Blogging

Good evening.

I'm sitting in Atlanta on the last night of my vacation before heading home to Charlotte tomorrow. I don't go back to work until Monday, so I'll have the weekend to rest and get ready to go back to work. I was a little bit aggressive when planning this trip - over 2,500 miles and driving through nine states. There was a very special reason for me to plan this trip and unfortunately due to circumstances beyond mine and others' control my entire reason for making this trip was not to be realized. And I am very sad that it happened that way.

Recently I was asked by one of Canadian friends to start an account on Facebook. I did so and in the short time that I have been on the site, a little over 100 people from my life, current and past have befriended me. Family members, former co-workers and friends from all parts of my life going back to my best friend when I was in elementary school. It has become an easy way to keep track of what everyone is up to and let them know what I'm up to. I tried to keep an account of my vacation on Facebook and my last posting on Nashville was actually a cross post of what I put on Facebook.

The reason I mention this, is because I'm not really sure how many people are checking into this blog. I know of one important person for sure and a few others have mentioned that over the year I've been posting that they have looked once or twice. So, I'm at a point where I'm questioning whether I want to continue with this blog.

So, if there are people out there reading this and are really interested in me and what I'm doing with my life here in Charlotte (well Atlanta right now) then please let me know. Of course there are less restrictions here, then on Facebook, but have I really posted anything that could be deemed controversial?

Thanks to those who have been reading and I hope to hear from more than just one person on this.

Visit to Music City

I checked into the hotel and went to explore the city - walking down the main street which is called Broadway. Although there aren't any "theatres" along this Broadway like in NYC, you can hear music pouring out of the bars and clubs all hours of the day. I was walking along the street at 4:00 pm and each doorway I passed had live music wafting from inside -- and a lot of patrons taking in the sounds.
I also took a walk up to see the State Capital Building and then ventured over to pass the city hall and a nice riverside park. Along the river you can find more clubs - but these must be the late night clubs because none of these were open. Across the street from these clubs is a scale model of the original fort that stood in the area and was the basis for the founding of the city. Kind of weird to see these 18th century stuctures across from those from the 19th and 20th centuries as this city has over 200 years of history, celebrating their bicentennial in 1996.
The city also hosts two major league teams with an arena right downtown and a stadium across the river which is the anchor for a greenway that is being built along the river. They even have a pedestrian bridge over the river to get from downtown area (or The District as it's called) to the stadium.

A Southeast Whistlestop Tour

Back in January we had to submit our vacation requests for the year and with five weeks of vacation and personal time being earned this year I had to make some choices. The first week I picked was the week of March 14 through the 20. My friend's birthday falls in that week and figured if I could swing it, perhaps I could visit for his birthday.
The beginning of February I started making the plans and found out that he'd be in Oklahoma City on the 14th for a rugby match, so my goal was to meet up there and plan a surprise. Since I like to drive I started working out the plan and extended my vacation to begin on the 11th using a vacation day on Wednesday and taking Thursday and Friday as my days off that week (although it did mean working an eight day stretch from my last day off. I sat and mapped out the trip in February tweeking the hotel choices and figuring out distances in order to not drive too far each day. The itinerary was: 3/11 - Nashville, 3/12 - Little Rock, 3/13 - Oklahoma City, 3/14-3/16 - Dallas/Fort Worth area, 3/17-3/18 - New Orleans, 3/19 - Montgomery, with an optional stop in Atlanta on the 20th - all totalled roughly 2,500 miles!
Those who know me know that I love to keep lists and get small goals for myself and one of those lists is the states and state capitals I have visited. (Visit means, slept in or did more than just drive through - feet have to touch the soil). This trip would add seven states to the 24 already visited and six state capitals!
I packed on Tuesday night after work in preparation of getting an early start in the morning. Well, I overslept a little bit, but decided that this was supposed to be a stress-free vacation - so I went with the flow and left the house at 8:24 am. I forgot to mention that over the last weekend I got a Blackberry, and I can post about that at another time when I learn how to fully use it, but the reason i bring it up is that I put a navagation system on it since the first month was free, it's a great chance to try it out. A little weird though is that it was sending me through Uptown Charlotte to get onto I-85 South which was aready reading a 20 minute delay ... so i overroad the system and went my own way. The route I took to Nashville went from Charlotte south on I-85 to Spartanburg, then head north on I-26 into Asheville, NC hooking up to I-40 west through Knoxville and into Nashville. And so, the journey began!

Along the drive to Nashville I drove through a mountain tunnel for the 2nd time in my life (first was a few years ago in Pennsylvania), drove through the Great Smokey Mountains and possible the Blue Ridge Mountains as well and for the first time in my life I drove across a time zone! It was also the first time I've been in Tennessee except to change planes once in Memphis many years ago. The drive took a little more than the seven hours expected with a couple of stops along the way at the Tennessee welcome center in I-40 and to get gas and food. The car averaged aoubt 32 miles to the gallon on the drive!

More about Nashville on the next posting - until then, enjoy this video for out of state drivers from the state of tennessee. . .

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted . . .

Well, it's sort of appropriate that my last post was about my trip to Dallas, because although it was a only a long weekend, it was the last trip that could somewhat be classified as a vacation. I had two vacations cancelled last year due to another member of my staff getting sick, so I'm really excited that after work on Tuesday, I am on V A C A T I O N!! I have a nice little trip planned out visiting a few places here in the southeast I haven't had a chance to visit since being down here. I'll be reporting out as I travel so you can experience it a bit with me. So until Wednesday I'm signing off to finish some laundry and starting to pack. Bon Voyage!!

First Time in Texas

In my last post I listed a bunch of stuff that I've done in the year since I've moved to North Carolina. I also mentioned that there were plenty of other things out there that I probably forgot, but would mention when they came to mind. Here is one!

In October my buddy Jim made it possible for me to to visit him and make my first trip to the big state of Texas. I must admit that I was in Texas one other time, but that was only for the plane to land, let some passenger off and let others on while I was heading to Portland, Oregon. This time I was able to get off the plane and breath Texan air. I was able to swing a weekend off and it just so happened to be the weekend of Jim's company picnic that was being held at the Alliance Airfield in Fort Worth on October 11 the same weekend as the Fort Worth Alliance Airshow, one of the premier airshows in the country. So another first for me would be to attend an airshow - not really knowing what to expect. But more about that in a little bit. I flew down to Texas after work on Friday night and arrived just after dark with Jim waiting in the airport to meet me. It was a great long weekend getting to visit with my best friend, meet his new Texas friends, see some sights, drink some beer and visit some more with my best friend.

On Saturday his friend Shayne joined us as we headed to the Fort Worth Alliance Airport. My buddy's company abuts the airport and they were a corporate sponsor of the show in 2008. So the day was also the company picnic being held at the airport with front line viewing of all the festivities. A tent is set up for the employees and their guests with catered picnic food - some of my favorites; hot dogs, chili, burgers, grilled chicken, salad and chips on one side -- on the other side; soda, bottled water, Coors and Coors Light. It was a nice set-up and all you could eat and drink, although the beer was limited.

As I have said, this was my first time at an airshow, I knew there would be planes flying around, but didn't know there were other planes around the area that you could get up close and personal with. Military jets, commercial planes, helicopters and personal aircraft all displayed out in the open with people to explain what you were looking at. A bright clear sunny sky made for a great day. The highlight of the day was a performance by the Air Force Thunderbirds - the precision stunt team of the USAF. All I can say is AMAZING. It's hard to describe everything that they did, but it is hard to believe that these planes could be flying just feet from each other, turning together and passing each other from opposite directions and again coming within feet of the other planes all while rock music is blasting from the loudspeakers all around the airfield. It was interesting to see how the roar of the jets' engines can be used as part of their defences. At one point in the show every one's attention is directed to one side of the airfield as two jets perform and go off in the distance - within seconds another jet has "sneaked up" from behind, already on top of us before we even hear it. Truly AMAZING (as I mentioned before).

The part of the show that I found the most moving is when they paired up fighter aircraft of both World Wars with current fighter aircraft. Prop fighters that were the state of the art of their era flying side by side with the supersonic jet fighters of today. It really drove home how far science and technology has advanced in the past 100 years or so. Of course if I had written this back in October I could tell you more about the planes and what they did and I'm sorry I didn't do it right away.

Sunday was a trip to the NorthPark Center Mall in Dallas. Opened in the early 60's it is an open and airy indoor mall that has the distinction of housing a lot of artwork.
From the mall it was off to a bar to meet some more friends and just hang out on a Sunday afternoon and evening. Being a Giant fan, it was fun to be in a bar in Dallas watching the Cowboys loose a game in overtime. It's amazing how those Texas fans were cheering like they won the Super Bowl just because the game went into overtime ... but it got real quiet, real quick when they lost the game shortly into the overtime period.

It was a great trip and one that was definitely needed. My buddy's new house in a Dallas suburb near the DFW Airport is beautiful. Great curb appeal with lots of little unique accents inside and out - with a gorgeous pool and whirlpool in the backyard with a fire pit and a huge built in grill. The master bedroom is on the ground floor with access out to the patio and backyard, making it easy to live on the first floor of the house only needing to venture to the second floor when entertaining visitors. A nice large eat-in kitchen, formal dining room, entrance parlor, large living room and laundry room round out the first floor with a nice flow around the house. It seemed very comfortable for the time I was there.

I returned to Charlotte relaxed and in a great mood to see that he was getting acclimated to his surroundings. I enjoyed my first visit to Dallas and Texas in general and I can't wait to pay another visit, see more of the state perhaps. Words really cannot express my thanks for the opportunity to make this visit and truly can't wait to visit with my best buddy again soon!!

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

One Year Already!

One year ago today I arrived in Charlotte for only the second time in my life. The difference this time was that my car was full of everything I felt I needed to survive until I made the official move, hopefully in a month or two. I made the drive of about 600 miles in two legs, stopping overnight in Richmond, VA - getting on the road just before noon and rolling up to the hotel around 5:00 pm. I started this blog to document my experiences at relocating but was not very good at keeping up with it during the year and left A LOT of stuff out, so today I will post a list of the things that I can remember that I've done since being down here in the order they come to mind, not the order they happened:

1. Saw Avenue Q at the Belk Theatre
2. Found out my license was suspended in NJ
3. Passed the NC drivers test with flying colors
4. Visited the following places: Spartanburg, Greenville, Columbia & Charleston in SC; Winston-Salem, Thomasville, Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh, Asheville & Hickory in NC.
5. Made three trips back to NJ - 2 driving, 1 flying
6. Watched my Jeep die
7. Bought a new used Hyundai
8. Adjusted to new driving habits you don't find in NJ
9. Made Harris Teeter my favorite supermarket
10. Crossed the Eastern Continental Divide
11. Took a boat ride on Lake Norman (work outing)
12. Went to a Charlotte Checkers hockey game (work outing)
13. Met many of the Carolina Panthers football team
14. Became a fan of the Panthers (even though the Giants are still my favorite team)
15. Only had one friend visit me (thanks Jim!)
16. Found an apartment
17. Lived in one hotel for 100 nights
18. Lived out of my suitcase moving from hotel to hotel waiting for my apartment and stuff from NJ
19. Visited the Levine Museum of the New South
20. Became a regular at one of the Charlotte bars (first visited 3 days after arriving)
21. Joined Facebook
22. Visited Dallas for a long weekend with a friend's help (thanks Jim!)
23. Wondered many times if I made the right decision about moving and other things
24. Watched 4 contracts get drawn on the sale of my place in NJ and see 4 of them get broken
25. Ended the year with 45 vacation days left over from past years
26. Attended Charlotte's gay pride celebration
27. Went to the One Voice Chorus' holiday concert
28. Found out that in NC you get your license at one place, your registration and plates at another and get your car inspected at yet another place
29. Discovered that you pay "property tax" on your car each year
30. Ate at Bojangles and Jack in the Box for the first time
31. Opened a bank account at a local bank that is actually a Canadian bank and feel they have too many fees
32. Made it home for Christmas
33. Worked a double shift on Thanksgiving (7:00 am to 11:00 pm)
34. Realized that it takes a while to learn the streets in Charlotte because they keep changing names
35. Found that hotel guests are the same no matter where you work
36. Spent an afternoon in Augusta, GA

That's what has come to mind right now. I'm sure I've missed some stuff and in coming posts will add if needed.

Thanks for reading!

Oh No!!

A couple of days ago, I got into my car to leave work and looking down at the dashboard saw a sight that was familiar on my old car ... the check engine light was on! My first thought was to utter an obsenity, so I did. Each day there after, on my way to work I vowed that I'd call and make an appointment to take it in to have it looked at. I only have one day off this week and that is Monday -- and of course each day would go by and I'd look at a clock and it was after 5:00 pm. Too late to call to make an appointment ... grrrrrr. So Saturday rolls around and I went on-line to look up the number for the dealer and found out that you can book service appointments on-line. How cool! So, I set up my profile and went in to make my appointment. Unfortunately there were no spaces available on Monday, but I was able to book on Tuesday morning since I work the PM shift on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The dealership has a nice waiting area with wifi available, so I hope to have a pleasant time waiting for the car to be ready! I think I need to be nicer to this car than the last one ... I admit that I abused the Jeep, but it did last 7 years and 210,000 miles - imagine how long my cars will survive if I take care of them! I'll let you know.

Good night for now!

Firebirds

Tonight I was able to take advantage of a perk of my job and that was an invitation by one of the local restaurants to enjoy a meal on the house. Firebirds, in South Park opened in August of 2008 and is the 15th restaurant for this chain that began in Charlotte eight years ago. Although founded in Charlotte the restaurant has a lodge feel with lots of stone and wood as well as fireplaces and a show kitchen. They use three types of wood to fire their grill and obviously feature mostly grilled meats.

Staff members from the hotels in the area were invited and treated to an assortment of appetizers that included their signature app, Lobster Spinach Queso Dip as well as sliders, buffalo shrimp and onion rings. The Lobster Queso Dip with tri-color nacho chips were the stand out closely followed by the buffalo shrimp. Next came our salad course where they served us a sample of their BLT Salad with ranch dressing and a mixed green salad with chile pecans. Both were fantastic!

For our entree, we had the choice of a Chile rubbed Delmonico, cilantro grilled chicken and wood fired salmon. I was the only person to choose the salmon, the rest chose the steak from what I heard was very good. I really enjoyed the salmon, which was cooked perfectly for me, each of the entrees was served with Parmesan mashed potatoes. But just like the Ginsu knives, there was more - an assortment of desserts featuring Big Daddy Chocolate Cake, key lime pie and Creme Brulee Cheesecake. For anyone who knows me, dessert was the best part of the meal and my favorite was the Creme Brulee Cheesecake which was simply a light cheesecake covered with sugar and the sugar caramelized on top. It was so good, that I brought 1/2 of it home with me. YUMMMMMM.

Usually when you attend these events they put out small samples of the items on the menu, but we were all served a full meal. Shared appetizers, family style salad, full entree and shared desserts (the dessert forks have handles that must be about 18 inches in length making it easy to share the dessert - nice touch!) They certainly gave us a great show and left an impression with all of us in attendance. In all there were 4 hotels represented by 7 people. We were also treated to tasting of their private label wines from the California vineyards of one of the restaurant's investors.

This is most definitely a restaurant that will be on my list to take visitors to Charlotte. The food they served was great, the atmosphere casual and comfortable and the prices were mid-range.

Thanks Firebirds!!

Letting things go...

It's been a hectic time at work recently and I'm trying to not get too stressed out, but it's hard. But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very sentimental. I hold onto things forever! I have a box of stuff from high school that moves from place to place with me full of letters, cards and other keepsakes. Today I took a step at becoming less sentimental about a part of my life. I knew that I had some metal collar stays someplace and I was looking for them because the plastic ones in my dress shirts have been cracking recently. While looking for them, I came across my high school class ring. I graduated high school 26 years ago, and I don't think I've worn the ring in about 20 years so I tried to figure out why I still have it? I've been seeing a lot of commercials lately about selling old jewelry and decided that I might as well see if I can get some cash for it.

Since I made the decision to sell my class ring, I decided to look at a couple of other things I've been sentimental about and cut those ties as well. I've been single since August of 2004 and my wedding band has been sitting on my dresser since then -- time to see if it can help me pay a bill or two, so I put it in my pocket along with my class ring. Then I found an initial ring that I received from my ex on our first Christmas together, with an engraving inside to commemorate that event - that went into the pocket as well.

Off to a jewelry store in the Arboretum area of Charlotte hoping to get at least $50.00 which will help with my utility bills. The class ring and wedding band were 10k and the initial ring 14k and I was very happy to receive a check for $210.00 for the three rings!!

I can't lie, I was feeling very sentimental about selling these rings - but at the same time, I was closing the book a little bit more on some difficult memories of my life that were attached to the wedding band. A little knot in my stomach as I did it -- but you have to admit -- it was time!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!! It's 69 degrees right now and a beautiful day in Charlotte - so I'm off to enjoy the great day!

One Month Fast Food Free!

Well, last week I mentioned that there was something I hadn't done in about 30 days that it's been years that I hadn't gone that long. Well my buddy in Texas (BHS) was able to figure it out with a few hints because the last time I did it was with him on the way to DC from NJ. If you haven't figured out yet, I haven't been to or ordered from a fast food place in over a month, which means this whole year! So far 2009 has been junk food free!! I didn't plan to make it happen, but since I had gone a few weeks already, I decided to try and see how long I can make it happen. Burger King was my favorite since there was a 24 hour drive thru on the way home from work. Well, BK was my favorite back home too (I practically lived at the BK on the edge of campus in college!). But it's weird - they just taste different down here. My usual meal was a Original Chicken Sandwich meal, king sized with two cheeseburgers, one as an appetizer and one as dessert. (sometimes I'll substitute a Whopper for the chicken sandwich) LOL I think they put more mustard on the cheeseburgers down here and that might be why they just don't taste the same. So we will see how long I can go without a trip to Burger King, Wendy's, Bojangles, McDonald's, Jack in the Box or Chick-fil-a. I'm sure I've had a few more ... but those are the closest to my home here in Charlotte ... wish me luck!!

Comfort Food

One of the things that's easy to miss when you move from NJ to CLT is the availability of Italian food. Back home, every town had at least two Italian restaurants of one kind or another. Some of the best food was at the small family run pizza places on the corner. They are not as common here as back home -- I haven't found one here in Charlotte yet, but did find one in Winston-Salem, as mentioned in my blog posting about my trip up there. There are the chain restaurants and some high end ones, but I miss the small corner places. So recently I've been getting cravings for Italian food ... I found Celentano frozen food at the Harris Teeter down here, so I've have some eggplant parmigiana recently, although it seems the portions are a lot smaller than I remember them. During my day off this week, I saw a commercial for Pizza Hut, promoting their new Lasagna. So, not really wanting to cook, I took the risk and ordered it. I mean, over the years, I've had some really bad Italian food and I've had some of the best - thanks to my Mom, Mrs. Piccinnini and Mrs. Galante! While not really holding much hope for it, I placed the order. $20.00 got me a pan of lasagna and a two liter bottle of Sierra Mist and figured it can work out to be dinner for three days. About 25 minutes after placing the order there was a knock at the door and dinner was here!

I opened the box and found what looked like lasagna - crispy around the edges (the best part) and sauce covering the top. I got out the spatula and a couple of pieces on my plate and sat down to eat. From the look, the only negative was that it's not a deep dish lasagna, but only two or three layers. I sat down and took a bite and was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good. Plenty of ricotta and the sauce had a good taste about it - not sweet like Stouffer's. Being single and living alone, the 1/2 pan size should make for a few days meals. Included with the lasagna was a bag with five bread sticks which you really can't reheat, so I had to eat them that night.

Heading home from work tonight, I had to stop to pick up a couple of cases of water. While walking through the Harris Teeter, I walked past the Entenmann's display, thinking that maybe a box of fudge covered donuts might jump into my cart ... but then I noticed the marble pound cake and my mind went back to childhood ... toasted pound cake with melted butter on top!! YUMMMMMM ... it's been a couple of years since I've had that, so of course I had to get the pound cake and a tub of Land O Lakes whipped butter. Of course Breakstone's was more a part of my memories, but couldn't find that down here. So, tonight after I have my reheated Pizza Hut Lasagna, I opened the box (opened from the end instead of flip-top like I remembered ) and toasted a couple of slices of pound cake and enjoyed a dessert that took me back to my childhood ... Now that is comfort food!!

Thanks for reading and I'll be posting again soon. . .

It's been a month . . .

Some may find this amazing - but there is something I haven't done since December 27th - 30 days ago. It's something that I would do at least twice a week for the last several years. I was tempted this past week - but when I realized that I'd gone this long, I decided to fight the desire and not do it. I think those who know me will be surprised, it's a good thing - a step toward bettering myself - making changes in my life. I'm sure anyone reading this is trying to figure out exactly what it is that I've been able to avoid for the past 30 days ... and now I wonder if I should post what it is or ask people to guess in my comment section.

Hmmmmm -- how obnoxious do I feel? Very, I think -- so I'll wait a few days and post what it is that I haven't done in 30 days at the end of the month when I can go the first full month of 2009 without doing it.

So please leave me a comment of what you think it is that I haven't done for this long for the first time in many, many years. Looking forward to hearing from whomever reads this blog to see how well you all know me ... he he

Thanks for checking out my blog and I'll be back later!

Snow Emergency

Woke up this morning to panic on the news stations... S N O W!!! Schools were closed all over the greater Charlotte area, government offices closed, accidents all over the region and people calling out of work. Back in NJ that would mean about 5" to 6" of snow would have fallen overnight.

But here in Charlotte ... that mean 1" to 2" of snow fell overnight in the South Park area of Charlotte - and that was mostly just on the cars and grassy areas. It was mentioned on the news this morning that they haven't seen show this severe in Charlotte since 2004. I'm scared!!

My Ride

Howdy! Back in June, 2001 I was driving home from work along Route 46 in Parsippany when I noticed a really cool looking vehicle in front of the Jeep dealership. It sort of looked like a Jeep, but really different. I had seen my first Jeep Liberty and about a month later I owned my own Jeep Liberty Limited Edition in Patriot Blue. (the picture is not of my Jeep) I referred to it as a "fake jeep" considering it had lots of luxuries like leather seats and steering wheel, everything electric, heated seats and side mirrors, etc. Over the years this Jeep helped people move, made warehouse runs for the deli and took me lots and lots of places. Only a few months after buying the Jeep I moved down the Jersey Shore meaning that I had a roughly one hour commute each way everyday for work. This length of commute lasted until I moved down here to Charlotte which of course means lots of mileage going onto the vehicle.

Over the years my Jeep took to places from Manassas, Va in the south to Boston, Ma in the north as well as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal numerous times. Although I loved the car, I wasn't the best owner, being bad on getting oil changes (sometimes going over 20,000 miles and nearly a year between oil changes) In it's 3rd or 4th year the car was found to have a cracked engine block and the dealership just put some "stop leak" in the cooling system and it ran fine. I had to repeat that process a couple of times over the years.

Well, all good things must come to an end. In early November, 2008 just a month after hitting 210,000 miles the Jeep started acting up again as if it needed it's shot of "stop leak". Well, that didn't help this time - in the three mile commute to work the car was overheating and the engine started to make some noises that didn't really sound very good. So, on November 17, I broke down and called the garage that had been servicing my Jeep and they sent a flatbed to pick it up from work. The news was bad this time ... two cylinders and a few rods were gone which meant that a new engine was needed to keep the Jeep on the road. With an estimate of between $4,000 and $7,000 to have that done, the decision had to be made to say good-bye to the car that was part of me for over 100 months - and I hate shopping for a car.

Lucky for me, one of the woman in our sales department had a connection with one of the local dealers here in Charlotte. So I made my way to the dealership to see what they could do for me. With no money for a down payment, a mortgage that was in arrears in NJ and a poor credit rating I wasn't very positive that I'd be able to get anything worthwhile. A call was made to the GM of the dealership and I explained my situation to the salesman. I must say, the dealership did everything in their power to get me into a car. After the first visit on a Friday, I needed to return on Saturday to pick up a white 2007 Ford Focus that was previously a rental car in Chicago. The car had around 30,000 miles on it but ran fine. A little smaller than what I was used to, but it was a set of wheels to get me from point A to point B safely.

I signed and filled out the paperwork needed, but when I got home and went to insure it I couldn't find the name of the loan holder anyplace. I received a call a few days later asking me to come back in because they needed some further information from me. Knowing that I was going to have car payments again, which I haven't had in over a year - I checked on my retirement account to see if there was any money available to take out to pay off some outstanding debt to get it out of the way and found that I was legally able to take out $2,000 - so I made the request for the money. When I got to the dealership the next day, I was told that due to the mortgage issues back in NJ, they are having trouble finding a lender to approve my loan for the Ford Focus. If I was able to come up with more of a down payment, then they might have a chance. So an appointment was made to go back when the funds were in my account.

I returned at 1:00pm a couple of days later with a check expecting to leave a short time later with my new car. Well, as things happen in my life, that was not going to happen. After sitting across the desk from my salesman for about 3 hours while the credit manager worked on my loan, my salesman was called over to the credit desk. He came back to let me know that they would not be able to sell me the Focus, because they could not get a lender to finance that car for me. But the GM had told them that I had to leave in a car that night. They had two cars that could be financed. Both were pretty much the same car but a difference in color - 4 door 2008 Hyundai Accents - one in ice blue the other in white and both had about 17,000 miles on them. I test drove the blue one because the white one wasn't on the lot that night. I opted for the white one and left the dealership about 8:00 pm (7 hours after I arrived) to return the next day after work to pick up my new car. From the time I first entered the dealership until I picked up the car was just about 2 weeks and although it sounds like it was challenging at times, I really have to say that the dealership worked their butts off to get me into a car and I am very grateful for that!

The drive back to NJ for Christmas was done in this new car -- it has a 10 gallon gas tank that I only had to fill twice each way!! I would have filled the Jeep at least twice as many times, YAY! It's taking a little getting used to, but overall, so far I'm happy with my new car!

Thanks for reading and more news to come!

Housing

As promised, I am trying to post more often and bring everyone up-to-date on what's going on here in Charlotte for me. This post will focus on living arrangements. During the first week of July I moved into my apartment in the South Park area of Charlotte. I'm renting a townhouse style apartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The layout is nice with a large dining/living room combination which gives a nice feeling of space. It even has a comfortable and private although small deck off the living room. At 1,458 square feet, there is plenty of space and at times over the past few months I've even wondered if it's too much space! The eat-in kitchen is a nice size with a large picture/bay window in the front giving it lots of light. This particular unit has not been updated and was built about 25 years ago, so the appliances are not up-to-date but work fine. You can sort of tell the age by the lack of a built in microwave - something I didn't even realize until I bought some frozen food to eat on unpacking day and found out I couldn't cook it when I got home! Luckily for me, my sister had an extra microwave which she gave to me when I was for my visit in December.

Upstairs are two bedrooms that are very close in size and each has a large closet that runs just about the entire length of each room. There is another large clothes closet in the hallway and a linen closet as well. What is really nice about the layout is that the bathrooms form a barrier between the bedrooms, so you really can't hear anything between the rooms. Although I'm living here alone, I'm sure that is a nice feature for roommates or families. Although I have used all the closets for some sort of storage, I don't even have enough clothes to fill all the closets!! Believe it or not. Currently I'm living in the "guest room" because my plan when my place in NJ sold was to buy a new bed for the master bedroom. I'm still sleeping on a full size bed that I bought at Bamberger's when I worked for them during college ... so you know how old it really is. The base rent for this unit is $925 a month and extended basic cable is only $20 more a month. Being only 3 miles away from work makes it all worth it! The place is built well, in all the time I've been here, only once have I heard noise from one of the apartments on either side of me. Back at my place in NJ, I could hear the neighbors sneeze! It is very quiet here.

Speaking of the quiet feel, the complex is comprised of about 83 acres and feels very much like a small town rather than an apartment complex. There are tennis courts, a kids playground and three seperate pools around the grounds. The clubhouse/office also has a workout room that is available 24 hours a day (a place i admit i have not visited yet, but plan to start using soon). On the south end of the complex is a small shopping center with a supermarket, drug store, drycleaner and several restaurants. All is within about a 2 to 3 block walk from my apartment so that is very convenient.

I've only experienced a few challenges with the apartment, the first being a leak in the air duct over the living room which caused part of the ceiling needing to be replaced and as it got cold down here an infestation of ant ... but these issues were taken care of and no longer exist. When my best buddy visited last week after our drive back from NJ, he seemed impressed with the apartment which was comforting to me, since I always question every decision I make in my life.

That's what's happening down in Charlotte - back in NJ my co-op still has not sold. When I rented the apartment and moved in, there was supposed to be a closing within the next couple of weeks. Well, as my luck usually unfolds, the potential buyers were not able to get the financing to close. That was after being under contract for about 3 to 4 months, building inspections and having to make some minor repairs. That contract was for $140,000 which was about $30,000 more than I owed on the mortgage. I was excited because I would have enough money left to pay off any outstanding debt and replace or buy some furniture that I needed. We put the co-op back on the market but prices had dropped already by about $20,000 and we tried to put it on the market to at least break even. Since July, I've had three other potential buyers, each at a lower price than the last and each was unable to secure financing. The title company was able to negotiate a short sale with the mortgage bank and they held off foreclosure proceedings as long as a contract was drawn. The last offer came in on December, 22 at $86,000 cash. I'm not sure how this will work out ... whether the bank will accept this offer -- but I just need to get my name off this piece of property in NJ so that I can try to get my credit back on track. With the apartment here I have not been able to make any sort of mortgage payment since June. Please keep your fingers crossed that something happens soon!!

That about does it for today's post ... today is my first day off this year! So, there is laundry and cleaning to do and guess it is time to take down the tree and christmas village ... thanks for reading and I'll be posting soon!

Wild Start to 2009

You never know what to expect on New Year's Eve when working in a hotel. There is always the concern that people will rent rooms to have a party and end up disrupting everyone else around them. Luckily that wasn't the problem this year at my hotel, but the problem was people who partied elsewhere and then came back to the hotel. It is amazing what happens to people when they have had tooooo much to drink (not that I've ever been there, LOL). I spent over an hour trying to calm down a couple who had woken up 1/2 of the floor they were on. It's a long story, but it involved a door being kicked by the girlfriend while wearing a towel and her boyfriend was sitting in the bathtub under the running water. It was quite a night. I ended up working from 5:00 pm on the 31st to 7:00 am on the 1st, with only about 3 hours of sleep total from the day before. My lack of sleep began over the holiday weekend . . .

I drove back to NJ in my new car (more about that in another post) to visit with my Mother, my sister and her family. The visit was nice, it had been six months since I had last seen them and I was lucky enough to spend a short time with my nephew who I hadn't seen for a longer period of time than that. It's been a long time since I've been around kids on Christmas and it was fun to watch them opening gifts and the anticipation of waiting for Santa to arrive. My brother-in-law's son hosted us for dinner on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The food both nights was delicious - it's been a long time since I've eaten that well! Following some of the family's Polish traditions, Christmas Eve is a meatless holiday and our menu included lobster tail, scallops, shrimp and three kinds of pierogi. Yummmmm. The meal started with a bowl of homemade mushroom soup made by Ann - the recipe has been published and although I'm not much of a fan of mushrooms, the soup was DELICIOUS! After soup the kids get to open their presents which is for them the highlight of the night. The family also has a tradition of the kids making gingerbread houses - this year they were gingerbread trains and the they made it competition this year between the boys and the girls. Of course it ended up a tie...

Friday was spent with my Mother, Sister and Brother-in-law at their lake house in northern NJ. My brother-in-law has been doing some renovation work on the house and it all looks great. It is amazing the work they have done on this house over the years making it more and more comfortable. It was great to spend time together since it is hard to see each other very often living about 600 miles apart from each other.

Friday night I made my way down the Jersey Shore to meet up with a few friends from where I used to live. A small group of friends were out on Friday night at what I think is the new hangout, since our regular bar in Asbury Park closed on December 20th. It was great to see them as well and I really miss hanging out with them on a more regular basis, it takes time to build the type of friendships I had back in Jersey, but I'm sure in time I'll have some similar friends here in Charlotte.

Saturday was the start of my trip back to Charlotte. I had made plans to make the trip back with my best friend Jim, who had been up in Dutchess County, NY visiting with his family for Christmas. We planned to drive down to DC and spend a couple of nights and then drive to Charlotte and he'd fly home to Texas from Charlotte. Unfortunately, it seems like everyone decided to travel by car on Saturday. It usually takes about 4 hours to drive from central Jersey to DC, but this time it took 7 1/2 hours. Thank God I had such great company in the car with me or the trip would have been unbearable. I don't think I hit 30 mph at any point of the trip between the Delaware/NJ border and Baltimore. UGH! But I had Jim with me and the Christmas cookies his family had made - so it was bearable, very bearable!

I was really looking forward to visiting with Jim for these few days, it's been several months since he helped me visit him in Dallas. It didn't quite work out that way - to no fault of anyone really. My best buddy has a new boyfriend in his life who happened to also be in the DC area visiting family for the holidays. It ends up that he and I were both looking forward to spending quality time in DC with Jim. (He IS that special). The new bf and I both ended up getting mad at Jim to no fault of his. Jim and I did get to spend Sunday night together having dinner and then touring the sights of the National Mall at night, seeing the Jefferson Memorial, the little known George Mason Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument and the National Christmas Tree (and Menorah). We drove back to Charlotte on Monday, had a nice dinner, showed off my apartment and watched some tv before I dropped Jim off at the airport on Tuesday morning.

My mind has been working overtime since arriving back to Charlotte reflecting on the weekend. It had very high points and also some very low points - just like any holiday celebration. DC used to be a favorite vacation spot for me, but I doubt I'll be returning anytime soon since it is the place where my best friend and I let each other down just because of circumstances. Neither of us planned or wanted to hurt each other, but it happened, and I am sure that both of us want to work through this. And we will.

Well, it's time to get ready for work today ... thanks for reading and I'll be posting again soon.