Woot woot! It's time for another edition of The Happy Life Updates, and man, has this been a crazy few weeks. I wanted to publish an edition of this in May, but that just didn't happen. I have so much to fill you in on during these next few minutes.
Storms On Storms
Okay, so, let's get right to it. I have been gone from The Happy Arkansan because I haven't had WiFi in my house since May 20th! I FINALLY got WiFi back to my house yesterday evening, and you best believe I have been lapping up every minute of WiFi ever since then.
So, long story short. We had a small storm on Sunday night, May 20th (technically the 21st), that knocked out our WiFi. We called our internet service provider about this and they promised they'd have a tech out on that Tuesday. Since we called them on Monday, we assumed they meant the next day. Turns out they meant the Tuesday after Memorial Day. We were thinking of switching service providers, so we called the other provider who could get out sooner. Turns out, they couldn't service our house even though they said they could (crazy, right???) So, I spent a ton of hours trying to get our previous service back.
This is were it went from crazy to insane.
They couldn't find our address in the system. Mind you, we have lived at the same address, getting bills from them, for 9+ years! They had to physically put our address into the system and this took days.
Then something the next level up from insane happened.
Tornado-esque Storms
On Saturday June 2nd, something happened.
Now, they say it wasn't a tornado, but I have never seen a not-tornado cause so much damage across a wide area in so little time. Either way, 100 MPH winds came barreling through my city and left thousands of people to pick up the pieces over the next few days.
My house was blessed in the storm, but I tell you, this was one of the most scary experiences I have ever had.
Arkansas is pretty prone to tornados (or tornado-esque things) this time of year. We often get watches and warnings but they are not always pointed at our area of the city.
This storm, though, knocked out so much in the city. My power company alone had to replace 80-100 (and possibly more) power lines due to storm damage.
We didn't get power back at our home until Wednesday afternoon (June 6th) and many people had a worse time.
I am going to share a few videos taken by local news stations so you can see more of the damage if you'd like.
I can't seem to embed this one correctly, but WMC Action News 5 also has a video you can watch by clicking this link.
Cool Projects
I have a couple of cool projects that I will be excited to announce once they get closer to today and are set in stone.
I can tell you that I was featured in a post on NerdWallet recently which was pretty freaking cool. This got reposted to a ton of cool places including AP and USA Today. So, I am basically famous, but not really, I am not famous at all. Click the button below to check out this awesome post!
Thank so much to Claire Tsosie for reaching out to interview me for this post.
Upcoming Posts
I have so much coming up on the blog in the next few weeks. Here are just a few things you can expect:
- Bright Cellars wine subscription review (did they really match me well, you will find out soon!) PS: The wine in this picture was not a Bright Cellars wine, and it actually wasn't that great at all lol.
- Erin Condren post all about how to get your life together as an incoming college student.
- Personal campus safety post. This is a follow up to the post I did about how to secure your dorm or apartment. It's going to be geared toward safety tips that will help you when you are out and about on campus.
- Recruitment content. I want to put up at least 1-2 pieces about sorority recruitment soon. Maybe a piece about being an introvert during sorority recruitment and being a woman of color in a Panhellenic sorority? Let me know what you want to hear about!
- I would also love to share some pieces soon about alternative things to do after graduation. I have been listening to Samantha's (from Samanthability) Offbeat Grad podcast recently and it's given me some interest in writing about this on The Happy Arkansan. Would you like to hear more about my journey? I write about it some on Amanda Cross Co., but that's my freelance website, and I don't think everyone wants to check that out.
These are just some of my ideas. Feel free to shoot me an email via my contact page if you ever have any ideas you want to run by me for content on The Happy Arkansan. I LOVE answering audience questions. I used to do it a lot more when this blog was hosted on Tumblr (yep, it was hosted there at one point) and I miss answering your questions.
Vacation: Coming Soon
Ya girl is going on vacation soon and I am SO excited about this. I am going to the ATL, y'all. I have so much planned for this trip.
My family has already picked up our CityPasses which means we are going to hit all the awesome spots like the Georgia Aquarium, the CNN Center, the World of Coca-Cola, the Center for Civil & Human Rights, and even the College Football Hall of Fame. We are only going to be in town for a few days, but we have a lot planned for this vacation.
Do you know of any restaurants we have to hit up while we are in Atlanta? I would absolutely L-O-V-E your recommendations.
Catching Up
Last, but not least, I am just going to have a ton of catching up to do for the rest of the month. The storms and being without WiFi for so long has really pushed me back further than I imagined.
I am going to spend the next few weeks before vacation trying to publish as much content across my two blogs as possible and of course, writing all the content for clients in my freelance business. If you or someone you know is looking for a freelance writer in the digital marketing, higher education, or human resources space––hit me up! Check out my contact page on Amanda Cross Co. so I can easily separate writing inquiries.
Thanks for reading today's The Happy Life Updates! I hope you feel up to date!
Amanda Cross
