Yippee, I'm on Vacation!!!

I want to apologize for such a long absence from my blog, it has been a very busy, interesting week.

First and foremost, let me tell you, you can officially walk into my apartment without tripping over anything. This, in itself, was a great task at hand, and I am glad that it is nearly done. It was supposed to be fully done before I want on vacation, but I just have my bedroom left, and even then that just needs a dusting. So, woo-hoo to me!!! I'm giving myself a huge pat on the back! And did I mention that I donated 3 boxes of items, 1 bag of clothing, and 1 bag of stuffed animals to Goodwill this week? YUP! I'm determined to get rid of my "pack rat" status! :D

Secondly, as I mentioned, I'm on vacation! Since I start my new state job on August 1st, and have to do the probationary period over again, I decided to use half of my vacation time and get paid for the other half. The best of both worlds! Yesterday, I drove 12 hours (would have been 11 hours) back east to Western Massachusetts to see the parents and some friends. The car journey was very interesting. In Michigan, I saw 5 cops on the stretch of road heading to Canada. Did they not have anything better to do? On my way into Canada, my car got searched (I think a warning light went on when I told them I had not been to Canada in 12 years, or could it have the the pocketknife I told them I had in the trunk of my car for camping? :D), and I had to go through immigration. At first I was stoked when I saw the speed limit sign "70" in Canada. I was like "ALL RIGHT, AWESOME, I can go 70!" A few miles down the road, found out it was 70 km/hr. Hmmmm...who was that genius making it km/hr? No wonder why I was passing EVERYBODY on the highway. Heeheehee In Canada, I saw an 18-wheeler full of pigs. It had layers and layers and layers of pigs (live ones thankfully). Of course I thought about my administrative assistant, she collects them.

I thought entering the United States again would have been harder than entering Canada, but it wasn't. He asked me "Why were you in Canada?" (Just passing through.) "Where are you heading?" (To Massachusetts to visit my parents.) The lines to get through were crazy long! I took a 20 minute break in Pembroke, NY. While driving on the Thruway, I finally realized that there were no cars going on I90 West. Strange. So I flipped through the stations, and eventually I located their traffic station. Turns out they needed to do emergency maintenance. I hope it's done by the time I go home on July 31st because they shut down at least 5 miles of the highway, and traffic was backed up nearly 20 miles with an estimated time of 2-3 hours!!! Ew.

The rest of my trip was pretty boring until I got to Massachusetts. While in MA, I noticed this convertible with one guy in it pulled over in the emergency breakdown lane. About 15-20 minutes later, the same car with the same guy, passes me, but he now has a girl in his car. Hmmmm...wonder where she was before?

In the end, Mapquest was wrong. The trip was only 650 miles instead of 700 miles. Tisk tisk.

I went for an hour and a half walk around town this morning, kind of just reminiscing of my youth...where people lived, what my friends and I did, and how things just looked so different. I miss those care-free days with no responsibility, and so anxious to grow up. Kind of ironic, I was eager to grow up then, but now I wish I could go back.

I will write more if I get the chance to. My best friend and I are supposed to go camping for a portion of this coming week. I'm so excited! :) :) We're supposed to canoe to our campsite. How many times do you think we're going to tip the canoe? Guesses anyone?