Life Update

I've been absolutely TERRIBLE about updating lately, so I apologize for that. In the past week, I've been all over the place (literally and figuratively). Here are some highlights, in chronological order:

NEW YORK!!!
I left last Friday to go visit Audra in New York. It was amazing on so many levels. On Friday, we at smores inside, saw Hairspray on Broadway, and had a non-stressful walk through Time Square before passing out from tiredness. On Saturday, we ate a delicious breakfast (potatoes in an omlette?!) and then headed off to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The museum at Ellis Island was really, really cool. The Statue of Liberty is big from up close, but looks teensy from far away. Then, we made our way through Central Park. Having a huge park like that in the middle of the city is amazing. After that, we headed out to the METS GAME, which I, obviously, was pumped about. I sure am glad we were able to get tickets again after my mom threw them away. After a dramatic, bottom of the 9th, game-tying home run, the game ended up going 14 innings, so I think we got our money's worth...even though I did pay for tickets twice. We got home at like 1:30 and then had to get up early to try and get tickets to tour Yankee Stadium, which we did NOT get. Bummer? I didn't actually want to give them my money anyway. I got a great tour of the Bronx, which Audra accompanied by singing "Jenny from the Block". We headed to see Columbia Teachers College, which I am SO sold on. Then it was off to see some more of the tourist things in NYC.

That's when Delta called and told me my flight was canceled. Not just delayed. CANCELED. And...they had rescheduled me for the "earliest available flight", which was-you guessed it-the next day. So, forget the three interviews I was supposed to have in Nashville. I spent quite a long time on the phone with Delta trying to figure out what they were going to do for me, only to find out that ALL flights out of New York had been canceled because of some huge "storm". Too bad it never really rained where we were. So, I got to eat yummy pizza, delicious cupcakes, and hang out with Audra and Hilary for another night!

The Trek to Nashville
So, on Monday morning, I got up at 4am NYC time to try to make my 6:50am flight to Memphis. I managed to make it there, only to find LaGuardia absolutely PACKED with businessmen and Asian tourists. Because everyone's flight had been canceled, it was crazy there. When I checked in, I discovered that they had booked me on an overbooked flight from Atlanta to Memphis, and couldn't actually assign me a seat. Let's think about how furious I would have been if they didn't give me a seat on that flight. For my first flight, I managed to find a lesser-known security line and made it through (otherwise I would have missed my flight by a couple of hours).

I made it to Memphis at 11:00 on Monday. Thankfully, the principals I was meeting were great and rescheduled two of the interviews with me. My dad was great because he took my lesson plans into work that I was missing, and arranged for my car to be at the airport for me to leave straight for Nashville. That's what I did...and I even made it to my interview 15 minutes early! I finished interviewing on Tuesday.

Ashley Gets a Job
After my last interview on Tuesday, I headed to Burger King for some lunch. Then, the asst. principal from that school called me and offered me the job! I was WAY excited and overwhelmed. So, I stayed longer in Nashville than I had planned to look at apartments and figure out what to do next. I didn't really find any apartments then, but had a better idea of where I wanted to live.

I had to go back to work and finish out the week, which was tough. I was a work all day, and then apartment searching all night. Yesterday, we went up to Nashville and looked at some apartments. I really liked the first one I saw, but ended up finding something a little bit nicer for not much more. It was the last one we looked at, but I loved it!

What's next
I am moving to Nashville and my new apartment tomorrow. Teacher In-Service starts on Wednesday and the first day of school is a week from tomorrow. I'll be teaching 6th grade science, math, and reading. Not really my loves, but I think it will be good for me!

I guess that's it for now!