So... I haven't written a blog in a long time and today was a big day.  I signed a contract for a house!! I will soon be the owner of 210 w read st in baltimore!  I'm going to open a gallery in it and its going to be fantastic.

So I've decided I should write my memoirs because I can't ever remember anything that happened.  I have been unemployed for a month and a week.  Since moving out of New Jersey, I lived with Rebecca for a week and then moved into Jamie's house in College Park.  I have 3 roommates, Jamie, Phil, and Narique.  They are all awesome!  So I have been exploring DC which has been really fun.  I went to Georgetown, and Dupont Circle, and South east, Columbia Heights and Capitol Hill so far, all of which were super nice.  It is so nice to live close to everybody especially Ariella and Jamie and Mary Beth because we can hang out all the time.  I also went to Artscape when I first moved back which was super cool because I got to spend a lot of time with Paul and Bree and Mike and Nick, all of whom a love to death!  I stayed in Baltimore for like 3 days, which ended in a weird night at Jeremy's house where he tried to convince me that some meth head from North Carolina that he hired stole my car to drop off dead girls at Greenmount Cemetery.  I believe that was after the last night at Liam's with Andrew Hobby. 

Then, for my first trip of unemployment, I went to North Carolina.  I got down to Wilmington after a 7 hour long drive from College Park, ad once I gotinto the town my car started making really loud grinding noises, but I got to Pari's house okay.  Her house is absolutely beautiful in a charming little neighborhood of downtown Wilmington.    We immediately left to go to Myrtle Beach to see Snoop Dogg!  We arrived at the place where the House of Blues is (Barefoot Landing?) which is on like an island off the coast of North Myrtle Beach, and met up with her roommate and friends at a Wings place before heading over to the show. The opening act was terrible but Snoop Dogg was really great.  And he performed in pajamas!  And they sold beer in the bathroom!  We met some really interesting people at the concert and afterwards we toook a cab from the house of blues to downtown myrtle beach (like a half an hour, ugh) and we stayed in Pari's friend's hotel.  Everyone else went out to a bar but I stuck around the hotel....  In the morning we went to Dino's for delicious brunch w/ Pari's friend Chris and his roommate Travis, who was wearing an NRA hat and a Nascar shirt.  Then we made it back to Wilmington and I dropped off my car to get it fixed.  I had to get the brake rotors replaced so I ended up staying another night in Wilmington.  We went out with Pari's friends from work who were really awesome!  We went out dancing at a bar where a band she was friends with was playing.  The next day I got up and got my car and headed out to Thomasville to see Jillian.  I stayed at her parent's house where they put in a new pool which was super awesome but was filled with brown water from the hose... it was still fun to go swimming.  I met Jill's new boyfriend who was super nice and we watched 2 movies: Penelope, which was awful, and Bella, which was better.  The next day I drove to Chapel Hill and got to spend time with Maria and Briana.  We went to Los Pos for dinner which was just as good as I remembered, and then we went out to Top Of the Hill for the true Carolina experience.  It was all really nice, and I was planning to go swimming with Briana in a rock quarry the next morning, until I woke up and saw I missed several calls from Rebecca.  She was in labor... and I was in North Carolina.  So I drove all the way up to Philadelphia, about 8 hours and got there before she had the baby even though she had been in labor for about 12 hours at that point.  After another 18 hours of waiting and Rebecca being in pain, she had a beautiful baby boy, Kaleb Aren Nenno, 6 lbs, 8 oz., 11:42 on July 30th (I think thats the right date).  Me and Sarah Sivilich held her legs and got to see the miracle of life first-hand wich was amazing. 

I then went home and proceeded to score an awesome job working for Meso-Scale Diagnostics as their only chemist.  I will be doing manufacturing and process chemistry and eventually will be able to hire an assistant to do the majority of the manufacturing so I can focus on process development.  The company sounds really awesome, their product is super cool, and it is totally a step up from my job with Schering-Plough, so I couldn't be happier.  I will start August 18th.  Since they gave me two weeks between the offer and my start date I decided I should defintiely go on vacation!  I couldn't decide where to go, and after a night of drinking in DC with Andrew Kloman and trying to decide between LA, France, and anywhere else in the world to go the next weekend, I started looking at airfares.  And Europe was out of control expensive, I already decided that LA was too boring and then I found super cheap filghts to Costa Rica.  It was less than 350 roundtrip.  So Andrew ended up not being able to go, and I asked Ariella, and she magically got off from work so we were able to go together!  After a week of getting frustrated from not working and having nothing to do our adventure began!

We went to Reagan airport on Sunday around 3 for our 4:00 flight to Atlanta.  Unfortunately, this flight was delayed a couple hours, so we would not be able to make our connecting flight to San Jose.  We tried everything we could to leave that day, but ended up changing our flight to Monday morning at 7 from Dulles.  All in all, it was not that horrible, and we got into San Jose at 12 noon, and took a taxi to the Coca-Cola bus station, which my tourbook repeatedly said was the most dangerous place in San Jose, but we got on the bus to Ciudad Quesada without any problem and it left 2 minutes after we got there.  We were very confused because everyone I asked told me that the bus was going to Ciudad Quesada, but the Front ofthe bus only said San Carlos.  Later, we looked in the guidebook and there was no San Carlos on the map, so Ariella looked it up and found out that San Carlos was the old name for Ciudad Quesada, and all of our confusion was explained.  Some dude got on the bus and sold us platanos with lime and salt which was totally awesome.  There was an accident ahead of us while we were on the bus and we had to wait for about an hour for it to get cleared up.  It apparently involved 4 cars and was very bad.  We didn't see it, but people walking up and down the road explained what was going on.  The we went along our way passing another accident where I saw in the back of a cow truck a human form covered by a white blanket... really glad we didn't rent a car.  Anyway, we got to Ciudad Quesada and met some people from New York who also went on the bus to La Fortuna with us.  When we arrived we booked a trip for the next morning and ate Italian food and then went to our hotel/eco-resort which was super fabulous for only $65 a night. 

We got up early the next morning and ate breakfast at our hotel (el tipico) which was eggs, black beans and rice, a piece of fresh cheese, and a fried plantain.  It was perfect.  We then got picked up and went on a tour of a butterfly garden where we got to see owl butterflies and other pretty things, and then we went horseback riding.  Me and Ariella got white horses, the two Costa Rican girls who were with us got brown horses, and the four Spaniards got a combination of white and brown horses.  Perhaps to match our skin colors.  We rode the horses up a beautiful trail and it was really fun.  My horse, Salpicado, was very mean and he bit every horse that got too close... really hard too.  When we got to the top of the mountain we could see the waterfall, and it was really pretty.  We got off the horses and hiked down the moutain through the rainforest to get to the bottom of the waterfall.  The hike was a bit treacherous, but really beautiful.  The waterfall was amazing to see up close; the force of the water moved everything around it.   We got to swim in the incredibly blue water surrounding the waterfall but not too close to the waterfall where we could drown, though there were some crazy people over there.  We then hiked back up the stairs to the horses and went horseback riding to a fake Indian village.  It was fake in that the Indians did not actually live there, but they explained that they made it look like their village with straw huts and sold their crafts there.  The talked about their Maleku culture and wore grass skirts and explained the different kinds of masks that they used, one for women, one for shaman, one for the eternal bond of marriage, one for peace, nature, and eternal love, and a couple other ones I don't remember exactly.  After this we rode our horses back down the mountain and went to the store where they sold tours.  We talked to a guy named Renaldo about whether we could book a tour to go to the volcano and the hot springs and he said his company did not have any tours, but he could arrange something special for us.

We were supposed to go with Renado at 7, but it started pouring, so he called us and we decided to go at 9.  I persuaded Ariella to go even though it was still raining a little bit and the whole tour seemed kind of shady, and a guy named Faustino picked us up and we went and got Renaldo.  They took us up to the volcano, and when we got there it stopped raining and was completely clear.  We saw lava rocks falling down from the volcano, and it erupted really big once while we were there.  It was really amazing and we stared at it for almost an hour.  Then Renaldo took us to a hot spring.  On the way there, he invited us to go to a discotheque where he could teach us to salsa and where he was going to drink a lot.  He really liked to drink.  And he really liked nature.  And told us he is going to the United States to study birds in Alabama some time next year.  Instead of going to the commercial hot springs, we walked under a bridge to a river where there was a random pool of slower moving water surrounded by rocks and a really fast current on the other side.  There was volcanic sand at the bottom of the spring and lava rocks everywhere.  It was really fun and peaceful and elt like a jacuzzi and we chilled there for about another hour.  We then went back to La Fortuna, ate desserts with flaky pastries and dulce de leche, and went back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up early so that we could go to the rainforest before returning to San Jose.  We tried to book a safari but we couldn't, so we just booked a trip to the rainforest hanging bridges, which was super awesome.  We walked on a two-mile loop around the rainforest which included lots of hanging bridges and regular bridges.  It was so lush and dense and green and we saw so many different kinds of plants.  We also saw a squirrel, a turkey, some other cool birds, a huge blue metallic ant, a hissing beetle, spider monkeys swinging through the trees and 2 sloths.  We had no tour guide, but we talked to the guy in front of us, Luis, who was a tour guide and who spoke English, and he was really cute and nice and helped us see some of the animals.  When we were leaving the rainforest we got to a see a blue morpho butterfly which was incredibly beautiful and huge.

After going back and checking out of our hotel, we went to La Fortuna and had lunch and bought some stuff and got on the bus to San Jose.  We got to San Jose and were able to get off the bus on the nice side of town this time, and we took a cab to the hostels in Barrio Amon.  The first one we went to had no private rooms and it was filled with young people hanging out.  We got directions to the hostel we were planning to go to, but we didn't find it.  Instead, we ran into this white dude who was like "Are you Americans?  Do you know where you are?  This is so dangerous!   You stick out like a sore thumb and this is Costa Rica, it's not safe" and blah blah blah.  He followed us to the end of the block and me and Ariella decided to go to hostel we had just passed instead of looking for the one we saw on the internet.  Th dude then said "I would feel much better if I followed you wherever you are going" and I said "I would feel much better if you didn't follow us where we are going" and he apologized and left us alone.  We checked into a really nice hostel where I believe we were the only guests and it only cost $15 a night.  We proceeded to walk out to a big square in the city (4 blocks away, a really nice neighborhood) and we ate at a vegetarian restaurant, (muy rico) and then walked around a little bit, played air hockey in an arcade, got ice cream and then went back to the hostel to bed.  We got up super early and sadly came back to the states.  It was an awesome adventure and I only wish we had more time.  Travelling with Ariella was super fun and I couldn't imagine it being any better.

I now live in Maryland!  I'm now unemployed!  I will be making a visit to North Carolina in the near future to see all of my college friends who I miss a ton.

So up until now I have been okay with trying to be professional, but now I hate my job and I'm quitting it, so why continue.  I want to be blonde.  I want to have piercings again.  I want to look like a 22-year old.  Instead, people think I'm 26 or 28. 

Thats it.  Just a small rant tonight.

So I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.  I want to move but I have been soooo lazy.  I can't seem to do anything outside of go to work, watch tv, cook maybe 3 times a week, go to the gym twice a week, and go out with my friends to bars in JC.  I guess it's not so bad, but I'm totally stuck in a rut.  I wanna move back to Maryland, but I haven't been working on getting a job at all for the past two weeks, and I'm not sure who I want to live with.  I think me and Mary Beth want totally different things so that's not going to work.  I think the idea of living with Jamie scares me, I love him and all but he is Jamie... he doesn't pay bills... and he snores.  I think the only person who has a stable job and understands the concept of living on their own is Ariella, but we both don't know what we want to do.  I feel like maybe I should just get a random apartment wherever I want and put an ad on cragslist for a roommate.  Then I won't fuck up anything with my best friends and I'll be able to pick wherever I wanna live.  I really am scared of moving without a job though.... I dont really want to be broke and I've never waited tables or bartended so who knows who will hire me.  I've been playing with the idea of being a flight attendant.  I speak Spanish and French and I love to travel and I actually really like being all alone in a strange city with a hotel room.  Maybe my friend from Philly, Sarah, could hook me up with a job doing it too.  Then I just get complacent and satisfied with being here.  I really love JC but I'm sick of New Jerseyians and New Yorkers and I don't like New York at all.  My job pisses me off, but it is way easier to stay there and keep getting a fat paycheck than to think of what it would be like to live with barely enough money to pay rent.  My momma is totally supportive of me in whatever I do, but I dont think I could move in with her.  I would only have to pay like $200 or $250 in rent a month to live there, but it's not worth it to me.  I've got too much pride in being independent.  I feel like that is what is keeping me from moving too close to home either.  I love catonsville and ellicott city, but to move there I feel is moving backwards and trying to capture something that is gone and over.  I want to move to takoma park because I dont know a lot about it and its far enough away I feel like its somewhere new from where I grew up.  And it's super cute!  I have got to try harder to get a job b4 I have to move out.  If I had some prospects I think I would feel more excited and less scared.  Either way, I'm leaving my place June 30th and what happens from there is a mystery.

So all I asked for Christmas was an IShuffle, and I haven't put music on it until now.  But now I can't take it off my head.  It's exactly how I imagined it, I never know what's going to play next, but I'm sure it will be one of my favorite songs!  And if I'm not in the mood for that song, but I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for, I just push one little button.  Marvelous technology!  When I got it my mom asked me where how they fit all that music in something so small.  My brother told her she never questioned how they fit all those people in the tv. Hehehe.  My Ishuffle constantly goes from whiny indie rock to old school hip hop to reggaeton to dance music to poppy rap.  It's everything I like!  Everyone should get fotolog by the way, its like myspace but way better.  You just put up photos, comment on your friends photos and write long captions like a blog or nothing for each picture.  My name on fotolog.com is flooptastic, check it out.  Also the snow is really pretty.

I got an email today about a job I really want to do.  It involves being a travelling saleswoman for chemical equipment I am very familiar with, so maybe I will get it.  I don't know exactly where it is based, but the email address says baltimore, which would be great.  Vamos a ver.  Extrano todos en Baltimore y DC!  Floop!

So I haven't written a blog in sooo long.  I am feeling very distant from the world right now.  I just went to an awesome party at a really cool art gallery with all of my friends and I had trouble talking to anyone.  I just don't know why, but right now I can't hold a conversation.  I left the party after less then an hour, at 12:30, because my stomach hurts so bad and I feel like I might shit myself.  The line for the bathroom at the party was really long and I felt weird so I just left.  I don't go out much anymore, and I don't know why.  I go to work, and then sit at home and talk in Spanish online or watch TV and occassionally go to the gym.  I decided that was normal, but I feel like something is missing.  It's not just that I'm bored, I'm kind of content with everything I do, but I just feel an emptiness.  I think I may be getting depressed, and I don't know what to do to change that.  I am currently thinking that I need to engage myself in something creative and social, but what the hell does that entail?  A scuplture class?  Actually that sounds like a great idea.  I just really need something to talk about to new people I meet and I feel vacant inside.  I have no trouble approaching someone, starting a conversation, but then there is awkward silence that I used to know how to fill, and now I don't.  I have one story, I went to South America.  No one seems all that interested.  Maybe it was just tonight and the crazy party I was at and my impending diarrhea.  But this feeling keeps coming to me.  I knew before I left for my trip that I was depressed.  But when I came back everything felt better, I had motivation and I was excited about things and I had people staying with me every weekend.  Now that I am here alone in JC, I am just very alone.  I have friends, and I really like them, but I keep alienating myself.  I have been hanging out with my work friends, and strangely I can talk with them no problem for a long time, but I have a lot of interests that they don't share, namely traveling, art, music, dancing, exercise, and making clothes.  That's about all that interests me too.  Somehow though we can talk about politics and religion and sex for hours.  I haven't had sex in a month, and I kind of took myself off the market, maybe that's why I feel empty hahaha!

On another note, I have been thinking about moving to MD/DC/VA/NC.  I put in some applications and sent out my CV to some connected people.  I would love to live near DC with my friends (not in DC for political reasons), but if I could do what I do now for Glaxo in North Carolina I think I might be really happy to go there too.  Sure North Carolina isn't all that exciting and it's a big difference from where I am now, but I have friends there and there are jobs there, and the weather is amazing.  I have reservations about moving back to Bmore, because I left for a reason, and the city is a pretty depressing place in parts.  But I still got love for Charm City.  I hate New Jersey, but JC has an awesome scene that I like being a part of.

Anyway, the conclusion of this long emotional blog is that I should find a sculpture class to join.

So as any of you that know me at all know, I have a serious aversion to reading and books.  I typically claim that I can't read at all, which is pretty much true.  If anything is longer than 2 pages I have serious trouble.  Short newspaper articles are usually doable, but magazine articles too long.  So anyway I read a book.  A whole full-length novel.  And I think I liked it.  It was Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.  Ariella always told me Kurt Vonnegut was God and that she wanted to marry him, but never in my wildest imagination did I think I would find out what she meant by actually reading an entire book.  So now that this conquest is finished I think I need to start on something new.  I was looking through my parents' book collection (the books never got divorced somehow) and I found A Clockwork Orange, which might be a bit hard to read, and Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis which Chris keeps telling me is the best book ever.  It looks really long though.  Maybe really too long.Maybe I should just borrow more Vonnegut books from Ariella, or search through my house for them, because I'm sure we have a few.

I took today off from work so that I could drive back to Baltimore last night, which I did.  I then proceeded to Central and then to bed and I slept until noon.  I've been taking these antibiotics (thanks Chris) that I'm not supposed to drink while taking.  I read the little fact sheet and the side effects from drinking sounded horrible, including swelling and throbbing of the head and neck (explosion follows?).  After giving in and trying to drink on this antibiotic anyway, I realized my head does not explode, but I think the combination makes me sleep forever.  I never sleep past 11, rarley past 9 on the weekends, and now if I take this medicine and drink I wake up at 12...1...  it sucks!  But at least I'm done with them now!

So tonight I am heading out to Cool Whip with Mary Beth.  I am so excited!!!!!  If you read this blog before tonight, you should definitely go too!  I think it will be an awesome time, and an excellent pre-Thanksgiving party.   I love being back home for the holidays because everyone else is back home too.  I feel like Hoboken and Jersey City probably empty out for the holidays since everyone there is from somewhere else. 

I am so fucking happy right now with my life.  I enjoy being free and meeting new people.  I'm doing things now that I would totally be missing out on if I was still in a relationship, so it's really exciting to get to be myself and be crazy and flirt with strangers and dance like a fool.
See you at Cool Whip.
Floop Out.

So I came home for my mom's birthday and bree's birthday.  I forgot my cell phone.  When I checked my messages today I had 8 messages from last night.  Why does no one call me when I actually have my phone?  Hahaha but anyway I feel loved.  I went to double T last night with MB and it was awesome.  I love that place and I love being with Marybeth, and I love carafes of Chianti.  I got my mom hair product and a gift cerificate to V&A's for her birthday.  I think she really liked it.  Anyway, tonight is Bree's party and Ariella is going to come even if someone forgot to invite her!  Yay!  I think I really like folk music.  It's pretty awesome.  Listening to the Bright Eyes folksy album over and over again makes me realize this.  I took my mom to Borat for her birthday and she really liked it.  I thought it was okay.  I also made her buy cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory.  So the moral of the story is happy birthday to all.  YAY!