Last night, I had dinner with four of my former students. These four girls were students during my third year of teaching - which was my favorite year out of the four I taught. I regularly chat with one of them through Messenger and we decided it was time to arrange a get-together being that it had been over three years since I had seen any of them. We had such a great time. Out of the four girls there, only two of them go to the same high school - so not only was it a reunion with me, but with each other as well. They're all still friends though - with the technology age allowing them to always keep in touch electronically even if they don't have licenses. We caught up on each other's lives, reminisced about their fifth-grade days (Man, do these kids have great memories! They were recounting stories about me that I would never have remembered had they not brought them up), and did a little shopping at the mall we were at. They asked me if they could call me "Amanda" now instead of "Miss Santana" and I told them they could do whatever they feel comfortable with - of course, all of them shouted "Goodbye Miss Santana" when I left. Smile. These kids were amazing and unique back in fifth grade - they've all matured into even better versions of themselves and I'm just blessed to have the opportunity to share their growing up with them.

I resigned from my job today - and I feel great. December 31 will be my last day of work and I can't think of a better way to ring in the new year! While surprising to some, this was actually something that I had been thinking of doing for quite some time. I am intellectually bored by my work here and there was no change in sight...so, I'm done and off to bigger and better things. I already found a tutoring job that looks quite interesting - they'll be getting my resume tomorrow. Who knows what the future holds?...but it looks much brighter now.

Adrian's sister-in-law asked me this weekend to come up with a list of my favorite books so that I could share it with her being that she is an avid reader like myself. I realized that for all the books I've read and for the two or three titles that instantly spring to mind when I recommend a book to someone, I'd never come up with a list of my favorite books. Until now. Below are ten of my all-time favorites (in no particular order).

1. The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo
2. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
3. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
4. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
6. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
7. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
8. To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
9. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
10. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

I don't see many on the road these days, but today I found myself driving behind a Ford Bronco II. This is important because the Ford Bronco II was my first car - and I loved it (it only takes seeing one to make me quite nostalgic). My parents surprised me with my Bronco during a July 4th weekend when I was away with Joy and her family at a softball tournament. (That was also the same weekend that I saw the campus of Santa Clara for the first time and it reaffirmed how much I wanted to go there.) As Joy's family rounded the corner of my block, there was the Bronco in our driveway and I think Joy was just as excited as I was, because she no longer had to drive me everywhere. That first day Joy and I took the Bronco for a spin and stopped at Jack-in-the-Box to get large cokes for our adventure...well, within the space of two minutes we learned that the cup holders in the Bronco didn't accommodate the large-size cups from J-I-T-B...spillage all over my new Bronco's floor (okay, so the Bronco itself was used, but to me it was new!). Another story comes to mind - this one being the one where I was racing one of my high school guy friends to his house and I forgot that my "baby" (an uncooked egg that I shared with my "husband" from Religion class) was on the seat next to me in its basket. Rounding one corner, the egg flew and hit the Bronco's passenger door and I was sure that I had killed my "baby" and my "husband" was going to divorce me and I would get an F on top of it. But no, my "baby" was just a bit cracked, which in Religion class is good for a B+. And I did win the race. Ahhh - I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I loved that vehicle for 6 long years...right until it started betraying me and breaking down more often than it would run smoothly. Last I heard, my parents had sold it to some old guy with a DUI on his record...so in the end, I'm sure it had even more adventures.