Monday, April 24, 2006

House

Another full and busy week for me down here. On Easter Sunday I went to church with Jordan. Jordan and his family went to Jenison Christian Church with my family a long time ago. Thru the grapevine his mom found out that I was living down here in Atlanta and her son moved down here a few months ago so they got my number from my parent and he gave me a call. This was the first time that I have seen him since I was probably 10 but he looks a lot like I remembered him to.

On Monday I had my usual small group meeting and then on Tuesday Adel and I watched the movie ATL. It is (obviously) a movie taped about some high schooler's here in Atlanta. It was a pretty good movie but also had a lot of comments about life here so it was very interesting.

Wednesday after work I went to the gym with Carlos. It has been a while since I have gone to the gym but it felt so good to work out, I really need to work on making it a part of my weekly routine!

Thursday I went with Carlos, Ashley and Marcos to Sutra Lounge. We met up with another group of people there and had so much fun dancing the entire night! It had been a little while since I had been out dancing so I was very excited to go!

Then on Friday I went out with some of the people I had met the night before. First we went to Cosmo, a trendy bar/dance club in Midtown. Some of the bar is outside and after we arrived it started pouring but we just stayed inside where it was dry and danced. Once the rain stopped we decided to go to another club called House. All the people I was with really liked the music at house so they were excited to go. However, as soon as we got outside it started raining. The guy that went with us decided to be a gentleman and get the car so us girls wouldn't have to walk in the rain, which was quite nice of him. But, by the time he had gotten the car and drove to where we were it was down pouring. I had to walk about 3 feet but by the time I got into the car I could wring my hair out it was so wet! Rain or no rain we were on to the next club. By the time we got to House it had stopped raining but we were already soaked but ready to dance. We danced for a while but the normal DJ wasn't there so the rest of the group was not as into the music so we left and went to one of their apartments. We chatted for a while and I learned how to play chess... it was quite fun!

I got up Saturday morning and put a down payment on the new apartment so it is now official!! I will have the new place on June 20th and I will have to send out the address soon. I am looking to paint a few walls before moving all of my things so I have been having fun trying to pick out the colors.

Afterwards I went to VJ's and met his Mom and Niece, they had driven down for the weekend from North Carolina. We went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, visited the grave, and walked around the museum. Then we went to the first annual wing festival on Auburn Avenue, which was a ton of fun!!

Later in the night I met up with Carlos, we rented movies, and I ended up passing out of course... I am so good at falling asleep to movies!!

Today was my volunteer day at church which means that I stood by the door and greeted everyone on their way in and out of the service. I had fun and was at the door with Tiffany, one of the girls from my small group. After church I met up with Victor and James at Park Tavern and we ate lunch. I had a burger, which was very good, and I learned that I now like coleslaw... which I found to be quite interesting because I never liked it before! Park Tavern is right on Piedmont Park so after we ate we met up with Carlos at the park. We enjoyed the beautiful for a while and then walked to Blakes for a drink. Carlos and I then left and played some tennis. I haven't played tennis in a quite a while so it took a while to remember how to swing a racket, but we had fun anyway!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

two weeks... really!?!

Ok, I need to remember to post every week... going back two weeks will be nearly impossible but I will give it a try:

Monday after I posted I joined up with a friend to watch the NCAA final game with Florida and UCLA. My friend is a huge from California and a huge UCLA fan so they were quite upset when UCLA lost.

I have been racking my brain to remember what I did on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but I really can not remember. Terrible how bad my memory can be!

Friday after work a group of us met up at Two Urban Licks for dinner and cocktails. It was a lot of fun to see everyone outside of work and to chat about non-work related topics! After Two, VJ, Carlos and I went to Red Chair and then Halo for a few more drinks. We had a lot of fun running around town.

Saturday night I had a Bachelorette Party that I attended. The Bachelorette was a friend of Carrie's and Carrie was the hostess. There were six of us girls that went out and the only ones from Atlanta were Carrie and I. It was fun introducing the city to the rest of the girls, however one of the girls had car trouble so I spent half the night helping her get her car towed! But, we ate at Nova, a southwestern style restaurant that I hadn't been to before. It was a cute atmosphere but it wasn't one of the best places that I have been to in the city. After dinner we went dancing at Compound, which is one of my favorite clubs downtown! While at Compound I ran into quite a few people that I know but haven't seen in a while so it was fun seeing them again. Also, there were photographers taking pictures of all the groups. I got a business card from one of them and he sent me one of the pictures... not all of the girls are in it but I thought it was cute!



Sunday I met up with Victor and a few other guys at Piedmont Park for the Dogwood Festival. Unlike the name implies the festival is not for dogs but art. People from all over the world set up booths and display their art for people to view and buy. It was a beautiful day and we had a ton of fun browsing and then people watching!

Monday nights are always dedicated to my Small Group, so as usual we got together for our usual meeting.

Tuesday Adel stopped by and helped me study for my job. I am trying, again, to get certified in CCNA for Cisco, which is the manufacturer for the routers that we use at work.

Wednesday night I checked out a condo that is for rent. I liked the location but I didn't like the set up of the actual condo. It is on the first floor but its a sunken floor so the window sits at ground level and it felt like I was in a basement. Since I am not a fan of basements to begin with I wasn't too thrilled with the condo. I think I may have narrowed down the places I want to move to one. On Monday I plan on calling them and letting them know. So, please pray that I am making the best decision!

After viewing the condo I went back to work for training in the newest protocol that I will be supporting at work. It was good information but I didn't leave work until about 11:30!

My group at work has been doing an exceptional job so on Thursday the director over the department that I am in gave me two tickets to see the Atlanta Thrashers, the NHL team. I tried to give the tickets to one of the guys in the group but none of them wanted them so I went with Adel. The Thrashers won! It was a high scoring game and lots of fun to see!

Afterwards I met up with Carlos, Ashley, and Marcos at Ashley and Marcos's apartment. Ashley and Marcos live in the apartment complex that I like and live in the style apartment that I want so it was nice to see the place with stuff in it. It was very cute and I am now very interested in living there!

Friday after work I went shopping at the Lenox mall and then met up with Ashley and a group of people at Poncho's, a Mexican restaurant just down the street from my apartment. It was fun hanging out with Ashley again and meeting some other new people!

Today I went for a hike in Marietta with Adel and his dogs. I haven't been on a hike in a very long time so it was nice to get outside the city and into the nature for a short time.

After the hike I ran some errands and then met up with VJ and James at Piedmont Park to run. James is going to be in the Peachtree Road Race (I forgot about signing up) so VJ and I went to help James train. I was already tired from the hike and I am somewhat out of shape since I haven't been working out much since I was sick so I was more moral support than anything but I went quite a way on my own!

Work has been going really well after the change, for the most part. It is hard sitting on another floor from half the people I used to work with and the people that I go to for questions but over all I think this may have been the best move for us. It will be nice in a year from now when we are all sitting on the same floor again!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Grape, Kyma, Coco Luna??

Another week and have been so busy again... right back to the way that I was before. I am working hard on not being out too late so I don't get sick again!! But...

On Monday I had my usual small group meeting but not everyone showed up so we watched a movie instead. Afterwards I got in some grocery shopping before crashing at home.

Then on Tuesday I went out with a friend to Coco Luca, a Cuban restaurant here in Buckhead. It was fabulous!! We

The next day I worked out with VJ after work before heading to Kyma, a Greek restaurant downtown with another friend from work - Carlos - and met up with a group of his friends. I had a lot of fun meeting some new people and having fun conversation!

Thursday night I celebrated another friend's birthday at Grape, a wine bar in Buckhead. We closed down the bar but we were having too much fun to head home so we went and danced at a club downtown called Sutra.

Friday I went out with Chris, Carrie, Carlos, and a few other people to Frequency, again! We, once again, danced the night away!

Saturday I spent the morning looking at apartments. I fell in love with another loft downtown. It is called Mattress Factory Lofts and they are true lofts... exposed brick and concrete indoors, very open, wood flooring, huge windows and a beautiful view of Atlanta. I need to call them back at the end of this week to see if they will have an opening in June. If so, I will probably be moving there!!

If not, I found another place on Saturday called the M Street Apartments that has two story, one bedroom apartments that are very nice. They have a view of Atlanta, but not as nice as my first choice, and they are different in that they are two story. My second choice is either this complex or the complex I saw last week.

But, the craziest part was when I went to M Street I walked into the leasing office and saw one of the ladies I met on Wednesday when I went out with Carlos!! Small world! It was nice seeing and talking to her again.

After apartment shopping I went with Carrie to pick up some gifts for a bachlorette party that she is hosting this weekend before leaving the city to go shoe shopping!! I have been looking downtown but wasn't finding what I have been looking for so I decided to go to Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse, which is my favorite shoe store and found 3 pairs of shoes, very exciting!! I had lunch with a friend while I was out there and then looked around the mall, but really didn't find anything I was looking for.

I then went to Matt's house, he lived right below VJ to pick up some boxes to bring to my house for the move. When I got there and parked in the lot by his house I saw a mutual friend Vic outside and he was getting his car towed!! The night before he came downtown, dropped his car off at Victors, and then something happened (no clue what) that made it so he was unable to drive his car! (He got it safely towed home)

After Matt and I took the boxes to my place we went to Victor's for dinner and then we all went out to Vic's house to watch King Kong. In my normal fashion I fell asleep in the first 10 minutes of the movie!!

Sunday was my day to volunteer at church and luckily I remembered to set my clock ahead so I was on time! After church I went with a few of the ladies from my small group to watch Failure to Launch which was very cute and very funny!

After the movie I went with VJ to Piedmont Park and then we had a drink in a near by bar. Afterwards I came home and started cleaning out my closets so I am more prepared to move!! I am too excited!

Today was the first day of our new work schedule. I now am a supervisor and have three technicians that are under me. It is interesting and very challenging right now since I still do the same job I did before but now I have three people reporting to me. But, once we get things going and I am able to teach my tech's a few things I think this will work out pretty well. Its just the adjustment period that will be interesting!