Oh softball.

I always like to tell you all stories about my job. So here is another one.

This time with pictures.

It's more of an informative narrative because well nothing has happened yet. Which is good. It means I have not screwed up and mixed chemicals and changed the color of the uniforms. I mean, I'm not saying that has exactly happened but it might have.

So here I am armed with the spray and wash... About to start the season of washing softball uniforms to get their stains from the grass and dirt out. I really think it is a losing battle.

This combination is only a temporary solution. The white will not stay white. I personally think we need to get oxiclean and I've mentioned this to my boss. Instead he invested in this other type of detergent that is supposed to be specifically for white uniforms. I also use spray and wash to complement the whole process.

My honest opinion is that I think its kind of stupid to play in so much white. They're going to get dirty and pretty soon it will get to the point where the stains are so set in that it will seem that its supposed to be that way. And the softball program will have to purchase a new set of uniforms. I think its a better investment to just get other colors.

I am all for getting dirty while playing the game but you also need to not be so dirty at the end of the day that the stains do not come out and eventually you just start to look unprofessional because of the set in stains.

Now back to work and washing the whites twice because I will at least try to get the stains out to make the boss man happy.

Have a lovely sunday friends :)

P.S. I'm kind of excited about the rain.

I've got a black belt in long days

Last Saturday, I had the immense joy of walking out my door to the realization that my car was gone. I walked around the neighborhood, second guessed where I parked it but eventually called the police about 9:3o am.

Officer Nunez came and took my statement. When I finally got a hold of my mom that day because my father was in Mexico on a mission trip with Power (Check it out), she told me to call AAA. About two hours after making a claim, I get a call that they found my car in El Monte (about 4:00 pm).

It apparently costs a lot more to get a car out of an impound lot on a weekend so my wonderful roommate Ashley took me to El Monte on Monday to retrieve the car. First, we had to stop by the police department to pick up a release paper. (This was kind of exciting considering I only have impressions of what the interior would look like from television shows. It was kind of low key. Nothing flashy.) The officer took all my information and gave me the devastating knews that he could not release it to me because I am not the registered owner.

However, I used my amazing communication skills and convinced him to do it (meaning he took pity on me and let me call my mom so that she could give permission over the phone.) I would like to think it was the former.

So then Ashley takes me to the classy towing place called "Mac's." Again, did not know what to expect. But considering it was across the street from an Albertos and smelled like grease and oil, it definitely lived up to my expectations.

I pay the exorbitant fee because I just want my freaking car back. Ashley was willing to fight for me but I called her off. It was not a battle I needed to fight. I asked the guy if it's in working condition and in his ever professional customer service voice he replies "I don't know. There are a lot of vehicles here." Thank you kind sir for working with me.

Another worker comes and leads me to the car. I approach with caution and pray that it starts so that I can get out of the place before I let my mind start to wander to horror movies with undesirable consequences. And if it does not start then I would just have to call AAA to tow it and that would just put icing on the whole experience.

I open the door ... and all the emotions stirring up inside of me the past few days just hits me. I just start crying. I didn't cry when I realized my car was gone and I was not able to go work out. I didn't cry in relief when they called and told me they found my car. No, I cried because as I looked at the trash strewn on the floor (because every stored paper was rifled through) and the carved out dashboard (because the fancy $90 Sony radio caught their eye) I just felt violated.

I put the key in the ignition and drove down the street, pulled over, and cried some more. Ashley was great, she just started organizing the crap.

I called my AAA agent and I made a statement, went over some details and just drove it back to my house in Azusa.

Today was a busy day of dealing with details. I took it to the repair shop, went over the damage, went to AAA to get an affadavit notarized and sent to my agent, faxed my towing receipt to AAA so that they can refund that expense (Praise God). And of course when it was all done, I just cried some more because as I was riding my bike from place to place it was just time to think and I started to just hate this faceless individual. I hated that I was being put through all this inconvenience. I hated that I couldn't just let my mom or dad take care of it (seeing as my dad was still out of town and my mom had work and her life 40 miles away). I hated that I had to grow up. I hated that I had to go through old receipts to find just the right information to put on the affadavit. I hated that as I went about my day, I kept thinking of things that were in my car and that were now in the possession of someone else.

But really, its all just stuff. Yeah, I'm sad that my soccer ball was in the back and it is no longer there and I'm sad that most of my CD's are gone and I'm sad that my athletic training pack is gone (don't worry they left the bandaids and tape so I can still save some lives), but again its stuff. And I have a lot to be thankful for through this experience.

Like the mom and pop repair shop that I was referred to. They were so nice and so welcoming. And my wallet and computer were not in there, even though I have been known to leave these things in the trunk. And the person did not take my Taylor Swift cd, which is the one that I was worried most about as I realized it was still in the car. And when I went to AAA today, the lady was super nice and talkative. And my sister had bought me a bike last year that I was able to utilize these past few days (it's a crap bike because the chain keeps catching and the paint is chipping but it has character and it has two wheels.)

And I am also learning to rely on other people for rides (when I really need them-like at midnight after work, I'm not going to bike home. I'm not stupid especially when there's been some timely warnings that out lovely campus safety likes to inform the APU community of). I'm learning to let go because why get uptight over the little stuff.

It's out of my hands. I mean, I have to make sure the agent got all the papers tomorrow, and then I just wait till my car is ready to get picked up.

Until then, I'm just chilling in A town. And dealing with long days. I really think it should be Friday already.

Growing up.

These are my friends Danielle and Alicia. They are my oldest friends. I have known Alicia since before we started Kindergarten. Our mothers knew each other through sewing and so we became friends. In fact, there is a picture of us in our apple dresses (that our mothers made) sitting on the swings in the playground. I think because of this connection we are probably going to be friends forever even though we don't hang out all that much anymore.

However, over break I got to hang out with these two. We went dancing and were just able to catch up on each other's lives. Funny story: when we were in second grade, Alicia and I didn't really want to play with Danielle (you know how elementary friendships go). So one time during free play, we hid from Danielle under the computer tables. But there was a sharp pin sticking out and it stabbed Alicia in the head and she just started gushing blood. I still feel terrible. Both about hiding from Danielle and picking the spot where we hid, which turned out to be hazardous to Alicia's health.

Anyway, it was just great seeing them because we are all doing our own thing but we were still able to relate and commiserate about our troubles.

I also recently got to hang out with Emma, Alex and Arielle. Other girls that I have known all my life. Our late night adventures included a DUI checkpoint, running red lights, red velvet cream pie, the house they filmed for Disturbia, jacuzzi and Pretty Little Liars. For some reason whenever we get together, we revert to being 12 years old. It's kind of refreshing that I have friends that I can do this with.

They're just great.

It's days like these.

Today I spent most of the day scrapbooking. For some reason I have been in the mood to paste together memories and funny stories in an aesthetically pleasing way. It's been fun; reliving memories, coming up with corny one liners to try and explain a picture, figuring out how to utilize 12x12 sheet of paper the best way.

Anyway about the time that I realized I spent a good few hours scrapbooking, I realized I needed to go for a walk, get some fresh air. Armed with my camera and with Turbo on a leash, I ventured outside to capture the amazing sunset that was starting to form.



It's days like these that make Riverside not so bad.

Presents.

Christmas is a lot more fun when you have two year olds super excited to open presents. Isn't my sister just beautiful?

Harry Potter.

For some reason I had the goal this break to read through all the Harry Potter books. I practically grew up reading the books but I realized that I had not read them in a while. So I decided to read them all. I am a fast reader so it really was not a problem. The only thing that was a bummer was that I could not find the third book. So technically, I did not read that one. It took me only two days to get through the last two books. I stayed in my room 12 hours. Just reading.

I know. I'm a nerd. And I'm ok with that. But I feel like I have learned some valuable lessons from this series.

1. Play to your strengths. Harry faced dragons on his broomstick because that was what he was good at. He did not need some fancy spell to trick the dragon. He did what he was best at.

2. Don't give up hope. Ginny never gave up hope that Harry might one day like her back. She moved on and dated other people but through this she just became more comfortable around Harry and then he realized he liked who she was. There's always hope.

3. You make your own choices. Sometimes we can not determine our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to them. Harry could have been sorted into Slytherin but he asked to be put into Gryffindor. Multiple times throughout the series he could have just chosen not to act. But he always wanted to. He always chose to do the right thing.

4. Friendships always last when they are forged fighting a troll. I think it is our friends that get us through the tough times in life. Harry, Hermione and Ron became great friends after the troll incident. Sure, there were times when they didn't speak to each other because of jealousy but in the end, they only had each other. And in reality, when will we ever fight trolls but maybe there's a metaphor somewhere in there.

And last,

5. Love wins. Dumbledore continually tried to stress this to Harry but he did not get the extent of what that means. The Dark Lord could not love anyone and therefore thought it was irrelevant. But Harry was saved because the love of his mom, Harry was protected by this throughout the series so much so that the Dark Lord was not able to touch him. And sometimes love can even be found in friendship or showing mercy.

Lately, I'm having a hard time breaking up with this series since I am going to have to enter reality soon and go back to classes and clinicals and work and obstacles. And really, I do not think that I would want to go to Hogwarts. All that magic would just get annoying. I'm ok with doing things the old fashioned way.