I Kid You Not...I Learned How to Pole Dance.

For those of you that know me, you know that awkward would be my closest definition. I am anything but a “sexy” person, so when my friends approached me about pole dancing classes I was a little less than excited. After some deliberation I decided to go along with it and we all signed up for the 4 session groupon. We managed to put it off for an entire semester, but not wanting to let our money go to waste, we signed up for our first class. The class started at 11am and would last an hour. I’m not one to normally day drink, but I figured for this I would make an exception. With a little liquid courage I was on my way to the studio (don’t worry, my friend was driving). When we walked into the studio the lights were dimmed and the room was pretty dark. We were all a little concerned but we all grabbed a pole and began the lesson. I decided to fight my natural tendency to laugh at myself and decided to try and actually learn something. I mean hey, if this whole job search doesn’t work out, I might need a fall back plan. Wouldn’t my parents be so proud? After we completed a warm up, which included learning how to do a “sexy walk”, we started learning spins. I am a relatively athletic person so I wasn’t worried so much about having the strength to spin around, but I was worried about my lack of coordination. To my surprise the first spin went well. We learned four in total and I am happy to report I could do them all, pretty well in fact! After learning the different spins we started to put everything together into a routine. I am still uncoordinated and awkward, but I made it through and didn’t feel like a total idiot. It was actually pretty fun. Shockingly, I am excited to go back, maybe even sober next time, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. I’m going to leave the upside down spinning to the professionals, but I am happy to say that this awkward girl now knows how to pole dance…a little.

Golfing with Rory...Not a bad way to spend my Tuesday afternoons

Being my last semester, I had some extra time to play around with, so I decided to take a rec class. These are half credit classes offered through the school in various sports. In high school I had played on the golf team (I swear I’m not kidding), but have since lost any skill I might have had. I decided that since I would never again be able to golf once a week, with a teacher, for free (well kind of... not so much if you count tuition) I should sign up for the golf class. I was pretty nervous that I would totally suck and thought about baking out when I watched the end of the SDSU golf class, but I stuck around and waited for our class to start. A bunch of my friends ended up in the class, which made things a lot more fun. Things got even better when my dreams came true when we met our totally attractive golf instructor, Rory. Unfortunately, because of my schedule, I come to every golf class in workout clothes, but I like to believe that Rory doesn’t mind. Plus, golfing in spandex is way more comfortable than in gross khakis. So now every Tuesday I head down to Riverwalk Golf Course and try and regain some of the ability I once had (and to see Rory of course). I have to be honest; I am doing better than I thought I would. Maybe in my jobless future I will just bum around on the golf course all day, waiting for some business man to realize my potential. Sounds like a better plan than sending out a hundred more resumes, but I digress. The point is life is pretty amazing when you can take golf for college credit, can play all year round, and never have to worry about rain. I wish I had taken a few more of these rec classes earlier on, definitely worth it.

Someone Please Hire Me Already!

So this blog is meant to be about my final adventures in San Diego, and I will get to that I promise, but first I need to vent a little. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am in my last semester of college and my life has therefore been taken over by applications, resumes and cover letters. I am now on every job seeking site known to mankind and have even gone old school combing the classifieds of newspapers (okay so maybe not so old school if you do it online, but still I’m pretty desperate here). Everyone tells you that if you focus on school, get good internships, and develop some connections that you would find a job. They all lied. I am a qualified, capable graduating senior who will most likely be jobless in May. Even more frustrating, the business world doesn’t even leave you grad school as an option. Sure, sure there are some programs you can get in to, but most of the big programs require at least two years of work experience. Just where do you expect me to get that experience exactly? To date, I have applied for 54 open positions. I have heard back from 3, 2 of which were filled and the other is considering several other candidates. Not great odds if you ask me. I even went so far as to contact the Air Force about their Public Affairs positions (my father is currently in the military and loved the idea), but guess what…there are no openings there either. I’m not kidding people, I have a 3.78 GPA, a double major and a minor, great recommendations, no criminal record, have never even been fired, and I was turned down by the military. Perfect. My economics teacher loves to remind me of my bleak future by referring to me and my fellow students as the “lost generation”. Our jobs are being filled by over qualified individuals forced to take huge pay cuts and low positions after losing their cushy jobs in the economic crisis. If we do continue on to grad school to buy time, companies expect to have to pay us more so they turn us down. So to all five readers of this blog, I am resorting to begging. Someone PLEASE hire me already, I really, really don’t want to move in with my parents!

Belmont Park Roller Coaster

                This weekend we decided to cross another item off our San Diego bucket list. With all the rain it was difficult to accomplish much, but the sun came out on Sunday and we headed down to Belmont park. Not much of a carnival park, but it is home to a very old, very wooden roller coaster. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than five people riding this roller coaster at one time, and I’ve definitely never seen a line for the ride, but San Diegans must have been excited about the sunshine because the place was pretty crowded. We got in line for our tickets; feeling slightly out of place being older than 12 and not yet having kids ourselves. Being at this dingy little park reminded me about how much your perspective changes from when you’re a kid. The rides that seem lame and boring to us now, seem like the world’s greatest adventure to them. One boy ran up to the top of the line where the measuring stick was and proceeded to scream and dance with excitement that he was just barely a centimeter over the line and therefore able to go on any ride he wanted. The screaming was a little irritating, but the sentiment was cute. After we got our tickets and waited in line we climbed into one of the cars and off we went. I absolutely love roller coasters and I am not at all afraid to be on them, but this roller coaster was the ride from hell. Well, that’s a little extreme, it was still fun, but I think I suffered a concussion in the process. I was getting thrown around and my head was killing me. Luckily we hadn’t gone out the night before because riding that coaster hung over would not have been a good scene. Not something I’ll do again anytime soon, but I guess you can’t live in Mission Beach and not ride the roller coaster. After we got off we decided to walk around and indulge ourselves in some terrible carnival food. Not exactly on the Cabo Spring Break diet, but oh well! It was fun to act like a kid again and to take a break from our normal Sundays filled with homework and studying. Another item checked off the list and one step closer to feeling like I took advantage of every moment I have left in San Diego.

Vegas, Strippers, and Hot Tubs...Oh My!

At the end of my long winter vacation at home I was ready to get back to the California sunshine. I would have been content with just getting back to our cozy life on the beach, but my friends had something a little different in mind. Jess’s brother was in Vegas for work and her cousin lives right off the strip. With a place to stay and Jess’s brother paying for our tank of gas, we decided to kick off the semester with a weekend trip to Vegas. Now I will say that I debated blogging about this because as we all know..What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas, but I decided with a few ommisions it was acceptable. So here is what happened to me in Vegas. We made the 5 hour drive out on Friday and planned to return early Sunday morning. When we arrived Friday Andrew (Jess’s cousin) cooked us an awesome steak dinner and we started our night of drinking and debauchery. Andrew had invited a few of his friends over and after a good amount of pre gaming Jess, Tori, and I headed to Jess’s brothers hotel before meeting everyone at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. Travis (Jess’s brother) gave us each $20 to play roulette with. I think he saw that decision have a different turn out, but Tori and I quickly lost our money and Jess pocketed hers. After that failure we moved on to Cosmo. The hotel is beautiful, elegant, and over the top in every way, which includes their drink prices. The bars were packed and seats were impossible to find. After a few drinks and pictures we decided to take our Vegas night in an even classier direction…to the strip clubs we went! Apparently one of Andrew’s friends had a connection and organized a party bus to pick us up. The bus was complete with stripper poles and some members of the group decided to give us a little show of what was to come. Not a pretty scene! We got into Sapphire with no cover thanks to the connections they had and were ushered into the largest strip club I have ever seen. The guys had quickly ordered bottles and lap dances and I was left to sit back to take it all in; a learning experience I guess you could say. Travis decided it would be a great idea to take our experience a step further and ordered Tori and I lap dances. One awkward experience I could live without. One positive that came out of my 5 uncomfortable minutes was getting exercise advice. Leave it to us to discuss work out tips while being surrounded by naked women. Jess also learned that her boobs were naturally great and implants should not be in her future. After a while at the strip club I started to notice that Andrew’s friends were starting to get a little combative and a little more aggressive. Maybe I should have seen where the night was headed, but I ignored it and we all went back to Andrew’s to end the evening. Everyone decided that the hot tub was necessary and jumped in. Things went from a little weird to bad pretty quickly when Andrew’s friends continued drinking, while Tori and I had stopped. Tori and I, being the brilliant drunks that we are, had planned ahead and had purchased queso and chips earlier in the evening and decided it would be better to end our night with queso dip then continue to be surrounded by increasingly sketchy guys. I think what sealed the deal was when one guy asked Tori to “feel the air bubble in his shorts.”… Ummmm what? We escaped the hot tub, but we were followed inside where the guys demanded we share our snack. Not wanting to be around these guys any longer than we already had, Tori and I grabbed the food and ran for our room, barricading ourselves inside. Not going to lie, it was the perfect ending to this weird night.  The next day, well afternoon when we finally woke up, we realized some of the guys were still there, one in particular who wouldn’t leave Jess alone. We decided we had to get out of there so we called Andrew and Travis and decided to meet them at Margaritaville. By this time we were all starving and the food was amazing! What does it say about me that my Vegas blog has more about food in it then drinking? Fat kid? Oh well! Nachos plus BBQ pulled pork sandwich equals the best hang over cure ever. Wiped out from all this activity, we decided to head back to Andrew’s for some much deserved naps. Unfortunately this nap only made me want to continue sleeping. Tori and Jess rallied and met Travis at his hotel for a few hours, while I called it a very early night and passed out. Such a failure. The next morning we packed up and started the drive back home to San Diego. Vegas is great, but I was happy to be going back. It was a fun and unexpected adventure; however, despite the creepy guys.

Winter Break...Rhode Island Adventures

My hiatus the last few weeks was due to a long, relaxing Christmas Break in the freezing weather of Rhode Island. Winter Break meant cold weather, Christmas, my sister’s wedding, New Years, and a ton of down time to make a dent in my endless list of things I want to accomplish before I graduate. While my adventures may not technically count as San Diego/ California activities, I’m going to include it. For the last few years, after a disastrous attempt to snowboard in high school, I have been saying that I wanted to learn how to ski. Every year I am either too busy or too lazy to head out to the mountains, but not this year. Not only is this my last year in college, but it’s my last year to mooch off my parents (such a sad thought). Since skiing isn’t the cheapest of sports, especially when you are renting, I figured it was now or never. On a surprisingly sunny morning, my mom and I headed to Yagoo, the one and only “mountain” in Rhode Island. After a minor workout getting my boots on we were ready to go. My first challenge was the bunny hill. I thought the lesson would begin once I reached the top of the hill; however, I quickly realized I should not underestimate the rope tow. After witnessing several wipeouts, I made my way over fully prepared to get a face full of snow. Despite my hesitations I made it to the top and released the rope looking like I kind of knew what I was doing. Securely at the top my mother started explaining the basic terms of a beginner, mostly focusing on the pizza concept. We quickly realized that having my mother be my instructor was not the best option. I asked “okay I’ve got pizza down, how do I turn?” To which she replied “I don’t know, you just do it.” Helpful? I think not. After struggling for a few more minutes we decided it would be best to sign up for a private lesson. An hour later, I was skiing…slowly. I apparently have a fear of speed and was not quite at comfortable yet. Never the less, I made it down all of the green and blue runs at Yagoo. That may sound impressive for a first attempt, so I should mention that Yagoo is not a real mountain by any means and any run here is probably comparable to a green run at a decent mountain. We all have to start somewhere right? The following week my mom and her friend Kim brought me to Massachusetts to attempt a few real runs. I started small, with the wide green runs, still inching my way down as slowly as possible. After finding my “ski legs” I quickly became much more adventurous, tackling several blues, making my way higher and higher up the mountain. I was having a blast and forgetting my fear of speed. I was almost on pace with my mother and Kim and was feeling great. Towards the end of the afternoon we decided to try one other run. This run was essentially a straight shot down the middle of the mountain, steep, and icy. Slowing myself down a little and sticking to the outside with less ice, I made it down without any scares. Toward the middle my Mom stopped me and said “Look back and see what you just accomplished. Sometimes you don’t realize it while you’re going down, but it’s important to look back and see what you just did.” Not to get too sentimental and all of that, but I think there’s a pretty good life lesson there. Throughout all the struggles and the day to day b.s, sometimes we need to stop and look back and see what we’ve already accomplished. I tend to get lost in the boring classes, the tests, and the same nights out in Mission Beach, but I am in my last semester of college, I have great friends, and I’ve already accomplished a lot. Sometimes looking back and seeing where we’ve been and what we’ve already been through makes going forward look a little bit easier.