An Effort at Being Creative

I started painting about a year ago, since I have always been a little interested in it (who didn't love art time in elementary school???), and a friend was generous enough to give me some canvases since she was moving. I have found painting to be both frustrating and fun. It can also be really relaxing, and I would recommend it even if you don't think you would be any good.

During the first attempt, Mirza's sister Lejla was visiting and we both took a crack at it. I hated my first painting, and it was really annoying since my mind had this idea of what I wanted to do, but I had no way of making the brushes do it. I still struggle with this problem, but now I just pick easy things to paint!

Check out that face on the left. Yup, not happy!

Eventually I had a successful painting, of which is far from perfect or amazing, but it's good enough :)

This one is hanging in the bathroom. Funny fact - it's the same canvas used for my first painting :D

And now, for what I'm really excited about: yesterday I finished a group of three that have been in progress for quite awhile. The living room wall behind the couch is pretty big, and it really needed some help to not look so bare. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and it's fun looking at the colorful wall now!

A Little Bit of Everything

Quite a lot in my life has changed these past few months, namely, school and work. I am now taking a full-time load of nursing pre reqs, which includes Physiology, Microbiology, and two Psychology classes. I believe I'm on track to get A's in all of them, except for Physiology where I'm probably at a B right now. This is a little disappointing. BUT, there is still plenty of time left to kick it into gear. It's funny how time works; I resigned from my job as an office manager so I could concentrate on my classes, since getting into nursing school is pretty competitive here. I've had so much time, more than any other time in my life, and it was starting to really get to me. Every now and then I would look at job postings, and one day I randomly saw a nanny job that seemed like it would be great for my schedule.

Somehow I was hired, even though I have no formal childcare/nanny experience. The kids are older though - the youngest of three is in 4th grade and the oldest is a freshman in high school. Basically, these are some really busy kids that need to be shuttled around, and pushed to get their homework, piano, guitar, and clarinet practice done. I also cook dinner for the kids and help with the laundry. Overall, it's been a good experience, although kind of stressful as well. I'm not sure yet how to find the balance between not being a pushover but not being too tough either. If anybody has advice, please feel free to send it my way! The kids are polite for the most part though, and the parents are really great as well. I've been a lot more productive since I started working again (no surprise there, since I already knew that from college). I also feel like I've become more organized in all aspects of my life, since this family is such a good example of how to get it all done :)

Well, other than that life is going pretty well. I recently discovered I LOVE kayaking, and I wish I could go all the time! Mirza, a friend and I took a little camping trip a few weeks ago at Del Valle State Park. It has a beautiful lake, and kayaking as the evening was coming in just couldn't have been better. There was something so cool about being in the middle of the lake and so close to the water, but still relatively dry :) Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera on the kayak, but we took some photos afterwards.

The next day we went boating, which wasn't as fun as kayaking, but still okay :) Mirza and Glen

took a little swim, and also went cliff diving (at which time I felt it important that somebody stay with the boat...)

Some more fun was had a few weeks ago when I finally biked over the Golden Gate Bridge. Mirza and I went on a beautiful day, and took a ferry back to the city. As sappy as it sounds, sometimes I can't believe I live here, because it really is an amazing city and area.

That Christmas feeling in July

When I moved here last May I had a really difficult time with the weather; so much so that I would frequently border on being depressed because I just knew that everybody in Utah and Nevada must have been having the time of their lives at the pool, walking around while feeling the glorious sun on their faces, and of course wearing shorts and short sleeves during the warm summer nights. Meanwhile I was here practically wearing a parka and scarf every day. To make matters worse, I never really left the city because it's where I work. Every day I had to deal with it while Mirza had the privilege of commuting about 40 minutes south of here where it's warm. I was jealous. I was also frustrated because he loves this type of weather being from Sweden, and I love the type of weather he gets to escape to since I'm from a hotter climate.

However, as time went on and it got into September through November, I don't think I had ever seen such beautiful weather. San Francisco is a late bloomer and the Indian summers are definitely something to see (except there is no air conditioning...). Later on, there was a VERY mild winter. While everyone in Utah and Nevada were freezing, I was checking and comparing the weather every day and gloating to myself.

The tables have turned again however, and it is now back to the San Francisco summer (winter). I feel a stark difference though this year - instead of hating the frequent fog, wind and cold, I embrace it. I don't think anything of always putting on a jacket before going out. Additionally, lately the weather has been reminding me of Christmas, and filling me with that joyous spirit! :) To use up some of my Christmas energy tonight, I made apple bread and warmed up some fruity/spicy glög Mirza and I have left over from Ikea. Add to that the music from the Dean Martin radio station on Pandora, and all in all, we have ourselves a very nice setup.



However, lest I completely deceive you - it has actually been pretty sunny this summer, and much more than I remember last year. It also seems to consistently fall on the weekends. So far this summer we have done some river tubing, gone to some delicious bbqs, and continued to tour the city. My friend Misty, who I worked with during my freshman year at BYU, came with a few of her friends for a wedding and stayed here this last weekend. The weekend before Mirza and I took a stroll to Chinatown and bought some delicious fortune cookies, and stopped on the way home at a park. I feel pretty lucky a lot of the time with so many different places and people around, and it is just such a different experience living in a city like this. Overall, this summer has been pretty good so far, and there is still plenty of it left!

My Cousin's Wedding

My cousin Shane was married this last weekend!!! He and Haley are so cute together and you can see how much they love and have fun with each other. Their wedding took place in the mountains by Aspen, CO. During the actual ceremony, you could hear a lot of people sniffing at certain parts, myself included! :) It was really beautiful. Throughout the day I would frequently look at them and get emotional and get made fun of by Mirza or Aunt Rie. Shane has always been a favorite cousin of mine (except for a period when we were younger and seemed to always fight... :) I will never forget the times we played Nintendo all hours of the night, spent time on trips together such as Denmark and visiting our great grandma, and when I've been able to talk with him about questions and things I'm going through. He is a really special part of our family, and we all love him.

Sadie and Curtis as the flower girl and ring bearer

It was definitely one of the funnest weddings I have been to, what with the dancing, karaoke, seeing family, and just watching Shane and Haley :)

Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun and games. Right after the ceremony my grandma fell down, and had to be taken off the mountain by ambulance. She ended up breaking her femur, and had to go into surgery that same day. She is still in Aspen recuperating. As bad as this accident was, we are so thankful it isn't worse. My grandma is so amazing, positive, fun, and beautiful, and I hope she has a speedy recovery!!!

Interestingly, I ended up going into the ER while I was visiting grandma in the hospital. My left knee has been giving me a lot of grief for a couple weeks, and by the day we were supposed to leave Aspen I was getting pretty desperate for relief from all the pain and swelling in it. The ER doctors didn't see anything wrong with the X Ray or MRI, and we thought there could be an injury from skiing I did back in April. After doing those tests they declared I was a medical mystery, and told me that their next guesses included an infection or arthritis. Luckily all the fluid they took out didn't show an infection, but now I need to go to an orthopedic specialist. We ended up missing our flight that night, but luckily they let us change our tickets to the next day with no extra charge!! Yay!!

It's no fun limping everywhere, or worse, using crutches! Each day I now have to wonder what's worse - knee pain or armpit pain :)

Other than that, I have some exciting changes in my life such as changing to a part-time work schedule, and going back to school.

To be continued...

Always late to the party..

I have the attitude that it's always better to be a little early than on time. In college I always liked to be sitting in my seat a few minutes before class started, and when I hang out with friends I like to be reliably on time. Everything has changed though since moving here and doing the majority of my activities with Mirza. Not only am I never early, I'm almost always consistently late by a long shot, and I like to think Mirza is usually the reason why :) Sometimes I try not to let it bother me, such as when we hang out with our Texan friends we see pretty often; in those cases it really isn't a big deal. However, today it was a little disappointing to be late to something, and it wasn't even Mirza's fault! :o

My nice boss has given me his 49ers tickets a few times, and the other day he gave me two tickets for the Giants game. As many people probably know, the Giants are kind of a big deal now since they had such a successful last season. The tickets he gave me came with a parking pass, which is pretty sweet to have in this city. Even better than the parking pass though was that they were in the club seating with an overhang in case of rain and a really cool fancy schmancy lobby.

Well in the morning our friends Allison and Glen asked if we wanted to get some lunch. I suggested an amazing German restaurant we all love and where I could eat at every day of the week if allowed. I always get their weinerschitzel and mashed potatoes-it's so good!!! Unfortunately we got a late start, probably because of my choice of this restaurant.

Anyways, by the time we got to AT&T park, they had closed our parking lot and we spent some time trying to see if a different gate was open, etc. Some bike cops informed us that it was already the EIGHTH inning. By this point I was freaking out since we had missed so much, so I tried to run and get Mirza to run. Typical Mirza, he tried to keep ahold of my hand and drag me back with him, haha. I would run ahead of him, yelling at him to run, stop, wait until he got a little closer, and then start running some more and yelling back at him to go faster. Eventually we got into the stadium, and walked through the super nice lobby. When we met the employee to seat us he looked at us incredulously and asked if we were just now getting there. Yes, we were. We sat down after some girl had to move her stuff for us to sit in our seats, and who was apparently so mad at having to do it that she pushed her stuff into her boyfriend, dumped her beer on his feet, and stormed off. Very strange.

We got to watch the game for a whole 7 minutes or so for the last three outs of the game. Half of the ninth inning. I was a little sad.

Either way, we had fun and got a churro at least ;-) I'm sure we'll make it again sometime soon, but next time in the cheap seats!

The Beginning

I have sort of wanted to start a blog for quite some time, but have never gotten around to it for a number of reasons, such as:

1. I don't particularly like to write.

2. Part of me wonders if anybody other than my sister Tessa would even be interested in reading it. She loves this sort of thing (love you sis!).

Despite these concerns I finally decided to forge ahead because I believe it will help me think about my life and who I am. Most people say the 20s are the years you discover yourself the most, and I feel like I still have a lot to discover. Additionally, this blog will serve as a sort of journal, since I haven't taken the time to write in my real one for quite awhile (very bad handwriting...). These are the years to remember, and I'm planning on doing so :) Hope you stay tuned!