Road Trip 2011: Part II - A Week of Hiding and a Week of Everything

OK, I am back to finish off this post. The other was just so long that I decided I should make a part 2 for the rest of the trip. If I decide this one also gets too long, there will be a part 3 about the drive and trip home.

This one includes: Week 1 of Hiding, Week 2 of Running around doing everything, and perhaps my detour home. Forgive me if I do not add photos to this one as they are a pain in the ass to add to this. Also forgive me if I forget stuff, I did so much in 2 weeks I can't remember it all.

At the end of the last post I ended on Monday night and being out all night for the video game release. I worked both weeks 40hrs/wk because all my friend's work and I wouldn't be able to see them until later anyway. Tuesday night after work I went to see my friend Matt, who I missed so much, and his dog Charlie. We went to In and Out for food with Charlie (she gets a burger with nothing on it) and then we played a few rounds of MW3 for a bit. Wednesday night I went to Tony's softball game and then to dinner at a better than Chipotle place that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. Thursday and Friday night were a bit of a blur. I think it was Thursday night that I took Tony and family out to dinner as a thank you for letting me stay at their house. We went to Hard Rock and Mr. Lucky 27's for all you can eat prime rib for $10. It was fantastic!

I am back in the blur, Saturday was the baby shower. So I went and got my car washed, put the car seat in the car, and waited for Summer to give me the OK that I could head to the apartment to get her without Domini being there. We head to the party. Yes, Domini was in shock and wanted to know how I got there, and was even more in shock that everyone knew I was coming and kept it a secret. She got a lot of nice things for the baby. After the party we went back to her apartment to drop stuff off then over to Starbucks and Best Buy then back to the apartment for Pizza and to watch Fast 5.

Sunday was a Domini and Jen Day. Well, first I watched some football with Tony and Kristel. Then I went and got Domini and we went bowling at Red Rock. This is when I lost a friend. Not her, but a guy friend that I liked. The last time I was in town, he was getting ready for deployment and couldn't find the time to see me. This time he knew exactly how long I was there for and so on. He knew I drove. He was making a big deal about me staying with a Dude, even though it was a guy with his fiancé and 2 step daughters. I invited him to go bowling with us. What is his excuse -- the bowling alley was 40min away from him, and it was football Sunday and nothing interrupts that. So I told him, well I leave Friday and you know how to get a hold of me if you really want to see me. I didn't hear from him at all and still haven't. His loss, I drove 2,500 miles out there and he couldn't drive 20 miles? Not worth it. Anyway, we went bowling, we both sucked, but it was fun. And then it was off to Henderson to Ovation at Green Valley Ranch for Smokey Joe's Cafe and to meet one Aaron Clouson, who played Angel in RENT the last time I was out there. He gave me a super big hug as promised and we made plans for dinner the following week. The show was amazing!

Tuesday or Monday night, Domini and I went to Blueberry Hill for Dinner. I had the best Pancakes ever! Then after we went and picked up Summer and went to Fremont St. so I could get gifts for people back home. And of course, we got starbuck's out there too! We watched the light show and then I got them back at a very late time but we still had a good night.

Wednesday night I went out to dinner with Aaron and his friend, and Aaron's wife. We had such a good time. We were going to go to a movie after dinner but all were exhausted so we parted ways. I miss him, and the crowd. I really need to move back now that I have more people I can hang out with. Unfortunately for me, my dreams and bar is set a lot higher now that I found out Lego is hiring a product designer which is my DREAM JOB!! That also means moving to Denmark. (the country, not the city). In any case, we went to the Elephant Bar which was fantastic, not too bad for price either. I had the crispy teryaki chicken (not so crispy though) but it was great. We had good laughs and then got eaten by the elephant. Aaron is the one on the far right in the photo.

After dinner I drove back up North and went to see my friend Matt one last time before heading home. Only because I was leaving Friday and Thursday night I had plans to go to the strip as well as to the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn. We chatted and played video games after watching a few episodes of The Walking Dead.

Thursday night, my last night in Vegas (second week) I had to go to the strip. There are many new attractions down there, but by far my favorite was the parking garage at the Cosmopolitan. There are lights that tell you what floors have open parking spots, green for open, blue for handicapped and red for taken. I have a video of me driving in and out of my spot just to watch the light change as I pulled out of my spot. I would post it but it is rather long.

While at the strip, we went and watched the fountains so I could get a video for mom. Then we drove over to NY NY so I could see about getting something for my nephew and myself. After that it was a quick trip to drop Domini off and head to the movies for the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn. Not before I almost T-boned someone. See, people are dumb, and I was on a main road at a traffic light by the ramp to get on a major highway. my light turns green, I wait a second and start to go, corvette runs the red arrow to turn onto the highway, and his car almost met my front bumper. If I didn't wait that second he would have been toast.

The movie was fantastic. Going to work the next day and then starting my drive, not so fantastic. I left work, went back to Tony's to pack the car, drove down to where I used to live, went to Best Buy, got a present for my brother for Christmas, got my favorite pizza, and started my drive.

In my last week in Vegas I got to see my friend Heather, as well as my cousin Kirsten, who now lives in Las Vegas and works for the Sterling Club or something. We went and got China Buffet, which I guess we could have went anywhere but I wanted to go there. I think that was Thursday during the day.

Well that was my trip in a nutshell. Part III will involve the drive home and my detour trip to.. NASHVILLE!

In an Attempt to Keep My Sanity... Why Not Road Trip?

As some of you may (or may not know), back in August my dad fell off the roof and broke his heel in 2 places (3 pieces). Ever since then I had been developing a bit of cabin fever, not to mention dad had been driving me nuts. I needed an excuse to get away from it all, and at the end of October I got just that excuse.

One of my friends living out in Las Vegas, NV was having a baby shower. I got the invitation in the mail on October 24th and it was for the second weekend in November. Plane tickets at this point were $567 and that didn't include a rental car so I could actually get around. My car was sitting pretty at about 12,000 miles at that point and almost 2yrs old. Sooo... I drove. My friend didn't know I was coming, and I was there for a whole week prior to the party even happening to surprise her. This post is about my trip out there.

After work on Friday, Novemeber 4, 2011, I left NY and home at 6:30pm. Making a quick stop at Kwik Fill to feed the car and I was on my way. Now I couldn't really show up to the party without a gift so my first stop was in Henrietta, NY and Baby's R Us. What better gift to get for a baby shower I was driving across country to but a car seat? Domini's (my friend), roommate, Summer, was going in on the gift with me, so I let her in on my secret of coming out there. After about 30 minutes in the store, I was back on the road and heading onto I-90 which was going to turn into a long night of driving.

I had to make a stop in Buffalo to look over my trip ticks (thank you AAA) and make sure I could plan out the drive. My first actual feed the car stop was not until I got outside of Pennsylvania. Driving at night is the way to go... sometimes. I found myself getting bored pretty fast and disappointed I couldn't really take pictures while driving, or stop to take pictures at all the welcome signs. Not to worry, I got a few on the way home.

Upon leaving NY it was roadkill city for the rest of the evening, on main highways, in the midst of city limits, with no forests in sight. We are talking deer, or what was left of them. Blood splattered roadways are not really my cup of tea. I was more concerned watching the road's edges for eyes looking at me. Lucky for me, all I saw on the way were dead animals.

According to the time stamp on the next photo, I arrived to my hotel for the night at 2:20am November 5, 2011. A Super 8, with outdated mattresses that looked like a 500 lb. man slept in them for a month straight, a heater that clinked so bad I left it off, and coffee, that tasted like dirt. I stopped at a truck stop about an hour before to call ahead, the man who answered said "Microtel Inn and Suites" then mumbled some other bullshit like he was reading off a teleprompter and said they were right off the exit. OK good. What would have been nice is if they told me they were no longer the microtel so I wasn't driving around unfamiliar territory for 15 minutes looking for the place. Well, dad gave me the trip ticks and the books, and they were 2 years old. Within those 2 years, they changed names. Gah! The price was right, so I stayed there. I left at 8:30am the next morning.

Back on the road, nothing really exciting today. I made it from Columbus, OH to Weatherford (OK City) OK. Lots of construction made life hell going through but still enjoyable. Somewhere amongst the construction I passed by a nice Lexus (which is really a luxury Toyota, hehe) towing a uhaul trailer. Out of the construction zone and heading into another this guy passed me, going about 75-80. We were not going downhill, it was pretty flat. All the sudden I see the trailer start doing this (insert me waving my hands back and forth like a tidal wave). The damn thing was bouncing all over, I was waiting for it to flip the overpriced "luxury" SUV over. I slowed wayyyy down and kept watch as the driver was able to get over to the side of the road. All that was holding the trailer to the SUV was the wiring harness for the brake lights. Fun!


Before heading through OK city, I needed to make a stop, I had many random stops here and there to fill up the car but not as many as say if I was in mom and dad's car or my brother's. I came upon this truck stop and the women's bathroom did not have tampons or pads in dispensers in the bathroom. No, I didn't need any at the time, but I found it rather odd that they had these instead: I was 1/2 tempted to buy one of each just to bring them home for the ladies on my sister's bowling team for shits and giggles. I didn't, but I now wish I had. The area was slightly ghetto so I got out of there as soon as I could. I get through a main drag in OK City and decided to stop and call ahead for a place to stay. Did anyplace have rooms free? Of course not. I ended up calling a Comfort Inn and Suites and had to stay there, price was over what I really wanted to spend, but I needed to sleep and I refused to stay anywhere with exterior corridors when traveling alone, its just not my nature to do so.

No sooner do I get off the phone with this place, sitting in a rest stop with the car running, heater running... my car started shacking from side to side. It was windy out, but wind would not make your car feel like it was going to flip over both ways at the same time. I seriously thought at that point something was wrong with the car. I put the car in gear and start driving, and the feeling of being blown away stopped. Odd. Not an hour later I get a text from a friend in Vegas who was watching my path and travels and he tells me there was just a 5.8 mag earthquake in Oklahoma city. "where are you and are you ok?" hehe, yeah nice I survived an earthquake, in my car. Although at the hotel, In order to get a non smoking room, I was on the second floor, in a suite (hence the not so nice price) 2 king sized beds, a couch, desk, fancy ass bathroom and I was only there for 5 hours, if that. Best night sleep EVER! I jumped from bed to bed just because I could =) then I passed out. But the room was swaying when I got up there, like I was going to faint, or drunk pass out. Aftershocks are sometimes worse than the quake, the room was swaying, not my body.


Here is a picture of the room from the entrance area. This was before I played monkey's on the bed and jumped around between them =)

Next morning I got up late, so I didn't leave until about 9:00am local time. The time stamps on my photos are off, but if I remember correctly I didn't make it to the hotel until 330am on November 6, 2011, which was a Sunday morning. Well, I got up and started my day with feeding the car and driving through the worst and most boring part of it all. New Mexico and Arizona are not fun at all. Some of the views are pretty, but the road is like a never ending, straight path you can see for MILES.

I did try very hard to get a good picture of the roadway, but even when I stopped at a rest stop to take one, it didn't do it justice. All the photos in the actual blog, by the way, are from my phone. I think I already posted the trip photos from my camera on Facebook if you want to see them. Just look for the album.

Alright, despite the boring parts, Albuquerque was by far my favorite to pass through. It reminded me of the tv show "In Plain Site" about the witness protection and US Marshall. Coming over the hills and then the city is just there was AWESOME! I have a photo from my move home in 2010 of the falling rock sign, but I cannot seem to find it to post it. It was a picture of a mountain with rocks of different sizes falling and a little car tilted like it was getting thrown by the rocks. Classic! The boring went away as soon as I saw the big black lady, driving what looked to be a brand new school bus (no names on it yet), with the door open. The doors to get on the bus, that open outward, flapping in the breeze. I sped up to get by because not only were the doors open, the lady was going about 10 miles under the speed limit and couldn't keep the bus in the lane. Never a dull moment really.

So I made it through all this and ended up in Arizona and Flagstaff sooner than I thought. I was about 2 hours from Vegas, with a potential arrival time of 11:00pm Local (PST) time. Not soon after I arrive in Flagstaff, the ground looked funny, and bright. I touched my window and my hand immediately froze. I called dad. "Dammit, I came out here now to avoid snow, why does it have to have SNOW!?!"

After I got that out of my system, it wasn't actually snowing, it was just on the ground, about 3-5 inches. The road had nothing but wet. I slowed down for fear of black ice. About 5 minutes later that nice cold nothing turned to nice cold white out! First an earthquake and now a blizzard? In the desert? UGH! Driving for 14-15 hours on 3 hours sleep, in a blizzard, in the desert; on a road full of semi trucks and people who don't know how to drive in snow, with no exits to stop at until it cleared. The tunnel vision started, I was staring at what parts of the road I could see instead of the truck in front of me. The snow was so thick it was like instant coverage on the road, without plows in sight. I wasn't sure if I should just keep driving and get away from the storm or pull over at the next stop if there was lights close to the exit until it let up. At that time my inner New Yorker kicked in and I decided to just stick it out and drive. Took 30 min extra and my arrival into Las Vegas was 12:00am instead.

I arrived at my friend Tony's house and he let me in, and I went right to bed. Up at 8am to drive to the office for work. I was there all week without Domini knowing I was there. Monday night after work I went back to Tony's, changed, and went to Henderson to pick up Domini's roommate from work to take her to the midnight release party of Modern Warfare 3. I got a t-shirt, we got peppermint mocha coffee at Starbucks and were right around the corner from their apartment.

2,511 miles, 2 overnight stops, 1 earthquake and 1 blizzard in the desert and I was in Vegas!

Part 2 of this to come, which will include a week of hiding, work, baby showers, almost t-boning someone, smokey joe's and the parking extravaganza =)

until next time, this is Jen, out!

HORRAY!

Shortly after I posted my last blog I got Google Apps working for my website! This is such a great tool and achievement.

Now, info@landschootstudios.com and jennifer@landschootstudios.com both work as email addresses. the info email is used for the "Contact" Form.

Soon to come to the google apps? Well, when I start accumulating a client base I will be able to implement the Google Docs which is like Microsoft office all online. I will also be able to use the GQueues (task management) app to organize lists, and the Google Calendar for project due dates (which can directly link to GQueues)!

For now, I am just happy it's working.

What's next? Well to finish some more pages on the website of course. I am hoping this weekend will be a little more successful in completing a few more of the pages. Eventually, if my brother decides to jump on board, I will be creating his profile on there as well and eventually displaying some of his work. For now, this is all about me, so I will continue to work on pages little by little to get more up and running for the world to see.

Google Apps Coming to Landschoot Studios!

If anyone out there in cyberspace has tried to email me or use the contact form in the past week or so, I apologize for it not working.

Through my full time part time job (yes I said full time part time), we use google apps for our websites emails, and utilize GQueues and Google Docs for a lot of work related organization. I thought bringing it to my website would be a good idea.

Well, it turns out, when I got hosting for the website, through godaddy.com it automatically set up the CNAME portion of the DNS Management. And the MX portion is also complete. Google mail (gmail) seems to have 2 different versions of the MX addresses and setup instructions. I cannot seem to get my email addresses to point to my website or to Google. Therefore, mail is not being received.

For the time being I guess I will have to put my personal email address back up on site until this is resolved.

Stay tuned folks. New changes coming to the website soon. I hope to get the photography portfolio pages started this week, and the design portfolio soon to follow.

If anyone knows how to fix this that wants to log into my google apps by all means let me know.

LandschootStudios.com Up and Running

I finally got the website up. Took a lot more time and work than I initially expected. Keep checking back to the site though, because its not even close to 100% complete.

I have to make the individual portfolio sections for the photography categories and the graphic design categories, the service page, the rates page, the other designer profiles, company profile, company history, a page for testimonials eventually and a main page for photography and one for graphic design.

The last 2 pages are not as important as the others but they will be up eventually.

So what is working? The main page, the resume download button on the main page, the link to designer profile, and resume under "home" (both go to my designer profile) and the contact page is working.

Go check it out. Landschoot Studios is online and up and running. Please make sure to leave comments on the "contact" page, they will be sent directly to my email. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, I know I have to work on my personal designer profile, I just wanted some writing up there for the time being and will have to edit it at a later time.

Thanks for listening once again!

Stay tuned for more coming to Landschoot Studios.com in the near future!

It is a new year, time to start fresh!

Well, 2010 was pretty much a downfall for me. At the beginning of the year I had my car stolen, my condo burglarized and had to make a quick decision to stay in Las Vegas, or go home. I chose the latter of the two and moved.

Do I regret this? A little. Can I change this? ABSOLUTELY!

In 2010 I finally purchased my domain and hosting for LandschootStudios.com and it is up and running with a well coded but very simple and "blah" web portfolio. In 2011 I hope to make this site a lot more extravagant, and show as much of my work as I possibly can and use it as a side gig for off the clock work.

For those who don't know me, I am a graphic design. I went to school for design, I am an artist and I am way too detail oriented for the average Joe. In today's society and social realm, websites have become very popular. I am doing my best to teach myself web design so I can do more of it. My current employer is changing the company to be more web marketing driven than print design marketing. This new opportunity is helping me learn the ins and outs I will need to keep me on my toes in this forever changing world of internet and website design work.

I know I should not have regrets, and I should live life to the fullest. I just need to not dwell on the past and look toward the future and the opportunities that I hope will present themselves.

So what is in store for Jennifer and Landschoot Studios this year? TONS! If I can get my rear in gear and get my new and improved website up and running. There is a lot of work in that however. The coding is completed thank God, but now I have to make all my artwork examples fit into the spaces I left for them. Good news --- when my computer was stolen in the burglary I lost everything on it. Thankfully though (the actual good part) I had a back up disk from the end of 2005 prior to moving out west with all my college graphic work in tact.

I also started to dabble in photography a bit more, when I am feeling up to taking photos, and will have a section devoted to that. However, I need to re-shoot practically everywhere I went out west since those photos were not backed up. FAIL!

There will be a service section for anyone who needs designs created, however I do not have a printer in the area and cannot go through the printer we use for my employer to print anyone's jobs. If things prosper, which I hope they do, and the freelance business makes me some side funds, I might see if I can get some clients to printers. I am trying to keep this low budget until I can get on my feet and start the ball rolling.

Apparently I am still suffering from insomnia as its 330am. For now, its time for me to turn in for the morning until work at 10am. Keep checking back for updates here and on my website. Once the new layout is complete and up I will make sure to let everyone know. Thanks for reading.