Blogging Beach Side Series: Take 1

Well, almost beach side. I'm a little hesitant to take my computer out on the actual beach.. but my vantage point is still very nice.

(view from the porch of my beach house)
Summer is for all intents and purposes over; well, again.. almost. It's been 7 or 8 years since I've last stayed at a beach house for vacation, and this Labor Day has allowed me to break that dry spell. A friend and I are renting a beach house in North Carolina for one week. It's a week with hopes of sand, sun, and relaxation. Of course, we're both in school, so we'll have to take breaks and sit down to study or work on projects, but it's not good to be out in the sun all day anyway. There's always the option of sitting on the porch, sipping coffee while listening to the waves crash in the short, short distance away (as I'm doing right now).

We both really wanted to get away on a vacation, and since we've been to this beach before, it was a no-brainer. After a little bit of negotiation on my friend's part, we got the house at a discounted rate. It was already cheaper than a lot of houses (the house is 2nd row, so right across from the beach) but it was nice to get an even better discount anyway. So with both of our (work) schedules cleared, we cemented our plan.

The plan was to leave around 1am and drive all night. 1am turned into 3am turned into leaving at 5:15am. We both needed a little bit of sleep, so we took a nap before we left. My problem is I had a hard time getting to and staying asleep.. so I was still tired when we set off. Driving tired is not something I recommend. I wasn't too tired that I couldn't drive, so I took the first leg. With our car loaded, bikes strapped to the back, and fun music to set the pace (again, thanks to Jess), we said goodbye to C-bus. I like driving at night because there is less traffic on the road, however, I was thankful when the sun came up. Driving in the daytime isn't as tiring on the eyes, and I got us as far as the Tamarack: "Best of West Virginia" before trading off driving duty. Now, as bad as it is to drive tired, it's almost just as bad to navigate while tired. Luckily the majority of the driving is a straight shot; we only went out of our way slightly once or twice. At least the drive was beautiful! Lots of mountains and hills and trees:

We purposefully went out of our way to go visit a friend of Jess' in North Wilkesboro, NC. Afterall, what's 20 miles when you're driving 610? They hadn't seen each other in about 3 years, so that small detour was well worth it.
So we stopped at her friend's fine bicycle establishment so they could catch up.
I left for a little while to go directly across the street to, where else, the library!
I went in to the Wilkes County Public library of theAppalacian Regional Library to see if they had public computers.

Since we detoured I wanted to print new directions from that point to avoid driving confusion. Luckily for me, they indeed had internet computers, and allowed guest passes (hello again, Envisionware) so I was able to print them off (thank you, Google Maps), look around a bit, then head back to the bike shop.
And it was on the road again. And me being me, I had to check 50 times to make sure the bikes were still strapped on the back of the car (and not on the highway or in someone's windshield).

Since North Caroline is a big effing state, we had another 5 hours ahead of us (which fortunately didn't take us that long since my friend has a lead foot).
We finally arrived in Brunswick county around 5:30. It was such a relief! Here's a view from the bridge:

We got our keys, found our house, and unloaded. We even had a little friend waiting to greet us:

Typically on the first night we would have headed back out to buy supplies for the week, but we decided to ride to the convenience store on the beach and order a pizza. I definitely slept well that night.

I woke up early the next day around 6am, but didn't get out of bed. I wrestled with the idea of walking across the street and watch the sunrise, but the comfy bed won this time. I think I ended up sleeping for another hour or so. Even though I didn't make it for the sunrise, it was my first destination of the day. I crossed the street, walked to the beach, and let the surf casually roll up to me and over my toes. I walked a little bit (not too far) and jogged back (literally 2 minutes) before coming back to the walkway to the street. I stopped to take a few pictures first, then headed back to the house.

Ah, the first morning at the beach with my friend. First on our agenda? Food? no. Store? no. Bike ride? Yes! We hopped on our bikes and headed down the strip, riding just under 5 miles. We do have a goal of riding the entire strip in one go before we leave. Then it was onto the store to gather food and other supplies needed for our week here. Other than linens, NOTHING is provided (toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, not even bin liners) so we had a few things to supply. By the time we got back it was perfect beach weather, so we packed a lunch, and made our way to the beach.

Sun, sun and more sun. A nap was definitely called for later in the day. But more on that later.

A Whirlwind of Activity

No, this isn't a posting about a hurricane or tornado (though "Irene" is apparently heading towards the east coast... be kind to my friends). There's change a-comin' and I want to take it in stride. The first happened last week: my supervisor resigned. She's moving onto other opportunities and I wish her the best. So until her spot is filled (unfortunately I cannot go for it - I lack the required degree), I and my fellow Youth Services staff of 2 must make sure everything is in order -- and trust me, there's a lot going on right now. Oh, if only I had that degree.. oh wait, that leads me into another upcoming change. I'll be starting school. Next week. For that degree.
This coming Monday I start a graduate program through Kent State University in Library Science. I'm gonna be a li-berry-an. Right now I'm the next best thing (Library Assistant) in the children's dept for my local library. I plan on focusing in that area in school as well, but I will not limit myself to only that. I'm looking forward to the technical side of libraries, and as of right now, the idea of the information architecture and "User Experience" intrigues me.
I thought I had more going on right now, but I guess not. I'm looking forward to a beach vacation next week (Irene needs to not ruin that either), starting school (excited and nervous), and overall new possibilities.

We have a winner!

Apparently this is the summer for me to win a few contests; namely raffle drawings. At the beginning of the summer I signed up for the summer reading club through the Upper Arlington Public Library. It was easy enough to sign up online, and submit book reviews for title's I've read this summer. They had weekly raffle drawings, and I won a $10 Giant Eagle gift card! Not too shabby. I'm not exactly foreign to the idea of pushing prizes for encouraging reading, as I do the same at my own job (a different library... shhh.. don't tell!). I did not know, however, what the prizes were or how often they would be handed out. When I saw I had a missed call from the UA library, my first instinct was to do a mental scan of the books I had out, wondering if I accidentally kept something way past due. But nope, it was to inform me of my prize.
Well, that was just my first. Another raffle I won is associated with the organization, Consider Biking. During the month of July I logged my bike rides, whether for exercise, errands, social outings, via Ridenet.net, and was automatically entered into a drawing because I had at least 3 logged entries for using my bike as my mode of transportation to run my errands. I didn't even know they were having a July contest! So now I'll have the opportunity to get a 30 minute massage from Massagebee Sports & Wellness Therapy.
So here's to continuing reading and biking, and a life of good surprises.

I am Triathlete

So, I had my first triathlon.
I finished(!!!)
I always feel the need to qualify the fact that it was a mini triathlon (shorter distances, even than a sprint), as if completing the smaller one makes it less of an accomplishment. Either way, I should be proud of myself for trying, and finishing, right? I could be in the same place as last summer.. the idea of competing, but sitting at home, not signing up. I know I am proud of myself on one level because I love to tell people I participated in a (mini) triathlon, showing them the photo I took with my phone, showing off my medal (that they give everyone [insert winking emoticon here]).
The day of the race I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to; waking up at 3am and trying to go back to sleep only to wake up at 5a can do that. It didn't take me too long to get myself together, but I did not anticipate the pre-departure, bike mounting excitement. Apparently it's still dark at 5:30 in the morning. Most of you would say, "well, duh!" But I gotta tell you, I haven't seen 5am in a while. Anyway, I'm going to leave, taking all my gear and my bike, and I get to my car and realize I have to put together my bike rack on my car, and then mount it. It would have been easier if it were a newer rack with those handy dandy ratchet type fasteners, but no. Ties, ties, and more ties. In the dark. I mean, there were some parking lot lights, but it was not as well lit as I would have liked it to be. I think a part of my nervousness was just driving on the highway with my bike on the back of my car. I've driven around town with it, but never above 35mph. BUT I do have to say that driving on the highway at 5:30a on a Saturday is the PERFECT time to test it out.. as there was practically no traffic... so no worries that if the bike DID fall off, it would cause a crazy crash and damage other people's car.
But we made it, bike and all. We met up with my friend who did the race as well (her gazillionth tri). I finished in 1 hour 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Not too bad. I'll just have to beat that time next race.