Different Hats

When I was in college I remember hearing that people change their major 7 times or something like that. Well, I believe it. I've worn many different hats over the years. I started college as a history major, changed to a journalism major, changed to a geography major and stayed there. Until I decided to turn my life upside down and go back to school to become a cosmetologist that is. I've been around a few times.

All these things have aspects that I love. I loved history. I still love history. But it's not very practical. What can you do with a history degree? Become a historian? Be one of those people who comment on historical documentaries. I love geography. But what can you do with a geography degree? I knew there was an issue with it. But I thought love would conqure all and I'd figure it out. I did not need my degree in geography to become a travel agent, but it helped me get hired and get my foot in the door. We all know I love hair, so I won't get into that. But while I was a journalism major I was part of the Moorpark College newspaper staff. It's was stressful and exhilarating all at the same time. I loved to write. I still love to write ( which leads to the blog, ta da!). Journalism allowed me to pair two of my favorite passions, writing and sports. My journalism career did not last long as I realized it was too fast paced, last minute and cutthroat for me.

My Mom found this old article on the computer and emailed it to me. Looking at it now, I see it has some issues. But not to bad for a 19 year old girl right? So, without further hesitation here is a blast from my past. Here is an article I wrote while working on the newspaper when I covered a baseball game. Here is also probably where I lose all my readers because I'm sure none of you really care about baseball. But this went on to be published for all the school to see! That is pretty exciting, even if you don't think baseball is. :)


Elizabeth Tileston
Staff writer

The Moorpark Raiders baseball team suffered a heartbreaking loss to their county rivals, the Ventura College Pirates, on March 20, dropping their record to 4-11, 2-6 in Western States Conference play.

The first inning started out rocky for the Raiders' pitcher Bobby Martinez, who gave up several hits, including one to Ventura's David Groener, driving in two runs. The Pirates jumped to an early three run lead. However, the Raiders were able to cut the lead to two in the bottom of the first when Robb Rico had a base hit, stole second and was brought home by Brian Grant.

Ventura answered back in the second when Martinez walked Groener with one out and gave up a double to Jordan Arroyo to bring Groener home, making the score 4-1 Ventura. Martinez was able to retire the next two batters and prevent Ventura from scoring again until the fifth. Moorpark chipped away at the Pirates' lead when Mike Moscatello hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second, but Ventura's pitcher Nathan Rendell was able to hold on when Moorpark ended the inning with a double play.

Martinez retired the Pirates quickly in the third, and Moorpark's offense erupted by lacing together several base hits by John Arishon, Casey Gordon, Tyler Carr and Mike Moscatello, scoring another run for the raiders.

Neither team scored again until the top of the fifth when Ventura had three base hits, and Jared Martin was brought home by Rob Jacobsen to make the score 5-3 Ventura.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Raiders came up with two runs when Fred Rico reached base on an error by Groener and was brought home when Robb Rico hit a triple off the wall. Robb Rico scored on a wild pitch by Rendell to tie the game at 5-5.
The ninth inning was hard for pitcher Andrew Berkovich, who came in to relieve Martinez in the sixth. Berkovich had held Ventura to five runs, but started off the ninth with a walk to Groener. Arroyo laid down a perfect bunt, forcing Berkovich to field the ball on the run. The resulting throw was high, enabling Groener to score from first and allowing Ventura to retake the lead and win 6-5.

Despite the loss, Head Coach Mario Porto is proud of the way his team performed. "We hit the ball and played well defensively," said Porto. "We just came out on the short end of it. These things happen. It was nothing to hang our heads about."

Three days later, the Raiders defeated seven-time Western State Conference champion Cuesta College in a 13-10 slugfest, putting their record at 5-11, 3-6 in conference play.

Worth the Shot

I'm not outspoken. I'm not aggressive. I'm not a go getter. I'm not a boat rocker. But sometimes you just have to fight! I called Kaiser a few weeks ago to make my monthly payment on my lovely D&C bill. Still no word from my them about my grievance, surprise surprise. The man I spoke with told me I had a credit on my account. After a lot of untangling, it turns out Kaiser decided to credit my account $500! Bringing the cost of the D&C down to around what I was originally told. Wooo Hoo! $500, can you believe it? I was so excited. I fought, and I won! It's hard taking on big companies like that. I'm sure they get 1000 grievance forms a day. But someone somewhere read mine and agreed with me. Thanks to my lovely parents I'm now Kaiser bill free. Ah. It feels great. Long story short, sometimes it's worth taking a shot.

I decided to sign up for a Zumba class. This is my yearly "summer's coming quickly and I'm all flabby. I should do something about it" thing. I've realized I always start a new exercise regimen in like Feb or March. And by June it's out the window. Exercise in the winter? Forget it. Anyhow tonight I had Zumba. I knew it would be a workout, but I didn't realize it would be a WORKOUT. Whew! I was dying. It's bad when you are checking the clock 10 min into the class. Out of shape much? Yeah. I looked ridiculous. The teacher told me it would feel like I have 2 left feet at first. She was not kidding. You'd think with all the dance classes I've taken I wouldn't suck so bad. Nope, you'd be wrong. But I had fun. Every time I caught myself in the mirror I wanted to laugh because I looked awful. Then that quote going around Facebook popped into my head. Something like " even if you are moving slow, you are still lapping the people sitting on the couch".

I had a job interview today. I think it went well. It's not exactly what I want, but it's a good starting point for me. I'll find out if I got the job on Saturday, so fingers are crossed. Here's to a week of taking shots. I hope they all pan out!

Comparable

I had a great birthday! In my mind, a great birthday is when I get to do whatever I want all day. I don't need exotic trips (Ok I'd like them...), fancy presents or lots of attention. I just want 1 day when I get to go where I want when I want. And eat what I want when I want. I decided on my birthday I was not going to look at the nutrition facts on anything. It was so liberating!

The day after my birthday was my ward's women's conference. For those reading who are not Mormon I'll try to explain that...Ladies who live in my area get together and are offered classes and workshops we can go to. We get to pick which classes we want and they feed us. Being that I'm in a new area, I have to attend these things alone. Which can be scary sometimes, but I did it anyways. I signed up to bring a Bundt cake to the festivities ( which turned out really good, yay!) and away I went. To take some classes by myself.

I decided to go to a marriage class (because honestly, who doesn't need one of those?) and a finance class. They were both really good. Here are some key points I took from each:

Marriage class-
* Getting married is not when courtship ends, it's where it changes and begins over again. How true is that?
* To have a successful marriage, each couple can't put in 50% effort. They each need to put in 100% effort.
* The breakdown of most marriages can be traced back to when each person starting putting their own needs before spouses

Finance class-
* When we get to those pearly gates so to speak it doesn't matter how much money you had, it matters what you did with it
* Budgeting needs to be a family affair, and needs to include everyone
* Teaching your children the value of money and how to handle it is super important and creates responsible adults.

I really enjoyed my classes. I started to think about how easy it is to see what other people have and compare it to what you have. How easy it is to let someone else's good fortune lessen yours. I'm not sure why I feel the need to gauge how successful I am by comparing myself to someone else. Where did that come from? I know I'm not alone in this. These classes reminded me that it doesn't matter if your neighbor has a nicer car than you do. Or if you friend's marriage seems blissful while yours seems rocky at best ( not that mine is, just an ie here). To become a better person we need to stop looking at other people and focus ourselves. Our budget, our marriage.

These aren't really new things. But just refreshed ideas. I'm glad I went to the workshop. Even though I had a pregnant lady sit on either side of me, both due in June. Seriously? Is there anyone not due in June out there? Just kidding. I can't avoid pregnant ladies with June due dates forever. Just because I'm not one of them doesn't mean I can't enjoy them.

This Week

I've fallen of the blogging world. 20 days with no posting, yikes! Things have definitely been going on. I find myself troubled with blogs. They are like diaries, but diaries that everyone in the free world can read. Unless you make it private, and then only certain people can read it but still. They are not thoughts I'm sure I want to share with everyone. These past 20 days I've thought of things I could post about. Thoughts and emotions and struggles and worries. But I'm not going to put it all out there. I'll give the edited version instead.

Times in Arizona have gotten a little difficult for me. I find myself super homesick, and no matter of crying or reminiscing can make it better. I knew it would be different living here. I knew there would be hard times, but I didn't realize it would be this hard. I feel lost here. Like I don't fit in anywhere, and it's tough.

It's no ones fault. People are welcoming and friendly. It's just different. And I miss my family terribly. I miss my parents. Sometimes I call their answering machines when I know they are not there just to listen to their voices. I see a note that my mother in law sent and I burst into tears. I think Jimmy is not sure what to do with me at this point because the tears just keep popping up and I don't know how to stop them. I guess this is growing up but it sucks.

This week I've questioned by ability to be a wife, mother, daughter, friend. This week has been a bad one. The worst I've had in a while. For the first year ever my Mom won't be making me a birthday cake for my birthday tomorrow. For the first year ever I'm not looking forward to my birthday, and my last year in my twenties. 29 years old. How did this happen?

I was at the bank the other day and the teller was pregnant. She mentioned the fact that she was pregnant and I couldn't help it, I had to ask. She is due in June, when I would be due if I was still pregnant. I about had an emotional breakdown then and there.

Brynlee had a fit of epic proportions in the store this week. Complete with running from me down the aisles, running into the employee break room, yelling, hitting, the works. Once again it was illustrated that I have no control over my child and that I suck at being a stay at home Mom. And even worse I have no idea how to fix it.

This week was rough. But rough times come and go, and next week will be better. I find myself standing on the edge of a precipice. I can let my sorrow swallow me up. Or I can make the best of the situation I'm in. I'm in a new place with new opportunities and sometimes I forget that. Next week will be better. But I'm more than happy to see this week come to an end.

Shameless Product Push

When we moved to Arizona, we threw a lot of stuff away. When moving, you get to that point where throwing everything away and starting out brand new sounds like a great idea. Rather than clean and transport Mitzie's smelly old cat box (Yum), I tossed it and figured I'd buy a new one in AZ. That was my first order of business when we got here. Mitzie is really good at using her box, and I didn't want to give her any reason to be otherwise. Like not having a box to use for example.

I headed to Wal-Mart, which seems to be a daily thing for me. I have a super Target and super Wal-Mart each 1 mile from my house. And they are across the street from eachother. Dangerous. Very dangerous. The Wal-Mart even has a hair salon and a home loan center for goodness sake. Talk about super. Anyhow as I was perusing the cat box aisle I was confronted with 50 different types of cat boxes. The last one we had was not my favorite. It had a hood on it which was nice to shield the lovely presents Mitzie leaves from viewing. But otherwise it was not real great.

As I was walking up and down the aisle a lady came up to me and asked if she could make a recommendation. This struck me as a little odd. I don't think that would happen in California. Glad for the help, she told me about this cat box system that she uses:



It was a little pricey, but she sold me on it. I bought it and brought it home. I told Jimmy how much it was and he shot me a look of death (this is a regular occurrence). Well 1 month later and that littler box is a genius. I wish I could find that nice lady from Wal-Mart and tell her how much I love this thing. I know it's strange to love a cat box. But it DOES NOT SMELL. I know, I know, how can that be? Magic, that's how. I've had a lot of cat boxes and this is by far the best,10 times over. It's a little more expensive to maintain than traditional cat boxes, but not by much and so so worth it.

I recommend this 100% to anyone who has indoor cats. If you don't, then sorry this blog post was probably really boring. But I'll wrap up on a observation I've made. People here in Arizona are so much nicer than those in California! I know that is a very generalized statement. But from the lady who recommended the best cat box ever, to the patient drivers who never get mad at me for not knowing where I'm going ever. They are just nicer. And it's nice to be around!