8 Months

Last November, I sold 61 books. Then all of a sudden, my book sales exploded in December and I sold 148. I have no explanation for how that happened. Ever since then, I have sold well over 100 books a month for 8 months in a row! I believe my lowest total since December is 124 or somewhere around there. That's incredible for the "advertising" I do. I don't do any advertising whatsoever. I know I should, but I don't. They have this new promotion on Amazon called Kindle Unlimited something for $10 a month. That allows you to borrow unlimited amount of books a month. This started like 2 weeks ago. I have seen a huge increase in borrows since this promotion has happened. That's awesome for me because now I'll make more money! As I've said many times before, I'm blown away at how many books I have sold since my first book came out in July 2012.

Dog in Apartment

I had a few friends over tonight. One asked if he could bring his new puppy to my apartment. My original thought was no way. Then I said that he could and we would leave him in the kitchen. Naturally the puppy busted through the boxes barricade and was all over my apartment. Whatever. Then the puppy decides to pee on my carpet less than a foot away from the tiled floor a few minutes before my friend left. I used to love dogs. I begged my parents to get me one. Now I'm such a germaphobe that I don't like them around. That's what I get for allowing the dog to come over.

Flying vs. Driving

I'm not sure which one is better. I live about 700 miles away. I purposely make the drive in 2 days because I have friends and family in Virginia which is almost exactly the halfway point. I'm not sure which one is cheaper. I can typically fly round trip for about $400. When I drive, I have to fill up 2 or 3 times for about $60 each time. Then there are an insane amount of tolls that probably cost about $50-75. It's cheaper, but much more stressful to drive. The traffic from accidents and construction is so annoying and stressful. It took me 8 hours to get somewhere that should have taken 6 yesterday. Today wasn't as bad. I drove 330 miles in 5 hours and 20 minutes without stopping once, which is rare because my bladder is small. Flying is stressful because you have to go through security and then wait forever on the plane, then wait forever for your bags. I've thought about driving from NC to NY in one day, but then I get stuck and traffic and think twice about it. I should have booked my flight for December a few weeks ago before the prices went up! If I fly home, I don't have my car, but it is much quicker to get home. There are definitely pros and cons to driving and flying home.

Parallel Parking

I cannot stand parallel parking. When I drive somewhere, I try my hardest to avoid parallel parking. I just went to my friends apartment in Albany. I had to park on the street. Luckily there weren't too many cars parked there so I didn't have to worry about parallel parking. I'm not sure how I passed my driver's test because the first attempt at parallel parking I was very far away from the curb. That's one of the main reasons I refuse to live in the city. My driving isn't good enough!

Stuff

It's amazing how much stuff I have accumulated throughout the years. When I moved in January, I only took my car. There was only so much I could bring. When I came home in April, I flew, so I couldn't bring anything home. Now that I have my car, my mom wants me to take everything that's still in my room with me. I don't want half of the things she's giving me. That means I'll just throw them out when I get home in North Carolina. I've already started loading my car and there isn't much room for much more. I still have a few boxes to put in there! I'm sure most of the stuff I'm bringing back will just collect dust in my second bedroom now instead of collecting dust in my parents house. Oh well!

Weddings

Weddings are always a ton of fun. I just got back from a friends wedding. The church service was much longer than I'm used to at a wedding. It was a service in addition to the vows. It lasted over an hour and 20 minutes. The reception was at a country club. It was beautiful! The cocktail hour had a buffet in itself. After that, we got two meats, a twice baked potato, and veggies for dinner. We had chicken francaise and chateaubriand, which is a delicious and very expensive cut of steak. There were over 200 people at this wedding. They even had fireworks! The worst part was that the server put my dessert at my spot and when I came back after dancing, it was gone! How can they take away food from a fat man? I wasn't pleased with that. Other than that, it was one of the fanciest weddings I've ever been to. I can't imagine how much the bride and her family paid for this!

Maiden Races

I went to the track yesterday and shockingly came back with much more money than I came in with. I don't typically bet maiden races. A maiden race is for horses who have not won. They are hard to handicap because a lot of them are first time starters. Even if they aren't, how can you predict a horse who hasn't won to win? I put down an exacta box bet on a maiden race yesterday just to have rooting interest. An exacta is a bet that means the horses you bet on have to come in 1st and 2nd. I boxed the bet so they could come in any order. My bet was $2 exacta box on 1-4. So it can come in 1-4 or 4-1. It just cost me $4. Towards the end of the race, I didn't think one of my horses was going to make it. Then all of a sudden, it came flying down the stretch and my horses came in 1st and 2nd and I cashed in for $148. That was my big win that allowed me to be up a lot for the day yesterday!

Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Before I moved to North Carolina, I lived about 25 minutes from Saratoga Race Course. That is the oldest track in the nation. Every summer, I'd go about 4-5 times out of the 40 days that have racing at Saratoga. The hall of fame is about a mile away from the track. Believe it or not, I had never been there until today. It was really nice. It had a ton of neat information I didn't know. However, it had one huge factual error. On the plaque of Seattle Slew, who was the 1977 triple crown winner, it said that he was the 11th triple crown winner. There have only been 11 winners. The 11th winner was Affirmed in 1978. I just emailed the hall of fame to let them know of the error. Hopefully they will fix the plaque because it's embarrassing to have a factual error like that for everyone to see. Other than that, we only spent 2 hours there, which wasn't enough time. We had to go though because we were going to the track and the races were about to start. I would definitely go back there again and hopefully spend more time there.

Live Baseball

I went to a Washington Nationals game on Sunday. I've been to several MLB games before. My interest in baseball has gone way downhill ever since all of the steroid use. Watching a 9 inning game is kind of boring. I got that same sense this Sunday while watching live. The first 3 innings took an hour and 20 minutes. It ended up being an exciting game. There was a home run and the game ended in a walk off double with the guy scored from first. The thrill and excitement of going to a baseball game is just gone for me though. If given the opportunity, I'll definitely go again. I just won't be as excited as I used to be going to baseball games.

Segway Tour

I made a pit stop near Washington D. C. on my ride home to New York to visit a friend. Her boyfriend does segway tours in DC. A segway is a two-wheeled, self balancing, battery powered electric vehicle that people ride on. They are pretty sweet. The tour my friends boyfriend does is 3 hours long and $75. It takes people all over DC to see all the big monuments and memorials. We went last night and just went to random places. We didn't do the entire tour. Since my friends boyfriend is the assistant manager, we took them out for free! It was fun to ride them and a ton of fun to see the monuments and memorials at night.

Packing

Is there anything more fun than packing and cleaning? Not at all! Last night, I started cleaning my apartment. I wanted to dust, vacuum, clean the kitchen, clean the bathroom, and do all of the laundry. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Virginia to visit a friend and then home to New York for about a week. I wanted to make sure my apartment is as clean as possible. Obviously a males version of clean is far different than a females version. I still think I did a pretty good job though. Then I spent a little while packing today. All I'm really bringing home is clothes to wear. I don't need too much more. However, there's always the fear that I forgot something important. If I have, I'll remember it 3 hours into tomorrows trip. I guess I'll have to turn around and get whatever I forgot. I should be fine. I look forward to seeing my friends and family from home next week!

Online Training

I'm in the middle of online training required by my new district. There are 13 courses they are making me take. It will take me between 2-3 hours to finish. It isn't due until September 30, but I want to get it over with as quickly as possible so that I don't forget to do them. It's really easy and common sense stuff. It just takes an extremely long time to listen to all of the boring information and then take the insanely easy common sense quizzes. I doubt I'll finish this tonight, but I plan on finishing this tomorrow before I go home for a week.

Espy's

The Espy's is the only award show every year that matters to me. It's the awards given to athletes. They have awards for the best male athlete, female athlete, best athlete in basketball, baseball, hockey, football, etc., best moment, best play, and many, many more. It's by far my favorite awards show. It's always filled with great memories that I forgot happened in the sports world throughout the year. I'll be watching that tonight on ESPN at 9 o'clock!

Teacher Books

As with any subject, there are many, many teacher books out there. I'm not talking about my books either. Although people have asked me if my books are about teaching methods. I always laugh at them and tell them to look at the cover of the book and ask me that again. Anyway, I have collected many books about teaching methods. I'm attempting to read one right now. It's called Teaching Children to Care. As with any teaching methods book, it's long, boring, and extremely dry. However, it's useful information about classroom management, disciplining, and good rules to give students. Good thing the book is only 400 pages. I'm attempting to be as prepared as possible when I walk into my classroom on August 18 to set it up. The closer we get to the new school year, the more nervous I am becoming.

Song in Head

I almost always have a song playing in my head for whatever reason. It's typically the last song I heard on the radio or on iTunes or whatever. Have you ever had a song in your head that you can't get out? That's me right now. For whatever reason, I have Arianna Grande's song, "Problem" stuck in my head. I have listened to several other songs throughout the day, but this one will not leave my head. It's been in my head pretty much all day. It's an annoying song that I don't like so there's no reason for it to be in my head. Hopefully it will be out of it when I wake up tomorrow and take my run while listening to my iPod.

Myrtle Beach

I finally had the opportunity to go to Myrtle Beach this past weekend! I know I've only been here 6 months, so saying I finally made it there is a bit dramatic. However, in April, my friends went to Myrtle when I came home to New York. Then again in June they went when I went to the golf tournament. We went Friday until today. We stayed at a very nice hotel right on the beach. Our room had a balcony and a perfect view of the beach. It was cloudy on Friday but we still laid on the beach. Yesterday afternoon we went to Myrtle Waves, which is a water park. They had about a dozen slides. We went on all of them and then went back to the hotel. My friend and I then went parasailing after that! We went on a banana boat before that and on our way to the parasailing boat. A banana boat is an inflatable tube, shaped like a banana, attached to a jet ski. It was amazing! Parsailing is where they hook you up to a parachute thing attached to the boat. The boat goes and you go flying in the air about 300 feet high. That was incredible. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach. Then we went to town that night, came back, and walked the beach some more. I already can't wait to head back to Myrtle Beach to do everything all over again!

Paperwork

The worst part of getting a new job by far is filling out the paperwork. There is so much of it that it's ridiculous. I got an email the other day from my new district with 15 attachments! One was an attachment where I clicked a link and then filled out 11 pages of information! Luckily it was all online since my handwriting is awful. Several pages were the W2 and other tax forms. I'm glad I called someone and they said there were only 2 boxes that I had to fill out. There were well over 100 different boxes I could have filled out claiming this that or the other thing. Filling out all that paperwork is stressful because I always get worried that I filled something in wrong or forgot something. My newest contemplation is whether or not I should add eye insurance. I am in dyer need of new frames. I've had these since 10th grade. Insurance would give me a free eye exam and up to $90 on lenses and up to $90 on frames. Frames will be well over $90. I'm strongly thinking of getting the insurance but I don't want any more money to come out of my paycheck! We will see.

Peeling

Believe or not, I feel like the worst part about getting a sunburn isn't the burn itself, it's the peeling! Peeling of the skin happens about a week after the burn. It's disgusting because you find small chunks of skin everywhere you go, especially in your bed. Your skin is extremely dry and it just peels off no matter how much aloe you put on. That's the stage I am at right now. It's been about a week since I burned in the sun. When I go to Myrtle Beach this weekend, I will be sure to wear lots of sunscreen so that I do not burn and so I don't peel next week!

Carowinds Amusement Park

Two of my friends surprised me and got me tickets to Carowinds Amusement Park for my birthday today! It's near Charlotte, North Carolina and is on the border of North and South Carolina. In fact, at the park entrance, there was a sign that says North Carolina and a sign that says South Carolina. Me being the weirdo I am, I would step on one side and say I was in North and the other side and say I'm in South and do that over and over again. The park was very big with about 10 roller coasters. The coasters were fast with lots of flips, twists, turns, and anything else you could expect out of a roller coaster. There was one where they had us laying on our backs! Another one had us standing and another only had a round object that strapped us in and no strap over the shoulders like most coasters have. We were able to ride all of them. Then we had time for the water park. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. It was over 90° so we were very excited to get to the water park. The bad part was the 2 and a half hour drive each way. Needless to say, today was completely exhausting, yet a ton of fun!

Big Brother

I've never watched Big Brother before until yesterday. I was extremely bored and my friend told me to watch it so I did. The show is absolutely stupid, yet I'm hooked. I have caught up with this season. 16 people are in a house and they have to do certain activities and competitions and then people vote to see if they go home. They are trapped in the house without Internet, cell phones, TV or any technology. The winner gets $500,000. I think I'm hooked because I like watching competitions because I want to know who wins. There is so much drama in the show though and it's ridiculous. Oh well, I'm hooked now and have to watch every show to see who wins and how they win it.

Cockroaches

I know I've written a lot about bugs in this blog. This is my grossest encounter yet. When I was looking at this apartment in January before deciding to move in, I saw two dead cockroaches in this apartment. One was in the bathroom and the other was on the windowsill. The realtor told me that no matter where I lived I would see these "waterbugs". Throughout the last couple of months, I have seen a few dead cockroaches in my house or some that were barely alive. I quickly killed them and got rid of them. Last night, I heard a noise coming from my window. I saw a wing through the blinds and thought it was a moth. I grabbed a book and killed it and saw it was a disgusting cockroach. About an hour later, I was walking towards my kitchen and I saw another huge cockroach crawling really fast on the counter! Before I could murder it, it went to a spot I couldn't get to. I wasn't going to do anything else until I killed it. I started spraying around the counter until it revealed itself. I sprayed the thing and laughed as it tried to swim away from the spray. I killed the thing and have been on edge since last night looking everywhere in my house hoping not to see any roaches. Ugh! Needless to say, my first call tomorrow will be to the company I rent through to see if they can get an exterminator here to spray everywhere! If I see another cockroach in my lifetime, it will be too soon!

Fireworks

I saw fireworks last night for the first time in many years. I traveled to Fort Bragg to see them. Fort Bragg is only about 5 miles from me. However, once I got through the checkpoint, I had no idea where to go. There were no signs and no cars. My friend and I finally found out where to go and we shockingly got a parking spot that gave us a perfect view of the fireworks. They went on for about 15 minutes. They were decent. I'm sure fireworks all over the nation were relatively the same. They are fun to watch but the thrill is gone quickly afterwards.

Firecracker 4 Miler

I did my first 4 mile race today. It started in pretty much the same spot it did last race I ran. I had to go up the same massive hill I did last race. Only this time, it was about a quarter mile after the start. One thing I liked about this race was that there were plenty of arrows throughout the course telling me where to go. They also had a mile marker for mile 1, 2, and 3 and water at each of those mile marks. There were 484 runners in this race! That's about 2 and a half times more people than I am used to. My goal was 32 minutes which is 8 minutes a mile. I was hoping to get top 3 in my age group of 25-29 but I didn't get anywhere near that. I ended up getting 76th out of 484 with a time of 32:18. I was really happy with my time because I felt like I was going slower than that pace and I didn't walk at all. I got 16th out of 35 in my age group. The winning time was 21:00. I probably finished about 2.5 miles when the first place finisher completed the race. I will never run a 4 mile race that fast! There are plenty more runs in the near future I can sign up for but I don't have any booked yet. We will see which one I do next.

Moving

I helped a friend move today. It is not fun! It probably wasn't smart of me either because during my 4 mile race tomorrow, my legs will probably feel like jello. I was thinking about how I'm going to move my stuff when the time comes. My lease is done around January 20. I had no plans to move out of my current apartment. However, there have been so many Internet issues and other more important house issues that are really annoying me. I live on the 3rd floor. Moving my couch, chair, bed, and furniture will not be easy whenever the time comes. Maybe I'll just live here the rest of my life so I don't have to worry about it. Moving is definitely much more trouble than it's worth.

Apartment vs. House

There are pros and cons to living in an apartment and living in a house. Pros of living in an apartment: There's not as much space to clean. I don't have to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, shovel, or do any other yard work. If there is something in the apartment that isn't mine that isn't working, they will fix it for free. My owner probably hates me because I have had the screen door fixed, the dryer replaced, and garbage disposal fixed (it doesn't work again), and now my toilet doesn't fill with water all of the way. It's a pain to call someone to fix those things, but then again, I'll deal with it because it's free! Cons: I am putting money into nothing. I pay rent each month and that money goes nowhere. Neighbors are really close to you, which can sometimes be a problem. Any problems with the road leading to my apartment get fixed on North Carolina time (whenever they feel like it). The pool took forever to get fixed. Speed bumps. Pros of living in a house: a mortgage payment goes towards owning the house. You can do whatever you want to it because it's yours. Cons: You have to mow the lawn, rake, shovel, and fix up anything that's wrong in the house. Anything that's broken and needs to be fixed professionally will cost a lot of money. I can't think of anything else right now but I'm sure there are many more pros and cons of each.

No Cell Phone

My cell phone that I've had for only 6 months decided to stop working today. It turned off on its own and never turned on again. I was just at the Apple Store in Raleigh this past Saturday! Now I have to drive about 150 miles round trip just to get my iPhone replaced tomorrow. I am not happy about that. I actually miss my cell phone. I'm sure no one is trying to contact me anyway. At least I still have working Internet and Facebook.