Taxes...how I loath thee!

Tax season came and went as it does every year at this time.  Usually I'm the recipient of a return, which of course, makes me happy.  This year I had quite a bit of income that had not been taxed that I had to claim.  I figured I would owe...because we all know Uncle Sam wants a take in everything, even that poor guy in the news that was being taxed on winning donut and coffee coupons.  So on April 16th I decided I had procrastinated enough (actually I had been really busy and that was the first opportune time) and started in.  It started of great.  I put in my info. from work and federal was like, "yay!  You're getting $909 back".  So far so good...until I put in my previously untaxed income.  Then the bloodsuckers said, "oh, we got you!  You now owe $2,505 in federal and over $500 to Taxachusetts (oops, I mean Massachusetts)!"  This revelation came as a bit of a shock, though I suppose it shouldn't have.  Luckily, I had the money to cover the taxes, but they sucked me dry.  Looks like no school for the summer semester.

On the bright side, though, I notice that for some reason God always takes care of me and I have sufficient for my needs.  No matter what the situation is, something always works out and everything somehow becomes right in the world.  Life has taught me to generally remain positive because there are two ways to react to life's challenges and I choose the better way.  I'm not always sure why He does it, but it's nice knowing He's got my back as long as I strive to do the right thing.  =)

THE END

Catch Up Time

Well...apparently I forgot about that whole goal thing about writing on my blog more often...but as I'm procrastinating writing a paper, I figure now is a good time to catch up. =)

What a busy semester.  I definately have a habit of sometimes biting off more than I can chew...and I think I might have finally learned that lesson.  I started a Masters in Intelligence Management this semester through University of Maryland University College.  It's a brand new degree program that is available online.  Would I much rather go to an actual school?  Yes and no.  Yes, because I would rather learn that way, and no because it would require more time travelling to and from places...and it takes forever to get anywhere in Boston sometimes!  When I tell people what my program is, the response I usually get is something to the effect of "you're studying the intelligence of people?" or "I could use more intelligence".  In reality, my program is much more awesome.  I'm studying government intelligence that has to do with national security, taking classes about espionage and counterintelligence, collection, etc.  Sounds fun, right?!  At least, I think so.  I'm only taking a class a semester, though.  I don't care how long it takes, I'll get my Masters and I'll enjoy smelling the roses while I do it.

While all this is going on, I'm still working full time at the company I started at four years ago, as an Executive Assistant.  They keep giving me responsibilities, which is great, but the real reason I stick around is the people.  My coworkers and bosses are awesome.  A good work environment is a necessity for happy employees, and they've done a pretty good job.

Oh, and I took on another musical.  Probably shouldn't have, but I'm playing for a middle school who is doing West Side Story at the end of the month.  Not quite sure how they're going to pull it off, but I guess we'll see.  How I got the job was interesting.  I got this call out of the blue from the wife of a bishop in another singles ward.  I had been recommended to her by a couple people I know and without me having to do a single thing, she offered me the job (yay, it's paying).  Now to finish learning the music...fun music, but not the easiest in the world to learn.

And then there is the dating life....oh, wait!?  What's that?  I get my usual one date a year.  (Yay for me), but lo and behold I went out with the same guy twice this year already!  Shocker, I know.  Unfortunately, I think that's about where it ends, but hey, he already broke a three year record! 

Things can only get better, right?  I reached the significant age of 31 already this year...with the consequence of getting kicked out of the singles ward I was in for 3 1/2 years and going to "the island of misfit toys" (love that saying, thanks Mishie).  I actually really like this ward.  I sometimes feel like I relate better to people older than me and it's really nice being the youngest person in the ward...and lucky for me...I haven't had any 50+ year old men hit on me.  Speaking of which, they really should put a cap on how old you can be in the ward.  I have a wonderful VT who is older, but men picking up on younger 30 year olds (I've heard tales) is a little creepy.

Alright.  I've procrastinated long enough.  Back to writing a paper.  =s

2010

Wow. I'm rarely ever on here and just realized how lame it is that I don't blog. I guess I kind of equate it as keeping a journal and I haven't done that since I was maybe 14! But with being 30 and having a poor memory, maybe I should update this a little more so I can remember what I did. lol.

This has been a year of change...all for the better. I moved to a different town in Massachusetts and got my own apartment (big accomplishment...and I still call it my own apartment because I get to choose if I want roommates or not), I finished all music obligations and I had and will not continue them into the new year, took the leap to take out student loans and this time actively pursue my Masters (Intelligence Management...I get to study espionage and counterterrorism...does it get any better than that!?), and a bunch of other changes that I can't think of right now (see, the memory is going).

I'm making a New Years resolution to be a little better at this whole blog thing. =)

Buddy

For some reason I have very unoriginal nicknames for my brothers. I have two nicknames and they can be used interchangably on each of my brothers: Bruder (German for brother) and Buddy. Told ya...very original. I call Steven, my youngest brother, Buddy the most. It used to be Spud, like the potato...or slimer on the cartoon series of Ghost Buster back in the day, but he grew out of that one day and I had to find something new.

Anyways, I'm very exciting for this summer! Ever since I moved out to Boston I've been trying to get at least one of my three younger brothers to move out here, and finally, one of them is! Steven is coming to live with me for the summer and I couldn't be happier! If things work out, he may stay out here permanently while working full time and going to night school. My family is made up of some really fun people and I'm excited to have a sibling that will be able to come for an extended period of time and really see what New England is like and perhaps appreciate it the way I do. My apartment will turn into a language center. He's going to be teaching me Spanish (when I try to speak, it literally comes out half Spanish and half German so it's Germish) and I will be teaching him German...hmm...I may still end up speaking Germish, even with his help. Will have to think that one through. Anyways...here's to June...when Buddy arrives and my parents and my Grandma (who has never been to visit any of her grandkids in their respective states) come to visit. All in all, a great summer planned!

I was "that" person

It's starting to become a tradition that every winter I go on a cruise down south. Every winter I wonder, "Why!? Why did I move to Boston? It's freakin' cold here!" And then the other seasons (yes, we have full blown seasons here) come and I love it. Well, this year was no exception. This year I had the opportunity to travel down to New Orleans for a couple days before catching a Carnaval Cruise ship to the Western Caribbean and here are my thoughts/adventures.

New Orleans....interesting city. The Big Easy, the birthplace of Jazz and of course, Louis Armstrong, and let's not forget that the Saints won their first Superbowl. "Who dat" is a common phrase heard wherever you go down there - makes me glad I only heard it for a weekend! My roommate, Cami, and I spent a couple hours in the French Quarter taking in the sights...the amazing street musicians and break dancers, Bourbon Street, Royal Street, a Voodoo shop (didn't stay long), cemetaries (the people are buried above ground....so imagine that and the flooding of Hurricane Katrina...not a pretty picture). In my opinion it's great to see and visit for a couple hours unless you're the type who likes to bar hop starting about mid-morning and lasting until the wee hours of the next morning. It's definately eye opening and not for everyone. But now I can say I've been there, done that. Glad I wasn't there for Mardi Gras...oh, and it's a dirty city.

After touring around the French Quarter Cami and I went for a drive around the outlying areas. I wanted to see a gator out in the wilds of the bayou. One thing that definately hit me was the poverty and rundown places. Now this is my opinion without anything to back it up, but with the standard of living so much lower there than where I grew up or here in Boston, I'm betting a lot of the rundown areas I saw wasn't just the effects of Katrina - it's been that way a long time.

I also had the opportunity to visit Oak Alley. A plantation outside of the city. Can one say gorgeous?! Yes, please! It's been used in a couple movies including "Interview with a Vampire" and Beyonce did a music video out there. Oak trees line the front and back of the house on both sides of a walk way that leads out to the Mississippi River. Cami and I took a moment to imagine what it would have been like to live the era of Southern Belles while enjoying the warm 65 degree weather. (People there thought it was cold and were wearing sweaters and jackets. Silly people...they don't know what cold is!)

We dragged ourselves away from Oak Alley to go to church. I generally try to go to church wherever I may be while on vacation and so Cami and I went to Baton Rouge to a singles ward. I wanted to check it out. Not that I'm ever planning to move to Louisiana, but I can at least see what it's like and if there are any cute guys. :) Well, in my opinion, not much in the cute guy department in this branch of 40 people We stayed for Sacrament meeting and no one spoke to us the entire time (and I was sitting next to the missionaries! tsk tsk). It made me glad I was not an investigator!

Monday was the big day! Cruise Day! New Orleans was nice, but this is what I was really looking forward to. It was my first time going to Mexico and I was looking forward to soaking up some warm sun. It's best to describe what happened by day.

Day 1 - Monday. Checked out the ship. and I were in the late dinner seating and were grouped with two girls that were roommates and a gay couple that were on their honeymoon. The group was great and fun to chat with. After dinner we checked out the ship's entertainment and headed back to our room around midnight. Now, those that know Carnival, know that it's a party ship and there's a lot of drinking going on. The first day was no exception. Cami and I, as I said, headed back to our room. I opened the door, turned on the light, and there was a man in our room! Ever had that daydream that one day you would meet tall, dark (or blonde) and handsome waiting for you? Somehow, I imagine him in a tux. lol. Well, this was not the case. This was a 50 something, in his PJ's, drunk man who appeared to be lost! My first thought was 1) Are we in the right room?, followed by: 2) Do our cards open other people's cabins? and 3) Did this guy invite people to a party in our room because the drunk 20 year olds passing by were ready for a party with us! Senor Drunk Guy apparently was lounging in Cami's bed and drinking our soda, and though realizing it wasn't his room, decided to chill for a while. In his drunken state he couldn't remember his room number and apparently had told some passing cruise employee that our room was his and that he was locked out. This lovely person, whoever they may have been, let Senor Drunk Guy in. An hour later, after determining that nothing had been taken and filling out security reports our exciting Day 1 of the cruise ended.

Day 2 - Fun Day at Sea...and might I say frio! My how that boat rocked side to side a good portion of the day. You would not have thought Cami and I were sober the way we were staggered down the hall ways! Not sure how drunk girls in high heels did it!

Day 3 - Oh, day 3. A day that I will always remember. This is the day we landed in Progreso, Mexico. The area is known for it's Mayan ruins, which fascinate me. My secret dream is to discover ruins that no one has ever found and see them in a non-tourist environment....like Indiana Jones and without spiders! Cami and I braved it and decided to not buy into the ship excursions, as those are always way more expensive than what one can pay if they plan it themselves. Umm....that was a good and bad idea. Good in that, "Yay...we're having an adventure", and bad if things don't work out they way they're suppose to. We had both. Just keep in mind that our ship sets sail at 4:00 p.m. Yep, you probably see where I'm going with this, but on with the story. Cami and I rented a car. I, of course, didn't tell my parents anything about this as I knew my mother would worry about about two American girls who barely knew Spanish driving around in Mexico, but I did tell my Spanish speaking brother! That count's for something, right? We caught a bus to Merida, the capital of the province we were in, and then walked 20 blocks or so to the place we were suppose to rent the car. That's when the adventure began. Apparently our car rental was reserved at the airport and we went to the wrong office. As they weren't willing to transfer our rental to the office we were at, we rented a car with a different company and went our merry way through the crazy roads of Merida with Cami behind the wheel. Let me tell ya, she did a good job, especially when there were so many divider lines in the roads you didn't know which lane to stay in through busy traffic. Our main purpose was to go and check out the Mayan ruins called, "Dzibilchaltun". Don't ask me how to pronounce it...couldn't tell ya. It was pretty cool and one of the few sights where they let you climb on the ruins. After climbing around and taking pictures and going to it's museum we headed back to Merida to return the car. Yep...we rented it for about 3 hours. Those of you out there shaking your heads at this have lost your sense of adventure! By the time we returned the car and left the rental office the stress started. A buses leave Merida for Progreso every 20 minutes and by the time we got back to the bus terminal to go back to Progreso it was about 2:45 p.m....good timing if you have no delays....like multiple stops, some of them 50 meters, if that, away from each other. By now Cami was praying we'd make it back to the ship in time and I'm thinking of a back up plan if it leaves without us trying to take it all in stride. I don't know about anyone reading this, but I can usually get a gut feeling if something is going to work out or not...and let's just say on this occasion, I got nothing. I couldn't tell ya if we were going to make it or be renting a car to drive out and take a ferry to Cozumel to catch our ship the next day. After a never ending bus ride, we finally came to the bus terminal in Progreso and Cami and I started running. We missed the connecting bus out to the ship and got a taxi who seemed to go incredibly slow...even if that was the speed limit. We then ran through the shops and towards the ship with some Mexicans yelling that we missed the boat and others telling us to hurry on our way. Security let us right on by and suddenly I could hear people telling us to hurry. I thought it was the ship personal way down at the other end of the ship were the gang plank was urging us to go faster...and as it turned out, it was the amusement we became for the people already on board looking down at the two girls who were clearly the last ones aboard the ship. Thankfully they waited for us instead of setting sail, but it was a close one. We were "those" people. The people that can't get to the ship on time and you figure they're probably drunk and lost track of time....yeah, that was us...except the drunk part. Luckily, no one knew it was us and while embarressed, we got a good laugh out of it....once our nerves settled down! Prayer works!

Day 4 - Cozumel. Beautiful white beaches, amazing blue water, temps in the 70's and snorkeling. In short: a paradise! Went to a couple beaches, snorkeled and lounged while working on our sunburns. (Note to self - SPF50 only works if you apply it every couple hours.) After a late lunch at Poncho's Backyard with some yummy guacamole and a little shopping, we made it back to the boat with plenty of time to spare. For some reason we didn't want a repeat of the day before's performance!

Day 5 - Fun Day at Sea. Read a book, pretty much all day on the deck. Good day. :) Pretty uneventful.

Day 6 - Leaving on a jet plane. Flew from New Orleans to Boston and since I can't sleep, I'm writing away at this blog.

All in all, an entertaining and adventurous trip!

Also, for those who are interested in finding out which cruise line I would recommend (because I am now an expert in cruises with only two under my belt, one on Royal Caribbean and the other on Carnival) lol....I would say Royal Caribbean. Here are the reasons to go with RC:

1) The staff that regularly serve you know your name.

2) The food is better

3) The entertainment is was definately better

4) We didn't find strange men in our room - to date

5) The ship is grander and has more activities besides drinking and the hairy chest competition

6) Communication. Regarding Senor Drunk - after the incident with Senor Drunk, we had to clear up charges made to our account by Senor Drunk and our room steward, security, and the concierge apparently didn't communicate well together regarding our incident

Don't get me wrong. It was a great trip. It was just what I needed...a little adventure mixed in with warm sunshine. :) Next cruise is already planned for the Mexican Riviera next February. Guess which cruise line? Hoped this post proved entertaining!

The day my church burned down....

Last May we had Stake Conference, which was a broadcast from Salt Lake City to everyone in the Northeast. It began as a pretty normal day. There are three singles wards that met in the building and we had a couple families since our building was closer than their building. We were in the middle of the conference when suddenly the fire alarm went off. We all didn't really think much of it because how many times does an alarm go off and it's nothing. It's like the boy that cried wolf...way too many. I think it was assumed that a little kid probably pulled it.

Things started getting a little weird when we started smelling smoke. It was then determined that perhaps we ought to evacuate. Happened to be a good idea because about 30 - 60 minutes after we did, we had this:

Umm....the interior with the flames was the chapel. We couldn't believe our beautiful church was burning down. It was the first LDS church building in Massachusetts and David O. McKay dedicated it in the early 1950's.

The firefighters were there all day trying to get the fire out. It has been determined that it was an electrical fire that started in the attic...probably from a small rodent chewing on it. I came back to the church after a concert I played for at MIT (my car was parked next to the church and blocked in by the firetrucks) I was able to go with the Stake President and another fireman to see the damage that had been done to the chapel. My concern was for the big beautiful Steinway grand piano that I frequently played...and it was gone. I saw a piano leg with the finish peeling off of it through the debris. That was it. The organ was completely gone. The roof had collapsed taking everything in the chapel with it.

We were very fortunate, though. Once the fire was out and people were able to try to go in and salvage things they were able to get all the bishop's records out. The institute was also housed in the church building...on the side that didn't burn. Though the rare books were water damaged, they were salvagable. The Quakers across the lawn offered their building to store items when we were able to get them out.

There are few church in our area that offered their buildings to us for use and we have finally settled into the church across the street from our burned down church. It's quite a different experience, but it doesn't matter where the church meeting is held, as long as the spirit is there. I'm sure through this experience there will be more blessings and the community will get to know us a little bit more. We were lucky in that we were able to get everyone out without any trouble and the most important things were saved.

Southern Caribbean Cruise 2009

I'm sold! I absolutely love going on cruises. Last February, I was able to join the Oroville Cruisers for there week long excursion to the Southern Caribbean - Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and St. John. Each island was better than the last, in my opinion, as each one was more green and lush. It beat sticking around enduring the long cold winter in Boston. I think there around 35 of us, which made it all the more fun. We sailed on the Royal Caribbean.

We rented jeeps while on Aruba and traveled the island seeing different sights....

Urrr....lovely. Just how I thought Aruba would be....all cactus! There is quite a bit of cactus on the island and it does get windy there, but the beaches are great, and in the end that's what counts! We went straight through the middle of the island to the arches. Which is something I guess is well known for that area???
The next stop was Curacao - an island close to Aruba. We didn't really do much there. Just some shopping. :) The island is part of the Netherlands...hence the bright colors!
The next three islands were the best. They were the U.S. Virgin islands and I loved how lush the islands were. Our next stop was St. Maarten where we all rented ski-doos (sp?) and road them around the island to a fabulous snorkeling spot.
Mom and dad at the ski-do place ready to go.
This is where we snorkeled. Saw amazing colorful fish...oh, and the riding the ski-do was a blast! I only threw my roommate off once, but we were definately the wild ones of the group. So much fun!
We only stayed on St. Thomas long enough to take the ferry over to St. John, which was by far my favorite island. You only have to look at the picture above to see why. Trunk Bay is considered on the of the top 10 beaches in the world by National Geographic. The water is so clear, sand very fine, the exotic fish, lush surroundings and perfect weather make me agree! We spent the afternoon at this beach just chillin' and getting burned! Oh...and sidenote...the drive on the wrong side of the road there with the steering wheel still on the left side...scary!

Visiting all the islands was wonderful, but life on the ship was great, too. There were shows/parties every night, kareoke (new favorite), putt putt, basketball court, games, and being with everyone I grew up with made it a wonderful experience.

My roommate Kathy (who flew off the ski-do) and me all dressed up for the formal dinner.

Some of the group doing 60's trivia before the party on the promenade.

Woot woot! The party!
Hmm.....for some reason, everyone really liked the Indian. :)
Valentine's Day occurred while we were on the cruise and then men always do something really cute. This year they decorated the four tables our group had with candy and little gifts. Someone in the group also heart attacked everyone's cabin doors. In return, then women gave all the men hat's that said, "I'm Loved".

All in all, a great trip! Can't wait for the next one.