AC and TV aka "The Good Life..."

Today I spent the most worthwhile $200 of my life. I bought a 5,200 BTU window unit air conditioner and a 20" TV. I bought them both out of necessity. The AC unit is designed for a room much smaller than mine. However the humidity over the past few days has made every bit of cool air that I can pump into the room precious.

The room I am in is a studio apartment which means that the only truly private area is the bathroom. It is a decent size and has a modest kitchen. The water pressure is OK and everything seems to work. It's not all a bed of roses though...

The downside is there was no AC and the traffic noise from Hempstead Turnpike. The window unit air conditioner solves both of those problems it cools the apartment off and the sound from it drowns out the traffic noise. So it serves a dual purpose. As for the TV being a necessity...

My roommate is moving out and taking his TV with him of course. It seems our differing schedules is a bit too much for him. I am a night owl as many of you may attest to. He goes to bed early(read:pansy) and is a light sleeper on top of that. I suggested he invest in earplugs and a blindfold. Instead he has decided to leave so he can have a private bedroom.

It seems he and I are able to share a parking spot with our motorcycles but not an apartment. My roommate from last year might have had the best idea by getting a place off campus. But I got the next best thing, a room on campus to myself...

I don't wanna jinx myself (cause they could move someone in) but I knew 2 people who had doubles to themselves all year last year after a roommate failed to show up or moved out. I will cross my fingers and hope for the best..

All in all it's good to be back in school. As always the people are the best part of being back. The work is just that "hard work" but it is good for the soul. The classes I took this summer reinvigorated my desire to be a lawyer. It seems they also helped my GPA jump up to a 2.72 and probably 15-20 spots in the rankings.

I just realized tonight that I have a 3 day weekend coming up because of Labor Day. I haven't made any plans but maybe I'll head up to New Hampshire one last time before it gets cold again. Maybe I should stay in town and get some studying done. I'll check the weather and sleep on it...

Back under way...

School has started again. That explains my lack of recent posts. I'll try to update later tonight with a real post...

Home of Clam Chowdah...

I have made the 270 mile trip up to New England to visit my Yiayia & Papou (grandparents). They are doing well for being in their 80's. I hope I make it to their age and am doing at least half as well.

It was a long ride broken up by the Cross Sound Ferry which takes 80-90 minutes. The weather couldn't have been better if I had asked for it. The traffic was great, I was doing 85 and still getting passed by cars left and right.

Even bigger news is that my student loans finally got approved. That is nice especially seeing as classes start 1 week from today. The hoops they make me jump through are no fun, but still a small price to pay for getting my education.

I get to relax up here for a few days before heading back to the hustle and bustle. Welcome back to the House of Pain...

If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere...

I have made it back safe and sound. Tomorrow I get to wake up in the city that never sleeps and find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap, A#1...

I missed the bright lights big city. Dave will be happy to know that I had a Sabrett as soon as I got to Penn Station...

Tomorrow I will be riding my motorcycle up to New Hampshire to see my grandparents. I can't wait to take Yiayia to church on Sunday...

Classes don't start till next Friday. That means I have a little bit of time to get settled in and catch up with my friends...

Goodnight to all and to all a goodnight...

Riding with the folks...

Well my time in Arizona has come and gone much too quickly. There were too many people that I didn't get to see. Just to name a few Drew, Randy, April, Trish, and Shawn. There are more people that I didn't get to see, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. My visit was much too short, but I guess that just speaks to how much I love Arizona and all my friends and family there...

I made 2 major trips while I was in the southwest. Both of them were with my parents and both were an absolute blast. The first trip I made was to a horse ranch just across the border in New Mexico. Now some of you may already know about my irrational fear of dying in New Mexico. For those of you who don't know I have avoided New Mexico for the past decade or so because I have this feeling that I can't explain. Keeping that in mind I may have been pushing my luck by riding around on animals there that weigh 5 times what I weigh...

I had a great time there though. My mom, my cousin Merel, River (son of my mom's friend), and I loaded up a couple of my mom's horses and drove out to Glenwood New Mexico. The ranch we stayed on was so nice and we all had a great time. As you can see from the picture above they even managed to get me on a horse for the first time since I was 11 years old. I guess riding on a horse shouldn't bother me too much because over the past 12 years my mom and I have had an equal number of accidents on our respective horses (mine is a steele horse)...

My other big riding trip was with my dad. We rented a couple of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and headed north. I got to ride a "Fatboy" and my dad rode a "Heritage", they are almost identical except I think the "Fatboy" wins on style points. If I can get some pictures I took from my cell phone or from Julie I will post them here...

We went up to Sedona by way of Jerome. It was one of the greatest rides I have been on in a long time, all the switch-backs were exhilarating. For the first time since I was 19 I scraped the footpegs taking a turn. That means I was leaning so hard into the turn that my footpeg was touching the ground...

We spent the night in a Sedona hotel and woke up to some of the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen in your life. We stopped for the breakfast special at the Bee-line Diner in Payson. For a while we weren't sure the trip would come together when it did it sure was worthwhile...