So it begins...a new chapter.

Today was the first day of the Job that I didn't have my co-worker training me, her last day was on Friday, crazy!  The going away party for her was on Saturday, quite the fiesta.  And through all of it, it only made me want to stay at the Job for that many years longer.  I love it.  And the first day went really, really well.  Got a lot accomplished and definitely feel ready to take on the job solo.

This week I'm taking off on my whirlwind summer of travel for the Job.  I'll be flying back into Little Rock this Thursday and staying until Sunday.  Cannot wait to see all of my friends there!  Obviously there will be some things hard and not so easy about being there and seeing a certain someone but, for better or worse, it needs to be done.

After LR I'll be heading east for a week and a half.  I'll be in Martha's Vineyard for a bit, then heading back to LA for about a week and a half where my mom will be visiting!  Yay!  I am so excited for her to come and see my new life out here.  After LA it's back east again for a while.  At the end of July I will be flying home to Madison for my birthday, so excited!  I get to be there for 4.5 days, so great.  Then it's  back to LA where I have quite a few very close friends coming to visit from the good ol' south for a couple of weeks.  Yay visitors!  And then it's back out east again for the rest of August.  So as you can see, I'm going to be busy, to say the least haha.  Please forgive me if you don't see a ton of posts, I'll try my best!  I miss you all, lots of kisses and hugs, xoxo

Being me again.

Right now I'm celebrating an (almost) Celtic win of the NBA Playoffs, watching the basketball game at a new friends apartment.  So much fun!  I met this whole crew about 3 weeks ago and have seen every game since with them, whether at their apartment or at a great little Irish pub called Sonny McLeans.  Wonderful!  They have been a revival for me, keeping me busy, letting me laugh ridiculously loud and letting me get a little tipsy and let loose when needed.  And trust me, it has been needed recently.  No worries, no drinking problem at all and have not been drinking a lot, just a glass of wine here and there watching a great basketball game every couple of days.  It has been miraculous!  

So I guess what I am saying is that I'm feeling like myself again.  Feeling like I'm ok, I'm totally great where I am, with who I am, and with where I'm going.  I'll keep you posted on any further advances in that area.  Hope you're all wonderful, miss you all! xoxo

Change. Part two.

When something major happens in ones life, it takes time to figure out where and how to start over again.  Thought processes have to change.  Day to day activities and 'used-to's' have to be modified.  Figuring out how to recreate oneself to fit this new life...it all takes time.  

Right now I feel like after an event that took place last week that I don't want time.  I feel like when I have time I start to explode.  I need to fill up my days and hours and minutes with activities and people and anything to keep my mind busy.  If I find that I am sitting for too long, I go crazy.

Starting over.  What a weird concept.  One that, to be honest, I hadn't seriously thought of for the last year and half.  Even with this move, it may have crossed my mind, but never in a serious way.  Maybe that was naive.  Maybe that was hope.  I don't know.  Either way, I'm here, in it, knee deep.  

Being surrounded by incredibly wonderful, loving, and understanding people helps.  Even those back home and back in the city where the majority of this all took place, they are the reason that I am not going absolutely nuts.  I guess it's good to hear that, above all, I am still loved by friends.  Friends from home, friends that are friends between us, new friends here.  I don't know where I'd be without you, you guys are keeping me sane.  Thank you, for everything.  Please don't stop the emails/texts/calls, I appreciate every single one of them, more than you know.

It's been, a while.

Well first of all, I'm sorry for the lengthy hiatus.  I don't want to make excuses but work honestly had been crazy.  Crazy in a great way though!  Loving every minute of it, and making new friends (almost) every day.

A blog I posted some time ago about change reoccurred to me today.  As I was sitting here watching Sex and the City in my not-even-close-to-being-set-up apartment, getting ready to watch the actual movie (I'm just playing another round of catch up with the seasons), I realized that all of these feelings that I'm having about this huge change that I am waist deep in were completely normal.  Without shedding too much detail, there have been some ups, and definitely some downs in this last week or two with a BIG change in a BIG relationship of mine.  Funny, for those of you who know Sex and the City BIG is a phrase/name commonly used.  But for my big relationship it is with a different man, my main man.  Don't worry, things are fine.  It's figuring out how to actually maintain our relationship when it is so different from before, not just from when I was in the same city as him but also from when we did long distance before when we first started dating.  It's not the same.  Too much has been put into it, we're not heading to the same destination we were before.  

This summer, maybe even this year, I feel, will be one for changing, adjusting and reinventing.  Changing my/our minds about what we want and hoping those run parallel with each others wants, adjusting to this new city for myself and for us this new relationship we have, and reinventing our relationship too.  We can't have what we had before, not exactly.  And who knows, maybe what we can have will be even better.  We'll never know unless we try.

And I'm Settled. Almost.

Well I made it!  I guess I should say 'we' made it, referring to Rex and myself.  The trip out was great, kind of a long flight, but you'll have that when you fly halfway across the country.  The week was amazing with Rex.  He was such a great apartment-finder helper!  We lucked out on a great one too, I'm sitting in it right now.  On a very retro-looking couch too, I might add.  

While Rex was here this last week we mainly looked for apartments and hung out.  Got some great food, went down to the ocean, ate some cherries at a farmers market, and got to know LA a little.  It was wonderful.  Couldn't have wanted a better last week with him.  Then he had to go.  And I got sad.

After I dropped him off, I had a few minutes drive before I had to meet my co-worker at Target to begin the 'necessity' shopping, things for the apartment that you HAVE to have.  Towels, silverware, toilet paper, etc.  During that 15 minute drive or so I really got to get a good cry out, reprocess things about where I was, what I was about to start doing with my life and how Rex will still be a huge part of it, even though he's not right at my side.  As sad as I was and still am, I know we'll be ok.  He has reassured me of that many times, and I believe him.  

This weekend has been full of shopping and organizing.  I have furniture, some at least. Waiting til tomorrow to get a bed, for now I'm on an air mattress.  I'll take that over the floor!  Last night I was taken out by two of my friends and their significant others for an amazing night out in LA.  We had drinks at this chic bar that is at the Santa Monica Airport, we had the drinks on the roof so we got to watch the sun set and see the planes come in...very cool.  After that we went to this great place called Primitivo, a tapas restaurant/wine bistro.  AMAZING!  I can't even explain the deliciousness of this food, and I could eat almost everything there!  That doesn't happen often!

Tonight they are showing me downtown, cannot wait.  We are going to one of their friends going away parties and then out to eat and out for drinks after.  Should be a great time.  Tomorrow is just setting up the apartment more, maybe I should do some grocery shopping since I'm literally living off of: rice cakes and peanut butter, one leftover from last night that I am making into 3 meals, salsa with no chips, and two apples.  Yup, that's it.  As for next week, the training begins!  

Can't wait to see what's in store!  I swear to post more often, this week has been nothing but craziness!  Hope you're all well and happy, miss you! xoxo

I'm out. Peace.

I'm off, headed westbound.  Today's the day that I'm starting the Job, it's crazy!  I'll try my best to keep you all updated as often as I can.  This first week might be hard, we (Rex and I) will be all over the place, but soon enough I'll let you know how we're doing, where I'm living, etc. 

I'll miss you Little Rock, and everyone and everything that came with it.  It's a great little package deal.  And I cannot wait to come back and visit.  Thankfully my boss is from here so I'll be back quite often, yay!

Farewell, farewell.  See you in the big city!!!

It's about that time.

Well the goodbye party has come and gone, and now I'm left with only one final and two papers, which thankfully are both done.  The final however is on Wednesday, talk about a buzz kill for the week.

This weekend was wonderful, just what I wanted for a send off party.  We went out to Murray Park which is down on the Arkansas River.  We grilled out, had tons of food, played beach volleyball, bocce ball, and frisbee.  (Almost) everyone was there that I wanted to catch before I left.  No worries though, hopefully I'll be back around the good ol' Rock sooner rather than later and I can see everyone once again.  

Well it's here.  Friday.  The day of moving.  Weird!  It has come up so fast!  I'm shipping my bins, full of all my stuff, on Wednesday...or tomorrow if I can pull everything together.  And they should be there by Monday or Tuesday!  That should work out perfectly with getting my own apartment.  Thankfully I have a wonderful friend of mine out there helping me look at apartments, she's been a lifesaver!  So that will cut down on my time having to go hunt a perfect apartment down in the first few days of being out there, thankfully.  Saturday, though, it's all business.  Rex and I are doing some major apartment seeing/hunting and hopefully we can score one that I love by the end of the day so we can get into one ASAP.  

This will probably be the last blog before I get out there, and I apologize if one doesn't come super soon after that.  I will be going through crazy-town in the first week out there but I promise I will do my best to get one up as soon as I can.  

Other than that, I hope all of you are wonderful and well!  Can't wait to hear from you!  The next time you 'see' or hear from me I'll be a Californian, whoa!