Time sure does fly when you're having fun (or commuting) and honestly, living my life hasn't left much time for writing about my life. Summer is normally a busy time of year for us, but last week was especially crazy with the holiday.
It all started on Thursday when I finally got my summer highlights done. It had been over a year since I last had my highlights done, so my poor hair was in dire need of a little bit of summer brightening, not to mention a trim. To give you an idea of my day, it went something like this:
5:30 AM -- Rise and shine
6:15 AM -- Leave for work
7:45 AM -- Arrive at work
4:00 PM -- Head for home
6:30 PM -- Supposed to be starting my hair appointment, still in traffic
6:45 PM -- Finally arrive at my destination (the salon) 2¾ hours later
9:15 PM -- Leave hair salon
9:30 PM -- Arrive at home and wolf down some left-overs for dinner
10:00 PM -- SLEEP
To say that traffic was a bit of a nasty bitch last week would be an understatement. Jonathan drove in with me one day and asked in incredulous horror, "Is it like this everyday?" Well, not that bad, but yes, most evenings it takes me two hours to get home, make it three if it's Friday. I can make it in to work in about 1½ hours, but it's been averaging about two hours lately. I really hope that the Memorial Day holiday had something to do with it because I always thought that traffic lessened in the summer. We shall see. In any case, I hope to be done with commuting by the end of July. My fingers are crossed very tightly that my clearance will come through quickly and easily.
On Friday, I had the wonderful opportunity through work to participate in a home build with Habitat for Humanity. I spent most of my day hanging plywood on the side of a house while dangling off of four stories of scaffolding. Not only was it a very rewarding experience, but I also had the chance to learn that I'm much better with heights than I give myself credit for. In some areas of the house, the scaffolding didn't quite extend to the end of the wall, so I was literally hanging off the scaffolding, legs wrapped around the poles, while hammering nails and drilling screws into the plywood. It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit I was relieved when it was time to go because it was hard work and it was terrifically hot that day, close to 90°.
I'm bringing sexy back...
The fun continued into Friday night when we met up with our good friends Allison and Ryan to see Kenny Chesney in concert. I always kind of figured that the core of his fan base is teenage and twenty-something girls, but I was way off base...the cougars totally love him! The weather was beautiful and Kenny put on a great show, strutting around and flexing his muscles. It was actually pretty funny how often he flexed.
We didn't slow down a bit on Saturday. There were errands to run during the day and then we went to downtown Annapolis to meet up with my friend Steve, who is stationed in San Francisco with the Coast Guard. We stayed out until 2:00 AM, longer than we've lasted in a long time! When we finally woke up the next morning, Jon mumbled, "I'm too old for this." Sadly, I would have to agree!
Sunday found us helping my parents with yard work, clearing out their backyard which is mostly wooded. It was tough work, but at least I can say I came out of the weekend with a tan, albeit with a few bug bites and blisters as well. And finally, on Monday we visited several new home communities to get an idea of what is out there. If we want to build a new home, starting in the next month or so will put us in our time frame of moving out and actually buying in September. Unfortunately, a community we fell in love with a few months ago just sold out of all their home sites so we'll need to find somewhere else that we love equally as much. We found a gorgeous community just across the Bay Bridge that has views of the Chesapeake Bay, but we'll need to decide if we want to make that drive to work every day. The actual mileage wouldn't be very far from my parents nor our new jobs, but traffic tends to be a bear in the summer due to people heading to the beach. Still, it's on our list.
Phew! That's what I was up to last weekend! Taking a cue from one of my favorite food bloggers (actually, one of the first blogs I followed as well), I'm going to start looking back at where I was a year ago in my posts. Kind of neat way to remember where I've been.
Last year, I returned to the country I called home for four years of my life.
