2019 Reading Challenge

Question, what do Leo Tolstoy, William Faulkner, Stephen King, and Amy Tan all have in common?

They're all authors who have books on the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge! Every year I set a reading goal for number of books read, typically 100. This year I decided to be different and go for a specific set of books.

A few years ago I had attempted to start the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge but got distracted by life and quit. While thinking about what to set for this years challenge I decided to give the RGRC another go. I have located this list from Betty Vintage that I like the format of and plan to follow along and mark up the list as I go.

My goal for this year is to get through at least a third of the books on it. Ideally, I would like to take the books in order as found on the list. But, depending on availability at my library and other resources I may need to skip books and get back to them.

What's your reading goal for 2019?

Weekly Update 1/1/18-1/7/18

Monday was absolutely gross, it was cold and rainy, and I had been out super late the night before at Manager's New Year's Eve party. Because of this, I spent the day cleaning my house, reorganizing my closet, and preparing my planner for the year. I did briefly leave to run to the barn, pay Cupid's board, and make sure she had her rain sheet on. Aside from this, it was a Netflix and snack type of day.

Tuesday I did my first run of 2018, a slow 3 miler through my neighborhood, without a watch to encourage myself to enjoy the run and not think about time. Currently, the Bluetooth on my phone is broken which means I have to plug my Garmin into my computer to sync it with Garmin Connect. Because of this, I've been extremely lazy about actually using my Garmin to track my runs because syncing the data is a bit of a pain.

Wednesday I dashed out of the barn after work. The temperature really plummeted and I may have panicked and bought Cupid a medium weight blanket. Thankfully I have Amazon Prime and was able to get same-day delivery. The blanket didn't arrive at my house until 8:00 so I had to go find her in her paddock in the dark. I'm lucky that Cupid is super nosey and wandered up to me to investigate what I was doing out in the dark. It was slightly creepy being at the barn in the dark, but it was also extremely peaceful just listening to the horses and seeing them relaxed.

Thursday I went back out to the barn after work, then headed home. I felt absolutely awful and just wanted to sleep.

Friday I made up for missing my runs earlier in the week and did a solid 45-minute training run. I went about 3.5 miles and felt really good after it. I thought about pushing the pace but because of the cold, I decided to take it slow.

Saturday I dashed out to the barn to hack Cupid and spend time with her. We worked through the intro dressage movements and on her simple changes through the center of the ring. One major item that we're having issues with is performing the changes on a diagonal as opposed to a straight line. After we finished our ride we ended up standing and talking to our trainer while she warmed up the kids. It amazes me that a year ago Cupid couldn't stand still but now she'll willingly stand for several minutes while I talk. My little pony is growing up!

After I got home from the barn I went for a quick run of 3 miles then came home to practice for orchestra. I ran my scales on both the flute and bari, then ran New World Symphony on the flute. It makes me so happy to finally play the entire New World Symphony, especially because it's one of my favorite pieces!

Sunday I accidentally overslept and ended up getting to the barn extremely late. By the time I got out there most of the usual Sunday crowd had finished and was heading home. Cupid and I just worked on our walk to trot transitions and trot to halt. She's gotten so much better at halting squarely when asked, so long as my cue is clear and consistent.

Later Sunday evening I had the first orchestra rehearsal of 2018. We ran the 1st and 4th movements of New World Symphony and received two new pieces for the summer concert. It's so nice to be back with the orchestra and finally get the chance to start putting the spring concert together. I'm super excited for this coming year with the orchestra, and can't wait to see if I get selected for any of the choir shows.

Total books completed this week: 3
Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger, The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniel.

2017 - A Year in Review

It's hard to believe that we're at the end of the year already. It seems like just yesterday I was at Manager's New Year's Eve party wondering who would attend with me after Vegas moved. This past year has been full of so many changes, yet so many other things have stayed the same. In staying with the general theme (give me credit, I like to believe that this site has a direction. lol) here are the major items that happened to me in my running, riding, reading, and repeating!

Running
This year started slowly in terms of running. I did the bare minimum in mileage and ran races that I was a bit underprepared for. But I quickly turned it around and joined the Disney Springs Fit2Run Galloway Training Group which helped me jump start my running program into something more productive than it had been. While I'm only a casual member the group at the moment, because of the early darkness, I am looking forward to continuing my running journey with them. I was able to PR my 10k and place in my age group for a 5k because of them.

On the topic of my 10k PR at the Celebration Pancake Run 10k, it was a bit disappointing but it is a huge milestone for me. If you check out my races tab you'll see that my PRs haven't really changed in a few years. This is entirely my fault because I am the least consistent runner I know. I had hoped to PR in the 5k at the Jingle Jolly Jog, but my mental game wasn't there. I am so proud of my first age group award. I have lusted after them for, what feels like, ages so it is extremely exciting to finally have one on my wall! Ok, it's actually in a shoebox under my guest bed because I have yet to find a medal holder that I love, but that isn't the point!

Riding
Easily, the biggest thing that happened to my riding career, this year, was purchasing Cupid. I spent weeks last year debating about purchasing her, and I officially made the plunge on January 11th. I never imagined that my horse would be a little Welsh pony cross, who was green broke with a major attitude. But here I am, with my little Welshie who still has a major attitude, and is slightly better than green broke. Honestly, I wouldn't trade in our partnership for anything. Owning a green pony has taught me so much about riding, patience, and myself. For every step forward there are two steps back, but once we make a leap forward the landing is extremely rewarding.

In addition to purchasing Cue, I also uprooted her and moved to a new barn. Shortly after purchasing Cupid I realized that our current situation was not working out. The care wasn't what I wanted for my horse, I felt cheated out of my lesson package, and I was extremely nervous having my partner in a barn with minimal supervision. It took me until May to find a stable that met my standards. The major sign that this was the place for us was when we ran into our new trainer at a show before I had even told our old trainer we were leaving. The new trainer made several observations about Cupid and I, then commented that she would love to take us back to the basics because "she's a baby and there's no need to rush her". Hearing this proved to me that she would have Cupid's best interests at heart which is all I wanted in a boarding situation.

Moving Cupid was the best choice I could make for her. She's happy at our current barn, has put on much-needed weight, and is slowly becoming a solid partner for me. We still have a long way to go, and I miss jumping, but watching her move properly and understand what I'm asking has been worth everything we have been through.

Reading
According to GoodReads, I've read 112 books this year. My goal for the year was 100 so I am officially putting this in the win category for the year! A few of those books were the Saddle Club series because I started walking down memory lane and couldn't put the books down. What was really nice was that I'm able to get them from the Orange County Library Media Mall which means no awkwardly walking into the children section of the library or putting them on hold.

Two other series that I have really gotten into this year are the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the Finishing School series this weekend, so expect that review to come up in the near future!

Repeat
If you've been around for awhile you'll notice that I fashioned this blog after my running, riding, and reading life. So you might be questioning what this whole "repeat" business is. I decided the other day that I needed a header for my twitter account and my facebook page. The plan was to do a running, riding, and reading silhouette on a glitter background. While putting this together it dawned on me to do a repeat sign so the entire blog title was represented. I looked up repeat signs to get an idea and had an "I'm an idiot" moment. In music, there is a sign that informs the musician to repeat a section, this is called a repeat. Because music is such a big part of my life and I've openly discussed it on here it only made sense to take the Repeat part of my title and have it represent the music portion of my life.

I now present to you the newest "official" section of the blog. My Repeat section, or music discussion.

With that little intro out of the way, it's time to discuss my year in music!
In January I located a local orchestra that seemed like it would be at my skill level and was actively recruiting members, the Central Florida Community Orchestra. I signed up and attended my first rehearsal. It was terrifying and I almost walked away before entering the building, but I participated in that first rehearsal and loved it! The CFCArts #FluteNation welcomed me and has pushed me to want to become a better musician.

This year I participated in four different concerts with CFCArts; Jazz, Joel and John in March, American Roadtrip in June, Fiesta in November, and Once Upon a December in December. Once Upon a December was the first time, since college, where I've accompanied a choir. This pushed me to not only be aware of the rest of the orchestra but to also work on matching the choir without becoming the main focus.

Without the Orchestra, I don't think I would have found a group that feels like home or had the drive to pick up the saxophone again!

Overall, this is a quick review of my 2017. It was fun, it was great, but I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for me!

Book Review: The Almost Sisters and NYX Lippie Countdown Day Four

One of my favorite experiences is picking up a new book and falling so in love with the story that you can't stand to put it down. The book fully consumes your mind and all you want is to see what happens to the characters. The most recent book that consumed me was The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson. This was a book that had frequently popped up in recommend reading lists so when looking for a new lunch time read I decided to give it a chance.

Picture Credit: Goodreads.com

Initially, I didn't think I would like the main character of Leia. She makes her living as a graphic novelist which is a genre that I have never been interested in. The story immediately opens onto Leia talking about her pregnancy and debating about how to break the news to her stepsister, Rachel, and other family members. On the day Leia has decided to break the news to her family she is suddenly informed of a possible health crisis with her Grandmother, Birchie. Leia rushes to a small Alabama town, almost like Mayberry, where Birchie lives with her childhood friend Wattie. This story follows Leia, Birchie, Wattie, and Rachel as they deal with family secrets, and discover the meaning of sisterhood.

Like I stated above, I initially didn't like Leia because I didn't feel like I could relate to her. But as the story continues I discovered that Leia is actually likeable and a strong character. The author, Joshilyn Jackson, brings each character to life, from minor to major, and gives them each a distinct personality. This really helped draw me into the book because it brought the characters from being on a page to people I could have actually known in real life.

Not only are the characters well done but the story surprised me. I was expecting "fluff fiction" about a family that's full of happy endings and lacking any deeper meaning. Ms. Jackson takes what could have easily been "fluff fiction" and turns it into a thinking piece. The character of Wattie is an African-American and a large portion of the book is dedicated to something Ms. Jackson has dubbed the Second South where Wattie has experienced discrimination simply because of her race. The picture that is painted of this Second South makes you stop and think. You suddenly start seeing that despite it being 2017 many of these issues are still alive and well.

Overall, I am a complete fan of this book and have already recommended it to several friends and family members. I look forward to hunting down other works by Ms. Jackson and devouring those as eagerly as I devoured The Almost Sisters.

Today is day four of the NYX Lippie Countdown! If you're wondering why I'm talking about a random lipstick then please see this post. Yesterday was a bit of a flop. It wasn't a bad color but it wasn't a color that I would normally wear, so I was excited to see that today's color looked like it was a nude shade.

Upon opening the box I was happy to see that this color was from the NYX Lip Lingerie line which had been the entire advent calendar last year!

Once I pulled out the color I was even more excited to see that this was the Push-Up shade which is a nice, soft peachy nude.

This is extremely easy to apply with the doe foot applicator and because it is almost a perfect nude shade for me I don't  have any issue fixing mistakes. You do need to be careful with the Lip Lingerie line because occasionally they do get a bit clumpy so check your wand before applying. This color lasts a long time, there will be some flaking onto glasses and things but for some reason it always looks fresh on my lips until around lunch time.

Now one fun thing that I did notice was that this shade is a touch lighter than the one I received last year. They both look the same when applied but in the tube they're a bit different.

August Goals

Like many of you I try to set individual goals for each month. While scrolling through the various blogs I follow, I realized that many of them share their monthly goals. It dawned on me that this would be a great way to hold myself accountable, so here are my 5 goals for August!
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August Goals
1) Canter through the water.
Thanks to all the rains Florida has been having there is a small section of the arena that's flooded. Now Cupid is 'Little Miss Prissy Pants' and hates getting her feet wet. Our recent goal has been to walk through this puddle without issues, and we've managed to trot through it without a major break in gait. My goal for August, if the puddle sticks around, is to canter her through the puddle. Because I would love to take her cross-country schooling and to a hunter pace, she's going to need to adjust to going through water.

2) Practice the flute for 2 hours a week.
Central Florida Community Arts Orchestra rehearsal has started again and this time I need to really dedicate myself to the music. I would love to play for the Christmas concert so I need to make sure that I give this whole season 110%. The upcoming concert consists of music that is from Spain and Latin America which are pieces that I'm not really familiar with but have proven to be extremely fun to play!

3) Read 3 books.
I would love to start working through some of the books on my GoodReads "Want To Read" list, but first I've got to read through the 100 books that are currently on my Kindles! (Yes, I've got two of them)

4) Workout 3 times a week.
It's no secret. I've gained weight. I hate it so I've got to do something about it. I'm going to be checking out a training program through a local running store but until then I've got to start rebuilding my strength.

5) Paint office.
I've got this room in my house that has sat and done nothing for the past year. It started as a guest room, then went to my office, then started to gather stuff that I didn't know what to do with. I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with this room and what my goal was for it. But now I've settled on a basic plan and just need to talk with my mom about swapping furniture. In the meantime I've picked out my paint color for the room and need to get it painted before bringing the heavy antique furniture into it.

See. It's in need of a makeover.

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Now for the fun part; seeing if I can achieve these goals! I'll be using my planner to track what I've accomplished, and when, so I will have an accurate record of what I've done.

Weekend Recap: Boat Cruises and Puddle Jumping

This weekend was full of all sorts of fun things. Normally I deep condition my hair and do a face mask on Saturday but I was at my moms house late last night and didn't feel like doing it when I got home. So now I'm sitting in my living room watching Quantico, writing, and letting my hair and face soak. I'm honestly impressed that I managed to finish everything on my list and have time to do it today!

I woke up yesterday and dashed to the barn for my lesson. It was my last official lesson with the current trainer so it was fairly bittersweet. We worked on various exercises to help us loosen up while riding such as standing at the trot, two-point, and hugging the horse. Cupid did amazing during this lesson! She's used to me working on standing at the trot and two-pointing but the hugging at the trot is a new concept. We've encountered it in lessons but I always feel like I'm going to go over her shoulder so we never work on it. Honestly I think we "jumped" better than we ever have before. My trainer made us hug our horses through a simple 6 stride line and Cupid rocked it! Normally she zig zags through her lines but during the hug exercise we had very little drifting. She did attempt to refuse one of the last jumps but I felt myself release my right leg and pop that heel up.

After the lesson I dashed over to my moms house to shower and change. She had signed us up for a boat tour in Mt. Dora through Premier Boat Tours. The tour was 2 hours long and went through Lake Dora, and the Dora Canal. I enjoyed the tour and found our captain, John, and skipper, Sandy, to be very pleasant. The houses along the route were fun to look at and the plants were fascinating. I especially enjoyed the cypress groves. The way the trees have grown and become "tangled" with other vegetation was enchanting. The only negative of the tour was that a good portion of it was spent pointing out alligators and trying to find them. I understand that tourists are amazed by the Florida gator population but after running past ponds with them, daily, they no longer captivate me.

View of the shoreline from the boat

From the boat tour we headed to PDQ for dinner. My brother has become addicted to their Buffy Bleu sandwich and was excited to have me try it. Because I wasn't feeling like a sandwich I went with the chicken tenders which were amazing. The breading was just right and the chicken tasted extremely fresh. I plan on going to PDQ again so that I can try more of the menu, possibly even the Buffy Bleu!

They don't look like much but they were really good!

When we got back to my moms house I helped her clip the dogs nails and back wash the pool for the first time. I had previously back washed the community pool I used to work at but never a smaller personal pool. It didn't take too long to back wash but neither of us had realized doing so would drain the spa. As soon as we turned the filter on we could hear this spraying sound, like someone had turned on a fire hose. It was the jet of the spa shooting water into the wall, which was then spraying all over the deck! We played with the filter, turning it on and off, and trying different valves until we realized that the jet was supposed to be doing that. The back washing had drained the spa and the jet was refilling the spa using fresh pool water. The spa successfully filled and the water actually seemed to appear clearer!

Once we were doing playing with the pool filter and spoiling the dogs, I headed home to get ready for the next day.

Views on a morning run always make it worth the effort

This morning I woke up early and immediately went out on a run. I put in 1.9 miles at an 11'56" pace. There was a lot more walking than I wanted, but I finished my run feeling good and not like I had worn myself to the bone. I'm going to work on focusing more on building my endurance then bring speed back in a few weeks. I want to get faster but I think I need to get my endurance back first.

That shine is probably more humidity than sweat

When I finished my run I flew through my errands for the day. I had to do several loads of laundry, clean the house, meal prep for the week, clip the Tweedles nails, and tend to the plants in my backyard, all before going out to the barn to work with Cupid and do the barn chores. I'm proud to say that I completed everything and still found time to read for a bit before heading to the barn! I'm currently reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. I'll do a quick write up of it once I finish!

While doing my errands I received a text from one of the other girls at the barn. She had randomly decided to work with Cupid and successfully got Cupid to stand in the water that was flooding sections of the paddocks. Normally Cupid will do everything she can think of to avoid standing in the water but this girl managed to get her to walk through a few puddles! As much as I want to be the one to exclusively work with Cupid I am extremely proud that my pony wasn't a holy terror and learned something new.

Proof that she wasn't losing her mind with the puddles

It wasn't until I got to the barn that I learned what had prompted this little lesson. Cupid was apparently being brought in from the field this morning and jumped over a giant puddle then cantered off while dragging one of the other girls. Whoops. This prompted them to work with her and get her over this fear of water. She thankfully retained this training and let me lead her through the puddle by the gate when she was turned out this evening. *Note. There is a dry gate to use for her field. It's just a bit further from the barn than the other gates.*

Sometimes she's convinced she's a draft horse and needs to run through everything/everyone

My weekend might not have been too exciting but it was extremely fun!

What's Up Wednesday?

I got home from the barn. Quickly changed from my breeches to running shorts. Dashed downstairs and put on my running shoes. Just as I was locking my front door it started to pour. If it weren't for the thunder I would be trying to get a quick 3 miles in. The lifeguard in me still tells me to stay inside during thunder. So now I'm sitting on my couch, watching Netflix, and eating leftovers from last night. Yay Florida life....

On the bright side, the rain is pretty to listen to and I do need to write as opposed to my usual say I'll write and walk away.

In an effort to start keeping up with this, I'm going to try and set a few days for regular posts. Everything else will be a fun extra that I'll write as I think of it (or say I will, write it halfway then walk away). One of these regular days will be Wednesday since it's mid-week and I'm usually settled into my work week at this point. Because I'm super creative these posts will be labeled "What's Up Wednesday?" and will try to cover anything that's going on in my life. The plan will be to segment these posts into four sections: Run, Ride, Read, and Repeat. The first three sections are exactly as they sound, and the fourth section, Repeat, will be for anything else that's going on in my life.

So without further blabbering, let's begin the first "What's Up Wednesday?'!

Run
I stopped running. After the Star Wars Half Weekend I took time off to let my foot heal and didn't really start once I felt better. A few weeks ago I went and did three different runs to see where I was at in my baseline fitness. The first was on June 4th and I did a mile in a run/walk pattern, this was done in 11'01". The second was June 6th and I decided to do an easy mile without walking. This was the first time I've ever run a mile without walking since high school and I'm proud to say that I was able to complete it in 10'56"! The third run was 2.5 miles, on June 9th, at an 11'27" pace. For this run I did end up doing a run/walk pattern and I really don't have an excuse as to why I decided to not slow down and run the whole thing.

My goal is to run a 10k this fall without walking (other than water stops) which means I'll have to put in substantial training. I am currently planning on running the Celebration Rotary Club's 19th Annual Pancake Run on October 28th. My ultimate goal would be to do the 10k in under an hour, but for right now I plan on beating my PR of 1:14:46. I know I have it in me to PR, I just need to take this training seriously and make sure to run enough races before so that I'm ready to really rock it.


Ride
Cupid is doing well. We showed at the Sumter Equestrian Center in their May Hunter/Jumper/Dressage Show and did fairly well. I am in the process of finishing this recap so you should see that in more detail at a later date.

Currently, Cue and I are working on our flat work. I've started to ask her to use her hind end more and she is responding beautifully. We have plenty of moments where she is clearly confused but she attempts to respond to me and it's those attempts that make me appreciate how good of a mind she has.

The biggest news I have regarding Cupid is our upcoming move. On July 1st, Cupid and I will no longer be training with our current trainer or boarding at our current barn. I made the decision back in May to move out to the West side of Orlando for several different reasons. The main reason being that I want to have access to trails and would like to be at a property that does not flood. If you follow me on Twitter then you have seen my complaints about the current barn flooding. It will be nice to be at a place that was build uphill and has better drainage.

Read
If you follow me on Goodreads you'll see that I have been binge reading The Saddle Club series. As a joke I picked up the first book because I had read about how bad the horsemanship is. This has turned into me laughing over the writing and horsemanship, while appreciating that these are great books for the horse crazy child. When I wasn't able to ride these books let me maintain my love for horses

I'm also reading Little Women again. A few years ago I decided to start the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge and this is one of the books on the list. I'm in no hurry to complete the challenge, I just would like to do so before I turn 30. Since Little Women is one of the longer books it makes sense to read it with ample time to finish.

Repeat
Last weekend I had my second concert with the CFCArts Orchestra, American Roadtrip. This stands as the concert I am most proud of. The music was challenging yet the entire orchestra, including myself, rose to the challenge and put on an amazing show! Manager attended one of the performances and stated that it was his favorite one yet. Our next concert is ¡Fiesta! and will be on November 3rd and 4th. I can't wait to challenge myself further and perform with the orchestra again!

April Life Update

Every time I promise to be more vocal on here I seem to fail. So no more promises, I'll just post as I go. So now for two major life updates!

The first update, and possibly the most influential, is that I have moved! I've left my home of Lake County, IL and I've become one of the newest residents of Orlando, FL!!! If you know me in real life then you'll know I was absolutely miserable since I left FL in 2014. I missed my friends, I missed having nice weather (most of the time), and I missed doing things for myself. This move to FL did involve leaving the horses behind but I hope, in time, that I'll be able to find a barn just as nice as my last one.

Photo Credit: Orlando Sentinel
http://www.trbimg.com/img-52d806bb/turbine/os-welcome-to-florida-sign-20140116/2048/2048x1365

The second update is that I'm now a mom! On March 12th, I waltzed into my local PetCo and waltzed out with two beautiful little girls! Meet Cali and Bailey!

They're approximately three years old, and biological sisters. These little girls have made living alone easier and they help make sure that I get up for work in the morning. They're convinced that feeding time is at 6am and they're going to die if they don't get the food at that exact moment. Yay cats?

Hopefully there are some more fun updates on the way as I adjust to living in FL again!

New Year, New Experiences

This may be a day late (or 17, whoops), but I figure it's better late than never! Plus, as you'll see further down, I had to wait to make any type of formal announcement about my new year.

So, without any further delay, here are 5 things you can expect to see from me in this coming year.

1) More races.

Picture Source: Fort2Base

This coming year I have several races planned, with the goal of running one race every month (excluding January). My main goal is to run a strong 5k and keep my time below 30 minutes, currently I'm averaging around 28 minutes. I would also like to run a few more half marathons and possibly a race on the beach. I have updated my race schedule tab with the upcoming races and my updated PRs.

2) Dressage lessons.

Picture Source: wikipedia.com

One of the main items on my must have list for the new barn is access to dressage lessons. I feel like my flatwork needs a lot of help and I'm hoping that by taking dressage lessons I will be able to build a stronger foundation. I might keep up my Hunter/Jumper lessons but right now that will not be my main focus. Ideally I will be able to try a dressage show or two, even if it is just a walk/trot test.

3) Actually finishing and reviewing books.

Picture Source: huffingtonpost.com

This past year I have read and finished several books but I never finished any written reviews on them. I entered the 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge with the goal of 100 books, currently I have started 4 different books and finished 0. I'm already off to a great start.

4) More adventures.

Photo Source: tumblr.com

Because I'll be more independent and more accessible to my friends I fully intend on forcing them on adventures. Several items I have planned are exploring the new area, attending an away football game for my Alma mater, and learning how to live on my own.

Which leads me to the most interesting part of my year........

5) Successfully move to Florida.

Picture Source: http://visitaorlandoflorida.info/

In a few weeks I'll be leaving my small town, in Northern Illinois, and moving back down south to the Orlando, FL area. This move marks the first time I won't have roommates, the first time I will be 100% financially responsible for myself, and the first time I have ever had to make all the decisions about my living arrangement. I am extremely excited because I'll be moving back with all my friends and I won't have to endure any more Midwestern winters!

This move involves a new job at a new company, which involved a huge milestone in my life. Interviewing for a job, while being employed by another company, then having to resign from my current company. If that doesn't sound extremely stressful then take my word for it, it was a headache and a half.

In the coming weeks, while I pack and prepare, I fully intend on keeping everyone updated about the move and the various components that make up the experience.

Wish me luck!