home...

The excitement of going home for the first time is not lost on me. Frankly I can't wait! I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss the Twin Cities. I love my home. Growing up I always took the cities for granted. Living in the suburbs was great, but now that I'm living in Texas I realize that I never knew the cities in the proper way.

I think I've come to love Minneapolis/St. Paul more since I've moved. It's the atmosphere, the urban grind, the way people trudge through snow, sleet, hail, and rain just to live in the city they love. It's the respect for all things Twin Cities. Now don't get me wrong, I love living in Austin, but it's not my home. I just live here for the time being. It's got all the wonderful things a city should have, cool funk, fantastic fashion, and amazing food. But it's not where I grew up, it's not where my fondest memories happened.

When I go home in a mere week and four days (HOLY YEA) I'm looking forward to experiencing familiar and new things. I know there will be a Twins game at the new Target Field. This will be my first time seeing my favorite team play outdoor baseball. It will be different not having the roar of the Metrodome, but it will still be wonderfully awesome. There is nothing like sitting in a ballpark drinking beer with your favorite people. Then maybe going out with said favorite people after the game to a bar for an ice cold Summit!

(A beautiful picture of Target Field from thesportsbustrip.com)

My family is a sucker for all things delicious and cultural. So naturally when they built the best restaurant in town a block away from their house, my super cool parents decided we need to frequent this place as much as we could! Thus began our love and fascination for the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe (aka The Cruise). The Cruise is a brightly colored, high energy restaurant that specializes in scrumptious food from the Mediterranean (hence the clever name), delicious drinks (shots of Ouzo), and belly dancing (which you can participate in if you'd like, or you have a few too many shots). The experience is one that I've yet to see in Austin. The restaurant is huge with a nice patio, but it feels small because the staff is so warm and friendly. I know it's not exactly in either "downtown" city, but it's close, and I like it!

(Photo from medcruisecafe.com)

The following is my open ended letter to Starbucks:

Dear Starbucks,

You may try to fulfill my caffeine addicted body with your lattes, but you fall so short it's scary. You are not my friend. The fact that I shell out money to you when I have to be awake at the ass crack of dawn is appalling. If there was a substitute that sucked less than you, I would drink it, however even your burnt espresso is better than no espresso. Also, why do you take so long to have my order ready? Trust me, hand crafted coffee drinks sound intense but are not that challenging to make. What is with your drink sizes? We are in America, here we say small, medium, and large. I don't like having to speak another language to get a damn cup of coffee. And non-fat? It's called skim, dummies. Get this stuff straight! Starbucks you are in no way as close to amazing as Caribou is. You are stupid, really, really stupid. But I will continue to drink you because there is not a Caribou in Texas. However, while I am home I will only drink Caribou, and lots of it! In fact, I will get off the plane at MSP and head straight for Caribou, that's how much I love it! So there!

(I believe the only time I will not have a latte in my hand while I'm home is when I have a beer in my hand)
(Photo by the lovely and delicious cariboucoffee.com)

These are just highlights of what is to come. I'm sure there will be time spent wandering the streets of downtown with my sister, drinking in small town bars with my friends, and of course a Graduation BBQ and the Law School Graduation. I'm sure my time home will be as wonderful, and glamorous as I hope it to be. Plus I get to see this precious face everyday for a week! My beautifully naughty and lazy Curtis!

(Photo taken by my mom)

I now realize this post has become a bunch of rambling crap. Oh well, we're without Internet at the new apartment (oh did I tell you we moved?) so work is now just an excuse to play on facebook and blog. SWEET! I hope to find more time between customers to update, but since I'm working off a PC not my usual Mac it's a little confusing (plus I'm computer illiterate). Plus I don't have any of my pictures on this computer. Maybe I'll start bringing my computer to work. That wouldn't be dangerous at all!

Needless to say, I'm ready for a vacation. I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to see my family, my sister and brother-in-law, all my friends, my animals! I miss everyone! A LOT! I knew it would be hard, I just never imagined this hard. Maybe because it's the first time going home. Maybe because I'm a giant baby and I'm homesick! Who knows? The excitement of going home for the first time is not lost on me.

restless already?

Searching for art has made me crave vacation. We're moving into a new apartment this week, and I'm very excited (I get a real bedroom with four walls and a door, also my own bathroom) because I get to decorate my space anyway I want! So I've been searching for art to hang on my walls, and deciding what colors I want to use. In that search I've come across some beautiful pieces of photography of places I want to visit some day.

Of course I want to visit New York. I want to walk through Central Park. To eat a cupcake at Magnolia Bakery. Sit on Carrie Bradshaw's front steps. Visit all of the museums like the MoMA and The Met. See the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero. Maybe even ring in the New Year in Times Square. Maybe one day!

I want to cross the pond and go to London. Ride the London Eye. Look out over Piccadilly Circus. See Buckingham Palace, and try to make a guard laugh. Walk the London Market. See Westminster and St. Paul's Cathedral. Walk through the streets at night and stop at a pub. Longingly someday.

Oh, and Venice. I want to ride a Gondola and be serenaded at dusk. To walk across the historic bridges over the waterways at sunset. Watch the pigeons at St. Marks Square. See the sun change in The Clock Tower. Drive to the Dolomite Mountains. Wander the street boutiques of Cortina. What a dream!

And of course there's always Paris. I want to see the Eiffel Tower during the day, and lit up at night. I want to visit The Louvre and see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. Sit in a cafe drinking espresso, eating French delicacies. Walk the Champs Elysees and see the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. Take in the enormity and architecture of the Pantheon. I want to take in the beauty of the most wonderful city in the world. This is my ultimate destination.

Traveling the world is my dream, and finding the beautiful pictures has made me yearn to go. I wish to see the world, one city at a time. I know there are so many other fascinating places to see, but these four are at the top of my list. To say I've been there would enlighten me and bring culture into my life. I've traveled before, and count myself blessed for the wonderful places I've been and the sights I've seen. But I guess until I get to travel again, seeing these photos will have to suffice. Searching for art has made me crave vacation.

sweet travels

Guess I asked for it. I wanted this adventure. I am sitting in B&N using the internet, trying to look for a job, and the smell of coffee is making me happy. I miss working in a coffee shop, and it's only been two weeks. It's been a bittersweet couple of weeks, saying goodbye to all of my coworkers who are really my friends, and my family who are really my inspiration. It's been an interesting trip, with only one mental breakdown, but way too many car breakdowns.

The trip started relatively uneventful packing the car with everything I own. We couldn't fit everything in, but we got a lot, and the car was jam packed. With one last stop at Caribou we were on the road. We stopped in once in Iowa for a potty break, and once for gas. Drove through Missouri without any issues, which was surprising because it was super foggy, and then stopped somewhere is Kansas for dinner. We got back on the road, drove another hour and decided to stop in Emporia, KS for the night. Then the problems started.

When we were ready to hit the road the next morning, we started the car and discovered the low coolant light was on. So we went to some oil change place and had them check it out, fill it up, and make sure we wouldn't blow up or anything. So we keep driving and make it to Oklahoma without anymore problems. Stop for lunch and get back in the car only to discover the check engine light was on. So we call a few people, and they tell us that it could be two things, a tripped wire that's nothing, or something bad, just keep an eye on it, and keep driving.

On the road we go, praying, hoping, and begging that my car does not breakdown on the side of the road in the middle of OK. We make it through Oklahoma City, all the while looking for a car dealership to see if they can look at my car to make sure we won't die in a fiery explosion. By sheer luck we find one on the outskirts of town, pull in and ask them for a little help. As we're talking to the service manager I look out my window to see a river of coolant running down the shop floor.

As we waited for the guy to come tell us that my car was completely broken, we discussed our options. Hope nothing was wrong, buy a new car, get a rental, or stay in Norman, OK for two days. Turns out my car would cost another $1000 (thanks parents) and two days to fix, rental cars couldn't leave the state, and enterprise was closed. Thus ensued my mental breakdown, crying because I was sick of driving, sick of things taking so damn long, sick of my car being so broken, and the start of my life seemed so far out of reach. The service manager seeing this somehow made it ok for a rental car to leave the state, and we loaded an HHR (really dumb looking by the way), and headed for Austin.

Finally here I feel like my life can start. I am getting organized, furnishing my makeshift bedroom, and looking for a job (and blogging of course). It's been an eventful four days, full of excitement, fear, adventure, laughter, and tears. And I couldn't be happier. We're still trying to figure out when to get my car down here, but it will all fall into place, I'm sure. This is what I wanted. Guess I asked for it.