Texas vs. Utah

Earlier this month Justin and I went to visit my friend Jamie, who tragically moved from the promise land of Tejas to Utah.

I’ve been telling her to move back ever since.

To be completely fair to my sentiments, I figured I’d give a full assessment of our trip…

Assessment one: It's easier to Google a cuter state image for Texas...

Day One
We scored some cheap flights on Southwest, which made the trip possible.

That’s when we ran into our first problem… apparently everyone else on the plane scored the same deal because it was PACKED. We had to sit in the back of the plane where they apparently hadn’t cleaned the lav since the thing was built.

The flight wasn’t direct and we had a short stay in Albuquerque. Which, when stuck at the airport for an hour what do you do??

That's right... beer-me.

Just as I texted this picture to Jamie she informed me that the alcohol content in Utah beer was less than Texas.

...

Uh… what? 

Tejas 1, Utah -1 (sorry Jamie – that requires a negative)

After the layover we landed in Utah about 6 and Jamie met us at the airport. It was so good to see her – I know it had only been since September but it’s hard getting used to not seeing people on a regular basis (even if it’s been three years since she moved).

That night we grabbed some food at a little taco place and went back to Jamie’s place to watch the play-off games and meet her friend, who shall be known as Harry Potter. Potter seemed nice but I don’t know if he’s down to win the Quidditch cup. :) (Yes I’m dorky – but not as dorky as these people)

The food was good but let’s face it – you can’t get better tacos than Tejas… I’ll call that a wash though.

So that makes trip tally so far:
Tejas 1, Utah -1

Day Two

This was the day where we really got to see the scenery – and I have to say Utah, or at least the area we were at, has Texas beat hands down.

Tejas 1, Utah 0

The main activity for the day was skiing – and I was a first-timer. Being ever-unprepared for winter weather I had to bum my ski clothes from a co-worker and from Jamie. I’ll throw in a bonus for that…

Tejas 1, Utah 1

Since I hadn’t been before, I opted to take a ski lesson so I wouldn’t (1) injure myself or (2) set myself up for lawsuit by recklessly injuring someone else.

I made it through the lesson with only one instance of narrowly taking out a small innocent child so I thought I was pretty set.

That was until I had to get on the grown-up slopes…

Let me tell you what I learned:

1. My ski instructor did NOT teach us how to turn on the slopes
2. Turning on the slopes helps you slow down
3. When you don’t know how to slow down you have to resort to falling over to stop
4. You will incur about 6 falls, a bruise the size of your fists put together, and a hurt wrist in one trip down the slopes

Another epiphany I had while 7 and 8 year-olds zoomed by me to make the experience that much more terrifying/humiliating was that:

1. Kids have no fear
2. They don’t because they don’t know how much insurance costs…

Here are some photos from the day…

Yay ski school!

Notice how my leg is awkwardly turned? Yeah that's because the 6 falls to get down the mountain effectively took out my hip...

After that day I’ll score the following:

Tejas 1, Utah 1 (I’ll credit 5 points for skiing and deduct 5 points for the lack of instruction on turning… sorry sometimes the state pays for one guy…)

After skiing we went back to take a nap before meeting up some friends of Jamie’s for dinner.

Dinner was good – Jamie’s friends Karen and Casey seem like nice, fun people and I’m glad that Jamie’s got a friend up there to run around with. I’m not going to tally here though because (1) even I’m not that judgmental and (2) I’d have to tally up the fab people in Texas and since I only met 3 total out of the many Jamie and I know together it wouldn’t be a fair fight.

Trip tally recap:

Tejas 1, Utah 1

Day Three

I can sum it up in one word… FREEZING

Tejas 2, Utah 1

It was about 21 degrees most of the day, but there was a ton of snow so it was really pretty.

Tejas 2, Utah 2

Did I mention that while it was 21 degrees in Utah it was about 70 in Texas…

Tejas 3, Utah 2

For the day we walked around Temple Square in Salt Lake and saw some of the history behind the town establishment. After that we went to Park City and had some lunch and walked around a bit when I found this gem…

Could you possibly leave a store without this???

The answer is “no”…

Actually, the answer is “no – and others must participate with you”…

That's right... animal hats all around!

Hats in Utah have to gain some points and makes the trip tally so far:

Tejas 3, Utah 5

Day Four

The trip comes to a close :(.

It was a good time but it was time to go home. Our flight was ridiculously early (I’ve been banished from booking air travel).

Oh and it was freezing…. Again.

Tejas 5, Utah 5 (as lately we have a freezing day followed by a gorgeous sunny and 65)

And you know as I do that I feel that I totally snubbed the value of the alcohol content for Texas…

Tejas 6, Utah 5

There - that's more fair.

So all-in-all it was a good try Utah… but Texas still has my heart.

Jamie… move back!

2011 Wrap-up (July-December)

My procrastination is sneaking up on me...

To finish out my last post, and so I can move onto regular posts, behold my brief take on the rest of 2011:

JULY

To commemorate the launch of the new Summer’s Eve site – a project that had our team working every weekend since Memorial – I made my largest cake ever.

That's right... you read "Team Vag"

Then aside from a shower in Eastland the month was an absolute blur...

AUGUST

The month before the wedding!

Justin and I celebrated our five-year anniversary just a week before our "I do's".

SEPTEMBER

Possibly the best month of the year for us!

We had a beautiful wedding filled with family, friends, lots of laughter and love.

I also got my first stamp in my passport when we went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. The trip was fantastic - I'm eagerly planning our next escape from reality.

OCTOBER

We became real, live grown-ups and bought our first piece of furniture together (aside from the 60" TV we of course needed for the media room).

NOVEMBER

The holiday-fail month. Well as far as decorating was concerned. My attempts to skip turkey day décor and go straight onto Christmas were thwarted with a garland falling 5 times, my pintrest project fail, and some other decoration fail I'm sure I've mentally blocked to save my sanity.

House-rejecting holiday aside, Justin and I spent our first holiday together in Eastland with his family.

DECEMBER

December is by far one of my favorite months. It’s like the perfect excuse to curl up on the couch with a bowl of soup or a glass of wine and watch classic movies.

Plus there are the decorations…

We spent the holidays in Houston with my family before coming home to Dallas to celebrate New Year's together.

All in all I’d have to say that 2011 was a pretty good year :).

2011 Wrap-up (January-June)

I’m a little behind in posting my year-end wrap up but since it’s only the third day of a new year I call it an improvement my procrastination…

First, I have to do a shout of stealing the format of this post from Schwartz Blawgin - I love the idea of a month-by-month play on the year.

JANUARY

The first part of the year was rough - in fact it kicked my butt so much that I wasn't too sure about 2011.

At the end of the month I wrecked my beloved MINI - "CP".

Poor CP :(

The timing of my accident was impeccable as it was right before ICE STORM 2011 hit Dallas and it took my insurance company a week to even get to my poor baby to tell me it was a total loss.

Not to be kept down - Justin and I started looking at homes.

FEBRUARY

As you can guess February started off with a new car... “Rosita”.

It's true - I'm not in love with this car. In fact, Rosie knows we're just using each other - her for gas and me for getting from point A to point B. But it did prove some shrewd car negotiating skills on my part so I'll take it.

MARCH

Aside from road trips to Houston March was relatively quiet.

I did complete my first year working in digital advertising with a tally of 4 completed website projects, countless banner campaigns and goodness knows how much time Googling programming acronyms.

Justin and I also walked away from a counter offer on a home we really wanted.

APRIL

Went on my first print shoot in CA:

Redwood forest in April = unprepared Whitney for cold weather.

In other big news, the builder on the home we wanted decided to be sane and we went under contract on our first house!

MAY

Home ownership!!

 

The most glorious moment was NOT hearing my horrible apartment neighbors who had an apparent need to turn on their sub woofer about 3am every night.

Justin and I also welcomed a new addition to the family:

Juno! She looks sweet huh? Yeah… scroll down.

Bad puppy!!

This month, I also had my first wedding shower hosted by my mom’s fabulous friends!

JUNE

I turned in my keys to my apartment – officially ending my renting days.

Work was a little crazy – finishing a website had me at the office almost every weekend since Memorial Day.

My girlfriends Candice, Jamie, and Meghan hosted a wonderful shower for me followed by our chill-est bachelorette party yet, lol. We’re getting older…

Finally – Justin’s and my wedding preparations were in full swing with only a few months to go…