Independence Day plans!

It's official! Jake and I have made plans for the 4th of July. We will be driving up to our nation's capital for the celebration of our nation's birthday! And to top it all off, we will get to visit one of my dearest friends, Lark, who is so nice to let us come stay with her for the weekend at her apartment in Arlington, VA. This will be Jake's first trip to D.C. and his first time meeting Lark, and since the 4th is one of my most favorite holidays, we are both pretty excited! We will be leaving Thursday and coming back Sunday, and we plan on being complete tourists while we're there! Nice lil weekend trip if you ask me!

What are your plans for the 4th of July?

Orange kitties

Look at these handsome boys. The two best cats in the world!

Hahaha

Ever wonder what happens when Jake is left alone with a camera?

That's what.

A Saturday Night In

Saturday night, Jake and I stayed in and watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and enjoyed some beer, wine, and M&M's. I had some Alice White Riesling and Jake got to enjoy his favorite treat. Good times!

101 Things To Do in 1001 Days

Inspired by my dearest Jake, and this website, the list I've developed and posted to the left is my attempt at the Day Zero Project, which is, according to the site, a unique meme that challenges and inspires you to set and complete realistic goals in life.

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

I am going to begin my 1001 day countdown the same day as Jake, which will be July 1st, 2009, with the end date being March 28, 2012. My list still needs a little work, but I'll have it finalized by then!

Surprise!

While I was in Charleston, Jake looked after my cats, and when I got home, there was a beautiful orange surprise waiting for me! And they smelled good, too.

Charleston Weekend!

Two weekends ago, I joined my dear friends Mandy and Crystal for a fun trip to Charleston, where we were able to stay with Mandy's friend, Paige, at her house down there. Thanks, Paige! We enjoyed ourselves TREMENDOUSLY! ...which is to be expected. We always have a good time.

Friday night, we ate at a sushi place, though I had General Tso's chicken, since I am not a sushi fan, and it was delicious! Then, we met up with Nicole's sister, Rachel, and her boyfriend, Tyler, for some drinks at Kickin' Chicken.

Saturday morning, we spent time on Folly beach, and we were able to get some sun! And as you can see from my earlier post, my white legs needed some desperately. Mission accomplished. I also got my picture taken with this awesome parrot! The bird's name was Wacko, and she apparently cannot say "Pretty Bird" even though she is, in fact, a pretty bird.

Then we went to lunch at Taco Boy which was mmm mmm good! I had a chorizo and potato taco and a chicken taco. Sooo yummy! However, the best part of our trip was probably Saturday night... first, a delicious dinner at The Noisy Oyster... I had clam strips and scallops. I. Love. Seafood.

THEN, and here is the BEST best part....................... we made our way over to Henry's and wandered on in, had a drink, and wandered on upstairs for the "live music" at 10 pm. Turns out, we all have a new favorite guitarist/singer.... JAMISUN! This guy was thoroughly entertaining and kept us there all night with his ability to play anything we requested.... with the exception of Taylor Swift. Even though he did play "Tim McGraw" for about 2 seconds. :) Anyway, we had a table right in front of where he was playing, and we sang along with him all night long. We are now facebook friends with him, and he has since let us know that we made him feel like a rockstar. Mission accomplished. Not only could he play all our requests, but we all fell in love with two of his original songs, "Facade" and "Perfect". He mostly plays in Charleston, however, Mandy, Crystal, and I are going to try to get him a show in either Columbia or Charlotte. If we are unsuccessful, we will just have to go see him again in Charleston. Either way, "We're tourin', ladies!!!!"

Sunday, we had lunch at an awesome burger joint down on Folly beach and then headed home.

What a fun weekend - good food, good drinks, great music, and FANTASTIC friends! Can't wait for our next trip!

My favorite line from "Facade":
"Just because she says she loves that song doesn't mean that she wants to sing along..."

Sunny Sunday

On Sunday, these white bodies of ours tried to get some sun for a little while... while Jake read and I studied for the CPA exam.

Visit with Max!

Last weekend, Max made a trip home to be in his friend's wedding. His flight got into Charlotte early Thursday morning, and he was supposed to leave Lake Wylie in the early afternoon on Friday to head to Greenville, SC for the wedding weekend festivities. I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was so nearby so that he and Jake could meet. It was kind of hard trying to figure out the best time/place to try to meet up with him and work around the wedding plans. I had to work Thursday til 6 pm, and then had a neighborhood watch organizational meeting at 6:30, so I knew it would be too late to make it up to LW to visit him on Thursday. After a few phone calls back and forth with Max, we finally went with Mom's suggestion to drive up late Friday morning and meet for lunch in Rock Hill so he would still have some time before he needed to leave. Since Jake and I were both scheduled off on Friday, it was the perfect plan! Thanks, Mom! We left Columbia around 10:00 or so that morning, and we met Max and Mom at Zaxby's (Max's choice because he had never had it!!) around 11:30 where we all enjoyed a delightful lunch. I was really excited that Jake and Max got to meet each other, and it is always nice visiting with Mom. After some entertaining conversation over lunch, we had a little photo shoot in the parking lot before we left. All in all, it was a great visit, and I think everyone had a good time!

Here is Max's plate after he had finished. I think he enjoyed it!

Max with Jake and me

Jake with Mom... showing her party face!

Mom with Max and me. Party faces all around!

Holy cow!

The Chick-fil-a cow posed for a picture with me!

TV Star!

I am going to be on TELEVISION! hahahahaha

Last Thursday morning, I filmed a spot for Inspired Communities, the builder of my neighborhood. I was the featured resident for my neighborhood, Hampton Forest. I was interviewed by tylerontheradio from New 92!! How cool is that? And I didn't even realize at the time that that's who he was. hahaha

Anyway, I did a FANTASTIC job if I do say so myself. I did it in one take! They told me I did a good job... but I haven't seen any of it yet, so we shall see. We did film it a second time but not because I messed up, just so the cameraman could get closeups of me. hahahaha

The whole thing makes me absolutely crack up! I cannot WAIT to see the commercial on TV! Surely I am going to be the next breakout television star. Don't worry, I won't forget all of you little people...... :)

What can I say? I'm clearly a natural.




UPDATE: I am now facebook friends with Tyler Ryan (tylerontheradio) who interviewed me in the commercial... and since he works for the country radio station, guess who else he has interviewed. That's right.

Separated at birth.

A lil limerick for you all

So, one of my assigned tasks this week to accomplish was to write a limerick. Well, first I had to research what exactly a limerick is. It sounded familiar from some long ago English class, but I certainly had forgotten. I found out it is a five line poem with an A-A-B-B-A rhyme scheme. I had actually written a five line poem last week with that rhyme scheme without even knowing it was a limerick! Anyway, here is this week's limerick. I must say, I love what I came up with.

I once had a very large cat.
He was large because he was fat.
He was fat because he loved to eat.
His favorite thing was a treat.
And all day long, there he sat.

Hope you all enjoy it, too!

Fan mail for Taylor Swift!

Taylor Swift! I. am. your. biggest. fan. You totally rock! And your hair is the best ever. I wish mine would look like yours. How excited I am at the thought of being at two of your shows back to back nights in September! It should be the MOST fun weekend! First, I will be seeing you in Greenville, SC on Friday, September 4th with my friend, Heather Ann... then on Saturday, September 5th, Heather Ann and I will be joined by my friend Amanda for the show in Charlotte, NC! I will be singing along like crazy to all your wonderful songs. And I love Kellie Pickler too! I can't wait!!!!!

Maybe we were separated at birth? :)

-lovelovelove-

L

My Favorite Poem

My favorite poem is Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


I always feel like I have miles to go before I sleep. Every single day. I struggle to make myself get in bed at night. What are these things that I feel cannot wait til the next day, so that I may just get in bed and fall asleep? When I think about it, there is usually nothing that can't wait. At the end of the day, what I need to have gotten accomplished usually has gotten done. The things that keep me up later than I should be are things like checking email/facebook, reading blogs (tonight - it is actually writing this post for my own blog), watching tv shows online, catching up with friends over the phone, AIM, facebook, etc.

I know everyone feels like there are not enough hours in the day, but I really want to improve my time management skills so that I can get more done than just what needs to be done but still be able to get myself in bed at a reasonable hour with a clear head - without that feeling like I've been completely unproductive. I think this is what usually causes my feeling of dread on a Sunday evening for the week ahead. I always feel like my weekend was fun, but I could have done more! Maybe this week I will really take note of things I'd like to do each day that either get put off for whatever reason, or that get done in exchange for sleep time. That sounds like a good first step.

Here is a link I just found by googling "getting more done".....
So once I make note of the things I want to be able to do... I can make a list and follow the subsequent steps in that article.

I am kind of amused right now because my boyfriend, Jake, is always making lists... and last week, his idea was to start making lists for each other. I could do a whole post on those alone (and maybe I will later), but anyway, one of the things on his list for last week was to read 50 pages in the book of his choice from this list. Reading those books is something he's been wanting to do, but since he isn't a huge fan of reading, he hadn't gotten around to it until it was on his list. So, what book did he choose out of the 95 on the list? Getting Things Done by David Allen. So, Jake, hopefully this post of mine has made you proud.... =)

And everyone: What things do you feel you want to do but don't have/make enough time for?