Travel Updates

I have been having a BLAST traveling as much as I have!

So my last post came from Lexington, KY, where I was visiting the baby sister.

Then I came home to STL for a week, and Jonathan’s little brother was visiting us. We had a blast spending time with him! He was super helpful and helped me reorganize the kitchen. Jonathan got to have a great 8-person halo guys’ night, and I hear the guys had a great time!

Then last Monday, Curtis kept me company on the long(LOL) drive to Centerville. It felt long, but was nothing compared to the 14 hour drive to Boston!

I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday enjoying Centerville, my parents, old friends, and Alysha even showed up for a night! Ooohhh nostalgia! I love coming home!

Then on Thursday, we drove to Boston, which was a super long drive! Alysha had a dream that I lost my legs (WHAT?) in a car accident, so my dad drove nearly the entire way super carefully to make sure I arrived with all my limbs. LOL! Saira cooked us dinner on Thursday night. On Friday, we went to Salem and saw a witchcraft museum and walked along the water. Saturday, we bought a bunch of weird fruits and had a smorgasbord of random foods for lunch. Then we went to a restaurant called Oleana (http://oleanarestaurant.com/) where I had the best dessert of my life. On Sunday, I met up with an old friend and we went out to deer island and saw the USS Constitution sail. Then in the evening, we had a lovely Pakistani dinner to celebrate Eid, and then Saira and I played Dominion.

Monday, we made the long drive home. Today, I just sort of hung out. 🙂 Mom and I made samosas together, which was really fun!

Tomorrow, my friend, Randal, and I are going on a mini road trip. We’re driving up to Akron to see Hilary tomorrow, and then on Thurs we’ll go to Cleveland to see Nicole, and we’ll come back on Friday.

Anyway, that is sort of the short run down of my travels. I am having an ABSOLUTE BLAST! 🙂 It is so much fun to see family and friends.

Life is good. 🙂

But I am also looking forward to getting back home and into some sort of routine…(YEAH RIGHT!)

I’ll try to take and post more pictures, haha. That would make updates much more interesting!

I had the best days, with you :)

First, the song that’s been in my head as I’ve been thinking of the last ten-ish days…

The song is about her mom, but it’s a super cute song about her childhood, and she keeps repeating “I had the best days, with you.” I love it and I want to use it for a project for my momma for mother’s day one day. But it just generally makes me nostalgic for my childhood. So it also makes me think of my baby sister. 🙂

We have had SO MUCH FUN together! I am so glad I was able to take over a week and just hang out. No gigantic plans, just spending time together.

What did we do? Let’s see. We cooked together. We worked out together. We watched a lot of Olympics and viggled together. We each got sick (whyyyy does this always happen to us??) and took care of each other. We went to the outlet mall… twice! We shopped together. We did face masks together and tried new make up together. We found the Lexington public library and got books. We went to the movies. We went to the Kentucky Horse Park, and it was magically free on the day we decided to go and we got free hats! We went wine tasting together. We spent a bunch of time at the Whole Foods together, LOL! We had car rides and sing alongs and I got Alysha hooked on Jane by Design and we started a marathon.

I couldn’t ask for a better week. 🙂

We bumped heads a little too, and I was reflecting on that a bit this morning. I really think it has a lot to do with the fact that I am having trouble accepting that my baby sister is not my baby sister anymore. She is a smart, independent young lady who doesn’t really need her big sister the way she used to.

Is this how parents feel? heartwrenching. haha. But I can say I am super proud of the woman my sister has grown up into. 🙂 And I will ALWAYS call her my baby sister.

(And I’d like to take a little credit, too 😉 )

Anyway, it’s 9:17. I’m going to wake up the sleepy head and spend a few more hours with her before I head back to the Lou. 🙂

Post-Bar Transiency

Transiency: n. The state or quality of being transient.
Transient: n. a person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time

So, the bar is over. It’s over, it’s done with. I either passed or I failed but it’s completely out of my hands at this point. My exam is off in the shadowy world of bar examiners, and in mid-September I will know if I managed to score enough points to call myself esquire.

So, worrying? No point. There is no point in worrying about things that you can not change. So, instead of worrying, I am going to enjoy this freedom.

I say freedom because, as my dear husband pointed out to me today, for the first time in my memory, I have no current obligations and no cloud of future obligations hanging over my head. I am completely free in this moment.

There are no summer assignments. no summer internships. no preparing for classes, no buying books. In my future is a hazy, indistinguishable, unknown blur. I can’t really embark on any undertakings until I know if I passed or not. I can’t plan, I can’t prepare.

So I am going to be transient for a little while. I am looking at August and September like two months to visit family and friends.

And I consider this period to start now. Even though I’m home at the moment. Because, a few minutes ago, I was not home. I was in transit from Jeff City to home. And I don’t intend to remain home for more than a day and a half.

What am I doing with my transiency? I am seeing the baby sister. I am seeing the big sister. I am seeing the parents and the friends back home. I am going back to see the baby sister for family weekend at EKU. I am going to Chicago with friends. I am camping. I am going to Lake of the Ozarks to stay in Jonathan’s company’s corporate condo.

I am doing many transient things. I will be here sometimes. I will be there sometimes. Who knows where I will be at other times.

Okay, so some of those transient plans are already planned for after I will know whether I passed or not, but after I know whether I passed or not, I only have two weekend trips planned, and other than that, I will be here. Figuring out my future.

But for now, the future is uncertain and so are my plans!

It’s freeing and terrifying and crazy and scary.

And sort of really cool that I get to go spend large chunks of time with my family during this transient time without worrying about days off or bosses or anything like that. I know that’s in my future somewhere 😉

Anyway, my first adventure begins Friday, and I will be headed to Lexington, Kentucky to see Alysha! AND I CAN’T WAIT! 🙂

Spring Break Recap

So, something is wrong with me and I took NO pictures!! WHAAAT? And this post is way over due because I sort of forgot I have a blog for a bit. OOPSY! Anyway.

I had an awesome time in Ohio for spring break! I hung out with my lil sis, and we had adventures (of course!)

Among the fabulous things we did:

– Movies:  21 Jump Street and The Lorax

– Mani/Pedis… gel polish is fabulous!

– Shopping: at the outlet mall, at target, on the web!

– FOOD! We had chinese, italian, pizza…. and Jeni’s Ice cream!!! I highly, highly recommend it! http://www.jenisicecreams.com/ they ship to all 50 states. SO DELICIOUS and so many unique flavors!

– TV! Alysha got me addicted to Haven, which is a scifi show. Im usually not a huge sci fi person, but this show is awesome! I highly recommend it, as well!

We also went to Centerville to celebrate Daddy’s birthday, which was really fun and really nice. We even got him to play Apples to Apples, which was hilarious!

Anyway, it was a fab spring break and now I miss my fam 😦 Good thing I’ll see them in May when I graduate!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks, Alysha, for having me all that week!!!!! You Rock!!!

 

Also, I had intended to tell my favorite Alysha story for St. Patty’s Day, but I was so busy taking the ethics section of the bar that I forgot 😦  Guess it will have to wait until next year… wahahahahaha!

 

A little bit of Magic aka… happy graduation to ME!

A brief background… for the last three to four years, Jonathan and I have been dreaming of biking the french countryside.

We wanted to book a tour through an actual company who would shuttle our luggage from place to place for us, provide convenient bike routes, and book all of our hotels. Basically, we wanted it to be as stress-less as possible. Because if you’ve met me, and I plan the itinerary, it becomes very, very packed and very,very scheduled. (Cough cough.. any family members remember the 6 am start times on our Phoenix trip?)

Anyway, we found a tour we loved. And have been saving for a few years now, also.

And then plane tickets went up. And then the money we had saved and invested tanked. And we decided we should be responsible and not go.

And then the magic happened. Plane tickets plummeted. My investment went up. All of the sudden financial synergy occurred.

We. Have. Booked. Flights.

 

FRANCE.. HERE WE COME!!!! 😀  I AM SUPER SUPER EXCITED!

Now Jonathan just needs to find his passport… ahem. ahem.

 

Also.. time to seriously increase my biking training. SERIOUSLY!!!!

 

Ikea





Birthday!

Mine, that is!

I had a really fun several days of celebrating! I already wrote about the really great party Jonathan threw me on Thursday…

So on Friday I turned in my paper, took my exam, met with Melissa for lunch at Houlihans (free entree for my birthday!), went shopping, worked out, came home, packed for our trip, and then started my accounting exam…

 

Finished around 3:30 am, decided to clean the kitchen, went to bed at 4:30. The alarm went off at 5, but Jonathan let me sleep until around 5:45 while he loaded the car.

We then drove to Ohio, and I spent the afternoon finishing my Christmas shopping with Mom… although we maybe ended up getting more stuff for me than I ended up getting for other people! Oops! 🙂 Then Mom and I went out for a deliciously amazing dinner at a french restaurant in town! It was amazing. The scallops were absolutely perfect, served over leaks and thin slices of potato with a blood orange beurre noisette (brown butter).  I highly recommend Rue Dumaine in Centerville, OH, just for the record. Food is amazing, service is amazing, atmosphere is pretty good. 🙂  Thanks, Mom! 🙂

After dinner, Jonathan and I met up with some high school friends which was also great. Then this morning we hit the road for Hershey, Pa. My college roommate from senior year is getting married, so we are here for the wedding tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s been a busy few days, but between the party, dinner with Mom, great friends, time with Jonathan, and all of the calls, messages, texts, and fb messages, it has been a really wonderful birthday!

26 doesn’t feel much different than 25, except I am starting to feel a little bit like..”where have the last four years gone??”

I guess grad school will do that to you! 😉

 

 

Turkey Day… is on it’s way!

Holidays have become more and more anticlimactic for me. Thanksgiving is a time of intense studying.. or complete procrastination and irresponsible decision making ( ..like.. I don’t know… going to Sweden for Thanksgiving to see my little sister.)

 

Yeah. Last year was awesome and I got to see my sister! But on the other hand, I was soooooo behind when it came to school work. So this year, I’m studying.

 

But, I still love thinking about holidays and festivities. so bring me some Thanksgiving cheer and tell me about a favorite dish, tradition, or something weird/interesting/cool your family does to celebrate! Bonus points if you have a recipe to share! 

 

As for me, my family is a bit quirky. My sisters have both been on and off vegetarians(though never at the same time!), so one year we made a Tofurkey… that was a disaster! And actually, my older sister hasn’t been home for Thanksgiving since before I graduated undergrad. Since I went to grad school, neither have I and now that I’m realizing that, it makes me kind of sad.

But usually we just have the standard: turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn bread, and rolls.

As a kid, I used to love getting up and watching the Macy’s Day parade, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done that.

I guess the one thing we always do  is black Friday shopping. Some of my favorite memories with my family come from standing in the freezing cold at 3 am just to buy something silly like movies or headphones. So much fun! When’s the last time I did that?  Three years ago I made Jonathan go with me… (we spent Thanksgiving in Oklahoma that first year (and I spent a lot of time in our room studying), here in St. Louis for studying my second year, and I spent it in Sweden with my sister our third year. I’d go home this year, but I know if I’m around my family, I won’t want to study at all!) Maybe next year I’ll have to make sure I spend Thanksgiving with my family so that we can go black Friday shopping and round it off with some IHOP pancakes!

Return from Chicago and a Fun Saturday

I made it back around midnight last night. Thursday/Friday felt like one intensely long day. I got out of my exam at 1 on Thursday, and boarded the bus to Chicago. Since I had an exam from 11:30-1, and the bus left right after, I did not have a chance to get lunch. Maybe it was bad planning on my part, but I’m usually a speedy test taker, so I thought I’d get out atleast five minutes early and have time to run by Einstein’s and get a sandwich. It didn’t happen.

We got to the hotel around7:30. Let me tell you, this was one gigantic and expensive hotel. I had planned on just finding something to eat nearby, but there was nothing within a block of the hotel and there was no way I was walking around Chicago in the cold and dark alone and without a jacket. Again, probably poor planning on my part, not bringing a jacket.  The room service menu was insane. I had expected it to be expensive, but it was going to cost me almost 40 dollars to get a warm meal! What’s up with that?

So I ordered in Chinese, and it was so delicious. Amazingly delicious. Then I went to sleep early and woke up early, and took my sweet time getting ready in the morning. The fair didn’t start until ten, so I showered, let my hair air dry, and watched Smallville. This was actually excellent planning on my part, because I had intended to actually dry my hair, but the act of using the provided dryer in the hotel shorted the bathroom lights and power, and I couldn’t use the dryer anymore.  Good thing I am such a morning person and had given myself three hours to get ready!

The job fair was good. I got one interview for a position in DC. Sorry, Laurel, but Whirlpool did not seem very interested in me at all … 😦  That was a bummer, because I had been very excited about them! Most of the St Louis companies at the fair were like… “We’ve already done our Wash U recruitment.” So that was dead end city for the most part also. But I have about 7 good leads. Most of them require following up in the spring. (One of the leads is a St. Louis or Cincinnati based position, and either would work out because St. Louis is here, of course, and Cincy is really close to mine and Jonathan’s parents.)

Anyway, I am not sure if it was worth the nearly 300 dollars I spent to be there… stupid hotel that cost over 200 dollars… but it was actually a pretty good time and I made some good contacts. So if I ignore expenses, it was a good experience!

But boy! Am I worn out! And of course I didn’t manage to sleep in today.

When I got in, Jonathan had beautiful fall-colored flowers on the kitchen table, and in an old heart shaped chocolate box, he had put two tickets to see the Gin Blossoms tonight! I am very excited!

We are also making a field trip out to Illinois to go to Ulta to buy necessary beauty supplies, and maybe… maybe go biking.

Last thing on our agenda for today is to eat pizza and watch movies. Our small group weight loss contest starts tomorrow, so this may be the last bite of pizza I take for quite some time! Mmmmm pizza!

So that’s the plan for today! I still need to decide what class to drop before the new miniterm begins on Monday, and do homework for Monday. So I’ve got some work to do too!

 

It’s Been Six Months??

Oh geez! Where did the time go?

Here are the highlights:

April:

I went to Charlottesville for Mindy’s wedding and to hang out with the fabulous Jill Stephens.

Sasha and Jill at Mindy's wedding

May:

Jonathan got his wisdom teeth out, poor guy. His face was swollen for a long time. A lot of my friends graduated. Jonathan and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary in Nashville and Gatlinburg! I’ll write a separate post about that later.

Sasha and Jonathan at 808 Grille in Nashville, Tn

Jonathan standing on an outlook over Gatlinburg.

June:

Alysha graduated from OSU! I started my internship.

July:

We spent the 4th of July weekend in St. Joseph, MI with Ben and Laurel! It was great to see where they are living, and to go to a beach again!! I also won tickets to see Montgomery Gentry downtown so Jonathan and I saw them on the actual 4th of July and saw fireworks in St. Louis.

August:

I spent a week in Johnson City with my mom and dad! That was a lot of fun. We ate out a lot a lot!  And my mom bought me some kickin’ cowboy boots! I also spent a night in Columbus hanging out with Alysha, also a lot of fun!

September:

We spent Labor Day in Oklahoma! We got to see Jonathan’s sisters and their babies! Monika and I were awesome at charades, and the kids were adorable, as usual! I also started class, boo.  Jonathan’s birthday was the 30th of September, and we went on a birthday camping trip with our small group.  We did the same camping trip last year, and it was a joint celebration of Jonathan’s birthday and our friend, Ben’s birthday.

Jonathan and Ben next to their birthday sign!

Jonathan with his birthday pumpkin cupcakes that Laurel and I made!

October:

It’s been a busy month already! We were camping the first weekend. This past weekend was my fall break, so we drove to Atlanta for my friend, Betsy’s, wedding.  We stayed with my friend Emily, and a bunch of my friends who graduated in May were in town also. Basically, it was an epic reunion of people from several different phases of life!  The wedding was really beautiful, and Emily and Zack were really great hosts!

This coming weekend we’ll be in Chicago for a career fair.

 

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I was going through old livejournal posts, and it was so much fun to be reminded of all the things I did and thought back then! So, I am going to try to keep up better on blogging!

I also have tons more pictures, but they are all on facebook. So if you want to see more pictures, check them out there! I don’t have pictures from Betsy’s wedding yet, because I didn’t charge the camera battery, so I’m waiting on Melissa to upload some!