Slacking

I know I've been slacking on my blog posts the past several days. I figured that if people were displaying their disappointment in me verbally then it was time to update my captivated audience in an effort to quit getting ridiculed in public. The last time I posted I was in Charlotte, NC for the SROW conference. From there, I flew to Phoenix, AZ to present at the NASPA conference. This took place from Monday-Wednesday. My reason for not updating you all every night? Wireless costs 12.99 PER NIGHT at the hotel. Needless to say, I just wasn't going to pay that. And it didn't help that I could get 3 free hours of wireless in the lobby aka the busiest part of the entire venue. I wouldn't have been able to effectively blog and I thought it would've been an injustice to you all. Thank me later.

So, Phoenix. I have never been that far west before and I have to say that I loved it. The dirt, the cacti (look at me being all grammatically correct), no humidity (thank the Lord), and hardly any traffic in the downtown area. The entire trip was a breeze. Travel wasn't bad from Charlotte to AZ other than the initial security check in the NC airport. Thanks to Lindsey, Director of Orientation at MSU, we were held up at security for over 20 minutes. Apparently you can't bring 3 gallon bags full of toiletries. Who knew? We made friends with our TSA guy. He laughed when he pulled out various types of deodorant. I laughed when he asked which ones could stay and which ones would go because Linz said "I want to keep them all". She wasn't being very cooperative. But eventually she negotiated several toiletries and ditched some others. We were able to head to our gate to board our flight. Just in time.

Fun fact: Did you know that Nerf guns are illegal at airports now? Yeah. Sorry 3-year-old who is getting on the plane after spending Christmas elsewhere, but that brand new Nerf gun that you got from Jolly Old Saint Nicholas will not be going home with you this season. Also, if you happen to be a lacrosse or golf aficionado then make sure you don't plan on bringing any of your equipment with you on the plane. It ain't happening. And heaven forbid that you're thirsty. No water bottles either. And sorry girls, but that perfume is going to have to stay on the other side of the metal detector. 

Ok, we've made it through security and safely land in Phoenix. We pick up the rental car and head to the hotel. We go to check in and there's yet another glitch with Lindsey. Her room isn't ready. Awesome. Dejanae and I were planning on seeing John Legend speak, but the stupid hotel didn't have the room ready so we had to cancel our plans. We ended up taking the elevator to the 7th floor where Dejanae and my room was only to find out that we have a corner suite complete with a dining table, a 6-person sectional, 2 queen beds, a kitchenette, and a full bathroom. Lucky for us. We were shocked when we opened the door. Dr. Phil (our boss' boss) was even more shocked since he ended up in a room with 2 double beds and a TV. That was it. He wasn't happy about getting the shaft while his pion GAs lived in the lap of luxury for a few nights. We got a good laugh out of it.

Linz finally gets checked into her room at 5:30pm. Then she goes and picks up Dr. Phil from the airport. Then we meet John and John Michael for dinner at Hanny's. We enjoyed a few adult beverages (minus Linz) and some really good pizza. It was a swanky little place right across from the hotel. I highly recommend it if you're not in a hurry.

After our enjoyable evening with a few of my cohort favorites, we hit the hay to get ready for our big day: Monday. We decided to do ourselves a favor and sleep in; hoping that this would rejuvenate us and allow us to be on our A game for our presentation. We went to an educational session at 11:45, then ate lunch at Majerles Sports Grill, then headed to our presentation that started at 2:45pm. The presentation went SO well!!!! 5 months of hard work and anticipation paid off, and we were all smiles when 3:45pm came. At 6:00ish we met up with Dr. H (our advisor/professor) to set up our booth at the Graduate Prep Fair. This was a GREAT experience for me and Dejanae. We shook a lot of hands, got a lot of business cards, and came back with a plethora of information regarding Doctoral programs and Practicum opportunities. We celebrated that evening by joining Dr. Phil and Lindsey at The Arrogant Butcher. The food was AMAZING. This restaurant was on the corner right across from the U.S. Airways Arena (where the Phoenix Suns play) and there happened to be a game. We chose to sit outside. People watching was as great as the food was. That night we crashed. We woke up the next morning early in order to attend more educational sessions. We left the hotel at 8:15am (we were super sleepy). The night before we had all decided that we wanted to spend Tuesday afternoon sightseeing. We devised a plan to peruse  the Apache' Trail via our rental Impala. (Thank you Budget car rentals. Keepin it classy.) The great thing about the "Trail" was that we were able to see mountains, desert, lakes, and canyons within 2 hours of each other. We spent the day driving and stopping and taking pictures and doing the touristy thing. The photos below are documentation of this entire paragraph. Words cannot do this experience justice. See below for tourist evidence:

Nom Nom Nom. Jambalaya. 

Conference Program

All the "goodies" I came home with after the Grad Prep Fair

Our 10 page detailed map and history guide for the Apache Trail

Ready to ride far away from the Convention Center!

Canyon Lake. BEAUTIFUL. Pictures don't do it justice, I assure you.

Showing our Klassier side at Tortilla Flat tourist shops off the Trail.

First stop of the day trip before really getting onto the "Trail"

Superstition Mountain

Tourist Trap, but yummyyyy

The "Berry Soup" dessert that Linz just HAD to have.

They're in love. Enjoyed having this old prospector join our table to propose to Lindsey.

This canyon was our last stop before turning around and heading back. What a wonderful way to end a day. Look at God!

Ok, so now that you've seen a few photos from the trip (feel free to check out my Facebook page for more), I will continue to the end. We flew out of AZ at 11:00 am on Wednesday. I would like to insert a special "Thank You" to the people of Delta that plan the seating arrangements. I'm sure they thought it would be funny for me to sit in the window seat and right next to a man triple my size. For those of you who know me, I'm not exactly the smallest person in the world. So imagine my disdain when I see that I will not have any personal space whatsoever for 4 hours. It was interesting. As he would lean back to read his book off his iPad knock-off, I would lean forward to delve deeper into my Chelsea Handler book. I tried listening to music. I tried sleeping. I tried reading Sky Mall magazine for the fifth time. Notice that "tried" is the operative word in this case. I was unsuccessful at all of them. The man was nice, but let's face it, it doesn't change the fact that his entire left shoulder was overlapping my right shoulder. Real funny Delta Airlines. Real funny. We're all laughing.

We make it to ATL airport in 4 hours (ish) and have about a 90 minute layover. Just enough time for me to grab my first meal of the day. It's 5pm. I haven't eaten. That probably didn't help matters with my large and in charge airplane friend. I'm sure I was ornery. But whatever. By this time my body had no earthly idea what time it was. It didn't know if it was time for lunch or dinner or neither or a nap or a 7 hour sleep. Jet lag is an understatement. I went from Eastern time zone to Pacific time zone (figure in Daylight Savings Time with that) then back to Eastern and then finally to Central. I'm all kinds of messed up.

So we land at GTR at 7:30pm Central Time. We are greeted with a thunderstorm as we exit the plan. Light rain and lightening. Home sweet home. Oh how I had missed the smell of grass and rain. Oh how I hadn't missed the humidity and the heat.

I am so thankful for all of the learning experiences that I had over this Spring "Break". Am I looking forward to working on schoolwork in the next 48 hours? Um, heck no. Am I looking forward to 6 weeks from now it all being over for the semester? Um, heck yes. Do I need another break to recover from this one? Well of course. Do I regret not being at Destin with the entire state of Mississippi? Negative chief. Do I love the fact that I'm in my bed at home safe and sound? Oh yeah babe. Do I hope all of you are having an equally amazing week? Why yes. I love you all.

-BC