Hurricane Season is Coming

Welcome to Hurricane Season!

So I've already been here for four months? Umm where has time gone? Before I know it, it's going to be six months, and then a year! Slow down time!

Anyways, so four months. What have I been doing you might ask? Have I made any new friends? How's the job? Have I started anything with my photography down here? Have we stopped spending so much money? Have we checked off all our apartment furniture wants/needs? How is the apartment coming together? Have I become a Lightning fan yet? How's the weather?

Well, for starters, I joined a softball team! As most of you probably know, softball has always been my go-to for fun/stress relief/friends. So after having a few breakdowns (sorry Travis!), I was convinced to find an intramural team. And they're all great! I haven't gotten to hang out with them as much as I would like to yet, but as we're coming to the end of my first season, they have asked me to continue playing! I actually have my first tournament this weekend; guaranteed 3 games, possibly up to 5. Sounds just like the old days of travel ball! I'm glad to be on the field again, and I'm pretty sure Travis is glad I'm not sitting in bed crying anymore too. So softball was a great choice!

As far as friends go, I have my friends at work, and we have a couple friends from Travis' work, but it really is hard to make friends. A lot harder then I ever remember it being. It probably doesn't help that I'm tired all the time so I never really want to go out. I've been trying to work on that, but I just want to sleep every spare minute I have. I'm pretty lame. I think my daily work commute is really getting to me. It's hard driving 100 miles/day back and forth to work. But anyways, Travis finally found a fishing friend, and I have someone who might be able to convince me to go running from time to time once she moves a little closer lol, so we're working on this still!

Work. Where do I start? It's challenging. But I think I like it so far. Remember how I thought car dealers were difficult? Well, I didn't know what I was getting myself into working in the education field. I love the challenge, but like every job, it can be very difficult. My hardest challenge so far has been photography. We use stock images, much like every other company does, but my daily struggle is finding images that I love. I put way too much time into picking images for articles for my site (have I mentioned I handle the account for Michigan State University? Who decided to put the Ohio girl on that state? lol), and I'm about to start taking my own stock images. A girl can dream, right? But seriously, minus the drive, I like my job. I just wish I lived a little closer! I also switched hours at work. We were allowed to pick a "flex schedule" and I chose 7:30-4:30 to try to avoid some traffic, and so far it's been a pretty good schedule. There have been a few times where it seemed impossible to get here, but minus an accident or two, the commute has been a lot better than 8:30-5:30 and I'm getting home the same time as Travis, most days.

Up next: Photography. Well, let's just say, this place is gorgeous and I can't wait to have more clients, but for now, I have Lauren and Derek! I work with Lauren and I had the pleasure of photographing her and her fiance at the Ringling Museum. Which is gorgeous. Seriously, if you haven't seen the images, check them out.

I've been home a few times over the last couple of months to shoot some weddings for Nick and also I was just home for Zach's graduation, but I'll post about that later. The weddings so far have gone pretty good. My first wedding back last month was pretty hectic. I had my first overnight in an airport because I was stranded in DC, but I made it in time for the wedding. Then this past wedding was flawless, if you don't count the rain. I only have one more wedding to shoot for Nick and then my time with him is done. For now. I'm also working on coming up with a new name for Marci Duckro Photography and also a logo. More to come on that later when something is actually set in stone.

Money...no we haven't stopped spending so much. It's infuriating. I'm about to cut up my credit card. The apartment? It's starting to finally come together and I think we've got everything we could want. For now. We're slowly getting wall decorations, but indecisive Marci can't make up her mind on what she wants it to look like...so for now we have some stuff; see pics below!

I gave up on my door idea, bc they were too expensive, and got this instead!

As far as everything else we've wanted, I think (for the most part?) we've got all our furniture, however I'm still looking for a bike. Everything I need is within biking distance, so I've been debating between a mountain bike and a cruiser beach bike. I've never really been interested in a cruiser until I moved down here, and most of them have baskets on the front, which would be great for going to the grocery, but I still haven't fully committed either way.

Have I become a Lightning fan? Ummm not yet. However, if I was going to join a bandwagon, now would be the time to do it. Have you seen them against the Blackhawks yet?? But I don't currently have a hockey team that I root for, so I am up for bribes to root for said team. Any takers?

Last but not least, the weather. It's getting hot. And humid. But it's also now hurricane season. It rains almost every day like clockwork and we have had our air on for about 2.5 months now. Which breaks my heart because I really just want to have the windows and screen door open, but it's SO humid! We keep the house around 73, 74 and I walk around in sweats; Travis thinks I'm crazy, and when I wear a hoodie to work, most of my coworkers also think I'm crazy, but the AC is cold!! But back to hurricane season. I've been reading a lot about how experts are expecting it to be a more mild than normal season, however, the last time they said that, Katrina hit New Orleans, so I'm not holding my breath. We've also discussed a small evacuation plan. And by an evacuation plan, I mean I asked Travis where we would go if something were to happen, and he said probably to his parents house in Orlando. So if anyone wants to house two runaways and two puppies if we get hit by a hurricane, let me know!

For now, I guess that's it. Look out for a graduation post, as promised above and those of you that will be at Reunion Weekend this weekend, I will see you soon! #GoFlyers!