Slacking with the updates!

I'm fully back to the real world now that vacation is done and over with. Its a depressing feeling. But I do have alot of things to look forward to. On June 12th I will be seeing Nine Inch Nails live, so so so excited. I have only waited for 13 years!!! And then on July 29th I will be seeing Tool live, also a big event. Tool is Brian's favorite band but I really like them too. Scott is coming with us so that should be a lot of fun. I really hope I will be able to bring my camera in! And then hopefully (will know next Friday) I will be seeing Tori Amos on July 31st. The only way I won't be going is if the tickets sell out in the first hour or something. That sounds outlandish maybe. But we got our tickets for Tool in the first 30 minutes of them being on sale and half the arena was already sold out. And I checked a little early today, 24 hours after they went on sale, and the entire arena is almost sold out!! Wow. I am excited about all the live music!

This evening Brian and I sat out on the back deck watching the sunset. I must have taken like 40 photos of it. It just kept changing and getting better and better. So this is one of the pictures I really liked. I cannot believe how many amazing sunsets I get to watch from our back deck. Its so nice.

Congratulations are in order!

They haven't really told anyone yet or atleast they have not posted it on their myspace or facebook pages which is the way most of the world shares news these days. But I am going to make them a public post here anyways. As of Monday my brother Todd and his girlfriend Heather are engaged. And actually planning to get married sometime this summer. His proposal was not what I expected from my little brother. But apparently he had had the ring for some time. Picked it out himself and everything. Anyways he got a dozen roses and lined them down the hallway from their bedroom. Heather was sleeping. And then he called Heather to come out there. When Heather came out and walked down the hallway them my brother was waiting at the end and asked her. They were talking about getting married this summer while we were at the beach, but I had no idea he had already gotten her a ring. But anyways....he did. And right now they are looking at July 18th. I guess I need to get ready for that.

I DO NOT want to go back to work tomorrow.

I am home from the beach and missing it already. Its funny you are always glad to be home but part of you would still love to be on vacation. I am definitely not ready to go back to work tomorrow. I went into work for 3 hours last night because I wasn't able to do the whole 13.5 last Sunday night. I tried. I was there for 10 hours. But working at that place in the middle of the night is REALLY creepy. By the end of the shift I was feeling very sick and I ended up staying awake a grand total of 36 hours before Sunday was over with. It definitely wasn't easy. But anyways....for now I will post a picture of my brother Todd and his girlfriend Heather. They came down on Thursday so I got to spend some time with them. It was nice because I probably won't get to see everybody again until maybe Christmas. Thats the hardest part about living far away from your family.

A storm rolls "out"

Our second day on the beach and I got to watch some amazing storm clouds rolling out to sea.  I took quite a few pictures but I am going to share my favorite on here.    We are having a great time.  I already have a sunburn to show for it.  haha.  Todd and Heather (my brother and his girlfriend) are going to come down on Thursday.  I am glad.  Its nice to be able to spend time with all my family like this since I don't see them often anymore.  I might post some more this week with my favorite shots so I don't have to post a ton at once.  Check out my flickr.com page if you are on my friends lists there.  I have been uploading pictures there almost daily so I can keep my memory card empty for more. 

Tomorrow is it!

In about 18 hours I should be at the beach or atleast really really close! And I will be able to do exactly what this picture depicts. One of my favorite things to do on the beach is just sit there with my feet in the sand. I managed to stay up until a little after 4am last night, so all in all almost 24 hours. Which lets me know I should easily be able to make it tonight. I got up just a little while ago and plan on laying back down at 5pm and trying to sleep til maybe 10pm. We will see. Otherwise I will take two energy drinks to work with me in hopes that that will keep me up. I don't think staying up is going to be the problem. I think the problem is going to be me looking at the clock and thinking "ok I have this many more hours". Anyways, this time tomorrow I will only have 2 hours left at work. Here is too hoping it goes by fast! And my next update shall come to you from Oak Island NC.

1 more day! Well technically 1 and a half days.

Its getting closer and closer but I can swear to you this has been one of the longest weeks in my life. Today will be my last 8 hour shift but then I have that big 13 1/2 hour one starting at midnight tomorrow night. I keep hoping something will happen and I won't have to work it. But I guess thats not going to happen. Anyways, every year when my mom goes to the beach her goal is to find as many big conch shells as possible. And then takes them all to her farm and puts them around all her plants. This picture (one of my favorites I have taken of her) captures her in shell hunting mode perfectly. When you go down to the end of the island these shells are just rolling in the waves. You have to be fast though or they get swept back out to sea. One year my mom would boil the poor little sea creatures inside to get the shells but then last year I was making her throw the live ones back. haha. I'm not some psycho animal activist but I do believe everything should get its chance at life. So she threw them back for me. We will see how she does this year.And here is a picture of two of the BIG shells we found at the beach in 2006. I am not sure where they are now. Packed up and stored somewhere....its something I left in WV when I got the divorce because I knew I wouldn't have room for stuff like that here for awhile. And still won't until we eventually buy a house. Brian is currently being saved from all my little collections.

2 more days too many!

I am going to share a picture today that anyone who has access to my flickr account and/or myspace page has seen. Its a picture of a bunch of birds sitting on a little wooden wall type thing at Kure Beach NC. Kure Beach is two beaches up from where we will be staying but less than a two hour drive from where I live. Which makes its nice. I haven't really taken advantage of living so close to the ocean like I should have. Brian and I did decide to drive out there in February. It was raining, kinda cold. But it was nice. No one was on the beach at all except some surfers and I found my first shark's tooth after only being on the beach for about 30 minutes. I will also share that picture. I only have to wake up early one more day! Thats a great feeling. But then tomorrow night I am going to try to stay up all night and get all of our clothes washed, everything packed and try to prep myself to sleep all day Saturday so that maybe going into work at midnight won't be so hard. We are also going to see the Star Trek movie, I'm not really a fan or anything but Brian is and he is really excited to see it. I figure that should take up a few hours of the night anyways!

3 more days!

My favorite walkway in the world is the one that leads right to the beach. So today's shot is one of the path from the steps of our beach house, across the dune and to the beach!! We are not staying at that same beach house this year, for the last probably 4 years or so my mom and step-dad have rented that same house. This year however we all chose to get one closer to the end of the island because thats where all the "good shells" are. The outside of the house isn't that impressive....maybe with my super photographer skills I can make it look that way, but I seriously doubt it. But its roomy, very nice in the inside and at the end of the island. So it should be really nice. Not that I care that much, I will just be happy to get away for awhile. Its only Wednesday though and I feel like this week is dragging. And I think what makes it worse is knowing I am working that 13 hours shift on Sunday night. I will be listening to a audiobook that I hope makes the time pass quickly. Duma Key by Stephen King. Yea thats right I am going to listen to a Stephen King book about the beach right before I go to the beach. Should make it interesting!

5 more days!

Today's picture is one of a tiny little crab I found running along the shore. Of course I turned into a 8 year old and had to catch him, if only for the picture. I have a little obsession with marine life of all forms. For a few years I even said I was going to go to school to be a marine biologist. But that didn't happen. I have had four major career plans in my lifetime, none of which I ended up actually going for. They were Veterinarian, Marine Biologist, Geologist and Photographer. Out of the four the last one is probably the most likely, but I am still very interested in the others as well.

Anyways I have changed my working plans for this weekend. I am now going in at Midnight and working to 1pm. Doubt this will make anything easier, but atleast I will get out of there a little earlier and therefore to the beach earlier! I hope the shift is not horrible!!! I will be there completely alone so the hardest thing is just going to be staying awake.

6 more days!

I hate that its Monday, because I don't do Mondays...or mornings for that matter. But atleast I am one day closer to being at the beach. With that being said I thought today's picture(s) would be from my 2007 Oak Island beach trip of a sail boat way out in the ocean and then up-close. Everything about the scenery of the beach/ocean is so peaceful and relaxing that I honestly can't see how anyone wouldn't enjoy it. I mean take me for instance, I prefer cold, rainy, snowy days to hot ones. Although I live in a place where its warm and sunny about 80% of the time. I still cannot wait to be at the beach, laying in the sun, listening to the waves, spending time with my family. Its going to be great!

a picture a day

I thought I would post one picture a day for the next 7 days of past beach trips to get myself in the right mind set for my 13 hour shift on Saturday night/Sunday morning. This is a picture of a Lipton tea bag in a seashell sitting on the railing of the porch of our beach house. Every morning for as long as I can remember my mom has had a cup of hot tea with honey in it. I drink it too except I put splenda in mine and I don't do it every morning. I do it at random times and typically only when its cold outside or unless I am just really in the mood for it. But for my mom that morning cup of hot tea is equal to most people's cup of hot coffee. My mom actually had me take this picture...she gets a child like excitement when she is at the beach. She loves it. And its quite contagious. Thats the one part of my mom's personality that I definitely inherited. I have a child like excitement in me too. Like when I see snow, when I see the waves in the ocean, when I step on the sand.....I guess thats a good thing to inherit. Keeps me young at heart :)

8 more days!!!

Only 8 more days til we will be at the beach. It kinda feels like its never going to get here but at the same time this weekend seems to be going by WAY too quickly. I have to work 13 hours before I can leave for the beach though. So I am going into work at 1am on Sunday morning/Saturday night, however you want to look at it. And staying til 2pm maybe 2:30pm. So every place I have ever worked at in the past you started the new year with a certain amount of time off you could take. Well at Labcorp we get so much time put into our personal leave bank (PLB) per week. So anyways I missed two days because it snowed, I took two days at my birthday, other days here and there. Needless to say I am about 18 hours negative right now. I cannot be more than 40 hours negative at any given time. So with that being said I have to work those 13 hours on the same week as I am on vacation so that I won't go over 40. Its pretty lame. Especially considering I still have like 60 hours or so coming to me this year after I take the 40 out. I tried to cut some kind of deal, like not being paid for some of my vacation time, it was shot down. Like working over time gradually and not being paid for it or adding it to my vacation. But human resources wasn't going for it. So I just hope I can make it those 13 hours. I will have plenty of work to do but I have never worked an all night shift. Especially not one starting at 1am. So Goodluck to me! I just have to remind myself it will all be worth it in the end. And with that I have attached a picture of my mom at the beach in 2007 enjoying her vacation.