Waiting in a train station

Cory started his new job at Fed Ex today... things are coming together nicely. He signs with the Air Guard in the 3rd week of September and probably won't go to basic until sometime in January. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the apartment and it's feeling like home... Right now I'm sitting at Providence train station waiting for the train to Boston. I have a job interview there at 2:30... wish me luck! It's for a manager position at an eye doc office. I'm all dressed up in my "power" suit and actually feel like I look 30... who knew? This is the 2nd interview of the week and I have another one on Friday at an orthopedic office... I love the way train stations look and feel... they are better than airports because of the type of people that ride trains... it's a mix of every kind of person you could imagine.

We went to Newport, RI last weekend... if you haven't seen any pictures of the mansions there... you have got to look. The place was absolutely breathtaking... I'm at a loss for words to describe the immensity of these houses... the gardens, lawns, front gates were out of this world. It put Tahoe to shame. I mean I thought Tahoe had money? Nothing compared to what I saw in Newport. It is a lifestyle I will never know.

I will write again after my interview... hope it goes well!!!

"we havent located us yet"

It’s been a few days since my last entry and I blame that on the fact that there’s not internet we can leach off of until we get it in our place. I think that Cory and I are settling nicely into city life. The sounds of the city are incredibly different than the sounds of the desert. Also, the people are different too… but I think different in a good way. Everyone is friendly and excited to discuss our recent move as well as our bad decision on coming to Rhode Island. Ha ha… many Rhode Islanders say that this state is in a load of trouble… okay so it’s the 3^rd highest in unemployment in the country, and the politicians are mostly corrupt, and I saw a murder victim on the street a few blocks away from where I live, and when there is any natural catastrophe the size is always compared to Rhode Island (oh, the fire is as big as the state of Rhode Island). So what… we’re enjoying ourselves thus far. I had a job interview on Wednesday at an oral surgeon’s office. I hope I get it. My nerves may have gotten the better of me but I’m not sure. I think I will find out on Wednesday when the business manager is back in the office. I guess when you’re looking for a job it’s like a game of waiting. I hate it… but hopefully something comes along soon. I want a career… is that so much to ask?

Since Cory has to go away at some point for basic training I have officially decided that I will get a gun. We went to a gun store yesterday and I think I know what I’m going to get. It will be a revolver of some sort that I can just point and shoot in case someone decides to break in at 3 in the morning. Additionally, we are going to get a dog too. Not sure on the breed but pretty sure we will get something from the local SPCA. I’d rather rescue a dog than purchase one.

Last night we went out on the town and found a pretty cool bar. It’s called The English Cellar… there were lots of young people and it seemed to be the happening area. Afterwards we walked all over and there were so many people out that it was unbelievable… I can’t imagine how much more crazy it will get once school is back in session.

I’m reading Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” and let me tell you… that woman is freaking hilarious. At one point Cory looked over and asked why I was crying. I was laughing so hard that I wasn’t making any noise… just crying. I highly recommend it.

We seriously need to join a gym… this lack of exercise is making me feel like a lard ass and now I’m regularly taking naps each day. Cory even asked me today if I wanted to nap before we go out because he doesn’t want me to get grouchy. Ha ha ha ha… case in point… Sam needs to work out.

Tonight we are going to go downtown by the river where apparently they have a fire show on the water. It’s supposedly spectacular so I will be taking pics and uploading them to the blog.

Okay I’m going to go back to reading… peace out from the East Side! 

Monsoon rains

I think we've been here for about a week. Things are coming together slowly... still don't know about Fed Ex yet but hopefully in the next few days things will be finalized. I really hope he gets the job! The Air Guard had to be rescheduled so that he could get a chest x-ray... it's required for the finalization of the physical. I still don't have a job yet but I need to remind myself we've only been a here a week and something will come up for sure. I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable in our place and it's becoming a home which is really comforting for me. We just bought a new plant for our place... it's a ginseng plant and looks like a more funky bonsai tree... you will see it in the pics... We have found that the rain here is different than the rain in NV. I imagine it to be like monsoon rains... it rains so freaking hard that it's almost unbelievable. Okay so here's some pics of our living room... it's coming along with our newly purchased IKEA furniture...

See the ginseng! Nice TV eh? 

We officially have more DVDs than books right now because we got rid of so many of them. That table was a pain in the ass to put together but it turned out to be perfect for the place. 

Here's me after being in the rain for literally 30 seconds... 

You can't tell how completely wet he is but it was REALLY funny...

K I will keep you posted on our progress... wish us luck in finding jobs!!!

sounds of the inner city...

We've been here for a few days and thus far I'm enjoying myself. I'm still feeling nervous but that will subside once I become familiar with my surroundings. I think every now and then I feel like I'm back in Reno but then I hear people around me talk and all I hear are thick east coast accents... a reminder I'm no longer in Kansas...

Here's some pics of our new place. Those of you who saw our old place in Reno are going to laugh because it's shockingly similar to it...

That's the living room area...

Our bedroom...

Looking out from bedroom to the hallway...

Kitchen...

The crapper...

This doesn't work but adds a touch of the 1930s to the place

Cory blowing up our makeshift bed until we get a real one.

So the first night in the apartment was kind of difficult for me. We heard siren after siren after siren... ALL night. Keep in mind it was a Saturday night... then at 3:15 AM we were awoken by a car crash right outside our window which then brought a fire engine and multiple cops. Our room was lit up with the red of the lights for about a 1/2 hour. Afterwards I had a hard time falling back asleep. I was imagining some ghetto kid breaking into our apartment or some drive by right outside. I could have sworn I heard gunshots. Ha ha ha ha ha.... but then as morning came things were renewed and I realized I was being paranoid, naive, and overreactive with the dark of the night. I think being in a new place has made all my senses heightened. God I'm a nut case... 

The weather has been nice and but skin hasn't looked better! It's got a constance glow... but yesterday there was a torrential downpour...

This is what we woke up to and we drove 30 minutes north to MA to go to IKEA... It was raining so hard that it felt like a white out in a blizzard but it was rain... at IKEA we got quite a bit of furniture but it didn't really occur to us we only had a civic to transport the furniture home. Since it was raining so badly we didn't want to have it hang out of the trunk or anything... it made my trip home quite delightful. I was smashed sitting sideways in the passenger seat with my rib cage pinched between a bookcase and the center console. Ha ha ha ha... but we made it and the place is starting to feel like home. Last night we went out and had a good time. People were nice and I can't wait till we make friends here. I'm excited to see what happens in the next few months with our lives. So today is a state holiday in Rhode Island. It's called Victory Day... you should read up on it. I'm not a fan of the meaning behind the holiday... but it is a day off work for most people Anyhow, I think we are doing really well considering the drastic change we made. Stay tuned for further remarks on my life... peace out! 

New Place..

Well we signed our lease today and got the keys to our new apartment! (Thank you to Russ for helping us out with that one... you have no idea how much we appreciate that!) I will be posting pictures ASAP. Tomorrow will be busy for Cory he has an interview with Fed Ex and also a meeting with the Air Guard. I'm excited for him. We drove around today sort of taking in the city and trying to learn the street names... it will take me a while to get familiar with our new surroundings... it's kind of scary... found out we never want to go to "clown town"... so that has been noted... apparently all the houses are painted bright colors and it's quite dangerous. I will avoid that area like the plague... 

Watching the Red Sox and Yankees game... trying to become a true local... ha ha ha ha ha ha... not sure how long I can actually watch the game without falling asleep from boredom. I'm sure the games are much more lively in person so I will make it a priority to get to Boston to go to a game. 

I cannot wait to not eat out anymore!!!!! It's the biggest thing I'm looking forward to at the moment... oh man... just the thought of making our own food makes my mouth water... yum...

Okay... I will post some pics tomorrow... sorry to people that have called and I haven't returned your phone calls yet... I haven't forgotten... I will call back... I promise! :-) 

K peace out everyone until tomorrow... I think in the next few days I will do a reflection on our road trip... hmm... man I love blogging even though I don't have much to say today... 

2nd night...

We're at the comfort inn tonight... went to the bar... if you can call it that... made friends with the bartender. He is a really great guy... Jersey Shore was on TV and it turns out most of the cast is from this area and Pauly D is a friend of a friend of his. Ha ha ha ha ha ha... too bad I'm not a fan... I want to meet Emma Watson... oh man I would be star struck if I met Hermione!!!! (... she goes to Brown)

Keep your fingers crossed that we get a hotel room on Saturday... thus far it's sold out in the Providence area...

Alright here's the picture of the night... love and miss you all!!!!

And we arrive...

Farmington, NY to Albany, NY... 209 miles... and then the next day... Albany, NY to Providence, RI...163 miles...

Pictures first...

Dunkin' Donuts!

Some cool building in Albany

Some burned building in Albany

Getting closer...

Yes we do need to clean the windshield

Last state we have to drive through

Does everyone just burp all the time?

??

I can't believe we made it...

At this point I started getting butterflies in my stomach... maybe it was just gas? I don't know...

Providence from afar...

Here we are!!!!!!

Batty!!!!

So we pulled into Providence yesterday and it has been a bit overwhelming in that we didn't plan anything as far as a place to stay until we find an apartment. We went downtown and looked at 2 apartments but one was a bit out of our price range while the other was a crap hole. Today we looked at a lot of places and finally after we were ready to give up and start again tomorrow we thought we'd try one more place and turns out we loved it! It is in an older building and the apartment looks similar to our last one in Reno except even better... hardwood floors... essentially 2 bedroom... nice kitchen and bathroom... also it's in a good part of town and walking distance to a lot of places. We went to breakfast at a place call JJ Spoonems... it was recommended to us as the best place in RI to get corned beef hash... and I must say it was, indeed, some of the best corned beef hash I've had to date... and decently priced. Then we went to a place called Julian's for lunch... turns out I look like every girl that works there... so I got an application just in case the medical stuff doesn't work out right away. One of the questions on the application is "Do you believe in magic?" and I'm thinking, "hell yeah I do... HARRY POTTER MAGIC!" and then another question is "what is your spirit animal?"... that's a tough question... I'm thinking I may answer that as a golden retriever... ha ha ha ha ha...

So tonight we are staying at the Comfort Inn in Warwick and let me just say... the staff sucks. Super unfriendly and unhelpful... they told Cory his credit card was denied but turns out they entered it as the wrong type of credit card... idiots! But I can't complain it was only $40 for tonight and they are the first people we've encounter thus far that have been complete dicks. Most of the people that we've come across have been incredibly kind... I'm glad about that....

We found a good local beer... it's called Narragansett and could probably be easily compared to a PBR or something along those lines... 5.98 for a six pack. Woo hoo! 

Drivers here are aggressive to say the least but they get things done... it's kind of havoc on the streets sometimes but the rush hour we saw was nothing compared to 80 and 395 in Reno at rush hour time... maybe it's cause people here don't drive like morons? I don't know... although, I'm not going to lie... I still haven't myself driven in town. 

Cory has to report to the Air Guard on Saturday and I'm kind of nervous about what I'm going to be doing all day... I'll probably just send out a lot of resumes... 

Things are good and I'm feeling positive... I'm definitely feeling scared and now sort of understand why people say that we are brave for going somewhere completely foreign to us... I can't wait to move into our place because I'm tired on the hotel/koa living... I need my own place. It shouldn't be to hard to move in as all we have is the backseat and trunk full of stuff... it will be rather empty in the apartment for a while. 

I think that I'm going to continue this blog because I've been getting a lot of good feedback from you and feel like I'm taking everyone along for the ride. Thank you to all of you for your support and for reading this... it's nice to know I'm not speaking blindly into cyberspace...

My time is a piece of wax... falling on a termite... who's choking on a splinter

Questions of the day:
1. Why isn't Corona on tap?
2. When exactly did I find out Santa Claus doesn't exist?
3. Why does Vegas suck so bad?
4. How come I love upstate New York so much?

What I've learned:
1. I love Corona despite the fact it is NEVER on tap.
2. Sarah told me when she was in 3rd grade that Santa doesn't exist... which in turn proved the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy don't exist either... I'm still devastated.
3. Vegas is a piece of shit town and I'd be sad if I were from there I'm so glad I'm from Carson.
4. Upstate New York is beautiful and not very populated... maybe I'm a small town girl after all...
5. My mom played an April Fools Joke on me and Sarah when we were little by feeding us goose eggs... I'm still upset.

DD

I LOVE Dunkin Donuts! I believe I've made the right decision moving east simply because of the DD access!

Day Nine...? I may have lost count

Port Huron, MI to Farmington, NY.... 291 miles... (via Canada)

So we made it through Canada and back into the US. We found out that there was no way for Cory to bring his handgun into Canada without the proper "paperwork" which the border patrol couldn't give us specifics on what that paperwork entailed. So long story short it was either go back down Michigan and through PA or sell the handgun and try to go through Canada. Cory chose the latter. Here are some pics between leaving Chicago and where we are now then I will continue with the story...

On last pic of Chicago... I'm pretty sure we're going to go back but we will fly... driving was a bit too intense...

No fun to drive through (because of my antics from the night before) and the tolls were outrageous... 

Extremely muggy...

From the Bridge to Canada... that's Lake Huron and it looks like a damn ocean... 

First sign we saw after being questioned by Canadian border patrol... I felt so nervous even though we had nothing to hide...

An ambulance in Canada... we thought of Tyler...

The road was EXTREMELY straight

First sign we saw when re-entering the US... kind of exciting to be back in our own land. The only thing I have to show for being in Canada is a $5 Canadian bill... no clue what I will do with it...

Creepy bridge at our KOA tonight... 

Looking at an orb spider on the bridge trying not to freak out with all the bugs flying around me... ewww

So last night we stayed at a KOA in Port Huron which turned out to be the largest KOA Kampground we've stayed at... it was like being at Disneyland. We got to play putt-putt which was fun... I started out playing extremely well and finished with probably an average of 4 per hole... ha ha ha ha... I blame it on the fact that I was sweating my life away. It wasn't so much as hot as it was more or less like sitting in a sauna... I did, for sure, sweat out loads of toxins and my skin hasn't looked better. The KOA was party central and people were partying into the wee hours of the night... I heard an owl for the first time... now I understand why they are sometimes seen as bad omens in certain Native American cultures... Driving through Canada was interesting...  we were quite nervous that we'd have to get the car searched and when they just let us through the border we were stoked on not having to empty out the entirety of our lives contained in the back seat and trunk... so we went the speed limit which was 100/kmh... equal to roughly 60mph.... When we popped into the US via Niagara Falls I was happy but ready to get the hell out of the car. We still had 85 miles to go to our KOA... we are staying in NY near the Finger Lakes and it's beautiful I don't think I've ever heard so many nocturnal creatures in my life... I'm praying I don't need to pee in the middle of the night... 

We went to a sports bar for dinner and all of the music on the jukebox was country. On any other given day I would be annoyed with country... but there was something comforting about hearing the country music and it made me think of home... weird I know.... I miss everyone already but I'm proud that we've decided to go out on our own and see what we can make of our lives... I'm thinking we will end up back west at some point... I'm pretty sure Wyoming is still my favorite state we've gone though thus far... so who knows... maybe we will ultimately end up in Cheyenne. 

Okay here's a map of our travels... 

Peace out! I hope you all enjoy this blog even though it's discombobulated (spelling?) and there's a lack of cohesiveness especially in the titles of each day's blog... oh well! 

Day Seven and Eight

Alright I apologize for not being able to post until now. Sometimes getting WiFi along the way is difficult to obtain.

Jackson, MN to Chicago, IL... 483 miles...

We stayed at The Allerton which is far too expensive, however, I felt that we deserved a fancy place. We pulled into the parking garage and had to unload our luggage so that the valet could drive the car up to a parking spot. The car reeked with humid sweat and I felt so bad giving the valet keys to the car. The concierge took our "luggage" and told us to go check in. Anyhow, we get to the front desk and I am immediately referred to as Miss Peck. Ha ha ha ha ha... so weird. Our room wasn't quite ready yet so they gave us two rounds of martinis while we waiting. I'm pretty sure that we smelled awful because people kept looking at us when we'd get near them and then they would get up and run away as quickly as possible. When our room was ready we went up and walked in. The phone to the room starts ringing and the concierge says, "Hi Miss Peck I just wanted to make sure it's okay to bring your luggage up" and I said, "Uh, sure".  As soon as I hung up Cory and I just looked at each other and started cracking up. So here's a picture of our "luggage"...

The lingering question was, "how the hell much am I supposed to tip?" I gave him $8... too much not enough? I'll never know. 

Here is what it looks like driving into Chicago. The traffic was insane... I am pretty sure I saw two people get bumped by moving vehicles when they were crossing the street... complete pandemonium.

We bought some fake teeth in a gum ball machine... 

Crossing over the Mighty Mississippi... I was unable to get a pic of the "welcome to Wisconsin" sign which turned out not to be surprising as that state sucks and so did the location of their welcome sign. I've never seen worse driving in my entire life and I think every other car had a boat it was towing...

Some random farm in WI... maybe it was a cheese farm... 

Hormel Chili factory!

Entering Illinois...

First toll road of many...

Glam shots in the fancy elevator

Crossing the bridge in Chicago...

Friends in Chicago...

At the nights end in Chicago...

I have loads more to say but we just found out we can't cross into Canada since we have a gun... ugh! Okay talk to you soon... will have more pics soon!!!

Chicago, IL to Port Huron, MI.... 340 miles... peace out!