So, last week was the week of No Fun as far as work goes. Serious deadlines plus lagging code drops equals Carrie doing 1 months’ work in 3 days. Oy!
But, the week was greatly improved by Anne coming to visit. yay! She was looking for an apartment for when she moves to NC next month. We did all the triangle essentials – tasties at Goodberrys, some pints at Flying Saucer and gourmet shopping at Southern Season. Well, actually, there are more essentials than that but we only had so much time, really. I should really make a “Triangle Essentials” website. Fun!
Over the weekend we took my new-to-me Toyota Corolla on a little trippy to the mountains. Up and down the twisty mountains my new car went, finally arriving at Chimney Rock park. We went to the “chimney” and then proceeded to hike all the trails. Serious stairs and heat to match meant that I was seriously buff by the end. Too bad we had some barbeque afterwards. 
It was a good thing I had my fashionable , yet practical trail sneakers. It’s amazing how much more exciting something can be when you’ve got proper attire to wear for that particular activity. haha. There were a large number of rednecks there, mostly of women complaining about being tired from walking, little kids running around like crazy, and so on. Apparently this is a big tourist attraction. I’m not sure I really see the excitement. It’s a big rock. I did like the getting buff and going near waterfalls parts, though. Ding!
Afterwards, we ventured to Asheville. We discovered downtown was the place to be. Hot stores and trendy eateries galore. My personal favorite part of Asheville was our dinner at Doc Chey’s noodle house. It was cheap and delicious – some spicy peanut noodle salad, pad thai, and assorted weird teas. Gee, I like Asian food a lot. (Maybe it’s because I never had it so much growing up in upstate NY – I don’t think we even had a “crappy chinese” restaurant until the mid 90s. shock!)
On the way home, I also had Dunkin Donuts (affectionately called “DD” by all my relatives, who are addicted to the coffee). A rarity in the South, particularly in the Raleigh area, where the closest location is in not-so-nearby Eastern Raleigh. That’s what road trips are for! Even though I had DD at least 4 or 5 times in Poughkeepsie, I felt the need to celebrate the DD-in-the-south discovery by eating a double chocolate doughnut. Yummers!
So, what is everyone doing to celebrate our country’s independence? I just realized there’s a long weekend coming up – wahoo! Time to par-tay.
A skirt that was mostly white with red piping ran onto my brand-new H&M shirt. Stupid un-prewashed red piping. So, the skirt and the shirt are pretty much unwearable. I suppose I would be more heartbroken if it had gotten on more of the clothes that were in the washer, but I think so far, so good. Of course I may come across more when actually putting on pieces that ended up in that dreaded washing load.
I am back from Poughkeepsie. Last night Oak and I saw the Garfield movie. Those who are in the know remember that I am a garfield fan from way back – remember that cartoon show, Garfield and Friends? I had a garfield bedspread and two stuffed garfields. In 2nd grade I was also obsessed with learning to DRAW Garfield. I can still do a pretty accurate rendering if I do say so myself. The movie was cute, somewhat entertaining – I must say I was disappointed with Nermal – who, aside from not being gray, had a male’s voice. Weirdness. Oak’s take was that it was funny and that it having Jennifer Love Hewitt was a plus. Aye yi yi.
Not much else new, otherwise. I decided it’s finally time to get a new pair of sneakers considering the ones I just threw out are circa 1999. Well, I have pretty much stopped wearing the sneakers (Inappropriate for work and just un-stylish otherwise) except for to the gym. So maybe my new sneaker cycle IS once every 5 years. Remember when sneakers were SO important? And those were the only pair of shoes that got worn, pretty much? Ah, so much simpler back then, when a pair of purple Nikes added flair to any outfit (Or perhaps I would have been nominated for a child’s version of What not to wear??)
If you have any favorite sneakers to recommend, I would be very curious to see. Those ones that look like they have gigundo springs in them are appealing but – I refuse to spend over $50 on sneakers. Oh well!
OK, so I have managed to keep myself busier on this trip to Poughkeepsie than I originally thought possible. Brandon and Kelsey were married this weekend, they were so cute. (Yes, Oak, you were also hot as an usher!). It was good to see everyone from school. We even went to RPI for the night with the traditional Denny’s run. Denny’s was all screwed up, they changed the menus and now there’s nachos – what the heck? Despite having a good time, it’s good to be done with the “college way of life” I feel – namely the adverse living conditions – how quickly you are no longer used to crashing in random places.
Desperate to get my fill of Northern shopping, I spent about 2 hours in H&M on Sunday. I feel I have never spent so much time in a single store before, but hey, they had a TON of stuff. Bathing suits were extra cheap ($20 – for a women’s suit, that’s about as cheap as it gets) so I felt it my personal duty to try on every one they had. I give H&M props for their sensible sizing of bikini pieces – by BRA size! Why don’t more places do that? It made it so much easier to get things to fit – let’s face it, Small medium and large do not denote every chest size. I was very happy to find my first bikini since, oh, about 11 years old. Now I just have to get the courage to wear that baby in public. I figured if I don’t wear one now, I will never be able to, especially in the post-children years. Anyway, one step at a time here, folks. Maybe I’ll be able to wear it out on the porch or something. haha.
In other news, I am a bit scared by the amount of work to be done this week. Some work from Raleigh has been piling up in the background – that has to be done this week along with the Poughkeepsie project stuff. Oy. For the first time since I’ve been at IBM I feel somewhat overworked – last week the hours were about 8:45am-7:30pm. But, I am now a master of z/OS and mainframe administration (OR NOT! This is a skill that seems to take 20 years to be proficient with). Well, at least I can say I’ve used MVS (the mainframe shell thingy), which is a feat in itself.
It will be good to be back to the apartment, the man, and the REGULAR work hours! Ding! 
