Memorial Day

As many of us take the last weekend in May to go out of town, party all weekend, enjoy a Monday off, we never really look into why the last Monday in May is so important.

Here is a brief history of Memorial Day or Decoration Day;  Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.


I also did not know this about Memorial Day red poppies are to be worn in remembrance of those who were killed serving in the military, this was inspired by a poem written by Moina Michael:

We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on the fields where valor led,

It seems to signal into the skies

That blood of heroes never dies.

So please take the time today to thank someone who currently serves/ served in the military and thank them for their service to our country, and take the time on Monday at 3pm for the National Moment of Remembrance.

I want to say a special Thank you to all of my friends and family that have served or are serving in the military:

• Joel Dulashanti
• Brandon Moe
• Adam Bates
• Ronnie Rackley
• Matt Campbell
• Matt Doxsey
• John McElwee
• Missy Briggs
• Steve Bettger
• Joel Geesaman
• Ashley Henderson 
• Ben Goodpaster 
• Taylor Prazynski

Sorry if I forgot anyone, but thank you again for all that you do for our country!

Friends, Family, Birthdays, and Weddings

So this past weekend I ended up traveling back to Ohio for some monumental events; my brother's 21st birthday and one of my high school/ college roomie's wedding. It was a jam packed weekend of seeing friends and family. I ended up going downtown with friends on Friday night to Bartini's had a great time celebrated Mallory's birthday, lots of dancing involved and of course a late night Waffle House trip to close it out.

Jena, myself, Andrea, Erika, and Mallory

Chris, Myself, and Jimmy

Haja, Jimmy, Myself, and Hadi 

Saturday was my brother Michael's 21st birthday, I had Katie and Greg's wedding to go to so we celebrated Sunday with drinks at Quaker Steak and Lube and a special shout out to Jimmy and Peter for coming to help celebrate, very much appreciated. Katie and Greg's wedding was a blast, I started out by doing the makeup for most of the bridal party (PS they looked gorgeous!) Then headed to the church for the ceremony, Katie looked stunning, and followed by the reception at the Mulhauser Barn. They had great food and drinks, had a blast on the dance floor, and spent some awesome time with old friends and new! Here are a couple pics from the wedding:

Katie and Greg, its official! 

Andrea, Myself, and Jessica

Me, Jenna, Jessica, Becca, and Jill

Me with the Newlyweds! 

It was a great weekend although the drive home was rough it was worth the trip home, not sure when the next trip will be! 

My First Visitor!

This weekend I was lucky enough to have one of my old roommates / sorority sister / friend come and visit me! Ashley was in Myrtle Beach with family and I went up there and she joined me here for a very fun couple of days.

On Saturday we headed to Park Circle to check out the Charleston Pride Festival and it was a blast of course there were some great outfits, music and drinks. Here are a couple of photos from the parade:

Next we headed downtown to check out the Market, Rainbow Row, the Battery, we had lunch at Mad River Bar and Grille. There also was a Carnival Cruise in town too. After we spent some time downtown, we headed back to my place to lounge by the pool, made some friends, and then checked out the Market Street Saloon for drinks. Here are a couple of pictures from the rest of our weekend:

It was really great to catch up with Ashley and take the time rebuilding our friendship. We spent a lot of time talking and remembering old times, it was great and I cannot wait to her to come visit and see her again :)

Small Blurb...

Not too much to write about today so here are a couple of things that were on my mind. 

So this whole not having a job thing is starting to become frustrating, hopefully something will work out soon! Today a lot of my frustration was taken out at the gym, which is a great thing. 

It stormed here pretty bad last night around 2am, waking me up and then I was awake for an hour or so until the storm passed. The good thing is though that I finally finished the book I was reading, Something Borrowed  by Emily Giffin. I really enjoyed this book and the movie just came out so I will hopefully check that out soon, here is a link to the movie trailer. 

I am in need of another book to read, anyone have any suggestions?

Weekend Whirlwind

This weekend went by quickly but it was jam packed with fun new things! First Ronnie and I had tickets to the Charleston Riverdogs game, on Friday it rained all day here so we were expecting a delay, but when we arrived to our surprise the Citadel team had a game before that was also on a rain delay. So we decided to check out these famous hot dogs, I went with the Riverdog; mustard BBQ sauce, cole slaw and okra on top, not too shabby. So since the game was delayed we decided to leave and grab a few drinks which lead to a lot of drinks which lead to a horrible hangover on Saturday.


While trying to recover on Saturday we traveled with some friends up to McClellanville about a hour and a half north of Charleston to the Low Country Shrimp Festival. This was amazing, there was music, arts and crafts, great food and of course a lot of shrimp. They also had the blessing of the fleet and all of these gorgeous boats were passing us and we even spotted some dolphins! After the festival we checked out Gilligan's which is a seafood restaurant, not too bad either!

Today I met up with a friend from high school and her husband that live in Charleston, we headed to Triangle Char and Bar for brunch. I had belgium waffles with peaches and a couple of mimosas, very good. It was great to see her, meet her husband, and catch up! Hopefully I will hang out with them some more and cheer on the Reds and Bengals while we are here!

A day spent with the dogs...

Today I headed out to Folly Beach to take Oreo to the beach for a nice walk, and I also checked out Jack's Cosmic Dogs.

Folly Beach is probably my favorite beach here, there is a lot to do and of course its beautiful, so Oreo and I started our day out here. I am pretty sure you are not supposed to have dogs on that part of the beach from May- September, but rules are made for breaking! Today was probably the coolest day since I have been here with a high of about 66, but still sunny and beautiful, I will take it! Here are a couple of photos from the beach:

After we were done at the beach, I wanted to check out Jack's Cosmic Dogs. I have heard amazing things about this place so lets try it out! 

So when I pulled in I really enjoyed the atmosphere, its really beachy and fun. There are several different  types of dogs that you can order from, they also have DRAFT root beer, fries, and milk shakes. You can check out their full menu here. I was first introduced to Jack's while I was watching, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the Food Network, it was on the hometown favorites as Alton Brown's pick. While Alton Brown is not my favorite person on FN I was intrigued to try the new take on the All American Hot Dog. I went simple with my first choice as I wanted to be able to get the full experience on each item, so I went with the Omega Dog:

Basically this is a hot dog covered with spicy mustard and lots of cheese, if you know me then this is all I need. The hot dog itself was pretty good, they make them to order there but it is worth the wait. The cheese was like the cheese wiz that they put on authentic Philly cheesesteaks, and the spicy mustard was not as spicy as I would like it to be. I am willing to try some other dogs here at Jack's but I am looking forward to trying out the hot dogs at the Riverdogs game tomorrow. I also decided to try one of Jack's draft root beers, which was nice but I can say it was not as good as my hometown's own Jolly's :)

Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone and enjoy a Margarita or 2 3 and some Queso!

Something Borrowed...

Since I am new to the area, and my family and friends want to know what I am doing I figured I would borrow the idea of creating a blog to keep everyone updated. Cliche, I know.

I have had a lot of time to think, rediscover myself, and get on the page I want to be on in my life. Moving here was a really hard decision for me, but a decision that needed to be made. I had split support from my family on this and in a way they felt as if I abandoned them. I needed to be selfish and do this, for me, I am in the point in my life where I am ready to learn, explore, become the person I have always wanted to be and do it on my own. This is probably one of the scariest things I have ever done, I am ready to fail, but I cannot wait to succeed.

I cannot wait to discover to this city and find my coffee shop, bar, park, beach, local hangout, favorite food, etc. Charleston has so much to offer me and I am ready to explore. This weekend I am going to my first Charleston Riverdogs game, checking out a farmer's market and shrimp festival and meeting up with a friend from high school who lives here as well. I have found the Charleston City Paper is a great resource and even has, "The Best of Charleston" article that has lead me to some gems :)

I cannot get over how beautiful this city is and where I live is great:

Hopefully there will be more to come shortly, so I will sign off with this quote:

"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." 

Nelson Mandela