Friday Fun

This is how I felt about my new car :)

Karma

So I have sorely neglected my teeth for the past few years. Not that I don't brush, floss, and rinse twice a day, I do. I just have been very very very bad about scheduling, you know, an actual dentist appointment. I finally scheduled one (yes, I have been in Durham for 2 years) and my teeth got cleaned and I had x-rays taken and uh-oh...cavities. So I ventured back to the dentist today for 4, yes FOUR, fillings all on my left side. I was being punished for not going to the dentist for 3 years. It was hard to find someone to replace Dr. Cavicchio. In the most basic terms, she rocks. Previous to going to her, I didn't really have great experiences with dentists. I still remember my first dentist from when I was a child. I must have been 6 or 7 and after he cleaned my teeth, he called my mother in and said one of my teeth needed to be pulled. I had never had a tooth pulled before and I saw the novocaine needle and I freaked out. I started sobbing hysterically. Now, this was a pediatric dentist so you would think he would have had the skills to calm me down and make me more comfortable about the procedure. Oh no. He yelled at me. He told me to knock it off and that we needed to get moving. Needless to say, after that visit we never saw that dentist again.

My new dentist is great. He did a great job with my initial exam and talking to me about what problems currently existed with my teeth. We had a lovely chat about the adult teeth that I never had (and the reason I had braces - we needed to close the gaps after the baby teeth were gone). Oh, and did I mention he is gorgeous. Yes, my dentist is a doll. If you asked me to describe a sweet Southern boy, I would describe him. He's young (only out of school a few years, but he is part of a well established practice in the area) but very nice, no yelling or anything. As we went step by step through everything this afternoon and he shot my mouth full of novocaine, he constantly asked if everything was okay, was I in pain, and updating me on what he was doing. For having to get four cavities filled, having him do it was not a problem.

Hiatus is Over

I didn't mean to stop blogging for the past couple of weeks. Life managed to intervene and my focus has been elsewhere. For the first time in over 8 years I have set foot in a classroom. I've always loved school and learning. So I am excited about being back in classes. I just finished my second week at NCSU. My Finance of Higher Education class combines some basic economic theory with policies and practices of funding in higher education. For all the talk about economics in the class, it's actually kind of interesting. Research Methods is interesting too, but it's going to be a lot of work. I have to write Lit Reviews for both classes which means a lot of extra reading on top of the weekly class readings. Oh, yeah, and I have to start my research.

For those of you who have been following along, I have struggled with my research topic. I didn't know if I wanted to go back to student behavior or maybe look at student perceptions of privacy laws, I just was undecided. In class on Monday, the professor explained that it should be something you have an interest in, but don't expect a bolt out of the blue and a flash of inspiration. Dang, if that's not what happened to me. Having worked with performing arts students at several institutions and having been a dancer myself, I want to research the experiences of performing arts students. I don't want to go into too much detail as it's still early and I need to do some preliminary work, but I'm excited about the topic, which is important if I'm going to live with this for several years.

Work has also picked up lately - my students started their first week of classes at Duke this week and there have been many e-mails and phone calls and questions. Not that it's a bad thing, I've just been burning the candle at both ends and I haven't really sorted out my new school/work routine yet. My goal for this weekend since I have no errands to run and no plans to speak of is to get my homework schedule straightened out and caught up on all the reading from last week and this coming week as well as start searching the library resources for information on my topic.

Busy busy busy, but isn't "back to school" time always like that?

I love Sonic

I really really really wish that there was a Sonic here in Durham. I fell in love with them when I was still in school. I was at a NACURH conference in Colorado and Cindy and Angela were going on a search to find a Sonic. They found one! And brought me back my first Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke. It is heavenly. I think it is quite possibly my favorite non-alcoholic beverage. If there was a Sonic in Durham, I would probably be stopping there every day. Not for food (although the food is tasty, especially the tots), but for a Rte 44 Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke. There was a Sonic on my way home when I lived in Louisiana. I've been in withdrawal ever since. There are Sonics in North Carolina, but not in Durham. There are some out in the Greensboro area and also as you head toward the beach. There are also a handful in the Raleigh/Cary area. None are convenient though. Until now. There is one located on the other side of the North Carolina State campus. It's still not entirely convenient, but it's not completely out of the way. Woohoo!

Friday Fun

Thursday Recipe

For those of you who don't know, I am of Italian descent (as well as some Portuguese and some French) and I love Italian food. I grew up with Grandma's spaghetti and red sauce on Sundays and antipasto on Christmas Eve. I found this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis for a summer pasta dish. It's excellent (as most of her recipes are). I did however make one substitution. Not being a fan of red peppers, I switched those out and used sun dried tomatoes instead. Although I normally am not a fan of tomatoes, I love the sun dried ones.

Ingredients

• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• 3 cups purchased garlic-flavored croutons, (about 5 ounces)
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds (about 1 ounce), toasted
• 1 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl.

Place the croutons and the almonds in a food processor. Pulse until it becomes the texture of bread crumbs. Add the crouton and almond mixture to the hot pasta. Add the tomatoes and the olive oil. Toss to combine and serve.

Two Days of Nothing...Redux

Hmmm, so my two days of doing absolutely nothing this weekend turned into 2 very hectic days. It started last Thursday when my car decided to come close to overheating on my way to work. When I parked at Duke there was hissing and steam and such coming from under the hood. Since steam and hissing emanating from your car is never a good thing, I realized I couldn't drive it and needed to have it checked out.

After some days of maneuvering my car situation so I could get to work, I finally got the car towed to Hyundai to be checked out and I was handed some very bad news. Apparently the radiator in my little Hyundai had burst. Burst as in exploded. Blew up. Definitely no longer functional which made my little car basically inoperable. Who knew? I certainly didn't know such a thing was possible, seeing as how my knowledge of cars ranks up there with my knowledge of quantum physics and my fluency in Pashto.

Since they were going to have to replace the radiator as well as some other parts that had gotten warped due to the intense heat under the hood, I came to the realization that the repairs were going to cost well more than the car was actually worth.

So, I went out and got a new car. Some of you may be thinking, you can't just go get a car. Well, if you have good credit, by golly you can. Who knew getting a car was so easy? I went in to the packed Honda dealership (Cash for Clunkers is apparently very popular, especially as young'uns are headed back to school in a few short weeks...). I met with a sales rep, told him what I wanted, they ran my credit, and voila. My new car:


It's a 2009 Honda Civic. They had a beautiful charcoal grey colored one on the lot and I loved the color. It has a fun looking digital dashboard and tons of interior space. I love it. Not so sure I love having a car payment again, but I am definitely a fan of the new wheels.

So that was my Saturday. Lost a car, found a car, made my way home and fell asleep. It was kind of an exhausting day. I then had to cram the stuff I wanted to do on Saturday into my Sunday. So what followed on Sunday was a whirlwind of Mass, Julie&Julia, shopping (redeemed many free coupons for samples I got in the mail last week - Victoria's Secret, Aveda, etc...), post office, bank, Target, and some actual work that I had brought home from the office.

The main point of Sunday (apart from Mass, which felt sooo good to go to as I have not been in far too long) is that you need to run, don't walk, run to your nearest cineplex and see Julie&Julia. Wonderful, Funny, Genius, Meryl Streep!!!, Stanley Tucci, Julia Child, good food, and Paris. It was definitely money well spent and a great great great movie. Go see it!

Two Days Off and Nothing to Do

I am so excited that I actually have nothing to do this weekend. Which means there is a whole host of options out there. Maybe dinner with friends on Saturday, or a movie, or just curling up on the couch with a book. I'm currently on a mystery kick and after rereading a few Agatha Christie's I decided I wanted something new, so I picked up the Complete Sherlock Holmes. I've never read any of Conan Doyle's stuff before and although I've decided that I prefer Agatha Christie, this Sherlock Holmes stuff isn't half bad. I like to puzzle things out, so it's fun to play along.

What I definitely intend on doing is seeing Julie&Julia at the movie theatre. It's supposed to be blazing hot and incredibly humid here this weekend. What better way to spend a scorching weekend afternoon than at the movies? I grew up watching Julia Child on PBS every Saturday. I loved it. I loved her accent, I loved her humor. Even at 6, 7, 8 years old, I could tell she had a great sense of humor and she loved what she was doing. It would be a nice trip down memory lane to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child for a few hours.

Friday Fun

Thursday Recipe

Last weekend I had dinner with a friend and was in the mood to try a new drink, something different than my usual margarita or glass of wine. I decided on the Old Fashioned and it was good. It instantly became my new favorite drink. There are a couple of variations on it, but I think this one comes closest to the one I had at Firebird's.

Ingredients
1.5 oz bourbon
1/2 oz club soda
2 orange slices
2 maraschino cherries
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions
Muddle one orange slice, one maraschino cherry, and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a high ball glass. Fill glass 3/4 with ice. Add bourbon and a splash of club soda. Garnish with additional orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Enjoy!