Labor Day Weekend Camping (the End and the Beginning)

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

As a child, Labor Day weekend gave me the feeling of being pulled between two worlds. I wanted to soak up the final few hours of summer and freedom, and yet the inevitability of school and backpacks and homework loomed, but with it the hope of a new beginning. Labor Day weekend meant enjoying the final moments of one season while preparing for the start of the next.

This Labor Day weekend Andrew and I joined our friends Elliott and Lauren for two days of roughing it in the woods: camping, hiking, peeing behind trees. We drove into the mountains Friday evening and set up camp in the dark. Saturday morning, after filling up on oatmeal and French press coffee, we began the first of two hikes planned for the day: Mount Pleasant. Andrew and I had hiked it on a previous camping weekend, and the views are stunning. On a clear day, this is what you’ll see:

However, after hiking 3-ish miles to the top this Saturday, this is was our view:

Heavy fog everywhere. Womp womp.

We finished the hike, ate lunch at our campsite, then started our second hike of the day: Cold Mountain. This hike is an approximately six-mile loop with nice overlooks on the way to an open meadow with beautiful mountain views all around.

We did encounter some lingering fog, but thankfully we still were able to steal a few glimpses of those beautiful blue mountains that I love.

Back at camp, with achy bodies from 12.5 miles of hiking, we cleaned up as best we could and started cooking dinner. Just as we put the steaks on the fire, we heard the rain rolling in. At the threat of not being able to cook the steaks, Andrew sprung into Eagle Scout mode in a way I’ve never seen. “Tarp! Someone grab the tarp! Two tall sticks! Twine! Tent stakes!” Before the rain could touch our fire, Andrew had constructed a shelter for us with a tarp hung over a rope (strung between two tree branches), with two corners held up by large sticks, which were secured to the ground with tent stakes and twine. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture because, well, it was pouring rain and very dark at this point, but suffice it to say we were all thoroughly impressed. We ate our steaks (which were unbelievably delicious after hiking all day) as the fire roared and water rushed under our feet–because, hey, we were still outside in a torrential downpour– and we laughed at how disgusting we all felt covered in sweat and mud, and life was very good.

In the morning I woke early and hiked up the Appalachian Trail a bit to catch the sunrise.

It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a good sunrise–the colors, the stillness of the morning, the promise of a new day.

For me this Labor Day weekend evoked that childhood feeling of being torn between two worlds. On Friday I wrapped up six years working as a youth minister. It was a time full of joy and challenges and working with people that I love, but like every season, it had to come to an end to make way for something new. Today is the start of a new season for me as I pursue a career in personal training. For the next few months I will be a full-time student preparing for the certification exam, and while I am nervous about venturing into the unknown (and yes, giving up a paycheck for a period), I am thrilled to embark on this journey.

The sun is rising on the first day of a new season for me, and I am giddy about the possibilities of what it may hold.

28

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Today is my 28th birthday.

I love celebrating birthdays, and I am not working today, so I have some good activities planned–starting with my annual birthday run. At some point in my early 20’s, I had the idea that it would be really cool to run my age on my birthday every year… but quickly decided I was already too old for that to be a good idea. 😉 I just go for a comfortable, enjoyable run now. The rest of the day will be packed with reading on the back deck in this gorgeous spring weather, visiting the greenhouse and planting a few flowers, and tonight going to our local trampoline gym and dinner with friends!

Yep, 28 is off to a good start. As I look back over the last year, I must say: 27 was very good to me. Here are some of the highlights of 27, in no particular order:

-Ran some great races, and PRed in the 5k and 10k:

-Celebrated 1 year of marriage with Andrew:

-Filled this garden plot with seeds and dreams:

-… and watched it turn into this:

-Spent time on retreats and mission trips with the amazing teens in my youth group:

-Hiked to my heart’s content (almost ;-))

-Spent lots of time playing outside:

-Celebrated with friends getting married:

-Put my wedding dress back on and pretended I was getting married 😉

-Traveled to Jamaica:

-Traveled to Colorado:

-Most importantly, spent lots of time with family and friends:

I am incredibly thankful for the year behind–really, it was kind of an epic year in terms of everything I had the opportunity to do–and can’t wait to see what the year ahead has in store!

Have a great March 11, everyone! 😀

In Defense of (Posting Pictures of) Food

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

My name is Catherine, and I am a foodie.

I’ve seen a disturbing trend on social media lately: food photo hating. That’s right–there are people out there right now who are bored to tears by the photos we post of our delicious meals and culinary masterpieces. If you are one of those people, this post is for you. I’d like the chance to explain to you why I post photos of the food that I grow, eat, and love.

When I initially wrote this post, I included a witty, but snarky apology for forcing others to look at our food photos. Before posting I decided it was probably a little too heavy with the sarcasm, so instead, I will say this: if you don’t like what anyone posts online, hide them from your news feed, don’t follow them on Instagram, and don’t click on the link to their blog. That’s what I do when you post photos of… er… never mind. The choice is yours. I won’t be offended.

I post photos of food because I get excited about food. You post photos of what excites you, right? Scrolling through my Facebook news feed right now I see photos of: new boots, a sailboat, a double-layered marble cake with chocolate frosting, a baby deer, a wedding, a new haircut, the sorority squat, a football helmet, a new purse, a baby with a dog–We post little glimpses of our lives, and a good meal is one of those glimpses for me. Here’s why:

1. Food powers everything we do. All the activities we love are possible because we have good food in our bellies. Running marathons, hiking, playing with your kids, focusing in school or at work (okay, maybe you don’t love that, but it has to be done), simply hanging out with friends–your performance and ability to be in the moment will suffer if you are not well nourished. What you put in your body matters; while we may not be what we eat, we certainly feel the effects of what we eat (or don’t eat).

“We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us be much more than what we are.” -Adelle Davis

2. Food tastes amazing. As vital as food is to our lives, it could have been as boring as breathing–something that just happens naturally and keeps us alive. Instead, God gave food taste, and why in the world would He have done that if we weren’t meant to enjoy it? Eating, like other activities that ensure the survival of the human race, is meant to be pleasurable. Food is a gift, not only in the fact that we have it and aren’t starving, but that it tastes so good! Why would you not celebrate that?

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” -Voltaire

3. Food builds relationships. Because we need food to power everything we do, and it’s not a boring pill that we have to take each morning, the act of eating gives us reason to pause a few times during the day, often with other people. How many relationships in your life have developed over the course of many meals? The vast majority. From childhood dinners with your family to school lunches in the cafeteria with friends to dates with your husband, sharing a meal bonds us with others.

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… people who give you their food give you their heart.” -Cesar Chavez

4. Food is art. Some of the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen are in my garden. I take no credit for this, but I certainly enjoy it! Fresh produce is inherently visually pleasing.

“Did you ever stop to taste a carrot? Not just eat it, but taste it? You can’t taste the beauty and energy of the Earth in a Twinkie.” -Astrid Alauda

That’s why I post pictures of what I ate for dinner–because that meal was a crucial piece of my day that gave me energy to do what I love, provided quality time with people I care about, and pleased my senses in a way that compelled me to turn and thank my Creator and Provider.

If you aren’t at least a little bit excited about food, it might be time to reconsider what you’re eating or the pace of your day–I wouldn’t get excited about eating a fast food hamburger in my car or macaroni and cheese from a box before running out the door either. Good food doesn’t have to take hours to make, it just has to be real food.

So, happy eating to all. And don’t forget to post photos. 🙂

Our Fall Vegetable Garden and Reflections on the Summer Growing Season

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

This week we said goodbye to our beloved tomato plants. Some of the other summer plants had withered away prior to this, and some are still growing and producing, but the loss of the tomatoes felt significant. Perhaps it’s because when you think of growing vegetables in the summer, tomatoes come to mind first. Or perhaps it’s because we nurtured them from seeds, turned our bathroom into a greenhouse to give them the best chance possible, and then watched them grow into 8-ft Lycopene-producing power houses.

All I know for sure is that Andrew and I both felt a little bit sad to put what remained in the compost pile. (Yeah, I know. We have a compost pile and feel sad over the death of plants. I promise we are not these people. Like seriously… we are not part of that group.)

What feels like the end of the season, however, prompted me to reflect on our first real attempt at gardening, and I’d like to pass along a few tidbits we gleaned along the way.

Plants that thrived: tomatoes (cherry and slicing), peppers (bell, cayenne, and pimento), green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatillos

Plants that didn’t thrive: broccoli and Swiss chard (better as fall plants… oops!), cucumber, cantaloupe, and pumpkin (all eventually got some kind of disease and the vines looked terrible), watermelon (still growing…Andrew disagrees), carrots and beets (all grew as miniature versions of what they should be).

Tips for Next Year’s Garden Rookie (From This Year’s Garden Rookie) :

–Vegetables that produce continually and quickly are the most fun–cherry tomatoes, green beans, tomatillos, and squash were among our favorites. We lost interest in the melons and pumpkins, which take up a lot of space in the garden, and the reward (if any) takes a long time.

–Grow vegetables that you’ll actually eat–we thought it would be fun to grow cayenne peppers, but we have yet to eat any. We now have dozens drying in our dining room because we don’t know what to do with them other than dry and crush them into what will probably be a lifetime supply of pepper flakes.

–Don’t be afraid to prune and thin–when our tomatoes and peppers were little sprouts living in the bathroom greenhouse, we were so thrilled to watch them grow that we couldn’t bear to thin them to one plant per square inch (see photo above). When the time came to plant them outside, we practically had to do surgery to get the roots apart without damaging the plants. And I think we have pruning to thank for our huge tomato plants and fruits. Definitely cut off leaves and branches that look bad, but cutting off a few healthy ones as well helps the plant grow stronger and the fruit grow bigger.

–Cage plants that have the potential to be tall before they are actually tall–it may look silly (again, see photo above :)), but if you don’t, they will shoot up and bend over before you know what happened.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are the tips that come to mind as ones you might not find if you Googled, “tips for first time gardeners.”

Additionally, I’m pleased to present to you our first fall garden:

(The forest on the left is the pepper plants still going strong!)

Butternut and acorn squash, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, sweet peas, kale, chives, and lettuce

So, as much as we’re going to miss having these guys around:

…we are pretty stoked for the new recruits. 😀

What thrived/didn’t thrive in your summer garden?
Are you planting anything this fall?

NC Mission Trip Recap- Part 1

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

I am home from North Carolina and excited to give a full account of the week, but first, I must acknowledge what happened yesterday: Andrew hijacked the blog. It was a legitimate hijacking. Not only did he not tell me he was writing a post, but he didn’t tell me he’d done it afterwards either! I happened to glance at the stats page on my phone, saw a few notifications, and thought, two people commented on…what post? Oh… What a funny guy. 😀 Because the stolen post seemed to be well-received, Andrew has landed himself a contract job as a monthly guest blogger (he’s not getting paid for it.) I hope those of you that we don’t know in real life enjoyed “meeting” Andrew!

Now the mission trip summary…I’ll do my best to keep in concise without leaving out any juicy details 🙂

The team:
Our team consisted of twelve middle school youth and four adults. I’ve probably mentioned this on the blog before, but I love middle schoolers. I think they are absolutely hilarious in that you never know what they will say or do. In that regard, they did not disappoint this week. Actually, they did not disappoint in any way this week; I was impressed by how hard they all worked and the great attitudes they had despite the heat and persistent mosquitoes.

The people we served:
As I mentioned in my midweek report, we worked with a man named Chuck and his two teenage daughters, Ashley and Haley, who are in a very tough spot in life at the moment. Chuck is sharp, witty, knowledgeable about many, many subjects, and full of hilarious one-liners. “She’s as tough as woodpecker lips.” “At least my report card didn’t stutter; yours kept saying, “D-D-D-D-D…” More importantly, he has a deep love for his daughters and a rock-solid faith that was evident to all of us. Despite losing his wife, job, and being left to raise teenage girls, his devotion to God has not been shaken.

In addition to teaching us some legitimately useful life skills, Chuck showed us how “we rednecks” get strong out of in the country: using heavy metal bars and sledgehammers:

And that block of wood they are pounding with the sledgehammer? After we took turns hitting it all day, Chuck stood it up and split it in two with the sledgehammer, prompting this response from one of our boys:

“If I took a girl out on a date, and you were her dad, I would treat her so well…” 😀

The work:
Half of our team painted the outside of Chuck’s trailer, and half the team replaced the floor in a few rooms inside. As I mentioned above, everyone worked incredibly hard and finished the tasks we set out to do.

The funny (part 1):
The man living next door to Chuck owns a bunch of goats and keeps them in a barely charged electric fence. Think static electricity. Or a first grade science experiment using a battery and a light bulb (I know this to be true thanks to one of our awesome adults, Robin, who teaches science to elementary school students. :)) One afternoon Chuck showed a few of our youth what that fence feels like, and, because they are twelve years old, that entertained many of them for longer than you might think. Weird, but harmless. Well, the phone calls home that night sounded like this:

“Catherine let us electrocute ourselves on an electric fence today! We kept shocking ourselves over and over! What? Why not? Yeah, I’m okay… No, it didn’t hurt… No, we didn’t do it for very long…”

Oh boy. Parents, I did not let your kids electrocute themselves. Again, think static electricity, and please consider that your twelve-year-old may have exaggerated. I do think, however, that a few of them seemed slightly more balanced afterwards… 😉

I will leave it here for now, but I have plenty more to report tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Hijacked!!!!

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Finally, what you thousands of fans of this blog have been waiting for:

The namesake is posting! Because let’s get real for a minute, I have provided the Storey of ‘A Two Storey Home’. All Catherine does is manage it, think of posts, write the posts, keep up with the comments,and, most of all, stop me mid-action to take pictures of whatever we are doing to post on the blog. But without the hilarious pun that my name has provided, who would read? A name is everything. If Melville had called it ‘Some Guy Overly Fixated on Catching a Whale’, would he have had a best seller? Or, would people have called for Clark Kent’s alter ego to save them from burning buildings if he called himself ‘Better-than-Average-Man’? I think not. Count It!

Andrew = 1

People who disagree with Andrew = 0

Glad that’s out of the way. Catherine, you’re welcome 🙂

Now on to more important things. While I have read exactly 4 sentences of the blog. Side bar: I have lived most of it. Reading it would just be literary deja vu. I imagine it could get trippy. Un-Side bar. I can imagine though that Catherine writes a lot about our house, our garden, what we do, running, etc. She probably also writes about “feelings” and “emotions” So with this post, I would like to turn the needle back to the manly side of the dial. So what is the opposite of “feelings”? How about ‘sgnileef’…no I guess that’s just ‘feelings’ backwards (Feel free to laugh out loud at that one…I bet Catherine doesn’t make awesome puns like that). I think I’ll go with numbers. No emotional significance to numbers. Well, I guess 7 is lucky, 13 isn’t, 3&5 are prime, π is irrational, and, of course, 1 is lonely, or so they say. There must be a conspiracy to connect ‘feelings’ everything if numbers haven’t even been able to resist emotional attachment. So, let’s fight back. Here’s the week in numbers from my engineer brain with the garden harvest update leading off and a photo of today’s crop:

1 – yellow squash harvested

109 – cherry tomatoes harvested

4 – green peppers harvested

2 – pimento peppers harvested

2 – cucumbers harvested

18 – tomatillos harvested

24 – green beans harvested

3 – hours spent on the phone trying to get a new water heater delivered and installed…still working on it

2 – episodes of ‘Property Brothers’ watched

1 – yoga class attended

5 – fish fillets fried

5 – fish fillets eaten

4 – days of work so far

1 – Food Network Magazine read

7 – levels of Jewel Mania beaten

2.5 – hours of ultimate frisbee played

6 – mosquito bites

1 – mouse caught…thought we had that problem fixed. Hmmm.

and evidence for 1 being a sad and lonely number…

1 – pair of athletic shorts thrown away when the elastic gave out and the draw string broke after at least 10 years of good and faithful service….tear 😦

Wait…there are those dang emotions popping back up again. So for good measure and to honor all who have used graphs excessively before me, I will end with a graph of how my week has gone…

Yes, my graph goes to 11.

Please comment on my post using a scale of 1-10.

NC Mission Trip- Midweek Report

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

The week so far…

This week we have been working with a man named Chuck and his two teenage daughters, Ashley and Haley. Chuck’s wife passed away in April, and around the same time he lost his job. Due to the tough financial situation, the three were forced to move into a broken down trailer. One of the girls told us that life has been so crazy that they haven’t even had time to mourn the loss of their mother. Our crew has been replacing an old, rotted floor this week, as well as putting a fresh coat of paint on the outside of the house. It’s been a joy for us to spend time with Chuck and the girls too!

In addition to sweating like crazy from 8:30-3, here are some other notables of the last few days:

Highs:

-beach time

-awesome food

-a surprise ice cream delivery by Mr. Oguich

-goats at the worksite (yes, everyone else is just as excited as I am about this ;-))

-worship on beach blankets in the sand

Lows:

-broken AC in the girls’ room the first night (which has been fixed! We are nice and cool :))

-Mosquitos that laugh at our Off! Deep Woods bug spray…

-noisy neighbors (I laid the smack down last night 😀

All around, it has been an awesome week… And we have over 3 days left! I will give a full report when I return… Blogging via smart phone is a painful task.

Have a great week!

Gone to Carolina [in the Church Van]

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

In a few hours I will be on my way to North Carolina with a group of our middle school youth for a mission trip. We are spending the week repairing homes near the coast (low-income areas… not people’s beach houses, as my mom suspected :)), and I am so looking forward to it. Missions and local service projects are a key piece of our youth ministry, and here’s why:

In the book of James, chapter 2, James poses the question, “What good is it, brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In other words, if all we ever do is sit around reading the Bible, then go about our lives and ignore those who are hurting in the world, what’s the point? That type of faith is not sincere. In light of that, I am humbled and thrilled to have opportunities like this trip as part of my job. Plus, I get to hang out with all our crazy middle schoolers, whom I love dearly. 😀

I am not sure how much I will be able to blog while I’m there–maybe a few brief posts–but I plan to give it a try. If not, I’ll be back next weekend! In the meantime, please pray for our team, those we are helping, and Andrew, who has to hold down the fort by himself this week.

As the very talented James Taylor put it: “Yes, I’m gone to Carolina in [the church van.]” (Or something like that. ;-))

Liebster Award

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Thanks to Wendy over at The Scarred Runner for nominating me for this cool little blog award! I am very flattered and excited to write this post. 🙂

The Rules:

This award is given to new or up and coming bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to them in your post.
Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees.
Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 new bloggers (with fewer than 200 followers) to pass the award to and link them in your post.
Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I am very easily startled. Not scared–just startled. The majority of my coworkers have caused me to jump, gasp, and take a step backwards simply by walking through a doorway. Recently, I was walking into the bathroom right before going to bed; the light was on in our bedroom and off in the bathroom, so there was just enough light to make out shapes. For the briefest of seconds, a pile of towels on the floor looked like a wolf. Obviously, I knew there was not a wolf in the bathroom, but my body reacted before my brain. I gasped so loudly and turned to run. Andrew looked scared at my reaction and asked what was wrong. “I thought…there was a wolf in the bathroom.” Yep. Not going to live that one down…ever.

2. I am very squeamish. I once passed out while having my blood pressure taken because the cuff was so tight and I could just feel the blood pooling up in my shoulder and…
Similarly, a few months ago I cut my finger while slicing a bagel. I didn’t need stitches, but it was a bad cut. Andrew told me to hold it under the water and NOT look at it while he went in search of a band-aid. I looked anyway. Andrew had to carry me to the couch and later quoted me saying, “I’m bleeding out!”

3. I really enjoy pranking people, and I always have. Once in elementary school, I wrote down a fake message for my sister that her friend Sarah had called. This was before 8-year-olds had cell phones, so she actually had to dial the number on our wall-mounted phone. Instead of writing down her friend’s number, I wrote the number of one of my friends who was also named Sarah. I correctly suspected that they’d have an entire conversation without realizing who they were actually talking to. When Whitney finally figured it out, she chased me outside and around the house.

4. I think I am hilarious. One time in college I laughed so hard that I peed…I was laughing at a joke that I made.

5. I have two nieces, and when each of them were born, I understood love in a whole new dimension. But seriously, how cute are they?

6. I am at greatest risk of laughing uncontrollably at inappropriate times when my mom starts laughing. A few years ago, my brother was participating in “No-Shave November,” or “Movember.” When Thanksgiving rolled around, he looked a little scruffy, and we gave him a really hard time about having a Dirt ‘Stache. At Thanksgiving dinner my very Southern, proper grandmother said, “Ross, I see you’re growing a mustache.” I smirked, anticipating the criticism he was about to receive. Instead of criticism, however, Grandma said, “I think it’s kind of… sexy,” raising her eyebrows on the last word. My mom literally spit out a bite of mashed potatoes and laughed so hard she was crying. I might have been able to control myself, but seeing my mom try to stifle her laughter while wiping tears off her face was too much. We were quite a non-discreet mess. It happened again recently, but the situation was so inappropriate that I fear we, along with my brother, are still in the proverbial doghouse with my sister, and therefore, I cannot tell the story.

7. When I was little and couldn’t fall asleep at night, I’d sneak down to the living room where my dad was watching television (the rest of the family was asleep.) I’d sit in his lap, and we’d eat popcorn and watch old Westerns, and he never told me to go to bed. Those are some of my favorite childhood memories.

8. My grandmother–not the sexy mustache one, but my dad’s mom–is probably cooler than your grandmother, and has more awesome one-liners than anyone I know. Prior to suffering from Alzheimer’s, she was a feisty little Italian woman with a huge heart and strong opinions. She was our babysitter growing up, and when I was in middle school, she drove me to the drug store one afternoon to buy supplies for a school project. While standing in line at the checkout counter, she scanned the magazine rack and started angrily reading some of the taglines aloud: “50 ways to please your man?? 100 ways to please your man?? If you did all those things, you wouldn’t have time to do anything else!!” 😀

9. I skipped school once during high school. It was during our standardized testing week in the spring of my senior year, and I had a two-hour study hall that day. My partner in crime, Whitney, had a two-hour physics class in which they were watching a movie. (In other words, we weren’t missing much.) We met in the parking lot after checking into and then excusing ourselves from class, and drove to Starbucks. Immediately after ordering our Frappucinos, Whitney side stepped toward me, leaned in, and said, “Don’t turn around, but the librarian just walked in.” Keeping our backs to her, we both went into the single stall bathroom, locked the door, and spent about five minutes freaking out. What are the chances?? Why did we skip school?? We’re going to get in so much trouble!! Finally, we peeked out the door, saw that she was gone, and claimed our drinks. We were young and wild and free.

10. I am, as Andrew likes to say, an “emotional sponge.” An easy crier. I’m not sensitive in the sense that my feelings are easily hurt, but when I see/hear/read/imagine that other people are sad, it’s like I absorb the emotion. Around Christmas this year Andrew and I were watching Home Alone. <Spoiler alert> At the end of the movie when Kevin’s mom walks in the house and sees him standing in front of the Christmas tree, I started crying. Andrew was incredulous.

“Why are you crying??”
“Because he’s okay!”
“…He’s been okay! We’ve seen that he’s okay the whole time! And you’ve seen this movie before!”
“But his mom didn’t KNOW that he was okay, and now she knows!”

True story.

11. I love telling stories. Thanks for reading a few of mine. 🙂

Questions from The Scarred Runner:
1. What do you do to unwind for the day? When I get home I grab a snack, lounge on the couch, and watch a few episodes of whatever sit-com is on at the moment.
2. What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream. No contest.
3. Cats or dogs? Undecided. If a cat is raised right, as ours were, they are awesome pets. Ours totally broke the cat stereotype, but I don’t necessarily like other people’s cats. Theoretically, I like dogs, but there are few things I find more gross than getting licked by a dog. I am allergic to both.
4. What color is your car? Grey
5. What inspired you to start blogging? I enjoy writing, and I love reading other people’s blogs!
6. Beach or Countryside? Beach.
7. Drive or Fly? Drive.
8. Do you always have the latest tech gadgets before anyone else? Definitely not. I went from flip phone to iphone just a few months ago.
9. Least favorite celebrity? Lady Gaga. I don’ t know what it is about her, but her music makes me want to gag-a.
10. How do you feel about magic tricks? I hate them. Magicians are so smug, and I don’t like feeling tricked. Seriously, don’t ever show me a magic trick. I have very strong feelings about the matter.
11. Have you ever modeled professionally? Why yes, I had a brief stint with Rosetta Stone in college. Look for me as you’re learning a new language. (I just made up that question because I wanted to share that fact :-D)

My Nominees for the Liebster Award:

Races, Reps, and Ramblings
Lucy On The Lookout
Gluten-Free 2013
Reluctantly Skinny
Run With Perseverence

*You can answer any of the questions above or make up your own 🙂 *

Thanks for reading, if you’ve hung in this long. 😀

The Bacon Festival and Parking Deck Prison

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

This weekend Richmond held its first ever Bacon Festival. I typically enjoy festivals–and our city holds a lot of them: Greek Food, Folk, Wine, Vegetarian, etc.–so when we saw ads for the Bacon Festival (basically Andrew’s dream come true,) we decided to attend. Admission was free, food and drink tickets were relatively cheap, and who doesn’t love an afternoon of people-watching?

Well, from start to finish, the afternoon was a disaster (though admittedly, many of our complaints were completely out of the hands of the event organizers.)

The festival was held at the 17th Street Farmer’s Market downtown. Street parking in the area is tough when the aroma of bacon is not luring people in, so we decided to pay to park in a parking garage a few blocks away. We pulled in, grabbed our ticket, and noticed the line of cars backed up at the exit gate. The festival had been happening for a few hours at this point, so I assumed there was a wave of people who were leaving around the same time. This assumption was quickly put to rest when I saw that our line (those entering the garage) had stopped, and people were getting out of their cars. We asked a man walking by what was happening: the exit gate to the garage had broken, and despite calls to the owners over the last hour (yes, people had been sitting there for an hour at this point,) no one had come to fix it. Plus, because no one could exit, there were very few parking spaces available or accessible to those who had driven in, so everyone was just waiting in their cars. I could feel my blood pressure rising. There were three parking spaces very close to us, but they were blocked off with caution tape and paint buckets. After about twenty minutes of sitting, the girls in the car in front of us got out and moved the buckets. The spots looked fine, and we decided that any ticket we might receive for parking there would be worth not being trapped in the garage for another minute. As we walked down the stairs to the street we said, “Okay, we’ll go get some good food, probably a drink at this point, and by the time we are ready to leave, the gate will be fixed.” After all, many calls had been placed notifying those in charge that the gate was broken. Surely, help was on its way.

Now, in fairness to the organizers of the festival, we were already irritated when we finally arrived, and as I previously stated, many of our complaints were not things they could control. The parking garage incident. The fact that it was 90 degrees, but felt hotter because people were so packed in to the Farmer’s Market. The crowds: the event was so well attended that we could see lines of people wrapping around the perimeter like bacon around a scallop, but could not actually see the front or end of any line due to its length. Step one was finding where to purchase food and drink tickets. We saw signs, we followed them, we reached the other end of the market (after saying, “Excuse me… excuse me…” to push through the aforementioned lines,) and saw no tickets. We ran into a few friends who also could not find the tickets. I was sweating, hungry, still worked up from the parking garage (and now more worked up from the chaos,) and looked up at Andrew and said, “This sucks.” He responded, “Yeah. Want to leave and just walk up back up to Shockoe Slip?”

So we left… baconless. On our walk we passed our parking garage and saw one car exit. Hooray! That put our minds at ease, and we continued walking, stopping in a bookstore for AC and a bit of browsing entertainment. A little while later, when we were ready to head home, we walked back to the parking deck and, looking up at the second and third levels, saw tail lights and people standing around outside their cars. (Not a good sign.) We arrived at the entrance/exit and saw, once again, a line of cars backed up, unable to exit. A few people were standing there with their cell phones, calling the number listed at the booth. (As a side note, that’s great that you have an automated payment system, but when there is a large event happening, and you know that deck is going to be a popular parking option, pay someone to work in the freaking booth!!)

At this point people were angry; some had been waiting for hours, with no response from anyone who might be able to help. Andrew and another man decided there was only one option: free the people. Using nothing but brute strength, they lifted the gate and directed people out.

Drivers were flying out of there like it was a jailbreak at Alcatraz (and cars were boats, of course ;-)), and people sitting on the patio of the restaurant across the street cheered. Someone called the parking deck’s helpline again and said, “Hey, don’t worry about coming down here. We’re lifting the gate and letting people out.” And you know what happened after that call? They finally sent someone to help! When the man arrived he walked up to Andrew, and said in a very stern voice, “Sir, put the gate down.” Andrew, riled up from the injustice of the whole situation, said, “Sir, OPEN the gate. People have been trapped in here for hours, and NO ONE has come to help. You can’t do that.” No argument.

We returned to our car and still had to wait almost thirty minutes to actually get out of the garage (and if I believed in karma, I’d say the fact that my debit card didn’t work at the gate, so he let us out for free was good karma for Andrew rescuing the oppressed… but I don’t believe in karma.)

On the drive home, we had a very stimulating conversation:

“That was a complete waste of an afternoon.”

“I hate bacon.”

To redeem the day, we parked ourselves on the couch and watched a few episodes of Parks and Recreation, went out for sushi, then watched a few more episodes of P & R.

Cucumber rolls and Leslie Knope to the rescue.

Have you ever been trapped in a parking garage?

Richmonders: what did you think of the Bacon Festival? Was anyone else in that parking garage?

A Two Storey Home

Where Marriage and Healthy Living Meet

Category Archives: Uncategorized