Keeping Up

I cannot believe it is already August. Time flies by way too fast.

In my last post, I mentioned some of the highlights of my summer thus far. Besides the Maryland trip, I have been visiting a lot of friends who are back in town for summer and such. Just recently I even went to a Line Dancing Club in Thousand Oaks with some coworkers. Even though this "tush push" video taught me some moves, I was definitely not prepared for all the dances I saw that night! I had a blast, and I will definitely have to practice more for next time. :]

In my spare time (which I have had a lot of) I have been starting a new hobby...nail art! I was inspired by my good friend, Holly, when she showed me how to water marble the nail polish. Since then, I have been painting my nails in all sorts of different ways! It has been real fun trying new colors and new designs out. The possibilities are endless. Growing up, I never painted my nails because I was a total tom-boy, but now I can't stand to look at my hands without nail polish on them! A very helpful lady on YouTube by the name of Collette has posted some amazing video tutorials on water marbling and other forms of nail art. You can find her channel if you click here. I'll post some pictures below of some of my recent creations!

Fourth of July nails

Blue water marble

Pink and Yellow gradient with Black Crackle

Olympic nails! Blue and Red gradient with Silver Crackle polish

"Tire Tracks" White nail polish with Black Crackle polish

Besides inhaling probably way too much Nail Polish Remover fumes, I have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with my nail art! Sometime soon I plan to try "newspaper nails" where you transfer the ink from a newspaper onto your nail. I heard it even works with sheet music, and since I have tons of that laying around, I'll probably do that design instead. 

I am still in denial about school resuming this month. We start classes on the 20th, and I know that once school hits, there will be no free time whatsoever. It looks like when I am not in class, I will be at work. And when I am supposed to be sleeping, I will be doing homework. Sounds like the life to me! Just focusing on me, me and me. I cannot wait to be done with college. 

I guess I shouldn't say I will be solely be focusing on me. I will make a stronger effort to spend my free time with friends and family. Today I had the opportunity to get together with some friends from high school. My good friend, Joe, made an excellent point that we should be more grateful for each other, and try to spend what little time we may have together. Just recently, two boys who graduated from our high school back in 2010 and 2011 were both involved in different traffic accidents which cost them their lives. Rest in Peace to Kyle and Mark. They were both so young, and to have them gone this soon is extremely sad. Death is always going to be a part of life, but we need to cherish all the time we can on Earth. Hopefully you'll choose to spend that extra minute or two telling someone you love them, or are grateful to have them in your life! 

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

-Romans 13:8

On that note, I will say Good Night! I shall be posting more frequently! :]

~Marcea

Summer Is Over

So I apologize for not posting any entries in the past few months. Not sure who reads this thing anyways! I really need to get in the habit of composing more blog posts.

What has happened since the last post?
hmmm.

Well I finished my second semester at AVC. My course schedule was a little bit different that I had originally intended to take, so I will go into a brief recap of what I thought about each class.

Art 104- History of Modern Art
I took this course after taking Art 102, which was History of Art: Renaissance to Modern. Basically it was a continuation class. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I had the same professor, Rae Agahari, and she is fantastic. You really learn a lot from her! I have a new found respect for modern art, and contemporary art as well. This makes my trips to LACMA a lot more meaningful!

Math 160- Calculus II
This class kicked my butt! All sorts of forms of integration and it's application. Series, polar graphs....yuck. Good teacher, but harsh grading. I am so glad I passed with a C. I will be moving onto Calculus III this upcoming semester, and I am looking forward to having the same professor I had for Calculus I this time around! He was an excellent teacher, and as a bonus, he likes me! :]

Political Science 101 Honors- Intro to American Government
My first honors class within the Honors Program at AVC. John Vento is a fantastic teacher...but this was one of the hardest classes I have had to take in a while. I took AP Government in high school, and did well, but it definitely did not prepare me for anything in this class! We did a lot of reading, analyzing, and most importantly....writing. I find writing to be extremely subjective, and I have had many teachers and professors in the past who have either loved my writing, or hated it. This professor definitely did not like my writing. But after working extremely hard to improve it, I managed to get a 75% on the first essay exam, and 90% on the last. With steady progression, it was extremely rewarding to earn an A on an exam! I ended up with a B overall in the class, which is okay, but I will take it.

Psychology 211- Psychology of Chicanos
Wow. I had to take this class to fulfill a diversity requirement. Definitely did NOT like this class. I had to bite my lip the entire semester, and thank God I got an A. What seemed to be an interesting area of study turned out to be a Chicano Pride class that felt more like a political rally rather than an environment to learn. I am so glad that I am done with that nonsense. There is nothing worse than having someone trying to shove political ideals down your throat!

Art 131- Advanced Ceramics
Since I crashed my Chemistry 110 class and couldn't get a seat, I ended up taking Ceramics again- which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was so nice this time around to actually know what I was doing on the potter's wheel. I didn't make as many pots as I would have liked, but I did make enough (and enough "good" ones) to receive an A- which is not an easy thing to pull out of Rich Sim. If you click here, you will find a link to the photos on my Facebook Album of all of my ceramic pottery.

This upcoming semester, I changed my major from Mathematics to Engineering. There are a few additional classes I will have to take, but I will definitely be at AVC for another four semesters before I transfer. Here are the classes I will be taking this upcoming semester:

Chemistry 110- General Chemistry
Math 250- Calculus III
Anthropology 101 Honors- Intro to Anthropology
Computer Information Science 161- Intro to C Programming
Art 132- Ceramics Handbuilding

We'll see how this semester goes! I will be busy with another full 19 unit load at school, and at the least, 20 hours at work! :]

Besides school, I have done some exciting things over the summertime. The first two weeks of June, I flew to Maryland with my good friend, Holly, and her family. They make an annual trip to visit every year because all of her family lives on the East Coast. We stayed with her grandparents in a cute town named Havre de Grace. If I remember correctly, that town has been around since 1785, and it was even considered in the selection of nation's capitol. Thank goodness it wasn't chosen, because it would definitely not be as cute and cozy as it is today! The town is so small, and I loved the close bonds everyone had with each other. :]

We also visited Annapolis, which is where her sister attends school at the United States Naval Academy. I had the wonderful opportunity to tour the campus, and visit downtown Annapolis as well. We also made a trip to University of Maryland in College Park. For a weekend, we travelled to Virginia, visited her family in Luray, and also visited Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Another two days were spent in Fairfax Station, VA with the Hardy family, and we even made a trip into Washington DC and visited the "Newseum". I believe we were in West Virginia for a portion of the trip having dinner with some cousins, and even made a trip to Delaware! We were busy, and I had such a wonderful time. The family, the food (especially the Maryland Crab!), and the memories were fantastic. It was so nice to get away from the AV and from school and work to relax and have a change of scenery. I have tons of photos posted in a Facebook Album which you can find if you click here. Here are some of my favorite photos!

The lighthouse at the Chesapeake Bay. 

Havre de Grace, Maryland

Laying out on a road in Virginia. The scenery was beautiful!

Luray, Virginia

Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy

Annapolis, Maryland

(We're the tiny specks on the stairs)

At the "Newseum" with Holly and the Hardy family in the nation's capitol.

Washington DC, USA

Some Maryland crab I had! YUM!

Havre de Grace, Maryland

I feel like this post is getting rather long. I will try to keep up with posting more about my life more frequently. Other than this large highlight in my summer, I have just been working a lot of hours, going to the beach every week, and hanging out with friends who are in town for the summer. I will be starting school in two weeks, so all this fun will have to come to an end. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday, and has a fantastic week! 

~Marcea