Brrrrrr, it’s cold in here
Posted by Gypsy on Nov 15, 2010
It’s astounding how much can happen in less than two weeks. After leaving Charleston, I drove straight up I-95 to the Hudson Valley area to visit my brother and his wife for a few days. For the most part, the goal was to relax and chill while I was there. At five months pregnant, Amanda isn’t exactly up for being out and about the entire weekend after working all week. However, we did have a couple fun events on the agenda. First up was Rock of Ages on Friday night. I caught the show back in October when I was in New York for a comic book convention, however I got tickets through the lottery, meaning they were very cheap but offered a limited view of the stage. This time around I ordered the tickets ahead of time, getting us seats in the center of the mezzanine, three rows from the front. While the tickets were more expensive than the lottery tickets, it was definitely worth the expense. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the first time around by sitting in seats with an obstructed view.
The other event planned for the weekend was West Point’s last home game of the season, against the Air Force Academy. Football is a sport that wasn’t offered at my high school and wasn’t watched by my family, so I missed out on that particular American past-time. As an adult, though, I’ve watched enough to at least understand the rules and recognize when something exciting happens. Even so, I was very excited for the game. Since Jason and Amanda live on post, we were able to avoid the nightmare of parking by just walking to a shuttle stop and hopping on. We got there a little later than intended, the result of our own laziness, but luckily made it in time to watch the Black Knights, West Point’s parachute team, drop in before the game started.
The rest of my time at West Point was spent mostly just relaxing and hanging out. On Wednesday I finally drove the last 5 hours home. Since my arrival I’ve been focused on getting settled in and staying on top of my schoolwork. With less than 4 weeks left, my main concern is ensuring I finish both classes with a B or better (though I’d obviously prefer an A in each) so I can get my degree and finally be done with it.
There’s no place like home (again)
Posted by Gypsy on Nov 4, 2010
Short version: I’m moving back to New York.
The longer version I’ve been meaning to write about for a couple weeks now, but as usual time got away from me. So now I’m actually in the middle of this move and finally getting around to writing about it. Shortly after Andy left for Japan, Joe and Nicole were awesome enough to invite me to stay with them for a couple months while I looked for a job and a place to live. However, a couple months turned into eight as I realized finding a job was far more challenging than I expected and finding a place of my own to live in was less exciting when armed with the knowledge that I would be sitting alone in it all day with no one to talk to. So after eight months of living with Joe and Nicole, I decided it was time to impose on someone else for a little while and my loving parents drew the short straw.
The decision was made in mid-October after we returned from a comic book convention in New York and since then I’ve just been focusing on school and getting this move taken care of. A week after the decision was made, I hopped in my car and drove it up to Maryland to put it into long-term storage since it’s not exactly practical for a New York winter. The next day I flew back down to Charleston to finish tying up other loose ends. Honestly, there was really no immediate need to rush. Joe and Nicole weren’t kicking me out on my rear or anything. It was really a practical decision. I already had plans to drive up to West Point this weekend to visit my brother and go see my first football game ever and it really made no sense to drive up there, then back to the south, only to go back to New York a couple weeks later. Might as well just visit Jason and Amanda and then head right up to mom and dad’s after the weekend.
So at this point I’m getting ready to hit the road. The car is packed (with the exception of a few minor items) and gassed up. The iPod has been updated with some new music and podcasts. And my parents have been warned. I’m not completely sure what the plan is when I get there. I do know that my immediate concern is finishing my last five weeks of school and getting the grades I’m required to have so I can graduate in December. Especially now that the cap and gown are already ordered, the announcements are just waiting to be addressed, and the plane tickets to San Antonio have already been bought.
Catching up is hard to do – Part 3
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 30, 2010
I had really hoped to keep this to two parts so I could get right to sharing about my trip to Japan, but it’s hard to cover six months in a few posts. However, I think I can finish the catch up with this post. Unfortunately, I have very few photos of the events that took place after I returned from The Bahamas, but I am getting better about remembering to bring my camera places. It’s high time I get back into keeping my writing and photography skills sharp as you never know when they will come in handy (that may or may not be a little foreshadowing *wink*).
After returning from The Bahamas, I chilled in Charleston a little longer before heading back up to Maryland. I had promised my mom I’d come home for Easter weekend and figured I’d spend some time with Kevin and Maria before hopping on a flight up to Rochester. Not too much exciting happened while I was home for the long weekend, and that was exactly what I was looking for. Most of the trip was spent hanging out with my parents or spending time with Jason and Amanda.
After enjoying the Easter holiday with my family, I flew back down to Maryland, where I relaxed a few more days before returning to Charleston. I’ve said many times before that Charleston is one of my favorite cities and somewhere I’ve always wanted to live. So I kept traveling back and forth while I wanted to hear from a potential job opportunity in the D.C. area. While back in Charleston I was informed I didn’t get the position. That, along with an offer from Joe and Nicole to let me stay with them while I searched for work, led to a final trip back up to D.C. to handle any loose ends before heading south. Nicole traveled up with me to help me take care of things and to join me (and some other friends) at a Q&A Kevin Smith was going to do in the city. Nicole and I also took some time to check out the Air and Space Museum (my favorite of all the Smithsonian Museums) and the National Zoo.
With bad weather rolling in, we ended up having to leave a day early, but it wasn’t so bad as it gave Nicole a day to relax before going back to work. Going with the theme of never actually staying in one place for very long, a few weeks later we ended up leaving Charleston again. This time it was all three of us and our destination was Asheville, North Carolina, a cute little city way up in the mountains where a locally owned book store was hosting a reading by Chuck Palahniuk, an author Joe and I both love. I honestly don’t know what was better: seeing Palahniuk read an original story and chat with the crown or explore the amazing little city. Had I discovered Asheville a decade ago, I would’ve loaded up my beater of a car and gone straight there and never left. Even now I check every once in a while to see if there are any jobs I’m qualified for there. It’s definitely at the top of the list of places I want to retire to. Joe and Nicole also fell in love with it, opting to spend their anniversary there a couple months later.
And that brings us to my trip home for Jason and Amanda’s wedding, which I’ve already written about. Next up: my long awaited reunion with that guy I’ve been missing.
Catching up is hard to do – part 2
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 25, 2010
Clearly I’m horrible at catching up as it’s taken me another two months to get to part, but I think I can keep up once I’m caught up so here is the rest of the story. Plus, I really want to get on to talking about my trip to visit Andy and I can’t do that until I walk about everything else I’ve been up to since Andy left.
So after Andy left for Japan, I head down the coast to Charleston. The goal was to hit up Joe and Nicole’s and chill for a few days before heading all the way down to Florida. While I was a last minute addition, they, along with a ton of other people we know, had been planning this trip for months. When they found out Andy was going to be gone and I would be on the east coast, they invited me along and Andy insisted I go as so I wouldn’t be sitting around bummed and missing him. The first part of the trip started in Orlando, where some of our group were spending the weekend at MegaCon and the rest of us were hitting the amusement parks. This was a million kinds of awesome for me. For one, I got to see a ton of people I hadn’t seen in awhile, including the lovely Drena, and meet some people I had been looking forward to meeting for awhile, such as Carrie and Garth (and a ton more who I would list but it’s been months and I don’t want to forget anyone). Since this was my first time in Orlando, and I’d never been to any of the parks there, I opted to go that route with Joe, Nicole, et al. This included two days at Universal Studios (though, unfortunately, before the Harry Potter section opened) and a day at Disney World. While the two days at Universal were amazing, the day at Disney was pretty lacking as it was packed and half the rides were broken.
After Orlando came part two of the trip: spending the rest of the week in the Bahamas. This part of the trip consisted of just Joe, Nicole, Dave, Cheryl, and me and had only one goal: laziness. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. Most of the trip was spent dealing with planes flying overhead and construction on a new set of condos right next door. However, we all made the best of it and some relaxing was had. Since this trip coincided with my week off of school, I was able to finally do a little reading for fun as well as swim a little in the ocean, eat a ton of food (both Bahamian and stuff we cooked at the condo), and finally recharge a little from all the stress of the previous Month.
The first night of the trip it became clear very quickly that we might need to rent a car. We walked down the road to the nearest restaurant (an overpriced tourist trap), but walking turned out to be quite treacherous due to the completely lack of sidewalks or even shoulders on the road. There are also very few lights on the road and since it was after dark by the time we finished eating the walk home was going to be quite dangerous. In a failed effort to get a bottle of rum for the condo, after dinner the guys walked off in one direction to search for a liquor store while Nicole, Cheryl, and I set off for the condo. Luckily, a nice older couple saw us and offered us a ride back so we didn’t have to walk back in the dark. This made us realize we were in definite need of a rental car to drive, which was an interesting experience as they drive on the left in the Bahamas.
With a car, we were able to explore the island a little. This led to a couple trips into Nassau for exploring, shopping, and eating. We were also able to hit up the grocer for food for the house (at a ridiculous markup, I might add), and even a trip to Arawak Cay, where a strip of various buildings offer some of the freshest fish fry around. Throughout our wanderings around the island, we discovered a daiquiri stand on the side of the road and in an impulsive move we decided to stop and have a drink. Since someone had to stay sober, I opted for a virgin daiquiri while the others went for the rum. It was only after we were drinking that we noticed some interesting caves behind the stand and decided to explore a little. Because I’m a bit claustrophobic, I stayed towards the entrance and outside, but this turned out to be not so bad as at one point I got to see Joe looking like a human whack-a-mole.
I have to admit my favorite part of the trip was just how relaxed The Bahamas are. I can see why people opt to retire to this little cluster of islands. The constant sound of waves lapping on the beach and birds flying just makes it impossible to feel any sense of urgency about anything. Even drivers are relaxed, something that is a very stark contrast to the States. I rarely saw speed limits posted because many roads were so thin and curvy that it was impossible to reach any real speed. Even in the straighter parts people didn’t really drive that fast. If someone was trying to pull into traffic and it wasn’t going so well, other drivers would just stop and hold up traffic to let that person in. The same went for people crossing the street. It was really amazing to both see and experience. Especially as someone adjusting to driving on the left. Even with some unfortunate issues with our condo, it was still very very difficult to leave when the trip was over. But the real world always has to rear its ugly head and before we knew it we were back in the States to get back to work, school, job hunting, and all the other trials of regular life.
Flicker sets from this post: Orlando/Bahamas March 2010.
