Pollen, California & spring in the South

This week has been the perfect example of spring in the south. The week started out as hot as Hades. Seriously, it should not be 90 degrees during the 1st week of April. But, such is life. Today it was a mere 50 degrees when I walked out of my apartment to work. WOW it felt cold. Especially since I've been sweating to death first thing in the morning for the past few days. Thankfully, we had a little rain yesterday to help wash away some of the outrageous pollen thats been piling up all week. Yay! So now I'm looking forward to an honest-to-goodness spring-like weekend of 70 degree weather, sunshine, eating outside, sandals and shorts!

The week has been a busy one, but also a slow one too. I guess that's what I get for being out of the office living the fabulous California life for two weeks straight. And believe me, it was fabulous. Here is a little recap for you all:

My first week in San Francisco was lovely. I was by myself there for work related training. I had a glorious time! I met some great people in my class, and luckily had some free time to explore beautiful San Fran. I bought pretty jewelry at a street fair, went to a specialty cheese shop one night (and only had cheese for dinner..yum!), explored Fisherman's Wharf, ate amazing seafood at a restaurant overlooking the bay, toured Alcatraz (scary, but amazing views!), rode a cable car up the very, very steep hills, and even drove across the Golden Gate Bridge! It was a great week overall, and I feel lucky that I got to really take full advantage and see lots of things around the city.

For the second week, my parents flew out to meet me and we spent the week driving down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Fran to L.A., and stopping at all the fabulous little spots along the way. LOVED the drive down the coast. The road is literally on the side of mountain cliffs that drop right off into the ocean for a lot of the way down, and the views are spectacular. Northern California is a truly gorgeous place, and I highly reccommend it to anyone who gets the chance to go! As we made our way down, we stopped in Monterrey, Santa Cruz and few other surf spots. We spent a night in Santa Barbara, and then made our way to Hollywood. I really enjoyed Hollywood. We stayed in a hotel right off Hollywood Blvd, and of course we saw the handprints outside the Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater where they host the Oscars, and all the stars lining the sidewalks. We saw the Hollywood sign, we went to Beverly Hills (heavenly!), I shopping on Rodeo Dr. (dream come true!), drove around looking at big, beautiful (and i'm sure celebrity-owned) homes. We did a tour of Sony Pictures Studios which was a lot of fun. I even had my celebrity spotting there--Jason Biggs from American Pie walked right by! Of course we also visited a couple of presidential museums and also the Getty Center while we were there. Lots of stuff packed in, but we had a great trip!

It was so nice to be back home last weekend and hang out with John. We went to the Dixieland Funpark in Fayetteville, GA. I'd reccommend this place to anyone who is a fan of mini-golf, crappy rides and 90s arcade games. We actually had a lot of fun there! We also made an Easter meal together on Sunday since we were both Easter orphans, and it turned out really well.

Hopefully this weekend will be just as relaxing and fun. I'm hoping to do a little shopping, maybe see a friend or two, and hopefully go to Park Tavern at Piedmont Park at some point. I'm just glad its Friday :)

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:)

A few good things

A couple randoms to brighten up this Tuesday morning:

1. First off, my mood has improved dramatically. Not sure why, but I'm not asking questions! I went to ther library last night and picked up a few books, got my exam for work rescheduled to next Wednesday and did some laundry. I LOVE that its finally light outside until after 8 o'clock. I need to start walking around my little apartment neighborhood part of my evening routine.

2. Hurricanes are playing in a game 7 tonight in the NHL playoffs! I have to admit I've been a bad fan this year, but its not all my fault. I don't get nearly as many of the games on tv here as in Raleigh...sad. But I do still have lots of love in my heart for the Canes, and I am so happy they are having a great year after two disappointing years of no playoff time. Yay!

3. I'm seriously trying to take a (clothes) shopping sabbatical. I don't need any new clothes. I have too many. We'll see how long I last!

4. Tonight it date night and I am thrilled because I received some "welcome to the neighborhood" coupons last week in the mail, and one of them was for this restaurant called Dusty's. They claim to be the only authentic Eastern NC style BBQ in Atlanta, and I'm going to be the judge of that myself tonight! The best part: if its awesome and authentic, I can have a taste of home anytime I want. If its a rip-off and not North Carolinian at all, I still get a taste of home when I go home this weekend!

5. For me, nothing is more gorgeous/more North Carolina/more spring time than a Dogwood tree.

I wish I was on spring break.

I really wish I was on spring break. This first spring as an adult is rough--where is my week off to go to the beach? Where is all my free afternoon time to lay around outside doing absolutely nothing? If I were still at Wake this time of the year (my personal favorite time in the Forest), I'd be swinging on Davis Field or lying on on blanket painting my nails and listening to my ipod for hours on end. There might even be a trip to Haynes mall and Dewey's involved:) Oh how I miss that part of college.

And for another stimulating peek into my Alabama life this week! Haha, I wish that we're true... There is nothing new to report. Still just working and eating, and that's pretty much it. I ate peach cobbler not only once, bu twice yesterday! I'm pretty sure the only thing I'm going to take away from this week is about 5 extra pounds. I'm still unsure if I'm going back home today or tomorrow. My guess is tomorrow, although sleeping in my own bed tonight would be a very nice surprise:)

Things on my to do list:
1. Unpack and repack for the weekend once I get home.
2. Major laundry (see #1).
3. Buy some new cute pajamas for spring/summer time. I really like these.
4. Eat lots of Easter candy!
5. Clean my apartment at some point...its amazing how dirty it gets when I'm not even there!
6. Wear shorts since the weather has finally thawed out again.
7. Go on a serious detox after this week full of peach cobbler and said Easter candy.
8. Go to a baseball game. Yes, you read that right. I won't feel like a real Atlantan until I see the Braves in person.
9. Hang out more with all my new girlfriends in ATL.
10. Plan trips to Raleigh and/or NYC. Can't wait!

Le Sigh

Tuesday=pop culture trivia night! I love getting back into my trivia routine from college. And one day, we will win. Maybe tonight is the lucky night:)

Day two of my online class at the office. Everything is going fairly well. Its nice to be in a conference room with a couple other people...any change of scenery from my cube is welcome. Although, now I have a perfect window view of Midtown, and all I want to do is go outside. Its been 80 degrees in Atlanta for about 4 days now, and I'm addicted. Thank goodness Spring is only 10 days away (officially).

This time of year always makes me nostalgic. When I was at Wake, I would be nostalgic for high school right about now (or, more like in April). Now of course, I am missing Wake with a passion. Spring is the absolute best time to be on campus. I miss the gorgeous trees, boys in seersucker and bow ties, laying on a blanket on Davis field, swinging by Scales, Springfest concerts outside and in Wait, Shag on the Mag and just that overall feeling of wonderfulness. To me, thats Wake in a nutshell. Thank goodness I am still in the South in general. Atlanta definitely has lots of preppy goodness to offer:) I think the biggest change is just the lack of free time to get out and enjoy. In college, everyone would flock outside all day long in the beautiful weather, but now I'm stuck in the office until 5, at least. I really miss my middle of the day free time.

Not sure how this post turned into "I love Spring and miss WF", but I guess thats how I'm feeling today. Overall happy, but a twinge of nostalgia for my former life:) That's not so bad, I guess.