my cup runneth over

So I turned 25 over a month ago, but I’m only just blogging about it. This is for a few reasons

- It seems like a really big birthday. I’ve had to change checking off “18-24” to “25-29” on surveys, surveys in which I had NO idea how frequently I participated until I moved up an age bracket. Eurgh.

- Work has been an endless, grim, fairly crappy experience lately. I think I’m coming out on the end of that particular phase (knock on wood profusely) but I wanted to blog cheerfully about my birthday! I think I’ve been able to muster it.

- My birthday was pleasantly prolonged by a visit from my mother the weekend after it! I was delighted to spend some much missed quality time with my mom; and didn’t feel like toting around a camera all weekend (although Mom, I just remembered that you took pictures at Sunday brunch! Send ‘em!) but it included lots of fun times and great eats: dinner at Milltown, brunch with my roomie and her mom (so cute!) at Panzanella, hot cocoa at Matthew’s Chocolates, a Greek FEAST at Kipos, and the aforementioned brunch at Crook’s Corner. We sure packed in a lot of eating! Eating and shopping!

But anyway, my wonderful local friends, who I feel so blessed to’ve made in my short time here, as well as my fabulous boyfriend, showed me a really great time for my birthday weekend, and it’s worth sharing.

We begin with the Saturday before my birthday, in which Steve and I embarked on a trip to HIllsborough, opting to stop along the way at the (completely randomly located) Buddhist temple. It was gawwwwwjous.

Steve disappeared on a birthday-shopping trip, ordering me to peruse the town at my leisure. I obliged, buying myself a birthday present (and inadvertently spending more than I ever have on shoes on some craaaaaaazy awesome vintage cowboy boots- bless my auntie for sending me birthday money to make the expenditure less insane!). This happened at this fabulous store.

Steve hosted a birthday dinner for me at his place. Lots of great friends showed up. Alex and Myra bought me these AWESOME THINGS.

The pickles themselves are great (duh, they are pickles) but the sweet and tangy syrup in which they float may be even more revelatory. I’ve been mixing it with dijon to toss with my brussels sprouts and boy is that great.

My other friends, who will be nameless because of the contents of this story, broke up the day before the birthday dinner and still came together to wish me a happy birthday. That verges on absurdity.

Steve made portabella burgers. Oh I think he might have put a little bit of cheese on them too…? A little hard to tell…

 

Dinner was eaten al fresco, by candlelight. Had to use flash for the shot above (note that the meal included additional delicious grilled vegetables that escaped the camera’s bright beam) (oh and really good wine. There was really good wine on my birthday). Managed to get a naturally lit photo of the dessert.

SWEET HOLY HEAVEN, THE BIRTHDAY DESSERT. From Matthew’s Chocolates, the place I have basically decided is my mother ship, came the pumpkin roll. Now tell me, like me, when you think “pumpkin roll”. do you think of fluffy pumpkin cake rolled up with some vapid, light, cool-whip-esque thing?

Well friends, this was PERFECTLY spiced, walnut packed, moist and tender and perfect pumpkin cake rolled up with TONNNNS of CREAM CHEESE FROSTING.

Boom. Done.

After we concluded the birthday meal, some of us strolled to downtown Carrboro to enjoy live music at Second Wind, which had a lovely outdoor seating area I hadn’t known existed. Blurry shots, but hopefully nonetheless signifying the pleasant feel.

 

They also infuse their own spirits- this magnificence involved tequila, strawberries, and jalapeno. As sassy as my awesome new cowboy boots.

The next day we strolled to downtown Chapel Hill for brunch, where I got my first proper taste of Soul Food at an establishment that is a highly reputable source for it.

 

Steve and I SHARED their four-side-dishes-and-bread meal (opting for one additional side dish).

 

Yes, sports fans, meaning that each person’s plate- a mere HALF of an entree- looked like this.

I have a hard time conveying the magnificence of the rich and meaty and perfectly toothsome (not mushy) blackeyed peas, the sweet and succulent but not saccharine yams, the soft fried apples, the oh-so-creamy corn casserole, the go-ahead-and-smear-a-ton-of-butter-on-me cornbread, and the comparatively virtuous but no less tasty okra and tomato casserole.

Suffice it to say, we ended the meal thoroughly satisfied and not a whole lot poorer.

The actual birthday dinner, at Foursquare, was too classy and gorgeous to ruin by whipping out a camera. Let’s just say that I ended the birthday (birth week…birth month, really) feeling thoroughly spoiled, and moreover blessed with all the fabulous people in my life.

exploring winston salem

So I’m doing another Americorps gig! Whoo!

I don’t think it’d necessarily appropriate to give a tonnnn of details, but the short story is that I’ll be working with little (as in, pre-school) childrens who like all children deserve to arrive at school ready to learn and able to express themselves but won’t necessarily be fully equipped to do so because of challenging home situations.

I recently traveled to Winston Salem, NC to train with my new AmeriCrew. I have very few photos of the training itself, but they make me laugh.

The first is of a duck attacking my fellow corps member Leslie.

 

Ha! Our (awesome) supervisor designated one of our training days as an outdoor day, so we did some team building type stuff in a park. We were in a picnic pavilion, where local ducks are clearly used to getting people’s tidbits. They were AGGRESSIVE.

Another awesome thing about this new Americorps program (and there are many) is that unlike my old program, we trained in a beautiful building (not an ugly, old, smelly, crammed-with-random-crap one) and were served delicious breakfasts and lunch each day (unlike the old one, which never fed us unless you count the food bank leftovers we frantically gorged at the end of our stressful days). Our last day, we got (admittedly less than healthy but quite delicious) biscuit sandwiches from a local barbecue place. Enjoyed with delicious fruit.

 

Because our organization was hosting a fundraiser, we spent the morning camped out on the front lawn. It was lots of fun!

And that’s all I have to say about my new gig for now. However, I did want to share about Winston Salem, which is a surprisingly fun city!

I stayed at a hotel and also got a per diem. It was great for like two days (there was also a free gym, which I visited every day after lots of sitting-down-y training) and then it was like “Ugh get me some vegetables.”

One night we went to an establishment with some saucy mermaids and fishing netting on the wall.

 

‘Cept it was Tuesday and our really really really hands-off waiter didn’t tell us it was TACO TUESDAY so we spent too much money for normal food where we could’ve spent very little money for awesome tacos! Tragic.

My favorite day in Winston Salem was our second to last day, where they let us out of training early and we got to visit Reynolda House. No pictures were allowed inside of the awesome-robber-baron-house-turned-museum, but I went a little nuts in the gorrrrrrrrrgeous gardens.

 

This is columbine. It smells like heaven and butterflies love it!

The food department.

Tomatoes and figs!

The rose garden! Usually I’m not that into roses but these were gorgey porgey.

Natives!

Steve calls these “Jurassic Park Plants” :)

 

So. Many. Grapes. It smelled like heaven, standing under the vines and inhaling.

Watermelon patch! Fun fact: my cousins inadvertently created a watermelon patch in their backyard by sitting on the back porch eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds.

Went to the Biltmore estate in Asheville and they had these same funky golden leaves on display. Must’ve been a trend of the times.

Can you imagine having this in your yard?!

   

Fun fact: the Reynolda family made their own lake (…) by damming up a natural spring. Surprise surprise, nature was all “That’s cute that you think you can just manipulate me like that” and it has now almost entirely returned to its natural state and provided a beautiful environment for birdies.

 

Also, Mario mushrooms. Never saw red mushrooms before the move to North Carolina.

Th’other side of the dam.

 

For dinner, we went into the little “village” near the house and dined al fresco.

 

Wish I’d been there with more of a crowd- it would’ve been fun to go sharesies on some of those sandwiches and small plates.

Limemade! Made to order! I got mine suuuuuuuper tart, mm.

For dinner, I opted for a cup of the lobster bisque…

… and some Holy Salty bruschetta type stuff with red peppers, onions, feta, etc… good but a little overwhelming on the sodium front.