Today...

I feel sleepless...I'll wake up every two hours during the night just to stare irritably at the red digits praying for sleep to come again...I dreamt that I had bought a boxy purple 2-door Jeep Cherokee last night bent on lifting it and becoming a Jeep Jammer...I've been so anxious lately about finding a decent job to perfectly coexist with my grad school hours and to independently support myself. Everyday when work runs out I'm back on the job trail clicking through endless jobs that have little to nothing to do with my education or skills. It's really nervewracking. Looking at the recent trends of the job market, I should have gone to school to become a truckdriver or a Fork Lift operator. Now here's one that caught my eye...a puppy salesman for the business of Moondoggies. Tempting? Maybe.

I've toyed with the idea of tacking on something in the Allied Health Field just to have no worries about finding a for-sure job, but Mom wisely reminded me to not compromise the work that I see myself loving the most for the sake of practicality. Just because I can't see the top of the ladder doesn't mean I shouldn't take the first step.

I've come to the conclusion that these SoCal mountains creep me out a little bit. At night, I can really look at them a long time and enjoy them hosting millions of twinkling lights (representing the bloated real estate market and the overpopulation of greater LA, but nonetheless...). But during the day, I look at them as imposing foreign sand heaps, like we have been banished to living in the Valley of the Moon sunk into a deep crater of smog, corruption, and a relentless blazing 110 degree furnace. A fallen moon population. Weird, huh? That should creep you out too :)

Today I wish my plane would take me even beyond Berkeley. Today I feel like traveling. I'm craving a killer dark Turkish coffee with some Russian honeycake, to sit in a nameless outside cafe in Lucca and write for hours with time cadenced only by the white noise of foreign languages, to study in an international culinary school, to have a lively conversation with a wise old woman who has lived a good, fulfilling life, try on Pashmina scarves in an outdoor market in myriads of different colors, set up a base camp and climb a mysterious, unknown mountain, and to ride a bike through an ancient civilization.

Today is full of:

1. Flight Itineraries to Berkeley and last-minute packing
2. A Green Tea Iced Lemonade
3. Thank-You Cards and postcards to some really dear friends
4. Excitement about health counseling tomorrow
5. Wishing for a sea-kayaking/beach house getaway weekend soon
6. My twist on the CousCous Salad for Lunch
7. The Economist
8. Scrolling the American Job Bank
9. Playing with the idea of the Foreign Service State Exam for the EU
10. Contemplating what our 2nd Floor Disaster Recovery Station is really for (What about a Disastrous Day at Work Recovery Station)

Observation of the day: Southern Californians are unmistakably recognizable by their oversized sunglasses, Vitamin Waters and Venti Lattes always in tote, Green eyeshadow, blinged out car rims, or the fact that they look straight up criminal.