Livin the Dream!

Over the last few weeks I have come to LOVE where I live. Don’t get me wrong, I have always enjoyed it, but there have been so many things recently that have made me really appreciate it and be 100% in love with the fact that I’m here, have a great job and have met some of the greatest people. I go to the Salvation Army every day (and find incredible buys), work in a place that should be the set of a soap, have friends of all nationalities and ages, drive on the wrong side of the road and most importantly have friends and family at home that fully support me. Yeah I took a huge leap of faith to pick up and move around the world shortly after buying a house, landing a wonderful job and having the worlds greatest roommate and pup. It does make me a bit sad when I talk to my dad and he mentions how funny Brinley is and how much he loves her, but I truly can’t imagine a better scenario. I can’t imagine better guardians for my sweet little angel. I just hope he knows that one day he has to return her because he didn’t sign adoption papers!

Random thoughts for 1000:

-I made a list of things for my mom to bring and it consisted solely of food, other than a couple jackets: buffalo sauce, ranch packets, French onion dip packets…..story of my life

-On a ‘light rock’ radio station I hear the full 14 minute version of Mark Knopfler’s ‘Telegraph Road’ and then I hear the Backstreet Boys, Seal, Britney Spears or Boyz II Men and it makes my skin crawl. We hear Sweet Home Alabama a minimum of 4 times a day, so don't every be offended if I ever mention how much I hate the song.

-We don’t have coffee pots and if you ask someone about them you will more than likely get an odd look. You get an espresso coffee and that's it. When I first got here I always felt Americans pain when they asked for the most "American" coffee they could get, now I just find it highly amusing and think "poor you". Espresso coffee is amazing....just don't ever try to give it up! It's so much harder that drip pot coffee.

-I plan to make a King Cake for my friends at Mardi Gras, but then again I had my mom send over pecans (Pronounced Pee-kans) for a Pecan Pie and I have still yet to make one. Sorry mom. I even considered hiding them so you would never know when you got here.

-You don't realize how much you say ya'll until you come to a place where they don't say it and every time you do they laugh and say "yall". Then you get to the point where you enjoy saying yall and you use it as much as possible. Kiwi's would say "you's", like you guysssss. Yeah, not near as cool as yall!

-Cider is a HUGE thing here. Like alcoholic beverage cider. They have every NZ fruit possible as a cider. They have cider on tap and cider in bottles. To me it's just carbonated apple juice, with alcohol, and I find it truly disgusting. Then again people add cordial to everything. Do we have cordial? I can't even remember. Put it this way....kids in America drink Shirley Temples, which means it has grenadine in the sprite. Here EVERYONE drinks raspberry coke/sprite, or they add lemon or lime cordial....it's straight syrup. I hate to boast about how gross it is since I have truly never tried it, but I can pretty much imagine what they taste like and I'd prefer to avoid them!

-I have plenty other random thoughts, but I will save those for another day....

LAST and MOST IMPORTANTLY.....if I can get every single person following my blog (I know who you are) to comment on this post then I have decided Carol and Pete will skydive while they are here, on my dime, whether they like it or not!!!

Oh and happy happy birthday to my incredible friend Val!!! I am so thankful to have you as a friend and can't imagine my life without you! (I will now probably be in trouble for not giving anyone else birthday shout outs, including my own family....sorry love yall.)