Bob Dylan would be proud. Yesterday’s CPDC Busch Gardens trip was attended by the following:
Guys: Steve, Greg, John, Ravi, Ernest, Joel and Mike
Gals: Anne, Liz, Amber, and Aesook
I do believe this is the first event (other than a basketball tournament or Super Bowl party) that was attended by more men than women. The Lord has heard our prayers!!
I'm sitting in Mike's office today discussing a data issue related to one of my bank's reports. The bankers name is Cher. We were going back and forth on the issue when all of the sudden it hit me that this was a bank another co-worker had spoken with when I was on vacation. So we brought the other co-worker in but she couldn't remember all of the details of the issue. At this realization, Mike starts singing "If I could turn back time..."
Oh how I love the cleverness!
Is fruit pizza! I know some of you are thinking "Wait a minute?? I thought your favorite dessert was brownie mix?" and you're close. Actually, my favorite snack is brownie mix :)
Isn't it lovely?? And it tastes soo good and is semi-healthy with all that fruit everywhere. Just forget the fact that the fruit is sitting on top of a sugar cookie and cream cheese mixed with sugar and cool whip :)
I've posted the recipe at Sweet Anne's.
One of the highlights of our New England road trip (besides locking my keys in the car) was seeing my very favorite Armenian friend Steve. Steve started working at the FDIC a year after me and our cubes were next to each other. We quickly became friends because I needed advice about guys and he needed me to write thank you notes for him. For three years he was my favorite FDIC buddy. He created the “Anne’s To Eat List” because there were so many foods I had never tried before (like the cheeseburger) and I bugged him about not loving Jesus enough and told him that God didn’t give a hoot that the Armenians were the first Christian church (according to Steve). We had so much fun, and being his friend left a special place in my heart for Armenians.
A couple of years ago he decided to ditch us and go back to Boston for grad school. So for a brief while I was living a life sans Armenians. But as the reverend mother always says “when God takes away one Armenian, He’ll bring along another.” And He did. Last summer Julie started working at the FDIC and as soon as I met her and saw the dark hair and found out she was from Boston her last name ended in “ian” I knew we would hit it off right away. And we did! She wasn’t scared off when I said “I love Armenians!!” and jumped up and down a few times. 
Then Jbeed (an Armenian) started coming to our church and I think I did freak her out just a bit when I began my “Why I love Armenains” speech. And then one night at dinner last fall, we were talking about our family history and Travis blurts out that he is one quarter Armenian. I took one look at him with this new information and thought "Of course!" I could totally see 1/4 Amenian features in Travis. Don't you all see it??
Travis sang my song at the Beth Moore conference today! Hello!?!? Is God awesome or what?? Seriously, God comes through in amazing ways. Just hearing that song was like "yep, there you are God. Right here with me." I have been on vacation for the better part of the last month, so I haven't been to my church, and haven't been to small group and other than the occasional prayers here and there, I haven't really been spending time with God. When I got back from the road trip on Wednesday, I wanted to pick up the study I've been doing but I just couldn't do it. So I told God he would have to do something big in my heart because I couldn't seem to jump back into spending time with him.
Then we get to 4:30 pm at work on Thursday. It was my first day back and I had been running around all day to meetings and answering phone calls from all my favorite bankers and just havin a grand ole time. Finally, by a little after 4 things had settled down enough for me to actually sit for a minute at my desk. So in come some of the co-workers to hear about my trip. Then we got to talking about our weekend plans and Kristin mentioned that she was going to this speaker thing tomorrow - someone named Beth Moore and had I ever heard of her?
Can't say as I have.
Umm, Hello!?!?!!!
Little did poor Kristin know that she had just called out the name of one of the few things that will bring out the performer/crazy person in me. After jumping out of my chair and flailing my hands around in classic Beth Moore fashion, and repeating the phrase "Oh my goodness, I love Beth Moore" at least seven times, I calmed down for a second. Then I pulled Get Out of That Pit right out of my purse (it's my current read on the bus book), and proceeded to tell my very dazed and confused co-workers about the 3 ways we might end up in the pit: being thrown in, slipping in, and Kris Kross'll make ya "jump, jump" in. But God is there to deliver us and then we will be singing a new song and Psalm 40 "I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined and heard my cry, he brought me up out of the pit..." U2 anyone?? Are you people following me? All I got were blank stares from Kristin, Ed, Julie and Ken. I actually sang the U2 version for them.
So then I took them to the blog and showed them a picture of Beth and talked about Texas and how all my favorite Christian artists seem to be from there and oh I can get side tracked when I'm excited. So I got back on topic and began quoting my favorite Beth poim about the Subway in NY and oh, just so you know, Beth is flat crazy but you will love her! and dude, I want to go with you! So it was off to the web-site to get a ticket and can I take another day off of work??? ahh! Of course I can! I've been out so much lately, what is one more Friday out of the office going to do?
And oops - it's after 4:45 and I missed my bus but who cares! Beth Moore!!
By this time I had freaked Kristin out just enough to bring her back around to really excited about going. And now I was going too! Praise the Lord Jesus! Hallelujah!
And so, wow! Here I am, back from the conference and it was amazing! My favorite word of the day was Beth quoting Jeremiah 45:5: "Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them." And then she added: "Seek a great God." This hit me hard because I constantly struggle with seeking after things that I think will be great for me, and will make me happier and comfortable. But if I seek God, all the things he as planned for me will be so much greater than anything I could ever imagine. God is awesome! That's all I have to say.
But I did lock the keys in it! That was definitely a highlight of the trip :) I basically lock my keys in the car every time I'm in a valet/leave your keys in the car garage situation. Since I don't have automatic locks, I'm so used to pushing down the lock as I close the door. And the funny thing is that I'm telling myself in my head "don't lock the door, don't lock the door." Oops. Of course, I did have my other set of keys but they were in my backpack in the trunk.
Anyway, we spent the day on Cape Cod, and took the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard. MV is great! Just being there made me happy. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to come to a place like this sometime in the future with some friends and our families and rent a couple of houses and just hang out and eat at fun restaurants and stroll around the island.
Liz and I decided to take a sightseeing tour around the island which was scheduled to start at 2 and last for 2.5 hours. And it ended right at the dock so we figured we'd hop on the 5 pm ferry and head back to the mainland and then drive to Hyannis for dinner. Well, the 2pm tour did not leave until 2:30 and it lasted 3.5 hours, and left us jumping off the bus in the rain to catch (just barely) the 6pm ferry back. And the tour guide was crazy! But that's another story for another time. And we ran into Josh and Naomi King (Pastor's King's son and DIL) on MV which will drive my sister crazy because I run into people everywhere I go. And she never sees anyone she knows anywhere.
So we made it back to the ferry, which arrived back on Cape Cod around 7. We drove off to Hyannis, and called the restaurant on the way and made an 8:30 reservation. We planned to eat at the Rhodeside Cafe recommended by Rachael Ray in her $40 a day book. I planned to pull into the parking lot and brush my hair and fix myself up a bit since we'd been running around an island all day long and we'd gotten caught in some pretty heavy rain. But when we pulled in the parking lot, the valet boys ran over to the car and start opening the doors for us to hop out. I think I first annoyed them by asking if I could park myself. Of course, they said no, so then I told them I needed to brush my hair so they would have to hold on just a sec. Sorry boys, the hair is important and you may as well learn that lesson now if you are ever married someday. They sort of rolled their eyes, but I just smiled. This is when my brain reminded me not to lock my keys in the car. But 10 seconds later I just threw my brush into the back seat and hopped out and shut the door, then followed that up with an "oh, crap" when I realized Liz had just shut (and locked) her door as well.
Hehe. I thought it was pretty funny, because it's such a me thing. The valet boys were not that amused. The car was sitting almost in the middle of the parking lot, but not in such a way that they couldn't get other cars out around it. So in a small way I did them a favor. But we called AAA and the guy came within 30 minutes. He shimmied this string thing through my door and popped the lock. Then I told him I loved him which I think freaked him out just a bit so he was like "sorry lady, I'm married." But I was just happy that he'd saved the day! And the valet boys were happy to have us out of their way!
By 9pm we were in the restaurant and had a wonderful meal. And when we came out, we didn't have to remind valet boy which car belonged to us. Thankfully, the slightly nicer (and cuter) valet boy was the one that pulled our car around and we gave him a nice fat tip. Hopefully he will remember this night fondly like I will.
So the new car desire came back in full force this weekend. The background goes something like this: I work in a city where people drive really nice cars. About two years ago, I started seeing these pretty blue BMW’s everywhere I went and really really started wanting one. At the time my car was only about 6 years old (it’s a 99). By early summer last year, I pretty much had made a plan to buy a BMW. I knew I didn’t really need it, but I justified it by thinking I would keep the car for at least the next ten years and I can afford it and I deserve it because I work hard! (the “I deserve it” thought should have stopped me in my tracks, but it didn’t). On top of that, my Dad up and bought a Mercedes, so he could no longer hold me to the “you better drive an American car if you want to be a part of this family” principle. So everything was falling into place. And did I mention that I really wanted a BMW??
So last summer Liz and I planned our road trip and I was secretly hoping that my car would conk out somewhere along the way (just not somewhere scary) and if God wanted to be especially gracious, maybe it would conk out within walking distance of a BMW dealership. Because then circumstances would have thrown the BMW into my lap and what could I have possibly done??
But that didn’t happen, and the car was such a trooper on the road trip that I couldn’t stand to part with it once we got home. So I decided to keep it until it hit 100,000 miles (which would be about 3 more years).
Many months went by and everything was great. Then I went to Alan’s house to drop off a cake. And I saw Dat’s new car. A Toyota Highlander. Oh the cuteness it exudes. A couple of weeks later I hopped into Chris Kim’s (a.k.a. Chris TomKim - the Asian Chris Tomlin) car. Also a Highlander. I was hooked. And what did I begin to see all around me?? Toyota Highlanders. It doesn’t help that I live within 2 inches of a Toyota dealership. So for the past several months visions of Highlander have been dancing through my head. And I made another plan. New England road trip. Not as intense as last summer but enough to give the car a couple thousand miles. And in the back of my head the thought that maybe it will die near a Toyota dealership.
Of course, I’d been praying about this all along, and deep down I could tell God was saying don’t buy a car yet. I didn’t take Crown for nuthin! And I talked to my sister who is ms. sensible about all things financial and she set me straight. Actually she said “getting a new car is dumb.” That was really all I needed to hear. Good – I was back to the 100,000 miles thought. But then, oh you will not believe the wonderful thing that happened…. My car failed inspection!! Just a couple of minor things, but this certainly put me one step closer to the prize.
That brings me to the weekend (if anyone is still reading). Liz and I went to Charlotte (BTW - go to the Billy Graham Library if you are ever there. It is AWESOME!) to visit one of my friends from high school and Liz's God parents. So we pull up in front of Alexa’s house and what is that I see sitting in her driveway?? A brand new dark blue Highlander. I freaked out. I walked into her house, and said “you have a Highlander!” then I said “hi” and all that other not so important stuff that you say to someone you haven't seen in two years!
Alexa let me drive her car all around Charlotte that night and I loved it!! I’m so getting a new car after the road trip. Then (oh there’s more, people) Liz calls from her God parent’s house to talk about plans for meeting up the next day and guess what?? They have a Highlander too! Have you ever read the word Highlander so many times in one post? I bet not :)
That's my story. I think Toyota should give me some kind of deal after all the shout outs I've just given them :)
Guess what?? Today I had lunch at Bangkok 54! And guess what else?? Tonight I had dinner at Bangkok 54. I love that place. I already had plans to meet the girls there for dinner, and when Alan suggested it at work today for lunch I was like, heck yes I wanna eat there, Pedro. It was a glorious day! Along with the great food, the Steering Committee meeting has been canceled for this week which means no taking of the minutes for me! Yay! Many of the big wigs are out on vacation this week, and one of our project leaders seems to have gotten himself in a bit of trouble (and I have to say I'm not surprised. This guy has always freaked me out).
From the Washington Post:
Button-Down FDIC?
People who work at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- the folks who oversee the nation's financial institutions -- are often, and apparently most unfairly, stereotyped as boring pencil pushers.
They are, it turns out, a fun-loving crowd. And there's an internal investigation now into whether someone was having a bit too much fun at the division of information technology's annual golf outing May 22 at Penderbrook Golf Club in Fairfax County.
The FDIC is looking into reports that a senior official in the 274-employee division asked or offered to pay two women at the outing -- one of whom didn't work in that division -- to take off their blouses, which they did. The incident allegedly was seen by many of the people who attended, though it was unclear whether it occurred in the clubhouse or on one of the greens.
The FDIC's public affairs director, Andrew Gray, in response to our inquiry, issued an official statement.
"The individuals that participated in this off-site event used their own resources and took official leave to attend," Gray's statement said. "However, since the event was publicized internally by staff within the Division of Technology, the FDIC has taken strong action to thoroughly investigate and determine the facts behind the allegations. This investigation may be completed as early as this week, and full disciplinary action will be taken against individuals who are found to have behaved unprofessionally and inappropriately. We expect all FDIC employees to adhere to the highest standards of professionalism."
And, at a minimum, to keep their clothes on.
So most of you know while I was in Savannah I ate at Paula Deen's restaurant. Of course, I did not see the Lady or the Sons, but it was still a fun experience. I had pretty low expectations since 87% of the reviews I read said the food was awful, the staff was unfriendly and you may as well go to the Golden Corral buffet and get all you can eat for $7.99. Needless to say, I figured fried chicken, potatoes and butter beans can’t be all that bad, and I was willing to pay the $15 for the experience.
So the internet reviews were all bad, but the other thing that struck me was that every employee in the Savannah tourism industry really dislikes Paula Deen. We’re checking into our hotel the night before and the guy behind the desk says “What are y'all planning to do?” I say “Eat at Paula Deen’s!” and he freaked out in all his southern accentedness. “Oh my gracious, do not eat there! That is not southern cookin. She’s got a bunch o’ college kids from up north runnin that place.” And then at the visitor’s center the next morning – the nice middle aged woman behind the counter gives me an “oh dearie, I’m soo sorry for you” look when I tell her we’re going to Paula’s. Then on our trolley tour we drive by Paula’s and the driver points out the restaurant and tells us it’s no good and we should not go there.
So with all the support and encouragement of the people of Savannah behind us, Mom and I got in line outside of Miss Paula’s around 8:45 on Wed. morning. There were about 15 people in front of us in the line. Not nearly as many as I expected, but it was a weekday. The hostess started taking names promptly at 9:30 and we were told to come back at 1 for a 1:15 reservation. So we went off and took our trolley tour, stopped in a few shops, and then headed back to the restaurant. They seated us within 5 minutes of checking in and we were immediately given hoe cakes and cheesey biscuits. The mom wasn’t a fan of the hoe cake but I liked it.
We were out of there a little before 2 and they hadn’t seated anyone else. Maybe they take a break before the dinner shift?? Anywho, I'm still a fan and I'd even go again if I get the chance. “I want to breed with you” is not a good pick up line. Just thought I’d point that out in case you were wondering.
The story goes a little something like this:
Mom and I decide to visit the pool at our hotel in Florida. As soon as we get in, Weird Scary Pool Man jumps in and wades over to us.
WSPM (to me): Are you in high school?
Me: No
WSPM: College?
Me: No
WSPM: Well how old are you??
Me: 28.
WSPM: No way!! I want to breed with your family. Get me some of that youth!
Ahhh!!!!!!!
