Day 28-- Looking Back on the First Month

As January has begun to melt away, the cosmos decided to grace Dallas with the most beautiful, amazing weather today.  I loved it.  I had missed it.  The way the bright rays of sunshine felt on my now slightly pale skin (I mean, I’m Mexican… I don’t REALLY get pale) just caused me to reflect on this new chapter in my life.

20love has already been the most life-changing year of my life so far and I’m only one month into it. 

As crazy as it sounds, that statement is completely and utterly true.  If you would have told the me of January 28, 2010 that this would be where my life is going, I would say you are crazy.  My plan has been the same since I was little and I am going to accomplish it no matter what.  I would have scoffed at the idea of not being in a monogamous relationship and probably staying in a relationship that would work because of what I put into it, but not getting what I truly needed because I was too scared of being alone.

But now—I look at that person and I have to marvel at how starkly I have changed my life.  My decisions to forgo my chosen career path and start on the new journey of the hotel industry and my choice to stop letting relationships define me have made me so much stronger. 

I’ve been meeting a lot with my dad (He’s actually in management at the hotel I currently work in) and he’s been giving me a lot of great advice on what I can do to succeed.  I think it’s going to be wonderful for our relationship for me to get involved in this industry.  For a while, my dad and I’s relationship has been less that it should be—it has never been estranged or bad in anyway, but when we see each other we have limited things to talk about.  My sister and him have sports and television shows that they both watch and rave about together.  Now, my dad and I have this.  We talk about the hotel, or food, wine—and it’s been great to start to respect my dad in a whole other way.  One reason why 20love has been great so far.

I also talked with my direct boss today about my desire to stay at the hotel past when I originally told him and he was very, very excited about my choice.  Our conversation left me feeling like I had certainly made the right choice because his enthusiasm about the potential he sees in me makes me want to dream big.  His story is similar to mine because he began his career as a server and is now the food and beverage director for our sports club.  He thinks with the right training I have all the tools necessary to accomplish great things.

But, to accompany all this great positivity, is some negativity.  I did not win employee of the month.  That sucks, but really I don’t need a piece of paper to know I’m doing a great job.  The employee who won has been working for the company for years and I know I have the potential to do great things in the years to come!

20love has also been amazing because of my freedom to stop worrying about relationships.  One of my Peruvian princesses was seeing this guy before she left for Peru and they broke up when she came here.  But, now that her arrival back to Peru gets closer and closer, the two have started talking again.  Some days, things are great and then the guy won’t call her when he says he will or he won’t invite her to something he’s going to and it crushes her.  She gets very upset and distracted and it hurts me to see her so worked up about it.

But I look at her and I think—that was me.  Looking back at the me in 2010, I was so concerned that this one person needs to pay attention to me and if he didn’t it made me so upset.  I would cry, be anxious, and just worry so much that it would take away from my happiness and positivity if they were ignoring me. 

The me of 20love says that’s ridiculous.  These rules are really helping me stay single and be okay with the fact people may not want to see me. Speaking of the rules… I got into a disagreement with my most fierce and fabulous best friend regarding Rule Three.  This rule explains that it’s up to the guy I go out with to call me or contact me if he wants to see me again.  My Fierce and Fabulous Best Friend told me it was unfair because it made me seem elitist, like I’m so wonderful and awesome that you need to call me if I can see you.

For me though, that’s not what it is.  Example: I went out with this guy this week and it went amazingly.  He was charming, good looking, and we really hit it off.  In fact, he even kissed me at the end of the date so I assumed I would be hearing from him. But, days went on and while the me of the past would have called and already asked this guy out again, 20love me just didn’t care either way.  I don’t need this guy in my life so badly that I need to call him… I have plenty of friends already and don’t need to get so worked up over one date.  This year is about choosing guys that I don’t have to work so hard to hang out with.  For so long I’ve chosen these guys that “play hard to get” and I fall for it every time.  I don’t want anything serious or difficult right now—I just want fun.  Taking this carefree attitude about it, I just ignored it and stayed positive.  Sure enough, today he called me and through the conversation we realized that he had texted me twice this week already and I just hadn’t received them and had called me to see if I was still interested.  Funny how things like that work.

All and all, the changes that happened in 2011 have been some of the most positive and rewarding experiences.  I’m excited to see what the rest of this whirlwind year will bring.  But as the sun set and I was jamming to the radio in my car with the windows down, the wind tossing my hair around, I can honestly say that I am so confident in my choice to change.  So on day 28, to make me happy I reflect and look forward to the future. 

Day 24-- Coming to Decisions

20love have been an interesting year for me in so many ways.  Not only is it the year I’ve decided to change my life and do something that challenges me when it comes to my relationships, but I’ve also been realizing some other things about my life in general.

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be an attorney.  I wanted to be Sam McCoy on Law and Order and fight for justice!  Soon, my passion for justice morphed into me wanting to get into politics and fight for the little person, changing the lives of many people who are forgotten in our legal system.

And while all of these ideas have been my dream for the longest time—for whatever reason I am not sure these are my dreams any more.

I applied to graduate school at George Mason University in December for Public Policy.  I’m still waiting to here back from them.  I hate waiting for things like this. 

Regardless, throughout the waiting process, I’ve begun to think about a lot of things when it comes to my career.  Right now, I’m working at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dallas and have found a niche there I really enjoy.  The company is awesome to work for.  Not only do they have amazing benefits, but the chain exists in 72 different countries stretched all over the globe in exotic and historical locations. 

Recently, I’ve been doing such a baller job with my restaurant that they’ve offered me a promotion into management over the summer, and I was recently nominated to be the employee of the month for January (I’ll find out on the 27 if I make it!!)  Even cooler, the Executive Board of Members for the Club recently singled me out as a key factor in changing the way customers view my restaurant and how positively Racquets has changed.

I don’t know if it’s because this industry is in my blood since my dad is a higher up in the hotel or if it just comes naturally to me, but I know I am good at working in a hotel.  Not only good—but I rock it out.  I actually enjoy going to work every day… and I work at 6:45 in the morning most days.  How many early twenty-something’s can actually say that about their jobs?  Nothing makes me feel better than when it’s a particularly long, grueling day where people can’t stop going to eat and once you reach close time, you realized service went off without a hitch and everyone who came in received the type of service they expect from a company like the Four Seasons. 

Now continuing my education is a different story.  I know I am good at school, I proved that in my undergrad, but one thing I am not good at is standardized testing.   The LSAT, in particular.  When I took the test, I did not do anywhere near what I was expecting, and although I did not study as much as I wanted to, the people who make the test say your scores can only improve a maximum of ten points.  The LSAT made me an anxiety filled mess, and the thought of taking it again to only get the same score would cause me to reach critical anxiety level status. 

In the end, when I think about why I had the dream to become an attorney/ politician when I was in school, I wanted to do those things so I could get money to travel and see the world.  Sure, I also wanted to help people, but traveling and seeing all of the history I studied in school was something I knew I wanted to do. 

The best thing about the Four Seasons is they are located in so many parts of the world.  Once you work for the company for a year, you may put in transfer to any property they have an opening in: Cairo, Thailand, London, Australia—all these places are at my fingertips if I stay with the hotel.  Not only that, but your get free nights at any of the hotels (which increase the longer you stay with the company!) and half off on all food and beverage! I mean LOOK at the places I'll get to go!

Four Seasons Cairo

Four Seasons Thailand

Four Seasons London

Four Seasons Sydney

If I choose to continue with my education, I’d have to wait another five years before I started to make an income… But even then it probably wouldn’t be enough to travel anywhere on because of the massive amounts of loans I would have to pay for law school… Not to mention the long hours spent at work.  I want to enjoy my twenties—and the work I will continue to do beyond them—and I’m pretty certain in order to do that I need to change the path I had always laid out for myself and commit to a career in hotels rather than pursue continuing my education. 

Some people may think I am settling, and maybe I am; but the thought of getting to go anywhere I’ve read about and get paid to do something I love doing makes me so much happier than the thought of me spending the years I’m supposed to live stuck in a library.  I know I can do this hotel thing, and I know I have the ambition and drive to get into higher levels of management.  I’m a person who likes to be the best at whatever they do, and now that I’m certain I’m going to do this for my job, I am going to be the best worker the F-season’s has ever seen.

So, in order to make me happy on day 24 in 20love, I’m deciding to change my dreams and what I want out of life.  

Day 18-- Polyamory

So I’ve begun reading some articles on different types of orientations, trying to figure out a little bit more about the different types of love available in the world.  I think getting a better understanding of how love works is something that someone like myself needs to understand in order to comprehend what would make me happy in the end when it comes to the dreaded love word.

I’ve always had this deep underlying fear to commit in my relationships-- I take it back, because with my last relationship I briefly considered plunging into the throws of a very serious commitment to him due to circumstances beyond our control (I.E. He was here on a visa for a year and had to move back home), but I convinced myself I was supposed to be with him because our whirl wind romance was the exact same story as my parents who are still happily married to this day.  (I.E. My mom was here on a visa and worked in the United States at a hotel where my dad worked, they fell in love, and within a year got married—my mom being the same age as I was).  I thought I was supposed to embrace this as a sign of the cosmos, because I had never loved quite like this before… it seemed right… perfect even. Regardless, when the commitment talk happened, it ultimately doomed the relationship, taking it from something that was supposed to be casual and fun and turning it into something dark and dramatic. 

And the commitment talk ALWAYS does this.  It creeps in, like a sexy True Blood vampire, and sucks everything good about a relationship out.  Well, at least my relationships.  I usually spend a year with someone, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, and then around this point a commitment talk is necessary because:

A.) A new person has entered the equation and one of you needs to get out. 

B.) One person is talking about taking things to the next level and the other person needs to peace. 

Or C.) The way the relationship is going isn’t making someone involved fully happy.

For some people, we ignore these concerns at the year mark and continue with the relationships—getting married, having kids.  Sometimes the commitment talk works… but I just don’t feel it’s working for me.

And maybe it’s the whole concept of commitment in general.  Maybe I’d be happier if my main goal in life wasn’t to find one perfect husband for me—maybe its something else?

Enter: Polyamory.

This article brings up some pretty interesting points about this lifestyle. This is my favorite paragraph:

“It's a new paradigm, certainly—and it does break some rules. "Polyamory scares people—it shakes up their world view."… But perhaps the practice is more natural than we think: a response to the challenges of monogamous relationships, whose shortcomings—in a culture where divorce has become a commonplace—are clear. Everyone in a relationship wrestles at some point with an eternal question: can one person really satisfy every need? Polyamorists think the answer is obvious—and that it's only a matter of time before the monogamous world sees there's more than one way to live and love. "The people I feel sorry for are the ones who don't ever realize they have any other choices beyond the traditional options society presents," says Scott. "To look at an option like polyamory and say 'That's not for me' is fine. To look at it and not realize you can choose it is just sad."

I think this year is going to be a good time for me to look at an option like polyamory.  Ultimately, I don’t think one person can really satisfy me, because I know I am constantly changing.  So why has society made me obsessed with finding one person who’s supposed to love me even if I change into a different person than who I was when I first began dating them?  Or maybe they change… whatever the reason, societies pressure to make us commit to one person is what has killed every good relationship I’ve ever had… and I think this year is a good time to say screw that noise.

I’ve recently agreed to go out with a man who describes himself as polyamorous.  Not only is he polyamorous, but he’s getting his masters in counseling specifically looking at polyamorous personalities.  I’ve got questions galore for this guy, especially the question as to how open you should be with the people you begin seeing.  I hope this meeting pans out, because I feel the answers he will give me may help me understand more about the lifestyle. 

For day 18, I’m making myself happy by challenging societal pressure and contemplating embracing a polyamorous lifestyle…  But I say contemplate because I still have to do my research.  More to come later.

Day 15-- Courage!

So I’ve been pretty bad this week about updating my blog, but nothing too dramatic or happy has really happened.  I’ve been very busy with work and going out with friends and other dates, so I was waiting for something a little more substantial to happen before I posted.  Last night, I returned to Gloria’s with a new group of friends.  This time, there were cute men all over that club (I’m not sure why they decided to go this weekend and not last, Rude hotties of Dallas, Rude.) 

I’ve always had a problem with dance clubs.  I always want to dance with people, but oftentimes I am never brave enough to approach and ask a guy to dance.  I am not really sure why, but the thought of someone saying no to me always rubbed me the wrong way. 

Besides, I always had a boyfriend whenever I went out to the club, so dancing with some random stranger was just something I was not going to do.  Instead, I’d happily dance with my friends, or guys that would approach me, and while that was fine I always wondered what it would be like to spend the night dancing with who I wanted to dance with. 

Girls are so funny because so many of us waste so much time settling for the guys who get up the courage to come to us.  Usually, they are not as cute or intriguing as the guys we really want, but for whatever reason we never are brave enough to talk to these guys, and by default dance with the guys that sparkle less. 

Well, yesterday I decided I was going to go out and dance with the guys I wanted to dance with. 

No more was I going to be worried about if someone would say no, because in the end, if someone doesn’t want to dance with me that doesn’t mean I’m flawed in some way.  Maybe that’s the problem.  People are so concerned that someone denying them the simple act of a dance is saying they are not a cool, interesting, beautiful, great person.  Wise up people—if you know that you are all those things and more, why worry about if someone is going to say no?  It’s just not a biggie.

Last night, one of the guys I asked to dance did say no, but way more said yes.  I went after all different types of guys, even dancing with the hottest black man I’ve ever seen in my life.  It felt great!  It wasn’t dramatic, it wasn’t something where I tried to have a deep conversation with them or get their numbers or whatever—I just spent five minutes of my night getting twirled and spun by some of the hottest men in that Salsa club.

And there’s nothing that makes a girl happier than getting twirled.  

Day 11-- Exercise!

I've decided that the cold fails at life.  Seriously, it totally makes me not want to do anything but sit around and watch reruns of Law and Order.  Motivating myself to go work out today was the hardest thing I've had to do in a while.  But after layering myself in a billion sweaters and sweatshirts, I decided to bare the cold and go.  I go to classes at the gym-- the group exercise classes.  I try to go three times a week, rotating between different dance classes.  I love these classes but today's class was my favorite.  There are so many different ethnicities, ages, shapes, and personalities in my Zumba class. 

Going to this class always makes me smile a lot.  Not only do I get to improve on my Latin dance moves (which really, really need improvement), but its the only point during my week I just get to shake myself as hard and fast as I can for no reason other than getting thin.  And I really, really want to continue to be thin, so I shake what my momma gave me and have a blast while doing it.  It's so funny to see the other people by me.  Some of the ladies commit as hard as I am and roll their hips like Shakira taught them too.  Other girls are so reserved; scared to fully believe they are allowed to move like that.

What causes the discrepancy in these two types of women?  Why do some girls feel like they can't go balls to the wall crazy in Zumba class?  What stops them from really feeling the music and trying as hard as they can to shake it?  Are they worried about someone looking at them like their crazy?  I dono, for me, Zumba class is one of the highlights of my week because I get to be my crazy self in a room full of strangers and no one judges me for it.  In fact, my teacher encourages it.

So today to make me happy, I shook and let my She-Wolf out.  

Day 8, 9, 10— Positive Pays Off

 After dealing with a lot of things this past week, I told myself to not be mad or upset about what was going on in my life and instead convinced myself to stay positive.  So, I filled the weekend with as many fun things as I could imagine.  On Friday, I had a relaxed night where such epic topics such as The Secret were discussed.

The Secret is an interesting phenomenon.  While I’m still not sure I believe in it, the writer of The Secret brings up some really valid points about how to live your life.  One of the Peruvian princesses in my life told me a quote that lazy Friday night that really helped me understand how I needed to feel after the bad news I received.

“How you feel in any one moment is more important than anything else, because how you feel right now is creating your life.”

Seems simple enough.  And after hearing this quotation, I realized that I needed to totally embrace this ideology and stop being pestered by this small detail in my life that wasn’t perfect.  I decided then and there that I needed to create my own positivity and it certainly was accomplished.

On Saturday, my most fierce and fabulous best friend and my Peruvians Princesses spent the evening being extra fierce at a Salsa dancing club. 

You know, there really is nothing better than spending the night drinking and dancing with your best friends.  For whatever reason, even though there was no fineeee man as far as you could see, I didn’t really care.  Sure, I would have loved to get swept off my feet by some Latin Sex Fox, but sometimes the cosmos says you need to be happy being with people that love you and only want to see you happy.  And that’s what we did.

Sunday was also a positive night.  I was asked out on a date and had an amazing time.  While it’s difficult to have to articulate to someone exactly what’s going on in my life with this whole ‘Single Quest’, especially the rules to it--- I have to say, it makes for some very interesting conversation.  It allows you to explore someone’s entire philosophy on relationships and it helps me understand more about how male’s view relationships in general. 

Everything this weekend seriously was so wonderful.  But why did positivity pay of this weekend? Well, today I went to play Bingo with my sister (Note: Yes, I do regularly play Bingo, don’t hate!) and I won a hundred dollars.

Therefore, Positive= Payday.

:) 

Day Seven-- Confrontation

A lot of things have been happening in my life recently that have caused me to do something I’m not very accustomed of doing.  I come from a family that is very passive aggressive about their anger.  Instead of talking about things that made us upset, we simply put it away, locked it in a box, and carried it around with us.

Your family teaches how you deal with emotions and that can be both a good and a bad thing.  Fortunately, my family didn’t have to deal with anger very often.  I had a very happy childhood with no major problems other than some bad grades I got in middle school.  It wasn’t until after I left for college when I really started to notice the frustration my family caused in my life when they didn’t talk to about why they were upset with me.  I guess it was because I could better understand what was going on and get that they were frustrated with me because of something I said or did. 

In college, I started to make friends with someone who would grow into being my most fierce and fabulous best friend and he began to instill within me a trait that I’m only now starting to truly understand and implement in my life.

Confrontation.

Seriously, why don’t people do this more?  So many people go about their every day lives, carrying around sadness, anger, fear, frustration-- all of this negative energy that keeps them from being truly happy.

And since I am trying to be happy, I’ve been confronting a lot of people in my life about the things they have done to me that made me upset.  These are recent things, I’m letting the past be the past, but it feels so cathartic to actually tell someone how I feel.  And the best part is, I’m not being emotional about it.  I’m not crying or angry or whatever towards them, I just articulate what I feel and through talking about what was bothering me the situations have gotten a billion times better.  And billions are balllllin.

All and all, I’m learning that the best way to figure out who I am is to not be ashamed of who that woman is.  And that woman is learning that confrontation is where it’s at…Seriously.

Day 6-- Setting up the Ground Rules

So I’ve been getting a lot of feedback on my blog recently that I LOVE.  Some of it has been super constructive and I really appreciate all the help more experienced bloggers have given me.  One of the comments suggested was that I needed to better define what I mean by “being single” for a year.  Yesterday I choose not to post, because I really needed to take the time and formulate the rules for my epic quest into singledom.

I think I’ve gotten three for right now.


1.)   Tell the person I choose to go out with about my quest.

a.     Essentially, my choice to take this year to be single was motivated out of the hurt I experienced in my last relationship.  The bottom line was, I was giving him way more love than he was giving to me and at the time I was okay with that.  However, during our break up, he told me that I don’t deserve to be with someone who is only giving me 40 percent when I was giving 100.  The fact is, now I’m committing to give the 100 percent to me.  This means, anyone I am going to see needs to know that I’m not interested in a relationship and needs to know the ground rules that I’m about to list here.  That way, I hope I can avoid hurting someone… because the last thing I want to do is make someone feel upset.

2. No public physical intimacy.

a.     There is a big difference between sex and physical intimacy in my book.  Sex is sex—carnal, animalistic.  And I am not spending my year being single acting like the flying nun.  Granted, bitch could fly and I would loveee if one of my hats made that happen to me—but I just enjoy having sex and don’t feel I have to stop simply because I’m not in a relationship.  That DOES NOT mean, however, that I will sleep with any random riff raff that comes a long.  I need to be friends first, and if sex happens it happens. Rule two mainly deals with someone who has become my friend and who I have had sex with.  Essentially, it means that I don’t want any of the physical body language that comes with a relationship in public.  Holding hands during a movie, walking into a party with his arm around me, or having a hand on his leg while were out with friends—I don’t want any of it.  People don’t really analyze how important body language is in telling the whole world around you your relationship status.  These small intimate gestures tell others to stay away and cause the two people exchanging the touch to become closer.  Hopefully if I cut this out, I cut out a big part of what causes me to fall in love/ want to be in a relationship with someone.

3. Put the ball in their court.

a.     I’m not trying to force my ideals and my quest on anyone that doesn’t want it.  I’m going after a guy that interests me and is attractive—but he may not be okay with all of the guidelines I’ve set up for my year.  Once I make the initial contact and we hang out for the first time, and I enjoy hanging out with him, I’m going to urge them to call me if they want to see me again—I’m not going to do the calling.  I’ve spent SO much of my youth being upset because some guy didn’t call me back or text me… and why? If someone doesn’t want to hang out with me—I’m not going to force them.  I want to hang out with people that want to hang out with me… simple, really.

These are the three rules thus far.  There may be others that come about later, but right now this is where I stand in my dating life and I think the rules are very fetch.  By defining these rules, I think I can save myself a lot of drama and really stick to this lofty goal I have set for myself.  So setting the ground work is what’s going to make me happy today. 

Day 4—The Ultimate Chick Cry Fest

Yes, I really love to be a glutton for punishment.  

Today was a strange day for me.  While nothing went badly, for whatever reason I don't feel much like myself.  I've been very positive lately, but today felt off for some reason.  I don't usually feel sad, so when it happens I usually try to do something to let all that bad juju out.  In today's case, I decided to do the worst thing a hopeless romantic can do and watch The Notebook... of course ABC Family knew the perfect way to torment me.

Regardless, after Alie and Noah exchanged their epic romantic ending, I felt a lot better.  It's so strange how you can feel so sad, then just experience that emotion in order to get over it and feel better. 

One of my Peruvian Princesses told me an interesting story about the whole experiencing sadness idea.  She explained to me that for a while in her life, she never really let herself feel her emotions.  One day, when she was here in the United States, she was watching a cheesy romantic comedy and for whatever reason, the story line of this sappy flick spoke to her.  She said she cried, but when the tears fell the whole process made her understand the wonderfulness that is feeling a real emotion.  After that, she explained she started to feel all of the emotions she had: anger, excitment, frustration, giddyness.  For so long she didn't allow herself to experience them, and she realized that in order to be alive, you have to feel the good and the bad.

Ergo, me rocking out the sad.  Sure, crying like a schoolgirl who got punched in the face (NOTE: This happened to me in 4th grade) is not every girl's idea for a baller Tuesday night, but damn it, it made me feel better after the blah day I've had.  

 

Day 3—Victoria Secret Semi-Annual Sale

Day 3—Victoria Secret Semi-Annual Sale

… Well, kind of.  See apparently my Roommate read the Victoria Secret website wrong and we ended up going to Victoria Secret a day before the sale actually started.  Therefore, I ended up going to the Victoria Secret Semi-Annual Semi-Sale.  It was all right though; I got some deals and that made me pretty happy.  But, more so, I’d say what made me the happiest was the company around me. 

I live with two Peruvian princesses.  And while they are not royalty in the literal sense they are totally the Peruvian princesses of my heart--Even if they can’t read Internet websites.

So, today was spent in the company of my roommates having a girl’s night topped off with the movie, “Easy A”.  The movie brings up a really interesting point about promiscuity and how much negative press someone receives when the own up to their sluttyness (Even though in her case her sluttyness was fake but that’s beside the point).  Rumors spread about her sex-ventures and she places a red “A” on her chest a la Hester Prynne in the Scarlett Letter in order to convince everyone the rumors are true.  More importantly though, the main character wonders if a guy will ever take her seriously and ask her out, not just ask to get it with her. 

The movie made me start to think, in the midst of our sexual revolution where a woman should be free to own up to her sexual encounters, are men too uncouth to treat a woman as a gentleman should if she wear her metaphorical scarlet “A” proudly?  Or an even better question, is it a good idea for a woman to proudly wear her “A” or does that turn the true gentlemen off?

Where’s the balance? 

In the case of “Easy A”, apparently you can still find a super hot gentleman who will live out every cheesy 80’s movie ever, sweep you off your feat, and make you his lady despite the school thinking you’re easy.  But that’s the movies.  Our lives are so much more complicated and definitely not as romantic comedy-y.  I feel that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with my year of being single.  I certainly don’t want the scarlet “A” burned across my chest, but I do want to go out and meet interesting people, make a genuine connection with them, and not be in a committed relationship.  Does me saying I am going to be going out on dates with different people in essence brand me with a label I don’t necessarily want to have? 

I figure, in order to make me happy, I just have to say screw the label…

And Victoria Secret for not having that sale.  Jerks.

Day 2-- Return from an Epic Roadtrip

Day 2—Return Home from an Epic Roadtrip

I’ve done some pretty intense road trips in my day.  I did Speech and Debate in college—we travel to every tournament typically by car or bus.  I’ve been on super long trips, but I’ve never been smashed against a suitcase as fiercely as I was on the 16 hour drive to Chicago, Illinois! 

A group of friends of mine, I call them the target, always try to get together for New Years.  These are my best friends from college, people who have seen me grow and morph into the woman I am now.  Everyone needs a target.  A target is a group of people that you trust with your life, make you laugh so hard, and don’t judge you when you dance on stage at a gay club. 

This year the target decided to meet up in Chicago to ring in 2011 in the windy city.  Despite the cramped quarters on the ride down there, the trip was everything I needed it to be.  I started the New Year surrounded by people who care so deeply for me and new friends who made the evening all the more muffed up.  The entire weekend was spent with excellent company, I couldn’t of imagined any other way I would begin this new stage of my life. 

Now that I am back in warm cozy comfort of Dallas, the only thing I could do to make me happy is enjoy the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit marathon on tv and fall asleep…

The perfect end to the perfect vacation.