Sunday Social

1. 1 year ago I…
Had been living in Korea for two years and was about to leave to travel all over Asia for five weeks and then return home… On May 12, 2012 I was camping on Muui Island with tons of friends!

late night campfire sing-a-long

2. 5 years ago I…
Was living in Texas and working at a private investigation company. I also took my mom to the Grand Canyon for her 50th birthday in May 2008!

3. 10 years ago I…
Was finishing up my junior year of college and living with my roommate Rheannon.

4. 1 year from now I…
Will have been at my awesome job for a year… And will probably be looking for a new one that pays better! And I’ll be taking my little bro on a trip for his high school graduation.

5. 5 years ago I…
Will have an awesome job I love and that pays well, have my own place, and be using my vacation days to travel to amazing places!

6. 10 years from now I…
Will be 40!!

The Friday 5

1. List your (current) top five favorite food dishes; include photos if you’d like.
These are my top five I like to cook anyway… Top five to eat would get trickier!

• I always make tacos at least once a week. I cook ground pork with spicy taco seasoning, add cheese, my homemade salsa, and sour cream, and throw all the delicious ingredients together in a flour tortilla.
• Spaghetti is the meal I make the most after tacos. My recipe for sauce is here.

• A crowd pleaser is chicken spaghetti. Cook one pound of chicken (on the stove with olive oil) and one pound of spaghetti. Combine in a baking dish with one can cream of chicken soup, one can cream of mushroom soup, and one can of chicken broth. Top with cheddar. Enjoy the fattening deliciousness!

• I have two go-to recipes for parties… pinwheels and Mexican dip. For the pinhweels, combine eight ounces sour cream, eight ounces cream cheese, one cup shredded cheese, and some diced green onions. Spread the mixture over flour tortillas. Roll each tortilla up, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or so. Then unwrap and slice into sections.
• Mexican dip recipe: Spread a can of spicy refried beans on the bottom layer. The next layer is eight ounces of sour cream, then eight ounces of salsa. Top with shredded cheese and diced green onions.

2. List your top five disliked movies of all time and why.
This was a hard one! I usually avoid movies I know I won’t like (action and comic book films).

• The Tree of Life has to be the worst movie of all time. I can’t believe it was nominated for an Oscar this year. It makes no sense and is sooooooooo boring.

• Employee of the Month with Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook. It was just so bad. I had to turn it off after I rented it. Usually I stick it out if I paid money but it was awful! (On a related note, I loved the Dane Cook movie My Best Friend’s Girl.)
• Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan. Worst chick flick ever.
• Bambi. I never liked it as a kid. And not because it’s sad. Dumbo or Pinocchio either for that matter. I guess I just prefer Disney movies with princesses!

• Shakespeare in Love. Saw it in the theater in high school. Walked out of said theater out of boredom.

3. List your (current) top five favorite TV shows and why.
Hmmmmm I think you might notice a theme here…

• Sons of Anarchy. I am in love with the main character Jax Teller. The show is really exciting, especially the most recent season.

• Dexter. I am also in love with him! 🙂 It’s a very dark, disturbing show and also really thrilling.

• Game of Thrones. I love this medieval fantasy show. It’s hard to describe why I like all these shows. Great plots and characters you grow attached to. P.S. I love Tyrion.

• Homeland. It didn’t sound that interesting to me so I waited awhile to watch it. Then I got so sucked in! The first season is a mystery that you try to figure out while watching; I can’t wait to see what the second season brings! P.S. I love Brody.

• True Blood. Just a fun, campy, Southern, vampire show. My boyfriend always makes fun of it and says it’s just arguing and sex. But I love and it. And… P.S. I love Bill! 🙂

4. List your top five favorite places to visit; include photos if you’d like.
Well, these are my top five so far…

• Bali. Such an amazing place. Beautiful beaches and temples. Read all about it here.
• Italy. Specifically, Cinque Terre and Venice. And the cheap food and wine. I must go back!

• Mexico. Great beaches, ruins, food, beer, margaritas!
• Thailand. Great beaches, temples, islands, and food! Cheap massages too.
• The Grand Canyon. It is simply breathtaking.

5. List your (current) top five favorite songs; include video if you’d like.
Here’s the problem… I don’t listen to music currently. At home I just listen to the radio in my car. In Korea I don’t have a car so… I listen to my iPod only if I’m really, really bored. And all the songs on it are really, really old.

• Lady Gaga’s You and I. This is the most current song I know (and love)!
• Pink’s Sober. I’ve had this on my iPod for years and still listen to it all the way through every time.
• Glee’s Thriller/Heads Will Roll Mashup. I don’t like either of the songs by the original artists but this combo works!
• The Band Perry’s You Lie. The most current country song I know and love (told you I’m behind the times). I like to sing along with a country twang.
• Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time. It’s my karaoke song (duet with Daniel)!

G is for Grand Canyon, Galveston, & Gatlinburg

The Grand Canyon

Hands down the coolest place I’ve ever visited in America, and possibly the world. When you get to the edge, it just takes your breath away. I was speechless. My mom and I stayed there (at Yavapai Lodge inside the park) for two nights in May 2008. For more info, you can read about our trip here.

Galveston, TX

Daniel and I went here with my dad, stepmom, brother, and sister on a quick beach vacay in June 2009. It wasn’t the greatest of beach towns… Lots of jellyfish, not a lot to do, kind of trashy. Oh well! It was the closest beach to us when we lived in Denton. We played in the sand, swam in the pool, and even rented a surry for an hour.

Gatlinburg, TN

I love Gatlinburg. It is a cheesy little town just two hours from Saluda. To get there you can drive through Cherokee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and it’s just beautiful. Gatlinburg has lots of Ripley’s museums, wedding chapels, old-timey photo shops, and airbrush t-shirt kiosks. The next town past Gatlinburg is Pigeon Forge, home to Dollywood and a vast array of putt-putt courses, water parks, and dinner theaters.

The last time I visited Gatlinburg was in September 2009. Daniel and I stayed at a hotel in Sevierville since it was cheaper. We took the trolley into Gatlinburg since parking is hard to find and expensive! We ate lunch, wandered around, and of course got old-timey photos and airbrushed t-shirts made!!

D is for Dallas, E is for Edisto, & F is for Flagstaff

I’ve been slacking on my Blogging From A to Z Challenge so now my goal is to finish by the time I leave Korea (less than 5 weeks now!). I couldn’t think of three different places that start with D, E, and F so you just get one of each!

Dallas, TX

Daniel and I lived in the Dallas area for two years. While I didn’t like living there, we did find lots of stuff to do to make the best of it. I would never recommend visiting, but if you happen to be in the area here are some attractions…

The Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza: Examine the life, death, and legacy of President John F. Kennedy through artifacts, photographs, documentary films, areas where evidence was found, and eyewitness accounts.

Amusement parks: I visited Six Flags (with friends Susan, Melissa, and Lindsay) and Hurricane Harbor (with Daniel when Wyatt and Callie came to visit).

Sporting events: Dallas is home to the Cowboys (NFL), Mavericks (NBA), Rangers (MLB), and Stars (NHL). But they also have arena football (we went to a game vs. the Philadelphia Soul), NASCAR (I went to the Samsung 500 and HATED it!), and an awesome horse track that has $1 days (Lone Star Park).

this shows how much i hated NASCAR

Fort Worth: Right next to Dallas, I actually prefer this city. It has some cool stuff to see, such as the Water Gardens, Modern Art Museum, and Stockyards.

Edisto Island, SC

As a kid, my family (and other families from Saluda) always went to Edisto to vacation. It is much more remote than Myrtle Beach or Charleston. There are no hotels, malls, or chain restaurants. You just go for a week, rent a house, swim in the ocean with fish and dolphins, and take long walks on the beach and collect seashells and shark teeth. The last family trip we took there was in October 2005 (now we go to Sullivan’s Island since we have a guest house to stay in). Here’s the only digital photo I have from that trip, and a bad photo of the Ravissant, the house we always rented there.

me, my mom, and my sister-in-law

Flagstaff, AZ

My mom and I stayed here for a night after visiting the Grand Canyon. I just thought it was the cutest little town and would be a perfect place to live. Close to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Phoenix. Lively arts and cultural scene. Maybe I’ll move there one day! Unfortunately the only pics I have are from The Grand Canyon International Hostel where we stayed.

11 Questions

More randomness found in the blogosphere in an attempt to cure my boredom…

1. What is your favorite song/artist?

I don’t really have one. I know that’s weird, but I’ve never really been into music. I like(d) to listen to it in my car, and on my iPod when I’m going on a walk, but I just listen to random crap. I did recently buy my first concert ticket in YEARS… Lady Gaga! It better be awesome.

2. If you could eat one thing/type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

If you had asked me a year or two ago I would have said Mexican. But since moving to Korea, it’s Indian (if you thought I was going to say Korean food then you’d be dead wrong). I love samosas, naan, and curries… Mmmmmmmmmmmm. This is the last Indian food I ate (two weeks ago in Bangkok):

3. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up, and what are you now?

I really don’t remember. Probably a teacher. And I know now that’s definitely not for me! I’ve also wanted to be an FBI agent, travel writer, and wedding planner. Now I am a student and will hopefully be a librarian in two years!

4. What’s your favorite movie?

Tie between American Psycho (love Christian Bale) and Requiem for a Dream (love the music… which now I have to listen to). Speaking of which, here’s a really awesome/horribly disturbing Kenny Powers quote from the last episode of Eastbound & Down: “I feel like my life has become Requiem for a Dream, and I have front row tickets to the ass-to-ass scene.”

5. What is your favorite place to shop?

Old Navy and Target!

6. What are five things you never leave the house without?

Cell phone, camera, wallet, hairbrush, and mirror.

7. How many kids do you want and do you already have their names picked out?

Not sure… Maybe zero. Or one. I would like a girl but I only have a boy name picked out: Finnegan Teller. Don’t make fun of it. For a girl, I like Harper, Riley, Jane, Lucy, Emerson, and Ellis.

8. What is your favorite TV addition?

SONS OF ANARCHY!!

9. What is the longest road trip you’ve ever taken?

For my mom’s 50th birthday, she drove from NC to where I lived in TX and then we drove through northern NM to AZ (the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Tucson). Then we drove back through southern NM and TX (Balmorhea). Read all about it here.

10. What is your favorite book?

Probably Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. It was pretty amazing. But yesterday I finished a really awesome book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I cried and laughed out loud several times in Starbucks.

11. What is your favorite day of the week?

Well now that I’m unemployed, they all kind of run together… I guess Friday. I have to leave the apartment for a few hours in the afternoon while our house is cleaned, so I usually go to a movie and then come home to a spotless apartment. It’s nice.