Chilean Mistake

I had this long blog written but then deleted it all to keep it simply stated...I know, rare for me! Last night I came across this guy's facebook page and it's been on my mind all day!

This is Jose...He's from Chile (awesome)...met him last summer...great guy in so many ways...long story short...I should've spent more time with Jose. I had the chance to more but due to some stupid reasons I walked away... too early... for sure...If you ever meet Jose, tell him I'd love to meet him by that brightly colored flower pot where I left him one summer Greecian night. Hmmm.... :)

*** this picture doesn't do him justice...shout out thanks to facebook for changing those privacy features last year so I could stalk a little easier since no knew how to change them back. HAHAHAHA!!!!!****

THE END

(this might be deleted when I realize how stupid this is, ha! )

Almost 6 months-The Verdict

So I realized the other day that I get asked "Do you like it here (Atlanta)?" at least once a week when I either: talk to an old friend or meet a new friend. So I thought I'd take this moment to put it out there to one and all. YES! YES! YES! I love living in Atlanta! I knew I'd like it but I guess I didn't realize how much I like it. I'm a total believer in getting out of a rut routine now. However, not going to lie it's not easy but I'm so totally glad that the roads all finally worked out and curved my way to this big city. Obviously, the major straw was the loss of my job. This devastating event sucked, but it was also a swift kick in the rear to getting out of my comfortable routine of my old job and life. Next, Greece was obviously life changing enough to make me realize how big this world is and how many,many people and places there are! Curve, straight, right turn, left turn, straight, big hill, lots of bumps, straight shot and voila...Atlantian!

The best way to describe how I feel here is saying it's a breath of fresh air. (minus the smog from the traffic) I guess in Bham I was just oblivious to how little there was to do/grow personally there. At every event there was it was the exact same people, in the somewhat similar part of town at a somewhat similar event as the previous one. The great thing about Atlanta is there is so many options of stuff to do literally every day of the week. If you wanna go out to dinner...good gosh there's a gazillion places and handfulls of genres. You wanna do drinks specials after work...same thing! Just this Friday a friend invited me to a happy hour at a local brewery company. It was across town and I hesistated but when we arrived it was so fun and totally different from what I had expected!

I also have to admit that as a single person at the age of 29...I don't feel like an Old Maid anymore! There are people of all ages that are out in this town. Totally normal to meet a guy in his early thirties (i'm slowly dealing with the fact that this is my age group of guys) out on the town and him be normal. It's so refreshing to know that just because I'm not married doesn't mean I'm a total freak...and yes I was beginning to feel that way in Birmingham. I guess inside me I've just got some city girl in me and it comes out more and more now that I'm in ATL.

Now, don't get me wrong, my life has not be all peachy and rosy since I've been here. I've had the worst car luck in my life since being here. I'm making jacks**t at my job. I'm living with a girl who drives me a bit insane. (she's nice just annoying as hell). I miss my family a lot. Money is tight and should be tigher than I spend most weekends. I miss the comforts of Birmingham, knowing every bit of town, and every good/bad restaurant. I miss seeing some of my best friends kids grow up. I've gained weight b/c I never have time to work out. Driving anywhere takes more than 20 mintues. HOWEVER, most days those things don't bother me because I'm happy to be in this city! :) And if all those other things didn't bother me than my life would be perfect and we all know that isn't any fun!!! haha!!!

So yes, for all those who are curious! I like Atlanta a lot! Will I stay here forever...WHO KNOWS! Will I come back to Bham ever...who knows?! I will always love so many things about Birmingham and will always proudly call it home. And yes, someday I might come back there and I know I'll love it no matter what. But for now Atlanta and I are having a fun little affair. And I hope that it's an affair to remember! :)

Elementary Patriotic Show

So we've all been there we've all sung the songs and said the pledge every day of our school lives....in the elementary school show/plays. Well this weekend at the lake, surprise, surprise I was uber patriotic. This patriotism included busting out many American songs...mostly just God Bless America. My few lines I sang over and over was educational for Casey, so I felt my duty was accomplished. Did you know that the lines say white with foam?? "From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam" Great line huh? Many folks just mumble it. We also had to paraphrase for him the whole Francis Scott Key situation. Felt like I was in 3rd or was that 4th, grade all over again. haha!

So to my point...this summer many Europeans/Australians thought it was fun to try and name all the states, while drinking. Obviously I dominated at this but I amazed them most with my state song...alabama, alaska, arizona (ok I'll stop since you can't hear my ringy tune)So I was thinking about my upcoming trip to Montana. I've never been somewhere so outdoorsy, besides snow skiing. So I'm getting super pumped. In honor of the trip, which is really 3 weeks away. I'm listing all the states and if I've been to them. How many have you been to????

(Ennis, Montana, where I'm headed for a long weekend@ end of July)

Alabama- duh- yes
Alaska-no
Arizona- yep (ran my 1/2 marathon there!)
Arkansas-yes (barely)
California- yes
Colorado-yes
Connecticut-no
Delaware-no
Florida-yes
Georgia-yes
Hawaii-no
Idaho-no (but it's very close to Montana, I'll work on that)
Illinois- yes
Indiana-no
Iowa-no
Kansas-yes
Kentucky-yes
Louisiana-yes
Maine-no
Maryland-no
Massachusetts-no
Michigan-no
Minnesota-no
Mississippi-yes
Missouri-yes
Montana-on my way!!!!
Nebraska-no
Nevada-yes
New Hampshire-no
New Jersey-no
New Mexico-yes
New York-yes
North Carolina-yes
North Dakota-no
Ohio-yes
Oklahoma-no
Oregon-no
Pennsylvania-no
Rhode Island-no
South Carolina-yes
South Dakota-no
Tennessee-yes
Texas-yes
Utah-yes
Vermont-no
Virginia-yes
Washington-yes
West Virgina-yes
Wisconsin-no
Wyoming-no
Ok so you don't have to count them b/c I know you're curious...I've been to exactly half the states!!! 25!!! Pretty good for only being alive 29 years! I think I need to make a trip up Northeast to knock a lot off....who wants to join?? Hopefully my trip to Montana will knock out not only one but 2! How many have you been to? If you've flown Southwest I know you've all played the game on the napkin...or maybe that's just me bored on a flight to California. LOL! God Bless America and I'm excited to see some more of it!!!

Hair in the breeze...painful 4th ending

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. Mainly because it involves the lake and being a child that grew up going to the lake often during the summertime, my soul feels extremely happy any time I'm there. We headed up to Haley's lake house in north Georgia. Originally we had thought there'd be a big group, however, many backed out last minute and it was a small (wonderful) group. Haley, Mireille and I headed up Saturday morning and soaked up the rays all day. Haley's boat had broken the weekend before so we were limited to the jetski. Beth and Casey joined us too later in the day. I hopped on the jetski to take a spin around the lake, checking out the classy north Georgia scenery. Just felt so good to have the wind in my hair with a bit of a water spritz and the sun shinning bright!

We then began the skiing rounds. For some reason the waters were testing me the most as I swear every boat in Lake Hartwell came out while I was skiing for the first time in almost 2 years, since I didn't in Greece last summer. I have no clue how my legs handled it but my inner child professional skiing self came out and I dominated the mountainous waves! We even gave the wakeboard a good run and a 180 spin or two. Casey was super excited to be at the lake and was willing to drive us all day long if we wanted to ski that long.

That night we grilled out and drank some delicous cocktails and Coronas! I even ate a hotdog, which if I sit and think about is gross, but purely for the sake of America. haha! We scarily attempted some gas station fireworks from the dock...let's just say I think we're all happy we didn't end up with seared hair! LOL!

The next day I adorned my 4th of July spirited outfit to make breakfast. Then we got out early to beat the crazies! Another gorgeous day with amazing weather. However, the jetski was getting low on gas and Haley decided to take it out on one last spin. Mireille and I excitedly wanted to join. We had a great trip around the lake and were about to head back to the dock when I notice some little waves ahead. Nothing to be scared about really except Haley was going kinda fast but I trusted her, I just didn't trust the waves. If you know anything about boating you know it's all about the angle you hit the waves. Well, next thing I know I'm getting bashed by some heavy object then I realize someone (Haley) is on top of me and I need to get to the top of the water to breath. I pop up and pull up my hand which happens to be holding the kill switch. I realize the other girls are there and was totally in shock as to what just happened. Not to mention how I ended up with the kill switch when Haley was driving and had it on her wrist not mine. Next, the pain jabs me and I start to tear up. Apparently when we spun off the end of the jetski slammed into me and then Haley came after that. Needless to say we were all terribly shaken.

We find the jetski and slowly get back to the dock. Where I can barely more my lower back/hip area hurts so badly. Then I start to freak out remember that I don't have insurance yet.

***break-yes I know I need insurance and that's stupid...believe me everyone has told me that now. When I got the new job I had to wait and then I just got busy,blah, blah...i'm on it this week, don't worry*** So then I start freaking out that what if I have internal bleeding or ruptured my spleen ( i know 2 people that have had this happen to them, one of which died from it) Needless to say my trama ruined the mood and we all got a little worried that we were in the woods, not near a hospital,etc if something happened. So we packed up (well they did while I sat helplessly)and headed back to ATL with ice on my hip. By this point I'd done some research and was pretty sure it was just a really bad bruised hip.

(pre-accident shot)

I'm doing better today than I thought I would be. Still hurts pretty bad to go up and down stairs and I walk like an 80 year old. However, I'm so happy I didn't have to go to the ER without insurance. It could've gone really bad. So lesson for all out there...be very, very careful on jetskis and don't get too wrapped up in the breeze in the hair feeling it could be costly! Luckily for me it just cost us one less day in the sun, massive Advil, and a few ice packs. Hope your 4th was less painful.