Twilight Update

...because I am sure you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, right? I finished Book 3, Eclipse, a couple nights ago after a late night, multiple hour reading session. I am now very impatiently waiting for Breaking Dawn to show up on the doorstep in that always important amazon.com box. The minutes feel like hours, lemme tell ya.....

Our holidays

We had a great holiday weekend. Christmas Day was relaxing and laid back - fantastic. The holiday weekend was also a blast, as Amy, Ed, Ellis and Owen came to visit us from Atlanta. We ate out at a few favorite places and even made a trip to the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in North Durham. That museum is amazingly fun - for kiddos and grown ups alike! With that being said, I will let the photos tell the rest of the story. Happy holidays!

A Kitty Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve!

I am one of five people in my office at work today. I despise having no vacation time to spare. But until I get out of here, I need to keep myself busy. I have actually managed to near completion on a project that has been on my desk for a while, but I want to take a break and say HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all my readers.

Our plans this year are rather simple. I am going home this afternoon, I am going to clean, and Mike and I are beginning our own holiday traditions. We have decided on taco night for dinner - because to me, Taco Night is almost as exciting as Christmas anyway. We plan on watching a holiday movie or two (not sure what those will be - but I am going to suggest watching a Christmas episode of Arrested Development somewhere in there). Mike stayed up super late working on a paper due for a January conference, and he will hopefully be able to get that wrapped up before the taco night festivities begin.

Our Christmas day will also be rather low key. It will just be Mike and I for Christmas Day - although we may wander out Christmas evening if the fancy strikes us. This is Mike's first Christmas away from his Mom, which I know will be hard for both him and her. With my lack of vacation time, Mike's schedule with his paper and the insane amount of cost associated with travel, we had to stay put this year. It's also difficult when our families live so far from each other. I haven't been home in far too long, and Mike hasn't even been to Texas yet. It was hard to justify, even if I had the time off, to go to Florida over Texas. Mike's Mom is on her own, but my family hasn't had me home for Christmas in a couple of years. Tough decisions as a married couple, I tell ya. But it was decided that we would stay put in North Carolina and spend our first married Christmas together just the two of us. We are both sad that we won't be with our families, but we will be with each other - and that is wonderful all in itself.

We have a fun dinner planned for Christmas Day planned. Some yummy foods for the both us - nothing too crazy, just some warm comfort food. Mike wants some ham, I want some Quorn turkey roll again. Some cabbage casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, some sort of veggie. I may make an apple crisp. That will be about it for us.

I think the most exciting thing about Christmas will be on December 26. Ed, Amy, Owen and Ellis are coming in from Atlanta to spend the weekend with us in D-town. We always love having a chance to spend time with them, so it is sure to be a great weekend. Next week though, it's back to the grind. With no vacation time, I'm working every day next week except New Year's Day.

Okay, I am going to finish up this project so I can get out of here a bit early today. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!!!!!

Twilight update: I finished New Moon last night and am starting Eclipse today. I ordered Breaking Dawn on Amazon and it will be delivered next week. Since I loved the books so much, I went ahead and bought Books 1 and 4 on Amazon yesterday in hard copy, and Mike got me book 3 in hard copy yesterday. I just need to Pick up Book 2 and I will have the full set. I have also started reading Midnight Sun, which is Twilight but from Edward's perspective. It is available online at www.stepheniemeyers.com. I'm hooked :-)

Ridiculous Addictions: Twilight

Cast photo from Twilight the movie

I am not a 14 year old girl. But if you looked at my nightstand reading, you would assume I was. Several friends had read Stephenie Myers' Twilight - some liked it, some loathed it and some loved it. I was curious about all the hype, so my good friend Darrah was happy to send me her copy. Let's just say I flew through the book. In three nights of reading, I killed it off. I actually slept in late on Sunday so I wouldn't have to wait too long to go see the first showing at the theatre that day. I was the only person in the theatre (which happened to be without heat) and watched with utter awe the movie based on the book. I have no idea how this happened. Trust me, my eyes are kind of rolling, too.

I love the writing - I like Meyers way of describing environment and character. (Or maybe I thrilled with reading books meant for adolescents after reading academic style writing for all those years of grad school.) While some critics have blasted the flatness of the character development, I think that sometimes it's nice to not get too much info on the people. It's more fun to figure out what's not being said.

After I saw the movie on Sunday, I bought the next book in the series, New Moon. I am almost 200 pages into that and hope to crank it out in the next couple days. Luckily there are two more books in the series already waiting for me. It's kind of fun to have this little reading obsession for a while. The urge to fly through books is one that only happens in spurts for me, so I am going to relish it while it lasts!

Finally, a holiday party!

As you read in my previous post about the incident surrounding the light decorated ficus in my office, you probably guessed that we don't have a holiday party. You are completely right in that. We have a kick off to the year party in January, but that's a ways off. In the meantime, it's just work as usual. Although I have found out that several teams around the office are having year end holiday dinners, etc. Why doesn't my team??? Anyway. Beyond Tim and Christy's holiday party a couple weeks ago, I have been to no other holiday parties. Which is a bummer. Cause I am a fan of both the holidays AND parties. Put them together, and BAM, guaranteed good time. Luckily this evening presents an opportunity for a holiday party! And YOU are invited, too!


The James Joyce is having a holiday party tonight. It's private from 8-10pm (just regulars and staff - yes, I am a regular :p ), but it opens up to the public at 10pm. If you are in Durham and looking for a good time, come on out!!!!

Following the news

As many of you in the Durham area may be aware, the CEO of where I work, Martin Eakes, was brutally assaulted in the parking garage behind our office. It happened the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and there has been all sorts of media attention to the event. I haven't posted much about it here mainly because I didn't want folks (HI, MOM!) to get all worried. Downtown Durham is actually a pretty damn place to be for work or living, so I don't feel unsafe when I am coming to and leaving work. In fact, many of us around here have thought that random crime wasn't really the case at all. Barry Saunder's N&O editorial from today pretty much sums up what I have been thinking since this happened:

http://www.newsobserver.com/134/story/1335527.html

Here's the story itself:

Mugging delivered message

if you closed one eye and squinted real hard out of the other one -- view the assault on Self-Help Credit Union co-founder Martin Eakes in the elevator of a downtown Durham parking garage Nov. 24 as a random attack. Perhaps Eakes was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And the fact that the four thugs who used his head as a punching bag coordinated their positioning -- there was one dude on each stairwell blocking any potential escape route and two on the elevator -- why, that's what all street robbers do, right?

If you believe that, I've got a low-interest, subprime loan for you. Sign here.

Neither Eakes nor Durham police are saying he was targeted because of his work on behalf of poor people and against those lending organizations that prey on the poor.

But I am.

As someone who has, regrettably, been on both sides of the whole robbery/victim dynamic -- don't ask -- I know that planning and precision are not strong suits of predators.

Yet, Eakes said this of his attackers Monday: "They were very disciplined. They had the steps blocked ... and they focused on the head. There was not a single blow to the body."

Eakes said he felt some apprehension about getting onto the elevator with the two men who were already on it. "It was rainy, so I thought there was a possibility they'd just come in to get out of the rain."

OK, he hoped that was the case. Deep down, though, Eakes knew he'd seen a bad day.

"I knew I was in trouble. ... There was very little communication, except for one guy reassuring me everything was cool."

It wasn't. Eakes said he "punched the elevator button" and the four horsemen of the "a'parking lot" began punching him. "They were on me like a pack of wolves."

You're right: None of that is irrefutable evidence that Eakes was anything other than the unlucky passenger singled out for robbery. Funny thing is, though, robbery seemed like an afterthought. They went after the negligible loot in Eakes' pockets only after administering the vicious whomping.

C'mon now. You don't need a Ph.D. in thuggery to know that any robber worthy of his stocking mask is going to seek the path of least resistance. They'll ask first.

They asked Eakes for nothing. "Any one of them could've said, 'Give me your wallet,' and I'd have turned my pockets inside out," he said. "After they finished, they took my cell phones and wallet."

Eakes said his office has hired an off-duty Durham police officer to patrol the parking lot and deck from 4 to 10 p.m. "That's an important show of force, and the staff feels better."

When investigators asked Eakes whether he had any enemies, he and his staff laughed.

"When we first started," Eakes said, "the KKK used to threaten us. Then it was the drug dealers" who didn't want his organization fixing up rundown neighborhoods. After that, he got on the bad side of predatory lenders with usurious rates who don't like Eakes providing lending options for poor people.

"When Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are your heroes," Eakes said, "chances are you have enemies."

Eakes said he was glad he, not one of his staff, was the assault victim. "I think that'll call more attention to the problem" surrounding parking lot security downtown, he said.

King and Gandhi would be proud.

barry.saunders@newsobserver.com or 919-836-2811

Are you ready for some football??

On Sunday, Mike and I were lucky enough to be able to hop in the car and drive out to Charlotte to spend some quality time with friends Coddy and Phoebe. Phoebe is preggers with twins, and we haven't seen them since the wedding. The lovely couple happened to have two extra tickets to the Panthers vs Broncos game on Sunday, and they invited us out to join them. We are so glad we were able to make the trip. We started off our visit with an awesome brunch with Coddy. He took us to Zada Jane's which was just fantastic. Funky atmosphere and great food. They are super vegetarian friendly, so I was able to order biscuits with an herb gravy and soysage! How cool is that???

We got back to the house and started the "pre-game" (i.e. have a couple of beers). Phoebe got back from her baby shower, we all piled into the car, and we headed off for the game. Phoebe works in the courthouse only about 2 blocks from the stadium, so we were able to take advantage of that awesome parking. After downing another drink, we wandered down to the stadium. The seats were beyond amazing. The tickets are season tickets from Phoebe's godfather, and they are some awesome seats. The pic of the field in the above slide show is totally without zoom. We were so close to the field. An awesome experience - thanks, Phoebe and Coddy!

After the game, Mike and I had to head back to Durham. Monday means work and reality again. But the day was absolutely fantastic, and we are so glad we were able to spend time with our friends. yay!!!

Being my own inspiration

I have been a "runner" off and on for several years (I use that term VERY loosely - I run, yes, but short distances at not very quick speeds). I started pushing myself to run several years ago when I put on a lot more weight than I was comfortable living with. Then, Lista recruited me to run the Komen 5K, so I pushed myself to finish that race. Therefore, off and on I have ran. It has always been for fitness far more than anything else. I never got that feeling of, "Wow, running is fun!" In fact, it was more of a challenge to run, but I felt so proud of myself afterwards. I did something I didn't like doing but knew it gave me great benefits.

In the past 6-9 months something has changed. I run much more often now. And last week, the strangest thing happened. I was in the middle of the run and though, "This is fun!" It was very very strange. On Monday of this week, after my "incident" at work, I was a bit stressed. It was chilly outside, but I brought appropriate gear to run outside. So, I left work and headed off to Duke's East Campus trail, my running location of choice these days. Normally I only run one lap - it's about 1.65 miles. It takes me about 17-18 minutes, but I get a decent sweat going and I usually feel tired, albeit not terrible, after that distance. On Monday, I assumed I would just do my regular routine.

I run my lap and actually feel pretty good. I say to myself, "Let's try to make it to the stoplight down this leg." And I did. I rounded the corner and said, "Let's make it to that next stoplight." And I did. I kept setting markers for myself - the lamp post, the drive way, the phone, the stands, the big tree.....and before I knew it I had run two full laps. It was probably one of the best feelings I have had in a long time. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I called Mike, I called my Mom - I just had to share the news. It was just such a wonderful feeling. I ran a 5K just because. Not for a charity race, and not because I was being chased! I ran it for me. Because it was fun and it felt good. Maybe it was a fluke and just one of those days. But I may give it a try again some time soon.

A love story

Dear Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle Barbecue Sauce,

I love you so much. You make so many of my meals tastier than I ever could have imagined. Tofu brats? Cover them in Sweet Baby Ray's. Steamed vegetables? Dip them in Sweet Baby Ray's. French Fries? Forget ketchup - Sweet Baby Ray's is the condiment of choice.

If I forgot to tell you I love you, Sweet Baby Ray's, let me say it now. I LOVE YOU!

With all my love and affection,
M

Diversified Holidays

I had a little “incident” at work yesterday. I brought in some snowflakes on a string (some would call them ornaments) that I got at an after the holidays sale at Target about 2-3 years ago. They are just snowflakes with blue, aqua, white and silver glitter on them. Nothing major. In an attempt to make my office look sparkly and festive, I made a chain of snowflakes and hung it above my door. They looked awesome. Well, they still look awesome – as they are hanging there right now. After the successful completion of sprucing up my office door, I felt filled with the spirit of decoration. In my office, I had two strands of white lights that I let a coworker borrow for a friends’ wedding. The two strands had been sitting in my office since he returned them.

“Hmmmmmmmmm, what can I do with those white lights?” I thought. We have a fichus type tree in the entry way to our floor. It’s there, but it’s dull. Then it came to me, “How about I fix up the dull fichus and put some white lights on it?” I figured it could be an all seasons accessory. It’s a tiki plant in the summer, and sparkly and happy in the winter. I recruited another coworker, and she, too, thought the plant needed some décor. So, we wrapped it in the white lights. Definite improvement.

Let’s jump forward in time 30 minutes later. One of the commercial lending vice presidents is standing at my door. “Michelle, our office decorations policy states that no holiday decorations can be placed in common areas of the building. We need you to remove the lights from the tree,” she said. I could tell she felt odd pointing this out to me. I was shaken a bit. I have always been the type of person who hates “getting into trouble.” When I was kid, there was no need for an adult to spank me when I had misbehaved. All they had to do was get mad and tell me I had disappointed them. That was the worst punishment I could ever receive. And that carries on to today. Anyway, I apologize and say that in no way did I mean to offend anyone. She told me to not worry to much about it – but since a complaint was issued she had to enforce the rules. I wondered who the hell complained, but of course I couldn’t ask.

I was shaken, but I also get it. I understand diversity issues, even for a Southern white girl. I’ve spent enough time having terribly painful and uncomfortable discussions about race in my lifetime that I get it. I understand that a word, a phrase, a symbol, anything – can represent one thing to one person and an entirely different thing to another. I understand how to be politically correct and/or culturally sensitive. So I guess in a way I felt like I really screwed up. Even though this was just white lights on a fichus to me, to another it was yet another outward celebration of Christmas and one that they did not want to deal with in the workplace. So yeah, I get it.

Now, here is my problem. So, I was the first person to put something up. Which was construed, and admittedly, as part of my joyous celebration of the holidays – specifically Christmas. Sure, I don’t identify as a Christian, but I was brought up with Christian traditions like Christmas. To say that I was just putting white lights on a tree is what I did, but my cultural upbringing of course associated those lights with Christmas celebrations. There is an underlying motive behind my actions, yes. But couldn’t one of my Jewish co-workers bring in a menorah? And could someone have brought in a kinara for Kwanzaa? Couldn’t we have celebrated diversity in celebration rather than scorned it? I would love to learn more about other festivities celebrated by my coworkers. But the fact of the matter is that some people are offended by others beliefs, see them as wrong, or would just not care to see it in the workplace. I get it.

I work in a very liberal and forward thinking non-profit. Dealing with that diversity is a challenge. I work in a field that through its mission seeks to “create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for people of color, women………..” and on and on. Yet, the majority of our workers are white. Our organization has to deal with diversity issues every day. It was actually kind of off that my light debacle happened at the start of the week, for I have now found out about an issue of race that has been floating around here lately within our offices. I don’t participate in the gossip circles, etc, so I had no idea this was going on until I happened to ask if someone had replied to a certain e-mail that had some issues of race associated with it.

Okay, I am getting off track here. What I am trying to say is that dealing with diversity is hard. When we say that we want to appreciate and respect everyone’s diversity, how do we do that? Do we allow everyone to openly be who they are? Or do we tell people to keep it to a certain level in the workplace? I think we go with the latter far more than the former. But does this accomplish what we want it to? People know there are different ways of thought floating around in the world. My opinion is that we need to develop tolerance for those ways of thinking far more than just knowing they exist. It is the lack of tolerance that causes problems. It’s the classis, “Don’t ask, don’t tell” that allows us to know that yes, there are different people around us, but if we don’t talk about it everything will be okay. It’s the fear of everything breaking down once we actually tell who we are. But damn it, shouldn’t we tell who we are so we can all work through it rather than acting like it doesn’t exist in every facet of our lives?

I am mainly just thinking out loud here. Turns out our office policy says something like you can decorate however you want in your office, but the common areas are off limits. I will be sure to adhere to that rule from now on. I felt better today, too, after at least two co-workers commented to me that they were sorry the lights had to be taken down. One was a Christian, the other was a Jew. I also received a “brownie point” ( a $1 off coupon for downtown restaurants we give out in our building to say thank you to folks who do something nice) from the VP who had to tell me to take the lights down. They thanked me for being so “gracious and understanding about diversity issues in our workplace.”

Again, I get it. I just wonder if there are other ways to go about it.

Holidaze 2008

The holidays are now in full swing. This Saturday, I walked in the Durham Holiday Parade with Mer, Lauren and other folks for the Coalition to Unchain Dogs. I felt like somewhat of a poser, as I have never personally helped build a fence or really do much of anything for the coalition except go to the benefits, buy t-shirts and blog about the cause. Wait, maybe that is *something* ;-)

We had a great time at the parade, then we headed over to Bull McCabe's for a drinkie. Lauren and I had plans to head to Cary for a holiday party, so we jumped in the car, grabbed some dinner at Schlotzsky's, then wandered off to the holiday party. We had a nice time at that - got some basic instructions in rally racing and welding. How many holidays parties that you attend have those kind of activities?? After the party, we headed back to Durham to hang with some folks a bit more. I was beat by 11pm, so it was time to call it a night and head back home.

Sunday though, Mike and I were up and moving about early. We headed over to a TROSA tree lot to pick up a Christmas tree. We found "the one" and brought it home to set up. After digging out all the ornaments, we decided to let the tree rest for a bit while we went on about our day. Mike had work to do on campus, and I had a few errands to run myself. But that evening, Mike and I mustered the energy to decorate the first Brady Christmas tree! Here are some pics to prove that all of the aforementioned events actually occurred. Enjoy! And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Durham's 2008 Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting

The City of Durham is holding its holiday parade tomorrow afternoon starting at 4pm and will follow up the parade with the Christmas tree lighting at CCB plaza. To get all the details on the parade, parking and pre- and post- parade events, just click on the photo above. It will take you to the city's official website.

I know I will be there! Lauren, Mer and I will be walking in the parade as part of the Coalition to Unchain Dogs! Come see us and wave!!!

500 BOOKS

When times are tight, that's when people need help the most. And often the people that need the most help are kiddos. If you have a stash of kids' books around (grades K-12) - fiction, nonfiction, instructional, etc., consider donating them to my friends' Jeff and King's book drive - 500 Books. Below are some details on the book drive including where you can drop off books as well as a 20% off coupon to the Regulator Bookshop in Durham to purchase a new book for this cause. (click the photo to see the details larger). I am doing my part by collecting books at work. I e-mailed everyone in the Durham office of Self-Help and asked that they put their donations in a crate outside my office. I am thrilled to report there are over 25 books in the crate already! New books, used books - we just need books books books. Equal resources=equal potential.
Sidenote: I love Jeff's comic avatar in the ad. It really looks like him :-) King on the other hand, I have never seen wearing a crown.........................................

An afternoon stroll

The weather is really nice out today. It is a bit brisk, but with a light windbreaker, one can still go out and wander quite comfortably. Being that this is the case today, I decided to wander out for a short walk at lunch. I happened to have my cell phone with me, so I decided to snap a few pics along the way. For those of you who live in Durham, this is probably not that exciting. But for those of you who don't, here is a glimpse of our beautiful city!

My walk route - about 1.25 miles. I start and end at Self-Help on Main Street.

They are putting up the downtown Christmas tree
today in preparation for this weekend's tree lighting ceremony!

Durham Central Park

Mural of the Durham skyline on the side of a building on W. Geer Street.

Construction at the DAP - the new field is going in!

Stone Bros and Byrd

Tower in front of professional building near
board of elections, corner of Morris and Corporation Streets.

DAP Tower under construction

I have always loved the font for the Young's Roofing sign.

Mural on the side of a building on Morris, across the
parking lot from the Durham Arts Council.

Reflection of art deco iron work on a Main Street building facade.

That was my walk!

DPAC

The Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) is all the buzz in Durham right now. The new theatre officially opened last night, and there was an early performance Sunday night with B.B. King. The theatre looks absolutely beautiful. Here's a photo I just took with my cell phone camera from our 8th floor conference room (somewhat crappy quality - you can find better photos online):

I was also lucky enough to attend the Downtown Durham, Inc. annual meeting today which was held in the DPAC. The attendance at this meeting was rather high, and I am guessing that part of that is due to not only for celebration of the successes of downtown recently, but also due to the new location. I am so glad I got to see the theatre!

We will hopefully be making our first trip to watch a show in January when RENT comes through. Our good friend John Watson is back in the role of Benny, and we would love to go see him again. Mike and I were able to catch him last year in Raleigh, but it makes it feel a bit different when we get to see him perform in OUR town.

The DDI meeting itself was nice. There were all sorts of cool updates on how well downtown is doing, and there truly is a lot to celebrate. Between American Tobacco, Golden Belt, the DPAC and all the new businesses that have opened in the past few years, downtown really is coming up. The funny (strange funny, not "haha" funnny) part of the meeting was that instead of the new city manager talking, there was a panel of local professionals. I knew one member of the panel due to previous involvement with downtown projects, and one other member of the panel looked very familiar. That person was Rich Harris, and I swear that Nathaniel used to play softball with him..........

Shameless Plug

A co-worker just forwarded this story to me:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/35097569.html

The story references a charter in Texas that went from a private Catholic school to a public charter in 2001. That first phase $1.3 million project they reference? That was my first loan as loan officer. yay!

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Lowkey and relaxing. Thursday was spent cooking from 7:30am through 3pm. The completion of the cooking meant it was time to eat. Thirty minutes later, both Mike and I were sound asleep. Afterwards, we hit Kyle's house for the ultra cool Thanksgiving after party. We met some cool new folks and chatted with old friends. I tell ya, it's like Rock N Roll holiday at Kyle's house any holiday. Thanksgiving was spent with members of the Dry Heathens, Red Collar and Rat Jackson. So trendy is that Mr. Kyle. Friday Mike and I both wandered out for a bit of shopping and hit a few good deals. Afterwards was the Beerfest at TBC. That was a good time. Back home to have more leftovers and rest. The rest of the weekend was spent around the house, running a few errands, and for me - a really nice run on Saturday afternoon and a long workout on Sunday. I have to work off all the turk'y I ate!!!! I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking. Enjoy!!!!