This summer is looking pretty shitty. Im (likely) going to be working a job I hate in the sweltering heat because Im a fucking idiot and cant get back into cutting down trees at this moment. Other then working like a dog and making shit money doing it, my weekends will be spent with my offroad club mudding, hanging out at the beach, going on the odd road trip or two and maybe camping (I dont get holidays). I turn 19 in July and Im not even looking foward to that. So far 2010 sucks and I dont see it getting any better.
Fucking north hemisphere jerks, think you're so cool with your bbqs and swimming and fishing. Fuck all of you.
Honeymoon day after tomorrow: Alaskan cruise followed immediately by a few days in Atlantis. We'll be gone for over two weeks. Expensive as fuck, but if you're only going to do it once (in theory), you better do it right. Get back, summer school class I'm actually looking forward to taking. Few weeks later, company trip. Intersperse this liberally with work, grilling, lake, fishing, and beer (occasionally, these five can even take place at once), and this is my favorite time of year. I know the marriage thing will eventually become old hat, but what I/we've got planned in these next few months really is going to make for one hell of a start.
I spent two weeks in May fly fishing in North Carolina (shit weather though), and plan to spend a lot of weekends camping and fishing in Arkansas/Missouri/Tennessee. Just moved this past week, so lots of unpacking and decorating and settling in. Oh, and spending a fuckton of money furnishing a house, if these past two days have been any indication. I'm taking a summer course in July, and finishing two online classes while I'm at it. Then in August I spend a weekend in Connecticut with my dad. Other than that, lots of working in my (container) garden and playing in the new neighborhood with the superdog.
I'll be spending July/August at my cabin on a 0 pollution lake (same look as Nettdata's place). Every day I'm going to wake up, swim a couple kms, write for a few hours, then just get high and fuck around! I'm thinking about building a tree fort... I have no carpentry skills whatsoever, but I'm still pretty sure I can do it.
Working my ass off in order to afford: A: Rent. B: A new computer that is actually portable and has a working screen. C: A new guitar so I don't have to pause in the middle of sets to re-tune. and D: Something shiny for the woman-folk. Ideally I'd have enough left over when schools starts that I won't have to work for the ten weeks I'm doing my student teaching. But then again, I have the rest of my life to pay off loans.
Screw you Northern Hemispherians, it's Winter down here. That being said, the temperature is about 70 during the day. Suck it.
Our summer is going to start off with us moving to the cottage 3 weeks today. The final condition on the sale of our home is supposed to be lifted tomorrow, so we will be unconditionally sold. Between now and June 30th its going to be packing the house up, making trips to the storage unit, changing our mailing address, etc, etc. Once we're living at the cottage, my first priority is going to be to build a storage shed so we can move as much as possible out of the cottage to maximize our living space. We currently have a number of items that don't really need to be inside the cottage (such as power tools) which are using up space in the room that will become my "man cave". I'm guessing that will consume a week or so. On July 24th, the "wife" and I are finally making it official after 16 years together. We're doing a very small wedding at the cottage surrounded by immediate family, with the ceremony to be performed on the dock. Should be nice. After that, two weeks in PEI at the small ocean front cottage we rent every summer, slurping down Colville Bay oysters by the box and wiping out the local lobster population. Finally, back at the cottage wondering "where the hell did the summer go" and settling in for this new chapter in our lives. Probably start mucking around with setting up my man cave, get the 60 up, configure the HTPC. By September I need to get cracking on the firewood to ensure we have enough to get thru the winter. I probably cut and stacked 6 cords last fall which normally is enough for a weekends-only winter, but being there 24/7 I'll need at least double. All in all I fully expect the summer to be a blur.
Pretty much sums up my agenda. Anyways, I will be trying to keep myself outdoors as much as possible. Looking forward to golfing, beaches, and getting my ass back into shape and start running again. 311 concert at the end of the month, The Black Keys next month. Great Lakes Burning River fest, Feast of the Asssumption in Little Italy.....aiming for a trip out to Put-in-Bay Island since I haven't been there since I was a young one and now I am able to drink. Seeking out as much delicious brews that I can get my hands on, blowing money at bars, failing with women...rinse and repeat.
Awww, muffin. FOCUS: I'm going to spend a glorious two months in my garden, growing carrots, beets, radishes, butter lettuce, red potatoes, red onions, all kinds of tomatoes and squash, eggplant, asparagus, rosemary, thyme, banana peppers, watermelons and raspberries. When I'm not in the garden, I'm going to bust out the Tippman A-5, with the cyclone feed, flatline barrel, and reactive trigger, and hit the paintball ranges around my city. I also plan to BBQ everyday without exception. I am currently on a 19 day streak.
Trips: LA for a week, business. Mexico/Cuba/Dominican for two weeks in August, pleasure. In-Town: Montreal has a lot of festivals and events with open alcohol, so I'm gonna stay grounded for a while. Basically lots of drinking, I'm well past my 52-week streak of drinking-once-a-week.
I am headed for the sea of cortez on saturday for one week of hardcore panga fishing and island hopping taking these Spoiler To Catch a lot of these Spoiler and to make ceviche out of these because they ruin my swim baits. Spoiler
I'm learning French a few hundred kilometres from home in the most wonderful place on earth. At the very least I get to go home on the weekends and split my time between getting laid and grilling on the balcony. My other plans included going to Germany in May, and will include writing a supplementary exam in August. Tabernak.
Lots of drinking, a couple of weekend trips to a relative's house (right on a gorgeous lake), camping, a Tom Petty concert, my birthday, a couple of weddings, a vacation to Tampa, and a couple of really big parties that are going to severely retard my liver's abilities. I can't wait.
So totally kick-ass! Two days after I made this post, my husband got "sent on" vacation because he emailed this (apparently NSFW, though no nudity or anything outwardly offensive - I personally thought it was hilarious) to a few coworkers, who emailed it to a couple more and so on. Somewhere along the way, some fat, never married cat-lady got offended by it and complained, so the company decided to start with hubby (there were obviously other emails but this was the one that brought the initial smackdown). The company Fed-Exed us the letter yesterday. Full termination effective this past Monday. Benefits ended that day. We are so unbelievably screwed. If I wasn't so paralyzed with fear I would beat the ever-loving crap out of him because I told him to cut that shit out. "Eventually it will bite you in the ass!" I said. 6 years with the company and he was one of the most productive employees in his non-sales department (he was nothing but a cubicle jockey really) despite the occasional non-business email (we all do it). It was a large, well-known company and the benefits were excellent, which makes it especially bad. It barely paid the bills but it paid the fucking bills. He totally blew it and I am beyond pissed. The reason I am bringing this up is because I will now be spending my summer trying to find a job. A real one - not just pulling nights at the video game store for some extra spending money and a break from the kids. A gruelling, 50+ hour-a-week bookkeeping job that sucks the life out of my soul. My husband is nearly 50 years old - no one is going to want to hire him now. Never mind that the economy is in the toilet - I have been a stay-at-home-mom for the last year and a half. People are going to be squirrelly about hiring even me these days. This is karma biting me in the ass for complaining about having all three kids all summer (I really wasn't complaining but apparently karma, like the internet, can't detect sarcasm). Despite the fact that my oldest two fight like cats and dogs, I was looking forward to forging some brotherly togetherness and having them teach the teensy dude how to crawl and shit. I had plans, goddammit! I'm sure there are the occasional peeps on this board that actually go to church, sporadically or not, that might feel compelled to pray for us or something. I'm not asking for that - there are people that need that more. Just keep your fingers crossed or send some good juju my way. I don't need favors, I need encouragement and a way to do this myself. I just want to be able to pay my rent and have a bit left over to enjoy my kids. I will sell every last video game that we own just to keep things copacetic for them. I begrudgingly realize that I may actually have to.