New Year, New Location...Now from Kentucky!

So many new things!

We made it to Kentucky, and it took us 7 days! You can see RoB's recap of day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, and day 7.  It was a great drive especially because we were able to take our time and enjoy ourselves, we also didn't hit any bad weather, yay!

A couple new things I would like to do while I'm here in Kentucky, some of which have to do with my blog!  The first thing I've noticed is that you can't really rely on yelp or urbanspoon the way we used to in California.  There just aren't enough users, leaving us with too small a sample size.  In order to try and help this I plan to join both yelp and urbanspoon and review places I go, in hopes of making it more worthwhile in the future.  I also plan to talk about all kinds of fun Kentucky things like that (but only the good places :) here, on my blog!

One other thing I'd like to do more of is book reviews and other book/writing topics.  I love to read, and I read a lot.  I also used to be more involved with librarything early reviewers and hope to get back into that.  I recently joined the website book blogs and even though I will mostly use that as a way for me to find good blogs to read, I'd also like some of those members to stop by here and see what I have to say! Lastly, I hope to revisit my NaNoWriMo story, the whole point of it for me was to have a good starting place, which I think I do...

Let the Journey Begin!

Tomorrow we start our cross country road trip from California to Kentucky!  I am very excited about moving to KY but am a little unsure about the trip itself.  We are taking two cars so we are each driving our own car out there which means I will have to drive all 2400 miles of it.  I've never driven on a long road trip like this before, I've been the passenger but never the driver.  I don't think I'll have a problem with it and we aren't doing ridiculously long days or anything like that so I hope it will be ok, but it will be one more brand new experience for me!

I will try and do a post each night especially if we go and see something exciting, but that will also depend on what time we get in in the evening and if I have wifi at the hotel.  I'm hoping this is a good way for everyone to keep up with where I'm headed!

I've got 5 books on tape (some Lee Child, Harlem Coben, Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Jane Austin), a couple leftover podcasts, and hopefully I can listen to a bunch of college football over the first couple days.

Any tips and suggestions for a long cross country drive? Any must see places (we'll mostly be on 40 for the first few days once we get to Vegas)?

I'm back, and so much to talk about!

 Been a while, time for some updates:

Well I took a slight break form blogging to attempt NaNoWriMo.  Unfortunately, I didn’t complete the 50,000 words during the month of November, but I did complete just over 10,000!  Even though that number isn’t huge it’s the most I’ve ever put into one story and I feel like I have much more I want to write to finish the story, so in a way I do feel like a winner and am happy I attempted it!  Another part of the reason I did it was to help support Rob with his, but he fell apart about halfway through the month, I’m upset I didn’t try to continue to encourage him. I really hope he picks up his story again, like I plan to with mine.

The next (and probably biggest) new thing in my life is that I am moving!  I got offered a temporary job assignment and decided to accept it.  It is in Kentucky, which is a far cry from Oakland, CA, but I’m excited.  All the moving and packing is stressing me out, but living in a new place and working on a new project should be worthwhile.  The assignment will last 6-12 months and then the plan is head back to Oakland where I’ve been working for the past 4 years. 

On my last day at work in Oakland I was pretty sad to leave my office.  I’ve been there for almost 4 years and it was my first job since college so it’s all very strange to be leaving.  I’ve been in Kentucky for two weeks now and I’m heading back home for a few weeks for Christmas.  Then Rob, Angel and I are driving all the way across the country to set up home in Lexington, KY.  I’m ready to live somewhere new so I think this will be a good move for me, but at the same time I really loved everything about Oakland (except the cost of living) so I’m sure there will be a lots I will miss.

I’ve already found a place to rent!  It’s a house, which is a huge deal for us.  It’s so expensive to rent a house in California so it’s nice that we can afford one in Kentucky.  It is a perfect size for two people and we finally get to have a yard for Angel.  I’ve already been scoping out the local restaurant scene and getting advice on places to try.  One of my biggest fears was that there would only be chain restaurants, and at first glance that’s how it appeared.  But after talking to others it sounds like there are lots of local gems and I can’t wait to find them!

In other news, Michigan football had a tremendous season!  They ended the regular season at 10-2 with a win over ohio!!!  That hadn’t happened since my freshman year of college, so it was a nice weight finally lifted off our shoulders.  Our coach, Brady Hoke, was also named the B1G coach of the year, and very deservedly so.  I’m so excited about this team in the future and am proud as always to be a Michigan Wolverine.  We are headed to the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech.  I’ll do a more in depth bowl preview as they get closer, but just having Michigan in a BCS bowl is beyond awesome!

So that’s a lot new for me, wish me luck in my move (did I mention how crazy my life is?)  I’ll keep you all updated on my new life in Kentucky!