As of lately...

At the request of my Aunt Lori, I am posting a mini-update on my life to date. I promised her that if my night class was boring, I would post it tonight. So, as expected, my class is a little boring, so here is my post (as I type, it looks like I am taking notes, though)!

I just recently got back from a family vacation to the Virgin Islands! It was beautiful there, as always, and most of all, it was great to see my family! All was going well until one by one we started getting sick with the flu. Taylor got sick first and that was on Wednesday, John got sick in the middle of the night between Wednesday and Thursday, and Tiff got sick Thursday evening.

All of us "kids" were scheduled to fly home on Friday. My parents are there until this weekend.

Well, in the middle of the night between Thursday and Friday, myself, Charlie, mom and dad were all up in the middle of the night with the flu (thank God for 3 bathrooms)!!! Greg (who never got sick), John, Tiff, Taylor were able to fly home Friday, but Charlie and I were not able to fly home until Saturday. The best flight schedule we could get for Saturday took us from St. Thomas to New York City, then from NYC to Dallas (where we stayed overnight with our cousin Tommy) and then Sunday Charlie flew to Minneapolis and I flew to Sacramento.

It was a crazy end to the trip, but the flu aside, it was fun!

(John, you forgot to take off your sweater!)

-------

Besides this trip, I am just plugging along in life. I am in my last semester at Sac State - One requirement to graduate is that you have to take a "Writing Intensive" class which requires about 20 pages of writing throughout the semester. My senior Criminal Justice class (that I am taking now) fulfills this requirement, which is nice, but I accidently took a second Writing Intensive (WI) class. It is a class I need that meets 2 other requirements so there was no way to switch if for a non-WI class. Consequently, by the end of the semester, I will have written approx. 40 pages of papers. Luckily, besides these 2 WI classes, my only other class is American Sign Language, which requires little outside-the-class study time =) This semester also only requires me to be at school 3 nights a week and 2 of those nights, I am home by 730 so I have a little extra time for myself.

As far as my new job position goes: I am still trying to learn all the in's and out's of the position, but I am sure one of these days, everything will just click.

I am currently in the process of trying to find a new church to attend, too. There is a plethra of seeker-sensitive churches around here, but I prefer a little more substance, and that is harder to find. I want to find a good college/career group to get involved in, too, so I can expand my social circle =) I have great friends, now, don't get me wrong, but new friends are nice. And, our Saturday night poker group is growing thin and we need new people to win money from!

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that here before (and I don't feel like going back and looking), but I really enjoy playing poker, especially Texas hold 'em. A few weekends ago, my friends and I went to a tournament at a Casino and I took 5th place (out of about 40 people or so). Unfortunately, I was what they call the "bubble" or the last person to lose before the places start to win money! The 4th place winner took home over $150 and 1st was to take home over $350! Oh well, maybe next time. I still had a blast and that is what matters (although I will never forget the hand or the man who took me out)!

(A recent picture of Charlie with all his poker chips when he was visiting our family in CA for Christmas; he ended up taking home over half the pot that night!)

Well, that's it for now =)