Like most of the people I know my age, once the college semester was over, I decided that a second job was the way to go.

The newer job, a photographer position at one of a larger company of photo studios, was taken with the intention of staying there through the rest of my college education (which could easily be another five years!). The owner of the restaurant where I've hostessed for almost a year, however, did not take well the news that I plan to leave at the end of August. While I've promised to keep a decent amount of hours at the restaurant until the next semester, the manager at the photo studio has reminded me that, the more open my availability, the higher the odds that I'll "progress" in the position. As it is, it's hard enough leaving a place where I can have free Seafood Alfredo every Friday, without having to choose one over the other through their respective "busy shifts."

The way that I see it, though, is that having two options is a sight better than the jobless predicament I found myself in this time last year!

The best part of all is that, through the occasional stresses of scheduling two jobs around each other, I have the opportunity to relax in the sandy, wavy joy of Virginia Beach. In fact, my sunscreen bottle has been worn down to half-full from the hours I've spent at the beach in the past month... a fact which may perhaps be due to my status as the only girl I know who reapplies sunscreen after an hour or two in the sun (the complete opposite from the friends who slather on the "dark tanning lotion")!

For any of you who have yet to visit the beach this year, you should definitely take the time to do it, but I'd suggest sticking to the Northern end, if you want to avoid the crowded parts. However, the artwork you can find at the lower end is definitely worth seeing!

For the past few weeks, I've felt myself becoming increasing preoccupied, and a bit more high strung.

The big reason for this: The end of my first college semester.

Since January, I've been working hard to keep up my grades, taking online courses with TCC (something I'd recommend to anyone with a crazy work schedule or home life), and now that the semester is nearly over, I can see how it's paying off. Final reports and exams are proving that I really DID learn what I was supposed to, a point of concern for me about taking courses online. Of course, that career path thing is STILL baffling me! I've decided (for now, anyway!) to take the summer semester off to really gather my thoughts and explore all of my options.

And for another thing that's changed since you last heard from me, I turned twenty at the end of last month. Everyone tells me that it's incredibly symbolic: I'm officially no longer a teenager. As for myself, I think that it mainly symbolizes the end of the most insane year of my life. I've gotten to experience many a "grown up" responsibility... renting an apartment, my first car, grocery shopping and, of course, the dreaded credit card.

Above all things, though, I'm happiest that spring is finally here, and summer is on its way. Though winters can be a bit iffy, I LOVE the summers around here, and I can't wait to spend picnics at Mount Trashmore or entire days at the beach. This year, I've sworn to finally take Jeff to Busch Gardens, something he has yet to see in all his four years here!

I met someone today who interested me so much more than the rest of the drones of diners who come into the restaurant every day. Sure, we get a mixed bag of folks coming to enjoy what they all claim to be the "best Italian food around," but this woman really just took the cake. She can't have been younger than seventy, and she used one of those wheeled walkers with tennis balls on the two pegs. It was a slow night, and she stood at the counter for a good ten minutes, and we simply chatted.

We both shared our disappointment at the return of colder weather after such a warm spell. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was fourteen, and every year since I've spent the winters wishing for spring to come early... indeed, Groundhog Day always set me up for a disappointment. I often feel a little awkward talking about it, but I really felt the need to be straightforward when she asked me if I knew anyone with Arthritis. She helped me to laugh it off with talk of creaky knees, and thoughtfully moved the conversation on to something that interested me much more: Theatre.

She had apparently, in her heyday, been quite the actress. The "sidekick" or "best friend" character in all the musicals, of course. She'd only had one starring role she ever cared to remember, and that was in a cheap, low-key production of My Fair Lady - she said that channelling Audrey Hepburn on the stage made the short run, tiny audiences and mediocre reviews all worth it. I got excited, of course, as that's one of my favorites. Since Hepburn's My Fair Lady was released in 1964, I imagine that it was in the late sixties or so, long before shows like Cats and The Phantom of the Opera made complicated productions the thing to do. I asked her what it was like to be involved in theatre "back then," and she told me that it was very different, and wasn't really the "cool thing to do" like it is now. I caught myself laughing that that... when I took theatre courses and spent HOURS after school in the auditorium, our program was sometimes hurting for actors and crew. This was, of course, before Disney's High School Musical made drama the ideal extracurricular activity.

I'm almost ashamed to say that I spent the entire remainder of my shift thinking about what fun it was to be involved in real art, to be a part of an entire production coming to life. We all worked our hands to the bone building those sets every Saturday, passing the OSHA certification exams so we could use the powertools we bought with the money earned from after-school jobs. We considered it our passion, and we all planned on living our lives as starving artists, living for the stage (or, in many cases, backstage) as we struggled to get by.

Boy, how things change. In the necessity to acquire a "real" job many of us were convinced by friends, family and counselors to pursue other majors, and quite a few of us (myself included) haven't set foot behind a curtain since and, as far as I'm concerned, we're the worse for it. One of the hardest things about becoming independent out in the world is letting go of your dreams, something I wish I'd never done.

A good deal of happiness, though, lies in the fact that, ultimately, it's never too late to turn back. I can always go back to counting nails and flipping those soundboard switches, any day I choose. A girl never forgets her first love... I'm just lucky that mine will never run off with a busty blonde in six-inch heels.

If the amount of time spent between blogging is any indication of how busy I've been, I'm sure you'll believe me when I say that life got pretty hectic around these parts for a while there.

Aside from a move we made across the apartment complex (not far enough to change zip codes, but plenty far enough to throw everything off!), December was full of lots of paperwork, upside-down schedules, and exciting new changes (including, of course, the new addition to our already-bulging family tree).

One thing that I'm finding difficult at this point in my life, as I'm sure some of you have experienced yourselves firsthand, is keeping in touch with family and friends through all of our crazy daily schedules. My sister and I see eachother often, visiting at least once a week, and I still call my mother nearly everyday, but as for the extended  family strewn all throughout Hampton Roads, I can't say the same. It seems that, the older that all of us "kids" get, the less we see of eachother.

Despite the sad truth of "growing up and growing apart," I am finding that, two months away from my twentieth birthday, things are going very well for me. I'm lucky enough to be going to college now, and am on my way to an Associate's degree in Business Management. Another truth that I know I have to face is the simple fact that I really do change my mind like I change my underwear; I have absolutely NO CLUE which of my interests I'll ultimately choose to use this degree in. Then, of course, there's always that fear that I won't after all be able to find the sort of career I'm looking for in the field that I'll want... a very real danger, I've heard, in today's world. But, if anything, I'm thinking that with the classes I'm taking, I'll be able to hold down any decent office job and, if necessary, work my way up. Some may consider that the "safe road," perhaps... but is the safe one really all that bad of a road to take?

I've quickly learned that Hostessing at a small yet busy restaurant may be one of the most interesting jobs I'll ever have.
I see so many different sorts of people in the hours I work that I sometimes wonder if the entirety of Virginia Beach isn't coming in and out for dinner. Of course, my favorite part is the idle conversation that some of the customers make while they're up at the register paying for their meals. I can't tell you how many times in the past month I've spoken with complete strangers about the weather or my favorite kind of Spaghetti sauce (of which there are many, mind you - there are more varieties than I care to name!). And sometimes, I get that fantastic bonus of earning a tip of a few dollars or so on top of my very satisfactory hourly pay. It's then that I feel like the luckiest person in the world! ...For at least a few seconds anyway.
One good thing I can say about most of the people of Hampton Roads is that they're so used to waiting in quitting-time traffic that they don't mind toughing it out when I apologetically explain that it may be another fifteen minutes before a table for six is made available. In fact, I no longer dread "Waiting List Time..." smiles are contagious, I suppose, and as long as mine's big and sincere enough, minor inconveniences don't seem all that bad!
Yes, it seems that the world of customer service suits me a bit more than I remembered!
 

Last night, we welcomed little Alexander James into the world.

The entire day (starting at about 3:00 AM) the hospital was full of our family... aunts, uncles, sisters... there are a lot of us, believe me.

I left work early (at around 7:00) so I could be there for the birth, because I knew I could never forgive myself for missing my twin sister's first baby being born. She had to undergo a Cesarean Section, but he's a very healthy boy, 8 pounds and 7 ounces.

As for myself, I'm still adjusting to basing life around a work schedule. I hopefully start school at TCC next month, which is another long-overdue change.

Finally, it feels like I may be starting on my way to actual "adulthood..." exciting, isn't it?

If there's one thing you can count on in Virginia Beach, it's an interesting lunch crowd.

It was relatively slow, but it's always fun to look at the crowds of folks (mostly co-workers) coming in together. And it never fails that they'll divid the check five different ways.

The best part, I thought, was that there were a lot of regulars, so they didn't give me a hard time about anything, being the newbie and all. And then, of course, there are those customers who make a point to scoff at me every time I hit a wrong button on register... they aren't so fun.

All in all, as my verison of the food-related job that everyone these days seems to work by the time they're twenty-one, it looks like it just might not be all that bad.

It seems I've finally found a job! Though, I didn't actually find it, it found me... my best friend Jessi works at an Italian Restaurant, and I was offered a hostess job. Not a desk job, per se, but still... any job's better than no job!

The owner knows about my arthritis and my limitations due to the joint-swelling, so even if it doesn't work out, all's well. I go in for my first day of training at noon, so wish me luck! It's been so long since I've worked a customer service job, and I've never worked at a restaurant, so it should be an experience!

For my friend Jessi and me, like many of the girls I know of our age, new interests sometimes seem to come in the form of waves of near-obsession. And this week we found another - the movie-musical Across the Universe.

Now, we've both always been fond of musicals, having spent our entire high school careers involved in Theatre. It's just something you get accustomed to and learn to appreciate. So, much like my Moulin Rouge! stage of 2003, and the Newsies rediscovery of 2005, I find myself listening to the music and humming the tunes all day long. A realization which got me thinking: These old Beatles songs are so catchy, with actual meaning and witty lyrics. Regardless of the fact that they're sung completely by a different (yet, in my opinion, well-cast and amazingly performed) set of voices, they're still just plain FUN to sing along to. So, why have I just now found how much I love them?

It's no secret that Hollywood likes to reintroduce or "modernize" things to the new generation... in fact, I bet many people my age didn't even know that "Come Together" isn't an Aerosmith song, or that "With a Little Help from My Friends" wasn't originated with "The Wonder Years". Very few teens and twenty-somethings are Beatles fans without the help of their parents anymore, a fact which has been caused by what many claim to be the death of "real art" in popular society since the early nineties or so. I myself think that the reliance on radio and mp3s are to blame (You don't hear much Otis Redding or Elvis Presley on FM radio these days!)

The Beatles have had the good fortune of being considered pioneers, even legends, of the music world. Their music and legacy has been a part of everyone's lives for decades, whether they knew it or not. I'm sure many of you know of the Abbey Road Pub & Restaurant down by the beach, which has been a great local spot for twenty-five years now. Yes, of course all teenagers know that The Beatles exist... but we haven't really necessarily been paying attention.

Good thing, then, that movies like this come out every once in a while. As a generation seemingly centered around celebrity and television, we need something to remind us of the truly enjoyable things in life.

So, needless to say, things have been a bit stressed, what with the room mate troubles and low cash flow, not to mention Jeff's being gone six weeks out of ten. So we had a bit of a chat and we decided that it was finally time to bring something into the apartment that we've been wanting for a while now... a new kitten.

And she's just the cutest darn thing we've had around since the Beethoven marathon on the Family Channel ended.

We adopted her through an ad on Craigslist.com, and she's already made life in this boring apartment a lot more entertaining. The trouble is that we've had her since Wednesday evening, and we still haven't found a name for her yet! I guess we're just too busy buying her toys and checking her for fleas.

It's a shame that Craigslist isn't proving to be be such a good source of job-finding for me. It's getting difficult because without a car (it's stuck, not running, up at my dad's house in Kentucky) and with the Rheumatoid Arthritis in my knees, it's hard for me to find a job nearby that I can actually handle. It seems sometimes that we've chose an apartment in the biggest retail area of Virginia Beach... meaning no "desk jobs" to be had. But there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon... in the form of two applications that haven't yet been denied in my follow-up calls, but still haven't resulted in an interview.

If anything, at least I've got a cuddly little fluffball to lift my spirits if those don't work out... there's nothing like a baby animal to brighten someone's day!!