Summer 2010

This summer has been a bit of a whirlwind. I've managed to pack every single emotion possible into one summer.

Firstly there is the immense joy that I felt at the beginning of my summer break. Not only did I get to spend a great deal of time with one of my friends, Katelyn, and get to know her family, but I also got to spend nearly a week in New York City at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square with my mom who came up for a continuing education seminar. How lucky were we that it happened to be the weekend of my 29th birthday?! Well Wednesday Mom arrived and Katelyn's mother took off early to drive us into the city (Isn't she just a saint?). Wednesday night we walked around Times Sq. and mom took in the sights of the city (and no wonder being as she's from Georgia). She's never seen anything quite as busy as NYC. We probably walked 20 miles from Wed. night til Sunday night when we both took separate flights out of Newark Liberty International bound for different destinations (sad face). Thursday was quite eventful! Mom got out of the conference a bit on the late side, but we decided to make the long trek to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took the subway up to Central Park and decided to take the foot path all through Central Park. By the time we got to the Met we only had a couple of hours to walk around before high tailing it back to the subway as fast as we could (exhausted as we were for the 7 miles we walked). We got back to the hotel, changed clothes and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading off to see the Phantom of the Opera.

I have to linger here for a moment because I'd never been to a Broadway show and neither had she! It was phenomenal! How is it that I didn't do this before?! I've never seen anything quite so amazing! The songs were simply moving. The theater itself was breathtaking, and I thought I was going to jump out of my pants when the chandelier fell! The effects were stunning... I'm so glad I listened to Katelyn about the back rows being the best seats in the house also... They had to be! You could see and hear everything so very clearly! From the candles rising out of the mist, to the echo of the phantom throughout the theater I can honestly say that I've never seen anything quite so wonderful in my life. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me (and for mom).

Friday was another busy day. Eric came into the city to meet my mom and we went to the Statue of Liberty, some famous bar i'd never actually heard of where the staff was nice enough to take a picture of the three of us having a beer, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, and then off to Bleecker Street to the Blind Tiger on Eric's recommendation! They had the most awesome microbrewed beer there. Eric and mom made bets on whether they could finish their second beer by the time I finished my first.. (Yes they did) I tend to drink beer slowly. (lol)

Saturday morning we got up, packed and caught a shuttle back to Newark Liberty International and from there we caught another shuttle to a different hotel (slightly less grand) was the Howard Johnson's in Newark, where I have to tell you folks, you need to try the greek pizza in their cafe because it beats anything I've ever eaten in NYC. After we got settled, ate our pizza and took a short nap, Isaac picked us up and we met Eric in Rutherford, NJ at Eros Cafe where we had awesome greek food and melon hookah! (Happy Birthday to me!) After our bellies were full we headed on over to Park Tavern where we celebrated my birthday properly with Blue Moon beer all around! Also, it was somebody elses birthday that day! I know because they were singing happy birthday via karaoke! How exciting right?

Sunday was sad as mom and i got up at the crack of 11 am and checked out of our hotels. We hung around in the airport til 1 or 2 pm and went our separate ways. She went back to Atlanta and I took off for the DFW Metroplex. I arrived in DFW feeling a little uneasy, really hot (it was 100+ already), a little nervous to see a friend I hadn't in nearly 5 years, a little excited to see a few other friends I saw last summer on my trip into DFW, a little sad that one of my friends is no longer with me, and fairly depressed at the prospect that one of my friends turned out to be such a jerk and I no longer speak to him, and for that matter nor do half his other "friends."

Christine picked me up at the airport and I got back to her apartment to meet and greet her two kids (Curtis age 4 & Marie age 1.5). I hung around with George and Christine and was quickly tossed into the stressful world that is (even though I'm not) being a mother. Every single day Christine wakes up, gets her caffiene on, gets her kids out of bed, dresses them, plays with them, teaches them, yells at them for whatever they're doing wrong, feeds them, puts Marie down for a nap, spends a learning hour with Curtis, plays outside in the 105 degree heat with Curtis for 2 hours, gets Marie up, feeds her husband, children, and myself dinner, cleans the house, does the dishes, bathes her kids, puts them into pajamas and into bed, cleans the house again, puts her husband into bed, sits down to have two beers and then finally is able to tuck her own self into bed. How on earth can one person do it all?! I think she's superwoman. I'm beginning to think I'm simply not cut out for motherhood at all. She loves her children but I think she misses her alone time. She never gets to do anything but be a mom. Half the time she gets dragged out of bed at random hours of the night because of nightmares or dirty diapers or simply that Curtis refuses to sleep. It's been an interesting look into the life of a stay at home mom. I can tell you folks that you haven't worked until you've been a housewife. (I'd rather have a job than do everything she does in a day.)

I also spent a great deal of time hanging out with some old World of Warcraft friends, Shaun & Ash. It's been great fun even though it sometimes reminds me of the friend that is no longer a friend since we were all mutual friends. Sad, but happy at the same time. I'm pretty sure he was a sociopath anyway. (like 99.999%) We hang out and talk about our old guild and talk about what they're doing in WoW now and sometimes I play a friends account since I gave mine away. It's certainly been the least stressful period of my summer.

I was supposed to go visit a friend that recently lost his wife and help him take care of his kids as well as to teach him how to cook for them. He doesn't seem to be ready for the tasks I was prepared to teach him and sort of ignored my calls most of the summer. I hope that his depression isn't sinking to new lows, but I fear it is. I hope he is doing ok and continue trying to call to give a few uplifting words, even if he's not ready to move out yet or even learn how to cook. Apparently this month the local neighborhood church decided to help him out and they do a lot of his cooking for him during this time of great grief. He's taking great care of his kids, but not so much of himself. I truly hope he is ok and I hope he calls me whenever he needs a friend.

And so that brings me to the conclusion of my summer break (sort of). I leave to go back to New Jersey next week: a little less stressed, a little happier, a little lighter, and with a totally new hair color(s). Look out Felician College... I'm coming back!