Thursday, December 27, 2012

Viking's Death

A rich Swede once told me that a viking only goes to heaven if they die in battle. TO VIKINGS TO HEAVEN TO BVI TO YACHT WEEK

Thursday, December 20, 2012

#2012

Dear Faithful Readers, all 6 of you, and those who may have found their way here through my shameless self promotion via facebook and twitter, welcome! I must first warn you that this is extremely long. It is long because I am trying to cover the whole year in one blog post. It is probably ridden with my etremely dry humor and typos, but I wouldn't know because I don't spell check things. I had some downtime last weekend for what felt like the first time in about 7 months. I started thinking about this year and how everything is changing but, as to be expected, everything still feels the same. At first I thought that I was sad about no longer being in school, then I realized I miss living a few blocks from my friends and having tons of free time to see them. After about 5 minutes of feeling sorry for myself, I did what any Barney Stinson would do, “stop being sad and be awesome instead” Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but I did start to look at the situation differently.

I feel that 2012 has brought me just as much introspection as it has anything else. Often times I tend not to totally acknowledge my current situation for fear or concern that I won’t really like it. 2012 did not provide as much opportunity for sweeping life under the rug.

Many times this year that I found myself thinking, “This is the end of childhood. Now I am an adult.” I haven’t considered myself a child probably in the last decade, but there is something comforting about the idea of youth, and something tiring about the idea of age and adulthood. This year I:

I turned 22
I graduated from one of the top business schools in the US
Two of my best friends from childhood got married and most of the rest of them are engaged
and Gossip Girl ended

Last New Year’s I decided to commemorate the year via a Facebook status posted from the balcony of a bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It read:

“Dear friends, 2011 has been the most ridiculous year of my life. I have seen more of the world and myself than I ever thought possible. I am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life. It's been good and bad and all emotions in between. Cheers to a new year and a new life.”

Don’t be surprised in a few weeks if you see this appear on your news feed:

“Dear friends, 2012 has been the most ridiculous year of my life. I have seen more of the world and myself than I ever thought possible. I am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life. It's been good and bad and all emotions in between. Cheers to a new year and a new life.”

I never thought anything would out do 2011 and then 2012 happened. I am so incredibly blessed to have the family and friends and opportunities that I have and have had in this life. Without them I would not be where I am today in any sense.

I feel like 2012 deserves a little more than just a tipsy facebook post. So here it is; my attempt to recap the year, mostly for my benefit, but maybe for yours as well. I intended just to write about “highlights” I guess you would call it, but hopefully it ends up as more than that, we’ll see.

The Mosley family kicked off 2012 on a cruise liner. As a life-long fans of the sea, Captain Ron and Jimmy Buffett, I think we were all pretty thrilled. Our first stop was Jamaica, my first experience in a third world country. Little did I know, there was plenty more of the third world to come. We played volleyball with some Jamaican teenage boys who had the most accented English I had ever heard. We visited Grand Cayman and snorkeled in Cozumel. My dad and my brother walked off of the ship with a few gold medals for dodgeball and basketball, and that might have been my favorite part of the trip.

Late January I started my last semester of school at the University of Texas. I had plenty of free time for activities I could only describe as triflin’. One of the best days of January was going to see Avicii with Caroline/Caroline and a load of international students.

I think I spent most of February mentally preparing myself for the Drake concert. Spencer bought 7 tickets for himself and his friends to go see ya boy Drizzy Drake. His friend Kelly flew in from New York to see the show. Later that night she baked YOLO cookies and I posted a drake parody tweet to @Drakedointhings and got retweeted. Needless to say my obscure dream of becoming irrelevantly Twitter famous was accomplished.

2012 was also the year TANYA NOBLE became a star. She packed up and shipped off to LA to film this season of Gordon Ramsay’s Master Chef. It was a weird time for her to leave so close to what felt like “the end,” but what the heck one of my best friends was going to be on TV! Maybe 5 days had passed before I started to miss her and her impromptu gourmet meals, chorizo stuffed dates to be noted . What’s a minion without a noble master?

Also, Zack, I feel like you have directly impacted 2012 through GIF texts alone, and for this, I cannot thank you enough.

In March I was full speed ahead with the interview process for a full time job. It was all fun and games until I had to cancel my trip to San Francisco with Amber McAdams, Mary Dang, Nancy Tan and Christine Hong. Luckily, the interview that I cancelled for turned into a job offer and the reason that I am in Philly today. I can actually pinpoint this as the first time I really felt like an adult, because I felt mature that I was choosing work over play. By mature I mean I called my dad crying about it, but I still made the mature decision.

The next weekend I had my first full-fledged SXSW experience, compliments to the ultimate planner/music guru/best friend Caroline Field. We may have exhibited slight groupie tendencies, but extremely slight

classic thursday night shakespeares

taverna happy hour

i am without words for this one

March, April, and May feel like a total blur. I will attribute this mostly to the fact that I spent Tuesdays at Cains, Wednesdays at the Local improving my corn hole game with old crusty dudes, Thursdays at Shakespeares, and Saturdays at Malaia (RIP!). I couldn’t have asked for a better last semester at UT.

I spent May scattered about the world. I was at home for a bit trying to secure a Visa for India. I was back in Austin celebrating my 22nd birthday. I opted out of graduation for a little trip around Europe.

Caroline and I, both with multiple motives, but under the guise that we had studied abroad at different times and needed to go together, headed to Europe. I mean, we had never been to Europe together and it only seemed appropriate. I flew to Vienna for a few days and then met up with her in Salzburg, Austria. This may have been one of the highlights of the trip or even my life. If you know me, you know I have a weird obsession with taking pictures of other people’s dogs. It turns out that the World Expo of dogs was in town the same weekend that we were and needless to say, I was in heaven. We went on the Sound of Music tour and had the best time. Austria is such a beautiful country.

Caroline and I, both with multiple motives, but under the guise that we had studied abroad at different times and needed to go together, headed to Europe. I mean, we had never been to Europe together and it only seemed appropriate. I flew to Vienna for a few days and then met up with her in Salzburg, Austria. This may have been one of the highlights of the trip or even my life. If you know me, you know I have a weird obsession with taking pictures of other people’s dogs. It turns out that the World Expo of dogs was in town the same weekend that we were and needless to say, I was in heaven. We went on the Sound of Music tour and had the best time. Austria is such a beautiful country.

ALSO VIENNA MEANT WE GOT TO MEET UP WITH OUR AUSTRIAN FRIENDS!!! And then we all continued the party in Prague to celebrate Caroline’s birthday. This is the third Caroline referenced by the way. I think we spent around 36 hours in Prague and I slept maybe 6 of those.

Next stop, Berlin. The weather was t optimal, but that did not stop us from seeing the sites or drinking the beer. We had some funny hostel roommates, met some Australian guys, and made many friends on the pub crawl that we joined. We also got to a taste of the Berlin club scene.

After Berlin we flew separately to Stockholm to meet up with friends. I stayed with my friend Hanna who I met while I studied abroad. I stayed at her house with her family and had the best time! Sweden is beautiful and it was so good to see Hanna. We met up with Caroline and Viktor everyday to see the city, the archipelago, eat the herring and live the true Viking life style.

After Stockholm I went back to Vienna and then back home to Texas.
I had three days to do laundry and repack and head to Atlanta to start training for the real world.
I spent two weeks in Atlanta. Rather, I spent two weeks in Peach Tree city, right outside of Atlanta, and a weekend in the ATL. Had a great time and great hosts!

Fort of Agra, one of my favorite sites in India
Amazing friends! At the JW Mariott in Goa, India
Elephant Riding at the Spice Farm outside of Goa

After enough time to adjust back into my regular time zone, it was time to go to India for 5 weeks.
India.
India.
For five weeks.
These five weeks in India turned out to be some of the most eye opening of my life. There were 60 of us there and I made a lot of really good friends. It was a weird mix of summer camp and study abroad and the third world. Disaster/fun ensued.

My time was spent between reading powerpoints in the classrooms and random tiny clubs that we took rickshaws to and from the hotel. We spent the weekends making up for the fact that we had been in class rooms and on busses for most of our waking hours during the week.

We spent a weekend in South Mumbai and West Mumbai at the JW Marriott and the Taj Land’s End. If you think India smells, check out some Indian night clubs. It was such an amazing experience. The third weekend I went to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. THE TAJ MAHAL. Crazy, right? I liked the fort of Agra across the street better. Both sites were incredible though. The last weekend we spent in Goa. Part of this weekend may or may not have been spent sitting outside of a police station in Goa. I would normally say we do it for the stories, but I didn’t even do anything this time. I was just along for the ride.

Upon returning to the states I had to “work”. I was now a full time employee of a multinational company. It’s been six months and my arms aren’t too tired from climbing the corporate ladder yet. The fall semester, because I still refer to life in semesters, was very busy. Three hours after I arrived back from India, I went to Kelsey Koctar, now Carter’s wedding .I worked in Houston for about a month and a half and in late October, I got staffed on a project in Philadelphia.

There was a good month where I spent maybe 1/7 nights at my house. I took a few trips to Austin for football games and to see old friends and to see old friends off. Tanya moved back to Indonesia. Wut?

I also took a trip to Dallas for Texas/OU weekend. The time I have spent in Houston has proved to be quite fun. Caroline has visited frequently and therefore I have more of an excuse to leave the burbs. Remind me why I live in the burbs? I don’t pay rent and the fridge is usually stocked with grapes, that is exactly why.

#BRIDELIFE

November came and went and ended in Bridget Cooper Azzam’s wedding. B Weezy got married. I am still asking myself if this is real, but I could not be more happy for her. She has been a blessing to me for so many years and I know she will be for many more to come.

Also, I do not know how I got through this entire post without directly mentioning my family.. I have loving parents that I get along with and enjoy spending time with. Spence, if you are reading this, which by page 4 I seriously doubt anyone is, I consider you one of my best friends. You’re funny and nicer than me and I fear that you may soon be making more money than me.

Somehow Keith is now 11. Anyone who has known him for his entire life even finds this hard to believe. Most of my friends think he is five or 6 with the exception of Zack Wilburn, who for some reason thinks he is around 40. SIDE NOTE: MY PARENTS 25th ANNIVERSARY WAS YESTERDAY!! Is that real? They are such a blessing and an inspiration. I am happy to know them each as people and especially to have them as parents.

So where does that leave me now? It leaves me at 6:46 EST the the airport Marriott because my flight got cancelled due to weather. Sitting here in my at least partially introspective state, I must say that I am incredibly happy with my life. I do not know how I have been so lucky or blessed or what fortune cookie I opened at Chopsticks as a child that led to this great fortune.

There are less than 2 weeks left of this year, and according to the Mayan calendar, the world ends tomorrow!

In 8 days I am heading to the British Virgin Islands for Yacht Week with Caroline 1&2, Kathleen, Koetting and Shantanu. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MYSELF!

Well the restaurant is closing now and I have written up to December 20. So, cheers to an incredible year, 2012. You’ve been good to me and I cannot wait to see what 2013 has in store. t ends up as more than that, we’ll see