For example, in the master bathroom the toilet is in its own separate little room. There is a toilet, a light switch, and a phone jack. This is luxury. There is a cable jack on the kitchen counter, also luxury. There is a fireplace (remember, we’re in Las Vegas. It’s over 100 most days), luxury. I am remembering when these kinds of things were a big deal, and am date stamping this building between 1988 and 1993.

As Wylie was hooking up the TV yesterday and trying to figure out how best not to overload the electricity outlet, I decided that current “luxury” details probably include lots more cable hookups (for computers and modems and TV”s and whatnot), lots more outlets, and multiple showerheads. This last one is based on yesterday’s trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to see if we could find one that might give us a little more pressure than the one we have now and all of them had at least 2-3 heads. Pretty crazy.

In other news, we needed some cereal this morning to help us use up the milk we got before we head out to graduation, and tried out the local Von’s. Very nice store, friendly people, and–of course–Video Poker! I LOVE THIS TOWN. It’s hilarious! Also, tried this place last night and am SOOOOO happy it is less than a mile down the road! Whoop!

Here are some highlights from the trip out here:

Friday, July 30, 9pm: We had been driving for about 5 hours on small country roads and were finally on the interstate, in the distance we see a giant storm with some amazing lightning. We keep driving, and never seem to get any closer to it. We toy with the idea of stopping at the last town before we get off the interstate and onto a Texas State Highway (it is dark in the middle of nowhere in Texas, all 4 of the back tires on the moving truck are bald (Wylie noted this to the woman renting it to us and questioned the safety, to which she replied, “If I don’t give it to you I will give it to someone else. The mechanic said they are fine”), and he is not crazy about the idea of driving in a thunderstorm—gorgeous as the lightning is. Thrill seekers that we are, we go for our original destination of Snyder, TX. We get an amazing lightning show with a million colors and drive along through a sea of red flashing lights—later we learned that they were giant 300 ft windmills (apparently the same ones that some Texas politician a few months ago was against because “we might run out of wind”—that is not a direct quote, but the gist of what I remember hearing about it). We see Snyder coming up, 30 miles…20 miles…15 miles…8 miles…5 miles…and BAM! Sheets of rain come out of nowhere (er, well, the giant storm we have been watching for over an hour, but basically nowhere). We are struggling to see the white line marking  the side of the road, Olive is whimpering beside me (she hates water) and it is very scary. Happy ending: We made it to Days Inn and the rain subsided in less than 20 minutes total, and we were eating Whataburger breakfast sandwiches in no time. Whew!

Saturday, July 31: We started early and drove and drove and drove. Through Texas and into New Mexico, onto I-40. It was wonderfully cool and the skies were bright and clear and blue. Wylie and I began playing a game via walkie-talkie where you take turns naming famous people: For example, I say, “Sarah Palin” then Wylie could say, “Paul Rudd” and I could say, “Ralph Macchio”—basically, you have to say a name that starts with the first letter of the last person’s last name. It was pretty fun and kept us entertained for a few hours Sat. and a few on Sun. What was most striking was how much brain space we are using keeping famous people’s names in there…On a side note, S names, M names and B names go quickly!

In the afternoon, just outside of Albuquerque, we ran into more big thunderstorms, so we pulled over and waited them out in the car. Olive was happy that all 3 of us were together and we weren’t moving so she got some undivided attention. The storms were really cool to watch because there were these massive black clouds, bookended on either side by gorgeous crisp blue skies. Very amazing job, Mother Nature! We stopped on the West side of Gallup, NM and had dinner at a truck stop. I always enjoy some people watching at a truck stop.

Sunday, August 1: Hooray! Last day of driving! We thought we were going to make it no problem, then, pulling into Kingman Wylie saw the sign that said “No Rental Trucks on Hoover Dam.” In a panic, I called my dad, Master of All Things Map-ish, and he advised us to go through Laughlin, and warned us that “there is a hill.” He wasn’t kidding! A 3000 ft. rise and fall in elevation, and then another huge and never ending hill made the moving truck tired and hot. So hot that Wylie had to pull over and let it rest, and put the heat on…He is a good man, and was rewarded with beers later that night. We made it to the Holiday Inn in Henderson around 5pm, and had a lovely dinner at Sunset Station—a place I had always seen from the highway but never ventured into. We were so tired we had no interest in gambling, and more interest in the 10+ kinds of salsa and the amazingly flavored (and vegetarian) black beans!

Monday, August 2: Hooray! Our apartment! We got the keys around 10am and made our way over there, via Einstein’s Bagels—something we both had been missing in College Station. I was pleased to find that the apartment (“condo” I guess, but it is an apartment) is big and spacious and has central heat and air! Whoohoo!! I think I will be amazed and feel blessed by tiny things like this for the next few months since our place in Bryan—wonderful and lovable and full of character that it was—lacked some of these amenities that I am fond of. By the time we got to the apartment and snooped around a little, it was too hot to unload much, so we ran some errands to sort out some key troubles, found some basic necessities, and made a nest of blankets on the floor, rented a movie (DO NOT see Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and got a pizza from Marcos, the greasy pizza shop that is less than a hop, skip, and jump next door. Olive thought it was perfect, all of us on the floor in one giant bed.

Tuesday, August 3: Unload. As happy as Olive was, the nest of blankets wasn’t so comfy, so we woke up early and started unloading the truck around 7:30. We finished around 11:15, so we were happy we started early, as it is H to the O to the T here. I think my time in the hot and humid South has weakened me to the hot and dry…I think about my days at Girl Scout Camp where I was out in it all day and I can hardly believe it! Maybe I am getting old? We did a few more errands, returned the truck, and found the Whole Foods that is less than a mile away! Huzzah for expensive salad bars and delicious Organicness! I am excited to be back in a place where these things are available!

It is easy to forget that “vacation destination” Vegas is just to the East. There are lots of places for doing dental work, which I find a little strange. Overall, though, it seems like it will be a great year!  I intend to be better about updating this thing more often, and for longer than just the first few months… Be sure to visit us this year!!!

The great news is that we have a destination! It was pretty stressful with both of us looking for work and a slight sense of panic was creeping up through the floorboards, but I accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Nevada Las Vegas counseling center and we are off! Should be  a pretty great place to spend a year, so get ready for more updates and adventures…at least for the first few months!

This week we started the goodbye festivities at the SCS in order to have  enough time to say goodbye to everyone…you can imagine with 30 therapist-types what happens. It really was sad though…and then thinking about being actually graduated on top of it! Whew! I literally won’t know what to do with myself…

Well, have a happy and safe 4th of July!

A dream of mine is to someday have the capabilities for fountain soda, Sonic ice, and a full-size Skee Ball game in my house.  I just have to graduate first…

And, Wednesday afternoon, the young man who lives next door came over with a VERY tiny puppy and told Wylie that his dad wouldn’t let him keep it, did we want to? We thought that perhaps it was a sign since we had just been to the shelter on Monday to look at pups for us, and had started thinking about all the things we would need to do to get ready. Well, this puppy was very sweet, and we got a bottle and were able to feed her some and she was licking and nuzzling with us…the thing is though, having a puppy that small was going to take a lot of time and structure that we don’t feel able to provide right now, and we weren’t sure how big she was going to get…So, the sad ending is that Wylie took her over to the shelter on Thursday and they were excited and amazed by her young-ness. Luckily, though, they have the know-how  to take care of her better than we could…although she did capture my heart…

The good news is that all the snow made it so we got to chillax some, and I got some mad cookie skills from Wylie’s mom. (I have been practicing them here at home…excellent skills to have, I must say!)  In between the chilaxing we were very busy! We visited Concord, where I learned that it is REALLY fun to kick snow piles. And we went to Boston twice, and it made me want to go back when it is not 7 degrees with the windchill because everything is so cool! I saw Harvard Square (though not Click and Clack, even though I was looking!), and Boston Common, and Newbury Street and the “T” (not named for me, though I will continue to tell myself that it is), and the North End (where I had some amazing manacotti and a canolli and dined next to some very adorable old men, who in the story I made up in my head about them had something to do with important Italian families…if you know what I mean , and lots of historical things like the place where Paul Revere is buried! It is very cool to see the things I learned in history class.

We also squeezed in a road trip to Pittsburgh to see Wylie’s sister in The Nutcracker. It was really awesome and some pretty incredible stuff that those dancers can do. Along the way I saw the ACTUAL Eerie Canal (and I sang the song, and it made my heart do a little backflip to be right there singing about Sal!). And a trip to the beach at Plum Island. Again, it made me want to go back in the summer, but I was pretty enamored with a snow-covered beach!

It was a jam-packed trip, and I was glad that I had taken an extra day off to rest up before going back to work.  The spring semester looks like it is going to be pretty amazing at the SCS. I will be co-leading a group for first generation college students this semester, and I am super excited. We are also starting to think about looking for jobs for next year (if you know anyone who needs a really incredible, though unlicensed, psychologist, I’m SO your girl!)…which is kind of stressful. And, I am dedicated to finishing my dissertation this semester…in between practicing my cookie skills.

This week was really fun because we were having interviews for the next round of interns, and three awesome kids from my program at Auburn got interviews here, so we had some REALLY fun company!

Today was for relaxing, and I did it like a champ. I finished reading (for the second time) Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. Can I just say that he is maybe the most funniest man alive. We also went and saw The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It was very pretty and visually amazing, though I felt that the story left me wanting a little more. That being said, I am sure it’s not that easy to put a movie together when you didn’t get to finish it as planned, so I am overlooking some of that…

OK, one of my resolutions is to write on here more often so it’s not these mini-novels every month or so, and then I can start sharing more funny stories about our neighbors and their eternal quest to get their cat inside at odd hours…

I hope you are all having 2010′s that are off to great starts!

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It was exciting to get to show Wylie where I am from and give him a chance to see the desert and saguaro’s and, most importantly, The Thing!!! (He was less impressed than I had hoped, but if you are ever on I-10 just East of Tucson, you should definitely stop. It is well worth the $1 and you can get some DQ while you are there.)

We made it to my house about 26 hours after we left here, and that was pretty good time, I think! The week was jam-packed from the start–we tackled “The Mountain” at Mary Coyle’s (which included 7 lbs of ice cream), saw the Hoover Dam (and the new bridge that will be done soon), had a great time in Las Vegas (we saw Big Elvis, had frozen hot chocolate, and absolutely fell in love with Love–the Cirque de Soleil that features the Beatles). It really was an amazing trip–complete with Steak & Lobster for Thanksgiving dinner! (For $12.99, of course. It WAS Vegas!) It was really wonderful to spend some time with my family and for them and Wylie to get to know each other.We were also able to meet up with two of my super BFF”s along the way…and that was awesome.

Things are starting to slow down a bit at the SCS this week and next as the students have finals and leave for the holiday break. I am happy to be filled with a good dose of Blevins Family fun and frolic, and Wylie seems to have survived and reports that he is willing to return for more!! Hooray!

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In the meantime, I have had some good reasons for being absent. In the few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, things at the Student Counseling Service really kicked in to high gear. I was seeing a ton more clients, and hence, was really wiped by the time I got home. It has been really great to be learning so much about therapy and being a therapist full time, but I will be honest that there is a bit of an adjustment period. Luckily, Wylie is very nice and supportive. In addition to all those students who somehow just realized that they should have been doing their homework all semester, we have been reviewing applications for interns for next year. I am enjoying being on this side of the process, that is for sure. The SCS got about 90 applications this year and we will invite about 30 folks for interviews…it is very interesting to see how it is done.

We have been fortunate enough to squeeze in some R & R on the weekends–today we went and got massages, which was awesome. And the weekend of Nov. 14 we went to Houston to see some friends. (The son of my dad’s BFF from his Air Force days and his wife). I was pleasantly surprised by what Houston had to offer, and it was really fun to see Joe and India and their wonderful pooch, Lennon. We went to a showing of The Big Lebowski in a park downtown, explored the Montrose area vintage shops, and saw the butterflies at the Museum of Natural Science.

It was a really wonderful weekend, and a much needed break…and a nice getaway from Bryan/College Station. We are looking forward to getting back to Houston in the spring for some rodeo action, and some NASA action as well…

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This is our sketchy-ass heater. Wylie says we can’t use them because they set of the CO2 detector. He is a fun-hater.