this will be long, i'm sure
So, ages ago, I wrote my life story up to that point. For whatever reason, I'm feeling inspired to write the next chunk of it today, so for anyone who is interested, here is life story part two.
Picking up from where part one ended, I was an OA again at the start of my senior year for the same freshman hall that I had lived on. I lived with Tala and Mel in an awesome Ludwell apartment, but Mel moved out after a month or so because she didn't like being so far away from campus. Tala and I rocked our triple turned double for the rest of the year, despite the occasional roaches. I spent the fall making out with random guys and trying to make the most of being single. I also applied to four grad schools: W&M, JMU, Rider and Rowan. Matt and I attempted to be friends, but it didn't work, and I haven't heard anything from or about him since winter 05/06. In the spring of my senior year, I started sleeping with Clauser . . . it was never a real relationship, but at the time I thought it was something I needed. I got waitlisted and later rejected from W&M, which completely broke my heart, rejected from JMU, and accepted to Rider. I somehow never heard anything either way from Rowan, so I'm not really sure what happened there, but anyway, Rider was pretty much my only option at that point, so I accepted. I graduated in May 06 with my BS in psych and a minor in sociology, and moved back to my parents' house in Jersey for the summer.
I had got a job working as a group specialist for ESF Summer Camps, but it was far enough away that I actually had to get a car to get there. Susan's father had an old jeep that he was going to fix up or do something with, and he sold it to me for $800. That jeep became the bane of my existence. It had lots of issues, and required several repairs that summer, including some that were the result of a minor accident I got in. It was also a stick shift, so I had to learn to drive stick, and had many frustrating moments of stalling out. I really liked the camp job, where I met Lori, and a bunch of other people who I didn't stay friends with. My co-counselor AJ flirted with me non-stop the whole summer, to the point where one of my bosses asked if we were dating when I had my evaluation. We didn't date, but we did make out a few times after camp ended. Besides that, we didn't stay in touch, and he didn't come back to ESF the next year. I also met two fantastic campers there, the Bermans, who were both the most amazing girls. Lauren is now heading to college this fall, which makes me feel old, but I'm happy and proud of her.
In September 06, I began my classes at Rider. Lynnie, who I'd been friends with in high school, had gone to Rider for undergrad, and was renting a house in Lawrenceville with a bunch of other people, so she asked me if I wanted to join them. I came up to see the house, met Kristian, and we became friends instantly. I moved in as the only single person in a house with three couples. There was just about all the drama you'd expect from seven people living in one house. I had a hard time adjusting to the lack of social life in grad school and was homesick for William & Mary a lot that fall. Briefly dated Adam, who I'd met on OkCupid, but we ended up breaking things off and staying friendly. At some point, I started babysitting to supplement my income from the Learning Center, where I worked as a grad assistant. Right before Christmas, my parents announced that they were separating, which kind of threw me for a loop. At the end of December, I started talking to Brad on OkCupid. By February, we were pretty much a couple, although there was no official asking out or anything.
In February 2007, I drove down to Williamsburg to visit all my WM friends I was missing. On the way back up to Jersey, I lost control of the jeep, hit a guardrail, and flipped the car, landing upside down. The car was totaled, and I split my lip open, requiring five stitches. Besides lots of really nice bruises, I was otherwise uninjured and consider myself incredibly lucky. A month later, my dad took me to the Nissan dealership to see what my options would be for financing a car, and I left with a used 2004 Sentra. That same night, I drove it to the bus station and left the car there, so that I could take the bus up to Toronto for my spring break to meet Brad in person for the first time. We spent the week in a hostel off of College St, and walked alllllll over the city. I told him I loved him the first day, and we were in a long distance relationship from that point on. At the end of May, after my first year at Rider was over, I moved back to my dad's house, because we weren't able to rent the house for a second year. I had my wisdom teeth out that month. Somewhere around that time, my stepmom moved out, taking my bed with her. I frequently felt caught in the middle of their separation, and my dad told me more than he probably should have about his feelings and issues surrounding that and his attempts at dating.
I worked at ESF again for the summer of 2007. Brad and I continued to visit back and forth every 2 or 3 months, and dealt with the long distance as best we could. In August 2007, during one of Brad's visits in Jersey, I ended up in the hospital with a kidney stone. At some point after that, thanks in large part to Brad's encouragement, and using the kidney stone as a jumping off point, I reconnected with my birth mom, Teri. I continued to be fairly unhappy with grad school - it was a lot of work, I felt isolated from all of my closest friends, and I didn't feel like I had a good support network much of the time. I also had doubts about whether I really wanted to be doing school psych, and would freak out about the amount of work I had to do at the beginning of every semester. I continued working at the Learning Center through my second year, as well as babysitting on the side. I spent most of the spring of 2008 trying to secure an internship, but was unable to find one in Canada or New York, and most of the ones I knew of in New Jersey were unpaid, which I couldn't do. I finally got an internship at TCI in July, so after a summer of underemployment and classes, I moved up to Bloomfield, and into an apartment with Lauren. The internship was a great experience, but it made me feel completely disconnected from school (and I'd already begun feeling burned out on school anyway). I honestly did not do very much work for my internship class that year, and think that my professor didn't really care because he was a WM alum, too.
Brad and I hit a big rough patch around the winter of 08/09. He was going through some personal things that were causing us to have a bit of a disconnect, and unfortunately, at the same time, I started flirting with a coworker. I was very confused about what I wanted, and there were lots of very emotional conversations. Eventually we worked through our issues, and came out stronger than ever. He told me at that point that he'd bought me a ring, as a way of telling me how serious he was about me, and I cried happy tears for the rest of the night. That spring, there was huge drama between me and my father, because I didn't want him to bring his girlfriend to my graduation. She'd been nasty and rude to me, my sister, and my stepmom, who was invited the graduation, and I didn't want my father's girlfriend there. He stopped speaking to me because of it, and essentially cut me out of his life. After a couple months or so, we were more or less able to work things out, but then he ended up getting stuck in Denver for a work thing and couldn't come to my graduation anyway. Brad came down, and my sister and stepmother were there to see me graduate with distinction with my Ed.S. in school psych.
I finished out my internship, then worked at Hi-Step summer program, teaching social skills to kids with special needs. The day after the program ended, I packed my crap in my car and drove up to Canada. I'd had an interview with the Peel District School Board, outside of Toronto, at the end of April, and it had gone pretty well. I knew they were interested in me, but at the time, we had not worked out all the paperwork that we would need to go through for me to actually start working. I was unemployed for six months, and hated Brad's tiny and dirty room in a townhouse he shared with a few horrible roommates. I got my fingerprints done and sent to the FBI to get a background check that was necessary for me to be employed by Peel. Had a few other interviews, but no one else seemed interested in dealing with the hassle of hiring an American. I attempted to get my work permit in November, but was told I didn't have all of the necessary paperwork, so I was given a visitor record and told I had to leave within a month. I spent that Christmas and New Year's in Jersey at Kristian's house, but came back to Canada in January 2010. Somewhere around early February, I finally got my FBI clearance back, and the ball was rolling for the rest of the paperwork I needed. At the end of February I got my work permit, and two days later, Brad proposed. We'd had the ring made and picked out the design we wanted together, so the ring wasn't a surprise, but I was very happy. I started work the first week of March, and was thrilled to finally be working and making money again.
In April, we adopted Aphrodite from her previous owners, and it was awesome to have a furry creature around. At the very end of April, Brad and I moved into our current apartment, which was worlds better than where we'd previously lived. Because I wasn't in contact with Susan anymore, and because my birth mom was so far away, a couple of really awesome co-workers took me wedding dress shopping in June. That same month, I also found out that my dog Bailey had to be put down, which was a really sad day. I was unemployed over the summer again, and we had no money, so things were pretty miserable. It was a huge relief when my work permit was renewed and I was able to start working again in September. Over the summer, I had a conversation with my father about the fact that his girlfriend was not invited to the wedding, because of the type and size of wedding we were having. He proceeded to throw a temper tantrum and cut me out of his life again, and also wrote an incredibly hurtful email full of spiteful comments about both me and Brad. We're still not speaking. The effects of my unemployment and our lack of money were clearly seen in our wedding in October, but despite the small scale, it was an incredible day. The people I cared about most were there, and I have never been so happy as when I stood there looking at Brad and committing to spend my life with him.
Since then we've continued our slow but steady financial recovery, and are in a much better spot now than we were last year. I've been working this whole school year, and will be renewing my work permit to start work again in the fall. I'm also almost ready to submit my application for permanent residence, which will be a big step for our future. And I think that pretty much brings us up to date. I'm sure I've forgotten to include some things, but this is probably long enough already. Maybe in another six years or so, I'll write part three of my life story.
Weeeeeeeee, long entry is long. Feel free to skip if you don't want to know tons of stuff about me, haha.
Picking up from where part one ended, I was an OA again at the start of my senior year for the same freshman hall that I had lived on. I lived with Tala and Mel in an awesome Ludwell apartment, but Mel moved out after a month or so because she didn't like being so far away from campus. Tala and I rocked our triple turned double for the rest of the year, despite the occasional roaches. I spent the fall making out with random guys and trying to make the most of being single. I also applied to four grad schools: W&M, JMU, Rider and Rowan. Matt and I attempted to be friends, but it didn't work, and I haven't heard anything from or about him since winter 05/06. In the spring of my senior year, I started sleeping with Clauser . . . it was never a real relationship, but at the time I thought it was something I needed. I got waitlisted and later rejected from W&M, which completely broke my heart, rejected from JMU, and accepted to Rider. I somehow never heard anything either way from Rowan, so I'm not really sure what happened there, but anyway, Rider was pretty much my only option at that point, so I accepted. I graduated in May 06 with my BS in psych and a minor in sociology, and moved back to my parents' house in Jersey for the summer.
I had got a job working as a group specialist for ESF Summer Camps, but it was far enough away that I actually had to get a car to get there. Susan's father had an old jeep that he was going to fix up or do something with, and he sold it to me for $800. That jeep became the bane of my existence. It had lots of issues, and required several repairs that summer, including some that were the result of a minor accident I got in. It was also a stick shift, so I had to learn to drive stick, and had many frustrating moments of stalling out. I really liked the camp job, where I met Lori, and a bunch of other people who I didn't stay friends with. My co-counselor AJ flirted with me non-stop the whole summer, to the point where one of my bosses asked if we were dating when I had my evaluation. We didn't date, but we did make out a few times after camp ended. Besides that, we didn't stay in touch, and he didn't come back to ESF the next year. I also met two fantastic campers there, the Bermans, who were both the most amazing girls. Lauren is now heading to college this fall, which makes me feel old, but I'm happy and proud of her.
In September 06, I began my classes at Rider. Lynnie, who I'd been friends with in high school, had gone to Rider for undergrad, and was renting a house in Lawrenceville with a bunch of other people, so she asked me if I wanted to join them. I came up to see the house, met Kristian, and we became friends instantly. I moved in as the only single person in a house with three couples. There was just about all the drama you'd expect from seven people living in one house. I had a hard time adjusting to the lack of social life in grad school and was homesick for William & Mary a lot that fall. Briefly dated Adam, who I'd met on OkCupid, but we ended up breaking things off and staying friendly. At some point, I started babysitting to supplement my income from the Learning Center, where I worked as a grad assistant. Right before Christmas, my parents announced that they were separating, which kind of threw me for a loop. At the end of December, I started talking to Brad on OkCupid. By February, we were pretty much a couple, although there was no official asking out or anything.
In February 2007, I drove down to Williamsburg to visit all my WM friends I was missing. On the way back up to Jersey, I lost control of the jeep, hit a guardrail, and flipped the car, landing upside down. The car was totaled, and I split my lip open, requiring five stitches. Besides lots of really nice bruises, I was otherwise uninjured and consider myself incredibly lucky. A month later, my dad took me to the Nissan dealership to see what my options would be for financing a car, and I left with a used 2004 Sentra. That same night, I drove it to the bus station and left the car there, so that I could take the bus up to Toronto for my spring break to meet Brad in person for the first time. We spent the week in a hostel off of College St, and walked alllllll over the city. I told him I loved him the first day, and we were in a long distance relationship from that point on. At the end of May, after my first year at Rider was over, I moved back to my dad's house, because we weren't able to rent the house for a second year. I had my wisdom teeth out that month. Somewhere around that time, my stepmom moved out, taking my bed with her. I frequently felt caught in the middle of their separation, and my dad told me more than he probably should have about his feelings and issues surrounding that and his attempts at dating.
I worked at ESF again for the summer of 2007. Brad and I continued to visit back and forth every 2 or 3 months, and dealt with the long distance as best we could. In August 2007, during one of Brad's visits in Jersey, I ended up in the hospital with a kidney stone. At some point after that, thanks in large part to Brad's encouragement, and using the kidney stone as a jumping off point, I reconnected with my birth mom, Teri. I continued to be fairly unhappy with grad school - it was a lot of work, I felt isolated from all of my closest friends, and I didn't feel like I had a good support network much of the time. I also had doubts about whether I really wanted to be doing school psych, and would freak out about the amount of work I had to do at the beginning of every semester. I continued working at the Learning Center through my second year, as well as babysitting on the side. I spent most of the spring of 2008 trying to secure an internship, but was unable to find one in Canada or New York, and most of the ones I knew of in New Jersey were unpaid, which I couldn't do. I finally got an internship at TCI in July, so after a summer of underemployment and classes, I moved up to Bloomfield, and into an apartment with Lauren. The internship was a great experience, but it made me feel completely disconnected from school (and I'd already begun feeling burned out on school anyway). I honestly did not do very much work for my internship class that year, and think that my professor didn't really care because he was a WM alum, too.
Brad and I hit a big rough patch around the winter of 08/09. He was going through some personal things that were causing us to have a bit of a disconnect, and unfortunately, at the same time, I started flirting with a coworker. I was very confused about what I wanted, and there were lots of very emotional conversations. Eventually we worked through our issues, and came out stronger than ever. He told me at that point that he'd bought me a ring, as a way of telling me how serious he was about me, and I cried happy tears for the rest of the night. That spring, there was huge drama between me and my father, because I didn't want him to bring his girlfriend to my graduation. She'd been nasty and rude to me, my sister, and my stepmom, who was invited the graduation, and I didn't want my father's girlfriend there. He stopped speaking to me because of it, and essentially cut me out of his life. After a couple months or so, we were more or less able to work things out, but then he ended up getting stuck in Denver for a work thing and couldn't come to my graduation anyway. Brad came down, and my sister and stepmother were there to see me graduate with distinction with my Ed.S. in school psych.
I finished out my internship, then worked at Hi-Step summer program, teaching social skills to kids with special needs. The day after the program ended, I packed my crap in my car and drove up to Canada. I'd had an interview with the Peel District School Board, outside of Toronto, at the end of April, and it had gone pretty well. I knew they were interested in me, but at the time, we had not worked out all the paperwork that we would need to go through for me to actually start working. I was unemployed for six months, and hated Brad's tiny and dirty room in a townhouse he shared with a few horrible roommates. I got my fingerprints done and sent to the FBI to get a background check that was necessary for me to be employed by Peel. Had a few other interviews, but no one else seemed interested in dealing with the hassle of hiring an American. I attempted to get my work permit in November, but was told I didn't have all of the necessary paperwork, so I was given a visitor record and told I had to leave within a month. I spent that Christmas and New Year's in Jersey at Kristian's house, but came back to Canada in January 2010. Somewhere around early February, I finally got my FBI clearance back, and the ball was rolling for the rest of the paperwork I needed. At the end of February I got my work permit, and two days later, Brad proposed. We'd had the ring made and picked out the design we wanted together, so the ring wasn't a surprise, but I was very happy. I started work the first week of March, and was thrilled to finally be working and making money again.
In April, we adopted Aphrodite from her previous owners, and it was awesome to have a furry creature around. At the very end of April, Brad and I moved into our current apartment, which was worlds better than where we'd previously lived. Because I wasn't in contact with Susan anymore, and because my birth mom was so far away, a couple of really awesome co-workers took me wedding dress shopping in June. That same month, I also found out that my dog Bailey had to be put down, which was a really sad day. I was unemployed over the summer again, and we had no money, so things were pretty miserable. It was a huge relief when my work permit was renewed and I was able to start working again in September. Over the summer, I had a conversation with my father about the fact that his girlfriend was not invited to the wedding, because of the type and size of wedding we were having. He proceeded to throw a temper tantrum and cut me out of his life again, and also wrote an incredibly hurtful email full of spiteful comments about both me and Brad. We're still not speaking. The effects of my unemployment and our lack of money were clearly seen in our wedding in October, but despite the small scale, it was an incredible day. The people I cared about most were there, and I have never been so happy as when I stood there looking at Brad and committing to spend my life with him.
Since then we've continued our slow but steady financial recovery, and are in a much better spot now than we were last year. I've been working this whole school year, and will be renewing my work permit to start work again in the fall. I'm also almost ready to submit my application for permanent residence, which will be a big step for our future. And I think that pretty much brings us up to date. I'm sure I've forgotten to include some things, but this is probably long enough already. Maybe in another six years or so, I'll write part three of my life story.
Weeeeeeeee, long entry is long. Feel free to skip if you don't want to know tons of stuff about me, haha.