Sunday, November 8, 2009

Oh, behave! (or not...)

"Well behaved women rarely make history".

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This is one of my most favorite quotes! And I live by it every day as if it were my motto. The way I figure, you only have one life and none of us are getting out of this alive. Live it like you might not wake up tomorrow. So, I say get out there and live a little, ladies! Make your mark on this world. Make your own history!

Do something you never thought you'd do... and no one else thought you'd do either. Have a good laugh at yourself, at your expense. Don't take life too seriously.

Example: I wore the crown that one of my BFF's gave me for my birthday this year, then took a picture with him to show the world how proud of it I was. I was so proud of that crown that I wore it in the restaurant all night...even though I am in my 40's, and even though, I'm sure, there were people looking down their noses all "I cannot believe that woman is wearing a crown IN HERE"! Guess what? I'll bet you that myself and my friends had TONS more fun than they did. They were worried about being too pretentious... I was worried about nothing more than living my life to it's fullest.



See what I mean?

Don't take the little things for granted. Take the little things, and make them grand!

Whatever you're doing... turn it in to a fabulous memory. And please... don't rest too much. You'll have plenty of time for that when the good Lord calls you Home!

Now go! Git! Have fun and make me proud!

Sparkles 'n kisses!

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Roadtrip (Part II)

Dear y'all,

I hope you enjoyed "The Roadtrip (Part I)". If not, you can click HERE to catch up before reading on.

Ok, everyone caught up now? Great!

So we left off where Jen and I died at 4:00 a.m. after drinking 2 bottles of wine. Once we finally woke up, I think around 10-ish (?), we decided to walk down to the Avenue, have some brunch and do a little bit of local shopping. Leisurely strolls down avenues full of locally-owned businesses is where I love to be when visiting another town. I mean OH. MY. GOD. there was art and gourmet/couture pet shops and chocolate and cheese and wine and pizza and card/paper shops and the Fall leaves falling like snow all around us and a few trick-or-treaters thrown in for good measure and some locals hanging out and dogs being taken for their walks.

I think I quivered a few times.

Anyway, our first stop was Cheesetique, that Jen frequents quite often, I understand.



Y'all the sweet, pungent odor of the cheese just got me all excited the second we opened the door. A wonderful mix of cheese and happiness. Ms. Cheese Lady has cheese from all over the world. I am not even kidding. We sat in the back, at the cafe'/wine bar area, and ordered a cheese sampler along with a sample of the cured meat. Oh good Lord, that stuff was good! After that, I had a very decadent and smooth bowl of tomato/lobster bisque and a spring mix salad with balsamic vinegarette. I can't tell you what Jen had because I was too busy stuffing my face with all that heaven-ness.

We also grabbed a few cheeses to go, along with some marinated mushrooms and some Italian salami for later.

Then it was on to other stores. About the time that we got going good, she steered me towards a beautiful, and very tiny stand alone store called Barkley Square Gourmet Dog Bakery And Boutique.



Is it not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I swear to God, I squealed like Perez Hilton when he first laid eyes on Ricky Martin. This was THE cutest place. Ever. They had clothes and toys and all kinds of stuff for pets. And the best part? Gourmet puppy treats! Oh yes, Tater and Mia are gonna love them! The treats they made for pets looked so delicious. "The Girls" (as we call them) are getting some peanut butter cookies as well as some cheese cookies. They will heart me even more now.

Once we were done with the shopping, we headed back to her place to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine, because 2 bottles the night before apparently did not teach us a lesson. And while I'm talking about her balcony, let me just tell you about the view: There is a beautiful view of the city, the Potomac River, Ronald Reagan International Airport (without hearing the planes), the edge of Maryland, AND THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT! The views at night were especially spectacular. I suspected that her balcony (which I swear was the longest one I've ever seen - the entire length of her apartment!) was the place to be on July 4th for the D.C. fireworks and she confirmed - it is.



(Partial night view from the balcony - cell phone shot. Now, you can't tell it in this pic, but the Washington Monument is there. See the zoomed-in version below in the daylight. Hard to see as it was a gloomy day outside, but it's there and on a clear day, it's an awesome sight! You can see it right in the middle of the shot - behind the tree line - just to the left of the buildings....it's tryin' to blend in with the clouds/gloom. Whatever. It's there.)



She also made mention that, on occasion, she has seen Marine One take off from The White House. How cool is that???

While we were out on the balcony, we saw a bald eagle fly by. Seriously. How much more patriotic can you get than to see a bald eagle fly by not 100 feet from you, with THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT IN THE BACKGROUND???

I'm just sayin'.

We also kept getting a whiff of something being cooked with tons of garlic. I thought maybe a neighbor, but then she reminded me about the gourmet pizza place on the 1st floor of her complex. After about 20 minutes, we decided that it was a night for pizza....and of course, more wine.

After ordering a large thin crust, we sat back and enjoyed the pizza and wine and got caught up on more of our life's events. Because we were getting up early for brunch in D.C., followed by a little sight-seeing, we thought it best to lay low on the wine, and just head to bead a little early.

And here's where I halt this post because it's getting wayyyy too long and there is lots more to tell and I don't want you getting bored because the fun part comes in Part III. I mean, not that it wasn't fun up to this point - it was awesome. But, Part III? Oh, you're gonna love that one!

With that, I will close here and say that I hope you have enjoyed taking this roadtrip to VA with me, so far!

Sparkles 'n kisses!

(P.S.: If you are on Twitter and would like to follow any of the shops that I mentioned, you can follow Cheesetique at "cheese_lady" and Barkley Square at "BarkleyPets".)

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Daily Fabulous

"Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine"! --Unknown

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Roadtrip (Part I)

Dear y'all,

Oh, how I missed you and I hope you missed me just as much! I have been a little MIA lately, but that's not because I didn't want to be here with you. It's just that my schedule has gotten a little bit hectic lately (particularly, the weekends) and I just plain ran out of time to write a blog or two.

I figured I'd save up all of the missed blogs for a two- or three-parter. Beginning with this one.

As some of y'all know, I had a roadtrip planned up to Alexandria, VA to spend a weekend with my old roommate from California, Jen. I've seen her once since we both moved from CA to the East Coast and that was at her wedding 6 yrs ago, and as you can probably figure, we didn't get a lot of time to spend together...her being a new bride and all. Well, that and the fact that she needed to speak to all the guests at the reception, I'm thinking I got all of 30 seconds in before she had to move on to the next guest. So, I guess I wouldn't really call it a "visit". More like a drive-by "Hi, great to see you here! So glad you could come! Enjoy yourself! Eat, drink and have a good time". And then she was gone - on to the next table of guests to do the thank you thing. I did, however, have a fun swing dance with her handsome Dad, along with catching up with friends and acquaintances who flew out from CA to the wedding.

This visit was different. We both wanted a little bit of nostalgia and we figured it was time for a visit.

So, I headed out on what we originally assumed would be about an eight-ish hour drive.

Wrong!

It was almost ELEVEN HOURS!

But that was ok. This ain't my first trip around the block. I've made 11-hr trips (each way) many times from OH to GA and back. So it's the same, except different because I'm a little older now and my body just can't handle it (I found out after I rolled my 41-year-old decrepit body out of the car when I arrived).

Needless to say, I was a wee bit tired when I arrived at her place at 11:00 pm Friday night after being up since 7:00 am and working till 12:00 before getting on the road. Ok, A LOT tired. But as soon as she opened the door, it was like I was back in CA again, only 10 years later.

It was time to catch up on what had been going on in both of our lives. So she broke out a bottle of wine, and we commenced to chit-chatting, gossiping, reminiscing and all kinds of fun conversations.

Two bottles later, at 4:00 am, we died.

But, during the time between the start of my drive and the end of those two bottles of wine, I thought a lot about how we met, the year that we lived together, and how two very different people formed a lasting friendship. I mean, normally you have a roommate in another city (OK, at the other end of the country!), you do your roommate thing, then move on, eventually falling out of contact, only to wonder a hundred years later what ever happened to them. And it could've easily happened that way. We never had a whole lot in common, other than we both liked wine, a cappella and a good party. But, friendships form for all kinds of reasons, and this is one of them.

So, here's where I'm going to let Jen explain to you her thoughts about how we met and the resulting, unlikely, yet enduring friendship we formed. If you would, please take a moment and CLICK HERE to read her take on our friendship because I really think you would enjoy it. She writes way more eloquently than I. And she is definitely going to get a giggle or two out of you. (Don't worry - the link will open up another screen so you won't have to hit the "back" button to get back here.)

I'll be back after you read it......

Ta-ta!

Ok, did you read it? (I really hope you did!)

Anyway, there is a lot to tell you about, so I'm going to write the blog in parts. Three max, but maybe I can get it all in two. Wait...I forgot that I tend to get a little long-winded when I write, so it'll probably be three parts.

I hope you'll come back tomorrow for Part II because, for only being there a couple of days, there's a lot to tell!

Sparkles 'n kisses!

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