the crazyness of August

Hmmm. Lots of decisions to be made, and they all came about very quickly. I've been looking for a car for awhile, so the Hyundai Santa Fe I bought a couple weeks ago has been wonderful. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and I'm not sure I could go back to a 'little' car again.

I was laid off from my job at the Coffee Connection due to the economy crisis, so I'm not sure what is in store in that aspect. September 1 will be my last day. I've spent the last few weeks working on packing up my things, to be ready for a quick move if that worked. I now have a place to stay in Hoosick Falls, so I plan on moving this Thursday or Friday.

A major decision has been what to do now that I'll be jobless. I've come to the conclusion that now (or soon, at least) would be a good time to drive west. So yes, I'll be packing up my Santa Fe and leaving the East coast. Not quite sure when though. I had wanted to go the end of Sept, but my doctors want me to try one more set of procedures before I go, which could put it into the middle of winter. If that happens, I'll probably sit tight until spring, since my final destination is going to be Homer, Alaska, if all goes well.

So a lot is up in the air right now, and until I know more, I'll just stay in this area, helping my friend out with her two kids as needed, and hoping that the rest and relaxation will help my shoulder/neck heal much quicker.

For now, I've been exploring and enjoying the scenery around here. This picture is at Grafton State Park.


I have some good friends in Petersburg that have the cutest daughter, and I had the opportunity to hold her for awhile on my latest visit to their house.

My darling Isabeau had to go to the emergency room one night, and the nurse was wonderful and gave her popsicles and a stuffed animal to take home! She is much better now, and full of her usual energy. She is one of 'my girls' from Sunday School and I love her and her family to death! Isn't she adorable? I get to pick her up and watch her and her big brother for a few hours once or twice a week. They are like siblings to me now.

Changes, changes, changes

In just a quick few days my life has been turned upside down. Not all bad. In fact, I'm excited about a lot of it, or at least some of it.
I'm going to be leaving the Coffee Connection at the end of August, so I'm looking for another job. A few possibilities for here, but most likely I'll be heading out west. Either to the Seattle area or Alaska, probably. As many of you know, I hate change. And yes, I'm nervous about this, but excited at the same time. I've also been looking for a car for the past 3 months. A couple weeks ago I was a victim of an online scam, and lost thousands of dollars by attempting to buy a car off of Craig's list. So if you were planning on using that site anytime soon, I'd recommend against it. Shortly after that, I found a car I liked, went down and looked at it, signed a bill of sale for one price with two thousand as a deposit. The next day on my way down to pick up the car I received a phone call from the salesman informing me that they had to do more work on the car and it was going to cost $1500 more than the original price. I argued for half an hour, and then asked for my money back, since I was not going to pay what they wanted. That's when they told me they couldn't get my deposit back to me for another 5 days, for various reasons. I took a look at the car, and they hadn't even done most of what they said they did! The car wasn't clean, hadn't been detailed, only had 1 of the 4 brake rotors replaced (they had claimed the extra $1500 was mostly due to the cost of replacing all 4). The manager I spoke to told me that it was my word against her salesman's, and his story was 100% different, and she chose to believe him. I won't recommend Nemer VW to anyone. I don't trust them at all.
Yesterday I finally found a car I think I'll be buying. And yes, you may all give me a hard time about it, because I'm going a totally different route than I had planned on. Instead of a small sedan that gets good gas mileage, I chose a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, which is an SUV and gets bad gas mileage. But I do like it, and it's a private sale (see Ben, I was listening to you!) from a friend of mine. I'm also going to be moving out, though whether I'll get a room at a friend's house or an apartment I don't know.
I'm still trying to deal with my shoulder/neck injury, and am now also trying to take care of my recently fractured finger (I slammed the car door on myself - it was early and I was still half asleep!). I'm still going to Amsterdam for injections once a week, and I've been sent back to the chiropractor (for injuries to the other side of my back due to the last car accident) twice a week. I'm also going to see another pain management doctor an hour north in VT on the 20th. The hope is that he'll have more of a plan as to what I can do besides long term narcotics, which is what everyone seems to want me to do.
Work has been extremely slow, and I'm feeling it more so recently, due to the fact that more guys are stopping to 'say hi and visit' a lot more frequently. They are there anywhere from 15min to 4hrs, depending on when more customers drive up behind them and make them leave. It's kind of funny actually, and the other girls who work for us give me a hard time, because apparently they saw it happening before I realized it.