It's Been Awhile...

After all the emails and text messages wondering where I have been, here I am. I have been incredibly busy with both work and socializing and now it is time to get back to this blog thing.

I can't believe I have been on this adventure for almost 6 weeks now. A lot has changed in the past 6 weeks and I have grown and experienced many new things. Some of these new things have been hard life lessons, but I feel like these experiences have also taught me quite a bit about myself. I will never regret and will only move forward. The good experiences have definitely outweighed the not-so-good experiences and I am excited to share these things with all of you.

The first weekend after I moved to North Carolina I went to a music festival down on Carolina Beach. I learned what "beach music" is and danced the afternoon away on the ocean shore with my co-worker Carla and some of her friends. Dancing in the ocean has definitely been one of my favorite moments since moving down here. Just laughing, dancing and being silly in the ocean water is something everyone needs to experience. We spent the night on Mike's boat on Wrightsville Beach and did some shopping the following day before heading back to Durham. Carla has become my "mother" here in North Carolina and I just love her. She is awesome.

The next week I did some traveling with Jackie, our outside sales rep for North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. We traveled South Carolina Tuesday-Friday and then spent the weekend in Charleston. This week proved to me how wild and crazy redheads become when they are together. We definitely had a lot of good sales calls and a lot of good times after those sales calls were over. Charleston was an experience I will never forget and can't wait to visit the city again. It is a city full of history and elegance. I just loved it. Mike and Jackie's husband, Eric, met us down there for the weekend so it definitely made for a good time.

The following weekend Jackie, Eric, Mike, Gabe, Kodiak and I went to Mike's boat for the weekend. We played at Wrightsville Beach on Saturday and hung out at the pool on Sunday. It was a really fun weekend and I learned how much fun dinghy rides at 2am can be. Wow. We were laughing, singing, entertaining everyone we came in contact with and just having a weekend to remember. I also learned a new game called corn hole and I love it. It is kind of like horseshoes, except you use bean bags and a square board. There was also a moment to remember when I got brave and jumped into the water and had a fish thrown at me...

I had to stay home and rest the next weekend. All the traveling was starting to catch up.

Last weekend Mike and I took a motorcycle ride up to Charlottesville, Virginia. It was a great ride with beautiful weather. The vineyards were amazing to see and I definitely want to go back for some tasting. We saw the fireworks at the Durham Bulls Stadium and then went out afterwards.

This past weekend was hard in more ways than one and I think I felt a little bit homesick for the first time since arriving here. It was a weekend full of experiences that definitely changed my life, but at the same time gave me the urge to turn the next corner and keep working towards my goal. I thought about my plan on Sunday and somehow God willing, my manager asked if I had a time frame in mind of when I wanted out of the office. I told him at the end of the month and I wanted to visit Jacksonville over the weekend to look at living arrangements. I actually left North Carolina this morning and stopped in Savannah to visit a customer and will be in Florida until next Wednesday. While I was traveling today, I was so excited. This is truly what I want to be doing and I love the industry that I am in. I made my plan and now I am getting to work my plan. I love it. I am really excited to dive in deeper and learn more. In an industry with so many challenges and so many avenues, I can't wait to see what I come up with.

I have meetings tomorrow morning and then I will be hitting the pavement hard with sales calls tomorrow afternoon and all day Friday. Monday-Wednesday next week I will be traveling different parts of Florida and then working my way up through Macon and Atlanta back to North Carolina. This weekend is going to be all about R & R. Surfing lessons are a good possibility....