A walk back in time

A few weekends ago, Scott and I went up to visit our good friends Elizabeth and Chris. It was just a wonderful visit, getting to see them and watching how big Chase has grown. And they unwittingly unleashed a monster - after a fun-and-curse-filled night of making pasta from scratch, I have now gone out and bought a pasta maker. (The one I purchased, however, uses electrical power to crank the pasta out...all that hand-cranking was the cause of the cursing).

This was the first time I was back in DC with Elizabeth since 1998. That sounds so weird to say...that the last time I hung out in Georgetown with Elizabeth was last century. Anyway, I did a little rummaging and scrounged up a few pictures from that last visit, back when we were just wee college freshmen. We've come a long way, baby!

Thanks to the Bevacquas for a very fun weekend! We hope to see you back in DC before the next century!

Mama Mia!

Over Mother's Day weekend, I visited my college roommate, Elizabeth, and her new baby. Baby Chase is absolutely adorable, happy baby and it was so much fun just to hang out and be with him. And it was amazing to see Elizabeth as a mom. Not surprisingly, she's really good at it!

So Baby Chase looks a lot like his dad, Chris. But there are definitely a lot of features that resemble Elizabeth; even more so as I was going through my pictures. Whenever something tickles Elizabeth's fancy, she makes this certain kind of smile. Chase did the same thing! It's exactly like Elizabeth's mouth when she makes that smile. How does that happen? The picture here is evidence...that's the smile!

Thanks for the fun visit, Elizabeth and Chris! And welcome to this wonderful world, little Chase!

St. John, USVI

We went on our annual vacation with Abby and Nathan at the end of last month to St. John. It was a our fifth vacation together, completing five vacations that start with the letter "C". Kind of quirky, I know, but it was one of those things that just happened and once we realized the inadvertent trend, we decided to continue it.


The first year was Charleston, then Cape Cod, Costa Rica, California and now the Caribbean.

We really liked St. John - the most beautiful blue water, delicious food, great snorkeling and yummy drinks. Most of the vacation was spent on the beach and snorkeling with parrot fish, barracudas, starfish and green turtles. The weather was beautiful (although the water was a little cool) and we had fun cruising in the Jeep on the narrow roads (they drive on the left-hand side of the road over there).

It was a nice, lazy vacation. Something I don't normally do on a vacation, so it was definitely a good change of pace. And, of course, we had a blast with Abby and Nathan...again!




Any suggestions for next year's vacation?

Holidays on Ice, Part 2

Happy New Year!

It's crazy to think that another year has started...where has the time gone? But I'm excited about this new year - a fresh start for new convictions and new ideas. Both politically and personally, I'm interested to see where 2009 will bring us.

We started off the New Year by applying for the Darwin awards. Scott and I jaunted up to Galena, IL with Abby and Nathan and spent the week being pulled and whipped around in a saucer sled by a six-wheeler. There were a few crashings into trees and thorns, a few flings into the lake (which were frozen solid, fortunately) and a few tumbles (no cracked bones, fortunately). As always, a lot of fun, although it was so, so cold. I never knew my sinuses could hurt from the cold.

So here's to safe journeys and safer activities in the future...and to a happy and health New Year!

Sweet Home Chicago

About two weeks ago, Scott and I took a jaunt to Chicago to see our friends Abby and Nathan. It was quite an exciting weekend. Between experiencing a Cubs game (vs. Pirates, Cubs won), walking around the Magnificent Mile, laughing at Second City, gambling at the Arlington Heights horse racetrack and stuffing our faces with sushi, we saw a lot of Chicago and had a great time!

A few pictures from the weekend. The sign in Japanese says (hopefully) Fukedome, which is one of the Cubs' players and whose shirt I was wearing. And the giant polished steel structure is what, I am told, Chicagoans affectionately refer to as "The Bean." You can see the Chicago skyline reflected.

Thank you, Abby and Nathan, for such a fun weekend!

California or Bust

We had a terrific time on our vacation! Between drinking lots and lots of wine, we also went up in a hot air balloon, canoed the Russian River, went horseback riding through Jack London's Park, squirmed in mud baths, biked across the Golden Gate Bridge and ferried to Alcatrez.


Of the eight wineries we tasted at, our favorites were Kunde and Benzinger. We found some amazing "winery only" wines at Benzinger. Can't wait for our UPS shipment to make it's way to our front door so we can relive the grape adventure.


The vacation, of course, wouldn't have been quite the same without our friends Abby and Nathan. This marks our fourth annual vacation with them and we can't wait for next year. Now we just have to find another location that starts with a "C" (we've done Charleston, Cape Cod, Costa Rica and California).

The view from our balloon...Before the big climb to the Golden GateGrowing baby grapesThar she blows! Old Faithful Geyser near Calistoga

Finished!

I've done it! I've graduated from Duke and officially have my Masters!

The ceremony was yesterday and my family and in-laws came in to help us celebrate. The ceremony was really nice and then we had a little get-together at our place with our family and friends. It was a nice to way to cap off two years of hard work.

I'm also a bit sad that it's all over. I came to school a bit insecure and doubtful of how I would do among so many talented people. There were some low points during the first year, when I struggled to understand concepts and do well. Looking back now, I think I surprised myself. I'm happy with how I did and feel I learned a lot. I got involved in many activities and am proud of my accomplishments, even though they were small.

Most of all, I'm sad to leave so many friends behind. We're going to scatter ourselves across the country and it's sad to close another chapter and move on, with the hope that we'll all keep in touch. So I'm excited to be done and to start back into the real world, but I'm also a little blue. I guess that's normal, right?

Cheers to all my fellow Duke MBA graduates this weekend, and to all the other graduates who are ready to close one chapter and move on to the next!

My DC Weekend

I never realized just how close DC is to Raleigh until I drove it this past weekend. I made it in less than 4 hours! The cherry blossoms were on their way out, but the swarms of tourists were still around.

My friend Kristen had a bachelorette party on Saturday, which was so much fun. One of my favorite parts of the night was smoking to hookah, which I've never done before. I never knew mango-flavored tobacco could be so fun! A few fun pictures of Kristen posing with her lingerie and of our beloved hookah. Everyone had a great time and I have to give props to Kristen...she did her fair share of drinking and still made it up for 8:30 am church! Who needs sleep when you have champagne and good friends?

While I was up in the city, I got to catch up with a friend I haven't seen since high school. We were really close back in the day, but as is the case with a lot of high school friends, we kind of lost touch over the years. Last December (2005), I had a b-school friend (who was an alumni of the same college she went to) look her e-mail up and we started getting back in touch. She got married in December 2006 and I was bummed that I couldn't go to the wedding. But we finally caught up in person this weekend! It's funny how so many things can change in your life and you feel as if you've changed with it, but in the end, you're the same as you always were. That's how I feel with Jana - she was the same person - same sweetness, same mannerisms - as always, but with a whole new life.

So now I have lots of reasons to get back up to DC...an old friend, a new-old friend, and lots of dead presidents!