the blog is back!

I'm finally back from my fabulous vacation, so I thought i'd update all of my very eager and numerous (hah) readers about my life for the past 10 or so days!

Friday night before I left I had a great birthday dinner with friends from Wake and from Raleigh. We had a nice time even though the band was cancelled, and its always good to see friends--we need to start doing it more often. Saturday morning we got up early and hit the road for New Jersey (eww). We made a couple of stops along the way and finally got to the hotel about 45 mins from NYC around early evening. The next morning, we got up and drove into the city. It didn't take very long, and I actually managed to get my family to Central Park and Times Square without using the GPS! I didn't know I had that much directional knowledge in me (and I know Kristin will be proud)! We finally parked at the pier, got on the ship and immedaitely began eating (the overall theme of the week). Sunday night and Monday were at sea, so we mostly just continued eating, went to the casino a little, played trivia and shopped on board the ship. Luckily we managed to completely avoid the hurricane. The radar looked like it was going to hit us really hard (first hurricane in the Maine/Canada region in 17 years...what are the odds?), but I guess there wasn't enough warm water to sustain it, and we really didn't have any bad weather at all thank goodness!

Tuesday we docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia and walked around the town for the morning. We went to the Titanic museum there and saw lots of cool things from the ship and other shipwrecks. Halifax was a much bigger city than I expected. Lots of big downtown buildings and pretty waterfront condos. We did a little shopping and then went back to the ship, of course, to eat. Wednesday we went to St. John, New Brunswick in Canada. This was a more typical coastal Canada town. Lots of ship building and pretty gingerbread style houses in different colors. We took a tour bus around town and to the Bay of Fundy--a place where two waters (the north Atlantic and something else) meet, and the water actually changes directions right there. That was pretty interesting, and the town was really pretty. Almost enough to want to live there, if there wasn't 10 ft of snow in the winter:)

Thursday we got back to the US and went into Boston for the day. I sadly didn't get a chance to meet up with Em because of having to go through customs on the ship that morning, but she did give me excellent T directions to the JFK museum. We spent most of the morning at the beautiful museum by the harbor. Then we went back into the city and toured around the Freedom Trail and other places in downtown Boston. Friday morning we got to Martha's Vineyard a little late. The water isn't deep enough there for the ship to dock right by the shore, so we had to take smaller tender boats to land. This was probably the most eventful part of the trip--the water was so choppy that the waves actually went all the way over the top of the little enclosed boat! Thank goodness I didn't get seasick! We finally made it to shore, and took a bus tour of the island. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but Martha's Vineyard was not exactly what I had pictured. It actually reminded me a lot of Beaufort near the good old Emerald Isle, NC. It was nice, and I enjoyed walking around the little shops by the harbor to see the beautiful sailboats, but I guess its the type of place you have to grow up around to really appreciate it enough to pay millions for real estate there. It definitely seemed more like a status thing (obviously) than the fact that the island was just so spectacular. But it was nice and I enjoyed the day there. I enjoyed it even more once we finally got back to the ship on a bigger ferry boat (the wind was up to 50 knots so that small boats were'nt even allowed out by the afternoon eek!). Saturday we docked back in NYC and finally made it back home to NC by 7ish that night.

Overall the week was fantastic. I really enjoyed getting away for a little while, not hearing about the election and turning my cell phone off for a few days. I would have liked a couple more days of sleep, but alas:) I'm unfortunately a little sick right now--my sinuses started going crazy by the end of the trip, but hopefully i'll be back to normal soon. I've got an interview in person for the job I reeeeally want this afternoon(!), so let's hope I don't sneeze all over the person--and wish me luck!

Other news on the job front: I ended up accepting an offer from the crappy job I wrote about a few weeks ago. It really pained me to do it, but I bascially thinking of it as another temporary job, and will definitely keep looking in the meantime. Hopefully something will happen--fingers crossed--before I have to start there in a couple weeks, and I can quit before I even start haha! I just felt like I couldn't turn it down with the way the financial market it right now. I've got the interview today, and then another really great 2nd round phone interview for a job in Atlanta on Wednesday. I could use all the luck I can get! Whew, long post...hopefully i'll get a few pictures up soon!