26 November 2007

Dream a Little Dream

It's here, it's finally here. I have wanted one of these since I was in college and I started babysitting for the Semmes. Yvette had one on her kitchen counter and Mathilde and I would use it to make homemade brownies. I was in love. I wanted one of my very own. It's the kind of thing you register for when you get married. Since I have no idea when that is going to be, I got tired of waiting and bought one of my own via amazon.com. It was sitting on the front step of my house when I got home from work today. I am now the proud owner of a kitchen-aid stand mixer. The only bad thing is I have to wait a week to use it as I am off to Myrtle Beach this weekend for a conference. I'm still excited that it's here.

22 November 2007

Home for the Holidays


I love Thanksgiving. My friend Megan put it best, "no presents to buy or wrap, no cards to write or shopping to do - just eating and family". In the spirit of the season, here are my top ten things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1. My family - I love and adore my family. They are everything to me. I could list them all, but this post would be pages long.

2. My mom - I adore my whole family, but my mom is the best. As moms are wont to do, she would do anything in her ability for me. She also is great company on loooong car rides and she is an expert at hanging curtains.

3. My cat, Jack - I have moved him from Boston to Louisiana to North Carolina in the span of nine months and he has been a trooper. His purr is magical.

4. My new job - so far so good. This is a great opportunity at a fantastic institution of higher education.

5. My friends - e-mail, myspace, and facebook are great tools to help me stay in touch with all of them. To the friends I've had the longest - Teresa and Michaela, we've gone from letters to emails to blogs and myspace, but its been about 15 years, and sometimes I feel like it was yesterday.

6. Tivo - the best invention ever...thank you Kristen for introducing me to this fantastic piece of technology.

7. Music - all kinds, all styles; whether live, recorded, on stage, in the car, music soothes my soul.

8. Books - classics, brit lit, chick lit, history, tsars, kings, queens, biographies, trashy romance, true crime...I'll read it all.

9. TV on DVD - since I have no cable at the moment (it will be here tomorrow), I am working my way through The West Wing, seasons 1-5, to be followed by The Office, seasons 1&2, and Grey's Anatomy, seasons 1-3.

10. Chocolate - the Aztecs were geniuses...the Belgians are artists. It doesn't matter what type - swiss miss hot chocolate, Godiva, imported European milk chocolate...it's all good.

20 November 2007

The Apartment

I thought I would have found it by now...I haven't. My blog is not intentionally devoid of pictures of my new apartment, my new office, or the glorious structure that is the Chapel here at Duke University. No, no, I just can't seem to put my hands on the darn cable for the camera. I had it in Louisiana because when I moved there I took pics of the apartment and uploaded them to Snapfish. Everything from the apartment got packed and moved to Durham. My mom and I did a walk-through of my apartment before we left Louisiana and there was nothing there. It has to be here...it just isn't in any of the places I have looked. Inevitably it will pop up - after I plunk down $30 for a new cable of course.

So for now, suffice it to say that I love my apartment - it reminds me of the apartment I grew up in on Dora Street, just half the size, as if they took out the hallway and the upstairs bathroom. It is in a cute little neighborhood that is 0.7 miles from work, making it quite possibly the best commute ever (not counting the jobs that required me to live on campus). Jack loves it too - so much more space to explore, although as usual, his favorite place is something a little different. His current space du jour is a box I have in my home office that is not quite done being unpacked. He just curls up in there and chills for hours at a time. He'll have to find a new one soon - I plan on unpacking the rest of that box next week.

08 November 2007

Hiatus

Tomorrow I set out for North Carolina and I can barely contain my excitement. I am so thrilled about my new job and being closer to my friends and family. My internet and cable won't be hooked up for 2 more weeks. So...aside from going to work early or staying late there will be no e-mails and no posts until Thanksgiving time. No General Hospital, no Gossip Girl, CSI, or Grey's Anatomy :( This does leave me time to get acclimated, get back into my work-out routine, and catch up on my reading. This will be the longest I go without tv or internet. It will be an interesting experiment to say the least.

04 November 2007

Coach

I'll be the first to admit it - I wasn't always a football fan. We would go to my grandmother's on Sundays for family dinner and part of that day was spent in the living room with the fireplace going, cheering for some team...usually the Patriots. I didn't get it, I didn't want to, so I made sure that I always had a book with me to keep myself entertained. Yes, I was a geeky kid, and to a degree I still am. My junior year of high school, I inexplicably became obsessed with Notre Dame. I watched the games, I wanted to go there, and I needed to understand how football was played.

This was pre-internet, pre-wikipedia, who to turn to? The biggest football fan I knew, I went upstairs and asked Auntie Jo to explain the game to me. The next Sunday I got a lesson in downs, holding, off-sides, and two-point conversions. I was hooked. I loved the game, I loved the uncertainty that any given Sunday a team could pull off a win. It all played out on tv until I got to grad school.



Ohio State University is one of the elite college football teams. My first year there - I didn't get it. I couldn't wrap my head around why everything stopped from noon until 10pm on Saturdays. Why would people move heaven and earth to be in Columbus on a Saturday? My second year of grad school my roommate, Bridget, coerced me into getting season tickets by explaining that I would never be able to get seats like this for so little money ever again. So I went. To say it was electric would be a gross understatement. There were over 100,000 fans in the stadium, over 100,000 outside the stadium. The air pulsed with the energy from the OSU faithful. Rock concerts have a similar vibe, but do not compare to feeling in the Horseshoe on a Saturday. I am eternally grateful to Bridget for dragging me there - in rain or shine to see the Buckeyes play.

Why do I wax philosophical on football this weekend? Because my OSU Buckeyes and New England Patriots are still undefeated this season. After a shaky first half, the Buckeyes rolled over Wisconsin in the second half for a win and the Patriots fought and pulled out a win over Indianapolis. Any given Sunday.
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