Of Winds and Water: June Goals

Well, it's been a month. Things happened. I did stuff.

Farmers market. I went to…three?! And picked out a favorite. But there are also some pretty great roadside stands around here.
Go house shopping. Ugh. We’ve been looking at an average of 2.25 houses per week. Typically the good ones are off the market within four days of being posted, so even if we move fast it’s still not fast enough. Very frustrating.
Make a meal plan for clean, healthy eating. I did not do this BUT I have been more intentional about food and not counting several restaurant excursions due to visitors, I think I’ve been eating a lot better. I even skipped the free doughnuts at work today. Feel free to applaud my willpower.
Compile some photos to print out for our families. Photos taken, yes. Photos printed, no. So that needs to get done.
First visitors! My parents flew down, Kyle’s mom and uncle drove down on their motorcycles. Both were great visits and helped us explore the area and get acquainted with our new locale.
Avoid getting sunburnt. Done! There was one unfortunate day where I forgot to ‘screen up, but we spent most of our time in the shade so it worked out. We’ve got a beach day planned for tomorrow though, so there’s still time left in the month for me to fail at this goal!
Activities with new friends? Without getting too specific, goal = achieved. That being said, making friends is really difficult and talking to strangers – no, scratch that, making conversation with strangers is mentally tiring. But they will always be strangers unless you have those conversations and become acquaintances and then become friends.

So that was June. There were strong ups and downs this month, which has become a pattern lately – I don’t think I will ever say that this process (moving, making friends) has been easy, I can definitely say it has been very rewarding. I am really starting to miss the people that used to be constant presences in my life, but I don’t take for granted the massive amounts of sunshine or the way the wind smells blowing in off the ocean.

Enter July. It starts with a holiday and ends with prohibitive heat and humidity (or so I’m told). Here’s my list:

Drinks with friends! You know how some people leave a huge impact on your life with a small gesture? Well those people are passing through town next week and we’ve got plans to meet up.
4^th of July road trip. Details are being finalized so look forward to hearing more about this at the end of the month.
Get photos printed to finish off last month’s goal.
Keep the plants alive! One of the first things my HR person said to me was “Oh honey, your plants are all going to die – they can’t live in this heat!” A real positive experience. Not that I needed extra reason to keep them alive, but now that I’ve been challenged, IT’S ON.
More summer clothing! I picked up a couple things at Goodwill but I definitely need to stock up on some hot weather clothing.

It's the end of a frustrating week that ended with an equally frustrating trip to the bank where they refused to let me open an account because they couldn't verify my address despite me bringing in a check addressed to my new apartment, plus I've got the lease, water and electric in my name, etc, etc. And of course they're going to run a credit check on me before I can open an account; I've been handing out my SSN left and right lately, which is going to make financing a house a lot of fun. Anyone want my social security number? I'm sure there's very little about it that's "secure" at this point. Rant over, back to the fun stuff: