now i can officially call myself a counselor

hey everyone... i passed the NCE (National Counselor Exam)! YAY! Click here to read more about my newly acquired credential.

can you believe i'm a nationally certified counselor? shhhhhh... don't tell anyone that i'm like a 7 year old kid trapped in a 27 year old body. if they find out the truth, they may take away my masters degree too. hee hee. :)

gotta love cruise control!

yes, this is me... taking full advantage of my cruise control today as i drove down the 5 to san diego. i've always known that i had cruise control, i just never used it before. i never thought it would be so much fun! i know, i'm a freak.

and yes, this is me with my legs folded cross-legged on the seat while driving with one hand and taking a digital picture of myself with the other... going 90mph. i'm such a dork.


cruise control 

from the road

i hit long beach in 5 hours.... WOO HOO!

i'm on my way...

billboard in SF


mellow. dramatic. san diego.

Grace Cathedral on Sunday afternoon

grace cathedral

Sisters on the dance floor

dancin

All Players on Saturday night

cobb's

Suzy, Zack and Amy on Saturday

hippies

Jon, Mandi, Torrey and Misti on Friday night

gotta love this one

from grad student to unemployed

so, here i am... survived the weekend... and, not just survived, but had a fantastic time! i had a gagillion relatives here yet everything went off as planned. i saw everyone, there was no trauma or drama, everyone seemed to have a good time... i think this weekend will go down in family history as an example of a successful event. now i have some faith in the dream of having a happy wedding and all of those other huge crazy family events.

i really have lots of stories about the weekend and how i celebrated with my brothers, sisters and cousins... but i'm not totally in the mood to write about all of it. maybe i will just post some of my favorite pictures from the weekend and you can smile when you look at them and wonder?

either way, what i'm going through right now is a very weird part of my transition process. i feel like i'm hovering between two lives... between what i want my life to be (what i'm planning to make it be) and what it really is. as most of you know, i have a lot of online "venues" that i frequent for social and geek reasons. this morning one of the first things i had to do was go to all of my profiles and edit the "occupation sections" from grad student to either college counselor or unemployed. that was weird... again, hovering between my goals and my reality.

i was also editing the location field. some of them got changed to San Diego since that is where i will be as of tomorrow for an indefinite period of time. however, some of my profiles still show me as being located in San Francisco. i still want to be searchable in the bay area categories for a few of my social venues. this location thing is also fucking with my mind. i am so excited to be heading down to San Diego tomorrow... but then again, i'm not. i want to see everyone and hang out and be back in my cute little apartment... but will i get the motivation to schlepp all of my shit back up to SF? i am afraid of getting too comfortable down in SoCal.

well, for now i'm not going to worry about it. i'll become a catatonic insomniac if i do. i am just going to travel, chill with my friends and family, do some wedding planning with Monica, search for jobs, and hope that at the right time the universe will send me the signal i need to know what to do with my life.

Graduates

this pic looked so cute on Jenny's blog that i just had to put it on mine too.


Jenny and Torrey graduate 

where i am today

who has a Masters degree? oh yeah, ME!

*cue soundtrack from the musical Annie*

TOMORROW! TOMORROW! I'M GRADUATING, TOMORROW!

ok, enough of that... well, i actually don't have much to say right now, but i figured in my final moments of peace and quiet alone i would spend a little time with my blog (what does that say about my sex life these days? don't answer that). i don't know how much attention i will get to pay to this website over the next few days being that my entire family is descending on the bay area in a few hours in order to celebrate my graduation with me.

i wonder if my hits count will plummet because a huge percentage of my readers will actually be up here in the bay area with me this weekend? interesting. i'll have to monitor that. anyways... wow... babbling.... i was hoping to have something more profound to say right here.

maybe i could make a speech about being frustrated with men? but geez... how unoriginal and female of me. or, i could say something deep about completing my masters degree and how now i am ready to embark on the journey of searching for my professional identity?

OR i can always share about how yesterday i had a garlic hangover from eating too many garlic fries at the Giants game... or how my best friend from 8th grade who i thought was lost in the depths of the world population found me on myspace?

wow... what a life i live!

alright.... goodbye for now.... i'm going to take a shower and head out to santa cruz... gotta go pick up my cousin. think of me at 4pm on saturday... that's when i'm graduating.

-master torrey

it's too close not to put this up here once more...

It's almost Graduation time!

Lin and Tor celebrate the SF way

can you think of a better way to celebrate graduation and the end of our SFSU chapter than by going to a Giants game? oh, and of course watching the Giants kick the Dodgers' asses!


Giants vs. Dodgers

ps. this was not the view from our seats. we were sitting out in the bleachers behind left field, but we wanted to climb to the top of the stadium for the view.

why!?

yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia...

will everyone give me crap if i admit that i am lying here and my kidney/ureter is hurting me? dammit!

do you think once this thing is out of me i am going to sleep like a baby and realize that chronic dull achy organ pain is not necessary?

yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia yay insomnia.

Quote of the night - Tuesday

"roses are red, violets are blue, i'm in the shower so i don't smell like you"

Image of the Day -Tuesday

f.u. can start early

el fin

so i'm on campus right now... came here a little early before my 7pm class because i wanted to make sure i had a chance to sit in the student center, walk around campus, fully absorbing my final moments as a grad student. i know this may sound cheesy to all of you, but i am definitely experiencing all of that stuff about questioning my identity now. i know "torrey the grad student" very well these days, and i like her. but, what now? who am i? just "unemployed tor" or am i already "counselor tor" even though i don't have a job? i don't remember feeling like this after my bachelors degree. i remember being so excited to get the fuck outta there. i remember getting into my jetta to follow a u-haul full of my shit up to san francisco... less than a week after graduating.

what now?

well, i know what NOW... now i am logging off and going to my last class to turn in my last final... weird. super weird.

Image of the Day - Monday

can dogs read?

so bad it hurts

ok, so the insomnia is really bad right now... i can't tell what it is either... could it be that the antibiotics i'm on are starting to get to me? i think they are upsetting my stomach and all sorts of other things. i really dont want to take them anymore, i'm just plain uncomfortable. ick.

or, is it all of the stuff that's on my mind right now... i have a big week ahead of me. actually, it might be one of the best weeks of my life that i am about to live. how exciting is that! no wonder i can't sleep. wanna hear about my week ahead? ok... i thought you did.

monday- after getting some shit done on campus i'm going to dinner in the haight, very fun, very SF of me during my last week up here
tuesday- getting a pedicure with lindsay and then going to my LAST class and turning in my LAST final. holy crap. how cool is that?
wednesday- celebrating with lindsay by going to the Giants vs Dodgers game. we are going to look so cute!
thursday- cleaning, cooking, and doing all of the last minute prep for the family's arrival.
friday- everyone arrives! my brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles... then we play in SF all night long.
saturday- gradu gradu graduation! YAY! then how about some laughs at cobb's?
sunday- more family time, more SF activities... then sending everyone off.

next monday i'll have to pack my stuff in my car and say goodbye to friends, and then on tuesday may 31st i drive down to san diego. sheesh... what a week i have coming up.

argh... my tummy hurts. i am going to have to stop taking these antibiotics... they SUCK. crap. owwwww. yay unnecessary medication and insomnia. waaaaaah.

stereotypes

want to watch a cute video about male and female stereotypes?

Quote of the day - Saturday

"if there was an online church, i'd marry you"

good news from santa cruz!

great news for Amy... she was offered a spot to live in the on-campus trailer park at UC Santa Cruz for her sophmore year. it's the coolest thing ever! YAY for her!


amy in the trailer park

Word of the day - Impeccable

the word of the day is impeccable.

don't ask why, it just is.

tonight

where i am going tonight... if anyone is interested... Catalyst Cocktails.

Lisa Alice is playing tonight. she's the daughter of my aunt's friend Shelley. sweet, huh?

2 down 1 to go

I just finished my HUGE law and ethics final research paper. Holy shit, it's happening... the Masters degree is coming to and end. Last week it didn't feel like it would happen as I looked forward and saw all of the work I had to do... but here it is, happening... crikey!

Now I just have my Assessment take-home final to complete, but I have all weekend to do that so... WHATEVER! The big thing is done. Wow. It feels great.

What now? Oh yeah, it's Friday... I am going to take a shower and go out and play.

on a hunt

anyone need to hunt down a spot to grab a wireless internet connection?

ok, just checking...

traffic

one good thing about traffic is that it slows you down enough to capture pictures of the profound messages people leave on the concrete medians.


message on the freeway

Quote of the night - Thursday

"you had me at couches."

if you take the 2 S's out of SFSU, what do you get?

i have a story to tell... this just happened to one of my friends, not me, but it's worthy for the blog. so, my friend went over to school to turn in some final work... her department office was locked because of a "meeting" so she went looking for a faculty or staff member to unlock it.

as she meandered down the hallway trying to locate someone, she was discouraged to find most of the windows on the office doors were covered up with paper so she could not see in. one door however (belonging to the chair of the department) had paper put brilliantly over the window on the outside... which of course made it possible to be removed by someone in the hallway. my friend tore the paper down and saw the chair of her department diligently typing away on her computer (nice "meeting" -- hey, side note here, my mom has worked in higher education since i was a kid, i know what "meeting" really means when it comes to college administrators. us young people call it "hanging out").

anyways, with the window cover paper, and her pathetic excuse for hiding from students, now removed, my friend knocked on her door. wooosh! she hit the deck! yep, you heard me, she flew from her chair underneath her desk in an attempt to shield herself from anyone trying to get a hold of her. now why would the chair of a department do that? she hit the frickin deck people! the chair of a department crouched in a little ball on the floor in order to avoid whomever would possibily be knocking at her door.

slowly, like a cartoon character as my friend describes, this lady peeked out over her keyboard from underneath the safety of her desk. luckily, before her little bugged-out eyes could slink away again, my friend flipped her the bird.

moral of this story: if you take the 2 S's out of SFSU, what do you get? a big FU

cereal box wisdom

this morning as i ate my breakfast cereal i decided to check out the words of wisdom on the back side of the box. some healthy lifestyle choices questions were posed:

elevator or stairs?

water or soda?

carrots or cookies?

well, i am a stairs/water/cookies person. now don't cha think that if i almost always take the stairs and never choose soda over water i can allow myself from frickin cookies! i think so. i'm happy with my balance in life.

red berries are yum!

Happy Birthday Manal

today is Manal's 26th birthday... i am really tired and about to go to sleep, but i wanted to make sure to make a little mention of it for her.

we started off her birthday day with a doubles pilates session (dude, this little lady can stretch!) and we ended it with a dinner at khana peena with some friends. yikes, i'm super full now. alright.... off to bed.

Manal at Khana Peena

my space

i have made some updates to my space so i want you all to check it out. i like it.

I love my name

this thing is pretty right on, don't cha think? kinda freaky really.

T	Technological
O	Odd
R	Rare
R	Rounded
E	Enchanting
Y	Young

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

hahaha... funny... definitely yum

T	Tempting
O	Overwhelming
B	Brainy
Y	Yum

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

A different countdown

instead of counting down the days until graduation... since that is such a surreal thing... i am going to count down something a little more concrete.

today marks 2 weeks until i drive myself and all of my shit back down to san diego and become one of those people with only one residence again. i mean, i'll be back in the bay area of course eventually... but i gotta do some socal chillin for a little while.

also, i guess today marks 4 weeks until my ureteroscopy... since i've scheduled that officially for the 14th of june. yowzers!

Image of the Day -Tuesday

baby foot

Joke of the day - Monday

One day a farmer went to the vet. He said to the vet, "My sowes (female pigs) aren't getting pregnant." The docter replies, "Your going to have to artificially inseminate them." The farmer thinks to himself 'That sounds kind of sick' then says to the vet, "How will I be able to tell if they are pregnant?"

"Well," the docter says, "If they are pregnant they will be laying on the grass, and if they aren't pregnant they will be playing in the mud." So, the farmer goes home and thinks about it.

On thursday night he loaded the piggies up in the truck, drives them out to the forest and screws all the piggies. When he woke up in the morning he looks out the window and sees all the piggies playing in the mud. On friday night he loads up all the piggies in his truck, takes them out to the forest and screws them all over again.

The next morning he looks out his window to see all the piggies playing in the mud. So he thinks to himself 'this isn't fair'. Then, early that morning he loads the piggies up in the truck, takes them to the forest and screws them all day long. When he wakes up the next morning he can't even move because he's so sore.

He asks his wife, "look out the window and tell me if the piggies are playing in the mud"

"Nooo..." she replied.

"Are they laying in the grass??!!" he asks.

"Noooooo....."

"Then what the hell are they doing??!!"

"There all loaded up in the truck, and one's honkin the horn!"

Berkeley Jazz Festival

Yesterday, Manal and I stumbled upon the 4th Street Berkeley Jazz Festival sponsoring the Jazz group at Berkeley High School. We were just planning on a quiet afternoon shopping and cafe hopping (we love to eat together) and when we got to 4th Street the streets were all closed off. It was fun. I took more pictures.


4th Street in Berkeley 

implementing new slang

i think i just decided that i want to start using a new slang word. i mean, it's not new to the world, but it will be new to me. originally the word "dodgy" comes from british slang. urbandictionary.com compared it to it's american counterpart "shady" and i liked that comparison. instead of saying shady, i think i will say dodgy... until i feel too stupid saying it or until i get too much shit from my brother for saying lame words like dodgy and hecka.

neato facts

finals time = good time for blogging random stuff


digestion wheel

i love san francisco

Participate from home.

Is it a coincidence that this event is happening on the same weekend as my graduation when my entire family will be in town? Hey, gotta keep it San Fran, right?

my grandmother calls it a "heart shaped face"

is it just me, or does my chin look even pointy-er when i'm upside down?


pointy chin

Did you know...?

Did you know that donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes?

And, did you know that all polar bears are left handed?

Word of the day - Malodorous

apparently malodorous was the word of the day on june 11, 2000... but i heard someone say it on friday and i liked it, so i want it to be the word of the day again.

i went to crissy field today

crissy field

I went to Sports Basement today and got some cute new shoes... therefore I was inspired to go for a walk. Oh, wow, what a coincidence, Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge were right behind me! How could I resist? Want to see more photos?

this is my favorite tea

Numi tea 

Rooibos tea has a lot of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. Read more about this "Red Bush" tea. Never underestimate the power of the bush.... even if it happens to be red. There's nothing wrong with some red bush.

running on fumes

ok, yes, i know... when a young amazingly adorable girl is driving back to oakland after 1am she should probably not try to test fate and see how vast her gas tank actually is.

my gas light came on as i drove home tonight from lindsay's. the farthest i have driven once the light came on was 20 miles. i was crossing my fingers as i sped down the freeway that my aunts apartment would appear before that 20 mile mark. ummmm, yep, i pulled into the driveway at 19.9 miles.... hahahaha. i know. i'm the luckiest person in the whole wide world.


running on fumes

Joke of the day - Friday

So, a monkey is sitting in a tree smoking a joint when a lizard walks past and looks up and says to the monkey "hey! what are you doing?"

The monkey says, "Smoking a joint, come up and have some." So the lizard climbs up and sits next to the monkey and they smoke a few doobies. After a while the lizard says his mouth is 'dry' and is going to get a drink from the river. Well, the lizard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls into the river. A crocodile sees this and swims over to the lizard and helps him to the side, then asks the lizard, "What's wrong with you?"

The lizard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting, smoking a joint with the monkey in the tree, got too stoned and then fell into the river while taking a drink. The crocodile says he has to check this out and walks into the jungle, finds the tree where the monkey is stting, finishing a joint, and he looks up and says "Hey you!"

The monkey looks down and says, "Fuuuuuuuuuuck dude...how much water did you drink!?"

Quote of the day - Friday

"Well, if I agreed with you, then we would both be wrong."

freddy or stephanie?

it's friday the 13th and do you know what that means???

no, that's not what i was going to say. today is Steph's birthday! YAY!

Happy 27th Steph.

argh

and the insomnia kicks in...

"Your Personal Day of Death is: Tuesday, July 27th, 2077"

I have 2,278,526,500 (and counting... down) seconds to live.

can our family stay out of the hospital?

Where were Homeson L and Homeson B tonight??? The ER you say? Oh geez. We think Homeson L needed some eating practice. Yikes!


homeson