So I had been planning on keeping this blog going back here in the states, so all my friends from other places can keep up with me and read about what I have been up to. Sorry, I keep putting this off. It was a lot easier to keep in a weekly routine, a monthly routine makes procrastinating much, much easier.
Anyway, since the last time I posted, I have been really enjoying being back around the East Coast. 2 weeks ago, I moved down to the beach I North Carolina. I will be here for the summer working and enjoying the beach. This place is about 6.5 hours from my parents house in Pennsylvania. I have spent a couple of summers down here in years past, so I have a good base of friends and I know my way around well enough to make things fun. It seems like there have been waves to surf almost every day since I arrived here. I have been fishing some too, but I haven’t had much luck. It is nice to see all my old friends again, and it is always nice to be within walking distance to the ocean.
Before coming down here a few weeks ago, I spent about a month at home living with my parents… well really just my dad, since my mom has been working in Massachusetts. During the week, I worked with my dad, and at my old electrician job. I also worked around the farm a good bit to try and get my dad ahead of schedule before summer hits and he gets really busy. It was nice getting back into the swing of things with working. I have been working with my father since I was in elementary school, and I have been doing electric since high school, so I fell back into everything pretty easily.
Most of the work I was doing with my father was mulching and gardening around some of his customers houses. With electric, we had a bunch of remodel and renovation jobs, nothing too complicated or tiring. Around the farm I worked on a lot of different things. We had to do some excavating to get ready for some new construction, along with all the normal spring maintenance on fences and other stuff to make sure the animals would be happy when we let them out into the big pasture fields. There were also a bunch of babies being born. We had two litters of piglets, 3 calves, and a donkey, in the month that I was home. So I was able to keep pretty busy the whole time I was there. It wasn’t too hard to find some time for fun and socializing though.
I went to a few little house parties at some friends’ places. I was able to see a lot of people I had been missing while I was away. We went bowling one weekend, the next weekend we had a slip and slide party during a sunny afternoon. Another friend had a group over to watch the Mayweather v. Pacquiao boxing match. I was able to do some hiking, and hanging out at some of my usual spots around home. It was really nice to be back doing things with old friends.
I also got a chance to go striper (Rockfish) fishing with some friends on the Chesapeake Bay one day. My friend Luke was invited to go, and he talked his way into getting me on the boat too. We all took off work one Thursday, and left the house around 4am to get down to Annapolis, and on the boat by 6. We took about a 20 minute boat ride out to the middle of the bay and trolled around for about 11-12 hours. We were drinking beer, hanging out and catching fish. We did pretty good fishing. We caught 11 fish total, but could only keep 4. The rockfish size restrictions allow you to keep anything over 20inches, as long as it is not between 36-40inches. We caught 7 fish that were between 36 and 40 inches. It was a bit frustrating, but we had a lot of fun, and we had plenty of meat to share between the 5 of us who went out. I had a lot of fun while I was home, a baseball game, friends, parties, but that fishing trip was definitely the most fun I had while I was home.
Now I am down here at the beach. I plan to be here for a couple of months working. right now I have 2 jobs at different restaurants, and I am planning to help out some friends who run their own businesses when they need a hand. As I said, the surf has been awesome. Things are going pretty well. I had some visitors come down for the Memorial Day weekend, and we all had a great time. The weather had been perfect every day up until two days ago, since then it has been a bit rainy and cloudy, but that is all supposed to go away in the next day or two. Sometimes the rain is nice though because it gives me some time to rest and not feel guilty about it.
We had a sushi party the other day during the rain. Some friends had went offshore fishing and had really good luck so they brought back a bunch of tuna, and gave us a few big zip-loc freezer bags full of meat. I decided I would try out the sushi skills i learned during my time in the Far East…. It was decent, I am a proud gai-ginger.
Overall, life is good. I really have been missing my friends in Japan, but Greg and Claudia both sent me some packages with letters and goodies, which were very nice to receive. Elizabeth has been keeping me in the loop with what is happening in the office, and more importantly at the office parties. I am happy they all keep reminding me (mostly indirectly) to post something on here. I feel bad for slacking. I hope to keep things a little more up to date in the future. I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for reading, and feel free to message me whenever so we can all keep in touch. As I am writing this I am thinking of all the awesome people I have in my life and how it is kind of upsetting that I cant see everyone as often as I would like to. Have a great day everyone. I hope to hear from you soon.
