Ch-Ch-Ch-Charleston

I'm here to blog about a recent weekend trip to Charleston and Isle of Palms, South Carolina. RA had a meeting in Isle of Palms, so we spent a long weekend out of town. It was glorious! I am backdating this post because I can!

We left town on a Thursday morning, hoping to get to Charleston around lunchtime. As we pulled into Charleston, I got out my phone to text a friend who lives there. As I texted "Welcome to Charleston," we got rear-ended. It was jarring. We were trying to avoid blocking an intersection, and the person behind us didn't realize we were stopping rather than going through the intersection. The car that hit us was only going 10 mph, I'd guess, but it was shocking. I was certain our car had significant damage. However, much to our surprise, it didn't look too bad at all. The guys that hit us were so friendly (Anybody named "Shands" has to be nice, right?) that we didn't call the cops or anything. We just went about our merry, fender-cracked way.

On Thursday night, we stayed at an amazing hotel, Harbourview Inn, right on the water. I absolutely loved the place, and you're about the learn why. Most people know that food is a focus of mine, and this hotel made sure we were well-fed. There were complimentary snacks from a local company, including chocolate-covered pretzels, trail mix, etc. I love snacks! There was also an hour-long wine reception, complete with cheese trays and fruit. The lobby also had a candy dispenser. Ahh! At night, they serve warm cookies and not-warm milk in the lobby. Although the hotel was small and did not have its own kitchen, we were able to make a breakfast selection, and a local bakery delivered the breakfast at whatever time we specified. Awesome! It was truly a top-notch place...one of my all-time favorites.

Pardon that tangent. When we got into town, we ate lunch at a nearby place called Fleet Landing. I got a crab cake sandwich (Yummy!), and we also had some fried green tomatoes. As we finished eating lunch, we learned that a long-time friend who lives in Charleston (MJ) was about to get off work. We walked and met her, then headed to Mellow Mushroom to sit on the patio. We got to spend some time catching up while we waited for her boyfriend (JA) to get off of work. We headed to the wine hour at the hotel before we went to dinner at a place called Pearlz, which was delicious! Of course I was focused on making it back to the hotel in time for cookies, and I enjoyed a late-night snack of white chocolate chip cookies!

Friday morning, after devouring our delicious breakfast, we packed up to head to the Wild Dunes Resort at Isle of Palms. We made it to Isle of Palms in the afternoon and suited up to go to the beach/pool. The beach was pretty darn crowded, so we only lasted a few minutes before we headed to the pool instead. There were several pools, all of which were gorgeous. We enjoyed some tasty food at the poolside restaurant and stayed out for quite a while. Some folks were heading into Charleston for the night, but RA and I were quite exhausted from the previous day's activities. We went to dinner at the restaurant at the resort golf course. I had an amazing salad with spinach, goat cheese and strawberries. We also ordered a side of macaroni and cheese, which was phenomenal!

RA had his meeting on Saturday morning, so I slept in sort of late. He finished up earlier than expected, and we went for a quick jog. We then headed to pick up MJ, who was going to be able to join us at the pool for the day. After picking her up, we stopped and grabbed lunch at R.B.'s, which was recommended to us. I got a crab cake sandwich (again!), and it was great. When we returned to the hotel, we immediately headed to the pool. It was sweltering hot, and we enjoyed catching up and lounging around. MJ's boyfriend headed to meet us after he got off work, so we enjoyed a few hours of pool time with him as well.

There was a nighttime cocktail reception for RA's group, so we tagged along for that. There were delicious little appetizers, including chicken tenders, crab cakes and cheese cubes. After the cocktail reception wrapped up, the four of us headed to the poolside restaurant to sit and eat an official dinner. I ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (I don't care if it's child-like!), and it was incredible! After we finished eating dinner and listening to some live music, we headed back to our room to play some cards. It was a fun-filled day. I sure wish MJ and JA lived closer!

We headed back to town on Sunday morning. One would think I wouldn't have an appetite after all of that eating, but we stopped and got Mexican food on the way home. It hit the spot! The drive home was easy and accident-free. I really loved Charleston and Isle of Palms, and I would love to go back at some point. What a great trip!

So this is where the title goes, huh?

This is my first time using Blogger since some apparent updates were made. Hopefully I won't get agitated.

So, I've done my infamous wait-forever-between-posts trick, which is getting pretty old. (Blogger just made me agitated.) Every time I write, I make the resolution to write more frequently, yet I still seem to fall into my old ways. Maybe it's a sign of aging. What? Did someone mention aging? That's funny because my birthday starts in 21 minutes. I'm sure I've probably said t(Blogger just made me more agitated.)his before, but I am not a birthday person. I don't run from birthdays or anything, but I sure don't expect much on my birthday. I take birthdays with a grain of salt (or multiple grains of salt on the rim of a margarita!), and I am fine if it's like any other day. I prefer that my birthday be as non-stressful as possible, but that's pretty much the only requirement. (It's really unfortunate when Blogger auto-saves and loses everything I type in that 3-second window. For someone who types a billion words per minute, that's a lot of text.)

What all has happened since April 8, you ask? I'll give the rundown of the things I can recall at this moment. The weekend before last was my sister's bachelorette party. A group of us went up to a house in Dahlonega and went to the wineries. It was a lot of fun! We reminisced about Free Willy, played Cranium, ate queso, etc. I seriously had a blast! I cannot believe that Claire gets married in just over two weeks. Insanity! Speaking of looking good in my bridesmaid dress...

I went running on Sunday and took a tumble down an asphalt hill. That was pretty unfortunate, especially for my left leg and hand. Thankfully I'm still all in one piece, but my leg is pretty skinned up, and my palm is to' up from the flo' up. I've been healing quite nicely! After having an approximately 15-year streak of not skinning any elbows or knees, my success has come to a[n asp]halt. A big thank you goes out to the cars that slowed down -- I'm not sure if they were being helpful or laughing too hard to drive.

My birthday now starts in four minutes. (I know you're probably thinking I don't type a billion words per minute, but Blogger has been acting out this entire time.) I feel like I should post this now.

I will say more very soon. I mean that. SENDING LOVE!

I rememba. In Decemba.

The Falcons make me proud! We (yes, I am on the team) just improved our record to 10-2. AWESOME! I still have on my Falcons hoodie.

Well, I'm probably about to go to sleep and it's just after 8:00 p.m. I stayed up pretty late last night AND the cold weather makes me want to sleep. I just saw that the morning wind chill is supposed to be in the teens tomorrow. That's absolutely absurd if you ask me...

The ENT said my nose looked pretty bad, so that's just wonderful. He put me on a steroid for six weeks, so hopefully that helps with the inflammation. The noseroid goes straight into my nostril. CRAZY!

I had a fun weekend! I took it easy on Friday night because I was just so exhausted from the week's shenanigans. Saturday I tried a new drink at Starbucks - the Gingerbread Latte - recommended by AM. It was awesome! Then I headed down to the theatre to work the box office at the kids' show.

After the show, MJ and I tried to go to the SEC football championship game at the Georgia Dome. There were absolutely no tickets when we arrived there, so we went and watched it at a bar instead. Then we went to a wine party. I had a good time and stayed up LATE.

Today I've been good for nothing. I really only accomplished two things: 1) I did a load of laundry, and 2) I fixed shells and cheese. I also took two naps if those fall into the 'accomplishments' category.

Happy December!

Riddle me this

Even though I don't feel like I have a lot to show for it, today was a very worthwhile day.

Yesterday I ended up finagling my way onto the doctor's calendar for today - both the CF doctor (not my usual one, but a good one!) and the endocrinologist. So, I ended up waking around the same time as usual to head to the doctor.

My study coordinator was there to try to get blood from me and we gave up after three sticks. Trying again Monday...

The endocrinologist had all the reports from my blood and urine fiascoes, so that was a relief. It sounds like many things checked out well, but it looks like the tests showed that I need to go on a low-oxalate diet. Basically my risk of forming kidney stones is extremely high because of the overabundance of oxalate in my body. Now, I don't really even know what oxalate it, but I did learn a few things. I remember the doctor specifically mentioning not consuming wine and chocolate. I was pleased to hear that a lot of vegetables were blacklisted, so that's a perk. All I know is that I need to touch base with the nutritionist next week to talk about this new diet. As for the funny part, I also need to go on a low-calcium diet, but I'm bordering on osteoporosis. RIDDLE ME THAT!

Now, the CF doctor went surprisingly well. My PFTs had risen from my study appointment, and had only dropped slightly from my pre-vacation appointment. I actually couldn't believe it. They think it can probably be attributed to my new inhaled antibiotic. The doctor mentioned throwing me in the hospital since I feel bad, but said that she thought we should try 21 days of oral antibiotics. Obviously they want me to feel well, but it's also hard to warrant putting me in the hospital when my numbers are pretty good. I guess that's a good problem to have...

I met my old boss for lunch at El Azteca after the visits. We had a really great conversation, per usual, and it had my mind spinning for the remainder of the day. I was thinking a lot about vulnerability and taking chances. Sometimes it's hard to live vulnerably in a world where being 'tough' is the socially acceptable way to be. The more I do improv, the more I become comfortable with being vulnerable in many aspects of my life. I really cherish life and I value the relationships in my life, but sometimes I think I ought to do a better job of demonstrating that. I want to know that, no matter what happens in my life, I stayed true to myself and I wasn't afraid of being open and honest.

Tomorrow I'm performing in the 8:00 p.m. show. It hasn't quite hit me yet. The closer it gets, though, the more excited I am.

The Braves won. YEAH!

Urine trouble

I have urine in my fridge.

Isn't that a good hook? I think I'd have to keep reading if someone started a blog with a line like that. Anyway, I started my 24-hour urine collection at 6:00 p.m. tonight, so I'm five hours into a good time. The worst part is that I have to keep it in this orange jug in the fridge. Mmm, I'm thirsty. Tonight's not a good night to start sleepwalking/drinking.

Today I officially filed my claim with the bank since the jerk's transactions were finalized. I also went and filed my official police report. So, it looks like I've pretty much done everything on my end. I'll have to sign some papers that the bank is sending, but otherwise I'll count on those fraud detectives to make someone's life a living hell. Congratulations on replicating my card. Now punch yourself in the face.

The highlight of my day was Willy's (per usual). Five of us went out to lunch together and I just adored the silly out of my steak nachos. Tonight I drank wine while I watched the Braves win, so that was a win for me as an individual. I also had some macaroni and cheese.

Tomorrow I plan to exercise. I've been feeling really run-down lately. I feel a little feverish or something, and just can't muster up the energy to do much. Exercise seemed to help me get lively yesterday, but I couldn't bring myself to do that today.

That's really all I can say. I am very sleepy.

I will guard and protect your heart

That title is from last night's episode of the Bachelorette. All of the girls (almost all!) at the beach house watched together last night while enjoying glasses of wine. We decided to use "rose," "weatherman," and "here for the right reason" as drinking keywords. It was a lot of fun. I think I need to apply to be on there. I would be so ruthless.

In breaking news, my roommate called last night to let me know that a large branch has fallen on my car. WOOOHOOO! She was unsure as to whether or not there was damage, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it now... kind of like the regrettable decision to book on Spirit.

The other night I played Apples to Apples for the first time. I always thought it sounded a little questionable, but it was so much fun! I can't explain it, but I promise that you'd have to be a real loser to not like it. Take that! I think we're going to play it tonight.

The weather in Florida is very, very hot. It's weird because the sunlight was so much more direct in the Dominican, but the breeze there was much stronger. I can hardly stand to be outside here. Plus, I'm not really in the mood to go in the water to get bitten by a shark. I'm not having the best luck lately. I did find my first shark's tooth yesterday, followed by five more.

My cousin Becca and I went for a run yesterday and it was 98 degrees outside. WOW! We ran about 1.5 miles because it was entirely too hot. I am glad to have gone out and gotten some exercise, though.

I wrote all of that early this morning and then got interrupted and didn't finish.

I had my first hint of good luck today! Some of the guys have been trying to catch fish, sharks, etc. I literally caught a fish in the ocean on my first cast. My total for the day was five fish. Everyone was pretty impressed and a little envious. My dad acted as my caddie. We might get up early and try to catch some sharks before sunrise. WATCH ME GO! All of my fish were pretty small (6-10 inches), but they were really cute. I am satisfied.

I guess we're about to start getting dinner in the works, so I'm outta here.