Tour 2010, Blog 2: Santa Cruz (cont.), South Bay, and San Francisco

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Ambition: Bikram yoga at least 4 days a week. So excited!

Adventure: Tour 2010 with Amanda Holmes!

Adoration: This right here!

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Amanda Holmes and I have officially reached the last leg of the Amanda Holmes Tour 2010, and we’ve definitely had some interesting experiences in the past week or so. From a run in with the law, to our own pseudo-safari adventure, we have definitely caused some trouble going up and down the coast since our last video blog. Check out our antics in the video blog above, or here.

Currently, we’re hangin’ out in San Francisco, my hometown, after spending a week or so in the south bay and San Rafael. Amanda has a gig tonight at the Rockit Room on Clement St. at 8pm, and it should be a good one! If you’re in the bay, come check her out!

PS– The photo app I’ve been using on tour is called the Hipstamatic, and it’s amazing. Check out some more photos from tour below.

TOUR 2010, Blog 1: Santa Barbara, SLO, and Santa Cruz!

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Ambition: No carbs ALL tour + 500 sit-ups everyday. (I think we did 50 yesterday… that’s the same, right? Ha.) PS– I still have to buy Anna Karenina, but it’s happening today, I swear!

Adventure: Tour 2010 with Amanda Holmes!

Adoration: The coast of California. (See pictures below.)

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The lovely Amanda Holmes and I have reached DAY 4 of Amanda Holmes’s Acoustic Tour 2010, and it has already been quite the adventure. In between a little bit of Dance Dance Revolution in Santa Barbara, driving to gigs along the coast of California (amazing scenery), harmonica playing, and of course, losing the keys and getting the car towed in Pismo Beach, we have made our first video blog (which you can see above, or by clicking here)!

As we speak, we are residing in Santa Cruz with a great group of friends who have been kind enough to house us for an indefinite amount of days, ha. We just had an amazing breakfast at Zachary’s on Pacific St. (where there were successfully no carbs eaten, despite the ultimate fail last night at dinner haha) and are prepping for adventures to come. To see what we’re up to minute-by-minute, click here!

Also, just for your enjoyment, here are a few pictures from some of our adventures! (Don’t mind the super hipster/indie look of most of the pics… I have a new app on my iPhone, and I’m a little obsessed, ha).

Me and Amanda in Santa Margarita

Amanda performing at "The Porch"

The Madonna Inn

On the Pier in the incredibly windy Pismo Beach. (Pre-car drama ha).

Pismo Beach, CA

Our "kiwi friends," (as they called themselves), who we met at the "Hos-telle."

Amanda hangin' on the swings.

So I’ve officially graduated… What!?!

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Ambition: Buy Anna Karenina… and then read it.

Adventure: Tour 2010 with Amanda Holmes!

Adoration: The University of Southern California, Class of 2010…. Ahhhh!

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So I got the most surreal email today, and it read:

“Dear Ms. Julia Jean Jara:

Congratulations!  The Degree Progress Department is pleased to inform you that your Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree has been conferred and posted to your academic transcript at the University of Southern California.”

Whattttt!?! I can’t believe it! So I guess, in relation to my previous ambition, not only did I survive my last week of classes at USC, I apparently did not completely neglect final papers or exams, either.

Overall, this whole experience has been SO completely… bizarre. Walking out of my last final, moving out of my apartment, driving off the USC campus for the last time, and not to mention the commencement ceremony in general, I feel like everything is just so terminal. My whole entire undergraduate career is DONE! Therefore, in honor of this craziness, I’m not only in a state of complete (admiration and) adoration of USC’s Class of 2010 this week, but I’ve decided to take the advice of the Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at USC. During his commencement address, he wished us not only congratulations and a successful professional and personal life, but he wished that we also not take graduation as a signal to forever terminate “studying,” but rather as an opportunity to continue it. Despite my initial reluctance to this idea (I must admit, I’m a little burned out right now ha), I think he’s right. Regardless of where life takes me, law school or no law school, I should always, always keep learning. And so this I will attempt to do, thereby explaining my ambition for the week. Yayyyy Anna Karenina! We’ll see how this goes…

Now… as for the adventure:

AMANDA HOLMES WEST COAST TOUR (2010)

So the lovely Amanda and I have been roommates for ALLLLLL four years of college, so we thought it would be appropriate to finish our four years with me accompanying her on her annual tour of the West Coast.

To keep up with us minute by minute, follow me on twitter at @juliajara.

And so the adventure begins…

17.

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Ambition: Surviving my last week of classes at USC.

Adventure: USC Fountain Run 2010.

Adoration: My LA Loves. ♥

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I decided to start a blog for one sole reason:

I’m graduating from the University of Southern California in exactly 17 days

.17.Days.

Until just a few hours ago, I was completely unaware of what this meant for me. I procrastinated the usual amount, freaked out about losing my car keys for the billionth time, and ate some insanely good tacos. A day in the life, one could say. And then it hit me: USC, or essentially, everything that USC has provided me with, will become a part of my past in 17 short days.

…and now, I’m officially terrified. Excited, but mostly terrified.

With law school responses trickling in at their leisure, resumes and cover letters being sent out by the caseload, and decisions about my future anxiously awaiting my attention, I can’t help but wonder (and by wonder, I mean “incessantly obsess over”) where the next few months will take me.

I figured by sharing one ambition, one adventure, and one adoration every week with whoever is so inclined to read this, I might actually keep my sanity over the next few months. Do enjoy.