2011, hope it's like heaven!

Happy New Year TWIMO-ers! Hope you all had wonderful and safe new year's eves. Mine was fab. I went to Columbus to visit my lovely friends Courtney and Mandy and hang out with their friends. It was delightful and they even got me a cake for my birthday which I wasn't expecting at all! Love love my friends.

My lovely birthday cake from Kro-ghetto

Mandy and my new best friends

So, yes, your fearless TWIMO leader is another year older and hopefully wiser. I'm ready for 2011 so BRING IT! Have you all made your resolutions and eaten your pork and sauerkraut for wealth, health, and happiness (and I don't care if you're not German or from the Midwest and have never heard of this tradition. You must do it because I said so)?

Nom, nom, nom

Here are my resolutions:

1. Be less judge-y of people, particularly the male variety that I go on dates with.

2. Get high school skinny for the two weddings I am attending in June. (obvi I needed the traditional weight loss resolution)

3. Spend less time on facebook and more time on employment search

4. Get kissed (okay, okay this is a fake resolution, but I've found New Year's entries from my journals growing up that include this. I was pretty stoked when it finally happened after resoluting it for so many years)

5. Get TWIMO on the Today show.

Happy New Year all! I hope 2011 is your best year yet!

Hoop Skirts and a bubbly beverage

The Glee episode I missed this week because I was sitting in the last row of a plane where I swear every passenger had to go to the bathroom (GROSS) flying back to the ATL from Houston, is not working, so I thought why not blog. I have a lot to blog about so hopefully over the next few days I will get you caught up on my ohhh sooo important and exciting life.

First up, Angie, my college roommate for 3 years, came to visit. She's in med school in Chicago and was in town for a residency interview at Emory (GOOD LUCK!!). Since I'm Angela's FAV person on earth she decided to come for a few extra days, so I could show her the ropes of Atlanta and how we Southern Belles mind our P's and Q's.

Ang and I at the World of Coke

Being the delightful, wonderful friend that I am, I drug my ass out of bed at 5:45 am to pick up my dear friend... and then I made her buy me breakfast at the Majestic Diner (an Atlanta Establishment). The food was typical diner food, although I got 2 eggs, yogurt, granola, and a waffle. I think I was really up set about waking up so I ordered everything on the menu. Later in the day we donned our hoop skirts and went to Margaret Mitchell's (the author of Gone with the Wind) house. I've never actually read the book, but I've seen the move several times, so it was a pretty interesting site. I have to say my favorite thing was the video they showed on the making of the movie. When watching it you forget that it was filmed in 1939... Anyway they showed how most of the backdrops and scene were actually painted onto glass and then combined with the live action film. It's like pre-historic Photoshop. I was wowed.

Another ATL site I insisted we go see was the World of Coke. I had been there when I was little, and remembered it being AWESOME, so naturally I drug my dear friend to the carbonated wonderland. Despite the overwhelming bombardment of marketing and branding (and let's face it, Coca-Cola is pretty much genius at this) it was really interesting to see how the brand evolved and made itself one of the most recognized brands in the world. Oh, and we both got some good burps in at the world showcase of sodas. It's like the Epcot of soda machines. AMAZING. After our stomachs settled from chugging the worldly sodas we took a spin around Centennial Olympic Park. Verdict: Not that exciting.

Sculpture to some guy at Olympic Park. I'm using it as a stage.

Giant red tree at obviously... the world of coke.

Lastly I enlisted Ang in helping me give my dear dog, Clair a hair trim. She hasn't had a haircut since August (most likely because I spent her beauty budget on shoes), so she was having some trouble seeing. Well needless to say Ang and I are crossing Dog Groomer off our potential career lists. Clair looks awful, but at least we got a good laugh.

So, everyone cross your fingers for Angie getting a job at Emory, because I'm a mean tour guide and showed Ang how the world is her oyster ATL style. I'm taking reservations for tours for next year FYI.

TWIMO Goes South

Wait! What? Georgia isn't the South you ask? Well, it is, but I recently as in I'm still there had the chance to go even father South to Vero Beach, Florida to visit the lovely TWIMOer and good friend of mine, Alison. So here is a rundown of my absolutely wonderful trip visiting absolutely wonderful people.

Saturday afternoon I arrived in West Palm Beach. Now I've been to Florida before (Orlando, Tallahassee, etc.) but I've not really ventured into South Florida. So as I stepped off of the plane I quickly realized I'd forgotten to wear my stiletto heels and bring my Louis Vuitton bag. Darn! I also realized Florida is much warmer than say Northern Georgia. My lovely friends Ann and Alison then picked me up and we jetted into West Palm Beach where we had a lovely meal at a French bakery (it was really French too, as in the many of the staff spoke French and they had a French radio station playing.). I got a roast beef sandwich with goat cheese on crusty, warm French bread. YUM. Then we drove to Palm Beach (the really rich area) and checked out the giant VACATION home estates of the rich (and probably some famous). Now the interesting thing about Palm Beach that Alison pointed out is that residents are not allowed to build walls more than 4' or so high to protect their mansions from the prying eyes of the plebeian likes of oh... Me. So to keep my gwaking looks out they build instead giant walls of neatly manicured shrubs.

Giant manicured shrubs to keep me from looking at fancy houses. Boo.

After my tour of the West Palm Beach neighborhoods we ventured to the Breakers Hotel (you know, the famous one) where we proceeded to look for the back entrance to the hotel because we decided we did not look fancy enough. Once finding said entrance (we were slowed down by the immaculate croquet course near the entrance with perfect, carpet like green grass that we had to a) admire b) take our shoes off and see if it felt as great as it looked. Verdict: Not so much.

Fake Carpet Grass at the Breakers

We prefer middle class grass). So finally we make it inside the beautiful turn of the century hotel modeled after an Italian palazzo and made our way to the Seafood Bar (the bar has fish swimming in it) and enjoyed a highly overpriced cocktail while looking out over the crashing waves of the Atlantic.

The view of the ocean from the Breakers Promenade

After I snapped out of my dreams of wearing 1920s attire and sashaying about the Breakers with my Vanderbilt boyfriend we headed back to Vero Beach to see The Social Network, the film about Facebook that everyone is raving about. Verdict: What's all the commotion?

As we headed to bed Saturday night my hostesses with the most-esses gave me some options for the following day's activities a) Miami b) Disney World c) See the wonders of Vero Beach.

Sunday morning we wake up bright and early and I revealed my pick for the day's activity. Duh... Disney World. So we pack up the car and head to Disney World where we have decided to spend the day at my favorite park: Epcot. For those of you unfamiliar with the Disney empire, Epcot is kinda like the nerd's park. All of the rides and exhibits are there to teach you something whether it is how they test cars for market via Test Track a high speed car ride or take you around the world in the World Showcase, a mini world's fair if you would.

My home land: Germany at the Epcot World Showcase

Now I LOVE the world showcase, as I love travelling, so we spent most of the day walking around it and sampling the delightful morsels they were selling for the 15th annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Here's a run down of my menu: Crab Cake with Slaw (America), Sausage in a Pretzel Roll (Germany), Riesling (Germany), Purple Haze Beer (they had 15 beers you could sample to celebrate their 15th year), and to top it all off a chocolate lava cake with bailey's Irish cream ganache. Can we say YUM.

I was trying to get a date at the Norwegian pavilion by showing them how good I looked in a Viking helmet and how much I love moose.

After this very exhausting yet extremely wonderful foray back to my childhood visits to Disney we headed back to Vero Beach.

Today my hostesses have to work, because obviously Florida does not care about Columbus and his mistaken landing in America, I have been having a great time hanging out with my dog Clair's frienemy Bear.

Bear the Chihuahua and hostess with the most-ess

We took a walk on the beach, bought some local orange juice and had a delightful lunch staring out at the ocean. What a perfect little holiday to take my mind off my unemployment woes...

A little housekeeping and obvi... Sarah's Fav. Things Wed.

First things first, welcome to TWIMO's two new followers. You will not be disappointed. We are on our way to stardom and no worries I will be giving shout outs when I make it to the Today Show (and crash on Caroline's couch, or between her and Sabri, whichever is more comfy).

Second, I may be MIA for a bit because Momma TWIMO (the woman who gave me all my brains and my beautiful porcelain skin) is going to be in ATL buying me things and feeding me, so I might not be updating as prolifically as I have been.

Third, it is SARAH'S FAVORITE THINGS WEDNESDAY!!!

Today I have two favorite things.

First, is my friend Erin's new blog http://thenoveltease.blogspot.com/ which is all about books and her life reading them. Now if you are my friend you probably enjoy a good book every once in a while and Erin has read almost everything, so she makes great recommendations and she's super smart and a great writer, so it's a win win either way to read her blog. Plus, I hear she gives out prizes. Just sayin'

Second favorite thing might be my best idea ever. Genius really. So, it's summer and in the summer in the back woods of Ohio (where I hail from originally. Crazy, I know.) we always made campfires and s'mores. Now I hate being outdoors, but I love sugar, so I indulged in this activity. With nostalgia knocking on my door (or taste buds) I decided to prepare my own s'mores in the city with the help of the ever wonderful microwave. I go to my pantry to get the supplies to make my micro s'mores and find the new secret (or not so secret as I am soon to reveal it) ingredient. Drumroll please..... NUTELLA. Yes, I have invented or at least thought of unknowingly the Nutella Food-gasm S'more. Sweet, gooey, a little bit European, deliciousness. Seriously, it will change your life.

Picking up Momentum

I think TWIMO is gaining popularity. I now have two followers! We're on our way people. So I'm thinking a bargain shopping post is in order soon, but first I will delight you with the delight of a night I had last night with two great people, Erin and Vince.

Now if you do not know this couple I think you should, because they will definitely make your life a little better. In my search for a husband I look to their relationship for guidance. They debunk my theory that a couple has to be the same person and they balance each other very nicely, which is what I would love to find for my own future relationship.

Anyway E and V came to the ATL to register for their upcoming wedding and stopped in to hang out. We went and had a lovely Mexican dinner where I got drunk on a margarita and then we went to Trader Joe's to get some of their famous three buck chuck. MMMM.... Then we proceeded to drink two bottles and I indulged in eating mini marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, which I like to call "raw" s'mores. You know like those raw food diets that are all the rage with the celebs. Well, this is my version to make myself more A-list. I think I kept calling them naked s'mores though (don't worry I was fully clothed). So I went to bed with a stomach full of wine and sugar and spirits lifted with good laughs. All in all, a good ol' day in the ATL.