IN MY MIND I'M GOING TO CAROLINA

. . .but I went there in body today too.

In spite of the overcast, drizzly weather I decided to go on a little adventure today and ventured into North Carolina, hitting up the well-renowned Outer Banks. Not fully having a game plan for my trek, I ended up going on a type of self-imposed field trip as I made my way to some historical places. Moseying along the thin stretch of land, I popped by the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the site of Orville and Wilbur Wright's flight attempts and eventual success. The hill below was where the brothers experimented with gliders and where they eventually had their, and the world's, first successful power-driven flight on December 17, 1903. Atop the hill is a monument erected in their honor.

*Side note: although the town of Kitty Hawk (which I also passed through) is often cited as the location of the Wright brothers work/success, it actually took place in a town called Kill Devil Hills. On another side note, being that the name of the town is quite unusual, I decided to look into it when I got home. Here's what I found: "The name Kill Devil Hills can be dated back to the colonial era. Shipwrecks were common at the time, and many of the ships were transporting barrels of rum. Upon a shipwreck, locals would scavenge the ship and hide the rum they found behind the large sand dunes. The locals said that the rum was strong enough to "kill the devil," so the dunes where they would hide the rum were nicknamed 'Kill Devil Hills.'" Interesting.*

The next leg of my trip found me crossing over to Roanoke Island and stopping in at the Roanoke Island Festival Park, which was billed as 'an interactive family attraction that celebrates the first English settlement in America'; read: interactive awkwardness for a single, young adult, female visiting the place by herself. Exhibit A: upon boarding the ship below, a replica of one of the ships from the Roanoke Voyage of 1585, a few time-period characters showed me the ropes and then coaxed me into singing a song with them that I had never heard before. Needless to say, it wasn't a pretty sight. . .or sound really.

After that 'fun' experience, I then wandered over to the 'settlement' area where I proceeded to converse with some other time-period characters, who astonishingly already knew of the Seattle-area despite it being the late 1500s, hmm. Thinking that I had gotten all that I was going to get out of that stop, and hoping to avoid further humiliation, I decided to move on to my next, and last, historical location of the day.

Perhaps you recall learning about the Roanoke Colony, a.k.a. "The Lost Colony", back in the day. It was set up to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony, and it is where Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas was born. However, after three years of being on their own, when ships from England returned nobody was to be found and no one knows for sure what became of the colonists. On my last stop of the day, at the purposed location of where the colony had been, I wasn't able to find the lost colonists either. I did however learn another fact about the area that I wasn't expecting; apparently Roanoke Island served as a 'safe haven' for slaves during the Civil War and became known as the Freedmen's Colony, becoming a refuge for thousands of slaves. One thing that I found neat is that a couple hundred years after the first (failed) attempts to make something monumental of this land it did end up playing an important role in American history and the lives of Americans. Pretty cool.

As you can see, it was quite the educational day. . .I do love history though (and I hope you enjoyed the brief historical review as well). And now I can also check North Carolina off the 'states I haven't been to' list. One more down, still quite a few yet to go. But in the midst of trying to hit up all of the states, I just might have to make a return trip to the Outer Banks at some point. Despite the less than desirable weather, I can see how the area would be positively sublime for a summer getaway, perhaps I'll have to take that into consideration when the summer months roll around this upcoming year. You're more than welcome to come along as well.

SEASON'S GREETINGS

The holidays are upon us, and that can mean any number of things. For some it's a time of reflection, for others -- anticipation. Emotions can range from childlike excitement to adult-like stress. Regardless of what thoughts, feelings, and/or emotions this time of year stirs up, the truth of the matter is that it is a time of the year unlike any other. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, as in arriving in T-minus two days, I'm feeling the advancement of the holiday season . . .and am intending to fully embrace each day of the season (which I suppose I should do on a regular basis anyway, eh, I'll work on that). I'll admit, I did fall prey to listening to Christmas music before its acceptable start date of after Thanksgiving, and in doing so I've really been taken with a certain song that actually seems rather pertinent to the holiday we'll be celebrating on Thursday. Aside from the general musical allure of Josh Groban's 'Thankful,' these specific lyrics have struck a chord with me:

Some days we forget
To look around us
Some days we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

What gets me the most is the somewhat paradoxical concept of doing more to make a difference and yet also being so thankful for what already is. It's convicting on both levels, at least for me. Being increasingly aware of the state of the world, I want to continue to do what I can to alleviate others' burdens and, as cliche as it may be, to make the world a better place; whether doing something as grandiose as traveling to a third world country and serving there, or doing something as 'little' as holding the door open for a stranger. And in the spirit of thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving itself , and all the other days throughout the year, I want to remember all the things that I have to be thankful for, including (but not limited to):

- a God who loves me
- a wonderful, supportive, fun, loving, etc. family
- fabulous friends who're there for me in both the good and bad
- the opportunities and experiences I've been blessed with
- my health
- the abilities, capabilities, and talents I've been given
- freedom
- and so much more, for as Josh's song states, "there's so much to be thankful for."

So I hope that this holiday season we're all able to acknowledge what we have to be thankful for, and that we might even create moments in the weeks to come (and hopefully even beyond the holidays) for others and ourselves to be thankful. Whatever the holidays mean for you, I hope that somewhere in the mix you are able to feel love and connectedness, whether from people close to you or even complete strangers. Happy holidays everyone!

AH, DOMESTICITY

I've had some blue cheese hanging out in my fridge for awhile now and it's been beckoning for me to do something with it, so tonight I gave in. Despite the fact that I think that I should take home-ec all over again, I conjured up something that ended up being even more than edible, it was delicious. If you happen to have these ingredients lying around and want to make something tasty I suggest trying this:

Stuffed Blue Cheese Pork Chops

1 Pork Chop (de-boned and fat-trimmed)

Crumbled Blue Cheese

Bacon Bits (or real bacon if, unlike me, you have some)

Sliced Almonds

Garlic Powder

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the blue cheese, bacon bits, and sliced almonds (I just eye-balled the amounts in conjunction with the size of my pork chop). Butterfly the pork chop and place the blue cheese and other ingredient mixture on one side, place the other side of the pork chop on top, use toothpicks if necessary to hold it together. Season with garlic powder (again, I just eye-balled it here). Place pork in greased, shallow baking dish and cook for 20 minutes, or longer depending on size of the pork.

And voila!

To tie my meal together I whipped up some herb and butter rice as well and added a glass of red wine (it's good for the heart after all). Here's my finished product before it was consumed:

(And yes, I realize that the pork is not only funny looking but rather small, don't let that deceive you though.)

It may not have been a meal of grandeur but it was a step up from the pasta fallback I've been accustomed to making, I'm baby-stepping my way in getting the knack for being domestic. Now I need to figure out how to not spend an hour and a half on a meal that should take a third of that time. . .and that is consumed in about 20 minutes. Hmm.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

. . .because I hear Christmas music. It seems that one of the stations that I listen to has begun its stretch of playing Christmas music from now until Christmas, with no commercials even. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Christmas music, but putting it on the airwaves this early?! I don't intend to get tired of the Christmas spirit before the season even properly arrives so it looks like I'll have to set my alarm to a different radio station. . .at least for a couple of weeks.