Where Have You Been Alicia?!?!

As you noticed, I haven't been around for quite a while.  I had all these wonderful plans and ideas for blogging and then school took over my life.  Then there was the multiple moves for the hubby's job and loads of other craziness.  To say the least, this has been a tough, but interesting and amazing year.  To those of you who have hung in there during my absence of postings, thank you!

Now, here is the reward for my dedication and hard work.  Enjoy!

Living in Two States

So if you are close to me, you know I am living my life in two states right now -- Arizona and California.  If you are not close to me, you are probably asking why.  See, my husband and I had been living together in Arizona for the last year or so because he got a job with Sony Online Entertainment, his dream job (making computer games), in Tucson.  Unfortunately, after about a year and a half of employment, Sony shut down the Tucson office and laid off just about everyone.  This led to a job hunt which netted results in San Francisco.

When he took the new job, we had some decisions to make.  I was and still am in school to become a teacher.  If I were to transfer my schooling to California, it would add 2-3 years onto my completion date.  Seeing as I was only about a year and a half out at the time, that just seemed silly.  Why pour more time and money into something that can be done quicker and risk having to move again and add more time on should another unforeseen circumstance come up?  And so came our decision to split our household.

At this time, 98% of our belongings are in our beautiful 2 bed, 2 bath duplex in San Francisco with my husband, including the 2 cats and 1 dog.  I usually reside in Tucson in a studio apartment with nothing but a bed, a dresser, a TV, a few select kitchen items, and a bookshelf I adopted after the move.  Oh!  I adopted some chairs too.  Can't forget the chairs.  You know, the plastic patio chairs?  Yea, those.

Anyway, so usually I live in Tucson.  It is very lonely.  Yes, I have friends there and they keep me distracted from my loneliness as much as possible, but when I lay in bed at night, I miss being wrapped up in my husband's arms.  I miss the good night kisses and the good morning smiles.  The plan is to have me fly back to San Francisco every couple months for a long weekend or a short week to visit.  Even better, I managed to work my school schedule around so I have been able to reside in San Francisco for the last 6 weeks!  Oh how nice to live with my husband again!

But now my time in San Francisco is drawing to an end.  In two weeks (and 12 hours), my bags will be packed and I will be headed back to Tucson until the holidays.  I look forward to the warmth of Arizona (San Francisco is too damn cold!) and I look forward to seeing my friends.  I look forward to getting back to school on campus instead of online, and I look forward to swimming.  But once again, I will be living on my own.  I will miss my husband madly.  I will probably cry when I leave and I will probably bury myself in distractions once I get "home" while I adjust again.  I will probably cry myself to sleep a few nights as well.  But we love each other and we know we can make it through this as long as we support each other.  We also know this way will work out better in the long run than any of the other options.


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Out With the Old, In With the New

2010 was an awesome year for me. It came with some challenges and I met them well. I beat even my best expectations for myself and then made some new ones that are going even better. Here is a brief recap of the last 365 days:

In January, I hired and trained my replacement at University of the Pacific. It was heart-breaking to say goodbye to all my friends and co-workers I had met over the previous 5 years, but I felt the most awesome opportunities lay ahead of me in Arizona where my husband had started working at his dream job.

In February, I made the final trek to our new home in Tucson, AZ. Though I was excited about the changes, I was scared. Would I be successful? Would I survive away from the friends and family I had been with for the last 10 years? Time would tell.

Once in Tucson, I wanted to make sure to continue my journey to better health and happiness. To do so, I joined a gym and got a new personal trainer since I had to leave my my favorite trainers behind in Stockton (Lance and Denny with CBPT).
Once everything was finally situated in Tucson, I signed up to get back to the school books! I finally have the chance to focus 100% on school and get this teaching degree DONE!

I started school and found I loved the program at University of Phoenix. Admittedly, I don't always like the fact I have to work in teams, but I at least understand the concept behind it. After moving to a bigger apartment, I finally started meeting some people who would turn out to be great friends. Seeing as making friends was one of my biggest concerns, this was a huge feat for me.

As time would go on, I would learn more of the city, learn more things to do, get involved in my community through volunteer work, meet wonderful people who offered superb opportunities, make great friends, and learn I am a much stronger person than I gave myself credit for. Even as my health issues have piled up in the last month or two, I am still holding strong with the support of those around me who love me.

To each and every one of you who had supported me at one time or another, thank you. It is because of you that I am who I am today and I can accomplish my dreams.

And what exactly are my dreams for 2011? To buy a house, to start a family, to get my rheumatoid arthritis back under control, and to blog more! But above all those dreams, I truly only have two New Year's Resolutions: Make time for what makes me happiest and say goodbye to the things that don't. May 2011 be my happiest year yet. :)



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Semi-Wordless Wednesday

Was there really any doubt?

Weekly Wrap-up

Well, it has been one of those weeks.  You know, the kind that seem to take forever and things keep happening where you think the world is going to come to an end, but then you get to the end of the week and look back, thinking, why was that such a big deal at the time?  Yea.  It was that kind of week.

If you follow me on Facebook, then you know that I have been having issues with my team in class and things finally blew up, literally, on Monday night.  Nothing like a good ol' fashion screaming match almost turned throw down in the middle of class to wake you up.  Ultimately, the problem child was removed from our team and replaced with someone else who seems to get along with us much better.  At the time though, I seriously hoped that the earth would just open up and swallow me so I wouldn't have to deal with the drama.

Then came the medical issues.  I finally got to have the MRI done that was supposed to find the cause of my neuropathy that I had over two weeks ago.  Guess what.  No herniated disks, no pinched nerves.  A whole lotta nothing.  Well, except for the crapload of arthritis that has invaded my back apparently.  Yippee skippy!  So now I need a follow up with the Rheumatologist.  Anyway, I am attributing the "whole lotta nothing" to the fact that the Chiropractor I have been seeing has made all the pain go away so obviously whatever is wrong is no longer "wrong."  Ha!  Right.

Then came the all mighty, all powerful MIGRAINE.  Oh freaking Lord.  Three days of head throbbing, light blinding, murderous pain.  Ever had to wear sunglasses at night?  Like had to wear them.  Yea, that was me.  By the time it finally went away yesterday afternoon, I was ready to throttle someone. 

But there was one really interesting part of the whole week.  Aside from Monday's blowup with Mr. Fantastical Douche Canoe in class, the week really wasn't that bad.  Usually I was in a pretty good mood.  I mean, why shouldn't I be?  I can get out of bed every morning on my own.  I can drive myself to my appointments.  I can shower myself and feed myself.  I can breathe, feel, and function.  And every night, I get to lay down next to the man of my dreams.  How can anything be truly horrible when I have all that?


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