Hey guys! I’m back!! And you know what THAT means….. time for another trip!!
Allow me to explain my recent struggles. The day I landed back in Canada after my trip to Asia with my Dad, my boyfriend Andrew sadly smashed my car Ruby (as I mentioned in the last blog post). Lucky for him, we have been together for over 3 years so we are too far in for me to leave him over this (just kidding!!!). My first week back home was consumed with car hunting and budgeting and planning. It was very stressful, full of tears and arguments and lack of sleep (added to the jet lag which was already hard enough). We weren’t planning on buying a car for another 6-8 months or so until all of my school debt was paid off, but alas, life is full of surprises! We finally decided on a really nice SUV and we are very happy with it. Another 15k of debt was not a happy thing though! I am very glad that my Asia trip was paid off before I even left for it. We sat down and made a huge budget for the next year and our plan is to be completely debt free by the fall so that we can buy a house! Not ideal for Haleigh’s travel plans though!
Ever since I got back from Asia, I have been working a TON of overtime. The hospital I work at is currently in a crisis mode due to the flu outbreaks in town so thankfully there have been many shifts to pick up. My pay checks have been much bigger than usual and I have been packing away the cash to put towards our car loan while Andrew finishes up his last semester of university. I’m already way ahead of our scheduled budget for extra car payments we calculated so that is awesome! It feels good to work hard and see those big numbers go down.
However, it is very difficult for a 25 year old girl who has been bitten by the travel bug and who also just got home from a month long trip in a warm climate to come home to the cold air and work every day! Every day I am online trying to plan a trip somewhere and then I close the browsers and have self control to be a responsible adult and continue to pay off my debt. We did do a quick one night trip to Duluth right before Christmas which was really fun, and we also went back home to Winkler for Christmas with my family which was really nice as well! But I guess I am just longing to go somewhere new and have a new experience. I’m currently trying to become a travel nurse and work a contract or two elsewhere in Canada before Andrew finishes classes this spring. I would make way more money and also be able to experience a new place for a couple of months. But things aren’t going as planned right now, as surgical nurse contracts are more sporadic than say Emerge or the OR. I have all my paperwork submitted and my references are all checked, I just have to wait for a contract to be the right timing for me and then I can go. We do plan on moving to Winnipeg this spring if Andrew gets hired there out of school, so I am thinking that this venture is going to have to wait until after we move, unless something comes up within the next couple of weeks!
The other day, I was about to book a solo trip to Europe with a tour group, that’s how desperate I was to get out of this town! I found a good deal on flights and a sale with a good tour group and as soon as I said it out loud to Andrew I realized how dumb it was. Yes, I totally plan on going to Europe soon and that is not dumb, but the timing right now isn’t good and it would be too expensive and I don’t want to do something like that alone, I want to do it with Andrew! …I’m all over the place!!!
So the other night, I was on break at work and called Andrew and he said we should check out how much a trip to New York would be for when he is on Reading Week. It’s also right after Valentine’s Day and right before his birthday. DONE! What an amazing idea Andy! (and a romantic one too 😛 ). It’s actually quite affordable and we can do so many things we have always wanted to do, all in one place! Within 4 hours I had a whole trip planned and shift change forms filled out thanks to a couple wonderful co-workers! Thank goodness because I have been going crazy with this need to go somewhere. I can’t even explain it, and people probably think I’m just being a spoiled brat, but I actually am craving to see a new place. Andrew doesn’t really get it, but I feel like I got it from my Dad because he is also always wanting to travel and lucky for him and my mom, they have the opportunity to basically go somewhere whenever they want, and they do! Goals! But I have been working really hard lately and I deserve to go somewhere! There is no shame in rewarding yourself with something you love.
Anyways, I feel like that took a lot of time to just say we are going to New York, but it felt good to type all of that out, so I guess you’ll just have to deal with it! 😛 We are going in February, in 3 weeks! I wasn’t going to blog about it but I think I am going to because I have loved going back to my Asia posts and re-living some of my favourite memories, and I also know that many people enjoyed following along.
We are going to be staying right downtown Manhattan beside the Empire State Building and here is a huge list of everything we are doing…
Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, Top of the Rock, NBC Studio tour of the SNL and Jimmy Fallon sets, Empire State Building, walk down 5th avenue, visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, go down Wall Street, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, visit Ground Zero and the 9/11 memorial, the museum of Natural History from Night at the Museum, Central Park, the MET, visit Grand Central Station, perhaps Chelsea Market, and…..Phantom of the Opera on Broadway!!! Dreams really do come true.
It’s going to be a packed 4 days but a great time nonetheless. Hopefully the weather is good when we are there and I can’t wait to see all of the places that I have seen in movies.
Stay tuned for blog posts from our trip 🙂
Thanks for reading!
xoxo Hales
The Tales Of Hales 