What's in a name?

Hello to everyone! This is my first blog ever! Isn't that exciting? I think I'll start off by explaining the name of my blog. A Guide to Jewish Dating. I initially wanted to name my blog something deep and draw it from one of my favorite songs that really has meaning for me. After much though, I accidentally stumbled across a website entitled "Bruce's Guide to Jewish Dating" and I thought, BINGO! Then my good friend Kimberlea confirmed that this was a very solid choice. I enjoy it because of the irony. First of all, I'm not Jewish. Second, I very rarely date! Perfect :o)

Well, as for life now that I'm in Cali...things are going pretty well. My weekends are very boring because I don't really know anyone yet. I know the girls from work but they were pretty busy this last weekend and my roomy has a boyfriend about an hour away that she goes to see on weekends so I've had a lot of quality time w/ myself and her dog, Emma. Who, btw, makes a lot of really gross noises and farts out loud. I mean REALLY out loud. Weird. I like her lots though, other than that. She keeps me company. So basically, I really like it here except when I get bored, because then I start to think of all the things I miss doing w/ my good friends back in Idaho. Basically, any of you reading this :o)

I've talked to most of you since I've been here, so I think you guys know most of my stories but we'll do a quick overview just in case, to catch you up.

San Diego, Pre-Service Orientation (PSO): It was scary at first. I got roomed w/ a lady from Ontario Oregon who was in her 50s about. She was nice but both of her sons died a few years ago and I think she kind of snapped when that happened (understandable, but still a little awkward for me). I met some really cool people. Dana, from Philly who is working a few hours south of me. Aaronica, from Minneapolis, who's working in Sacramento, an hour...some direction of me, ha. We've hung out several times and talk quite a bit so that's very cool. Wendy, working in LA. We talk every now and again but not too much. Hopefully I'll get to see her sometime when I head down south. And I met a guy at the PSO who was really fun and Christian and cool and funny and everything and I, along w/ everyone we hung out w/, thought he was interested in me. I mean...he went out of his way to be around me, flirted hard core the whole time we were around each other. Aaronica even said something to me about it. Anyways, he wanted to hang out one night, I couldn't find him, so I told this girl we both know that if she saw him she could tell him to call me cuz I was going out w/ Jackie. He did, so we had numbers. Good times. I was pumped. Blah blah. Anyways, after the swearing in deal, he high tailed it out, and I texted and told him Jackie and I were hanging at the beach if he wanted to join (cuz he was from San Diego so I thought he might not have plans). He responded that he was going to see his gf because he hadn't seen her all week.... Retarded? Yes. I said something about how that surprised me that he had a gf because of his extreme flirtyness, etc, and he said he was sorry, and since we had had some confusion, we probably shouldn't have each others numbers anymore....whaaat? Yeah. So dude was a lame-o. Basically, ha.

Aaaanyways...the PSO was good other than that. I got to hang out w/ Jackie a ton which was VERY nice. I think she helped me transition. Though we both decided it was crazy that it didn't seem weird at all to just up and meet up w/ each other in the middle of my training and her in the middle of a business trip. It seemed completely natural, ha. Good times.

Since then...I've been back in Modesto. I like it. It's kinda a lot like Nampa except for a bit rougher. Like...it's the car theft capital of the US. And they have problems w/ identity theft by people stealing mail...I never even knew identity theft was a problem other than online! So Naiive. It also makes me nervous that the gangs here are much more big time than our little drug selling gangs in Nampa. I do feel safe though. My house is in a very nice part of town and all that jazz. And I still just feel that if you play it smart, you're not in too much danger. I'm just worried I'll go somewhere sometime and not have any clue.

Work...I like it but they kinda just said...HERE YOU GO! and didn't really give me much direction. As time goes on I'm getting little and little bits of direction so I think it will work out to be okay but as of now I'm just slowly picking up speed. Just so you kinda know what I'm doing, though, I'm basically re-structuring the way they do everything. In the last year they've gone from building 1 house a year to like...50 families. So crazy growth. And they said they've just been scrabling to keep up w/ everything, and now they want me to come in and create workable systems w/ the #'s they're getting now. Pretty cool. There's definitely lots to do. I just need to figure out what, when, and how. I'm excited because it should give me a pretty good overall view of small non profits and see if it's something I'd be interested in for reals.

I like all the people I work with. They're very nice. Two girls are around my age (Nell & Jessica) and I sit right by Jessica and we can talk al day, which is a nice change from Orion. I work w/ one guy who just doesn't really talk to me. We now say good morning, which is a HUGE step, but he's way quite. It's all good though, he's not hot, and he's mormon, and I've got Jessica to keep me company :o)

As far as church...the one my roommate Lori goes to is awesome so I just really liked the first one I tried. It's really big, but very involved it seems like, so I like that. I just found a young adult ladies small group that meets monday nights and I'm gonna go starting next week. The leader got my number and wants to talk and let me know about the group and stuff before, so maybe I'll make friends before another weekend of boredom, ha. I also want to find a small group or bible study that's co-ed, just for the mix. I'm hoping one of the girls in the monday night group will also go to one of those and I can befriend her and just go w/ her, ha. We'll see if everything works out :o)

Well....I think that's the update! Really long, but I didn't want to miss anything. Thank you all for chatting w/ me when I'm bored or homesick or whatever! I will try to keep this semi-updated and once I find my camera, I may even add pictures :o) Love you all!