Posted on August 29, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

This is Not the Blog You’re Looking For

I am a bad, bad blogger, going so long without updates. And for those who know some of what I’ve been up to, this post will be a disappointment, as I don’t have time right now to go over the details of last weekend’s escapade in blackmail. Because when your apartment looks like this…

…well, I don’t know about you, but I feel the need to put stuff in the empty boxes. The urge to pack is strong with this one…

I believe that much of my urge to pack stems from a strong desire to get out of this apartment complex. I’m pretty annoyed with them right now, since I found out that someone had been in my apartment fixing a pipe without my prior notice, consent, or any notice afterward, and when I went to ask the leasing office about it they first lied to me and said no one had been in there and then they BSed about how it was related to the water heater emergency (five days after the actual water heater emergency). Fortunately my dog was not in the apartment at the time, but I was still livid and couldn’t get it through the property manager’s head that coming into my apartment without my permission for a drip was not cool, and that no, the fact that she thinks that the maintenance guys know I have a dog is not any consolation.

Anyway, let’s talk about kayaking now. A week and a half ago, on Wednesday, I left work at 6PM and stopped for a BLT at Cook-Out.

…and then I drove to the REI in Cary, because Alison (who I went kayaking with at Lake Crabtree back in June) found out about a free kayaking and canoe class that was being held.

It was my first time at REI, so I wandered around and looked longingly at many things, like the Nalgene bottles, the running gear, and the kayaks. As I stood at the windows watching a huge storm blow in and waiting for Alison to arrive, I spied another co-worker enter the store. Turns out she was also going to the class. Who knew we were so adventuresome?

The class was held in the kayaking section, and we were squished together like sardines. The guy who sat in front of me kept leaning back in his chair and either bumping into me or getting all up in my comfort zone. Three-foot radius, man…

But Matt, the guy who taught the class, was very knowledgeable. I learned all sorts of things about kayaking and where to kayaking locally.

After the class was over, we discovered that Alison had not eaten dinner and I was hungry, so she took me over to a little shop called Coffee & Crepes and bought me some food.

They were getting ready to close (the class was over at around 8:30PM and the shop closed at 9PM), which may have accounted for the very long wait before we got our food. But when it turned up, it was good. This was my first crepe!

It was a nutty apple pie crepe with vanilla ice cream on the side…mmm…

I ended up not getting home  until 9:30PM.  I am so wild and crazy. I don’t know how I manage all these late nights.

But wait, there is more to discuss on the topic of kayaking! Yesterday was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Alison suggested we go kayaking again. We went to the Eno River and kayaked for an hour on the millpond part of it, which is very slow-moving. It was way different than kayaking on Lake Crabtree–it was gorgeous and there were little inlets to go explore. I kind of wish now that I hadn’t decided to leave my camera at home!

Afterward, we went to Moe’s, where we celebrated our mutual dislike of being greeted at the door by “Welcome to Moe’s!” by ordering tacos. I got a hard taco with ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. No, I will not call it an Overachiever. It is a taco. I also got chips with queso and a lemonade (my vow of abstinence from caffeine has resulted in some unconventional drink orders lately…).

And then, since we were right next door to REI, we stopped in and looked at kayaking things. I think it would be great fun to own a kayak, but I have major concerns about 1) having to get the kayak on the roof rack of my car by myself (they’re only around 40 lbs, but they’re bulky!) and 2) how goofy my little Suzuki would look with a kayak strapped to the top.

I am going to finish my dinner and get back to my de-nesting now. When I was at my parents’ house last weekend, my mom gave me her old 4-in-1 printer because I’d been thinking about buying a scanner so I could get rid of paper clutter. I’ve been a scanning machine for the past few days and now have  a large box of papers to shred and a tiny pile of papers to keep (mostly promissory notes from loans, test scores, and immunization records). Operation: Clean Sweep has successfully taken hold in my bathroom and I’m now working on the bedroom and master closet, where there is honestly not as much junk as I thought there was. And that is a very good thing.