Whoa... it's been a long time since I've written.  So to make this easy for you all to catch up on what's been going on with me, I'm going to break it down to you by category and hopefully it won't get too long.

FAMILY:  The fam is all good.  Just celebrated my Mom's birthday last weekend.  Dad's birthday is this weekend, and sister's is the beginning of June.  Will be driving up to the bay area Memorial Day Weekend to see my niece, so if anyone wants to hang out let me know.

FRIENDS:  Disappeared for a while because I was taking my test, but now I'm backing and will hopefully be catching up with all of you real soon.

WORK:  Finished taking my PE at the end of April and walked out of the test feeling pretty good about it.  Won't know for sure until June, but I think I passed.  So if all goes well, by the end of the year, I'll be professionally licensed in CA, WA, IN, TX, NV, and FL.  I've officially been branch manager for the SoCal office of my company for about 2 weeks now and so far so good.  Conducted my first interviews the other day and made my first new hire today.  Hopefully he'll last.  Perks of being the branch manager... hopefully a nice raise come June, a nice bonus for passing my IN PE test, and getting a new car.

TOYS:  Just finished upgrading my bike... got it an undertail kit, some flush mount turn signals, and a new exhaust.  Looks brand new and sounds like a real bike now... woohoo!  Also will hopefully be buying a brand new fully loaded Acura TSX within the next two weeks (company car).  And no, I'm not getting rid of my truck and yes, I realize that it means I'll have a truck, a car, and a motorcycle.  And I guess since I may be getting a fully loaded car, I may just have to get a bluetooth capable phone and an ipod to go with it.  No use having the extra features if I can't use them... haha!

VACATION:  Just came back from NY a couple weeks ago and had a great time.  Spent way too much money, but it was worth it.  Going to SF Memorial Day Weekend.  Can't wait to go to Peru in a month and a half.  Just trying to square away some lodging details and figure out what else to bring for the trip.  And still trying to figure out where I'm staying in Hawaii for Melissa's wedding in August.

TICKETS:  Saw Floetry and Goapele in April.  Just saw Common and J5 last week.  Going to see Wicked in July and have tickets to Ben Harper and Damien Marley in August.

Okay, so that got long... sorry about that.  Guess that's what happens when you don't write for a while.... peace out!

Major Goals

Within the Next Year:

1. Pass PE Exam (Again!)
2. Be Prepared to Take Over Southern California Office as Branch Manager
3. Renovate Entire Backyard

In 5 Years:

1. Have a 6 Figure Income
2. Travel to Greece, Italy, Japan, & the Phillippines
3. Have Completely Renovated My House Inside and Out

In 10 Years:

1. Buy a New House
2. Speak Spanish Fluently
3. Be Able to Treat My Family to a Vacation Anywhere in the World

Wow... It's been a long time since last I wrote one of these.  Since then, not too much has happened.  Things have settled down a bit.  It's been nice being home and around San Diego and LA during the holidays.  I think I've spent the last month and a half just focusing on work and getting ready for the new year.  I guess I have a lot of things coming up that are both exciting and scary at the same time.

Work's going to start to get a little crazy.  This last month, I found out that my boss down here is going to be moving back up the bay area come mid next year, which pretty much puts me in charge of the place.  It's a little sooner than I would've liked, but I think I'm up for the challenge.  He's actually going on vacation this next month, so I guess I'll have a little more practice managing the branch before I take over in April or June.  On top of all that, I'll be taking my PE test again this April, so I guess I'm going to be disappearing for the beginning of the year again to study.  I'm taking the test again as a little favor to my company so that we can get a license in the state of Indiana, but if I pass, I'll have a nice little bonus in store for me.  In addition, I'm in the process of getting my professional license in Washington, Texas, and Nevada.  So as far as work goes, there's going to be a lot of changes coming up.

But at least I have a few vacations to look forward to.  I'm headed up to Tahoe at the beginning of the year, so that should be really fun.  I've already made one trip to Big Bear this season for practice.  Hopefully it's raining like crazy over there in the Bay Area, because it suren't hasn't been down here.  Then I'm hoping to swing my little trip to Indiana for my PE test to a side trip to New York or Boston.  I figure, I'll be half way across the country already, I might as well go all the way.  And finally, in June, it'll be off to Peru to hike up the Incan Ruins in Machu Piccu.

Well, that's all I got for now.  Hope everyone enjoys the holidays and has a great new year.

Well it's been quite a while since my last entry.  Since then, I've been in 11 different cities (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, Las Vegas, Big Sur, Yuma, Honolulu), 5 different states (California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii), and 2 different countries (US and Canada).  What can I say, been travelling a lot, and mostly on vacation for once.  It's been quite a year and it's finally winding down.  It's going to be nice to be home for a while.  No more travelling plans until next year, especially since I'm completely strapped for cash right now.  Well except for maybe going home for the holidays and a quick little trip to Vegas in December, and maybe a run at Big Bear for some snowboarding....haha!  What can I say, I can't quit now....j/k.

But anyway, the real reason I'm broke right now, but why I'm looking forward to being at home is that I just went skydiving last weekend, which was awesome,... and oh yeah... bought a bike.  Woohoo!  So excited!  I'm looking forward to teaching myself how to ride again since it's been more than a month since I first got my license.  I got myself a 2001 Honda CBRF4i.  It's pretty damn sweet and I haven't even had a chance to ride it yet.  So that's where I'm at and that's where I'll be.  Hopefully the next time I write, I'll actually be able to say I know how to ride.

It's hard to believe that half the year is gone already.  It's always about this time that I start to look back on the first half the of the year and see what I've done, if anything at all.  And surprisingly, this year has been pretty good so far, aside from the injuries. It's good that I'd been writing in this thing every now and then, because I couldn't remember half the stuff that I had done this year.

It seems like I've been doing a lot of traveling this year, which has been a blessing. Looking back, I started the year coming back from a 2 week road trip through Baja.  I've been to the Bay Area at least 3 or 4 times this year, Tahoe twice, LA of course, Big Bear and Mt. High, and Vegas a couple of times.  Not bad for 6 months.  And all the while, working on my house whenever I was at home. 

And looking forward to the next half of the year, it looks like I'm going to be completing the year of traveling strong.  July's been my month at home for my housewarming BBQ and to recoup and plan for the next few months.  For August, I'll be up in LA for a wedding, to Seattle and Vancouver, and then to Vegas at the end of the month.  Then it'll be off to Big Sur for some camping Labor Day weekend and then to Hawaii at the beginning of October.  I feel like I haven't spent the holidays at home in a while, so I think the November and December holidays will be spent at home in LA. 

It's been a crazy year so far.  We'll see how long I can keep this up.  I guess it took me four years of work, to get to the point where I could do this much.  But I'm thankful for every second of it, and consider everything that I have at this point in my life a blessing.