The Bean Update

Well, we've been back from our beach trip for about 24 hours now, and boy am I grumpy! We've had a lot of fun the past two weeks between my birthday and our beach trip, but now that we are back home, it's been a little overwhelming playing catch up. Don'tcha hate that?

My birthday was quite nice, even though I slept most of the day away (till about 4pm) after working all night. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a wonderfully clean apartment. Then I was wisked away to a delicious dinner at a really nice restaurant (yes, they do exist here, believe it or not), the Green Valley Grill. We enjoyed the best-tasting, most elegant meal we've had in a long time. Then on Friday, I was treated to a professional massage. It was sooooo nice!

Over the following weekend, we had a delightful visit from a college friend of mine, who was brave enough to venture up from Atlanta to po-dunk ville. We showed her the miriad of sights downtown on Saturday, and on Sunday, we ventured out into nature, taking a long walk on the nearby greenway and having a nice evening sunbath at the pool. We sure did appreciate the visit (and hopefully it wasn't too boring for her)!

When Monday arrived, we finally embarked on the long-awaited trip to the coast! We visited Surf City, which is the largest of three towns on Topsail Island, a barrier island off the NC coast, just north of Wilmington. Although it was the largest town on the island, it was still quite small and quiet, without too many tourists.... just the way we like it! We rented out the cutest condo with a beautiful view of the ocean from the deck. We then proceeded to spend the next three days lounging about or taking walks on the beach, trying to get some sun without getting too burnt, and eating some delicious seafood. Although I wished our trip could have been longer (as always), we both had a wonderful and relaxing vacation.

Friday morning started the driving marathon of the weekend: Friday we drove six and a half hours to Athens, Saturday we drove an hour to Atlanta, and then Sunday we drove another five and a half hours back to Greensboro, arriving back here around 1:30AM. The driving was both for fun and as a necessity. The fun part was getting to see two Modern Skirts shows, which included the premiere of their new music video and four new songs. As usual, this band never ceases to amaze and impress me with their talent. It's been really cool watching them along their journey, as I have known them since before they became the Skirt Boys (my name for them). Plus, it was really fun to hang out with friends that we haven't seen in quite a while.

The necessary part of our Atlanta trip was to pick up a truck from my favie's dad, so that we can have a vehicle for moving. It was wonderful to see his parents again, because we hadn't seen them since April, but we ended up staying there catching up and talking a little longer than we probably should have. We didn't leave until about 8pm; thus, the late arrival time last night.

Today we have both just been trying to catch up on the routine necessities of life. Things really do sneak up on you when you go out of town. Tomorrow we will pack up everything we possibly can from this apartment. Then on Wednesday we will pack up my car and the truck, with the intention of having everything pretty much ready to go Thursday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, we will officially be Atlanta residents again! And then Friday we will lug all of our crap out of the storage unit again.... sooo not looking forward to that. Finally, Saturday, although we will be up to our ears in boxes, we're gonna say, "F*ck it!" and go party down in Athens for the first football game of the season.... Gooooo Dawgs!!

If we make it through this week, I guess we start unpacking on Monday. If not, please be kind enough to scrape my tattered body off of the pavement so I can have a proper burial.

It's all Coming Together Now

Now that I have my boyfriend back, we have spent the majority of our time together blissfully being lazy and pretending like we don't have a whole lot to do. But the time has come for us to get back in gear and plan for our move back home.

Actually, things are already starting to come together. Last week we made an extremely short trip (I think we were there less than 24 hours) to Atlanta to look at some apartments. We decided to look in the same area that we had been living in before we left, because we know it well and really enjoyed living there. So after looking at three different places, we mulled it over for a few days, and finally decided on a place at Post Brookhaven.

This apartment should meet our needs well for several reasons: 1) It should be large enough to fit the incredibly large amount of crap that we have accrued over our short lifespans on this earth, 2) It has a nice sunroom area which should work well as an office for Dave, a necessity now that he will be working from home, 3) It is on the bottom floor, so it should be easy to move in and out of. This is especially important since we will only be there for seven months. And, lastly, 4) It had the best price for the amount of space we will have, and is not in a ghetto complex with poor management (unlike one place we looked at that had really great prices with very spacious apartments but that we could tell was very poorly managed, and overall, just seemed a little sketchy).

You may be wondering why we are only going to live in this apartment for seven months. Well, our great new idea and goal once we return to Atlanta, is to put ourselves on a budget, so that we can aggressively save up and plan to buy a house to move into....YAY! And then we are never ever ever ever moving ever again!!!

So at this point, I have three more days left of work at High Point Regional. I'll be done early in the morning on August 16th, which just so happens to be my birthday. (No more work= an awesome birthday present to myself!) Then on August 20th, we get to go to the beach for 4 days.... double yay!! And finally, we'll come back to Greensboro, pack our sh*t up, and get the hell outta here! Can you tell I'm ready?

P.S. We will be accepting any willing volunteers who can help us move from Greensboro to Atlanta, and once we get back to Atlanta, move stuff out of our storage unit and into our new place. I know, we suck, but like I said, we are on a budget!

P.P.S. We will pay you in beer (or liquor if you prefer)! ;)

What in the Heck Have I Been Doing?

Hmmm... that's a good question.

And the answer is: Nothing very exciting. Well, that's a little bit of a lie.

I did have one bright spot in the month of July. The weekend after my last post, I attended the annual Girls' Weekend trip that I have been to just about every year since I graduated college. This event is planned one weekend every summer by a friend of mine that I have known since my MCG days. She is adament about having a weekend every year where all of her girlfriends get together for girl talk, drink lots of alcohol, eat junk food, and just act silly (i.e. we have been known to set off fireworks, run around naked in the snow, play truth or dare, etc.) Although I don't talk to a lot of the girls who attend Girls' Weekend on a very regular basis, they are a great bunch to hang out with, and I always end up having a great time. This year we did end up having a little bit of drama since two of the girls had it out in an all-out screaming match. But hey, I suppose it was bound to happen one of these years. What can you expect when eleven girls spend 10 hours straight of drinking wine and beer together in one little cabin? I'm sure we'll all laugh our asses off about it next year!

After that weekend, I came home already exhausted and had to go straight into a three day stretch of shifts. After working, I spent the end of last week doing my chores and continuing to count down the days until EMF was over so that I could have my boyfriend back again. Although the last day of the festival was Saturday, he's had to play clean-up until this past Tuesday. So finally, yesterday was his first complete day off in the last six weeks! I don't know how he did it, but I sure am proud of him. Way to go babe!! (Without a doubt, EMF being over is definitely the other bright spot of July!)

Now all of a sudden it is August 2, and by the end of this month, we will hopefully have gone to the beach for a vacation (THANK GOD!), packed up, and be moved back home. I am sooo looking forward to it.