A Weekend of Firsts

To say I’m utterly exhausted from this weekend is an understatement. As of 6:00 Sunday night, my body refused to do anything else that required any effort. This weekend I had my old roommates, Shawn and Rachel, our friend Aimee, and two pup dogs staying in my apartment. We've been planning the visit for a while, and I was looking forward to it so much that I lost sleep Thursday night and thus started the weekend off on the wrong foot.

Regardless of my lack of sleep, it was nothing short of an awesome weekend. To make it that much better, I had a lot of “firsts” this weekend. I did a lot of things that I have never done in Charlotte or elsewhere and was glad to share with this group of people.

First #1: Dinner Guests

Thanks to a special delivery by my aunts last weekend and some gracious gifts from my grandmother and other family members, my apartment is officially in “entertaining” condition. In other words, it actually feels like an apartment and not like I’m just passing through temporarily. To avoid the lines and confusion Saturday morning, I had picked up our 5K race packets and a tutu for one of my friends. She swung by Friday evening to pick up the tutu and I made alfredo pasta to avoid spending money on dinner. So not only did I actually cook for another person but we also had a place to sit and eat it. Check that one of my list.

First #2: The 5K

Thanks to our obsession with everything color, Rachel, Aimee, and me signed up for The Color Run a couple of months ago. The Color Run is a 5K that usually raises money for a charity partner. While you’re running, volunteers throw colored corn starch on you at regular intervals. The purpose is to wear all white to the event then end up completely tie-dyed by the end of the race. It’s been a pretty big event all across the country for a year or two now and Aimee and Rachel saw it as an opportunity to come spend the weekend in Charlotte. I worked pretty hard trying to get ready for it but wasn’t prepared for the hills and therefore didn’t do as well as I thought I would. Regardless, I still finished it and ended up completely covered in colorful dust by the end of the race.

Before....

After.....

First #3: New Foods

Aimee and Rachel are both obsessed with the Food Network and the show “Diner, Drive-ins and Dives.” There are quite a few restaurants featured on the show from the Charlotte area and the last time they were passing through, we checked one of our lists. This weekend, we opted for an old-school, 1950’s drive-in complete with ancient speakers, menus and curb-side service. We had a variety of BBQ sandwiches, onion rings and a burger called the Super Boy which has two meat patties, lettuce, pickles, and everything else. (It’s one of their signature dishes.) We ate in the car, because that’s what you do at a drive-in and pretty sure we didn’t leave a single crumb behind.

Enjoying some Drive-in Food

That night for dinner, we tried PF Chang’s which is more or less upscale Chinese food. Rachel was the only one that had ever been before and while my sister loves their food, I had never been near one. We had a spicy shrimp appetizer, crab Rangoon and I ordered crab fried rice. It was a huge dish so I took half of it home and it tasted equally as good Sunday night for dinner.

First #4: Dog Bar

It’s exactly like it sounds. LuckyDog Bark and Brew is a bar in Cornelius where you can bring your dog.. So you drink a beer and your dog makes new four-legged friends. It had an indoor and outdoor area, fully stocked bar and TV screens for sports watching. Because I live here, I paid a $10 yearly membership fee but Avery and Charlie (Rachel’s dogs) got to play for free. Since half of it is inside, it’s going to come in handy in the winter when I can’t get Ron to the dog park to run around. We stayed for about 3 hours; sipping on beers and watching the puppies make new friends. All of the dogs fell asleep in the car on the way home and we’re pretty sure they passed out immediately after we left to go to dinner.

First #5: The Panther’s Game.

I’ve cheered for the Eagles forever but since the Panther’s aren’t big rivals and we only play them every other year, I decided to make them my “home team” and cheer for them only when they’re not playing the Eagles. Plus, my coworkers tend to be in better moods on Monday’s when they win (which hasn’t happened often this season.) Since they’re having a bad year, the tickets are slowly decreasing in price so we were able to get cheap tickets for Sunday’s game. Not a bad way to kill a Sunday afternoon. One of my friends works for the Panther’s doing post game interview stuff and she was able to get us press passes so we were able to go onto the field before the game and watch the teams warm-up. About 20 minutes before game time, she took us on a tour of the press box. As we were getting on the elevator to head to our seats, Michael Jordan got off the elevator for his tour of the press box. He was about a foot away from me and we breathed the same air so I’m probably going to have REALLY athletic kids now.

The Panther’s ended up losing in overtime and the Eagles just plain lost to (were destroyed by) the Redskins. Luckily, I wasn’t getting good cell phone service in the stadium and didn’t see any of the updates until the final score but that wasn’t nearly as bad as having to deal with the texts/Facebook updates from my Redskins friends.

The weekend more than lived up to my hyped-up expectations but I slept most of Sunday evening missing the AMAs and about 30 emails and text messages. I woke up long enough to upload all the pictures so everyone would have something to look at Monday at work (you’re welcome) and went back to bed. I don’t think Ron minded the nap as Avery and Charlie wore him out but he was ready to go at 6:30 Monday morning.

Short work week then home this weekend to see my adorable nephew and other crazy family members. One week until Molly visits Charlotte again and we can start the birthday celebrations. WOO!