Pheeew. My summer is done!

Summer is almost over… And I'm somehow happy about it!  Growing up, we never really had much of a summer. As a family, we wouldn’t go anywhere or do much in specific. Summers were just a lot of no-school days bunched together. Since we weren’t really allowed to hang out with friends, or leave the house except for school events (wish I was exaggerating), it was also awfully boring.  Videogames and books can only occupy so much of your time.

After moving to the US, summers for me meant work and/or school.  During HS, I took some summer courses as required, even though I was way over the credit allowance for graduation, and I was already a senior.  Instead of staying another year as the school advised, I crammed English I-IV and US History I-II plus some math and science courses into 3 semesters plus summer.  I was even grouped with middle schoolers during summer classes, which was... different.  But let’s not get into that.  After HS, college meant I’d spend my summers working.  Funny, I never had a penny in my name, as my mother took full ownership of those checks.  I didn’t even have to sign for any of them!  To be honest, money just didn’t exist for me.  Just work.  And that was better than the alternative of staying at home for days on end.  My parents live 1 hour from the beach, and I still have never been there… so much for excitement.  However, starting last year, my first summer out and away from my parents’ house, I’ve traveled 9 times and crossed into 11 states.  Going from zero to that is a bit exhausting!  But oh, so worth it.  I’ve met so many people and made some of my best friends.  Amazing what a bit of freedom can do.

Putting all of this together has given me an idea I wish I had thought about before all of those clean-and-purge exercises we’ve been having around the blogosphere: I want to start keeping track of these events in a photo album!  But since I don’t really take photos, it’d be more of a scrapbook.  I can’t make it quite as nice as the pros can, but I just want somewhere to collect all of these random pieces of paper trails (like airplane tickets and ride vouchers) and photos I’ve taken through my trips.  Every time I cleaned and purged and organized my few possessions these past 18 months, I’ve looked at these items knowing they should be trashed since I don’t have any use of them, but they bring such good memories.  So now, those that survived all the cleaning trips will have a home!  I am quite excited.  Too bad my photos leave much to be desired, but they’ll have to do.

Financially (I’m such a bad financial blogger), the only black eye in these past few weeks has been that auto insurance blooper from my parents, where I got stuck paying for it and not getting reimbursed.  That’s $220 that I could’ve certainly put to good use, but I’ve learned whining about it wont help.  Instead, I’ve gotten a few auto insurance quotes, and I think I know which direction I am going after September.  

Only problem with getting my own auto insurance is taking my car from their insurance and putting it exclusively on mine.  I’d still be working over the weekend and going to their house, which means they’re likely to be using my car while I’m at work or resting at the house.  I am not that familiar with insurance that much, but will that cause problems if they drive a car that is not on their insurance policy, but just under mine?

I’ve heard school is less than 5 weeks away.  That’s scary close!  And I’m not even going to school anymore, but wow did summer really fly by.  I’m ready to move to fall, but I guess I need to stop wishing summer days away and let everyone else enjoy the season.