The Sound of the Ocean Keeps Me Up at Night

View from our window. Taken by our villa's previous owner :)

I haven't actually seen the sun rise from our balcony yet, but after  B's school starts, it's up and at 'em pretty early in the morning. Which shouldn't be too hard since the ocean waves crash pretty loudly on the beach.

After the flight/layover that was hotter than Hades we made it to the island which is....hotter than Hades. We managed to get the bags unpacked pretty quickly considering I might have packed my body weight in clothes. (Seriously) Because I could manage to be cold in the middle of a desert, I'm pretty excited about this humid weather. B says the hot weather hasn't even started yet. It's been a little bit overcast and cloudy so far, but that weather usually happens whenever I'm around. Haven't had too much need for the sunscreen yet, but it's coming, my Lobster Skin sense can feel it.

Time for me to break out the SPF 600 and for B to break out the textbooks.

Good luck! :)

-whitters

Getting the Heck Out of Utah...Err Dodge...

Just signed up for this:

Creative Nonfiction I

LLWRC 760

Explore this multi-faceted and popular genre, which ranges in scope from literary journalism to personal narrative and memoir, in this interactive 6-week course. Through sample readings, discussion, in-class writing exercises, and writing assignments, we will learn to use the narrative devices--narrator stances, characterization, verb tenses, dialogue, and scene and setting--that make this form of prose especially fascinating and appealing. Open to writers of all levels of experience who are confident with basic sentence structure and composition. 

So I can do this: 

Arts Journalism

Traditionally arts journalists have started out either as artists who learned to write or as writers who became passionately interested in writing about an art form. The Goldring Arts Journalism Program has been created to meet the varying needs of arts journalists by offering a uniquely flexible combination of courses to meet the educational objectives of each student, while offering them the latest training in multi-media communications.

Students arrive with specialized expertise or declared interest in an area of arts or culture—architecture, film, music, popular culture, television, theater or visual arts. They may also pursue a track of general arts editing. Students take graduate-level courses that deepen specialized knowledge in combination with journalism courses will sharpen writing, reporting, research, and multi-media skills.

  

 And spend all my time here: 

 

And see a whole lot more of this:

Not looking forward so much to snow, but if it means I get to write about something I love, I'll take it! Here's to hoping I get in...and hoping I don't freeze my a off.

Be careful out there Bear.  Fight back with a vengeance.  Maybe Hurricane Earl will delay the start of your school...looks like we're both bound for bad weather.

WHAT IS THIS SNOW

It's official.

I.

hate.

THIS.

WEATHER.

Snow?! Note to weather: It is spring. NOT winter. Thanks.


Positive: Finally putting the expensive snow tires to good use. :p

Working on applying for an internship at Huntington Library.

Escaping this weather/reality/my job for five days in CALIFORNIA!

It is almost my birthday. Maddie and I have decided to call it A Banging (bacon) Birthday.

My dad said that was inappropriate. But that's just how we...are...especially Maddie.

Things I Love Thursday

♥ gray nail polish
♥ yoga
♥ protein bars
♥ gala darling's spring mix
♥ comfy jeans
♥ my new hair color maddie, now i need a haircut.
♥ staying over at my gramma's house with my brother
♥ pizza hut pizza
♥ bertoli pasta "meal in a bag"
♥ my best friend
♥ planning "spring break" vacations
♥ sharpie pens
♥ calendars with pictures of nature
♥ the freakin' weekend
♥ going to see Fiddler on the Roof with Maddie
♥ snow for two days straight...in spring (NOT)

Day 9

lalaines corner

Follow, follow me to charadestyle.com and M.Y.L.A.!

"♥ Like a Formula 1 race car, you need perceptive fine-tuning."

Homework:

♥ Suss out your productive self.

It’s time for a bit of ‘cause and effect’ science-project business: what elements line up to make you productive? Think of the last time you were really productive, in anything: what was the situation? What was happening around you? How did you feel?


♥ waking up early
♥ a clean, well-lit area
♥ sunshine!
♥ quiet, alone time
♥ classical music
♥ pen and paper
♥ Malibu, CA (okay, I cheated.)

What makes up my productivity?

♥ setting aside a lot of time for a project, but not so much time that i waste it
♥ a passion for whatever i'm doing - a genuine interest
♥ a desire to succeed and do well at whatever i'm doing
♥ a desire to be FINISHED with what i'm doing or at least made an attempt on it so i don't have to worry about it
♥ showing my end result to someone
♥ Malibu, CA (cheating again)

I need....time, a real interest, success and accountability. My productive self is timely (organized), interested, successful and accountable. Hooray for me!

Now if only I woke up everyday to sunshine and the ocean (hope you're not reading this Bear....)

M.Y.L.A.

apocalypse chic

I arrived on the M.Y.L.A. train a little late BUT...Megan at charadestyle.com did a whole 31 day series on Mak(ing)Your Life Amazing. I wish I would have found this site sooner, it's the perfect cure for my "i-hate-the-winter-and-i-want-to-go(run)-back-to-california! Megan is amazing.

I've decided to follow her 31 days...and....perhaps my life will be more fantastic. We could all use a little pick me up now and again. Each day even includes homework assignments to put the M.Y.L.A. articles into action. I know the day is half over, but there's still six hours left to try day 1.

"♥ You are the only thing standing in the way of your dream life."

On Sunday, the message was very similar to this. Essentially, we have the potential for completely awesome lives, we just aren't ready to give up our sort-of-okay lives for something better. Maybe (at least for me), because sort-of-okay lives are comfortable. The unknown is scary! I'll probably sit around my house moping for the next two years about how I'll never....move out...get a better job...go to grad school...meet new people. I think it's the BIG changes that get me all freaked out. The vast possibilities of everything overwhelms me! BUT, all it takes is one step to get started.

So, the homework:

"*- Stop being scared of your dream self; picture your amazing life."

Bet you all can guess what mine involves :)

I'm taking a photoshop class next week! I'm pretty excited to finally learn this program that I use at work LITERALLY every single day. I can do a lot of complicated things, but the simple ways to make a photo look amazing....not so much.

I am so tired of this whole "winter" thing....after being in California for the past three and a half years....I forgot it even existed for this long!

I'm really bad at New Year's Resolutions. Really. Bad. So bad that I can't even remember a single one I have ever made. Guess those lasted long. I'd like 2010 to be a year of improvement. 2009 brought a lot of changes: getting my bachelor's degree, moving back home to freezing cold Utah, getting my first "real" job...and hopefully Twenty-Ten will too. :)

The Bear was here for one whole week! Unfortunately I have no pictures at the moment to prove it. Soon though!