Hey Everyone!
It’s hard to believe the semester is up and in full swing already. 4 weeks have flown by quicker than they ever have before, I can’t believe how much has already happened. My first weekend back at school happened to be Labor Day Weekend, and Labor Day Weekend Sunday happened to be my birthday! 7 of my friends and I piled into cars to head to Las Vegas and it was a blast! I actually ended up winning 500 dollars total, and the trip thus became free and profitable. I had so much fun hanging out with my friends, eating good food, chilling poolside, adventuring down the strip, winning big, and foraying into night clubs for the first time. I got to see some of my favorite djs do their thing. On Sunday night, we all adventured to Surrender at Encore, and saw Above and Beyond live. It was amazing! I had not been feeling well a little earlier in the day, and I am convinced their music cured me. The next evening, we headed to Marquee at the Cosmopolitan to see Sander van Doorn and W&W. Getting to dance for hours with my friends, and some of our favorite musical artists in such a beautiful venue was indescribable. The crowd’s energy was great, and the cover charge was only $20 for two fantastic artists! It was definitely hard heading the class immediately the next day, but my happy thoughts of what an epic weekend I had just enjoyed was more than enough to power me through the week.
Other than my classes and extracurricular involvements on campus, I have been spending as much of this semester as possible outside! I have a weekend doubles match every Sunday that I look forward to. My friends Will, Max, Megan and I all head to the tennis courts every Sunday afternoon to face off for some mixed doubles. Will and I face off against Max and Megan. It’s a really fun match up because the teams are pretty even! Megan and I both played in high school and Will and Max have both taken up a recent interest in the sport. They are improving so quickly! I have been helping the two of them with their serve, and before I know it they will both be better then me. I am going to have to put it in more extra hours outside of our match just to keep up:) I love tennis, and I am so happy I have found myself back to playing two or more times a week. I am finally getting my game back and it feels good! In addition to tennis matches, my friends and I have taken to spontaneous beach trips on Fridays since we all have minimal or no class that day. Santa Monica is our favorite spot, and we usually get lucky with minimal traffic when we head over there in the afternoons. My friend John has a large vehicle that can carry 7 total people and we definitely always make him drive:) Once we get to the beach, we usually stroll down the pier, bask in the sand, and then play some ultimate frisbee. After our game, the ocean is the perfect cool-off! Once in a while, we also get dinner in Santa Monica after we are done frolicking around the beach. There is a crepe place on 3rd Street Promenade we all love, but it can get pretty pricey. Going only once in a while makes it all the more special though! The crepe shop actually has a regular trumpet performer who plays right outside for tips. One time while we were dining there, we saw an old man with sunglasses and a Smash Mouth tee rocking out to the trumpet player. As a group of friends who thoroughly enjoys Smash Mouth, we were all highly amused and appreciative of the man’s shirt. An “All-Star” sing a long for the car ride home became tradition thereafter. We can’t walk by the crepe store anymore without laughing and thinking about Smash Mouth man.
On Santa Monica Beach
So far, what I can say about this semester is that is it proving to include lots of blasts from the past (freshman year was great), and small glimpses of a hopefully bright future. Just last week, I went to my “3112 and Crew Reunion.” 3112 was the suite in the Parkside IRC dorm that a bunch of my fave ladies and some of my best friends lived in freshman year. I definitely was a member of the “Crew.” It was fun to get together, eat some good food, and dance our hearts out for a few hours. We even threw on Zoolander afterwards! Prior to that, I reconnected with my childhood babysitter for the first time since sophomore year. She lives in Torrance, so I went to visit her. We got lunch and I took her to a scary movie:) Later on that week, I also got to see head writer of Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan speak with more of my friends. Although the show is ending, it was cool to hear Vince speak and think about its beginnings and inspiration. Everyday I am reminded of how lucky I am to have such wonderful people by my side and go to a school with so many amazing things going on! I can’t wait to see where this year takes me career-wise, and soul wise. Stay tuned for next week’s adventures:)
3112 and Crew Reunion with some of the ladies of the suite
Me and Jo:) She started babysitting me when I was just a few months old
Q and A with Vince Gilligan, creator and head writer of Breaking Bad
