New start

Let's try this again.

I love blogs and daily go through several different ones. Looking at each and being so thankful that people sit down everyday to write and post pictures. Throughout my daily visits to these pages I grab images and put them into a file on my desktop called 'inspiration randomness'. This file hasbeen growing and growing. I recently decided it was time to clean up the computers. I organized all the images of great things I had collected over the past year. It took quite awhile to go through, but when I was finished I remembered I had another computer to do it on too. Basically, it turned into a two-day job. And 'Big Ben' (the desktop) and 'Abbey' (the laptop) are all sorted and ready to be blogged. I realized the file had grown so much that anytime I did want to find one photo I was screwed out of luck. That combined with my love of blogs I decided the best way to see my inspiration would be to post it all.My last post was a little less than a year ago. And as much as I would like to say I will write everyday...let's be realistic, thats just not me. I have so much respect for those who sit down and write. For me, I sit down and design. If writing is something you love, power to ya and please do not ever stop. I do however feel that because my 'inspiration randomness' file is organized it will be less overwhelming to blog. Because I am not a fantastic writer and personally when it comes to blogs am much more interested in the visual side of life I will be blogging mostly images. These images will be a combination of things I have collected from other blogs and sites that I felt I could not live without as well as some of my own work. I have incredibly eclectic taste and have several strange obsessions. I am quite confident that these factors with quickly reveal themselves on here.

As for an update on where I am now. I have been out of school for almost a year now. When I finished school I took off traveling for a couple weeks. I headed to Boston with a friend and then down to experience New Orleans.

Upon arriving home I learned that I had been laid off due to slow times. So, I was now at a typical place for people who have just graduated during these tough few years. I had a degree and was eager to work but had no job. So, I headed off to the city offices and started a business and began doing a lot of freelance work. While doing that I took on an internship in San Francisco with a company called Wikia. After being there for several months Wikia hired me on as a design

contractor.

I am currently still working for Wikia and am really enjoying it. The work, people, experience in user interface- it is all so great. I am creating something different everyday and loving it. I am very thankful to be where I am and try and appreciate it everyday. I like to be busy and in the summer an opportunity came up for me to take on a head coaching position for a Junior Varsity team in

Livermore. I accepted the position and then found out, the head coach of Varsity used to be my club coach when I was 16. I began coaching girls JV Granada Volleyball team. So not only did I have a previous coach of mine as my boss, my sister was the Freshman coach. The three of us coaches had a blast together. As for my team, they were amazing. I honestly could not have gotten luckier to have had such a wonderful team for my first year. Everyday these girls brightened my day. We had an amazing season and it was so much fun to watch these young ladies become stronger volleyball players. I like to focus the first half of the season on fundamentals and the game of volleyball. Once we hit the second half of season, I want my girls to learn how to strategize and learn more of the game. Understand plays and how to read the other team. Creating drills to teach the girls this was at times very challenging but always very rewarding. As you can probably see from how much I have already written just about volleyball, I love the sport. I was thrilled to be back in the volleyball community and am very much so looking forward to coaching again next season.

I have become crazy about MINI Coopers. I ordered a new '09 MINI in July and anxiously waited for three months until my handsome little car arrived! There was only one slight issue with it when it came...I ordered a manual- because c'mon. If you are going to buy a MINI, it should be a stick! However, I did not really know how to drive a stick. My Dad had taught me at 14 and I tried it once or twice. So, after filling out all my paper work and paying the man, I was given the keys to my 'Lil Stig' and Ashlee

and I hopped in. Basically, I peeled out of the dealership and left some nice new marks literally right outside their showroom doors. My parents followed behind me laughing all the way home as I either stalled or peeled out at every light. After a half an hour, I understood how to drive a stick and it has been so much fun to drive. The MINI community is pretty involved. I belong to a group called NorCal MINIs and we

all get together and go on runs. Ashlee and I attended a Christmas Light Run with a party at MINI of Concord afterwards. The dealership put on a great party for us and we all donated toys to The Children's Hospital. They had a raffle, which was great, because I always win raffles. But they were raffling off a lot of items and I was starting to get irritated because I was not winning (I am completely aware of how crazy that sounds to be mad that I am not winning, since I expect to). They had prize after prize and everyone around me was winning. I got jealous when the guy next to me won his choice of a MINI shirt from inside (MINI has nice clothes!). Then they finally announce the grand

prize of a $1000 installation gift card. Everyone got really excited and waited, they called out the number, my sister who is staring at her 3 tickets realizes the number they called is just 2 off from her last ticket. Meaning I should have the winning ticket. With some enthusiasm she starts saying, "You have it. Lauren, you should have it! Lauren! Do you have it?!" It was at that moment I realized I in fact did have the ticket. It was great fun and I was glad I still had my winning luck. This month I crammed my parents into the back of "Lil Stig' and we drove down to Ana Nuevo to see the elephant seals. We had 19 MINIs out for that day, you can see 12 of them behind me in my rear view mirror. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to more runs.

People laugh at me because I am apart of a car group. And then they find out that I am a car fan in general. And then once they find out I know what The Stig is everyone is lost. I guess I don't

look like someone you would peg to know about cars and openly admit to the fact that my favorite show is a BBC Car Show. But my question to you is this: Who would not want to watch a show that has a drag race against the world's most expensive car and a jet fighter? The show is consisted of three average englishmen constantly making fun of each other and doing hilarious things involving cars and often losing their own races they come up with.

I am truly enjoying life and this time in my life. A time where things are so different. Things are going a way I would not have thought a year ago. I love not having my life planned out and feel constantly trying new things. Meeting new people and making new friends, not being afraid to put myself out there. I am learning so much every day and really trying to challenge myself as well. Over the summer I started to feel myself head into a little bit of a rut and become too routined. I made a journal and a promise to myself and said I would do one thing out of character for me. One thing that made me stretch myself and go for it. Out of that and knowing it was something I had to do, when an opportunity would arise I jumped on it. I met people I would not know otherwise. I would not have tried so many things because I would have not seen them in front of my face. I would have walked by them and stuck to my routine. I really do encourage anyone to try doing something out of the ordinary for them once a week and then take it from there. You will be surprised with what you start doing. It does not have to be big things either. Besides, haven't you ever heard, "it's the little things that make the difference".

David Bowe said, "I don't know where I am going but I promise it won't be boring", I love this quote and think it can apply to so much if you decide to open up to the fact that life is unpredictable.