My vacation week in review

Today is Sunday, the supposed last day of my vacation... but yet due to my new school schedule I am off from work until Tuesday afternoon! So, another day and a half to go. I feel like this vacation was very unproductive. It was super scorching hot for the first half of the week. I had a big list of outdoor stuff that I wanted to get done this week and got 3 of those things done. The lawn got mowed, my hanging baskets got planted, and the carpet got put on the deck. I didn't scrape and paint the trim, didn't replace the trim around the side door on the garage, and my weed trimmer ran out of the wire stuff half way through (thank you to those who borrowed it and didn't replace the stuff that you used). I did get some stuff done in the house though. My room is super clean. I finally got all of my papers sorted, shredded, thrown out. I went through all of my drawers and cleared out so much stuff. I was so happy to sleep in my clean room the other night. Dutch even seemed to know that I was happy in my clean bed and took it upon himself to sleep in his own bed for once! I had cleaned the kitchen (I even stripped the floor late last week), bathroom, and basement. I cleaned the kitty room. I did laundry and ironed. I did all the stuff that I have to find time to do during a regular week.

Fritz spent most of the hot part of the week sprawled out under the table.

Zee thought it would be appropriate to sprawl out on top of the table (she is not allowed on the table or counters).

I also had my last day of my first class on Wednesday. Monday night I had my group come over for dinner and to work on the project. It was so nice to hang out with the gals and get some work done while talking about our daily lives. I really miss those times with my friends (male and female) in VA and the friends that I don't see much of up here. This made me think of how much I put into my friendships and how little I feel that I get back. I understand that people change, they are at different parts of their lives than I am (spouses and kids), and we don't all live close together anymore. However, I don't think that is an excuse to ignore the people that you were close to. I tend to be the one that reaches out to all of my friends. Once in a while someone will call me or IM me to see how things are going, but the effort really isn't there. I mentioned this to one of my friends and that I planned on laying low because I was done putting the effort in when others don't. He basically said that I was being lame and to get over it and was questioning if I was "testing" my friends. I just feel that I bug people if I am always the one to say hi. But, as my sister put it, some people sign on to an IM service and don't use it. It is just up. So, at this point I am in the middle. I am not going to go out of my way to contact people but if I feel like saying hi I will do so. I don't believe in the "I am busy" excuse that most of my friends give me when I finally hear from them. We are all busy. I am going to school, taking care of my house and pets, and remodeling my store... I know busy. But, I still do my best to make time to keep up with my friends.

This brings me to Thursday morning. I was still feeling kind of depressed over this lack of contact with my friends. So, I came very close to getting in the car and driving to VA. I miss my best friend and my godson and they always make me feel better. I was just in the mood to drive. I actually packed a bag. But, before I got in the car I checked my bank account and a trip to VA for 4 days was out of the question. So, I stayed home and did some more stuff around the house. My best friend randomly sent me an IM about 30 minutes after I decided that I wasn't going, which was a nice surprise. She didn't even know I was going to come down to see her.

I was so desperate for a pick me up that I drove to the airport to see if my flight instructor was there. Nothing makes me smile like a good flight so I thought it would be a good thing to go for a few s-turns and stop and gos. Unfortunately for my spirits and fortunately for my bank account, she was not there and I didn't get to go for my flight. Friday I paid my tuition for class that starts on Monday and traded in my books for my new ones. Then, off to the lake.

A few days at the lake was what I needed to do to regroup. I was there by 2pm on Friday and got home today around that same time. I did some pleasure reading, which made me do some serious thinking about how I live some of the parts of my life, did some walking with Dutch, some baking, a bit of geocaching (and picking ticks off of everything), and tried kayaking for the first time. It was also dockfest '08 - we put the dock in.

Driving the dock across the lake. Meghan is at the wheel and my Dad and Bryan Mc are on the dock.
Dutch is in love with the boat so the minute the dock was attached to the shore he needed to be on the boat watching people swim. It was about 7 am at this point.
Meghan and Bryan Mc enjoying a very early morning swim after getting the dock into place.

I am really not a fan of boating and water. I must have drowned in a past life or was permanently scarred from the knee boarding incident when I was 11. Either way, I never thought I would actually enjoy the kayak nor would I ever see myself crossing the lake in one. At first I started out a bit nervous. I stayed very close to shore. I was shocked to see how much more comfortable I felt in the kayak than I do in a canoe or rowboat. I think it is because I was low to the water. I discovered parts of the lake that I didn't even know existed. I crossed the middle of the lake in the kayak without having a panic attack or shedding a tear! All said and done, I covered half the lake on the kayak and gained lots of confidence.

Feeling out the kayak.Getting ready to go around the lake.

I returned home today to find my house with a foul odor or two... my roomie didn't take care of his rotting food scraps in the sink nor the knife he used 3 days prior. He didn't flush the toilet before he left for his week of training (we don't always flush if it is just pee to save water), and he didn't scoop the litter box before he left. I am a bit confused as to when he actually left because it appears that the cats were not fed on Saturday night either as they tore into their bag of food. So coming home was not exactly a pleasant experience. I don't understand how a grown man can have so much disregard for someone else's property.

At this point I am looking forward to going back to work.