I made it! Barely.

I'm sitting here in my hotel/apartment/extended stay place and I think it's about 3:30 in the morning on May 1. See, I'm not really sure because I left Utah on April 29th at 10:45am. I got into Bangalore at 12:30am this morning.

The flights weren't too bad, well that's a lie. 3 1/2 hours to Cincinnati, another 9 to Paris and another 10 to Bangalore. That really was just torture. The only thing that was on my side was the overdosing on Ambien and the Italian woman that sat in front of me. She was loud and obnoxious and couldn't understand why she was getting in trouble for SMOKING IN THE BATHROOM. Now, I hear all the warnings and the regulations and I believe them. Smoking in an airplane is like lighting a match near pure gasoline. It was all I could do to not imagine us all going up in a cloud of smoke because of her narcotic addiction. But, alas, I made it here.
The airport looks much like the ones in Ecuador or Mexico, just a lot more Indian people around. Now mom and dad, if you are worried about me, THIS IS THE PLACE TO STOP READING. Unfortunately, getting here in the middle of the night and standing out like a sore thumb isn't the most comfortable feelings. But, to make it worse my driver didn't show up. To make it even worse, I didn't bring any cash because I was told to just use the ATM at the airport. To make it even even worse, the ATM wasn't working. So, here I am, my starch white hair, my BYU MBA sweatshirt and warm up pants standing in the Bangalore airport waiting to be preyed upon by anyone interested.

After almost crying, almost having a panic attack and lots of praying, I decided to just get a taxi to the hotel. It was about 2:00am at this point and the driver said he would take me to another bank to get cash. I was charged 2250 Rps to bring me here and I have no idea how much money that is worth, and frankly, I don't care. On the way here I saw lots of stray dogs, something I was expecting and lots of people sleeping on the street- something I was hoping that wouldn't be true. The drivers were nice (there ended up being 2 of them), one of them asked me if I was here on "business". I almost laught out loud! Don't you know that I am a child? Don't you know that I have no business being here? But, I said yes. Yes, I am here on very important business of trying not to get myself killed. Luckily they brought me here to the apartment unscathed.
My apartment is a studio and now that I am here I have realized all of the stuff I should have brought (hangers, adapter, hand sanitizer, a bag to carry my computer around in...duh, some nice shampoo, etc.). Luckily, I still recognize myself in the mirror after all those hours and now being half way around the world- my hair is puffy and my make up has melted off.
I should be asleep, but the idea of sleeping makes me sick. Too much time on an airplane and too many sleeping drugs. Instead, I'm uploading pictures of this place for you all to see. And by "you all", I realize that just my family and a few friends read this, so feel included in that statement. Hopefully I'll be able to write a lot while I'm here. Apparently India is a good place to "find yourself", or if I'm lucky, a summer fling! By the way, can I drink the water here? Probably would have been a good idea to look into that before I just used to the sink water to brush my teeth...

Cancun, Cancun...

This is the view from our hotel room...

Matching Hats

Dylan loved the fact that he and Auntie Heather had matching hats. He made sure we had lots of pictures.

Operation Vacuum: Success

Well, I called the truck driver and made him dig through his big semi-truck before he took off to TX with Whitey's vacuum. We met in a parking lot on State to make the exchange. Whitey's vacuum has been rescued.

The End of an Era

I wanted to echo what Laura said...this has been the best two years of my life. I'm glad that I didn't serve a mission or I'd really have a conflict on my hand of which experience was truly the "best two years." But since this is all I've got, these have been the best two years for so many reasons. :) The biggest is probably getting a prescription for a controlled substance. The second biggest is the friends I've made...oh, all right, you talked me into it. Friends supersede controlled substances.

It hasn't hit me yet that this experience is over--probably because I'm still hanging out with three of my besties this week. We talked about it at dinner tonight--how it still hasn't hit us. I know my goodbyes this weekend felt like "See ya laters," because I'm still in some sort of dreamworld state of denial. It's going to be very strange in 2 1/2 weeks when I find myself sitting at my desk taking HP conference calls, knowing that my MBA ladies are scattered around the world.

Thank you to each one of you for everything--for the support you've been to me, for being the reality check I've so often needed, for seeing the divinity in me when sometimes I couldn't, for getting my rear through finance, for sharing your tasty treats, for mutually admiring me, for hating every boy I've ever broken up with, for giving me the clothes you're now too good for, for helping me get out of my comfort zone, for reminding me to go to the temple and going with me...really, just thank you for being my friends and confidantes during the most influential two years of my life. I love all of you.

Depression Setting In

As I got up early yesterday morning to set out on my 12 hour drive to California I hugged Jessica good-bye and as she told me she loved me the tears started gushing. They didn't stop until seconds before I arrived at my grandparents in SLC where I picked up my mom. The whole drive memories of movie nights, spontaneous dance parties, discussions about boys, good dinner company, afros at Halloween, makeovers, homemade bread and cookies, frustrating landlords and neighbors, conversations about things that would be inappropriate to write here, sharing clothes, mornings that we would all be sitting around the house in pjs at 10:30am with nothing to do, jumping off stairs onto love sacs, parties and thousands of other laughs and tears we shared. I miss all of you so much. Thanks for being a part of all my memories from the last 2 years.

Whitey's Vacuum

To be moved by a moving company is both a blessing and a curse. Two different crews came today to pack my stuff and load it onto the truck. With each crew I took them on a tour explaining what would stay and what would go. I even put them into piles of "stay" and "go." Throughout the day I would catch the movers moving something that was in the "stay" pile and I would remind them it wasn't going with me to Austin and we would unpack it or remove the tape and stickers.

Well, tonight after they left I started to clean a little bit. And when the cleaning required a vacuum I went to where Whitey had so graciously left her vacuum for us to borrow until she got back from Mexico. It wasn't there! They took Whitey's vacuum!

I'm on a mission to get it back before they drive to TX tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how successful I am.

Intervention for Laura

Could someone please get the girl a can opener? Granted, there was a can opener yesterday, but with everyone moving their stuff out, I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. For those of you who didn't hear, Laura stabbed a can of tuna several times today (Sunday) in order to pry the can open.

First off, with all the millions of households living in that little cul-de-sac zoned for four families, you would think that one of them would be nice enough to lend the poor girl a can opener. And secondly and much more importantly, who wants tuna that badly? Let it go, Laura. Eat the rest of the pringles. The lid on that canister pops right off quite nicely and no sharp objects are involved.

I don't want to ruin it, but I think I have a good idea of something Laura might like for Christmas...equally delicious but safer. Actually, I shouldn't joke about this. I think this experience shows that Laura is innovative, driven, resourceful, and a problem-solver. Laura, I think you should make this one of your stories for the next time you ever need to do job interviews. And if they need references, you know Heather and I will vouch for the tastiness of the tuna and crackers that we ate with you.

Last night before the dispersion

Technically, it's already the day of the scattering, but since I'm still awake, it feels a bit like it's still Sunday night...but then again, I guess I didn't feel like it was Sunday anymore when I stopped at a Maverick around 1:15 a.m. to get a diet coke.

Whitey, Long, Davis, and I are heading to Mexico in the morning. Long is already in Salt Lake at her brother's, but the other three of us did some last minute repacking and consolidating at Sarah's tonight. From what I've seen so far, I think the Cancun trip is going to be a resounding success...not only are we armed with about 100 nutrition bars, five gallons of trail mix, and several individual packets of oatmeal, but as we packed, we had a little fashion show. We traipsed around Sarah's place in bathing suits, summer dresses, boat hats, and board shorts. I only hope that we aren't mistaken for Victoria's Secret swimsuit models while we're in Mexico, because that would be annoying if the paparazzi followed us everywhere the whole time. I know we're gorgeous, but we're human beings just like all the mere mortals we're forced to interact with on a daily basis.

Well, we have to be at Long's brother's house by 4:15 in the morning and it's 2 right now. I should probably try to get in an hour of sleep. I'm excited to hear about everyone else's adventures and I hope that they also involve extemporaneous fashion shows. We'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we have some that are post worthy (too bad we didn't have our cameras out earlier).

Love to all my sistahs...

Graduation -- Off to Greatness