Downs and Ups

The past few weeks have been full. I've been searching for an apartment or a house or something so I can move out of my mom's house. There's nothing wrong with where I live now, and technically I'm free to do as I please, but I just don't feel completely independent living here. I met two people, both of which didn't work out, and I've been on Craigslist constantly, as well as websites for apartment companies and different property management companies. It's frustrating not finding something, or almost having a place and something going wrong. It's put me under a lot of stress. I'm meeting someone else tomorrow night, so we'll see how that goes.

If I had a good friend that wanted to live with me I would just search for a two bedroom apartment or house and share the costs, but alas, the majority of my close friends have all moved away to various universities. It's hard making new friends. Last week was my first week of school, and I really loved it. My Zumba class is easily my favorite; I was smiling almost the whole time. It is such a fun way to get in shape. If you've never heard of it, it's an intense aerobic dance workout. We're going to learn different routines for different songs, and we get graded on our participation—not our dancing skills (thank goodness). There's a lot of jumping and squats and tons of moving around and clapping and AH! It's so freaking. I have that Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Writing 121 and Spanish 201. I have a friend from high school in my writing class so it's quite enjoyable. And I just love love Spanish and my teacher is great, so that's a great class too. I may have one friend; she's in my Zumba and my Spanish. It's hard to make friends though! Especially (for me) making girl friends. For some reason I find it much easier to talk to guys. I always feel like girls are judging me, or something. Hopefully I'll make some girl friends this year—I should considering my Zumba class consists entirely of women.

Also, last week was a rather stressful time at work. My manager was out for the week and all of the shipping and handling business depended on me and two of my coworkers. I did all of the shipping almost entirely on my own. And (of course) there were multiple situations that rarely ever happen, and we had to figure them out on our own. I'm really quite proud of us, though. We took care of business and got it done.

Lastly, the most amazing thing happened to me last night. I was walking around downtown at Art Walk and a man stopped me. He said, "Excuse me, but have you ever done any modeling?" I was completely shocked. I laughed and said no. He then told me about this product his company is selling—Flamethrower Firewood. He told me to go to Fred Meyer's and look at Duraflame firewood. It has a picture of a girl on the front. He said I have a great "girl next door" look. (Ha!) It would be me, the firewood, and blazing fire behind me. He's still looking for the fireplace and he'll be in touch with me. I'm gonna take my mom with me, so you all can just chill out about it being sketchy or weird or whatever. I'm very excited. :) And it was just really nice to hear; it really brightened my evening.

I'm thinking this summer I'd like to study abroad in Costa Rica. I have plenty of time to save up, and it seems to be the only study abroad program that will allow me to continue my Spanish education into higher levels (beyond Spanish 203, which I'll be taking spring term). It would be such a great experience. Anyway, that's all for now. I'll write upon the next big development.