Azad, me, Helen, and Bulent

Last Friday night borders on challenging my 20th birthday.

"You are so much trouble. You have such a sweet and innocent face, you could get away with murder."

It's fun surprising people.

We were never really big on Father's Day, anyway.

The (very) few people here in L.A. who know tell me they think I'm doing very well, considering the circumstances. I think I'm just good at keeping up appearances.

I still can't bring myself to delete his number from my cell.

Hi. My name is Melanie Conley. Of course that picture doesn't look like me, I'm 23 and it was taken when I was 15!

Haha. I didn't even have to use that line, although I had it carefully planned out. I win!

On a whim I went out with Robbie (the housemate) and his friend, Jay/Ray (can't really remember which it was) last night. Several drinks were purchased for me- being a girl does have it's perks, sometimes. The evening was surprisingly enjoyable considering the circumstances, and not as strange or awkward as I thought it would be. When Jay/Ray was in the bathroom, Robbie not-so-subtly asked, "So would you consider dating someone older, say, like, 30?". Haha.

At work we have a friction stir welder. I believe it is one of three set-ups in the US.

Best. Internship. Ever.

I made it here safely, and while the housemates are quite the characters they don't seem to be harmful in any way.

Lesson of the weekend: Don't be so proud as to not ask someone to help you put sunscreen on your back before going to the beach. If you are, the result is a large, odd-shaped sunburn on your back (that corresponds with the area you can't reach yourself). Hopefully it won't peel and become a permanent reminder of this little folly.

First day of Spacex commences in less than an hour, so I better get going.

Oh man. Please, please, please don't let my housemates be crazy.

Driving south tomorrow. I'm freaking out right now. Up to this point, I had been distracted enough by other things in my life that I hadn't really thought about work or housing for the summer too much, beyond getting the logistics taken care of. However, now that I'm moving tomorrow and starting work on Monday all that overdue anxiety is kicking in, and it's one hundred times more intense since my mind is cramming over at least a month's worth of worry into the next twenty four hours.

So *not* ready for this, but I guess that doesn't matter. Life isn't going to wait, you know?

Focus on the positive:

• Moving to LA in a week


• Only an (easy) take home exam and essay stand between me and summer


• Who cares about the bad weather? In a week I'll be at the beach!


• Laptop died, but I got the new hard drive only 2 days after calling Dell


• I'm no longer homeless for the summer


• A bottle of white awaits me to help celebrate tomorrow.

Focus on the positive. Don't think about the negative.