So many posts to come - vacation photos and recap, things I've been thinking about, book reviews, etc. But for now I'm still in TX on vacation with no time to update.
But what we all have time for is: FRIDAY FUN!!!!
Check out the "Office Musical" - 3 minutes of Office heaven. :)
Here are more of what's been happening! What a long few weeks. I spent most of my days at the desk in my apartment (located under my loft bed). I think I've shown my "faux workstation" before, but here's what I do - I plug in my laptop to the monitor, keyboard, printer, mouse, etc and then the laptop sits to the right and works like a desktop computer. When I took this picture, I was working on a chapter on college student development theory (and specifically men's and women's development) for a book that I think is called "the encyclopedia of gender" - more to come on this! :)
Anyway, this picture includes two of my favorite things: (1) my new lime green stapler that works like a dream and (2) my new "T" mug - inside it says, "love the moment" - you know I love that sentiment and the mug is adorable! It also includes a draft of the chapter I was co-writing and you can see that its the edited version from my co-author. funny.
When I get kind of bored of doing school work, and when I've just gotten myself cleaned up and styled my hair..... sometimes I have mini photoshoots with my web cam. I know... I'm a total dork!
I had been wanting to visit my grama, but wasn't sure when I would have time between school, traveling, and work. To make matters worse, she was going to be traveling, too, so my opportunities to visit her were getting more and more limited. I decided to surprise her in Laughlin, Nevada - where she goes on Thursdays and Sundays. So suddenly on the last Wednesday of classes, I decided I was going to drive up to Laughlin and surprise her the next day. It turned out that I got a deal at the Riverside Resort and Casino (which is where my grama likes to gamble) - 2 nights, $15 per night PLUS free breakfast buffet for each day! Awesome! I really only wanted to stay Wed night, but for $30 it was worth it to book for two and leave before the second night.
Anyway, I was waiting for her the next morning (after a great breakfast and some homework time in my hotel room) - I was sitting at the bank of machines where she likes to play - and BOY! was she surprised! We had a really fun visit. I played Video Poker with her for most of the day, and then we had a delightful lunch buffet and got to chat and get caught up (well, we talk weekly, but we got to talk about other stuff). And I got to meet some of her friends from the Casino. I left feeling like she was encouraged by my visit and I know I was very encouraged by it to. The pic above is at the end of our visit, when I was dropping her off at the place where she takes a shuttle back to her town.
To celebrate the end of the year, our division (Higher Ed. and Organizational Change) had a big potluck in a park near my aparment: Westwood Park. It was really fun to have some relaxed chill time and to see people's puppies and babies. 
Finally, a friend and former student, TJ, is living in Los Angeles this summer, working for the television program Clean House. He is the "Yard Sale Assistant" and invited me out to the yard sale last Saturday. I arrived late and there was only a few minutes left in the sale - but that meant that I also got to watch them film some of the stuff that happens AFTER the sale, including the "money reveal", the homeowers driving away, and this part above, where they donate all the unsold housewares to charity. It was a really fun day and VERY excited for TJ to be here for the summer! Yay! (He will actually be staying at my apt. while I'm out of town, so that was a blessing for both of us!)
Sunday (6/14) I leave for Texas. I'll be in Waco for a week to help Sarah get ready for her wedding with Myles and to visit with a ton of friends who are in Waco or coming to Waco. I'll be celebrating my b-day there with friends. The second week I'll be in San Antonio with the Fergasons! I'm so excited that I don't have ANY homework or other work to do while I'm there - I think we are all looking forward to it.
Pictures to come, for sure! Keep on keeping on - Love, Tiff
Here are some pics of the last couple weeks. :) Enjoy! (its finals, so who knows when my next post will be...) My parents visited, as did a few friends from Baylor. These pics are kind of out or order (darn you blogspot!) but they are fun:
My parents and I spent an awesome day at Universal City (which is where Universal Studios is located, but is also a really fun mall with tons of shops, eateries and a theater among other things). We were at Universal Studios all day and then saw Terminator: Salvation that night! Super fun. 
This is the end of the Jurrasic Park ride, which we rode twice because it was so fun - frankly I could have ridden it a couple more times. It is pretty sedate and relaxing and then there is this super steep drop where a giant dinosaur comes at you as you go down - amazing. I like to pretend this is a pic of us at the end of the ride.... :)
Me and Dad on the campus tour I gave them that evening. It was a perfect LA evening, though by the time the sun set, it was pretty chilly.
My adorable parents at UCLA, near Powell Library. Aren't they wonderful!?
Kristen Neilson and her friend Heather celebrated their graduations by coming to LA - we got to spend a few hours together one night - including In-N-Out Burger - really fun to see her!
