I'm alive!

Turns out I get distracted and forget about blogging. Here's a quick life update since April 9:

Travel - Since I last posted I've been to New York, Raleigh, Nashville, Houston, Hill Country (Texas), Lindale (East Texas), Florida (Kennedy Space Center ish), Michigan.

Visitors - Some of my Raleigh favorites have made their way to Texas to visit. First Karlie and Sarah came in May. The following weekend, Lindsay came. Man, I miss Raleigh and LOVE visitors. So everyone needs to visit.

Recent Highlights:
Going to NASA's last shuttle launch. This was for work - it involved little sleep, but was such an awesome experience - I am so glad I have amazing opportunities like this with work.
Launch photo:
















Michigan. I went to visit L in Michigan (my last post was about meeting her in CA). It is beautiful in the summer - we had so much fun exploring and catching-up. We checked out Sleeping Bear Dunes (insane hike back up), Mackinac Island (no cars allowed - took a ferry over and rented bikes), saw some great lakes, and visited lots of wineries.
Lake Michigan:













Races. I signed up for Tour de Fleurs 10k. Am hoping to do a 1/2 marathon this fall. We'll see.

More updates, hopefully soon...

Raleigh friends: you've been fantaztic

2.5 years later and I'm gone. As I was leaving HM&P for the last time today, I was chatting with my boss and pointed out to her I've spent half of my career here. Shocking.

Well, friends...it's been great. I'm rarely sappy so pay attention because this won't happen again for a while.

The people I've met in Raleigh have been amazing. It took me a while to find a few wonderful circles of friends that I fit into - and I'm very grateful for all of you. The happy hours, concerts, dinners, bar hopping (tour de Raleigh), slumber parties, shuffleboard games, BeerFests (and Dallas other boozefests), races, runs, hikes, sporting events, parties, ice cream/frozen yogurt/blizzard runs, Bachelor watching....everything has been awesome. I never expected to meet so many people who I truly enjoy so much. And my liver will need a transplant soon.

Thank you all for the good times and please come visit me in Texas!

Raleigh: I'm going to miss you. Dallas: Round 2.

Dear Raleigh,

I'm going to miss the following:

• Runs on the greenway trails
• Fall (colors of leaves)
• Having Umstead so close to where I live
• Local breweries - especially my favorite, Big Boss
• Food trucks - will miss Only Burger the most
  
• My townhouse - I love my home, it's the perfect location and perfect size for me
• Highways - surrounded by trees/nature instead of construction and strip shopping centers
• BeerFest - both Durham and Raleigh
• Krispy Kreme Challenge
• Restaurants/Bars - Raleigh Times, The Pit, Lilly's, Issac Hunter's, Bu-ku, Boylan Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, Hibernian, Tasu...just to list a few favorites
• Being 2.5 hours from the beach and from the mountains
• Running into people I know every night I go out
• The great concerts and music scene from Lincoln Theater, Pour House, Berkeley Cafe, NC State Fair
• Reading a book at Fred Fletcher Park when it's nice out

I'm not even going to begin to list the amazing people...

Dallas, bring on the good times.

LOVE
JESS