Charleston: Easter Weekend 2009
Pictures trump words. Wonderful weekend, beautiful city.
(If you want the play-by-play, get it here).
(If you want the play-by-play, get it here).
April 17, 2009
My To Do List: The Beach Version
Today I woke up in Myrtle Beach, SC. *Cue the Hallelujah chorus.*
Myrtle Beach has been my family’s traditional vacation forever – starting with my mom going with HER parents. (Then: camper. Now: 3 story house on the beach with kegerator by the pool. I like my version better.) It is so much a part of our family’s tradition that I threw an all out fit when I was in 3rd grade because my parents planned a family trip to Hawaii instead of our usual MB vacay.
Yes, that’s right, I was enraged at the idea of going to Maui over the Redneck Riviera. What can I say, I’m a suckah for tradition. And oh yea, I was 7. What did I care about volcanoes and mai tai’s?
In the last 8 years, other members of my extended family starting joining us, until gradually we grew from a family of 5 in one house to last year’s grand total of 20 in two side-by-side houses. This year we’re going for a major dice roll: 19 family members. One house.
Since college and this little thing called “employment”, I’ve only been able to come down and stay with my family at the beach for a long weekend. This year, the stars collided (i.e. I rearranged my teaching schedule) and lo and behold, I was able to get the whole week off. Pretty much, I could not be more tickled. I’d probably still at 26 years old, take an entire week at Myrtle with my fam over a few days in Maui. Although I do anticipate needing those mai tai’s with that many family members in close proximity.
My plans for the beach week include: reading approximately 7 books and 4 magazines, revisiting my neglected journal, using up an entire bottle of SPF 50, getting sand in my running sneakers, teaching my 5 year old cousin Amelia how to use my (old) digital camera, playing race cars with my 4 year old cousin William, playing princess with my 3 year old cousin Mae, getting sand dumped on my head by 2 year old Scott and trying to figure out a way to bottle up the precious new baby smell of 6 month old Charlie.
As you can see, I will be very busy this week.
December 10, 2008
Delicious Bloody Mary’s with Absolut Peppar… Yum!
The Wall o’ Wonder @ Wet Willies
Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?
I am absolutely positive the technology exists that would allow me to work remotely from here and that I never, ever plan to leave. Even on this gray and sulky day where the sky is spitting drizzly drops of precipitation on me as I attempt to window shop on King St, I am in l-o-v-e with this city.
Matt and I came down to Charleston last night for his 2nd to last interview, and we are both just enthralled with this city. Last night we ditched the school sanctioned dinner (if you read this, probably not a surprise) in exchange for a date night/bar crawl of our own. Jason, having recently visited Charleston, had directed us to a seafood restaurant that turned out to be mere yards from our lovely hotel. On our way down, he had texted us to visit the bartender when we got there and pick up a mysterious something. A gift certificate awaited us and we enjoyed a most scrumptious meal – spicy and hearty Bloody Mary’s, an appetizer of grit cakes with a light garlic alfredo sauce, and cajun sauteed shrimp – calories don’t count on vacation right? Yum. Our experience was capped off with a visit from Maiar Hyman, who according to the history lesson on my menu, is the 3rd generation of Hyman’s to run the restaurant. (Gen #5 is currently in charge.) Maiar regaled us with stories of his days in Winston-Salem immediately following the Korean War, and how he was a big timer textile salesman once clinching a deal with the now-Sara-Lee owned Hanes brand.
Delicious Bloody Mary’s with Absolut Peppar… Yum!
After our feast, we wobbled on to the streets and looked for somewhere to take shelter from the drizzle. Our prerequisites were simple: other patrons present and live music. While this may sound innocent enough, keep in mind it was only 8:30 pm on a Tuesday, in December. Not exactly the High Season. We wandered into one bar on Vendue St called The Griffon, where 2 other tables were filled with patrons, and a guy with a guitar crooned acoustic versions of Smashing Pumpkins, Eagles and Elliott Smith with an alarmingly similarity. After two rounds of hearing the same wailing on repeat and watching the same drunk girl in ugg boots and a jean skirt heave herself at any present male patronage, we paid our tab and left. Music and boisterous voices lured us into a bar called Mad River that inhabited a former church across from the Market. Something about the half-hearted attempt at rugged outdoor decor (the canoe hanging from the ceiling), the overly cheesy party music (Paradise City when you’re sober? Nope) and the presence of what appeared to be an intramural sports team celebrating a season win reminded me of some other place I had frequented. It wasn’t until I got home that I put it together: the same bar (decor, music and patrons) was just 4 1/2 blocks from my apartment in Baltimore and I had spent many a Friday nights elbow-deep at Mad River.
After a round at Mad River, we wandered up East Bay St for a lap before succumbing to Wet Willies, a bar with every known daiquiri flavor to man featured in slushie machines on a wall 25 yards long. Matt sampled the “Attitude Adjustment” – a suspicious recommendation from the waitress – while I sipped a Bud Light. Sugar and alcohol don’t mix well in my system, and a 5-alarm slurpee is a guaranteed way to ruin my next morning. What really kept us at Wet Willie’s though was the entertainment. Six guests rotated through song after song on Karaoke, while the other dozen or so patrons gazed on in shocked amusement, egged on in barely concealed faux encouragement and took secret video footage (me). It was like being at a live American Idol audition, and hearing many of my very favorite songs completely ruined!
The Wall o’ Wonder @ Wet Willies
After a dozen ear-splitting performances, we pushed aside the half-finished daiquiri and called it a night. What a Tuesday night it was – from low key mellow bar performance, to pulsating party music, to heart wrenching karaoke, we experienced the finest that Charleston’s musical scene had to offer. However, we both agreed neither the rain or melodically challenged performances put a damper on the beautiful backdrop of Charleston.
This morning, we did a driving tour of Charleston and oogled out the window like a proper tourist at the gorgeous scenery on East Bay St. Had it not been raining, I would have insisted on a proper parking so I could shutterbug to my heart content. However, I melt in the rain, in case you didn’t know, so a drive-by sufficed for me. After dropping him off at MUSC to interview, I did some half-hearted window shopping on King St. Oh, Economy! Truth be told, I am out of my element in any location that has a real live Louis Vuitton store and no Forever 21 or Target as far as the eye can see.
In an hour, I will meet my gorgeous friend Mikell who I scrambled all around the beautiful pais de Espana with nearly six years ago. The last time I saw her, we bid adios in the Madrid airport, but with the help of facebook I have tracked her wanderlust as she’s moved from Costa Rica to Seattle to Peru to Columbia and now to Charleston. I’m hoping to convince her she needs a live-in nutritionist and should clear some room for Matt and I to take up permanent residence in her probably-non-existent spare bedroom. After lunch and some more wandering, I’ll pick up the student doctor and north bound we shall be headed, bidding Charleston a sad farewell.
December 8, 2008
The 2nd Annual Catchphrase Showdown
The best traditions are the ones that start accidentally. Last year, we found out by pure coincidence that friends of ours from college, TJ and Fred, were traveling up to Blowing Rock for a weekend with their wives the same weekend we were planning on traveling down to Boone with Matt’s college roommate Jason. We were staying at Matt’s grandparent’s house in Boone, and intended to pack the weekend full of Guitar Hero, Street Fighter and some seriously long bouts of Doing Nothing. We met up with TJ, Fred and wives Kelli (TJ) and Michelle (Fred) the Saturday of our weekend and had one of those laugh til your stomach hurts kind of nights together playing Catchphrase, drinking wine, and taking ego pot shots the way that only college friends can do.
This year Jason came to town to take his LSATs here at Wake (and I suppose to visit Matt) and we found out the same crew was headed to Blowing Rock again. After the test Saturday we headed down there, making it officially a 2nd annual winter weekend in the mountains. The catch phrase was just as intense – in fact I’m surprised marriages survive being on opposing teams. The wine (and sweet tea vodka) flowed just as freely as did the barbs, and the laughter never ceased. Saturday night we went to a local BBQ joint where a Toby Keith-wannabe belted out his renditions of everything from Rocky Top to Mud on the Tires while the patrons clapped, whistled and clinked together mason jars of Budweiser. After dinner, we headed back to beautiful Chetola where the rest of the crew was staying. 
The Catchphrase battle picked up about 9 pm with 3 rounds of North (me, Fred, Michelle and Jason) vs. South (Matt, Kelli & TJ.) In case you’re wondering, the North won all 3 times. No surprise there. As the battle heated up, we traded teams (me, TJ, Matt and Kelli) vs. (Fred, Michelle and Jason). The 4-person team won again – an unfair advantage to have an extra brain? The Girls decided to test this theory and went head to head against the 4-man team of The Boys. It was a close and heated battle. Wine bottles were knocked over, fingers were pointed, marriages were tested. We were down 0-6, closed the gap to 6-6 and then took a 4 point lead to make it 10-6. Playing to 16, the boys closed it up again with another 10-10. We were point for point all the way to 16, but in the end the boys (yet another 4-man team) were triumphant. At the close of our 5th game, the clock had struck 3:30 am, so we unwillingly called it quits.
The next day we had a recovery breakfast at Mountain House – Boone’s very own version of Cracker Barrel complete with a front room full of tchotchkes for sale. Personalized mailbox flags anyone? Greeting cards with “When You Were Born….” anecdotes? Bike license plates? (They never have Meghan with an “H”… such a farce.) After a hearty mountain breakfast, we worked it off walking up and down the side of a small mountain trying to find the perfect Christmas tree. Granted, Matt and I have set up Ye Olde Artificial again this year, but partaking in the quest for our friends’ tree (as well as the much needed exercise) was nearly as exciting had it been for our own living room. Nothing like getting the delicious pine smell, mountain air, hot cider experience without having to vacuum up the needles at home later on. (NTS: Yankee Candle mistletoe candles go on sale after Christmas don’t they? There really is nothing like that smell…)
The ride home was a quiet one, but the 24 hour escape to the mountain was enough to refresh us and kick start December off with the true holiday spirit: the smells (the aroma of pine, the notes of red wine) the sounds (squabbling over Catchphrase sounds uncannily like my dad’s siblings squabbling over…well, everything), the sights (we saw our first snow of the year in the mountains) and the spirits (uplifted!). Here’s to our 2nd annual providing the kick-start to a month of more traditions and holiday spirits.
November 21, 2008
Greetings from Non-Snowy South Carolina
It is snowing in NC in November…. totally unheard of. Of course, we are not there. We are in sunny, warm Columbia, SC. (Sunny yes, warm is up for debate. Mid-50’s.)
Per usual for residency interviews, we had dinner last night with the other applicants and residents last. 3 hours of listening to them talk about “getting airways” (medicine speak for having an oppurtunity to stick a tube down into someone’s lungs) and “moonlighting” (working in small nearby hospitals for extra pay in your “free time”) and the terrors of July for an intern. (The “omg, I’m a doctor?!!? moment most 1st years experience.)
This morning I dropped Matt off at his interview and took myself on a walking tour of Columbia. The area down by the waterfront (river? canal?) is very nice. Very trendy and cute. Reminded me a little better of Fells Point in Baltimore, but newer. Lots of shops and places to eat. Probably not where medical residents live. The state capitol house was interesting…. and by interesting I mean, a confederate flag is waving proudly in it’s front yard. Is that legal? 
Now I am working (writing emails, blogs and facebook status updates + 3 legit phone call sessions) in my hotel room til late check-out at 1pm, then I’ll go find somewhere to eat and check out USC campus.
I’ll pick up the student doctor at 3p and we should be back home to snowy NC by dinner time. After his first six interviews, Matt went on a cancelling spree and went from 21 interviews down to 11. I can see why now. If one more resident asked him “So, do you have any questions about the program?” (knowing full well all applicants had to watch a SIXTY-FOUR slide powerpoint about the program that included details such as the program director’s middle name and that south carolina is known as the Iodine State and thus has the lowest incident rate of goiters)… I think his head was going to explode from repressed eye-rolling.
Still left on the interview circuit: Charleston, Duke, UNC and U of R.
November 14, 2008
Yankee Land Delight!
Just a mere 1,700 miles driven in the last week. No biggie. Matt has been off interviewing in the land of blustery winters, harsh accents and rude drivers. In other words, the North! (This is the fun of being a Yankee Belle – I have the right to disparage BOTH geographic locations that I call home!)
NC to York to NC to Pittsburgh to Morgantown to Pittsburgh to NC… Oh my!
Monday he spent up in York, PA interviewing at a private hospital there. Prior to that, our only encounter with York had been to ski at Roundtop Mountain, the first time Matt came to visit me when I was living in Baltimore. It was on this mountain hill that our romance was rekindled… but I don’t think the nostalgia was enough to sweeten the visit as a high on the future rank list.
York, PA – Ski Roundtop – Matt’s first visit to Baltimore, March 2005
Wednesday he was back on the road to Pittsburgh – a town both of us know well, given that both of our college roommates hail from the Iron City. Dropping a “Go Stillers” into your interview is always a nice touch. Overall though, he sounded truly thrilled with the program at Pitt.
View of Pittsburgh from the top of Mt. Washington (from Britta’s Wedding Reception, 7/05)
Today he is in Morgantown, WV interviewing at WVU. We don’t know much about Morgantown, so I’m curious to hear his take on the program. Then he is back on the road back to Pittsburgh, for a visit with Jason, a Steelers game and one more interview at Alleghany General before it’s back on the road again. Thank the heavens that gas prices have dropped to the low 2’s again!
Safe travels, Hubby and get home soon!
