Switching Over

Heeey you guys!

I decided to switch from Blogger to Wordpress because I understand Wordpress a lot more than Blogger. So check out the new blog:

http://allisonfrasereavis.wordpress.com

the truth

I feel bad saying the past 6 months have probably been the hardest 6 months of my life because nothing really bad has happened. Nobody has died, nobody has been critically ill, we've been financially secure, there haven't been any accidents, etc. etc. I really have nothing to complain about.

So today I'm thankful for my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, to provide prospective. Whenever I think, "Jeez, life is really hard right now!" I can turn around and see everyone being thankful. What a great holiday.

The other side of the J CREW story

The downside of the J CREW sale was that I had seen the movie Contagion, aka A Public Service Announcement to Wash Your Hands and Stop Touching Your Face, a few days before going. I couldn't help but think that if one person had a contagious, deadly disease and shopped at the sale, all of Durham would be dead. Think of all the clothes one person would touch at a sample sale, then how many other people would touch the clothes he/she touched, etc. etc.

But I wasn't too scared, because after the movie I played Pandemic with friends (a board game where you either save or fail-to-save the world from 4 strains of a deadly virus) and we totally won. Plus, I work at the 2nd best school of public health, so maybe my connection to the dean would be beneficial given a dire situation. But maybe not.

J Crew Sale

This post is going to sound very materialistic and I don't even care.

Sample sales. I believe I had heard of them on various blogs.Wednesday night, I experienced one. It started in the morning when one of my coworkers came in excited. She was wearing a 100% J Crew cashmere cardigan that she had bought for 10 dollars. In Durham, J Crew had rented out an old Borders and filled the place with tables. On top of the tables were three boxes, below the tables two boxes. Each box was crammed with unsorted clothes -- there were children's clothes next to women's sweaters next to men's pants. No organization at all. BUT IT WAS CHEAP. All shirts and pants $10, dresses $10 or $15, sweaters and shoes $20.

It was nuts. Everyone in my office left right after work. Mae's strategy was to pick a corner and put everything in her size in a box. Angelica and my's strategy was to grab anything in a color we liked. (No surprise, everything I bought was a bright color. I think she was a little smarter.) A woman handed us a white trashbag when we walked in, and I stuffed clothes in and occasionally weeded out. There were no dressing rooms and no mirrors, so women were stripping down in public and men kept asking their significant other's opinion. I stuck to dresses and cardigans, because buying pants is a stressful business for me with mirrors and dressing rooms; I can't imagine blinding buying a pair. I wore my dresses around over my clothes while I picked through other boxes, trying to make sure the dress was worth buying.

But the best part of all was when I got home. I looked online to see how much some of the stuff originally cost. One of my 15 dollar dresses is still selling online for 250. When will I wear the four fancy dresses I bought? Maybe never. Or maybe I'll start dressing up for work like it's a glamorous wedding. Like I said, I don't even care.

Football

Okay, I think the universe listened to my complain and I am generally off blog duty at work. (Probably because I wasn't so great at it.) And that brings back the desire to blog again.

This past Saturday, two of our Wilmington friends came up to go to a UNC football game. It was great because we had this set up before we even moved, and it's been something I've looked forward to every time I've missed Wilmington. And in many ways it was a perfect day... pumpkin pancakes at Elmo's, 75 degree degree weather, sunny enough for a sunburn. Not to mention that Julie and Aaron are some of our most favorite people!

But let me tell you. UNC football. What a disappointment.

I've never been to a football game that wasn't Arkansas football. Not another college, not NFL. I barely went to high school football games. (And I certainly never paid attention to the game when I did. I'll have to tell you about my ignorance in another blog post.)

A picture Julie took. We were there early because that is something the four of us are good at. Well, Tim is usually on time, but he's the odd one out in this crew.

For example, at Arkansas, we divide the crowd up and one side screams "Arkansas" and the other side screams "Razorbacks." This is a fun activity. At UNC one side yells "Tar" and the other side yells "Heel." Could you think of two more awkward words to yell? Whenever I hear the word Tar by itself, I think of the terrible things people have done with tar, and yelling Heel just sounds hillbilly, and is hard to scream with emphasis. (Actually, at Florida they yell blue/orange, and orange is also really awkward to yell, but UF makes up for it with another zillion awesome traditions.)

Also, one of the things they do to get the crowd pumped up on the third down is to show a picture of the historic bell tower on campus and make a loud bell sound. Talk about intimidating. "You guys, it's serious, that bell is ringing." 

And UNC went down 14 without ever having possession. A fumble on the kickoff. They eventually came back (not for the win), but my heart wasn't into it. I doubted they could pull an Arkansas and win after a 19 point deficit. 

The band did play excerpts from movies at halftime. Who can't get excited about awesome movie scores? 

Whelp

I admit, I've been avoiding my blog. I have to blog at work-- not my own words, but post someone else's blog. It seems like a simple enough task, yet it is the most dreaded work task. I wake up on Monday mornings in terror because Monday is blog day.

I have started to really love my job, so I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I think it's just the fact I've made several typos/mistakes on the blog, and it's always a rush to get it done before noon because it requires the approval of a zillion different people, and it has to go through a zillion different drafts before it is done, which means I'll probably make even more typos. So why don't I just catch the mistakes I make? I wish I knew the answer. I think I've gotten so nervous about the whole ordeal, I'm adding to the trauma.

So whenever I think of something I want to write on my blog, I think OMG BLOG BLOG BLOG, and avoid it. Not that you're waiting around for me to post, but that's the explanation.

Lambeau, 3.5 months

Our 32 pound dog has officially received all of his vaccines and is ready to conquer the world.

What sets Lambeau apart from other dogs:

1) He squeals and grunts and wags his whole body when he is happy to see you.

2) He will spend a lot of time trying to crawl in your lap if you are sitting down. (Literally, crawl. He's very agile on two legs, and then will try to push himself up from there.)

3) He loves all of the dogs at the dog park. His favorite thing to do is wrestle in holes that he digs under benches. When it's time to go, he runs to the very back so you have to chase him.

4) He's a ladies man, and will follow women around before he gives men the time of day. (He likes men too, but he prefers the ladies.)

 Noble dog

 Shark dog.

Cuddle dog

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY JTT

You're the only one of my celebrity childhood crushes still alive (RIP Jonathan Brandis, RIP Brad Renfro), so there is a lot of force behind that happy birthday.

My new favorite activity

CONTRA DANCING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNx6t7VZe9o&feature=related

They offer this once a month where I live! You dance up and down lines, so while technically you have a partner, you will actually dance with every person in the line. There was a man celebrating his 83rd birthday at the dance I went to on Friday night. He danced up and down the line as well as anybody.

Another reason I like it is because it reminds me of the Yule Ball in The Goblet of Fire. This also happens to be the one scene I've seen the most of the Harry Potter movies, because somehow, every time ABC Family is having their marathon (so, pretty much every weekend), Tim turns it on right as the dance scene begins. Which is fine with me, because I love the dance scene. But I love contra dancing more.

Anniversary

Apparently the father of modern Southern cuisine has a restaurant in Chapel Hill. So we went there for our anniversary.

the hello-humidity hair

the we-just-moved-and-I'm-a-chill-guy scruff

It was delicious. But North Carolina barbeque is always disappointing to me. Even when it's prepared in the tradition of the father of modern Southern cuisine.

But maybe I'm just missing Wilmington.

The Trauma of Moving

First of all, I'm thankful for parents who realize their adult children need help moving, and continually offer to help us move our stuff. So, thanks David, who flew out to North Carolina to help us move, and thanks Dad, who offered to fly out and help enough times I felt fully confident we would somehow make it three hours northwest to Chapel Hill. It really made me feel loved.

So that was the good part.

The bad part was how far away our future apartment was, and how there were so many steps so we couldn't use a dolly. The bad part was also the truck wasn't big enough so we had to make two trips. And then, how the first night in Chapel Hill, Tim got a migraine, and how the second through seventh night, he had a severe case of the hives. The bad part was how heavy our desk is, and how my book addiction got out of control in grad school, and how all of those things went to the third floor.

I don't want to dwell on these bad things, because ultimately they weren't that bad. I just want to document them, so the next time I move and I think, "Jeez, the last move was so much easier," God can strike me with lightning.

Wedding Season

Since the last post, I have attended three weddings in three different states. And since today is my third anniversary, let me give three reasons I love weddings.

1) Meeting the family. In this day and age, people don't live close by their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. I love watching the families my friends came from and seeing the personality genes they can't outrun. If it's a family member's wedding, well then, I just like being around my family.

2) Dressing up. I love dressing up for a good occasion. I'm very thankful we live in a more casual society than our grandparents did, but I sometimes miss seeing people in their Sunday Best (which now is usually jeans and a polo shirt. Unless you go to a church for old souls, which we did in Wilmington. We were the casual people because Tim did not wear a tie and I did not wear a suit jacket.). I think I'm going to start hosting formal dinners where we will eat hamburgers in heels.

3) Cutting loose. I love to dance, but I'm not very good at it. Yet I feel that at weddings all the dancing is supposed to be bad anyways, so you might as well hop your heart out to "Cotton Eyed Joe." When weddings don't have dancing, it's still a blast because there is more conversation and it's so easy to tell everyone how happy you are to be there, how much you love everyone and the world, and it's all true. Usually abundantly saying such sentimental things in normal conversations comes across as cheesy, but at a wedding, cut loose and let them fly.

Of course, there are deeper reasons I love weddings, and I didn't even mention wedding cake, which is one of my top loves in life. I know a lot of my generation doesn't see the point in marriage, which makes me  sad (and not because I don't get to come to the reception).

Also, I barely took any pictures at these weddings I went to. At the last one, I didn't take a single picture all weekend. I think I go through picture taking mood-swings.

I often find myself wondering if there is any stage in life where you don't have to make the hard, uncomfortable decisions. I can't wait until my life is made up of decisions like which aqua aerobics class to attend, or whether I should read a fiction or a nonfiction book next. I'd guess that stage in life isn't worry-free either, but it's the dream I hold onto.

Also in this dream, the Oxford comma still exists. (I don't care about Pluto. That can remain un-planeted in my opinion.)

Wedding Weekend!

Some things I love

I love my family. I love summer. I love free concerts. I love tribute and cover bands. I love the Cape Fear River. I love sitting outside. I love sunsets. I love wearing sundresses/skirts. I love diet coke. I love Kilwin's ice cream.

All of these things happened on the night pictured above.

Serpentarium

omg. The Serpentarium. These are not fake animals.

Dad, Tim, and I went this Saturday. I had read a fabulous essay about the place, but had never ventured down. What a mistake! We went an hour before feeding time (which happens every Saturday), so we stuck around to see several snakes get fed. I kid you not, we witnessed a python eat a rabbit, and two snakes (including the yellow dude up above) get in a fight when the yellow one tried to steal a rat from another snake.  The feeder literally got into the cage, grabbed their heads, and pulled them apart (they both had their mouth on the rat). WILD. But I'll spare you the graphic pictures.

Also, we saw two snakes yawn and one rattler seriously rattle its tail. And the owner of the place? Practically the worlds leading expert on bushmasters. Incredible.

Eating

This post is only going to be interesting to me, just to warn you.  I'm getting super nostalgic about leaving Wilmington, so I want to publicly document some of my favorite things about my favorite town.

There are three things I especially love doing in Wilmington. The top of the list is going to the beach. The bottom of the list is walking downtown/sitting by the river. Eating is in the middle.

So for today's post, my top 5 favorite restaurants:

1) The Little Dipper: a local fondue place with a lot of character and $8 ladies nights.
2) The Basics: a southern food establishment downtown that has the best brunch ever.
3) Sweet and Savory: I'll forgive them for naming my favorite sandwich "Babe the Pig." (Although I tell them every time the name bothers me. Who wants to eat that cute little pig?) Also, it's close to the beach.
4) Our Crepes and More: a crepe place. All of the workers are French, so I'm sure you couldn't find a better crepe, even across the pond.
5) Flaming Amys: a burrito place. It has the most character of any burrito place I've ever been to. Sorry, Flying Burrito.

Airlie Concerts

This past Friday, Tim and I went to a concert at Airlie Gardens (the "Quintessential Southern garden in Wilmington") with our church group known as "The Situation," "The Contemporaries," or "The Aging 20/30s Group Which Now Has 40's In It."

The garden hosts concerts twice a month in the summer. These concerts compete with two other free concerts that also happen on Friday night. One is downtown, where you can buy expensive beer and listen to awesome cover and tribute bands while the sun sets on the Cape Fear River. The other concert is near the movie theater, with blowup castles for kids to bounce around on, and a few other planned activities.

You have to pay to get into Airlie. It's a private garden, after all. And the music is mostly forgettable. But there is something so wonderfully North Carolinian about the experience. If someone wanted to see the Old South's existence in modern days, these concerts would be the place to spot it.

You had to ride a trolley to get there. People brought tables and tablecloths for their picnics. They brought expensive wines and cheese and fruits to picnic on. People drank their wine out of glass goblets. Women wore dresses, and children ran around in sun hats. Everyone made the rounds, socializing with the neighbors they spotted around the tree, or they networked in the one area reserved for First Citizen Bank's customers. The whole field was full of people, and you could smell the gentle salt breeze from the cove beside the gardens. If you were to walk around the gardens, you might see an alligator or ibis or some other fantastic coastal or southern animal.

Our group was no so sophisticated. Some of us wore dresses, but we sliced our cheese on the cooler lid and passed it around with a bag of pretzels. We bought frozen ice that turned our teeth red. After it was over, some of us went to eat at a Mexican restaurant.

And really, I prefer the downtown concerts. But I've lived in the South my whole life and never felt quite the environment I did at Airlie. For a few seconds, it made me nostalgic for old Savannah (a time I've never experience). It's funny how moving away from a place can do that to you.

Happy Father's Day!

to a truly wonderful dad! (A picture from back in the day.)

 And to my father-in-law! (also truly wonderful!)

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

We move in 1 month!

The only thing I am excited about is packing up my books, because that means I get to reorganize them.