A word to my peeps...

So tonight is my last night as manager at The Maverick. I am so excited about my next step that I don't feel like I've taken the opportunity to really express how much it saddens me to be leaving such a treasured "family". It has been an honor to work for an amazing company that has literally taught me everything I know. To work for a retail store that considers it's customers as more of friends is how it should always be and over the last five years my customers have become some of my dearest friends. To my coworkers, you guys are THE BEST! What a privilege to work with your best friends, your role models, and people that are just in every way talented beyond belief! To be able to teach some of you and learn from ALL of you is, again, an honor and privilege. Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to be a part of each of your lives and for making my life richer every day I get to see your smiling faces!

Holy Moly - I've Decided to Move to Alaska!!

Yeah...no, seriously! I have come to the decision that I need to go ahead and do what I've always thought would be sooo freakin' cool, but until now, have never had the gusto to do... just quit my job(that I love, love, love) pack my stuff, and move somewhere. Because I could, because I wanted to, and because, well just because!

So I decided to go where every normal person wants to go: Sitka, Alaska! Yeah, me... I know, I haven't put on a pair of tennis shoes since I was there last summer. I know, I'm not really the outdoorsy, mountain woman that I let on to be. But when I'm there, I'm kinda good at it (I think). I can hike for a few days, fish a little and do the no make-up, hair in a ball cap kinda thing. But I was pretty positive that I wouldn't be able to do that for an entire summer. Thank goodness, when I was there last, I realized that fishing isn't the only thing that Sitka is good for. It's a quaint little cruise ship town that has some really great stores. And if there is anything that I KNOW I can do, it's selling expensive things to tourists (I'm sure some of you will vouch for me). So I called a fine jewelry store that I had visited a few times and asked about their hiring for the summer. She told me to email in my resume, and a few days later I actually had a job in Sitka. Ahhhh... so easy!

And the easy stuff, I'm thinking, is going to end there. I now have to figure out how to get myself, my dog, and my necessary belongings to Alaska.

First of all, Lola is going to have to wait to come to Alaska. (Don't tell her, I haven't broke that news to her yet) I really pretty devestated about that... I really like my little dog. But she'll get up there later, and I'm okay with that. And please don't envision the scene from The Proposal, which is actually not filmed in Sitka. I'm really hoping no eagles plan to eat my chihuahua....

And just to give you a little taste of what's to come, my mom is in the computer room right now booking her and her best friend's (my second mom since I was like 7) flight back from Sitka. So the plan is this... the 3 of us pack my car to the brim and drive to Seattle, via Santa Fe, Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Napa, and Portland. We put my car on a barge in Seattle, then fly to Sitka. It will take a week for my car to get there on the barge. This should be an interesting week... a serious case of the blind leading the blind. But with cell phones, computers, gps systems, maps and the good ol' just stop and ask for directions, we can hopefully make it from Fort Worth to Seattle in one week. If we call, text or IM you, please answer...

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I plan to... let me know what you think!

By the way... if anyone has an in on an apartment/house/studio/tent that I can rent in Sitka, Alaska, please let me know :)