GLEE

I return from a few weeks of silence to share the following :30 seconds of gloriousness. Gloriousness? Hmm. How about glory.



Best of all, since it is SEPTEMBER already (!), we are only 2 1/2 weeks away from the season premiere. Fall is here, my dears.*

And that's how Sue C's it.


* Except for the whole 93 degree weather thing.

A place where the grass is really greener

Last week, Jen, Suzanne and I traveled out to Southern California to visit Erin and Jessica.  For the last few years, we've traveled down to Santa Rosa Beach for a group trip, but we couldn't wait to visit our friends in their new, beautiful homes!

First, we went to Irvine, where the Hills live.  We went for a run (so nice in the cool 70-degree Orange County weather!), had breakfast at Coffee Bean and went shopping at the Spectrum.  We toured their apartment complex - like a five-star resort!

We had lunch on a rooftop in Laguna Beach, roasted s'mores at a bonfire at Corona del Mar, and ate THE BEST fish tacos in Newport Beach.  And we had wheatgrass shots...

After two wonderful days in Irvine, we hopped in the car and headed down the coast to San Diego, where the Hughes live!  We wandered through downtown and shopped at Seaport Village.

We went to La Jolla and went kayaking in the ocean, complete with a cave tour and sea lion sightings.

We ate dinner in Little Italy, visited Balboa Park, and spent a delightful day wandering the Hotel Del Coronado and laying out in the sand.

It was just a perfect, lovely trip.  I am so grateful for these sweet friends!  Can't wait for our next adventure!

p.s. Erin wrote another great recap of the trip - check it out at Forever Summer!

Days go by

“And days go by
I can feel 'em flyin'
Like a hand out the window in the wind.”

Keith Urban


This summer has flown by...flown!  I feel like I was just at Lake Oconee for Memorial Day weekend.  Actually, I feel like I was just moving home from New York, but that was almost nine months ago.

Atlanta summer has been great, and fun, and full.  I've taken trips to Lake Jackson and Lake Martin with friends from middle school.  I spent ten days in New York City, where I watched fireworks for the 4th of July and rode around on a double decker bus for Cow Appreciation Day.  I've gone to the pool with my mom on many lazy Saturdays, been out to eat Mexican more times than I can count, and even had a slumber party with girlfriends from high school.  It's been a whirlwind, but I can't imagine a better welcome back to the South.

And now, tomorrow, I'm off on one last adventure, perhaps my biggest one of all!  I'm heading out with these sweet friends...

...to visit Erin and Sean in Orange County and Jessica and Matt in San Diego.  My bags are packed, the kayak adventure tickets are purchased, and the CD is burned.

California, here we come!

One Memorable Day

I just started reading David Nicholls' One Day, a novel that chronicles one couple's relationship over twenty years.  The book begins with July 15, 1993, the first day the couple met, and then checks in on them on each July 15 for the next two decades.

The reviews I've read are excellent, but on the first page of the book is the following Charles Dickens quote from Great Expectations.  Before I even started chapter 1, I knew I was hooked.

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

Ohhhh, how I love this idea, this truth!  That one day - one memorable day - can surprise you and change the course of your life forever.

The day I received a big white envelope with a red stripe in the corner from the UGA Admissions office

The day I bought a one way ticket from ATL to LGA

The day I filled out an application to work at Chick-fil-A

And you start to wonder.  What if that day is today?  Or tomorrow?  Or the day after that?  Or next Friday? 

Any day, including today, could be that one memorable day.

I love that.

I still love you, New York

"Well, I shuffled through the city on the 4th of July."

Ryan Adams, "New York, New York"


I'm going to New York City tomorrow!

Why, yes, you are correct.  I was just there in May!  But I am going back for work - Cow Appreciation Day - so I might as well tack on a long holiday weekend.  Right?  Right! 

(p.s. New Yorkers - On C.A.D., July 9, there may or may not be a double-decker bus, cows and Chick-fil-A sandwiches involved in the festivities.  Don't say I didn't inform you.)

I'm thrilled to be in the city, to see my friends, to celebrate the 4th of July there for, let's see...the sixth! time in seven years.  Ahh yes, it just feels right.  And to add the other love of my life, Chick-fil-A, to the mix?  It may not get better than this.

Have a great holiday!  I leave you with a few pics from my last trip, which was simply delightful. 

Gentlemen, this is the final rose. Ali, when you're ready.

I don't read spoilers, so if you do, don't tell me what you know!  But here are my guesses for the rest of the season of The Bachelorette:

Tonight, Justin (aka Rated R) is the one with the girlfriend and will go home. What a jerk. Craig will be the other one to get the boot, because even as you're reading this, you're not 100% which one he is.

This will leave Cape Cod Chris, Ty, Frank, Roberto and Kirk. They will get picked off in this order, leaving Roberto and Kirk as the final two, with Kirk the winner and Roberto as the next Bachelor. For what it's worth, Cape Cod Chris is my favorite, but he'll go because Ali doesn't think they have enough "romantic chemistry" (most likely something she will decide after they make out in a hot tub for an awkward while).  And, in the end, Frank's going to turn out to be emotionally unstable, or too intense, or psycho.

Oh, and - obviously - Kirk and Ali will be in love at the "After the Final Rose" ceremony, but will break up within 10-12 weeks.

What do you think?!  No spoilers, please!

Mangez bien

One of my favorite hobbies is eating out, which is most unfortunate for my waistline but quite fortunate for just about all other facets of my life.  I love the hunt of finding a new restaurant - oh, the Googling! the review reading! the website analyzing! - but I also adore frequenting old favorite places, having a routine and being able to recommend to your company what's good and what's great. And to be a "regular," like at Cheers, where everybody knows your name? Well, that may just be one of life's finest accomplishments.

So yes, I love to dine at restaurants.  I love the experience of perusing a menu, of admiring the decor, of finding a really charming little nook or perhaps an adorably decorated bathroom.  And I never mind waiting 30 minutes or even an hour for a great meal - just sit down and chat, or pull up a stool at the bar and have a drink!  And hello!  When you eat at a restaurant you don't have to cook, which may be a downside for you but is a monumental plus for me.

But it perhaps goes without saying that the best part of eating out is the conversation that happens over dinner, the sense of community that occurs when you break bread with one or two or ten dear friends.  I love the belly-aching laughs, the stories, the memories you make when you share a really good meal with someone.  Eating out, for me, is all about creating a moment, a moment you just...enjoy...and maybe even remember forever. 

It's eating with family and friends on the roof of Six Feet Under, enjoying the skyline view and fish tacos and remembering why it is that you moved home in the first place.  It's dinner at Bistro Niko with coworkers, where you start to realize over roasted chicken that they're becoming friends, too.  It's Two Urban Licks with friends visiting from New York, and feeling a sense of pride for your your new, chic city and its stellar cocktails.  It's a dinner of meat and cheese and bacon-wrapped figs with old friends at The Iberian Pig - where I went last night - that helps you realize that you're going to be okay in this whole new life in Atlanta thing.

So cheers! Salud! Prost!  I'm off to explore Atlanta, to find new fun spots that can fast become old favorites. Would you care to join?  There's always room at the table.


“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.”

Julia Child

Cannot wait.

Don't get me wrong.  I love me some crazy Bachelorette (um, Kasey? Weatherman? WHAT THE HECK!), and So You Think You Can Dance gives me chill bumps, but this...well, this one's in a league of its own.

Things I Love...

About summer:

Strawberries are in season
Flip flops
Going to the lake
It stays light until after 9pm!
Bright toenail polish
Eating outside (we went here this weekend - fun!)
Good movies in the theater
Being tan

Things I do not love about summer:

Mosquitoes
Humidity

That is all.

The Big Picture

Confession: I follow 115 blogs.

I don't really have a sense of whether, in the bloggy world, that's super high or maybe kind of normal.  I'm guessing the former but hoping the latter.

Regardless, thanks to Google Reader, I manage reading my 115 blogs relatively easily.  I'm constantly pruning, deleting blogs that have crept up to double or triple-digit unread posts.  And I add new ones almost every week, often discovered from the links of friends or friends of friends.

So, since I've developed quite a little library of favorite blogs - on topics from home design to food to faith, and everything in between - I thought I might share some of them with you to add to your own Google Reader feeds.  (And if you don't use Google Reader? Well, that's a different post.) 

First up, The Big Picture, a photo blog from the Boston Globe.

The Big Picture is, simply put, awesome...and I mean it.  This blog will actually stir up awe inside you.  According to their About Me, "The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting."

Here's a photo from their post on the the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland:

(REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Their photos of animals caught in the oil in the Gulf brought tears to my eyes.  And I loved their post in March featuring a series of before and after photos of Earth Hour from around the globe.  Very cool.

Enjoy The Big Picture!