So, I recently decided that I need to have more female friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my male friends, but I think it's important to build up my level of estrogen supporters. Ok, I'm not exactly sure what that last sentence meant, but it sounded kind of funny when I typed it. So, I'm going to start doing more outside of my circle of work-friends (all my friends tend to be from work and they are all male).

So, first on my list is to start taking Salsa dancing lessons again. I love to dance and found Salsa dancing particularly fun. Plus, maybe I can practice my Spanish with those involved with the Salsa crowd. I also thought about starting my own "club" here in Indy......for females in their 20's and 30's. It's tough to meet new people when you aren't in college anymore.....especially to meet new people in your general age-range that you can actually relate to. So, that's one of my short-term goals.

Hola, mis amigos. Decidio escribir en espanol por que necessario practicar la lengua. Assisto un clase de espanol por las mananas durante la semana de trabaja. Esto es mi semestre segundo aprender espanol. Aunque, tenia cuatro anos en escuela secondaria. Enrique.... nos recuerdas la clase de espanol? Era muy divertido. Espiero hablar espanol por mi nueva trabajo. Quiza aprendo espanol fluido si trabajo con el Cuerpo de Paz.

So, my new plan, as it stands now is to go ahead and move into my new place this October 1st. I'm so happy about moving into my own place, I think it's going to be great for me. Obviously I'll continue working at Butler for another year since I'm signing a year lease and use the time that I am working to figure out my shit. I've been researching a lot of things....I continue to look into and debate the International and Intercultural Communications degree at University of Denver. I believe i'm going to go ahead and apply (and hopefully get accepted) so that I have that option if I decide I want to take it. I also started looking into the Peace Corps. I'm going to an information session for that next week, ordered books, am reading up online, etc. It's a two-year commitment, however, which is a bit daunting to think about. So, I'm also looking into alternatives to the Peace Corps. If I could find something similar that was a year long or less, I would do it in a second.

In addition to all that, I continue to take Spanish classes through the university where I work. I have an awesome teacher and I feel like I'm really starting to catch on to things. I think I might also order some Spanish tapes and practice those occasionally. I talked to my Spanish teacher and she has encouraged me to study overseas at some point, as that's the easiest way you can become fluent.

Anyway, so that's what has been going on with me. Next weekend I pack, the weekend after that I move. Then the week of Oct. 18th I'm going to Orlando for a 3-day conference...paid for by work. That should be interesting. Lot's to keep me thinking and busy.

The visit with my family was a good one. It had been a long time since my sister had been involved in a family reuinon of sorts. We went through a whole bunch of old family photos during the visit. I nabbed a bunch of them and plan on making CD's of the pictures to distribute to family. Here are two of what I took. One is of my immediate family from 1980. I was 4 years old at that time. Check out my dad's pants and my mom's big hair. I love it! The other is an old photo that I LOVE of my grandma and my Aunt Alta. It's SO incredibly 60's!! I'm going to blow that one up and frame it, for sure. So cool. It'll be neat to get all of these scanned.

My sister is in town visiting from Alaska right now. We are currently in Toledo hanging out at my mom's house. Sorry for the blogging hiatus, but this last week has been really super busy. I showed my sister around the Indianapolis area, and then we drove to Toledo and have been pretty much eating non-stop since arriving. My family tends to revolve reunions around food. We ate a traditional mid-westerner meal on Friday - sweet corn, baked beans, burgers on the grill, deviled eggs, etc. Then yesterday we went to the Tandour Indian restaurant for their lunch buffet. For dinner last night, we made ice cream from scratch and had cake. Mmmmmm....ice cream and cake for dinner. Today my sister and I are driving back to Indianapolis. We'll have another day of hanging out and then I get to take her to the airport by 4 in the morning on Tuesday! WHEEE!!! It's been a fun week, though. The top image is me making ice cream. We all took turns, however. The picture below is of (starting left) my grandma, my mom, me, and my sister. can you believe that my grandma is 82 and my mom is 60?? Doesn't seem possible. I guess we have some good young-looking genes or something.

The Jimmy Buffet concert was AWESOME! I had no idea what an incredible fanfare the whole event was going to be. We got to the parking area around 5:00 to tailgate. One of the people in the group that I went with is a chef and he brought a spread of food with him, including from-scratch margaritas (he used to be a bar-tender, too). I only had two of the margaritas, but DAMN were they strong suckers. The best thing about the show was the crowd, though. People walking around in grass skirts, crazy hats, drinking up the alchohol like it was water. It was great. I'd write more about it, but at this point I'm not in too good of form to be typing and story-telling. I have a hangover from hell.....and I didn't take today off of work. Not cool, but it was worth it!! Take a look at the stage...and the pic of the crowd of people. So funny.