Last day of 2010

Looking back on this year, it was a difficult one but also a joyful one. Difficult because I struggled with unhappiness and stress due to working an unfulfilling call center job evening shift. Joyful because I was allowed to work normal business hours starting late April and in turn, had a better social life and in turn, met my boyfriend, who, right now at least, I feel could be the love of my life. And let's not forget a reason for joy was being laid off, yep, from the job I hated. Since then, it was been a bit difficult keeping busy without a regular schedule but I'm managing. It would be so much harder without the love and support of my boyfriend.

House to myself

Within an hour, I didn't like the quiet and felt lonely :(. Not sure why I thought it was a good idea, ha. It's ok. Must have noise, like international radio on iTunes. Now it's Craig Ferguson online, who I haven't watched since my work hours changed to 8am. I don't like to stay up that late and rarely watch tv.

Snowy day

It keeps snowing. I think snow is pretty but I dislike how it shuts one in. Good thing I'm in a cleaning mood.

I've been waking up ~3am every night briefly. Usually I sleep uninterrupted.

Today is Vicente's bday.

We almost could have lost another bird due to my sister's foolishness just now. She let our neighbors' labs into the house, and the puppy almost got Joey. Man oh man. This blog is like therapy for me, for real.

Hopeful trip to France

Yes, May (or June) would be a lot more ideal, warmer, sunnier weather but if my chief aim is to speak French, one can do that year-round :).
Gosh, I'm gonna have to buy a nice camera. An SLR like my sis' would be nice.

I'll be there before Easter :) (April 24). Bakeries and shops should have nice window displays.

Is it worth $150 in train fare to make it to Italy briefly to savor some good pasta, bread, gelato, and hopefully, ambiance? Genoa is the closest big city to my friend. I just know it's known for salami.

Oh, wonder if I should buy one of those small video cameras. We have a video cam but it's cheapo. If I'm gonna go, I want quality images. Because who knows the next time I'll be back.

Ok, nix that

I'm not used to writing much by hand anymore; my hand gets tired when I write in my journal. I like typing.

So... I think a trip to France is meant to be. I'm getting signs. Like today a Canadian teacher from my time in China uploaded pics of her time in France. I don't know what she's doing there currently with her Scandinavian boyfriend but she rarely uses Facebook. I also received the Junior Year in France alumnae bulletin today. And then Donna emailed me low fares on Iberia Airlines (cheaper than Air France!). These are from NYC, though, which is inconvenient. I will check how much from RIC but probably at least $100 more.

I am full. 2 nights in a row I went out to dinner with friends and had eyes bigger than my stomach. Why do I torture myself?

I may close this blog

and just use my hand-written journal instead. First, I need to save and print my entries.

Verbose dad is annoying! He's extremes, it seems: either little to say or neverending! He just told me to fake enthusiasm at job interviews in the future. Kind-of a bummer that I wasn't offered the job I "interviewed" for yday but I wasn't planning on taking it anyway because I found it too administrative, boring in nature. Ironic that I was posting a LinkedIn status that I decided not to take it and then get the call from the temp agency. The agent asked me some ?s about my experience for her own info and said the way the job was originally presented is different. I doubt she'll have many more offers anytime soon but it's good we "reconnected," in a way.