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.