A Charleston Newbie's Guide to Halloween

So, I had this idea over the summer to be 80’s rock stars for Halloween, because everyone loves 80’s rock stars…and in honor of my brother Tim, and my childhood memories of him jumping off the basement fireplace to Van Halen’s ‘Jump!’ over and over again, I’m going to be David Lee Roth, and my husband is going as Sammy Hagar, and we are going to argue all night about which one of us was better for the band (which, come on, we already know the answer to ;). I got some great digs in NYC last weekend (because people are actually CURRENTLY WEARING the same kind of things that David Lee Roth wore on stage back in the day).

You can bet your bottom dollar, however, I will not be jumping like ‘this’ on Saturday…



Anywho, to get ready for the weekend here in Charleston, I've found 3 Super Cool Things to do this Halloween weekend:

1. Rock Out:

Who:  Band Of Horses (LOVE)



Where: Performing Arts Center. North Charleston

When: 8pm, Friday, 10/29

Info: Tix are sold out, BUT, some are being sold on Craigslist for last minute peeps. And maybe the band will be hanging around town this weekend, which would also be a super cool Halloween sighting downtown.

Listen: http://www.bandofhorses.com/us/music/infinite-arms


2. Get Spooky (On the Town):  

What:  It’s a HALLOWEEN BASH

Where: Triangle Char and Bar, West Ashley, Charleston

When: Saturday, Oct 30th, Party starts at 7pm

Info: Live Music by the Green Levels
- $2 Triangle Bloody Red Brews
- Costume Contest at 11pm
- Prizes include 4 tickets to our legendary New Year's party & free bar tabs!


3. Get Spooky (Kickin' it Old School):



What:  Have a more perfect way to spend 90 minutes before going out than a walking Ghost Tour in historic Charleston? I didn't think so. And Charleston is kinda spooky ANY evening, so I think Halloween is going to be very special.

Where: Historic, downtown Charleston

When: FUN walking tours are still available for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night through Bulldog Tours.

Info: Bulldog Walking Tours include:
- The Charleston Ghost and Dungeon Tour
- The Charleston Ghost and Graveyard Tour
- The Charleston Haunted Jail Tour
(Another one I won’t mention on my PG Blog)

Reserve: http://www.zerve.com/Bulldog/Ghost/calendar

What is everyone ELSE doing for Halloween? Dressing up as rockers, yes? No? Whatever you do, watch this first for inspiration:



PS - Kelly, Parker, and Stephanie, wish you were here. XOXO

A Charleston Newbie's Guide to Being Positive and Kind, aka "The New Black"

I saw this comment in a laundry list of posts today in response to an article that was written to teach people 'how to shop to save a significant amount of money on groceries'...

I love to read random articles about how to improve my life and finances, being in a constant effort to better myself and being that I am also 'in' to the social networking craze, I tend to scan the comments that follow the articles.

But lately I have stopped. Because the comments are just SO DARN NEGATIVE.

I'm also a "Fan" or I should say I "Like" the Today Show on Facebook, because I have watched the show religiously for years while getting ready for work, (sometimes they just have the most moving stories)
and for a few months I read their Facebook posts religiously, as well, and I saw nothing but responses to posts criticizing the Today Show's posts about the posts not being newsworthy.

Newsworthy being the key word here, the Today Show does, in fact, have fluffy news.

And if anyone ever told you otherwise they haven't really been watching it for years. But let's face it folks, I think fluffy news is where it's at when everyone is so stressed out and worn down. "WHY SO SERIOUS?" I would have to respond with, in that creepy Joker voice from Batman, the Dark Knight. But I'm really not trying to be creepy...I'm just trying to make the point that it's easy to freak out if you don't watch a little (or read a little) fluffy news.

So why are people so negative lately? Or shall I say, why are 'we' as a society not very positive?

As a nation we are run down, overworked, and cursing our houses that we bought in the recent housing boom as a way to 'build our future' that are yielding nothing and are instead costing us more money than they are currently worth. And we are SUPER PISSED. AS A WHOLE. And we all say to ourselves "All I want is what I... I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share" (to quote Sally from A Charlie Brown Christmas) Yes, it's true I've said this many times over the past 10 years.

But here's the deal. Life is difficult for everyone lately, and the positive people (and even the very wealthy people - yes, I'm going there) are no exception.

I gotta admit this is not my idea alone, the idea of being positive. I'm certainly not original. For years I worked with someone that had a post it note stuck to his computer that said "POSITIVE PRESENT". And I for a long time walked by and saw that post it note and simply thought 'hmmmmmmmm' and puckered my face.

Because it really did take me a few years to realize what it meant.

For those cloudy few years there wasn't an evening I didn't come home with my 'hooch' in hand in my brown bag, ready to pour myself a healthy glass of wine. That puckered face I walked around with will undoubtedly cost me some cash for Botox one day...

So, yes, maybe I'm a follower now that I've suddenly made this realization of "let's be nice to each other". And yes, maybe I did just stop reading a book about a woman that cheats on her husband halfway through it to instead read an inspirational book with a kitten on the cover. But seriously, how could you resist that face?!?!?!

Being positive, you mark my words, is and will be THE NEW BLACK. And you don't have to give up your 'deep and dark' books for novels covered in kittens to make this happen. (At least if you don't want to)

A Charleston Newbie's Guide to Traveling to New York

I think it's possible that I have adopted the Charleston way of life much faster than one would have thought.

How do I know this?

I had to fly to New York for a meeting last night, and I received text message after text message that my flight was delayed. Technology is amazing; my trusty iPhone told me each time my flight time was pushed back so I didn't have to sit in the Charleston airport trying to figure out what to do for 2 hours.

So I went to the airport to check-in to my flight at 7:30pm. When I got there, ticketing was completely deserted...like closed. Not a soul was there to help me. I wandered around and found someone in baggage that said I was lucky he knew how to do ticketing. And I WAS thankful that he was so nice and helpful to help me and get me on my way. And I wrote an email to his boss to tell him so, as well.

And that's when I knew...

Something has changed in me. I would have totally flipped if something like that had happened in DC...and I DIDN'T. But I guess something like that would never really happen in DC, because on the scale of people flipping, I'm not nearly as bad as most people (I would like to think), and to prevent airport rage on a large scale, airport employees would not risk closing their ticketing counter 15 minutes early, when there is a delayed flight that should have prevented them otherwise.

So I boarded my flight, flew into NYC, and picked up my rental car to drive to Westchester.

And that's, my friends, when I realized I made a big mistake. Somehow in the past year and a half, since I left DC, I have become the worst driver ever. I no longer have to sit in traffic two hours a day trying to avoid an accident. In Charleston, I can make it to wherever I'm going, but I may miss a turn or three. But missing a turn in Charleston is not like missing a turn in New York City.

By some miracle and a wrong turn into the Bronx, however, I made it to my destination in one piece. And that was wonderful, and it's so beautiful in Westchester County this time of year with the fall leaves. What a lovely experience.

And now here I am in Brooklyn, NY, waiting for my friends to get home from work so we can hang out and start our super duper weekend. My meeting ended early today, so I took my GPS and my gigantic silver rent-a-car and drove from Westchester County to Brooklyn, cursing myself the entire time that I decided to rent that car to drive around, instead of hiring a car service. Really, who CHOOSES to drive a car around New York City?

So I made my way to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and after 10 minutes of driving down one way street after one way street, and after one failed parallel parking job that I gave up on, I parked the over-sized, awkward, silver American car. Thank GOD. I just hope it's there tomorrow when I need to take it back.

And sitting at a coffee shop in my gold flower topped flats, patterned slacks (yes, I just said SLACKS), puffy silk shirt and fancy fall beige blazer that I am proud to wear on weekends in Charleston (or evenings out), I have realized...I am not nearly cool enough for Brooklyn. In fact, I am the exact opposite. I kinda feel like someone's mother sitting here among the urban hipsters, and since I'm no one's mother yet...that's not really a good feeling. But when I got ready this morning and looked in the mirror, I thought I looked quite nice, at least by Charleston standards.

And this is when I knew...Charleston is where I belong.

A Charleston Newbie's Guide to Facebook: The Wonderful (Evil) 'Social' Network

I'm sure I'm not the only person that on a daily basis checks Facebook every few hours to see what my friends and family are saying and doing across the country. I have a little bonus that it is part of my job to go on Facebook and monitor what's going on, so that gives me the freedom to do so pretty much whenever I want.

BUT...when you have recently moved to a new city where you haven't met a ton of people, logging on to Facebook can be both fun and depressing...at the same time.

You get to see all of the fun you are missing: new babies being born, parties missed, and rallies you are unable to attend. I mean, in the 20 years I lived in DC, there was not one rally or march I wanted to attend, even though I do pay attention to politics. The second we move farther than driving distance, John Stewart and Steven Colbert decide they are going to have this awesome rally on the Washington Mall with food, fun, entertainment...oh yeah, and ALL OF MY FRIENDS!

When you see these types of things on Facebook you say to yourself 'did I make the right choice? I used to think I did, but now I'm not so sure'. And you tend to forget the many hours you wished to move to the city you now reside, because, well, your friends and family are just having such an awesome time without you.

Here's the deal, however. The right choice was made. Because as soon as you decide you need to move back to wherever it is you moved from, you will instantly regret it. It's like going back to a toxic relationship. You forget about the hours of your life spent wasted sitting in rush hour traffic and the many awful things said to you by strangers on the city streets and how if someone approached you on the street wanting to talk to you it was best to cross the street to the opposite side to avoid them as they were most likely 'crazy'. Those people are still there living amongst your loved ones and are ready to dish out some more negativity if you let them. So let's not be hasty. :)

But Facebook makes it seem like the crazy people have been deported from DC and that everyone is having a wonderful time and making money hand over fist in this awful economy. That, my friends, is what Facebook is really good at. One of my friends once said FaceBrag should be added to the dictionary and I would tend to agree. If I don't have anything good to say about how wonderful my life is on a particular day, I tend to post pictures or nothing at all, because I would rather not have 200+ friends feeling sorry for me. I would rather talk about how amazing my life is so other people can be envious and start booking their flights to come visit.

So...why do we all spend so many hours on this virtual reality 'social network' called Facebook? Because it is something to do and when you don't live near your loved ones it's a brilliant free way to keep up with them. The challenge that we are all forgetting when we are on it is if we are there, mingling in our virtual comfort zone, we are not out making new friends with real people. When chat rooms first came out, I was in High School, and I remember thinking how awful it would be to spend most of your time on a computer talking to random people rather than going outside and doing things and making real friends. The funny thing is, I think just about everyone (myself included) now spends most of their time social networking on what I believe are anti-social networks because I have seen Facebook serve more to divide friends and relationships in the past few years than create new ones.

When it comes to social networking, the goal is to proceed with (major) caution and moderation. Just like how eating too many pickles is bad (speaking from experience!), or drinking too much wine, too much Facebooking is also really not good.

Am I the only person that does this?

Parent's Weekend

So most people think of parent's weekend as college kids welcoming their parents to their school and showing them around. I'm in my early 30's and my parent's weekend was a little different, since I've been out of college for 12 years.

My husband and I moved to Charleston, South Carolina with our almost 11 year old Corgi mix less than 2 months ago, from Southern Pines, NC. Originally from the Washington, DC, area, we had always dreamed of getting out of the rat race and traffic of Washington DC and moving to the warm, inviting south, full of beaches and water, and friendly people. So we moved to North Carolina for a year and that wasn't perfect for us...it was really nice, but not perfect, at least not for us. Charleston seems to be the pinnacle of what you would want in any city. It's gorgeous, the weather is amazing, and we finally live in a state that has palm trees that grow naturally (it's the freaking Palmetto STATE! Hallelujah!).

There is only one problem. We only have two friends in Charleston. I mean, we've met a few other people but I wouldn't say we could call them on a whim to hang out. And we are so used to having tons of friends and family around, it's really quite new to us to be pretty alone in the world. The fact that I work from home doesn't really help, either.

So having my mom, stepdad, niece, and nephew come to visit this weekend was awesome. I like to do just about anything, and love the history of Charleston. I like to think of myself as a nerd that's kinda cool. I took a personal day off of work recently to go visit Drayton Hall, a historic plantation in West Ashley, with my Canon Digital Rebel camera to take some artsy shots and work with them for fun.When you don't know a lot of people, you have lots of time on your hands all of the sudden to do things like that. This weekend, I decided to take my family to Middleton Place, another plantation in the West Ashley area of Charleston that looked amazing on their website.

Middleton Place was really very pretty, with wide, expansive grassy lawns and gardens overlooking the Ashley River. And the weather was absolutely amazing...sunny and upper 60's/low 70's. Talk about a perfect day for learning about my new town. Afterwards, we went down to the Battery in historic Charleston and decided to explore the area. Since I'm totally obsessed with the price of real estate, we walked along the water and I looked Zillow up on my iPhone to see if one day I could possibly afford to live there. But alas, that is not going to happen until I make my millions from whatever amazing idea I have at some point.

I gotta say, thank god for parents and the money they have for things like Carriage rides, which I've always wanted to do, but given the current economy, I feel like I can't really splurge for stuff like that. I mostly look for things to do that are more reasonably priced...or free, like the beach (thank god for that). I realized while on the Carriage ride that I would really like to be a SOB at some point (a resident that lives South of Broad) and I could also be a SNOB if I couldn't afford to spring for the SOB status (Slightly North of Broad). Either one would be great, because really I think I was meant to be born in the south in an amazing historic house that was passed down from generation to generation, and I can be a SNOB no problem if need be, and even a SOB if someone cuts me off in traffic. I did live in the DC area for 20 years, for god sake!

To finish off our day, we went to Garibaldi, an Italian restaurant on S. Market St, which is absolutely amazing. This was the second time I have eaten there, and the price is reasonable, the atmosphere very quaint and cozy, and the waitstaff very attentive. Of course, my husband, who was out of town the entire weekend was very jealous that he missed out. I'm sure this place will become a regular evening out for us. We've tried a few other Italian restaurants in Charleston and this one beats the others by leaps and bounds. It's really that good...but I still have a lot to learn about this city. Hopefully I'll meet some nice peeps soon with tips on what to try next.