A Vacation Walk

Whilst here at the shore, enjoying some alone-time, I decided to take a walk to the water yesterday. It's not far, and was nice to get out and enjoy some nice weather. Here are some photos from my journey.....

The album is here if you're interested in seeing the captions.

POTD

It's been a while since there's been a POTD. This one was taken with my phone (my newest camera!) at Ikea a few weeks ago. I will leave off any comments about it at the moment. :) Enjoy!

Photography Update

I've been very lax in uploading pictures lately... partially because my new camera's card doesn't fit into the reader on my laptop! But that's no excuse, really. :)

Here are a few updates from recent events:

Easter: We were at my sister's house and enjoyed a great meal and family time. Matt brought these cool balloon-pinwheel things and we played with them outside with my niece and nephew. There was also some fierce Wii playing in the basement after dinner... but all in good fun!

Watkins Glen trip: Here are the long-ago promised pics of the trip, including the visit to the Krispy Kreme store!

Lastly, this past weekend we went to the Grover Cleveland Birthplace - a part of the NJ Parks Passport to Adventure Program. It was a nice visit, complete with an extremely extensive tour/lecture from the volunteer on duty. She was an interesting lady, who had been a high school history teacher, college professor/administrator, involved in town politics (we guess Mayor from the sticker on her car) and now volunteer historian. The house isn't large, but we actually stood in the room that Grover Cleveland was born in. He is the only president that has been born in NJ, although he lived most of his life in NY and elsewhere. It was a lovely spring day and we enjoyed ourselves, not only visiting the house, but wandering in the area, going to a book sale, and getting some lunch as well. A nice little local adventure! Pictures are here!

Like, OMG!

On Friday, May 16th, I'm heading to my second prom. I only went to one in high school (my senior prom) but not because I didn't want to... because I had no one to go with. I went to one other formal in HS... the Holiday Ball (again senior year), but that was it. We didn't do casual/semiformal dances. Then in college it was worse!! I wanted to go to the formals (each year at Christmastime, known as "Turner Hill" for the location or "The dance formally known as Turner Hill" when the venue changed) but again.... I was cursed with no date - which was the theme of college for me! How sad I sound!

But now I get to go with a really good date... my high-school (teaching) sweetheart! We'd talked about it before, but the other day when I came to visit him at school, Matt asked me to the prom. I shrugged and said, "Whatever" in true high-schooler form. :)

I'm really excited to go! It's going to be so much better than my prom, which was cursed with sadness, rain, drama... all on a Friday the 13th. I don't have to worry about all of the stupid stuff or what other girls are wearing or how my hair looks. I can go and have a good time observing the silliness of high schoolers in a tradition that spans the test of time.

He, he! I'm going to the prom, I'm going to the prom!

Free, free, wheeeeeeee!

If you know me at all, you know I love a bargain... and something free is even better.

Tomorrow, April 15th, is tax day. And Dunkin' Donuts has something for each of us.... a free donut! I already have plans to get a coffee. Maybe I'll get a chocolate glazed and eat just half. :)

Coming soon.... Free Scoop Night on 4/29 and 31-Cent Scoop Night on the 30th! (I'll have to do a lot of Zumba to burn that off!)

tired

Feeling very tired, and it makes me a bit blue. (hence the color choice.) I often feel tired... it is something I just have to accept about my life. I don't sleep enough. I run like a crazy person a lot for work. I worry a lot, which is tiring. I take pills that help keep me healthy, but also make me tired. But sometimes the tiredness just catches up with you and you wish you could just disappear somewhere quiet, warm, and cozy and just sleep and sleep and sleep until all of that tiredness disappears. But the kicker is that often too much sleep will... shock of shocks... make you tired. So it seems to be a vicious cycle.

Time apparently flying also is something that adds to tiredness. This past week simply flew. That's both good and awful. This whole year has flown by... it feels like it was Christmas yesterday (practically) and spring break is almost upon me. As soon as spring break is over, school will be a race to get a million things done in what will seem like a week's time. And I will worry and stress and flip out more which will lead to... more tiredness. Oy.

They always tell you as a kid to enjoy the fact that life goes slow in childhood because it speeds up as you get older. That is so amazingly true... but I never expected it to go this fast. I feel so left behind in it - I can't keep up with the speed of things around me, which is why I struggle to get anything and everything accomplished. I can only manage the "must-do" things and everything else seems to be left on the sidelines, piling up. This is hard to deal with and I then stress and worry about that, too. And you already know where that can lead...

So now in my bone-tired and blue state, I will attempt to prepare my stuff for this week's work-week, clean my bathroom and hopefully make myself lunch for tomorrow and sort through some files and clutter on my floor... things being listed in the order that they might be accomplished. I'll be surprised if I get through the first two, even though I want to do them all.

Yawn.

ROAR!!

Next year I will bite the bullet and PAY someone to do my taxes. I hate it. Who needs this extra stress? It's really frustrating to get to the end of a software program and find that even if you want to print out the dumb thing and mail it in yourself it will cost you money.

And it doesn't help that I have to write both the IRS and the state checks this year. GRUMBLE! (I mean, for a good reason, as I made more money, but still. Grr.)

Catch up on a road trip

Last weekend, we went up to Watkins Glen, NY so I could meet Matt's family. It was a loooooooong drive up, partially because the TomTom directed us on a "shortcut" which ended up being TWICE as long due to the fact that halfway through the shortcut, TomTom died. Not just the battery... that would be easy to fix! No, we had complete software failure. It rebooted itself about five times and then went to a glowing screen and no more. Sad. But we did eventually make it. The one good thing about that trip was that we went to Krispy Kreme... my first trip, and the light was on! I was fascinated by the process of how the donuts are made... and oh, the hot ones are amazing! :) New Jersey does not have any KK retail stores. How sad!
We had a nice weekend, despite the long drive up. Matt's parents had gone up on Thursday night, so they were already there when we arrived. On Saturday, after an AMAZING breakfast at the Bout Time B&B I met two sets of family members, including one teenager (Jay) who was performing in his high school's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie that evening. (He played the male lead, Jimmy Smith - his only audition ever and he lands a lead!)
In the afternoon, we went to a chicken place (the aptly named Mr. Chicken) and then over to Famous Brands store... where I got a pair of pink Tevas. (cute, no?)
After a bit of a rest in the afternoon we headed over to the high school for the show. It brought back a lot of memories... I have fond memories of my theater geek days in school. Jay did a great job in the role, and we had fun poking around the school and having root beer floats during intermission!
On Sunday... another unbelievable breakfast started the day, then we visited one more house for a bit before we headed home. It was a very quick trip, but nice to finally get up there. It even snowed when we were there - a surprise! I want to go back up when it's green - there is a ton of great hiking and outdoor adventures to be had, and I want to take a trip to the Corning Museum of Glass as well... it looks like such a great place! There are also a ton of wineries that look interesting and lots of other things to do. Next time, however, we will not do a whirlwind weekend!

(I'll hopefully get the few pics I took uploaded soon.)

Just in Case You Need To Know....

A work colleague of mine told me a story today that needed to be shared. Some of her students wanted to know about her personal life - is she married, etc. She said no, she was not married, and no, was not getting married in May (supposedly this was "what they'd heard."). When they found out that she was currently single, they wanted to set her up with the gym teacher... also single. (And buff, according to the 5th grade girls).

One boy decided to tell her "HOW TO GET A GUY TO MARRY YOU."
I thought that this was information that is necessary to share with all of the single girls out there.

Here it is:

A choco taco and four dollars. (as a tip.)Obviously, getting a guy to marry you does NOT involve love. And why is he being given a $4 tip?