Sushi Love and Total Fear

Yesterday's drive to Oklahoma wasn't too bad. I'd like to give a shot out to the department of transportation for Oklahoma who had the brilliant idea to block off an entire lane all the way through Tulsa plus a few other large chunks of the toll roads for construction. At least it kept me alert. For anyone who has driven through Oklahoma or Kansas on a long trip, you understand that anything that keeps you from being hypnotized by the middle lines on the pavement passing by at the exact same speed over and over and over is much appreciated. However the long trip is so worth being able to spend time with my sister and brother in law, and all those I love in Oklahoma!

When I got here yesterday my sister was ready for some pampering. We went and got pedicures and then went shopping at Target for all the little travel size goodies for my trip. My toes look amazing, but I couldn't help but think that in as short of time as two weeks that cute blue color will be chipped and more than likely a nice shade of dirt. On that note, I've made an effort to get dressed up in all my nice clothes and do my makeup as much as possible because by the time I leave Oklahoma I won't have all my cutsie stuff. No heels, no straightener, only three shirts...it's going to be totally different from what I'm used to.

Last night we went to eat my favorite meal, SUSHI! I've actually wondered if they have sushi in Italy. They have a lot of fresh fish (so I'm told)so it could be logical for there to be some sort of sushi restaurant there....but do you really want sushi made by an Italian? But when you think about it, how many times have you been to a Japanese restaurant and your hibachi grill chef is from Mexico?

Today, in the spirit of my upcoming trip (2 days until go time), we went to see Eat, Pray, Love. It was even a little more fitting because I actually read the book while I was on my first solo trip to Panama (under a palm tree, on my own section of beautiful beach, eating a ridiculously fresh mango). The book was great, but the movie would've been a little boring if I hadn't read the book. Obviously my favorite part of the movie was when she was in Italy. I got to see scenes from Rome and Naples, both places I will be visiting. I still can't imagine what it's going to be like to actually see all the buildings and sites I've been learning about in history class.

Seeing the movie also made me realize that I'm only two full days away from leaving the country again. Yes I'm excited, but let's be honest here, I'm scared shitless. Yes, I'm scared. I'm scared. If I ponder on the thought that in two full days I will be without my family, friends, comfort of my belongings, and a language I can understand completely, I start to freak out a little. And as long as we're being honest, it's more than a little, it's a lot. I know it's a lot because my eyes start to water and I'm not your typical emotional laden girl. I don't just cry. I think it's stress and nerves and obviously fear. Fear that something is going to go terribly wrong and this whole trip and experience will go up in flames. I know I'll feel better once I'm there and don't have anything else to prepare for, but as the day gets closer and closer the stress and my nerves are really starting to wear on me.

Lucky for me, I have a great group of people to de-stress with this evening. I'm in for turkey sandwiches, grilled corn on the cob, and a we're finally going to open up my bottle of Fattori Pinot Grigio. I couldn't think of a better time than now to get a taste of what I've gotten myself into. :)

Hard day in the life of a Model

Today started early again with more photo shooting with Ikeonography. We had a great time today shooting out in a wooded area in the middle of Springfield and in Vino100. Of course it helped that all the pictures at Vino included a nice cold glass of wine! When the pictures come out, pay no attention to the level of the wine in the glass...it may or may not have evaporated slowly over the shoot. :) After my morning doing the hard work of a model, I came home and took a much needed nap. Amazing how a little bit of sleep and a lot of stress can add up then sneak up on you so quickly. This evening was spent trying out a new restaurant downtown with Kyle's family and saying more goodbyes. Not quite the last of the goodbyes though. Times like these (that is leaving the country, or for other people it could be like having a wedding or a baby, anything that brings everyone you know together at once) really make you realize how many people you meet and get to know in a lifetime. It's great to know that even at the ripe old age of 23 I've made an impact in the lives of others. Here's to hoping they were GOOD impacts!

Anywho, tomorrow (4 days before go time, whoa.) I'm headed out to Oklahoma to deliver pile number 2 and my car to my sister and brother-in-law. It's not all business though. I'm looking forward to a girl's day out at the salon, a sushi dinner, Eat Pray Love, and some grilled corn on the cob! Mostly things that will seem rather foreign to tiny budget in Europe. Needless to say, I'm going to enjoy them thoroughly this weekend (while I can afford them without having to sacrifice my daily bread rations)! Tonight I've still got some um...organizing, to take care of. After the shoots with Ike my nice piles are more like a massive messy mountain-esque type thing of clothing.

Less than a week!

So keeping up on my blog everyday until I leave may be a little harder than I thought. BUT I would like to say that it's because I don't have two things: 1. My computer and 2. Time. So let's backtrack to yesterday which was Tuesday, 7 days to go.

Tuesday went like this: Sleep in a bit (because I was up until 1:30am packing). Wake up early. Pack the car. Drive 4 hours to Dawn. Unpack car. Spend time with Dad. Spend time with Mom. Drive 4 hours to Springfield. Wash clothes. SLEEP. Well, not a very exciting day, but productive. One pile down. For those of you keeping track. :)

Today (Wednesday, 6 days to go) was a little more exciting! And, the best part is, my blog will reap the benefits of all my charlie horses from holding poses! I woke up early to meet my cousin Ike, owner of Ikeonography, for "The Traveling Wine Chick's" first photo shoot. First we discussed a semi-game plan, then headed out to Sequiota Park. We gave several hours, lots of poses, gallons of sweat (imagine 102 degrees on top of a rock with the sun hitting your face juuuuust right), and many laughs in order to get our shots. After an icy cold beverage at the conveniently located ice cream shop, we headed to a willow tree were we played with lighting to get some more awesome shots. It was a lot of fun spending time with Ike. I felt like a model and his pictures were amazingly beautiful as well as creative! I'm excited for tomorrow when I will go to take even more pictures with him, and for him to finish them up so I can post them on my blog to share the wonderful-ness of his work!

Speaking of pictures...in case you didn't notice the teenie tiny new two-liner link on the right hand side of your screen; I've started to post pictures! The first official album is of my going away party at Bruno's and my surprise party at Vino100. Enjoy the pictures, please, because I can only upload them 5 at a time so it's a whole lot of effort...I'm working hard to keep you all reading! :) Stay tuned for another update, it's about to get crazy as I hit the 5 day mark!!

Hey Mister! That's an Organized Pile!

This morning I woke up to piles, piles everywhere. Piles to go to Dawn, piles to go to Oklahoma, piles to go to Italy. PILES!! Kyle tried to throw his dirty clothes on top of one of my piles and I had to help him realize there was a method to my madness, or messiness rather.

It's getting down to the wire. Just to catch you up to our current time frame:

My last day at OTC was August 6th. The staff had a food day in my honor, and they even sang to me! I had no idea I would be so greatly missed. It made me feel good to know they cared so much. I'll miss you guys and appreciate all you did for me!

Saturday August 7th was my going away party. A group of 15 people all got together at an Italian restaurant downtown to celebrate a new adventure in my life. It was awesome to know that so many people were going to miss me while I'm gone! A true bitter sweet moment.

Sunday August 8th marks the day of that, I have to confess, I had that moment. That moment that really reminded me that I AM my father's daughter. WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST GET MYSELF INTO??? I quit my full time job with benefits. I'm running off to a country where I don't completely know the language. And I'm not going to have any income for at least three months... I couldn't get to sleep for quite awhile. However, it was only a moment, and my more...shall we say, outgoing, spirit took back over and I'm back on track with my dreamily thinking.

Today Monday August 9th, marks 8 days to my departure. EIGHT DAYS. Eight. Wow. Okay so it's focus time, BUT not before having a wonderful SURPRISE! A week or two ago my boss at Vino100 asked me if I could work a shift for him at the store tonight. Little did I know, he and some of my favorite regulars were planning a surprise party for me! I was so happy and felt so loved that they would plan that for me. You guys are so sweet, and I loved being able to sit and have wine with you and just be able to visit before I leave! You guys are all so awesome. *I'd like to take a minute to point out just how many amazing friends I have. You ALL are seriously better that I could've asked for!* Okay so now that tonight's party is over it's time to get stuff to Dawn and Oklahoma, and myself off to St. Louis to my plane! So tomorrow we'll start with pile number 1. I'm driving to Dawn (4 hours) and back (an equal 4 hours) in one day. My goal is to be out by 8am and back around 6. We'll see how that goes... :)

As for the rest of the week, I'm going to try to give you updates everyday until I leave, even if they are shorties (like me! haha!). Wednesday the Traveling Wine Chick is book for Part 1 of a photo shoot with Ikeonography. I'm excited to work with my cousin and see what he can do! Wednesday night will be dinner with Kyle's family! Thursday is more pictures and cleaning up the car so my sister and brother in law have a nice clean "rental" to drive. Friday is a trip to Oklahoma to drop off the car (and pile number 2) and say goodbyes to my family and friends there. We'll get back Sunday only to leave again on Monday night for STL so I (along with pile number 3) can catch my plane at 12:51pm (random, I know, and believe me I WILL be checking to see if it leaves at exactly 1 minute after 12:50).

So basically the moral of the story is, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. Stay close and I'll keep you updated as possible! As for now, it's time to pack of my computer and get it ready to go back to Mom and Dad's tomorrow.

Il biglietto del treno

Dov’e’ la stazione?...Vorrei un biglietto a San Bonifacio, per favore… Grazie!
These few simple phrases are all you need to purchase your train ticket from Rome. Supposedly; in theory.

Apparently in reality you need these few phrases, three credit cards, the numbers to all the credit card hotlines, and authorization to use your card “over-seas” even though you’re not really over-seas but actually at home in your pjs trying to purchase your train ticket from an Italian based website. Wow, simple process turned complicated just because of commerce between two countries.

This is a lot of trouble to assure that I don’t get “stuck” in Rome on my first night in Italy, because I can't say that being stuck in Rome, Italy for a night would be all that bad. But I’m a planner. I like to have my plan of action and I would like for it to move smoothly. Therefore, I want to purchase my ticket before I arrive in Italy. Therefore, I spent the last three days trying multiple credit cards, multiple times in an attempt to find JUST ONE CARD that would work. Honestly, I’m surprised my card companies haven’t shut me down yet with as many combinations and routes as I have tried to get the site to say, “Payment accepted. Reservation made.” Instead all I got was a very consistent “Payment denied,” and a couple of emails to my credit card companies’ help desks sitting out there in email-limbo.

I’m sure this is just the first in the long line of frustrations I’ll be facing for my trip. A few instances from my trip to Costa Rica are starting to prick at the edges of my brain. Was that trip not all butterflies and beaches as I remember it to be? Ohhhhhh yea, there were just a few, shall we say, less-than-desirable moments. But I survived, and I would never change my experiences there for the world. I learned a lot about myself on that trip, and I’m sure I’ll learn even more quirky things about myself on this one. I just have to remember that being out of my comfort zone comes with difficulties, choices, and consequences. Most of all I have to remind myself that I thrive on being out of my comfort zone. And over the next month or so before I leave, while I’m taking care of all the last minute details and finalizing plans/budgets, I must remember to breathe, relax, make lists, and repeat my mantra: “I’m going to Italy…I’m going to Italy…I’m going to Italy…”

The Last of My Worries

Okay, well maybe not the last of them, but it was a BIG burden lifted off my shoulders. Yesterday was the day that I finally told my boss that I was leaving. I'm not great at quitting jobs. Usually I just move to another city so that I don't have to disappoint my boss by telling them I'm leaving. I think it would be easier if I had mean bosses. But I've always been very, very blessed to have amazing bosses whom I've loved working for! And no, I'm not just saying that because 80% of my old bosses are probably reading this post right now. I really have had some amazing people to learn from in my working careers. Any way, yesterday was the big day.

Let's start the day before the big day when the president of the college announced a hiring freeze due to budget cuts and sent the entire office into a small panic. Myself included. I hate leaving people in rough positions and I was already planning to leave right before the busiest time of the year, and now they might not be able to afford to replace me?! Luckily my friend Joe pointed out that my position was a full-time very important position and would not be a part of the freeze. Good news for my conscience. After this conversation, boss talked to me about my hours during August, how it was going to be very busy, and we would probably not be allowed to hire our part-time worker now that there is a hiring freeze. *Que the guilt!* I felt awful, but I couldn't tell her right then and there. I wasn't mentally prepared. So I would tell her the next day which was yesterday.

The morning was okay. I tried to seem as normal as possible. However, all I could think about was having to fess up that I was leaving and how awful I was going to feel,and how they would probably hate me since I was leaving them in their time of need. This is traumatic stuff for a girl who's always been more afraid to "disappoint" people than to simply make them "angry." **Even when I was little if my Momma or Daddy told me they were disappointed in me it would break my heart and I was sure they'd never be happy with me again.** As the day drug on(I mean the minutes were like hours) the nervousness became worse. I was making bathroom trips every 15 minutes and sweating even though my cubicle was so cold I had permanent goosebumps. So finally it was time, 4:25. Just enough time to tell my boss, tell my co-worker, and gather my things to jet out of there for the weekend so they could discuss me after I was gone! I went into my boss' office, closed the door and was immediately warned with, "Rachel, if you got another job, I'm so going to kill you," (obviously in a joking manner). I dropped my bright red face into my hands and my very well planned out script for this moment and converstaion went out the window and instead I blurted out, "I got a job in Italy!"

The rest of the conversation was great. My boss, being the awesome person that she is, was thrilled for me. She seriously could not have been happier. She was sad to see me go, but understood. She guaranteed me that she was not mad, and that she was happy for all the work I had done while I was with them. My co-worker had the same reaction and was really sad to see me leave. They both asked if they could come with me! I will miss them and ALL my friends at my previous job. I appreciate greatly all they have done for me in the past year as I stuggled with a new job and a new atomsophere.

So now that the cat is out of the bag, I can speak freely and just plain be excited about my trip. I'm going to learn so much and see so many beautiful things! I can't even fathom right now how amazing this is going to be.

Packing, Moving, Packing, Moving...

The past couple of weeks have been all about moving. What a smart idea for me to move out of one place into another while storing my stuff in another, and making sure that everything stayed in one location that's going with me with Italy. Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a smart idea, but I (rather WE) accomplished it. I'm finally "settled" in at my temporary location in Springfield with my backpack full of shiny new things for my trip, randomly thrown in, just waiting ever so patiently for August 17th. Thank goodness for mine and Kyle's families who were all willing to give up their time and energy (and trucks, and trunks, and backseats, and flat bed trailers)to put up with me and all of my stuff. You all are the BEST! Next time I have to move, I think I'll just have a yard sale.

So now that I'm here, and my computer is set up, and we have Internet connected; I have to get back to work. I've been making lists every five minutes of things I need to remember to do and people I need to remember to see before I leave. I don't think I have a single free weekend until I leave. AND if I do get to have a free weekend, I really need to spend it right here in front of my computer practicing my Italian. I also need to buy my train ticket from Rome to Verona, and I need to look into cell phone SIM cards, and I need to buy my insurance...there I go again, making more lists.