Long time no post

Sooooo!!

I think I can honestly say it's been forever since I've written here...almost two months to be exact. I also think that this would be a great time to bow to Dr. Silkes and tell her she was right. I got so caught up on what was going on around here that I completely forgot to keep up my blog. Now, however, I can tell you a little bit about all the excitement that's been going on! :)

Do you know how many things can happen in the course of just 2 months? I didn't until all of this stuff happened to me. I mean, I guess I understood the concept of time flying by, what with sorority events every week...I probably do more things in a week than some people do in their whole month. And that's just how I like it. But sitting around here at the resort, working every day, it never really felt like I was doing much during my free time other than watching waaaay too many episodes of Bones. :) Contrary to my belief, though, I have done a lot of things since I posted here. In particular, I went bowling with the whole front desk staff (that's Chris Dagata in the picture--he's an M.O.D), meet this wonderful German girl, Vanessa (also in the picture below), standing in line at the mall, found out she was part of the Disney crew and then was able to visit Epcot--for my first time--for free! I went to see Chicago with Patrick, Adam Holthouse came into town for his management training program and that helped me break out of my Orange Lake shell further by encouraging me to go out to House of Blues for the night, saw Twilight with Julissa, and did other small various things. I also shadowed the MODs, met with the upper management team for the weekly operations update, got to hang out with Scott and Jeremy for a little while while I built new member notebooks, did a lot of DG planning and produced lots of great ideas for the next semester!

Whew. 

Then it was my last day at the front desk.... :(

It was kind of sad... I'm not going to lie. But it was also Diana's birthday, so that was nice. She told everyone all week that it was going to be her birthday and ended up getting---oh you'll never believe this!--5 cakes, including the one we shared. Yes! Count them. One, two, three, four, five. Not to mention presents! ;p I've never seen such a shameless display of birthday proclamation. But, I can't fault her for it. She was very happy... So we shared our cake (one part my going away, the other for her birthday) and got some cards...and then it was over. I mean, I still go up there maybe twice a week. It's been less frequently lately now that I'm finally getting into the swing of things and because it's so far from my house, and not on the way to anywhere at all.... But I still feel a great fondness for that group and promise to visit them any chance I get...even if it's just to sit there and eat my dinner while I watch them go through the day to day actions that I once performed so.... lovingly? Is that the right word? Probably not...but I did enjoy what I was doing and appreciated everyone there.

Now, that experience leads me into my next line of work: Housekeeping. I'll tell you now, before I go a sentence further, that I had many, many, many, many, many apprehensions about going to housekeeping before I ever set a foot on that part of the property. People were taking all kinds of jabs at me while I was at the front desk, talking about the people over there and how I didn't speak any spanish or creole and how hard it would be for me to understand anyone and that the work was going to be soooooo hard! And I'm not going to lie, I was fearful and I went into housekeeping having a lot of prejudices and misrepresentations. However, I would like to note that when I got there everyone--and I do mean everyone!-- was wonderful and as kind as they could be. And it is surprisingly--dare I say it...?? A lot of fun!! I never would have thought that I fit in well there, but I have...and I've learned a lot, too. My time at the front desk was a lot of fun, but it was very structured. I knew where I needed to be, when I needed to be there, who I needed to talk to to get things done when I needed to, there was a list...a constant list of things that always needed to be done during the day...and everything combined made the front desk feel safe and secure--a very methodical and organized animal. Housekeeping on the other hand.....can I just say...oh.my.god?

It is a beast--a happy, cared for, well-fed, and loving one, but a beast that at any time can rear up out of nowhere and offer you surprises you never would have thought of to begin with. And it didn't help that I had absolutely no idea what I had gotten myself in to. Let's just say that the first day I ever got to housekeeping, I showed up in a dress and heels. Yep. Many of you in this moment are probably thinking to yourselves, 'and how exactly are you supposed to clean rooms in such attire!?' Well, my answer to you is: I couldn't. Which is how I single-handedly messed up my first day at housekeeping! Lol. I sat in dispatch the whole time, which I must admit was daunting...and yet feels so fictitious to an outsider that you feel like you've been plopped down in some kind of I Love Lucy episode with characters answering phones at the speed of sound. Those women have some quick thinking skills. I'll tell you that much. But! I can't spend my whole post talking about dispatch--seeing as I've been everywhere else, too, and everyone else works just as hard. I'll have to give you the reader's digest version of everything, since Monday is my last day and I've whittled away my whole time in housekeeping without procuring a satisfactory post to dramatize each day's events. Let's just say I've been a housekeeper (cleaning the signature units), I trained with an inspector--and then actually inspected units of my own the next day (on another note, I'll have to tell you a little bit more about that later as it shows a part of myself that I don't really like and that I changed immediately--as in after lunch--and refuse to show myself like that again), I worked with Manny to see how his day went as a manager, I opened the house at 5am with Seanna and drove around the property for hours at a time with the craziest and most lovable Jamaican woman that ever lived in Orlando (Sharon), did VIP inspections with Pat, learned about organized chaos with Maurice, was a housekeeping runner with Ila, got invited out by Miguel--a very nice guy, learned all about payroll with Evelyn, and then spent my whole day with Pat again, but this time in meeting after meeting. I don't know what I'll be doing next...which is something that bothered me about housekeeping at the beginning, but that I now see as an opportunity to see Pat every day and talk to her, even though she is probably the busiest person I know. Oh! And I forgot to mention that I was in laundry one day. THAT should have had a post all to itself, but I don't think I'll have time to write one solely dedicated to it. Let's just say that I won't be using Orange Lake toilet paper ever again and that if I worked there every day I would never need to go to a gym again, AND that I fell into a washing machine with a capacity of 600 pounds.... That said, I think I am a liability and should not ever be invited back to work there again. :)

But something to note about laundry that can be set aside from the previous paragraph... I didn't have to go there. It was also made out to be a horrible place of back breaking labor and the mindless droning of a beehive--workers who take two breaks a day and lunch for 30 minutes, only stopping for water in the 90 degree heat of the warehouse. It's a sweat shop--emphasis on the sweat--and don't get me wrong it's hard work...very, very hard work. And like I said before, I didn't have to go there, and was, actually, sorrowfully patted on the back by my co-workers when I told them what I had gotten myself into... But I chose to go. I chose to go, because when they told me I was supposed to have an internship that looked at all the facets of the resort that I could in the short time I was there (in front of house and back of house) I was under the impression that I was supposed to be learning something. And even though my time at the front desk was fun, full of laughs and smiles, and educational in the area of guest relations, I didn't get to see or shadow nearly as many of the departments as I could or should have. So after my initial hesitation to go to housekeeping--only to find that it really wasn't anything like people were telling me, I decided that this time around I didn't want to miss out on anything. I asked to go to laundry to see what the employees were dealing with and because I wanted to be able to say I had done that. 

That's me: Whitney, experiencing the lives of the workers.... I hope you don't think me a bleeding heart. :)

The Roach and the Dispatch

Hello again, all!


I know I just posted something the other night, but there have been a few interesting developments since I last talked to you, and the title of this post kind of gives everything away. I'll start with the roach, since that seems to be where this whole ordeal started...


As some of you may know...and some of you may not... I'm deathly afraid of roaches. Just roaches, not spiders, not moths and not generally any other form of creepy crawly anything. Now, I'm not trying to say that if I came into contact with a spider as big as my palm that I would be trying to pick it up or squash it (that should probably be left for the experts), but for the most part I'm ok with all that. Roaches, however, dead or alive!, will not (and physically cannot) be tolerated. You can ask my grandmother. I honestly, don't know where this ridiculous fear of the little, disgusting, excuse for a living thing came from, but you better believe if I see one in my room or around the house--depending on its size--will either a)grab a shoe and kill it, then run to my grandmother to come get it for me or b)will run to my grandmother--or call out for her, depending on if it's got me cornered or not,--and then have her come kill it. All in all, I'm not a very effective roach mortician, and the idea of picking up their crunchy bodies and respectively flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away gives me the heebie-jeebies! 


So! Imagine my horror when I woke up one morning to take my shower before work and saw, none other, than a dead roach just kind of chilling in the corner of my shower. EW!!! I know, right?! Well, there wasn't a lot I could do about it, being in my roach averse condition, so I threw a wash cloth over it and grabbed all of my stuff from the shower. Thank goodness I have a bathtub, because for 2 days after that I took baths and refused to go into my shower. Luckily, I thought to myself, Taylor's boyfriend Jason would be coming into town and he could get it out of there for me, right? He was a boy and boys pick up bugs like that for scared girls like me, right?? No dice. He was just as afraid of the bugs as I was, and Taylor--although she is scared of them, too, she'll at least dispose of them--was trying to prove a point by not helping me. We kind of joked around about it for a few minutes and I developed some hair-brained scheme involving a vacuum cleaner's suctioning power and a plastic bag, but I decided to leave it until after we came back from dinner. Well, on the way, Taylor casually mentioned that we should call guest services to come and take care of it. I mean, we're guests and I needed a service done. It makes sense, right? (Yeah, just go with me on this one) And low-and-behold, my favorite dispatch (Erik Melman) was on duty, and after posing the idea of picking up the bug in my shower--without letting him know what kind it was--he readily agreed to come help. :)


He didn't believe it when I actually dispatched him to come help though. But like the brave and wonderful soul he is, he came to my rescue (was a little grossed out when he found out it was a roach) but then bucked up, grabbed a plastic bag, and went to town cleaning up my bug cemetery of a shower. After all that was over, we stood outside and talked about the property, talked about me shadowing him in his department for the weekend (he's kind of like the front desk runner, trunk unloader and traffic director--but so much more than that!), about the wildlife on property (hah! I just had one die in my shower) and about bands and music. So, he brought me some Cd's from his car to listen to and to put on my computer. It's Angels and Airwaves, and they're actually good. :) Not saying that I thought they wouldn't be since I like just about anything but country music...and even then that can be all right from time to time. Let's just say the moral of the story is: always have a guy who can clean the bugs out of your shower... and who also has good music tastes!


Millman, this post is dedicated to you and your unwavering ability to come to a girl's rescue!


Whitney

Week 1 in Review

Ok. So! I know it's been a while since I had a chance to write and tell you all what's going on. But I assure you, it's been a very long week in the life as an Orange Lake Intern, and I'm pretty sure that Taylor would back me up on that one. I'll go ahead and review it for you:


Monday: I had my first day at work, which was really orientation, which I was actually really excited about, which led me to go ahead and write a blog entry about it. Therefore, you kind of know all about what I learned at orientation and the people I met. However, what I didn't get to tell you about Monday was that I really liked seeing all the other members of my orientation group around the resort every time I go out to eat or play around at the pool. Which is kind of funny since they know me and know that employees aren't supposed to be using the resort facilities....guess that's the perk of being an intern and getting to live on property. Suck it!


Tuesday: My first real day of work on the job. Lynda, my trainer/the most awesome lady in the world can be attributed to my quick success at the hands of TSW (Timeshareware.... it's a long word. I know.) I learned how to check-in a guest, check-out a guest, work HotSOS (pronounced "Hot Sauce"), and be an all around good Front Desk Specialist. It was a lot of information to take in, but with all of the encouragement I got from Kris, Lynda, Bob, and other friendly front desk peoples, I quickly let all the information sink in and brushed off all of my mistakes--but not without learning something from all of them, of course. 


Wednesday: I had a whole new group of people to work with that day. I started training under Ana, who was wonderfully helpful. They let me loose on check-outs--to which I was a little apprehensive, but they had faith in me--and she was there for every mistake or question I had about anything. And she had sooo much patience for me. I also want to thank (as if they even know I'm thinking them on here) Michelle. She constantly came to my aid when I would be logged off the computer--since I had (and have) yet to receive any kind of technical log on information. I would get logged off, call Michelle, and she would sweep onto the scene with the magic key to making everything work. She has also been very patient with me and was ready and willing to help whenever needed. Another favorite that I discovered on Wednesday was Patrick. He's hilarious! He's the day manager for Wednesday and Thursday. But to top it all off, I got to go bowling with the crew on Wednesday. I didn't measure the success of the evening by the final score posted on the board at the end of the game, but rather how much closer I felt to all my fellow employees... and let me tell you, we are a family. We joke together, we play together and we have small rivalries that last for half a second... but at the end of the day, we couldn't think of anyone else we would rather work with. Or... at least that's the impression I got from everyone, and if it's a show they put on, they would be good at fooling just about anyone who took a look inside. 


Thursday: I was tired. Worn out. To the bone. My feet hurt, my eyes wouldn't hardly stay open and I kept staring off into space (which I told everyone was just me thinking too hard about what I was doing.) But that didn't make any sense, because everything I was doing was just wrong! All wrong! I didn't know what to do! What was happening to all the information I had stock piled from two days of hard work and even harder information memorization?! Thursday I couldn't seem to get anything right and I had many more questions than answers... and for anyone that knows me, I hate that. I hate not knowing how to do something or not knowing an answer to someone's question. And what I hate more than not knowing, is making them wait while I search the answer out. It's so frustrating to make them wait. But I guess we all have to learn the answers one way or another, and there's no better way to pick up on things than just to ask. All I'll say about Thursday is: it wasn't me in my best light. 


Friday: Friday, however, was me shining and splendid, spinning around in the galaxy of happy and flashing my pearly whites to anyone and everyone that came in smile radius. It was wonderful. I started off the morning knowing exactly what I needed to do. I was able to help everyone who needed me with little to no problems, I knew the answers to questions, I was able to resolve issues, I made customers happy. And then low and behold, when time came for us to get busy, who do you think was left standing in the lobby keeping time on the guests checking in (a very important job, so I'm told!) I was in charge of the customer experience, and I was in my element. I honestly think, sometimes, that I should have been in politics because I have such a knack for charming people when I can get to them. You know, that whole kissing babies thing--it's my talent. I was running all over the floor, greeting guests, keeping time, smiling, playing with kids in the lobby, adopting families into my life by learning all about them and all the while loving every bit of it. I wasn't tired, I wasn't bored. I loved it. All of it.... Until I got home.... then I crashed.


Saturday: And crashed, and crashed, and crashed. I crashed for 13 hours. I slept, waking up periodically every 2 hours, but never getting out of bed. There is something soothing and healing about not doing anything all day... about not getting out of bed, about watching your favorite shows for hours on end, about lazing and doing absolutely nothing. I got sick--bad milk, but it was ok, because I didn't have a thing to do or a single place to be. It was wonderful. And then I got to go eat with Taylor's mom and her mom's boyfriend and see Sex in the City 2. It was a great end to an eventful and tiring week. 


And don't get me wrong. I know it might seem like I had a hard week. I don't want it to seem like that at all. It was wonderful, amazing... and I don't want to leave. I'm loving what I'm doing here so much and I can't wait to continue learning everything the want to teach me. I know I'm still learning, but I'm proud of the progress I'm making and all of the things I'm learning. To think I came from no hotel experience at all and now I can run with the n00bb best of them. And, yes, I just said n00b. Love it. :)


Signing out till something else funny comes along!
Whitney

The Welcoming Party

So...let me ask you a question...
Have you ever been told that you would have to have an orientation day for your job? Yes? Were you really looking forward to it? Probably not... 


But I was!! :) And these people are the reasons why! 

Scott

 the ever-witty Jeremy 

 Yadira--the all-knowing

They were so wonderful to us all day! It was actually pretty fun to be the two interns that were there and people thought the school and the whole concept of what we were doing was great. We got to travel all around the resort and see models of the rooms that guests could be staying in and most, if not all, of the resort amenities. They were so kind and interested in us.

And the great thing about all of this is that people still remember me. Even today I was sitting in the break lounge eating lunch and everyone in there was in my orientation group and they all asked how everything was going with my training and if I was enjoying my internship so far. They seemed genuinely interested in what was going on with me. But the funny thing was is that I was so interested in everything they're doing. Most of them are in sales, which mean they pitch and tour and bring the guest through the pit of sales fire to practically find any way to get them to buy timeshare. And let me tell you, I have decided that I want to shadow one of them sometime to see how it's actually done. I mean, I think it takes a really brave (or stupid--well not really, just not easily dissuaded) and externally-attuned individual to drive those kinds of sales home. I get the concept that if they're staying on property...that in some--even if it's small--kind of way, they want to buy. Really. But it's not like in a hotel where a person comes to the sales department to book an event for example and they know exactly what they want and could probably even give you an RFP detailing the information. These people may want timeshare and just don't know it yet...and these sales people prove that, internally, people want to buy property on a daily basis. I would know, I checked out 5 today who became owners during their stay.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think I'm exactly the kind of person who could sell....maybe if I have the training to do so I could do it, but I'll never know unless I see what they do for myself. I think that's the beauty of this internship; if I want to shadow in sales one day, they can make it happen. If I want to meet with a project development specialist one day for lunch, they can make it happen. Orange Lake has opened so many great opportunities for me to explore all of the different areas that interest me to find out what I'm good at or what I have a knack for. So, I'm really appreciative of everything that everyone on the team (no matter what area they're in) has done for me or plans to help me with. We'll see where all of my investigating takes me and who I end up talking to next in the break room. Who knows, I may learn something different--I did when I took the time to talk to a very nice gentleman and he showed me a little bit of how it's done just by talking to me and finding out the things I liked. And we'll see what sort of things I learn while I'm in my specified area. You should learn something new every day... we'll see what comes up tomorrow.

Also, I know it took me a little while to post this... sorry for the delay! I'll try to keep more on top of it, but it's kind of hard when all you want to do when you get home is read a little in your book and go to sleep. I mean, I haven't even been on Facebook! I know, right!?!

Anyways, talk to you soon about my first day and my second day...and my third day...and any other days in between. 

Whitney

Where we come from --> Where we're going

Hi there again! 

I know I need to update you on everything that's been going on here because these are the most important moments: orientation and training (as they're where a lot of beginning insight and realization come from.) And all that will come with time...as in right after I finish this blog about the history of Orange Lake and Kemmons Wilson lol. I know that many of you who work in the Kemmons Wilson School, or at Orange Lake (hey there Jeremy, Shana and Scott! :) ), already know all about Orange Lake and Kemmons Wilson, so you might want to skip this entry. I mean, I might have found something new for you, but don't feel obligated. 

So! Orange Lake: 

I think that's the most widespread photo of Orange Lake out there, taken at River Island, one of Orange Lake's premier water features. Anyways! As for the actual Holiday Inn brand, Kemmons Wilson founded it in 1957 after a particularly bad motel experience. He vowed to offer families a greater value for their money and introduced many aspects of quality and customer service into a fledgling hospitality industry born from the automotive boom and income increase after World War II. Now, Kemmons Wilson always had an eye for what families like; the whole Wilson family (even after Kemmons' death) has stayed very tight-knit and the whole approach the Orange Lake takes to selling is appealing to the "family" and building family memories to last a life time. So, you're probably wondering how Orange Lake Resorts fits into this picture... It was founded by Kemmons Wilson in 1982, after he retired from managing the Holiday Inn brand and has since spread to be the largest timeshare resort in the world--encompassing 1,400 acres of land. Although Orange Lake now has a partnership with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), it wasn't until 2008 that Orange Lake Resorts was brought under the same brand as Kemmons Wilson's other brain child: Holiday Inn--which, in turn, developed the concept of Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Exciting right!? Thought so. 

Orange Lake has made many, many, many developments since its inception in the 80s and has really tried to keep up with the demands of its owners and guest by adding Splash Lagoon and a lighted 9-hole golf course (in the North Village),

East Village with an 18-hole golf course designed by Arnold Palmer himself (it's the hard one--lol),

and, most recently, River Island (Orange Lake's mini water-park where I spent most of my day frying on Saturday). 

And that's not even then end of what they've accomplished in the lat 4-6 years. The Orange Lake and Holiday Inn Club Vacation brands have added five other properties in Vermont, Tennessee, another in Florida, Wisconsin, and South Carolina. Plus they're a part of IHG  and RCI, which allows their owners to travel to over 8,000 other resorts and hotels worldwide. Talk about expanding to endless travel opportunities. :) Once Orange Lake Resorts decides to quit acquiring properties (even though I hear a property in Las Vegas could be in the works) they still have plenty of land area to develop into whatever they would like. 

There's a lot of opportunity out here at Orange Lake. So, I highly encourage anyone interested in joining the timeshare industry to hit them up; give them a call, check out their website...you know, all that good stuff. But when you do, say hi to Scott, Shana, and/or Jennifer. :) They're pretty awesome. The actual Orange Lake website is: orangelake.com --this allows you to view all of their properties. And if you know that Orange Lake is the place for you, the careers website is: http://orangelake.com/quick_links/hot_jobs.html .


Ok, I've sold the resort enough...even though I honestly could praise it even more. :) But seriously, check it out sometime.


Whitney

Which way is ____, again?

Hi all!
A warm welcome from Orange Lake Resort! :) I'll have actual pictures of the resort tomorrow (my camera died and I have to go back out and take phone photos until I get the charger from my grandma.) Until then, you'll just have to deal with lower resolution photos. But honestly my first day and a half here haven't been too eventful... as long as you don't count all the times I got lost in one 24 hour period. Cause I can guarantee you that it happened... a lot. lol. But I'll just start from the beginning, you know when I first got to the resort:


I pulled up, after driving for 3 and a half solid hours--non-stop from Valdosta to Orlando. You know, I was expecting an easy check-in, not too many questions asked, "here are your keys, Ms. Jacks" and then on my way. What I was met with was the friendliest staff I could ever imagine, compliments left and right from the greeters on how glad they were to have me, and how nice I looked, and questions about how far I had come from, and how long I would be staying...etc. All this even after I clarified that I was not a guest, but rather, an intern. Then Kris came. :) He was the most reassuring, welcoming, and all around wonderful person that I could have first come into contact with. After some very quick introductions, he got me checked in, whisked me around to meet everyone on staff (or so it felt like, which was nice) and asked me what I had planned. Even though I really wanted my game plan for the afternoon to be: checking into my room and beginning the arduous task of unpacking, I let him know in no uncertain terms that I didn't have a thing to do. Which of course left him with only one option: showing me anything and everything he could walk to--the pools, the lake, the kids center, the room we'd be meeting in for orientation, the check-in counter, the greeter area, the guest services section...everything! Well, not EVERYTHING, but it felt pretty close in that moment to all I would need to know. I even got my schedule through the beginning of July (because Raquel rocks) and a map to all the malls I could want to shop at (for khakis of course). 


I couldn't check in until four, so I went to the mall. I didn't end up with much, but even trips that seem worthless come in handy, because now I know my way around the city--or at least I-4/ Hwy 192. I thought it was really frustrating in the moment to run from one place to another with a car full of belongings, but now I'm glad I got at least that one part of the way. And by the time I finally got to my apartment and got settled in, it was even better than I'd imagined it to be:

It's perfect, as you can plainly see. 

I also, on my first day, spent way too much money on food--but haven't eaten out since I got here (I guess I should change that. Exploring the property and everything...) And went to bed relatively early after a blog post.

As for today, nothing too exciting happened. I went for a run around East Village...and got lost coming back to my apartment. I decided it would be a good idea to go to River Island (Orange Lake's small water park)--by foot!--and got lost. Then, after laying in the sun for two hours, fumbled my way back across the property, getting lost, and finally made it home. I, one of the palest girls in Memphis, got a lot of sun today and got lost about 3 times...today. Not including my circles around my neighborhood while on the phone with my grandma, trying to find where I lived. Trust me, it's not just me! It's a biiiig property; but it's beautiful and that makes up for it. So, after almost four hours of sun (both intentional and unintentional) I made it home, safe and sound, but tired and tried to keep inside for the rest of the day. 

I'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm going out to the pool again--lots of sunscreen included--probably earlier than I went today; just cause it gets kind of crowded and being around all the families by myself is a little weird and kind of depressing. Plus, Taylor's coming tomorrow!!! So I have to be here to welcome her when she gets in! :) I can't wait to have someone to share my experiences with, other than you of course! ;) And I'm sure there will be plenty to do and see. I wanted to take pictures of the resort and give all of you a little history lesson and a run down of what all it offers. Then it's off to the big day (dun dun dun!!) ORIENTATION!! It's gonna be ballin'. But all right; bedtime for this little lady!

G'night till tomorrow!

Whitney

Back-roads and Byways: Oh the Places You'll Go!

Yep! That's me in the car. :) ....Yes... it was kind of in the middle of driving on the interstate.... But I swear I'm a good driver! Look! I even have my seat belt on! just like they say in the manual... I just wanted to show all of you how excited I was to finally be on my way! And also to show off my new haircut. ;) ha ha. 

Anyway, before I recount my travels across the southern half of the U.S. I would like to let everyone know that I am currently sitting on my screened-in porch at Orange Lake and that some animal(s) across the green, in what I can only assume is Disney Animal Kingdom, are going crazy! And I mean CRAZY! I think the lawn sprinkler is scaring it/them...but I can, honestly, only guess. I've had a pretty eventful first day in the Sunshine State, but I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. Today is for telling you about my journey here. Ha! Journey... it sounds like I did some kind of soul-searching, or that it took me a long time. I mean, it felt like it. I was in Alabama for a loooooong time! But as for soul-searching, I think I did find out some pretty interesting things about all the states as I drove through them--you know, had some interesting, even if they're not profound, thoughts...

I left Memphis at 9:00 am, after telling everyone good-bye-- everyone being my boyfriend and Cindy. (I said bye to everyone else the week before) and set off on my way. Now, I have to admit that I thought I Alabama would be the worst drive of all, cause let's face it...Alabama hasn't got too much going for it outside of a good college football team and some nice gulf beaches (which are quickly on their way to ruin--Thanks BP!) But Mississippi... I mean...really!? Poor! And not in that funny, redneck, make you laugh kind of way. Rather, that "you really need to fix the roads and upkeep the interstate" kind of poor. Now, don't get me wrong, because I drive the Tennessee interstates monthly and I know we have our rough spots, but this was the whole way down. Another bane of my Mississippi existence was the drivers; they're terrible. They all drive 5 under the speed-limit, which is just annoying if you have to get anywhere! And, being the good Tennessee driver that I am!, I tailed them until they moved out of my way. :) Oh! And to ice the Mississippi cake--it rained on me all the way through Mississippi; it was the only state! I think I very validly make my point that Mississippi failed at being a good drive.

Ok. Now, on to Alabama. And I'm really serious. I was expecting this to be the worst part of my drive down, and although it wasn't the best, it definitely wasn't the worst. the roads were definitely better...and they were mowed. :) Props to Alabama for keeping the median classy. But! I guess it's pretty easy to employ people to work on the road when every exit you pass looks like this:

Also, unfortunately for the wildlife in Alabama and Georgia, I think I killed every bug flying on Hwy. 82. Yep! So, for all you folks who wanted to come visit, if you take that road, you should get out pretty clean... 

But while we're on the topic of Georgia, because that's really all I wanted to say about Alabama, I just wanted to say that it's beautiful and so quaint. I would encourage anyone to take a back road drive through the little towns. Sometimes it would get kind of depressing because of the obvious poverty in a few towns, but on the whole it was a lovely drive. The thing I liked best was all of the places to stop for fresh food, fruit or pecans. There were even a few places to stop and help yourself to pick something straight from the garden (which is nice for labor costs. lol). Driving through GA also reminded me of one of my residents from the spring. He lives in a very small town in Tennessee and he mentioned once, in passing, that he was kind of glad to go home every once in a while, because even though he really liked Memphis, it still moved a little bit too fast for him... I saw that in almost every Georgian town I passed through. You have to remember that these are highway towns, not interstate ones. I felt like I was driving through a whole different era...like everywhere I went was right out of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes." In any event, I stopped in Valdosta for the night to sleep and rest for the final drive--taking place the next day. 

And what a final drive it was! Entering Florida was amazing! No, there's nothing all that special about Florida...it looks the same (relatively) as every other place. It smells the same (inland) as every other place... but there's something about Florida, that I hope to discover while I'm here, that just makes you feel like you're finally on your way to being on vacation... not that I'm on vacation or anything... >.> But really, Florida's name "The Sunshine State" puts the first impression (at least) in this wonderfully happy box. I can definitely see why people come here for vacation. As for driving, Florida roads are great... because of all the tolls. It you come here, bring your piggy bank! and make sure it's all in change! lolPublix here I come! 

But alright. That's about it for me. This girl is going to bed so that she can get an early run in and lots of nice pool/lazy river time in tomorrow... :) What?! You think I came down here two days early to unpack?? I'm familiarizing myself with the workplace. ;)

Talk to you tomorrow!

Whitney