May 18, 2011

It's finally time to take a long vacation.  I've been on a handful of trips in the recent past: a few weekend getaways, some business trips, and one rather sad trek to Montana, but no true vacations.  Today I spent the day getting ready for my weeklong trip to Washington, D.C., one of my favorite cities in the world.  I have been looking forward to this for months now.  Today I blitzed around town to the bank, Nordstrom for some last minute shopping, to the journal office to catch up on some work, and finally to my closet to pack everything I can fit into one bag.  I'm praying I've remembered everything; I'm notorious for forgetting to bring essentials, like pants.  I guess we'll see whether I live up to this tendency over the course of this next week!

Mary 17, 2011

Half the year isn't even through and tonight marked the second going away party for a good friend of mine.  Laura has accepted an amazing job in Des Moines, Iowa and will be leaving in a week.  Laura and I have become friends over the past year while at Texas and I'm really going to miss her happy and hilarious personality while she is off building an amazing career.  In her honor, we threw her a beer and pizza party, as these are two of her favorite things.  Everyone brought either a pizza from a unique Austin pizzeria, or a unique beer, or both!  We had piles of pizza and almost ran out of room in the fridge for the beer.  Good thing Laura is loved by many because all of the pizza and nearly all of the beer was consumed as countless people came by to wish her well.  We will miss you Laura!