Me Again

It's bed time here on the East Coast, but I'm just not ready to close this day. It has been so great! For starters, I slept soundly and uninterrupted until 11 this morning. What am I--a college kid? My body was rejoicing to be back in my own bed with all the space and none of the dog spooning. I spent the morning (or what was left of it) getting unpacked and re-settled from the week while listening to the start of an older sermon series from Buckhead Church called Game Plan. It's talking about how to know what to do with your life. Seems fitting and made some great points. I found the reference in Colossians refreshing since I've been spending so much time in the Old Testament. I read in the afternoon and then met up with Sara and her co-workers for Happy Hour. Typically I would've bailed at the invitation seeing as I only barely knew 2 of the 10 people there. But since I'm embracing "NO FEAR" (please don't picture the corny t-shirts from the 90's when you read that), I decided to go. It was fun and a nice excuse to get out of the house. I came back afterwards and have spent the evening alone watching a movie, reading my new cooking magazines and getting homework done. All in all a good day.

Want to know the kicker? In another effort to step outside of my shell and LIVE, I got 2 lawn tickets to next Saturday's Tim McGraw concert. YESSSS! I saw the email promotion come through this morning and sent it to Sara. We joked about getting free tickets and then talked each other into jumping in and going for it (money's just gonna burn in the end anyway, right?) So after we had committed to spend the cash and go have fun together, my mom announced that she wanted to buy the tickets for us. Double bonus! I'd had it on my mental list to go to a country concert this year. There is just something about country music (and the people who like it) that is so comforting to me. Like a big bowl of mashed potatoes. It hugs the part of my heart that longs to live in a cottage in the country or on a little farm. This one will be great because it is legendary Tim McGraw....but also Luke Bryan and the Band Perry. The last country concert I went to was Rascal Flatts at the Florida Fair Grounds if I recall. Shelbs and I sat through it on a tarp in the pouring rain. Such fun!

In other news: High Tea at the Ritz yesterday was perfection. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to be that girl pulling out a camera every time something new came out of the kitchen. We reclined in sofas and arm chairs that circled little coffee tables. I had the Vanilla Bean black tea and accessorized with natural sugar cubes.

The first round was 5 mini finger sandwiches--chicken salad with corn on pumpernickel, cucumber on brioche with dill/mint cream cheese, jalepeno and ham corn muffin with creme fraiche, salmon salad on wheat with caviar to garnish, and egg salad on brioche with a slice of hard boiled egg and dollop of pimento cheese. Then the tower of goodies came out. The top plate (and voted favorite by the whole table) was the warm cherry chocolate chip scones. Heavenly. The next tier had 4 of each dessert so we didn't have to arm wrestle over who got what. There was a lemon poppyseed cake with lemon glaze, chocolate brownie/cake with edible 24 carat gold leaf on top, and a mini key lime tart with a blackberry and edible rose petals. I ate traded my cake for Heather's tart (and thought of you, Jasper, when I ate them). The bottom tier had a butter sugar cookie, a tangerine french macaron (I'd been dying to try one since they are the rage on www.foodgawker.com) and an apple pie panna cotta that was served in a shot glass with white chocolate straw.

Who knew that so much little tiny food can fill you up so quickly? We couldn't finish it all, but were sure to take as much of it to go as we could....including stuffing our purses with the miniature jars of honey, strawberry preserves and clotted cream that we could manage. It was such a pleasant visit with Heather and her mom. The last time we had done that we were seniors in high school (I think I told you that before) so it was fun to be able to reminisce over the past 11+ years together.

Sadly, there wasn't another Toni Braxton sighting. We did have a lady sitting next to us who had a see-thru dress on...and she wasn't wearing underwear. Heather and I looked at each other at the same time when we caught site, but thankfully the mom's were engrossed in conversation. Or maybe they were just too mature to not comment. Either way, kinda funny.

Alrighty--bed time for bonzos. Don't you fret. I've made a list of more things I want to tell you all about. Hope you girls enjoy your weekend--especially you, Julie. Christian is home on temporary leave from his assignment and I hope you are able to relax and soak up every minute with him.

Love.