Cooking? Whatever

My friend Jen recently started a new blog called Cooking Whatever.  In it she'll dish on her areas of expertise: cooking, kitchen gadgets, hosting, etiquette and much more. As someone who has eaten many of her delicious meals, I highly recommend you check it out!

First comes love...

For many couples, getting their wedding announced in the New York Times is the ultimate status symbol and the pinnacle of their relationships.

Most of the featured couples are rich, white, ivy league graduates with multiple degrees, fancy job titles in finance or law and pretentious hobbies like Japanese furniture design or medieval bookbinding. There is even a blog about the absurdity of it all.

However, there is one publication with an ultra exclusive weddings section that is even more selective than the Times. In fact, no couple's wedding announcement has ever been featured, despite countless entries. I'm speaking, of course, about Zina Carolina. But finally, a couple made the cut, and for an engagement announcement no less! 

Two of my favorite people in the world, Brian Rocks and Lisa DiMarcantonio, were engaged on Friday, the fifth of November, 4 days after the future bride's 25th birthday. The future groom whisked her away to a fancy dinner at La Locanda Del Ghiottone in the Olde city neighborhood of Philadelphia.

I technologically stalked him all night

After a delicious meal, the couple returned to Brian's rowhome in the area known as Fishtown. Before leaving for dinner, Brian had cued up the karaoke version of the Van Morrison classic, Brown Eyed Girl on his karaoke machine. When they arrived home, Brian pressed play and serenaded a stunned Lisa in a touching rendition of the song with lyrics he'd written about his future bride. At the end, he knelt down and popped the question and she immediately said yes. The next day, the happy couple informed all of their friends and family of the thriling news. 

Of course, it's not official until it's on Facebook and 43 people have commented the same thing. 

"Congrats!"

Brian is basically like my brother. He told me he was going to propose a year ago but I didn't find out until the day of exactly how and when he was going to do it. He announced it to me in the most touching way. Through the Words with Friend app.

Still unclear what enol means

 I ran around the house screaming and called him and continued screaming. I really couldn't be more excited. I'll finally have a sister! Brian said it best:

Congratulations you crazy kids!

Friday 10/1 - Bowled Over

Friday was a big day. Not one but TWO things on the agenda. Whew.
First up was volunteering at the humane society. When I moved down here, one thing that was important to me was getting back into volunteering. In high school I volunteered frequently and even started a clothing drive for the homeless. But once I got to college, I discovered the wonders of alcohol and it was all downhill from there. Once I graduated and became submersed in corporate america, I just didn't have the energy to do anything after work (except of course, happy hour). And weekends were a time to decompress from the stress of the week. (Drink). So, since I finally escaped the cubicle, I wanted to use my free time to try to contribute
to society.

A couple weeks after we arrived, Chris and I signed up to volunteer at the Greenville Humane Society in the areas of pet therapy and dog walking. Pet therapy involves taking puppies to nursing homes and assisted living facilities to spend time with the residents. I've always loved working with the elderly so I'm eager to get started. For now we haven't been scheduled for pet therapy but they had an available slot for dog walking on Friday from 4-6.

Dog walking was fun. Some of the dogs were so excited to be outside they barely noticed me and some didn't want to walk, they just wanted to be held (my kind of dog - I like em needy). I'm still impressed that I didn't take an entire litter of miniature pinchers home with me. It's sad to read about how the dogs ended upthere but gratifying to know that they're in a better place now.

After dog-walking we headed to the bowling alley for our second attempt at a "meet-up", this time at a bowling alley. When we arrived there was a group of people our age standing in the lobby. I quickly discovered that this was not one of those swanky Manhattan bowling alleys with leather couches, crystal chandeliers and cocktail waitresses that look like Kim Kardashian. No. This was the bowling alley you went to for a birthday party when you were 11.

The first words out of my mouth were "Is there alcohol here? Hi, I'm Zina." Thankfully the answer was yes. Once we'd done our introductions, rented shoes, and put in an order for a pitcher of Miller Lite, we made ourway to the reserved lane. The first person I met was a woman named Christine. When I mentioned I'd moved down with someone else she perked up and said "ooooh, you got a husband?" I pointed at Chris and jokingly said "Nope, I moved down with him. We're living in sin." She looked horrified. I decided to ease my way out of the conversation by moving towards my seat and saying, "Well, feel free to help yourself to some of our beer!" Turns our she didn't drink. I'd be willing to bet that Jesus told her not to. After that awkwardness I was concerned how the rest of the night would go. But everyone else was friendly and easy-going. And despite bowling the worst games of my life, it was a fun time. Met some new people, shared some laughs, downed a couple pitchers. And got to watch Crystal's head nearly implode when someone mentioned being Jesus for Halloween. Ah, memories.

After bowling, some of us headed to a bar called The Irish Pub for a few drinks. Inside was a small dive bar and outside was a large area with corn hole, a sand volleyball court, and a karaoke stage. We sat outside and drank and talked about life in Greenville.

It started to get chilly so eventually we moved inside. It was the right decision. Inside was where the older locals were and the locals are who I love. No matter what city or town you go to, you can alwayscount on the locals at the dive bar for entertainment. Towards the end of the night, I casually asked one of the them if he'd ever eaten at the food truck outside. He informed me that he didn't eat at that truck because he'd been to Iraq and once you've been there you won't eat food made by Middle Easterners because he didn't trust them. I decided it wasbest not to mention that they were in fact Brazilian.

Oh Greenville, we'll get along just fine.

We Be Clubbin

Tuesday night, we went to our first "meetup". Meetup.com is a website where you can join (or create) groups for members of the local community. Each group has a different theme, such as dog owners, or 20 somethings, or 20 something dog owners.

Normally these kind of forced gatherings wouldn't be my thing. Well, they still aren't. But since we don't have jobs, it's an alternative way to meet people. It's especially important for Chris to meet new people. He gets his energy from interacting with others whereas I'm more self contained (and absorbed). Plus I have my mom, brother and stalker dog down here. But because I am a supportive (amazing, fantastic) girlfriend, I graciously joined the site.

One of the groups we both joined is the "Greenville Social Scene." The name alone makes me cringe. It sounds like a cheesy club you'd join in middle school.

But hey, new life, new outlook right? One of the scheduled meetups was Tennis in the Park on Tuesday night. I grew up playing tennis and Chris is newly obsessed with it so we both signed up. We also brought along our bestie, Loye, who has been playing for 30 years. Unfortunately we got a little lost on the way and by the time we arrived everyone in the group was already playing. The three of us decided to just play against each other. So much for "meeting up". We also lobed more than a few balls into the other courts during their games which didn't exactly endear us to anyone. But whatever, we had fun despite the lack of new BFFs. Personally I think they should be the ones trying to "meet up" with me but that's another story.

Tomorrow night there is a bowling meetup for the "20 something" group. I've decided I'll attend because it'll give me the chance to meet people the old fashioned way: copious amounts of alcohol. I wouldn't have any friends without it.