Driving Update and Birding

 Driving Session

   First things first, I've signed up for my first driving session with my instructor! It's set for Wednesday at 10am, and I know for a fact that I'm going to have to watch a bunch of YouTube videos to remind myself of how to drive. I'm not even sure I remember how to set up my mirrors correctly. I feel sick to my stomach with anxiety, since I've only spoken to the driver over text (although she seems super nice!) and I know I'm going to feel embarrassed about being 22 and not knowing how to drive. Although, I do understand that she must be used to this, since it's literally her job to teach adults to drive, but still.

Birding

all four feeders set up

    I'm also very excited to announce that my dad and I went out to get  a bunch of bird supplies! We got four bird feeders and a bunch of bird seed to hopefully see a ton of cool birds in our yard. We bought two little ones to hang up around the yard, a woodpecker one that's going to hang from a tree, and a hummingbird feeder. We haven't seen hummingbirds in our area in a long time, but maybe this will lure them back! Most of the time we spent in the store was spent analyzing a bunch of different kinds of bird seed, but we ended up settling on black oil sunflower seeds. We wanted to start simple and since we had no clue what we were doing in terms of bird food, it seemed like a simple enough food to start with. 

    My mom also found a bird feeder at a thrift shop, which will hopefully work great for the cardinals and blue jays! Apparently, they like to have a bit of a perch to stand on, which this bird feeder has. We're about to set them all up, so I'll share a pictures of the setup. I wasn't able to get the hummingbird feeder in the shot, but it's in a tree to the left of the one pictured. As you can see, the woodpecker feeder has already begun attracting birds! I'm very excited to watch even more birds come visit. 

Learning to Drive!

    I've finally started the process of learning to drive! I took driver's training near the end of school, later than people normally do, and I drove about 3 times before realizing I was much too scared to keep trying. Since then, I've relied on family, friends, and public transportation to get around and it's been very limiting. I finally felt the need, after graduating college, to get past my fear of driving. I'm hoping to become independent and I'm excited to be able to actually leave the house. 

    The first hurdle of this process was getting my permit so that I can sign up for adult driver's training. I spent weeks studying (especially while I was petsitting) and I was super nervous for no reason. I've always been a good test taker, so I really have no idea why I thought I would fail. Thankfully, the Secretary of State visit was quick and painless. Since I had taken driver's training in high school, I didn't have to do a lot of the paperwork I would've normally had to do. They also waived the 30-day practice period necessary before taking the road test, but that didn't really affect me because I knew I was going to need the practice anyway.

    Once I did all the paperwork, I took the written test. Both the road sign test and the general driving test were quick and easy. I think I got one wrong (it was a random statistic that they wanted me to know) and then I was handed my permit!! 

    My parents are planning to reach out to the nearby adult driver's training program to see when I can get signed up and whatnot. I'm super nervous for everything. I haven't been behind the wheel of a car in 5 years, and even then, I had a panic attack each time I drove. Needless to say, my driving experience has been pretty negative the whole time, so I'm nervous to get back into it. To be honest, I'm not even sure I remember how to drive in the slightest. 

    I'm glad that I've gotten the ball rolling in regard to gaining more independence, but it's a big change and I'm incredibly nervous to drive! Hopefully, a positive update on the situation is on the way!

 

Another Petsitting Adventure!

     I'm petsitting again this week! My friend is traveling back to Louisiana, so her family needs to me watch their pets while they all travel down there. They've got four dogs, four cats, a fish, and a gecko that I'll be watching for ~5 days and I'm both excited and nervous. I'm excited to hang out with their dogs and cats, but a bit nervous just because I'm not quite sure how to handle so many animals at once. I'm not too worried about the cats at all, mainly the dogs. I've always had at max, two dogs, so four dogs may be a bit of a challenge. I'm also really only nervous about their two Dalmatians since they don't get along very well apparently. They have a great pyrenees that I love with my whole heart and soul, so I'm very excited to hang out with him. I say all of this, but I'm sure it will go well! I'm just worried that the dogs are going to be too much for me to be able to handle. I also really hope I don't kill their fish on accident.

    I've returned from my lengthy petsitting journey! I'll say that as much as I love all of their pets, I think 5 days was probably the max for me. They weren't badly behaved or anything! They were all very sweet and snuggly, but they were kind of always in my personal space, which got a bit overstimulating at the end there. Mostly because it was harder to sleep with three of the dogs surrounding me, as cute as that was. The only incident we had was when the younger Dalmatian got through the fence to bark at the neighbors. Thankfully, she stopped basically immediately and the neighbors were very nice about it, so it wasn't too stressful. My friend's sister did have to head over to fix the fence, which was pretty simple. 

    I really did love hanging out with all of their pets and I'm glad that they all seemed to really like me, too! It was pretty chill aside from that fence incident, so I had a lot of fun! I got to hang out with a bunch of dogs and watch the Olympics.

my friend's great pyrenees, aspen

    As much as I loved the 5 days of petsitting, I was very glad to be back home with my own dog at the end of it. The dogs that I watched were relatively high energy, or at least higher energy than any of my dogs have ever been, so it was nice to hang out with my lazy puggle. I'm very glad to have spent the last week or so with so many animals! It's always nice to be around new pets and to help someone out. I think next time, I might not do so much petsitting back-to-back, just because of how tired I was after it all, but I think it was still a lot of fun!

Petsitting for the Family

    I got the opportunity to dogsit for my aunt and uncle for a few days this week, and I'm super excited about it! Not only do I get the house to myself for ~3 days, but I get to hang out with their dog and cats. I'm pretty happy to get some time to myself to just hang out and not do anything. I am going to have to take their dog on walks everyday, which I'm not excited about when looking at the 85-90 degree weather coming up...but it must be done. 

    I'm writing now after having gotten home from the petsitting and everything went great! I love their dog, Ruby, so much! She's so sweet and well-trained and the walks were no problem at all. It was very hot but thankfully, that meant that she didn't want to be outside for long. The cat, Squirt loved to snuggle up with me and hung out with me the entire time I was there. Their other cat, Chloe, is a bit skittish, so I had to lure her out with tuna to even find her. Basically all I did while I was there was watch YouTube videos and hang out with the animals. It was a pretty relaxing and chill time, nice to get a change of scenery and to get some alone time! Nothing too exciting to report, but sometimes that's a good thing. Hope you enjoy the cute animal pictures and I was glad to have a chill couple of days.

Ruby smiling for the camera

Squirt snuggling up

Friends at the Cabin!

    I recently had my two best friends, Devin and Jordyn, over as an early birthday celebration for Jordyn! I was super excited to have them here, as neither of them had ever been to the cabin before and we had planned a few fun activities to do. We decided to go to the local petting zoo, make clay figures, and swim! We even had a little cookout with hot dogs and brats and the weather was fantastic, not too hot or humid. 

    The first thing we did when they got here was the cookout, as they had both had an hour long drive and none of us had eaten yet. We all ate outside and chatted and my friends showed lots of love to our dog. Then, we decided to go to the local petting zoo, which I was very excited to do, as they had apparently added more exhibits since the last time I had been there.

    We got there and immediately went to buy food to feed the goats. The goats are some of my favorites and they're a petting zoo classic. They all run at you once they see you carrying a handful of pellets and fight for your attention, which I find very cute. My favorite animals there are definitely the capybaras! They are so adorable and I loved watching them swim around in their little pond and socialize. Aside from capybaras, I feel like the prairie dogs are the next best thing at the zoo. I love watching them scurry around and play with each other!

chubby prairie dog eating

capybara taking a stroll

    After we had seen all the animals and checked out the gift shop, we headed back to go swimming. While waiting for my parents to get ready to swim, we decided to make a couple clay figures. We took inspiration from a recent TikTok trend, and all created our own versions of each theme. The ones that I did that I think turned out the best were my rat and my octopus (they're on a paper plate because the clay stains...bad).

my clay figures

    Swimming was uneventful but relaxing. We took out a couple of floatie things and just hung out, chatted, and splashed each other a lot. Afterwards, we all dried off, got into comfy clothes, and made more clay figures. Doing this craft made me realize how much fun it is to make art without being stressed out about it looking perfect. Even if the mushroom I made got stained by a bunch of other colors, we had a good laugh about it, and there wasn't any pressure to make masterpieces. I'm not a very crafty person, but this silly clay craft was fun, especially with my best friends!

    At this point, it was quite late, so we all headed to bed. They left early in the morning and I went back to bed basically right after they left. As much as I love hanging out with my friends and having fun together, a day-long hang out basically used up all of my social battery and let me a bit tired. Anyway, I had an absolute blast with both of them and I'm really glad we were all able to make time to hang out!

Home Alone and Hanging Out

     My parents left for a couple days to go to a funeral service, so I had the cottage all to myself for Tuesday and some of today. Unlike the massive parties my parents joked about me having, instead I spent most of the time playing on my Xbox and cuddling with my dog. 

    Today, I woke up at 5am to the sound of my dog whining at my door. I muster up the energy to let her outside and I sat out there with her for a bit. It's a great day out today, nice and warm, but not too humid. My dog, Zeva, loves the sun. She's the kind of dog that stays outside for as long as she can get away with. She basks in the sun, even getting up to follow the sun beams as the time passes. I used this time to take off her pesky harness and give her a good brushing. Her three favorite things in the world are getting pets, getting brushed, and getting to lay in the warmth. 

puppy napping in the sun

puppy posing for a pic

    My parents just got home and we're preparing for my two best friends to come over tomorrow! It's my friend Jordyn's birthday this weekend, but we won't be able to see each other then, so we're having a little get-together tomorrow instead. We're gonna have a small cookout with hot dogs and brats, go to the local petting zoo, and hopefully go swimming! I'm very excited, although a bit nervous, to hang out with them. I only say I'm nervous because I don't really enjoy hosting, as it feels like a lot of pressure even though I know my friends aren't picky. I'm looking forward to writing about it, since I haven't seen the other friend in a bit.

    At the time of writing this, my family and I just got back from a boat ride. The weather today is fantastic, perfect for taking a leisurely ride on the pontoon. Nothing too exciting happened, but it was nice to be out in the fresh air. We did catch a glimpse of a pretty big snapping turtle, though! 

snapping turtle swimming away

    I'm excited to update on my hang-out tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

Fridges, Fish, and Friends

New Fridge Fun

    The last few days have been relatively uneventful, just a lot of work in the house. First of all, we got a new fridge! We've been wanting a new fridge for a long time since the one we had was literally in this cottage since we bought it. It also wasn't big enough for us and we knew a more modern fridge would be a much-needed improvement. My mom and I had to transfer everything from the fridge freezer into the bigger freezer we have for a bit, so that nothing would thaw in the time my dad was installing the new fridge. Overall, it's been a great investment. Having a way to alter the temperature is great and the new fridge just has so much more space! My dad still has to connect it to the water line for the ice/water dispenser, but that's not high on the priority list.

Errand Adventures

    My mom and I also went on a bit of an adventure the other day. We had to run a bunch of errands: heading to the laundromat, grocery shopping, and picking up prescriptions. I'm not going to bore you with the specifics of all of that, although I will say that having to go to the laundromat to do our laundry is incredibly inconvenient (and it takes so long!). After we did all of that, we made the decision to pop in to the local library, which I've never been to. I was very excited to get a library card and thankfully, I was already in their system from my previous library! 

    The library we went to was much more modern than my hometown library and had many more books available. My hometown library still physically stamps books, instead of using the RFID check-out scanners that I love. The library also gave me a 'new customer' folder, with the library's event schedule, instructions on how to log into their app, and a free movie rental ticket! I felt a bit like a new student, holding my little folder while I strolled through the aisles. I wasn't on the hunt for any book in particular, but I was searching a bit for one of those mass-market cheesy romance novels (think Nora Roberts, Johanna Lindsey, etc.) I've always kind of made fun of them, just because I never expected them to be very good, but I've been watching a lot of Bridgerton lately, and felt drawn to try a book like that. 

    I didn't find exactly what I was looking for (mostly because we had groceries in the car, so we didn't have much time), but I did check out two books. They were both the size/vibe of those romance novels, but one is a mystery and one is a mystery/romance. I haven't started reading them yet, but I'm very excited to. I'm also excited to visit the library again, since it has a lot to offer! They rent out outdoors-y stuff like kayaks and bikes, along with board games, lawn games, and arts & crafts kits, so I'd love to check all of that out at some point. 

library books i checked out

    When we got home, my dad had just gotten back from fishing. He cleaned them, de-scaled them, then filleted them for a fish fry dinner. I'm a big fan of fried fish, especially if it's homemade. My dad cooked all of it, then we had a little feast! Don't mind the beer in the photo below, I tried it and it was terrible. I always think beer is going to taste different than it does, but I'm always shocked at how gross it is to me. I thought it would go well with the beer-battered fish, but I think I just have to accept that I'll never enjoy the taste.

fried bluegill dinner

Fun Times with my Friend

    As I'm writing, I've just gotten back from a weekend at my best friend's house at our hometown. I had a ton of fun hanging out with her and I got to hang with all of her wonderful dogs! I helped their family take down their garage sale, then we headed in to chat. I love my friend, Jordyn, because even if we haven't seen each other in a bit, there's no awkward moments and we always have something to talk about. Whether it be silly dog stories, family drama, or simply day-to-day events, we always find a way to have something new and interesting to talk about. We ended up going out to eat to our local Chinese buffet, and I loved every minute of it. We didn't talk for basically the entire time we were eating (we were both starving and the food is so good), but it was so nice just to hang out with her. We ended up talking mostly about the Olympics, which I'm incredibly excited for. We hung out for a bit there, then headed back to her house.

    We ended up hanging out with her dogs for a while and watching YouTube videos. At this point, it was around 9pm, so we were kind of winding down for the night. Around 11, we took the dogs out one last time before both of us headed to bed. Jordyn's beagle-dachshund mix cuddled with me all night (she's so sweet, she melts my heart) and we had a nice Taco Bell breakfast while she dropped me off back at the cottage.

    Overall, I would say a couple fun days of hanging out with my friend and a successful library trip make up a pretty good week for me! Having a fish fry with the family is always nice, too. 

    

Thrifting and Treats!

    I just got back from thrifting with my mom, aunt, and little cousin! I'm not a very good thrifter, but I really enjoy going anyway. I have a hard time looking for clothes because I'm never looking for anything specific. I tend to get a bit overwhelmed, especially if the thrift store isn't organized in a certain way (I'm partial to color and size categorization).

    One of the stores we went to was pretty large, but didn't seem to be organized in any particular way. It's clothes were also rather...retro. Needless to say, I didn't end up buying anything here, but we were probably here the longest just because of how large it was. I spent most of my time in the houseware/crafting section. I don't need anything for the house nor am I a crafter, but I always seem to gravitate towards those sections nonetheless.

   The place I ended up spending the most was the local Salvation Army (which I would never even go to if it were my decision). I'm mostly just not super interested in an organization that had controversies related to being against the LGBT+ community and is based on evangelism. Although, I guess I did give them seven dollars. I guess I felt it was worth it to go against my morals to buy the things that I did.

    I ended up leaving the Salvation Army with an empty Pokémon card tin, playing cards for my collection, and a coloring puzzle book. This may not seem super interesting to most of you, but I love Pokémon and have no place to put my cards, so I thought the tin was perfect. I also have a rather hefty playing card collection and the deck I found was the only interesting one I found there, so I just had to grab it. The coloring book was honestly just for fun. 

see-through martini themed cards!

    After our long thrifting adventure, we decided to go out for ice cream at a local ice cream stand that we'd never been to. This place had twenty-one (!) different hot dogs on their menu and dozens of ice cream flavors. I ended up getting soft-serve tiramisu in a cup along with a shirley temple (one of my favorite drinks). The ice cream flavor was pretty mild, which was slightly disappointing. If they had told me it was vanilla, I would've believed them. But they made up for it with the four maraschino cherries they put in my shirley temple! 

chalk drawings near the ice cream stand

    We then picked up a pizza on the way home and my extended family left once it started to rain. It was a very long day - we were out from 11am to 6pm - and I basically went straight to bed after we all finished eating. Overall, a very successful and fun outing with the family! 

Last Firework Show for the Lake

     Yesterday, our neighbor from across the lake held his first firework show! My dad had him borrow his fuses and his firing system to help him wire up his grand finale. They worked for a few hours, which was mostly my dad showing our neighbor the ropes of how to set everything up and how to deal with technical stuff. 

    Apparently, our neighbor had several people at his house to help him, since he hadn't started putting the firework show together at all until the morning of. So, he had a lot of work to do before the 10pm show. All day, I caught glimpses of him and his helpers from across the lake, puttering around the yard and organizing everything. 

    When 10pm rolled around, they let off a couple fireworks, then had a bit of a pause for some technical difficulties (happens to the best of us!). Thankfully, it was quickly resolved and the show started up again. When we did our firework show, we always set it up so that there's a consistent firing with hopefully no breaks, and then a grand finale. Since our neighbor was hand-lighting everything except for the wired-up finale, his was more like a bunch of mini grand finales in a row, which I thought looked super great!

my favorite fireworks!

    We got to watch his show from our own boat, which was nice because to be honest, I really didn't feel like leaving the house that day even if it was to watch fireworks. And we got the best view of his show that way! It was fun showing support for someone else's show and to be able to help out someone else on the lake.

Fourth of July Weekend Festivities!

The Fourth

    Two days ago, my family threw our annual 4th of July party at the cottage. We had around twelve other people here, including my best friend (!) and we had a fun little cookout!

    My dad puts together a big fireworks show every year that the whole lake comes to watch. My brother and I helped set up the show a bit during the day, moving boards of fireworks or getting tools for our dad. He always spends most of the party setting up the fireworks, since it's a whole lot of work to wire everything up correctly and get it all situated.

part of the firework setup!

    

    Everyone else went in groups of ten to go out for pontoon rides to check out the lake and several of us went swimming. I'm not a huge swimmer, personally, but my friend that came gave me a choice between going kayaking or swimming and I much prefer swimming. I haven't swam in the lake in a long time, but I had a lot of fun! The water was super nice and it wasn't too hot, so my friend and I just floated around and chatted for a while. 

    The food was great, too! My dad smoked some pork shoulder for pulled pork, as well as some ribs, which all turned out fantastic! My brother and I worked together to cook a pasta salad kit that was really good, and my mom set up basically everything else. We did something new this year, where we had a little table set up outside with all of the plates, napkins, and cups, while all of the food was inside. We usually have everything inside, but then we've noticed it gets a bit too cramped and people have to go in/out of the house a lot, so this new setup worked great! 

    After playing games and eating food, it was time for the fireworks! It got dark around 10pm, so we all got situated in our lawn chairs and got ready for the show (after a quite frantic five minutes of trying to fix a catastrophic technical difficulty). Our show was around twenty minutes long, including an amazing grand finale! Cheers and boat horns were heard from across the entire lake after the last firework and everyone congratulated my dad on completing yet another incredibly successful show.

grand finale from my perspective

    

    We did find out, after inspecting the leftover fireworks, that many of them had failed to go off for some reason. My dad also pointed out a pretty big issue that we had. Apparently one of the mortars that shot off exploded before even leaving the tube, resulting in a board splitting right in half! We were incredibly grateful that it didn't knock anything over, which would likely have sent fireworks directly at us...

catastrophic mortar failure

The Fifth

    The fifth was relatively uneventful, composing mostly of cleanup and relaxing after the previous day of hosting. Another family on the lake put on their own firework show at around 10pm, which we went on our pontoon to go watch. We hooked up with our lake friends' boat, chatted, drank sangria, and watched fireworks from across the lake. Their show was a bit longer, likely because they hand-lit a lot of them (the rain from earlier in the day had messed with their electronic setup), but it was still a great show! 

    It was a completely different experience watching fireworks from that far away, since we don't have a very good vantage point for our own fireworks. I'm sure that's obvious from the earlier photo, what with all of the smoke and tree cover.

our neighbor's grand finale

The Sixth

    Today was a relaxing day with a belated 4th of July boat parade that we participated in! It started at around 1pm and everyone took two laps around the lake with their freshly decorated boats. The weather was fantastic: warm, breezy, and not too humid. My dad got even more cheers and congratulations from passing boats, thanking him for the great show he put on.

boat parade!

    

    This whole weekend was filled with family, friends, and fireworks! I had a wonderful time and I hope everyone else who celebrated had a great holiday! 

Welcome to my Journal!

Hello all! I have recently moved in with my parents while I get on my feet after college, and have fallen in love with the little lakeside cottage they've taken residence in. 

I've decided to chronicle my time here, which may include birding, boating, rollerskating, and other activities I partake in. While this time at the cottage is meant for me to get out in the world, get job experience, and learn to drive (which I have still not done by the age of 22...more on that in the future), I believe it will be good for me to be in such a relaxing environment. 

I've dealt with mental health issues my entire life and I hope that this busy, stressful time will also include times of tranquility and self-exploration to share. 

There are many things I'm excited to write about and I can't wait to share my life on here! Thank you for listening and I hope this journal of mine brings you some joy! :)