Trust Me, I Know How to Party

As seniors in high school, most school’s allow what is called a Senior Skip Day: a day when all seniors have an excused absence from school where they can spend time together at the park, a local museum, volunteering in the local community or – as most of us did – day drinking. For my senior class, our planned excursion was pretty easy to put together. Claiming at least partial ownership of an entire...

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6 Places I'd Take You If You Would Just Visit Me In Tulsa, Oklahoma

I was awoken yesterday morning (ok, afternoon) by my friend Savannah who said that her and Jennifer are going to come visit me this weekend to help celebrate my last weekend in the South. In between shrieking with joy and jumping out of my bed, I had a thought. Where am I going to take them first? Tulsa has been my home for most of my life. It's one of those cities where people don't think to visit. "Oh that's where Chandler...

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Day Drinking and Dock Damage

So, by this time I'm sure you're thinking, "so Abbey, when you're in the US, do you do anything besides visit old friends and drink too much" and to you I say... No, not really. You are correct. But it makes for interesting reading, right? This past weekend, I accompanied one of my best high school friends, Dave, up to his lake house as it was the first nice weekend after the giant SnOklahoma Blizzard of 2011. We had heard rumors of...

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Why Being Bribed Doesn't Suck

When I returned back to Tulsa from Fredericksburg Monday late afternoon, I pulled into a snow covered driveway only to get a gigantic blast from my past. For sitting in the garage inside my parent's house was a damn near exact replica of the car I had driven from the day I turned 16 up until my early 20's. It is the car I love, dream about and wish I had never sold. It's my baby. And sitting there in the garage sits...

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Looking to the future (aka 2010)

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Well, Happy New Year everyone!

Despite how much I have been posting blogs in the past couple of weeks, I really haven't been creating much new content since the new year (backlog is a bitch, huh?). But I'm all caught up and ready to go. And go, I am certainly doing.

I'm spending this week making final preparations for my extended trip that begins this Friday. I'm sort of going crazy as my to-do list is still a mile long, but I supposed that's what happens when you leave the country for almost a year.

So here is my tentative schedule as it stands. I'd love to meet up with anyone who happens to be traveling near me at any given time.

1/15-1/18: Skiing in Panorama, Canada with Dan, Emma and the Pano crew
1/19: In LA for one night (staying with Miss Lauren Rudy in Manhattan if anyone wants to meet up for drinks in Hermosa?)
1/20-1/24: Okinawa with my cousins Mandy, Alan and Katie
1/25-1/26: Tokyo
1/27-3/10: Galway, Ireland
3/10-3/12: Glasgow (tentative)
3/12-3/13: Belfast (tentative)
3/13-3/18: Roadtrip Dublin, Cork and Galway, St. Patty's in Galway
3/19-3/21: Germany
3/22-3/24: Barcelona
3/24-3/26: Portugal
3/27-8/31: Southern Spain - will be living in San Ambrosio between Barbate and Jerez de la Frontera

I've already planned meetups with several people and will be spending St. Patrick's day with a small group, so please e-mail me if you're interested in coming on any or part of this excursion.

Also, if you happen to be an equestrian type, I'll be helping out at a riding holiday while I'm in Spain called Los Alamos and would love to have anyone and everyone come ride with me!

Look for lots of updates starting this weekend as well as a new design for my blog and website coming in February. I'm going to start up a new blog for travel tips, budget travel, solo travel and woman's travel here in February so look for a list of articles to come with that one!

Can't wait to get started! Can't wait for all of you to be there as I journey!

XOXO

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Now playing: Jim Sturgess - Something
via FoxyTunes

I'm back in Okiehomie and ready for some R&R

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

I am back in Oklahoma finally, after an amazing roadtrip and a great staff meeting in Los Angeles. Sam put me up in Long Beach and (even though she was deathly ill) was the best host I could have asked for. I got to meet the infamous Tiffanie and spent time with all the old regulars. Patrick, Mike, Jen, Anthony, Marissa, Liz, even Larry (*cough*) were super excited to hang out and we had a great time doing the usual (aka drinking beer, watching football and playing rockband - best life ever).

E2's staff meeting was in Seal Beach on Thursday and Friday and was relatively uneventful. We had a good (Long) meeting at the hotel and a gorgeous dinner and gift exchange at McKenna's on the Bay in Alamitos. For once, Jeff and I actually held it together and I made it up and chipper in time for the 8:00 EMIS meeting on Friday (miracle!).

Unfortunately, I started to feel sick about half way through the staff meeting. I've been fighting this one off for a couple weeks knowing that there was no way I could get sick in the car. So I decided to fly back to Tulsa early and let the mom take care of me. I hate to miss the LB Christmas Parade :( but I'll just have to go back again for it next year!

Tulsa is... well... Tulsa. I haven't told anyone I'm home, which has been nice since I really need to get some sleep and get caught up on all things life before I head out of the country forever. Update in a few weeks once I have my next trip figured out!

XOXO

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Now playing: Alice in Chains - I Stay Away
via FoxyTunes

I'm finishing my states!

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

So today is the big day. My bags are not packed and ready to go, my work is not finished and ready to be delegated, I’m sort of sick and I even still have shopping to do. But today is still the big day. I’m leaving in about 3 hours for South Carolina to begin one of the largest roadtrips I’ve ever taken part of.

For those of you who follow this blog religiously, you may recall a certain trip that I took to Canada back in May (for those who do not remember such a trip or for those who need a refresher, read these blog posts). Dan, who was the Australian I drove to Panorama, BC has been staying with his brother Chris in Raleigh, North Carolina for about a month during his time off between summer and winter seasons at Panorama. A couple months back, Dan told me that starting in November, he was going to be driving back to Canada before starting winter work early December. He politely asked if I wanted to tag along for part or all of the trip (not sure if he actually wanted me to come along or not – last time he’ll make that mistake).

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Dan, I have been wanting to do this trip since I got back from my European backpacking adventure in 2008. Once I spent a decent amount of time abroad, I realized that there was so much to do right here in the US and I wanted to make sure that I saw every state before I traveled abroad again. This goal became a little more urgent when I decided to start traveling abroad again in 2010. Dan’s timing couldn’t have been perfect.

So today, we begin the quest to get Dan back to Canada, and along the way, we will finish all of my states (except Alaska – which deserves its own trip). The plan is as follows:

Fly to Greenville, South Carolina.
Drive from Greenville, South Carolina North through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Quebec, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota (*whew* that’s sounds a lot more daunting now that I write it down!).
Dan continues on to Canada from Fargo, ND and I fly back to Long Beach for our December company staff meetings.

We will also be joined by the notorious Mr. Brian Lee from the New York through North Dakota leg as a road trip wouldn’t be complete without him!

We’re going to attempt to cram all of this into two weeks. And hopefully we will succeed because I have a plane reservation made already :)

So that’s the plan, I’ll be picking back up blogging more frequently now that I’m on the road again so stay tuned for letters from the road.

Also, if you’re on twitter, feel free to follow more up to the date updates on my twitter @ahesser

Now… time to go get packed!

XOXO

Giving Thanks

Location: Tulsa, OK, USA

The trip home for Thanksgiving has been great. I've spent a lot of time catching up with old friends, hanging out w/ the fam and plenty of time at Brookside Bar.

I visited Tracy's baby boy JJ which was exciting. We went to Thanksgiving dinner at Nana's house which is always entertaining. Afterward, me, Kristin and Grant headed to Brookside to meet up with Brody and Dave and spent the night seeing the same people who are always on Brookside and then capped off the night with some quality time in the hot-tub. The rest of the weekend was filled with a lot of football and not a lot else. Me and dad got up early to drive to Norman to tailgate before the game. Although my cowboys lost, the game was still fun and we got out before it started to get too ugly. The Kansas/Missouri game was bittersweet. I couldn't really figure out who I wanted to win. I really wanted Kansas to finish out the year, but I guess now that ball is in Missouri's court; which I guess I'm okay with.

All in all, a successful trip home. I got a lot of shopping done for my trip and also found out that my family is going to meet me in the UK for Christmas so I won't be alone after all!! I'm so excited that they will be there and really can't wait for all of this to start.

XOXO

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Now playing: Coldplay - Fix You
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