I can't wait to get our own place...

It feels like the summer is going by so fast. I can't believe that it is going to be August tomorrow. How did July go by so quickly?

I applied to about a dozen jobs last week. I only heard back from one, at a Latin American Youth Center. I got an email saying that they'd like to do a phone interview with me. I emailed them back to let them know I'd do a phone interview, but they haven't let me know what day and time they'd like to talk to me yet.

I've been looking into doing more community service type things. I found out about this group called Rotaract, which is basically like the Rotary club for people between the ages of 18 and 30. Jake and I went to one of their meetings on Wednesday, and then on Saturday, we volunteered at a local food bank with them. It was interesting, and I had fun doing it. I wouldn't mind going back to help there again. I'm probably going to look into some of the other stuff that Rotaract does, too. I know they took homeless kids to Chuck E. Cheese recently. I wish I could've been in on that...basically because I want an excuse to go hang out at Chuck E.'s. :)

Jake and I went to a housewarming party held by a few guys that work at the patent office Saturday night. I drank far too much and felt like crap on Sunday. I had a lot of fun, though. I played guitar with some people, ate a good hamburger, and met a lot of people. Angela showed up with a guy for a little while and then said that they were going to go out dancing. I tried to convince Jake to go out dancing, too, but he didn't want to. I met this girl named Jen who went to school at Penn State whose fiance also works at the patent office. She came across as fairly girly-girl. I had to talk to her about wedding stuff and dresses and all that garbage. Yuck. I could tell she's one of those believers in having the "perfect wedding". I bet she believes in soulmates and all that shit. Anyway, she was bragging about how she can beat guys at push-up contests, etc...then I beat her armwrestling. Haha. Most of the other girls at the party seemed pretty cool. I met one girl who told me that she examines patents for racks (coat racks and wine racks and all of that...). How does one end up doing that?

The situation with Justin and the apartment is weird. I don't understand him. I really think that he is looking to create situations in order to be angry and antisocial towards us. Okay, so there was the incident a few months back when he accused Jake of opening and sending back one of his Netflix DVDs (which Jake did not do). Justin never confronted Jake directly, but instead sent an angry email to him. Jake tried to talk to Justin about it, but Justin would lock himself in his room and refuse to respond. Since then, Justin will talk to Jake over the lunch hour at the patent office and in front of other people, but whenever he comes home to the apartment, he doesn't talk to us. He typically makes a beeline for his bedroom and shuts himself up in there. Weird. It's like he's stored up all this anger over some imagined slight. He doesn't communicate with us. Anyway, from what we know, Justin is planning to go back to Wisconsin for a wedding sometime soon. Last week, Jake sent him an email while at work and got an automatic "out of the office" reply saying that he would be out of the office until Aug. 14. We did not see him around the apartment or hear from him for a couple of days after that, so we naturally assumed that he had left for the wedding he'd mentioned earlier. Saturday morning, after volunteering, Jake and I came home and the house smelled different...like perfume or something. There was also a spanish newspaper and a backpack sitting in our living room. Naturally, since we thought Justin was gone, we wondered who had been in the apartment. Jake called Justin and left him a voicemail. Later, Justin called back and simply said, "The backpack is my mom's. Don't touch it," and hung up on Jake. No exchange of communication. I don't know if that boy doesn't understand phone manners or what... Anyway, Jake then called back and left a voicemail saying, "We thought you had left...did you give your family keys or something? We're wondering why they would be here when you are not here." Justin did not call back after that. We came home after the party Saturday night and the backpack was gone from the living room, the newspaper had been moved, and there was a bottle of water on the coffee table. So, it was obvious that people had come back after we had left. Then, (and I don't know what possessed him to do this, because it is the last thing I would do...considering what a freak Justin is...) Jake tried to open Justin's bedroom door and found that it was locked. He then knocked and said, "Hello? Who's here?" There was no response. So anyway, we were both weirded out that Justin was just letting someone random sleep in his room while he was gone. I wrote a note that said "Dear whoever is in our apartment: Justin did not tell us that anyone was staying here. Honestly, we're a bit creeped out right now. Could you please leave a note and/or have a conversation with us to tell us who you are? Thank you for being understanding, Candy and Jake." Turns out that it was Justin that was sleeping in there. We got a note back in the morning that said, "Introductions are not needed, as we have already met. Please don't disturb me again (especially at 1:30am). Also stop touching my stuff, and don't attempt to enter my room." Ouch. I can understand about being upset about Jake knocking on his door early in the morning, but I'm confused about what "stuff" he is pissed off about us touching. Can we not sit on his futon? Is he pissed that I'm bringing his mail upstairs? Or cleaning his damn dirty dishes? Is he touchy because we've watched one or two of his 8 billion DVDs (which he must buy so many of to fill up his empty possession-obsessed life?)? What an ass. How does he not understand that he should just let us know what's going on so that little misunderstandings don't blow up into major drama? Anyway, Jake wrote him a note apologizing for trying to go in his room and posted it on his door, but we haven't seen him for the last day and a half, so I don't know what's going on with that... I want to ask him to clearly define what "stuff" we can't touch. But, I don't think that he's going to be open to talking about that...yup, he's got to cause drama. I don't even know how to deal with him besides just write him off as a lost cause and think things will be better once Jake and I get our own place in September.

Bahston

Jake and I had a good time in Boston, but it was fairly exhausting. It was a long drive there and once we got there, we did lots and lots of walking.

I was glad that we got to meet up with Matt (from Triangle). Here's a picture of Matt and Jake out at the bars. We parked the car at Matt's place for the week (and no, his place isn't in Hahvard Yahrd...it's in Medford, one of the suburbs north of Boston). Matt was around the first few days of the week and went out with us those days. On Monday night after we arrived, we went with Matt to the North End and ate at an Italian restaurant for dinner. Then we hit up a couple of bars.

On Tuesday, Jake and I spent the day walking the Freedom Trail. We were pulled aside by a cameraman for the local Fox station and asked if the problems with the Big Dig interfered with our travel plans or if we were worried about it at all. I think our responses were pretty boring, so I doubt they actually showed us on the air. I don't know...I guess they could have, though. We met up with Matt in Harvard Square Tuesday night. He hangs out at a bar there and sings karaoke on Tuesdays. I drank copious amounts of beer and then Jake, Matt, and I got up and sang "Swingtown" complete with the "Fuck you"- "Eat shit" chants ala Camp Randall. I think we confused all the Cambridge folk with our antics. I got in line for the bathroom afterwards and these girls asked me, "What were you guys shouting at each other? Fuck you?" and I was like, "Yeah, and 'Eat Shit.'" And they were like, "Yeah, that was funny..."

Wednesday, Jake and I went to the top of the Prudential building. We also toured the Sam Adams brewery. We got to try a beer called a "rauche" (sp?) beer. It's not being distributed currently and Sam Adams is just trying brewing some of it right now. They told us that they're considering putting either this "rauche" beer out or a Honey Porter as a seasonal brew. Anyway, "rauche" (however you spell it...) is German for "smoked". That beer was really interesting because it tasted just like bacon. I hope it wins out over Honey Porter, but I doubt that it will. After Sam Adams, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts because admission is free after 4pm on Wednesdays. Wednesday night, we met up with Matt again and tried out candlepin bowling. Apparently, in that area of the country, "bowling" involves wooden balls about the size of your hand which are rolled toward skinny pins. It's tougher than regular bowling (which Matt told us is called "big ball bowling" in Boston), so you get three balls per frame. Here's a picture of me holding one of the little balls.

Thursday, Jake and I spent most of the day in Cambridge. We walked around Harvard and MIT and looked in shops. We had burgers at Mr. Bartleby's for lunch, which were delicious. We went to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner that served rodizio, which involves waiters coming up to you with random meats on skewers over and over. Matt left that day to go back to Wisconsin, so we didn't go out at night. We were tired anyway and wound up watching "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" on tv.

Friday, Jake and I took a walk around Beacon Hill in the morning. We ate at Durgin-Park (a really old Boston restaurant) for lunch. We took a walk and looked in shops on Newbury Street in the afternoon. I wound up buying a skirt at H&M because it was the first skirt that I've tried on in a while that I haven't hated. It's just a plain white linen skirt and should match a lot of stuff. We wound up getting rained on in the evening. We stopped at a bar for a drink and I tried a beer that tasted like blueberries. Good stuff.

Saturday morning, we walked forever looking for Matt's place. It's a long way from the subway stop and we weren't entirely sure where we were going. Then, we took forever figuring out how to get back on the interstate. It turned out that we didn't get on the road until nearly noon. We hit lots of rain on the way back, too, so that slowed us down. It was nearly 9pm when we finally got back home.

Home. That's so weird to me. This place still doesn't really feel like my "home". I can't believe we have to move fairly soon, too. Jake already talks a lot about where we're going to move next.

Baby steps. Baby steps.

Well, I only ended up applying for three jobs this week. I thought that I'd do a lot more. Justin keeps saying that he would take advantage of the situation that I'm in. He says that he'd claim that he was looking for a job and instead drink and watch movies all day. I have to admit that I really don't want to find a job RIGHT NOW. I'd rather start something around the time the school year starts.

I've been working out in the gym upstairs. I feel like I'm getting over my social anxiety of having people see me work out. Right now, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It may be hard to keep doing it if I get a real job, though. Right now, I wait until Jake leaves for work and then go up and work out. I think if I get a job, I'll want to go up in the morning before I leave for work.

I feel that I am a very boring writer. Do most people feel that about themselves? I just don't feel that I have as much insight or as interesting of a perspective or something. I'm just, "Blah blah blah...boring boring boring..."

On Wednesday, Jake and I went to a dinner party at his friend Jesse's house. A bunch of people from the patent office were invited to eat beef tenderloin and watch the show "America's Got Talent". Jake and I brought along a 1.5 liter bottle of wine. There were two other girls at the party. One was Angela, who works as an office manager at the patent office. Angela was interesting. She is a bit older than Jake and me (about 27-28ish), but she is talkative and funny. Jake and I were the only people drinking the wine we brought. Everyone else had beer or Mike's hard lemonade or something. Every time my wine glass was empty, Jake kept filling it right back up without even asking me if I wanted more. Jake and I ended up finishing off the entire 1.5 liters ourselves, which I felt bad about because we brought it as a gift to the party. Isn't it bad manners to do something like that? I was way more drunk than I hoped to be, which lead to a craptacular hangover the next morning. I think I may have been the drunkest person there. But, I was definitely being talkative and social. Angela seemed pretty cool, and when we left the party, I told Jake that I liked her. He told me that she was having people over for dinner at her place soon, and I made him promise that we could both go. The more I hear about Angela now, the more I think that she is pretty darn interesting. Jake says that she dates lots of different guys. He also said that he heard a rumor that she might have been some sort of groupie for a while. She also got married and then divorced some really rich guy straight out of high school, who bought her a $100,000 car. I'm intrigued. So, anyway, Jake and I are going over to Angela's for a spaghetti dinner tonight after he comes home from work. Jake has a theory that Angela and I have mutual "girl crushes" on each other because Angela sent him an email that said she thought that I was "very cool" and that she was glad we are coming over. I can't see why she'd think I was interesting. I can't remember really what I even talked about with her over at Jesse's.

Jake's been working lots this past week. He's been putting in time so we can stay in Boston this week. He's working today (Sunday) and worked yesterday (Saturday). Yesterday, I came in to see him at work and we went for lunch. We also went to the bank and opened some accounts together. It took forever. We were in the bank for about an hour, I think. I am confused by Jake's explanation of his budget system. We now have like 10 different accounts (two of them owned jointly) and I need to figure out how the heck we are paying for what from where. I think the woman at the bank was confused, too, when Jake tried to explain to her why we needed to open three accounts yesterday. I'm going along with it for now and hopefully I'll figure out the system soon enough.

Well, we leave for Boston tomorrow morning. I don't think Jake wants me to take my computer along, so I may be out of touch with people for a while. I'm sure I'll post when I come back and report on what we do in Beantown.

The Move to Virginia

It's been a while since I've blogged, just because everything has been crazy busy. I still don't feel settled at all in Virginia. I left Princeton on July 1 and haven't been able to find the time to sit down and write about it. I'm going to attempt to give a day-by-day update on what's happened since I got the U-Haul out on the road:

Saturday, July 1st: My family and I get on the road around 6:45 am. I sleep for most of the first leg because I was out with Lelani the night before and didn't get much sleep. We stop off for gas before we even leave Wisconsin. The car gets horrible gas milage with the trailer attached to it (about 15 mpg, I think...). My parents have a second breakfast at McDonalds, which confuses me and my brother. I have a coffee and then drive after this first stop for a few hours. I plug my ipod into the car stereo while I drive, which annoys my family because we aren't constantly changing CDs so that other people can pick the music. We stop and have a late lunch at a Chinese buffet around 2 or 3pm. Around 6 or 7pm, my mom starts to complain and says that we need to stop off for the night. She claims that we will never find a hotel room because it is a holiday weekend. I think to myself, "We're in bumblefuck Ohio...who comes here for the holiday? People are going to the beach." I don't say anything to my mom, though, because I'm afraid that she will fly into some sort of rage if I contradict her. I complain to my brother while we are stopped off for gas, though, and my mom ends up overhearing at least some of what I said. She gets angry with me for a little while, but it passes. Nothing gets thrown at my head. We get a hotel room in Springfield, OH, which is still pretty far from Columbus, which I thought was our goal for the day. Our hotel has wireless internet, so I check how much further we have to drive the next day. We still have about 12 hours of driving to go, according to google. I say to my parents, "How are we going to get the U-Haul returned by 5pm tomorrow if we have so much more driving to go?" My dad says, "What? The U-Haul place is open until 7pm. We'll be fine." I read Lelani's myspace blog while in the hotel room. It makes me cry and I get the feeling that my family is wondering what the hell is wrong with me. We go out to some barbeque place for dinner and then shop at Big Lots. I'm overwhelmed by the enormous amount of crap. I overhear an amusing conversation between two old black men about how the devil knows all of our weaknesses and is out to get us. My brother begs my parents to buy him a bunch of blank CDs and a plastic file thing that he wants to use to organize his scrapbook materials. He's randomly decided that he wants to make a scrapbook of his life. He's been working on it on and off throughout the car ride. He's mostly been sleeping, though. I get my parents to agree that everyone will be ready to be on the road the next morning at 6:30am. We'll have continental breakfast as it opens up and then take off.

Sunday, July 2: We do lots of driving through the mountains. The car struggles to get up the inclines. My mom bitches at me and says that I'm going to overheat the car by making it go too fast. We stop off at this place in Maryland and there is a sign that shows where in the horizon we should look to see the Mason-Dixon line. I realize that I am now a Southerner. We get to Arlington a little bit after 4pm. Jake comes downstairs with a cart and we take loads of stuff up in the service elevator at the apartment building. It gets to be after 5pm and I ask my dad where we are taking the U-Haul. He pulls out a sheet of paper with phone numbers on it and realizes that all of the U-Haul places do close at 5pm on Sundays. As we're pulling the last things out of the U-Haul onto the cart, it begins to rain. Jake lets us know that he noticed a parking spot on the street where we could keep the car and U-Haul for the night. We are lucky because it's a spot we can pull straight into. It would be impossible to parallel park that U-Haul. Jake drives us to Alexandria and we go out for pizza. It's still raining when we get there, but it clears up enough that we are able to take my family for a walk down to the waterfront in Old Town after dinner. We inflate an air mattress for my parents to sleep on in the living room and my brother sleeps on the futon. I start working on putting my things away in the apartment.

Monday, July 3: Jake and my dad return the U-Haul in the morning. They buy a parking pass so that my parents' car can stay in the apartment parking lot for the week. I say that I wouldn't mind trying to go the National Archives. Jake and I went once before, but didn't have time to stick around and look at everything we wanted to see then. We take my family on the Metro into town and find out that the Archives are closed due to the flooding that occurred the week before. We go to the Museum of Natural History instead. Cory said earlier to me that he wanted to go shopping at Urban Outfitters, so I suggest that we head into Chinatown, grab lunch and go to Urban so that he is happy. We try to go to someplace simple and reasonably cheap like Fuddruckers or Potbelly, and both places are crammed full of people. My family doesn't want to wait in line for food. There is a tapas places called La Tasca and there isn't a wait to get in. My brother and mom want to go to it. We order tapas and my dad is incredibly grumpy about the whole thing. He doesn't want to have anything to do with this kind of food. I also think he was pissed because it was more than he wanted to spend on lunch. After lunch, we take Cory to Urban Outfitters. We spend an ungodly amount of time in that store and no one buys anything. My dad is still being grumpy. I'm irritated at the amount of time we are spending shopping. We also go to a sports store that is in Chinatown. My mom buys these little spandex shorts for my brother. Jake and I think the shorts look hilarious. Cory needs them because he is going to be in a triathalon soon, though. I hope someone takes pictures of him in his tiny shorts. Haha. We go to the Museum of American History in the afternoon and then head back to the apartment around 5pm. I continue working on cleaning up the house and putting my things away. My dad is still grumpy and does not seem to want to leave the house to get dinner. He wants a hamburger but doesn't want to walk a few blocks to get one. We end up ordering food from this horrible Doctor Delivery service. Our food doesn't come until after 9pm and is cold. I don't complain though, because I don't want to irritate my parents.

Tuesday, July 4: We head into DC to see the parade on Constitution Ave. Jake and Cory run to Potbelly and get us sandwiches as it opens. It's really hot outside and I get thirsty. After about an hour and a half of parade, Cory gets antsy and says he wants to leave. Jake and I have the idea that we should take my family to the Old Post Office Pavilion to sit down and have a drink. We have to cross Constitution Ave. to do that though, and my family doesn't want to wait for the police to let us cross the parade. Jake and I wait outside as my family goes into one of the Smithsonian buildings and uses the bathroom. They come out and we go to the Post Office Pavilion. My dad says we should take a walk past the White House, so Jake and I take my family up there. Jake has credits left on a game card for ESPN Zone, so we take my family there to play games in the afternoon. After that, we head back to the apartment for a bit. Right after we get home, a huge storm hits. There is lots of wind and hail and we watch lightning from the windows in the apartment. Cory wants to use the pool at the apartment building right after the storm blows over, but he goes downstairs and someone there tells him the pool is closed. I manage to clear away all of the boxes in the house and store them. I only have a few random things in the bedroom that need to find a place. We eat Mexican food for dinner and then carry some fold out chairs out on the Mount Vernon trail and watch fireworks across the river. We spare ourselves the huge lines to get onto the Metro that Jake and I experienced last year.

Wednesday, July 5th: We go up the Washington Monument in the morning. Jake put tickets on hold for us so that we wouldn't have to wait in line at like 6am or whenever people who don't order tickets ahead show up. We check out a bunch of the other monuments (WWII, Korean, Lincoln, and Vietnam). It sprinkles on us on and off. We walk up to the Exchange to get sandwiches for lunch and it starts to rain harder. It's still raining hard when we leave lunch. We decide to ride the Metro to Arlington Cemetery and check the weather there. When we get off the Metro, it's sprinkling lightly and it appears to me that the darkest clouds are moving away from us. I suggest that we risk it and try to do the cemetery. We stop in the Visitor's Center and it starts raining a lot harder outside. We mull around in the Visitors Center, but the rain doesn't appear to be letting up. I suggest that we just make a run for it back to the Metro and leave. My parents are against this idea. Jake, Cory, and I are antsy to leave. After sitting in the Visitor's Center for about an hour, we finally convince my parents to make a run for it. When we get back to the apartment, Cory says that he wants to try to use the pool. My family tells him that it's probably closed because it is raining outside, but he insists that they probably didn't close it because there's no lightning. He really wants to train for his triathalon. Jake and I offer to take my parents to the hotel they've reserved for the evening and ask Cory to ride along so that we can go to Home Depot and buy a grill. Jake wants to use the HOV lane and we need a third person in the car. Cory whines because he just wants to check on the pool at the apartment and go swimming. Eventually, Cory gets his way and my parents tell him he can check on the pool at the hotel to see if he can swim there. My mom offers to ride along to pick up the grill. We buy a grill and come back to the hotel to pick up my dad and brother. Cory still couldn't use the pool because the one at the hotel is outdoors and closed because of the rain. HA. We go to the grocery store to pick up food. My brother somehow manages to slice his toe open on an escalator there. We have to buy a bunch of stuff so he can bandage up his foot. We come home and Jake and my dad assemble the grill. Cory puts on the movie The Usual Suspects, which he has been begging to watch all week long. My mom and I boil brats and corn and put togther sandwiches to put in the cooler we're planning to take to Six Flags the next day. We make dinner and drop my parents back off at the hotel. Cory and Jake convince me to start up a game of Risk in the evening, which is the longest game ever. We don't finish the game and leave it set up when we go to bed.

Thursday, July 6th: Some of the power randomly goes off in Jake's apartment in the morning. At first, I think we've blown a fuse or something, but then Jake goes out in the hallway and says that the elevators in the building aren't working either. We load up a cooler to take to Six Flags and Jake and Cory haul it down the stairs to take to the car. We pick up my parents and drive to the park. We get there early and have to stand around for about an hour. We get in line for this Superman rollercoaster and it appears that there are problems with it. A guy behind the controls is on his cell phone and appears to be working on something. The operators keep running test runs and not letting anyone on. While in line, Cory picks at this pimple on his ear and suddenly it starts gushing blood. He has blood all over his hand and nothing to wipe it up with. My mom gives him a map made up of glossy paper, which he uses to try to soak up the blood. I say the whole thing is ridiculous and tell everyone we should just turn around, get Cory to wash up, and get in line for a different ride. I take off and my mom and Jake follow, but then I get outside of the line and my mom informs me that Cory and my dad refused to leave the line. WTF? The lines are short, so my mom, Jake, and I ride a different rollercoaster. We finally meet back up with my dad and brother after Superman starts running. I have a headache and am severely irritated with my family. I keep thinking about how I just want to go home, relax, and get ready for my interview that's happening the next day. We have lunch in the parking lot out of the cooler and I go to a really cheesy show with my parents afterwards because I say that I don't think I can handle rides. My dad says that he's not feeling well either and doesn't want to go on anything. Cory and Jake go off by themselves and ride a bunch of rollercoasters. After the show, it gets warmer out, the sun comes out, and I start feeling better about things. I go on some rides and Cory and Jake say they want to go to Hurricane Harbor and go on water rides. We do some water stuff while my parents go off on their own and then meet up to leave the park. We drive to Red Lobster for dinner because my parents have a gift card they want to use. We drop off my parents and return to the apartment. There are still problems with the power and we have to take the stairs again. There is no power in the apartment, but luckily it's still light outside. Cory has to go number two, though, and he starts to complain that he doesn't want to do it in Justin's dark bathroom. I find a candle that he can light and use while he's in there. Jake and Cory leave for the park to play basketball and I start to look at interview stuff. The power comes back on just before it gets dark outside. I get bored and call Maria to wish her a happy birthday. Jake and Cory come back and I win the Risk game because I am a strategy genius.

Friday, July 7: My family leaves in the morning. They pull out of the parking lot and I randomly start sobbing, which I think freaks Jake out because he didn't expect it out of me...probably because I'd done a lot of complaining about my family the whole week long. Jake leaves to go to work. I take the Metro to my interview in the afternoon. The job sounds overwhelming. They ask me how I would care for my own mental health if I have to take a job where I see children in terrible conditions. They ask me pointed questions about if I feel that I can be culturally competent and work with people different from me. I don't know if they'll offer me a job or not. They said that they will probably contact me in about two weeks. I get home from my interview and fall asleep. I'm totally exhausted. Jake comes home and I'm out of it. He makes me get up and we go to Noodles for dinner.

Saturday, July 8th: Jake and I go shopping. I get a free card to Costco, because Jake is allowed to add one person onto his account. Costco is the most awesome store ever. You can buy huge pakages of Combos! And big platters of sushi that are only $5! And beer! And books! And digital cameras! And whole Norwegian salmon! And chocolate sculptures of the Capitol building! We go to Brian's (a guy that works at the patent office) in Alexandria in the afternoon. He has a 1/4 barrel of beer. Justin is there and I finally get to see him for more than half a second. He asks me who the guy was sleeping on the couch and I tell him that it was my brother. He makes a random inappropriate joke about tea-bagging my brother. Hmm. I find out that Justin plans to work 120 hours over the next two weeks so he can take another vacation, so I figure I probably won't see him much around the apartment over the next month or so. Brian has a nice little backyard area where he is growing a bunch of tomatoes and random herbs. We grill a bunch of food. There are about 7 or 8 of us drinking a bunch of beer. We end up finishing off the 1/4 barrel. We see some of Alexandria's fireworks from the front yard. Lelani tries to call me, but her phone cuts out before I hear her say anything. I'm drunk and it's loud anyway. Most or all of the guys at the party work at the patent office. There are a few girls at the party and most or all of them work at Mount Vernon. I think they are all friends with Lori, who is married to Matt, who works at the patent office. There is a lot of bitching about jobs. It seems like a lot of people hate their jobs.

Sunday, July 9th: Jake and I go to see the Pirates of the Carribean movie. We watch the end of the World Cup. I cook salmon for dinner. I'm happy because we have a dishwasher...if we didn't, I know it would have taken me five times as long to clean up after dinner. I start this blog.

Monday, July 10th: Christ, this thing is getting long. Kudos to anyone who stuck with it and read it. It's probably pretty damn boring. Today, I'm going to work on looking for a job...

~Fin~