Home decorating is taking over my life.

After I moved into my new house at the beginning of May, I had no energy left to really think about decorating. I was so happy just to live there, I didn't care what it looked like! But recently, the home decor bug has bitten, and I'm giving in. Here's all that's going on in my abode currently:

-Painting my bedroom. Light gray/blue. I got a tester can this weekend, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!
-Looking for new bedroom furniture, or something workable for the guest room. I'm hosting SCD's bachlorette weekend in October, so I absolutely must have an extra bed by then. My current options are either 1. buying a new set of furniture for myself, and moving my childhood furniture to the guest room, or 2. just getting a new mattress for the guest room and doing a DIY fabric headboard. Leaning more towards the latter because I have literally seen at least a hundred sets of furniture and I like nothing! I'm not that picky either! Updates to come, I'm sure.
-Looking for a new rug. Something with color and print, as you saw in the previous post. Went to West Elm this weekend, and was disappointed with the feel/texture of the rugs there. Overstock might just happen this week!
-Bought a new area rug for my kitchen. My sad bight green rug from freshman year (7 years ago!) had done its duty. Not too shabby for a $10 Bed Bath Beyond purchase! I got a cute cream/gray/red striped rug at West Elm on Saturday.
-My parents came to town this weekend to deliver furniture I'd bought in NC back in June. So I'm now the proud owner of 2 skinny end tables and a new desk and chair!

I'm a bad blogger, and have no photos of these things today, but tomorrow you'll have the visual! Also, I'm open to any furniture shopping suggestions in Atlanta. Strangely enough, I saw what could be the perfect bed on an Ikea commercial last night. I'd been avoiding Ikea because I wanted real furniture/didn't want to put anything together, but I might just be hitting up the Ikea this week!

Greetings from Bama

Hello from the deep south, lovely readers. I hope you all had the best 4th of July weekend! I had a wonderful time in NC with my wonderful friends and family.

Friday I finally got my haircut--3 inches off and lots of layers, and no one can tell a difference except for me! Oh, well. Friday night I also went to the fireworks & beach music show in WF with Mom and Erin. So much fun! I didn't realize that beach music was such a Carolina thing until I got to Georgia, and people just don't do beach music here. Sigh. It was great to enjoy the gorgeous weather and watch people shag dancing all night! Plus, I even got a little tan laying out at the pool in the afternoon--no burn!

Saturday was also spent by the pool with Be (still no burn--hooray!), and I finally got to spend a lovely evening with Matthew! He is one of my favorite people in the entire world. Being the un-festive people that we are, we spent our 4th of July eating French food at North Hills (yum) and seeing the Hangover (hilarious, and very realistic...it kind of made me want to go to Vegas). He is just fabulous, and I can't wait until we go see Britney together! He's the best concert-going partner ever.

Sunday I was sad to say goodbye to the Old North State, I realized that I won't be able to go back for pretty much the rest of the summer..sad. I really do love going home. Seeing everyone there always makes me feel more alive and better about life in general. But alas, i'll be traveling so much in the next few weeks, I probably won't even miss it. This weekend will be the first in a month where I will be in Atlanta with no one visiting and no real plans yet. I can't wait to spend some quality time in my apartment, by the pool, and catching up with all the friends I haven't seen lately. I'm even going to try to fit in a massage appointment and a trip to Bojangles. Can't wait!

For now, I'm working in Alabama all week. I suppose that calls for me to say "Roll Tide!" or something like that, but frankly, I don't really know what that means:) I'm just enjoying small town life that reminds me of home for a few days. And hopefully we'll finish up early and get to leave on Thursday--fingers crossed. My out-to-dinner club is meeting Thursday night and I obviously don't want to miss out!

Only one week from today, Kristin will be in the South again! I can't wait to see her and have my bff to hang out with for a whole week. Too bad work gets in the way...oh well.

Happy Friday-ish!

I'm so excited its the last day of the work-week for me. Tonight mom and I are going to the High Museum for some live jazz and we're going to make dinner--fresh scallops from Publix. Delicious! Last night we went out for Mexican food (I discovered a new place--new to me--on Ponce in the Highlands called El Azteca...yum) and lounged around on noodles in the pool for about an hour. Lovely. Its so nice to have her here! Since she had no plans for today, she's going to pick us up some cupcakes from this bakery called Matty Cakes right by my apartment. Supposedly the best red velvet in Atlanta. I'll be the judge of that tonight:)

Otherwise life is trudging along as usual. I'm trying to enjoy my time in the office during these two weeks, because I know I'll be gone so much for the rest of the summer. But honestly, its the middle of summertime and I'm seriously lacking in motivation. I'm getting all of my assignments done, but I have no motivation to go above and beyond to do things that aren't due for a while. Even though its the perfect time to do them. Sigh. I think procrastination may have finally caught up with me, and my brain is crying out for a summer vacay. Oh, to be in school again:) Scratch that--I will be for two weeks at the beginning of August in D.C. Yay!

This weekend at home I'm looking forward to: Friday night with Erin on Glenwood South (we both need a night out, let's be honest), lunch with Sara, dinner with the fam, and hopefully seeing Be and Emily, whom I have not seen in longer than I'd like to remember. So much to look forward to!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Teehee

Cartoon from msn.com

No comment on J&K+8 today, but I just had to share that:)

I'm pretty excited because my Mom is coming back down to Atlanta this afternoon! She'll be here for the next couple of days, and then we'll drive back to N.C. together on Friday morning. I'm looking forward to her being here, because I rarely have anyone to hang out with during the week. As much as I like my alone time, it'll be fun to have her here to go to Trader Joe's with me and to listen to jazz music at the High Museum tomorrow night! I also can't wait to go home this weekend and see some of my best friends. All that's standing in the way is a couple of busy days at work--I think I can handle it!

Hope you all have a happy hump day & enjoy the extra hot weather if you're anywhere near Atlanta!

Greetings from Cajun Country

Hello from Louisiana! I'm having a lovely Central Time afternoon. I was ravenous by lunch time (being an hour behind), so I just scarfed down a large Mexican meal with my cokworkers, and am ready for a nap. Travel work days are always hard, because my brain doesn't get into thinking mode very easily after spending the entire morning in the car or on a plane. Especially since I was just on a plane coming back from Raleigh yesterday. Ick.

My weekend at home was excellent. I love being with my parents and my kitty and my best friends. Something about driving around Raleigh and sharing meals with the people who know me best makes me unbelievably happy and at ease. I wish I could recreate that feeling here, but I'm not sure the comfort of home is something that can be recreated period. We all know how much I needed to get out of town for a few days, and I made the most out of my short time there. If only I could've stayed another week...sigh.

And of course, now I'm out of town yet again. I flew in yesterday afternoon, shopped a little with Claire (so excited to see her again--and *gasp* she might be roommate potential since she just bought a house and has extra rooms!!). You have no idea how thrilled I was at the thought of having someone to live with again. Eeek! And if the roommate thing doesn't work out, at least now that I've seen Claire again, I'll hopefully have somewhere to hang out when I'm bored and need a friend:) Also (hilariously), Claire and I came to discover that Andrew and Claire's dad are in the same all men's cooking club. Small world indeed.

So overall, I'm feeling a little better but still missing home. Its nice to still be out of town this week and away from my lonely apartment. And so much to look forward to when I get back into town next weekend: Claire's house, Sarah's cookoutpalooza and Andrew will finally be back in town! I've missed him a lot and can't wait to see him again..I hate to be sappy, but its true!

I hope everyone had a glorious weekend and a not so bad Monday so far!

Release.

Thank goodness for good friends. As I have said many, many times before and will say many, many times in the future, my friends help me so much and I am endlessly thankful for them. Obviously its been a tough week in a lot of different ways. I'm happy to report I am no longer on the verge of tears at the office--thank goodness. I called Erin last night just to check in to see what was going on with her and to hopefully schedule a date this weekend, and ended up totally breaking down and not even meaning to. Ugh. I felt bad to unleash everything on to her, but honestly felt about 100% better after I got it all out and talked about all my craziness out loud.

Now I'm just counting down until I get to go home tonight! I can't wait to get out of Atlanta and be away from everything here for a few days. Work is a little stressful, but hopefully everything will wrap up nicely before I go out on the road next week. Lots to do!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and here's to hoping that my weekend is the boost I've been needing all week!

Not so good.

Another day...still feeling so blah. Actually a little more than blah, just sort of sad and lonely overall. I feel like I've been on the verge of tears for the past 3 days. Why? I do not know. I hate feeling like this. Maybe its just a phase, maybe its homesickness that I didn't realize I had. Maybe I've just got too much time on my hands to think about my life, and I've just started going crazy. Ugh, I'm getting emotional just sitting here typing this, and I'm not sure how to make it better.

Everytime I've felt a little depressed or lonely since I've been here, its been shortlived. I'll have dinner with someone, hang out with Andrew or just come to the office and talk with my coworkers, and I feel better. I've never been on the verge of tears at work, and obviously don't want to be. This would be easier if I could pinpoint what is wrong. I have lots of people who love me. I love lots of people I can call anytime I need to. I have even made a few friends here who I think would be there for me whenever I needed them. I've got Andrew, who is wonderful and who I love spending time with. I get it--I'm lucky. But that doesn't make it any easier when I'm going through days like the last few. Sigh.

I'm so looking forward to being in Raleigh tomorrow, I can't even describe it. I want to see my best friends, hang out with my parents, and pretend like I don't lead a totally separate adult life in another state for a few days. And then first thing Monday morning I'm jetting off again for work. At least I only have one more night by myself--I like keeping busy and having lots of people to have dinner with, even if it is my coworkers on a business trip! And by the time I get back from that, my friend Sarah is having a big cookout and Andrew will be back in town from his vacay. I don't like the fact I won't see him for almost 2 weeks, but he deserves a nice vacation, and I know it'll be a good miss for us:) I'll just be really happy to see him when we both get back into town.

Ugh, ok. Enough with the depressing post for now. Thanks for continuing to read, my dear friends, even when my blog is boring and sad and doesn't really say much at all. I appreciate you all so much and am lucky to have you interested in my life. Hopefully this mood will improve later!

Back to reality

Sigh. Back in the office already...I can't believe my beautiful holiday weekend that I had so been looking forward to is already over! I had a really wonderful time and wish I was still in the beach condo right now!

We got down to the beach late Friday night after lots of horrible traffic out of Atlanta. Driving trough Savannah and over the bridge to the island was heaven. I felt immediately happy and relaxed and great. Saturday was rainy all day long--pouring most of the time. I wish it had been sunny and nice, but I honestly kind of enjoy the rain at the beach. Its relaxing, and Andrew and I got to spend lots of time together just playing cards and eating seafood and driving around the island going to tacky beach shops. There were also lots of delicious frozen beverages to be had as well:) Sunday was luckily less rainy, but still very overcast. We walked on the beach and laid out by the pool for a long time, and of course, I got sunburned. Apparently we were getting a lot more sun than we realized--we were both pretty red by the end of the day. I think I got dehydrated too...I didn't feel so hot by the end of the night and we ended up just sitting on the couch, eating pizza and watching movies until bedtime. Monday morning we woke up to absolutely perfect weather--the day we were leaving, of course. We packed up, took one last walk on the beach and drove to Savannah. We had a really great lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Savannah river, which was beautiful. The drive back to Atlanta was nice and quiet, but I was so sad to see the weekend end so quickly. I loved getting to spend so much time with Andrew, and I hope he had a good weekend with me too. I think it was a good test for us--I didn't get tired of him at all, which is saying a lot for me. Being with him 24/7 was actually really nice and I liked getting to know him a little better and being away from everyone with him. I hope he felt the same way:)

Once he dropped me off last night, I got my usual little wave of depression that I get when I'm by myself again after having been with people for a long period of time. I still hate that I feel this way! I wish I could just be happy after having such a great weekend, but instead I just felt a little bit empty. I'm starting to wonder if I really don't like living alone as much as I thought I did? I do cherish my alone time sometimes, but after having someone to constantly be around and talk to all weekend, I just feel lonely when I'm by myself again. I have plenty of friends and family I can call, but sometimes its just not the same. I love that I can call Kristin anytime I need to, and she is always there for me and genuinely understands what I'm feeling. Maybe I've just got a little more homesickness going on...I don't know. Thankfully, this is only a 3 day work week for me, and I get to go home this weekend! I can't wait to see my parents, my cat and my friends.

Thanks for reading all about my craziness. Its kind of helpful to put this stuff out there sometimes:) Overall, I'm a happy girl this week. First grown up boy-girl vacay is checked off the list! And I get to be in North Carolina, the best place in the whole world, in 3 days. In the mean time, there's plenty at work to keep me busy. Although, I'll definitely be making time to post my feelings on last night's intense episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8, since I'm an official blog stalker for them now! Hope you all had a wonderful 3 days!

Rain+dark sky=extra caffiene needed.

Back in ATL after a fabulous Raleigh weekend. I purposely didn't make many plans while I was home this weekend, and that was an excellent call on my part. It was nice to be at home, run errands and shop with Mom, and just generally hang around town and relax. I always forget just how relaxing it is to be in my hometown. Home is peaceful and quiet and green everywhere. You can actually hear birds and insects and not the usual city noise I'm used to now. Atlanta is many things, but "relaxing" isn't really one of them. At least I haven't really discovered my relaxing places here just yet. I have very ambitious plans for exploring Piedmont Park and going to free concert Wednesdays in Centennial Park all summer, but as of right now the most relaxing place I can go around here is the mall (I know, I'm strange..the mall has always relaxed me). But, I really need a place to go where I don't spend tons of cash:)

Needless to say, I had a lovely time in good old NC and didn't do anything terribly special. The book sale was great (I fed my art history habit and got a ton of great/huge art history books...too bad I couldn't bring them back to ATL on the plane. oops) and I had an awesome dinner with Erin on Saturday night at North Hills. I did some quality window shopping by myself before I met her and soaked in a little of the place where I used to spend soo much of my time. It was really nice. The creme brulee cheesecake I had at dinner made me very happy too!

As great as the weekend was, I was ready to come back south yesterday afternoon. I take this as a good sign, considering how torn I've been feeling lately..missing home and feel lonely and whatnot. But I'm hoping that was just a little phase of the last few weeks. Something about May (the best month of the year, in my opinion) has given me a new lease on life.

Last night once I got back home from the airport, I went to A's house where he made me delicious fajitas, even though it was raining too much to grill outside, and we watched bad Sunday night tv as usual. I've been dragging this morning, despite my best efforts to caffienate with the extra bold brew. Tonight I'm looking forward to doing some laundry, unpacking from the weekend and going to bed early. I'm finally taking my work exam on Wednesday morning, so its like final exam cram time for me for the next two days. I feel like a college student again! If only..
I hope y'all had excellent weekends too and are having a happy Monday:)

Happy time!

I am unbelievably excited to go home tonight! There is so much to look forward to, and since I'm apparently so into lists this week, here's another one:

1. Seeing my lovely parents and grandparents.
2. Lunch with my friend Be on Saturday and dinner with Erin (at Firebirds...creme brulee cheesecake anyone?) on Saturday night!
3. The Wake Forest Public library book sale on Saturday morning. This is one of my absolute favorite things that my town does, and I have not missed the book sale since I was in middle school. I didn't plan to come home this weekend because of that, but I'm happy to get to go:) Plus, it'll be my first time going not as a volunteer!
4. Visiting North Hills, as is customary for any trip back home.
5. Enjoying driving around a city with 100x better traffic and actually knowing where I'm going. Yay!

I got to work super early this morning, but I was still happy because I got 9 beautiful hours of sleep last night. There is no better way to start the day, I am convinced. I indulged myself this morning with a sausage biscuit from the cafeteria and brought a bunch of delicious strawberries for a snack. I'm spending my day studying for my exam next week, and then leaving the office around 4 o'clock for the airport! Lovely day overall.

TGIF (sort of)

Fresh air and the sun is shining--I can already tell today will be better than yesterday. Heck, it is already better than yesterday. Plus, I will be Raleigh bound at 7 pm and I couldn't be more excited! Three days in NC should do me a world of good.

Most of the crazy, unexpected info from yesterday is still not sorted out. I didn't really get any of the answers I was hoping for, but I've taken a step back and I'm sure everything will work out for the best in the end. I just need to let it happen naturally and not force anything. I think I can handle it. I'm just trying to enjoy myself in the meantime.

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend:

1. Seeing Be, Erin and Sara (maybe even the reclusive Emily).

2. Hanging out with the family.

3. Angus Barn for the second time inside of a month. Yumm.

4. Cameron Village.

5. My cat, Annie.

6. Familiar surroundings.

7. Driving anywhere I want to without the use of a GPS.

8. Bojangles down the street.

9. Talking with people who actually care about/follow college basketball.

10. Everything.

Ahh, faux-friday at last. I'm leaving ATL tonight at 7:30 for a lovely weekend in the arctic tundra of North Carolina (the high tomorrow at home is 27...the HIGH!). I'm hoping I'll survive, but I'm really unsure about it. This is another one of those times when I wish there was a full body Ugg boot (that didn't make you look like a 300lb. Eskimo...not possible, I know).

Things to look forward to: lunch with Erin, my haircut, and dinner with Be on Friday, seeing Sara at some point and hopefully seeing Bride Wars, family time on Saturday, finally finishing Twilight on the plane, and getting ready for my first business trip next week!

That being said, the blog will be taking a little vacay as usual. And since I'll be out of the office all next week, I'll update whenever I get a chance. Happy weekend!

Hello Raleighwood

I'm getting excited about going home tomorrow night. It
hasn't been that long since I was there for Christmas, but I'm looking forward to going home for some normal, non-holiday time. I want to eat my favorite Mexican food and some of my Granny's delicious cooking. Hopefully i'll get to see a few friends and enjoy sleeping in my bed.

Last weekend I drove out to Marietta to go to Bojangles (25 min drive and totally worth it, plus I got to see this fabulous "big chicken"...apparently a highlight of the town). While I was in the car, I realized that I really missed driving around towns like that. In North Carolina, there is plenty of rural land around me. Its normal to see deer in the yard and farm land on the way to my grandparents house. And on Saturday it dawned on me that I don't get that here. Not that Marietta is rural by any means, but the fact that there was grass beside the road, and a big Walmart shopping center near the Bojangles, really reminded me of home. So this weekend, I'm especially looking forward to seeing my big yard and no paved sidewalks everywhere.

Back to reality

I flew back to Atlanta last night--about an hour delayed, so I didn't get in until about 9:30 (this is late for a person who is usually in PJs by 9:30!). But the traveling was safe and easy, so I can't complain. It wasn't easy to come back here yesterday, nor was it as hard as I expected. I loved being at home. I can't explain how good & comforting & natural it felt. But at the same time, I didn't dread coming back to Atlanta. I looked forward to getting back to my job and my apartment and my new life. It's strange how things become normal so quickly.

NC was fabulous. Five wonderful days of seeing friends and family and all the places I love. As you already know from the past couple weeks, I wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit this year, but I was excited to get home for Christmas Eve--my official favorite day. I have to admit, even while I was sitting at my grandparents' house that night eating (tons of) amazing food and opening gifts, I still didn't feel it. I was happy, to be sure, but not giddy as usual. I think that there was just too much happening this year for me to focus. But, I still had a wonderful time.

Christmas Eve and Day, I spent time with my parents and other family, eating way way way too much. The day after Christmas, mom and I braved Crabtree mall for the sales. It was a mad house. Probably waited 15-20 minutes for a parking space, and then even longer than that to leave the mall once we were done. Insanity. I got some great clothes and shoes (spent too much money again, but at least I didn't pay full price for anything!). I ran into Jess and her husband there too--blog shout out! I love seeing people I know around town. It's something I took for granted until I moved to a place where I know practically no one. I got to catch up with a friend from high school, and with Erin, my old roommate. So good to see the people who know me best. I also received some very nice gifts for Christmas: my washer dryer from my parents (early present, because I already have them, thank goodness), some scarves, Twilight books (K!), a george forman grill, a crock pot, a necklace from Tiffany's and a great new wallet. I'm a lucky girl.
This week should be a quiet one in the office--there's no one here. Maybe 4 people total on my side of the floor. Hopefully this means getting lots done, plus some relaxing. It's sunny today, so I'm hoping to walk outside at lunch! Tonight I'm hopefully having dinner with one of my favorites who is still at Wake. It'll be nice to go out in the middle of the week--a rareity for me!