I'm Here

I live in North Carolina. This is still a little surreal. I feel like I'm on vacation, not really living here. Probably because I don't have a job, but hopefully that will change soon. Job hunting sucks, by the way. There is absolutely nothing fun about it. But I'm sure something will work out eventually. I just hope I don't go broke by then. ;)

Ok, so I know you're dying to know about our journey from Utah to Texas to North Carolina. Well, here goes: We drove straight through from Provo to Dallas. No stops, except for gas and food. It was pretty miserable. I can't sleep in the car, especially when the seat can't lean back because everything I own is piled up behind it. So even though Jared was wonderful and did most of the driving, it was still not very enjoyable. But 22 hours into our journey, we made it to Dallas. It was noon on Christmas Eve, so we were able to enjoy pretty much the whole day there.

Highlights of Dallas: Christmas (of course), honey baked ham, Blue Bell ice cream, seeing cousins, hanging out with my family, taking pictures with Leighana. Oh yeah, I had a birthday during that time, too. I'm 24 now and I don't feel any different, but I do like saying "24" instead of "23."

This is by far the cutest Christmas present I have ever seen.

2008's awkward sibling Christmas picture

Hanging out with cousins at the grandparents' house

We left Dallas on Sunday, the 28th (Leighana's birthday - sorry we had to leave on your birthday, Lele!). We wanted to take more time to enjoy this stretch of the drive because neither of us had really spent any time in the deep south. We stopped for the night just outside of Birmingham, Alabama at a Motel 6 that made me want to throw up. Here's why:

• There was a Big Nasty Hair on the hand towel in the bathroom.
• It stunk.
• I used my own pillow so I didn't have to lay my head on their pillows, but that was kind of a bad idea because then MY pillow STUNK.

Also, I kinda got the heebie-jeebies when we saw the MANY signs in the parking lot that said "Lock your car! We are not responsible for theft or damage to vehicles or loss of life!" Ok, maybe the sign didn't say "loss of life" but I felt that was implied. And then we went to the lobby to check in, except we couldn't actually go INTO the lobby because it was after sundown, so we had to talk to the lady through a bullet-proof glass window.

Ok, so we left the next morning and drove a couple hours to Atlanta. Our plan was to get lunch, go to the aquarium, and be on our way. But apparently, the Georgia Aquarium is crazy busy (especially because there was a bowl game going on that weekend in Atlanta) and we had to wait in line 45 minutes just to buy tickets. And the tickets have times, so even though we got there at 1:30 PM to buy tickets, we couldn't get in until 4:00 PM. But that was alright because we took that time to wander around and see some other things in Atlanta, like the Olympic Centennial Park and the CNN building.

I didn't know Jared was making this face in the background, but I think it's really cute.

This is the hummer/broadcasting station that was used by CNN reporters in Iraq.

We finally left Atlanta at about 6:00 PM and drove the rest of the way to North Carolina. We arrived in Raleigh about 1:00 AM. I'm so glad we made it here safely!