8.20.12

I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. I'm kinda slacking.  This past week has been good.  Our group was a little difficult but more in the terms of annoying than actually hard.  I did manage to make it out on the beach 5 days :) I am sure gonna miss that.  I don't think there has been anything overly exciting happen this week.  I was off on Thursday and we spent some time at the beach.  The weather was great and we got to watch the practice for the airshow, which was annoying after a while.  And of course the sand flies were terrible and made things a little miserable.  But we stayed in the water most the time then came back and attempted to lay on the deck.  But, lucky us, the flies followed us. After that we went into the city and took some pics and just had a relaxing evening.  Friday was back with the travelers and it was a day spent mostly at the beach.  We went and watched the airshow, the practice the day before was better, and we had lunch on the beach.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it and that night we went to a movie.  I was off again on Sat and did pretty much nothing all day.  It was great.  I slept in and went to the nap on the beach, then came in and started my packing.  Yesterday we had  4 travelers staying over and one came in early so we took all 5 down to see the extreme trampoline show on the boardwalk and then to Ocean City for a parade.  None of it worked out like we had planned and the day overall was extremely frustrating.  But we get a new group in today and I move rooms again, back upstairs to my old room for a few days and then I head back to Texas on Thursday bright and early.  I can't believe I only have 3 more days in this house.  So crazy. I am ready to be home though.  Of course I will miss many things and the people I have met over the summer but Matoska is waiting for me and classes start again next week. 

8.11.12

Another week has flown by.  I don't even know where it went.  Tuesday and Wednesday were so busy because 3 out of the 6 staff were off so we were totally consumed by our travelers.  The few moments we get through out the day were not there and by the end of Wed night we were drained.  We had to have a special staff meeting for warm brownies and milk just to make it through the night.  Then it was down to the basement I went for our 2 days off.  It was so much fun.  We started Thurs day off by going down to the outlets.  Didn't really find any great deals but had fun.  Then off to Gardner's Basin where we went parasailing.  We volunteered to go first and asked for the best dip he had.  The guy taking us was a lot of fun and gave us a good ride.  It was also nice and relaxing to lounge on the boat while the others got their turn, although nobody else was up to the dip we had.  That seemed kind of pointless but oh well.  We went and had lunch and a drink at a little restaurant there and the waitress was great and the food and drinks were great.  We did a little roaming through the shops then laid out for a little while before our happy hour boat cruise.  The cruise had less than 20 people on this big double decker thing and we were the only non-couple in it.  Kinda funny.  But it was kinda cool to get to see the city that way.  We made it back home and got ready for a night out.  That is when the headache started, but I tried to ignore it.  We went to the Tropicana and started in the sports bar.  I tried to explain football to Leanne, not the same as in England.  But she was pretty lost.  I couldn't even drink my beer because my head was hurting so bad, but I wanted to try to get the most out of the night.  We had a confusing group sitting next to us.  It was 3 guys and 2 girls, it was one of the guys bday.  After they had a few drinks it looked like 2 of the guys were together but as they were leaving one of them kept trying to come up and talk to Leanne.  It was all really confusing and we still aren't sure what the dynamics of that group was, but they were entertaining.  After the sports bar we went down to the slots for a little while.  I made it a couple hours before I had to give in to the worst migraine I have ever experienced.  It was terrible and the whole next day I was sick.  Kinda sucked for my second day off but at least I was able to lay around and relax.  I still wasn't feeling 100% most of today but luckily by tonight I am back to normal.  I can't believe this week is over.  We have a busy day off drop off and pick ups tomorrow and an early start.  But this will be the beginning of my last full week here at the shore house.  I am kinda sad but ready to get back.  Not exactly ready to get back to classes and the mysteries that await my return to Texas.  But after all the driving today in the massive rain storms, I am ready for the non-humid, non-wet of Texas!

8.5.12

This week has gone by so incredibly fast. I think the fastest week yet.  I can't believe we have a new set of travelers coming tomorrow.  I don't know that I feel like I even got to know the last set.  It will be week 2 of high functioning weeks and we stay so busy but it is really great.  We are getting to do some new things but along with that comes the new levels of complaints and the new levels of opinions.  It has been challenging dealing with the different wants of this group.  New kinds of challenges that we haven't really faced much this summer.  Today was a good day.  One of the girls and I got our ears pierced today, 3rd hole for both of us.  We have really had a great week.  Rain Forest Cafe and Harrah's last week, Borgata and a show this week.  One of our travelers family member treated us all to the Borgata buffet tonight.  It was an amazing dinner although the dessert was a little bit of a disappointment.  Then we took the guys to the Legend show.  While they were in with one staff we went out to the casino for a little bit.  It was not a very successful night at the slots but it was fun nonetheless.  I'm excited to see what this next week will bring and have decided to not stress over how things will go when I get home but just enjoy my final days here.  It will be interesting but we shall see how it goes. 

On a different note...all this typing for my blog has really improved my typing skills and my spelling...lol.

8.1.12

Well we ended the weekend with mass choas but it was all worth it for our night out.  Saturday was good.  Two of the girls stayed back to get a jump start on the cleaning that had to be done while we hit the town.  We got caught in the rain in Smithville.  Not just a little shower, a massive downpour with us stuck in the middle.  By the time we got loaded and back on the road, of course, it had stopped.  Just to get back to the house where there was no rain at all.  We even got held hostage at Smithville by all the ducks that surrounded the van and would not let get down the road.  This random guy stood out in the rain jsut watching us try to escape the ducks.  He thought it was funny, we more thought of it as an annoyance since we were all soaked. 

Sunday was the day.  We had our plan to get everything done by the time the travelers left and our boss arrived with a few campers.  The cocktail boat was booked, the hotel room was booked and the evening plan of pool time then out on the boardwalk was set.  And of course our boss was running late so our lunch with him was pushed back.  Then comes the rain...again.  It rained just long enough to put an end to our plans for the boat ride.  Lunch wouldn't have been over in time anyway.  But it was all good, it was pool time.  Head to the hotel and remember that we forgot to go by the store on the way.  It was very difficult getting out of the area the hotel was at and ended up making a few not so necessary turns but I say it was for the scenic view...mostly because I was the one driving...lol.  But all in all it worked out.  Store done and now to check into the hotel room. I'm not sure the valet guy was real excited about us bringing our nice big van in for him to park but we really didn't care.  All was good with check-in.  The rooms were beautiful.  It was really amazing.  We got ready for the pool and made it all the way down there to discover that we all needed our IDs to get in.  So all back up to the room.  A plan was made to get everyone in, we have one staff that was only 20.  So in we went in 2 groups of three.  We were the first group and made it in ok but the second group was not able to pass.  They were very particular about the international IDs and it was a no go.  But he did tell us that there was another pool on the 4th floor that was open to everyone.  So off to the 4th floor we go.  Walk all the way to the right, no pool.  But we did find a kid from Florida on a search for the pool as well (he was probably 15 or 16 and bored out of his mind there with his grandparents)  So he follwed us and chatted as we headed off to the left, no pool.  We call the front desk from a phone in the hallway, Gladys puts us on hold to find out where we are and how to get to the pool.  We finally give up on Gladys and walk back down to the first pool to find this mysterious 4th floor pool.  The direction we were given were ridiculous.  It was like the other side of the city! You would think that this pool would want to be found.  Finally we found the pool with only 30min left until it was time for them to close.  We were gonna go in that last 30min!  But the pool ahd just closed due to an accident in it...ugh!  We were so incredible frustrated.  So it was back to the room to drink some and play games before we went out.  We had already decided that the hotel was so amazing that there was no need to leave to the boardwalk.  So no boat ride, no pool and no boardwalk.  We were off to a great start. The night did improve and we had a wonderful time.  I curled my hair and did make-up for the first time in forever.  I never noticed how annoying mascara was on your eyes.  Then I was annoyed that it annoyed me because I was not used to it anymore.  But we felt great and we looked great.  We played at the slot machines most the rest of the night.  One of our girls won about $300 and another one about $700. It was so much fun and really exciting.  All off penny slots!  We had dinner around midnight at this burger place and the food was not very good.  Two of our girls had ended up passed out in front of the room by 10pm...lol.  We made it in around 2am and attempted to get some sleep but it was not happening for me. 

The next morning was up early to be back at the house by 930am.  We were on a mission to get food as soon as we left but the line was too long and we were running late.  So we were going to just get food at the house.  The campers were there waiting on us to cook their breakfast, which we were not expecting and by the time we got it almost done it was time for me to head off for our first pick-up of the day...with no food.  That took 2hrs!  We got back to the house just as the campers were getting ready to leave and did not have time to eat before heading out for our next pick-up.  By this time it is after 12pm and we have been trying to eat breakfast since about 830am.  I don't think I have ever been so hungry.  It was crazy.  We did finally mamage to pull through a McDonald's on the way to our second pick up.  Never have I been so excited to eat nasty McDonald's food.  We could finally make it through the day.  All travelers arrived...eventually  and staff was so exhausted it was ridiculous.  But I did get to enjoy the next 2 days off.  So I was in bed as soon as possible that night, which was later than we would normally get to bed because of all the catching up we were still trying to do from our night out.  I actually slept for about 12hrs.  It was amazing!  I did absolutely nothing on my first day off.  Slept and laid out on the deck a little bit and then watched girly movies with the other girl that was off.  Today has been pretty close to the same.  Slept in until about 10am and went down to the beach to lay out.  Played in the water until the lifeguards made us get out because of the weather.  Then laid around some more. I did manage to get laundry done and a few odds and ends that needed done but overall it was a much needed break and I am ready to get back to it tomorrow.  Too much idle time is not good for my mind.  Especially since it is getting so close to me going home and there is so much uncertainty about when I am back in the real world.  But I have survived and everything will work out like it always does.  Exactly 3 weeks today and my summer adventure is over!  Back to Texas and school and my puppy and the job that I don't have yet...lol.

7.27.12

This has been a crazy week, probably one of the most frustrating and stressful yet.  I have a traveler that has never really traveled and honestly I don't know how his family deals with him being in public at any point in time. Especially with people he is unfamiliar with.  He runs off, he yells, he bullies the other travelers and he refuses to listen and follow the rules.  Pair this up with another one of my travelers who is very much like Eeyore.  Something is always wrong, he is always picking fights with the first traveler and he refuses to walk at a normal pace or move at all when he is upset, which is a lot of the time, or he does not feel like doing what we are doing.  It has been a struggle to be stopped and convince him to move while trying to keep the others by me in crowds of people.  Just one more day, just one more day!  The schedule this week has been all weird so my days are thrown off too.  It has seemed like a very long week.  But the guys for the most part are so much fun.  They sing and dance to everything and we have had a lot of musical activities.  But, to top it off our boss will be coming down on Sun morning, as the travelers are leaving, with some campers to spend the night.  So cleaning has to be perfect and very quick.  But on a good note...we have no travelers staying over and we have nobody coming early so we all get Sun evening off together!  This has not happened and probably won't again so we plan on doing it right...lol.  We will start with lunch at Rainforest Cafe with the boss, then we are leaving him to go stay the night at Harrah's.  We will spend a few hours laying out at their Oasis pool, then go to a coctail cruise for a couple hours.  Then we will let them shuttle us to the boardwalk for a night out.  It should be a lot of fun and much needed for all of us.  I will miss the final night out at the end of summer since I am heading home before the other girls so I am super excited!  I will post more pics up to FB at some point.  I am going to get all the pics from the summer on my flash drive so I can have the ones that were not taken with my camera.  You can tell that we are all more relaxed and just having fun with everyone by this point in the summer.  Next week should be easier.  It will be week 1 of 2 for high functioning and we will only have 9 travelers rather than the 11 we usually have.  Most of them manage their own money and meds for the most part.  Still plan on doing a flash mob with them.  I will post about our night out when I get a chance :)

7.24.12

It has been a busy week and the time is still flying by so fast.  Last weeks group was so much fun.  They were loud and energetic and loved everything.  We all really enjoyed them and even had 6 stay over for this week. This week seems like it will be a little bit more of a challenge but I think we all think that when the new group comes in and by the end of the week we are not ready for them to leave.  We have one traveler that is on his 3rd week, which in this house, seems like he has been here forever.  He is such a sweet guy and the whole staff has just fallen in love with him.  It is going to be sad to see him go at the end of this week.  Last night all 5 staff were putting him to bed...lol.  It was really sweet. 

We will finally have all staff back this week.  2 weeks without seeing my old roommate seems like so long.  It is weird to be back in my own room and last night I spent the night down with the girls in the basement so I could sleep in today for my day off.  I am just hopping beds here...haha.  Enjoyed my day off today but the down time makes me miss home.  I slept in and laid out on the deck and down at the beach.  Got some laundry done and even took a nap.  It has been a migraine day though so all I want to do is lay down.  I guess it is a good thing that I had already planned on staying in all day and doing nothing.  I just hope it is gone by tomorrow.  I only have 3 more days off before heading home and keep avoiding the things I need to do before I get home.  I am going to miss the beach and the girls and the travelers.  Pretty much everything about this summer will be missed.  But gonna enjoy all the sum I can get to have the best tan going home :)  Nothing really exciting has been going on.  Just usual everyday stuff.  We have adjusted to our nurse leaving and it seems like the stress level has been improved.  Our house manager has done a great job on organizing the house and it is running smoothly.  I plan on making a scrap book from the summer and will probably start getting all the pics together pretty soon so maybe I can get started on it before I go home.  Although that may be a bit adventurous...we will see.   

7.18.12 (LA Trip)

What a crazy week it has been. So much has gone on and it went by so fast.  I can't believe I am already back from LA.  I started off by borrowing on of the girls bags to take with me since I broke mine on the way down here.  But apparently there is a trick to the handle and once it is up it is difficult to get down.  No big deal, I decided to just leave it down.  I got to the train station to head to Philly the night before we were to fly out.  I wasn't even sitting there 5 min before I realized I forgot my glasses.  Not a good start to the week but it ended up that was the only thing I forgot.  Not too bad.  I got to Philly with no problems and we only had one traveler in for the night.  The next morning was a 4:30am meet-up at the airport.  The other 3 travelers arrived on time and we were off.  As we were walking onto the first flight one of my travelers tells me he is not feeling well.  Already holding his stomach.  My thought was "oh great...this is going to be an interesting flight"  Turns out he just gets nervous at take off and landing.  All was good.  No delays, no big issues.  Switched planes in St. Paul, which is a really big airport.  Then we got into LA.  LAX is a terrible airport.  There are a ton of people and it is laid out very bad.  I had to go meet some other travelers and at LAX you can't go from one terminal to the next.  So I had to go through security again just to get back into right beside where I came in.  What if people had flights from different airlines and had to catch connections?  Luckily I had plenty of time.  It took a while and a little bit of running around but we had everyone picked up and on the bus.  The driver was very rude and ended up getting lost on the way to the hotel.  He had to pull over and call someone to help him get us there...it was kind of funny.  Check into the hotel, room assignments are done, then rooms are changed and everyone is happy.  We walk to dinner at this place called Mel's.  It is supposed to be pretty good and they are ready for us when we walk in.  Always a good sign with a group of 24.  It goes downhill from there.  It takes longer for us to get drinks than it does food, some end up with the wrong order, some end up not having food at all.  It was a big disaster that took forever.  They could have received a lot of business from our group since we eat out every meal on trips, but we were not going back. 

The next day, thursday I think, I started out with 2 of my girls waking up super early and deciding to leave their room to go sit outside, or wonder the halls, or wake up everyone else.  It was great!  We headed to breakfast at I-Hop.  It was nice, service was good and we walked down to the strip.  We noticed a guy running across the street with a camera.  We think that he has to be running to catch photos of someone famous...we are in Hollywood.  We see him a few minutes later on our side of the street running through everyone.  It was the Amazing Race people.  There was a team right there running in the middle of us looking for a specific star on the Walk of Fame.  Who knows, maybe we will be in the background when it shows on tv.  A pretty cool way to start off our trip.  We went on a city tour of all the famous Hollywood home.  I took lots of pics but now don't remember who's house was which one.  But oh well.  It was pretty interesting but got a little boring in the end.  2hrs of looking at houses that you can't really see because of the gates and shrubs is only so entertaining.  After the city bus tour we went to the wax museum.  That was really cool and I got a lot of pictures.  It was interesting to see how these figures are made and they are so accurate.  It is crazy how short most famous people are.  The only one that I was disappointed in was Jennifer Aniston.  It did not really look like her and I had to read the board to figure out who it was.  The travelers had lots of fun posing with the figures.  That night for dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen.  The service was great and the food was amazing.  I was surprised at how many choices they had and it was all really good.

The next day was Universal Studios.  I ended up only having 2 travelers with me that day since it was a lot of walking and rides and a couple of my people did not want to do it.  It worked out well to have such a small group.  We ended up getting to do more that they wanted to do.  We took a train down to Universal and we had one traveler get scared on the train.  Then it was a short shuttle up to the gates.  It was mass craziness trying to get everyone into the park and our passes to not have to stand in line but once that was done it was perfect timing for the show of Waterworld.  One of my girls wanted to sit in the splash zone so we did but we didn't get wet.  It was a neat show and a good way to start the day.  Next we all went on the ride through the movie sets.  That was really neat.  There was a 3D park with King Kong that was pretty cool, although a few travelers got really scared.  Then we got to sit through the earthquake set that was used in Bones, again a few travelers were scared.  But my girls loved it.  I was kind of disappointed in the rest of the park because it was a lot of wait around for a show or attraction to start so we weren't able to get very much in.  We did the Shrek show, which was 4D and the girls really enjoyed that.  Then we tried to go to the The Terminator 2 one.  Once you go in it had this computer talking to you explaining how the designers are the top technology company in the world and blah, blah, blah.  Once it had almost gone through its little greeting a couple times it got old and they came over the speaker to tell us that they were having technical problems and we would have to come back.  Go figure!  So we didn't get to do that one.  A little bit of shopping and it was already time to go.  Dinner at the Hard Rock was really good and it was nice to cool off. Everyone was so exhausted from the day and once we got back to the hotel it was off to bed.  One of my girls that had chosen to stay back ended up calling her staff and telling them that she couldn't go to Universal because she was too slow.  Lol...the staff was kind of upset until she learned what really happened. 

The next day was a trip to the Autry Museum.  I was pretty excited about this.  They were having a little farmer's market outside so we went there before we went in.  Farmer's markets are so neat and I finally got a water fresca.  That made my whole trip!  It wasn't as good as back home and I still plan on getting one as soon as I get home but it was still great.  Went through the museum with a tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and did great with our travelers.  I had a really hard time staying with the group and kept getting distracted with everything to look at.  After lunch our travelers went shopping and I got to go back in to look at the room with all the guns.  We didn't get to it on our tour so I went back.  Got lots of pics.  We panned for "gold" and made a movie.  It was a really fun time.  That evening we were suppose to go on a tour of the Dolby theatre but did not get there early enough so we went on an open bus tour of the city.  It was a little chilly sitting on the top deck, we could not hear the announcer, I stubbed my toe getting on, and it was a lot of the same stuff we had already seen.  But we just sat back and chatted and enjoyed the fresh air.  After the tour we went back to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen.  Once again we saw the cast of Dance Mom's.  This time they were waiting with us to be seated.  I chatted with one of the mom's for a few minutes and found out they were there for a month and she was ready to go home...lol.  I even got a pic with the dancers.  It was pretty neat, but only to me since the other staff did not know who they were. 

We got up a little early the next morning to go on the Dolby theatre tour.  It was kind of neat to see where the Oscars are held.  It is a really big deal.  But we couldn't take any pics and we were in a rush to get back to the hotel to meet the bus to head to Venice Beach.  I absolutely loved Venice Beach.  We did not get to stay there nearly long enough and I could have stayed all day.  The shops were neat, the beach was beautiful and the people watching was so much fun.  There were the places of course that had the medical marijuana and I just had to laugh at them.  All that hard work on our debate last semester a reality.  They even wore green scrubs standing outside yelling for people to come in and "visit the doctor" LOL.  We left there and went to Santa Monica Pier.  There were a ton of people there.  We ate at Bubba Gump.  It was pretty neat.  The view was great and the service was good but it was one of those places you go just to say you have been.  We did not make it far on the pier because of all the people and the limited time but that was ok with me. 

Monday was a really early morning to go to The Price is Right.  They were really accommodating and let us in to sit instead of waiting in the long lines.  Most everyone skipped the interview process but it was a lot of waiting around in lines.  We were there about 6hrs and the tapping itself was only a couple of hours, if that.  The studio was a lot smaller than I expected and they didn't even let anyone take in phones.  It was a neat experience and there were some cool shirts and some crazy people.  Some of our travelers were not very into it so I'm sure the cameras were trying to avoid us.  But there was a guy in the row right in front of us that was called up.  He was going crazy!  He fell getting out of the isle, hit his arm on the lights on the stage running up to the front and was just funny the whole time.  Drew Carey was really funny with him and it will be great on tv.  This episode won't air until Nov. 15th, but who knows. Maybe we will be seen.  Lots of people won some really great prizes and I knew that they had to pay the taxes on the prizes before they got them but I didn't know that they didn't get the prizes until after the air date but the taxes have to be paid within 30 days.  Kind of crazy.  That was the day that the song "Can't Have You" was sang every 5 minutes and was stuck in every one's head for the rest of the trip.  That night was dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Dinner was great and the service was pretty good.  Lots of good conversation and a great way to end the trip. 

Flying home the next day was a really long short day.  We were at the airport by 8am to get everyone to the right terminals and on their flights in time.  I took my 4 travelers through security and it went well except there was a bottle of sunscreen in one of their bags and we had to stop and get it rescanned.  One of the other girls freaked out about it taking so long but overall not too bad.  We got on our first flight and found out that one of the other flights that had 9 flying out was cancelled and 8 of the 9 ended up staying another night in LA.  Both of our flights were smooth and everyone was picked up relatively quickly.  We ended up getting into the hotel about 1am.  Losing 3hrs made that day really long.  But I got a nice quiet night in a room to myself.  It was great to relax and have some time to myself before returning to the shore house the next day.     

It has now taken 3 days to get this blog done and I will have to do another one soon to catch up on the craziness going one since I got home.  But in short, I passed my roommate on my way in as she was heading out for her Orlando trip, we lost our nurse this week (not a big loss), and we have a 1 on 1.  So this makes staff pretty stretched.  I am in the process of moving down onto the travelers floor into the nurse's room.  It is a nice, cosy room but it will be different being down there since I am now used to my view and having a big bed and a roommate.  But it will be good. 

Oh...I forgot about the rash that I had the whole trip.  I noticed my chest was itching the day I left for Philly but just thought it was from a sunburn since I had been out in the sun a lot the previous couple of days.  But by the time we landed in LA I was miserable.  One of the other staff had some benadryl and anti-itch cream and I used it like crazy but by the next morning it was on my arms as well.  I took the benadryl all week and it finally went away the day we left to come home.  I am still not sure what caused it.

7.8.12

Well we have made it through week 3 of travelers.  This week was one full of excitement, fun and frustration.  We had a couple travelers that liked to test our patience and at times succeeded in having to have joint efforts from the staff.  But the group was a lot of fun.  They loved the dancing in the park Friday night and the talent show last night.  Me and my roommate joined into the fun last night with two travelers and a little Grease music that we could not hear so we totally messed it up.  Hopefully that video will never make it out anywhere! Some of our saying from the week that will always be remembered..."ok sweetheart, I sorry honey" "won't that be the chance of a lifetime" "cheeeeese buurger" "I can't find it" "I want an ice cream sundae with 3 toppings" Oh yes...fun times. 

Today we have gotten things done and have a little time to relax before a hectic week.  We are about to head down to the beach even though it is cloudy.  Then tonight we are going to go into the city and maybe try the beach bar.  I will be off tomorrow and need to get all my packing done for my LA trip.  Then Tuesday it will be off to Philly to get ready for a 4:30am meet up on Wednesday morning.  I am really excited about my 7 day trip and we have a big group which should be a lot of fun.  It will be nice to change things up a bit.  It will all be down hill when I get back.  Crazy how quickly the summer is flying by. I am not sure if I will get a chance to blog while I am in LA or not but I will see what I can do.  Otherwise it will be after the 18th.  :)

7.5.12

It has been a great few days.  This 4th of July will definitely be one to be remembered.  We stayed up late one the 3rd and decorated the house for the travelers.  We made a big flag to hang up, put up streamers, decorated the tables and made a patriotic cd.  We woke the travelers (most were already awake) with the music and a big deal about it being the 4th.  Started the day with blueberry pancakes and red, white and blue crafts.  Everyone got a patriotic bracelet that we had made and a red, white and blue lei.  I think we had more fun with it then the travelers.  I did learn that I need to go back to junior high history...lol.  All these British co-workers were asking details about the history of the 4th and the flag and I knew very little and the flag was not exactly perfect but we were pretty close...lol.  I'm not sure that really counts but it was late and we were exhausted.  That is my excuse and I am sticking to it :) We took hamburgers down on the beach and had a cookout and danced and watched fireworks.  It was really neat.  I kept thinking that I could not believe that I was sitting on the beach watching fireworks for the 4th of July.  Amazing.  The firework shows lasted a long time, the weather was perfect.  The music they had to go with the show was terrible.  There was only one patriotic song, it was very disappointing!  Luckily we had our own cd!

Today was my day off and it was much needed!  I slept in a little bit and we headed straight down to the beach.  We played in the ocean for a little while and tried to lay out but the sand flies were really bad and we had to leave pretty quickly.  (I was off with one of the girls from England).  So we went into Atlantic City and did some shopping.  I found some good deals and was pretty successful.  Then we went down to the Taj Mahal and played some slots.  About the time  was going to give up I ended up winning $290!  So my day was really successful, I came out way ahead.  It will be going towards my LA spending :)  We went and had mexican food tonight and I was a little disappointed.  I wanted it so bad and the service was terrible and the food was only ok.  But oh well.  We decided we needed to go back out to the ocean so we did a little evening swimming and it was awesome.  It was a great day.  I am almost halfway through the summer and I can't believe how fast it is going by. 

7.2.12

It is hard to get caught up when I get behind on  my posts.  It almost becomes overwhelming to get everything caught back up.  But I will keep working at it and hopefully I will get better about it.  Friday ended up being a crazy day.  We went and saw Lucy the Elephant.  Kinda neat I guess.  Just a big elephant that used to be a hotel (really a brothel but they won't tell you that).  I took one of my guys up on the tour of it.  It was kind of boring but really, what can you expect froma big elephant.  Next was the lighthouse.  Again...kinda boring.  But friday night we went to a concert in the park.  That was a lot of fun and everyone was so funny to dance with and watch them get into the music.  It was still a little hot and really humid but worth the trip.  Of course we lost our nurse, with a car full of staff, on the way home.  I don't really understand why communication with the house manager is so difficult for her.  But it is improving and hopefully by the end of summer it will all run smooth.  Then comes friday night.  Everyone is in bed nice and sleeping and we get woken up tp a terrible storm! The house was shaking the lighting and thunder were crazy and we lost electricity. None of us realized exactly how bad the storm had been but luckily we did not get the worst of it.  When we got up for the day the next morning we noticed that there was a huge tree down in the street down from us and we thought that had to of been why we lost power but it turned out that in all 3 million people lost power and last I heard there were 15 dead.  It was terrible.  They are saying that some will be without power for up to 3 weeks!  There are still strret lights out some here but for the most part we have recovered. 

Because nobody had power all of our plans for Sat were cancelled.  We couldn't go shopping in Smithville, we tried the mall and the movies but it was out everywhere.  We hung around the house and most people did some arts and crafts.  We tried to get everyone down to the beach but only one of my guys wanted to go so the house manager and I took him.  It was so much fun.  He loved the water and his laugh and smile were contagious.  We played in the water for a few hours and it was one of the best times of the summer so far.  I was so happy we had that chance.  Sat night was taco night and we jsut couldn't get everyone into it.  They were all really tired from being up most the night.  So we got everyone packed and off to bed.

Sunday ended up being a hectic day.  Everyone was up and ready to go.  The travelers floor was cleaned super fast and we had a plan for everyone's pick-ups...except the van was gone longer than we expected.  We thought it would be ok since we called the train station and they said that they were having 45min delays due to the power outages (yes we were still dealing with those).  So we got there right about the time the train was suppose to leave.  I dropped off the 2 staff with the traveler and they were on their way to Philly to the airport...I thought.  When I got back to the house I was told they missed their train.  Our only option was for me to go pick them back up and drive them the Philly myself. But first I had to find a gas station that was open and preferrably one without an hour line.  We got gas, the traveler and the staff and we were on our way to the Philly airport.  Only took about an hr and half to get there and we had no issues until I dropped them off and went to go park...One thing to always remember when driving a van into a parking garage, you are tall! Opps...luckily this nice little worker reminded me that I am not in my little car and directed me to where I needed to go to park.  I met a little man waiting for me, she had radioed him and told him I was coming, and he told me all these directions to get to where I needed to go. Now, I am not real sure what happened.  I can only guess that I missed a turn I was suppose to take, but I ended up back at the nice lady who just laughed at me.  I explained to here that I was clueless and we tried again.  The guy laughed as well when I got back to him and he gave me directions once again.  I made it this time...yea! As I was parking I see the guy walking towards me. I'm thinking "crap, what did I do now???"  He just came to check on how I was parking and to tell me that I had plenty of room." Thanks guy...I'm not completely incompetant!"   I waited around the airport for a couple of hours until the girls got the traveler boarded on him plane.  We were trying to hurry and get back to the house because we had our farewell dinner for our staff from South Carolina.  But we couldn't get the GPS to work right and we had disagreements about which way to go...I was right of course :) We finally made it back about 730pm...we left the house thinking it was a short trip to the train station at 1230pm.  This made for a long day.  We ran in, got changed and were back out the door, in the van in about 10 min.  Dinner was pretty nice and we had cake and ice cream when we got home. 

Today our 3rd group of travelers arrived and it is amazing how different they are from the last group.  Last week most everyone was quiet, really low functioning and hard to get to interact.  This group in loud and friendly and just love life.  This is a great group to have for 4th of July week.  I can't believe that it is already July.  Where is my summer going?  It was confirmed today that I am going on the LA trip next week.  I will be gone for propably 9 days.  I hadn't heard anything since the first time it was mentioned before I ever got here.  But it is a go and I am super excited! I still can't believe all I am getting to do this summer!

6.28.12

My days are all running together and I don't remember where I have left off and what all happened when so if I start repeating myself that explains why.  I guess the last time I posted was right before my day off.  It was a great day off and much needed break.  I attempted to sleep in but of course failed.  I spent most my day laying out on the deck.  The weather was great, not too hot.  It would have actually been too cool if I had gone down to the beach.  I got caught up with family and friends and even got to enjoy a nice nap.  My roommate and I went into Atlantic City for dinner and stopped by the casino to play some slots.  It was successful for me.  I put in $20 and left with $80.  It was so exciting and I wanted to just keep playing but I was on a losing streak and wanted to still come ahead a winner. 

Yesterday was back to craziness as usual.  We had a morning of crafts and I made a bracelet, which has already broken, and painted an ugly shell.  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.  Everytime I go I think I will get a burger but always end up with the salad.  But it is a really good salad.  We let everyone do a little bit of slot machines and one of my guys ended up winning over $40.  That was exciting and I love seeing everyones reaction when they win.  I have a difficult traveler this week in the sense that he does not ever want to buy anything.  A lot of what we do is go shopping so he always looks so bored.  But I was successful in finding him a bracelet today, one of those made out of the cord.  But after that he was done.  I had a couple battles with a headstrong traveler yesterday but everything ended up working out and today was much better.  He doesn't like being given directions and takes offense even when it is not directed towards him.  Last night was the water show and out of everything that was not true on our travelers packets this week, they were serious about one of my guys being afraid of hieghts.  It was bad.  I did not think we would get him back down the elevator to the first floor.  Then our house manager was getting him down and the elevator went up instead of down.  Luckily this is one of the glass elevators that makes it easy to see everything around you.  The water show was neat and I even splurged and got ice cream with everyone last night, only because they had marshmellows to put in the chocolate ice cream.  It is the best!

Today was up early and off to Cape May.  Cape May point is still my favorite place.  I love the little shops there and the people are so nice and give everyone a discount.  I found a hoodie today for only $9!  The shops in actual Cape May are usually not very successful but the weather was nice and there a few goodies to be found.  Tonight was movie night and we watched the Sandlot.  There was only 2 of us, me and my roommate, that have seen that movie.  It was awesome and I had forgotten how good it was.  We actually had almost everyone down there watching it.  Usually we lose a few after the movie has been chosen.  I got to talk to my mom and brother tonight.  That was good.  I miss the family but still enjoying my time here.  I am so not going to be ready to go back to classes when I get back home!

6.25.12

I'm doing good, it has only been a couple days since my last post.  And it has been a very choatic couple days for sure!  I was expecting sunday to be pretty chill and have some time to kind of decompress from the crazy week but I knew that was blown when we went to wake the travelers up and one of them had had an accident sometime in the night but was too embarassed to tell anyone.  He was trying to take care of it himself but it was bad.  I made a couple trips to and from the train station but no train rides for me.  The traffic was terrible partly because of a music festival that has been in town and partly just because it is getting busier as it gets warmer here.  Cleaning should have gone nice and smooth and quick, but of course it did not.  After cleaning, grocery store and Sam's we finally sat down about 8pm.  I had the scarriest ride in the van.  My poor co-worker, one from England, is not comfortable driving the van and almost killed us all...a couple times.  She was so nervous and we were so freaked out, it had to of been terrible for her too.  But we made it back alive and in one peice.  I got a traveler in Sunday night (trips end on sunday and new one begins on monday).  His luggage had gotten lost on the way and he had somehow misplaced half of his money.  He is suppose to have a c-pap machine but decided not to bring it and wants to spend all of his time talking on his phone.  Lovely!  His luggage was delivered about 2am this morning, luckily I was not the one that was up to get it.  We did get to sleep in a little bit which was nice.

The best word I have to describe today is interesting.  All my guys (I seem to always have the guys in the group) were here relatively early and they got settled in before most everyone else arrived.  This group is a lot lower functioning than the last and it will be interesting to see how all of the staff deals with everything.  I'm not sure anyone's information packet was the correct information and there are a lot more issues with almost every traveler than was given to us.  This makes our lives difficult.  It has been storming almost all day and we thought it had cleared up enough to take everyone on a walk down to the boardwalk but that turned into a disaster.  We had one person have an accident before we ever made it there and one staff had to bring her back.  Then as soon as we got to the boards it started sprinkling again so we headed back to the house.  By the time we got back, we had some very slow walkers, we were soaked.  I turned it into a dancing in the rain kind of moment to try to distract everyone from the choas  but it was ok.  The group this week will be very slow moving and take a lot of interaction.  But I am off tomorrow and plan to sleep half the day.  Hopefully it will be sunny and I can get some beach time in then my roommate and I, she is off with me, plan on trying to get in a movie and dinner.  I am excited for a little bit of relaxation. 

6.23.12

Good grief...I am behind on my blogging and it is really hard to find the time to keep up with it.  This week has been crazy!  I didn't sleep at all the night I was back in Philly and we were up and ready to go by 4am.  Breakfast had and to the airport by 5am.  No issues there.  Everyone did really well and the other traveler that we were meeting was on time.  Even our trip through security went pretty smooth.  After walking up and down the airport for an hour and a half to and from the bathrooms (of course everyone had to go at different times) they were loaded up on the plane and I was back to my train trips.  Made perfect timing for the first train was even helpful to a lost traveler.  He was heading to Atlantic City and was not sure of the best way to get there.  I explained that I was headed there and I would show him the way.  We had to wait in the main train station for over 2hrs for the train to AC but at least I had company.  It turns out he is from the west coast and has mutual friends with one of my friends.  I guess the sky diving world is pretty small...lol. 

I got back to the house and attempted to rest for a little while but was unsuccessful.  I did finally meet my roommate for the summer.  I was really worried when I walked into my room and there was stuff everywhere.  But it is all organized now and we are good.  She will be good company.  She is from Seattle and will be staying at the house for a year.  It was a pretty calm night thursday night which was good because I was exhausted.  Except for the one little issue...We were sitting in the living room watching a movie when one of the travelers from the dining room says there is water dripping.  Ok, so the water was not just dripping.  It was pouring from the ceiling!  Apparently one of the bathrooms on the second level had over flowed and had been running for a little while and it was leaking through the ceiling.  The team split up and we got it all under control.  First crisis of the summer resolved pretty easily. 

Friday was our trip to Cape May.  We were up and on the road pretty early and made it there is time to visit Summer's Point before lunch.  They have the cutest shop there and they are super nice to all of us.  Many of them give us discounts or deals.  One of the places gives the travelers each a couple Cape May Diamonds.  After Summer's Point we had a picnic by the lighthouse.  While unloading everything the bucket of sandwiches got over turned into the parking lot.  At least enough of them were saved to get us through lunch.  By the time we got to the shops it was really hot and we could not stay out in it long.  One of my travelers kept getting so upset because he did not have enough money to by the things he wanted.  It is his first time away from his group home and he was getting so home sick.  We had left a couple messages with his staff telling them that he just wanted to say hi but nobody would return his call.  Made me kinda sad.  He has lived his whole life with his parents and they just passed away recently so his group home is new to him too.  The poor guy is just so sad.  We got caught in a big storm on the way home from Cape May.  We couldn't go more than 20 mph on the highway.  Luckily our Scottish driver was at the wheel and was just fine with the rain.  The travelers were not too excited about it though.  We made it home before the rain hit the house and got everyone in but our plans to go to a concert on the beach were ruined because of the weather.  Everyone was kind of disappointed but we had a dance party in the house.  It was a lot of fun for them. 

Today the weather was nice and clear and we made a trip to Smithville.  Those shops are cute, kinda village like.  My guys had been waiting on the collectors store all week.  They were all into music and Elvis and were very excited.  My same guy that was low on money had issues again today and it was hard to get him to understand that we had to make choices and somethings just weren't do-able.  After Smithville we explored with a new route, that turned out how we had hoped, and went to lunch at Olive Garden.  Everyone did soup and salad and I can not believe the amount of soup and salad that was consumed at that table.  Everyone had a limit of 2 servings of everything but they all ate their full 2 servings.  After lunch we went to the AC aquarium.  That was pretty neat but there was a lot of traffic getting there due to a music festival that is being held this weekend and they had music at the aquarium today too.  It is a small aquarium but it is cute and we only had one blow up.  Same guy with the same issue.  He didn't have much money left and wanted something from there.  After a little cussing, and throwing paper and storming around, I calmed him down and we were able to find something that would work for him.  Tonight was taco night and all the staff put on sombreros and mustaches to bring out dinner.  The travelers LOVED it!  We got everyone packed up and ready to go home tomorrow and I think all staff is worn out.  Everything by the end of today was hilarious and saying are becoming things of entertainment.  Some of the good one from this week are "let me tell you something" "shoes for the baby" "donuts" "alright baby" "teenagers work in the summer, right?"

Overall I think it was a successful first week at the shore house.  This summer is going to fly by.  I can't believe I have already been here a month.  I am a little disappointed though,  I got a few minutes away from the house today when I ran up to the grocery store and tried to call my mom, my brother and Lisa and nobody would answer their phone.  I finally got a hold of my brother on his work phone and he said that it serves me right for running off halfway across the country.  What a nice thing to say...jerk (and those that don't know my brother, yes, he was kidding).  Anyway,  I miss the family and some others back home (eghm...Lisa) but am loving what I am getting to do. 

6.19.12 (Philadelphia Trip)

I made it back to the Shore House after 5 days in Philadelphia.  The trip was amazing, the people were amazing and I had a great time.  There was so much that went on this weekend that I had to take down notes while I was on the train yesterday just to hopefully get all the highlights in.  I can now say that I am completely comfortable with the train systems and pretty confident that I can get where I am trying to go without many problems.  I started this weekend early Thursday morning with the train from Atlantic City to Philadelphia then from the station there to the airport.  There was a little confusion meeting up with the trip leader but we got it figured out and had no issues with a gate pass to pick up our first traveler.  That night was pretty relaxed with only 3 travelers.  Once all travelers arrived Friday morning it was off to the zoo.  I had a nice little battle with one of the seat belts in the van.  For all this new technology a middle seat belt should not be all that difficult, coming from the ceiling to clip in to go across and clip again...ugh.  I felt like an idiot.  But, I finally won and we were off.

Apparently the Philly zoo was the first zoo in the US.  But for that status I was kinda disappointed.  There were a lot of monkeys, a rhino and a couple of zebras.  They had the same kinds of animals in different places throughout the zoo so there were not really very many there.  They did have this cool hot air balloon thing that would have been neat but they said it was too windy to go up that day.  For the record, and maybe just from being used to the wind, but there was very little wind that day.  All of the travelers were exhausted by the time we left and I was kinda worried how they would make it through everything else for the weekend.  But some dinner at the diner and to bed relatively early they were good to go. 

Saturday we were set to get on a trolley at 9am to take us downtown for a tour of the city on a double decker bus.  We knew we were in trouble for the day when we didn't get on the trolley until almost 10am.  Then we had to go to a bunch of different hotels to pick up other people.  It was very unorganized and the little guy didn't know how many people he was picking up where and we had to go back and get people that he left.  The seats were very slick and with every turn I was trying to stay in my seat and keep travelers in theirs.  We finally got downtown around 11am and got onto the bus.  That tour was really cool.  I know I am getting old because that was my favorite part of the whole weekend.  All the history facts and the art were amazing.  I did not realize how much art there was in Philly.  They have a program that they offer people who have been arrested for graffiti to go through a program to get a certification to do murals throughout the city.  There were a lot of interesting things on the outsides of the homes.  Some had plaques with a flag above it.  Depending on what plaque was on the outside of your building used to determine which fire station would service you.  If you didn't have the right plaque then certain fire stations would not help.  There were a lot of shutters on the buildings and this was due to the city used to tax by the number of windows that you had so people started covering them up when the tax man came around, so they switched to taxing by the number of stairs you had.  Any renovation that have been done in these areas had to be back to original so all these cool things are still there.  The bus took about an hour and a half.  There was a time in the last half hour when we kept hearing a siren.  It was everywhere we went.  Even the tour guide guy was trying to figure out.  It turns out is was one of my guys making the noise.  You couldn't tell by looking at him that he was doing it and it was very realistic but it took a good 5 min for me to figure it out. It was all pretty funny.

After the downtown trip we went to a Philly Union soccer game.  We did not have a handicap sticker since we were in a rental van but there was no way our travelers would have been able to walk from the main parking to the entrance of the game.  The trip leader had no issues telling the parking attendants where we were going to park and did not care what they thought we should do. It was awesome.  Even though they said there was no extra parking in the preferred area we did anyway.  There were a lot of booths outside the game and everyone had fun winning free stuff. When it was time to sing the national anthem they had to show the words on the big screen.  Really?  Is it that bad that people don't know the words anymore?  I was blown away! Then I almost had to give a middle aged jerk a piece of my mind.  He decided that him and his daughter needed to get up during the middle of the game to go get ice cream.  One of my girls couldn't get out of the way fast enough for him so he started grumbling and making statements about "these people need to be kept at home" and "people like this shouldn't be allowed in public" I was so pissed!  A million different things went through my mind to say to him when he came back.  Fortunately her decided he needed to go a couple rows up to get around us and I was proud of his daughter when she refused to avoid our travelers.  This dude should be learning things from his teenage daughter.  Some people really irritate me! After the game we went and had dessert at Denny's and our poor waiter was beyond stressed.  You would have thought he was running the whole place by himself...very dramatic.  It was after 11pm by the time we got back to the hotel and got everyone to bed.  It was an extremely long day and everyone, including me, was exhausted. 

Sunday was the day everyone had been waiting for...Dorney Park.  Some of the faces the travelers made on rides was hilarious.  I couldn't even think about the ride we were on from laughing so hard at their reactions.  Most everyone was very excited to be at the amusement park and I rode most everything with them.. Even this biggest roller coaster in the park. It was terrible...but fun.  The traveler that I was riding with on that one of course chose for us to sit in the very front.  At the end of the ride he was hiding his face and asking why he couldn't just ride with a normal roller coaster rider...lol.  I guess all my screaming was embarrassing for him which made it all the better.  We got stuck in a line while they decided they needed to put a new car on the roller coaster.  Then we got stuck in the line with the staff that were too busy flirting around with each other to let people in.  Which was the same ride that the car in front of us stopped on the track and the staff did not know how to start it and we had to wait forever while she attempted to push this car by herself.  Luckily the other staff finally realized that everyone was backed up on the track.  After 8hrs of amusement park fun we headed back to the hotel. 

Monday morning was a trip to the aquarium.  There was a really neat hippo exhibit and we were there in time to see them eat and swim.  They were pretty amazing.  The same area had really neat jellyfish and sharks but once we got out of that area the rest of the aquarium was disappointing.  There were these people with cameras that kept stopping us everywhere for group photos.  The first one or two were ok but getting everyone together for group photos every few minutes got old.  After the aquarium it was time for the trip to end.  Everyone went home and I was finally on the train back to the Shore House.  The weekend was full of excitement and it was like taking 5 grown kids under the mental age of 10yrs old to every kind of attraction possible.  But I would not have traded it for anything.  I have had the most amazing opportunity to be doing the most amazing thing for the summer and I am just trying to take everything in as it happens. 

I made it back to the Shoe House in time to meet the group that has arrived for this week.  Was off on Tuesday and started to write my blog but there was too much to go in it so it has taken me two days.  I caught up on sleep and laid out in the sun.  We went and had a nice dinner last night and hung out on the boardwalk.  Today was a morning of playing games and lunch at The Hard Rock, a little bit of time at the casino, then a trip back to Philly for me.  I am only here for the night and will be helping with the drop off for the Hawaii trip that leaves early in the morning.  Unfortunately, I will be having to be up by 3:30am to get everyone ready to be at the airport no later than 5am.  So it will be no sleep for me tonight and a long day tomorrow.  I will update my blog as much as possible but I think finding the time will be difficult. I attempted to upload a bunch of pics here but was having issues so everyone can find them on my Facebook in the Summer 2012 album.     

6.13.12

Made our trip to Cape May today.  I have to say, it was very nice.  It is different from the other places we have been bc the shops aren't on a boardwalk and they are a lot cuter.  I am thinking I just might have to get a couple little trinkets there.  The weather was very nice while we were out today and we even got our walk/jog in before it started raining again.  I did a little speed walking while Laura jogged tonight and I was not aware that it was going to make me that sore!  I will be lucky if I can move in the morning.  But it is up early to get the train to Philly.  A little nervous about all that since I have only seen the train station and airport there but after 4 days I will be a pro...lol. 

I got a msg from my brother this morning that he went sky diving.  Sooo jealous and can't wait until I get the chance to jump out of a plane.  Because of the weather there have been a lot of people out surfing and I am determined to have my go at that as well.  I could get used to this living at the beach thing although I am so done with all the rain.  I'm pretty sure we are reaching the point of all the rain I have ever seen put together into this place.  I am ready for my hot sunshine back...lol.  I won't be taking my computer with me to Philly so I am going to miss my posts for the next few days but I'll be sure to write about everything when I get back.  I am really excited that all but one of the staff (my roommate) will be here when I get back and our first group of travelers.  I am done with the down time and ready to get this chaos started!!!

6.12.12

Missed posting yesterday because the time I usually spend posting I was talking to Mom.  It is so weird talking to her so little but enjoyed the catch up we had last night.  We haven't had the best of weather the past couple of days.  Yesterday morning we did some orientation then spent some time on the beach.  It was pretty cloudy and the wind was blowing like crazy so we didn't last long.  I went back out for my 3 mile walk/jog last night.  I have skipped out on that for a few days but took my time down from an hr to 45min.  That was pretty cool.  I got up again this morning and went out but only made it 1 1/2 miles in 30 min.  I just couldn't get my stiff body moving.  I have been so sore all day.  I guess that means I need to move a bit more.  This morning we waited around for the handy man to not show up then took our routes  for some of the day trips we will be taking.  Went to the bowling alley and to Ocean City but the weather did not cooperate so it was a short trip.  I probably should have gone back out walking tonight but did not.  If it is not raining in the morning I will go. I am hoping for a clearer day tomorrow since we are going to Cape May and I have not been there yet.  It would be nice to get the chance to take some pics.  We have decided we have a problem in this house with our obsession over watching American Ninja Warrior and America's Got Talent.  ANW I had never seen until I got here but get really into it.  AGT needs to hurry up and get to the Vegas part so we can get through all the people that suck.  Tonight they put someone through on a pity vote!  What is this show coming to?!?  Only going with a short post tonight since I did not sleep much last night and was ready for bed a few hours ago.  Just waiting on my sweet Ambien to take me away...lol

6.10.12

I missed posting yesterday because we were out late and I was beyond ready for bed by the time we made it back to the house.  But it was a pretty good day. We slept in a bit and then went to the beach as soon as everyone was up.  We spent about 4hrs laying out and I even ventured out into the ocean yesterday.  It was a little cool but a lot of fun.  After our picnic and some more laying out we made it back up to the house for showers then a walk into Atlantic City.  We made it to the first casino and walked out to the boardwalk intent on going down a ways to a little beach bar place called "Sammy's"  but we didn't make it.  We noticed the first place right outside the casino was having its opening weekend and we were just in time for happy hour.  We ended up staying there the rest of the night.  Had a nice little appearance from a  Jack Sparrow look alike and danced it up for the band that was playing.  They were a fun group and loved our singing with them and dancing.  We met a group that was there for a bachelor party and they sang and danced with us for a bit.  We found some hot dogs before our trip back to the house, which were terrible.  The hot dog was bad, the fries were bad and even the Sprite was bad.  We had originally planned on eating when we got to the boardwalk around 5ish so you would have thought that by the time we ate at 2ish it would have been amazing no matter what it was.

Today was a nice chill day.  We slept in and went down to the beach.  There was no wind and was really warm out there today.  Made it back into the ocean a few times today and enjoyed some more sunbathing.  I even got a nap in when I came back to the house.  After dinner tonight we had a nice competitive game on Monopoly.  It was terrible.  I spent most of my time in jail and was the second one out.  Uno went much better for me and I even taught the girls how to play chess.  I am not that great at it but it makes me look good when they don't have a clue...lol.  Now it is off to bed for an early start in the morning.  I am pretty excited for the end of this week when I make my trip to Philadelphia for the weekend then the start of back to back travelers. 

6.8.12

Today was pretty relaxing.  The girls went out and about doing their thing this morning while I slept in and read my book out on the patio.  I managed to get my sheets washed and all that fun stuff.  After lunch we went down and layed on the beach for a couple hrs.  The weather was pretty nice while the sun was out.  Once it went behind the clouds it got a little chilly.  No new sunburns for me today although my chest is peeling from my last burn.  Tonight we went and did some more shopping and walked around the mall.  Not much great to report for today.  I've had a lot of stuff going through my mind that I am trying to avoid dealing with but I think it has come to the point that I can't just put it off.  I hate that I let myself care for someone that doesn't care back.  As much as I keep trying and holding out hope that it will happen...it just doesn't.  But by this time next week I will be busy and won't have much time to think about it until I return home.  I still hold out hope but it great need of distraction!

6.7.12

Well I have to say that today was much more interesting.  Start out the morning with an exciting little driving assessment by a very strange man.  I knew I was in trouble when we first got into the car and he thought he had to explain to me what a hybrid was and how to drive it.  Come on dude...and I have to say I did not really care that it is a new vehicle for him and his company and how much they had to spend on repairs for it.  The best part was when he decided he needed to show me a trick to parallel parking (this is after I had already done it right myself) He backed up too far and knocked down his own cone...lol.  I told him he made one of them disappear and he told me...no, he couldn't have.  But I watched it.  His excuse was the wind coming in from off the ocean, which was in front of us and the cone was behind us.  And this guy was suppose to be showing me...ha!  After an hr in the car we got to move on to the van.  He did not believe me when I told him I was fine driving the van.  By the end of it he was talking about how comfortable I was and that I had good spacing and he doesn't tell that to everyone...this poor dude.  He was bad and he smelled REALLY bad.  Being stuck in a car with that for 2hrs was a bit much. 

The afternoon was quiet and rainy again.  But then we took a walk into Atlantic City and spent some time in the casinos and had dinner.  Laura and I both won tonight and were so excited.  It wasn't much but it was very entertaining to us.  Once we won we decided we had to cash out and leave.  It was really nice to get out away from the house and relax.  It was much needed for all of us I think.  Tomorrow all the girls are taking a trip down to the Social Security office and to take the van in for service.  Luckily I get to skip that trip.  I'm thinking some laundry and clean up my room a bit then maybe take my book down to the beach until they return.  I'm sure it will be an all morning ordeal if the SS office here is like anywhere else.  I just hope the weather cooperates with my plans!

6.6.12

I got a msg from Mom today asking how I was since she has not seen a blog from me in a couple days.  I guess I should try to keep up with this.  I wish I could say that things here have been fantabulous and I just haven't gotten the chance to sit down and write, but that is not the case.  Things around here have been pretty slow and I have had way to much time to let my mind wonder.  It always seems to cause more problems when that happens.  Being in a different place and around different people has been difficult these past few days.  I am ready for our travelers to start showing up so I will have a distraction.  There is only so much you can enjoy of shopping and cleaning.  As much as I knew I didn't have a big idea of what this summer would entail I had hoped I would be so busy I couldn't stress about things.  On a good note I am doing the Philadelphia trip next weekend.  That will be nice to see more than just the train station there and it will start the chaos.  When I get back from that trip the house should be full of travelers. 

The new girls are a little quite and have never worked with anyone who has disabilities but I think they will catch on pretty quickly.  One of them yesterday asked how I was so tan...lol.  Me, the tan one out of the group.  Crazy!  But it is true, while everyone else is just burning I am starting to get a pretty nice little color.  The weather here has been cold and rainy so we have not gotten to get out much but today was a little nicer and we spent a couple hours on the beach.  It ended up getting a little cool but it was definitely nice to sit in some sunshine for a little while.  Yesterday we painted one of the bedrooms a nice bright yellow, which I love.  Although the other girls think it is a little much.  We did a little artwork today for the room and I am really kind of impressed with it.  I will take pics when we get it hung up tomorrow.  I have to go through van training tomorrow and I am not really looking forward to it.  There is only 2 of us doing the training but it will take 4hrs.  An hr each in a little car so the guy will know we can drive then an hr each in the van.  It is rumored that this guy doing the training does not have a lovely sent and is not the most enjoyable person ever.  But maybe it was just exaggerated, I hope.  It would be nice if he would just be like, yep you got it, but I am sure that will not happen.  The other girl taking it with me is really nervous about driving the van so it may be interesting.  Hopefully we will come out all in one piece. 

I am hoping I can get some good rest tonight and things will be looking better tomorrow.  This stress is not any fun and the only way I know to get around it is not have time to think about it...

6.3.12

Survived my birthday away from home this year.  It is weird being surrounded by everything and everyone new.  Overall it was a pretty good day but a little tough too.  I am ready for our travelers to start showing up so I will be too busy to think about home.  Today was a little rough.  Laying out on the beach yesterday I attempted to get rid of my tan lines on my shoulders and across my chest.  Not such a good idea.  I am kinda lobstery and anything I wear hurts so bad.  I just keep thinking that soon the pain will be gone and the tan will stay.  I have gotten a lot of sun and am loving the nice glow.  Me and Laura are still working onn staying on our fitness plan and try to pull inspiration everywhere we can.  Tonight it was watching the makeover show.  That guy lost 100lbs in 3 months!  It makes what we are striving for a blah...lol.  But we are still going strong.  The hardest part is going to be the food.  Getting the excersizing in is easy.  I am up and moving so much more than when I left Texas and it feels pretty good. 

But back to the day...we went shopping in Ocean City today.  They had some cute liitle shops and I enjoyed walking on the boardwalk.  We even got to see a beach wedding.  It was so cute.  We arrived just in time to see the wedding party come in and the bride.  It was beautiful and I can't wait until the day I get to get married barefoot on the beach :)  After the shopping we stopped at a restaurant that overlooked the boardwalk we normally walk in the evenings.  I was not overly impressed with their food and am really suprized at how little I have wanted to drink lately.  It is just not appealing to me when I think about it.  I don't really feel like going to the clubs here and dealing with the crowds.  I would much rather take my book and sit on the beach.  I think that is where I will be spending my days off once the travelers start arriving.  We have 2 more staff that come in tomorrow evening.  They are both from England, I think.  It will be kind of nice to have more hands in on the cleaning but Laura and I have been getting along so well and have such a great system going working together.  I'm sure it will be fine and they will just mesh right in.  I am more worried about the last 2 staff that come in like the days the travelers do.  They will have no time to bond with us or get adjusted.  But they have both been here before so it will be alright.  I am not sure waht all adventure tomorrow holds for me but I am sure it will involved some more cleaning and definately our 3 mile walk.  I even started a count down for when I go back home (sad huh?)  I am trying to take everything in and remember, I probably will never get a chance to do anything like this again.  But some days are a little rough.  Come on busy craziness!!!

6.2.12

I have almost been blogging 2 weeks and have only missed a couple days.  I think that is good for me. Of course we will see how it goes once we get into the full swing of having travelers every week.  But I have to say, I am kind of proud of myself.  Yesterday was suppose to be a half day of cleaning and then a nice afternoon on the beach but the weather did not want to cooperate so it turned into a massive full day of cleaning.  We were all exhausted by the time the travelers floor was finished.  It has been determined that I could never be a housekeeper or a maid.  Blinds, baseboards and toilets are not my friend!  After our success in cleaning we still went on our 3 mile walk (in the rain) and we even attempted to jog some.  We also watched a TERRIBLE movie last night.  I think it was called "Last Kiss" or something.  I suggest not wasting your time on it.  By the time I made it up the stairs for the last time last night it decided to storm like crazy.  So I had to just make myself go to sleep.  My room is great for the view of the ocean...not so great for the sound and light show of a storm!

Since we completed so much cleaning yesterday we did not have to do as much today.  Picnic lunch on the beach was great.  We even all put on sunscreen today.  Apparently we are not all that great at it though because we have sunburns in every area that did not get covered.  It is kind of funny.  After a few hours on the beach we headed into Atlantic City.  Tried my hand at the slots and discovered real quickly that I do not enjoy it all that much.  It is fun as long as you win but overall not that entertaining. I enjoyed the people watching much better.  There are some crazy people out here, that is for sure.  We had a drink at this cool little beach bar place and dinner. It was nice to get out and relax for a bit.  When we got home I had flowers from Mom waiting on the porch for me :)  Tomorrow the plan is shopping in Ocean City.  It will be weird not being home or around my friends for my birthday but I'm hoping for a memorable one here in New Jersey tomorrow.  I got a couple pics in today but will take the camera and get some tomorrow. 

Funny of the day:  Eating dinner tonight, we had some Chinese food.  Laura (co-worker from Scotland) took a bite and found a chili pepper.  Description was:  It is was like falling face first into fire!  In her words, it was the worst 20min her mouth has ever experienced.  

5.31.12

Another day in NJ done.  My co-worker from England left today for camp for the summer.  She was a lot of fun and will be missed and remembered throughout the summer.  She was our motivation for this summers fitness plan and we plan on shocking her with our progress when she comes back.  With her leaving this means that I will have the room to myself for a couple weeks until the new staff makes it in.  I liked our unspoken agreement that there was not any chit-chat at night or in the morning.  We had a nice little routine going that allowed each of us to wind down for bed and get woken up and ready for the day in the morning.  I will have to explain this little system to the new girl when the time comes.  I am excited that I now have the nice big bed in our room and my feet will no longer hang off the edge.  I have organized everything and now just need some little things to put on the walls or dressers to liven it up a little bit.  It looks a little empty at the moment. 

Our morning started off with a nice 2hr clean of one room in the house.  We did floors and baseboards and dressers and windows.  I'm thinking it was a good idea that we started with this room because there are about 15 windows and that makes for a lot of blinds to clean.  It took forever and we have decided that nobody can go in that room...ever!  lol.  Too bad this is how every room will be by the end of this cleaning spree.  After that one room we had lunch and then headed out for shopping for things needed around the house.  Found some new sleep/walking shorts for $3, super exciting.  This whole adventure took about 6hrs of the day.  We came home and had some dinner.  There was high intentions of cooking dinner tonight but we were all too worn out to attempt, so it was a nice easy dinner night.  Then it was off on our 3 mile walk, since we hadn't walked enough today.  We have made the rule that it doesn't count as our daily walk if our tennis shoes aren't on.  So as long as we don't wear our tennis shoes on our outings we will not have the excuse of walking all day to get out of our 3 mile walk.  I think we have also decided that our little path that we have been taking might be more than 3 miles.  I walk at a pretty fast pace and we were walking fast for me.  Poor Laura (co-worker from Scotland) she has short little legs and I pushed her pretty hard tonight.  Anyway, it took us right at an hr to get through.  We will have to try to measure it somehow in the next couple days.  It will work for now but once the travelers start coming back in mid-June we will have to cut it back to no more than 30 min. 

By the time the cleaning, shopping and walking were done we were exhausted.  I don't think I have ever walked this much.  But it will all pay off in the end I hope.  Still pushing strong for getting in shape by the end of the summer.  Tomorrow's plan is to get through a couple more rooms and then take a picnic down to the beach and spend the afternoon soaking up the sun.  I am really excited about tomorrow afternoon. I am getting some pretty interesting tan lines already though.  None of my shirts hit the same...lol.  Who knows what I will look like when I make it home.  Tonight is a quiet night and we are all headed to bed pretty early. 

5.30.12

I don't believe I posted last night so I will catch up tonight.  Yesterday was a pretty relaxed day, we spent most of the morning at Walmart and Sam's getting things that we will be using to get ready to get the house all ready.  We all went to dinner last night for Emma's going away party.  (Emma is the staff from England that will be at camp all summer).  We will miss her dearly but she has left us with a challenge.  Between Laura (the staff here from Scotland) and me we have made a goal of 80lbs lost by the time Emma gets back at the end of August.  This is a pretty high goal but with a little hard work, watching our diet and staying motivated I think we can achieve it.  We have planned out our walking path and we will do it everyday, rain or shine.  We will decrease the time it takes to get it done and add in sit ups and push ups.  When groups of travelers are here, we will take the faster paced groups and let the skinny girls take the slower group. Each store trip will consist of lots of fruits and veggies and we can do it! 
Yesterdays funny moment was watching all the different typed of people on the boardwalk.  Some where running, some walking, some riding bikes.  Many of them only wanted to look the part of being into the work out while others were way over the top with it.
Today was a little relaxed as well. We filled out forms on how well our travelers are doing and printed out pictures to be mailed to them.  After a trip to the post office and CVS, we dropped Emma off at the Outlets for shopping.  We then came back to the house and stuffed the pictures into the enveloped.  Made some cupcake brownie things that are great for our diet plan that has just recently started.  We have blamed Emma on us wanting to eat the junk food before she leaves.  We are determined to shock her when she gets back at the end of August.  We have even told her she needs to perfect her shocked and amazed face.  It would be awesome!!!
Funny moment of the day was the poor old out on the board walk while we were on our run.  This man was riding a bike with mo shirt on and his poor skin was very stretchy and leathery.  Each time he would pedal it make his old man saggy boobs dance.  It was a terrible sight to see and I do not think my eyes will ever recover from something that dramatic...

5.28.12

I can say that today was much calmer of a day.  After packing everyone up and breakfast this morning I went with a co-worker to take some travelers back to Philadelphia.  I am going to be good at this whole train system thing by the time I leave here.  It takes a while to get there and back because of waiting on the times for the return train so it took up a big chunk of the day but it was a nice change in pace to sit for a little while.  Of course by the time we got back to the house and chilled for a very short time we were all bored and ready to be up moving again.  So we decided it was time I go to the beach.  We played soccer and attempted to build a sand castle.  Until creepy looking bugs started to appear the further we dug for our castle.  Dang bugs had to ruin our fun.  But it was nice to sit out there and just enjoy the view and the weather.  One of the girls I work with is from Scotland and she is always laughing at me when I get cold in the van or when we are out in the shade.  Apparently I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather.  Give me hot and I will be good, although I am thinking this humidity is going to kick me in the butt.  This evening was pretty relaxed and tomorrow will be as well.  I am glad that I can hopefully get some sleep tonight.  I thought I was tired enough last night to not take my Ambien but of course I was wrong so I am going off very little sleep and a crazy busy weekend.  Tomorrow should be pretty relaxed as well.  I don't think we are getting into the deep clean and down to business until Wed. 

Funny of the day was at the train station in Philadelphia.  Last night we were having a conversation about how different Americans are from the British in the sense that we seem to talk to random people a lot more than they do.  The co-worker from England was stating that she hates getting on a train or plane and being stuck next to that person that wants to talk your ear off while she just wants to sleep.  So this guy at the train station starts talking to her about her accent and where she is from.  It seemed to him that he knew everything about England and wanted to tell her it all.  He really had no clue what he was talking about and I just happen to need to leave at that exact time to go find a restroom leaving her stranded in conversation with this guy.  He would not shut up.  You know those annoying people and she gets it a lot and of course me being the American that will talk to most people just left her stranded.  We then had to hide from him when we loaded the train since he was on the same one.  Note to all of you out there who think you are experts on other countries and try to talk to people from them, you probably won't win the "I know more that you do" contest, so don't try.  It is funny to me but annoying for them. 

I talked to Lisa and got an update on Matoska tonight.  She is getting along with out me.  That is great for her but I hope she doesn't forget me by the time I get back home.  I miss her so much and LOVE the daily photo updates I get.  Thank you again Lisa!  You rock!

Fingers crossed for Mom tomorrow.  It is big election day.  She is running for County Attorney for Carson County!  Good luck Ma!  Love you!