Academic Challenge

Carla drives a bus for Escondido school systems.  She had to drive some kids from one high school in town to another high school in town so she had me meet her downtown for dinner.  We got sandwiches and it was good to see her.  BUT the super awesome part was the high school kids she was driving were having an Academic Challenge.  I love Academic Challenge because it is really just trivia and I am so good with random, useless knowledge.  Just ask Matt - we played trivia at the bar and he was surprised at both how good I was and how competitive it made me.  The school it was in was where they used to make the local newspaper and they just converted it over to a school.  We went in to check it out.  It was cool to see the building being re-purposed - made me happy.  But then we went into the actual challenge to watch it for a bit and I was in heaven - was sooooo awesome.  They were two teams of nerds.  One team of nerds had matching polo shirts with their embroidered logo and we super competitive.  The other team was just a bunch of super awkward high school kids -- I was dying!  The professional looking team was the team that Carla drove and they were kicking butt.  The awkward kids were super bad.  That team was made up of 5 kids - 4 girls and a boy.  The boy sat at the end and totally did not interact with the girls at all and kept making faces at how hard all the questions were (and they were!).  He was so funny.  You totally knew that girls begged him to be on the team that day because they were short a person and would not have been able to complete otherwise LOL.  The really good team had alternate players and everything.  They kept swapping out players like it was the super bowl.  The questions were so hard but I was trying to guess them - oh I so wanted to be on that stage with a buzzer!!!  This was all serious business and there were parents and students in the audience cheering the teams on.  I was trying sooooo hard not to be loud and make a disturbance when they were asking the questions but that is usually a difficult feat for me in general never mind when I am all excited over something like this.  How crazy fun that all turned out to be.  The team Carla drove won big team but of course I was rooting for the rag tag team cuz everyone loves an underdog.

National Cheese Lovers Day

National Cheese Lovers Day (which is today 01.20.2015) seems like an odd day to return but it is as good a day as any, especially since I went to the discount grocery outlet and get this huge wheel of brie for only $3.99.  That is almost 2 lbs of brie!!!  So not good for my waistline but a treasure and indulgence that I will enjoy.  Money is still a little crazy but hey I can afford to snack on brie lol.  

OK so where have I been for 4 months?  I guess the short answer is here.  2014 was very, very, very difficult year for me.  I could not think or write anymore.  People say I should write whatever I think but this is public so I cannot.  I can say again that my last company threw me for a huge loop and so caught me off guard when they let me go.  Then I had to work on money and still do not have that totally resolved but am getting there.  Now I have been at my new job for 6 months and am very, very happy there but everyday I think - what happens if I get the rug pulled out from me again?  I have zero magic tricks left and that makes me nervous.  

But I look back and I made 2014 work somehow.  My part time job and eBay.  I so sold the shit outta eBay and it saved me.  It was a lot of work.  I felt scared for so long it just made me numb.  But on a better note, how did I end the year???  I went to Massachusetts for Christmas!  Oh it was so awesome.  It had been over a year and a half since I was there and that was just way too long for me.  I loved every single second of it - every second.  I missed my mother A LOT and she missed me even more.  I talk with her regularly but seeing someone is different.  I spent sooooo much time with my nieces and nephews and it was fantastic.  We talked and ate and laughed and enjoyed!  I also got to see so many friends.  Has been hard to make real friends out here - REAL friends like I have back there.  Judy even came and spent Christmas with my loco family and she survived.  Made me happy to have her there and spend time with her but also for her to see firsthand why I like my nutty family so much and so enjoy seeing them.

I am even more energized because I already have my tickets to return in June.  I had some points that I used so got a super deal.  This is great news because I will able to see both my nieces graduate from high school this year.  It make me happy to be there for moments like that.  I cannot wait.  Ok so I will write more soon.  I am feeling more excited about writing and have stuff to say again. I just don't wanna say it all in one big post.  I have to pace myself.