Quick Trip (to Chattanooga)

This past weekend was a little extended for me. After Anna's wedding, I dropped Alexa off at her grandparent's house and came back home to pack for a trip to Chattanooga!! I had the rare treat of having a Sunday and Monday off so I took advantage since I don't think I'll have much free time between now and the holidays ending.

Food and friends are the two biggest reasons I love my trips to Chattanooga so of course I try to kill two birds with one stone! Kelly and I went to Yellow Deli for old times sake and sat outside on the porch--the weather was perfect! It was so good to spend time with her and just catch up on life. After lunch, Allie met up with me and we spent the afternoon together. Since we were both super full, we were at a loss of what to do...we drove around for a while and found our way up to Signal Point. We went down to Starbucks after a while for some air conditioned catching up when Cara met up with us! I dropped Allie off at youth group and spent a low key night with Cara. Like always, it was spur of the moment trip and Cara was willing to take me in!

Cara and I met up with Samantha in the morning for some breakfast after Sam got off her night shift at the hospital. It was so fun to see our married Mrs. Samantha Dyson...even though she signed the wrong name on her receipt! haha

Later in the afternoon, I got to see my Erin! We met at Joe Friday's because I had been craaaaaaving their food. I used to eat their once or even twice a week because it was a short walk from the church so it was so great to eat at one of my favorites I missed so much. But better than the food was spending the whole afternoon catching up with Erin. We walked around Coolidge and the walking bridge (with a pit stop at Ice Cream Show). Even though we had several hours to talk and catch up, I feel like our time was cut short! We tried to document our time together with a picture...but per usual, Erin and I are doomed to take bad pictures together. There's always next time...

I was sad to leave, but so grateful that I had the chance for a quick trip to spend time with dear friends (and eat lots of yummy, delicious food)! I'm looking forward to the chance to visit again in 2013! How weird does that sound??

The Road to Mary's Wedding

So I normally do this post before the actual wedding day and I started this post at least 4-5 times last week, but time got away from me and it just never happened. But it is happening now! 

So I've known Mary since high school. I couldn't tell you the day or time that I met Mary (which is a creepy gift that I typically have for specific memories like that), but all I know is that before I knew it, we were apart of FB #2 and apart of each other's lives forever. 

We both went to UGA, but lost touch over the years...different schedules, different friend groups, you get the gist. We had a little reunion in 2010 over Thanksgiving with a group of our high school friends, FB included of course, and were reconnected at long last! That was the first time I met Dan. He and Mary met on October 20th in 2006 at a Halloween Party while she was at Georgia and he was getting his PhD at Tech. Dan got his undergrad at Florida, but other than being 0 for 2 for school choices, Mary thought he was pretty alright.

In early 2011, Dan proposed to Mary while they were traveling in London! We got the overjoyed text from Mary while she was traveling. Before long, FB started getting together to catch up and celebrate Mary's upcoming wedding! Mary wanted plenty of time to plan, lose some weight, (holy COW she looks awesome now!!) and figure out work/living situations for she and her fiance :)

 Over the next year and a half, I got to hear so much more about Mary and Dan's relationship and how much they meant to Mary, but even better, I got to know Dan when we went to Vegas!! He was such a great sport to put up with all of the girly talk and picture taking!

Even though Dan was in Portland, there have been a couple of weekends he's made it in town, St. Patrick's Day was probably my favorite.

I have loved being in Marietta and so close to Mary so she and I could spend some intentional time together as friends. The way our friendship has grown one on one and our FB friendship has meant so so much to me, especially to share honestly as the wedding quickly approached.

Getting to help plan and celebrate Mary's Bachelorette party has been another gem in our friendship/wedding approaching celebrations of course!

And now that the wedding weekend has come (and gone...), I was so glad that I got to celebrate her love with Dan!! Mary's friendship means so much to me and that fact that even if life got in the way for a while, our friendship has grown stronger with the test of time. Dan is the perfect match for her, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Their wedding was so perfectly them, but more on their awesome wedding celebration later!

Wild Dunes

This past Friday I woke up earlier than I do for work, school, and even the occasional game day. Why, do you ask? So I could get my toes in the ocean water as soon as possible. Lauren, a friend of Jessica's a UGA through study abroad and I carpooled to meet up with Jessica Schwartz and her friend Christy from high school at Jess's parents beach house just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

It was close to a 6 hour drive so I was glad to have a friend in the car to help pass the time! We made great time and got up there just in time to unload and grab some lunch at a local tavern called Poe's. Apparently Edgar Allen Poe is from Sullivan's Island, a neighboring island of Isle of Palms (where we were staying)? I started off my weekend vacation as every girl should: with a beer and a burger. After lunch, we ran some errands and headed back to the house to start unwinding. Just so you get an idea of how great our view was...

Lauren went to lay out while Jessica and I took a stroll down the beach when we found this little gem. :)

Christie got in just after we finished our time at the beach and after a little grooming, we set off for downtown Charleston. We had dinner at Cypress and although a little overpriced, it was delicious. Charleston has some great rooftop bars that we enjoyed on Friday night and met up with some of Lauren's friends that were in Law School in Charleston. It was a fun night!

Saturday morning, my inability to sleep in was in full effect and I was up and out the door by 8:30 for a morning run on the beach. It was super windy, but the view made up for it! I came back to the house for some breakfast and was back out the door for another long walk on the beach with Lauren and Jessica. The early afternoon was spent lounging around the house with a short nap, some snacking, and eventually a shower to wash off the layers of sand that had accumulated on my legs from the windy beach walks/run. We loaded back up into the car and headed to Charleston for a little touristy sight seeing. 

We ended our afternoon of touring and shopping at another rooftop bar for a little happy hour refreshment. 

That night, we went to Taco Mamacita--one of Jessica's favorite restaurants (well mine too, but after going there every Wednesday for 6 months, it wasn't as rare of a treat as it was for Jessica.) We gorged ourselves on guac and queso and found ourselves uncomfortably full after dinner. We opted for a chill night in with some football on the TV and an early bedtime. 

Sunday morning Jessica packed up and left soon after we checked out, but Lauren and I decided to hang around for a couple more hours and soak up a a little bit more time enjoying the waves and sunshine. I went for a long, long walk along the shoreline while Lauren laid out. 

We decided it was time to leave around 11:30 and head back to the real world. Another long car ride with good company, and before we knew it, we were back in the Peach State! I was sad to leave the beach, but a weekend away was well worth the long trip in the car! Hopefully it won't be too long before we can make it back!!

PS-Talk about odd man out not being blonde this weekend! #gingerproblems

Game Day Adventures

This past Saturday I made the hour and a half long trek to Athens...okay maybe not quite a trek, but a drive to Athens for the Georgia vs. Tennessee game! I set my alarm earlier than I do for my opening shift at Anthro and got ready for the game. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is. In all honesty, I probably put more time and effort into getting ready for game day than I do for a date (whenever the last one of those was that I went on...).

I packed up my coolers with pumpkin cream cheese muffins, pepperoni pizza bites, mimosa ingredients, koozies, and of course some Bud Lights. I made sure I had my rain jacket. I was wearing my red and black. And I was on the road.

Brittany and Ross were the first to get there to claim our spots in Myers and Chandler was only a few spots over from us with her New York friends when I arrived! It was so good to catch up with Brittany, Chandler, and so many others that stopped by the tailgate! And it wasn't too long before Kathleen and Avery came to join the tailgate too.

 Me and two of my college roomies :)

A) We're twins. Naturally.

B) How do I always forget how much taller I am than Kathleen?  

 Kathleen's younger sister Mary Ellen (can you tell by the height difference?) and my fellow West Georgia grad student--so good to see you!!

 Sobba came to visit! Hopefully I can see her more than once every couple of years...

With my always faithful seat buddy at the end of the game!

With all the stress that came with the game, it was a relief to see the jumbo-tron light up with this at the end of the game! Whew. Let's hope I don't have to deal with many more games like that this season, but really, when the "Dawgs Win!!" slogan flashes across the screen and our victory bell rings, I guess it's all worth it in the end, right? Well, hopefully I won't incur an ulcer by the end of this season, but staying at #5 isn't too bad of a feeling! 

Now about the South Carolina game...Hopefully we can pull out a win for #5 vs. #6...Stress. 

Game Day Necessities

Being from the South, I'm sure most of you are no strangers to the past time of tailgating. But in the SEC, especially in Athens, we take it to a whole new level. Saturday mornings, you wake up to a sea of red and black in the classic city. Motor homes next to tents with generators powering TVs to watch football all day long. Tables filled with a wide spread of game day goods: hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, dips, cookies, the works. 

Although I am not a proud owner of a generator or even a game day tent to pitch. Fortunately, I have friends that have a lot of the basics so all I need to bring are a few things this Saturday....

Cups for holding the necessities, like mimosas

A koozie, for obvious reasons

 Pepperoni Pizza Puffs; the easy to make hit I made a few weeks ago to watch the kick off game of the season!

 Puppy Chow; who doesn't love a handful (or 8) of puppy chow?! YUM.

And of course a Georgia cooler to tote all of these goodies across campus to the Myer's Quad!

I cannot wait to be in the Classic City, sipping on mimosas, snacking on treats, and with friends decked out in our red and black! 

UT Football Game Flashbacks

I promise, blogging world, I am still alive and present! I've just been super duper busy. Pretty much if I'm not in class or working, I'm in the car on the way to either of those destinations or slaving away writing papers, reading for classes, or taking quizzes. I don't think I've been this busy is a long, long time! I love it, but I have to be super intentional about making free time. And speaking of free time--this Saturday I took off work so I can go to the Georgia-Tennessee game in Athens!! Woop woop! A bunch of girls from my pledge class with be there so that's a definite reason to wake up early and head to the Classic City.

The UGA vs. UT game has been hands down my most attended home and away game in comparison to any other team that we've played. The only years I've missed since starting UGA in 2005 was Freshman year (2005, away) and this past fall (2011, home).

2006, Sophomore Year-Home: Loss

This was one of our first big losses of that season. It was a night game (read: long day of tailgating) and Sloan got mad at me for being "that girl" that was crying in the stands at the end of the game.  

 

2007, Junior Year-Away: Loss
Okay, so far my streak for good luck at UT games is not so good...but Elizabeth Cox had some tickets to the game in Knoxville. I don't think I have ever been more ready to not hear Rocky Top ever again.

 

2008, Senior Year-Home: Win!
This game doesn't stick out to me too much out of Senior year but regardless, it was fun because it was a football game in Athens...what's not to love about that?

 

2009, Away: Loss
During my random employment/unemployment after I finished camp when I first moved to Chattanooga, I made a trip up to Knoxville to see some camp friends and it happened to be for the UGA-UT game! I had to brave the UT student section, but I guess for the sake I of my safety, we lost...

 

2010, Home: Win!
Yet another game I got to go to as an alumna and I loved it even more because we won! So fun to be back in Athens with some of my favorites yet again :)

 

With all of that said, I am so excited to be back in Athens, taking a break from work and school work, cheering on my #5 ranked Bulldogs between the hedges against UT (who surprisingly has a decent team this year). Gooooooooo Dawgs! Sic'em!