Lululemon

So I had my second interview this morning. It was a group interview (group being the candidates) which is always a little awkward at first. I think it went well and I'll keep you posted about the outcome. Regardless of whether I get the job, the company I interviewed with is awesome! They are opening showrooms in north carolina soon too!

Lululemon is the name of company and it's a yoga inspired athletic wear line. The product is amazing and super cute. It's a Canadian based company and part of my job would include getting out in the community and taking fitness classes...how cool!!

Manifesto - good for a little inspiration!

Corporate Offices in Vancouver

...Ryan is off to the library and now time to clean up the place a little. After that, the rest of my sunday will be a lazy one with sumo! BREATHE DEEPLY AND ENJOY THE MOMENT!

Bar Golf

Last Friday night, the law school organized a game of Bar Golf. It seemed as we were back in the undergrad college days of dressing up for frat functions or a theme party. I refused to buy anything for the occasion since I'm still jobless. So I started looking through the clothes that actually made it to Arizona with me. I ended up choosing a nike tennis shirt with ruffle details that ryan gave me last year for my birthday, a blue boyfriend cardi, and a pair of short cargo shorts complete with nike tall socks and my nike running shoes. I threw on one of ryan's all-white hats and some pearl earrings to finish my golfer chic look!

You could play in teams or by yourself (probably NOT a good idea). They handed out score sheets at the first bar and it listed the required drink at each bar. It was either a beer, a shot, or a mixed drink. There were 9 bars and 9 different drinks. You got a stroke for each sip it took for you to finish your drink. For example, if a beer took you 2 gulps, it equaled 2 strokes. 1 chug = 1 stroke. The least amount of strokes you had after the 9 bars, the better you scored. I only got to drink one drink for our team. I have no idea who actually won the event but I know it wasn't us!

My camera died early in the night so I only got the few pictures I took before we went out :( However, I was introduced to the new late night eating spot. It was called THE TACO SHOP and boy was it delish! No more cookout or pita pit for me!

Ryan & John

Ryan borrowed the hat from our neighbors & got the vest for $1.50 @ goodwill.

Practice swing.

A Nice Surprise

Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

Today when I woke up, it was back to a usual bright sunny Arizona day. I took Sumo down for his walk on the River Walk and boy did I have a nice surprise. It did rain ALL day yesterday but I did not imagine to see what I saw. The dried up river bed was a FOR REAL flowing river. It even had the pleasant noise of a flowing river. I couldn't stop staring. Even Sumo was confused and just stood there for a minute looking at the river.

This might have been the first time I have really missed North Carolina. The sound of the river and rapids brought back all kinds of memories. But one memory stood out from 2 years ago when I went on a rafting trip on the New River with 3 other couples. Boy was that a trip! We spent 8 hours floating down the river in the NC mountains.We had rented an extra tube to hold our coolers full of beer & food. We stayed at Sara Miller's mountain house and had a great weekend in the mountains with our best friends relaxing & eating good food!

I hope I enjoyed the river today...it is sure to all be gone by tomorrow :(

Water!

Sumo confused by the river

River shot

Rainy Days & Daydreaming

As many of you already know, I am not a big reader. I mostly stick to magazines or something with lots of pictures and now it's all about BLOGS. Today here in the desert was a cold & rainy day with all areas above 5,000 ft in elevation in winter storm warnings. It was about 45-50 degrees here today...brrrr! There are few days here that it rains the entire day...but today it pretty much did. Sumo did not get his usual walk and is now full of energy (and im not with this weather!)

When the clouds clear, it is a beautiful site to look up at the mountains and see the tips covered in white. However, it doesn't last long. After a few hours of sunshine tomorrow, it will all be gone until the next winter storm rolls in.

I spent my day trying to enjoy the rainy weather. I woke up as Ryan left for classes, took sumo out, ate some cereal and then spent my first 2 hours applying for a job here and there and researching to see if there were any new job postings on the U of A website, monster, and the resort websites I check religiously! Nothing too exciting to report in my job search today.

Then I ran some errands and decided the best way to indulge on this rainy day was at Barnes & Noble. I spent the first 30 minutes picking up each and every travel book and daydreaming about all the places. One day I told myself...one day. My goal in the next few weeks is to book our honeymoon. We originally had decided on Costa Rica but now it looks like we have changed our minds to Puerto Vallarta. It is closer to us in Tucson and on the Pacific side. Less chance for hurricanes to ruin our honeymoon! They had 3 books on Puerto Vallarta so I picked up all 3 and went over to the starbucks area to start reading. After an hour and one white chocolate mocha down, I had decided on the book I wanted to buy. PUERTO VALLARTA HERE WE COME!!

I still wasn't ready to leave though, so I decided to walk up and down almost every aisle in the store. I stopped for a while in the career/job section and flipped through resume books and "how to nail an interview". Boring! So I looked for Lauren Conrad's LA Candy book. They didn't have it or else I probably would have purchased it today. I plan on spending some more time in Barnes & Noble in the near future...the place makes me feel empowered and intellectual! Successful day I would say!

I am attempting to make homemade lasagna tonight...I need all the luck I can get. My homemade valentines day chocolate cake for ryan ended up in the bottom of our stove. Never again will I try to force an 8x8 pan to act as a 9x13!

Rainy Days in Tucson result in some flooding

Daydreaming on a rainy day - a beach in Puerto Vallarta

Another beach in Puerto Vallarta

Can't wait to see a sunset like this on our honeymoon!

Job Search Continues...

Ok...so I have gotten away from writing on my blog the past few weeks and we all know that it is not because I am too busy with work :) I never knew searching for a career could be so stressful and exhausting. I have been here 3 weeks now and still haven't quite found what it is that I want to do. My buying career is basically over since we all know those jobs are few and far between and Tucson is not the place to remain in the fashion/retail industy!

I did have my first interview this week at Bio5 Institute at the University of Arizona. I felt really good that I went on my first interview and was excited about being a part of such an outstanding research facility. However, Friday I learned that I didn't get the job. The lady that interviewed me was nice enough to spend about 20 minutes on the phone with me helping me think of university jobs that would be in my field and giving me names of people to get in contact with. I was disappointed after the news but realized I probably would not have loved THAT job.

I do know one thing...FITNESS and healthy eating have quickly become an important part of my life out here. Last week I spent 3 days at the pool after taking Sumo for long walks on the River Walk. Sumo is another story....I officially can NOT go on runs with him. He does NOT like to run and thinks it's a good idea to just stop as I am running. He lays down and will NOT move. Talk about embarrassing. Everyone that passes us as he lays down finds it humorous. I do NOT though!! Maybe I can get sumo to enjoy running one day but I think I have hard work ahead of me for this strong-willed dog.

I just want to thank Roxy & Kristin for introducing me to the world of blogging ...it's crazy how much your best friends blogs can inspire you in so many ways!

After the first day of him not running...I had to take my phone to capture a photo for ryan on day 2 of our attempted runs

Sumo being difficult & deciding to watch all the other runners!

View from one of our 3 pools...nothing better than laying out in Feb!

King Cake

Mardi Gras King cake anyone?

Maryanna, my LSU friend that made all the Saints signs for the superbowl, was nice enough to share some of her King Cake with us this weekend. As many of you know, Mardi Gras is in full-effect and her friend sent her a cake. There are a couple of styles of the New Orleans Mardi Gras King cake but the traditional one (and the one we had) is a ring of twisted bread topped with icing and colored purple, green and gold. (THE OFFICIAL MARDI GRAS COLORS!) The cake reminds me a little of a cinnamon bun. The cakes have a small plastic baby on the inside. Whoever gets the plastic baby is supposed to buy the next cake.

Below is a picture of the pieces of King Cake that Maryanna gave us. No one in our apartment got the baby!

Crossing America Day #3

Awwww....the final day of driving!! Day 3 was an emotional roller coaster ride for me. Everyone knows I'm not the best driver out there or do I handle stressful car situations in a calm manner. Not so sure where to even begin for day 3...

Maybe I should start with the fact that it was raining in Tucson when I got here?! the desert? They supposedly get about maybe 1-2 weeks of bad weather during an entire year and Ryan said today was the first day he has been here where the sun did not actually come out?! It was about 50 degrees when we got here so at least warmer than at home.

During the night Wednesday night in Odessa we got the weather that ended up being one of the NC snowstorms! It was raining like crazy, thundering and lightning. It was so bad it woke me up during the night (I'm a very sound sleeper too!). We slept in a little Thursday morning and had planned to get up and tour a little of Odessa before we left but we changed our plans when it was still raining when we left. The hotel was a little bizzare in the fact that everyone (workers and guests included) were like saying bye and be safe when we left. They kept warning us that people in Odessa do NOT know how to drive in the rain. I was like "ok well at least it isn't raining that bad anymore". Boy was I wrong though....

People in Odessa probably can drive, its THE roads do not know how to drain water. Our hotel was about 2 miles from highway and then my stupid GPS took us the long way through Odessa. The roads were flooded and this 15 min stretch was one of the scariest driving experiences of my life! At one point in this 4 lane road I about started crying because I thought water was going to start coming into the doors and we were going to start floating. We were driving about 1 mph on the inside lane and there were cars in the right lane that the water had caused them to stall out and were sitting in a couple of feet of water. The cars had been abandoned by the drivers and I can only imagine the amount of water in their vehicles. I regret that we didn't get any pictures of this....but I was too scared at the moment to think of pictures and just glad we made it out of Odessa. Finally, we made it back to I-20 and were on our way through the rest of Texas.

We were in oil fields for the next few hours and then the landscape changed drastically. All of a sudden there were no more towns, and everything was brown and dessert like with mesas in the background. When we got on I-10 we were basically driving along the Mexican border. It was weird! There were quite a few campers in land that we could tell people lived in. It was really sad. We also started to get Crosswind warning signs and warning signs not to pick up hitchhikers because of prisons nearby. Weird! I think they put the prisons here because there is no where to go when they escape.

The rain started again! When we rode through El Paso, there was a place in a curve that you could see the border fence and see the shacks on the other side in Juarez, Mexico. It was soooo sad to see what these people were living in and then see how nice everything in El Paso was.

The last 4 hours were spent in New Mexico and Arizona. Nothing too exciting about New Mexico. I'm not a fan of the landscape here and it looks so brown. They had a lot of sandstorm warning signs and more wind warning signs. We didn't have to worry about the sandstorm signs because it was raining (and it did snow for a brief time in New Mexico!). When we got to the last 30 miles of New Mexico and into Arizona, the flooding landscape was bizarre. Only I drive through a desert and the land is flooded on either side for as far as you can see.

Once we got into Arizona, it got dark pretty soon but basically the landscape changed and there were more mountains and then right before Tucson, we started seeing the big cacti.

I am so glad to be here and glad the drive is over! The cross-country drive was a neat experience though!

We ended up arriving in Tucson 7:30 that Thursday evening. Driving is exhausting! Ryan came by the hotel Thursday evening to say hey but had classes and interviews on Friday afternoon so we didn't start unpacking my car until about 3:30 on Friday afternoon.

When we woke up Friday morning, mom and I went to check out the visitor center and stopped by a few furniture stores. The actual unpacking really did not take long since all I had was clothes and kitchen stuff.

It has been almost 3 weeks that I have been in Arizona!!!

PICTURES FROM DAY 3

Early Thursday morning...still in oil country!

Oil drills as far as you can see in all directions

Western Texas as the landscape changes yet again...

Juarez, Mexico from I-10 in El Paso

El Paso

New Mexico

Not a sign you see everyday!

This is a DESERT! FLOODED! New Mexico/Arizona border area!

Arizona as the rain stops!

My NEW STATE!!

Almost there...

Crossing America Day #2

Day # 2: I might should go ahead and re-name this Crossing Texas and not Crossing America. 850 miles of the 2,000 miles we drove were spent driving through the HUGE state of TEXAS!

When we woke up on Day 2 in Vicksburg, MS, we spent about an hour driving along the Mississippi River looking at all the old homes. I have an obsession with history and old homes. I think I really just like to imagine me living in them during the old times. Once I was finally done daydreaming in Vicksburg, we were off and on the road again. We quickly crossed the Mississippi River and spent the next 3 hours driving through Louisiana. This drive was mostly swamplands. My grandma that passed away last year lived in Shreveport. It was sad that we couldn't stop and see her since it has been at least 10 years since visited down there.

Then we entered TEXAS...

Texas really should be its own country! I have never witnessed such state pride in all ways. I have never seen so many Texas flags or Texas stars on everything possible from a barn to a home to just a billboard!! I think I like it though and everywhere we stopped (I had to pee like every 30 mins) felt so homey and everyone was nice!

The first hour in Texas was boring and my mom wouldn't shut up about wanting to see oil drills (or whatever they are) and we weren't seeing them yet. Then the ranches started. Ranch, another ranch, another ranch. I made mom read off all the names of the ranches. Quite entertaining and I think I want to make a vaca to a ranch in Texas one day. Then came Dallas. Dallas and Ft Worth felt like they were never going to end....and I mean never...haha.

Then we passed more ranches, more ranches, and more ranches. Then the oil drills and windmills. It was really neat though and I felt like I was in a different country. That was pretty much what we saw for the next like 5 hours. Then we made it to Odessa and still in oil country! Odessa for night # 2!!!

VICKSBURG, MS

Bridge over the Mississppi

Old home by the river

Another old home by the river

and another old home by the river

view looking up @ downtown from the river

Almost in Louisiana!

Welcome to Louisiana!!

Always stopping at the rest areas...

Shreveport...where Irene lived

Welcome to Texas

Don't mess with TEXAS!

Almost to Dallas...before the rain.

Texas Flags everywhere

Windmills before dark

They were HUGE!

Crossing America Day #1

If you ever have a chance in your life to drive across the country, I recommend it. The experience is amazing and liberating! It is hard to describe in words the sites and landscapes you encounter over 3 days of 10+ hours of driving but I will try my best (at least I have some pictures for backup!)

I left from Mocksville, NC early in the morning Tuesday, February 26th (as in the sun was not even up yet) and started my 30+ hour drive out to Arizona. The first day of 13 hours weren't that interesting. I had driven most of the drive before and landscape didn't change drastically throughout the day. Going through Atlanta around lunch time was not exciting and really a little stressful. Traffic there is bad and I hope to never have to live in place with that kind of traffic. It was windy all day and I had quite a problem at times keeping the car safely on the road.

We made it to Vicksburg, MS and stayed the night at our first Holiday Inn Express. When we arrived at our hotel, they were having happy hour. Yes I typed that right...happy hour. Mom and I went and put our stuff in the room and went down to hit up happy hour for a beer or maybe two :) My body and mind were exhausted after the 12 hours of driving! After a quick dinner @ McAllisters, we went back to the hotel and were quickly sound asleep.

Photos from Day#1

My NC photo - bojangles will be missed!

South Carolina Peach Water Tower in Gaffney

Georgia!

Atlanta traffic - not a fan!

Alabama - home of Yolanda & Shana

Mississippi Welcome Center

Mississippi - home of bumpy roads!

Who DAT!

Watching the Superbowl is always more fun when you watch with people who have affiliations with the teams or cities. We hosted a Superbowl party here at the apartment tonight and 3 of the people who came were either from New Orleans or went to school there. Maryanna, a native of New Orleans and an LSU grad, enlightened us all tonight with the Saints famous chants.

"Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gunna beat them Saints?"

There is a debate about where the chant actually started. Some say it started with Southern University fans in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Another claim is that is began at a historically African-American all boys Catholic high school in New Orleans. Regardless of where it started, by 1983 the New Orleans Saints organization officially adopted it during Bum Phillips tenure. Aaron Neville recorded a version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" that incorporated the chant.

Who Dat Who Dat Who Dat in the Superbowl!!!!

I have not figured out how to post a video on my blog yet but copy and paste the link below for a must hear Who Dat song!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CYDFoEz8rg