What's Next In This World…

 

On May 23^rd Tim & I will be celebrating our three-year anniversary. Time has really flown by, it seems like we’ve been married for years, maybe because we’ve been together for over 9 years. It’s still amazing to look back and think, no one suspected that we would get together or that we would even make it for the long haul. It wasn’t for any reason like we weren’t good for each other, or one of us was some kind of rebel. Just based on social circles and cliques… People just couldn’t picture the two of us. After a few months of dating people started to see how perfect we are together.

I don’t think I would be where I’m at today without Tim or friends with the amazing people I’ve met throughout our journey together. It’s hard to say what I think my life would be like. I’m sure I would either be in San Francisco or on the west coast working for some broadcast station or on the east coast with my college besties. When I graduated college I had a slew of paths I could have taken, but only one made sense and here I am 9 years 4 months and 21 days later about to celebrate my 3 year wedding anniversary with Tim and awaiting the arrival of our fist child. How blessed I was to find a stand-up guy that makes me proud that I’ve done something right – giving my little a dad that’s all the things I want her father to be. I’m hoping someday she’ll be lucky enough find someone just like her dad – that will be my proudest moment.

There’s a lot of things I’d like to write about as I haven’t really had the time. There’s a lot of things going through my head while waiting for the next phase in my life. Finally processing “motherhood” as I’ve alluded thinking about it until now.

Last weekend Tim & I went out to Troy as we do every weekend to visit my family. We were on I-75 just passed the Madison Heights border. They’re doing construction on the right hand side and traffic came to a halt. Many cars had to slam on their breaks because there really wasn’t any warning that the freeway was going to cut down from three lanes to two. I even struggled stopping on time and I wasn’t going too fast, but I saw a lot of the lights and started to slow down a little early and even still it was a struggle to not hit the car in front of me. I heard a screeching sound and I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a car still coming in fast in the left lane (we were in the center at a dead stop). It got over to the shoulder, managed to get around the car that was directly to the left of us, lost control and ended up rear ending a small civic at still a pretty high-speed. We were so scared we were going to get in this because it was happening right around us. Then we heard a second screech and we looked in the rear view mirror and saw yet another car was losing control behind us. It was fish-tailing and sideways across the center and left lanes. I was thinking in my head the entire time if we get hit this airbag is going to go off and possibly hit my belly. I could tell Tim was very nervous as well. The van in front us moved up and we followed suit – we just needed to get away from the car that was directly to the left of us because if that car got hit surely we would have gotten hit somehow as well. I just wanted to move up as forward as I could to make sure that we would be safe. Luckily the second car went right into the ditch just missing the car to our left by a few feet. That car was very lucky, two have missed two high impact crashes let alone one.

I was so scared and for the rest of the day, I just couldn’t shake the image of what I saw from my head. That was the most violent crash I’ve witnessed and I’m thankful that we didn’t get caught up in it. I think the main reason why I couldn’t shake it is because we had our car seat set up in the back (just in case) and I couldn’t stop thinking about if we got hit and our baby was back there what would have happened to our baby? We were at a dead stop and these cars were going really fast still. That Civic that got hit by the first car, the back half was smashed in and the car is probably totaled. I can’t get over thinking about what if my newborn was in the back? If you’ve ever been hit at maybe 10 mph your back is still a little sore, to take an impact at 50 mph you can imagine that you would be hurting a decent bit maybe even suffer from whiplash. Imagine a 6 lb baby… I don’t want to and I’m hoping that people will be more aware of what’s going on when they’re driving.

I feel like there are many distractions, every day I see people on the roads texting and driving, I know some people are guilty of fiddling with their ipods or talking on their phones, texting, etc. I’m not saying this was the culprit of what I saw this weekend, but it worries me that there are too many distractions and I say this to Tim all the time. When you’re driving there isn’t anything more important you need to be doing besides paying attention to the road. I’m hoping that something like this will never happen to us especially with a little one in tow.

When Tim & I got our smart phones we immediately knew that these would be distractions in the car so we set ground rules immediately. No using our phones while we’re driving. We can look at them at stop lights or when we’re at complete dead stops (if we need to), but other than that we weren’t going to text, surf the net or do anything – making it home to each other safe is the most important task day-to-day. I mean, I didn’t spend 9+ years of my life with a man, just to be cut short on time with him. I want to be old & gray with boobs dragging on the ground before coming face to face with possibly losing him tomorrow. I also want to grow old and gray with all of you reading this, so please stay safe this summer and think about who you can affect by driving carelessly.

 

Hopefully next time I write I can post some pictures of a beautiful, healthy baby girl!

 

Til next time!

Life has definitely gotten busier and busier. I haven’t had a chance to get around to doing any blogging. Hopefully that will change as I re-organize my life. The Mr. & I are getting ready to greet our first child any day now. After four years we’re finally making our house a home and spending time painting and getting it ready for our newest addition.

Check ut our nursery. This used to be my office and the walls were bright red and I had black & white furniture in it. We’ve changed it a lot to make it more baby friendly.

Finally, I have a chance to sit down and blog. I’m looking at my past posts and can’t believe it’s seriously been since November 6^th, 2011! So first off, happy New Year friends! There’s so much going on and I’m happy to report that there is a “big next” in my life. The mister and I are expecting our first child. So, I’m sad to report that I did not get to live the dream of snowboarding all winter long. BUT, that’s not all my fault, the weather hasn’t been cooperative so I couldn’t get on the slopes early enough. So, I think that God was being nice by not providing the means to for me to be able to go and do something I’ve been looking forward to for an entire year. God is amazing.

Don’t worry this isn’t turning into a mommy blog. I think I posted two maternity photos. One doesn’t really count because it was a picture of me and my brother comparing bellies. I will say that it has been a crazy experience though.

How we found out:

Tim and I were at separate bachelor/bachelorette parties. When I didn’t feel well the next afternoon I thought it was weird – it doesn’t normally take me this long to recover from a night of drinking. I thought maybe I hit my head somehow and gave myself another concussion. But, I’m certain I would have seen something on facebook alluding to that if I had. When Tim got home from his party, I told him that I think perhaps I should take a pregnancy test since my cycle has been kinda weird and I haven’t been feeling well for a few weeks (which is somewhat normal).  So we went out together and bought a 3 pack. The first one had a plus sign right off the bat. I didn’t even have to wait the 5 minutes to see. Immediately I started crying. The first thing I cried about was “snowboarding” what else?

I thought surely this was a mistake, I’ve heard of false positives before and thought that maybe I should go ahead and try out the next one – well the next one was kind of inconclusive (so I thought… or was pretending). Anyways, we had to go spend some time with Tim’s parents so we decided to save the “tiebreaker” for later that night. I mean, surely I wasn’t pregnant… I mean something had to have been wrong with my urine – perhaps as a joke someone slipped me a few droplets of their HCG?

After we got back later that night, I took the last test and it certainly was positive. It wasn’t for a few more weeks yet that I would be able to go to see a doctor to confirm since my insurance was just kicking in at work, I had to wait a couple more weeks since no one would see me unless I had the card.

Who did we tell first:

Well, since I just got a new job in June, we told no one. I was afraid, I manage a brand new product for a large media group and it really just wasn’t good timing at all. I wasn’t ready to come to grips with being pregnant and I didn’t know how to care about anything but my career. All I’ve ever wanted was to be a successful career gal. Since we weren’t planning on having a baby so soon, we were also trying to figure out what type of doctor I should see and not telling anyone made it hard. We had to rely on the internet, which wasn’t much help since everyone has an opinion on what to do and who you should see. MD vs. DO’s vs residents vs Midwives vs other types of nurses. It was just a lot and I wasn’t ready to “grow up” just yet.

Who did I learn from:

Duh, MTV/Teen Mom! I mean, if an un-established teenager struggling to get a GED can do it, I’m sure a college educated married couple can. We both have great jobs; we own a house, cars, always been responsible…I mean, we did find a way to pay for our wedding even in tough economic times. There isn’t anything that Tim & I can’t do together. Oddly, I found comfort in watching Teen Mom because if they can do it I know we can too. Some of these girls are getting a lot of support from their parents and others aren’t and they’re still raising a child. Some stuff they do is questionable, but they’ve got a roof over the baby’s heads, diapers, food and unconditional love. Sometimes the show is a hot mess, but the kids are safe and doing well. Don’t get me wrong, it looks hard…

 

Anyways, this is all I have. There are a few tid bits of funny stories here and there, but I can’t express them in written form to do them justice. Perhaps, I’ll have to do it another time in Vlog. Hopefully I can get to another blog sooner than 4 months!

I know I should learn to manage my personal time better, but after work the last thing I want to do is boot up my computer when I just spent all day on a computer.  Technology is starting to take its toll. So over a month later, I’m just writing about the rest of my trip to NOLA.

So, day two started with a trip to the gym. It was glorious. It felt really good to get my gym on after a day full of high calorie, full fat food and drinks.  I figured it would be a good idea to get my metabolism revved up before Ponti, Jacki & Evy arrived.

Once they arrived, we all got ready to head over to the ACME Oyster House for some lunch. The line was pretty long for 11 am, but the food was worth the wait. My cousin Jamie & I split a dozen oysters to start. You could order oysters chargrilled, rockafeller. We went with the traditional raw. I also had the Seafood Etoufee, it was very delicious. I love getting the Crawfish Etouffee at Fishbones, but this was much better.  Tim had a sampler, which consisted of a bowl of Gumbo, a scoop of jambalaya, Andouille sausage, and red beans & rice. There was also another really interesting dish called the Gumbo Poopa, it was a French bread bowl filled with Andouille Sausage Gumbo. I didn’t get to try it, but it was massive and looked so awesome. I was definitely jealous! Check out the photos from lunch below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we decided to walk around the French Quarter again, since Caryn, Ralen, Ponti, Jacki, Jamie and Evy were not with us the day before. We were really full, but of course we had to make a at Café Du Monde for frozen coffees and beignets before our trip to the French Market.

 

During our walk we stopped off at an Aunt Sallies to get some world-famous New Orleans Pralines. The ones shown in the picture are much bigger. We also headed over the French Market.

After touring, Caryn, Jamie and I went checked out a few shops before getting ready for dinner. Seriously, all we did was eat – it was nuts.

For dinner we all went to Muriels, it was highly recommended, but after eating at the best restaurant the night before, we were very disappointed. The food was sub par and our linens smelled like feet and Clorox. The dessert was good though.

I had the Turtle soup and the Duck Confit Dirty Rice. Tim had the Crabmeat Imperial. For dessert we had the Pain Perdu Bread Pudding which had candied pecans and rum sauce. It had a nice spongy texture with this amazing rum sauce. After dinner it was time for drinks, so we headed to Bourbon Street. It was pretty lively, I would really hate to see how Mardi Gras is. We went to one of the oldest bars in the country Lafittes Blacksmith Shop, established in 1772. It’s a wild little place only lit by candle light. I’m not a fan of being in dark places, but it was no different from going to the Double O in Dearborn I guess. I’m just kidding, it was pretty awesome being here.

After awhile we all split up and half of us headed back to the hotel and the other stayed out for a night on the town. I was exhausted so we went back to the hotel to rest up for our last night.

The next day, we woke up and went on a cemetery tour in the Garden District. We had to take the train and it was a really neat experience. There was an old blind man who needed help crossing and my dashing husband was nice enough to get off the train to assist the man. Once he got back on we were on our way to the tour. It was really cool learning about the burial traditions in New Orleans and a little bit of history about the families who own plots there. We also took a tour of the houses in the Garden district – if I could stand the heat, I would definitely love a home here. I just don’t understand how people go for walks as the sidewalks are incredibly uneven.

After the tour we had lunch at Joey K’s. It was featured on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. It was ok.  I had the oyster Caesar. Then we all walked two miles to an ice cream shop that I have been dying to go to since our arrival. The walk was really brutal, but it was well worth the walk. We sampled awesome flavors like chicory, fig, lavender, tomato sorbet and creole cream cheese to name a few. I love ice cream shops that offer unique flavors. Sorry, I don’t have pictures for everything, It was 100 degrees and I wanted to carry as little as possible with me. After ice cream it was back to Casa de W Hotel to shower and rest up for the evening.

For dinner, Caryn, Ralen, Jamie, Tim & I went to the French Market for some crawfish. During the time of our trip, crawfish weren’t in season, but we found a place that had them. They were really good, but super spicy. After dinner we headed to Cure for some crazy concoctions and to enjoy the last night in NOLA. Of course I started with my new favorite vodka “Death’s Door” on the rocks because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get it back home. Then I went wild and had one of Cure’s signature drinks “The Drink of Laughter & Forgetting” This had Cynar, Green Chartreuse, lime, demerara and Angostura Bitters – it was gross. I’m not a fan of bitters and many of their drinks involved a drip of bitters or two. I definitely wanted to forget about this one. I can’t remember what the next cocktail I had was called, but I do remember having two of them. My cousin Jamie had a Watermelon drink that was really tasty. I kind of wish I had one of those… After Cure, we headed back to the hotel bar Whiskey Blue to finish off the night.

The next morning we woke up and started packing for our flight we had 5 hours to kill before having to head home. I knew where I wanted to go… Mother’s, it’s famous for their baked ham. I’ve heard this is a must do when in NOLA. Truth be told this was my second favorite meal ever. I had the best fried chicken, hot sausage and the most amazing red beans and rice. Tim had a po boy. Truly amazing meal.

After wards we met up with the other ladies and headed over to Café Du Monde for one last frozen café aulait and a beignet then back to the hotel to grab our things and go. I had a blast in NOLA, but I couldn’t wait to get home to the D.

 

 

When we got back to the hotel the girls surprised me with champagne and beads, which I’m sure they collected on their traunce along Bourbon Street the night before. Just kidding! It was a lovely end to a really fun weekend and the best start to my 30’s.

So, it’s really happening… I’m finally posting my experience in New Orleans. I turned the “dirty-thirty” and spent it in the “dirty south.” The Big Easy was a great time indeed. Despite the ridiculous heat that forced three showers a day, it was all worth it. The food, drinks and atmosphere… there was only one thing I could do without and that’s a mystery you can discover on your own.

The day started amazing as you can see… who gets to start the day chillin’ in a playhouse? This is why we need to fly Delta more often.  Plus, HELLO, you get peanuts (2 little bags)! All the other flights I just get a soda, but who wants that when you’re stuck in the middle seat next to King Kong, who is also taking up half of your seat? It didn’t matter though, I had my headphone on and I was jamming out to George Michael and lip synching to Tim (the entire flight).  My friend Stephanie was on the same flight with us… just a different row. We should have done a swapsies, but this made it more exciting to wait til the plane lands so you can hang out with your friend.

When we arrived, we took a shuttle to the Whatever Whenever Hotel/W. Loved the lobby it was super trendy… however the rooms were not. Our room wasn’t even cleaned – there was a pink penis straw and a “Square Root of Murder” book. Not to mention, I went to the bathroom and the toilet seat was still up AND the water was yellow.  This is when I said “hell-to-the-no… I’m not spending my first night in D3 in someone’s filth. “ Sometimes I can be a diva. With all variables plugged into the equation who knows what kind of party was going on here. I didn’t want to imagine what kind of party I was getting involved in. We got a new room and then we ventured out towards the French Quarter to get our first meal and I can only describe the rest with pictures…

We couldn’t come to NOLA and not have a Po’ Boy… so our first stop was Johnny’s Po-boys. These were as massive as they look in the pictures. Tim and I split two – so, on each plate those were full sandwiches and they were stuffed like you wouldn’t believe. They tasted amazing, the french bread was nice and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. No better place to have your first po’boy experience than the Big Easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You would think it was Fat Tuesday up in here, but I did good and opted not to eat the bread on my second half. After we were through, we knew we had to go walk it off so we ventured to Jackson Square. We actually did this twice since all my friends came in shifts. Plus it was gorgeous so I didn’t mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyday we went to one place, for two things… the only place for Cafe Au Lait & Beignets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner Time…

During this trip, I did one thing wrong… I ate at the most wonderful restaurant and the next day none of the food could compare. My food journey might as well have been finished. To celebrate my arrival to D3 we ate at August, which is a John Besh restaurant. This was by far the finest meal I’ve ever had in my life. If you can prove me wrong, let’s not kid here, there’s no way you can prove me wrong. You can try, but it will be difficult to show me better. I bowed to this restaurant in passing, that’s how good it was. Fit for Gods, I tell you. It was nothing short of amazing. We started with an amazing amuse-bouche. I’m not sure what this particular one was called, but it was an egg-shell with a rich egg custard inside, topped with caviar (see picture on left).

 

 

 

Stephanie had this gorgeous melon soup (pictured below)… I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I know it had melon and she raved about how awesome it was. I believe her because honestly, what I had for dinner was amazing.

My cousin and I each had the La Province Mangalista Pork. This was brilliant. It was pork prepared three ways: crispy tenderloin, slow cooked shoulder and cheek raviolo served with sweet corn, purple plums and chanterelle. Tim had the Speckled Trout Ponchartrain – trout topped with jumbo lump crab, wild mushrooms, and sauce hollandaise. Both dishes were very good. I let Tim have half of my dish, which is a testament of my love for him – it was really that good.

Desserts:

I couldn’t tell you what these were called, but they too were amazing. One I can remember… it was called a Snowball. For my birthday they also brought out a small plate of pralines, homemade chocolates and some kind of peach gummy thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few notable things happened during dinner. My gal pal Jacki-O texted me and asked if there was still room for her to come down and sure as shit (d’oh, excuse the language) she was here the next morning. I also fell in love that night, with a vodka called Death’s Door. I couldn’t get enough of it. It was the best vodka I’ve ever had. Usually you don’t try alcohol with names like “Death’s Door” because the name implies a horrid taste, but in this case my risk paid off. It was smooth and virtually tasteless. I’ve been trying to get my hands on some in Detroit since coming home. If anyone knows where I can get it or who is serving it up. Let me know. Or if you’re a restaurant/bar owner and you decide you want to take a chance on that this is in fact a stellar product – you’ll see me at your bar almost every weekend.

 

We headed back to the hotel after dinner because my college besties alerted me that they landed so I while waiting, I did some light work in the lobby while Tim, my cousin Jamie and Steph had drinks in the hotel bar/club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok… I’ll have to tackle day two later… whew, this was only the first day!

The question that everyone is answering today is “do you remember where you were on 9-11.” I was actually in bed. My mom came home from work that morning, still in her hospital scrubs and she told me to turn on the tv. She was really calm, she didn’t say why, but I knew there was something up. She doesn’t normally wake me up unless it’s to ask if I’m going to school that day or work.  I lied in bed flipping through the channels and saw the first plane hanging out of the first tower. My thoughts were “how’d that happen?” A few minutes later the second plane hit the second tower and I was just in shock. There were shots of people on the streets just staring up at the towers. I know the world can’t physically stand still, but at this moment it truly felt like it did. When the towers collapsed I had that “no shit Sherlock” thought “uh-oh, something is very very wrong. The next shots were of people running.

I was in college and my best friend’s family is from New York. Her dad worked in Manhattan and my first thought was “I hope her dad is ok.” I tried to call my friend and there was no answer, so I called her mom in NY to see if she has heard from her husband. She told me everything was ok and he was fine. I remember hearing about all the chaos in NYC. The subways shut down, busses filled to capacity and people walking over two hours to get home. I was saddened by all the destruction, but also blessed that my friend’s family was safe. I couldn’t imagine being in NYC that day.

I was urged to stay home from school that day, but decided to go anyways. I was scared, I didn’t know what to expect on the freeways. I heard that businesses in all major cities were being evacuated. I heard that the RenCen was a target. I heard there were people out in Dearborn celebrating. Who knew which of these things were true, but I decided I was going to go about my day as usual. I remembered there were only maybe five people who showed up to my first class that day. The professor said “I understand that many of us are staying home to be with friends and family and understand if you want to go home too.” We all sat there and talked about what we know, what we’ve heard and the professor turned on the tv so we could watch the news coverage. The rest of class was a blur because it was so unreal.

I can’t remember much, but I remember wondering “why is this happening.” With all the rumors of celebrations in Dearborn, I thought “why are they celebrating.” I just couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening here, what all of this meant.

Later that night my sister called. At the time she was living in Singapore. She said everyone has just been glued to the tv’s every where she went. She said no one was talking, just watching in awe. Although I know that the world can’t possibly stand still, it kinda did on this day 10 years ago. I can’t remember everything, but I know I’ll never forget seeing the towers collapse on tv and all the thoughts going through my head and how scared everyone was.

When I was a little girl, I always wondered what it would be like to be alive during events we learned about in history books in grade school. This is one part of history I know my kids will ask about someday. When I remember this day, I’ll always count my blessings because thousands of people lost family members and loved ones. I’ll always remember the weeks passing as they cleaned up the ruins of what was once one of the worlds most amazing structures. As days and weeks passed, I’ll always remember hearing about “who’s still missing.” I’ll remember as time went by we would hear the chances of finding survivors become slimmer and slimmer. I’ll always remember the vigils and faces of families affected by what happened. I’ll never fully understand why.

Thank you to all of the nations service men that fight every day to keep our nation safe.

One of the things I haven’t been able to do in a long time is blog.  As I’m getting older and advancing in my career and “seizing “ as much of the (little bit of) day I can. I’m finding that I have less time to write in my blog, hang out with my friends, do some shopping or even spend time with Tim. Is that what growing up is? In no way am I rich, but for the first time since my first job out of college, I’m comfortable financially. I’m putting money into my savings account (yay) and I can afford to have a car payment (yay), but I really don’t have much time for play (boo). I am happy though. I’m very fortunate. I love my job, it’s so much fun. I enjoy working with the people around me at work. My bosses are great. Today I got free carrot cake and peppers in addition to being paid… so you know it’s all working out. Roof over my head, food in my belly and a husband that loves me…. I mean, what else do you need?

 

I’ve wanted to write about my trip to NOLA for weeks now, but I have to wait until I’m using the upstairs computer so I can include pictures. It was a lot of fun and I have some pretty sweet friends that made the trek. It was kinda cool that my Jacki-O pulled a rock star move and booked a flight the night before she flew in. I literally was in mid bite of my delicious birthday dinner when she texted to see if she could still come down. My poor hubby had to keep track of 8 girls. He did a great job because every single one of us made it home safe and in one piece.

So I’ve been in D3 for a little over a month now… so far so good. I’m liking it. I love what I have of a social life, family life, work life… I could die today and feel accomplished. Definitely everything started off perfectly. I brought the house down in year 29. I didn’t do everything on my list but I did find new priorities, loves and realized that you can’t live by the book or a set of guidelines. You have to just flow with the times. I’ve got a bucket full of lemons and I can make a hell of a lot more things than just lemonade… am I right?