packing up the car today!

well, after a few days back in blacksburg, it's time to pack up again! i'm headed down to florida starting tomorrow (for the lion's share of the trip), and then arriving in orlando tuesday morning, getting the keys to the apartment, and welcoming in the movers! i'm so excited.
nate will quickly follow, he'll be on a flight wednesday evening and will stay for just under two weeks! it'll be nice to unpack and spend some time with each other.
as for leaving blacksburg, i'm going to miss it so much! to be honest, i've been trying not to think about it (which, so far, hasn't been to difficult with everything else that's going on!)
okay, better get packing - my little corolla will be packed to the gills tomorrow morning!

new blog!

http://spaces.msn.com/floridaiveys/

for now i made this to post pics as they come in :) haven't decided yet whether or not to maintain my breeze blog as well :)

i'm married!

everything happened beautifully :) call me brianna ivey! i'm so excited to have nathan in my life, for the rest of my life! more later ;)

and we're off!

there's so much from this week i haven't posted about, we've had a great many surprise goodbyes and lastnight we had a wonderful time celebrating nate, monica, and danny's birthdays!
and now, we're off into the snowstorm to drive to charlotte and fly to phoenix! let the week of weddings festivities begin! :)

delta, could you cancel my flight?

bring me your tired, your poor, your unsuspecting of february fifth as the day of the superbowl. well – sunday proved to be an interesting day for nate and i (or is it me and nate?). we headed out from the hotel on sunday morning and headed to the airport trying to catch a standby flight (our original itinerary put us in roanoke at 7:30, one hour past the superbowl start). we arrived breathlessly to the gate at 10:30 a.m. only to find the 11:30 was entirely full- as was the 1:15 we also hoped to catch. destined for our original reservation at 3:25, we had a leisurely lunch and lounged around at the orlando airport before catching a connecting to atlanta. after arriving in atlanta, we found our 6 p.m. departure was delayed until at least 6:30, putting us in roanoke at the earliest at 8 p.m. after a quick conference on our best course of action, we headed to the delta counter to plead our case. we figured: better to see the entire superbowl while in atlanta then to see only ¼ of it from home. thanks to a helpful delta employee, we were confirmed on a 10:50 p.m departure to Roanoke, clearing us to watch the superbowl in its entirety from an airport bar. we snagged the perfect table and cheered the steelers to victory while welcoming various travelers to our table throughout the game (seahawks and steelers alike). all in all, it was a lucky end to an eventful trip :) go steelers!

orlando - city of sun? or crime?

we’ve been in orlando since wednesday evening and we’re finally back with a few stories to tell!
we spent all of thursday apartment hunting, solo in the morning, and then joined by a realtor on thursday afternoon. turns out most the area has gone ‘condo,’ converting once affordable rentals into overpriced shoeboxes for sale! so we were confronted with an unbelievable rental shortage. it was a ‘rent now or don’t rent at all’ situation. our last stop on thursday evening proved promising, we were all set to rent a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment.
back on friday morning it turned out the prices had increased considerably since the day before. we were disappointed, but we still put down a deposit to hold the apartment and the newly quoted price and then headed back out on our search.
turns out, we found a great alternative, also 2/2 that we absolutely loved (and less than one block from our original location choice!). we spent the rest of the day double checking our choice around orlando, but didn’t find anything we liked more. so we placed a deposit on our new discovery and headed back to the original choice to retract our money.
long story, i know – but it gets longer! when we told the first choice of our new locale we were met with “oh no.” curiosity killed the cat, and we said: “what?” after much prompting, the guy told us to check the crime reports, and then elaborated for me to “carry my keys as a weapon and park in well lit areas.” well, needless to say we were sufficiently scared into questioning our decision, so we headed BACK to choice #2 to see what was so wrong with it – and we couldn’t see anything. gated community – beautiful landscaping, screened in balcony, lake with center fountain, pool, jacuzzi complete with waterfall – what’s not to love? we circled around the community and passed a cop car. oh great i thought… it IS crime ridden. on our second lap, we noted that there was no uniformed cop, just a guy who appeared to actually live there. while i was on the phone panicking with my mother, nate hopped out to talk to the off duty cop.
turns out, the cop said the community we chose is certainly no worse than any others nearby (and was actually preferable to our original choice).
point is.. we’re not in blacksburg anymore. no more leaving visible valuables in the car, leaving my door unlocked while i’m home, in general casually disregarding common sense safety precautions.
i guess it comes with living in the city. it’s part of access to great museums, restaurants, attractions, and the shining sun. and although there are places that more than meet the compromise, we’re still excited about our move. it was a bit of a reality check, but we’ve recovered! we spent saturday looking for aspects of the city to be excited about- and we found them. after a quick starbuck’s breakfast, we headed out for some grove fresh orange juice, a fantastic lunch in the heart of the city, wandered around an eclectic downtown bookstore, mused around a central market, explored a lakeside park, mini-golfed in the sun, and then headed to an out of the way mexican dinner with a live mariachi band followed by a trip to pleasure island, a short shuttle trip from our hotel. said in a few words, we found some redeeming qualities in the city that reminded us of our excitement in moving there :)

happy groundhog day from fl!

just wanted to wish a quick happy groundhog day to you all before we head out into orlando :) we have a nice view of the city (albeit flat) from where we're staying and are all ready to get out and explore! first stop? coffee!

off to sunny florida!

but just for a few days :) nately and i are headed to florida this evening to do some apartment hunting :) wish us luck! we'll be back sunday, hopefully in time for the superbowl*!

*go steelers! :)

cleo has left the building! (and state!)

well, after the shower, we decided it'd be best to send cleo on ahead to arizona with my mom since we'll be spending so much time out of town until we head to arizona ourselves. my mom and and i successfully drugged her and put her in a carry-on sized soft carrier- she was none too pleased with it, but my mom got her home! watching my mom try to stuff a drugged, but still unwilling dog back into the carrier post security check was amusing to both me and the rest of the airport! now that she's in arizona, my mom's sent a few pics of the spoiled spoiled thing -- she's made acquaintance with sadie (my parents' english bulldog) and has taken quite well to marty :) pics below of her trying to weasel her way on to sadie's bed in the car, and enjoying spending time with marty while he's working :)

i'm not dead, just busy ;)

i have a multitude of blog updates (wedding shower, cleo's latest adventures, leaving for FL today but not for good, etc.) stay tuned ;) i'll try to get them posted today!