This Monday I have been basking in all the little parts of a very fulfilling weekend. Seriously. It was just packed with enrichment!
Friday:
Afternoon spent babysitting two of my favorite girls in the world: Emily Kate (6) and Annalee (4). Playing tag outside, coloring, and reading children's books are so therapeutic. Everyone needs to enter a child's world on a regular basis.
Evening spent attending a Spiritual Life Conference at my church, First Pres. Columbia, to hear the well-known pastor and writer R.C. Sproul speak.
Saturday:
Brunched on Chocolate Chip Pancakes at the Original Pancake House on Forest Drive with some sweet friends
Headed down to Charleston that afternoon: lovely family Valentine's Dinner at my aunt and uncle's and went downtown with my dear friend Alli to enjoy an after-dinner coffee at East Bay Meeting House (look it up! my new favorite spot downtown for a classy late night spot to meet friends--European-style bar, coffee house, complete with fabulous desserts!)
Sunday:
Visited my aunt and uncle's church St. Michaels, an anglican church downtown, to join in the beginning of their world missions week, at which the renowned "Modern C.S. Lewis" Ravi Zacharias spoke.
Family lunch at my grandmother's after church, after which we all enjoyed an afternoon lounging and engaging in some of the most real, edifying conversation I have ever remembered us all sharing as a family
Packed up and hit the road for Cola-town...met some sisters from my service sorority for a girls night out a California Dreaming--delish food and delightful company!
It sure makes Monday easier when you have rolled off of such a great weekend that created so many special memories to think about during the day!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Let's Look Local
I am a huge fan of enjoying local charms. Local coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, farmers markets--love it all. It has been especially fun over the past couple of years to notice what the local culture of Columbia has to offer right under my nose.
Some favorites have been around for forever and I just hadn't heard of them before, and some really have just recently been popping up due to the new cultural celebration of all things local. I had the pleasure of experiencing one from each of these categories last week for my first time: Thursday Jazz Night at Hunter Gatherer on Main Street and the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley Street.
I have heard various friends mention that Hunter Gatherer, which was already on my list of favorite restaurants in town just because it isn't a chain and has a fun, different atmosphere and good dinner menu, has great jazz on Thursday nights. My friend Lauren, who is a couple years older than me, always talks about how she and another friend used to always go together when at USC. Well, this past week was Lauren's last in Columbia before she moves away to get married, so I thought gettting a group of girls together to experience something with her that she loves and that I've been wanting to try would be perfect for our last Columbia girl time. And it was thoroughly delightful! WIN. And I heard one man remark near me that they have been doing this for eleven years! Shoot, I have been missing out that's for sure. The men who played were so talented--the lead player was an older man who Lauren said is there every week and from what I gathered is fairly well-known in the local scene but I didn't catch his name--and there was a really great community environment....the four of us girls ended up crowding together on three chairs at the end of a table at the invitation of a group who got there before us and were finishing up their dinner. It was a very informal setting--everyone laughing and chatting loudly over the music and wine and Hunter Gatherer's fine selection of specialty beers (which I have HEARD of and have yet to try...I get a little intimidated by different alcoholic beverages). I only partook in a humble cup of decaf, but I was eyeing their dessert menu which looked like it had some fabulous options that I will have to go back for...regardless, the jazz enough, for a mere $3 cover charge, was plenty sufficient to guarantee my return.
I also visited the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley for the first time a few days ago on Saturday morning. It's only been open for a couple years, if that, and so I don't feel SO sheepish that I hadn't been yet...but I had been dying to go ever since I heard about it.
They not only have it on Saturday mornings from 8 to 12, but have also started having it on Wednesday evenings from 4 to 8. The reason I finally got out there was because my brother is in a new little band with some of his friends and they got a gig to play at the farmers market yesterday. I always love hearing them play (they just do covers of songs now, but they've improved a lot since they started a couple months ago and are really very talented!), and so what better way to spend a beautiful sunny, but brisk winter morning than head out to explore the farmers market accompanied by live music performed by my brother and his amigos! I loved the set-up of the market...my favorite part was the long outdoor porch decked out with strings of little round bulb lights (I know that's a terrible description, but they're not just the little string lights like for Christmas trees, but the kind that you really just see in outdoor settings such as patios or porches if you know what I mean)and long, communal wood tables with modest, small flower arrangements at each one where people were gathered to visit over coffee and newspapers and breakfast--Rosso Trattoria from Trenholm Plaza on Forest Drive, as well as the Pawley's Front Porch food truck were there serving breakfast. I got the feeling that many people at the tables came to the farmers market not so much to shop but simply for the experience of enjoying breakfast and gabbing with friends and other locals. And THAT is what I love about the whole farmers market culture. It not only gives you a chance to buy fresh produce and homemade goods and support the local economy, but it takes you back to that old-fashioned normal of what community used to be...going to the local market and STOPPING (emphasis on that word in the midst of our go go go society) to chat with your neighbors and catch up with friends. Who knows, maybe next it will become normal again for us to venture out of our computer or TV-dominated enclosures, to step outside in the evenings to drop in on our neighbors and "set a spell" with them on their porches, maybe even with rocking chairs or acoustic guitars involved. :)
The live entertainment, with my brother Charles on the drums
Really delicious coffee, and he even had a roaster to roast beans right there!
Pawley's Front Porch food truck
Yummo Indah coffee and lemon currant scone for breakfast
The wares
Some favorites have been around for forever and I just hadn't heard of them before, and some really have just recently been popping up due to the new cultural celebration of all things local. I had the pleasure of experiencing one from each of these categories last week for my first time: Thursday Jazz Night at Hunter Gatherer on Main Street and the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley Street.
I have heard various friends mention that Hunter Gatherer, which was already on my list of favorite restaurants in town just because it isn't a chain and has a fun, different atmosphere and good dinner menu, has great jazz on Thursday nights. My friend Lauren, who is a couple years older than me, always talks about how she and another friend used to always go together when at USC. Well, this past week was Lauren's last in Columbia before she moves away to get married, so I thought gettting a group of girls together to experience something with her that she loves and that I've been wanting to try would be perfect for our last Columbia girl time. And it was thoroughly delightful! WIN. And I heard one man remark near me that they have been doing this for eleven years! Shoot, I have been missing out that's for sure. The men who played were so talented--the lead player was an older man who Lauren said is there every week and from what I gathered is fairly well-known in the local scene but I didn't catch his name--and there was a really great community environment....the four of us girls ended up crowding together on three chairs at the end of a table at the invitation of a group who got there before us and were finishing up their dinner. It was a very informal setting--everyone laughing and chatting loudly over the music and wine and Hunter Gatherer's fine selection of specialty beers (which I have HEARD of and have yet to try...I get a little intimidated by different alcoholic beverages). I only partook in a humble cup of decaf, but I was eyeing their dessert menu which looked like it had some fabulous options that I will have to go back for...regardless, the jazz enough, for a mere $3 cover charge, was plenty sufficient to guarantee my return.
I also visited the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley for the first time a few days ago on Saturday morning. It's only been open for a couple years, if that, and so I don't feel SO sheepish that I hadn't been yet...but I had been dying to go ever since I heard about it.
They not only have it on Saturday mornings from 8 to 12, but have also started having it on Wednesday evenings from 4 to 8. The reason I finally got out there was because my brother is in a new little band with some of his friends and they got a gig to play at the farmers market yesterday. I always love hearing them play (they just do covers of songs now, but they've improved a lot since they started a couple months ago and are really very talented!), and so what better way to spend a beautiful sunny, but brisk winter morning than head out to explore the farmers market accompanied by live music performed by my brother and his amigos! I loved the set-up of the market...my favorite part was the long outdoor porch decked out with strings of little round bulb lights (I know that's a terrible description, but they're not just the little string lights like for Christmas trees, but the kind that you really just see in outdoor settings such as patios or porches if you know what I mean)and long, communal wood tables with modest, small flower arrangements at each one where people were gathered to visit over coffee and newspapers and breakfast--Rosso Trattoria from Trenholm Plaza on Forest Drive, as well as the Pawley's Front Porch food truck were there serving breakfast. I got the feeling that many people at the tables came to the farmers market not so much to shop but simply for the experience of enjoying breakfast and gabbing with friends and other locals. And THAT is what I love about the whole farmers market culture. It not only gives you a chance to buy fresh produce and homemade goods and support the local economy, but it takes you back to that old-fashioned normal of what community used to be...going to the local market and STOPPING (emphasis on that word in the midst of our go go go society) to chat with your neighbors and catch up with friends. Who knows, maybe next it will become normal again for us to venture out of our computer or TV-dominated enclosures, to step outside in the evenings to drop in on our neighbors and "set a spell" with them on their porches, maybe even with rocking chairs or acoustic guitars involved. :)
The live entertainment, with my brother Charles on the drums
Really delicious coffee, and he even had a roaster to roast beans right there!
Pawley's Front Porch food truck
Yummo Indah coffee and lemon currant scone for breakfast
The wares
Friday, January 6, 2012
New Year
I can't help it-- I always find the beginning of January depressing. Christmas is over; School starts back; and it's still cold.
So here are a few things that are cheering me up this first month of 2012:
1. the scent of my new Burberry perfume on my clothes
2. being taken away to England and Italy in E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread
3. movie/gelato night(s) with sister Katharine
4. getting to see friends I've missed during break
5. the thought that this is my last semester of school EVER
6. dreaming up great plans for after graduation
7. looking forward to seeing my beloved friend Lauren walk down the aisle at the end of the month
8. basking in a renewed sense of love and security found in my Father in Heaven
This month isn't turning out to be so depressing after all.
Cheers!
So here are a few things that are cheering me up this first month of 2012:
1. the scent of my new Burberry perfume on my clothes
2. being taken away to England and Italy in E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread
3. movie/gelato night(s) with sister Katharine
4. getting to see friends I've missed during break
5. the thought that this is my last semester of school EVER
6. dreaming up great plans for after graduation
7. looking forward to seeing my beloved friend Lauren walk down the aisle at the end of the month
8. basking in a renewed sense of love and security found in my Father in Heaven
This month isn't turning out to be so depressing after all.
Cheers!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Winter Break Readings
The best thing about winter break post Christmas is having time for simple pleasures: napping, sipping tea, and reading. And large chunks of time, not those desperate, frenzied cat naps, or quick snatches of a few pages of my book in between classes or a few minutes in bed before I just can't fight my drooping eyelids any longer. Mmm. Love it.
So what I have been reading these past few days is Harry Potter (yes, I am just now making my way through the series for the first time) mixed with breaks for Flannery O'Connor short stories.
About my H.P. experience. I am now on book three and am finally at the point where I can't wait to have a chance to go back and read it. My good friend Lauren who is an adorably unashamed Harry Potter nerd was flabbergasted when I told her earlier last summer that I had not read any of the series. Truth be told, I wasn't allowed to read the books when they first debuted because my parents were highly suspicious of the wizard-sorcery theme and the affect it could have on their wide-eyed, impressionable first-born. Once I got older, I figured the Harry Potter was a train I missed and moved on to greater literature without any desire to discover what millions of readers had found so enticing...supposing that it was merely a passing fad that would eventually die out. However, being around Lauren and several other friends my age who grew up with Harry Potter and still hold a tenacious fascination for the series, I realized that this was no passing fad and.....yes. Peer pressure got to me. Lauren, enthusiastic to share her love with me, loaned me the first three last summer, and I decided I would use the summer break to read the entire series. Heh. That didn't happen; I honestly had to force myself to plod through the first one, very disillusioned about Harry Potter's charms and wondering how it could have possibly created such a cultural stir. So, at the end of the summer, I had successfully made it through.....one Harry Potter book. Shameful. However, having borrowed the books from Lauren and knowing she was eagerly waiting to hear how I liked them kept me accountable to press on. I just finished the second novel this past Christmas, in the car on the way to my grandmother's in Charleston. Towards the end of the second book, I felt it. I was finally hooked. I couldn't wait to start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I am now on page 371 and actually experience EMOTIONS while reading it, and each time I set it down I look forward to when I can pick it back up again.
Cliche, yes.
But I am also somewhat relieved that I can finally relate to the rest of fellow mankind in this way. That I will no longer have no idea what people are talking about when they say things like, "That old man reminds me of Dumbledore," or "Ten points to Gryffindor!" I arrived late to the conversation, for sure. I don't think I will ever be able to take part as enthusiastically as others, partly because I am not entitled due to not having grown up with Harry Potter, and partly because even though reading the series is enjoyable now for me, it would never be among my list of favorites. But at least I can check this off my list and not have to wonder any more.
So what I have been reading these past few days is Harry Potter (yes, I am just now making my way through the series for the first time) mixed with breaks for Flannery O'Connor short stories.
About my H.P. experience. I am now on book three and am finally at the point where I can't wait to have a chance to go back and read it. My good friend Lauren who is an adorably unashamed Harry Potter nerd was flabbergasted when I told her earlier last summer that I had not read any of the series. Truth be told, I wasn't allowed to read the books when they first debuted because my parents were highly suspicious of the wizard-sorcery theme and the affect it could have on their wide-eyed, impressionable first-born. Once I got older, I figured the Harry Potter was a train I missed and moved on to greater literature without any desire to discover what millions of readers had found so enticing...supposing that it was merely a passing fad that would eventually die out. However, being around Lauren and several other friends my age who grew up with Harry Potter and still hold a tenacious fascination for the series, I realized that this was no passing fad and.....yes. Peer pressure got to me. Lauren, enthusiastic to share her love with me, loaned me the first three last summer, and I decided I would use the summer break to read the entire series. Heh. That didn't happen; I honestly had to force myself to plod through the first one, very disillusioned about Harry Potter's charms and wondering how it could have possibly created such a cultural stir. So, at the end of the summer, I had successfully made it through.....one Harry Potter book. Shameful. However, having borrowed the books from Lauren and knowing she was eagerly waiting to hear how I liked them kept me accountable to press on. I just finished the second novel this past Christmas, in the car on the way to my grandmother's in Charleston. Towards the end of the second book, I felt it. I was finally hooked. I couldn't wait to start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I am now on page 371 and actually experience EMOTIONS while reading it, and each time I set it down I look forward to when I can pick it back up again.
Cliche, yes.
But I am also somewhat relieved that I can finally relate to the rest of fellow mankind in this way. That I will no longer have no idea what people are talking about when they say things like, "That old man reminds me of Dumbledore," or "Ten points to Gryffindor!" I arrived late to the conversation, for sure. I don't think I will ever be able to take part as enthusiastically as others, partly because I am not entitled due to not having grown up with Harry Potter, and partly because even though reading the series is enjoyable now for me, it would never be among my list of favorites. But at least I can check this off my list and not have to wonder any more.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Words
Hope.
It is just a word.
Yet just hearing this word stirs in me something real, a cord that quivers, a quickening of my heart. This, followed by a quietness of my soul, a knowing restfulness that sees the "dawn of redeeming grace." That may have become just a phrase in a Christmas hymn that is sung countless times year upon year...yet for me it is a reality.
Jesus, Lord at his birth.
A group of shepherds were startled by a proclamation of this hope, when one night the sky exploded with light and shouts of a heavenly host pouring out praise to the King interrupted the shepherds' mundane, hope-less night. Though I have yet to see the sky filled with angels (perhaps I never will), their light, which comes from their and my King, has penetrated my heart and its beams prick my soul daily with a reminder of
Hope.
It is just a word.
Yet just hearing this word stirs in me something real, a cord that quivers, a quickening of my heart. This, followed by a quietness of my soul, a knowing restfulness that sees the "dawn of redeeming grace." That may have become just a phrase in a Christmas hymn that is sung countless times year upon year...yet for me it is a reality.
Jesus, Lord at his birth.
A group of shepherds were startled by a proclamation of this hope, when one night the sky exploded with light and shouts of a heavenly host pouring out praise to the King interrupted the shepherds' mundane, hope-less night. Though I have yet to see the sky filled with angels (perhaps I never will), their light, which comes from their and my King, has penetrated my heart and its beams prick my soul daily with a reminder of
Hope.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Salutations
Today I drove with my lovely mom and sister down to Charleston to help my Grandmother decorate her house for Christmas. It was such a source of delight to be elves for a couple hours and transform the house into the cheery holiday residence I always look forward to visiting at Christmas. My aunt Mary came over to join us for lunch and we enjoyed sitting around the kitchen table gabbing about people and books and fashion advice like a gaggle of Southern women at a tea party.
And now I bid you adieu with:
And now I bid you adieu with:
Thursday, December 8, 2011
two music suggestions that are a sure fire way to put you in a good mood
First, watch this video and see if it doesn't make you feel like puttin' on your dancin' shoes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc&ob=av2e
I really just want to be Beyonce. I think trapped inside of me IS a Beyonce.
Also, if you haven't already, go out and BUY (or download your friend's) Michael Buble Christmas album. It is fantastic. First of all, his smooth, modern-day Sinatra voice is perfect, and he does such a great job of keeping the classic Christmas songs traditional (there's my word again!), yet with a little fun updated spin on each of them. I especially like his White Christmas duet with Shania Twain. Who would've thought those two would come together for a duet, much less that song? Brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc&ob=av2e
I really just want to be Beyonce. I think trapped inside of me IS a Beyonce.
Also, if you haven't already, go out and BUY (or download your friend's) Michael Buble Christmas album. It is fantastic. First of all, his smooth, modern-day Sinatra voice is perfect, and he does such a great job of keeping the classic Christmas songs traditional (there's my word again!), yet with a little fun updated spin on each of them. I especially like his White Christmas duet with Shania Twain. Who would've thought those two would come together for a duet, much less that song? Brilliant.
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