Personal Narrative: Southern California Traffic

It was April of 1999. My family was at home. Children were running outside. The asphalt was burning. Cars rolled up to the entrance of the apartments and BANG. I grew up in Stockton, California. Surprisingly, as a minority, I wasn’t really a minority. There were, in fact, a large and diverse population of Asian-Americans. But, Stockton is not the ideal place to live. It was hot and dry, almost to the point of a drought. Stockton was also ranked as the one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in California. So, having a nice and safe family is kind of difficult. Eventually, my family decided to move to Crescent City, California when my dad retired. It was a world of difference. There were trees, plentiful water, and a nice cool temperature. This

Under California constitutional law, services provided by state agencies generally must be performed by state civil service employees. In some cases the state may contract with private firms to obtain services. However, there are limitations as to when such contracting is allowed, for example, if services needed by the state are: (1) of a temporary nature, (2) not available within the civil service, or (3) of a highly specialized or technical nature. According to the argument in favor of Proposition 35, private contracting has been further limited by several lawsuits filed by Caltrans bureaucrats.

I hope you will remember when we met in California, I was visiting Becky Palacios in Glendale. I heard Jackie Porter is working at the Texas Education Agency, recently named the Early Childhood Executive Director. I applied at TEA, hoping for the manager's position in the Early Childhood Department. Jackie and I met while working at Pearson Publishers, with Gloria Horner, the Texas Manager, nevertheless, I don't think if it's appropriate for an applicant to communicate with her. Recently my husband, works for AARP in San Antonio, had a change in his job position, which means he might be working out of Austin again. If an occasion arises, you happen to see or talk to Jackie, I would appreciate a kind word regarding my interest.

Whether you're stuck on the 405 freeway during rush hour, on the 15 freeway heading back from a long-weekend vacation, or driving through the busy streets of Hollywood, traffic on the highways and streets of Los Angeles can often be a hassle. In Dagoberto Gilb's short story Love in L.A., first published in 1986, the troubles of traffic are experienced first hand by our main character Jake. Jake is a common fellow with a steady occupation who is merely trying to make his way to work through the busy streets of Hollywood. As he is working his way through the piled traffic, not paying complete attention to the road in front of him, Jake crashes into the back of a Toyota. In the midst of exchanging information with the driver of the Toyota,

It's Friday, March 25 in the morning at about 7:00 am when my mom wakes all of us up to get ready to leave. On the way to Minnesota we were driving, but still in suamico, we stopped at a Kwik Trip gas station to fill up the tank. We all were thirsty so we got a water from the cooler in the back of the truck, but my brother Roy spilled his all over himself and on the seats.”Good thing it's just water.” My mom said. As we drove across the imaginary line splitting Wisconsin with Minnesota there was a big rock carved into the shape of Minnesota that said, “Welcome To Minnesota.” When we were on the highway we almost got into two major accidents, the first one was when we had an open lane ahead the driver to the right of us tried coming into our lane right next to us and put our left two tires

“Turn the wheel baby! You have to get the car parallel to the curb!” my mother yelled as I failed yet again to maneuver into the parking space.

I was parking next to the Federal Trade Commission balding in constitution Ave NW street. The sign next to where I parked(see attached picture)shows that "2 hour parking from 9:30AM to 6:30PM, and there was no sign shows that no parking or standing during PM Rush Hour. however, the ticket I got shows violation "no parking/standing PM Rush Hour".

One evening on a sunny day, there was a young man and woman traveling on I-55 South. They were smoking something and acting strange as well. The young man was speeding because he was trying to hurry home to sell his drugs. As he was speeding, the young lady gave him a sign that there was a police car on the side of the highway, but it was too late. The young man finally stopped and the police asked for his registration and driver’s license and the young man handed them to the officer. As the officer walked towards the vehicle he could smell marijuana. The two young adults tried to hide the drugs but it was too late, the officer caught them hiding them. The officer asked them to step out of the vehicle, and put their hands up on the car. As

From the end of my junior year through my senior year I have been driving up to Portland, usually bringing my dad or some friends to help out with Bridgetown Ministry's Nightstrike. I have helped out with this organization for eight weeks on Thursday nights, reaching out and building relationships with Portland's homeless. In the mix of people there are always faces you recognize from past weeks which gives you a chance to grow deeper relationships with them. There was a little 4 year old boy named Alex that I would see every week and every time he would show me the new tricks he had taught his dog or his tricks on toys like his skateboard. If I did not have so many prior commitments on Thursdays, I would love to be down there every week.

Not driving in the state in which I reside is considered unusual especially for someone within my age bracket not just because you can start driving at the age of 15, but because Florida is probably one of the worst states for public transportation. I can tell you from a first person perspective that it is not fun or easy to wait around for a bus that is thirty minutes to an hour late, although this is something that is to be expected on the off chance that the bus is actually on time you could miss it just for expecting it to be late.

Emotional hijacking is the body’s natural defense mechanism, it is what triggers the “fight or flight” response during a survival situation but it is also what triggers the protective system during less threatening situations that can either lead to over or under reacting to the conflict. One trigger that I have noticed that has caused an over reactive response for me is road rage. When I am cut off or stuck behind people that choose to drive slow in the fast lane but refuse to move over to allow me by I began driving more aggressively. One strategy that I have tried to use to help me with this is leaving a little earlier than normal so that I am not rushed for time.

When the day came I quickly turned into the proper lane and followed. The longer I had  to follow the more the anger built up.  It was 45 miles later when he turned into a gas station. He didn’t use his blinker so I had to make a quick turn around. I leaped out of my car and my voice was most certainly louder than probably necessary.

It was a summer day after supper, me and my brother were playing outside in the backyard, he was driving the four wheeler and I was on the trampoline. Once I was done and I started walking to the house he pulled up next to me and said “I’m going inside, do you want to try driving the four wheeler?”. “I don’t know how to drive a four wheeler.” I thought to myself, but I still said sure. Once I was on I gunned it like an idiot. Still I pressed down on the gas, not able to let go out of pure shock and fear. It was only right before a hill did I manage to let go. I fell off the back of the four wheeler onto the ground, that hurt but for some reason more than the four wheeler rolling over me. After I fell off and the four wheeler rolled over me it rolled back and stopped on top of me with me in

I hope you had a nice weekend. Will you happen to be in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 1 in the afternoon? Both Chris and Tracy would love to catch up. If not, we are more than happy to setup a call to go over the Energy and Real Assets Space. When you have a moment, please let us know.

Life in the womb was getting tiring for a certain fetus. “Soon to be expected” was considered too long of a wait for her. One January day, Jessica decided it was time to pop out of the womb. This caused many complications between her mother and her. She was born premature and had trouble breathing. She was kept in an intensive care unit for a couple of days. After a week she was healthy and able to go home to meet her family.