CHAOS
I recently returned from visiting our new home in Roseville, California to spend my second anniversary with my husband. The five days began with such excitement to explore my new home while Adam worked. That quickly turned into an anxiety attack as I found myself wandering the mall completely overwhelmed by the difference in the fashion, the sheer amount of people, and how materialistic these people could be. Finally, I quickly powered-walked my tail end out of there and sat in the rental car trying to recover with some breathing techniques...thanks to months of therapy. I remembered seeing a White House Black Market across the road and decided to try one store at a time instead of this huge mall with fashion I had never seen in the South. As I drove through The Fountains of Roseville (an amazing outdoor shopping center...I later learned), I spotted a Vera Bradley store and quickly spun my car into the first open parking spot I could find and again power-walked, if not ran, straight into the store where I could immediately breath. I could swear the store smelled of the South and I instantly felt at home. As I wandered the store taking in the smells of home, I found myself helping customers choose the perfect Vera product as Vera has recently hit the West coast. Not long after I was approached by the manager and a tiny bottle of water wrapped in the newest Mocha Rouge print, which is adorable might I add. After chatting it up for several minutes, I was offered a sales position in the store. I guess I know waaaayyy too much about Vera Bradley!!
Moving on to the next evening, I encountered my first ever livestock sale at the Grand Champion Sale at the California State Fair. All I can say is WOW! As we arrived to the fair, I spotted LOTS of labs. As we walked a little further, I spotted a huge pool and dogs competing in water jumping contests. I immediately decided with being unemployed I will have plenty of time to train Tucker in our pool so I can enter him in the competition next summer. Soon after, Adam took me through to see all the livestock. Again I immediately made another decision, our children will NOT be showing animals because it is way too expensive plus I am not spending my time grooming animals to get them ready for the shows especially in the Southern heat...ewww gross! We entered the event just in time for cocktail hour. Adam and I ordered a Jack and diet to which we discovered they were not serving Jack Daniels...yes I know we felt the same way. We had to settle for a Crown and diet which might I say is not nearly as good as Jack. I guess this is something I will have to suck it up and deal with it but I will not enjoy one single drop of Crown or whatever else they try to pass off as whiskey! Adam and I walked through the champion animals chatting it up with some of the 4-H kids about their animals...ok Adam chatted them up while I stood there and looked pretty. The animals ranged from rabbits to turkeys to hogs and of course cattle. Once dinner was served we took our tickets up and ate an amazing steak dinner. I was quite surprised they were serving steak to so many people nevertheless I approved of the food which is something I don't do often after walking through all the livestock and the poop during cocktail hour drinking what tasted like water. Maybe if I had Jack it would have been much better. Once the sale started, I was in total confusion. Perhaps the Crown had a slight effect on me. Rabbits went for over a thousand dollars. It was a rabbit for goodness sake! Then this little fourth grade boy came up with a turkey bigger than Tucker and Otis put together. I thought this kid was going to be the first ever child to have stroke due to the sheer mass of animal he was holding. I could swear I saw the poor kid's veins popping out of his neck as he held the bird upside down to show off it's breasts (the caller explained this to the crowd and said this is what we call "flipping the bird"). After that I had enough and begged to leave for a corn dog. I know, I know I just ate an amazing meal but a greasy, fried, fair corn dog sounded oh so grand! We spent the rest of the evening sipping local prize winning wine, riding rides, and wandering the fair arm in arm. It was a magnificent night all in all.
The rest of the trip was nearly as comical. We spent the week lounging by the pool, eating at amazing restaurants, and my favorite sipping wine...ok, ok at times maybe gulping it. Nevertheless I had an amazing visit with my husband for our anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married for two years and are now on our way to the West Coast.
To keep y'all updated on the status of everything, we sold our home in Indiana. The movers come to pack on August 15 and load on the 16th. I will be moving to Memphis for a month. Adam will head back to Cali and then onto South America for grad school. Once he arrives back in the States, we will make the miserably long trek across the country with two dogs in tow.
