splitting time at christmas

being married, you've got to spend time with both sides of the family. especially if its feasible. since our parents only live about an hour apart, this setup is quite obvious.

we spent christmas eve at my parents house and were able to take part in the traditions i grew up with...roast beef, candlelight service, christmas music blasting, hot chocolate and french toast casserole breakfast, clemintines, gift exchange. rebecca's fiance michael was there this year, so jonathan had a lot of fun because there was a bit more of a balance in the house :). we spent christmas morning there and left for jonathan's parents just after noon.

as ususal, the day started late there...i think everyone was up and ready for christmas festivities by about 3:30 in the afternoon. we had yet another delicious meal and took part in the gift exchanging. we were able to stick around for a couple days while the guys enjoyed guitar hero on the wii and i completed a number of word finds that kept me occupied.

after a short couple of days back, we plan to drive back down and spend new years at jonathan's parents' as is tradition (this will be my fourth new years there!) and we'll spend a couple more days at my parents' house again. busy busy! i guess thats how we'll be working this time of the year out for quite a few years!

west coast adventure

so jonathan and i spent our first major holiday as a married couple not in georgia, in our beloved home state with either of our parents, but actually almost as far away as you could get from it.

we spent turkey day in oregon. that state seems to be popping into my life a lot lately. i had previously not been conscious of anyone in my sphere of existence having any connection to that northwest corner of the states. but within the past year, i've met two people who grew up in oregon and now know two couples who have made the cross country move from the peach state to the...beaver state? funny how that is.

of course, one of those couples is my sister-in-law, jessica, and her husband, brandon. since they have planned to return to georgia over christmas and couldn't make it for thanksgiving (plane tickets aren't cheap as we all know), jonathan and i decided to make use of the flying priveledges we have and purchase some discounted tickets for a thanksgiving vacation in oregon.

of course, travelling on standby isn't the least stressful way to travel, so we had made plans to fly out well before the influx of holiday travellers descended upon the airports. we booked our flight for tuesday morning at 6:40 am. we arrived at the airport well ahead of time, groggy of course. i won't go into all the details as i have in the past with all the drama standby travling causes, but as usual, we almost didn't get on and as late-comers kept making their way to the desk AFTER last call it was looking pretty hopeless until we finally got our seat assignments.

we made our way outside to board our tiny jet plane that would carry us from greensboro to atlanta. we settled in our seats and waited. but, of course, things can't go that smoothly. we wait and wait. then the pilot notifies us that there is something wrong with the cockpit chair and we must deboard the plane. already 25 minutes after scheduled departure, we were realizing that we very well may not make our 8:55 flight out of atlanta to portland.

after they wasted another 20 minutes or so, we all boarded the plane again and ended up making it to atlanta just as our connecting flight was taking off. of course, i wasn't suprised. we looked at a number of options, but in the end we decided to just take the next direct flight to Portland...8 hours later.

lucky for us, my parents were spending the day in atlanta anyway, so they picked us up from the airport and we spend the majority of the wait with them. eventually we made it to portland.
our first full day in oregon, we spent exploring the coast. i love sight seeing and seeing waves crash against big cliffs was at the top of my to see list. we had an unexpectedly sunny day. unfortunately on the way up the winding mountainous roads, a suv that was trying to pass us skidded across some black ice, swerved and srieked across the road and took a nose dive into the ditch and up the hill slightly into some trees. it was quite scary, being the only serious accident i've ever seen (hopefully the last) and the fact that none of us had a cell phone signal to call 911. jessica and i wanted to make sure they were alright and attempted to cross the road...we both slipped and fell on our butts in the middle of the road on the same black ice. some locals told us told us we should get back in the car and move on since it wasn't safe...they took care of it from there i guess. i think the driver was okay because i saw them open their car door and get out.

aside from that, we enjoyed the scenery...lots of green mossy trees and light shining though the trunks and branches. very pretty.


our first official stop was at the tillamook cheese factory. we indlulged ourselves in samples, tried to educate ourselves in the cheesemaking process, and guessed at what exactly the factory workers were doing down there. i'll tell you what, though. they make a heck of a lot of cheese!

after enjoying some delicious ice cream at tillamook, we continued our drive to the coast. We stopped at cape meares and i got to cross the whole waves crashing against cliffs thing off my to see list! it was quite spectacular and, of course, gorgeous. we were so happy to have a sunny day to get such a lovely view of everything! there isn't much more to say...pictures can do the rest for me.

next, we hit the beach. but not in the bikinis and flip flop kind of style. on our drive along the coast, we stopped at a couple of beaches to look at the scenery. rocky beaches are definately not what you see in your florida and southern beaches. but its a cool element to add to the scene for sure. this is our album cover for our next cd....
these next few are from canon beach...

jonathan claims this as his first true opportunity to watch a sunset. i'm a little skeptic to believe this, but its a romantic statement ;). of course, it was really amazing, as you can see. it seemed like everyone on the beach owned a dog. we enjoyed watching the dogs chase the seagulls...and eachother. we came across and adorable little dog that reminded me a lot of my childhood dog, maggie. he was a havanese, which is related to the bichon frise. i want one. :)

the true challenge of the trip was thanksgiving day. this was mine and jessica's first thanksgiving without our mom preparing all the yumminess we remember from years past. our first time preparing the huge meal by ourselves. now, i've been cooking some pretty simple things, but this was truly the first trial for that. jessica, with the aid of her mom on the phone all day, and i prepared the turkey, struggling with it as you would expect. it was heavy, huge, and akward to move. we didn't know where the giblets were, we didn't know how to insert the thermometer correctly, we didn't know a lot of things. but we certainly learned and all turned out okay. we made pies, sweet potatoes, cornbread, stuffing...you know, all the typical fixings. it turned out a success. since jonathan was in bed all day sick, i had to carve the turkey, too!


on friday we explored the river region. multnomah falls was by far the most intriguing of the falls we saw...it looked like it was straight out of a lord of the rings scene or something. a little further down the road we went onto a trail and hiked about 5 miles round trip to see about five other falls along the way. we packed a picnic lunch of turkey sandwiches and chips and enjoyed it while watching the water rush down the biggest of the falls.



on saturday we just spent the day relaxing and hanging out around portland. we checked out a mansion on top of a hill that overlooked the city of portland. it was a bit drizzly, so no such luck on seeing a view of mt. hood. but we were able to see a rainbow at least!

we took monday to drive up to seattle and check it out...we were on the west coast anyway, right? we ended up leaving pretty late...so we didn't arrive in seattle until about 4 pm or so. it was fun to check out a city you've always heard about...of course, we made it to the space needle (didn't go up because even though you couldn't see anything because of fog, they had no discounts on the $30 ticket). but it was a great chance to wander around and see the fish market and the bay.
and that pretty much sums up our west coast adventure! we had high hopes of skiing on mt. hood, but since the weather was mostly 60 degrees and drizzly, it didn't work out for us. hopefully one day we'll be able to make it back up there.

a new beginning...

i'm a tad late on marking the start of my new beginning, but at least i've gotten around to it. if you are one of the few who had visited my blog in the past, you'll notice that my lovely blog has gotten a facelift, as well as a new name.

"snippets of my college life" was good while it lasted. i had intended to keep a record of the day to day events of my experiences in college. this was all well and good, as I had some extra time on my hands. however, after meeting my husband (through this blog, true story) the extra time seemed to escape me and i indulged myself in other activities, such as spending hours into the night talking to him on the phone, starting my very involved interior design program, and scrap booking instead. so, obviously, as i've confessed many times before, my blog sat on the back burner for the last two years of my college life. it has been pretty pathetic.

but, new resolutions are not just for the new year. after graduating from the university of georgia in may, getting married in june, moving to winston-salem, and starting a job at a design firm, i've finally made myself sit down and do the tedious update. and i hope to, seriously now, at least do a post once or twice a month.

i figured since i had named my previous blog "snippets of my college life", i'd allude to it by posting my thoughts henceforth as "the grown up life". so, dear friends and loved ones, if you would like an update on my life as a newlywed, feel free to check in every once in awhile.

hello, i'd like a job.

beginning to write this post reminds me of one i wrote a couple of years ago in regards to finding a summer job at a camp.

with that job and a few more under my belt, i've been able to fill up the resume to be a little more presentable to prospective employers. i'm currently interning with a wonderful woman and helping her out with designing various spaces, picking out materials, filling out finish schedules...all the good things interns could want to do. sadly, i don't get paid.

but now is the time in life where i must find a job that pays. and not just one that gives me a little extra cash on top of my monthly allowance. that piggy bank hits the road when the wedding bells chime. well, actually the month before that when i ring the chapel bell on north campus for graduation. yes. i'm about to enter the big bad world of reality and that reality requires starting a career.

last semester, i spent hours working on developing my digital portfolio, refining it to present my best work. i worked on different layouts for my resume and generated a quality cover letter. i had high hopes to get the job search underway over christmas break. wedding planning kinda took over that. i reset the goal for the beginning of january. then school started and brought the business with it.

so february comes along and i begin to get stressed for my lack of diligence. i frantically begin critiquing my portfolio and resume, sure that it isn't good enough. after a few weeks of that, i finally had a great coordinated portfolio and it all written onto a cd and packaged complete with a ribbon. of course, this is a very expensive process, so i decided to give prospective candidates to receive my portfolio a call. i figured it would ensure that information i got online was up to date and give me a bit more of a feeling for what kind of company it is.

it was a brilliant idea. turns out, over half of the business phone numbers i had on my list had been disconnected. a good number of the others had moved locations and changed their number. and to my embarrassment, at least three of them had passed away. yes.

i had the pleasure of contacting my first deceased business owner and having a rather awkward conversation with a relative about it. i would always greet the person on the phone and tell them i am an interior design student searching for a job and that i would like to submit my portfolio. well, the poor man had to stop me in mid speal and inform me that ms. gibson had passed away about three years ago and, therefore, she is no longer in business. oh, i felt terrible. i apologized, he wished me luck, and i hung up the phone with the knowledge that my information is indeed quite out of date.

that was the only personal contact i had with anyone. but another company i called had their number disconnected. i found that a couple of other companies this occurred with had relocated and changed their number. so i searched the company name, which happened to have the person's name in it. i did not find another number. however, i did find the man's obituary dating back to 2001. it was then i really understood how old this information was.

but in the end, i got my resume out to about 20 businesses and i now sit on pins and needles as i await a phone call or e-mail from someone. hopefully before the end of the week.

parking isn't free

its my first and only year at school with a car and it has pretty much been the best thing of my four years here. a bit exaggerated, but not really. as soon as i knew that i would have my very own car to take to school with me, i signed myself up on the parking waitlist.

the only problem is that before i had my car at school, i was barely breaking even with my living expenses. toss another $75 a month for gas in the mix and my bank account is dwindling. i was able to select five lots to be put on the list for. i started off around 250 for about all of them and waited it out. of course, the first ones to be assigned (3 months later) to me were the $30 a month. obviously from my previous statement, i couldn't stretch my bank account that far. and the waitlist was a joke as well. i'd be as low as 12 one week, and the next i'd fall down to 78 or something ridiculous. its much like how georgia got cheated out of the national championship by the bcs this year.

so i made do. i would leave 45-50 minutes before class every morning to ensure that i could snag one of the last parking spaces at a church off lumpkin. 10 minutes to drive, 15 minutes of walking until i got to my class. i couldn't complain much because, hey, it was free. but that certainly does not make things easy.

it especially made things difficult when i had to get myself over to the intramural fields for my ultimate frisbee class. i know, i know. its like my favorite thing ever and yes, its a class. its impossible to get over there on foot in the 15 minute window we have. its impossible to get there by bus because basically all the lazy people on campus get on at one stop just to get off at the next. plus i'm not a fan of being shoved up against people i don't know...especially sweaty ones that need a shower. so, i've been trying to find the solution to my transportation problem. i've tried quickly trotting to my car (cut it down to about 11 minutes) and then driving to the back of the IM fields...i was late. i attempted the bus. no good. but finally, things went in my favor.

last friday i was notified via e-mail that i had won. i finally was assigned a parking pass. yes, it was $20 a month, but i've got four months of parking left and i've already saved all that parking money from last semester. its glorious. i drive 6 minutes. walk 4. it takes like no time at all. i actually arrived at my frisbee class early yesterday.

so all this to say, i have a parking permit. yay for me!

wanted: stolen tulip side table

the walls are seafoam and buttermilk and the air is filled that distinguished smell of fresh paint. the txmi department has finally, after many promises of "next semester", moved into our very own building. well, floor at least. since the beginning of my days as a furnishings and interiors major, we've had to share our studio with the messy drawing I class that gets charcoal everywhere, had professors prohibit us from completing our projects on time because we couldn't use the plotter, and have to climb up and down flights of stairs to leave the building. i know, they seem like major problems to you. please note the sarcasm. but even so, only half of my classes have moved to the new buildings and neither one of the CAD labs are fully functioning yet. yes, some construction is still taking place. but for some reason, the hall has not been properly locked after hours.

mrs. scheuneman came into class today rather flustered. she went on to tell us a story of the morning's events. our department owns a eero saarinen tulip dining room set. if that doesn't mean anything to you, just know that its true 1960s icon furniture. since the building has not been properly locked as of late, one of the side tables disappeared between thursday and monday. after realizing that it had indeed completely disappeared and had not just been relocated to a different part of the building, she filed a police report. they had come in this morning and began to ask questions about the said tulip end table.

"what exactly does this table look like?" questioned the officer, who had clearly, like you, never heard of such a thing as a tulip side table. scheuneman tried to articulate the wide base, smoothly transitioning to a narrow stem and then curving gracefully out again into a flat surface, but he could not imagine it. so she decided to pull up a visual via ebay, entering "tulip side table" into the search engine. she clicked on the first image that popped up to enlarge the image and realized that the table was listed for pickup only at a town about 10 miles from the university.

yup. it sounded suspicious to her, too. so later on, playing investigator, she called up the number listed to slyly question the seller. after all, they aren't all that common.

"hi, i live in the area and was thinking about coming by to see the tulip side table you have listed. do you mind me asking when you got the table in?"

"about 6 days ago." gotcha! that fell in perfectly with the time frame. so she called up the police and told them to go investigate...but she didn't seem hopeful when recounting the story to us that any action would be taken. alas, the bid would end in 6 hours and our tulip side table would go to the highest bidder for a price well over $100.

missing years

i'm afraid i've failed over the past couple of years to document my college life. freshman year i had this idea that i'd provide weekly or even daily updates on my journey through college...i'm not quite sure how much insight i believed i would have over the four years my test run as an independent would provide. i seemed more interested in having something to look back over, stories to laugh about that years from now i would never remember. those are the kind of things i've lost over the past couple of years by not blogging. in ways, its disappointing. i've had a few (and i stress few) people comment to me over the past few months about how they used to enjoy reading my blog.

i hope i could do those few people a favor by taking time out of my facebooking addiction, or evening hours tweaking my projects, or other small bits of time to produce an interesting story or thought every week. maybe people might still be interested to hear what is relevant or exciting in my life. after all, this little blog did play a major role in meeting my future husband :). i should treat it a little more lovingly.