Robinson, whom I was privileged to have dinner with earlier that week at the Graduating Veterans Dinner), I posed for the requisite photos and walked back into the screaming crowd, for our commencement was coming to a close.

For many of us, this was the hard-earned end to a major chapter in our life; for some, this was the teaser of an ending, having made the decision to walk early, having one last semester before full completion. For all of us, though, it was a time of celebration, and celebrate we did. There’s partial documentation in a video of me breaking a celebratory plate at George’s Greek Café at my victory lunch after commencement. Opah!

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And that's where I left off when I started that post back on January 24th. That would explain the "three Baker's Weeks" statement.

It has since then, passed almost three months to the date, and I've decided to blow the eDust off my blog and jump back in the saddle. However, if you ride bareback (as many of my blogs are...straight out and raw), would you still call it, "back in the saddle" or would it just be, "getting back on"?

Whichever it should be, I'm back. Obviously, and if you're wondering how the rest of the recap blog would have gone, here were the little reminders I kept to make sure I covered everything:

  • Angels Baseball
  • Keeping the Job/corporate theatre
  • Fall Semester, moving on without going anywhere
  • right shoulder surgery
  • Two Words. En. Gaged.
  • Wrap it up!


Now that we’re all caught up… ;)

I’ve thought about coming back to finish the recap blog many times in the last few months, and the more I thought about it, especially when I thought about how it was starting to become a regular thing, you know, my annual recap blogs…I realized I had more exciting things to look forward to, than things to reflect on. This is in no way a dilution of 2011, absolutely not, I finally got that elusive B.A. in Theatre, turned 30, and got engaged. That’s a life turkey (Gobble, gobble, bowling friends), and I loooove turkey.

In a month, Sarah graduates with her B.A. in Theatre, and as we both dive into working as much as possible, we take these next months to transition out of college life with planning our wedding J

Everyday I usually think of something to blog about, and I’d be lying if I said I’d write one everyday, but I’ll shoot for 2 each week. You may remember my attempt at daily blogging last July, and that only lasted a couple weeks, but it was awesome while it was happening.


Until next post, good day, sir!

ps. the following image was the day Ortho released me from the full immobilizer brace I had to wear everyday the first month after surgery. The picture above (pre-proposal) was a couple days later :)




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