Asheville, I love you

It's always been a dream of mine to be ms. mountain woman, but it just hasn't worked out too well. I love the outdoors and I love camping and I love hiking and swimming and rafting and being in the mountains, but I'm just not very knowledgeable about all of the important out-doorsy things. It's quite a drag. But I make the most of it and do what I can, that's why Claire and I made an adventurous trip to Asheville this summer! Here's some things we did.

 drove through the mountains

Stopped on the side of the road to enjoy the scenery

Stopped on the side of the road to pop a squat

  

Wore extra-large granny panties (I forgot to bring underwear)

 

Hiked along a river

 

Stumbled upon waterfalls

 

ate lunch on a tree

 

used my chacos to their greatest potential

 

Sat by the stream

 

lounged in our tent while it rained

 

attempted to build a fire

.... and somehow we managed to survive without getting eaten by bears or starving to death, so I guess that's a good sign! I LOVE THE MOUNTAINS!

I've started my cat collection

Binx... She is probably the best cat I've ever had. She's absolutely adorable. She's not the prettiest cat in the world but her outstanding personality makes up for her not-so-good looks. She's extra fat with a tiny tiny head. She's black and has yellow eyes and she weighs about 10 pounds. She loooooves humans and will always let you hold her for as long as you want. She will cuddle with you constantly and never bites or scratches. In the morning, she'll dash into the bathroom with you before you can even shut the door and then she'll jump on your lap while you sit on the toilet. It's quite annoying, but funny. She's always hungry and will try to eat your food right out of your hand, so you got to watch out. She's a pretty great kitty.

     

                                 Binx's new favorite spot        Kiwi, wanting to shoot us because we dressed her up

Kiwi... She is probably the meanest, most human-hating cat I have ever met. But Kiwi's got the good looks. She's only 4 pounds, and she's grey with a white patch on her chest. She's still fuzzy like a kitten and has big round, yellow eyes. Despite her cute, cuddly good-looks, she hates sitting on laps, hates being touched or pet and hates being held. She simply uses humans to get food. She does love binx, though. They cuddle and play all the time. Kiwi is Binx's best friend, which is pretty much the only reason I keep her. She meows at you all the time because she wants to be fed and all I ever want to do is kick her. However, she's just so simply adorable, no matter how much she hates me, I still love her.

Cooking!

About a week ago, Drew and I decided to cook dinner. I was nervous about it because the last thing I cooked turned out HORRIBLE! I was inspired to start cooking after watching the movie Julie and Julia (which everyone should go see). It was a pasta bolognese that got a million good reviews on food network and I managed to mess it up. I'm not sure what I did wrong other than forget to add garlic, but it was the most tasteless pasta I have ever tasted! It's such a bummer to make all that food and spend all that money and then not like it. Anyway, we chose to make something called Country French Chicken, with a side of tomato feta salad and some sugar snap peas. It was delicious! Here's what it looked like:

I had found this wine at the grocery store called cupcake and I just haaadd to try it! So I got cupcake wine and Drew found a wine called Red Bicyclette so he got that! (Drew works at a Bicycle store). That was pretty funny to me... we were drinking our work places!

So the dinner turned out to be a success! (even though Drew is already thinking up ways to make it better). It was fun and it has inspired me to cook more. I just got the Cooking Light cookbook and I have already been cooking from it! It's fabulous!

OH... and here's what Drew looks like when he eats Country French Chicken hahaha

My new house!

I moved into a new house about a month ago and I pretty much love it. I live with two fabulous roommates, Allison and Claire. As well as with two fabulous cats, Binx and Kiwi. My requirements for a house were 1. Good location 2.Lots of windows 3. a great porch and 4. hardwood floors (and of course, a reasonable rent). I got it all!!! It's a beautiful old downtown Charleston house. My old house was alright but it was carpeted, which made it feel yucky, the outside was nasty because only college kids live there and it had barely any windows... talk about feeling confined! Now I feel open and free. My cats do too! They love all the windows and we leave the door open a lot so they can look out the screen door and feel the outside air. Actually, in our old house my one cat, Kiwi, would pee on our beds all the time so she was banned from entering our rooms. Now, in our new home, she has not peed our beds once! I think that's a sign that she loves it here too!

Now, even though I love my new house there are definitely a few quirks. For instance, the fire alarm goes off all the time! Last night I was cooking dinner and I was preheating the oven, NOTHING WAS IN IT, and the fire alarm started going off!!! It has probably gone off 6 times since we have lived here and we haven't even cooked that much! Another thing, our washing machine flooded when we first started using it and instead of fixing it, our handyman just told us we can't go any higher than a medium load... I guess that means no procrastinating on my laundry anymore! Our kitchen is very hot and our refrigerator and dishwasher are way too small. Nonetheless, everything works out and we are managing more than okay here!

Of course, I have to mention my room. I love being in my room. It has three windows, a pretty good size closet and an handy dandy storage area. I have a great comforter on my bed, as you can see. I adore it. I especially love the lamp that sits next to my bed and of course, my lovely dresser. It's a very old dresser and the drawers are extremely hard to pull out and they make loud screeching noises whenever you do, but I love it! My dad calls it "a piece of crap" but I think it has a lot of character. He actually got it with some house he bought decades ago. But I like the way it looks and I enjoy thinking about all the weirdos who may have used it before me.

The Lovely Lake

I was so lucky to be able to go visit my lake house this summer! I absolutely love it there. I love everything about it. The water, the dock, the kitchen, the porches, the boat, the water skiing, the family, the sound of the jet skis, the fishing, the canoeing, the kayaking, the sailing!!! Even the hiking and the strawberry picking! Its amazing! I even love the drive there, through the mountains, listening to Rilo Kiley or Tim McGraw, with my windows rolled down and the fresh mountain air blowing on my face. It makes me happy every time.

SUMMER 2009!

Oh summertime... how I miss you already. My summer was great this year. I wasn't so excited about it in the beginning because most of my fun adventurous friends were traveling abroad to places like Spain, Thailand, England and Italy!! JEALLOUSS! Here I was.. stuck in Charleston... working... alone. Luckily my few friends that were left and I made the most of it and partied like it was 1999! (not really, but kind of).

I don't know WHAT I would have done without my lovely little cupcake co-workers who kept me company during those long working days when the store was filled with chatty little tourists asking their curious little tourist questions. Where's a good place to eat? What should we do here in Charleston? How do you get to Hymans? Where's the best shopping around here? My ultimate favorite: "OH MY GOD WE WALKED 5 MILES JUST TO GET HERE!" and we ask, "Oh yeah? Where'd you walk from?".... "The market", they reply. AAAHH! The market is only a few blocks away! Silly tourists.. oh well, it's pretty entertaining, anyway.

When I wasn't working I was at the beach, of course, soaking up the sun. At night I was usually spending time at my favorite neighborhood bar, AC's. Only the best place in town. They have the cheapest drinks and ALWAYS have a good crowd. On the weekends however, it can get too crowded. So crowded that you can barley walk through and it takes about 15 minutes just to get a drink. Miserable.

I wish I could have gone home a little bit more than I did, but unfortunately, cupcakes were ruling my life. I went home in the beginning of the summer and rode the GREYHOUND! It was quite the experience, but luckily no one ever sat next to me and I slept the entire way (it was overnight). I was so lucky and fortunate to return to Charleston with a brand-new, black, Toyota Corolla!!! It's fabulous, I love it! AND it even has power locks and windows! (which I did not think my dad would be willing to include in the deal).

Class Started!

Classes started yesterday! My first one was yesterday evening... it was "Teaching Health and Physical Education". I was probably the most curious about this class because I had no idea what it would be like. I found out yesterday that I will absolutely love it! I love my professor. He's this funny old man who has a very strong Wisconsin accent. He's super smart and knows a lot about psychology, which is one of my favorite subjects. I got the idea that this class will be kind of like a health psychology class geared towards teaching. I will be learning about how to incorporate good health and a lot of movement in my classroom. He's great and funny and I already ADORE him!

My second class was this morning. It was "Teaching for Diverse Learners". This class seems a bit intimidating, mainly because my teacher seems very hardcore and talked A LOT, but we'll see how it goes!

Starting to blog...

So I decided to start a blog. I tried to do this once before and it didn't work out too well. BUT it was for a class and I was assigned questions to answer each week. Let's just say due to my lack of blogging for that class, my grade went from an A to a B. Hopefully this time I'll keep up with it a little bit better! I was inspired by my two lovely friends, Olivia and Tess. Olivia started a blog this summer and it's so entertaining to read and it was a great way to keep up with her life while she was away for the summer. Tess just moved to Australia and I have been reading her blog about her exciting adventures, which I LOVE! SO... I am now starting a blog and will be writing about everything I love in life. Hopefully it will be a success!