pedicures, shiny diners and lillington folk

What a weekend. Went to Raleigh again to visit friends, see Dark Knight and then see Keri give the sermon at her church. Not to mention today is her birthday! Happy 24 years of life, love!

Raleigh

My friend, Jess returned from SP in Sweden so we were able to spend time catching up. Plus we took "gourmet hamburgers" (aka: overpriced beef rubbed with pepper) to a bbq, ate ice cream, played with a bubble sword and ended our evening by watching Signs with some guy friends. We didn't get to bed until 3:15am... NICE

Keri met up with me Saturday afternoon and I took her to get a pedicure for her birthday. I cannot believe we've been friends for over 20 years. Kah-raaA-zeE! I'm so proud of the woman she has become and how she has never faltered in her walk with Jesus. She is following fast after Him and keeping her eyes on what matters.

Time sure flies. This pic is from 1986ish... we used to hang out at her nanny's house, who is my great aunt. So random, but I love that we are still friends! It's funny to think someone besides my family and the Lord has known me almost my entire life.

After the pedicures we met up with some people for dinner at Gypsy's Shiny Diner - your typical old school diner, complete with juke box music from the 60s, sparkly red vinyl bar stool covers and yummy deep fried foods. Our waitress was from NY so we had quite a fun dining experience, she was a hoot. Then we all (minus Keri) went to see Dark Knight, which was awesomely intense. It was a random group that went because half of us knew each other, but the other half only knew one person that our half knew, so it became sort of awkward after the movie and we all finally just scattered and went our separate ways.

The south is fun. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss it. The people I was around this weekend were some of the nicest, most friendly, down to earth, genuine souls I've ever spent time with.

Lillington

The lunch (or "dinner" as they call it in Lillington) spread the church had for Keri on Sunday after her sermon was phenomenal. Keri and I got pushed/rushed to the front of the line in the dining hall so I wasn't really paying attention to much. I grabbed a plate and started filling it up.

Overwhelmed and overjoyed do not begin to describe my feelings over the course of the next hour. No joke. I couldn't stop ranting about how much food there was and how yummy it all looked. Keri finally stops and says, "Amber, look up" and as I raised my head and allowed my eyes to scan, it dawns on me that we are only at the FIRST of SIX tables filled with casseroles, veggies, starchy goodness, pastas, salads, stuff I didn't recognize and a plethora of other home-cooked goods.

I let out and exasperated sigh and said something to the effect of, "this is out of control."

I decided at this point how it might be necessary, if the day ever comes for me to be married, to have these wonderful people cater my wedding. Seriously. I won't even go into details as to what happened when I realized there were two tables just for dessert. All I can say is, those people know how to eat. 

Some of the uber nice people from Keri's church took us to Bojangles for dinner (just what I needed after the feast of calories at lunch). This being my first actual meal - - I've had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit - - at Bojangles I didn't really know what to order. So this kid, Jake says, "just order the Boberry Biscut" and I'm like, "the wahh??" Yeah.

Needless to say, it was quite an entertaining meal. Jake also kept telling me to dip everything in honey. So after awhile I would start messing with him. He's ten, he can take it. Anytime he would say something or ask a question I'd say, "oh, but do you have honey?" Good times. However, I ate way too much in the course of 48 hours and feel like I need to detox for the next 48 days... 

Pondering

I have a strong urge to move to Colorado. But that's sort of crazy. I should just get my fix every two years at CSU.

I don't know where the Lord is leading me in the coming years, but NC is definitely somewhere I wouldn't mind coming back to. God sure does have a sense of humor... little beach girl goes back to the hills...