Kids, You Tried and You Failed. The Lesson is: Never Try.

I love that Simpson's quote. Seriously.

I know about a million days have passed since I last blogged. I totally failed at my 30b430 goal of blogging twice a week. Cest' la vie.
Not that it's a reason, but my main excuse is that my laptop was stolen. Yep, sucks. I still haven't replaced it either. Thank God for the Loyola Library and my student ID still working.
So much has happened since my last entry. The biggest announcement is...

I'M MOVING BACK TO VIRGINIA!

Crazy, I know. Trust me I didn't arrive at this decision lightly. I really wanted things to work out in New Orleans. I was excited to settle down, and start a new life here, but alas, things don't always turn out as you plan. People are asking why I'm moving bacj, there are a few reasons, these two are the biggest:

1. I was disillusioned. My memories of New Orleans are all from college. I of course knew that things would be different, but all I could think about were the festivals, parades, warm weather, tubing and all the other things that made me love this city so much. In reality all of those things are just as amazing as I remembered, but what I didn't remember was the crime, the dirtiness, the inability to walk from my car to my front door without looking over my shoulder, the lack of education, the commuting. Some of these may seem trivial, but after living in one of the nicest zip codes in America for the past six years, it was really hard to come back to this. I consider myself a pretty tough person. I grew up without a lot of money, and I'm no stranger to the struggles of the middle class, but living in New Orleans is beyond that. The bad neighborhoods are everywhere, crime is everywhere. You see people littering on a daily basis. You see people just not caring about their environment. It's all really hard to witness. The Texan in me is viciously proud, so when I see people not taking care of my neighborhood it makes me angry. When I see kids wandering the streets in the middle of the day, instead of at school, it makes me angry. When I have to drive everyplace I go, because I'm too scared to walk alone at night, it makes me angry. All of this really shattered the rainbows and puppies illusion of New Orleans that I had built up.

2. Friends. The other reason I'm moving back to Virginia is because I miss my family there. Not my biological family, but the friends I made into family. New Orleans people are some of the greatest people on earth, but as an "outsider" it's hard to make friends here. Everyone who lives here is from here, and they have all had the same friends for life. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. When people here ask where you went to school, they don't mean college, they mean high school. High school pride is huge here, it's how everyone is connected. As someone from Texas, by way of Virginia, it seemed impossible to meet people my own age. I'm sure it can be done, but I was just not having any luck. I had a few sorority friends here, and I want to give them all the credit in the world, they are the reason I made it 7 months. Alas, I am a social butterfly, and I just needed more interaction. I know that I can get that in DC.

So, I tried New Orleans, and I failed New Orleans. It's not like I'll never be back. I still love the city and her people. I just know now that Virginia is my home.

Love, Tina Marie

PS- It would be wrong not to mention the social media campaign for my return to Virginia.
A fake twitter was made: https://twitter.com/FakeVATina
Hats/ Logos were made: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?from=CustomDesigner&number=666634944
A Petition was sent out: http://www.change.org/petitions/tina-cordova-move-back-to-virginia
And a facebook page was made: https://www.facebook.com/TinaCordovaMoveBackToVirginia

Thanks ya'll, you really make a girl feel loved.