The police in SoCal

The police here in San Diego are so relaxed. There are no miles per hour signs on the road and every is a ''california stop offender.'' (I don't even know the speed limit here.) Only once a month I actually see someone pulled over. When I actually do see someone pulled over, I wonder what horrible driving offense they made!

Then this week, it was my turn. I was in LA and the flow of traffic was about 10 miles per hour on the 10, which is typical. I passed Mr. Policeman and he noticed my lack of seatbelt. I got a $150 ticket. UGH! This is my second no seat belt ticket. I am just really bad at wearing my seat belt.

Mission Calls

A friend of mine recently got her mission call to Tokyo Japan. They filmed her opening her call and then posted it on youtube.com. As I was searching for this on youtube.com, I found tons of other videos of people opening thier calls. I loved watching these! I must of watched these for atleast a half hour. Here are my favorite two. (I tried to just upload these video so you could watch them on my profile but I can't figure it out, so sorry you have to follow the link.)

**The first is kind of long so I would just watch until right after he opens the call and starts to cry.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IifTVj0UXUM

I love this video for so many reasons.

1.) I love the brother on this bluetooth trying to locate the dad for the opening of the call.
2.) I love how the brother turns on the music, which I think aids the spirit so much.
3.) I love how the prospective elder cries when as he reads the call.
4.) I love how there are so many people there to share the experience.

**This video is hilarious!. The family is eating dinner as the prospective elder opens his call. It is only a minute or so long.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=boL-WIhMf2M

Here are the things I think are so funny.

1.) The family is nonchalantly eating dinner while he opens his call.
2.) The brother in the background is not even phased as his brother opens his call. When he announces where he is called the brother does not even look up! He just keeps eating as nothing special has happened! I just could not believe it.
3.) The mom! She does not even stop eating to celebrate the call!

This last video was just so far from my experience. When I opened my call and saw I was going to Italy everyone in the room started screaming. We celebrated for the whole night. There was tons of laughter, smiles, and dancing. I was so beyond excited and so was my family! Thanks family!

Vorrei che fosse amore, amore quello vero
la cosa che io sento e che mi fa pensare a te
vorrei poterti dire che t'amo da morire
perché e' soltanto questo che desideri da me
se c'e' una cosa al mondo che non ho avuto mai
e' tutto questo bene che mi dai
vorrei che fosse amore
ma proprio amore, amore la cosa che io sento per te

vorrei che fosse amore, amore quello vero
la cosa che tu senti e che ti fa pensare a me
vorrei sentirti dire che m'ami da morire
perché e' soltanto questo che io desidero da te
se c'e' una cosa al mondo che non ho avuto mai
e' tutto questo bene che mi dai
vorrei che fosse amore
ma proprio amore amore la cosa che io sento per te.

My Third Place

There is a theory that says everyone has three main places to frequent: home, work and the third place.

My three places are all very fluid.

1.) Home. My home has changed three times in the last year. Ohio, Italy and California.

2.) Work. My work: Spanish Teacher, Supervisor at Verizon Wireless, Tennis Coach, Panera Bread, Mortgage Broker, Bob Evans, Tour Guide, English Teacher and now Kindergarden teacher.

3.) Third Place. I do have a third place independent of my location.

In Ohio my third place was Panera Bread off sawmill. On saturdays I would go there and order a diet coke and use thier wi-fi for hours at a time. I looked for many jobs at that Panera Bread.

In Italy, I had a few different third places depending on the season. During the summer months, my third place was il mare or the sea. I love the mediterrean sea. I would go to the sea at 7:00am for a morning swim. I would go back at 1:30pm, after lunch, until 7:00pm. The mediterrean sea may be as of this day, my biggest love (Certainly, the most faithful!). Then in the winter months, I took retreat into Angelo's bar. He would give me free hot milk in a glass with a free pastry everyday. (This must be how I gained 20 lbs during my time in Italy). I would read the La Repubblica every day. Then talk to the strangers who came in. There were so many ''regulars'' such as myself. Giacomo, Franco and Giovanni. These men were well over 55 years old. I had the best discussions with these guys. After about a month, I too was a regular. We talked about everything under the sun: politics, religion, the health of the pope and most importantly the men in my life (men because it was plural at the time).

In California, I can't decide where my third place would be. It is debatable. It could be any of the following: our heated pool, the internet, reading books, or hopefully soon with summer coming, the beach.

I have been looking back at the last year and realized that nothing in my life would be considered stable. I am craving stability the last six months. I am proud to say that I am taking major steps toward that. I am starting my masters program in the fall. I have decided to enroll with the University of Maryland (pending my acceptance). My first year and a half will be online. Then my last six months will be on campus. I am getting a Masters in Human Resources! I am so excited for this. I feel it will provide me with the stability I want and need. Plus, I think I am a great people person and love to work an office environment. I am now trying to determine where my home will be. I have narrowed it down to either NYC or DC. I am gong to visit both this summer to aid my decision process. As far as work goes, for the next two years that will only be determined by my location until I finish my masters.

Grant's wedding

Grant and Stephanie

My Dad and brother

I have a job!

With the current economic situation in California, it has been more than difficult to secure a decent job. Despite the fact that 212 teachers were cut from this district alone, I was able to secure a job in the school district. I am teaching Kindgarden! Something I never would have ever considered for myself. I was thinking back on my one elementary ed class; one week into the class I knew that Elementary Ed was not for me. I must say that teaching is what I love but I have never been so sure of my Secondary certification. Anyway, the kids are so cute! I really do love interacting with the kids! I am excited to finish out the school year here. More to come....

Mallory!

This is my roomate Mallory. I had so much fun living with her. I was just looking at old pictures and thinking and almost a year has past since I left Ohio. I was thinking about some of my best memories with Mallory. I am just going to make a list of random memories.

Dressing up--either for costumes or for a fancy occasion. The picture above on the left is from Halloween. We dressed up many times for random events either to go somewhere together or seperate. We each had a lot of dates, I loved that time when we were getting ready for the date and the other kept the other company. Getting dressed up for church. Mallory would help me with my hair or accessories. I love those memories.

Walking with Mal--walking to Cheesecake with Mallory. It's a random memory but I had so much fun. Also, one time we were shopping at Easton and she was wearing heels and her stiletto got stuck in between two stones and she competely walked out of her shoe. Maybe I will put excerise here, one time we took a spinning class together at like 6am. We had so much fun.

Taking pictures on her computer--Photobooth provided many hours of fun! It seemed that every one who came over ended up eventually taking pictures on her computer.

Late night talks with Mal--we stayed up really late so many times. We would talk about life and our ward. We had so many life chats. We also could debate many things like politics. We could just pass hours talking.

Texting Mal--I got a text message from Mallory that went like this, "Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz broke up." She broke the news to me, it was a good thing if I had found out any other way who knows how how I would have reacted. I loved it!

Dinners with Mal--Mallory introduced me to the Roasted red pepper soup from Trader Joe's and we loved it. Some days I would be in charge of picking it up and some days she would pick it up for dinner that night. We also wold zip over to Panera Bread alot.

Shopping with Mal-- We would not go shopping alot but when we did we had so much fun. I remember when we went to vintage stores downtown and tried on all these old funky clothes in these funky dressing rooms. We went down to high street on a few occasions and went jeans shopping and candle shopping.

These are just a few memories I have with my fierce friend Mallory. Mallory always had my back and one time when I stupid boy broke my heart. She stood up to this person in my behalf despite it being really uncomfortable for her. Mallory, if you read this I hope you enjoy some of the random memories.

Eccoti!

Jessica, questa foto e' per te!