On my own again!

I'm officially on my own today. Momma left this morning to head off back to 105 degree weather! I must say, I'm happy that's not me. I'm actually really enjoying the cool weather here.

Some things I absolutely love about Seattle:

There are always things to do. Everybody here hikes, kayaks, snowboards and plays intramural sports! Ultimate is huge here, for that I'm extremely excited.

Everyone is very friendly and willing to help. I moved here knowing nobody and I already went out with one girl named Courtney. I was invited to a pool party. And I meet new people every day.

Seattle is a green city! Everything is organic. Most people take the bus. There's tons of gluten-free bakeries. Fresh fruit and veggie stands everywhere. 24 health food stores AND 24 hour grocery stores. Kick ass! How many times has it been 10pm and you're saying, "crap, Publix is closed!" Used to happen to me all the time, so this makes me quite happy!!

It's so easy to get around everywhere without a car. The bus and water taxi system are simple. Yet, I've never ridden a bus so the complications for me are a little greater. I tried the other day with my mom. It was an epic fail. I found the right route, which buses to transfer to and where to walk to get on the bus. I failed to figure out how often the bus came and which side of the road I was supposed to be on to actually get on the right bus. Oops.

It's absolutely, breathtaking gorgeous. Don't you wish you lived here?
Jealous?

I still haven't found a place to live, but let me tell you! Some of the options are like going to college and living in a fraternity house all over again! Hell no I'm not doing that. I'm currently debating about paying out the butt for this one house because I love the guy and he has a hot tub! Woo hoo! And then I just got an email from a guy in the area I really want to live because it's close to the businesses I've been applying for, so I still have yet to see that place. I found one house in a GORGEOUS location. Like whoa...I was absolutely amazed. Only problem is that it is about 30 minutes from the city. I'd rather live closer and not have to commute as much, especially if I do get one of the jobs I've applied for. I really hope I get one of them! Most of the jobs I've applied for are salary positions at either hospitals or the cancer research facility doing research! I know!! It's the job I've always wanted. I'm not holding my breath though. I don't need to be let down again. Well, anyways...it's almost 8am here and we're about to head out to Pike's Place Market to buy some fresh fruit and veggies from the local farmers here. I absolutely love the food here. I can't wait until people come up to visit to show them around!

No Hand Hugs in Seattle

We figured it out! We’ve been through eleven states on this trip! What? Did you read that right? We’ve officially traveled through more than one-fifth of the country. Well, in the last two months I’ve traveled through 18 states. YEAH BUDDY!

Pray to whoever you believe in as to why when I walked into the giant Church of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake that I wasn't struck dead on the spot wearing a low cut short dress. If I had known we were going to a temple, I might've dressed a little more conservatively, but needless to say, I didn't know. It was a very gorgeous place, but the people weren't really my type of people and I didn't have a lot to say. I just admired the general splendor.

The drive from Salt Lake to Pendleton, OR was just a hassle and a half. We were so tired of being in the car and that just made the short…8 hour trip unbearable. Pendleton, OR is a small, Podunk town off the side of the highway. We stayed at what some would call a less than special hotel called the Relax Inn. Mom thought we were going to be eaten by bed bugs or killed by the trucker sitting in his underwear eating chicken and drinking milk with his blinds wide open. The room was not too bad though. Two beds, not too shabby, an actually clean refrigerator. We were in walking distance of like 5 restaurants and like 17 bars! The only downfall to this small town was the fact that every one of those said restaurants closed at 9pm. We arrived in this small little town at 8:45pm hungry and ready to eat. Too bad, so sad. We did end up finding a restaurant with 10 minutes to spare and ended up eating there. It was a really nice steakhouse called Hamley’s. I ended up having this pasta that was phenomenal and momma had baby back ribs. Yum! We each had a glass of wine…loopy. Went to sleep back at the killer hotel/motel place and got woken up at 5am to Jack calling us about my grandmother being in the hospital. It’s okay, don’t worry. She’s doing fine, just chilling in the hospital for the time being. No reason to be worried. But in this time, we both woke up and ended up being really tired that morning because of the little sleep we did get.

Only 5 hours from Pendleton, OR to Seattle, WA! Woo hoo! On the way we stopped at Starbucks and hung out for a little while. It was actually kind of funny because my cousins have a summerhouse in Seattle and we were going to stay with them, but none of them keep their cell phones on, so we were driving to Seattle blindly without knowing where their house was. I ended up searching for it on Yellow Pages while we were at Starbucks and we prayed that it was the right address by the time we actually pulled into Seattle!

It was so beautiful! This is my new home. Absolutely gorgeous! I can’t believe I chose this place to live. Once we got here we finally got a hold of my cousins and found we out we were on the right street, wrong house. Nice! The house is wonderful and I wish I could stay in their room upstairs, but sadly they already rented it out come August 20. However, I am allowed to stay here until I find a place and even might be able to stay in their friend’s basement room if I still don’t have a place by then! That’s wonderful.


I did get to go see two houses after I got here. They were absolutely AWFUL! It would be like living in a frat house all over again. What the hell? It’s like 8 bedroom houses with two bathrooms and there is no way in hell I’m sharing a bathroom with 4-5 guys! No way! I did go to another house and meet a lot of the people that lived there, but that house wasn’t exactly clean either. Afterwards, we came back to my cousins and had dinner and watched Zombieland. Yes! My two cousins, Evan and Nathaniel then went into a tense discussion about what to do and what to stock up on during the zombie apocalypse. It made me laugh the moment Evan said during his finals last year he had already created a playlist with his friends at Brown to listen to when the zombie apocalypse comes about…Brown kids. Give them a break. What else would they be doing?

This morning I woke up around 9am freezing. I’m not even kidding! It was so incredibly cold here. It was almost 50 degrees this morning and I was in shorts and a t-shirt with only a small blanket over me. I was so not prepared for that! It took me like 2 hours to warm up. I can’t wait for winter. I have to say I’m only unprepared because all of my “cold” clothes are packed in Ollie. I don’t believe in winter, summer, spring and fall clothes; I have cold clothes and warm clothes. I went to visit another house today. The guy’s name is Chris and his in the navy. He seemed like a great guy, very outdoorsy and extremely nice. The room is kind of small, but I also would get the sunroom across the hall as my own. I could turn it into a guest room/closet, which could be nice! He also has a hot tub! Hell yes!!! I could totally be down for a hot tub in the middle of winter here.



We also went to downtown Seattle today and walked along the waterfront and also went to Pike’s Place Market. I thought my friends would love the fresh markets here at Pike's Place because of this sign. Let’s just say there’s a lot of things I’ll need to get used to living here. First off, if a car pulls up right behind me on a hill I need to learn to not peel out driving forward up the hill. Second, there are stoplights letting one person in at a time onto the highway. Third, I’m in desperate need of learning how to parallel park. I practiced today outside my cousin’s house using her trashcans and mailboxes as the cars and I might have run over the trashcans, but I thought I did very well despite that minor obstacle. I will work on these over the next few days. Next time you see me I will be a hill driving, parallel parking god. You can bet on that!

Karma, Shooting Stars, Sunsets and more

Unfortunately I do this all the time. Lots to catch up on because either the internet won’t work or I’m much too tired. So, here I am at 2am your time trying to work on these blogs…just for you. I know you’re all so helpless without knowing what’s going on with me and my life, because as you all know, I’m the center of the universe.

So, we drove from Denver to Salt Lake City. Colorado was actually very pretty past Denver. Not saying Denver wasn’t gorgeous, but the mountains around Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen were exceptional. Exceptionally challenging that is. You try driving Ollie fully loaded up and down mountains! Not an easy task. He chugged along though and eventually we made it through to the other side. I don’t exactly know quite how exciting it was on the other side, however. Utah was…the best state ever! I absolutely LOVED Utah. I don’t think I’ve ever literally jaw dropped, but I did at the breathtaking beauty of this desert. I’ve seen deserts before, but nothing can compare to the landscapes of the Arches National Park.

I swear the entire time driving this day I was comparing the scenery to different movies, TV shows and books. We had Fear and Loathing (of course, but only because it was Bat Country), Seven (where they leave her head in a box on the side of the road), Wil E. Coyote and Road Runner (with all the different tunnels and bridges), Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller (if you’re not into Christian books just look past it and focus on the here and now aspect), and Macon County (yet again).

Oh goodness was it a drive though. I think it was because this was the leg of the trip I was most excited for. I couldn’t wait to get to Arches National Park. It was the one stop that I had planned. If you could have imagined more breathtaking beauty I would’ve died to see it. After a 3 mile hike to the Delicate Arch, I stood under it claiming that I’ve seen what I have of the world and this was by far the most beautiful. Plus, what’s a little beauty without a little danger? Come on! Who wouldn’t do a handstand on the edge of a cliff underneath the most gorgeous rock formation one could possibly see?! Crazy? Maybe. Mom didn’t quite make it to the top, but I give her props for hiking with me in the 105 degree heat of Utah with only one water bottle. I did meet the cousins of the Goo Goo Dolls, Robbie, at the top. Kind of random and crazy, but they did offer to get me backstage and a picture with him if I went to the concert in Buffalo. Hey, you never know!

After we finally got back to the bottom it was sunset, so we headed to the Balanced Rock and I took some pictures of the rainbow in the storm and once we got a little lower down we stopped at a viewpoint and took some fabulous pictures of the sunset. I laid on top of Ollie and just admired the general splendor of all the different shades and hues of color. The blues of the sky, the purples of the mountains, the reds and oranges of the rocks. By the way, I didn’t think it was possible to take that many pictures of rocks, but my mother found a way. We finally got back to the visitors center around 9 to get some bottles of water and head off to Salt Lake where we stayed at the sketchy hotel.

Of course, let’s talk about this again.

Karma. Okay, so apparently this is how it goes. I have to drive in the rain and the insane twisty, turvy downhill roads in Ollie in the dark and my mother has to drive in the construction areas. Fair? You’ll think that until you hear that we decided to trade off paying for gas every other time. Well, it seems to be that every other time varies in price drastically. Every time I buy gas it’s around $2.50; every time she buys gas it’s around $2.90. Karma’s a bitch isn’t it?

I think by far the most spectacular, amazing thing on this trip was while we were driving through the desert in Utah, I saw a shooting star. This was not just any shooting star. It shot across the entire sky radiating brilliance. And to top it off the tail end of this shooting star was a bright neon green. I’ve never seen anything like it and probably never will again. How’s that for absolutely amazing?

I’m trying not to be Sleepless in Seattle here, but I need to go to bed to attain the anti- of that status. So, here’s to you Floridians (and Meghann)…I miss you all.

Not a Real Post

So tired from today and so many amazing pictures and things that happened. However, my mom left her camera in the car, so there will be a great post tomorrow with pictures when I have the capacity to actually understand the words I'm typing. With great effort you did not just read cpaocity to atucpally unvderstand...Yes. That tired. I-70 still continues to be the worst road in the history of roads, but I-191 comes a close second. Stupid F'ing mountain roads that wind every which way, down, up and have faint white and yellow lines to show you where the road actually is. I made this trip in the dark! Who designed this road? Someone please fill me in because they should be hunted down, tied up, gagged and made to drive their road at night in a Semi.

Stupid mountain roads.

Many souls were lost on I-70

If you weren't aware, it rains insects in Kansas.
Missouri doesn't believe in state roads having numbers and apparently learned their "AA BB CC's."
Colorado has no mountains when you enter it.
And we rejoice in making it over the Colorado border to finally be out of a 10 hour continuous scene from "Macon County Line."

Let's start with the fact that this morning we were in Nashville, TN. Mom wakes me up saying "It's 6:30. Let's get up and get moving." I waited like 20 minutes, changed, and packed up my stuff. I checked out of the hostel and got in the car. This is the first moment I have looked at the clock. I'm dead tired because of our evening out prior to this ungodly hour. So, glancing down at my phone I realize what mistake has been made and why I happen to be falling asleep sitting up. No, it's not 6:30. It's 5:30. Be sure to tell everyone you travel with that if they are going to be your alarm clock, make sure the time change between zones is made!

So at, what is now 6:00am, we head off to St. Louis, MO. Only a six hour drive of which I slept most of the way to wake up for the Arch. We walked around St. Louis for a bit. Walked down a street completely flooded...which apparently happens. Just another day in the life of a Missourian.

We ate lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and got free Spumoni ice cream! Heck yes! That's when you know it's an awesome restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to pay for parking twice because neither one of us realized just how close the restaurant actually was.

Karma. We all know how it works. You knock on wood whenever you know somebody said something they shouldn't. Let's talk about how my mother has apparently never heard of this concept. It's my turn to drive as we leave St. Louis. In the car she proceeds to state, "You know it's great that it hasn't rained." I caught her! I told her to knock on ANYTHING. I couldn't believe she'd even bring up the "unmentionables." Rain and cops. Two things that should never be spoken of on a road trip. Now she's gone and jinxed us.

We hit some traffic on the road, of which the rubbernecking was rightfully so. This truck BLEW UP! The entire cab and contents of the truck (on the opposite side of the barrier) had caught fire and burned. The firetrucks had already put it out, but man was that insane! I've never seen anything like it. This is the point in MO/KS that we hit what I'd like to call one of the worst storms I've been through (Thanks Mom). Of course, I had to be the one driving. It couldn't have been her that got the bad juju. At one point, she turned to me and asked me if I wanted to pull over and wait the storm out; of which, the entire time she spoke I was hydroplaning. Awesome! <--That's complete sarcasm if you weren't aware. I did end up driving through it and once we were in KS we saw a truck that had obviously hydroplaned and flipped several times landing in the opposite direction against the barrier. All in all, the jinx definitely paid due. Kansas...crappiest state ever award. There's nothing there, the road goes on for almost 500 miles and it just seems like it'll never end. The only upside to it was the gorgeous sunset and the windmills. There were so many of them!

However, we did play a roadtrip game that I played as a kid. On your prospective side of the road you count cows. You end up fighting over how many cows you have. But you must keep the cows alive. If you pass by a river, they drown. I had a couple hundred cows and we passed by a prescribed burn and all my cows died in a fiery death. Then the remaining ones that might've survived with third degree burns were drowned in the lake not 500 feet away. I have horrible luck. The rest of the ride the cows were all on my mother's side of the road. But I did have some bison/ram/buffalo looking creature that totally kicked my mom's herds of cows butts! Now let's talk about some serious boredom. We spent almost 18 hours in the car today, but now were in Denver.

I saw a sign coming into "Colorful Colorado" that said " Correctional facility: Do NOT stop for hitchhikers." I pretty much entertained myself with how hilarious that was. Currently it's 1:30am here in Colorado, but it's 3:32am at home. Or I guess I can only say Florida now since Seattle will be home. Still getting used to the idea, but the idea is only vague. I don't think it'll hit till we get to Washington. No anxious butterflies yet. Only pure excitement to finally get there! Time to get some sleep (not sitting straight up in a seat). Oh, Comfort Inn...I hope you're comfortable.

The Big Bang Bar

Nashville is quite a bit different than I expected. I don't know how much I really thought about it, but the amount of "Boots and More" stores was ridiculous! Country music really does overrun this city.


We ended up walking around Broadway this evening. Passed a bunch of country bars with live music and ended up eating at this microbrewery called Big River Brewery that is the sister restaurant to the Gordon Biersch that Jenna and I went to in DC. I didn't even realize it until I looked at the menu, which to me is kind of insane!

Then, we were walking along and I saw a sign for a dualing piano bar. Come on! We all know how much I love listening to a guy play piano. Now add another guy and a slight battle between who's better and who can play what song. It's one of my favorite places to go. This bar was called The Big Bang and one of the piano players was gorgeous. If ever any of you end up in Nashville I highly suggest going to see Justin Nault. He was a fabulous piano player, extremely nice and willing to play whatever song came to my mind. I have to admit it was a little strange walking into an empty bar and having two men (named Sam and Justin!) play just for my mom and I. But I loved every minute of it. Turns out Sam is one of the partial owners and they also have one at our next stop in Missouri. Crazy! Not the best of endings to the night, but we didn't end up having to pay for parking (which happened to be fourteen dollars!!!) so there's a plus there. Moving on...so quickly, to St. Louis tomorrow and then to as far into Kansas as I can push myself for the night. I love visiting new cities and meeting new people, but I really wish we didn't have to rush when I actually found people I liked here in Nashville. But it's all about the experience, right? At least I got to meet them.

You're the only Ten I See.

After a ten hour drive, we have now arrived in Nashville, Tennessee. Sitting in the Music City Hostel Office working on this with 5 other travelers like myself watching the country music station (of course). I accidentally left my camera in the room and the HORRENDOUS heat index outside here is deterring me from walking the 50 feet to go get it. So, you'll have to wait on the pretty pictures on the drive through FL, GA and TN. Actually, it was like 5am when we left this morning so I didn't even say goodbye to FL. Just drove through like any other normal trip...

I feel like the temperature here is way worse than Florida, what the hell?! It feels like 105. We were going to walk around the city. SO not going to happen now!

Drive wasn't too bad. Saw one of my few florida sunrises to send me off on a great note. The sun was beautiful rising over the grassy farms with just the right amount of mist hanging over to cast a radiant brilliance around the highway for the first few hours. Being dead tired, getting about 3 hours of sleep and driving on the highway at oddly normal hours wasn't really my top choice in things to do, but it was easy. It was a different feeling being on I-75 driving through Atlanta. I was there not even a month ago! Deja vu like none other. It's entertaining realizing that I just made this trip not too long ago. Not the same trip in any way.

Ollie's doing fine. I know you're all worried. He's alive and kicking it old school listening to Marcy Playground, Third Eye Blind, Collective Soul and other hits from the 90s. We've already gone through 2 of my playlists, so if you have any favorite driving tunes, let me know. I need to make a new playlist for the next 40 hours of this trip...oh goody

Packed

My Essentials













A Nissan Altima, named Ollie if you didn't guess, needs to eat all of my "essentials" in order to make this trip to Seattle. I can't live without my mattress pad, shoes, and computer stuff. If I had been driving alone there would be no doubt in my mind that all of my stuff would have fit in the car, but sadly I am leaving a lot of the stuff that I was intending to bring, so that I didn't have to unnecessarily buy things. Unfortunately, Ollie is a bit on the small side and needing to house two people for 5 days-- not going to happen!

Here is Ollie packed, but not full. He still has yet to consume the most dangerous and highly edible of all ingredients in his five day chomp fest- my mom and me.

Stocked full and ready to go. I'm waiting on the last minute laundry items to be dried and for my friend Jimmy to come over and see me before we head out. We're trying to decide whether to leave as soon as my laundry is done or to wait until early morning to head out. I'm thinking morning just so that I can get some sleep before I have to drive all morning! Hopefully there will be wifi in Nashville and I can keep you all updated. We're staying at the Music City Hostel. Yes, I said it! Hostel. I know for all of you who have seen the movie, the idea might be a little daunting. I promise you, however, that they are nowhere near that scary. And yes, they do have hostels in America. People travel here too! What a ridiculous notion to think they are only in Europe...not going to lie, I might have had the same thought.

Well, off to see America one ungodly hour in a tiny trapped car at a time.

Why Seattle

I feel like there is so much I have to get done and absolutely no time to do it. My days have been fully packed, pun intended, with saying my goodbyes to friends, getting my affairs in order and trying to find a place to live and a job on the other coast.

I know everybody's question has been "Why Seattle?!" So, here's my answer: I hate Florida. If any of you have listened to me over the last few years you know that I couldn't wait to graduate and get the hell out of Florida. I love the beaches; I love my friends; I love my family, but that's not enough to make me stay. I've always had a knack for adventure and it's been a dream of mine to move somewhere where I didn't know anybody to try and figure the world out on my own. I quit my job at Bubba Gump's about two months ago, so being jobless, living at my parents, and doing absolutely nothing with my time meant that I needed to move on. Because how pathetic does that sound?!

I started off by looking for apartments here in Pinellas, but that meant trying to find a job here. I just didn't know if I wanted to continue on the path I was on. So, I looked into North Carolina. I love it there! Everything about that state attracts me, but I've been there so many times. I lived in the southern version of it for the first few years of my life. If I'm really going to change the path I'm on I think it needs to be a 180. In turn, I decided to look into apartments out of the country. Morocco, New Zealand...but that's ridiculously hard to find jobs. And then, I can only stay for months at a time because of the hassles of work visas. Here's where you find me about this time last week. Pacific coast? Why yes! I've had friend after friend take the journey cross-country and love every minute of it. First ones to Las Vegas, others to San Fran, San Diego and LA. I want to follow them, but like I said, I wanted to start completely new. Portland and Seattle were my top two choices and from what I've heard Seattle is amazing.

Seattle. Beautiful, picturesque landscapes. Wonderful, laid back people. A whirlwind of activities and jobs galore. I have a few jobs I've been looking into. Photographer, office coordinator & bartender for an event venue, nanny. Basically anything to give me a paycheck because I'm not starting off with a lot of money. Practically nothing, actually. Oh well! There's more of an adventure for me. I have to learn to stand on my own two feet within the first two months. Good luck!

There will be pictures later of all the crap I'm about to try and fit in Ollie. Ollie's going to need prayers that he'll make it the whole 4500 miles, but I have faith in him. It just seems like nobody else does...

What Road Sign Are You?

There used to be a quiz when we were younger that we obediently took to find out "What Road Sign Are You?" We would spend 20 minutes just to find out what our personalities told us through a series of questions. When I was little I thought it was funny to be 'Slippery When Wet' or 'Danger Curves Ahead,' but nowadays I look at my life, in what I hope to be, a more mature fashion. "Slow: Proceed With Caution," is the place I'm at this very moment. I have an entire life ahead of me and I'm tired of not living it. So, which road sign would you be today?

As most of you know, if you're reading this, I'm about to embark on the most spontaneous escapade I've ever done. I've been around the world, volunteered abroad, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself in the seat you are all about to be sitting in with me. In the early morning hours tomorrow I'm stepping as far out of my comfort zone as can possibly be to drive over 4500 miles to the entire other corner of the country. Spread out into a five day trip I have packed up my "essentials" to drive to Seattle, WA from sunny, little Palm Harbor, FL. By the way, I don't think any of you know how painstakingly awful it is to figure out what your "essentials" are and then realize just how much you have.

My route for the next five days includes a road trip with my mom, who's actually pretty awesome and not really mom-like for any of you that have met her. We are planning on driving to Nashville, St. Louis (to see the Arch!), stop somewhere in Kansas, off to Arches National Park (Moab, UT) then proceeding to Boise, ID (WHO LIVES HERE?!) and finally, making it to Seattle. I'll keep you updated with, hopefully, pictures and more blogs about the road trip then updates on what it's like moving to a brand new state with more than a seven hour plane ride between you and seeing your family.