Wilmington, North Carolina

This past weekend my family and I headed down I-95 to Wilmington, North Carolina for my cousin Jean's wedding. I have 30+ first cousins on my mom side (My mom is one of 9), and there are two other girls my age. Jean and Maggie both graduated from grad school this month, and both were engaged. So with only a month in between med school graduation and residency starting, they both chose to get married before the craziness of residency took over.

Jean and here family are from Wilmington; which is where my mom's family have our family reunions every year. My mom, being the awesome woman that she is, rented out the same beach house we had been renting the past couple of years, so my family, and the Sandbank family could all be in the same place for the wedding weekend. We all can have fun together, no matter the situation we are put it. This weekend was hanging out at the beach together and dancing our asses off at a wedding, so needless to say, it was an amazing time. With all the driving, I was only in Wilmington for 24 hours, but with such an amazing family, it was totally worth it.

Highlights of the wedding included:
* My brother Bobby somehow got his self on stage during the wedding toasts. Look for him in the background of every wedding picture Jean.
* My brother Michael DJing - Jean was trying to do the wedding on the cheap, so she asked Michael to DJ. It was his first time, and he had everyone in tears of laughter throughout the night.
* To follow up on that - Michael and my grandmother Muu Muu tearing it up on the dance floor to the Pulp Fiction theme song. Priceless
* While making a human tunnel for Jean and her husband to run out through leaving the ceremony, my uncle Mark was completely gut checked by the videographer running backwards to film the action.

Lubbock, Texas

This past weekend's adventures took Zach and I to the grand old city of Lubbock, Texas. Referred to on the city's website as "The Texas You've Always Dreamed Of." If you have not heard of Lubbock before, well neither had I. It is the home to cotton, Buddy Holly, and according to Zach, "The greatest University in America". (Go Elon!)



Anyways, we were there for two reasons: to watch Zach's youngest sister Rachel graduate, and go to her and her fiance, Drew's engagement shower. Her graduation was like any college graduation ... unpleasant to sit through. The graduation speaker's speech had a theme about moderation and self control. Wow. Really pep up those graduates why don't you.



Things took a better turn for the engagement shower. Zach's sisters are dating best friends, so both couples are very close. Becky's boyfriend's parents wanted to through Rachel and Drew a shower, and let me tell you, it was amazing. It was the classiest shower I have ever been to, and probably ever will go to. They threw the party at a hotel right across from campus, and had it catered with heavy hors d'oeuvres. I won a picnic basket at wedding bingo filled with a steak cook book, wine, wine glasses, meat thermometer and gift certificate to Outback it was out of control!



The night was great, and Rachel and Drew have amazing people in their lives. I am very fortunate that Zach's family is so great, because I enjoy my time with every one of his family members! It was another successful trip to Texas.

Mani / Pedi

Okay, so confession . . . I do not have the best feet. No, don't worry, they don't smell, or have fungus or anything gross like that, but they are dry, they are cracked, and I may or may not have just lost my left big toe nail. Whatever. I try the file, the sander, lotion and all the jazz, but my feet are always less than great.

So why not do something about it you ask? Well I hate salons. I just feel really uncomfortable in them. Not to stereotype, but usually I can not understand the person who is waiting on me, and it feels awkward just sitting there while someone is cutting your nails, or giving you a massage. Getting "pampered" is not a luxury, its a time to thrive in my insecurities.

I decided however, I was going to suck it up, and get my self a mani/pedi. Starting tomorrow I have a college graduation, engagement party, and five weddings in the next seven weeks, so my feet were in a major need of a make over! I made an appointment at the nail place across from my new building and headed there after work last night. And don't you worry, this experience reinforced every reason why I do not like going to the salon!!

It started innocently enough when I sat down to start the pedicure. I had brought my own shade, so I could touch up if needed, and the woman criticized the color. Its not like I went day-glow orange or bright green. I had a great shade of pink from OPI, lay off me woman! The mistreatment increased as she saw the canvas she was working with. My nail technician gave me the Eww face several times, and I had to say yes, I have dry skin. I was forced into the extra $5, stick your foot in plastic bag treatment (no reason why that works), and retreated back to the memories of having to get the "extra special" pedicure when I went with the ladies of 35/36 before our college graduation. As the pedicure went on, the other nail tech in the salon felt she should comment on my dry skin as well. I'm sorry, I didn't know you only gave pedicures on nice feet. Whats the work challenge in that?!

An hour later and $45 dollars poorer, I walked out of the salon with socially acceptable hands and feet, and a battered ego. How people think the mani/pedi experience is a relaxing thing is beyond me.

Top Chef

So I was taking a casual break at work today and stumbled upon a wonderful story on DCis, http://dcist.com/2010/05/top_chef_thats_a_wrap.php. Top Chef has been filming the past couple weeks in D.C.! After I got over my general dissapointment of not know this while they were filming, I became very excited. If there is something I love more than D.C., is films/tv shows with D.C. in it. lol, yes I am a dork. Real World D.C... love your treks through Georgetown! Wedding Crashers ... keep those Lincoln Memorial shots coming! I love Top Chef, and now I am even more excited for it to return.

Mother's Day

To celebrate my mom's big day, the family met up for brunch in D.C. My parents are not movers and shakers by any means, (the won't visit me in Virginia, because every time they see the Pentagon they think they are lost.) so coming downtown was a big deal! Michael couldn't make it, because is was working in Johannesburg (rough life), but my sister's bf, Zach, his sister and her fiance joined the party.

Despite the restaurants instance on playing techno music at high decibels on a Sunday morning, we had a great time. Rachel and Drew had their first exposure to my family, namely my mother who is always an experience. She was able to relate Drew telling her how he grew up on a farm, to the time she called one of her students with a lot of hair, a hair farmer, and after that student got a haircut, he told my mother he got it harvested. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. Not a lot of her stories do.

Happy Mother's Day!

Myrtle Beach

This past weekend, my sister, friend Maile and I hopped in my trusted Civic and drove down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for my cousin Maggie’s bachelorette party. My sister has the knack to need to go to the bathroom in the sketchiest parts of our roadtrips. She can not hold it either, so when she needs to go, we need to pull over.

On of our better pit stops took place near Fayetteville, North Carolina where we went to a gas station, next to a Shoneys that had a sign for “Fresh, Hot, Vegetabies.” A creepy man tried to get me to buy a full length mirror from the back of his pick-up truck. I declined and instead purchased 3, $1 scratch offs. I handed out the scratch offs, and Maile, who has never done won before won $2. She went back into the station and asked for two more. She didn’t win anything with the first, but won $40 with the second. That’s great!



So let me tell you, my cousin is well taken care of for all aspects of her wedding. Leading up to her party, there was a rather intense email chain dedicated to party logistics. Over the period of less than four months, more than 90 emails were sent back and forth. Where are we going to get the limo, what size limo, are we giving gifts, who’s giving what, how are we handling snacks and drinks, who’s bringing the hair dryer, will we have enough straightners? No detail was left unnoticed. We even had an online database going by then end of it. These bridesmaids were on it! When we eventually got down there is was great meeting the girls from the emails. Everyone was extremely sweet and easy to get along with.



I think Maggie had a great time. She rocked her sash, and eventually by the end of the night even wore her Penis headband (courtesy of her lovely sister Drew). Normally, not willing to get out on the dance floor, she ended up on a platform by the end of the night. Hopefully she will remember to bring her dancing moves to her wedding. I can’t wait!

Comcast

I don’t know when I did it, or how I did it, but I am pretty sure that I am officially on Comacst’s black-balled list. Where ever my file is in the extensive Comcast database, there has to be a red flag attached and a note saying “make this difficult”.

One of the biggest things I dreaded about my move was handling Comcast. The last time I moved it took 5 visits and 6 weeks to establish cable and internet. Not to mention billing was messed up on more than one occasion, and it was just a big mess. Zach, being the sweetheart that he is, offered to call Comcast for me, negotiate a rate, and be at my apartment while they installed it. I mean how great is that? Obviously I agreed, and thought that was that. But noooo, we forgot about the red flag.

The Monday after I moved in a technician showed up at my apartment, only to decide that it wasn’t equipped to handle cable. He was going to have to call another guy. So a week after that, time comes and goes for my appointment. Nobody came. I called Comcast to see what was up, and they said that a technician called my cell phone (false) and came to my building but was denied entry (double false). Three frustrating phone calls later, I get a technician to come to my place. Well this man made my apartment ready for cable, but couldn’t actually install anything. We were going to have to call another guy. Allegedly, an installation man will be coming to my apartment Friday night (because that is when you want to wait around for the cable guy), so we will see. Hopefully I will restore the karma balance back in the world, taking away my offenses to Comcast, and allowing them to install my cable and internet without a problem.

My New Home

I am the proud new renter of a fabulous studio on the 18th floor of an apartment building in Arlington. I’ve been here for almost two weeks, and let me tell you. . . it is great! For only being “one” room, it is actually very spacious. You walk into the front door and the room goes straight back. I have a huge coat closet that is filled to the brim with my assorted Tupperware containers I used to move, cleaning supplies, suit cases and Jeeves the Butler (he had to make the cut for this place), and a walk-in closet that meets the rest of my storage needs. The kitchen is one of the biggest studio kitchens I have seen, and won’t be too big of a problem with cooking.



Being with multiple roommates for so many years, I had a collection of things I never brought out of boxes because my roommates already had them. So I finally took out these great wine glasses my sister gave me years ago, and placed these D.C. coasters I got at a market last winter on my new coffee table.



The only real problem that came with the move was when Zach and I went to pick up the truck. I had the elevator at my old apartment reserved for 3 hours, and that was plenty of time to load everything in the truck. However, when we got to the Budget rental facility, we were greeted by some frustrated looking individuals and a frazzled, red headed Russian Budget employee. She evidently did not have anyone to assist her at the office, so how to process our orders in groups of six. She took us all to the back to look at our trunks, and locked the office door behind her so nobody could get in. After we all inspected our trucks, we went back to the front office, and were greeted by an even more frustrated crowd of people trying to figure out what was going on. By the time she check my group out, Zach and I had been there for a hour and 45 minutes; leaving us a little over an hour to move out of my place. A couple hours and several bruises later, I was all moved in to my new studio. Yay!