this is sad...

I'm averaging about one post/month. I'm going to try to write in here as often as possible.

I'm super, super thrilled at the moment. Mainly I'm excited because I just completed the three biggest purchases of my LIFE:

1) The REST of my college tuition ($995) that I NEVER thought I'd be able to pay on time
2) A NEW LAPTOP!!!! (HP tx2525nr, tablet, touchscreen...in one word: AMAZING!)
3) A TICKET TO AUSTRALIA!!!!!! and a ONE-WAY TICKET, at that!

The ticket to Australia was surely the cake topper. I have been planning this for weeks with Patrice, my old roommate from Berkeley. She is an Australian native, currently residing in Melbourne which is where I will be flying into! I'm planning on spending 2-3 weeks there, with one of those weeks spent exploring the Great Barrier Reef. This is going to be a month or so away from the states and I couldn't be more excited!!!!

Of course this puts a little delay in my job search. I feel like searching for a job right now would be pretty useless. If the job interview/waiting period aren't daunting enough, I also have to explain that I'm going to take a month vacation in January. So even though I strongly strongly LOATHE working at Hooters and bartending everyday it's one of the only places that will let me take off that amount of time and with tips, I'm averaging at $20+/hour...can't beat that for the time being even though the uniform bugs me to no end...

I'm trying to be as forgiving as possible to my current state. I don't want to beat myself up why I'm not at a better job, why I'm not doing interning/volunteer work, etc. because YOU KNOW WHAT, this is my time to relaxxxx, take a couple trips, be out in the real world that i've been missing out on for four years. AND I don't care what anybody thinks! I'm going to spend this year working a couple months, taking a HUGE TRIP, working a couple more months, ANOTHER HUGE TRIP etc. etc.!!! Who knows when I'm going to be committed to a job. I don't want to labor night and day for a living JUST yet. I'm in my youth and hell, I want to enjoy it and that's okay!!!!

So these are the next places I'd LOVE to visit:

- Queretaro, Mexico (to see Hilary! and financially, this is my best option right now)
- Alexandria/Cairo, Egypt
- Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
- The Amazon...mainly in Brazil
- Malta
- Greece!!!!

I want to get to at least two of those by the year's end. Mexico is looking pretty good, hopefully in March, as for the others...I'm going to need some better pay checks :]