Things

Tonight, our "Memphis Urban Family" got together for Christmas dinner. It is a group of girls that all went to college together (save one) and a few husbands. We really enjoy getting together and eating dinner and tonight played games and talked.

S got the game "Things" for Christmas. I had played it the week before and it was so much fun. It asks "what would you do if there was a black out?" Everyone puts their answer down and then you try to match the answer with the person. It is so much fun and we all had a great time trying to get the matching right.

I am so blessed to have a great group of friends. Its interesting, when I lived in Knoxville, my family came from my church. Here, in Memphis, my "family" comes from my friends from college. It is amazing that out of 12 people, 9 of us went to UTM together and 8 of us were in the same sorority. What an amazing legacy!!

South of Beale

I had a great time last night at dinner with a friend. She is the first work friend I made when I moved to Memphis 11 years ago. We don't work at the same place anymore, but our friendship has survived.

We went to South of Beale (SOB) last night. We both started with the Honey and Ginger cocktail, which was really good. I know it had a whiskey in it (which I don't normally like), but this was good. For dinner, we split the tuna appetizer, lobster and scallop cakes and each tried a side. The tuna was good, but the fried rice cakes were a little over-cooked, which made them difficult to chew (and cut). The lobster and scallop cakes were bready- not many big chunks of meat that you would expect. I had the duck fried rice for my side. It had a good spice to it. M got the cheddar grit fries. It was enough to feed about 10 people. The flavor and texture was good, it was just a lot... All in all, SOB is a place I would go back to (the braised ribs looked divine). We got a lot of fried food, so I am looking forward to trying other things on the menu. It claims to be a gastro-pub, which means the chef isn't there to cook chicken strips and has a very diverse menu. The waiter recommended the duck and braised ribs. The wine list is very good too with two price points. If you want a great atmosphere, get there around 7:30 pm or so.

Committments and parties...

Well, the first nail finally went in the walls today. C (my sister) and I finally committed to hanging some pictures. The big problem is two fold: 1) a lot of the pictures we want to hang are still at the house in East Memphis that we are trying to sell, and 2) we want to upgrade and get some new art work- which takes time. The house does have a more homely feel...even with a few pictures on the walls.

My department is coming over on Tuesday for our Christmas party. We have been in our house just shy of a month and this will be our third party. I love entertaining...it definitely runs in our blood. My grandmother and mother are both entertainers and my sister and I love to entertain as well. I just love the planning and decorating and then having everyone get here!!

I hope we will be able to entertain even more now that we are downtown.

Inspired

Well, I read someone's blog and it inspired me to start writing again. I want to get back into writing and hope I can do so. Now my head is full of things to write about.
Wow, the last few weeks of my life have been so crazy...I moved into a new condo in downtown Memphis over Thanksgiving. My grandmother passed away two weeks later. We have been working on her house trying to sort through 50 years of memories. My sister in law is due with the first grandchild in the family (which is exciting and yet stressful for me). My job has been really crazy this year with me traveling 2-3 weeks/month...and you wonder why I am still single.

Craziness...

Anyway, I started the morning in a really bad mood. I think part of it was I was tired and we had to get up early to drive to Humboldt for my sister in law (B's) baby shower. After the shower, we went to my grandmother's house to help clean out closets and pack things up. I know this sounds strange, but my mood got better (I guess because I felt useful). It is amazing how much needs to be done and I know what I will be doing over my Christmas vacation. We packed up my sister's (C's) SUV with things from my grandmother's and came home to Memphis. Now C and I are sitting on our couches decompressing before heading out to another Christmas party (party #4). The party should be fun. It is with downtown locals, which is great since I just moved downtown.

People have asked me how much I like living downtown. My answer- I think I love it. My life has been so crazy this past month, that I haven't been able to just enjoy being downtown (hanging out at the coffee shop, checking out local stores, etc.) Hopefully that will come...soon.