Becky Jean

Redecorating

2011-12-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, Mom. As promised, here are some pics of the house since we did the floors, got the new sectional, and rearranged furniture. I have to say, Tommy is pretty good at decorating! I used to fight him on things, but once I see his ideas, they end up looking better than anything I planned to do.

Family Room:

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Kitties =)

Mayven

2010-10-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I adopted a new kitty this weekend! She's 8 months old and her name was Raven. However, after some discussion with my co-workers today, I think I'm changing her name to Mayven. They thought I should change it and we thought it'd be cute to stick with the "M" names since I already have Marley. After throwing out a bunch of names, "Mayven" just kinda stuck with me, plus it still sounds like Raven.

I thought her and Marley could be playmates, however, right now they hate each other! You can't really tell it from this picture, but they're staring each other down and hissing at each other. I'm told it will take some time, though. She's also a little bit smaller than Marley even though they look the same here. I think she'll end up being bigger than Marley, though, since she's still a kitten right now.

Poor Marley. :( I think she's jealous.

They're doing a little better now. They get along when they keep a 6 foot separation. Any closer, and the hissing starts again.

I don't know why I insist of having black pets and white furniture, but they sure are cute, aren't they?

Here's a cute picture of Mayven.

Marley giving her death glare.

Camping at Mineral King

2010-08-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was so graciously invited along for a camping/hiking trip at Mineral King in the Sequoia National Park with the Barragans. What an amazing trip it was! It was a long drive, but totally worth it! We hiked over 20 miles, climbed over 5,000 ft, and saw some spectacular views!

Saturday morning we woke up early to begin our first hike. It was a 6.6 mile hike up to Franklin Lake. We had to pace ourselves since we were not aclimated to the high altitude, not to mention climbing another 3,000 feet. But when we made it to the top, we got to eat our lunch at this serene lake that was crystal clear. It was a bit chilly, so we sheltered ourselves from the wind behind the damn that was built in 1902. Here are some pictures from day one:

On Sunday, we hiked again, but had to make this one a little shorter so I could drive home that afternoon. We still did 8.2 miles with an elevation gain of about 2,300 feet. This climb was a lot steeper, so we took our time. At the top of this hike was Chief's Canyon, which was another amazing landscape. Here is day two:

To see the rest of my pictures (I took over 100!), you can view them here: http://s644.photobucket.com/albums/uu164/beck_marshall/Mineral%20King

Marathon Pictures Are In

2010-04-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Oakland Marathon

2010-03-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the day! I ran my first marathon. Let me just say, "If you're thinking of doing a marathon, do not underestimate it!" I'm going to start from the top and give you a play-by-play of today.

For the past four months, I've been training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. I've raised $2,000 for the cause, and have been running every Saturday and a few days during the week to prepare for the Oakland Running Festival. The city of Oakland has not had a marathon in over 25 years, so this was quite a big deal to people who live there. You may know that Oakland has a bit of a bad rap. Well, after seeing a lot more of it these past few days, I have to say that Oakland definitely has it's nicer areas too. A marathon is something that would help attract positive attention to the city, and the residents were pretty happy. In fact, they kept thanking us for running as they cheered us along on the sidelines.

The race started at 7:30am, so I met up with my team at 7am. We did our usual cheers and headed over to the starting line in downtown Oakland. (I used to refer to downtown Oakland as the bad part of town, but it's actually the really nice part right by Lake Merritt. The bad area is more southwest Oakland, I believe). Anyway, as we were waiting at the start, we were greeted by Oakland's very own Mark Curry. (You know, from "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper?) He ran through the start line about 10ft from me, giving everyone hi-fives. I thought it was pretty exciting.

As the race started, I was with two of my teammates, who I became friends with during the season. We ran together for about the first 9 miles or so, which is where I was feeling pretty good. Mile 5 had a pretty serious hill, which I conquered proudly. Then miles 6-10 had rolling hills, which I still did pretty well on. In fact, I passed several people up these hills and was on pace to make my goal of 4:30. Then I ran into my cryptonite: the downhill. Mile 10 had a long, steep downhill out of the Oakland hills. Running has given me knee problems, and it's something I've taken several precautions and remedies to overcome, but one thing that I can't protect myself from is a serious downhill. I tried to land softly, but every step was torcher. If the pain alone didn't make me want to cry, it was the crowd of people I had just passed now passing me. All I could do was watch them go by and pray for this downhill to be over soon. Once it finally was, the rest of the course was pretty flat, but my knees were already torn-up by that time. I tried to push through it, but from about mile 13 on, I had to alternate running and walking. When I stopped to walk, my knees got a break, but my hips and thighs started throbbing. Then I'd try to run again, and my knees were so stiff that I could barely take the first few steps.
My two teammates, who I had got ahead of during all the hills, ended up catching back up to me around miles 16 and 20. The second girl and I ended up running the last 6 miles together. She was in a lot of pain too, so we alternated our walking/jogging together.

The last 3 miles of the race were around Lake Merritt, and we ended by running into the City Center where we started. There was a large crowd and a live band playing. The event itself was pretty exciting. I would've stayed longer if it didn't hurt so much to walk. As soon as I got home, I took an ice bath in my pool. Since the pool isn't heated yet, it's perfect for this. I just took off my shoes and walked into the pool waist high in my running clothes and stayed there for 20 minutes. It's hard to get in at first, but I swear by it! It helps so much!

By the way, my time wa 5:08, which was pretty far from my goal. I was beating myself up about it during the race when I figured out I wasn't going to make it, but towards the end when I was hurting so much, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to be done! And now, I just feel proud to have accomplished such an extreme event. I can't say that I'll ever be doing one again, but I've wanted to for a long time, and now I can say that I have!

Play Day in the Snow

2010-01-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

The best part of working in the field is that I get every Friday off! Yesterday I took a little trip to Royal Gorge over by Tahoe and went x-country skiing for the first time. I drove over with my friend, Sonia, and we met two other PG&E ladies who live in Sacramento. We drove the rest of the way to Tahoe with them and went skiing. I was the only one who had never done it before, but I caught on pretty quickly. I really liked it and can't wait to go again!

On the way back, we stopped in Sacramento again to drop off Carol and Mary and had dinner at Carol's. She's a Land Agent out of the Sacramento office, and quite an interesting person. She's had a lot of adventures. Mary's husband and daughter joined us for dinner also. We had some really great dinner conversation. I always like having dinner with new people because I am always learning something new and hearing a lot of interesting stories. It's just neat to see the different ways that people grew up and how their lives are different.

The hard part about going skiing Friday was that this morning I had a 10 mile run with Team in Training. I was afraid I was going to be very sore for my run, but I actually wasn't too bad. I had a little soreness on my outer thighs, but it didn't really bother me until about mile 8. I struggled the last two miles, and now I can hardly walk. That's ok though. I like feeling the effects of my body working really hard! ...but I think I'll be doing a lot of icing and using my foam roller today.

Oh yeah, and Sonia and I found some cool vintage posters in one of the lodges that showed our heritage.

I ran 14 miles today!

2010-01-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

I know, I can't believe it either. This is the longest distance I've gone yet. I only stopped after mile 1 to stretch and after mile 7 at one of the water stops. Other than that, I ran a consistent 10 min/mile pace. That's 2 hours and 20 minutes of continuous running! Can you believe I'm going to run almost twice that amount in a couple months? It's hard for me to imagine running any farther than I did today, but that's why we train up to it.

Wish me luck, and pray that my joints don't give me anymore problems!

In the Field

2010-01-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

As of January 4th, I've started working in the field for a six month rotation. We have two survey crews at work for our area, well two party chiefs anyway, and people have been rotating out from the office to get the field experience. And finally it's my turn. So each week, I travel somewhere in California to do survey work with my party chief. It's basically what I did during my summers with the BLM when I was in school. Well, it's actually a whole different kind of surveying, but the traveling part of it and working four 10-hour days is the same.

I just finished my first week. We started out traveling to Ureka, then to Livermore and then Antioch. So basically, I never know where I'm going to be until about a day in advance. But it's really exciting and I'm loving it! The company pays for travel expenses, hotel rooms, and meals. So far, I've stayed at the Hampton Inn and gone out to nice dinner including a nice steak house all in beautiful wine country! I love my job!

I'll mainly be traveling in our area, which is along the north coast: from just north of San Jose all the way north to the CA/OR border and west of I-5. However, if other offices need our help, we can travel to other areas as well. So basically, I could be going anywhere in California. Here are a couple pictures my party chief got of me setting up the base station before doing some GPS topography.

Training Runs

2009-12-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from my training so far...

I'm one of the few without reflecting running clothes.

We were having a moment of silence for one of our honorees who just passed away the night before.

Doing some pre-run stretching at the harbor in Richmond.

Left: One of our after-run potlucks. We usually do something after our Saturday morning runs.

Right: My new friend, Stacey, and me battling the hills at Redwoods Regional Park in Oakland.

Last night we had our Christmas Lights run where we ran to this house totally decked out for the holidays.

As you can see, I showed my spirit of the season. I borrowed the antlers from work.

Team In Training (TNT)

2009-12-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, I get these flyers in the mail advertising Team in Training, showing pictures of people in purple shirts smiling and running. I would always take a quick look and them toss it. But when I received the latest one back in October, I gave it a second look. Running a marathon is something I've been wanting to work towards for a while now. I've done a few 10k's and a couple 12k's since moving to the bay area, but my speed and athleticism have declined a bit since I graduated college. When I was doing track and cross country, I had people to push me and to work together with, and I really miss that. So I decided to go to the informational meeting they were having. It took only 10 minutes in the meeting to convince me. Not only would I be able to train with a team again and feel that sense of accomplishment of finishing my marathon, but I would be helping save lives along the way.

See, Team in Training is an organization that raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). It provides support for research and treatments, helping people with blood cancers such as Leukemia, Myeloma and Hodgkins disease. We call these people our honorees, and we even have a few who have recovered and are now training with us as a way of showing their appreciation.

Here's how it works: You first sign up for a team. There is a running team, run/walk team, ski team, triathlon team, and a cycling team. (I signed up with the run team). There is an initial cost to join, but then you raise the rest of the money through fundraising and there is a minimum amount you need to raise to do your event. My event is the Oakland Marathon on March 27th and my minimum to raise is $2,000. They encourage you to shoot higher than the minimum, so I put $3,000 as my goal. That seems like a lot of money, though, so I'll be happy with $2,000.

I sent a letter out to probably all of you who are reading this, and if you have any fundraising ideas for me, please let me know. Also, I would love it if you would spread the word around to anyone you know. I've been trainging very hard, so far, and I'm having a blast and already making new friends. If you are unable to donate, please don't feel obligated. I appreciate your warm words and thoughts. But please tell your friends!

For donations, go to my fundraising page http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/Oakland10/rmarshajsr

Also, you can help by purchasing Mary Kay products. All of my profits from now until March 27th will go towards TNT. To order online, go to my personal MK page
http://marykay.com/bjmarshall

Both of these links are on my blog page as well.

Christmas Mall Displays

2009-12-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

While in Central America, I was kind of missing the beginning of the Christmas season, so I got excited when I saw any trace of Christmas. Marisol laughed at me because I'd squeal every time I saw a Christmas tree. We ended up going to a mall in each of the big cities we were in, and I just had to take a picture of the Christmas displays.
The first one was in Panama City. I thought I took a better picture of the Christmas displays here, but I lost some of my pictures from Panama, so this is the best I have.
These next two are from different malls in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The final one is from the mall in San Salvador.

El Salvador

2009-12-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's a little late, but here's my blog on my last destination on my vacation to Central America. Our reason for going to El Salvador was because Marisol's mom's side of the family is from there. Her mom was actually born there, and Marisol has always wanted to visit. One of her Aunts owns a house in San Salvador, and Marisol's grandma was there when we were, visiting from her home in L.A., so we stayed with her. It was nice having a free place to stay, but I really would've been okay with staying there only a few days rather than 6 days as we did. San Salvador isn't really a tourist spot, so there wasn't a lot to do while we were there. It wasn't really safe to walk around, so there was a locked gate in front of the house. There was no cable or DVD player in the house. There was no hot water in the house, and after a certain time in the day, no water at all. Marisol's grandma doesn't drive, and taxi's weren't really driving by every minute, so we had to plan our outings strategically. Also, Marisol's grandma doesn't speak any English, but she does talk a lot, so I was often left out of the conversation and barely talked to anyone while we were there. Having said all that, I was happy that Marisol was finally able to visit the country where her roots stem from, and her grandma was very sweet and hospitable.

We did meet a family who were related to Marisol through a distant cousin of Marisol's mom, and they were nice enough to drive us to a small town up in the mountains where we saw some very traditional El Salvadorians (I think that's how you say that). By the way, this family also did not speak English, except the father, who knew a few English words and phrases.

We also visited this little shop where thay created fabrics using old-fashioned machinery.

On another day we decided to stay one night at this all-inclusive resort. We took advantage of the AC, hot showers, and free food and drinks.

Our last day there was Thanksgiving. Marisol and I ended up going to the mall there, since we didn't really have anything else to do. We spent most of the day there, watching a movie, getting lunch, and getting our hair done. We hadn't done our hair at all on the trip, and we had barely even washed our hair since arriving in El Salvador because of the shower conditions. We saw a salon that offered to straighten your hair for $6. Thinking that we could get our hair washed as well, we decided to do it, and boy did it feel good to have our hair washed and straightened! While we were there, we also opted to get $10 manicures...we just couldn't beat these prices!

Oh, and one more thing! We experienced an earthquake while we were there. We were sitting in the movie theater in the mall when we started to feel shaking. I turned to Marisol and exclaimed, "Is this an earthquake?!"

"Yes!" she confirmed. "Should we leave?" I asked. We were on the 3rd floor of this mall...not really the best place to be in the middle of an earthquake. We waited it out and ended up staying, but later found out that it was either a 5.6 or 6.0 earthquake thats epicenter was in Panama. All I can say is, I'm glad we weren't in Panama anymore!

Montezuma, Costa Rica

2009-12-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

The next country we visited (also my favorite) was Costa Rica! We flew into San Jose first, before continuing to our destination of Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula. Everyone had told us beforehand to stay away from San Jose, that it was horrible. I really didn't see what was so bad about it. It's not a city you'd want to travel all the way to Central America to see, but if you're going to Costa Rica, you'll end up flying in or out of San Jose, and it's just fine to spend one day in. It seemed just like any city to me. We walked around the downtown plaza area and it was farely pleasant. I did get quite a few stares, though. I had been warned that I might. For one: I'm white, and two: I'm very tall compared to most people there. Mari said they're really not shy about staring...I noticed. Anyway, here is a picture of the plaza. There were a ton of people out. Getting to Montezuma was a little adventure. There wasn't an airport in Montezuma, so we flew into Tambor (about 20 miles from Montezuma). The flight itself was actually very short, only 25 minutes! The plane was very small, though, and the airport (shown below) even smaller. Then we took a taxi the rest of the way on a very bumpy dirt road.

But once we got to Montezuma, it was well worth it. It was gorgeous and such a cute little town!

I had really hoped to spend more days in Costa Rica, but things didn't work out like I hoped and we only had 4 days. So we packed a bunch of activities in while we were there. In one day we did a horseback riding trip to some waterfalls in the morning...

...then we did a canopy tour in the afternoon. There were 11 zip lines total in the tour! It was so much fun!

The views were unbeatable!
Then part-way through the tour, we stopped at this waterfall that had a large swimming pool. I wasn't as brave as some people who jumped off the waterfall, but I did swing from the rope swing.

Oh, and I saw monkeys here too!
On another day, I took surf lessons. I've wanted to try surfing for a long time now, and I'm so glad I did. It was so much fun!
The instructor had us practice on the sand first. I was a little worried about being able to get up...I've never been good at push-ups...

But I was actually able to do it. Maybe someday I'll try a little bit bigger waves. :)

This was our view walking back from the beach after I surfed all afternoon.

This was our hotel, "La Cascada."

Bocas Del Toro, Panama

2009-11-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back home now. I got back Friday night, but I wanted to share about the other places I visited in Central America.

After Panama City, we flew to Bocas Del Toro, which is on an island in the northwestern part of Panama. The town was very small, but there were always people walking around everywhere and they loved to play loud music from their homes. (We especially noticed that when we were trying to go to bed and it sounded like there was a nightclub right outside our window. Fortunately, that only happened the first night). We found out once we got there, that it was "Bocas Day," so they were having a big parade and a huge all day celebration downtown.

We stayed at a little place called Cocomo on the Sea. There were only four rooms and the owners and other guests were very friendly. The guy running the hotel even met us at the small airport and walked us to the hotel, which was only four blocks away. I felt like we were at a private cabin on the carribean with friends. I spent a lot of time laying in the hammocks reading and also took out one of the kayaks that was included with the room.

We stayed there a total of three nights. The day we left, it was pouring rain, and we flew out in this very small plane. Little did we know, this would not be the smallest plane we'd ride on this trip...

Videos from Panama

2009-11-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

This one is for you Eli! I wish you could've seen the monkeys!

This one is kinda long. You might want to fast forward through the middle, but it's pretty neat. It shows a very long ship going through the Panama Canal.

Last day in Panama City

2009-11-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

It's a little after 12pm here in Panama City, and I'm sitting at the computer in the common area of our hotel. We've already checked out, and we're waiting for our 3:30 flight to Bocas Del Toro. Here is what we did yesterday:

Our hotel is up on a hill in Panama City, so yesterday morning, Mari and I jogged/walked up to the top where there was a 360 view of Panama City. Below is the view looking toward the canal, and if you look close, you can see Miraflores Locks, where we went the day before.
Here is a view of Casco Viejo, which we also visited on Friday:

A view of the metropolitan area of Panama City:

The ships lined up outside the canal waiting to go through:

Then we went to Panama Viejo, the original Panama City founded in 1519. This was the starting point for Spanish expeditions to the rest of the continent, but was attacked in 1671 and then abandoned.
This is inside the top of the 15 meter high cathedral tower:

Some Panamanian boys walking ahead of us in Panama Viejo:

The Cathedral Tower:

A lot of Panama City looks like this. It is a big city, but not very clean or modern:

Then there are parts that don't look all the different from the US, like this huge mall. The only difference I could see was the people walking around in it, although many of them dressed very similar to what we see in the US.

We've been lucky to have computer access here, and I can even get wi-fi on my phone, but I don't know what it will be like at the next place we go to. I'll just tell you that today we're heading to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, and Wednesday we head north on the Costa Rica! I'll post more pictures when I can! Adios!

Panama

2009-11-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hello All! I arrived in Panama yesterday afternoon. We got to our hotel and were exhausted from the lack of sleep and jet lag. We decided to relax at our hotel that night and order a pizza. I ended up going to bed just before 8pm, which would actually be 5pm pacific time. I slept for 13 hours, waking up just before 9am! But I felt much better and ready to go see the canal. By the way, the area where our hotel is located reminds me a lot of the Presidio in San Fransisco, which makes sense because the Presidio used to be a military base that now has private residences and is a large park and quiet place just out of the city. And our taxi driver told us that this area used to be a US military base.

This morning, we took a taxi to Miraflores Locks, which is one of the locks systems at the canal where there is a visitors center. We actually got to see one of the huge cargo ships going through. Here are some pictures I took and a video of the ship going through.

Oh yeah, we also saw an alligator in the water!

Then this afternoon, we went to Casco Viejo, which is an old part of Panama City. Here are some pictures from there.

As I was typing this, I noticed a tiny little iguana on the wall in front of me. It climbed down and then jumped on my hand, which startled me and made me gasp. But then I thought he was extremely cute of course, and here is his picture on my elbow.

And one little thing I surely can't leave out about this trip is that right off the balcony of our hotel, there are monkeys! Yes, that right, monkeys! Last night I was hoping to see some, and I did see some different looking squirrels and some oppossums eating the banana, and then this morning as we were eating breakfast we saw the monkeys. Right now there are tons of them out there! That's how I know we picked a good spot! I took a video of the monkeys too, but it's taking forever to upload the videos, so I'll try and post that and the one of the canal when I get home.

Central America here I come...

2009-11-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

I meant to write about this sooner, but things have been a little hectic leading up to my trip, and now it's here already. I am leaving for Central America tonight! ....in just a matter of hours!! I don't think I've ever been so nervous and anxious about a trip before, but I'm a little scared. Why did this seem like no big deal back in January when I first started planning for it? People kept saying how I'll need to be careful traveling down there, and I just shrugged it off thinking it was nothing and I'm a strong independent woman who can do anything. But now that I'm truly leaving, like now, well....I'm scared.

But I know it's going to be a fun trip, and I'm still looking forward to it. I'm going with my roomie, Marisol. Her mom was supposed to be coming with us too, but had trouple getting her passport, so now it's just Mari and me. Good thing is Mari's first language is Spanish, so that makes me feel more comfortable about going.

Okay, so here are the details: Our plane leaves San Fransisco tonight at 11:20 and we have a layover in Miami tomorrow morning. Then we fly the rest of the way to Panama City tomorrow afternoon. We are going to spend a few days there and visit the canal, then fly to Bocas Del Toro, Panama which is a little island on the Carribean side. Then we fly to San Jose, Costa Rica on Wednesday the 18th, where we continue on to see Monteverde and Arenal. Next stop is Montezuma, which is on the Peninsula de Nicoya on the Pacific side. From there, we head North through Nicaragua on our way to El Salvador. We'll stay one night in Granada, Nicaragua before traveling the rest of the way to San Salvador, El Salvador, where we will meet with Marisol's grandma. Mari's mother's side of the family is actually from El Salvador and they have a house there where we will be staying. We will be spending Thanksgiving there, then flying home the Friday after Thanksgiving. (I think I'll be ready to come home by then).

I'm sure once I get on the plane I'll be nothing but excited, but for now I keep thinking:
What if we get lost and don't know how to get from one place to another?
What if someone steals all my money?
What if I didn't get enough traveler's checks or they won't accept my traveler's checks?
What if I end up spending way more money than I planned on?
What if those short latino men try to take advantage of me? (everyone keeps telling me how much they love pretty American women)
What if I didn't pack enough clothes or forgot to bring something important?
What if Marley runs out of food and my friend doesn't come by to feed her?
What if something happens and I get trapped over there?

Ok, enough! I just have to remember that God is on my side and He will be with me the whole time looking out for me. Wow, that really helps, I feel much calmer.

I'm going to miss talking to my mom and sister, but I'll be checking my email at any chance I get and try to post some blogs with pictures! Buen vieje! I guess I'm not supposed to say that if I'm the one traveling, so uh.... hasta luego!

My New Job Title

2009-11-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

Five weeks ago, I took the Sr. Land Tech exam at work, and I just found out that I passed! Yay! Now I'll go from being a Land Technician to a Sr. Land Technician, and I also get a 2 1/2 % raise!

Bay Bridge is Shut-Down

2009-10-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Tuesday afternoon, during commute hours, a cable on the Bay Bridge snapped and damaged 3 vehicles. They had to close down the bridge, and it is still closed down. Over Labor Day weekend, the bridge was closed down for construction. They put in a temporary S-curve while they repair part of the eastern span for upgrades for earthquake resistance. The damage that just occurred Tuesday was on this new repair.

It is scary to think about a bridge not being engineered or constructed correctly. Approximately 270,000 vehicles cross this bridge everyday. As you can imagine, this has caused quite a fuss around here and a huge traffic disturbance. This has been all over the news and radio. All I can say is, I'm sure glad I don't have to commute into the city for work! They say the bridge might open back up this afternoon, but I don't think I'll be driving accross it anytime soon.

Pumpkin Party

2009-10-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite time of year: the start of the holiday season all leading up to Christmas! I love getting into the spirit of the holidays, so I decided to host a little pumpkin carving party with a few friends. I even baked banana bread and cookies, and one of the other girls decided to bake apple pie. It was a fun day, and I really enjoy this time spent with good friends. I am very blessed to know all of these very sweet girls. Here are some pictures of my fun Sunday afternoon:
Marley's first encounter with a pumpkin. She's very curious and so fitting for this holiday. :)

Rachel and Sonia decided to carve theirs out on the balcany cuz it can be a messy job. They are both fellow volleyball players.

Marisol and Katie picking out their patterns. Marisol, as most of you know, is my roommate and co-worker. Katie is a fellow PG&E-er as well. I met her through Sonia, who works with her in the San Fransisco office. She's such a sweetheart, I liked her right away.

During the process, we ended up breaking all four of the carving knives that came in the kits from Target. Fortunately, there were no injuries incurred by the sharper knives!

My little creation! I can't take all the credit, I followed a pattern this year.

Giants game

2009-09-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

So, this was a few weeks ago now, but I haven't gotten around to posting a blog in a while. Here are a couple pictures from my first pro baseball game. Go Giants!

I went with my roomate, Marisol. The Giants were playing the Dodgers and she's a Dodgers fan. She got heckled a little for wearing her Dodgers jacket, but her team won, so they couldn't give her too much crap.

Last weekend I played beach volleyball in Santa Cruz. When my friend sends me the pictures, I'll post another blog about that.

My 1 Year Anniversary at PG&E

2009-08-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

Today is my 1 year anniversary with PG&E! I can't believe I've been out of college and working a consistent career for a year now! The time has flew by! I officially have all my benefits now. I had to wait 6 months to get paid holidays and floating holidays, and now that I've been here a year I get sick time and vacation as well. Also, I get a 3.75% raise. I can't forget that one! I really like my job and I feel so fortunate to have gotten it, especially since jobs are so hard to come by now in this economy.

I've made some progress here in a year. I feel so comfortable in what I do now, and others think so as well. My Lead at work has told me on a few occasions how well I'm doing and how much I really help out and he's glad to have me. It's so nice to hear things like that. Being so fresh out of college, sometimes I doubt my abilities. But it looks like OIT has prepared me well, because I've even been able to teach others a few things around here.

In just the short span of a year, it's still possible to move up in this company. As of last week, my Lead was offered a higher position as Land Agent, which means they are now looking for someone to fill the Lead Land Tech position. Since this is a union job, the way it works is that you put in your bid on a job you want and the person with most seniority gets it. This can be good or bad. My Lead encouraged me to put my bid in for the position. I was sceptical since I'm so new at this, but his confidence in me gave me some of my own. It is not very likely that I will get it, since there are 3 bidders above me. They'd all have to turn it down in order for me to get it. But just the fact that doors are opening and people have such high opinions of me really means a lot to me.

Coming up in October is the exam for Senior Land Technichian. I am scheduled to take it, and if I pass, I am promoted from Land Tech to Sr. Land Tech and it comes with another raise. Since I have my LSIT (Land Surveyor in Training), I was waived from taking the engineering portion of this exam in the Spring. This portion is going to be the management portion. I plan to study, but I feel pretty confident since the test will be about the kind of work that I've been doing all year. I can't believe how often we get pay raises here!!

Here are a few work pictures from last winter:

My Birthday in Las Vegas

2009-07-14T20:31:00.001-07:00

Saturday was my 24th birthday, and to celebrate, me and 3 of my friends took a trip to Las Vegas. This was my first time in Vegas and I had a blast. I have some really great friends! We all had so much fun together and got along so well. I couldn't have asked for a better time. Here are some pictures from the trip:Here's a view from the plane

New York New York

As a surveyor, I had to get a picture of this!

Walking the strip

Eiffel tower

Paris

One of the pools at MGM Grand where we stayed

View from our hotel room

Great view of the strip. New York New York straight ahead.

We come in pairs ;)

View from one of the clubs

Me and Sonia

Somehow, we didn't have to pay any cover charges. Sonia was always able to get us into the clubs and we even scored this VIP table. It's great being a girl! :)

Fountain at our hotel. Look Marisol and I are the same height. ;)

Post Surgery

2009-06-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today I started physical therapy and I got a new splint put on. I thought I'd put a picture up of my incision in case anyone wants to see it. It's about 4 inches long. I should get the stitches out on Wednesday. I realized when doing my exercises that I have very little range of motion. I could only bend my wrist down as far as 15 degrees and I can only touch my thumb to my index and middle fingers. I should get a lot of this movement back from doing the therapy, but the therapist said I probably won't have it 100% back for up to a year.

What's New

2009-06-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

My surgery went well. My awesome parents came down to be there during the surgery and take care of me afterwards. Thanks Mom and Mark! It was really nice to have them here. I wasn't in too much pain, but I was taking my pain medication pretty religiously the first 5 days. I'm off it now and back at work this week and feeling pretty good. I go in to see the doctor again tomorrow and hopefully he will take the splint off my arm. It's even uglier than the cast I had on before. Then I believe he'll have me start physical therapy next week. Hopefully I'll be back playing volleyball by the fall. :)

On another note, I paid off my car this month! WOOHOO! I'm so excited about that. 4 years and 9 months ago I purchased a 2003 Ford Focus and it's finally all mine! What a great feeling. Now, of course, I want a new car, haha. But I'm going to put that off for a while. My car is just fine and I should take advantage of not having any car payment for a while.

And the answer is....Surgery

2009-06-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

I went back to my orthopedist today, and after his review of my MRI and another x-ray, he decided I should have the surgery. The picture below is one of the images from the MRI. I'm pretty sure you can see where the break is. This is a side view of my wrist and the break is on my radius. That part on top seems to be sliding further down and that's why the doctor wants to do surgery and put a thin metal plate in there. He is afraid it could slide further and really give me problems later on.I have a tentative surgery date for Monday afternoon. The surgery itself should be about an hour. They will put me under anesthesia, but I should be able to go home afterwards. Unfortunately, I will have to take about a week off work to recover. If only this happened in August, I'd be able to use my sick days, but my work has a rule about not being able to access your sick time or vacation until you have been there a year.

The good news is this will speed up my recovery time. Instead of wearing my cast for another 4 weeks, I will only need to wear a splint after the surgery for 1-2 weeks and then begin physical therapy.

Medical Update

2009-05-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the Orthopedic to get my cast put on. He did an x-ray before putting the cast on and saw that the part of my radius that had the large break was not perfectly aligned. He showed me the image, and if he hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have even noticed the offset, but I did see it. He said he wanted to get a CT scan of it to see if I need surgery. He said because I'm so young, it's important that it heals correctly.

So that afternoon I went to the imaging office and got the CT scan. They sent the information directly to my Orthopedic, so now I'm just waiting to hear back from my doctor.

I'd rather not have to go through surgery, but I do want my wrist to heal well and not give me problems later on. Please keep me in your prayers that God will heal my wrist one way or other.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my long weekend started out with a bang....or should I say break? Thursday night I was playing volleyball at my league in Oakland. I was playing up at the net when I got a set that was far outside. I was moving backwards to reach for it and I tripped on the base of the pole, twisting my ankle and then landing on my wrist and breaking it. My wrist looked like it caved in and then bulged out like a crooked road. The pain was excrutiating, but the other players were very supportive, getting me ice, calling the ambulance, and a couple guys on my team even drove my car home for me since I took the ambulance to the hospital in Berkeley. They called my roommate, Marisol, for me and she came out to the hospital to sit with me and give me a ride home. Oh, and my friend Scott from my volleyball team followed me to the hospital and stayed until Marisol got there. He was really sweet as well.

My other friend, Sonia, and I were planning on leaving at 6am the next morning for our road trip to Oregon and Tahoe, so I asked Marisol to call her and let her know what happened. Without me even asking her to, Sonia drove out to Berkeley from Concord as well! I feel so lucky to have a couple of really good friends here. They are super sweet and I don't know what I would've done if I had to go through all that alone. Especially since right after Sonia came, the doctor reduced my wrist. This meant the doctor was on one side of me and the nurse on the other side and they pulled my wrist and reset it in place! Even though they had just put more morphine in my IV and injected two shots of something else into my wrist, I still cried out in pain and squirmed in my bed! To make a long story short, my ankle turned out fine, just a little sore, and my wrist was broken with multiple breaks in the radius and a small fracture to the ulna. We ended up leaving the hospital at about 2am. I am now wearing a splint and a sling and I go in today to get a cast put on.

As for the trip, Sonia and I still did our road trip, we just left a little later and she drove the whole way. It was so great to visit with my family (I was really wanting my Mommy at that point) and it was great for Sonia to meet everyone. She was amazed by their cabin and took lots of pictures.

On Sunday, we got back on the road and drove down to Lake Tahoe where her parents were staying in their timeshare. This was my first time at Tahoe and it was beautiful! This time I took most of the pictures. Sunday evening we went out for sushi with her parents and then stayed in their condo. Her parents are very nice and interesting people. Her dad is from the Czech Republic and her mom from Slovakia, so I love hearing their stories about how they came here and all of their travels.

The original reason for wanting to go to Tahoe was for Sonia and I to train for our Tahoe Relay that we have on June 13th. Well, now that I have a broken arm, I won't be running the race so we're looking for someone to replace my leg of the race. Sonia still got up Monday morning and tried to run 4 miles of her uphill portion, but she said she died at 3.5 miles....maybe it's a good thing I'm not running.

That afternoon, we all went for a hike down to a beach area of the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous! After we we finished our lunch on the sand, we started to hear thunder and heavy clouds began to move in. It was the neatest thing! It just started sprinkling as we were leaving. What a great day! Even with a broken wrist I was able to have an awesome weekend!

What a workout!

2009-05-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been trying to amp up my running. For one: I'm training for the Lake Tahoe Relay next month. Two: I want to run a marathon by the end of the year. Three: I just feel out of shape and want to work on that. I've been running, but I can only push myself so much on my own. I've found that some of the sports stores around here offer free group runs in the evenings, so I decided to try one out last night. Well, I went to this particular one once before back in the fall, but I haven't gone since.

I just wanted to share the little story of last night because, looking back on it now, it's kind of a good one!

So I started out running with the group kind of towards the front (there were a few guys who were way ahead of me and I didn't even attempt to keep up). We ended up running in Shell Ridge rec area, which is up on the grassy hills with oak trees. It was a beautiful place and I was running well, keeping up with these two men. People started dropping off and turning back. I told myself I would run 30 minutes before turning around. I had a volleyball game at 8, so I couldn't run any longer than that. Well, the men came to the turnaround point right about that time, so I turned with them. They chatted with me a little bit, then slowly got ahead of me. I could still see one guy up ahead, so I just followed where he was going. Suddenly I didn't recognize the trail anymore. 'Am I going the right way?' I thought. The guy ahead slowed to a walk and I was able to catch up with him. "Are you part of the group run?" I asked. "No. Are you?" he responded. Oh no, I was following the wrong person! He helped me figure out which way I wanted to go to get out of there and so I took off, hoping to catch up with the group.

I got off of the trail and back to the streets, but it didn't seem like the same streets we came in on. I kept following the street I was on and looked up at the sign to see what street it was. 'Marshall Dr' haha, how funny is that? This was not the right street, but I kept following it hoping it would lead me to a familiar street. Well, it just seemed to keep winding around. It was a really pretty street with adorable houses and lots of shading trees but if I didn't find my way back soon, I wasn't going to make my game. 'At least I know I'm going the right direction,' I thought, because I was running toward the sun. 'Wait a second...the sun sets in the west and I'm pretty sure the store is north of here, so I'm not going the right direction!'

It seemed like a friendly enough neighborhood, so I decided to wave down the next car and ask for directions. Along came a car, and I stopped and waved, but apparently I'm not good at waving down cars because the lady just waved back and kept driving. Then I saw a couple doing some gardening in their front yard so I asked them for help. They were very sweet and seemed so excited just when I said hi. They eagerly directed me out to the main road, but I was a lot further down from the store that where I left from (and also downhill), but I had to hurry to get to my game. So I pushed up the hill, keeping up my rushed pace that I had been running for the last 10 minutes or so.

I finally made it back to my car at 7:50, so I had to immediately drive to my volleyball game. Good thing I brought my knee pads and volleyball shoes with me. I ran into the gym where my team was already warming up. Luckily they hadn't started on time. They were all relieved to see me since; they were starting to get worried. It'd be a great ending to my story if I said that we won.......but we didn't. :( My team hasn't been doing so well this season. Oh well, they're fun to play with and I definitely had a good workout last night. I ran for over an hour (and fast too, probably about 7 or 8 miles) and then I played volleyball for 45 minutes. If only I could keep this up every night, I'd be in great shape!

Hiking

2009-05-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Shortly after I moved here, I bought a book called "100 Hikes in the San Francisco Bay Area" and I haven't done any of them yet! So I decided to this weekend, and I have to say it was awesome! My goal now is to do all of them....eventually. It was a great day! I started out by driving to Berkeley because there were a few stores I wanted to go to there, then I went to the hiking location which was at a National Park just east of Berkeley. It took me a little while and some turning around a few times to find the location, but the drive was beautiful, so I didn't mind. So here are some pictures:

The spot where the trail started was called Inspiration Point. Can you see my car in the background?

Here are some pictures of the trail. I ended up doing about 9 miles and I'm proud to say that I ran about 80% of it and hiked the rest.

There's Mt Diablo from the view looking East. Mt Diablo is just east of where I live, very close.

Also to the east was San Pablo Reservoir. People boat and fish out there but I don't think you're allowed to swim.

And here I am in front of San Pablo Reservoir. I hate having to take pictures of myself, but hey, that's what you do when you're alone. :P

And to the west, there was a view of the San Francisco Bay. I don't know if it is visible to you in this picture, but straight ahead is the Golden Gate bridge. It's kind of hidden in all the fog, but I could see it pretty clear when I was there along with the tall buildings of downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

On part of the trail, I passed through these groves of Eucalyptus trees. They've always reminded me of Santa Barbara. Berkeley seems to have a lot of Eucalyptus trees. I wish I could've captured the smell, I love it!

Carneros 10k

2009-04-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I had a 10k race in Napa. I haven't really had a chance to write about it yet, but I wanted to share because it was really fun. It was a run supporting the Carneros volunteer fire department. For the last 8 weeks, I've been running with a 10k training group, and our training was leading to this race. I didn't feel like I was that ready for the race because most of the people in my group were beginning runners and didn't give me much of a push or anyone to compete with, so I started the race not planning on worrying about my time. However, once the race began and I was able to weave through the huge crowd of people at the start, the competetiveness in me kicked in.

"I can run faster than these guys' pace," I told myself. So I increased my speed and moved past the group I was in. Then my cross country coach's words filled my head. "You should never find yourself running by yourself. If you do, then catch up to the next group ahead of you." ... so I did. I continued this throughout the race and at the turnaround point, I felt I had gained my second wind. The course was beautiful, tracing a private road through the vineyards and there were many little hills. When I reached these hills, they didn't seem to bother me. Actually they helped and encouraged me because when people around me slowed down to struggle over them, I was able to keep my steady pace and cruise past them. Then as we approached the last 1/2 mile of the race I remembered the long steep driveway that we ran down at the beginning of the race. I knew I was going to have to run back up it, and I was dreading it. However, as I approached the hill, I was feeling a lot better than anticipated. "Ok, let's see how long this can last," I thought to myself. I continued going up at my steady pace, easily passed others along the way. Then I heard footsteps approaching from behind me. The man started passing me on my left and I let him, knowing that trying to race up this incline was not an option. Then something happened. Once he got ahead of me, he slowed down a little, apparently thinking he had completed his task of passing me. Little did he know that my legs were built for hills and I could keep up this pace for quite a ways. I steadied on and gained back on him... he did not like this. He sped up, trying to fend me off. I kept pushing hard without overexerting myself. Together, we were passing others up this neverending incline. He finally reached his limit and I didn't see him anymore. I, on the other hand felt exhilerated. I was almost there and I rememberer my friends would be there at the finish to see me come across, so I gave it my last bit of juice and sprinted even harder up the rest of the hill, catching one last runner 15 feet from the finish. I did it! Man, I love that feeling!

A Few Catch-Ups

2009-03-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't "blogged" in a little while so I just wanted to catch up whoever is interested on what I've been up to lately. I can't really complain about life right now. God has just put a happiness in me that I can't really explain. I have a great job, good friends, and a healthy, active life. Here's a few recent activities:

Fondue night with Sonia and Marisol

Last weekend, I went to a Mary Kay career conference in San Jose. It was really fun. I was surrounded by excited, uplifting, and successful women. I love those ladies! A few National Sales Directors spoke at the conference, and their stories were very inspirational. Did you know that many of these women started out having low-paying, unrewarding jobs and now they have made over $1,000,000 in commission as Mary Kay consultants? And they love what they do! There are so many rewards for doing well in this company. Mary Kay rewards with jewelry! trips! money! cars! and lots of recognition! I was so inspired by these women, that I wanted to get a picture with one of them, so at the end of the conference I nervously approached the stage and asked for my picture.

Here I am with National Executive Sales Director Caterina Harris. Yes, I look like a giant...this lady is 4'11".

This week I started biking to work. I figured I only live 3.6 miles from my office, so why not? So I went out and bought myself a nice bicycle and I started biking this week. It's a little inconvenient having to pack my work clothes and change at the office, but I think it's worth it to get the extra exercise, help the environment, and get some fresh air.

Speaking of exercise, I've been doing a lot of running lately. I'm in training mode right now. This Saturday, I have a 10k race in South Napa and in June I'm running the Lake Tahoe Relay with Sonia and a group of 5 other people. My leg of the race is 9.6 miles with a elevation gain of about 200 feet at already high altitude. Yes, I'm prepared to train hard for this one. I'm also thinking of running the "Bay to Breakers" race in May, though I'm a little weary on this one because I've heard it can get pretty wild. People like to dress in costumes, and some people on occasion have even ran completely nude! Eww... nude... and running? But Perry from work is running it with his sister (they run it almost every year) and he's thinks I should join them.

Ok, I think that's about all for now. Oh right, one more thing. A couple weeks ago I heard on the radio that No Doubt is coming to the bay area!! The Concord Pavillion, no doubt (hehe), which is like down the street from where I live! I love No Doubt, theirs is the first CD I ever owned. Jessica and I actually bought it together. Remember that Jess? So, I am determined to win tickets! All this week they are giving away chances to win on the CW during the airing of 'Family Guy'. That's why I'm still up right now. I'm going to enter every day to try and win. The concert is in July which is perfect cuz it'd be a great b-day present to myself!

Ok, now I'm really done. Gotta watch Family Guy now. Thanks for reading!

Fasting

2009-02-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Jess and her church, I decided to do a fast last week. My fast involved not eating food for a week; I only drank juice, tea, and lots of water. It also involved not watching any television, getting on myspace, doing any shopping, or doing other self-indulgent things I believe to be harmful or habit forming. I also wanted to use some of this free time from not watching TV or eating to read more, mostly my Bible. I had a few reasons for wanting to do this. I read about some of the benefits of fasting, and these are all the things that I wanted:

Purification – I wanted to purify my body and mind
Spiritual awareness – I wanted to build a stronger relationship with God and feel closer to Him
Rejuvenation and Revitalization – I read that fasting can give you more energy, a better attitude and motivation to clean up your life and forget about the past.
Self-Control – fasting offers a lesson in self-restraint and self-control of passions. I wanted to lean on God more by devoting more of my time to Him rather than to my selfish passions.
Weight-loss – a quick way to lose a little weight, though I tried not to make this my main focus.

I ended up cutting my fast short to only 5 days after a couple traumatic events on Sunday, but I believe I achieved all the above mentioned benefits. I felt like I had more energy, I felt better about myself and had just an overall happiness. Since the fast, I’ve felt some of these things fade a little, so I’m trying to keep some of these healthy actions in my general life. I feel like I’ve become more in-tune to how things affect my mood, though, such as what I eat and the activities I do. I believe this was a great learning and growing experience for me.

On another plus, I believe I may have inspired some of those around me. Before and during the fast, I have been going to church regularly and during and after my fast I have been reading my Bible every night. My roommate, Marisol, said that I have inspired her to start going to church again. So now she has been going to church regularly. She is Catholic, so unfortunately we don’t attend church together, but at least she is going.

Then there are the people I work with. I planned on doing my fast quietly and not talking about it because the Bible says not to fast in front of people, but they kept asking why I wouldn’t go to lunch or take any of the food they offered me. So I ended up telling them, and then of course had to explain why I was doing this. It ended up bringing up topics of religion, and other people started talking about going to church and giving up bad habits. A lot of people here are Catholic, I’ve found out, so some people wanted to give up something for lent. It hasn’t been completely supportive (they tease me about it too), but I believe it has brought up some really good discussions at work and overall my co-workers seem to be trying to be “better people.”

My New Place

2009-02-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are some pictures of my and Marisol's new apartment. First,

My room...

My bathroom...

Livingroom...

Dining room...

Kitchen...

Down this hallway is Marisol's bathroom and bedroom, but I didn't want to invade her space.

Marley likes the new place =)

My First Call

2009-01-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

I just received my first call being the contact for the Land Department. There are only about 4 of us working today. Here's how it went:

Me: Land Department. This is Becky.
Caller: Hi, this is Jack, one of the estimators down on the 5th floor. Do you guys handle the land rights for Freemont at this office?
Me: Yes, we do.
Caller: Ok, great. I'm going to send a land request up to you.
Me: Ok.

I nailed it! Yesss! =)

I passed!!

2009-01-22T22:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, remember that blog I wrote back in October about me taking my LSIT exam? Well I finally got my results in the mail yesterday and I passed! I'm so excited! I can now list this on my resume, I believe I get a raise at work, and it also exempts me from taking another test at my work. Right now my title is Land Technician. The next step up is a Senior Land Technician, and to achieve this position, you have to pass the Senior Land Tech exam which has two parts to it. There is the management portion offered in October and the engineering portion offered in April. However, you don't have to take the engineering portion if you are an LSIT (Land Surveyor in Training), which I now am!

On the topic of moving up at work, I have other news. Not as big, but good to me. My immediate supervisor is our Lead Land Tech. He receives all the jobs coming in and assigns them to us Land Techs. He gets a lot of emails and phone calls about land rights as well. His job is very stressful, but important. When he is out of the office he has to leave a contact name for people to get ahold of. My boss just recently asked if I would be comfortable with our Lead leaving my name as a contact. I of course accepted, because I would like to learn as much as I can and move up in the company. It really flattered me that they have this much confidence in me already. I haven't been contacted by any customers yet, but I'm ready.

I also have good news about my Mary Kay career as well. This actually happened a couple months ago, but I haven't mentioned it yet. I have my first active team member, Leslie Tibbits, which makes me a Senior Consultant. God is blessing me in my career success, and I feel motivated to achieve the best I can.

My Mary Kay Site

2009-01-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

I got motivated today and just created my own personal Mary Kay website. Now my customers can order online, view discontinued products I have in stock, look up any other products, view special promotions I have going on, and even do a virtual makeover to see what makeup colors look good with your skin type.

Go ahead and check it out if you like. The web address is www.marykay.com/bjmarshall. I'll add a link to it on this page as soon as I figure out how. FYI: I offer free shipping!!

The Move

2009-01-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

What a busy weekend and week it's been. Last Saturday was the big move for Marisol and me. I figured I'd have everything moved on Saturday and have Sunday to clean out my old apartment. As is the case with most things, it lasted a lot longer than expected. My sweet friend, Sonia, was able to come help me Saturday morning. We loaded up as much as we could in our little cars and took it over to the new place two car loads at a time. Marisol and her brother were coming later with the U-Haul after moving her stuff. Fortunately, the new apartment is only down the street from my old one, so it wasn't too bad to make multiple trips. However, by the end of it, Sonia and I were about dead from weakness. She had to leave in the afternoon. Marisol and her brother ended up getting there at about 5pm with the U-Haul where we unloaded her stuff and continued to load up my furniture.

To make a long story short, I had to keep my apartment an extra day and I finally finished Monday night after work. There were many times I wanted to stop and rest, but I had to keep going. I've never had such a long-lasting workout before! My whole body was sore, but you should see my biceps now!

The good news is, this weekend we have four days off, so we have lots of time to unpack everything. Marisol has been out in the field all week and I've been trying to do a little bit each day after work, but it's still a jungle. I'm really excited to get all settled in! The apartment is awesome! I'll post pictures once it's all put together.

"Solocation"

2009-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take a vacation. Not right now, of course. As of August 11th, I will be able to start using my vacation days at work. My plan is to take a trip in September or October. I'm not sure exactly where I want to go yet, but I've been thinking Costa Rica. I want to go somewhere I can still have fun by myself, somewhere I can do a lot of activities and see amazing places. I've been doing some research, and Costa Rica seems beutiful and a great place for hiking, rafting, and other activities. And I might see monkeys;) Also, the flight is not that expensive because it's a lot closer than Australia or Europe... though those would be fun places too.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions of where I should take my "solocation," feel free to share. Or if you want to take a trip with me.......

Weekend of Fun

2008-12-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

My life in the bay area is getting more fun the more I'm down here. (I'm still a little homesick for Oregon, though) I've been making more friends and last weekend was actually pretty busy having fun with them. Friday night I met up with "the girls" at Va De Vi, a fancy wine bar in Walnut Creek. Downtown Walnut Creek is a pretty cute little town. There are neat shops and restaurants, people are always out walking around, and it's lit up with Christmas lights and decorations right now. I think it's like a mini San Francisco (without all the "strange" and homeless people). Anyway, it was great having a girl's night out. I'd been needing something like that. I met up with Marisol, Sonia and Maureen (all ladies I work with). It was a fun night of delicious food, wine tasting and "girl talk."

Then on Saturday I went into San Francisco with Marisol and a couple of her friends from out of town (Robert and Kenny). We met up with another friend, Trihn, who lives in the city. We went to Union Square where it is beautifully lit up for Christmas! It's like Rockefeller Center of New York. There's an ice skating rink, a huge Christmas tree, and people all over enjoying it. We actually saw a couple get engaged when we were there. It was beautiful! First thing we did was have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory which is on the top floor of the six-story Macy's. Out on the veranda we had a great view of Union Square. Later we tried to go ice skating, however, they were all out of skates. So we ventured over to a popular pup (Lefty O'Doules). There was a live piano player singing popular songs and the place was packed. At one point a herd of Santa Clause's came tumbling in. Here are some pictures from the fun night. Isn't Macy's beautiful? =)

Patience

2008-12-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have a little story of the adventure that was Today. First, here is some background info:

We are doing a gift exchange at work and I decided to get my person a wireless weather station. I found a cool one at REI that was within the budget, so after work on Friday I went to the REI in Concord to buy it. They were all out, but the salesman was able to look up the other stores and they had some in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Mountain View.

So, today I printed out directions to the Berkeley store and set out. It's about 25 miles from my place located on San Pablo Ave. The directions said to take the Gilman St exit, but I saw an exit for San Pablo and HWY 580 was starting to get backed up, so I took this exit. I was following the address numbers so I thought I was going to correct way. I ended up getting totally lost and found myself in Oakland somehow. After driving around in circles, I finally pulled over to look at my street atlas and find my way back to the freeway and follow my original directions. Here is the crazy route I ended up taking today.

I finally found REI and pulled into the parking lot, however there were no spaces available. I had to drive around a while and finally found someone pulling out a couple lots over, so I took it. Once I got inside, I went to the back of the very long line at the checkout becuase they had my item on hold. Once I reached the front, they told me I needed to go to customer service at the back for items on hold, so there I went. They grabbed the item, only it wasn't the weather station I put on hold. It was a compass. I ended up waiting about another 10 minutes while they looked to find my item.

As I was waiting there, I was reminded of the service at church last Sunday. It was about patience. During the service, I wasn't very impressed with it. I was hoping for him to talk more about God and read from the Bible. I believe he only referenced two quotes from the Bible. However, I realized that the way we act in society is important too. It reflects on our Christianity and the way we follow our Lord. I was surprisingly really patient with today's events. Reflecting on it, I could have been irritable and rude if I let those things bother me, but I wasn't. I hadn't thought much about these things. I guess that sermon must have got to me more than I thought. It also might have been that I was listening to Christmas music the whole time in my car. That always puts me in high spirits. =)

On my way home, I decided to reflect on all the positive things that happened today. So here they are:

1) I got to see some new places and got a better feel of the area around where I live.
2) I was able to buy the item I was looking for, and I was pretty happy with it.
3) REI was able to give me some moving boxes when I asked if they had any.
4) There's a tunnel (actually 3) between Walnut Creek and San Francisco. They open up the middle tunnel to whichever direction has busier traffic at the time. When I was heading west, the tunnel was open to the westbound traffic and when I was heading east, it was open to the eastbound. So I didn't have to hit very much traffic. (It gets backed up when the tunnel is closed)

2008-12-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

My friend, Marisol, and I have been looking into rooming together to save money. Also, since we work together we can carpool. Tonight after work, we went to this apartment complex we had been looking at for a while and we signed a lease! I'm pretty excited! We're going to move January 10th. What's convenient is that it's just around the corner from where I live now, so the move shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully they're able to rent out my apartment quick so I don't have to pay too much.

On another note, I got an interesting piece of mail today. On the outside it said Texas Department of Transportation. When I opened it, there was an official travel map of Texas, an accommodations guide, a Texas Fall events calendar, and a Texas travel guide. There was no letter, no explanation, just the books on Texas. Could God be trying to tell me something?? Who knows. Anyway, that's all for tonight. Sleep tight!

Sick Day

2008-12-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

So I got to go up to Jessie's for Thanksgiving and see my family, but the bad news is I got Jessie's cold. Totally worth it, though, to spend time with the Oelkers family and see the rest of my family. I had a great weekend!

However, this morning when I woke up, I was not feeling so great. I woke up with a sore throat, I couldn't get warm, and when I was trying to braid my hair, I kept having to sit down cuz I felt like I was going to pass out. I thought about calling in sick, but didn't really want to for two reasons. 1) My boss is kind of a stickler when it comes to our schedules and calling in sick or taking days off. He doesn't like it when people call in sick on Mondays, and since it was after I long weekend, I figured no one would believe I was actually sick. 2) My job puts employees on a probation period when first hired. We don't get paid holidays for the first 6 months and we don't get sick or vacation for a year. So I already had Thursday and Friday off without pay and today would make that 3 days without pay. That's a lot of money.

So, I ended up going into work wearing a big sweatshirt and a beanie and I still couldn't get warm. My boss finally told me I should go home if I'm not feeling well... I'd just wouldn't get paid. "Yeah that's 3 days without pay," I replied. It really bugs me about the sick days. I understand not getting to use vacation right away, but I think it's uncivil not to give sick days for a whole year. For one, it detrements my health because I don't want to take a day without pay and it also risks the health of my co-workers because I might end up getting them sick.

Anyway, I decided I would leave at noon, but I ended up going home at 11 because I was feeling pretty awful. I took a long nap, crocheted, and watched 3 movies. Now I'm going to go to bed and see if I feel better in the morning.

Day Off!

2008-11-11T22:24:00.001-08:00

This is what Marley and I did all day on our holiday off.

2008-11-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

Jessica and Julia - In response to my last post, you shared kind words with me and reminded me to rely on The Lord. Thank you for that. I need to remember to lean on Him because He is and always will be my Father. He will always be there to take care of me. Whenever I am feeling lonely, all I need to do is talk to Him and know that I am not alone. I feel sometimes that I take Him for granted and don't praise Him like I should. He has given me so much. Just looking around me, I have everything I need and have the kind of job I've been working towards. It's time I give Him the thanks He deserves and make Him a bigger part of my life. Thank you again, ladies, for reminding me of that.

On another note, Sunday was my 10k that I've been training for. It was in San Francisco along the Embarcadero. Even though I didn't make the time I was striving for, I still had a good time and felt accomplished. None of my friends ended up making it out to watch me, but I met some friendly people in the race. It's nice to meet people who share my crazy love for running.

After the race I was going to meet some friends to play volleyball at the Presidio, but when I arrived, no one was there. I found out later it was cancelled because of not enough people, but that message was sent to my work email, so I found out Monday. Oh well. I ended up touring the Presidio a bit. The Presidio used to be a military base and is now a National Park in San Francisco. There are historical buildings and sites to see within. People live there too, I know a girl who lives in a townhome in the presidio.

On my way home, I decided to stop at Treasure Island again to get some daytime pictures of the great view. These turned out much better as you can see.

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

2008-11-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

So, lately I've been having little signs of an identity crisis. I don't know if it's cuz I'm so far from my close friends and family or because I'm finally working a permanent job and supporting myself on my own or because I belong to a whole new state now. Maybe it's all of the above.

It started a few weeks ago when I received my California drivers license in the mail. I was really excited at first because I had been waiting for it to arrive since I went to the DMV and passed the test. I took it out of the envelope and was excited to see my new picture. I no longer had my dorky 16-year-old picture to look at. But as I looked at it some more, I noticed how different things seemed. The license was lighter and more flexible than my Oregon license. It has a yellow tint to it. Then I noticed the number. I've gotten so used to my Oregon drivers license number, it's engrained in my head. Now I am E322*&^%$& something something... how am I supposed to remember that? It made me feel like I'm a whole different person, like I'm leaving behind the person I know myself to be. I know it's really not that big a deal, but at the time it got me really sad.

Then this morning I was lounging in my apartment watching TV, the same TV I used to watch at my parents house just a few months ago. (My parents were nice enough to give me this TV and entertainment center). But it reminded me of being back home, in the comfortable and safe environment of my parents' house. Sometimes I wish I could just stay young forever and keep living at home. It's nice to know that someone is taking care of me.

But I know I can't do that. It's time for me to grow up and live a life of my own. But it's hard to do alone. Good thing I have Marley. ;) I kid, but actually my kitty is my companion at home and she does make me feel a little less lonely.

Anyway, things actually are going pretty good down here. I feel I've made a couple close friends and I like the people I work with. They're a fun group. Also, the weather has been nice. It's been a little colder. But when i say cold, I mean like 60's, not 40's like Klamath Falls. However, I'm not very impressed by the colors of fall down here.

Here is a view at my apartment complex. This was one of the few days it's actually rained since I moved here. There's a little bit of fall color, but I remember the falls in Oregon being much more vibrant. Oh well, atleast it's not freezing cold.

2008-10-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today I took my LSIT (Land Surveyor-In-Training exam) at the COW Palace in Daly City. I've been studying for this exam for the past 3 months or so. It's an exam every Land Surveyor takes who is working to eventually get their license. It's an 8-hour exam consisting of 170 problems that cover everything I learned in college while studying geomatics. It was a long day! And now I just have to wait 13 weeks to get the results! But atleast now I don't have to study anymore.

On my way home, I toured a little of San Francisco and found this awesome view. As you can see, my camera is not the best at taking night shots of cities. I tried a bunch of settings and this was the best I could get... but trust me, it was breathtaking!

2008-10-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

This is Santa Cruz, where I participated in the PSEA beach volleyball tournament. The tournament lasted all day and during our break, we rode the roller coaster on the boardwalk. We had a blast, but I was so sore the next day!

This is on one of the trails around Mt Diablo. It's a great place to go running or hiking, and it's beautiful when the sun is setting and you can look over the whole city. Unfortunately, there are also some critters to beware of, as I personally found out. Both in one day, I saw a rattlesnake and a tarantula up there. Needless to say...I haven't been back yet. I'm afraid to go by myself.

Just Me

2008-10-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well, hi! Now that I'm living in the Bay area away from my family and friends, my sister convinced me to start a blog. I agreed it would be a good idea so the people I care about can stay informed on what I'm up to.

So, in case you've been out of the loop, this is what I've been up to. In June, I graduated from OIT with a bachelor's in Geomatics and a minor in GIS. Soon after, I accepted a position with Pacific Gas & Electric in Concord, CA. August 11th was my first day. So far, I really like it down here. I enjoy my job and have already made friends through work and through volleyball. Yes, I'm playing volleyball again. There was a beach volleyball tournament through my work in Santa Cruz and I joined the team. Since then, I've played more beach volleyball in Santa Cruz and also joined an indoor rec league. It feels great to play again.

Also, I adopted a kitten! Her name is Marley and she is definitely a handful. It's nice to have a roommate, though ;) She keeps me entertained and on my toes.

I'll try to keep this updated and add pictures once I figure this whole blog thing out. Thanks for stopping by! =)