My First Apartment!!

Well I finally got to see my apartment in San Digeo! (Which is good, since I'm not living there but have been paying rent since the beginning of July...) It's unfurnished, so Dad and I took our free Saturday to move some furniture out there. I am lucky enough to have a queen size bed, a desk, a bookshelf, a couple of drawer side tables, and a couch. This saves a lot of money!

We didn't bring anyone with us to help move the furniture out of the Uhaul and this became a problem when we needed to move the really heavy couch (leather, with a pull out bed). And naturally, I am on the THIRD floor.

So before we had to do any heavy lifting, I suggested to Dad that we go each lunch. We ate down the hill from school at Urbane Cafe (SO good; and naturally, Dad chatted it up with the owner and exchanged business cards) and while we were sitting there, Dad started scouting out boys who looked strong enough to help. We were going to pay them $25 each just to help us move a couch--that's desperate!! Well, it was when Dad suggested I go flutter my eyelashes at a couple of them and ask them to help us that I frantically whipped out my phone and started thinking, "Come on, some guy I know has to be in San Diego!" I got lucky with my first try. I found a guy who was willing to help me and was going to bring a friend, thank goodness!

So Dad & I sweated up a storm while we moved the mattress up three flights and every other piece of furniture. We had to wait a while for my friend to be available, so while we were waiting, Dad gets thinking and says, "Hey, maybe we can take this thing apart..." So we take up the cushions and the mattress and Dad busts out his Swiss Army Knife (which he does at every opportune moment) and starts to detach the inside of the couch. After a good 15 minutes of getting out the tightly-wound screws, we took the middle section out. When we got ready to take the last piece up, some strangers came up to us and asked if the property manager was around. I said, "No, but I have his cell phone number." Then one of the guys (Bless him!!!) said, "Hey, you need help with that?" Neither of us skipped a beat. He and Dad carried the last piece up and we saved $50--and they got to peek around at the apartment.

So my apartment is pretty spacious... the living room is big, we actually have a little dining room and a porch that can probably fit a small table and some chairs. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I'm sharing a bathroom with Amy and since they gave me the bigger room last year, I took the room with the smaller closet (the master bedroom has TWO closets!!). We still need to deal with electricity and sign up for cable/wireless. The apartment is right across from school and I can see the staircase that leads up to it from our apartment. I will probably still get a parking pass though because I don't want to show up sweating to every class.

I'm definitely still sore from Saturday and yesterday I decided to walk all the way to the beach and then back up a giant hill, so that's adding to the pain a little. But hey, I've got to work off these meals somehow. Christine fixed the scale and I asked her to break it again.

I'm hoping we'll get to go deep sea fishing soon. I keep telling them I want to catch a shark and I repeat myself often so they know I'm not kidding. I want to sit in the chair, strapped down, reeling in a huge fish for two hours. I think that would be so much fun! But I guess nobody's really catching big fish right now, so I might have to settle for something smaller. :-(

I love and miss you all terribly!!

PS--Send some prayers up for my friend Chase from school. He's not one of my close friends, but I've known him since freshman year. He's in the hospital with some really serious head injuries and it's really touch and go. I've been reading the updates his Dad has been writing for everyone and they make me cry every time.

Adults Who Never Grew Up

While searching the web today at work, I came across a website that made me smile, burst into laughter, and at times, nearly shed a tear or two.

Thinking of topics for a new blog, I typed "most romantic proposals" into my Google search. This is the first site that I clicked on: http://www.njwedding.com/engagementstory/. When going through the stories, I clicked on the engagement story of Jennifer Bresnan & Matt Liddle. The proposal itself wasn't extremely romantic. A cute little scavenger hunt... but I clicked on the link within the story which lead me to the account of the annual No Pants! event on the NY subway. http://improveverywhere.com/2006/01/22/no-pants-2k6/



This story is hysterical... please read it! And after you read it, go visithttp:// improveeverywhere.com. I never knew a group like this existed. It's a group of adults who plan and scheme (harmful, but side-splittingly funny) pranks. Some of them make you feel warm & fuzzy (Romantic Comedy Cab) and some of them are just unbelieveably creative (Human Mirror). Or how about the protest of Redheads against Wendy's (the spokesmodel is a disgrace to redheads everywhere!) and they rode on a subway and applied copious amounts of sunscreen? One of my favorites has to be High Five Escalator. :-)

These stories are sure to brighten your day and, if you live in NY, you can even sign up to be an Improve Everywhere Agent. Or you can sign up for the e-mail list, like me, so you can hear about upcoming/past events.

We're all just really big kids at heart! :-)

-Bev

Aye Aye, Captain!

I was fortunate enough this last weekend to have my first ever sailing experience.

Dad had some left over crab and lobster (oh darn) from a catering job he did, so we decided to make a trade with some of his friends. An afternoon on their boat for a decadent lunch of seafood and wine! Who could resist that?!

We made our way down to the docks and ate our lunch before we went out sailing (not a good idea for those with weak stomachs, but all of those people stayed home). It was a pretty windy day, which is obviously good for sailing. After getting out of the harbor, Dave ( the Captain, for all intensive purposes) gave me the reins, so to speak, and let me steer. The really confusing thing about this is that the control's are kind of opposite. So pushing takes you right and pulling takes you left. And you have to keep it in just the right spot so the sail right above you isn't dragging at all. Dave gave me something to aim for, though, and that was the biggest help. And once I was in the zone, there was no breaking my concentration. I also learned how to tack--which involves yelling, "About to tack!" to everyone on board, which can be fun.

All in all it was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again! I'll have to come up with a cool Captain name though, right?