I can rent a car now!!

Or at least rent one without being charged an additional "under 25" fee. So, Saturday was my birthday, and like the past 5 years, I have spent it away from my family, thanks to Beach Projects, CCP, training at UCONN, and my new job. But, I did get to talk with everyone back home and listen to their well wishes and teasing about me "getting old". My first birthday involved going to the 28th Annual Garlic festival in Gilroy, CA, which is the garlic capital of the world (and they are proud of their garlic)..haha. I met up with this girl from Boston that is interning at a nearby school. Actually, we've hung out twice in the past week. So, i could possibly call Saturday a 'date'. Not sure if anything will happen with that. Of course she leaves in another week for Boston, but she has two of my favorite qualities: Latina, and can dance salsa! Last Sunday we spent the afternoon at the famous Boardwalk amusement park and ate dinner on the Santa Cruz wharf...good times. If anything more comes of that friendship, I'll be sure to let you all know.

So, the other thing I did for my 25th was eat, drink, and be merry with my co-workers and their partners/spouces. Come to think of it, we do a lot of that...eat, drink, and be merry. Thanks to our lucrative budget and our convenient location, our RD (Resident Director) staff retreat involved us spending a day and a half in San Francisco...dining at fancy restaraunt, staying in a nice hotel, karoake bar, going to famous musical..good times I tell ya. I can stand this for a few more years..haha. We're even going to the Giants vs. Dodgers game as a staff in a couple weeks!!

So, overall life has been fun in the bay area. I shared at a community group meeting that my biggest challenge is trying to find a group of friends to spend time with and just getting adjusted to my truly single adult life. Don't get me wrong, I am sooo thankful that I already knew folks before moving here. But, the truth is its hard being single and working at a university. I can't exactly make friends with the undergrads, cause I'm a full-time staff member (the line was a lot grayer when I was a grad student). And, most of my colleagues are so different than me, that I find myself getting frustrated because I know that we couldn't just hang out all the time outside of work.

The church thing is sort of a struggle too. I've enjoyed my time attending church with my bama friends, but (i can't believe I'm actually saying this) well.... I just don't know if I'm ready to be the only black person in church again. I did that thing in Connecticut and it was pretty much the same at Briarwood in Birmingham. It can be emotionally draining and culturally confusing over time. On top of all this, my relationship with God has been less than good over the past few months (or year for that matter), and I'm having a rough time with spirtual things altogether. Honestly, it feels a lot better to just avoid the whole issue and superficially "hangout" at church. So, hopefully, I will get all this stuff worked out. Pray for me.

Sorry, if this is too long of a blog...I have more to say, but I'll dish it out in portions....