My Oh My, Goodbye July

I LOOVVVEEEE July more than any other month. This is the month I usually get to go on some sort of nice vacation with my family, visit the lake often, and of course its my own personal Christmas in July thing. With my birthday on July 4th, my brother's on the 10th, and my sister's on the 12th, it's like we get to celebrate my second favorite holiday twice a year. Of course at my parent's expense. Which does indeed suck for them. =)

While my life is all-around boring, I do admit that I have fun. It may not be Hollywood Premiers, large parties, or lavishing vacations at the spa; but, it is still my time to relax and enjoy life. July started in New Orleans, Louisiana. Which I believe I already mentioned in a previous post. I was there for the National Education Association (NEA) Conference, which lasted from July 1st-July 6th. The actual conference consisted of sitting and voting verbally. Some of the issues brought up were definitely educationally focused, while others were not. Those were the ones that seemed to make the meetings last forever each day. I made some new friends at the conference, and I got to do a service project in one of the New Orleans high schools.

On July 2nd my family came out to New Orleans to visit over my birthday. Due to unforeseen events I actually turned twenty-one in the bathroom of Arby's. At least I like Arby's. The day of my birthday was full of conference meetings, which left me quite restless. But getting to celebrate with my family and new friends that night was a great bonus. We ate at Margaritaville, I got to try a few drinks, and then we watched fireworks. My cake was Toy Story 3 and my big gift was a real-life Woody doll with a working pull-string. This is why my life is boring and I want to teach Kindergartners.
My family left on July 5th and my boyfriend, Garrett, came down. I didn't get to see him much the day he came, because he got there so late at night, but I did see him a bit on the 6th after the convention was finally over.

So, even though I believe no one reads my posts, I am going to include some New Orleans Tips (maybe just reminders for myself if I ever go again.)
1.Bring a good bit of cash for transportation. The taxi services make you pay a minimum of $10 for any location. Most of our trips, which were just a few blocks, would cost us anywhere between $10 and $25. Even if you are bringing your car, the average parking cost is about $12. Most transportation venues only accept cash.
2. If you are taking a streetcar for transportation it is $1.25 each time you get on. One round trip will cost $2.50. They only accept cash or streetcar tickets which can be bought at most hotels. If you are going on a scenic route, don't go at night. You won't see anything after 8pm or so.
3. If you are anywhere Bourbon Street or Canal Street, watch out for people who are looking for easy cash. That means that women should make sure to hold the bottom of their bags, as cutting purse straps is common. The men mostly get hit up with "bets/wagers". This means that someone will come up to you and give you a rhyme or riddle while claiming to bet you, and then try to hit you up for money after you agree with them or shake their hand. The most common is, "Let me give you a shoe shine", "I can tell you where your hat/shoes/shirt/etc is from". They will harass you if you do not pay them.
4. Don't expect to take pictures with someone dressed up unless you want to pay them. There are no freebies in New Orleans.
5. Don't drink the Jester drink unless you have a strong stomach. Each person I knew, over six, who drank it on different nights, got sick off of the drink.
6. Riverwalk closes by 6pm most nights. This can be news to a traveler who assumes since the rest of New Orleans doesn't sleep that the Riverwalk will be open all night.
7. Watch where you get cash out at ATMs, where your cards or cash are at all times, and if new people want to come up and befriend you. One of my new friends lost nearly $400 dollars when someone, a random stranger who hung out with us, made off with his ATM and cell phone.
8. There are no Wachovias or Wells Fargos located in Louisiana. Other large branches are in the city, but this is not one of them. Its good to know this before hand because the ATM fees can be quite expensive once added up.
9. My last tip is to bring an umbrella or poncho that is easy to carry. It rains often there from what I have heard and witnessed.

So moving on to the rest of July...

I took the train both up to New Orleans, and back down from New Orleans. It was a new experience, cheap transportation, and pretty neat if you have never rode one for long distance before. Unfortunately I was one of the people who drank a Jester and became sick, so on my way back from New Orleans I was unable to take as much pleasure out of my seven hour train ride. I was actually unable to enjoy a lot for the next week.

We went to the Gulf Shores two days after I got back from New Orleans to celebrate my brother and sister's birthdays. The big treat for his 20th and her 10th birthday was to go see Jimmy Buffett live during his Gulf Coast Benefit Concert. Unfortunately, I was still feeling pretty under the weather come concert time. It was super hot outside, humid, and the thought of standing near alcohol covered beach-goers made my stomach turn. So I actually watched the concert on CMT from our room, and from the balcony of our beachfront condo. It was quite an experience to watch the concert live and on national TV at the same time. I probably had a better close up of Jimmy than my family did from the sands.

Since being back in Birmingham I have not done a whole lot. I believe the highlight of the past few weeks was my trip to Huntsville to see Garrett and watch the movie Inception in the VIP Lounge of the Monaco. By the way, I loved the movie. It was by far the best I have seen all year. Other highlights include my trip with my roommate to watch Despicable Me with a run to IHOP for cina-minions, and finding a new apartment to move into with my brother. I will actually be moving into the two bedroom, two bathroom apartment this Friday. My favorite part of the whole apartment thing is the fact that it has one HBO channel included in the cable package, so I will get to watch True Blood each Sunday night!

I believe that sums up my July. While no Disney trip was included (which usually occurs in July), at least I got to go to New Orleans and the beach. Goodbye to my favorite month, and welcome August.

August = Me finally in the Teaching Program!

The start of June

Boo!

Quite frankly, that is how I feel. And I assume that is how I will feel for a chunk of this month. Last month went quite well, or as well as the life of a boring college student can go.

I had class, I worked, I ate, and I slept, and then I repeated. I have found that living with Gabby, there is a three to four minute hot water limit. Not that she set it, that's just the amount of time you may or may not get hot water. If you get four minutes you are lucky. My hair needs deep conditioning, and four minutes does not cut that. I actually broke a comb in my hair because its gotten so rough.


The highlight of my month was going to the Gulf Shores over the weekend of May 16th. This was pre-BP blunder. My boyfriend and I went to celebrate our 1.5 Anniversary. It was the only way I knew I had a chance to see him for a long period of time this past month. Although we got lost on our way down to the beach (there is only one turn and we missed it by a lot), it was a nice and relaxing vacation. We had "date night" in which we both dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. Of course we also took the time to go see a movie, Iron Man 2, which really wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed it quite a bit. There was only an hour of beach time, however. Garrett burns easily, and is not a sun fan. Nor a sand fan. Nor a ocean fan. Soo...the trip to the beach seemed a bit silly after we established that information.

On the subject of Garrett, I have been a little stressed lately. Not only did I see him a sum total of twice in the past month, I fear I won't get to see him very much coming up as well. He has not had any sort of job since December of 2009. He was recently hired by a form of a temp agency, used by three different event planning companies. Yet he has not gone in to work for them yet. If he doesn't make any money its only me driving out to go see him, and I can only do that so many times over the summer. The last time I saw him I drove up to him. I stayed the night at his mother's house and we went out to watch Prince of Persia. (Also a decent movie.) The job thing has caused us a lot of stress. I am a nagger. Since I have nothing to do most days, I will call and complain to him about various things, most toply the job situation. Poor, poor Garrett.

In other news: I leave for New Orleans in 18 days, in which I will be gone 14 days after that. I am going there for a NEA Conference. NEA is the National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the nation. Below the NEA is the AEA, our Alabama Education Association. For students they created the SAEA, Students of Alabama Education Association. I was one of eight people who ran for a NEA Student Delegate position through the SAEA, and to my great disbelief I recieved it. There are only six of us going. I thought I would be one of the two who did not recieve such an honor. The only issue is that this honor puts me in New Orleans for two weeks. Which would seem like a totally cool, interesting thing. Other than it is a teaching conference, and I will be supervised. Oh yeah, and my birthday is over Independence Day, and I will be turning 21. By myself. Fun.

It is actually a little bit of torture. I had wanted so badly to celebrate my 21st birthday in New Orleans, and I got my wish, just not to my specifications. I am a huge birthday person. I enjoy family and friends being around to party with me. And I am a huge Independence Day person, I need lots of fireworks. But I will be doing neither of those things. I will be in a conference room until 5pm, and I am supposed to stay in my hotel for the rest of the evening. How droll.

And for my conclusion of the start of June.

This past Thursday I left for the beach. I had work until 4:30pm, so I left right after that. It is a five hour drive to my parent's condo, so I arrived shortly after 10pm. Everything closes at 10pm, so I couldn't reall go out and do anything. I was tired anyhow, my bedtime is about 10pm. =) So Friday morning I get up at 6am, because my body is screwed up and doesn't understand what it means to sleep in. I go to a store to buy a hat to wear on the beach, so I can go layout, at around 9am. (I read my book from 6am to 9am and finished). I get to the store and my Wachovia card is denied. I pay with another card and move on. Curiousity strikes and I call about my account number. I had overdrawn, by a bit. Which of course is depressing, so I went back to the condo and sulked for the rest of the day while watching the French Open. I don't normally watch Tennis so I had no idea who those people were, or what was really going on. I had actually gone to the beach right after that, stepped onto the sand, felt stupid that I was by myself, and then gone to the condo. Loser, right?

So my parents get in that night with my brother and little sister. My dad and I went to eat at this place called the Shrimp Basket, and then did a tour of the local Wal-Mart. Am I sounding any more fun?

Saturday was spent in the rain. I did finally get to eat at the Hangover. I believe I was the absolute last person to do that out of the people I know. Always behind everyone for some reason. But we also went to the bookstore, and I got a new book. I have been meaning to read "I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell" and I was quite excited to pick it up. I have read many of the Tucker Max stories online already, but I always enjoy reading more. He lives the opposite of my life. Its like looking into a mirror of everything my life is not. Which is actually a good thing for most daily situations, but I would like to be a little more interesting.

Sunday I drove home by myself. They will be staying at the beach until Tuesday, but I had to be home for work today. On my way home I went to look at my watch, my new Bulova watch, and realized I didn't have it on. I stopped and looked in my car, it was no where. I tried not to panic, and assumed it would be at the apartment. Unfortunately it was not there either. I went through everything last night and this morning looking for it. I even went through my car again this morning. No watch. Its not at work, and my mom looked around the condo and said it was not there as well. Where have I placed that darned watch?

Ohhhh, how I dread the start of any month, but I especially have come to despise the start of June.