Thursday, July 31, 2008

All grown up

'Real life' is interesting. It's strangely... routine. And they said it would be scary and different :P It's interesting because it's both, except the scary part. We've simply been put in the roles our parents were in. You know, they paid the bills, fixed the car, went to work, cooked, cleaned, were in charge of our family's social life. Now we're doing them. This is nothing I haven't seen before. It's rather nice. It's like finally being big enough to wear your mother's evening gown, instead of having it falling off your shoulders and into a puddle on the floor. I've been watching this rhythm my whole life. Suddenly, all the tasks I was too small or inexperienced to do just happen. I was worried that it would be hard or take a lot of effort but I've been trained for this. I'm here.

Not to say it doesn't have it's own set of challenges, some I wasn't expecting. But it's like taking a practical exam. You haven't seen the composite problems before, but you do know all the tools for the small ones. It just takes some patience to work it all out.

I don't know if Dustin feels the same, he hasn't had the same experience as I, but he seems to like it fine. I am happy to have him, he most certainly makes life better.

Friday, July 18, 2008

We're Back!

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

It's good to be home. It's amazing how a stationary day (a.k.a. not constantly in a car), hot shower, full kitchen, bed (not sleeping bag), and reasonable prices can make one feel so happy an content. :)

The trip was awesome! I'm so glad we went. For those who don't know, we started out traveling to Philly to visit a friend of mine who is currently working for Teach For America. Philadelphia is a very cool city. I hope to go back again. I rode my first ever tram and learned that even city people can be nice (although, not all city people, we learned that, too). We randomly met a newly-wed couple from Portland, ME (which is where we were headed) who had missed their flight to Jamaica and were stuck in Philly for the night who had family from where Dustin's from and a sister who works and my favorite restaurant in ME (D'Millo's floating restaurant, no really, you should go). We visited some of the historical buildings and had fun observing all the tourists. I suppose I retain my status as a nerd because I got all excited over the first Bank of America.

There are lots of super cool parks throughout the city. Our favorite was the game piece park (we don't know what it's really called but it is a collection of majorly over-sized game pieces). They had a giant Rook from Chess so we had to have a Rapunzel shot, Gail kindly obliged without throwing up. I love the look on the woman's face in the back ground. Perhaps she's the one we should have been worrying about throwing up. Sigh, oh for longer hair...

I could go on and on but it was a 10 day trip so I'll just give you the highlights:
  • We couldn't find a campground so we ended up staying in an Ethan Allen hotel, which is part of a company that sells really expensive interior design stuff (use PriceLine.com, it's amazing).
  • We stayed at a campsite in RI for three days and are pretty sure a moose ran through the camp and by our tent when we were in it but we couldn't get the zipper open in time to see it. Dustin woke up the next morning with four perfect finger bruises on his arm that happened to fit my hand. Go figure.
  • People in Connecticut can't drive, not to mention that they're incredibly rude. If anyone tells you God doesn't do miracles in modern days, take them to CT and point out that all these people are still alive, that none of their cars are totaled and that 99% of their cars don't have dents or scratches. Wow.
  • Your in-laws in-laws are probably pretty cool people.
  • Maine is heaven on Earth. At least in the summer, apparently it's the other place in the winter. Gorgeous landscape, perfect weather, clean air, crystal water. My sister in-law's husband can testify that the bottled water in Paris, France is from Maine.
  • Oh, and we saw the Strongs. But not in Syracuse. They were on a family camping trip and couldn't meet us. Ask Dustin, he can tell the story better.
  • The sunset over New England lakes is the most beautiful I have ever seen.
  • Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is really good. Their HQ is really cute and their tour guides need a seminar on public speaking. But if Sweet Cream and Cookies makes onto store shelves you should definitely give it a try. Mm-mm.
  • Niagra Falls is (are) beautiful. We'll be going back some day.
There are more little stories about the trip but it's lunch time and I'm hungry. So you'll have to wait :).

Glad to be home.