New Year, New Home…

for Alex that is!
I mentioned earlier that Alex was taking a job in Arkansas.  He officially accepted the job the week before Christmas and spent the majority of Christmas break moving his stuff to Arkansas.
On New Year’s Day, I got the chance to go visit his new place.  After partying all night (ok, I was in bed by 1:00 but I’m trying to make myself feel a little younger ;)), Alex and I hit the road by 8:00 am with his parents leaving about an hour later.  I had planned to sleep the whole way because I was exhausted and didn’t feel good, but we ended up just spending time together and talking :)
I don’t know why I didn’t take more pictures than I did, but I did snap a few.  Hopefully that won’t be my last visit so I’ll have plenty more chances to get pics! :)

The gas station/travel center where Alex always stops.  I thought it was cool that it was so close to my last name and that they had a car charger for my BB that I oh so conveniently forgot and desperately needed for the 6 hour drive!

After leaving Alabama and crossing through Mississippi and Tennessee, we were finally in Arkansas!

My great-grandmother, who is 98 (she’s in the pictures here), is very superstitious.  She has always insisted on doing the traditional New Year’s Day dinner: hog jowl, greens (or something green), black-eyed peas, and cornbread (if you would like to read more about this Southern tradition…click here.)

When I told my great-grandmother I was going to Arkansas for New Year’s, she made me promise I would eat the traditional meal so I informed Alex that we HAD to find a place that served all that stuff.  Alex decided he would take it one step further and actually cook it!

When we arrived in Arkansas, we immediately headed to the grocery store (or 2…one was out of everything) to collect all the ingredients and then headed back to get cooking before his family arrived.

Even though I did some cooking too, I spent the majority of the time straightening and organizing what I could in the apartment (and of course snapping pictures before I started)  So, here’s the tour of Alex’s apartment
Disclaimer:  It is a mess, but only because at this point he had only spent a few hours (except for sleeping) in his apartment, and it was before I had gotten a hold of it :)
First up, the view of the kitchen from the entry way.

The view from the door/entryway

The den and patio door
The hallway

The bedroom (yes that is my stuff sitting in the door way) and the bathroom (I bought him the shower curtain a few years ago! :))

His family arrived soon after, and he had the food ready just in time.  It was so yummy!!!

Cabbage, Green beans with hog jowl, rice, black-eyed peas with hog jowl, and cornbread…yummy!

We ate our dinner, hung out, and watched a Herbie movie that I had bought Alex years ago (with Alex’s movie collection, it was tough finding a movie that his 98 year old grandmother would watch ;))

After the movie, Alex’s family went back to the hotel and Alex and I got to spend some time together.  We worked some on his apartment and he took me on a tour of the city.  I didn’t take any pictures because it was dark, but here is a picture of his new place of work! :)

The next day, we all met back up and made a Target run to get Alex some much needed items for his apartment and then went to lunch at a really cool restaurant called the Market Place Grill.  It was super yummy and a nice way to end the trip.

Alex had to take care of a few things before heading home to go to Pasadena, so I had to ride home with his family.  It was sad to leave him, but I held back the tears because I knew I’d be spending lots of time with him on our Pasadena trip.

Alex and I BB messaged the entire way home.  I have never spent that much time with his family without him so he was anxious about the 6 hours I was going to be stuck in the car with them.  We had a great time though and they definitely kept me entertained (I learned more about Alex than he probably would like me to ;) ;))  We stopped at the Slayden gas station again to get drinks and I was so excited to find this:

I love Vanilla Coke Zero and have for years, but I can never find it in the bottle.  Although this isn’t the zero, I was still shocked to find the regular in the bottle…so much that I sent a picture to Alex (you can see, I’m rocking my Alabama snuggie on the way home ;))

After 6 hours (well, with stops it was closer to 8), we made it home safe and sound!  It was a great trip and like I said, I wish I would have taken more pics to share with you, but hopefully I can make up for it on my next visit :)

My next adventure:  heading to Pasadena for the National Championship game! :)