nplh

I don't even know where to start. We didn't really have access to the internet on our roadtrip so a lot happened without being able to update. We left West Palm/Jupiter April 1st. My goodbye to Charlie and Chris in the parking lot at 9 am was a very sad and hard one. The hardest yet. It's much harder to say goodbye to someone when you have no idea when you'll see them again. Oh my...I just learned that Rachel has been waiting for me to watch a movie. I will tell all about our Florida to New York trip soon. I promise. We got home to Monroe yesterday evening and I gotta say, cold hands aside....there's no place like home. -lj

friends

I just have to say quick that I'm going to miss my people here very much. Very Very much. -lj

Nine days

One week from Friday. Nine more days. Nine more days to make as much money as we can. Nine more days to tell everyone around us how much we've appreciated their kindness. Nine more days to realize that we better start packing soon. Nine more days to stand along the beach. We're very very excited. We've been searching craigslist for possible sublets, making budgets, booking hotels and planning food and family stops. I honestly think this is our favorite part of adventure. It's so much fun to look forward to a huge change. And this one is going to be very big. And long. I have to say, we're indulging in this move quite a bit. Here's a rundown of our itinerary-

We leave Jupiter the 1st to spend the night in Tampa with some of Rach's highschool pals (whom I've met several times). One of them is expected to go into labor during this time so... watch for that post. Then we leave the next day for Atlanta, GA. We can't make our days as long on this trip because now we have two cars and can't split driving duties. We'll stay in a hotel in Atlanta and have reservations at Woodfire Grill. There we will be doing the tasting menu served by Top Chef finalist Kevin. Las Vegas season. I'll try to write down the dishes so I can tell you about them afterward and we can all judge them together! Next day its on to Tennessee to visit Rachel's cousins and finally meet new baby Brason (who I guess isn't so new anymore). The next day its on to more cousins in Virginia. Next day is a long push up to Lancaster, Penn where we'll stay with Kate and Kate. If its really late and we know they're sleeping and we have left over energy, we might push it a few more hours and make it to Monroe. I absolutely cannot wait for Monroe. I'm so homesick (as usual). I seriously need a family reboost. After about a week in Monroe, we head West for a week in B-Lo (Buffalo......duh). After a week of light partying (yea right), we're going to stuff all our things into the Honda and together, head to Harrisburg, Penn for a few days (Popsons are coming too). We've tried to make a habit of going there for Easter and we're afraid if we stop the tradition the Easter Bunny may not know where to go. The day after Easter we'll set back on the same route we took to Denver a year ago- since thats where we're going. How can we drive out to California without stopping in Denver for some fresh mountain air! If you've just joined the blog- first of all, welcome. I'll go over our "Denver" route. First we stop in Wilmington, Ohio for a night to visit Americorps teammate Joni. The next night is in Grosse Point, MI with Americorps team leader Emily. A night at a hotel is Chicago is necessary because...c'mon...Chicago's cool! Then its a huge long push past all the corn in America until we get to Denver. We've chosen to stay a mile high for about a week. So many people to see and dogs to hug. Denver carries such a different "home" feel than Boston or Jupiter has. Denver is.... Denver. If I had to choose right now where I wanted to settle, I wouldn't have to think about it. Hands down, Denver. I told Rachel I was going to tie myself to a tree when we got there so that we couldn't leave. I'm still seriously considering the idea. We plan on leaving Denver May 5th. Depending on how much money we've spent, we might stop in Las Vegas. Might as well try to get that money back, right? We might also stay in a hotel in between Denver and Vegas so we have time to check out the Grand Canyon. We also might then just stop in Vegas to look around and head right back out and into Cali. First night in California will be spent with sister Stephanie just a little south of L.A. Then a few days in L.A with best friends Christina and Alex. Then on the 12thish (depending on whatever we set up as a living situation) we take a beautiful, relaxing nine hour drive along the coast of California and arrive in San Fran to start our new life....again. That's a month and a half of pure adventure. Followed by more adventure. Wouldn't you be impatiently counting down? ..... Nine Days. -lj

relapse

Rachel and I spoke with the doctor yesterday. Turns out our adventure bug had only gone into remission. We started feeling symptoms again about a week ago. We both started feeling restless at first. Then we slowly started realizing that the sight of a palm tree was no longer exciting- it was common. Rachel had noticed a strange taste in the back of her throat. I wasn't aware of it at first but I realized that I was experiencing the same thing. We tried to drink some water. The taste just got stronger. Florida water is disgusting, with a sewer bouquet and afternotes of poo. We put down our glasses when it dawned on us. - We haven't tried a new food in months besides the blue fish we completely destroyed that day we went fishing. What was happening to us? How did we come to this? This wasn't us. We're foodies damnit. Three stops? Really? We throw our lives into a car, sell all our stuff, quit our jobs, paint that apartment back to white and come running back after only three stops? What kind of book can I write with that!? A short one. Too short for us. We've been lazy adventurers - must be all the sun. Time to pour the sand out of our shoes and hit the road. We're leaving Florida April first. We have Rach's grandmothers car on loan still and need to give it back. Besides we're desperately home sick. We'll drive both cars up to New York within four or five days stopping to see family and friends on the way. A week in Monroe, a week in Buffalo, Easter in Harrisburg with Rach's family and then we stuff all our things back into the Honda, put a flower in our hair, and head to San Francisco. Everyone we've met on this trip has asked the same thing. Are you going to San Francisco. Apparently everyone pegs us as future San Franciscans. Unlike Boston and Florida, this stop is actually a candidate for the "settle down" city. Denver may still be in the running as well. New York is also on the list. Speaking of Denver, we absolutely plan on stopping to visit on our drive over. We'll also stop in L.A to visit Christina and other friends. It's hard to move to the same state as your best friend but to a different city. It's just that neither of us think we would like L.A. Also, L.A right after southern Florida seems like a lot of superficiality all packed into six months. We're in the mood for some culture, some art, lots of good food and good people. Not to mention one of the best gay communities in the world. So no one panic. Keep up on the blog and readjust your clocks - time for another countdown. -lj

itsy bitsy

Usually I have pretty decent stories to tell about all our exciting activities and unlikely run-ins with strangers. We both work about six nights a week so we really don't have anything out of the ordinary to blog about. However, I do have something that happened to me the other night that I think can be universally enjoyed and I thought I'd share it with you. As you know know, I now live in West Palm Beach. This makes my commute to work somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes depending on traffic and how badly I don't feel like driving. Well two nights ae ago, I was driving home from work at night. I was alone, I was tired and I was annoyed that my long drive had only just begun. About five minutes into the drive I noticed my eyes were detecting movement on a "closer focus area" than my regular driving eyes. I narrowed in my pupils to get a closer look and there it was. A spider moving across my windsheild. The inside of my windsheild. I now my mother knows, but to inform you more clearly...I do not like spiders. I shudder at the thought of one. Everything about them freaks me out. More information about me is that I try as hard as I can not to kill bugs. Even ones that make me want to pee myself. I will kill something if I think it can hurt me. Like a bee, or a mosquito. But I try very hard to resist killing things out of pure fear- thats just not fair. But back to the drive. It was a small spider. Brown and skinny and scary. Worst of all, it was fast. My eyes widened and my hands tightened on the wheel and I tried to balance the task of driving safely and keeping an eye on my new passenger. The road I was on was a 45 mph three lane road and I couldn't let this get out of control. I switched the focus of my eyes every few seconds. Close, far. Close, far. Close far. Close.....where did it go? Far. Close...holy crap, where is it!? My eyes darted all over the car. Keep in mind, its nighttime to boot and I couldn't barely see in the car anyway. Every mile or so there would be a light. If it was red, I would stop and panic. Frantically searching. It's on me. I know it. It's crawling down my neck. It just bit me, I felt it! I smacked frantically at neck, rubbed my head like a scrach off ticket because surely it was making a nest in my hair. Green light. Far. I took deep breaths. I reminded myself that there's probably spiders in my car all the time, I just happened to see this one. Things were going to be fine. I was getting to the highway- the half way point. About 15 minutes left to the drive. I got on the ramp and merged onto the I-95 South towards West Palm Beach. Far. Far. Close. There it was. In the same route he was going before. Left to right. Directly in front of me. How did he get back to left without me seeing him! I gripped the wheel. Now I was on a highway. I focused in and out trying to hold on to him this time. I picked up a piece of paper that was laying in my passenger seat. Should I kill it?? It hasn't done anything to me! If I can just get home I can brush it out of the car. If I kill it, I know I'll feel guilty. I sat ready with the paper, waiting for the little monster to make its move. It's just waiting to jump off the window onto my face, I know it! Close, far. Should I do it? It's wrong! Close, far. Close...its gone. No! I lost him again! Why did I hesitate?! Now I also knew that he could move closer to me without my knowing. He'd done it before, he'll do it again. He's just hangin out on windsheild. It's ok. He doesn't want anything to do with you. He just like the windsheild. About another two miles passed. I searched, rubbed my head, slapped my neck, wiped my face...how did it get in my shoe!? He seemed to be crawling everywhere on my body. In my ear, up my nose, over my eyebrow. Where did it go?! Movement. On the windsheild again. This time higher. I had visions of him crawling onto the ceiling and dropped down onto my face. I grabbed my paper. Stay where you are or you're gonna get it! He moved higher. I stood my ground. He disappeared into the shadow above me. No, no, no! Thats the worst place you could go! I'm not killing you, please don't hurt me! I shrank down into my seat and tried to watch above my head. I realized I had shot down to fifty five miles an hour trying to drive safe when I should be gunning it home. I obviously wasn't going to kill it so what I needed was safety. I leaned into the gas. My goal now was to just get home. He reappeared on the windsheild and moved the right. Phew. He was now probably somewhere on the passenger side. But now I remembered. A few days ago my car was hit while it was parked outside Rachel's house. The women who hit me is paying for it, but my door was hit in such a way where I can't open in. I've been crawling across the car coming in and out through the passenger side. I'd have to crawl right past the spider. I finally pulled into my parking spot at home. I turned the car off and hit the dome light. Shrunken into my seat I searched the car. Just go for it. I eyed my path across the car. Just go. Fast. I flung myself across the car and leaped out, shutting the door behind me. I shook myself frantically. Was it on me. After I stopped jumping around I reached into my pocket so text Rachel. My pocket was empty. I knew it immediatly. My heart sank and I lifted my eyes to look through my passenger window at the driver door. My phone was sitting in the driver door pocket. Remember now that my driver door is broken. I'd have to crawl back through the passenger side to get it. I wanted to cry. I took a deep breath, opened the door and dived for my phone. I slammed it shut and did my "shaking off the spider" dance again. I looked back in the car. No. I didn't. ..... I did. The dome light was still on. I had to laugh this time. I repeated my dive and dance. I ran inside my house, into the bathroom and carefully inspected myself in the mirror. No spider. I haven't seen it since. I'm just hoping that the morning heat killed it. I haven't found a body. I cleaned out my car today and even took it to be vaccum it. I'm so glad I didn't kill it. All in all I think I handled it well. -lj

happy love day

Ok ready? Set... go... Rach and I kept fighting and fighting so we decided on a split. We had two weeks left in the condo together and fought less but hung on to our decision. Two weeks were up and Rach's parents drove a car down so now she has her own car. Rachel moved in a friend of a friend in Jupiter and I moved in with my new good pal Chris, a girl from my job. I live in West Palm Beach and am now the world's fourth largest contributer to the process of warming our planet. I live with Chris and her boyfriend of five years Charlie. I love them dearly and think of them, especially Chris, as a blessing. I don't know what I would have done without them. After a few days of sleeping alone in my new bed I realized that my decision (as usual when I make big decisions), was the wrong one. At that time the standing of the relationship was not broken up, but barely seeing or talking so we could "figure things out". I realized after talking to some dear friends (christina and kate) that our lifestyle had made it impossible for Rachel and I to have time for establishing individual lives and were therefore, smothering eachother and the relationship which was now on its way to disappearing. I wasn't having it. I made Rach go on a date with me and took her to the beach and to see the rehabiliting sea turtles (which was awesome). I put on my most charming smile and explained what I believed had gone wrong and how we could fix it. After lots of charming smiles which I'm sure got pathetic after five minutes she started smiling back. Long story short, we love each other very much and are enjoying having date nights and re-establishing romance. (Charming smile gets em every time). Unfortunatly, my new home does not have internet and has seperated me from my blog. I'm sorry. This time it is not my fault. Rachel and I are sorting out plans at this point to move back in together (hopefully she can come live with me, gotta talk to Charlie) in March. We're staying another month and are deciding, unfortunatly, how to round up our adventures to a close. As fun as it is, the freedom of the road, we've learned, actually offers little freedom and we are starting to look at a "larger plan". One that involves careers, benifits, family and vacations. One that is going to start out of course with school, long hours and lots of of work. Right now we're probably heading back to NY in April, staying in Monroe for a month while we re-establish jobs in the city and decide on new degree paths. There is some talk of one last adventure to California but financially, this might not be the smartest decision. We will see how things go. Rachel's chef Eddie is opening a restaurant on the Jersey Shore over the summer and has been relentless in asking us to there promising we will make more money than we ever will any summer of our lives. This is also an idea we're throwing around. I'll try to visit my local Panera Bread more often and update you more. I know I say that all the time. When all is said and done at the end of this "break", it was the best thing for us that we could have done. We're very happy and have a renewed appreciation for eachother and a new respect for our relationship. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Think about everyone you love today and ask yourself if you've been taking it for granted. -lj

And change of plans!

Alrighty... well... the man that I live with has informed me that because he is going through a divorce and they are battling with money and their son that I won't be able to stay after this month. Haha... awesome. Now what to do....

I was wrong

There is a lot of culture and diversity in Florida. I just have not explored enough of it. I also live in a town that is mostly retirees.

In need of people my age haha

xoxo,

Rachel

How dare us....

So selfish we are to not post for almost a month!!! My deepest apologies to our followers. Let's do some updating. We are still in Florida... for a couple reasons. First and most obvious, the weather. It was impossible to pack up the car and attempt to get anywhere when the entire country seems to be under extreme weather crisis. I'll stay in 80 degree la la land. Secondly, it is technically "Season" here, which to everyone down here really means "Busy Season" they have just abbreviated it I guess, so for the most part our restaurants are pretty busy. Jo's is a little newer so they still have good days and bad days. Mine is steadily busy but the inevitable over-staffing is occurring so not every night is as lucrative as I would like. For December and January, thanks to my awesome family, we were able to stay in their condo down here. But of course since it's "season" it makes the most sense to make money on the place so they rented it out. As Jo and I scrambled to make up our minds about our next move we came to the conclusion that maybe it would be a good idea to live separately for a bit. I'll spare all the details, or let Jo describe it all since she is the better writer. I am living with a 24 year old beautician, a 50-something year old mad scientist/musician with a 13 year old Justin Beiber look-a-like son, a golden retriever named Sully, a beagle named Snoopie, and a fish. Boy did my life change drastically. I must say though that I have only been here a week and am learning an insane amount about life and myself. This whole adventure has taught me a lot but now I'm thinking it's just showing me how weird everywhere is and that New York is where I'm meant to be =) Or that stereotypes really do come from truth. My boss Yosi from Cafe Orlin in New York said before I left, "Don't get stuck in Florida. I spent a year and ran out of there. I need culture and so do you." It seems that people are either born, raised and stay here forever, or people escape from their lives and hide out here. It is interesting to say the least. I hope to see more parts of Florida before we depart. As for now, everything is sort of up in the air but I'll figure it all out eventually. Any other 25 year olds out there questioning everything??? I miss my friends and both my families a lot. I love you all =) Happy Super-bowl Sunday everyone!!!!! Go Packers!!!!

xoxoxo,

Rach

So lots of things to talk about. One is that my trip home to Christmas was a total success. Christmas was great and a blizzard snowed me in for an extra five days. At first I was devastated and frantically called every airline looking for an earlier flight than the one on the 31st that I'd been moved to. Flights were an average of 500$. I had just started my job at Gulfstream at was nervous that I'd lose my job. Once I called my boss and heard "Well, you didn't make it snow.", I relaxed and enjoyed my time with my family. I consider it the best gift I got this Christmas (and I got some cool stuff). When I came back my job welcomed me and asked how my time at home was. I'm very lucky.

I've been walking on the beach a lot. It's only a five minute walk from my house and when I have nothing to do I stroll over. I love living near the beach. I could spend hours there. I've learned that I'm very good at choosing a line to walk in that keeps the wash of the waves less than an inch from my feet so my shoes don't get wet. Rachel always tells me that I operate on a different plain than other people. When I walk on the beach I feel like the water, the sand, the shells and the birds are all on the same plain as me. The water will wash up and go back the moment before my foot comes down and my shoes don't get wet. I'll sit and stare out while the sun sets and three times now I've caught glimpse of a dolphin on manitee in the water that no one else seems to see. The beach is a really magical place for me. It always gives me the feeling you get when you read a poem that you really understand except there are no actual versus on the beach. It's just salty air, strong wind and rhythmic sounds synced with the feeling of knowing its possible to see something extraordinary. I'm really going to miss the beach. I won't miss having sand in my socks though. I really, really hate that. -lj