The End of September

September marks my first full month in my new state of residence; in fact its been over five weeks since I made the very long drive out here to begin this new exciting phase of life. Mid August to the end of September is kind of a crazy time in general for me as far as important life events go and so adding in the excitement of moving halfway across the country and the ongoing drudgery of trying to procure a job has really pushed this month and a half to its limits. These past five weeks have been interesting, exciting at times, deathly boring at others, and full of new life experiences.
Since I've already updated you on the not so exciting or successful job search (which is still on-going), I thought I could also share about some of the more enjoyable activities I have been able to do since moving here.

For those of you who don't know, my birthday is in September and so to celebrate my 23rd year on this lovely planet, Kevin and I went to a local apple orchard and cider mill. We went in the early afternoon in the middle of the week so we had almost the entire place to ourselves. There were four or five different types of apples being picked at the time and we decided to try and grab a couple of each. We picked Jonamacs, Galas, Cortlands, and MacIntosh legally, and despite my misgivings we may have also snagged a few Golden and Red Delicious that we passed by.

The Country Mill which is located in Charlotte, MI also makes their very own donuts and cider on site which we were able to sample after we finished gathering our half a bushel of apples. I was especially fascinated by the cider tap which we used to fill our gallon jug of cider; both the cider tap and its contents were amazing. After the orchard, we went home and cooked up some dinner and the ended the night with some desert and candles. I opted out of cake for my birthday, and instead we made an apple crisp and just stuck the candles in the frozen yogurt. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.


In a more recent adventure, I was able to have my first Michigan fishing experience. I have not had the opportunity to fish at all over the past few years, except for a few random attempts at the Camp Shawnee pond which were entirely unsuccessful. So I was super excited to be able to spend my day with Kevin on Lake Ovid at Sleepy Hollow State Park to celebrate our one year anniversary and to finally test out my new fishing pole. We rented a small row boat and I can now say that I have somewhat mastered the skill of controlling a row boat. I will admit that we spent a good five minutes going in circles until I figured out the whole steering part, but I did eventually manage to get it under control. According to Kevin, fish like 'structure' so we parked our boat near a dock in a small cove and spent the rest of our afternoon there fishing. He was right because the fish never stopped biting and we even managed to catch five, albeit very small, fish between the two of us.

My First Fish

Hopefully, October will bring a whole new set of adventures, mainly the beginning of my nursing career. That is one adventure I am completely ready to take on at any moment.