The Things I Did While Traveling to and from Arizona

As I promised earlier today yesterday, here is a view of what I did while taking a vacation to and from Arizona with pictures:

I drove 17 hours my first day to spend the night in Deming, NM. I got stopped by Border Patrol once in New Mexico (read about it here). Before that, I almost got a CD permanently stuck in my mom's CD player.

After the first day, I got hit by a snowstorm that almost scared the pee outta me when I spun across the interstate into the median. Later, I made a pit stop in Tombstone, AZ, where I ate a late lunch at Big Nose Kate's Saloon, visited the Birdcage Theatre, O.K. Corrall, and Boothill Cemetery:

behind the bar at Big Nose Kate's

Birdcage Theatre

A sample of  a headstone at Boothill

Once I began the rest of my trip to Phoenix, I got to enjoy some beautiful scenery, which inspired the header and a button for my blog:

I got to visit Erika's office and take a couple pictures of Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks:

I celebrated New Year's Eve by going bowling in the afternoon to meet new friends, then later that night celebrated the holiday with my best friend and new friends:

me, best friend, new friend :)

On New Year's Day, I went to a nice brunch with best friend and parents, where a really cool replica of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory was on display. It was made of candy and chocolate. I had my first ever (and second!) IN-N-OUT Burger experience before and after the Fiesta Bowl! (AMAZING) Then I got to cheer my Sooners to a BCS bowl victory, and take my FIRST EVER! picture with OU President David Boren. I also got to see some sorority sisters that I missed!

Chelsea, Erika, Nicole, me, Aubrey

D.Bo! 

OU = Fiesta Bowl Champs!

Throughout the entire week, Erika came home for lunch, I played Lego HP, read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and relaxed and slept. On Wednesday of that week, we went to the Phoenix Suns/L.A. Lakers game for free!

just before tip-off!

Erika also introduced me to Baja Fresh. delish.

Saturday, Erika woke up with a migraine and I ended up having to drive her to her first urgent care visit since she's been in PHX. Then later that night, she stayed at home :( while I went out to Old Town Scottsdale with a bunch of her coworkers (I didn't want to document this night for good reasons)

Sunday I got to stay in PHX for one last night because of snow all over the Southwest!

Monday I got to start heading back home, and got to enjoy MORE beautiful scenery almost the entire drive!:

I spent the evening in Tucumcari, NM, watching the National Championship game in my hotel room with pizza and beer (love that dinner combo!)

Then on my way back on Tuesday, I got pulled over by Texas Highway Patrol for going 72 in a 70 (you can read my rant about that here). I then made it safely home to my good ol' smalltown, OK, USA around 7:00 p.m. to multiple family members that missed me and The Killers waiting to be watched with an aunt and uncle.

Pretty successful trip I think :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

p.s. It's also Fab Friends Friday on FTLOB. Check out their site to find great new blogs, including a majority of the ones I follow! http://forblogs.blogspot.com

manic monday?

Okay, before I update you on my life, let me say that EVERYONE needs to go to this week's photo swap RIGHT NOW. Everyone's pictures this week were SO GOOD! And then, go look at all the previous weeks too. I really like Sam's from last week (the one with the ferris wheel). So neat! Okay, enough about photo swap (sorry, it's just a really fun thing, and I enjoy participating in it because it keeps me on my toes about what to take pictures of! Now I'm always looking for something to take a picture of to share with everyone! Sorry, blogging A.D.D. again)

Without further ado, let me inform you of what all has happened with my life the last couple of days (by the way, I apologize for being absent yesterday). On Saturday, I ended up having to take Erika to urgent care. Her migraine would not go away, so I took her to get a couple of shots to help with the pain. The shots helped her feel better, but unfortunately she couldn't go out with us on Saturday night. She did demand that I still go out with all of her friends though, and I'm SO GLAD that I did. To start off, me, Matt (Erika's roommate), Brandin (from California), and Greg (roommate Matt's friend) loaded up in Brandin's little BMW to head to Old Town Scottsdale. On our way, we picked up Alexis (Erika's coworker from NYE) and Chris (roommate Matt's friend). Yes, you read that correctly, six people in a BMW car. It was definitely interesting. We were fine with the 5 of us, but when we picked up Chris, Matt had issues with cramming 4 people in the back seat. He lost feeling in his foot and said some things that were hilarious but totally inappropriate for a post. We went to Adam's house, where we met up with him, OK State Matt, Carsten, and another guy that I can't remember his name (I'm terrible with names). We had a couple drinks, did some introductions (mostly me), and then got rides to the Pussy Cat Lounge in Old Town Scottsdale.

If you are anything like me, you read "Pussy Cat Lounge" and automatically think it's a strip joint. Oh you're not like me? Well, now you know how I think. It actually WAS NOT a strip joint, it was a very small club with a couple tables and a dance floor. Because it was supposed to be part Erika's, part Cara's birthday (another coworker) we had a table with bottle service. SO MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE FOR THE BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! I got to see Chris (CK) again, and then met about a dozen other people who work with Erika. We danced and drank the night away, and I had a lot of fun! Minus the part where my toe got stepped on. I was upset about that. And that Erika didn't get to join us. That was sad.

So, Alexis, Jen, OK State Matt, and I all got a cab to take us back to our various places of interest. We almost get back to Erika's apartment when I realize that Matt (Erika's roommate) has the only key to the apartment. Matt, Chris, Brandin, and Greg all went to the casino. Ah &!$#. So Alexis and I had to tag-team calling Erika to wake her up FROM HER MEDICINE INDUCED SLEEP FROM HER MIGRAINE to try to let me in. I felt bad. But I was intoxicated so even though I felt bad I still talked her ear off for an hour while I tried to fall asleep. Oops. I'm really sorry BIG :(

Fast forward to Sunday, and as you can imagine I couldn't wake up very well. I checked the weather again, and it wasn't in the cards for me to leave Phoenix yesterday. I was kinda sad, but also very glad so that I could take a much-needed nap. I slept basically ALL DAY. It was bad. Then when I finally woke up, Erika cooked us dinner, and then we played Lego Harry Potter again. When we finally went to bed, I had the HARDEST time going to sleep. I think I fell asleep around 3? I don't know. 7 a.m. came WAY too early today, but I packed up everything, hugged Erika and Matt goodbye, filled up the gas tank, got some breakfast, and then hit the road to begin my trip back to Oklahoma. The entire way back, I got to enjoy some AMAZING scenery. I am only giving you ONE preview because the others I may use for the photo swap next week (it's still up in the air):

CACTUS!

Please forgive the semi-poor quality, as this was taken while I was driving. (p.s. I love/am obsessed with the Saguaro Cactus)

The more and more beautiful the scenery got, the more I realized that it is all truly God's creation, and I began to feel a deeper appreciation for the scenery I was admiring.

Now I am safely in my hotel room in New Mexico, watching the BCS National Championship (never thought I'd say this, but Go Ducks!). I just enjoyed some pizza and will continue watching until the game is over then head to bed. Tomorrow I've got about an 8 hour drive to return to my hometown near Tulsa. One thing I do love about all these long drives is that I get to flip through a lot of radio stations. Two current song loves from this trip: "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland and "Somewhere with You" by Kenny Chesney. I also got to hear a lot of old songs that I forgot how much I loved them. (ugh seriously?! Why do I have such BAD blog A.D.D. tonight?!)

WHEW! If you made it this far, congratulations! You deserve an award for reading through my entire rambling post. That, or you're just too nice to me :)
I promise I'll update more often so that my posts are not this long again, and that I will tame my A.D.D. before attempting to post again.

Thanks for checking in!

p.s. Don't forget that 30 Days of Truth is coming soon! I'm very excited and very nervous about these posts, and I hope you are excited to learn more about the inner being that I don't always discuss.

Unseasonably High Weather ALWAYS Leads to Arctic Fronts in OK

It is Saturday, and I am supposed to begin my trek back to Oklahoma tomorrow. Much to my dismay, the area is looking like it is going to be hit with some wintery weather. NOT SO FUN. I want to take the "Northern" I-40 route, as opposed to the Southern I-10 route because of many reasons: it shaves off some hours driving time, thus saving the amount of money spent on gas, and putting me back in Oklahoma in plenty of time to watch the BCS National Championship. If you know ANYTHING about me, you know I love my college football. I'm like a man when it comes to this sport. It's sad. Anyways, I digress. I'm hoping that it won't be too bad of weather so that I can still plan on driving this route, and enjoy being back in Sperry sooner.


However, tonight Erika and I are supposed to be going out and this "going out" is supposed to include a lot of her coworkers again (these people are a lot of fun to hang out with). If things go the way we are planning them now, it is going to be difficult to be up and ready to go at a decent hour to get some substantial driving time in tomorrow. I don't really want to wait until Monday to leave because I don't want to be overstaying my welcome. Do you see the problem here? I am not entirely sure what to do.

I say we are going out tonight, but currently Erika is in bed with a migraine and I don't know if it will get better in time. If not, I guess I can look forward to waking up around 6 or so to hit the road and get as much driving in as possible on Sunday. If I drive about 17 hours Sunday like I did on my way out here, and get to go the northern route, I will have almost no driving time on Monday. But I don't want to get up at 6, and I would like for us to get to go out tonight.

Sorry about the random ramblings, these are just all the thoughts going through my head this morning (afternoon). Okay, not ALL the thoughts, but the thoughts about my trip back home and such. There are not enough websites in the world for me to post everything I'm thinking. I think I have blogging A.D.D. today. Please excuse me.

Insert Creative Title Here

As I sit here in Phoenix for my SEVENTH morning to wake up in this beautiful state, I'm kind of at a loss for words. I know, I know, this is a big shocker. This is partly why I didn't update yesterday (the other part is because I was attached to Lego Harry Potter on the Wii ALL DAY. I'm obsessed!). I love this town, I love this state. I know for sure that I want to come back again. Heck, I may even change my mind and want to live here at some point, instead of just visit. Everyone here says "Wait until you feel the heat of the summer," but I love the hot summers! I love them in Oklahoma when it's 100% humidity! (Okay, maybe loving the humidity is stretching the truth a bit. No one actually loves feeling like they're sweating when they're not actually sweating.)

Last night, Erika scored us some free tickets to the Phoenix Suns game against the L.A. Lakers. I LOVED the game! It was so much fun to hear the entire crowd get into every aspect of the game! (even the RUDE Lakers fans behind us) A lot of times when the Suns were on defense, you could hear then entire crowd shouting "DE-FENSE!" I loved it. I wish OKC fans would get into it as much, maybe I would try to go to more Thunder games than what I already do. And of course, seeing Steve Nash play was pretty freakin' sweet. I don't keep up with NBA too much, but I have heard about him of course. He's definitely a team-oriented guy. ANYWAYS. Erika and I spent 3 hours cheering on the Suns to a very close loss to the Lakers. It was one hell of a game.

I'm sad that my time here in AZ is coming to an end, but I know my family back home is ready for me to return. And I'm sure once I get back, I'll be ready to be home as well, but for the time being I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE. Leaving means returning to Oklahoma to enjoy my final semester as a college undergrad (YIKES!). It means I won't randomly score free tickets to an NBA game (although I am going to the Clippers/Thunder game in February with HESSA.) It means going back to having responsibilities. But the best part of going back to Oklahoma? Returning to my family and friends that aren't here with me. This 10 Day vacation has been a fantastic break, but I kinda miss my brothers and the little rugrats that are more like sisters. But I'm sure once I graduate, they'll be ready for me to go back to school :) And, I kinda miss my littles. They're pretty legit.

Hopefully upon my return, I WILL NOT fail Capstone, and then maybe Erika can return to "God's country" to see me walk across a stage. If not, she has big girl responsibilities now, and it'll be during season. I will love her anyways.

A Tale of New Things and Things to Come!

Yesterday, I sat around at Erika's apartment all day. I really want to take a new direction with my blog, and I know I've said that a couple times. I want an all-new background, banner, buttons, the whole works! Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I began looking around at friends' blogs to see if I could maybe figure out how and where to begin. I am so excited to let you all know that I created a couple buttons for my blog! So if you share buttons on your blog, you can now add mine if you would like! I gave you two options, one with some BEAUTIFUL Arizona scenery, and the other is a picture of me. I wasn't sure if everyone would want my face on their blogs or not, so that's why I gave the option of the scenery.

I hope you'll also notice that I have cleaned up my left sidebar quite a bit, and just under my profile information I have created a list of links to different pages within my site and to my real-life blogging friends Baxter and Sam. I made an "about me" page for the extra followers that I have who may not know very much about me. It's post-dated to just before I started blogging consistently. I also wanted to create a link to my Bucket List page so that every time I let you know that something else has been crossed off, you can go and check my progress on accomplishments yourself.

Along with tinkering around things for my blog, I also found a meme that I would LOVE to do. It is called 30 Days of Truth. I found this when I was referred to Write Now Write Later via Scenic Glory. Lindsay at Scenic Glory did a guest post on Write Now Write Later, and being the curious person that I am, I scrolled through a little bit of her blog. I saw her posts of 30 days of truth, and I found the list. It's a pretty phenomenal little meme, and does a lot of soul-searching. When reading through the things that the list asks you to write about, I realized that it is going to be a TOUGH list to complete. I'm going to be completely honest with an internet full of unknown people, and I'm sure I will leave each post feeling a little exposed. Not excited about the feeling of exposure, but I'm hoping that by participating, I will discover more about myself and continue to grow as a person exponentially. Look forward to that beginning on January 15. I kind of wanted to wait until I had a month that was 30 days, but then I realized the next month that's 30 days is April. That's 3 months away. I don't want to wait that long. So I figured that half way into the first month of the new year would be a good time to start :)

OKAY. With all that being said, I am enjoying catching up on all of your posts, and seeing everything you all did during your break! I'm also excited to be participating in next week's photo swap with all my blogging friends over at A Grimm Tale! Look for the photo swap next Monday to see all the pictures that everyone is taking!

Have a wonderful Tuesday! And be sure to check out my "about me" page to get to know me a little better!

ahh to New Beginnings . . .

How do I even begin to update everyone on the amazing things that have been going on in my life?!

On Thursday, I got up to complete the second part of my trip to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl. I didn't have much of a drive left, and my friend that I was staying with wasn't arriving in Phoenix until almost 9 p.m. I decided to make a pit stop in Tombstone, AZ. If you know nothing about Tombstone, you should look it up and watch the movie "Tombstone." It's a really neat little town that is a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I got there just after they started their last carriage tour, so I didn't get to do that. I basically just walked around for a couple hours after I ate lunch at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. I then went and visited Boothill Cemetery. It's famous for burying a lot of outlaws from Tombstone in it. Again, a really neat little thing.

However, on  my way to Tombstone, I hit a little bout of bad weather. I am completely safe, but at the time it was so freaking scary. I was going about 30 mph under the speed limit because the snow was falling pretty heavily, so naturally I was in the right lane. An 18-wheeler sped past me going probably the speed limit and shot a whole bunch of snow onto my windshield. Because my vision was blocked so badly, I hit a slick spot and started to slide all over the interstate. I ended up doing a couple circles over the left lane and onto the median. Naturally, I was completely freaked out and crying, but I am safe, the car is safe, and I am alive :)

With that aside, once I started making my way to Phoenix from Tombstone again, it was all sunshine the whole way in. I typed Erika's address into my GPS, and it took me to an apartment complex that definitely was not her apartment. SO WEIRD. But once I finally found my way to the correct apartment, I got to hang out with one of Erika's friends because her flight was delayed about an hour. This friend graduated from The University of Connecticut, and we watched the end of the UConn/Stanford game. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about the end of that game. Congrats to the Huskies for having such a great run though. Phenomenal.

I can't even begin to describe the epic-ness of New Year's Eve. I spent the entire evening with my big and best friend. We drank, we danced, we rang in the new year, we lost each other, we had a DAMN good time.  I wish I could tell you EVERYTHING, but some things are better left as a memory :) I will let you know that while we were dancing, a beautiful man kissed me. But it was only a kiss, gotta keep it classy!

Then last night, I got to cheer on my Sooners for their first BCS Bowl victory to snap a 5 bowl losing streak. I had probably some of THE MOST amazing seats you could imagine. I sat in the Connecticut end zone ON THE THIRD ROW. I had SO MUCH FUN. I can't even begin to describe how amazing the game was! I also realized today that every Sooner game I went to for the 2010 season was a Sooner victory. So thank you to my Sooners, and a shout-out to Demarco Murray for winning the Fiesta Bowl like he told me he would :D

I just love new beginnings, and what better way to start 2011 off than with old/best (Erika) and new friends AND a Sooner victory? Sounds like 2011 is going to be even more epic than 2010 was, and I thought 2010 was pretty intense!

Leg 1 of trip to Phoenix: complete.

I'm posting to inform you all that I am a little over half way to Phoenix and my best friend! (And NYE, and the Fiesta Bowl, etc.) I drove a very long time today. I left Tulsa (ish) at 6:15 a.m. CST and got to my hotel at 9:56 p.m. MST. (10:56 back home). It was a pretty long day.

Unfortunately, there is a HUGE MONGUS snowstorm hitting the Northern part of New Mexico, so once I hit Amarillo I had to take a detour to the Southern route. What does this mean? Instead of driving through a smidgeon of Texas and ALL of New Mexico, I instead drove through ALL of West Texas and a smidgeon of New Mexico. I really dislike that route. OH! Except for when the speed limit got up to 80 mph. That was heaven.

Another great part of the evening? I had to go through Border Patrol/Customs once I got into New Mexico. They had a drug dog sniffing out the cars, and then I rolled down the window to talk to the BP Officer and this is how the conversation went down:

BPO: Good evening, ma'am. How are you tonight?

Me: I'm just fine, thank you. How are you doing?

BPO: I'm doing great! Are you a citizen of the United States?

Me: Yes ma'am! I mean sir! Sorry! I've been driving a long time!

BPO: It's okay. You are good to go. Have a safe trip!

I then giggled as I drove off. Does anyone else see a problem with this conversation? Was that really all it took to get through border patrol? What if I wasn't a US citizen and I lied? I'm sure with my tags being from Oklahoma and my somewhat hick accent (it comes out the later at night it gets), the BPO had no doubt I was from here. But that's not the principle. (I also had other little fiascoes during my 1,026 mile drive that might make you giggle. [That's right, I knocked that out in a day. I'm a beast! But alas, I digress] I will have a post about all my adventures [and misadventures] once I have more time and am not sleepy.)

Anyone else ever had a similar experience with customs/border patrol?

'Tis the Season?

WOW! I seriously CANNOT believe that it is already Christmas! WHERE HAS 2010 GONE?! I can hardly believe that a year has already passed since I thought I might not get to spend Christmas with my family (that was completely scary!). So, with that being said,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope you get to spend lots of time with those you love, and that this holiday brings you more happiness than your heart knew it desired!

Unfortunately, I've been sick for the past 4 days, so it's kind of hard for me to completely feel like it is that time of year again. I had the misfortune of spending almost my entire Christmas Eve in bed while the rest of my family got to cook and get to spend all kinds of time bonding over the cooking! I seriously enjoy the cooking part of Christmas Eve. All I have to say is, I better feel well soon so I don't have a rough time while I'm in Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl...

Speaking of, my relatives gave way more than they probably should have, and I'm pretty sure I got plenty of money to fund my trip to the Grand Canyon State :) I'm very excited to be spending time with my big, yet again. We will be spending New Year's Eve together, and then cheering on our Sooners to what I hope to be a bowl victory (and that one of my wants from this post will come true!)!

Again, MERRY CHRISTMAS! May you be blessed to be surrounded by those you love....and per my beliefs, Jesus is the reason for the season, so remember to give thanks to Him for blessing each of you!