Weekend update

My life is not terribly exciting right now - my LAST first day of classes ever begins tomorrow. Officially down to 116 days until graduation!! Until something else more exciting comes along, here is my weekend update:

I met my parents at the beach on Friday afternoon - of course, any time I can get to the coast I am a happy camper. I need to figure out a way to move to Wilmington... Ideas anyone? Sat on the beach for a little while on Friday afternoon and caught up with Mom. She started her new (work-from-home) job today! Maybe this is my ticket to beach living?

Friday night we went out to a beach bar on the boardwalk for drinks and dinner. Dinner was less than mediocre. Drinks were delicious. You know it's been a bad week when you walk in to the bar and immediately order a "Purple Hooter" (shooter) and the bartender responds "already?" Anyway, the shooters were only $3 and they had Landshark draft on special for $2.50.. it is cheap to drink at the beach.

Like I said, the food was not very good. But the evening did have its upsides. The bartender gave me $5 and told me to pick out songs on the "jukebox" - I know its not a jukebox anymore, but that computer thing where you get to pick music. That was FUN! I didn't even choose it, but my favorite bar song came on right after my playlist of 12 songs. However, the best quote and moment of the night was after finishing the meal.

Dad: well, that food was kind of gross
Me: this is the kind of bar where you don't eat dinner, you get hammered
Dad: a hamburger probably would have been pretty good
Me: get 'hammered' not 'a hamburger' *giggles*

Reiterating the food not being good theme - my mom got really sick on Saturday. I managed to sneak in some time on the beach in the morning. We switched hotels to downtown Wilmington and the afternoon was filled with crappy weather and laziness. The good news was that I finished my book! Bad news is my Kindle broke in a sleeping accident. The other good news is Amazon.com has THE BEST customer service and is sending me a new one that is set to arrive on Wednesday (and the Kindle app on my Evo allowed me to finish the novel after the sleeping accident). This is why I do my online shopping almost exclusively with Amazon.com.

This was seriously one of the best books I have read in a while. It tells the story of four girls who attend Smith College (an all-girls school in Massachusetts). The story begins on move-in day of their first year of college - the word 'freshMAN' is banned at Smith. There were some hillarious moments, heartwarming moments, and sad moments. I really felt like I was the fifth friend in the book, observing - the author really painted a vivid picture of their lives. From that first day of school, I joined the foursome through the trials and tribulations of college and what happens in those first years of adulthood (definitely relatable) as well as I learned a little back story about each of the characters and the formative experiences in their lives prior to arriving at Smith. The story had an ending I definitely would have never predicted. While this may not be the finest book review, I recommend that people pick up a copy of this or download it to their Kindle/Nook/other e-reader. It is a must read!

On to other important things, the terrible dinner from Friday night was counteracted with an amazing, delicious, nom nom meal on Saturday night. Dad and I had a daddy-daughter date to the Ruth's Chris bar at the Hilton Riverfront in Wilmington (where we stayed). They have awesome "bar food" (if you can call it that...) high quality and very reasonable prices. I got the ahi tuna salad - the dressing I would describe as a soy vinegarette with a hint of wasabi spice. I took a picture of the salad mid-way through it.. sorry folks, I saw it, I was hungry, and I got overzealous. Wherever you live, check out the Ruth's Chris bar - you can eat decadent on a budget... or at least for a reasonable price (my salad was $16.95 and dad's burger and fries were $12.95 - not too shabby).

While this post was utterly thrilling, brace yourselves... Up next: a few of my favorite things...

Spider bites and restaurants

As some of you know, I have been spending my days in Freeport, IL since the end of July. I am here supporting my old team for work as we go live on a new enterprise planning system (SAP, for those of you who are familiar). I am stationed at a distribution center up here. My team is holed up in a corner of the DC cafeteria. Here is a picture of my workspace, and my chair... Speaking of these chairs, they are painfully uncomfortable and I need a massage. ASAP. Anyone know of any good massage places in Charlotte?? I'll be back on Friday night!

The electric chair?

Yes, that is a smidge of sunlight that I see!

I have basically been working, working out (if I am lucky - read: not lazy), eating, and sleeping. I have squeezed in two movies (potential movie reviews to come?) and two trips to Chicago during my time here. All-in-all, it has been a pretty good trip! Slim pickin's on the restaurant selections though. In a small town, you tend to eat at the same places over and over again. My expense report looks something like this: Subway, Subway, Fuji (sushi), Subway, Cannova's (pizza), Subway, and Sushi.

It is a given and has already been discussed that I get some variation of Subway breakfast every morning since the hotel "buffet" is less-than-stellar.

Before I left Charlotte, I was nervous (read: 100% positive) that I wasn't going to be able to find any sushi in Freeport, so I was trying to squeeze it in at any possible meal. I was pleasantly surprised to find Fuji Sushi and Hibachi just down the road from my hotel. I was even more pleasantly surprised with the quality of their sushi - I have now tried at least 5 different rolls and each one has been divine. The cucumber salad is some of the best I have ever had: simple with julienne'd cucumbers, that tangy vinegar sauce, and sesame seeds. Below is a picture off of their Facebook page (I regrettably have forgotten to take pictures of my meals!) My favorite roll that I tried happened to be the first one that I tried: tiger roll - eel and avocado, topped with salmon, tuna, and whitefish. Second runner up? A roll not on the menu - summer roll: salmon, tuna, and whitefish topped with a spicy crab meat mix. Simply divine, and so happy that I found sushi in Freeport!

Cannova's is a locally owned pizza/Italian restaurant in Freeport (website has the correct menu, but an alternative location). I highly recommend the pizza - I have tried a pasta dish before (only once, for a reason) and I was not extremely satisfied. But perhaps they were having an off day, or my taste buds were having an off day, or I just ordered the wrong thing... Their pizza on the other hand is very good - they have a light, crispy crust and a sauce full of Italian flavor. Their mozzarella cheese is top notch quality. The first specialty pizza on their menu is the Cannova's Classic: diced tomatoes, fresh garlic, spinach, black olives, sweet basil, house cheese, and mozzarella. This is my favorite! I wish I had a picture, I really do... but trust me, this pizza is very good!

On to the spider bites (how do you segue between food and spider bites?), so this small corner of the cafeteria is infested with bugs. Apparently a spider got up in to my pants, and left me two gorgeous and itchy red marks. I am trying to ignore the fact that there are spiders living in my work area... but these love bites make it hard to forget! I'll be here until Friday afternoon - hopefully I can keep these little creepy crawlies away from me until then. I've started keeping my feet propped up on a chair, because in my (completely logical..) mind, this will keep the spiders at bay. You know the feeling when you think bugs are crawling all over you and they really aren't? Yeah. That's what I have going on.

And back to food - this central standard time is throwing me off! It's almost noon here and I am getting mighty hungry. Hopefully the catered food is not chicken (I just don't like chicken.) and I can have one less Subway purchase on my expense report...