Throwback Thursday: Biltmore, 2006
One of the best things about working at Country Club College a few years ago was that I was only a couple of hours or less from the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I bought an annual pass and Gail and I road tripped that way the first fall I was there. This picture is from the last weekend or so in October in 2006. It was a crisp day, rather windy day, and we had a blast walking through the house and gardens taking pictures. These two are from the grounds around the house. For those of you that don’t know, the Biltmore Estate is a lovely and large tract of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the centerpiece is the Biltmore House. It was built by one of the Vanderbilt’s in the 1890’s and is still the largest privately owned home in the US. IT IS AMAZING. Go, if you haven’t been before. It is a work of art.
The Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. Looking up from the gardens.
Below is a picture of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the piazza on the side of the Biltmore Estate, looking through one of the sculptured walls of the deck.
Looking at the Blue Ridge Mountains from the side piazzas of the Biltmore House
Regret Can Last a Lifetime…
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know 2013 hasn’t been all that rosy for me. I’ve shared some things here, kept others for the non-blog world. My friends and family who are close to me know 2013 has been a bit of a challenge. I’ve been saying for the past two months or more that I am just ready for 2014 to get here already. And I still am. But I learned some sad news today, not sad news for me, but news that just made my heart ache for someone else, and it made me pause in my day. I’m not sure I will ever understand fate or how it works, but I do appreciate the thoughts it has forced on me today and the overdue action I will take. I know life is short, I think we all do, but occasionally I need a swift kick in the ass to make me take action on that realization. I got that today around 3:30 in the afternoon. So tonight, I leave you with this thought:
Always tell someone how you feel. A family member, a dear friend, a love, someone who meant something to you at one point… take your pick of relationships. Life really can be very short and what if that last negative comment or thought is the last thing we say to someone before you never have the opportunity to speak again? It happens, far too often, and I know I am guilty of it myself. So my challenge to myself is to work to not leave things unsaid in the future. New Years Resolutions… in November. Better late than never.
Wild Game Night
Really, I feel like I never slow down. I’ve been booked every single weekend since the middle of September…. either something for work or a wedding or an event leading up to a wedding. This weekend is no different, and yesterday I arrived in Norfolk, VA for a conference.
I had some downtime a little this morning before the conference started so I went up to Yorktown… more on that in a different post. I quickly wanted to share what we discovered at dinner last night.
We wandered around downtown Norfolk, which is an adorable town, and found the Freemason Abbey restaurant. It is a restaurant in an old church built in the late 1800s. AMAZING atmosphere for a restaurant, really go just for the atmosphere and the Bailey’s cheesecake. So good. The salmon I had for dinner, mediocre and overcooked… the cheesecake though- yum!
But this was also happening….
Wild game night at Freemason Abbey in Norfolk, VA
Yep, it was wild game night! I’m sorry, but rattlesnake, kangaroo, or possum as an entree just doesn’t sound appetizing to me. I stuck with the salmon. But it just proves, that it doesn’t matter where you go in the South… if you can catch it and stuff it… you can also probably saute it up and eat it. Never a dull food moment down here.
Throwback Thursday: The Ghost of Scarlett O’Hara
My mom was really good with Halloween costumes. She had tons of clothes, so I always had lots to play dress up in. She would always bust out something special for Halloween though. I loved princesses when I was little, so my Halloween costumes always revolved around that theme: princess, ballerina, fairy princess, pageant queen, etc… anything that would let me wear a really pretty dress. We varied it up slightly in 5th grade and I went as a Southern Belle… but not just any belle, I went as the ghost of Scarlett O’Hara. Even back in the day growing up in the North, I must’ve known I was destined to move to the South!
Ghost of Scarlett O’Hara
This is 5th grade, so maybe 1992? I did win best costume in the school though. Thankful someone back in the late 80s wanted to have Gone With the Wind themed wedding back in the day, because that is totally where the main part of this outfit came from!
Hindu Wedding Adventure- Part II (Engagement Ceremony)
Pinkster and JD agreed to that they wanted to get married in May or so, but didn’t actually get engaged until late July at a traditional Hindu engagement ceremony. Now, I’ve mentioned HERE how Pinkster and I know one another and a little background about her and JD. The ceremony and gathering for the engagement happened on a lovely Saturday in July, but it was the same week my Nana passed away and life was a little crazy. So while I made it to the day, it is all a bit of a blur.
First, Pinkster grew up in the middle of Nowhere, Southeastern, USA. Her Dad is this awesome engineer and I guess there are a number of great companies in the area, but it is literally in the middle of nowhere. Not off an interstate at all. So I took over two hours worth of back roads, around the long side of the lake to get there. I passed cows, corn fields, goats in a front yard, skunk road kill, cows in ponds, soybean fields, chickens in front yards, cows napping under trees, signs for turkey shooting and businesses advertising the best taxidermy in the state to make it to her parent’s house. I may have gotten a little lost along the way, there were a lot of different roads! The whole thing started at 11am, I got there at 10:55am with everyone already gathered out in the front of the house. So they all see me pull up, looking a little harried. Pinkster told me later that as soon as I pulled up, her brother or someone saw me in my car, leaned over to her, and said ” Yep, she got lost.” Like I said, rough week, it was all a bit of a blur.
Their immediate family and a few close friends were invited to the celebrate the day. When I got there about 30-40 people were gathered in front of the house taking photos, and I was immediately pulled into the group fun. After a few posed pictures with everyone, JD and Pinkster went into the front of the lawn, and in front of all of their family and friends, JD got down on one knee and asked Pinkster to be his wife with a GORGEOUS princess cut diamond ring. Pinkster and I had been talking the week before and she had joked she would say no, just to tease him. She didn’t (thank goodness). Instead she promptly burst into tears as she said yes. It was adorable.
JD’s sister and Pinkster’s brother checking out the bling
After a few more photos, we all went into the living room to complete the Hindu ceremony part of the day. It took a little over an hour, and I didn’t understand a single word of it, but it was so cool to see! There was a minister, that has some wonderful Indian title that I don’t know what it is, so we’re going with minister. He lead Pinkster, her parents, JD and JD’s mom through a whole process of passing fruit and such back and forth, repeating phrases in a language I don’t know in lovely prayer and exchanging flower leis. In the end he explained that Pinkster and JD were officially engaged and bound together. Her family has agreed to love, care and protect him and her family agreed to do the same with him.
Following the ceremony we all went outside for more pictures and some yummy homemade seven layer sherbert cake (yum). Then there was a huge buffet of homemade Indian food. There was this homemade yogurt thing that I could have eaten a whole gallon of if they’d let me. A lot of people left after that, but some of the close friends had some time to catch up with Pinkster and JD.
There were some cool things I wanted to highlight:
- That beautiful sari that Pinkster is wearing was the sari that her mother wore when she and Pinskter’s dad got married
- Her parents gave her a beautiful gold and ruby earring and necklace set that she then wore on her wedding day- I wish I had taken a photo because it was so gorgeous!
- The colors that all of her family were wearing were just so very beautiful. Oranges, blues, greens, pinks. The saris were absolutely beautiful!
- I loved how everything in this ceremony, and then later in the wedding, symbolized something. It was so intentional and cool.
- I love her parents and want to adopt them. Sweetest people ever.
Next time I blog about this I’m going to cover the pre-wedding activities!
Translation Tuesday: Terms of Endearment
Southerners are BIG on having terms of endearment and use them often, with everyone from their significant other to the random person who they may help on the street. It is just how people roll down here. Some examples:
Personally, I use sweet pea and hun a fair bit. My Aunt loves sugar. What southern terms of endearment are missing?
Pineapple Chicken
I’ve not really ventured into craft projects that I’ve found on Pinterest, though I have pinned them. One thing I have tackled continuously from Pinterest has been various food recipes. And lets be honest, it is a whole hell of a lot easier to just have a couple food board on Pinterest that it is to have a binder full of magazine page tear outs. For me it is just a lot easier to navigate and find something. So, the latest recipe to come to life in my kitchen was Pineapple Chicken in a crockpot. It was soooo very yummy, I highly recommend it!
Ingredients
- 3 or 4 chicken breasts, I used frozen and it was fine
- 1 medium onion
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 can of pineapple, with the natural juice (20 oz, doesn’t matter what kind of cut)
Steps
- Chop up the onion and place it in the pot
- Put the chicken on top of the onion, dump pineapple and juice on top of chicken
- Toss chicken broth and soy sauce on top of the rest
- Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or high for 4 hours
- You can serve with rice or veggies. I personally don’t love the consistency of rice, so I went with thai rice noodles the second time I made it…. even better than the first version!
Southern Manners: Holding Doors
All those years ago when I moved South for college, I remember I wrote a paper in my freshmen English class about how different the South was from the North. You have to love intro courses when you can get away with that. This was also the professor that told me I was allowed to use the word “y’all” when writing a formal paper for him. I remember I wrote about trains, the word y’all and the holding of doors. I think I’ve talked about the first two, but not the door holding yet.
I will never forget walking into the student union and every guy who was walking near me holding the door open for me. It is just how people are down here, you hold doors open for people. I love the good manners in the South!
Throwback Thursday: Paris Injuries, 2002
I had a completely different picture selected for today’s Throwback Thursday… Biltmore in the fall. Very seasonal and southern, but it will have to wait until next week. My dear friend, Gail, has been having a crappy week. She has had pink eye and an ear infection, Bimmer has come down with a double-ear infection, her hubby is out of town for work and she has a crazy work week for herself. So, I know she is in need of some laughs at the moment, and this throwback is for that. She’s one of my dearest friends, and sometimes that means that I need to make her laugh.
Gail and I have known each other for 19 years, and been good friends for 14 of those 19 years… we’ve got a billion stories, jokes, adventures and sooooo many photos. It was hard to pick just one funny photo. I guess I should be more clear, it was hard to pick one funny photo that neither of us would mind being all over the internet.
So, I’m going with a trip to Europe from 2002. I’ve blogged about the trip before, a great time with old and new friends. I had a great time exploring Europe with Gail, Sara and Michelle… all friends from high school reunited for a few weeks in Europe when we were in college. We were in Paris for a few days towards the very end of the trip, and if we are honest, we were a little sick of each other. We had just finished exploring the Notre-Dame Cathedral and were gathered outside behind the cathedral after having wandered through the shops. Michelle was sitting at the foot of the fence and I went to snap a photo, when this happened:
What started the Paris injury
Gail ruined the photo by trying to be smart ass and block the photo. That’s her hand above in what would have been a cute pic of Michelle.
I got annoyed. This was back when we were shooting with film, before digital cameras became common place, and I hated to waste an image. So, I swatted her arm with the little bag I just bought from a gift shop, and I forgot that there were some heavy things in the bag… a solid metal art piece to be exact. And when it hit her arm… it hurt and gave her a bruise, as she likes to remind me, repeatedly.
And the aftermath
I immediately said, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”
Gail’s response: “Right, and OJ didn’t mean to kill Nicole.”
The day continued on and we made our way around Paris. Gail did get back at me for that though. They left me at the Eiffel Tower in a hail storm. I was with friends we had made with some cool people from Australia, but as much as Gail hasn’t let me live down the fact that I injured her in Paris, I haven’t let her live down the fact that she left me at the Eiffel Tower. Odd memories, yes. Hilarious to us, absolutely.
Hindu Wedding Adventure- Part I
Pinkster and I met freshmen year of college. I had a very bad blonde dye job and she had an unfortunate mushroom haircut that year. Both little “I want to be boss” personalities, both incredibly stubborn and smart, with a strong desire to be leaders and do well in school. So it wasn’t a surprise that we became great friends, worked in the same student organizations trying to lead and make a difference… And of course, butting heads. Often. I was president of a large student organization junior year and she was vice president… I micromanaged a bit and she liked to occasionally challenge my plan and skirt the rules. It was definitely memorable. But we stayed friends through it all and kept up after college through grad school for me and law school for her. And we both grew up and matured a lot. We’ve got a million inside jokes, stories and adventures together so I was thrilled when she called early in the summer to tell me that she and JD were going to get married.
JD was a year ahead of Pinkster in law school and is just a sweet and brilliant Southern boy. Even though he went to undergrad at our arch rival school and still likes to cheer for them, he got his law degree from our alma mater and he loves Pinkster to pieces… So I like him. They’ve been together for six or seven years so everyone was like “finally” when she finally said yes to his proposal. It has been an interesting experience for them because not only have they been managing two law careers in different cities, but her family is from India and are Hindu, while his family is from the Deep South and are Southern Baptist. So it has been a cool learning experience for all the family and friends to learn about the various cultural differences. There have been a ton of cool events between July and October that I’ve got to witness in my bridesmaid role and I’m going to chronicle them in a few different posts.
And to start with, a little look through the years at my friendship with Pinkster!
April 2002
Sophomore year. April 2002, inductions as officers. Theo, Rach, Me, Biner and Pinkster. Now there are photos of us from freshmen year, but we both had not good hair experiences and I just refuse to publish them.
Summer 2003
This was June 2002. It is actually one of my favorite photos of us, because it is so 100% typical of the two of us. We were tailgatinf before a Matchbox 20 concert the summer between Junior year and Senior year of college.
Graduation
Don’t you love the old scanned pics? This is me, another college roomie Heather, and Pinkster right before our undergraduate commencement exercises in May 2004.
Feb 2006
February 2006 out one night for Rach’s bday. It was my second year of grad school and the week before my comprehensive exams, so I took a break from studying to go out with everyone. It was Pinkster’s first year of law school and it was the first time I’d seen her in weeks we had both been so busy studying!
Fall 2008
We had a college crew reunion one October weekend and all got together at my place in Gvegas. All grown up with real jobs and responsibility. This is at an Oktoberfest with Pinkster, me and Biner!
There are a lot of other photos between when we met in November of 2000 and this month we are in now. Lots of memories and good times, and hopefully more to come! Check back for entries on the Hindu wedding adventure! Next Hindu installment will be about the engagement ceremony!
Translation Tuesday: Hold Your Horses
Today’s Translation Tuesday: Hold Your Horses!
Hold your horses is a fun way to say hold on a minute. why don’t we just slow this on down. Got love the South, always coming up with a unique way of getting a point across.
A Tad Busy
It’s a little busy here. Wedding out of town this past weekend, wedding out of town this coming weekend… that I’m in. Big events at work, students freaking out about midterms, me trying to FINISH writing my midterm for my students to freak out over, fall break coming…. it is busy, so today you get a photo from last week….
That’s my office
That’s my office last week after a very large and successful event we hosted. It was our last official event for the first half of the fall semester… we’ve been going non-stop since August. So we all joked around that we needed a group nap and snapped this photo. Such great people. That’s me in the middle rocking some awesome red heels. I love shoes, it is is borderline addiction.
Throwback Thursday: Four Generations
For Translation Tuesday the other day I did ” Who are your people.” I thought for today’s Throwback Thursday I would throw it back about 32 years and share who some of my people are.
Four Generations of Women in my Family
This is a picture from Labor Day weekend 1981. I was only a few months old and my parents made the trip down from Ohio to the South so that all of my Dad’s siblings and family could meet the first grandchild and the next generation. Clearly, I’m the baby in the center of the photo. My mom is the one on the right holding my hand. My Nana Louise, my great-grandmother, is holding me. To the left of me in the front is my Aunt Sue, behind her is my Aunt Heidi, behind my Nana Louise is my Nana Kris, my Dad’s mom and leaning over her is my Aunt Wen, who is also my Godmother.
Four generations of strong women in my family. I’m lucky to come from such a good group of people. Even luckier when you add in all the wonderful people from my Mom’s side of the family.
Fall TV is Here!
The entire reason that the Bestie and I both have subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly is because of the Fall TV preview. It is both of our favorite issue of the year and we talk after we’ve read it to see which new shows we’ll try (or pass on). I’ve given it a couple weeks now and here are the new shows I’m loving, unsure on still, and officially passing on.
Love
- The Blacklist. I can often pick up on what is going to happen in an TV episode. Not so in this show. In every episode I’ve seen there is some moment where I’m saying, “shit, I didn’t see that coming.” Fast-paced and a good mystery, I’m going to stick with it.
- Sleepy Hollow. I loved Fringe when it was on, and this kind of reminds me a bit of Fringe with the mysterious elements it has going on. PLUS, it ties in history from early America… so the history nerd in me loves that! Oh, and hot main actor in the Ichabod Crane character too!
- The Originals. I like the Vampire Diaries, so it was a pretty good chance I was going to like this. Good plot, good music, set in the South (New Orleans) and flashbacks with cool historical costumes.
Undecided
- The Trophy Wife. It has made me laugh several times each episode and I think it has a good cast. Still unsure, but I’m going to give it a few more episodes
- Agents of Shield. I like all the Marvel movies, so you would think I would like this. The first episode was really strong, but I’m not sure about the second two episodes. I feel like it has been dragging some. I’ll give it a little more time and hope it gets going some.
- Mom. I think Anna Faris and Allison Janey are both very funny actresses so I really want to like this show, but I just can’t decide. I feel like I am fast forwarding a little more that needed. Another one we’ll see if I stick with it or not.
Already Passed
- The Goldbergs. I couldn’t even make it through the whole first episode. I like the eighties jokes, but the characters were so very annoying and the plot line just silly. Passed after the first episode.
- Lucky 7, It has already been cancelled, I needn’t say more.
- Ironside. I tried, I just didn’t feel it.
- Betrayal. I just realized I didn’t want to watch another drama on a Sunday night. Can only take so much, so I am leaving my 10pm Sunday block on the DVR free.
Okay, those are my feelings on the new TV season for fall 2013. What are you loving, hating or unsure of on TV?
Translation Tuesday: Who Are Your People
I am not sure that this is confined to the South. Growing up in the area of the north I grew up in, EVERYONE knew who my family was and what my connection was to someone else. Maybe we were just special, who knows. The one thing that is unique to the South is how they say it, as seen below.
who are yer people
It is pretty common down here for someone to ask “who are your people.” How long have you been in the area, who was your mom’s mom? Are you related to so and so from wherever? You never know who will know someone… hence, the common question: who are your people?
convertedsoutherner 