August and September 2006

During the months of August and September, not a whole lot of travel was done so I have decided to combine the two months into one post. Many interesting things happened during this time, but not a lot that I have photos of and since text alone tends to get pretty tedious, I decided that unless I can throw in some pretty pictures (and possibly some weblinks) , I won't spend too much time on what I've been doing the past two months.

In August, I officially resigned from my job at NCSU, ending a decade of existence on that campus in one facet or another -- excepting a couple of years when I was living in the UK -- and it was a fairly emotional moment for me. But it wasn't that emotional because I went on to a position at Duke University which is very similar to what I was doing before, but, you know, with more money. It's also a bit of a promotion.

Duke is much more convenient to where I'm now living in Creedmoor, NC with Edoardo.

We are renting a lovely three-bedroom house with an enormous yard (Edo would agree... he has to mow it) plus Cathedral ceilings in the Master and living room and even a wood-burning fireplace.

We love the house and the yard (read: I realize this is in direct contradiction to my recent comment about the yard; let me qualify it by saying we love the yard when Edo doesn't have to mow it), but it's a bit far out so when our lease it up next Summer, we'll probably move back into town.

Anyway, since my last day at NCSU was on August 18th, we spent that weekend with some family near Charlotte. We stayed with my Grandmother who lives on a lake in Norwood, NC (it's one of those sleepy, blink-and-you'll-miss-it towns that's great for when you want to get away and relax) and we enjoyed sitting by the lake and catching up on all the gossip. I've discovered that my Grandmother and I are really a lot alike -- even more than I had thought. We share many of the same opinions about issues relevant to the family and to life in general, and we seem to respect the differences of opinion that we do have. We also saw her friend Henry, who Edo has trouble understanding because of his thick Southern accent, but Henry has trouble understanding Edo's thick Italian accent as well. In fact, it was quite comical watching them try to communicate while my grandmother and I prepared lunch. We had a giggle over that.

We also briefly stopped by to see my Uncle Kyle and Aunt Mitzi, neither of whom I have seen in years. They live only a few doors down from my grandmother so it was very convenient.

The night we stayed in Norwood, we drove to nearby Charlotte for dinner with my cousin Brenda, who has the music in her soul! If the time at the lake was relaxing and tranquil, the time in Charlotte was like a whirlwind! But we had a great time chatting and watching people walking around downtown. We ate at Rock Bottom Brewery which has great food and is a great place to hang out and people-watch. The one thing I really dislike about the Raleigh-Durham area is the lack of an exciting downtown. Charlotte's downtown is a lot of fun (they call it "Uptown" for some reason) and I would like to be able to have a place like that to go.

The following Thursday, I started my new position as Assistant International Student and Scholar Adviser at Duke, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Everyone is really nice and funny; nobody takes life too seriously here even though we're doing very serious work (but hey, you have to laugh once in a while). People have a witty, sarcastic sense of humor and not a day goes by when someone in this office doesn't have me in stitches with laughter. Some days I think it's a matter of survival... one of those "if you don't laugh, you'll cry" kinda things, but generally speaking people seem to be really happy here.

Fast forward a few weeks to the middle of September, and my divorce came through! A huge thank you to Pam from NCSU Student Legal Services; I couldn't have done it without her. I'm currently in the process of trying to re-establish myself with my maiden name, but that will take a little while to be complete. But at least I'm finally free to live my life the way I want to, and I don't feel quite so weird living with my boyfriend since I'm now divorced :) I found that when you're filling out those "optional" equal opportunity questionnaires and they ask you about your living situation, there's strangely no option for "separated and living with partner". go figure. In fact, almost all of them fit me: married (check), separated (check), divorced (almost), living with partner (check), single (kinda). So at least that cleaned up that little portion of my private life.

Last but not least, last Saturday was my 10 year high-school reunion. We're not going to get into how old that makes me feel, but the whole experience was a sort of emotional catharsis for me. I'm sure the alcohol helped. The night went the way I had hoped it would: the cliques kinda dissolved although naturally people were more interested in catching up with old friends than with people they never spoke to in high school, and that's fair enough. Most people were very friendly and the ones who weren't, well it just didn't matter. If someone didn't want to speak to me, I really didn't care the way I did in high school. I guess all that teen angst has more to do with the high school experience than the fact that I went to Broughton, which is notorious for being snotty and clique-ish. However, Jen's husband Scott did mention at one point in the night that it looked like the Young Republicans convention in there. People can change, but they don't change that much I guess.

Some highlights of the night: having a drink with Jen, Scott and Kristy Lee at Nana's Chophouse across the street from Ess Lounge where the reunion was being held (that eased the pain, I'm sure); seeing James Little, Michael Kennedy, and Matt Meares who I always remembered as the "nice guys" and they're still nice; hanging out with all my old friends who I haven't seen in years like Kristine Vallila, Matt Sims, Erin Maynard, and Emily Howell (who, by the way, looks fabulous and is probably the only person there who looked significantly different than in high school); and finally, being spoken to kindly by people who never bothered to talk to me in high school and a. not thinking "ugh, you loser... you ignored me in high school so why are you talking to me now?" because I'm a bigger person than that, and b. not caring about the people who still didn't bother to talk to me... I can now look on these kind of situations and think that the problem isn't me, it's them. And I couldn't do that back in high school. So I enjoyed myself even though it probably won't go into my books as the greatest party ever; it was nice to catch up with people and realize that most people can grow out of their high school attitude (and laugh at the few who didn't!)

Until next time....

Tiffani

Charleston - July 2006

Hello again. It's that special time where I write about our monthly travel. This time we went to Charleston, South Carolina. Edo has never been there but I have been several times. I have always loved Charleston and I was eager to share this wonderful city with my boyfriend.

Unfortunately, it was mid-July and one of the hottest weekends on record for much of the United States, so our romantic walks around the Battery and through the Market weren't exactly the textbook passeggiate that I had imagined (complete with the cool breeze blowing through our hair, looking out over the sea arm-in-arm, giggling at the crazy items for sale by the Gullah vendors, and sitting on the park benches talking about how happy we were and how we hoped this moment would never end)

and more like the reality that is always Charleston in the middle of July (a hot breeze blowing over the Battery providing no relief whatsoever, looking out over the sea but not standing too close because damn it was really hot, complaining about all the crap for sale in the market and squeezing past the other sweaty tourists, and sitting on the park benches sweating and sharing a bottle of water... not drinking so much as to be rude and not leave enough for the other, but just enough to not shrivel up like a dried prune, desperately waiting for the moment to end). Good times.

Actually, it was good times. My parents lent us their new rental car (a Hyundai Sonata with all the bells and whistles... we could even see how many miles we had left to drive on each tank of gas and we could set the temperature in the car to a particular degree and it would automatically engage). We went down for my birthday, and we arrived on Saturday afternoon after a trip that involved a failed attempt to eat lunch at a Cracker Barrel -- really, we should've known better, those places are always packed -- and finally settling for a Bojangles near Lumberton where we ate the sort of food you can get at a Bojangles, prompting Edo to look around the restaurant and say "sometimes your people make me feel sad". I know Edo, I know.

Once we arrived in Charleston, we checked into our hotel, and we went into town to eat dinner at 82 Queen which my Uncle David introduced me to a year ago and got me hooked! On the way to the restaurant, we walked through the Charleston Place shops and saw a woman with a black dress walking past. Sometimes I think Edo forgets that I'm not one of his male friends (only sometimes... other times he's keenly aware that I'm all woman, but this is a PG blog so we'll leave it at that) and he looked at me as if to say "wow, check her out!". I stomped my foot, Tiffani-style, and said "I'm wearing a pretty black dress too!" and then laughed. He said "Tiffani, you know you're my favorite" and I said "I'd better be your only". Then we walked on to the restaurant.

82 Queen is famous for its She-Crab Soup, so we shared a bowl of that. Then Edo had the Grouper with tasso ham gravy over grits (it was good, but not as good as the Shrimp N Grits we had in Savannah) and I ate the stuffed tomato over tempura-fried julienne eggplant. For dessert we ate creme brulee with a glass of champagne. It was really delicious. That was Edo's birthday present to me, along with a CD from Manu Chao and a book called The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The meal was very romantic and the atmosphere was charming. I highly recommend that restaurant for a romantic date.

On Sunday, we went for lunch at a place called Sermet's Corner where we shared a plate of penne with creamy red sauce, shrimp, calamata olives and feta. The food was pretty good but the problem with feta and calamata olives is that they are such strong flavors that they pretty much drowned out the flavor of the shrimp and the pasta. And the air conditioning wasn't working very well so it was pretty hot. But it certainly wasn't a bad meal.

We then walked around the Market, bought some benne seed wafers which are my favorite thing about Charleston, and sat in the pastry shop for about a half hour drinking water and talking. Edo mentioned that he's missing pastry shops like they have in Europe, and I agree. There are two French pastry shops in the Raleigh area, but no Italian ones. He seems to be flirting with the idea of moving back home one day. I wouldn't be opposed to living in Italy.

After we cooled off, we made the trek back to the car and drove down to the Battery

where we walked around, took photos of the architecture of the homes and the sea, and then sat on the aforementioned park bench sweating like mules. Then we went back to the hotel for a swim.

When we arrived at the hotel, a storm rolled in so that nixed our plan to swim. So we watched TV for a bit and then headed back into town to have dinner at California Dreaming which Mom and Dad kindly paid for as my birthday present (along with the hotel, plus some work clothes later on in the month!). Our reservation wasn't for about an hour, so at first we stopped in O'Malley's Irish Pub to have a drink. It wasn't busy at all but it was a pretty nice atmosphere, and the bartender was very nice. He gave us directions to California Dreaming.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, we had a short wait and then we were seen to our table. This particular restaurant is known for it's fantastic view of the city, the sea, and the marshes. So we had a lovely but filling meal (we shared an appetizer of croissants with honey-butter, then Edo had the fried shrimp with french fries, and I ate the shrimp quesadilla with a stuffed baked potato), and then we walked down to the little pier where we took pictures. The one thing we didn't get was the sunset, which looked like a huge red ball in the sky. But when we tried to take a picture of it, it didn't take properly. So we'll just have to remember that moment. We watched it move behind the horizon like you see in films. It was so beautiful.

After dinner we drove around Mount Pleasant for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning, we headed back up to North Carolina but instead of taking the interstate, we decided to take Highway 17 up to Wilmington and then take I-40 back to the Triangle. The drive was a bit slower but it was much nicer, and as we drove through the 17 Bypass at Myrtle Beach (which is still amazingly bad for traffic even though it's a bypass), we stopped in for lunch at a little restaurant called Anthony's Pizza and Pan Pasta.

We ate there mainly because we were really curious about what "Pan Pasta" actually was so we decided to check it out. What we found was, according to my Italian boyfriend, "the best pizza in America". So if you're ever in the Middle of Nowhere, South Carolina, definitely check out Anthony's Pizza and Pan Pasta because you will not be disappointed (the cannoli were really good as well).

When we got home we ate a light dinner and collapsed. It was a good weekend but it was nice to be back in the house and rest a while.

In August, we don't have plans yet but lots of options, so you'll find out when we do :)

Ciao!
Tiffani

June 2006 Events

Hi Everyone!

Well our June trip to Charlotte, NC (my cousin is doing a dance showcase) and Norwood, NC (to visit my Grandmother) got cancelled "due to circumstances beyond our control". However, all is not lost! The benefits are thus: we get to save a bit of money for an even better July trip over my birthday, and we are going out to dinner with a couple of friends this weekend to a restaurant which my friend swears is authentic Italian -- a pretty daring promise considering that my date is from Italy. We shall see. I have yet to eat Italian food outside of Italy, but as long as it tastes good, that's what matters. And a good wine list is always a bonus.

On top of that, even though we won't be leaving the Triangle in June, we have done and will be doing some pretty awesome stuff anyway!

My Uncle David arrived from San Francisco and stayed here for a couple weeks. It's always nice to see him, even though he was pretty busy with some personal stuff when he was here. He was able to make it to my family's first ever Pool Party and Pig Pickin', which my parents hosted in order to thank the neighbors for making them feel so welcome over the past 8 or 9 months, and to "officially" start the Summer!

The Pool Party started at 3pm, and the pool was populated primarily by neighborhood kids to begin with. I joined them shortly after 3 (I'm ashamed to say that I have lived in that house since September and I had never stepped foot in the pool until that day. But in fairness, much of that time was winter and I spend most -- OK all -- of my weekends with Edo).

One of my friends arrived around 3:30 and we swam for about an hour or so, and then other people started arriving right as I could feel my cheeks turning pink so I got out of the pool. After my other friends arrived, I was pleased to find that several of them had brought their swimsuits and happily went in the pool to cool off on that humid, hot day.

The party was catered by White Swan BBQ (no way were my parents going to get up at 4am to slow roast a pig all day!) and they brought a LOT of food. There was half a pig, fried chicken, plus potato salad, boiled potatoes, slaw, hush puppies, and sweet iced tea. Our friends brought over lots of alcohol plus, like six cakes, some of which weren't even opened :( No offense everyone! There was just wayyyyy too much food!

We ended up having about 80 people there, but several people were able to take home doggy bags with barbecue and sides and desserts.

One of my friends who's Lebanese brought homemade hummus and baklava, plus a fabulous aperitif called Blackhaus Schnapps which is a blackberry flavored vodka. Apparently "aperitif" can mean different things depending on who you're talking to, because I always considered it a drink along the lines of Baileys or Kahlua, at least as far as proof is concerned. But this stuff was 40% alcohol, which in my mind, qualifies as "hard liquor". But whatever... it tasted REALLY good! I highly recommend it!

One of my Dad's friend's from Indiana commented that apparently, The South has come a long way given the diversity of the crowd at this particular Pig Pickin'. Beyond the fact that there were white Americans and African-Americans present, the following countries were represented (and I mean these are people who are actually from these countries, not second, third, or eighth generation-ers who grew up in America but call themselves Irish or whatever): Italy, France, India, China, Nepal, Lebanon, and Turkey. Our Indianian visitor was impressed by the fact that everyone was getting along, there were no shootings, and no racial slurs. But to me, it demonstrates what a bad rap The South obviously still has in the rest of the country, because he's the only person who even thought twice about it! Sure, we still have racism and poverty and all of the things that embarrass most Southerners and that some Northerners like to use as an excuse for thinking they are better than us, but the fact is that the world I live in, the circles I run in, and the people I know are very open and tolerant. Why shouldn't a Turk, an Indian, and an Italian be able to enjoy a conversation over dinner? Food is international, and every culture communes over meals. So why wouldn't we all be able to do it together? *stepping off soapbox* At any rate, a good time was had by all, and that's what matters.

Last weekend, Italy and the US competed in a World Cup match that ended in a tie. This is a good thing because Edo and I were not forced to split due to national pride :) To be honest, neither of us particularly cares about who wins, but we did enjoy watching the game and spending time with our friends at The Federal Pub in Durham. However, just because we weren't concerned about the outcome, doesn't mean that nobody else cared. There were Italians and Americans, sitting dangerously close to one another in retrospect, who were shouting, biting their nails, bitching at the ref (but really, he did suck... three red cards in one game? come on... the only person who deserved the red card was the Italian who elbowed the American player in the eye). After the game, we went home, watched a movie, and had an early night. Man, we're too old to drink beer in the afternoon.

So there we have the June highlights. Even though there weren't any trips to be discussed, we still had a good time at home! My parents haven't made any sort of a commitment, but an annual Pig Pickin' would be really fun (hint hint Mom and Dad hehe)

In the famous words of Eeyore, "thanks for noticin' me"

~Tiffani

Savannah -- May 2006

Hello friends (and strangers, and random passersby, and possibly social stalkers if I'm lucky)

So, at some point in the past, I decided that I'm important enough to have my very own blog :)

Actually, this is simply the easiest way to post photos of my travels and put captions longer than 50 words each so people can get a true taste of what it was like to be where I was and decide, after being bored to tears by my descriptions, to never go there ever ;)

So we'll start with Savannah, GA, where I went with Edo over the Memorial Day weekend.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon after a quick five-hour drive down from Durham. I say "quick" because Rand-McNally told me it would take six hours, so we were pleasantly surprised to arrive a bit early; even more so when were able to check into our hotel a bit earlier than the posted check-in time (for what it's worth, the hotel isn't worth mentioning; it was just a regular chain hotel a few miles outside of Savannah -- but we've determined that when/if we return, we'll be getting a B&B in town so we can drink "without shame" as Edo says) . The most interesting thing about that hotel was that at the on-site restaurant where we had a lunch/mid-afternoon snack, a young man was proposing to his girlfriend. At first I thought "awww, how sweet" but then the more I thought about it, the more I realized how unromantic it is to be proposed to at a Perkins in the middle of the afternoon. So unless that was the site of their first date, he should've ante-d up for a meal at Bistro Savannah in the evening, which we'll get to later.

After a light lunch, we slept (yes, we are about 30 years old, but we still get tired).

Then we went into Savannah and walked around the Riverwalk area and back up into Historic Savannah. It was unbelievably hot and humid, and by the time we reached the one restaurant that didn't have a two hour wait (make sure you reserve a table if you want a decent meal on Saturday night) I was completely parched and had lost my appetite. (Yes, I grew up in the heat of the Southern US and was almost destroyed by this weather; my Alpine boyfriend, on the other hand, could've walked for another two hours). So we ate at a little Scottish pub called Molly MacPherson's next to the City Market in Historic Savannah.

The food was good and the water was AMAZING. There wasn't anything special about it, but I was so hot and thirsty that it tasted heavenly :) The clientele was interesting. We saw a group of bikers from New Jersey, a confederate soldier (I wonder if the South wins in reenactments in Savannah?) and a highland warrior complete with kilt! The atmosphere was definitely worth the visit.

The next day we spent wandering around Historic Savannah looking for all the places that were part of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

We found the Mercer House and the Cemetery but we never did find the statue of the girl. We're not sure she really exists! We found Club One, where my new Idol, The Lady Chablis, performs regularly.


We also walked around squares, admired all of the various architecture, and enjoyed the parks.

We were smart enough to reserve a table at Bistro Savannah, where we had a wonderful meal full of seafood and low-country specialties. The Shrimp and Tasso Ham with grits was far and away the best shrimp 'n' grits I've ever had in my life. The mussels mariniere were also wonderful. The wine list was impressive but the wine-by-the-glass list wasn't quite as good (hence our desire to stay in a B&B next time) and the creme brulee was cooked perfectly.

However, we were afraid that we weren't going to be able to eat there, because a few hours earlier there was a fire in an apartment over the restaurant! After we realized that nobody was hurt, we were very worried about losing our reservation! But we were able to have our haute cuisine meal after all :)

After dinner we took a stroll down riverwalk for a few minutes, and then we headed back to the hotel after our long day.

Monday was our last day there. We decided to go to Tybee Island to have a walk on the beach and to eat at the Crab Shack which was well-known for its seafood. The beach was busy but not unreasonably so, considering that it was a holiday and it was 90 degrees outside. It was typical of beaches on the coastline from NC to Georgia so nothing particularly special there (not that I saw anyway) but you beach-bums out there would probably love it.

The Crab Shack is one of those places that most people would never go unless the food were absolutely amazing. The atmosphere was unbelievably cheesy and Edo was complaining because they had a stack of plastic forks on each table (which was a true raw bar, complete with a hole in each table and a garbage can underneath it). This was Edo's first experience at such a place. We ordered the Capn's platter for One, and it was enough food for three! And as soon as I tasted it, it was worth all the kitsch. They gave us steamed crab legs, stone crab claws, mussels, shrimp, crawfish, sausage, corn, and potatoes. It was wonderful!

After lunch we headed back up the coast for a brief time and then got back on 95 to head home. It was a long weekend but full of history and great food. I would definitely go back, but since it's so similar to Charleston, SC and Charleston is a bit closer, I would probably only return to Savannah if I had a particular reason (such as seeing The Lady Chablis perform!)

If you want to see all of the photos, check out my website. There was only a sampling on the blog.

- Tiffani