Exit 281, Miami Blvd

Serena's Restaurant & Grill

Absolutely fabulous lunch and dinner spot in RTP. I loved the menu and had the Portabello Pannini. The decor is hip and city chic which is a nice surprise in the concrete jungle of the RTP strip mall.


Yum!

Hanging out in the stacks...with my dolce cinnamon frappacino

Okay, if you don't already know this about me: I love to read. I will periodically camp out in Barnes in Noble for 5-8 hrs and just scan through stacks and stacks of magazines and books to see what interesting things turn up.

Awesome results from yesterday!

www.bbc.co.uk/languages I am very excited about this one because I'm always trying to find new ways to brush up on my Spanish AND I have a secret desire to learn Mandarin.

If your language of choice is French, check this fabulous site out! I wish there was a Spanish version. www.frenchpodclass.com

MIT has FREE ONLINE CLASSES.

I only glanced at this site but it looks great, too. HOORAY!!

www.ocw.mit.edu

Drew

I like Drew Berrymore's characters, lately.

She does quirky, fun characters with great personalities really well. She is completely believable in those roles.

I also love the clothes her wardrobe puts on her. It is so fun to see all the new outfits.

Total kindred spirit.

What I've been doing instead of posting.

I had a fabulous time in South Carolina. While I was in Greenville for a foodshow, I got to spend time with my cousins, Reuban and Amy, Jonathan & their kids, Noah, Noel, & Luke. The weekend in Charleston brought time with Danielle & Daniel, Amy, Sam, Ginny, Angela & Melody.
Noah & Noel with Amy in downtown Greenville right before I left for Columbia.

Travel Girl

I've been in Florence & Columbia, SC; Charleston and now on to Georgia!

It has been fun...

Here's a small story:

We went out to a great restaurant in Greenville, SC that is Chad's favorite place in town (he grew up there) and after dinner we came out to see paparazzi setting up their cameras and moving them back into the shadows. They were waiting to catch a glimpse of George Clooney and Renee Z. filming "Leatherbacks". It was so weird to see those types in downtown Greenville.

This is a picture of one of my favorite places in South Carolina.

Carrboro Throwback

John flew in from Cincinnati tonight and the whole family got together at Elmo's Diner for dinner.

It is great to have him home for a few days!

"The Girliest Super Bowl Party Ever" Pics

Our fabulous hostesses. The theme colors were purple this year.

This was my outfit for BOTH of the football parties I attended!

The whole crowd during half-time. Of course, that was the only part that we really watched.

March Madness Photo Shoot

It was 7am and 25 degrees outside but look how cute we are!
Left to Right: Eddie, Crissy, Kim, Jonesy, Nelvin, Jaimie, and Me.

Show & Tell

Cole sent me the pictures he took on his camera phone from our class during Parents' Night Out. How can you get cuter than this one?

Now I know what Eddie meant when he said that all of us working with the kids looked tired at the end of the night! I called Andrea for a haircut within the hour of looking at this photo!
I thought this picture of Zyangel summed the night up perfectly!

Found in the Urban Dictionary

"1. for granted
taking someone/something for granted is a certainty of the status quo.

We take the air we breathe and the water we drink for granted, just as the sun and the moon!!"

I am finding more and more that I talk a lot but I'm not always good with words. I just assume that the people I care about know how I feel about them. However, that seems to not be true more and more. I guess it is correct that no one can read your mind.

Adventures in Babysitting

Somehow, I ended up taking Jonesy's place with the elementary boys tonight at the aXcess sponsored Parents' Date Night. For $5 per kid, the parents could drop them off at the church from 6-10pm and we entertained them.

I was wearing a long, velvet skirt and had sheepdog puppet, Vito, expecting to be hugging 5 year olds. Instead, I ended up with a bunch of ROWDY 8-11 year olds. At one point, when a brawl broke out in the middle of a game of trainwreck, I was trying to verbally break it up but it was like flies on food on a hot summer's day. More and more just kept joining. I was standing over the huge, writhing pile of boys and finally said, "Don't make me come down there and pull you off of each other. That would be embarassing to get wrestled to the ground by a girl."

BAD choice of words. It was taken as a challenge.

They yelled, "OKAY! LET'S DO IT" and, "GET HER!" Then, two grabbed me from behind and three reached up, almost pulling me down into the pile. Cole had to literally pull them off of me.

Kids are so fun. That's what I get for putting Amy & Chris's nephews in airplane spins when I first came into the room.

Raw Fingers, Happy Heart

I have a new inspiration.

The Taylor 710-L9

I spent two hours playing tonight.

We Beat Duke!!

Watched at Champp's. There were 16 of us at a table for ten.

Unrelated article today in The New York Times. That Coach K, what a nice guy...

350 lb. Man in a Statue of Liberty Suite

That's what I saw as I was driving down Shannon Rd. past Winnsong Theater in Durham with the sales rep I was working with today. He wasn't holding a sign or anything letting drivers know why he would feel it necessary to wear a velvet green dress and a crown. Just standing by the bus stop with his right arm held up in the air.

Part of my job includes new restaurants...Here are some great ones I'd like to go back and check out on my own time:

Piper's Deli off University Drive in Durham, Tomato Jake's by the Southpoint Target (They'll DELIVER!!), & The Barbeque Joint in Chapel Hill.

Matt got me thinking about a book I read in 7th Grade, The Journey by jame Michener. I'll have to do another post on that someother time

Psalm 27

It has become very clear that I need more of the Word of God in my life. I decided to start by learning Psalm 27. Today when I was at the gym I got these lines memorized:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation -whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid.

When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemy and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, I will remain confident.

One thing I ask of the Lord; this is what I seek- That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and seek Him in his temple." ______________________

The Super Bowl parties went well. I'll post pictures later. These pictures I took at one of my favorite coffee shops a few weeks ago.

___________________

Tonight, I cooked for my soon to be famous chef friend, Charleigh, and we watched "To Catch a Fire". It was pretty good but I still liked "Blood Diamond" more.

_______________________
I'm currently reading Bush at War by Bob Woodward. (He exposed the Whitewater Scandal that got Nixon kicked out of office.) This book is supposed to be very unbiased and both the Bush and the Kerry Campaigns suggested voters read this to better understand the war in Iraq during the 2004 Presidential Elections. It is a part of a trilogy series he did and I am brushing up for Sandra & Jim's campaign. Get the merchandise.

Almost Perfect

The past few days have been SO nice. Mainly, because I have given myself the room to breathe and actually done some things just for me.

Thursday, Lucinda and I met Charleigh at an Indian Restaurant in Downtown Durham and then meet Ashley at the musical, Godspell. Canceled the Innamorato meeting we had schedule Friday afternoon and got A LOT of work done at my house. (Check out our first two submissions!) I put in new shelves in my closet, did LOADS and LOADS of laundry, updated the aXcess blog, and finished scheduling my work week. Around 9, I went to Jason's to watch the movie, Groundhog Day, with he and Matt in honor of Feb. 2nd (more in honor of Matt's return). I hadn't seen it since I was 13 so I remembered nothing about the movie and it was SO FUNNY. I think what made it hilarious to me is that I have stayed in so many small towns in the middle of nowhere in a bed and breakfast for business trips so I was looking at it from the perspective of, "Wow, I can totally relate. What WOULD you do if you were reliving the same day OVER AND OVER AND OVER in a strange town. Or if your co-worker was going crazy." I'm also too young to remember Bill Murray movies so it is all new to me. I know this is crazy but I have never seen Caddy Shack!

Today I stayed home from the ACC workday and just had a really relaxing day taking care of the stuff I needed to get done. I also really enjoy grocery shopping on Saturdays mid-morning. It is fabulous, somehow. Especially at TARGET! I caught up with some of my girlfriends on the phone, baked for the superbowl parties tomorrow night, a ton of other stuff with a nap in between, caught up on the Relevant Magazine podcast and Seacoast Sermons and then got ready for LR's birthday party. It was a great thing to go to dinner at 5pm and then be home by 8pm. Jaimie came over and she hung out while I finished making the party food and did laundry. I feel SO much more relaxed!

I am starting to realize that just because I have the ability to do something doesn't necessarily mean that I need to do it. I forget how nice it is to just chill and spend time one on one instead of big crowds all the time! I'm now laying on my couch in front of the fire...getting very sleepy!

UNC-105, Miami-64: The Inner Court

It was a AMAZING surprise to find out that our tickets for the game last night were in special a special row of chairs that is set up on the court in front of the student risers behind the home goal!! We've been dreaming about sitting lower level all season but this was the ULTIMATE. The press photographers sat in front of us.

During the first half, the ball came sailing out of bounds, fell through all the outstretched hands eagerly trying to catch it, and bounced off the top of my head!
Dad caught an out of bounds ball in the second half.

A Carolina Girl's Dream

Ceeece, Dad, & my faces made it on the Jumbo-tron. When I got home I had this message from Reba, an old InterVarsity friend that I haven't seen in a few years!
The team hit 100 pts. so I think Ceeece, Lance & Eddie headed to Bojangles today for free biscuits. (Eddie didn't actually wear a lei to the game. I didn't get pictures but still wanted to mark he & Lance's presence!)

This fabulously creative student's shirt was in honor of #22 Wes Miller.

...
I think I know some men who need a Paul Walker Man Crush Shirt!