Ghost Town, The Final Countdown, Spring Semester, Driving School, Thanks

Final work for classes

Walking on the West Campus today, was like walking in a ghost town. Usually, by the afternoon city college is packed with crowds of students walking on opposite directions. Today, it was just me alone in my principles, still I wouldn't of mind having some human contact on my walk. It wasn't until I arrived at library that I realized everyone was here. The beauty of finals.

Spring semester is coming up soon, would say shortly except the fact that Winter Break is very long. I'm looking into 16 units right now, which is pretty intense. I am taking a two more English classes, English 226 (American Literature) and English 222 (Survey of British Literature). I am so eager to begin learning more about Literature; I find it completely fascinating. And of course reading makes your writing improve, so I'll be getting a headstart on reading my English textbooks over break. 

Schedule for Spring

Last weekend, my co-worker took me out on my third driving lesson. My driving is "coming along great," I read this in my student file. Yes, I looked myself up... I just had to. Basically, I'm doing pretty well, I mean I always was a very observant passenger.  Mastering this, will only make me more responsible as an adult. 

If any of you guys are older drivers looking for a place to take lessons, definitely check out Steve Morris Defensive Driving School. Call us @ (805) 965-7979. Our office hours are from Monday-Friday 10am- 5pm (if you wanna call when I'm there I work on Tuesday 1-5pm, Thursday 1-5pm, and Friday 10am- 1:30pm). http://www.stevemorrisdrivingschool.com/

This Animal

I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving. Remember to be thankful for what you have and who's in your life not just on that day, but everyday. I am grateful for my family, friends, co-workers, and those of you who I will meet next year or next week or possibly tomorrow. I'm also thankful for your interest in my blog. I work hard to bring some real experiences to these posts to make them less boring. Every story, in each blog is 100% the truth. This is my life as Kiki.

-KIKI REYES

P.S:

I covered some Paramore on my Uke. https://soundcloud.com/kikisrey/monster-paramore-cover-kiki

Birthday Surprise, Sick, Sambos, Thanksgiving, Catching Fire

Flu season was very kind to me until a few days ago. 

Jack and I on Halloween

I think I got my dog sick

On Tuesday, it was my best friend Jack's birthday, so my friend Elise and my sister Jasmine and I had the brilliant idea of going to his house at 7am and waking him up, then taking him to breakfast. We all set our alarms for 6am, but I didn't wake up until 6:40... Elise was up since 6am waiting for us. Anyways, when Jaz finally got me out of bed, I felt very light headed. I forced myself to get dressed and we went to Jack's house. We managed to sneak inside (his mom left the back door open for us to walk in) and carefully opened the door. Jack is a heavy sleeper so you can only imagine the three of us whispering loudly  to each other and trying not to laugh. We played him a birthday song and he woke up laughing, we took him to Sambo's, (http://www.sambosrestaurant.com/)
 which down the street from City College. When we were eating I felt very warm and exhausted. 

When I got home I passed out, I took a nap from 10:30am- 12:50 and was late to work. So these past few days I've been trying to focus on school, but I find myself getting tired easily. It's weird. I had to miss school, which is something I try to avoid, but since I don't want to get everyone else ill, it was best I stayed home. I am feeling a little better, except now I'm overwhelmed with school. Luckily, Thanksgiving is next week and we all get a much needed break. Instead of thinking so much about what my final grades for fall semester will be I'll be stuffing turkey and mashed potatoes in my mouth living in the moment. 

Also, some of my friends that go to school out of town ( UCLA, UCI) are coming to Santa Barbara for their break. One of my friends from Uc Irvine, Cynthia, I haven't seen in about two years because we have both been busy with school and our own lives. A few weeks ago we skyped for the first time in ages and were both pretty emotional. I can't wait to see her!
Anyways, tonight is the midnight premiere of Catching Fire (I read all the Hunger Games books they were amazing) and I unfortunately can't go because I'm sick, but I also have a research paper to write. If only papers could write themselves. I decided that I'm too sick to go see Catching Fire, but not to go to work.

I have to make a living somehow.

- KIKI REYES 

I Always Do, Play Blues, Writing Doubts, Maxine Hong Kingson

I recently wrote a play entitled, "I Always Do" for my Creative Writing class and I have to admit, writing it wasn't as difficult as finding the confidence to show the class what type of a writer you are. I remember the first day of my Creative Writing class, we all listened to Professor Starkey lecture about the syllabus. I was uncomfortable because while this was happening, I was scanning around the room to observe the many unique faces questioning what their thoughts would be about me, or specifically my writing pieces. After the lecture, Starkey made us find a partner and ask a few questions to them, which later lead to introducing them to the class. I remember one of the questions was, who is your favorite author? I lied to my partner and told him I didn't have one because I didn't want my classmates to criticize my taste in books. I shouldn't have not cared from the beginning and focused on my writing even if it meant people would hate it. 

For this play I literally went through four ideas imagining what my classmates would think about the dialogue when it’s acted out. One day I thought about writing a real life experience, well 70% is real, and I started writing away. I finished the play that day and it was ten pages. I kept reading over and reading over again, but I didn't like it. I felt like it wasn’t finished.  

Maxine Hong Kingston

The week before my play was due; I went to see Maxine Hong Kingston’s reading at the Garvin Theatre. It was incredible. Maxine is known for writing the Memoir, Women Warrior. What was so unique about this novel was how she incorporated Chinese folk tale into her life stories. She read from a few other novels that helped us understand the horrors of the Vietnam war and how peace is more powerful than war itself. There was a brief question and answers after the reading. One of the questions asked was, "how do you know your finished writing a book?" in which she responded to "My publishers have to take the books out of my hands because I always feel like I'm not finished."This made me feel a little better about my play, but also my other writing pieces. 

One of my loves is my guitar

After the reading, I approached my Creative Writing Professor and told him that I was extremely doubtful about my play and how terrible I thought my idea was. He said that I would be fine and I shouldn't feel so much pressure about it. The morning of my play, I was a nervous wreck. I felt awkward and shy telling my classmates what my play was about, but the excitement began when I said "Okay you can start" to my actors. When they performed it, I was speechless because my characters were brought to life and exactly how I envisioned it. If my actors are reading this, seriously you guys were amazing thank you again!  I was very anxious about having my writing displayed for criticism, but I can't let that affect me. One of my good friends once told me, "An artist never burns their work if someone doesn't like it," there's always going to be critics, but they can't stop you from doing what you love. You have to have confidence in yourself.

-KIKI REYES

Saturday, Still and Always, Songwriting

A few posts ago I shared a song entitled, "Still and Always." I found the inspiration to write this song through my own experience and my friend's experiences with moving on after a breakup. The question that came to mind is, how does one feel in the aftermath of a breakup? I quickly concluded that many would still be in high hopes of getting back with their significant other; So I moved away from that answer to another question. Does one ever actually lose feelings for someone or do they distract themselves and "still and always" they will be love in them. It's kind of like that saying, "you can't get over someone, you learn to live without them." I honestly wouldn't know because I have yet to be in a serious relationship, but my friends really helped me understand this. So I dedicate this song to them and as well as anyone else who can relate.

The Fear

When I was a HS Freshman
Before my fear of balloons

I have many fears, some silly, some similar to others, some that progressed over the years . For example, my fear of balloons. I never liked the violent sound they made when they popped, it would startle me. They're suppose to be a symbol of celebration until they explode in your face and for this reason I'm traumatized by balloons. Another fear of mine is being stuck in an elevator and I have to face it every time I go to the doctors or go to Paseo Nuevo with my friends and they decide to take the elevator from the parking structure up to CPK. I have always been afraid of elevators, but it wasn't until a certain movie that reestablished my fear of them. I will never be the same again.

This is lounging around at  SBCC

Okay in all seriousness, a fear I have been struggling with since I've been going to SBCC is the fear of not transferring on time. I always thought that after two years you HAVE to be done, no exceptions. Currently I will be finishing SBCC being few credits short. It's not like ten credits, its four. I am pretty close, but I won't be guaranteed to transfer by Fall 2014, but possibly Spring 2015. I went to a TAP counselor the other day and she told me to stop being so hard on myself. She said "Stop thinking about the credits and focus on school. Things happen for a reason, you know? It took me five years to finish here at city college, but time flies by. I finished here went to San Diego State and now I'm back here working. Everyone finishes on their own time." It clicked everyone finished on their own time. So I decided I'm going to conquer this fear and at least try to transfer by fall 2014, but if I don't I get to stay another semester at the beautiful Santa Barbara City College.  What's so bad about that?

-KIKI REYES

San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State, UC Berkeley

My friends and I are planning a trip to San Francisco for Winter break, which is what I really need. I have an obsession with moving there and going to San Francisco State, they have a really good Creative Writing Program.

As a senior in high school I was quite indecisive about what university I wanted to go. Here's a few schools I thought I wanted go to: UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, USC, Chapman, Loyola Marymount, Westmont, and Cal State Long Beach. I like how I wanted to go to two rivalry schools, UCLA and USC, and I wanted to go to two different religious schools, the Catholic University Loyola Marymount, and the Christian University Westmont. I honestly think all these schools are amazing and back then I wanted to go to all of them, then I realized I didn't want to go to any of them.  



This bridge was in one of the student blog pictures

Earlier Spring my best friend, Alexia and I decided we needed to go visit some college campuses. Alexia was so committed to UC Santa Cruz and on one of our Starbucks study sessions, she told me how obsessed she was with this school. She showed me a blog regarding UC Santa Cruz students and their student life. I could see it was a far walk to classes and dorms and the scenery was similar to Twilight. Literally, there was a picture of the campus and it was surrounded by thick redwood trees. We decided that would be one of the schools we would visit.  Our friend Sydney, went to CSU Monterey Bay so she let us stay a night at her dorm and tagged along on our college tour. We also told our other friends, Amy, who went to San Francisco State, and Kelsey, who went to UC Berkeley, if they could give us a tour of their schools.  



Alexia and Syd trying to figure out where we were

We left on Thursday, April 11th after school and stayed at Sydney's that night. The next day we got a brief tour of CSU Monterrey Bay and left to UC Santa Cruz. It looked exactly like the pictures from the student blogs, so green and filled with beautiful redwood trees. We didn't personally know anyone at UCSC, so we got a map and tried to figure it out on our own. We found the dorms, walked in a few classrooms, we went to the bookstore, and we even followed a school that was getting a tour by a UCSC student. (We had to stop because, we got the feeling they were on to us)  Despite, the huge trees Santa Cruz really did remind me of Santa Barbara because it was near the ocean and near their downtown. After we spent the rest of the day in downtown Santa Cruz listening to talented musicians playing on the streets, shopping, and eating.

Amy, Syd, and Alexia @ SF State

The next day we went to visit, Amy at San Francisco State. It was colder than I expected there. She gave us a tour around her school showing us, her dorm, the library, where her classes were. What I liked about this school at first was that it was located more on the outskirts of SF. Walking around the campus, I felt like I was comfortable there being there and I started really seeing myself going here. It was later that I found out I could major in Creative Writing and the music scene up there was my type of genre. After, we went into the city to get lunch at a sandwich shop called, Ike's Place.(http://ilikeikesplace.com/) It was amazing! We also got Boba sometime later. At night we left for Berkeley....

the Campanile

Alexia, Kelsey, and I

We arrived at Kelsey's dorm and got settled in. We met her roommates.  This campus was in the middle of the city, surrounded by many buildings. This was indeed different from UCSC and SFSU. We went for a walk that night and I could see many students dressed up for parties at fraternities. It was quite a scene. I could see there was a police car outside of a Frat house that echoed a loud fire alarm. People left in panic. We decided to get food at their school Café, after that show. The next morning we got up and went to the Berkeley tower, the Campanile. It was such a breath-taking view; We could see the whole city as well as San Francisco from across the bridge.
 That day we had to make our way back to Santa Barbara, but we decided to do something really quick before we left. Go to the Golden Gate Bridge...

What I learned from that experience is that if your ever unsure about something, find a way to the answer. Your not going to figure out what you want by sitting and waiting for someone to decide it for you. You must adventure off and figure it out on your own.

- KIKI REYES

Welcome to November, Daylight Savings Ends, Seasonal Jobs, Nails

We're now entering the early days of November, a month filled with many events including:The Ends of Daylight-Savings, No-Shave November, Spring Registration, Veteran Days, Thanksgiving, Seasonal Winter Jobs, Black Friday, and finally the real Santa Barbara winter weather. It's time to stack on the extra layer of clothes and drink lots of hot tea or hot chocolate, and obviously coffee (I'm not much of a tea drinker). 

My Fall Tea Collection

Day-Light savings has come to an end; This works in our favor because I'm sure can all use an extra hour of sleep and those breaks coming soon will only make us more relax and at ease with school. We now have to think about our Spring semester classes because registration is next week. Please check your own Registration date on your pipeline! Also, those of you looking for seasonal jobs I'm sure many places are hiring. What most are looking for, are people willing to stay in Santa Barbara for winter break. Go to the Career Center for more information. http://www.sbcc.edu/careercenter/

So I'm thinking, I wish girls had something they could do all month like the guys with their No-Shave November. What could we do? No-Makeup November? I mean it wouldn't be that bad because we could show guys our natural beauty. No-Twitter November? No....something November. I'm not sure if it necessarily needs to be giving something up right? Maybe something we could do... Nails November? Ha I got nothing... 

Speaking of nails, my friend Ashley is a successful, talented nail artist. She told me it started as a hobby. She was in her room looking up nail designs and began practicing on herself. Ashley started an Instagram page to show followers her own designs and now has over 2000 followers. This instagram fame has people hiring her to do nails at different events such as parties. Her story can inspire many to follow what they love to do and be successful at it.

You can follow her on Instagram to see many of her designs.  

http://instagram.com/naildit7

More music posts to come... 

Have a great week :)

-KIKI REYES