Moving Up and Moving On

It is Thursday, June 21, 2012.  I am in my hometown of Madison, Alabama, sitting at my mom’s kitchen table while Louie sleeps at my feet.  It’s a pretty normal (post grad school) scene for me.

But very soon, I’ll have to find a new normal.

Last Saturday, I said goodbye to Tuscaloosa, the city I’ve called home for the past five years.

This Saturday, I’ll be saying goodbye to Madison, the city I’ve called home home for more than 20 years.

I’ll be packing the last of my belongings into my car and hitting the road, trying not to cry as I embark on my trip to my new home: Cincinnati, Ohio.

When my 6 ½ hour trip is finished, I’ll be unloading my things into the place I’ll be living for at least the next two years (Pictures coming soon!).  Then, I’ll be settling in for a day before starting my first real job bright and early Monday morning.

“I’m moving to Cincinnati.”  I say these words out loud, sometimes to myself and sometimes to other people, multiple times a day.  “I’m moving.  To Cincinnati.”  That just doesn’t sound right.  “I’m. Moving. To. Cincinnati.”  Nope, still not processing it.

I was born in California, but I don’t have any real memories before my family moved to Alabama.  This state has been my sweet home since February of 1992.

In the infamous words of Jessie Spano, “I’m so excited!  I’m so … scared.”

I’m anxious. About leaving my friends and family, starting my job, paying my own bills, making new friends, being an adult.

But mostly, I’m excited about all those things.  It’s time to take a step forward.

The past year wasn’t fantastic; graduate school was a weird, lonely, exhausting, unsettled time.  But now I am twenty-two with a master’s degree, and I have the opportunity to put my years of education to good use!

Furthermore, I have the opportunity to build a life for myself sans school.  It's time, and I'm ready.

So goodbye for now, Alabama!  And hello, Ohio!

(Does this mean I have to change the name of my blog?)

T-Town, Never Down

I haven’t wanted to write in a while, and to be honest I still don’t have the right words now.

Today is April 27, 2012; one year ago was April 27, 2011, a day this city will never forget.

I remember every detail of that day before the storm; it was all so important at the time.

It began as a beautiful Wednesday of dead week (much too aptly named in this case).

I went to El Rincon for an end-of-the-year lunch with my indoor rock climbing class. 

I ate huevos rancheros and paid full price (for the first time ever) for a margarita.

I returned to my second-floor apartment off 15th St. to nap until my 3:30 class.

I couldn’t fall asleep, so I grabbed my finance book to start studying for finals.

I made Scotty come out in the living room to watch James Spann with me.

The weather looked scary; we waited for the University to cancel classes.

I didn't want to move from the couch to go to finance and econometrics.

I didn't expect Tuscaloosa to be hit; it is just not something you expect.

Jonathan came over, and we decided to skip still-not-canceled classes.

The University sent an e-mail (I still think too late) canceling classes.

Then the tornado touched down; it was so close but a world away.

James Spann warned us to take cover, and we were all scared.

I nervously moved to the dining room, far from the windows.

Scotty, much braver than me, looked out those windows.

He saw the tornado that was on TV outside, too close.

He said we should run, but I was in utter shock.

 I couldn't fully grasp the storm's imminence.

 I put on shoes and locked the front door.

We sprinted to the nearby clubhouse.

We joined neighbors in a closet.

We closed the door behind us.

The air pressure changed.

We braced ourselves.

The tornado passed.

We had survived.

We walked out.

Devastation.

Disbelief.

4/27/11.

Ciao 2011! Ciao 2012!

Well, I did it once again.  I fell off the face of the blogging earth.

It happens.

But I want to make a little more effort to keep up with this creative outlet in this (still sort of) new year.  Promise!

And what better way to start back than with a cheesy new year’s post?

The beginning of a year is always exciting.  Even though almost nothing inherently changes, other than the date we all write on our papers and checks, there is something liberating about the implied fresh start.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so ready to say goodbye to a year.  2011 was easily the most difficult year of my life.

In 2011 I coped with the loss of my grandmother, narrowly avoided the deadly path of the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa, went without a car for months, dealt with rejection in what seemed like a never-ending job search, and struggled through my first semester of grad school (with many of my closest friends gone from Tuscaloosa).

The year wasn’t all bad, though.  I got the chance to share an apartment with my little brother (I might have been alone during the tornado if that weren’t the case.), had a fantastic last semester of undergrad with great friends, enjoyed being 21, went to Mardi Gras, met Guster, graduated from The University of Alabama, was the maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding, got a great fellowship for grad school, traveled to exciting places like Alaska and DC and Dallas and New York, finally landed the perfect job (for me), got an adorable new puppy (Louie!), and made beaucoups of new friends.

In spite of everything, someday I’m sure I’ll look back at 2011 and smile.

As for 2012, I hope it’s one of the best years of my life. 

It certainly started out amazingly!  I traveled to New Orleans with my mom, uncle, and brother and witnessed Alabama win its 14^th, or 9^th if you want to be politically correct, National Championship.  (When I finally upload pictures, that trip will obviously be getting its own post.)

In a way, the rest of 2012 is all laid out for me.  The plan is to work my butt off and finish graduate school in May then move to Cincinnati for my new job sometime in the summer.

I’m keeping my eyes on that ultimate destination, but I plan to enjoy the scenery along the way as much as possible. 

After all, this is more than likely my last semester as a student EVER.  And I am just now getting the hang of it!  (Kidding, mostly.)

These may even be my last few months as a resident of Alabama.  Before you know it, I just might be a card-carrying Yankee!

So here’s to 2012, a year of endings and of beginnings.  I hope to keep you all updated on this crazy journey!

Perspective

I have a long list of things I should be doing, but I am choosing to write this blog because that is what I want to do right now.  And darn it, that's what matters.

I just drove back from Madison to Tuscaloosa in Tropical Storm Lee.  It was terrifying.  I swear my life flashed before my eyes a couple times when I was driving 45 on the interstate blinded by the rain or when I was having to slam on my breaks to avoid accidents or obliviously law-breaking drivers without their lights on.

I haven't been this scared for my life since I was crammed in that closet with fifteen or so people on April 27.

And being scared for your life really puts things in perspective.  As a 22 year old (in four days), I don't often dwell on my own mortality.  I'm young, just starting graduate school, too busy with fall semester and football season to die.  Right?

Even after losing my grandma to cancer almost nine months ago, and even though I miss her every single day, death still isn't real to me.

But the truth is people my age die every day.  Freak accidents, diseases, natural disasters.  Our life can be taken from us without a moment's notice.

Just over a week ago, I went with friends to the Tuscaloosa Remembers memorial service honoring the lives taken by the tornado on April 27.  Dr. Witt, Coach Grant, and Coach Saban all spoke about the impact that day has had on our University and the entire community.

Something that Coach Saban said, in particular, stuck with me.  "Every day, we should appreciate the opportunity that we have to accomplish and affect something."  He told all the students at the service that we should be grateful to be alive and that we should be living our lives to the fullest, something that the six UA students killed by the tornado can no longer do.

We all really are so blessed, aren't we?  To have this opportunity to live.

I want to make the most of it.  I want to do things that make me happy.  I want to help others.  I don't want to do things because they are expected of me but because they are right.  I don't want to be complacent.  I want to explore and take chances every day.  I want to live for those who can't.

I watched an old movie called "Holiday" with my mom, grandpa, and uncles yesterday.  The movie, which was made in 1938, stars Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.  Grant's character has been working since he was ten years old and now wants to make just enough money so that he can take a long holiday... while he's still young enough to enjoy it.  Not a bad idea.  (Though perhaps a bit impractical during the Great Depression.)

I definitely don't want to put off happiness now so that I can have it later.  Today could be my last chance.  Or yours.

Think about it.

Playing Catch Up

None of you is less surprised than me that I have let this blog die over the course of the summer.  Me having too much free time leads to me watching entire seasons of shows rather than even feigning productivity.

But as I sit on my couch less than three hours before my graduate school orientation (I wrote this earlier today but am just now posting it as I steal Internet.), I have a sudden urge to write about everything that has happened in the past few months.  For your sake, I’ll just hit the highlights.

1.         I went to Alaska!  I could’ve sworn I wrote about this already, but I guess I’m losing my mind.  Scotty and I went on a business trip with our mom and got to experience Alaska’s natural beauty and delightfully cool weather for a week.  Fairbanks and Fort Greely, two of the places we stayed, were admittedly very boring.  But Denali was beautiful and made the entire trip more than worth it.

            I saw wolves and moose and bears, oh my! (Yes, I have made this joke before.  It’s still funny.)  And every way you turned was a view even more beautiful than the one before.  You could see those views anytime you wanted, too, because the sun never really set the whole time we were there.  I would absolutely go back to Alaska, but it would have to be in the summer again; this Alabama girl is not cut out for negative anything temperatures!

2.         I got my car back.  Amen and hallelujah, y’all.  I have not stopped thinking all summer about how lucky I was to not be injured or completely displaced by the tornado.  But it was torture not having my car for 9 weeks!  I went from enjoying total freedom my senior year of college to being immobile at my mom’s house most of the summer.  Not my idea of fun. 

Unfortunately, the shop did a pretty shoddy job on my car.  My (after market) back window was ridiculously warped; it was dangerous driving because looking at my rearview mirror was looking through a carnival mirror.  A shop in Huntsville replaced that window and repainted/fixed parts that the first shop hadn’t done right. 

Again unfortunately, the saga isn’t quite over yet.  Now that I’m back in Tuscaloosa, I’m supposed to contact my insurance company again to have my car reassessed and probably fixed again.  But I’m not even that mad; mostly I am just happy to be mobile again!  And to still have the car that Grandma worked so hard to get me.  It’s a blessing.

3.         My best friend got married!  (I was the maid of honor, and this will probably get another more detailed post soon.  With pictures!) Katie is now a Coppens, and none of us could be happier.  My weekends in July were pleasantly consumed by a bridal tea, lingerie shower, bridesmaid luncheon, and bachelorette party.  And those were some of the best weekends of my life!  It was great spending time with Katie, her family, family friends, and my fellow bridesmaids.  What an unbelievable month!

Then came the weekend of August 6.  Friday was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  It’s no secret that I can get a little emotional, but I was a wreck that night!  When Katie walked down the aisle to her entrance song during the rehearsal, I pretty much started bawling.  Katie’s dad and Zack’s dad told me I would have to hold it together during the actual wedding or they might both lose it, too! 

I also got entirely too emotional during the speeches at the rehearsal dinner.  Zack’s dad got me crying right before I was supposed to talk, but somehow I held it together during my maid of honor speech.  But I cried again during Jake’s, Katie’s dad’s, and Zack’s sister’s speeches.  It messed up all the real makeup I had bought specifically for this weekend!

Wedding day was also an emotional rollercoaster, but it was one of the best days of my life.  Katie was literally the most beautiful bride ever in history of the world.  No, I’m not biased.  I broke down right before the wedding seeing her in her wedding dress, but I mostly held it together during the actual ceremony.  It was hard to keep my lip from quivering, though.  But all the emotions were happy ones, and the ceremony was incredible.

After the I do’s (actually, I wills), we went over the Limestone Springs to dance the night away.  I cried AGAIN during Katie and Zack’s first dance and when Katie danced with her dad and Zack danced with his mom.  But it’s their fault for choosing such emotional songs!  The music was great and the reception was a blast, and I cried for the last time when the newlyweds drove away in the Rolls Royce.  It was perfect!

4.         Just the Wednesday after Katie’s wedding I went to D.C. and New York with my good friend, and former across the hall neighbor, Matt.  We went to D.C. to visit Chris, another very good friend (and another across the hall neighbor).  Chris is going to Georgetown this year ( :) / :( ), and Matt and I took it upon ourselves to help him get settled in.  Not like actually helping him set up his house but more like having tons of fun and forcing him to be our tour guide.  Basically the same thing, right? 

Either way, we had loads of fun in D.C. (and ate at my new favorite restaurant Roti… like Mediterranean Chipotle) for a day or so before Matt and I took the Bolt Bus to New York to stay with his friend Josh for a couple of days.  We navigated the subway system, ate dinner at Shake Shack, saw Times Square, slept in Brooklyn, ate real New York bagels, spent hours walking in Central Park, took an entire afternoon (still, not nearly enough time) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ate dinner in Little Italy, again spent the night in Brooklyn, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate some not so real New York pizza, and took the Bolt Bus back to D.C.  It’s exhausting just writing that, but it was so much fun!  I don’t know if I could live in New York, but I would love to visit for longer.

When we got back to D.C. on Saturday night, it was time for our last big hoorah.  We ate Afghan food (YUM!) and then hit the town with three other UA folks.  It was a glorious night, and it ended with late-night empanadas.  Perfection.  Sunday was spent touring Georgetown, eating delicious cupcakes at Baked and Wired, schmoozing with important UA grads, touring monuments, and finishing it all off with a bottle of wine that we risked our lives in a storm for.  Monday we went to Ben’s Chili Bowl (where the Obama family and Bill Cosby eat free), saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, toured more monuments, and then sadly had to pack up and leave.  All in all, it was a great way to spend some of the last days before we all get sucked into the grad school vortex.

5.         Speaking of the grad school vortex, these are quite literally the last words I will write before I am sucked into it.  There are less than two hours now until orientation.  I realized I never fully disclosed my graduate school plans, mostly because I didn’t make those plans until after the tornado.  After April 27, I just couldn’t see leaving Tuscaloosa behind quite yet.  So I accepted a fellowship, found an apartment, and went home to relax for the summer.  Now, nearly four months later, I have moved back to Tuscaloosa to make good on my word.  For the next twelve months, I will be working toward a Master’s degree in Applied Economics.  I know it may sound terrible, but darn it, it’s practical.  And somebody has to fix our economy, right?

15 hours this semester.  Here’s to the end of my social life as I know it!  Thank goodness my summer was so outstanding.  Roll Tide.

RAGING

As you can probably tell from the title, this post is not going to be a happy one.  But I am going to ease you, wonderful readers, into my anger slowly.

First, let me apologize for not writing in an entire month (especially during the summer, when I am really not that busy).  I planned to write about my Alaska trip but never got around to it.  I do plan on writing about it soon, but first there is something else I need to address:

Just exactly how angry I am at UA.

I woke up to a tweet from one of my best friends, Caroline, that one of our favorite restaurants in Tuscaloosa has closed down.  It saddens me to say that restaurant is Crimson Cafe.

I can't pinpoint the first time I ate at Crimson Cafe, but I know it was during my freshman year at UA.  Their food was great, especially the pizza bagels Katie and I always got and their drinks and lemon squares.  I loved that they had enough vegetarian options to keep me full and happy!

Admittedly, I often purchased my food with Dining Dollars.  (I used my debit card or cash when I could, though, because they offered a 20% discount for doing so!)

Sadly, those Dining Dollars are the main reason that The Crimson Cafe is shutting down after 18 years of business.  Here is the link to the Tuscaloosa News article explaining exactly why they are closing.  To summarize, Crimson Cafe must pay Aramark 21% of all Dining Dollar transactions.  TWENTY-ONE PERCENT. 

While I understand that Crimson Cafe chose to take Dining Dollars (originally paying Aramark 15 percent of transactions sometime in the 1990's), it is clear they had to make this choice to stay in business.  When students are your target demographic, you have to do whatever you can to keep them coming back.

Students are paying with their tuition, not by choice, to get $300 in Dining Dollars each semester.  I've heard the argument that you can get that money back at the end of the year if you don't spend it all, but that doesn't matter in the moment when the only food money some students have is their Dining Dollars.  They have no choices other than to buy food at inflated prices on campus or to dine at one of the few restaurants that accepts Dining Dollars.

Most students aren't aware that over twenty percent of their money is going not to the restaurants they patronize but instead to the ever-looming Aramark.  I, personally, would prefer that my money pay for my food.  Call me crazy, but that's how I feel.  Aramark has taken over dining on and around campus, and it disgusts me.

It really upsets me that my school, The University of Alabama, did nothing to help Crimson Cafe.  Especially after the tornado!  The administration can try to shift blame to Aramark, but the truth is that they hired them to monopolize dining.  The Strip is losing so much of what UA students love, and our school has no desire to stop it.  In fact, maybe the University is happy to see another local business gone.  They sure seemed to want Lai Lai off the Strip earlier this year!

When I drive through campus and the surrounding area with my mom, she barely recognizes anything.  The Strip is completely different than it was when she was at UA not so long ago, and I don't think that's a good thing.  As if the tornado didn't steal enough from our community on April 27!  Now it seems we're stealing from ourselves.

For such a historic school, our administration seems to have no interest in preserving anything that they're not profiting from.  I was a business major and understand how businesses work, but The University of Alabama is not a business.  First and foremost, it is an institution of higher learning; I feel like what I'm learning is that unique small businesses have no place in the area surrounding UA.

Hopefully Alabama will make sure another fun chain restaurant or leasing office opens up in Crimson Cafe's spot!

Cotton Row Run

This post will not be as long as the last one, promise.  Even my uncle wasn't patient enough to read through the whole thing without sighing every once in a while.  Halfway through he said, "Couldn't you have just written, 'I love animals,' or something?"  I guess that would be a very concise summary of how I feel!  Haha.

Anyway, now I will start writing about what this post is actually supposed to be about: my 5K yesterday!  (My excitement is totally fake.)

My mom is much healthier than I am, and she recently rediscovered how much she loves to exercise.  She does zumba, yoga, and other classes at the gym, and she also decided to take up running a few months ago using a "Couch to 5K" app on her iPhone.

We are not exactly runners in this family, but Mom definitely has the long legs, unlike me, and potential to be one!  She gets up ridiculously early (I'm talking 5-5:30 AM) to fit in her training runs before work.  Her app started with intervals of walking and running, and by the end of it she was able to run nonstop for something like 45 minutes.  Ridiculous!

Near the beginning of her running, she asked Scotty (my younger brother) and me if we would want to run a 5K with her.  My first reaction was no because I hate running, but we both decided to do it to support Mom.  She even bought me really nice running shoes to encourage me to run.  I planned to start the Couch to 5K program myself, but that never happened.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, was the day of the Cotton Row Run.  There is a 10K for the serious runners, a 5K, and a mile fun run.  Scotty and I joked that we should've signed up for the mile run since neither of us was prepared to run 3.1 miles.  Okay, maybe it wasn't joking.

We got to downtown Huntsville, where the race has been held for the past 31 years, at 8 AM to make sure we could find a place to park.  There were super-intimidating/impressive, skinny, sweaty runners from the 7 AM 10K recovering everywhere near the finish line.  A lot of them were resting and refueling so they could run the 5K at 9 AM.  Seriously?

My mom, her morning running buddy, Scotty, and I all stretched and tried to mentally prepare for the race.  We tried to stay in the shade because it was ridiculously hot and sunny already.  It was around 80 degrees during the 5K race, possibly the hottest it's ever been for the Cotton Row Run, and probably not good for a first-time 5K runner/walker.

The race was not so fun for me.  I really should've gone for at least one run anytime in the past few years to prepare!  Haha.  I ran for the first half mile or so, but then there was plenty of alternating between walking and running.  It took me almost 41 minutes (40:48) to finish.  Don't make fun of me, okay?  I think I could've powerwalked the whole thing faster; my walking was really slow because I was hunched over and cramping from dehydration.  Pathetic.

I was incredibly proud of Mom, though!  She was so nervous before the race that she wouldn't be able to do what she had been working so hard for the past few months.  I found her after the race, and she told me she had finished in 34 minutes!  Her official time was 33:56.  That's less than 11 minute miles.  Yay, Mom!  She was the fastest woman her age (not her age group, but her specific age... lol).

Scotty finished in 31:11.  Also impressive, obviously.  It probably helps that he has long legs and close to 0% body fat.

I have a newfound respect for runners now.  It's ridiculously hard, and you have to be physically and mentally strong to push through it!

The point of this post, other than to brag on Mom of course, is that I'm now inspired to stop being so lame and out of shape.  I have all summer to get in shape before grad school starts (I need to write a post about that, by the way...).

Plus, I want to lose 10 pounds for Katie's wedding that is 67 days away.  Totally doable!  I just need all of you, particularly my inspiringly athletic friends, to hold me to that.  :)

If I am still a fatty and can't run a 5K by the end of the summer,  I will have failed.  Period.

Scotty, Mom, and me before the race.  My smile is fake.  Scotty and I are cute and matching because we both wanted to rock our T-Town, Never Down shirts!

Happy to be finished and pounds lighter from losing water weight!

On the car ride home.  Exhausted.  (Notice the American flag I wore in my hair for Memorial Day!)