Goodbye, Winston Salem

Goodbye, Winston Salem. Goodbye, yummy chicken pie at Zoe's. Goodbye, crazy lady at yoga that gets tangled in herself. Goodbye, weird jacuzzi tub in my bedroom. Goodbye, waitresses that call me Hon or Sugar. Goodbye, Native Vine Green Tea delicious wine. Goodbye, bartender at West End Tap Room who doesn't mind when certain friends of mine bitterly throw their cell phones across the bar ::cough Kathleen cough::. Goodbye, 2 am "snacks" at Cookout. Goodbye, 2 am pizza and garlic knots at Burke Street pizza. Goodbye, creepy Deacon mascot. Goodbye, elevators from hell at Deacon Tower. Goodbye, Cheryl the lady that works in the student lounge food shop. Goodbye, 2 inches of snow citywide shut downs. Goodbye, bi-polar heating system in the Worrell Professional Center. Goodbye, random log cabin in my backyard. Goodbye, Wake Forest football games that no one cares about. (Hello, Minnesota football games that no one cares about.) Goodbye, donut day. Goodbye, "our" table at Ichiban. Goodbye, having to order unsweetened tea. Goodbye, references to the "war of Northern agression." Goodbye, Dewey's Sugar Cake. Goodbye, Atlanta Braves games on three channels. Goodbye, jar of mini candy bars in career services. Goodbye, weirdly designed Hanes Mall. Goodbye, sexist waiter at the Thai restaurant. Goodbye, maintenance man that always warns me that he might electrocute himself. Goodbye, Red Oak on tap. Goodbye, never wearing a winter coat. Goodbye, Team 9 lunches at Elizabeth's. I will miss you all.

YES!!

I'm now on Google + (I feel so cutting edge)....it's going to be so sad to watch Facebook slow demise....we've had such good times facebook.

The Basil Has Been Located

I thought I had told you all about this when it happened, but when I searched for that post so that I could reference it, and I couldn't find it. When I moved to Winston Salem almost two years ago, my mom and I unpacked everything, but two things were mysteriously missing: the basil from my spice rack and a thing of suntan lotion.

This morning I was putting a bunch of packing paper in my recycling bin. My mom had left two wardrobe boxes full of packing paper on my patio when I had moved just "in case I would need it" when I had to move again. If you know my mom, you understand this. Well, I don't need it, so I'm recycling it. I pull up a big thing of paper to move into the recycling bin and what do I find laying there...a jar of basil. I think Andy has put it best: "so much fail." It's surprising, but I have actually not bought a new thing of basil in those two years, and there was really only one time when I wanted basil but just used oregano instead. Now my spice rack it whole again. I know that all my spices were holding out hope that this day would come even when time passed and things looked bleak, and it finally has. Welcome home, basil, welcome home.

Love This Site

I'm basically sitting around exploring the ends of the internet all day, but doing so led to this discovery. I laughed so hard that I cried.

The Bridal Shower/Bachelorette Party

This past weekend I headed back to PA (AGAIN) for Amanda 1's bridal shower/bachelorette party. I'm not going to lie. Being a Maid of Honor and trying to plan a bridal shower long distance has not been easy. Assembling a multitude of mini paper purses as favors, communicating with bridesmaids that were sometimes incommunicado, and searching aimlessly for Robin's Egg blue table coverings was not always fun (and did I mention that I'm moving in 10 days), so part of me was just waiting to check this weekend off my to do list.

The bridal shower was nice. All the bridesmaids (is that the Bridesmaids or The Bridesmaids? ha) did an excellent job with their assigned tasks. Of course there were some minor snafus: a late bridesmaid, some forgotten prizes, somewhat loud guests, debate on whether the bows should be made into a bouquet or a hat and a little bit of a time crunch. Nothing major though, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves which is the important thing.

I went back to my gramma's house where I was staying, dropped off some things, and put on my appointed T-shirt for the bachelorette portion of the day.

The front says "Team Bride" and when the bridal party lines up, the back makes up the date of the wedding. (That's why I'm a 0.) Gotta love the construction pink color. The picture really does not do the color justice. Amanda also gave us part of our wedding party gift.

A glittery flask filled with coconut rum! BEST WEDDING PARTY GIFT EVER! Her mom is making us garters to go with them for the wedding. They're heavy flasks, so a normal garter just isn't going to work. After getting myself out of driving (Thanks, Troy, for agreeing to pick us up). We headed off to Hollywood casino. We had dinner at the Sports Bar there and then played a couple of penny slots. I lost. It's fun just walking around in our bright pink shirts. We get lots of smiles and one security guard even saluted us.

From there it was off to the Winner's Circle Saloon for line dancing. Everything was pretty low key as no one really knew any of the line dances until...we started doing shots...and broke out glow sticks. (Everything is better with glow sticks). After shots of Jager (blech...don't like licorice to start with), SoCo and Lime (the lime juice was in with the SoCo. Weird), Creamsicle (Whipped Cream Vodka, Something orange and something with dairy...not good), and a Dirty Girl Scout (delicious except that I started laughing and had it go up my nose), everyone was having a pretty good time. Amanda was not nearly as drunk as she should've been. We're almost about ready to leave, and Amanda says "I've never done a shot of tequila. I think it would be fun." Being the only one willing to take on tequila st this point (and being the Maid of Honor), I order two tequila shots (I should also mention that all these shots were not in shot glass and more than a typical shot). I proceed to give Amanda Tequila 101 lessons ("first you lick your wrist") and convince her to not to take a sip before doing the actual shot. Soon after the tequila, Troy comes to pick us up, and we have a mini-rave with the glow sticks in the back of his car on the ride home.

Blogging to Avoid Napping

Holy crap, I am freaking tired. Normally, I would just take a nap be done with this whole tiredness thing, but my sleep clock has been all sorts of f***ed up lately, and so I'm doing anything possible to resist falling asleep now. Hopefully if I don't sleep now I'll be able to sleep tonight. Do you know how hard it is to not nap when you really don't have anything to do and have an extremely comfy couch? Hopefully telling you all about my AMAZING trip to Baltimore (and simultaneously watching Celebrity Rehab) will help...plus some iced coffee.

Saturday morning I woke up and was like if I spend another freaking weekend in my apartment doing nothing, I will lose my mind. I still have my AirTran flight benefits. (Or as I now refer to them SWAirTran since they are technically now part of Southwest.) My one issue is that I'm currently having some cash flow issues as my expenses are outweighing my income. It will all work itself out soon, but right now I've been limiting my spending which thus limits my entertainment options. In order to have max entertainment and min costs, I was thinking of flying somewhere ridiculous for lunch or dinner or something and flying back the same day. Then I discovered that there were direct flights from Charlotte to BWI that were open, and my awesome friend Meredith just happens to live in Baltimore. I sent Meredith a text and then first thing Sunday morning I was on a plane (business class, woo!!) to Baltimore. I just threw a swim suit, flipflops and book in my purse and was off. I actually opened my trunk when I got to CLT, but then realized I had no luggage.

Meredith met me at the airport with a Nonfat Vanilla Latte from Starbucks because she's like the perfect friend. We went back to her apartment and picked up her boyfriend Mike. Then we went for breakfast/lunch at Paper Moon. It was SOOO good. They have a bacon milkshake on the menu. I wasn't really in a bacon milkshake mood though. I had a pesto chicken sandwich instead. Paper Moon also had lots of things all over the walls which kept me (the ADD kid) occupied (along with a crossword puzzle that kicked my ass) while waiting for our food.

After changing into our swimsuits back at the apartment, having a beer and making some punch, we headed to the pool. The punch was kinda of the adult version of when you were little and went up to a soda fountain and mixed a bunch of the sodas together. A bunch of stuff from the fridge and a bunch of stuff from the cabinet and voila...punch. We met Meredith and Mike's friend Erin at the pool. She brought some margaritas and some buttery nipple shots. We also were entertained by watching the somewhat tight ass Croatian lifeguard and the ADD 12 yeard old battle it out. Lifeguard benched him for 5 minutes for diving into the pool...kid claimed it was a belly flop. I didn't see it so I can't judge whether it was or was not diving. ::At this point in blog writing Danielle calls and I get distracted by Angry Birds, so writing will resume on another date.::

AND resuming: So the kid is sitting on the side of the pool, and every once in a while when the lifeguard wasn't looking he would "fall" into the pool, which did not make the lifeguard happy. The kid also went into the bathroom, hoping to waste some of his time out time, but the lifeguard informed him that that did not count.

We stayed at the pool for a couple of hours. We went back to the apartment, and I rinsed off and changed. Then we went for crabs. I had never picked a crab before. I usually have crab in cake or lump form, but Mike was nice enough to show me the finer points of picking. I'm a really fast learner. We had a couple of pitchers of beer, but when you're picking crabs you kinda forget to drink because you're so focused on the crab. Luckily, Mike would stop us for "designated drinking times." I was completely covered with salt and Old Bay when we realized "oh crap, we really need to get to the airport." Meredith and I rushed off to the airport. I was pretty inebriated, but luckily they had accidentally printed off my boarding pass for the evening flight when I checked in for the morning flight. Still it was pretty close. I used my secret special employee pass to rush through security. They were boarding Zone 7 (aka the very last zone) when I got to the gate. I walked right on the plane (which was leaving early. what?) and flew back to Charlotte. I hoped the guy in the seat beside me didn't really how intoxicated I was. Hopefully the overwhelming crab smell covered up the beer smell.

Letter from Prison

You thought there wouldn't be another one, didn't you? Guess what? I kinda did too. At least a decent one that was bloggable...but there is.

"How are you doing? Im ok, well when we were going thru the shutdown alot of people got time added..I ended up getting 2 weeks added (you got time added for doing something wrong? shocking!) so now I graduate (you graduate from jail? that's a graduation ceremony I'd like to see) the program (update: should was moved from legit jail to some rehab/anger management program thingy) Sept. 20th and won't get released until Sept. 25th so thats not too bad only 15 days..guess what I got extended for? (I'd say shanking someone, but I would think you would get more than 2 weeks for that.) for admitting to popping a black head in my cellys ear! (This imagery really disturbs me for some reason.) thats crazy huh? (nope. not really) Its cause it was 'physical contact' and that a cardnal rule. (I'm betting she doesn't really know what a cardinal rule is.) well so anyways theres not really anything gonna on my way. (gonna on my way? what?) so where is Kathleen moving and whats she plan on doing? (it's this thing called work. It might be a new concept for you.) yea it is sad to have to leave all your friends but Im sure you'll find some really cool new ones right away!! (I feel like I'm in 1st grade, and my mom is telling me about all the new friends I'm going to make at my new school.) but at least you can stay in contact with them all on facebook or something! (and that something is apparently google +...SN: if anyone has invites to google + to share, please send me one. I'll make you cookies!!) so whats andy gonna do? (probably go to the gym a lot...that's just me spit balling.) everything will fall in place once you get settled into school..maybe I'll be able to come there and visit you some time! (or maybe not) were gonna throw you a cave party for your 40th b-day. (ok, several notes. 1) this is in reference to my cousin Sandi's 16th b-day that was held at a place called the catacombs, and it was basically like having dinner in a cave. 2) I bet she could throw a kick ass party...not as good as Kathleen though just with more illegal things 3) we're discussing my 40th already? I'm barely on this side of 30.) LOL I want a welcome home cave party! (you just think life is going to be all fun and roses when you get out, don't you? and that's how you end up back in jail...she asked my mom to send her money at her rehab place so that she can have a pedicure and get her eyebrows waxed. My mom said no.) Well I guess Im gonna go."

Long Trout Winery

Not only does Long Trout have delicious berry and chocolate wines and hysterical wine names like Instant O, Waskully Wraspberry Red, Berried Alive and Sour Cherrieola, but they also have the cutest corks that I have ever seen.

Televised Fireworks

I don't really understand why anyone would want to watch televised fireworks. I've come up with four scenarios in which I think I would want to watch fireworks.

1) I can't go outside and see real fireworks either because I'm on death row or extremely old/ill and homebound.
2) I'm under the age of two and just like anything bright and colorful, but the loud boom is scary.
3) I'm abroad. I can see if I'm somewhere where no one really cares that it's the Fourth of July, if I can get fireworks over New York on some random channel or even over the internet, I might want to watch just to have a little happy America time in my life.
4) 3 words: Wicked Drug Trip

Random Sports Post

I'm watching the Phillies/Marlins game (thanks, mom, for calling to tell me that it's on TV) and something occurred to me. Why do baseball managers wear the team uniforms? I mean can you imagine if any other sport did this? Andy Reid in a football uniform. ::shudder:: Or Charlie Weis...good gracious, I would've thrown up at least once during every Notre Dame game. I threw up a little bit in my mouth just thinking about it.

Photo Show and Tell: Part 2


Three days after arriving back from the cruise, I drove to Pennsylvania. My mom, gramma and I made a sour cherry pie. It was very Little House on the Prairie-esque. We decided to use ALL the cherries we have, and so it turned out to be a ginormous pie. (I think it looks like a spaceship.)
While in PA, I picked up my maid of honor dress for Amanda 1's wedding. It's espresso (or esprosso...as the girl at the shop originally wrote on the order) and celestial blue. This dress is currently being altered: hemmed and taken in at the top because according to the woman at the shop, my boobs are disproportionately small compared to the rest of my body. Thanks. SN: I think this may be the first time that a full body shot of myself appears in a post.

From Pennsylvania, my mom and I flew to Minneapolis so that I could find an apartment for the fall. This is inside the Mall of America. A roller cost AND a log flume. Are you serious?

My mom is apparently a big fan of America's Next Great Restaurant. At the Mall of America we HAD to find the restaurant that the winner opened, Soul Daddy. My mom almost lost it when she saw the winner Jamawn inside.
We flew back to Pennsylvania, and we went to Kate's wedding reception in Pennsylvania. It was at a vineyard, and they had these cute little mints on the table.
Also at Kate's reception, I just happened to match the colors exactly. This is my napkin on my lap. My gramma had been looking at paint chips all weekend, and I color matched my dress. This, according to Sherwin-Williams, is the color Envy.

Photo Show and Tell: Part 1


I went on a cruise on which my fantastic friend Kate got married. The Carnival Cruise Destiny. Ironic for a wedding, right? This is her very pretty wedding cake. I think that the one design on it looks like an upside down smiley face.

It's also pretty inside. Isn't that the prettiest inside of a cake you've ever seen? It was yummy as well.

She had fabulous food at the reception. Just a few things of note: sushi, spanakopita, prosciutto and melon, deviled eggs topped with caviar and of course, a blue margarita.

Our first port was Key West, FL. They had key lime flavored EVERYTHING including these Moravian cookies which just happen to be made in Winston-Salem. Woot! Woot! Big shout out to the Dash and Salem Baking!!

They also had chocolate covered key lime pie which Alton Brown had named as one of the 10 Best Desserts in America. Plus it's on a stick which makes everything better.

Key West also had the creepiest Christmas ornament that I have ever seen.

Our next port was Cozumel, Mexico. After doing a little shopping (where shop keepers kept asking if I wanted to buy jewelry for my boyfriend...weird) we spent most of the day at Chankanaab. This little lagoon was teaming with fish. If you just sat in the shallow water, fish would swim right up to you. It was pretty cool.
Chankanaab also had a bunch of fake ruins like this one. Unfortunately, the jungle-ish area where the ruins were located was inhabited by hoards of mosquitoes which feasted of me and Carmen (the friend that was enjoying Kate's wedding and cruise with me). SN: Last night I saw the Family Guy episode where Stewie mispronounces the word "ruined" so in my head while I've been typing this, I've been pronouncing ruin as roo-een.
This is Rocky. He split his pants during the "rump shaking" round of the Hairiest Chest contest on the ship's Lido Deck. He didn't win.

This is the Chocolate Melting Cake. (I was super psyched when I searched for a link and discovered this recipe. Someone get me some ramekins stat!) The ice cream came on the side, but I decided to put it on top which was a good decision. I ate this for dessert every night on board the ship except the one night that I decided to have Tiramisu...I regret that night.

Every night we would return to our cabin to find a towel origami. This was my favorite. It's a dog. At port in Miami, we decided to do the South Beach tour excursion which was more like a South Beach drop you off and pick you up later. That thermometer says 105. It might be exaggerating, but it was hot.