Mine! Mine! Mine!

Let me tell ya....Santa Barbara City College you are the most beautiful school with the best campus location ever. Your accompaniment is quite annoying however. THAT'S RIGHT, I'M TALKING TO YOU SEAGULLS!

I cannot tell you how many times I have been the witness or the victim of many close interactions with seagulls here at SBCC. They have got some gulls to be able to come up this close to you! They can be quite vicious too. Last year I saw one take a whole chicken tender (cannibal) and fly away with it swarming together with the rest of the seagulls before the person got back with their napkin. If you haven't noticed, this is why the SBCC cafeteria has a sign with a picture of a seagull saying that they will not make up for it. 

So this specific seagull to right above would not stop squawking at me. His friend joined into the harmony as well. Over everyone else outside, he decides to come squawk at me for a salad. A SALAD. Heck, I'd squawk for some chicken tenders and some fries if I could. Oh wait, the seagull in the picture to the left did. In fact, he took it farther than any other seagull has done before in the presence of a human being  inches away. HE GOT ON MY TABLE. Excuse me, am I sitting at YOUR table?? This picture shows I had absolutely nothing left on my plate after he was staring me down until I finished my chicken and fries. You know what he did? As I was sitting RIGHT THERE, he took my ranch cup from me, hopped off the table, and flew away.................................. you win seagull. YOU WIN. 

Is this payback for chasing seagulls all my life? 

Birthday Shenanigans

Now that my birthday month has passed, it's definitely time to blog about my birthday.
What's awesome is that my closest friends have their birthdays right around mine. My friend Allie and Joseph's birthdays are the 20th and my friend Nicole's birthday is the 21st. Mine is January 22nd! It's funny how I've basically grown up with Nicole and Allie and our birthday's are so close together (One is 364 days younger than me and the other is 363 days younger). Anyways!!!!...

We're 20!!!

The day before my birthday I honestly had a couple panic attacks. I felt like I just wanted to stop time after hearing things like "You're going to be a fifth of a century old" and "You're officially going to be an adult and not a teenager anymore". However, I had to realize that stopping time is impossible because well....it is.

I fell asleep before midnight came about, I guess my adult-self couldn't hang. Like usual, I woke up to many texts and several social media posts wishing me a happy birthday. I don't know what it was, but for some reason on my birthday (January 22nd) I could not seem to soak in the fact that I was 20. I am in my second decade. The whole day just seemed unreal to me. I had to start the day off finishing homework that was due that day, then I went shopping for an outfit for the night, and came back home and got ready for my birthday dinner at Something's Fishy on State Street (a hibachi grill). By the end of the night I came to a realization. I have been waiting, wishing, and dreaming of what is going to happen in my 20's for so long. This was just the start to everything I have been dreaming of for so long. I'll be graduating college, finding my career, publishing a book, getting the first place of my own, and hopefully meeting someone I can spend the rest of my life and build a family with down the line. It's an adventure within a second decade span I should be excited for, it doesn't mean all these things have to happen all at once right now!

The stars of Hollywood.

Last weekend I drove down to UCLA to see Nicole (who I've known since we were babies). We had the best time celebrating both of our birthdays with each other in Hollywood that night since we weren't able to meet up the other weekend.  It definitely made up for the mixed emotions I had on my actual birthday. At this point it has all soaked in for the most part. There will always be feelings of "boy, time just flies by", but I'm becoming more accepting of it. That makes me all the more motivated to make this second decade a good one!

Revolving Work Around School

Hello fellow CC mates. Ny name is Tired, last name Exhausted!

When you have to be cheesy and use Photo Booth in
Graphic Design to post to the class forum.

Hopefully my name will go back to Angela, last name Bickmann in a couple weeks. It's the plan! Right now is just the greatest time with new classes starting and moving up to a new position at work all at once. However, within a week or two I hope to not be saying that so sarcastically. At the moment I'm working as a host and expo, which is giving me almost double the amount of shifts I want to handle. Slowly but surely they are fixing my work schedule week by week to eventually get it how I would like for it to be.
Here are my thoughts for a decent work schedule as a college student depending on how you function best as a student:

Typical Angela accidentally
hurting herself doing anything.
This happened to be while slicing
my favorite sourdough bread on
my second day training at work. Am
I fit for the job now?

Try to not work during the days you have school if you can, or when you have a ton of classes!
 Between last semester and starting this semester, I've noticed it is incredibly difficult to go to school, work, and come back and do homework all in the same day. Last semester I had squeezed my classes into Tues-Thurs and worked Mon, Wed, Fri. Wednesdays were always my tough days with all the homework I had due on Thursdays. This semester I am going to school Mon-Thurs and (in a couple weeks) will be working Sat, Sun, Mon. However, Mondays shouldn't be tough for me because I only have one, easy class on Tuesdays where as Thursdays last semester I had 3 classes. Make sure your managers understand that not only is working important to you, but that school is as well. I recently decided to tell mine that I would rather work three days a week instead of five or four like the scheduled me because of school. They were more than understanding. Currently they are working on fixing that for me!

Give yourself a day or two to be able to leave town if you need to. We all need that refreshing moment with family or old friends when things get stressful!
This is a big one for me when anxiety catches up to me. It can also be crucial for the students who are having roommate troubles, which can be very common. Personally, I like to know that if I am having a stressful week, I will have a couple consecutive days where I can get away from it all and not have to worry about trying to get someone to cover my shift at work. That can be stressful enough as is! Last semester I had Saturdays and Sundays off work and school. This semester I will be having Thursdays at school, but off work and Fridays off both school and work. So this semester if I want to get away, I can leave town Thursday after school in the afternoon and come back Saturday afternoon before work in the evening.


Remember that school comes before work! Always, always, always.

Between classes, take a breather! (Or a picture in this case)
#bloggerprobz

You have the rest of your life to work after you graduate college. That's why there things such as student loans, grants, and scholarships. Don't get me wrong, I know it's scary to know you're using money you may eventually have to pay off. However, if working is bringing down your grades because you simply don't have the time to try or study, then it can get very overwhelming. I'm fortunate enough to have college payments and rent covered for me. I work so I don't completely run out of money by the time I graduate. Also, I work to be able to be able to pay for my car, gas, and anything else that is not a necessity (like shopping, gym membership, traveling, going out to eat, etc).  It all adds up folks! I'm trying to be smart about it and we all should try to be. If loans, grants, scholarships, and working the days that won't stress you out isn't enough for you and your bank account, you may want to consider taking a break from school. I encourage you not to, but if it's all to overwhelming to do at once, then it may be the right decision for you! Remember, college is the time to put you as your top priority. You don't have to worrying about what everyone else is doing :)

First Impressions

For the first time in history, I'm actually interested in all of my classes. That is not to say they won't challenge me because I can already tell they will, but at least I will have the motivation for my classes this year (except yesterday when I had to get homework done on my birthday which I will blog about after this weekend). Here's a rundown of the first impressions of my classes!

Argumentation and Debate: This partially an online class, we only meet on Thursdays. I've never tried any class that was even partially online, this is will be a new experience for me. The first day of class I walk in and before it even starts there were people from the earlier class trying to convince and bribe people from this class to switch with them. Sorry, I planned out my schedule perfectly in advance! Perks of being prepared. A lot of people wanted to take this class because the professor is known to be one of the best. From what I can tell he is pretty hilarious having the whole class laughing on the first day. Also, this or any communication class is needed for anyone who is transferring to a CSU school (which I most likely will be doing). So far what I learned is that there are two ways of thinking. System one is thinking with your emotions. System two is thinking with reason. This class is about thinking with reason (logic) in preparation for arguing and debating rationally. Also so students don't get offended!

Reporting/ Writing I: This is the very first college level journalism class I have ever walked into. I know I will enjoy the writing portion of it and that I will excel in that part of it, however I am a little nervous about the reporting stuff. I'm definitely more of a writer than an interviewer, but this class will help with that! We will learn a lot about current events as that is most likely what we will be writing about. When we were writing out things about ourselves on the syllabus, I noticed when it asked if I had experience in writing I ended up having a lot to say! I've been blogging for SBCC, I've taken a couple creative writing and photojournalism classes in high school, I'm in the process of writing an autobiography, I've been in the newspaper, and I've received an award at school before for the best poetry in the class. I also wrote down that I may be interested in writing for the Channels. I collected a few quotes about journalism from him including: "Journalists are active creators of content"  "Writers convey a message and connect with the audience" "Journalism is an art, you're an artist" and my favorite "Journalists have the power to influence" And with that power, I hope to do so!

Graphic Design Basics: I was late to the first day of this class :( It's my only 8 AM and there was construction and traffic from an accident that morning. Of course, when I get to the class every computer I try I couldn't find safari on to join the lecture for the syllabus review. Eventually I asked before we had to take a picture of ourselves to post an interesting thing about us on the forum and a quiz online the first day. I am excited to see where my creativity takes me in this class! I'm not a computer wiz, but I would like to know more since all print writing may all be online one day. We not only have to get the textbook, but pay $20 a month for this this Indesign Creative Cloud program for our computers every month until class is over. This teacher not only teaches Graphic Design, but she also has a separate job involving graphic design as well. I'm excited for the project we will be working on all semester. It's a booklet of graphic designs we will make on topic of our choice. Creativity here I come!

Music Appreciation: The teacher in this class loves what he does. We are learning the basics right now like how to read music, music terms, and how to clap or bang on our desks to rhythms. This is fun for me because I get to remember stuff from when I used to play piano and we get appreciated as a class for clapping our hands correctly. No seriously, he really is like "WOW YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AT THIS, AGAIN!!! BUT FASTER!!" He understands that we as a generation today are more into EDM music and such, so he makes the class as interesting as possible with his jokes. He also understands that some of us (like me) are taking this for a humanities general ed class. This is the only class I have gone to more than once so far. I knew I'd like the teacher right away once he said that we don't need to get the textbook this year because they are expensive. Instead he put together a smaller, more condensed version of one himself for $7 at the bookstore.

BRING IT Spring Semester!

Drama / Music Building

photo creds: Joseph Haylee

My brothers are getting so tall!

Welcome back to SBCC's Spring Semester and my blog!!! I'm lucky to get to share another semester's worth of experiences with you and FINALLY start taking classes for my major. Even though it was raining on the first day of classes, I still had a great first class. My Music Appreciation class helped me rediscover some of the stuff I was taught for the piano I miss playing, the teacher is upbeat and funny, and the class has a gorgeous view of the ocean. The teacher even told us to not buy the textbook for the class, how great is that?! Hopefully it's an easy A. I will definitely be letting you know soon how my other first day of classes go!  For now, I'll catch you up on what's happened since my last blog in 2015....because it's 2016 now....and I'm turning 20 this Friday January 22nd.... time is flying!

Don't ask how much I spent on photo strips WORTH EVERY PENNY!

In my last blog post I talked about being nervous about my class grades and what my plans were for Winter Break. Well good news, I passed all my classes. As for Winter Break I visited family and friends in Virginia. I also got to visit the restaurant I had my first job at and catch up with an old coworker of mine. GUINNI, my love, my pug, he is still hanging in there! That old 100 year old fart. On my drive to Iowa my brother puked right next to me in the car, so that was lovely. There was no snow in Iowa and Illinois until the day I left (freezing rain delayed my flights), however there was a tornado warning. Christmas Eve and day were very cherished as I got to spend time with family. I had a blast with a few of my friends I could squeeze time in with there.

Cuddlin'

New work outfit. Cute huh?

Once I got back home to California, I only spent a few days in Santa Barbara before I left again to visit my childhood friend and celebrate New Years Eve weekend with her and her friends at their beach house in Newport. As for my job I am finally moving up in position after being a hostess for 3 years! I will be an expo until I feel ready enough to start serving. It's honestly been a little nerve racking, but it can be scary trying something new and I know I will get used to it just like I did with hosting. Plus the tips will be worth it for sure! I also realized someone I know goes to the same gym as me and he is starting to become a personal trainer. So I scored and am getting trained for free which will be amazingly uplifting for my health. Oh oh oh!!! I also saved up some money and purchased a brand new Macbook Pro which will be so nice and helpful to have for the writing classes I will be taking!

Newport Beach rooftop

Here's to a great year, a successful semester, and a college experience continuing with many memories to become! Good luck everyone! If you need any advice about anything, feel free to leave a comment below :)

That's a Wrap!

Blogging to you live after the most stressful Final Exam day I have.... ever.... endured.

I hope you all did well on your exams and that you're not freaking out like me!!! Like I said before, this semester I took the hardest level and last English, Math, and Science Lab classes I will ever need to take (hopefully). English I'm not worried about because of all those on point papers I wrote *hair flip*, but Math and Science on the other hand....yeaaaaaahhh. Let's just say I've been living in the library this week and sleep walking at work. THE BEST HOLIDAY GIFT I COULD POSSIBLY RECEIVE RIGHT NOW IS TO KNOW I PASSED THOSE CLASSES. Actually...maybe a pug would be better (fyi I already got a pug gift from one of my roommates). 

Goodbye Statistics

Goodbye stress eating, Hello Gym

Goodbye pointless Gen Ed Notes

Goodbye Physical Universe

See ya later SBCC

Hello extra shifts at work

     During winter break for a week and a half time span  I will be visiting all the places I've ever lived before besides California (Illinois, Iowa, and Virginia). I will tell you all about it when I start my blogs again for Spring Semester! The plan this time around for Winter Break is to take advantage of time off school to improve my life. I will try to move up in position at work, start writing in my autobiography again, make a couple doctor appointments and go to the gym to keep up my health, and much much more. Becoming an adult I've realized I gotta put a lot of work into the things I want. Things don't just magically happen. I want to be healthy, I want to be successful, I want to inspire others, and most of all I want to find happiness in each day that I live because I deserve it. Well, now I'll have the time to focus on other things besides school for over a month and put my energy into more exciting, personal things. I encourage you to take advantage of your break too, it'll fly by fast! Happy Holidays and happy happy happy happy did I mention, HAPPY BREAK FROM SCHOOL!!!! WOOOO!!! 

Every Step Counts

Very busy. Much busy.

Gotta curl the hair and
dress up for the holdiays

In other words, I got a bunch of "schtuff" done over break till now. I...

• Visited my family, had a wonderful time and Thanksgiving meal
• Work Work Work
• Spent almost $900 and 5 hours at a local Firestone Auto Care (I know, terrifying) 
• Cleaned in the apartment (things get a little messy when you're stressed)
• Signed up for a gym membership and have been going just about every day 
• Met someone new who's inspiring and spontaneous and reminded me to be
• Got my first 6/5 on a quiz in my science class which I've been struggling with
• Wrote an essay for math.....yes, I said M-A-T-H
• Got accepted for in-state tuition at SBCC!!!

Now fellow students,

Find whatever your passion is and hold on to it. However tightly you hold on to it determines the amount of motivation you'll put into achieving it. If you don't know your passion and you're still figuring things out, just know you will figure things out and find that passion. This is the very reason to devote your Saturday...your Sunday to studying your batooty off for those final exams! EVERY STEP COUNTS!!! 

Also as I encountered in the bathroom in the Library building the other day, "Someone loves you. Don't give up :) ". 

12/03/15 IDC

Accidents (like a fire in the IDC) , mistakes (that question on the test you feel 

stupid for missing), and life... it all happens. If you try your hardest, you cannot fail. Remember that and study on!

If these therapy dogs help reduce stress, then my
dog must be a life saver.