Hello Hotlanta

I have finally finished going through all my pictures from my trip to Atlanta. It's pretty normal for it to take me forever to go through pictures, usually for two reasons. One, I take a lot of pictures—sometimes I have to work up the energy to import and sort through all of them. And two, going through vacation pictures too soon after vacation makes me wistful and sad that I'm not still wherever I was in all the pictures.

The downside of waiting too long to get my act together is I start having to try to remember what days I did which things. But honestly, I'm not going into specifics. I'm just excited to finally be sharing the pictures with you guys!

So here we go.

I was, of course, really excited to go. I'd been planning the trip for months ahead of time—Naturally I waited until the last minute to pack. That's when my dog started getting the idea that something was up. He's a smart little dude, and I'm sure once he realized I was exhibiting all of the signs of a person soon to head out the door, he decided to start telling me how much he didn't want me to go. He followed me around while I packed, shivering and looking sad, and when that didn't work, he tried to sneak himself in my luggage.

Seriously.

My hopeful little stowaway.

I love my dog. He's so precious. But sadly he couldn't make the trip with me. (Spoiler alert—he lived through my almost-two-week absence just fine, but was super excited to see me when I got back).

The flight out was smooth, at least as smooth as flying can be what with baggage check, TSA, wasted time, pat-downs, and boarding. I don't have a whole lot of flying experience under my belt—this trip made my third flight ever. But as far as flying goes, it wasn't half bad. The flight was pretty short, our pilot was funny, and I read the whole time.

Landing was the fun part—walking off of the plane and into a different state. I may not fly much, but that's something that's kind of wild to me every time. I sit down on a plane and step off thousands of miles away. Crazy. Flying is awesome.

We had arrived.

Atlanta.

The view from my hotel room.

Welcome to the Omni Hotel!

We stayed at the Omni Hotel at the CNN Center, which was amazing, I'm not gonna lie. For starters, the room was really nice, and the hotel had a few places to eat and a couple or so bars. And then there was the fact that it was connected to the CNN Center itself, which had a whole food court full of things to do. A Starbucks, for instance. At which I spent a lot of time—or at least made a lot of runs to. That little glorious Starbucks kiosk was on my route to street level almost every day I went out, which made it the perfect place to grab a cup of coffee every morning.

But I digress.

The purpose of my visit to Atlanta was to see an old friend of mine who's recently relocated from Texas to Georgia. So needless to say, I was pretty darn excited. It had been...what, something like a year? Maybe more? You don't know—and obviously I can't remember for sure.

Anyway.

My friend, Heather, was also basically my wheels while I was in Atlanta, as I didn't have a car there. So she was kind enough to tote us around town and drive us to all the things we wanted to see.

Guys, Atlanta has SO much to offer, I didn't come close to seeing it all. And what I did see I'd like to do again. It was so much fun.

We visited the zoo, which was great. The weather was awesome—it pretty much was for the whole trip—so we took our time looking around, taking an insane amount of pictures of the animals. We even took time out for lunch there, completing our zoo experience with a couple of slices of pizza. I love zoos. And I can honestly say I really regret not buying the cute little panda stuffed toy I saw there. Maybe next time.

On our way in!

This pouty gorilla was my favorite, all huffy under his tree.

Panda chows down.

I think maybe my favorite place we went was the High Museum of Art. It was fabulous, and we didn't even have time to walk through the whole thing! But they had a great exhibit of Warhol and Picasso. I absolutely love Andy Warhol, so seeing his work in person was amazing. I took a ton of pictures there, too—I'm always careful to ask about policies on photography before I whip out my camera in these types of places; just a reminder to always check before you snap photos! I took a lot of pictures of Warhol's work, but just to be safe (I'm not sure how the museum feels about pictures of their special exhibits being plastered online) I'm only going to post one from that exhibit. It's my favorite!

LOVE the soup cans.

Inside the museum.

Since I was staying in the CNN Center, I thought it only appropriate that we take their tour as well. And, as luck would have it, we ran into a lovely couple who'd purchased a City Pass but hadn't used it all yet—and one of the things it got us in to (for free!) was the CNN Tour. I was pretty excited. Honestly, I never really watch CNN. I'm more of a Fox girl, but to see their facilities and tour their floors was really awesome. And our tour guide was great. Really personable, chatty, friendly. He told us that the center has the largest freestanding escalator in...I think the world? Possibly just the United States. Don't quote me. But seriously, the escalator was wildly tall. We toured their newsrooms, saw a mock studio—one woman got to read the prompter and give a news cast, which was cool. We saw how they use green screens for weather maps and the like. It was really cool. We even got to see Wolf Blitzer, which was really neat because he's usually out in D.C. and not in Atlanta. We watched him through the glass and saw in person what the rest of the world was seeing on live TV. Pretty rad.

And I'm not even all the way at the bottom at this point.

CNN, y'all.

One of the mock newsrooms.

And another absolute must-see, especially for me—lover of books and writing—was Margaret Mitchell's grave. (She wrote Gone with the Wind, for those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about.) Which turned out to be a little gem of a surprise because it wasn't on the agenda; I honestly didn't know she was buried in Atlanta. But she is! At Oakland Cemetery. Maybe it's weird to call a cemetery beautiful, but this one really was. It had a lot of trees, some really elegant statues and headstones. And for being in the middle of Atlanta, it was very peaceful. It took us a bit of hunting to actually find Margaret Mitchell's headstone—it's not wildly big or extravagant, so it blends in. But eventually we followed the signs and found it. People had left some coins there. I added my own.

Oakland Cemetery.

Peaceful. I loved all the trees.

One of the really elegant tombstones.

Thank you for Gone with the Wind, Mrs. Mitchell.

We also hit up the Georgia Aquarium, which was actually the most expensive thing we did. Go figure. Probably because our ticket price included a 4D movie and a dolphin show. (The dolphin show was totally better than the 4D movie, just sayin'.) The aquarium itself was really cool. A maze of fish tanks, interactive exhibits, seals, penguins. I even got to touch a stingray! They feel slippery and wonderful. I love them. It's hard to take pictures of moving fish in a tank with no flash—but using flash just makes the glass reflect. So I didn't get a ton of great pictures in the aquarium. But that didn't stop a girl from tryin'!

The aquarium. Ta-da!

Me and my new best friend, Mr. Stingray.

I'm not sure what kind of fish this is, but it's pretty!

Sea dragon! I love these guys.

We also hit up another museum, the Fernbank Natural History Museum. My favorite part of this was the dinosaur bones in the atrium. They were pretty rad. Our walkthrough in this museum ended up being interrupted by a fire alarm—false alarm, thank goodness. Ironically enough, we also had a fire alarm go off while we were walking through the High Museum of Art. Apparently Heather and I are just too hot for our own good. (I kid. But seriously.)

A trio of dinosaurs welcoming us to the Fernbank.

Giant atrium dinosaur. :)

T-rex!

Stegosaurus!

All in all, the trip went by way too fast for me, as vacations often do. Atlanta was a really great city, and it sure has a lot to offer. I hope I can go back to Georgia soon—next time I really want to make it down to Savannah!

We visited a couple of other museums and checked out a lot of restaurants, but honestly this post is way out of control in length, so I think I'll do a Part Two of sorts, talk about a couple of other places we went, and then rave about the food we ate. Stay tuned!

The Hunger Games Music Project

Guys, I have some links to share with you. I know I've mentioned the highly talented Matt Bukaty to you all before—he blogs, he composes, he's excellent. And now? He's collaborated with another composer, Edward Underhill, and created an unofficial score to the upcoming Lionsgate film, "The Hunger Games".

And it's really good. I mean, really good. These guys have some serious talent.

I give you, The Hunger Games Music Project!

Personally, I've read The Hunger Games—the whole trilogy, in fact—and the music these two musicians have composed fits perfectly with the way I envisioned the scenes. But it doesn't matter if you haven't read the book. The music is still fantastic!

There are a few different places for you to check out The Hunger Games Music Project. Never fear! I am linking to them all.

First, their website. Here you can listen to all the tracks. If you've read the book, the titles will make sense. If not, it's still great music. You should really check it out. You can also read about the composers and learn more about how this project came about!

The Hunger Games Music Project Official Website

Second, their Facebook page. This is a great place to interact with other fans—we're ready for you to join us! It's also a place where you can share your feedback. Don't forget to take a second to 'Like' their page!

The Hunger Games Music Project on Facebook

Lastly, you can check out their YouTube page. Here you'll find music and promo videos.

The Hunger Games Music Project Official YouTube Page

These two guys are truly talented. I think you'll enjoy what they have to offer. :)

I'm 24!

This may be several days late, but that's only because I've been suddenly busy! That, however, is a story for another time. Because this post is strictly reserved for birthday related activities, events, and the like. So we're going to pretend like it's actually May 16th again. And I'm going to tell you all about how much fun I had, and all the things I did, and hopefully you are going to enjoy it!

Shall we proceed?

Excellent.

The morning of my birthday started off with a delicious breakfast (Thanks Mom!) involving scrambled eggs, tortillas, cheese, and onions. I didn't mean to eat it as quickly as I did, but it was so wonderful I couldn't help but devour it in a frenzy. I mean, can you really blame me?

Breakfast. I love you.

Okay, to backtrack a moment—Technically my morning began much earlier than my breakfast, when my Dad popped in my room on his way to work to wish me a Happy Birthday. But I promptly went back to sleep, so starting with breakfast seems only natural. But since Daddy had to work all day, and I was going to be gone all night, I had specifically requested that he wake me up before he left. I'm glad he did.

Now, where were we...

Ah yes. Then Mom surprised me with a present! I love surprise presents. I'm kind of hard to shop for because I impulsively buy things all the time. This makes it hard to anticipate what I will or won't buy for myself. But Mom definitely did awesome, and I wasn't expecting what she got me at all! But, of course, one must always open a birthday card before opening the present it goes with.

The card is absolutely precious! My Mom even went out of her way to make sure the Boston Terrier looked as much like my little Tucker as possible!

The present is gorgeous! Mom got me a beautiful bracelet with two star charms on it. For those of you who don't know, I adore stars. They've my favorite. Needless to say, she got a BIG hug. (Thanks Mom, I love my bracelet!)

My gift!

My adorable birthday card! Thanks Mom & Dad!

My bracelet! On my wrist! Love.

After several hugs and "Thank you!"s, I loaded up my car and prepared to drive to Frisco. My friend and I had impromptu-decided to get together and celebrate.

But of course before I left town, I had to stop by Starbucks and grab some coffee. I had my free birthday drink coupon, and everything. And a coupon for a free petite pastry, which...I just couldn't let that waste.

Me and my coupons. Exciting!

My birthday drink and pastries. So yummy.

My Mocha Coconut Frappuccino, ready to accompany me on my drive!

Now that I've got my morning coffee, I'm ready for the day!

After picking up my Frappuccino and savoring my Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, I was ready to tackle the drive up to Frisco! My destination? California Pizza Kitchen. Quite possibly my favorite place to get pizza. Well, my favorite chain, anyway. Their BBQ Chicken pizza is fan-freakin'-tastic. And it's also what I ordered for my birthday lunch. Excellent.

CPK. My lunch destination.

Myself and my delicious BBQ Chicken pizza. Heaven on a plate.

A close-up of my pizza. Because seriously, I love it so much!

After we ate, we walked around Stonebriar Mall to settle our bellies and shop around. And I made another trip to Starbucks (and finally bought my Dallas mug there!). I also spent some money at Bath & Body Works.

Then we decided to head back to her place and hang out. On the way, we stopped by Velvet Bake Shop. They make some seriously fantastic cupcakes. I decided to pick up a few...or four. Instead of a cake. Don't judge me, it was my birthday!

Velvet Bake Shop. Nestled amongst other little shops. Yum.

My cupcakes. Coconut, Chocolate, and Raspberry Chocolate.
And no, I didn't eat them all at once!

The rest of the day was spent kicked back on the sofa, nibbling cupcakes and sipping milk and watching T.V. It was quite pleasant. And most definitely an excellent birthday.

Now to start planning for Birthday #25...

A Road Trip Getaway

Sometimes you just need to get away.

And sometimes you just want to. A think a little combination of the two is what I had been experiencing for quite some time now.

Solution?

Plan a getaway!

This is precisely what myself and my friend Megan did this past weekend. We planned it about a month in advance. I started saving up. And, of course, getting excited. (I mean, really excited.)

Our original plan had been to drive to Austin and just hang out. Grab a bite, see the sights, do some shopping. But then my life took a few turns, I started looking into graduate school, researching good programs. I turned up a good creative writing program at Texas State University in San Marcos.

San Marcos isn't a whole heck of a lot farther away than Austin and I was itching to check out the campus (I'd initially looked into Texas State when I was trying to decide where to transfer to after getting my Associate's) so I suggested that we add San Marcos to our road trip itinerary.

Lucky for me, Megan was all for it! Then the plan became a drive down to San Marcos, a look around the school, then driving back up and stopping through Austin for shopping and general fun on our way back to College Station.

Then I realized something. San Marcos has an outlet mall. A really great outlet mall. We're talkin' Pottery Barn, Neiman Marcus, Juicy Couture, Gucci, Fendi, Coach, Puma, Lacoste, Lucky, Ed Hardy, Calvin Klein, BCBGirls, Guess... Basically, I flipped out.

Since Megan was also up for shopping, our plan changed again. Austin got nixed completely.

Don't worry, Austin. We'll come back to you soon. 

Because you have a California Pizza Kitchen...It's only a matter of time.

New plan? Get an early start, drive down to San Marcos and check out the campus, then head over to the outlets to shop our little hearts out.

Saturday could not come fast enough.

When it did, I was up at six and ready to go at seven forty-five. I picked up Megan at eight, and after a pit stop to fill up the gas tank, we dropped by Starbucks for a morning pick-me-up. Then we were on the road.

The drive was really pleasant. It didn't seem too long, and it only rained on us a bit. By the time we made it to San Marcos, the sun was out and there was a great chill in the air. The perfect day.

We actually spent much more time checking out the campus than I thought we would. Megan was just as curious as I was, and spending two or so hours there gave me plenty of time to get a great first impression of the school. And take a lot of pictures. I mean, a lot.

And here they are! Apologies in advance; there's a ton of 'em.

This is the first building we saw. It's lovely!

Old Main again. We climbed a lot of steps on this campus!

I believe this is the back side of Old Main.

Welcome to Texas State University!

I don't know if it's easy to tell, but it just keeps going down!

Lots of steps and lots of trees!

This is the library, which we did go inside. It's lovely!
And on the 7th floor, they have some exhibits. Very fun!

Arial view of campus from the library!

The Bobcat. Texas State's mascot.

The Stallions. Just beautiful!

One more angle on The Stallions, because I love them!

LBJ.

One of my favorite buildings. Love the architecture style!

View #2 of the building I love!

My favorite huge tree!

I. Love. Trees.

Um, HOW cute are these little guys?

I seriously love this campus.

Look at this little guy! The only one who didn't flop into the water when I approached.

THIS is their theater! For plays and such! In the middle of the pond! Awesome.

So, again, obviously I went a little camera happy. And honestly, that's not even half the pictures. But I've already flooded you guys with plenty.

All in all, I really loved this campus. It's gorgeous, lots of trees, lots of shade. And very hilly! (My TOMS held up amazingly well, and we seriously did a ton of walking!)

We went on a Saturday, which is why there aren't any people in my pictures. It was really nice to be able to get a feel for the campus without being overrun. But I'm already planning on dragging my parents down to look again, and get more information, so I look forward to seeing how the place feels during the week when classes are going on.

After we finished checking out the campus, we were positively famished. We'd passed this adorable Saltgrass Steakhouse on the way in, so we decided to run back out to that. It's such a cool building! Apparently it used to be an old mill. And the view is great—you can see the river! I didn't get a great picture inside, but I got one of the outside.

When we left here, we were stuffed. Delicious!

Historical marker, hoorah!

We really enjoyed the break from walking, and the food was fantastic. We really took our time and enjoyed ourselves.

And after eating, we were more than ready to hit up the shops!

I only got a couple of pictures at the outlet mall. I'd intended to get more, but I got a little carried away with the whole shopping thing. But we walked all around the shopping center—it's outdoors, and the weather was lovely. It was absolutely a blast.

Our first stop. I was in hog heaven!

We went in to a ton of the stores, but mostly window shopped. It was just really fun to see what all they had. Though I won't lie, I found several things I want. I may be making a trip back soon!

After we finished shopping, we stopped by the Starbucks in the outlet mall to grab something to drink before the drive back home. I didn't get too many pictures because we were in a hurry to get back—we both had pups waiting at home for us!

Starbucks. A constant in my life. Delicious all over the world.

The drive back felt longer than the drive there. Probably because there's way more excitement involved in actually driving toward the destination as opposed to away from it. Still, it wasn't bad. And it wasn't too long.

And I slept like a baby.

It was a fantastic trip. A great way to let go of some stress, take some time to just enjoy ourselves. The perfect day-trip getaway. I can't wait to start planning the next one! Austin? Houston? San Antonio? Who knows!