It’s nearly 6am as i look out windows with condensation running down them, at the ocean about 500 yards away from where I am sitting, in the “first floor” apartment in Ocean City, NJ that my Mom rented for the week. Hubby, my sons, and my niece and nephew are all here with her. Its quiet and I’m listening to a book by Nora Roberts. It’s peaceful and just what I needed.
I don’t know why I woke this morning with an urge to blog. It’s been nearly a year from what I noticed the date was on my last posting. Nearly a year to the day. Maybe it had to do with the book I was listening to with the main character starting a blog after coming into money her Mother had kept hidden from her and she essentially told her Mother to fuck off and went on a three month trip to Ireland where her Father is from. In any case, I find myself at the keyboard drinking coffee i just brewed in the coffee pot, classical music playing in my headset and my nephew sitting on the couch looking at this phone. He’s an early bird too.
I can see the ocean at the horizon in this apartment? Not sure what you would call it exactly. Maybe a loft. The view of the ocean is partially blocked by a tree and some bushes but its still visible, all its calm grey blue color. I’m not seeing any whitecaps so I’m assuming its calm. The boardwalk is in front of the bushes and tree and I’m seeing a steady stream of joggers and a few walkers getting their morning exercise in. Kudos to them. Maybe if I lived down here with the ocean to my side and the salt air in my lungs, I’d be more encouraged to exercise. Maybe. Claire de Lune just keyed up in the playlist. Seems very apropos for the view.
It has been a year to say the least. I’ve completed my first year of my Master’s degree program. The summer session is killing me. 15 weeks crammed into 10 is too hard with all I do. And who’s bright idea was it to make statistics one of them?! Whom ever it was is truly evil and I hope they stub their toe for it. Two weeks left till its done then a whopping three weeks off till the fall semester starts. Straight A’s so far, but I fear Stats class will break that streak. As long as its a B, I’ll be happy.
While I didn’t come into money like the character in the book I’m listening to, my mother was very generous and paid off our mortgage, which was a big surprise. It’s unreal the weight that was lifted off our collective shoulders. Both cars are paid off this summer as well. I plan on saving as much as possible for retirement.
Ove the last year I’ve had a lot happen and a lot of it was really good. I started grad school of course, to be a rehabilitation counselor. I have a year of schooling left, then a year of internship, which I can hopefully do where I currently work. As a student in the rehabilitation counseling program, I could apply to be a counselor at my office, however I would be a trainee until I graduated. A position became available, I applied and they chose to hire someone from outside of the department citing I needed more experience. They brought in someone who worked at CPS and other than having a caseload of her own at her previous position, has no experience with the case management software, the services we provide, etc. I however, have worked in the field for six years…yet…I didn’t have enough experience. The entire office was sure I’d get it. I came to the conclusion that I was not chosen because the office would then be left without a counselor assistant that knew how to do everything. There is another in our office but, lets just say she is lacking in…. a lot. Enough of the other assistants complained about her. When they didn’t give me the position, I was unhappy about it. I may have taken two days off to go to a spa. When i came back, they’d switched all the counselors around and gave the ones complaining about her, to me and took away the one toxic counselor I was forced to work with. I think they feared I’d come back and turn in my notice, LOL! I thought about it. Thought about quitting grad school, etc. but honestly, its a free master’s degree so just finish it and use it in another career or position. A lot of people were happy to have me as their assistant and the stress levels of working with four over who I had before are much lower. And they were wise enough not to assign the newly hired counselor to me. That would be throwing it in my face that they didn’t give the position to me. I would have complained about that.
I went on my first cruise with a friend to Florida and the Bahamas. I had a wonderful time. It was a blast. I feared Id get seasick and had all the types of meds to combat it and ended up not needing them. Oasis of the Sea is the ship we cruised on. I highly recommend Royal Caribbean. I am hooked and am planning on taking the family on a cruise in the near future.
My youngest is in college for cyber security and doing well and working at Tractor Supply. My oldest is hitting 7 years working at Walmart. My husband is still working as a contractor and building or fixing everyone else’s project except ours (I’ve been living without a dishwasher for about a year now cause he hasn’t gotten around to running the pipes for the new one we have). The three fur balls are still doing well and shedding everywhere. Life is pretty good.
I don’t participate much in the SCA anymore. I burned out embroidering tons of stuff for friends that were King and queen, then someone I called a friend badmouthed me and my embroidering skills in a forum where I was being considered for an award and thus was not accepted. 29 years of working towards it, striving for it and being turned down just killed any desire to participate anymore. I’ve been a member since 1992 when I was 20. I’m 54 now and find that I feel more joy in staying around my home on the weekends, spending time with my family and doing hobbies there then dressing up, toting a bunch of stuff and driving hours away to a site. Swimming in my pool, gardening, watching shows in the evening, knitting, playing World of Warcraft, junk journaling and visiting friends brings me more happiness. Maybe its time to move on from that. Not end it entirely but not make it most of my focus as a hobby. You know?
Well, family is itching to get out on the boardwalk so I best log and get dressed. It is my hope to keep up on this and blog more often. Until later, Ciao!
Eat, Pray & Suck it Up! 