Movin' On Up

Dear readers:

As you may or may not know, this past weekend marked a momentous occasion in my relatively sheltered and Virginia-centric life. I made the big -- and some would say long overdue -- leap and moved out of my hometown of Springfield into a lovely place in Silver Spring, Md. with my cousin Steph.

This means: No more commuting to work with the rents, no more wonderful daily dinners cooked by Mom (my nutrition will either improve or degrade dramatically as a result; it has yet to be seen which way it will go), and basically being able to dodge that awkward part in conversations where I say I live in Springfield and hope it doesn't escalate to the point that I have to say "with my parents."

For all who know me and my parents, you know that living at home was the high life (aside from being the occasional damper on my social life -- but let's be honest, that wasn't the reason, was it?), and if there were any parents I'd want to share my meals and TV time with, I'd definitely pick mine. That said, it was time to move on and grow up, much to the disappointment of my near and dear companion, Auddie. But I'm fairly sure that once 8th grade starts up in about a week, all will be back to normal...

In any case, the blogging shall continue, perhaps slow at first, as I'm still delaying a laptop purchase and working on setting up WiFi at the apartment. (Who knew the new MacBooks were flawed by a random shutdown problem? Way to add fuel to my indecision!) But hopefully I'll be back to the regular routine soon, and for the most part it will be as if I never left homebase.

Can you Stop Pong?

Tonight, I saw the new Andy Roddick Amex commercial featuring Roddick in a tennis match versus the classic arcade Pong. In what is another great marketing idea from American Express, the commercial directs viewers to a web site where they can challenge Pong themselves. What can I say, I love a classic 2-D arcade game, and I'm a sucker for the My Life. My Card. campaign. I even find myself getting emotional when I read some of the one-page magazine ads for various celebs. Then I snap out of it and remind myself that in the end, it's just a credit card ad. Kudos, Amex, for knowing the way to my pocketbook!

Bermuda: Feel the Love

I'm back from Bermuda and begrudgingly getting back into the routine of things, starting with this here blog post.

The vacation was everything I wanted it to be -- relaxation by the beach, plenty of sun, delicious food (even if it was enough to feed me for a month), and quality time with the fam.

Bermuda itself is a beautiful island, and the fact that it is Britain's oldest remaining overseas colony is immediately apparent. From driving on the left side of the road (but no mopeds for us on those narrow, winding roads!) to daily tea time (mmm... who can resist tea sandwiches?), we were able to experience the feel of Britain with the perk of a clear blue, pool-like ocean and not a single cloud in the sky for most of our stay. We really lucked out!

Highlights of the trip were snorkeling with all the amazing fish, spotting a couple huge sting rays visiting us in very shallow waters (with one literally attacking Molly head-on!), jumping off the now-infamous Reefs rock, making the requisite tourist visit to the city of Hamilton, and playing Sorry! on the beach (even though I never won in 5 tries).

Check out my Flickr for a full photo diary. And if you know anything about my family, you'll know that despite the enormous number of photos posted on my page, there were about three times as many more where they came from. Enjoy!

Time for a vacation

Oops.. I'd been meaning to post all week since I've been so bad at it lately (apologies), but now it's Friday night and if there's any hope for me getting to sleep tonight, I must start packing for my weeklong Bermuda getaway, which starts tomorrow.

Looking forward to a week of relaxation and a much-needed vacation from work! I'll be back soon enough with a full update from the islands...

Sea Girt 5K!

I apologize if my blog posts of late have pretty much been weekend updates, but it seems everything else in between is fairly mundane, so really, I am sparing you.

I just arrived home from a quick but enjoyable trip to Sea Girt, NJ, on the northern part of the Jersey Shore. We happened to make the journey not only for a beach getaway, but for Sea Girt's annual 5K race, which took place this morning. It was really great mingling with all those laid back seaside folk and participating in what was clearly one of their biggest annual tradiations. Special thanks to Auddie and Natty (who was sidelined with an ankle injury) for being our supportive cheerleaders!

Now I am thoroughly exhausted and completely full (Chick-Fil-A on the ride up, snacking all day at the beach, and a meal at Squan Tavern will do that to you!), and I leave you with yet another Flickr album to browse at your leisure...