Whole Lotta Nothing (But With Photos!)

Wow, 2 months have gone by! Looks as though this blog is phasing itself out, which is a shame, since it is the only way I have to remember what is happening in our lives.

But since nothing much is happening, maybe it doesn't matter? I don't know.

After searching for a decent editing job for 2 years and coming up with nada, zip, zilch, NOTHING, I managed in June to land a part-time job at The Container Store (and I probably only got that because I had an employee referral from Rachel). I'm grateful, because yikes, I was bored out of my skull and needed something, anything, to do. So now I get paid $15 an hour (plus 40% discount) to move boxes, open boxes, empty boxes, discard of boxes, etc. 

40% discount means I can afford to buy the special trash bags for my beloved, yay

The job is sort of soothingly repetitive. It's also a buttload of exercise (hello, 15,000 steps on truck day!), so that's helpful, too, in a self-care sort of way. I start early in the morning before the store opens, 3 days a week, and it suits me fine not to be waiting on customers for the entirety of a 6-hour shift. I mean, I'm sociable, but I'm not THAT sociable.

And then I come home and do not much again, but I don't feel guilty about it. Sometimes I even cook dinner. Also, I do yoga videos and such. And look for full-time jobs, of course.

I'm still bored, is what I'm saying.

Before I started work in June, Susie and I were able to take a brief sojourn to the Jersey Shore (courtesy of my friend and her lovely beach house with the scary rooftop deck). We ate the requisite ice cream and hoagies and pie, because who would go to the Jersey shore and not enjoy all the good Jersey food? That would be downright rude, IMO. 

Obligatory ice-cream-at-the-beach photo

We also paraded merrily to the beach the first day with all our gear, only to realize that the Jersey shore waters in June (i.e., pre-Gulf Stream shift) are COLD. And, since it was midweek before school let out, there were no lifeguards. So, yeah, we didn't need those boogie boards we made Larry fetch out of the attic the morning we left and that we dragged 4 blocks to the beach (and 4 blocks back).

Still, it was the Jersey shore and it was lovely. 5 stars, highly recommend!

Obligatory sunset-over-the-bay photo

Here at home, however, the weather (OMG, am I reduced to talking about the weather? I'm sorry) has been - and will be for the foreseeable future - disgustingly humid, even when it isn't terribly hot. Larry made me go on a 2-mile walk Saturday, and I complained the entire way. Everything smells bad and the overwhelming amount of moisture in the air saps me of the will to live.

This is not hyperbole.

So Larry and I are planning to drive Midlife Crisis to a campground in the Catskills (upstate NY) next weekend, just to escape that circle of hell otherwise known as Virginia in July. We'll be gone only a few days, but hopefully that respite will be enough to get me to August, when I am driving with Susie to the Adirondacks (even further upstate NY) to visit friends who managed to escape this semi-tropical latitude by moving permanently to Lake Placid, which is apparently the land of cool summer evenings and moderate midday temps. 

Upstate New York, that Shangri-La of no humidity

Those of you well-versed in The More, The Messier lore might recall that we visited these same friends at their place in Lake Placid almost 6 years ago, a visit during which I came down with the head cold from hell that turned into the month-long coughing fit from hell. Ever since, I've entertained the irrational notion that I will get sick and ruin the visit if we dare to go up there again. COVID didn't help, of course, because what more could a gracious host want than to be stuck indefinitely with a quarantined, plague-ridden guest? 

But now - NOW - I will be bravely facing my fears, because I am a rational human being and of course I won't get sick and I want to see my friend and what are the odds, anyway, and...and...look, this needs to go well, just pray for me, okay?