First birthday

I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.





More here.

Around the world

I'm always on the lookout for good blogs to read, especially since I spend about 7 hours a day surfing the web. (I'm told the slow times won't last long; soon I'll be traveling for trainings, and then it'll be fall, which, since our clients are mainly schools, is the busiest time for Customer Support.) My latest discovery is not a blog, though. It's a new weekly newspaper column. But since you can read it online, it's updated regularly, and it's about someone's life, it's pretty much like a blog. (Just imagine your blog being published in the New York Times...holy cow!)

Anyway, this guy is going to travel around the world in 90 days. Dreamy, right? The catch is that he's on a budget. No more than $100/night for lodging, and $40/day for meals (hello, Rachael Ray!). This seems incredibly doable, since that's basically how I always travel. But this guy is going to some pretty far-out places: Pakistan, Croatia, and Galicia to name a few. Of course, his itinerary may change since he doesn't want to be tied down by pesky planning. He has not enumerated any specific budget limitations for transportation, but since he plans to use low-cost air carriers, buses, trains, and ferries, it will probably be pretty cheap. Anyway, his column will appear every Wednesday, chronicling his journey, and I have high hopes that it will be entertaining reading.

Life goes on

On the way to a late lunch/early dinner (lunner?) Sunday at Carrabba's, it was a caravan of three: my parents in the lead, me in the middle, and my brother and his family bringing up the rear. We were driving in the outer lane of highway 64 east, and in a heartbeat a deer ran out from the median onto the road. It was not aiming for me, but rather my parents' car. Which means that a) I did not hit it, but b) I got a front-row seat for the unfortunate action. The deer followed what I assume to be a similar path to the one that hit me six months ago. Ran into the driver's side front quarter panel, then ricocheted off the rear door. Perhaps due to the speed, the poor doe went flying pretty high in the air, doing some awful flips, eventually landing at the left edge of the inside lane. I was expecting my dad to pull over right away, but he didn't. I assume he was stunned into proceeding. You know--when something terrible happens, and you don't quite know how to react, so you just keep on. I did it too--didn't pull over until I regained my wits. We did eventually pull over, the entire caravan on the side of the road. I was rather shaken up, having witnessed from afar what I'd only imagined happened that night back in November. But you don't expect this kind of thing on a bright, beautiful spring day. The script calls for darkness, or at least ominous clouds. But the thunderstorms of the previous evening had cleared, and the rain made everything smell clean, and the sun was shining on the bright green grass and trees. An innocent creature wandered where it shouldn't have, and it was a fatal mistake. I am grateful the only casualty was the deer, but at the same time I am uncomfortable dismissing the deer's life as expendable. My brother was my hero for the day, running back to where the deer lied motionless, and pulling it off the road so that it would not continue to be hit by more speeding vehicles. What's so bizarre is that after the police report, we went on with our day as planned. Continued on to the restaurant, waited for an hour, got booster seats and a high chair, dipped bread in olive oil, cut into chicken, spooned potatoes, guzzled caffeine, shopped for digital cameras. It never ceases to amaze me that life goes on. But it always does. Certain events feel like they should make the world stop turning, or at least change things, even if it's just a little, but no.

Memory

Memory is a mysterious thing. Case in point: my gym lock. I’ve had it for about two years. It’s a purple combination lock that I bought at Target. (Did you need to know that?) Although I did not get to pick the combination, the string of numbers lends itself pretty well to memorization. And usually I manage to pull them up from the recesses of my brain when needed. But I vividly recall one evening about a year or so ago, having to sit on a locker room bench trying to clear my synapses, because I could not for the life of me remember the numbers in the correct order. I was drawing a blank. Or rather, I was drawing a jumbled mess. I think numbers from my previous combo lock even crept in. I tried many different strings and none of them worked. There was a long moment of slight panic--what am I going to do? My car keys are in there. My cell phone is in there. And there's no way I can get to them. Briefly visions of gym staff arriving on the scene with some lock cutting tool entered my mind, but I dismissed them quickly because, darn it, I knew the numbers, they were in my brain, they were just temporarily inaccessible. And I knew, of course, that the more frustrated and panicky I got, the less likely I’d be able to remember them. I ended up distracting myself by watching some TV (they always had MTV2 on in the locker room at the LAX 24 Hour Fitness) and then trying again, and I finally got it.

So it was a weird feeling when I walked into the locker room the first day at my new gym and a string of numbers just popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere. But of course, it wasn’t really out of nowhere. I was back in a locker room, and my situational memory brought those numbers up to the surface. Remarkable how the brain works.

Speaking of forgetfulness.... Unless I stand right in front of the stove for the duration of the cooking time, there is a 95% chance that the pot will boil over. I've burned many things in the toaster oven. And when I put clothes in the washer, often times I forget to transfer them to the dryer for hours. Is this an indication that I'm easily distracted and scatterbrained (in an ADD sort of way) or that I have a bad memory? I'm not sure either one is better than the other!

Busy Saturday

Yesterday was a fun day. Around noon my parents and I went to the Apex Peakfest, an annual street fair that has over 200 vendors.

(view from north end, looking south...fire station on the left)

(view from south end, looking north...you can spot the water tower in the distance)

I got a pretty silver bracelet but otherwise we just browsed. It was a gorgeous day with a nice breeze. A leeetle bit hot in the sun but in the shade, perfect.

After leaving the festival, we headed over to Office Max because I wanted a trackball mouse--my absolute last idea to help ease some shoulder tension and pain. We'll see if it works. Next we stopped at A.C. Moore, a craft store like Michael's or Joann's, because my dad is just in love with it since his first trip to one in Durham a week ago. (Yes, I said my dad--he's not your average sports nut guy, to be sure.)

We had lunch at Lucky 32, a nice restaurant in Cary that we hadn't been to before. The decor was nice, the bathrooms were really nice (with toilet seat covers!!!!), and the menu had many enticing options . My mom and I liked our meals but my dad wasn't impressed with his flavorless open-faced turkey sandwich.

Afterwards we were going to check out the Martha Stewart KB Homes in Cary, but we got on the 40 freeway and traffic was at a crawl so we ditched that plan. We were going to head for Kmart but missed the exit, so we just went around in a circle on the beltline. I'd never done that before. Everything is so green and lush, it's just beautiful. If I had to pick one word to summarize North Carolina, it would be TREES.

We got off on Six Forks Road for a bit of show-and-tell ("That's my office," "Over there's my gym," "Here's the Bear Rock I go to for lunch sometimes," etc.) We continued way up Six Forks Rd. and, wouldn't you know it, found a Kmart. My parents were interested in something for the backyard (I can't say what yet) but they didn't have it.

Exiting the parking lot, we unknowingly got on the wrong street (Strickland) and ended up having a great detour. We drove through a very nice neighborhood (turns out to be called Crosswinds, with houses around $350k) and we spotted a Goodberry's, where we stopped for our first frozen custard. My coworker had given me a gift card she'd won and said she'd never use, so it was free! It was delicious--basically like ice cream, but much smoother.

We got back onto Six Forks and then went up to the 540, hooked up with the 40, and then exited at Harrison for a quick peek at Umstead State Park. We drove through Cary and stopped at their Kmart, which we discovered, after much confusion, had the desired backyard item. We managed to squeeze it into the car (barely) and then we came back to my apartment around 9. Whew! I slept like a baby. :)

The latest on Trader Joe's

[This started out as a quick post about the latest news on Trader Joe's coming to the Triangle. Then it mushroomed into a mini research project, which may or may not be of interest to you. I find it fascinating though.]

Here are the latest developments, from CaryNews.com...still no confirmation about the store's location or arrival date, but it's looking mighty promising! I also loved reading people's comments on this News & Observer page. It makes me feel more justified in my excitement to know that others are just as devoted.

A side note, however: TJ's is owned by German billionaires? Crap. Did a little research. Yep, it's true. It was started by Joe Coulombe as a Los Angeles convenience store chain in 1958, then bought in 1979 by Germans Karl and Theo Albrecht, who also own the ALDI food chain. All right, well, who owns my other options?

• Lowe's Foods is owned by Alex Lee, a Hickory, NC company.
• Harris Teeter is headquartered in Matthews, NC. (Some history here.) It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Charlotte-based Ruddick Corporation.
• Food Lion, although headquartered out of Salisbury, NC, is owned by a Belgian company. It is a subsidiary of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group.
• Kroger is owned by Kroger Co. (which also owns Ralphs, Fred Meyer, and Smiths Food & Drug). Kroger is a Cincinnati-based company.
• Whole Foods is owned by Whole Foods Market, Inc., based in Austin, TX.

What about the stores I used to shop at in California?

• Stater Brothers is headquarted in Colton, CA.
• Albertsons (headquartered in Boise, ID) used to own Sav-On, Osco, Jewell, Acme, and Lucky, but the whole lot was recently acquired by a consortium of investors. (Details here.) SuperValu (headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota) got 1100 stores, making it the second largest grocer behind Kroger. Cerberus (a hedge fund group!) got 600. (Read about Cerberus here and here. Something I can't quite put my finger on sounds kind of ominous.)
• Vons and Pavillions (and Safeway) are owned by Safeway, Inc., based in Pleasanton, CA.
• Ralphs is owned by Kroger (as mentioned above).

So it looks like even though EVERYTHING is a GIANT corporation (except for Stater Bros.--still a corporation, but operates in only six counties of CA), they're all Amerian-owned except for Trader Joe's and Food Lion. Hmph. Tsk tsk. Grr.

Okay, so TJ's is owned by Germans. Does that mean it's un-American to shop there? This makes me feel a little better:

I myself am an employee at a Trader Joes here in the DC area. And I can honestly say that out of the countless jobs I've had, TJ's has been the most pleasant to work for. They seem to really take a genuine interest in the well being of their employees. It's the little things that they pay attention to that really have an effect on us. For example, if there is a special occasion, the mgt. makes sure to celebrate it and include the whole staff. They also go out of their way to let you know that you're doing a good job as well...I've been taken out to lunch at a restaurant for an hour and it was paid for by TJ's. They've got great benefits [even for part-time employees], and I actually just got my first raise and it was substantial! I make more money now than I EVER have and ive only worked there for 5 months.

But then again, someone pointed out that TJ's produce is overpackaged...e.g., when you buy apples they come in a plastic tray with plastic wrap over it (neither of which is recyclable here in Apex). Whereas in a regular supermarket, you put the apples in a reusable plastic bag. Hmm.

Nothing's ever black and white.

If you're interested in reading more about TJ's, I found this loooong article, which talks about how it became successful. Apparently there's a whole book about it!

My name in Flickr

It's a visual language...



I really like how Nicole's turned out...

You can try it here.

More attempts:

Time to rack up the frequent flier miles

Although nothing is written in stone, here are the places I will probably get to visit through my job this summer:

North Carolina:

Eastern North Carolina (Pamlico/Chowan Counties)
Northwestern North Carolina (Alleghany County - where my brother and his family live!)
Southern North Carolina (Mecklenburg County - i.e., Charlotte)
Western North Carolina (various counties in the mountains)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

National:

South Carolina
Northern Ohio (2-3 days)
Illinois (2-3 days)
Pittsburgh (1 week!) (!)
Albany, New York (3 days)

The only minor snag is that the whole purpose of the traveling is to retrain our customers on our new user interface...which is not done yet and has an ever-changing deadline. I haven't even tried out the beta version yet, and I'm supposed to show district superintendents how to use it in a couple months? Yikes!

Observation

There is a small yet in some ways significant difference between North Carolina and California that I have heretofore neglected to discuss. It’s the kind of thing that, when confronted with it, I think to myself, “I should totally blog about this,” but then when it comes time to sit down at the keyboard, I have long forgotten about it. I am speaking about none other than toilet seat covers. Or rather, the lack of them here in the Tar Heel State. Every public bathroom in California has them, but here, not so much. I’ve probably seen them once. I’d always taken them for granted. I figured it was one of those modern-day givens, something that came into common use years ago and is here to stay. But apparently it’s not as common as I assumed. It’s peculiar how something so basic can be ubiquitous in one state and completely absent in another. It makes me wonder: are people in California that much more concerned about germs and cleanliness? At what point does the tide turn and merchants/office building managers feel compelled to provide this courtesy? I guess I have to tally this oddity in the “culture shock” column, although like everything else, it’s not been so much a shock as an “all righty then.”

Sleep issues

I think I might actually be getting too much sleep. I know, this is not commonly considered a problem. Most people would give a kidney to be able to indulge in nine hours of sleep a night. But I think this over-indulgence may actually be the reason why I haven’t been getting truly restful repose lately. I’m not the type of person whose sleep is easily disturbed by things like an unsettled mind, daily stresses, etc. I could be charged with defusing a bomb on a nuclear submarine transporting a cargo of puppies, and the night before I’d sleep fine. But lately I’ve been tossing and turning a lot, and waking up many times during the night.

I have attempted to get to the bottom of this through a process of trial and error. Am I not tired enough at the end of the day? This is partly what prompted me to join a gym, knowing that regular exercise makes for better sleep. Am I too hot? Take off the second layer. Is it the darn chirping birds? Keep the windows closed. All routes tested to no avail. Last night I even decided to plug my night light back in, thinking maybe that was the culprit. (I’m grasping at straws, people!) I still woke up, but I took note of the time: around 3 am. I’d gone to bed around 9:45. So I’d slept soundly for the first five hours. After that, it was somewhat restless, until my alarm went off at 6:20. It dawned on me that maybe I don’t need as many Z's as I've been allowing myself. So the experiment continues, with a new variable. I will stay up later and see if that makes a difference. Because seven solid hours are better than nine fitful ones.