I went to Charleston. And I kicked butt today.

Prepare for a picture OVERLOAD.

This past weekend my friend Amy and I headed south to Charleston. 

Charleston is a great city. I like it a lot.

Views from our hotel window

FIRST we stopped at Starbucks and I got the salted caramel hot chocolate. Friends I have been waiting for the right time to have my first of the season and Saturday was the day. Unfortunately...the drink was really disappointing. I had the best salted caramel hot chocolate in Tucson and that's my standard. Then again I also ordered it skinny so maybe that's why? It was lacking. Oh well. Dunkin' Donuts is better. Or Ghiradelli. Or Godiva, though I haven't tried Godiva hot chocolate yet, but I hear it's better than Ghiradelli. Whaaaat? I don't know if that's even possible! I shall find out.

So we arrived Saturday late morning and the first store we pop in to, mind you we've only been in Charleston for about 10 minutes, is Rack Room and conveniently they are having a sale. Now I'm on a blood thirsty hunt for the perfect pair of brown boots. I didn't find any BUT I did see, out of the corner of my peepers while I was looking at boots, a pair of charcoal Converse kicks. 

Well.

 

I bought 'em! And so did Amy. Yes we have matching Converse shoes. I love them. These are my first pair of Converse. I had an extra spring in my step while cruising the streets. 

I told Amy we had to stop at Belgian Gelato. I serendipitously stumbled upon this delightful shop the last time I was in Charleston and now it's a must-go-to every time I am there. I mean how do you say no to a Belgian chocolate lined waffle cone with chocolate hazelnut and white chocolate praline gelato? Answer: YOU DON'T. It's reeeeally, reaaaaalllllly, really good.  

 

 Sitting on a porch swing on the pier, eating gelato, in my new Converse, in Charleston. Bliss.

Then we played near the fountain.

 

And walked down Rainbow Row. BEAUTIFUL!

And played in an alley. This alley even has a legit street sign.

Pretending like we live in one of the cute apartments off of the alley.

Ok. We saw these everywhere. I have no idea what it's a picture of or what it's for or what it's supposed to represent. If you know, PLEASE TELL ME!!! My curiosity is killing me.

And then we spent lots of time walking up and down King Street. We stopped in a 2-story (!!!!) Starbucks for water and a bathroom break and a rest. We people watched from the second story and planned all of the shops we were going to hit up. So cool! 

One of the shops was Cupcake for...cupcakes! We got red velvet and salted caramel. To be honest, they were good but not great and definitely not worth $3 a pop. I made salted caramel cupcakes a little bit ago and I thought the flavor of mine was better. I'm not being a snob, I'm just sayin'...disappointing. 

Our purchases from the day. I think maybe we have similar taste?!? 

The next morning we slept in (*heavenly music*) and then headed out for brunch. We found this AH-dorable grocery/cafe called...Queen Street Grocery and Cafe! They have lots and lots of crepes so that's what we got! VERY, VERY good. If I lived in Charleston, I would eat my way through their menu because it looks scrumptious.  

While we were eating we heard someone at the next table say something about a pumpkin pie popsicle. Naturally we perked up and agreed after we finished to go back inside and search for the popsicles. SUCCESS! They had some fantastic flavors so we settled on blood orange basil (with basil leaves in it!) and pumpkin pie (with graham crackers in it!). They were incredible. We will be stopping by here on our next trip. I want to try the chocolate salted caramel. 

On our way home we stopped at Trader Joe's, because the one right outside of Charleston is the closest one to us (such a tragedy). I bought Scotty some pumpkin treats so he can enjoy the fall season with me! Then I bought the tea (which I'm sipping on right now-yum!) and those chocolate cat cookies because I love them and my mom always buys them and hides them in the freezer. Like that'll stop me.

It was a fantastic weekend! We're planning on going back in December to see what it's like around Christmas time and we'll bring our beach cruisers now that we have a pretty good sense of the town. I CANNOT wait!!!

So today.

I kicked butt. Not only did I finish my patients in a very decent time but....I taught Dr. W something he didn't know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The man knows practically everything but, not about falsely elevated albumin and prealbumin! SHAZAM!!! I taught a doctor something new. Wahoooo!! I was a little intimidated while I was explaining it to him. In fact, I was so scared that I was wrong or had explained it incorrectly that I called the other dietitians afterward just to verify. Verified. WHABAM. Whew. 

Next.

Half marathon in t-minus 5 days. I'm nervous but at the same time, not really. I won't get nervous probably until the day of the race. Even then, I'm trying to approach this mentally as just another long run. That helps. Plus, it's my first half so I don't have a time that I'm trying to beat. I just want to finish. I ran my second to last run today of three miles.

                         

It was getting dark so I was hauling and I felt sluggish but apparently not. COOL. I will not be running that fast during the half, of that I can assure you, but it certainly makes me feel better! I was SO sore from walking all over Charleston this weekend. My hamstrings were to tight that you could have played a melody on them. Seriously. And my calves felt swollen. But today's run was confidence boosting and relieving. One more run to go! 

And this is what Scotty looks like when I scratch his belly every night before bedtime. Love that little smile!

CB comes to MB

Clary came!! 

Prepare for a picture overload...

(and I promise we did more than eat...these are just the moments I happened to think to take out my camera. Basically I've been slacking in the photo-taking department. And the blogging department. Sorry!)

Thursday, I picked her up from the Charleston airport and then we headed to our hotel, which was in North Charleston. We contemplated going into Charleston that evening but to be honest, we were both pretty tired (I was wicked tired from a very long work week) so we went to a Greek place for gyros and stuffed grape leaves and chatted, caught up, hung out. Love Greek food. I mean, if you read this blog you know I love food but I especially love Mediterranean food. Then we went to the Tangor Outlets near our motel where I got some SWEET new Nike running kicks for a grand whoppin' total of $32, originally $90. WHAAAAT!!?? I know, I know. Beam with me here. I love a good deal. And the shoes are so cool. Then we hit up Wal-mart for some ice cream and we just couldn't decide so we got these:

I am happy to tell you we did not finish them all. The new Greek Yogurt Ben and Jerry's flavors are good. The peanut butter banana was pretty tasty, though I thought the small amount was perfect; any larger and I might not have liked it as much. 

Friday we slept in (yaaay!) and then wandered around downtown Charleston. It's very cute. It has a lot of fun shops, neat architecture, history. It was very cool.

I love these trees!

We had lunch at an Italian place and then we wandered around a little more and then decided to head to back to Myrtle Beach. We didn't stay in Charleston too long because a) it was blasted hot with the sticky humidity, b) we both wanted to get home, c) we wanted to beat the traffic because it was, after all, Friday on Memorial Day Weekend. 

But first.

We stopped at Whole Foods because this is the closest one to me and as we were wandering around we came upon gelato and we tasted some (a must!) and then we decided to be crazy and taste this weird flavor they had: pineapple basil.

OH. MY. LANTUS.

TO DIE FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we split one. Oooooh so good!

We got home safely and in good time and hung out. We were pretty tired. It was nice! Clary recommend the series "Once Upon a Time" so I started watching it a few days before she came. I LOVE it. I have no qualms admitting that I love fairy tales so I was hooked on this new show that weaves in all the fairy tales into one rather complex but well done story line. It's quite clever. Well, we finished the series while Clary was here. I can't wait for the second season! 

Saturday I had originally planned to take Clary to Wilmington, NC but being that it was a holiday weekend and I didn't feel like getting up early to beat traffic, nor did I want to spend most of Clary's vacation here in the car, we opted to just hang out here in Myrtle Beach. I took her to Broadway at the Beach (aka Redneck Riviera...bahahahah!) and showed here one of the hot touristy spots. I really don't care for this place but everyone needs to go and see it. We went into the crazy candy store "It's Sugar" and had some fun in there. 

I found this particularly amusing on a GIANT box of gummy bears!

Ok. Let's talk about Black Biker Week. This is my first time experiencing this and let me tell you...it was something. I'm glad it's only once a year. Bikers/motorcyclists in general make me nervous because they weave in and out of traffic as they want (and are apparently the exception to several of the driving rules???), but when HOARDS of them show up in loud, revving, obnoxious groups, I am not a fan. Nor am I am fan of their lady passengers who are scantily clad in booty short, thongs, and/or bikini bottoms because these bikes are not your typical motorcycles; they slant up so you get a very unfortunate view of booty. Again, not. a. fan. 

Our tradition whenever we are together is to get sushi. This dates back to when Clary and I first became friends and she introduced me to sushi. I am indebted to her for my love of this stuff!!!!!

Monday I had to, very unfortunately, work so Clary bummed around my apartment all day. When I came home we worked out and then decided to go see "The Avengers" since she had not yet seen it. But first, we made Margherita pizza with fresh mozzarella and fresh Basil from my little plant. We weren't super hungry so we snuck it in to the movies (I have some very sneaky skills) and dined while we watched the film. If you have not seen "The Avengers" you need to go stat. It is very well scripted with excellent dialogue and fabulous humor. Plus it's action-packed! REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good. Go see it!

Her visit was, of course, too short but I'll be venturing to Tucson in August as we are both bridesmaids in a friend's wedding. She left early Tuesday morning and I had to get to work so it was kind of a rip-the-band-aid-good bye. Sometimes it's better that way. 

And now I have a doctor story. 

I worked this weekend and was consulted to manage a patient's tube feedings. This patient has been on tube feeds for 3 years and in situations like this, these patients are typically pretty stable so I figured it would be quick and easy. FALSE. The patient was pretty underweight so I wanted to alter his regimen a little to give him some additional nutrition. Well, his wife would have none of it. Every single thing I suggested was shot down completely. I'm learning to very carefully pick my fights with certain patients and this one was one I bowed out of because I could tell she wasn't going to let me do anything. So, I made my suggestions and told her I would let manage his feeds. I was looking for his chart to write my notes in and the doctor following him had it. I hadn't met him before, though I've heard/seen his name several times and know this doctor is one of our regulars, well-respected, etc., so I approached him, introduced myself and told him I was going to continue to allow the wife to manage the feedings because she wasn't interested in letting me take over.

"Chicken." 

My thoughts: Chicken? Give the patient chicken? What? He's NPO. He'll aspirate. I can't do that!

"What?"

"Chicken. You're a chicken aren't you?"

It dawned on me he was teasing me so I laughed and told him I had spent about 30 minutes throwing out every suggestion I could think of and she wasn't buying it. He laughed with me and told me it was a smart move. Whew. I didn't want to look like an idiot, you know????

I bought this beaut at Home Goods yesterday. Pretty right?!

I'm in charge of a youth activity in a couple of weeks and I'm going to teach the girls to make homemade rolls so naturally I had to try out the recipe first. 

Mmmmmm.....fresh rolls! Sunday baking is one of my favorite things!

And in other news.... 

*I am running a half marathon in October, October 21st to be exact. Training is coming along. I've been really busy so it's been tricky to get started but I'm PSYCHED for this. I hope I'm ready.

*This month is going to be insanely crazy: my youngest brother's high school graduation this week, my mom's wedding the next weekend in California, and then my other brother's wedding in Washington state the weekend after that. This is a partying month! So, you'll be sympathetic if my blogging is a little sparse this month, right?

But what I'm most excited for is....

*HOME!!!!!!!!!! NEW ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!*


P.S. Apparently I can no longer use playlist.com to play music on my blog. This angers me.