The Closer

The time I spend with my family is time that is most treasured to me. Losing my great-grandmother in 2006 taught me that life is fleeting. Sure, I had lost loved ones before, but this was the first person that I truly loved, looked up to and had a great desire to make proud.
Her loss showed me that I need to be spending as much time as possible with the people that I love, which is why moving to and staying in Atlanta is a constant internal struggle for me. I've come to the conclusion that I had to move in order to be truly happy and that means that I'm going to miss out on some wonderful bonding moments with my grandparents, all four of which I am very blessed to still have in my life.

I end up going home a fair amount to spend time with everyone, attend the birthday parties and try to make it to the occasional softball game of one of my nieces. However, I really love when my family takes the time to come see me and the world in which I live. The Sunday before last, my Dad brought his parents up to do just that.

It just so happened that a family reunion was happening right outside of Atlanta, so it was the perfect excuse for a visit. Sunday they were occupied with the festivities (or rather my grandmother was occupied by reliving her childhood and telling stories of her precious mother, the aforementioned great-grandmother).

While I worked on Monday, Dad took them to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. After work, I jetted over to Turner Field to meet them for an evening game against the San Fransisco Giants. I love baseball, mostly because it reminds me of my grandmother, but I still love it.

I ordered copies of this photo for everyone.

The intimidating Brian Wilson walked out just in time to close the game and leave with a win for the Giants, but luckily the Braves pulled through in a dramatic 9th inning that left my grandfather quite entertained.

The game got me thinking about life, in that it starts off great, you make some great hits and you suffer some embarrassing outs. You might even make the occasional home run, but in the end, you hope to walk away with a victory; leaving behind lots of love and memories with the ones you care about the most. That's what my grandparents will one day leave me with; thoughts of sewing mini bean bags on my grandmother's old Singer, fishing in the trecherous swamp with my Grandfather and pretending to not be grossed out by the bugs everywhere because I wanted him to know I was tough enough to hang with the boys, and baseball games where we shared hotdogs and ice cream.

It was such a nice way to spend time together, even if it was for only a short 3.5 hours. It's times like these that I'll never forget.

For a laugh, see this video.

It's My Party

My birthday has come and gone, and I'm another year older. Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family. It was an important time where the entire family set aside time to get together and celebrate the life of someone we love.

It might be because of my childhood that I still get so excited about birthdays. Every year, I start planning a month in advance. I need to know what I'm going to wear and where I'm going to wear it. Due to not-so-favorable circumstances, I wasn't as excited about my birthday this year. I never found a new dress and I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. But, the day came and it got better...

This year,  I woke up to some pretty nice surprises; my roomie had a glitter banner, card, my favorite sweet treats and an amazing gift laid out for me.

Then she took me to enjoy brunch at West Egg, where I had mimosas and the Westside Pileup (it was delicious and I can't wait to go back).

I decided to start out with dinner at Aja. It's a part of the Here to Serve Restaurant Group, which I love. All of their restaurants are fabulous. I had yet to try this one, but have had an abnormal craving for asian cuisine lately, so I knew this would be perfect.

After dinner, we had plans to visit my go-to bar in Buckhead and then venture to a place that lots of my friends have been, but I had not yet visited. It ended up being a crazy night where we didn't get home until 4:00 a.m., but it was fun and I'm so appreciative to the people that came out to celebrate. It's nice to know that even when I'm not in the mood to party, I have friends near by to make sure I have a good time.

A couple of pics from the evening:

Happy Traveling

Growing up, my mother's idea of a family vacation involved a rented condo at a beach in Florida so that she could lay on the sand from sun up to sun down. As long as she was frying her skin, she was happy. My father's idea of a family vacation involved a trip to Disney World, where we would ride Dumbo and It's a Small World at the Magic Kingdom, eat at Rainforest Cafe and pick up our yearly Christmas tree ornament in Downtown Disney, and see a laser-water show at Epcot. Every year we did both. Thus, we didn't travel around much.

While in college I had the opportunity to attend conferences in Philadelphia and Detroit. I spent a long weekend in NYC with a friend and went to San Juan, Puerto Rico with my roommates senior year. Since college, I haven't been able to go anywhere (except for Charleston for the lovely Megan's bachelorette party).

Well ladies and gentlemen, I have exciting news. Thanks to work, I will be able to start traveling a bit. I know I won't have much time to take in these cities, but I'm excited to just soak it all in.

Scheduled this year I have 4 trips. The first is in 3 weeks and is in Amelia Island, FL (back to Florida, my second home). In October I get to go to San Diego & Montreal and in November I'll be in Grapevine, TX.

So I turned in my passport application (can't wait to get a cute cover) last week in hopes that lots of traveling is in my future. Someday soon(er than later) I foresee trips that will help me to be a better person. After all, I believe the most exciting thing about traveling to be the opportunity to take in someone else's culture.

Stay tuned for my tales and some pictures!