Summer Firsts

This summer has been one in which I've done an array of things for the first time.  These include:

1) Going on a carnival spinning ride (pictured above).  In case you're not familiar with it, this ride swings back and forth like the familiar pirate ship while spinning around.  I went on it at night with Ray because he loves spinning rides.  I think he has permenant marks on his legs from where my fingers dug into him and is now deaf in his right ear from my constant screams.  I survived though:).  I was, however, a little traumatized and refused to go on another spinning ride afterwards.  I think I could handle one a night.  Next challenge: a rollar coaster.


2) Driving to/through Long Island: I've been to Long Island a couple of times, but have never actually driven myself there.  I went for Ray's family's get-together.

3) Eating a lobster tempura sushi roll with chopsticks.  Best thing ever!!!  Once you get it in your mouth that is :).

4) Being in a healthy dating relationship.

5) Making coffee in a 12 cup programmable coffeemaker.  I know, I know....I should have had one of these a LONG time ago.  Previously I either went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee or I made it in a single cup coffeemaker - and not the K-cup kind either.  It had a reusable filter that I had to rinse out each time I wanted another cup, the water never got very hot, and it wasn't programmable.  My mornings have been much improved because of this new addition.

6) Not getting a sunburn and having an actual tan.

7) Being financially stable.  This isn't to say that I'm rolling in money, but this is the first summer that I'm not behind on my rent/bills.  I can't say for sure how long this will last, but for right now I'm loving not being overly stressed about my lack of funds.

Summer

I was really planning on taking pictures of my new place and posting them on here.  Unfortunately my camera's internal memory is full (whatever that means) and since I'm spending $150 to fix my car so that I don't lose control of it on the highway, picture taking will have to wait for a while. 

Instead I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what my summer has been like.  In case you didn't know, I spent the month of June living in a very run-down house in Haverstraw.  Ray worked like crazy - painting, rebuilding a window frame (with the help of our friend Michael), and fixing a ceiling fan.  I cleaned the bathrooms (they were disgusting) and helped remove paint off one of the bedroom floors.  It seems the last tenants didn't understand the purpose of using a drop cloth.  All of this was done to help the woman who owned the house either sell or rent the house again, as well as keeping my rent down to something I could afford to pay.  Even though the house was in bad shape, I actually really enjoyed my time there.  The house was built next to a mountain, so it was quite common for deer to come right up the driveway.  The neighbors were friendly and the neighborhood was conviently located by a Shoprite and CVS.  Plus, once I started seeing the house transform, I began to see its potential and I was rather sad when I had to move again.
The move to New City was hard on many levels.  The apartment was much smaller than I remembered and the hallway was so tight that I couldn't bring my couch.  There were ants in my living room, a screen missing in the bathroom, lightbulbs that needed to be replaced as well as fixtures that needed to be repaired, and another bathroom that wasn't cleaned.  We started moving at 2pm (I had been up since 8:30am) and I didn't get home for the night until midnight.  I was an emotional wreck.   It was also July 4th weekend, which meant that instead of working on my apartment, Ray and I decided to go to a BBQ/fireworks.  Not that the relaxation wasn't much needed, but I have to admit that I was less than enthusiastic to be relaxing when my apartment (and by extension my life) was in such chaos. 
Thankfully most of my boxes have now been put away and my apartment is slowly getting more organized.  It's been tough because this summer I've been working almost 40 hrs a week.  It's been a blessing financially, but it does make it harder to get things done.  Usually I'm up by 7:15am to be at Huntington Learning Center by 9am.  I generally tutor for 4 hours.  My "lunch" consists of running around trying to get whatever errands done that I can do.  By 2:50 I'm on my way to pick up the boys from camp.  Their bus comes in @3:30 and both kids are hot, hungry, and tired.  As soon as we get to their house we take the dog out for a little while, have some snack, and wait for their mom to come home.  Most nights I leave their house by 6:30pm.  Then I meet up with Ray for whatever we're doing that evening.

Things I've Learned from Moving

I've moved many times over the years.  Seven moves in nine years to be precise (after college).  These last two moves, however, were by far the hardest emotionally.  Perhaps this was due to the fact that I didn't really WANT to move, but whatever the reason, here is a top ten list of things I learned about moving these past two months.

1) Realistically I only use maybe 20% of what I own on a daily basis.
2) I need to label boxes more specifically.  Looking through 5 boxes marked KITCHEN and finding the item I need in the LAST box I open isn't very helpful.
3) Moving is always far more time consuming and exhausting than I anticipate.
4) I need to take pictures BEFORE I move all of my stuff in.
5) Measuring the hallway width would have been beneficial.  If I had done that first I would have realized that my couch would never be able fit before moving day.
6) If my friends are less than enthusiastic about my new apartment I will have an emotional breakdown by the end of the night.
7) Don't agree to watch other people's pets during the moving process.  It is quite likely that I will completely forget this new responsibility and end up feeding the cats at 11pm (after my emotional breakdown).
8) Learn to take things one day at a time.  I can only do so much in any given day.  Eventually the chaos will become a distant memory.
9) Moving is stressful on a dating relationship.
10) Birds chirping right outside my window at 5:30am are noisier than a freight train.