A Break from the Chaos!

After my last day of work on Thursday, Ale and I had to pack up (just weekend suitcases this time) and hit the road because we had a wedding to go to in Greenville, SC on Friday. The wedding was beautiful & on Saturday, we drove with some friends to Charleston, SC for one last visit to Charleston before leaving Charlotte. Here are some pictures from the trip. Connie  & Tedy are our friends pictured below - and they actually live in New York City right now! Can't wait to hang all the time in the big city!!

The trip was GREAT and it was a much needed break from all of the moving chaos!

Overdue Update

SO apparently coordinating and executing the move of your entire life doesn't leave much time for blogging...hence why I've not provided any updates recently. But I have good news - the hardest part is over!!!! Ale and I arrived in NYC yesterday morning! 

WE. ARE. HERE! 

Since I've largely lacked in the blogging world over the past week, I'm going to give you the highlights over the next few posts:

Thursday, April 5th:

My last day of work

Leaving Red Ventures was incredibly sad because I love all of the great people I work with. My friends from work ended up throwing me a going away party that night and showered me with gifts representing Charlotte, the "Queen City" (hence the crown I was forced to wear - haha) and many cat items...they know me too well. hahah.

 Pictures below....

 

 

Pack pack Pack pack PACKKK

The word of the week is PACK. I'm sure you're just as sick of reading about it as I am of doing it! Haha...unfortunately, I still have much more to do! Thank goodness for good friends though.

Last night, my friend Anthea came over to help me. We've worked together for the past 4 years at RV and I'm convinced that she is what I will miss most about Charlotte! (tears...tears.....). Her and I have been through a ton together while living here & she's become one of my very close friends. She was even by my side on my first airplane flight, and since then, we've flown across the country together multiple times - (San Diego, however, is our fave spot to frequent together). If I were to continue on about our memories & funny stories that we have together, than this blog would never end. But through work & life, she's always been there & even as I'm about to embark on my new journey, she's there to help send me off.

Below are some great shots of Anthea modeling how to perfectly fold clothes...after about 3 glasses of wine :) 

Here I am...tired, delirious, yet Anthea is still going strong! 

I'm just trying to keep up..

TEAM WORK! 

And the packing continues............the moving truck will be here on April 10th to load everything up.......almost there!

Weekend Update!

This weekend was VERY productive...again....just like last. 

However, this weekend it was Ale's mother that came to town! 

I really don't have much to report on other than all of us hardcore packing 24 hours a day for the past 3 days straight. It has been exhausting for sure, but things are coming together! 

Kudos to both of our momma's for all of their hard work in helping us move!!

One notable mention from the weekend is that we took Ale's Mom to our FAVORITE brunch spot in Charlotte, The Flying Biscuit.  If you've never been, I highly, highly suggest it.

Of all things I'm going to miss about the city of Charlotte, Flying Biscuit's "egg-ceptional eggs" are what I think we will both miss most. We've literally been going every single weekend since we started dating & never grow tired of over-medium eggs that lay gracefully over our blackbean patties, drizzled with tomatillo salsa & feta cheese. Next to the eggs, sits a warm, fluffy biscuit topped with crystalized sugar & an apple-butter sauce is close-by for spreading. The fresh fruit is delicious as well, but when I'm feeling a little more frisky, I spring for the rosemary sprinkled potatoes. Even the coffee is the best I've had (since my last trip to NYC at least). There is nothing sub-par about this caloric ingestion.....in fact, it is mere perfection. 

Flying Biscuit does no wrong.

 

Eggceptional Eggs. Xo.

Sigh...

Remember yesterday when I wrote a blog about how terrible I am at driving?

So I got pulled over this morning on my way home from the gym at 7am. Yeah, Happy Friday.

Apparently, I failed to see a "No Left Turn" sign....even though I've been turning left at that exact spot for the past year. If the policeman was right and there really IS a "No Left Turn" sign (which  I plan on investigating later on today) than that just further proves my point that I need to move to NYC in order to not operate a motor vehicle. 

The Po-man then asked for my license. Because I just ran up the road to hit the gym while the entire world was still sleeping, I didn't consider bringing it necessary. Obviously, I misjudged. 

He wasn't happy about me not having my license on me, but took my registration back to his car (quite quickly actually...which made me wonder if my sweaty appearance made him want to keep his distance). 

As I sat in my car, with my blank gaze straight ahead, I pondered trying to produce fake tears while fully admitting that I know I'm a terrible driver and that's why I'm moving to NYC and that he shouldn't worry anymore because the streets of Charlotte will be safe now with me gone.

However, I vetoed this because fake crying is hard and maybe him thinking I'm actually a good driver who made one silly mistake is better than me admitting otherwise.

Turns out my decision to keep my composure worked out because he didn't give me a ticket! 

Party streamers and glitter confetti exploding in my mind.

 I was so excited that I almost asked him if I could get a snapshot of him at my car for my blog, as if we were old pals, but my better judgement took hold of me as I snapped back to reality.

He then ended the conversation instructing that I "pay attention to signs" and "remove the license plate holder because it covers up the state name on my tag." 

Whoa, what's this now about my license plate holder?

Then it hit me....I have a Steelers license plate holder so I obviously took offense to this. Asking a Steelers fan to remove their beloved paraphernalia is like asking the Pope to not believe in God. My firecracker Pittsburgh instinct almost persuaded me to say "So what you're really saying is that you're not a Steelers fan?" But his personality was somewhat stone-cold, and I didn't think he'd take to my sarcastic demeanor very well. 

Tongue in cheek, I thanked him, wished him a great day, and drove off. 

Now, I just need to focus on not getting pulled over & not wrecking for 9 more days. 

That's it....only 9 MORE.

Holding my breath...

Pow-Pow Powerwheels

SO it's time to sell my car...

 

There is nothing I'm more excited about doing than selling my car. 

I'm a terrible driver and as much as I practice, I'm just not good at it. Never was, never will be.

 I sit up poker straight, clutch the wheel until my knuckles turn white, and am very anxious anytime I go over 35mph...which is everyday because I have to take two interstates to & from work. (I think 50% of the reason my boyfriend wants to move to NYC is because he won't need to worry about me behind a wheel..... Lol, I'm kidding, I'm kidding........kind of.)

AllState actually dropped me because I'm so bad. But luckily, there are companies out there, like Progressive, that give (undeserving?) people a second third chance to prove that they really can drive around town without wrecking! 

Team Progressive!

Another reason I'm SO excited to sell my car is because I will be getting back 80 minutes a day that I spend commuting to and from work! That's 400 minutes a week....which ends up being 

26 HOURS AND 40 MINUTES A MONTH  

of my life that I get back. 

You think I'd be a little more emotional about getting rid of something that I've spent so much time in, but I CAN'T WAIT. 

Goodbye Chevy, hellllloooooo long walks & underground subways!

Anywho, you can probably tell that my mindset this week is CAR WEEK. I owe $4,200 on my car so I was hoping to make at least that when selling it.

My first stop was to Chevrolet to see if they'd buy it back. They gave me some hoopla about it being too much of an investment for them to buy it because of all the work they'd need to put into it before they could actually sell it. Hmph.

Next, I went to Carmax -they low-balled me, as expected, but they said they'd purchase it which was good news. If I sold to them for what they quoted, I'd only lose a couple hundred dollars - but the CATCH is I have to sell it within 7 days or they will pay me even LESS after the 7 days is up. I can't sell my car for two weeks. So that's annoying and will put me hundreds of dollars in the hole.

Lastly, I went to a rinkydink place off of South Blvd in Charlotte called JD Bytrader. One of the guys working there recognized me from my Red Ventures (where I currently work) and ended up being the guy who had a final say on my car. He offered me $4,750 which is GREAT because now I can make a few hundred on my car instead of lose! This will certainly help with the big move. So that's the plan.

YAY!!

Boxing Up Our Lives

Yesterday, Tink (other identifiers include, but are not limited to, Mom/Tinkerbell/J-Fuzz/Wigs/Fuzzard/etc...) felt like going for a drive. So she decided to drive all the way from Pittsburgh, PA to Charlotte, NC to help with the move! How shweet is she? 

She's very excited about me heading to the big city, but her nerves are a little bit frayed, just at the ends. She isn't keen on flying, and is timid to the idea of putting her Honda CRV up against NYC's finest taxi cab drivers...so she hasn't yet figured out her preferred method of visiting me. I'm sure that in due time, she'll find a way that she's comfortable with....don't mothers always find a way? :)

Anyway, her help this weekend is MUCH appreciated and I'm so glad she came down!!!! She's basically superwoman.

As for Ale, he's in Atlanta this weekend with his BFF's male bonding over beer, food, and sports. He's in for quite a surprise when he gets home & sees all the progress we made! 

Below are some lovely highlights from the day!

 

This morning, we needed boxes and we needed them FAST. As we turned the corner at the local grocery store, a stock boy appeared with a cart filled the brim with boxes. 

GodWink*.

The stock boy gave them to us.

THANK YOU 

to Harris Teeter Groceries for sponsoring our move!

(*GodWink is a term used by mom, sister & I to describe moments in life that are too perfect to have a logical explanation...so we say "GodWink" because it feels like these happenings are God's way of winking at us)

Tink (the blonde bombshell holding the box) & Josie (black & gold creature/love of my life featured on the right) are helping box up the kitchen! I'm most proud that the words "Productive" and "Sunday" deserve to be in the same sentence today...that never happens. 

After all of our hard work today, Tink thinks it'd be easier to just ship me to NYC. 

...considering it...