New Cousins and Old Jobs

Last week I had the honor of being the only family member (aside from grandparents) to meet my newest cousin, Alexander Charles Pelletier, in the hospital. I was babysitting my cousin Becca- his older sister- for the couple of days while Rick and Drea were in the hospital with the new baby, and we went to visit both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings after Becca was done with daycare. He was a big baby, 10 lbs 7 oz, but he's adorable, and I love him already. I had a lot of fun watching Becca meet her new baby brother too, and plus, it's always fun to hang out with her, so all in all, a great few days.

Now I'm back up at the cabin enjoying the beautiful weather. We've had a couple of really nice days in a row here, and since I had yesterday off, I got to get outside and enjoy it a bit. Otherwise, I'm just working (picking up sticks and vacuuming the pool and all the good old stuff from last year), working on learning the guitar, and watching movies. I've been able to stay in touch with a couple of people okay, but unfortunately I misplaced my stamps, so my friends who are waiting for letters will have to wait a bit longer. My online class will start in about a week and a half, and I'll try and keep myself busy.

Love to all.

Oh yeah, and I think I may be taking a leaf out of Becca's and Alex's older sister's book (my cousin Vanessa who is in Swaziland volunteering with the Peace Corps) and typing up blog posts from the cabin and posting them whenever I get online at work. Okay? Okay.

Ready to Set Off

I'm all packed up (kind of) and ready to go. I have a few more things to put into my car, but I could leave in half an hour, give or take a little, if I really wanted to. But I'm planning on sticking around here until probably about 4/4:30 or so, since there really is no rush to get to the cabin. I work tomorrow, and the morning will be more than enough time to unpack and get settled. It feels so weird that I'm going to be up north for the next four months. Last summer was great, and I'm definitely looking forward to the coming months, but for some reason I feel a little apprehensive this time around. I'm not entirely sure why; it could be that I haven't had enough time to get bored here or that I'm going to hate not having the internet to use to talk to my friends or that it just seems like everything is moving faster and faster as time goes on. And I don't like that. It's been a bittersweet experience packing up my stuff from home and putting it away for next year, and to look around and know that in all likelihood, I won't be living here anymore. I'm excited but scared, happy and sad... Anyway, I'll be back in town next week to babysit Miss Becca while her little brother is arriving, but after that I'll be back to limited internet access. I love you all, and hope that your summers start off swimmingly! xo Rach

Packing

I haven't moved in the past eleven years (other than to school, but that doesn't count, because I could always leave stuff at home) and let me tell you, it's not something that I relish. I'm leaving for the cabin on Thursday, and I'll be up there until I move to school in August, but a major difference from last year is that other than Christmas break next year, I'll never be living at home again... if things go as planned. By this time next year, I hope to have been settled into my own apartment for a couple of weeks by now. Seeing as how that's what's on my agenda, I figured I could use the next couple of days to pack up everything in my room so Karen can move the rest of her stuff into it. Well, as you can imagine, it's not the easiest thing in the world. Not only do I have to unpack everything that I've brought home from school in the past few months and pack for the cabin, I have to try and sort things into categories: cabin stuff, school stuff, stuff that I really won't need for the next year, summer clothes, winter clothes, random things that I really don't know what to do with at this point. I only have two apple boxes that I can put stuff in, and somehow I'm getting the feeling that I'm going to need a few more than that! I keep thinking that I have everything out onto my floor, and then I remember that I have more stuff stored in my closet, downstairs, in my desk, under my bed... the list goes on. I sort of feel like this whole packing endeavor is a little premature, but other than Christmas break, I won't have time to do this anytime before I move. Plus, Karen should be able to have more space in this room, and this way I won't have to try and dig through her stuff to find mine. Oh, and there is a possibility that I'll be moving into an apartment over Christmas break next year, if I have a job that allows me to make rent by then. (That's because Erin will be in London for spring semester, and I don't really want to get assigned a random roommate for my last semester of college.) And besides, there's plenty of room in our basement to store my boxes, and there are definitely things that I will not use until I get into my own place. There's no sense in leaving them laying around to get ruined or in the way. Anyway, that's what's going on in my life right now, and I should probably get back to it or I won't have anywhere to sleep tonight. love!

It's Starting to Sink In

I'm sitting here at my desk, watching Friends, and it's just starting to hit me that the year is really over. Erin left this morning, then it was Laura, and finally Jordan early this evening. My room is super bare: I've got everything out of my room except for my clothes and stuff for the morning, my laptop, and my mom's guitar. It's insane to think back over the year and all of the things that happened. I wasn't expecting to graduate in May 2011 when I moved in in the fall, and I wasn't expecting to drop my Comm major to a minor and add a Psych minor. Okay, I really have nothing to say. I'm all jumbled up in my head, and nothing is coherent, so I need to be done. Sorry. More later when I've moved home and don't want to work on the re-packing process.

xo Rachel

Oh yeah! It's SNOWING! And it's really cold too... not much fun to move out of my room in this weather, but still kind of cool.

Adios Year Two

How odd it feels to be done with yet another year. I finished my last final about six and a half hours ago, and have pretty much been sitting on my futon watching Friends since then. I have my plans in place for the summer, and yet I just don't think I'm ready for it to start. I don't want to leave my friends, I want to stay living with Erin, I don't want Matt to go to Fort Jackson.... I just don't really like change and therefore this is not my favorite time of the year. I'm here until Saturday afternoon, with not much to do until then. I work both tomorrow and Friday in the office, and my mom's coming to pick up my futon and bike tomorrow, and then two Masses Saturday morning before the drive home. I haven't said any major good-byes yet other than Matt, but I'm going to have to start soon. Kelley's leaving tomorrow morning, and Laura, Erin, and Jordan are all leaving me Friday morning. Then next Thursday, I'm off to the cabin for the remainder of the summer. Next year at this time, I should be into my own apartment and getting ready to graduate. Now that's going to be weird!

I feel like the last few posts have been repetitious, so I'm going to be done now. I hope that your Cinco de Mayo is going well, and I'll see some of you soon! love Rachel.