To Take Another Hiatus?

Well, that was another unintentional hiatus from blogging… It’s been a crazy, but AWESOME month! After my last post, I headed back home to the Cape for the holidays. Hanging out and relaxing with the family was fantastic as always—getting another deathly cold was not as fantastic. Christmas was quite overwhelming, I must admit. Once a three-year-old and a one-year-old are involved, things get HECTIC.

The day after, I hopped on a plane to Louisville, KY for one of my college besties wedding. It was such a gorgeous affair. Since it was in the winter, the bridesmaids wore long, navy dresses by Monique Lhuillier. I was so thankful to be wearing a flattering gown! Additionally, Libby (the bride) gave us white, fur caplets for when we took pictures outside and for the ride to the reception—they were a lifesaver! On Sunday morning, the day after the wedding, I woke up at 3:30 AM for a 5 AM flight to Boston… Talk about a QUICK trip!

I touched down in Boston at 10 AM and started unpacking, taking down my Christmas tree (a hilarious project), and repacking for my 10-day adventure to St. Thomas! I was still so exhausted and fending off the cold, but I managed to get everything done at a reasonable time. Unfortunately, I had to be at the airport on Monday morning at 6 AM for my flight; I say unfortunately because of the time, not because I was traveling to a tropical island.

I won’t go into all of the glorious details because I know most of my readers were here in Boston, braving the storm of the year and FRIGID temps!! People on the island kept asking where I was from and when I responded, they kept saying how they saw how cold it was there on the news. Andi and I spent New Year’s Eve on St. John… Not a bad way to ring in the new year!

I was sad to see the trip come to an end, but I had to start my new job with Robert Half! So far, so good, but I’ll get more into that later in the week with my first week review 😊

To Go to NASCAR?

One of my life-long goals, it’s a long and varied list, is to travel to all 50 states. At 25, I’m well on my way, but still have much of the Western half to visit. Now, people will ask, what do you consider visiting? For me, it’s more than just driving through. That might be because for three years I drove from Massachusetts to Tennessee twice a year and don’t really count all of the states Henrietta drove through as places I visited.

I’ve decided that in order for a location to count, I have to do some sort of activity there. It could be as simple as eating a meal there, but it must be in a restaurant, beyond the highway exit options. However, most of the time, it’s more extensive. Personally I’ve spent a lot of time at sporting events in other states, which is a BLAST. You get to experience local culture and exciting events!

So far I’ve made it through 28 states and have been to a game (or major event) in a third of them. I’ve been to a road race, a PGA golf tourney, a couple of baseball games, and a couple of football games. A few weekends ago I even hit up a NASCAR event in Charlotte, NC. Can I just say HOW MUCH FUN I HAD?!

I must say, when traveling, company makes all of the difference. I went with an awesome couple and now two of my favorite people. I met them at a friend's wedding in the summer and we became fast friends... Probably for our mutual weirdness. Danielle and Steve were amazing hosts and kept me quite entertained the entire time.

Going into it, I knew it would be fun, but I didn’t think it would be as exciting as it was. Obviously tailgating was a blast. Met about 30 different people over the course of the day. We made a few friends with our Stump game—if you haven’t played, you should definitely check it out: http://www.worldstump.com/rules.html. Then we meandered over to the main event and listened to the Goo Goo Dolls show, followed by the tight-rope walker who walked over the Grand Canyon. This was all leading up to the main event.

I didn’t realize quite how loud it got, nor how big the tracks are. Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile track and has a capacity of 140,000 spectators (Gillette Stadium is 68,756 for comparison). As soon as the drivers started their engines, the noise began to reverberate throughout the stadium. Then the scent of gasoline hit. I was getting amped.

We were seated right before the finish line and the cars all lined up. It wasn’t until their second lap, that the volume maxed out. I don’t even have anything to compare it to. The noise was so much greater than a concert and I could actually feel the vibrations… It was amazing. We only stayed through lap 179 of 330 before calling it a night, but I can’t wait to experience another NASCAR event. Next time we will be hitting up Loudon, NH. 

To Begin a New Blog?

My friend Meg just started a new blog and her first post really resonated with me. I've been wanting to start a new blog for a while, but decided it was "too time consuming," "too much work," "too [insert lame objection here]." The truth is, I miss writing. It was my major in college and I don't get to do much of it in my day-to-day life--you can't count emails as writing. So, here I am going at it again. 

Who knows if it'll be a good idea in the end, but at least it will keep me entertained for a bit. I'll probably be posting about random food choices in the kitchen, things that happen on my travels, and everything my friends and I get into in the city (Boston). Heck, I may even ask suggestions on things I should try and then let you know if it was a good (or bad) idea.

I look forward to posting, not sure how frequent it'll be, but I hope you enjoy... If not, rough.