LDOC

LDOC (el-doc): noun
1. Translates in college to "Last day of class".
2. Otherwise known for its general mayhem on an idle weekday in the last week of April.
3. It's the day students celebrate by tossing papers and beers to commemorate a semester of hard work (or for some, hardly working).
4. See figure 1

Figure 1: Editorial cartoon from The Daily Tar Heel on April 28, 2010.

As you well know, I've already had mine, but it's a celebration that I can't help but participate in. As with most events, I never really make it over to celebrate at Duke because my friends in The Dirty (i.e. Durham) don't have the same appreciation for socialization that I do.
I decided to celebrate with my other townie friends at the Preview show for Fridays on the Front Porch, featuring Big Fat Gap. We then proceeded to a new Irish pub in town, Kildaire's, for dinner and I finally was cool enough to get invited to The Dead Mule for the afterparty with Meg, Shea, Seth, & Mark.

If that was the preview to the summer then I'm going to have a very hard time mustering up the motivation to make it to my next LDOC.

Mountain Heart

I feel just as at home in Western North Carolina as I do in Chapel Hill. Both of my parents grew up in small towns close to Asheville so when they talk about going "home" it has adopted a similar feel for me as well.

First stop was Black Mountain where Obama came to hang out with Billy Graham. My Mom & Dad saw the motorcade and said it was the biggest thing to hit the quiet town since Elvis got a tooth pulled there in the 20th century.
I obviously had to trek out to Pisgah Brewing before leaving and came home with the Endless Summer ale which is currently sitting in my fridge, waiting for a warm summer day in a cold glass on my back porch.
Grandmother, as I formally call her, and I went out to the cabin for the first time this season. It took me three tries in Stella (a "hefty" SUV) to get up the drive. Grandmother and I were laughing hysterically but I eventually made it... after I left a few tire streaks in the mud. We starting preparing for the summer and put up the porch swing.
I never eat a blackberry without thinking of the cabin since it was my job to pick the bushes as a kid. Looking forward to those blackberry bushes in August!!!
This is Grandmother in front of the cabin that Granddaddy rebuilt. Her Steel Magnolia accent twirls around her stories of Southern culture and history. She is the woman who gave me a sac of sapwood for Christmas and taught me all I know about campfire cooking.

Stay tuned for our summer trip up to the mountains...

Carolina Young Alumni take Washington D.C.

Let me begin with the most hilarious TV quote ever from last night's Glee:
"I hate Duke like I hate the Nazis."
Dook is a fine school, I just never want to see them win another basketball game (we don't have to worry about them ever winning a football game...that'll never happen).

This past weekend began my month long gallivanting binge since I finished my spring semester (grades pending but look promising) and get to unwind for a bit.
Road Trip: D.C. or bust... not without a stop in Richmond, Va.

Above: Meg, me, Jeff, and Jordan stop at Cafe Guttenberg for some veggie/vegan cuisine. I'm a half-hearted, Monday through Friday kind of vegetarian, but if I could eat like this all the time, I'd kiss my carcass eating good-bye... as long as I could finish with ice cream sandwiches like theirs too!
Below: I don't know how we weren't friends in college. My grades would have suffered terribly, but it would have been ridiculous... kind of like our lives now.


The trip started off with paying a visit to my best friend from college, Alicia, and surprising John Heyward (her boyfriend and another member of my bestests) for his 23rd birthday in Alexandria. Needless to say he was floored.

The next day was spent sight seeing (and by sight seeing, I mean shopping at H&M), and paying homage to some historic site. Obama left town so we had to postpone our happy hour with him for another visit.
As the proud donor of $3 to the Carolina Young Alumni and the lucky bff of Meg, the trip took us to the Lotus Lounge to meet & greet and rub elbows with some of Carolina's finest new grads. It became obvious that the farther away from Chapel Hill you get, the more important the UNC connection becomes. Simply seeing someone wear your Alma mater's t-shirt makes you automatically love them and trust them because they must know what it's like to rush Franklin St. after a National Championship, sit in the Pit on a gorgeous Friday afternoon, or smell like Chase.
Meg is pretty much awesome at her job and it was an awesome event! Got to catch up with another of my closest friends, Laura, who I've known for a couple of decades. After graduating from nursing school, she made the big move to D.C. Nothing can separate townie love though and we met up later that night at Saint Ex to hug good-bye until later this spring.

Enter: Morning after. Pack up, load the car, pass out, get home, unpack, repack, load the car, head for the mountains!

Song of the day

Every time I hear this song it reminds me ever-so fondly of sweet Kelly Gillis who is affectionately listed in my phone as kellyglovethugmama. The part about "...so gangsta I'm so thug" rings true. I am so gangsta.

LDOC

Done. Last day of class is complete! So epic that I had to finish off my day with some severe retail therapy. Now all that stands in the way of my month-long-transcontinental gallivanting session is 3 exams.
The coffee is brewing...

A year in review...

Giving credit where it is deserved: This is one of Seshie's posts that I had to pose because I'm big into the eval of my life.

If you had asked me a year ago where I thought I'd be in April 2010 I would have laughed in your face if you told me that I was going to go back to grad school... I might have wet myself if you had told me it would be at Duke.

Considering my bouncey ball lifestyle, I have traveled the globe and stamped my figurative passport with:
-Boone
-Blacksburg (big ups to the Liles!)
-San Diego
-Wilmington
-quality Carson family time in Western NC
-jury duty (that counts)
-Montana
-Europe! (with my most favorite girl cousin ever)
-13.1 miles on foot in Asheville (will definitely remember the hills next time)
-D.C.
-13.1 miles on foot in the OBX
-Linville Gorge
-Colorado

All in all, I was out of town for about 3 months (wish I still had that rent money!)

And I'm headed to Seattle in a few weeks to see one of my old time homies, Caroline. Followed by a week in Atlanta to help the bro move now that he has finished grad school. And not to be forgotten, a weekend of camping in West Virginia with Katherine & Jesse (separate tents will be had).

I will be the first to admit that I'm pretty blessed to get to rock out and jump around so frequently while maintaining my home base in Chapel Hill. Part of it is the flexibility of my work, part is the government allowing me an income through my student loans, and a major contribution is my nature of needing to go, do, see and never wanting to be stagnant. Don't get me wrong, I love nothing more than spending time at home (a future post), but I am a mover and a shaker, and I am always on the go. My Dad will shake his head at this because he tells me all the time that I need to slow it down.

"There will be sleep enough in the grave." -Benjamin Franklin

Finally

Alright friends, I finally did it! I started my very own blog. I've been wanting to do this for a while but procrastinated because I couldn't think of a witty name. I think I've captured the essence of what I was trying to convey with my blog name.
Home is where my heels are... I'm a very rare breed of Chapel Hillians that still rocks out The Thrill with vague plans to ever escape the bubble. I currently live in a precious purple house in Carrboro and we took our Christmas lights down this weekend (um, April anyone) only to put them on the back porch instead. Why would anyone want to live in a place where you couldn't have chickens as pets, ride your bicycle to the bar, or hula hoop on the lawn without getting reported by the neighbors?
Despite my current enrollment at a small private school about 8 miles from Chapel Hill, my allegiance remains unwavering, my gag reflex is intact, and I thankfully have a cousin to share in our disdain of Dook. In Bert's infamous words, "The best part of going to Duke is that it's so close to Chapel Hill."
For all those friends and fam that I don't have the pleasure of seeing on a daily basis (or for those friends whose cubicles haunt their sanity) I plan to pull from my blogosphere savvy besties and make this a blog worth reading-- taking a few regular posts from them while still spilling some of my personal life and keeping you up to date on the generally ridiculous nature of my life.
Get ready for this bumpy ride!