30 Day Book Challenge

30 Day Book Challenge, Who’s in?

Day 1: Favorite book
Day 2: Least favorite book
Day 3: Book that makes you laugh out loud
Day 4: Book that makes you cry
Day 5: Book you wish you could live in
Day 6: Favorite young adult book
Day 7: Book that you can quote/recite
Day 8: Book that scares you
Day 9: Book that makes you sick
Day 10: Book that changed your life
Day 11: Book from your favorite author
Day 12: Book that is most like your life
Day 13: Book whose main character is most like you
Day 14: Book whose main character you want to marry
Day 15: First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child
Day 16: Longest book you’ve read
Day 17: Shortest book you’ve read
Day 18: Book you’re most embarrassed to say you like
Day 19: Book that turned you on
Day 20: Book you’ve read the most number of times
Day 21: Favorite picture book from childhood
Day 22: Book you plan to read next
Day 23: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)
Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene
Day 25: Favorite book you read in school
Day 26: Favorite nonfiction book
Day 27: Favorite fiction book
Day 28: Last book you read
Day 29: Book you’re currently reading
Day 30: Favorite coffee table book

Be Happy

People always tell me that I have a contagious smile (I'm not really sure that its true, but I'll take their word for it). My uncle tells me "you're such a happy person, every time I see you you're smiling." I think that's the biggest compliment he could ever give me. I think life is too short to be miserable and to be sad. I like to smile, and be happy, so I try to laugh at things that would otherwise make me mad, I'm quick to forgive because holding grudges is not healthy, and I try to do as many things that make me happy as possible. So when I saw this quote it really struck me and I thought I would make a post just to share it. BE HAPPY!!

Finally

So it has been brought to my attention that I have been noticeably absent from the blogging scene, and for that I apologize.

I have indeed been slacking a bit I suppose. So since my last blog, I officially finished at UCSD and now have a bachelors in International Studies-Economics. I have read about 5 books from my list, and I have been working an insane amount of hours at the bank, hence my absence.

Now that I have finished with school (for now) I am embarking on my new adventure, the real world, which includes working 40 hour weeks. I feel lucky that I already had a job after graduating, since many are not so lucky, specially in a bad economy with high unemployment.

Along with working I also hope to get involved with a non-profit and start working to really make a difference. I also need to start looking into grad schools, and all that fun stuff.

Just thinking about it all makes my head spin, but in a good way, I'm excited that the months ahead are going to be so busy. So here goes nothing, my chance to go out there and, as I read in another blog, "fail beautifully." Or as Samuel Becket put it:

ever tried
ever fail
no matter
try again
fail again

fail better.

"My books look sad; Can books look sad?"

image by Ming Ngoc Ngo

The quarter is coming to a close and my time at UCSD is almost over. I'm excited to begin forging my own path in this world, I'm an artist in front of an empty canvas. Even more exciting to me is that I get to finally read some books that aren't required for a class. I love to read, to get lost in other worlds, immerse myself in another culture, another city, another time.


I've been stacking up books that I have yet to finish, and some yet to start hence the title of my post, I think my books are starting to feel neglected (kudos if you know where the quote is from). I also have a list about a thousand miles long of books that I want to read, I started the list a couple of years ago and since I'm in school almost year round the list has only grown and grown, and now with the year coming to a close I'm just giddy to be able to finally make a dent in my long list of books, I'm so ecstatic there are no words to describe it.

Starting to Live Today

(image found here)


So I am a bit of a control freak. I like to plan for everything, that way there are no surprises. This need for me to control things probably explains why my upcoming graduation has been freaking me out. Ever since we were little our parents plan for our future, we plan for our future, we know that after kindergarten there will be elementary school, and then middle school, and then high school, and then university, and then...? We spend so much time planning for our future that we never learn how to live in the present. I spent all of high school working hard and getting good grades in preparations for college, and then I spent all of my college years working hard so I could be prepared for... the real world?

Now that graduation is coming up I am supposed to actually start living in the present, because I can no longer plan for the future. My life is supposed to start. I am supposed to start living and no longer trying to stay 10 steps ahead. Ok technically I can, but I can no longer be as accurate as before, the future is no longer crystal clear. I am losing this supposed control and it is scary!!

So right now I am trying to enjoy my last weeks left at UCSD, really enjoy them, no longer preoccupied with the future and with what it may or may not hold. I am trying, against every grain in my body, to live in the present because I have lived worrying about the future for so long that I have neglected to truly enjoy the present.

"Today is the youngest you will ever be, so act like it" -- AJ from AJ's Playhouse(a local morning radio show)

Singing in the Rain

So lately I have been searching for inspiration about something to write and have been coming up empty. Not that there has not been anything happening in my life as of late, simply that I don't feel ready to write about what has been going on in my life lately.

So I stumbled upon this picture and it gave me the inspiration to write something.


I love the rain, unfortunately San Diego isn't exactly known for being a city were it rains a lot. In fact it rarely rains in San Diego. I don't know what it is about the rain that just makes life feel so comforting,there's something magical about rainy days. I love the sound it makes when it hits the roof, I love the way the lights reflect off of it at night, I love the smell of rain... I think you get my point, I love the rain.

Sometimes I wish I could take time out of my day to just stand outside with an umbrella and enjoying the rain fall, just like the girl in the picture.

"Second Star to the Right and Straight on Till Morning"

There are days when the idea of growing up terrifies me, no... correction, it petrifies me. Graduation is right around the corner. The weeks are flying by, it feels like someone has pressed the fast forward button on the remote and I can't seem to find a way to make the weeks slow down. I can't believe that college is coming to an end, I still remember freshman year like it was just yesterday. I have developed a love-hate relationship with school, loving and hating every minute of it and I wouldn't change any second of it. Looking back on my college years I can see that I have grown so much from that scared little freshman. School used to intimidate me so much, and now I walk into school and all my classes confident, with the knowledge that I can take on whatever the professors may throw my way.

Despite this new found confidence in school, I can't seem to find it when it comes to going out into the real world. I still cower, cringe, and shudder at the idea of being done with school and graduating soon. I still sometime wish I could be like peter pan and wendy and fly off to never never land. This idea is fleeting though, it comes and goes, because while the idea of never having to grow up has been romanticized by Disney, I start to really think about it and realize how much I would miss if I spent my whole life running away from life.

Life will happen, whether you want to or not. So I've decided I am going to plant my two feet firmly on the ground and be ready to tackle whatever life throws my way.