long time, no write

Well, it has been quite some time since I last wrote.  In one way, I feel like I have been in a holding pattern for the past few months and, at the same time, so much has happened.  Ah, the holidays.  I am glad they're over.  Not that they were not fun.  I had my first Las Vegas experience over the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents, sister, and brother.  It was about what I expected except I think it was a little more tame than usual as it was Thanksgiving and the middle of the week.  I will say that the Cirque du Soleil show, "Love", was absolutely incredible.  I don't think I could adequately describe the show because there was so much happening at once that I could barely process it all, but it was so overwhelming that I spontaneously started crying (and I do not cry at live shows).

Thanksgiving brunch at the Bellagio was also overwhelming in a whole different way.  There was every kind of food imaginable from rib eye steak to sushi and the most delicious array of miniature desserts I have ever tasted.  I almost made myself sick on chocolate mousse.

After Thanksgiving, I spent a week in LA with my parents and during that time my stepdad had a pretty serious operation to repair a set of aneurisms he had developed in his abdomen and groins.  Thankfully, he made it through the operation beautifully and shortly thereafter, I returned to the Bay to take part in the craziness that is Christmas shopping.  Somewhere in there I also managed to get completely obsessed with the Twilight series, read all 4 books in one week (that's about 2500 pages, which means I had to force myself to put the books down to eat and sleep), and see the movie in the theatre--twice.  

After I pulled myself out of my Twilight oblivion, I spent the Christmas holiday with my friend and occasional partner-in-crime, Katy Lambe and her boyfriend, Jesse.  We spent some time in the Bay before heading down to be with the Lambe family in Fresno for a few days.  Then, we drove back up to the Bay on Christmas day to join Jesse's family and celebrate his mother's birthday, which, unfortunately for her, is on Christmas day.

New Year's Eve was quite uneventful.  I stayed in and went to bed early.  My sister called me at midnight her time (11pm my time) to wish me a Happy New Year and then I went back to bed until the firecrackers, fog horns, and screaming from neighbors woke me up at midnight.  I listened to the rukcus for a little while and then went back to bed.

All in all the holiday season went by without too much madness and I really enjoyed Vegas, Fresno, and seeing my family and the Lambes.  

Since the start of the new year, i have been focused on working out and eating as healthily as possible (hey, we all need a little bit of the really sinful stuff every so often).  I am now officially registered for all of my classes, which start the week of January 19th.  I am taking three classes, 1 graduate seminar in the psychology department at UC Berkeley and 2 graduate courses at a school in San Francisco called the California Institute of Integral Studies ("CIIS").  I will also start working on my Master's Thesis which, I have to admit, is a little intimidating, but I am doing my best to mentally prep myself.  If I stay on track, I could theoretically graduate in September.  My degree will be titled: Masters of Arts in Psychology and East-West Studies.  And, yes, I did make that up.