Well, we're married. As of a month ago. Yesterday.
Things are going well. We have a rather happy home--just the two of us and our cat! We've been getting our home in order. Mostly, we've concentrated on getting the kitchen together--setting up our new appliances and putting together a kitchen island. I'm gearing up for the new semester and Cassie is gearing up for her tax classes. Mostly, we're just relaxing and taking it easy. Cassie is crafting and I'm getting my new computer in order and generally doing things I like to do.
Of course, we've done a lot in the last month. After the wedding, we jetted off to San Diego for a week, which was beautiful. The first day we just lounged around the resort, walked the grounds, swam in the pool. The next day we headed to the San Diego Zoo, which is certainly one of the best zoos in the country. The landscaping is certainly creative--although it can get a bit confusing (we saw one path far too many times). That night we headed out to Coronado and saw the beach and (of course) the hotel. The next day it was to La Jolla and Del Mar. If there's one thing you can say about San Diego it's that it has beautiful beaches--so different from the beaches in South Jersey. La Jolla especially--probably because it doubles as a nature preserve--was just gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the next day we made the mistake of going to SeaWorld. I think we were both just glad that we hadn't ended up in Florida in Disney--neither of us can stand that much artificiality. Luckily, the Killer Whales were beautiful. I think Cassie could have spent all day just sitting there watching the whale swim. But we had to leave early so we could head out to the harbor cruise (which was my favorite part of the trip). We took a tour of the entire bay area. It was beautiful out on the water (and I took far too many pictures).
Finally, we finished up our time with a visit to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. This was an interesting experience--it used to be the Zoo's breeding area and they have expanded it to be a more natural environment for the animals--but it was unfortunate it was on our last day. If we learned anything from being in San Diego, it's that we shouldn't spend too much time in the sun--especially further south and in a place that never has any clouds!
It was too short a trip, but we had to head back to the east coast . . . because I had to prepare for my first professional conference. The North American Society of Social Philosophy was holding its annual meeting in Philly and I had been accepted as a speaker. It was an interesting experience and gave me a good idea of what a career in philosophy is like. In addition, two of my classmates won graduate student awards (Binghamton was VERY well represented at this conference--after all, it is one of our specialties)!
Since then, we've been up here putting things together and playing catch up on everything we missed during the month of July. But we're having a great time!
-Brandon
