Hungover Michele

Stardate 64134
12:22 - I have told many people that drunk Michele is the best version of myself because I am just more fun and will get into more trouble. But today, I found out that hungover Michele is a pretty cool cat.  Many people just chill and moan when they have a hangover, but not many. Usually, I can get around extremely early and start being productive. For example, I put together my blue lamp today and commenced playing with it. I mean it looks like a staff and as you can see, I clearly began acting out lines from my favorite wizard. Sorry, Focus Foxies more obsessed with Potter than LOTR, Gandalf wins. Please note that I even put on a grey robe for the occasion as was appropriate due to Gandalf being Gandalf the Grey when such lines were uttered. I also hung up pictures, painted trim around the walls and vacuumed. This all occurring before my friend picked me up to find my forgotten car.

Making Cookies and Earrings

Stardate 64124
21:22 - My adventures in cooking are entertaining and often not as tasty as one could hope. My Dad tasked me to make cookies for some charity thing. How hard could cookies be to make? Answer: hard. My flat too chocolaty experiments tasted alright but looked like a struggle. One day I will be able to cook something. But today was not that day.

So, I do not think that I told you, Focus Foxies, that I had my ears pierced several times while in Costa Rica. I got the cartilage piercing first, then the rook, and the industrial last. I know people who are getting their master's degrees are supposed to be professional, but screw it. I love them. Besides, I want to work in the field, not in an office.  Therefore, I will not continue to display the same sort of stuffiness found all around the Bush School. Lo siento, Bush School Focus Foxies, but it is kinda true. For the record, the did not hurt at all. Although the rook piercing did bleed a ton. So far they are not infected, and I did loose my cartilage earring, but replaced with a light blue earring. I am glad I got them and stopped worrying what people might think in the future. My Mom did no see the piercing, even though I had my hair up. She saw them in church. She told me to pray because even, God might not be able to save me. She wasn't too pleased to say the least.

Graduating to What?

Stardate 64119.9

10: 03 - It has been roughly a year since I graduated with my bachelor's degree.  Although, time-wise, it seems short; it feels the past 1/22 part of my life has been the longest and probably the roughest part. For nine months, I balanced the two worlds of being a grad student and a full time student politician. Sometimes, I felt as if I succeeded and in others, I knew I came short of meeting my goals. I have always been an extremely goal oriented person who got what they want just by putting the effort into it.  But last May, I watched as three years of hard work went up in flames and feeling helpless to to do anything about it.  As summer began, I knew I was too young to feel this washed up and bitter. I had so much anger and hate for so many things; it was hard to eat or sleep because of the disgust that I felt. There was no one I could explain this feeling to. I just wanted to put it behind me. So flying to Costa Rica, I left all of it behind.

I was so determined to leave everything in College Station behind for three months that I never once talked about home or who I missed because the truth was that I did not miss home. Everything that was deemed necessary in life was transported to Costa Rica, and the nonessential was left. I spent three months trying to heal myself. Heal my optimism, my spirit, my drive and my will to keep going.  Removed from my usual surroundings, I could see how toxic of a person I had become. I cannot say that over night I started feeling better, but it took a slow process of reworking the way I thought about my life. Everyday as I walked to school, I had reinforce that it was my choice to live a full and happy life, and I will not let myself settle for anything less. As a part of this process, I cut people out of my life temporarily and permanently that took part in making me this way. I have never regretted this decision to drop people out of my life. Once, I made the choice to let all this hate out of my heart; I could not step back into that path. With the hate in retreat, I first regained my sensory feelings again. For the first time in my life, I ate a meal with all five of my senses. It is an odd thing to explain, but truly sitting down for a long period of time and appreciating the food, the area around you and the time you have can do wonders. Then I went on to find what used to make me happy that I gave up on long ago. My passion for soccer and dance came back and helped me drive out everything else. Having the ability to feel again and then reigniting my passion for life allowed me to start rebuilding who I wanted to be.

Today, I know that I have another rough year coming up, but I know what it feels like to be free and appreciate the life I have. Because I know I have been blessed, I just cannot allow myself to stray far from being who I choose to be.

Adoption

Stardate 64109
09:13 - Today, it was finalized!!!!! My two youngest sisters were legally adopted today at 9.13 in the morning.We are so proud to have the as a part of our family. On the right is Chelsea Lynn Breaux, and she is 12 years old and in 7th grade. On the left is Hannah Marie Breaux, and she is 10 years old and in 5th grade. They are biological sisters from Louisianna.  Chelsea plays the flute and soccer. Hannah likes animals and also plays soccer. Both of them will be starting dance this year. We met them a year ago in Lake Charles after going through the adoption process for about a year and a half. In December, they came to live with us for good. It has been an absolute joy and a blessing to see all of us grow, both individually and as a family throughout this time. I can't imagine life without them now. It is an amazing feeling to tell people that I have 4 sisters and to see the look of disbelief on their face.

Flight Home

Stardate 64101.4
14:47 - Ahora, estoy volando desde San Jose para Estados Unidos. Despues de tres meses, estoy yendome  Costa Rica. Estoy muy triste porque a mi me gusta Costa Rica. He aprendido mucho acerca de mi vida, otras culturas y que quiero hacer con mi vida. Lo mas importante es el significado de Pura Vida. Entonces, Chao, Costa Rica! Voy a extrañarte. Pero, este es solo el comienzo. Voy a continuar a viajar alrededor del mundo. No tengo dingue pero tengo el insecto de viaje (travel bug).

Mientras mi vuelo, mire los nubes y el Caribe debajo de mi avion. Maraville con los nubes y sus reflexiónes en el mar. Termine mi diado para Costa Rica. Necesite escribir acerca de mi ultimo viaje a Puerto Viejo y mi ultima noche en Heredia.

Drinking Games en Puerto Viejo

Stardate 64088.1
18:00 -This past weekend, I took my final trip to Puerto Viejo. This time I traveled to and from with the group, but soon lost the group upon arriving. To be extremely frank, the reason for this is because I have alcoholic tendencies mixed in with need to be away from people who need to be entertained constantly. Luckily, I found interesting people to entertain me, and they taught me many a drinking game.

First game that I randomly crashed into was The Game of Slaps.  Literally, I tripped, both hands landed on table full of strangers, and they invited me to play. So I was already in position because you need your hands like such

Starting with green hand number 1 on the left, you slap the table, then the red handed person slaps the table and then keep going down the line. Let's say that green hand number two does three slaps on the table, then purple is skipped and yellow 2 slaps. Lets say that yellow 2 slaps twice, then the order is reversed and purple slaps. If you screw up, you drink and take the offending hand off the table. Easy enough. During this time I met Barry or the Red Barron. He is a shaggy man from England who was a little far past gone at the moment because he kept staring at me even after I said Hello several times. Fun fact: he plays with baby sloths.

Second game is for people getting bored of the first one and because an adorable, red-headed Aussie man starts barking out orders to "Stand Up! We are playing Whiz-Ball." Whiz Ball is a very interesting game, I say that because I do not know what type of substance you would have had to take in order to invent this game. Well, the group has this imaginary ball and you throw it to your neighbor and and do the same,  but you have to d it with the correct hand. For example, if the 'ball' is going to the right, you move the ball with the left hand. To reverse the order, you need to 'Boink' the ball by the fist bumping.  So as in the previous example, you boink the ball with your left hand, and the ball goes to the left. Now, to add more complications to this game, the push is inserted. So if you have the ball, you push it with both hands to someone else in the circle. This person has to whiz the ball in the same direction at it previously was going.  Important: You cannot boink a push. It just does not happen.  Soon, I will figure out how to add a force push into the game.

Third game is called 21. We played this game with a bunch of different people who spoke a bunch of different languages. The object of this game is to count to 21 by each person listing off a number. When you get to 21, that person makes a rule to replace the other numbers. 7 and 14 are already taken. You say 14 for 7, and 7 for 14. Also, just as in The Game of Slaps, two numbers reverses the direction and three skips one.