3 Month Recap

I never thought life could be in a way tough and I was not fully expecting not to be settled down and knowing what to do with myself. When I got to a time when I could start to look for a job and a place I can call my own, I was already a month and a half into my new chapter. But I have found lots of warmth in the towns, lots of friendly people, libraries, parks, hospitals, and the ocean. In a month, I got to explore 3 different towns in connections to jobs and housing. One of them included spending two days at a library which for me was very eye-opening. I left home not sure if I wanted to go back to the career I had been involved with and ironically, being in a library and seeing a title of a book reminded me of a career field I had been interested years ago but was basically repressed. The book that could bring back memories was Career Opportunities in Forensic Science by Susan Echaore-McDavid. In the weeks leading up to that, I had been interested in computer science due to the Google interest of mine and saw there was a such a thing as computer forensic specialist. There is also a such thing as forensic nurse which a SANE RN would fall under at times. In those two days, I decided I would see if I could go back to college and pursue a degree I wanted to do. I have applied to a college and done something known as FAFSA. In September, I get to go back to school for an Associate in Applied Science in Computer Information Systems/Computer Science.

In the meanwhile, I have learned somehow some of the ins and outs of a coastal town where I can see the beach, a lighthouse, saw the annual July 4th fair, a concert put on by the local symphony, befriend the employment office, partake some of the different services offered in town, and whatever else you can find in a new town. To get around, I just walk since everywhere I need to go is close. The only time I am inspired to take the bus is when I need to go to a town over or a far distance such as one day I had to run an errand that was in a town that is a 45 minutes by car so took the bus which goes four times a day between the two towns which also meant being careful on your time and ensuring you don't get stuck somewhere you don't wanna be overnight or for too long! Several of the counties in the state I am in work together to make sure that it is easy to get between towns and have daily runs (at least 6 days a week and some buses do 7 days a week). Each town can have their own bus system that just stays within the town and does like a loop. Then there is a town that has 13 bus routes, then another one that goes between that town and the next town over which is about 4 miles over, and then a night route bus. In the summer, some of the routes tend to be changed meaning some routes have supplementary times which get closed down for the summer and then the night route gets closed for the summer break as well. That town has an university and a town to the east has a community college so there is another bus route that goes between those two towns. As you take the bus, you definitely get to learn more about streets, where things are located, where the stops are, and then see humans and see interactions between them.

Another thing that happens when you are on your own is definitely things like figuring out food, budgeting, housing (which might just not actually be a month to month deal), and in some places you might get to see tons of TV shows. Disney Channel is definitely very kids friendly and so is Nickelodeon. I have seen parts of Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. On some other channels, I have seen parts of Matilda (about a really smart girl), Puss in Boots, other movies I have no idea what their names were and one even reminded me of Tarzan but it was not cartoon/animated like. Other shows I have seen that were interesting were NCIS:LA, Law&Order:SVU, Criminal Minds, Amphibia, Friends, and Big Bang Theory.

On my own, I have discovered I do enjoy getting to a point where I feel like I am going somewhere and that does consist of grocery shopping. You might not find that a fun idea but you can always an element of challenge to it such as ensuring what you buy provides you balance meals or buying food within a certain price range you put together for that particular trip. Yesterday I had the chance to go what I like to say proper grocery shopping. Before I went, I looked up to see if the market had a weekly ad online for what was on sale. They did so based upon that I had an idea of what kind of meat I wanted to get and what kind of carbs I wanted to get (corn tortillas) which once I got to the store I changed my mind on the carbs but did get the meal which was pork chops. It's actually kinda fun to see how much food you can buy for a certain price. One week I was able to buy 8 1-serving packets of Ramen Noodles and 3 26-oz cans of soup for a total of $7. Yesterday I bought more balanced items of pork chops, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, shredded Mexican cheese, dozen eggs, and street tortillas (which basically means small tortillas and the size of what you might buy in Mexico from a street vendor) all for about $12.50.

Saturday I got to literally walk out of the place I was then staying in and see a festival and parade all on the street I was on and it was a blast along with great weather of 68F with a touch of wind. The festival consisted of the Fire and Rescue department helping children fish for trout in a makeshift pond, a face painting table, balloon making, SkyNet Studios with some of their card games, Charleston Marine Life Center brought along some of their skulls to show the kids, a music band, an English bulldog competition, and then around 1pm there was something called the Jubilee Parade. At 5:30pm, there was something called Jubilee Car Cruise which was a bunch of old cars lined up and did parade of their own in the city. The festival also included free food of hot dogs, multiple different kinds of cupcakes, ice cream bars, fudge bars, Pepsi, and Gatorade. It was the town's 116th birthday. Some pictures can be found at https://www.instagram.com/p/B0NA8nOn_Ac/?igshid=djj3i2716c90.