Just an idea....

I may have found a solution to my endless restlessness. Location-wise that is.

I may have found something that requires a big move and travel I'd like to do beginning in 2010. It's going to be a long, long process and journey and it might end up being something that's not for me.

Only time will tell.

Sorry for being too vague, I haven't quite made up my mind on this yet. When I do, you'll all be the second to know. Someone and I have a lot of talking/thinking/deciding before I decide where I'm going to be in the future.

I guess this is my hint:

A taste of Southern France

It's been a while since I've lived in the South of France and every now and then my mouth still waters thinking about all the incredible food I've eaten there.

So tonight, after purchasing a pound for $4, J.D. and I are going to make moules frites!



And for dessert: crême brulée of some sort.... either regular, raspberry or chocolate. I'm not sure yet!

Living vicariously through others?

Ok, so I concede.

I haven't been full time long enough to accrue paid vacation and I don't really have the budget to travel (since I'm not working someplace that lets me travel extensively).

But I'm getting a little bit of my fix through my iPhone!

No wonder people think this is so insanely addictive..... I never really thought so until I entered my credit card information through iTunes to purchase applications. I've only bought two $2.99 apps and I'm trying not to go crazy. But I am finds TONS of free things to upload onto my phone.

For example, getting my little fitness kick out in the open, I've downloaded the Live Strong app like I previously discussed, I downloaded a Map My Run application that tells me the routes I run and how fast I run my distances and finally I downloaded a sort of pedometer application that tracks how many steps I take each day and how many calories I'm working off. However, I've yet to use my two running apps, since I don't have a band to keep the phone on my body. It's pretty bulky so I'll need to figure that one out.

That's it for my fitness tangent. Now it's back on track with travel!

I've downloaded interactive classrooms with flash cards, quizzes, "work books" and games to help me learn..... Spanish! Ever since I took that one semester in college to fill my units requirement as a senior I've had an aching to learn the language. And it's close enough to French where I understand a great deal from just listening to the roots of the words. However, I don't know how to string sentences together and I still don't understand a lot of words. That is why I'm trying to become very pro-active in this endeavor.

Additionally I've found that my French is getting semi out of practice. And when I start listening to Spanish, I intermingle the two languages in a very confusing manner. So to remedy that, I've found podcasts that I can load to my phone. So every day I'm trying to learn a bit of Spanish, while at the same time listen to books on tape, or "cultivate your advanced French" podcasts. It's helping me learn a lot about wine and local traditions from other regions of France I'm unfamiliar with, while at the same time, keeping my ear in practice.

Finally, I've found several "travel audio blogs" that I can listen to on my phone. I haven't actually yet listened to them because I'm still downloading them at obscene rates. And they're all free!!! So this is a way for me to pretend like I'm traveling, training my ear and tongue to understand foreign languages and listening to podcasts on European and South American culture and food.

If you have iTunes and you want to download any of these, drop me a line and I'll direct you to the ones I've downloaded!

It's still pretty hard

Almost all of the time I'm reminiscing about living somewhere else.

Back at the beach where I spent my college days in Santa Barbara? Living in Nice, France, on the beach as a student studying abroad? In the middle of a residential community in the hills of Antibes, France, where I taught English for a year? Traveling through Europe a number of times during my life?

I really want to keep traveling. I don't want to be fixed stationary in one place. I don't want to keep doing the same job day-in and day-out because it's "safe." I want to explore, travel for work, become physically exhausted every day but know that I've seen everything.

I mean, I'm only 24 and I'm not married.... now's the time for job like that more than ever.

But since I committed to a full-time position in the athletics department, that dream's going to have to wait. How much longer? I'm not sure. But I do know the longer I postpone it, the less realistic it becomes. And let's not talk about how badly I want to write books and become a published author. I've got stories and stories piled up, waiting to be put together on paper and bound up for sale.

Sometimes I wish I could fast forward momentarily to see how it's all going to end up and whether or not my dreams will come true.

But in the meantime, I realized I've yet to post my new condo pictures and I've been there for over a month. So rest assured that when I come back from being at home for Father's Day this weekend, I'll get right on that and show you all the progress on my new (temporary I hope) home!

Who's Your Band and What's Your Album??

HOW TO PLAY

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use PhotoShop or similar to put it all together.

So now that you know how to play, here's my first album cover:

Now let me see yours!

There is no such thing as a free lunch radio

This "bad" economy that we've all heard so much about but haven't really felt other than massive sales and decreasing and now rising gas prices is finally starting to trickle its way into my life.

And it's hitting the radios, hard.

Beyond the proposed radio tax in the works, I've lost quite a bit of patience with radio especially here in the Sacramento/Central Valley market.

First, my favorite radio station since I was about 12, KWOD, has been off the air for about a month now and I want to cry. When I didn't get LIVE 105 in my old house in the Bay Area, I could get Sacramento stations across the valley, like KWOD. And for the life of me, I can't find a suitable replacement. Broke radio stations suck.... I was also trying to win concert tickets like crazy on their big texting give-away that apparently never came into fruition.

But LIVE 105 hasn't been without its cutbacks either. The Woody show in the morning is gone. Much like that prematurely-ended Adam Carolla show. Apparently he has a podcast that I've yet to check out, but I'm still majorly in shock that they canceled his morning show way back in February.

I'm getting so frustrated with all of this!!! Why can't the listeners have their way?! I realize it takes money to run radio stations, but why can't they stay?!?

Anyways, this is just a really long way of saying I'm back listening to French radio online at work. And at home I can download international radio stations through my iPod/iTunes without actually being at a computer.

Over it.

I already Tweeted about this

As you will see on my Twitter feed to the right, I'm highly addicted to this website: http://www.livestrong.com/profile/mmoyal85/

(Well, that's my personal profile, but if I do a good job of talking it up, maybe you'll add me and be another encouraging buddy!)

But the Live Strong/Daily Plate site lets me add the kind of food I'm eating every day (it has a database of thousands of restaurant menu items and brand name foods with serving sizes too), the ounces of water I'm consuming and how many calories my exercise is burning. It even lets you track obscure "fitness" items like grocery shopping, dancing, doing laundry, etc.

So it's kind of keeping me motivated because I really want to work out a lot and get back into that routine, as well as stay healthy to keep my energy levels up enough to be active. But it's neat because there are different "dares" you can challenge yourself to and each one has a community of bloggers asking questions and saying things to keep each other motivated. I can't believe how awesome this site is!

For example, I've run about six miles in the past two days and have averaged about 80ish ounces of water a day. Yikes, that's a lot of water. As for my food options, I got really excited about summer produce. So for "dessert" tonight, I made a summer fruit salad with watermelon, white nectarine, blueberries, green grapes and cherries. I'm extremely full, but my mouth is still watering thinking about it!

Alright, hopefully I can keep it up! My muscles are slightly sore, but it feels so good.

Now go ahead and make a commitment to be healthy and happy with me!

They make my family look normal

Best new site I've seen: AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS which will now add to my time-consumption hours at work in addition to catching up on this season's shows online, Texts From Last Night and F My Life.

Here are a few snippets of what you're missing:

That is all.

LASIK, anyone?!

So I really thought I wanted LASIK surgery because my contacts are always irritating me and I get headaches from glasses after a full day. It's almost been 10 years that my vision has needed correction now and I'm super tired of it! I'd just like to wake up in the morning and see, and not have to fumble to the sink to take out my contacts from their case, clean them, put them in and hope they don't sting, then rinse out my eyes with drops before they finally fit in place. But that doesn't guarantee that mid-day they won't bother me.

Anyways, I thought I was over that. But then I made a call to an eye group and did a bunch of research on LASIK surgery and the procedure is really creeping me out.

If anyone has gone through this, please help me so I'm not so afraid of it..... I cringed and held my eyes just reading the following because I sometimes get sympathy pains when I read something like this. I think it'd be better if I just went into the surgery and then never actually knew what was coming..... I'm so scared!!

During Surgery
The surgery should take less than 30 minutes. You will lie on your back in a reclining chair in an exam room containing the laser system. The laser system includes a large machine with a microscope attached to it and a computer screen. (See the animation of the LASIK procedure.)

A numbing drop will be placed in your eye, the area around your eye will be cleaned, and an instrument called a lid speculum will be used to hold your eyelids open.

Your doctor may use a mechanical microkeratome (a blade device) to cut a flap in the cornea.

If a mechanical microkeratome is used, a ring will be placed on your eye and very high pressures will be applied to create suction to the cornea. Your vision will dim while the suction ring is on and you may feel the pressure and experience some discomfort during this part of the procedure. The microkeratome, a cutting instrument, is attached to the suction ring. Your doctor will use the blade of the microkeratome to cut a flap in your cornea. Microkeratome blades are meant to be used only once and then thrown out. The microkeratome and the suction ring are then removed.

Your doctor may use a laser keratome (a laser device), instead of a mechanical microkeratome, to cut a flap on the cornea.

If a laser keratome is used, the cornea is flattened with a clear plastic plate. Your vision will dim and you may feel the pressure and experience some discomfort during this part of the procedure. Laser energy is focused inside the cornea tissue, creating thousands of small bubbles of gas and water that expand and connect to separate the tissue underneath the cornea surface, creating a flap. The plate is then removed.

You will be able to see, but you will experience fluctuating degrees of blurred vision during the rest of the procedure. The doctor will then lift the flap and fold it back on its hinge, and dry the exposed tissue.

The laser will be positioned over your eye and you will be asked to stare at a light. This is not the laser used to remove tissue from the cornea. This light is to help you keep your eye fixed on one spot once the laser comes on. NOTE: If you cannot stare at a fixed object for at least 60 seconds, you may not be a good candidate for this surgery.

When your eye is in the correct position, your doctor will start the laser. At this point in the surgery, you may become aware of new sounds and smells. The pulse of the laser makes a ticking sound. As the laser removes corneal tissue, some people have reported a smell similar to burning hair. A computer controls the amount of laser energy delivered to your eye. Before the start of surgery, your doctor will have programmed the computer to vaporize a particular amount of tissue based on the measurements taken at your initial evaluation. After the pulses of laser energy vaporize the corneal tissue, the flap is put back into position.

A shield should be placed over your eye at the end of the procedure as protection, since no stitches are used to hold the flap in place. It is important for you to wear this shield to prevent you from rubbing your eye and putting pressure on your eye while you sleep, and to protect your eye from accidentally being hit or poked until the flap has healed.

After Surgery
Immediately after the procedure, your eye may burn, itch, or feel like there is something in it. You may experience some discomfort, or in some cases, mild pain and your doctor may suggest you take a mild pain reliever. Both your eyes may tear or water. Your vision will probably be hazy or blurry. You will instinctively want to rub your eye, but don't! Rubbing your eye could dislodge the flap, requiring further treatment. In addition, you may experience sensitivity to light, glare, starbursts or haloes around lights, or the whites of your eye may look red or bloodshot. These symptoms should improve considerably within the first few days after surgery. You should plan on taking a few days off from work until these symptoms subside. You should contact your doctor immediately and not wait for your scheduled visit, if you experience severe pain, or if your vision or other symptoms get worse instead of better.

I can't stop, THEY'RE SO CUTE!

See the previous posting, if you haven't already vomited in your mouth. My love for long-haired miniature dachschunds continues. And my favorites are the dapple dachschunds (the ones that look like aussie shepherds, etc.)

Since I've been gone...

I'm moved, partially settled, partially avoiding it. I have a new office which is almost entirely settled. I enrolled in a gym membership (that I've used twice in a week, wow it's going to take some getting back into, but I have run nearly 4 miles in that span). I went to a bridal shower and I'll be at the wedding this weekend.... in TAHOE and we'll be staying in Reno, Nevada, so watch out gambling! I visited my sister in Newport Beach again. I'm planning a bridal shower/bachelorette party, and I'm finalizing other vacation plans for the summer.

But most importantly, I played with PUPPIES. And it's really making me ache for one so badly. I really miss my dog and I'd like to get one of my own. But two things stand in my way: first our condo is tiny and the backyard is even smaller, and secondly my evil boyfriend doesn't like dogs. How is that even possible?! But I think I'll keep working on it and maybe one day in the (semi-near?) future, I'll work on phasing in a small dog that's condo-compatible.

But these are the ones I saw at the pet store and absolutely fell in love. Over and over again. Then my heart was broken when we had to leave.... empty-handed.

Pomeranian

Long-haired Daschund

And because it's ADORABLE.....

It's not fair. I really want one!!! They were only $200... I could totally afford that :-(