So I found a new studio! It's in the Bay Ho area between Clairemont and Pacific Beach. If you want my new address (and didn't get the mass email), let me know! I like my new place; it's nice to have a place to call my own. But it can get lonely sometimes.
The store has been doing well the last two weeks. We've done more this May than any previous May, which is good because April wasn't as good as I was hoping. We had a huge promotion at the end of the month with raffles and snacks and Angelina Ballerina story times. We mailed out over 1200 flyers. And we had two people show up! It was fairly depressing, but I think the flyers reminded people about us, even if they didn't come in for the promotion, because so far May has been great!

I'm going to be moving soon. I've been looking at apartments for the past couple days. The San Diego housing market is over-priced, even in rentals. I haven't found anything that I really like yet. Thankfully I don't have to move out of my current place anytime soon, so I have the luxury of looking around and waiting until I find something good. So if you know of any affordable, nice studios or 1 bedrooms anywhere from Clairemont up to Encinitas, let me know!

Some pursue happiness, others create it.

I like not having to be at the store all of its open hours!! It was great to be able to sleep in a bit this morning, and work out, and clean the house, and then drive to work when it's nice and sunny!

"Destiny is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice; it is not something to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

I was very productive today! I did my laundry, did the dishes, emailed people back, worked out (a little), put out the garbage, started a bag of clothes to go to the Salvation Army, showered, and played Warcraft! Of course there's always more to do, but for now I'm off to listen to music and read! :-)

It's been forever since I've written. It's the middle of February 2005, and I have now owned the store for over a year! It's hard to believe that it's been that long; it certainly doesn't seem that long. The past year has been great sales-wise. We increased sales 28% over previous years, and I'm hoping that sales will just keep going up!
Lately I've been working far too many hours at the store since my employees have been leaving to do silly things like go to college and teach dance classes. :-) But I just hired two new girls and hopefully they'll work out well and I can actually take some time off.
Other new things in my life... On Saturdays, I'm going to do taxes for low-income folks. Just starting tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also playing with tons of other business ideas, such as opening a spa, starting an educational software company, or starting a financial planning firm for young adults. I'm kinda missing school, and I'm thinking about taking a few computer science classes at UCSD in the spring.

I'M DONE!!!! All done with classes for my Bachelors!!! Latin is done! No school tomorrow! (Can you tell that I'm excited?)

Two more weeks!!! I'll be done with Euro at the end of this week, and Latin will be done in two weeks! So close!!
I'm buying a car for myself for graduation! A bright blue Jetta! Should be getting it this week! (If anyone wants an old, junky Taurus that gets you from one place to another, email me before the end of this week; otherwise it's going to the Salvation Army)

I'm half way done with summer school. Three more
weeks! I'm so busy trying to stuff a ton of Latin into my head,
and still prepare the store for back-to-school season, not to mention
my Euro history class, which thankfully doesn't take that much time,
but I do have a paper due next week.

A STORY TO PONDER
(Author Unknown)

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a
neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him, but was moved by
Arthur's youth and ideals. So the monarch offered him freedom, as long as
he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to
figure out the answer; if, after a year, he still had no answer, he would
be put to death. The question: What do women really want?

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to Young
Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was better than death,
he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end. He
returned to his kingdom and began to poll everybody: the princess, the
prostitutes, the priests, the wise men, the court jester. He spoke with
everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer. Many people
advised him to consult the old witch--only she would know the answer. The
price would be high; the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the
exorbitant prices she charged.

The last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no alternative but to talk
to the witch. She agreed to answer his question, but he'd have to accept
her price first: The old witch wanted to marry Gawain, the most noble of
the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur's closest friend. Young Arthur
was horrified: She was hunchbacked and hideous, had only one tooth, smelled
like sewage, made obscene noises... etc. He had never encountered such a
repugnant creature. He refused to force his friend to marry her and have to
endure such a burden.

Gawain, upon learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur. He told him that
nothing was too big a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life and the
preservation of the Round Table. Hence, their wedding was proclaimed, and
the witch answered Arthur's question thus:

What a woman really wants is to be in charge of her own life.

Everyone instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and That
Arthur's life would be spared. And so it was. The neighboring monarch
granted Arthur total freedom.

What a wedding Gawain and the witch had. Arthur was torn between relief and
anguish. Gawain was proper as always, gentle and courteous. The old witch
put her worst manners on display, and generally made everyone very
uncomfortable.

The honeymoon hour approached. Gawain, steeling himself for a horrific
experience, entered the bedroom. But what a sight awaited him. The most
beautiful woman he'd ever seen lay before him. The astounded Gawain asked
what had happened. The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to her
when she'd appeared as a witch, she would henceforth be her horrible,
deformed self half the time, and the other half, she would be her beautiful
maiden self. Which would he want her to be during the day, and which during
the night?

What a cruel question. Gawain pondered his predicament. During the day, a
beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in the privacy of
his home, an old witch. Or would he prefer having by day a hideous witch,
but by night a beautiful woman with whom to enjoy many intimate moments

What would you do?

What Gawain chose follows below, but don't read it until you've made your
own choice.

Noble Gawain replied that he would let her choose for herself.

Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time,
because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge of her own life.

What is the moral of this story?

If a woman doesn't get her own way, things are going to get ugly.

I am done!! Well, mostly. My group paper is done and turned in, and the one final that I had to take is done! I have to attend finals tomorrow and Thursday, but no real studying or work needed. Tomorrow is the final for the class that I'm TAing for. I'll have to grade those finals, but I like grading. On Thursday, I have to go listen to presentations by other groups. But other than that, I'm done with this term! :-) Although now I have a ton of stuff to do at Applause, and I'm going to Chicago to visit my parents, and I'm off to a workshop for 5 days later this month. And then summer school! Which I'm hoping will be fun or at least interesting, since I'm taking Latin and a European History class that focuses on literature (we get to read Sherlock Holmes!) So despite the fact that I'm almost done, it doesn't really mean that I'm any less busy, just that I'm busy with stuff that I like more.

"Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows."
-Michael Landon

I just found out that girl in one of my UCSD classes was killed in a car accident last night. I didn't really know her, so it's not a huge blow to me, but whenever someone young dies, I always wonder how much time each of us has left. There are so many things that I want to do in my life: so many things that I want to learn, so many places I want to see, so many people I want to meet, so many books I want to read. I try to tell myself that I don't need to do it all now (I have a tendency to take on too many different activities), but at times like this, I also remember that I have to make sure that I don't waste time on things that keep me away from the things I really want to do in my life.

Don't take anyone else's definition of success as your own.
-Jacqueline Brisken

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself." -- Mikhail Baryshnikov

"Finish each day and be done with it… You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hey there everyone,

So I'm back! Hopefully for a while. I really want to keep writing, and I also want to have a place where friends and family can see what I'm up to.

Quick update on what's been happening in my life ...

School - I'm at UC San Diego, majoring in Cognitive Science (cogsci.ucsd.edu). I will (hopefully) be graduating with my BA in August of this year - only 3 months from now! Right now, I'm taking four classes -
Cogs 101c: Understanding Language(http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~faucon/101/description.html),
Cogs 102c: Cognitive Engineering(http://hci.ucsd.edu/102C/),
Lit some high number: Comparative Ethnic Literature,
and I'm TAing for Cogs 18: Intro to Programming for CogSci majors.

The 102c class has been great (although very time-consuming). The whole quarter is one long group project about redesigning a system. My group of 11 people (Hollan's 11) decided to study group scheduling and try to make a software program that would facilitate it better. I've made some great friends, and definitely learned more about working in a team.
TAing for 18 has also been a great experience. I've led 2 review sessions before tests, and students have told me that they learned more in those review sessions than all quarter from the teacher. It's nice to hear that :-) Hearing those comments and enjoying this experience has made me think more about teaching. Most of my childhood, I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but last summer and fall, I taught dance classes for ages from 3 up to 10, and it changed my mind. I enjoyed the 3-5 year olds class, but trying to get the older girls to concentrate and actually learn dance steps frustrated me. Thus the idea of teaching elementary or middle school faded away (if I get frustrated trying for an hour a week, I'd go crazy trying for 6 hours 5 days a week). But college students don't need to be made to concentrate, and if they're not paying attention, they usually do so silently without disrupting everyone else. So basically, I either need to teach preschool or college. Anyways, I've been pondering continuing on with some sort of grad school so that I can teach either in community college or universities.

Work - So as you can see below, I did buy the dance store! I am the owner of Applause Dancewear in Encinitas, CA. Right now, with school being really busy, I'm putting in about 5-10 hours a week at the store, ordering new inventory, restocking inventory, paying bills, updating Quickbooks, etc. I have three employees who are great, and right now, they're working all the open hours, so there's no time that I absolutely need to be at the store, which is really nice. I'm liking this having my own business thing. Although the store is not making money yet, which kinda sucks, but with recitals coming up and then back-to-school, we should be profitable over the summer.

Life - Frankly, I don't have much of a life :-) School and work take up a lot of my time. I live with my boyfriend, Mai, so I see him a lot, but unfortunately lately I haven't had time to hang out with some of my other friends (people at Red Zone, new friends from CogSci, etc.) Although I did get the chance to see Michelle up in Pasadena a few weeks ago when I was up there for a conference on using video games in education (I'm sure I'll be writing more on that conference/idea at a later date.) Anyway, I probably won't be putting much personal/emotional stuff up on the blog, so if you want the juicy stuff, you'll have to talk to me directly.

I think that's it for now!

For anyone who might still read this, I did buy the dance store. :-) I'm a business owner!!

I've been really busy; well, really busy in my head. I've had so much to think about lately. This past Saturday, I found out that my old boss Patti is selling the dancewear store that I worked at for a year and a half. I've always kind of thought that I would buy the store from her when she got bored with it, but I didn't think that would happen for another two years or so when I would be done with school and my parents would be more apt to lend me money. But it's happening now, so I'm stuck with the decision of trying to buy it now and fulfill that dream or sticking with the old plan of going to school (which would make my dad happy) or trying to do both. What I would like to do is both (school and the store), but I wonder if there's enough time in the day for school, the store, home life, and friends. And of course, the eternal question of money; mainly how to get the money to buy the store. Patti has said that she would finance part of it, and I'm in the middle of writing a business plan to submit to my parents, which will hopefully convince them that I'm serious about this and that it's a profitable idea. I'm hoping that they (and maybe some other family) would lend me the rest of the money, so that I don't have to deal with banks.
Anyway, on the other note that I've been thinking a lot about: school, classes start tomorrow. I thought they started Monday, so I went to UCSD and was confused by how many open parking spots there were and by how empty the campus was. And then I realized that while the quarter did start on Monday, classes don't actually start til tomorrow (Thursday); something about making up time for Thanksgiving vacation. But while I was wandering around campus, I was thinking about classes, and figured out which ones I wanted to take (and they're also ones that are open :-) ). And it works out that they're all on Tues/Thurs, so I only have to go to school two days a week. I just hope that I don't have to go to section or lab on M/W/F.

We just got back from the zoo. We saw the pandas, although not the new baby panda. He and his mom aren't on exhibit yet.