I just finished summer camp.
Not attending it. I’m 25…
No, rather, I was leading it. With the scrappy little counselors that could, and my counterpart at our partner organization with whom I was basically in a long term relationship (true story: we went out to grab ice cream one day after work and after sitting around for a second, I went, “I can’t think of anything to say, because I already know everything about you”. It was the first summer of this particular camp and we got next to no support from any of the people who were supposed to be helping and I thought I was going to lose my mind at the end of those sometimes 11 hour days.
But I worked with awesome awesome people and I wanted to give them a quality party.
So I made them a lot of pizza.
(Trader Joe’s pizza crusts- I got three white and one herb-speckled, Trader Joe’s shredded mozz, pepperoni, olives, tomatoes. Made in various permutations. It was good pizza!)
And we sat by the pool and we drank many margaritas and we laughed and we did superlatives and it was a great night. And now work is winding down and grad school is getting closer eeeee!
Been enjoying the lull. Also still been enjoying the iPhone (a LOT!) as it’s enabled me to actually take pictures of places I’v been to and enjoyed many a time but haven’t ever had it together to bring a camera to.
Por ejemplo, the delicious Fiesta Grill.
It’s so awesome living somewhere that has Mexican food! DC offers Salvadoran and Bolivian in spades, but if you want Mexican you can basically go to Chili’s. It’s annoying. However, the Triangle has quality Mexican, and EXTRA HIGH QUALITY Mexican at this bossy place.
I’ve tried a few things on the menu, but the be all and end all, in my humble opinion, is the shrimp enchiladas.
They are gargantuan:
And amazing. Basically the entire inside of the tortillas are coated in cheese- thumbs up. And there’s fleshy and flavorful tomato to cut the richness- thumbs up. And there are BIG FAT PIECES OF JUICY JUICY SHRIMP. And there is TOTALLY BOSSY AND PERFECT ENCHILADA SAUCE.
I’m always amazed how much of it I can eat. I did give Steve all of my rice and much of my beans, but even he gets full at that place.
Another fun thing I did recently was attend a clothing swap! Poor boys. They don’t get these things. I spent so long trying to explain it to Steve, who was baffled that there was no exchange of money or formal venue.
I came down with a weird stomach bug last week. Luckily for me, the day I needed to leave work early was the day that Steve was teleworking, so he picked me up and while he data’d away in the living room I was passed out on his bed.
With my loyal companion.
In other news, pool maintenance: they’re doing it wrong.
Gross.
Finally, an event I love but have yet to chronicle in the blog: Saturdays in Saxapahaw. Saxapahaw is a (fabulously named) charming little town just a hop skip and a jump from Chapel Hill. In the summer they have an outdoor concert series in this beautiful park. There’s bluegrass, a farmer’s market, food trucks, and gazillion of happy children and families.
I was feeling all happy and mushy (and had Hipstamatic open already) so I tried really really hard to take a good selfie of me and the boy. It was not that successful.
(my favorite:)
Sky. Sky is manageable.
Knees. Knees are manageable.
Our friends Dan and Bethany joined us this week. I’ve known Dan since seventh grade! I was friends with his little sister. Now he and his wife and their adorable six-month-old baby daughter are our neighbors! Very fun to see them.
They’d left, and the music had ended, but Steve and I were enjoying the finally cooler evening too much to head home just yet. So we went on the porch of The Eddy, the pub nearby.
Lemonade for me, strawberry basil beer for him. Views and sunsets for all.
Final highlight: I finally got my life together and refilled my hummingbird feeder!
Watching them gives me so much joy I can’t even.
And now I must go outside and mask some wasps angry. NOT FOR YOU. Fun tip: wasps hate plant sprayers.
Crunchy in Carolina 