I'm baaaacckkk!!! did you miss me?

Hope it doesn't hurt my chances to get elected to City Council (some day - hehehe!)

I haven't been checking the site in a few weeks now...

What's new with me? Well, I have a boyfriend. He's a great guy, but very conservative. I haven't completely made up my mind about whether to continue with being a "hopeful" or not...

Besos,
M

Hola!!!
I just renewed my SG membership.

So much has happened since I was here last. Just a summary:
1. Got a new job in February... yay!
2. Bought a new townhome.
3. Still single...

Now, I'm wondering if I shouldn't do any new sets because of my job...

Hope everyone is doing great!!!

Drop me a line...

xoxoxo

How's everyone in SG Land???!!!

Not much has changed for me since my last post... still job hunting!!!!

I should really work on putting a set together too... I just haven't found inspiration ...

I did take a last minute trip down to California and spent New Year's in Santa Monica, visited LA, did one of those tourist tours to see the Hollywood stars, walked around Rodeo Drive, went to the Westwood Cemetery to visit the final resting places of some stars like Marilyn Monroe and Merv Griffin. The highlight of the trip had to be wine tasting at Beringer and driving South on US1. Beautiful scenery!

I'll try to post some pics... I'm such a spaz, I still have trouble doing that!

It's been a long time since I've been on here...

So, what's been going on with me? If you care to know:
1. Still job hunting
2. My mom and her cat (which was really mine till I moved out) moved here from NY.
3. It's freaking freezing!!! Seattle looks like a tundra... 19 - 24 F. And we expect more snow tomorrow.
4. I now have a cold...

That's the Cliff note version of the last few weeks of my life. Nothing exciting. I'm really looking forward to the end of 2008.

In case you didn't hear (mostly, if you are out of WA state) there was a shooting at the Southcenter mall (Tukwila, WA) today around 3:30pm. I was there with my daughter. We were grabbing a bite before we would go see a movie.


We were in the food court upstairs, right above where the shooting happened. There was a loud noise, people started looking at each other, I was telling myself "is this what I think it is"?, then, after a few seconds a 2nd shot was heard. People started running. I didn't want to do that because I was afraid of Nati and I being trampled. So, I took her off the chair and we laid low by the wall, using the chair to hide us (it had our coats) and my body as a shield for her. Another family of 4 were at the table next to us, so I just observed the father to see what he would do. After about 1-2 mins we stood up. The family left. As I saw people leaving from the movie theater above us, I put our coats on and gathered our food and we went out.

The scariest was while we were waiting outside, I saw a police officer getting his automatic riffle ready and taking off running. That's when I decided it was time for us to head to our car and leave.

I was parked at the opposite side of the shooting, so it actually made leaving the mall easier.

There is one person dead and one injured. The police searched the mall store by store for hours in an effort to find the gunman. But it would have been really easy for him to sneak out with the crowd as thousands of people were exiting after the incident.

Anyway, I am grateful that nothing happened to us and that I was able to keep cool and collected to think clearly and protect my child. Scary thing, though.

Last week it was announced that the unemployment rate hit 6.5%.

I am part of that statistic as of Wednesday, when after 8 1/2 years of service, I was laid off from my company. I'm not bitter, since I knew there was a possibility of that happening, and I did get a severance package. Yet, that doesn't make it any easier to handle. I was given two (2) hours to pack or say goodbye or just leave. I decided to take all my personal belongings, and two of my co-workers from my group helped me pack up, so that I had enough time to send out a short email to some of my friends and colleagues (which was short, to the point and professional).

Granted it's only been about 3 days, but I feel as though I am on vacation. I decided to take the first few days to 'decompress', since I had been under a lot of stress and hadn't been happy at work for the last year and half (if not longer). I got together with a fellow 'unemployed' friend and we've been exploring some of the 'free' activities around Seattle. On Thursday, we went to the SAM (Seattle Art Museum), since first Thursday of every month, museums and art galleries offer free admission. And then, on Friday, we went to the Kubota Gardens (Japanese Gardens). It is said that these are haunted, but we didn't see anything, other than perhaps it was a little strange that we could see our breath while standing by one of the ponds (it was about 62F that day), but that could've been a result of higher humidity.

I am trying to remain positive because I would like to find a job a quickly as possible, because I do have a family to support, and the money will run out at one point. But, at the same time, I don't want to just take any position with any company. So we'll see...

In the meantime, no more free pound of coffee a week or 30% discount for me! Unless my old work buddies offer it to me