Vacation Part 1 - Amarillo Texas

Last week I had the privilege of embarking on a week long vacation with my best friend! Even though I had to work the weekend at the farm, as soon as I could escape I headed down to meet her in Jeffersonville! Then we loaded up the car and were off!

First stop? Amarillo Texas! In case you're wondering, yes I did play and sing "Amarillo By Morning" as the first song in the car. The drive really wasn't that bad and we split it up into two shifts with Jackie driving us through IN, IL and MO and myself taking OK and TX. We got into Amarillo with  plenty of time to stop for a delicious breakfast at Ye Olde Pancake Station. Totally worth it.





After breakfast we found a hotel room for the night, checked in and freshened up. We didn't book the room in advance but rather just used Priceline to find a cheap room. We actually did this twice throughout the trip and it worked pretty well for us. Now we were finally ready to take on Amarillo.  

The first place we visited was the American Quarter Horse Association Museum. I was a little worried that Jackie would find it boring but being raised riding Quarter Horses, I couldn't pass it up. The museum was small but very informative and I think we both had a good time. 

Our next stop was the Cadillac Ranch located along I-40. Cadillac Ranch is considered a sculpture and is basically a bunch of old Cadillacs shoved nose first into the ground a painted. Tourists are actually encouraged to paint them! Lucky for us we found some leftover spray paint cans and were able to add our initials to the cars! 

Inside one of the shells.

It should also be noted that we freed a tumble weed from a life of being stuck in the fence.

For dinner Monday night we went to the Big Texan, home to the free 72oz steak! That's right, this restaurant is famous for it's promise that if you can eat the 72oz steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad and roll, you get the whole thing free! We opted for the 21oz ribeye prepared for two, which we assumed meant we would split the steak and sides. But we were wrong. They say everything is bigger in Texas and this meal was no exception. Along with our 21oz steak to split, we each got two sides and rolls. I think it goes without saying that we were pretty full. Especially once you factor in the boot of in-house brewed beer we each had.

With (very)full bellies we waddled to the car and returned to our hotel room. We turned in early but it was a necessary evil as we wanted to be on the road by 4am.

So that is day 1 of our cross-country road trip to Las Vegas! Stay tuned for more adventures!

Lauren

My Crazy, Tragic, sometimes almost Magic, Awful Beautiful, Life.

Wow. What a crazy life I live. So much about my life has changed in the last month and is going to continue to change with this next month. I know I've been hush about details so this blog is to bring everyone up to the same level.

In February I hit my two year mark with MP3Farms, and while I love the pigs, I haven't been as pleased with everything else. I had told myself in November that in 6 months I would be somewhere different. So I started looking. I updated my resume and applied for jobs, with no return. Which anyone one with job search experience can tell you is pretty depressing. 

So along comes the Christmas season and while visiting my father, it comes up that if I could drop everything and go to culinary school, I would. Well leave it to my father, the wonderful man that he is, to offer to house and feed me for the duration of school if I was serious. Wait, did anyone hear that? It was opportunity pounding on the door. 

Don't worry, I wasted no time in figuring out where I could go to school and still live with my dad. Which led me to apply to the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State. The application was the easy part, since then I've had to submit transcripts, take placement testing and apply for financial aid. The whole process has taken a couple months. 

In the meantime, completely out of the blue a few weeks ago I got an email from an Ag Talent seeking group looking to fill a position on a hog farm. The chosen person would receive a salary, company car and have a masters degree paid for. The catch was that the farm was in Iowa. Well, once again I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by so I updated my resume and sent it in. 

I then proceeded to hear absolutely nothing back. Not even a confirmation that they received my email. Bummer. 

So here it is, March and time for my vacation. I still don't know my admission status for the MCI and I don't know if I'm going to hear back about this job or not. So Friday morning I called the MCI and guess what?

 I'M GOING TO CULINARY SCHOOL!!!!

Yep! That's right, and the best part? I'm starting May 5th! So soon! So I basically have a month to quit, pack, move and start school. Did I mention I'm also putting on three Skin Care Classes and a Grand Opening Party with Mary Kay and running a Spartan Sprint? Holy hell somebody pinch me! 

So yeah, that's what my life has looked like. I plan to write some posts about my vacation as it was pretty dang awesome. So stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren