Happy Thanksgiving from Southern CA!

This year for Thanksgiving, I didn't get to go home and spend it with my family, but I did get to spend it with the Abbamonto family, which did a fantastic job of making me and my roommates all feel at home.

I flew down after work on Wednesday, so I could hang out earlier with Carrie. I just wanted to get on vacation right away. The guys weren't in as much of a hurry as I was; they ended up driving the 5 all the way to Brea. Carrie met me at Long Beach airport, and we went to Downtown Disneyland to shop around, and to get some dessert. We then had to go to Carrie's friend's house to take care of the dog, but that's another story I'd rather not talk about. The guys got to Carrie's dad's house a little after Carrie and I did.

A view of Los Angeles.

On Thanksgiving day, we went to Carrie's Mom's house, and spent Thanksgiving with her family. Her family was so welcoming; there were 18 people at the dinner, and probably less than half of them were family! We played some fun games; a little croquet and some cribbage. It was a traditional Thanksgiving that was held outside, with a delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes and delicious sides. One of my favorites was a sweet potato and brown sugar dish. So good! Spending time together at her mom's was definitely a great time. I still missed my family though.

The handmade raviolis by Paul, Carrie, and Ollie!

Friday, was a completely different story from Thursdays traditional Thanksgiving. Carrie's dad had started a tradition a few years go for an Italian Thanksgiving. Let me tell you it was pretty much the best food I've ever had, and one of the biggest Thanksgivings with more than 30 people.

The final table setup.

All of us spent the morning setting up the tables and getting out silverware and preparing the food. Oh my god the food! I got to help fold the loaves of bread, and stuff the breaded artichokes.

Helping Paul fold the bread.

The crusty bread.

Enjoying the crusty bread!

Paul, Ollie, and Carrie (Along with my favorite, stuffed artichokes!)



Chowing down on the stuffed artichokes.


So much meat! The boys loved it.


Getting ready to serve the bruschetta.

Four loaves of handmade crusty bread, breaded artichokes, bruschetta, meatballs, sausages, and three different types of ravioli: cheese, chicken, and mushroom. I really liked the mushroom. I was stuffing my face the entire day! My roommates and I made a salad for the dinner, and it was a huge hit.

Strawberry Salad
------------------
any bag of greens
chopped strawberries
sliced avacado
walnuts
feta cheese
balsamic vinaigrette

We met some great people during Fridays Italian Thanksgiving, and had some tasty wine and champagne. I will never forget how good that food was.

Everyone enjoying dinner at the longest table ever.

On Saturday, we decided to head down to Huntington Beach in Newport. It was a little cooler than normal, but it was still lovely just being on the beach. It is so beautiful down there. We relaxed for a bit; Max and I took a nice stroll along the water. We then went to lunch at a little diner on the pier.

Stephen and the pelican.

We also went shopping around the area; I picked up a few things at American Apparel for fun. Later that night was awesome. Paul taught me and the guys how to play poker, and man he had some great pointers. He is such a good poker player. We didn't play for real money, but out of six people, I managed to come in second!

On Sunday, before we made the 10-hour long journey home, we stopped off at Downtown Disneyland. We just kind of wandered around and people watched. The ride home was long to say the least.

Lego land!

You can barely see us, but we're there with the giant CALIFORNIA sign.

I am so thankful that Carrie's parents, Paul and Jane, were so welcoming to me and my roommates. They made us feel right at home, and gave me a thanksgiving vacation that I will NEVER forget!

Shred the Gnar!

This weekend me and the guys went to Northstar at Tahoe for their opening day of skiing! I was so excited all week long to finally get my new snowboard on some fresh snow, and I was more than excited to get all of the guys to go snowboarding with me! We were originally going to go to Boreal, but it wasn't big enough for me so we kept driving.

The guys signed up for a lesson, and I was able to hang out with them for a little bit while they were learning. I got in a few runs on my own (there were only 6 trails open on the mountain that day).

Learning to snowboard is such an intense workout, that the guys were sweating their butts off.


Stephen! Haha he probably wishes he had gloves on at this point.


Max making his way down the little slope!



John was really getting the hang of the snowboard! Just goofing off a bit and getting some sweet air!

Needless to say I was so happy to be snowboarding; everyone knows it's my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. I brought the guys up the chairlift and we got such a cute picture of us (from left to right: John, Me, Stephen and Max). They did so well on their first day. I was so proud! They had some tough falls, but who doesn't when learning to snowboard. Stephen bigtime got the hang of things.

Coming down from the top of the mountain.

I treated the guys to some beers and hot chocolates after a tough day of learning to snowboard. I really was so happy they did so well. I hope they really liked it because I'm going to be dragging them to Tahoe every weekend from now on.

Malibu Half Marathon

Over the past few months while I've been living in the beautiful state of California, I have been running my butt off. The reason for this? I, along with Greta Aiken, committed to run the Malibu Half Marathon (Greta, being the insane person that she is...ran the full marathon). The 13.1 miles I signed up for a few months ago, would be the longest run I have ever completed in my entire life.

When I initially signed up for this race, I think I was running at the most about 1 to 2 miles. Man oh man those were the days. I'd only run about 2-3 times a week, mostly at the Intel fitness center (Running in 100 degree weather was not too appealing to me). As summer progressed to fall, the days started getting cooler, allowing me to go on longer, more enjoyable runs out around Folsom. Running on a treadmill gets extremely boring after 4 miles. At the beginning of fall, I was getting up there in mileage, going for 3 to 5 mile runs. I'd say October was my best month of all. That was when I really started kicking it into gear going out on nice 7 or 8 mile run, about 3 times a week. I was really starting to feel comfortable on these longer runs, but they were still a push.

Last week, before the race, I was definitely feeling some nerves. I had at the most run 10 miles, my feet were still healing from a few Halloween injuries, and the race was less than a week away. I went out for a nice 8.5 miler Monday, and a short 4 miler on Wednesday, and after that I called it quits. I wanted to rest as much as possible before Nov. 15th.

I had such a great fan base coming down to see me run! I can't imagine it's too exciting watching people run 13+ miles, but I love each and every one of them for coming down to support me. All the roommates (John, Max, and Stephen), Eric, and Carrie with her family, came to Malibu to watch me and Greta run.

We showed up to Carrie's house in Brea Saturday morning around 1AM; the boys sprawled out in the living room while I slept with Carrie in her bed. I needed a good rest anyways :). Saturday morning, Carrie's dad took us out to a fantastic breakfast at the Original House of Pancakes, where I stuffed my face full of blueberry pancakes. Carrie stayed at home for the day while the rest of us journeyed up to Malibu so I could pick up my racing gear.

After I grabbed my race bib and other free stuff, we found a cheap place to stay for the night, and then we went to the beach. Greta and her mom and dad came to join us. Max and Stephen actually went swimming in the water, even though it was cold.

Greta and I enjoying the scenery.

Greta's Parents taking a stroll on the beach.

The sun setting on the ocean in Malibu. Didn't see the green flash though!

Enjoying the sunset.

We all went out to dinner at Islands for some delicious burgers. Had some great laughs and some great food. After that we went our separate ways for Me, Greta and her mom to rest up for our big races. The boys kept me up for a bit while making a poster for me and Greta, but they ended up finishing it in the morning.

I was pretty nervous when I got up in the morning, and everyone (except Stephen) drove me to the bus to be brought to the starting line. I had about an hour before the race to stretch, hang out, and mentally prepare. We waited for the elite marathon runners to go through before the half marathon started.

Overall the race was really enjoyable. It was warmer than I expected, but the views were beautiful, when I actually took the chance to look to my right. Most of the half marathon was uphill, so it definitely took a toll on my time. My feet were hurting through most of the race, thanks to some lovely blisters all over my right foot. My main goal was to run the entire race, and that's exactly what I did. I had a great "metal mix" to listen to that definitely motivated me up those tough hills.

My race consisted of the 13.1 miles at the end.

After 10 miles of running, I was really excited that I was going to finish this race. The last 3.1 miles almost seemed like nothing. After running that far, you really have nothing to lose. As I was coming to the finish line, I saw Carrie, her dad, and her dad's girlfriend cheering me on, which pushed me along the last stretch. I came around the corner, and on the final few yards were my roommates and my friend Eric cheering me on. It was so nice seeing them at the finish line!

So happy to be finishing the race.

Crossing the finish line in 2:15:12. Not bad for my first half marathon!


Such a beautiful sign! DOODLE JUMP!


Met up with them after I received my medal, sweet towel and lunchbox full of food! I needed to rehydrate like crazy.


Greta and her mom powering through the Marathon. Greta did an amazing job for her first marathon!

The run was great. I can't believe I actually had fun running 13.1 miles. I took a week off to give my poor feet a rest; they were covered in blisters after that race. I was up and running this week, and man I can't wait to get ready for another race.

Brains...BRAINS!!!!

For Halloween this year, Max, John, and I could not think of anything to be, but Max came up with the great idea for being zombies! Stephen was celebrating Halloween back home in Indiana.

Before getting zombified, we had to run to the store to buy candy for the little trick-or-treaters around the neighborhood. They were so cute! Ghosts, princesses, a Michael Jackson, all sorts of adorable costumes. We also carved pumpkins and got some candles for the front of our house.

Max with the candy. His pumpkin's on the left, Stephen and mine is on the right.

John and Me giving some candy away.

Getting ready to be a zombie was pretty fun. Max had all sorts of stuff like latex, fake blood, make-up and so on to make us scary looking zombies. I went out in the yard, got some dirt and twigs to make the outfit more realistic. We went down to Davis with a few other guys from work, and got to experience some college fun - a lot different than the Folsom area for sure.

I'm the only zombie around that's dead and smiling!


Doing a little "Thriller" with Ceasar. His name is really Ceasar.

The night was overall a lot of fun, but I did end up paying for it the next day. I had to rest up a lot from the long night, but it was worth it! BRAAAINS.

SWE National Conference - Long Beach, CA

Northeastern SWE!

This year I went to my second SWE National Conference in Long Beach California. I was so happy to see some of my friends I haven't seen since I've been living out here, especially my roommate Kate! I miss her so much.

My flight down to Long Beach was really short, and I did a lot of waiting around in the hotel lobby for the rest of the girls to show up.

This year I was pretty ready for the conference. I had my sessions I wanted to attend (What do I want to do with my Life?, How to prepare for your first Interview, Why products are popular, and so on...), knew what booths I wanted to visit when it was time for the career fair, and had plenty of free time to hang out with my friends.

All dressed up after a first day at the conference.

The sessions were okay; If you've been to one SWE Conference, you've seen all the sessions you need to see. Basically they are very similar every year.

The career fair was different this year. Last year I wasn't too concerned because I was only looking for a co-op, but this time I was putting myself out there for a full time position. I did my research of the career fair before I went, so I could know for sure what companies I wanted to talk to. Most of the companies that show up to the fair are defense contracting, which is not a job I am really interested in looking into. I really only wanted to hang out with my manager from Intel, talk to ON Semiconductors, and Whirlpool.

Kate and I dressed up for the career fair.


A few of us after a day at the career fair. Time for happy hour!

The last day was pretty relaxed. More sessions that were boring as always, but we also had the SME bowl. The SME bowl is a competition between regions (We're in Region F), where members of SWE have to answer technical questions, or questions about SWE. The Region F team came in 3rd place! It was very exciting to watch, and we were so happy because we had 2 girls on the team from Northeastern!

I miss my girls so much! I can't wait to get back and see them in January!

13,000 feet and falling fast!

Finally my skidiving post! It was amazing and took my breath away. I went with my roommates, Carrie, and her friend Vanessa.

We had to do a lot of waiting around before the jump, and we were pretty tired just hanging around on all the couches. We were all so happy before our jump, with a hint of nervousness!

John and I had front row seats; we were able to see right out of the airplane through the clear door! John was the first to go and I was a quick second.

And here's the best part: my video of my jump! I was waving my hands the entire time, it was the only thing I could think of doing while falling from the sky! It was hard to breath the first few seconds of my fall; I almost felt like I was choking on the air. It was the most relaxing time once the chute was open and we were floating around in the sky. My tandem partner pulled some spins for me and made it a very enjoyable ride on the way down. I will do this again at some point in my life: such an amazing experience.

Here's my skydiving video! I love watching it

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect.

Last weekend Greta and her friend Brian flew all the way up from San Diego to join us for LovEvolution in San Francisco on October 3rd. It was hard to round up my roommates to get them to go to this event, but they were eventually excited for it.

We all drove down Saturday morning to take the train into San Francisco. On the way into the city, more and more people in ridiculous, bright, and barely there outfits were getting on the train. I was happy that we didn't have to drive into San Francisco; the traffic and parking is always terrible in that city.

We had to wait in line with hundreds of other crazy people, because it was a 10 dollar charge - but we somehow managed to get in for free!

Greta and I relaxing in line - drinking a little and getting ready to enjoy LovEvolution!

Greta is good making friends. On our way to the lines of porta-potties, we walked through the grassy patches where tons of people were chilling and hanging out.

LovEvolution was mainly a bunch of stages set up in front of the capital building. At each of these stages were multiple DJ's playing all sorts of house/techno music. We all stayed at the main stage for most of the night. This was just me and Max goofing off while watching the shows.

My lovely roommates, from left to right: Max, John, and Stephen.

This was an experience like no other. I learned that there are definitely some free spirits living out in California. None of us knew what to expect, but we had the best time listening to some mind-numbing house music and dancing the night away. I love San Francisco.