Browsing Tag

Charleston

four23org-wedding-party-starfish
Life

When Thank You Isn’t Enough

I don’t know if you remember, but I kind of got married a few months ago. And everything about that day was perfect. I couldn’t have picked a better, more appropriate way for us to tie the knot. Married life has been awesome because frankly, it’s not much different from our non-married life. It’s just now we get to call each other “Wifey” and “Hubby” and wear extra, sparkly (in my case) jewelry.

Because we didn’t have a real wedding or a chance to celebrate with all of our friends and family (and because my mom likes any good excuse to have a party), my parents actually offered to throw us one. We agreed but had some boundaries – we didn’t want it to be a wedding or reception. We weren’t going to do dances or garter tosses or bouquets or anything like that. I wasn’t going to wear a dress. We just wanted something simple and low key and us.

Well, thank god I kind of left the rest up to my mom because what she came up with was nothing short of amazing! I was apprehensive that it was going to be a bit over the top. I mean, we were talking backyard BBQ and stuff. But what my parents threw together in the course of two months turned out to be an awesome night of food, friends, family and fun. We had an absolutely beautiful location, an ideal Charleston setting with the water and the sunset and the palm trees. We had excellent food and a well-stocked bar and a DJ who kept everyone on the floor dancing, despite not having a cool breeze and it being hot as Hades, as is common here in the Summer.

Ultimately, we all had a blast!

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four23org-lady-liberty-fireworks
Life

Stars and Stripes Forever

Some of my favorite summer memories are of the Fourth of July celebrations we’ve had over the years.

There were the fireworks at Brittlebank Park here in Charleston, before they moved it to Patriot’s Point. We’d get there early, before the sun went down, and spread our blanket out on the grass and just hang out and enjoy the cool breeze coming off the Ashley River. This was before the time of smart phones and everyone being connected via WiFi and Facebook and social media so we actually made friends with the people sitting next to us. There was always delicious food – hot dogs and soda and ice cream. And someone was always selling glow sticks that we begged for because apparently the fireworks weren’t enough.

There was the time we went into Philadelphia to watch the fireworks over the art museum. I don’t remember much about that time except for the fact that the crowds were ridiculously crazy and there was nowhere to sit so we stood most of the night and then piled our tired and sticky bodies into the van and sat for hours in traffic to get home. I missed the celebration in Charleston terribly that year.

We spent years after that going back to our high school because we definitely weren’t going to repeat the Philadelphia experience. We spread blankets on the same field where we used to run for gym and didn’t have to worry about making friends because all of the people we had walked those halls with were there with their families. We brought coolers and snuck cold beer into red solo cups and listened as the booms were punctuated by the patriotic music. I always got chills when they played “God Bless the USA” or the “1812 Overture” because those were always my favorites.

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four23org-isle-of-palms-sc
Life

Enjoying July

My life consists of lists, from simple to complicated. I have an entire notebook of them. I have list-making apps on my phone. I get no greater pleasure than sitting down and handwriting a list of goals and tasks.  Sometimes, things get done. Sometimes, I move them to another list.

Most times, I find if I just put them out there, I accomplish far more than if I just let them rattle around in my mind. And I figured since I did fairly well on my yearly resolution thing, maybe I could get a few more things in by having some monthly goals. Short, sweet and to the point, these are all about living and enjoying my life, instead of just getting things done.

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Shrimp Boats on Shem Creek
Life

Soaking Up Saturday

I really had a lovely day today! I woke up expecting to do our usual Saturday humdrum (clean the house, surf the Internet, play video games) but Steve asked if I wanted to go fishing and I figured why the hell not? It had been quite some time since we spent quality time together and I could go for a little soaking in the sun.

We were able to make it out the door around 8:30am, which gave us time to stop at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and CVS for sunblock before we headed over to one of our original fishing piers that we hadn’t been to in awhile. We were overjoyed to see it was empty because it meant we could get all the way to the end and not having people knocking into the rods or being all loud and scaring the fish away.

So we set up shop and get settled around nine am. It’s much less humid than I thought it was going to be but it was probably around 85 degrees or so. This is a good day for South Carolina summers. Plus, there was a wonderful breeze right near the water so it was nice enough to be in the sun without feeling like you were going to die from heatstroke.

I do need to point out that when I say “we” went fishing, what I meant is Steve fishes while I hang around and watch or read a book or something to that sort. I don’t mind fishing but I won’t touch live bait (which is usually fine because we use dead shrimp or squid – fresh but dead) and I’m not too keen on unhooking fish (Steve throws them back – it’s more for sport than anything). I have the attention span of a gnat and the patience of a small child so actually having to wait around for the fish to bite just isn’t my cup of tea. Plus, you need a fishing license and I don’t have one so I had to be content with enjoying the weather and the company and reading. And I couldn’t have asked for a better day to do it all.

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four23org-sunflower-summer
Entertainment, Life

Summer Plans

June has just flown by for me and it seems like our summer never really got started since we went right from Memorial Day into handling all of this.  But seeing as how today is the first day of summer, I’d figured I’d share a little summer to-do list with you all since I have my heart set on just letting go and enjoying things this season.  It really kind of helps to make those long hot and humid days less drawn out and monotonous and give us something to look forward to.

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