Day 42: A lot of has happened, so an update was needed....

Saturday: Walked up to Starbucks real early in attempt to write my paper, though I ended up more just finalizing my thoughts. In the afternoon, went on a day trip out to Rancho Sante Fe. It’s a part of San Diego, but it’s about 30 min. away. It was quite gorgeous and quiet. It was also cool because so many places in it reminded me of other parts of the US, but with a California spin on it. There was an area that reminded me of Minnesota, another that reminded me of Colorado and another that reminded me of Georgia. It was also one of those places where the landscape was just so gigantic and breath-taking, a camera could never really capture it. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Plus the sun finally decided to come out after a week of overcast and yuckiness. On the way back, we drove down the coast and I got to see all the beach towns, the scenic route is always so much better than the highway. Paula picked up really delicious Chinese food in Del Mar (I believe it was called Double Happiness). Best Chinese food I’ve ever had, delish. At night attempted to write my paper again, absolute fail. I’ve had such a hard time with this paper purely because I have no motivation to write it, I have everything thought out and organized, it’s just writing it that’s been such an issue. Finally gave in and just complained to my mom about it. I really, really dislike complaining, especially over something so petty as a paper, but it had come to that point and sometimes I just need to complain about it and then I can get my head in the game. And it helped…a lot as much as I didn’t want to do it.

Sunday: Went to another Starbucks to get some paper writing done. And wham, wrote over half of my paper. Got home in time to watch the World Cup and yay, Spain won! After, everyone in the house went to La Jolla park b/c there was an outdoor concert going on. I was told it was a jazz concert but when we got there it was 60’s/70’s rock, which was fun. We met up with some of my aunt’s friends and we just hung out for about 2 hrs and listened to good music. Colleen really enjoyed going to it, so it looks like we’ll be doing that again, they have these concerts there every Sunday. I really wish I would have been with friends because I wanted to dance and no one else wanted to. Guess I will have to do that when I get back to good old Minneapolis. Then went out to eat with some of my aunt’s friends in Little Italy, I know the place was called Fantastico….something. It was really good…seriously the food out here is so great and so inexpensive for the quality one is getting. It’s a good thing I don’t live out here permanently cause otherwise I’d be so tempted to eat out all the time! And that was it….I had a very full and well-rounded weekend.

Monday: Woohoo, another work week. I must say, this week I wasn’t all excited to come in….I think mostly because I know that after this week I get 2 weeks off to go on a family vacation, so I’m just counting down the days I have left until I get to take a break (not that I need a break, I’m just excited about this vacation and seeing my family). It was fun though cause since Javier(one of my bosses) is from Spain, he treated the whole lab for lunch to celebrate Spain's win! Then after work, we just chilled at home. The new disk of The Thorn Birds came in, so we watched the next episode. It’s such a good mini series! Truthfully, I’m kind of sad that the next episode is the last. Guess I’ll have to read the book it’s based off of to enjoy it again! Wrote more of my paper and have one section left to write, then I just have to submit it and then take the final then DONE! Oh and the night before we bought some desserts from Little Italy. We had tiramisu....it was delicious and left me wanting more. I'm so going to try and make that when I get back in August.

Tuesday: Today I woke up and was like “ugh, don’t feel like working” and so did my aunt. We decided to take a half-day, which was a good plan cause now I’m totally ready and motivated for the last 3 days before my family vacation. We went to La Jolla because I needed to get a pair of walking sandals for the trip and my aunt needed to get some new summer clothes. It was awesome because I found a pair at the first store we looked at:
yay for new shoes that actually support one's foot
My aunt had a successful shopping trip as well. We went out to eat at Roppongi’s (La Jolla), it was really good, had some Indian Fried Bread and a delicious spinach salad. Found out I don’t like Keffir cheese….though I’m realizing I don’t like a lot of dairy products very much outside of cheese and ice cream.