Winter Quarter Update

It has been one wild, busy, and stressful quarter. With two weeks to go (Dead week and finals week), things just seem to be getting a little more stressful. For those of you who don't know.... this is my last quarter. Woo-hoo. With next quarter finishing up my senior project and interning, and I will be walking in commencement ceremonies June 14, 2008. About time right? It has been a long road with tons of bumps and wrong turns and almost took a couple off ramps along the way, but the light is very visible. So let me start the summary one subject at a time:

Senior Project: The outdated ritual agreement any admitted student to Cal Poly makes, not knowing the pure hell they will endure for the quarter(s) which they complete this not so simple task. Now, I understand there are other majors and programs whose projects require alot more time and require alot more.... umph.... (if that makes sense), but I do know I am so over research for my topic I should just call myself an expert ;) In all seriousness, I do enjoy my topic luckily enough to make it through. Dr. Goldenberg (Senior Project Class Instructor) gets us through the first of two quarters. The first quarter consists of getting your topic, and then researching everything you can about your topic and how they relate to your study. I knew mine going into it, but the topics changed after meeting with my 461 Senior Project Advisor, Dr. Hendricks. I couldn't ask for a better advisor, and he has been great in giving me direction and helping me figure out where to go with it. My senior project is "Assessing the image of the City of San Luis Obispo by Los Angeles Residents as a tourist destination". Why?? Two quarters ago when I started to think about what I was going to do, I talked to Dr. Hendricks and he was telling me a former REC Alumni who now works for the Chamber was looking for someone to do some work for them. Perfect!! Well eight years ago a former student did their senior project on the "perception" of San Luis Obispo. Due to plagerism and a bunch of other pre-req's I have restructured it to be my own work, and changing my topic areas to align with my study. My chapter 1 of my senior project is my Review of Literature including the design of my senior project. 14 pages roughly that was done in the first 6 weeks of the quarter. The topics in my review of literature are "Destination Image" & "Push-Pull Factors of Tourism". While reading peer review articles and text books, and research studies I have written on these topics and turned in many drafts, revised, and turned back in. The second chapter is my methods and procedures which was completed these last couple of weeks. This included designing my instrument (questionnaires), meeting with Dr. Hendricks to work on it, work on a contract to give to the Human Subjects Committee to review and approve my project and questionnaire prior to usage. So with 19 pages written, and more to come next quarter... that alone has made life busy. I utilize 7 hours or so in lab a week alone, and time outside of class. Next quarter it is independent work with checking in with my advisor when there are due dates for section. Chapter 3 will be all my data I collect and analyzing it with tables, graphs, and inputing everything into excel to get t-tests, stats, and frequencies. Chapter 4 will be summing it up, turning everything in chapter 3 into information people understand and where conclusions are being drawn and recommendations for the agency are being made (the agency in this case being the City of San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce). So the next step in my senior project? Getting my senior project proposal approved (Revised copies of Chapters 1 & 2) by my advisor and then going to Human Subjects Department... they have to approve it to make sure that nothing unethical is taking place and that they let me know what on my questionnaire needs to change or things in my research questions from my senior project... if all is good, they give me a thumbs up and I proceed. With Los Angeles having a big population I will be getting 400 questionnaires completed by standing out in L.A. outside a supermarket like Whole Foods or Ralphs and getting to work ;) So that is what is next which should keep me occupied until June.

Job/Internship: With my limited options of where to go, where I want to go.... here is where I plan to stay. I have been in prayer, probably not enough, but prayer nonetheless of what and where to go. I am at peace with being here, and know I have ties here. The last five and a half years are here and this is my home now. My closest friends are here... minus a couple, and my church is here, my awesome and amazing youth kids are here, friends, and that one guy.... oh yeah... Mike! LOL. Just kidding. But alot is here, and I am comfortable here... and that probably is a bad thing and that could mean God is preparing a place where I may not be so comfortable in the near future, and that's fine.... hopefully I will recognize God is trying to get my attention. But in the meantime I have wonderful roommates whom I love and my family is not that far away. Gas prices keep me in the county currently, and so that is why no one sees me unless they are walking distance. But I have had interviews and in those learning what I really want to do... or rather what I don't want to do. I don't want to be behind a desk. I love my degree, I want to work with people, I want to interact, I want life to be ever changing daily at work, and I want excitement... hence why I chose this path. As much as I love the coffee business (4 years in it now), I am ready to move on and be done with it. I am over retail. I know life is about customer service... that is just the world, and that is fine. I don't know if I want to be a wedding planner, I am pretty sure I don't. I like sales, travel, research. I would love to work for the city or work at a winery doing events (got tons here). Jobs are just hard to come by, and this current economic standing is not helping. I have interviewed for a marketing firm in SLO and they wanted and event coordinator and the first thing they asked me is why not work for a hotel? Because I don't want to. If I wanted to do that I would be applying there instead of for your firm that's why?!? Of course I didn't tell her that, but I was sure thinking it. I also had an internship interview for the Family Care Network. Wonderfl non-profit organization, something I would love to do... doing something for the good of people and the community and it would be helping with the Miracle Mile for Kids, and alot of the people who work there are Christians which is great, but it is unpaid for 6 months. With bills and such I need to get a paid job. I have 3 interviews coming up.... 2 for the Cliffs in Pismo. One working in Sales and Guest Services overseeing operations and working in marketing and group sales, and the other is working in events and catering. Another one is for this small company called Destination Advisors, a sister company of another small company here called Conference Advisors, and they help to coordinate meetings set here and trade shows, and events. Now they are focusing on travel and retreats and such. They research other areas in California for people here on the coast to use them as a liason in going somewhere else and being their travel agent kinda but on a different scale. So I am hoping in all that God has it worked out.... or I will be in coffee a little while longer. I interviewed for a marketing position at the beginning of the quarter for working the Midstate Fair, but nothing came of it. This Friday our department is putting on a career fair, so maybe something will spring from that as well.

My other classes are going okay, finance is kicking my butt with a huge budget project due next week, but I am getting it together. Leadership has been a great class too, and glad I took it in my last quarter. Since this is getting longer than I want, I will discuss that in a whole other blog later on down the line.

So just me and life and to wrap this thing up!!: I am blessed! Hectic life, but blessed nonetheless. I have had the flu since Saturday, and it is rockin' me, but dayquil, theraflu (that stuff is disguuuuuuuuusting!!!), Advil, tea, Lemon Juice and honey warm, cough medicine, cough drops..... and I am good to go! I am feeling a little better today than the past few. So that is good. Not the best timing, but is it ever good timing to be sick? Not so much. Mike and I are doing well. Communication is something we seem to always learn something about and we hit walls sometimes, but ya know... such is life. Learning from it. Amanda recommended "Men are from Mars, and Women are Venus". Believe it or not.... great book. I see much of me and Mike in it in how we communicate to each other and respond... and craziness. So learning from that and applying has helped and learning how to be more receptive to the other person. We have had a crazy and upside down, inside out year and a half and I am learning something new all the time. Learning about myself and what I need to change, sacrifice. Learning to be more selfless and flexible and lightening up to the things which don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Lakeside (church) is going well, the youth are preparing to for Mexico in the next few days and leave on the 14th. I will be overseeing Sunday Morning church and youth group while the other sponsors, and Jon (youth pastor) are gone down there. So I will have about 20ish give or take a couple, kids to handle so it will be interesting. Kinda nervous, but maybe because this is a first for me.

New York: Oh yeah! For those who didn't see all 300+ of my pictures.... amazing time. I went over break and stayed with my awesome Aunt (Krissie). I love having an Aunt the same age as my boyfriend and another one who is younger than him ;) Made it so fun. Went into the city for New Years Eve, and left by 10 because... I like my ribs and we were 12 blocks away at Broadway and 56th street it didn't matter... the ball was the size of my pinky nail. The day before I left NY to come back to Cali it was 12 degrees.... yeah so I am not missing that part. I did have lots of fun though and loved being with family I met for the first time, and it was just a good thing. That was more important than seeing everything in one trip... if I saw everything in one trip.... then coming back wouldn't be as exciting right?! So I spent alot of time shopping the outlets, hanging out, went to a Boardy Barn Reunion at a cool Irish Pub, rode the subway (California has crappy public transportation in comparison).

So that is everything up until this point. The house me and roommies are living in has not sold yet, we are still here. We are looking into next year and living somewhere else, some of us together into something a little cheaper. So that is coming. So I have a lot of prayer requests (I believe in the power of prayer)... you can just pray for sanity and that will work for me ;) Thanks reading my novel!!!