Up & Away

work & school is a lot to juggle. and so is attempting to have a social life. 

I AM POOPED!

but i may, just may, write some more tomorrow. if i get lucky. and by lucky, i mean, after school and after my doctor’s appointment, if i get my psych paper done, and i decide not to work out (let’s hope that doesn’t happen cause my booty needs to get into bikini shape!), then i will post. or i’ll just do it thursday. i am a #slacker

it’s been a long morning… coffee jitters are on the way. this isn’t going to be a long post, but i just wanted to brag about how good of a puppy max has been lately… on the second half of our walk this morning i took him off leash and he stayed right next to me! i don’t think he understands “heel” but he responds pretty well to “hey!” so i think i am going to stick with that. such a momma’s boy. i might spoil him today and take him to the dog park… or maybe downtown. we shall see!

as per request of one of my gal pals… i am once again going to continually try to keep up with this blog. how successful i will be at it, i do not know, but it’s worth a shot, right? 

so. hmm. since my last post, a LOT has changed. biggest factor: i now live in seattle. WHAT?! yeah, it’s true. as mentioned in my last post, i was about to leave for the weekend to head up here for halloween weekend with my friend ashkaan. well, the city sucked me in and i fell head over heels in love with it and it’s people, and i immediately began looking for jobs in the area upon my return to florida. obviously, i happened to find one sooner than i would have planned.

my original plan was to find a summer job up here, finish up the school year in florida, and then slowly make the transition to a permanent residence up here once i got more settled. but, because i am me, i always want things right away and i have zero patience. so i went back to what i know: how to be a nanny. 

within days of looking for a job, i received a reply from a family that lived on mercer island… little did i know how perfect of a location this was. the family sounded great via email, and we decided to exchange numbers and have a phone interview. after a few phone conversations, they asked if i would be willing to fly out for a more formal interview/tryout. mind you, this was two weeks after i got back from my first trip. so the weekend before thanksgiving, max and i packed a weekend bag and left directly from classes thursday afternoon for the airport. it was a crazy, hectic, busy weekend, and i loved every minute of it. the family was AWESOME and it immediately felt like home. they have four kids, 14, 12, 9 and 7. girl, boy, girl, boy. and a dog, jasper, who is a big, fluffy, crazy goldendoodle. after a long weekend filled with soccer games, lacrosse games, swim meets, a drive to tacoma, and a basketball game, i was offered the job on sunday night prior to my departure back to florida the next morning. i more than willingly accepted. i went back to florida to spend the holiday with my family, began packing up my room, took my finals, and on december 13, i left florida for seattle. needless to say, it’s been a roller coaster of a few months.

the first week i was here i didn’t move in with the family yet, their old nanny was still living here and working for them. instead, i spent the week with ashkaan and his family, eating and drinking and having way too much fun getting to know more about my new home and the people i would be spending time with. 

i flew home to colorado for christmas on december 20, and spent 10 days back in colorado seeing friends in denver, spending plenty of time lounging on the couch, drinking a ton of delicious eggnog, and enjoying being back in my home state. it was a much needed trip. 

december 31 came way too soon, and i had to say my goodbyes to my friends and family and fly back to seattle. rather than being sad though, i was thrilled! i was about to start a new chapter… hell… a new book, and i couldn’t have been more excited.

work started quickly, and i have had to dive head first into my new job. days are busy, but they have been great. i’ve gotten very close with the kids, and so far there have been no major setbacks. i usually work from 7-10 in the mornings, and then have a few hours to myself before the kids are out of school at 3. depending on the day, i usually work 3-845. sometimes i am off a little earlier, it all depends on the kid’s sport schedules for the day. essentially, i am a glorified taxi driver! most weekends (and by most, i mean all) i have gone out with ashkaan and his group of friends who i have gotten to know. they are a great group of people, and i am happy that i wasn’t thrown out into the water to meet people on my own. because i suck at socializing. but i’ve met a lot of great people and i’ve had some pretty awesome nights, hopefully with more to come!

so there’s the background story of what’s going on in my life. yes, there are some details left out, but i don’t have the time or energy for details right now. my contacts (oh yeah, i got contacts!) are sticking to my eyeballs and i need to get ready to go to hot yoga. i also started doing yoga… i kind of suck at it, but oh well. tonight i’m trying “power” yoga for the first time. god help me. i WILL write soon :)

ok ok ok… i can officially say that i am horrible at keeping up with stuff like this. i used to be able to do journals, but that was while i was at boarding school or earlier when i lived with my parents and didn’t have a life. although, i’m pretty sure i don’t have much of a life here yet either, so i shouldn’t make excuses. 

living in florida is interesting, but this weekend was definitely one of the best yet. i went fishing today and not only was i the first and only person to catch an actual “fish,” BUT i caught a SHARK too. woah. it was so neat. that was the moment that i officially fell in love with fishing and decided that i need to go often. we used live shrimp for bait, and the fish that i first caught was a large pinfish. there was a ton of mullet in the canals where we were fishing (the canals that lead from our house out to the bay)… but then our second location, located near the apollo beach power plant didn’t seem to have much fish at all. but there were manatees everywhere! it was pretty neat. as i was reeling in my first fish i saw something coming out of the mangroves and automatically assumed it was a manatee because they are starting to come in towards the warmer water, but then my cousin who i was with said “it’s an alligator!!!!!!!!”… i almost peed my pants. not joking. but it wasn’t, thank god. also saw some dolphins, which was pretty neat. when i originally hooked the shark (second catch of the boat) i thought that it was going to be saltwater catfish but as it came closer to the surface i realized that it was far from being anything resembling a catfish & started shrieking, “IT’S A HAMMERHEAD! OH MY GOD I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!”. alas, it was not a hammerhead, but a bonnethead, which is in the family of hammerheads, and it was awesome. i loved it. i came home with pictures to prove my accomplishments and a big grin on my face.

yesterday we went to the ybor city farmer’s market and got some yummy food to bring home. we got the best rosemary sourdough, and some really good lemon pound cake, too (from different vendors). oh, and some amazing cookies from Miss Patt’s Cookies. seriously, so good. the bag may or may not be gone by now, and i’m guessing that it is probably the latter. oops! after the farmer’s market we went to tampa bay brewing company, thanks to my mother for the idea after seeing this video. it was pretty tasty and we ended up bring a gallon of beer home. which may also be on the lower end already. sorry we like to indulge in our guilty pleasures on the weekends :)

phew, ok, that writing took a lot out of me, and i am absolutely exhausted from (finally) having an eventful weekend. sleeping in as late as possible tomorrow and then studying for an anatomy test that i have on tuesday. thankfully, i have straight A’s in all of my classes right now (go me!) so i am not too worried about it. looking forward to friday, when i will be with my friend ashkaan in the amazing city of seattle for halloween weekend… i’ve been looking forward to this weekend for months! YAYYYYYY!

ps i promise i will keep these posts more frequent… PROMISE!