stuf

1. Travel

I’ve racked up almost 4000 miles (3737 miles) of air travel in the past 3 weeks.  Plus the hundreds of nautical miles I traveled a couple of weeks ago.  I feel kinda awesome for having done so much travel in so little time.  Not all of it was for fun, though… as a matter of fact, I just got back from a 4-day work trip to Duke University for our New Fellows Conference.  Thanks to a flight cancellation and a 1 hour layover in Cincinnati, I picked up an additional 500 miles on that trip.  I wasn’t too thrilled about the change of plans, but I’ll happily take the extra 500 miles.  My goal is to reach 10,000 miles by the end of October.

I’m at 8388 right now.   Only 1612 left.  If I fly home and take a trip to Atlanta in the next 2 months, I’ll be set.

Oh – and also, I’ve decided that I enjoy flying.  Before, I kinda dreaded it – mostly the take off and landing.  But over the past few weeks I’ve developed this newfound appreciation for pilots and the massive beasts they fly.

2. Friends

Jessica is coming!  TODAY.  Get excited.  While she seems to be pretty lax in her planning, I’m quasi-freaking out (more like thinking nonstop) about what we can do to fill the time.  She’s staying until Sunday, so we only have a short 60 hours or so to take on NYC together.

3. Work

I’ve been at my current job for a year.  I can’t even believe it.  Hooray for me.  Here’s to another year of helping people save the world.

** I promise to write something more fulfilling next time… there just isn’t much going on in my life right now.  Oh well.

dc weekend travel

Last weekend, I got the wonderful opportunity to visit some college friends in the DC metro/Baltimore area.  It was a great trip, minus the bus ride to DC.

My seat partner was less than ideal: not only was he 6′8″ (ish) with huge arm muscles (which inconveniently spilled into my seat), and had an unnecessary thuggish “lean” (causing half is body to be in my seat), he had the world’s cheapest headphones – the ENTIRE doubledecker bus could hear his music.  You can just imagine  how loud that was for me – the person sitting 6″ away from him.  I was really looking forward to listening my OWN ipod, but instead I was blasted with old school Mariah Carey.

That’s right.  Mr. Thug Man was listening to Mariah Carey.  And he was rockin’ out, too – head bobbing and all.

By the time we got to Baltimore – 4 hours later – I was 5 minutes away from punching him in the face screaming at him politely asking him to turn his fucking music down and move 20% of his body mass out of my seat.  Luckily, it never got to that point – he changed seats as soon as people got off the bus.  Of course, I still heard his music from wherever he was sitting, but my own music covered up the muffled Mariah.

And that point was where my wonderful weekend began.

I got to hang out with Patrick and Liz, see Emily, and meet Emily’s bf Evan.  Not only that, but I got to drive (this is a big deal since I never drive in NYC)!  I miss driving a whole lot.

Perhaps the next place I move to will be more of a driving city.

Anyway, the ride back was slightly more pleasant – I got to sit next to Adam, who isn’t large (but tall) and wasn’t listening to Mariah full blast with $1.50 headphones.  Unfortunately, the trip took 1.5 hours longer than expected and I had very little time to get myself together for Monday.

From now on, I will avoid sitting next to men over 6′5″ and 230 pounds with cheap looking headphones and Amtrak on Sunday afternoons.

so little time

I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.  There’s so much I want to get done this summer, but there’s NO time for everything!  There are so many things chillin’ out on my To Do list and I have no idea how they’ll fit into my schedule between now and Labor Day.

Did I mention that I’d like to spend a weekend doing absolutely nothing?  Unfortunately, that may no longer be possible.

Honestly, I love taking the time to visit friends and family, but I don’t function well without taking time for myself.

I guess I’m in a not-so-interesting situation.  I want to visit friends (and have them visit me), but I want to have some time to myself.  Oh – and let’s not forget that apartment of mine that’s in serious need of TLC.

What ever will I do?

never, ever, ever ride greyhound

What was supposed to be a 12.5 hour trip to SWVA turned into a 22 hour trip – all because my first bus from NYC was an hour late. So, of course, I missed all of my connecting buses. I was pissed. It’s not fun to travel when pissed.

The worst part was their customer service – which is the worst I’ve ever experienced. I’m NEVER taking that stupid bus ever again. Except for when I have to get to Northern VA on Sunday.

After that, I’m done. I hate Greyhound sooooo much.

note to self

NEVER EVER TAKE A BUS ON A MAJOR HOLIDAY TRAVEL DAY.

…especially if it’s raining outside. Today’s trip back to NYC was pretty terrible.

so much catching up to do

I’m back from Philadelphia and utterly exhausted. It was good times.

I’ll write more tomorrow. Right now, I have a massive amount of work emails to respond to.