a moment in the truman show

i have always loved the movie "the truman show." it could be because of jim carrey's convincing performance, it could be because it is an endearing discourse on the abomination that is reality television and media in general, ironically released in the late nineties, at the beginning of our society's descent into the abyss of "reality" tv (and don't we all agree, for the most part, that is where reality television should have found it's end? isn't that the whole point of the movie?), or it could be the incredible but simple music, mostly composed by philip glass (and peppered with classical favorites that fit right in). we spent a few hours in seaside, one of the filming locations for the movie, just a few minutes from leah's. basically all of the outdoor shots in the cookie cutter town that was truman's fake reality were shot here...the homes and shops were very neat and pretty but there is nothing cookie cutter about the beautiful seaside views!




on our way there, we also stopped at eden gardens state park, a very charming, very southern looking area. you'll see what i mean...it was the first time i ever saw spanish moss!




p.s. IMPORTANT! i forgot to tell you all what you were looking for in the dentist appointment picture. it was not whitening (but thanks for asking, i'm glad they look pearly!), but leah temporarily bonded a few of the spaces in my front teeth, affectionately called a "hobbs" (mom's maiden name) in my family because of our heritage of gaps. :) i guess over the years i've become quite attached to my "imperfect" smile, so even when leah kindly offered to make the beautiful work permanent, i declined. so, i'm still the same old me. but it was fun for a few minutes!

p.p.s. in the truman show paragraph, click on point to read a very interesting little commentary on the meaning of the movie. and if you haven't seen it, you should!

mexican fiesta night and other domestic adventures

so this particular post is a little overdue, but on wednesday we had a mexican fiesta! leah funded it and i prepared the food with help from amigas who came over to join in the fun. below is a photo of just a bit of our lovely spread, accented by the homemade black bean salsa in the center--thanks to jayme barone for her this recipe. it's always been a favorite, and i included the recipe below so that you can all try it for yourselves. the chopping is time consuming, but completely and utterly WORTH IT.


black bean salsa:

2- 15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups frozen white corn
1 1/2 cups diced red tomatoes (i usually use 2-3 decent sized ones, or several romas--and i hate tomato pulp so i seed and juice them too)
1 bunch scallions, chopped
2 bell peppers, finely chopped and diced (can use whatever colors you want...sometimes use 3)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2-3 teaspoons tabasco (or if you're in destin, crystal's hot sauce)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
chopped garlic to taste
chopped fresh cilantro to taste

on thursday night, i made red snapper parmigiana and homemade tomato sauce! i am proud. the recipe for this delicious, healthy, and easy dish is available at food.com, recipe #85626. it's a little hard to see, but i still thought it looked nice.

relaxing is harder than it sounds.

grocery shopping, exploring, dental appointments, exercising, gardening...these are things i understand. relaxing...not so much.

i am beginning to think that my idea of relaxing is a far cry from normal. to normal people, relaxing is not doing anything. to me, relaxing is doing things that i want to do because i want to do them...not because i have to. for goodness sakes, i woke up at 5:55 am this morning by choice and it was a whole lot easier than when i had to wake up that early each day for a job!

basically, this week has been full of such "relaxing." i have been enjoying yardwork at leah's, i've been running at the beach, i have even taken out my guitar a time or two and experimented with garage band on the macbook. and you know what? i feel relaxed.

the dental appointment referenced above happened on monday at leah's practice. i have a clean bill of health from my dentist sister. see below: do you see anything different about me in this picture? we'll see if you catch it...i'll let you know what it is in the next post! oooh, i love a mystery! (can you tell that i loved highlights magazine as a kid?)

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good job, bad boy!

leah and i took the bad boy out while we were at the farm over the weekend. the following is the true tale of our trip. (i wish i had pictures to prove it.)

an 800-acre farm is a little too big to explore on foot, even for the most ambitious. the thompsons are prepared for this small inconvenience with a golf-cart-like vehicle known as a "bad boy." it is super stealth because it runs on battery, not a noisy engine. hopping in the bad boy for the first time, i could hardly contain my excitement. no seat belt, no doors...nothing could hold me back from spotting flora and fauna in the wild today. flora i saw a-plenty. fauna...well, that depends on what you call fauna.

the first lesson i learned was that you should always keep your mouth closed when driving on a bad boy. it's grasshopper season and those things can fly right in. the second lesson...well, scratch that, it wasn't a lesson. i learned that i pinch people when i get scared. leah learned that, too. sorry, leah. the back-story here can be summed up in the conversation that follows:

"abbie, did you see that spider? we just drove through a huge web."
i grabbed leah's arm. "no, where was it?"
i see the web. i start pinching.
"oh, there he is. he's a big one! you don't have to pinch me!"
i am now fourteen feet from the bad boy. how? i don't know.

recovery took a while. i still might not be over it. it was a big one. anyway, the third lesson i learned was to always watch the battery level while driving a bad boy. the red light doesn't blink to remind you to check it, it blinks when YOU'RE OUT OF JUICE. somehow, while we were still out on the trails pretty far from the house, after we saw the blinking red light, we ran on battery fumes (you know what i mean) for probably a half a mile, which was a miracle. we made it all the way to the pond next to where the bad boy parks, but there was a hill. we took turns pushing it through those last few feet, unsuccessful due to the sweltering heat, the auto-brake on the bad boy, and the unavoidable laughter. oh well. we left it on the hill. leah went back to get the keys later and decided to try it and somehow the battery fumes or whatever they are doubled in strength and it made it's way up the hill! good job, bad boy!

flora = check, fauna = grasshoppers, spider, dead armadillo, squirrels. awesome.

war eagle!

in case you are wondering, just like i was, a few short days ago, "what is all this war eagle stuff?" it is kind of a motto/war cry thing used by auburn fans. mostly because they have a real eagle that flies into the stadium at the beginning of each home game.

on saturday, i watched the auburn v. lsu game at auburn's stadium, which is beautiful! we had outdoor seats on the 50 yard line and for the second half we spent our time in one of the box suites. i couldn't have asked for a better game (though i could have asked for better refs) i really enjoyed football for once in my life! the fans were great, the fountain diet pepsi was great, the eagle, the f-22 flyover, the police interventions...everything was fantastic. i could get used to this!

(the moment when auburn won!)

auburn is about three hours north and slightly east of destin, so we stayed at the thompson's (that's leah's family) farm (called "eagle's landing") for the weekend, about an hour from the game, near clayton, alabama. here is a place i could get used to, too! the thompsons welcomed me into their home and treated me like family. it was a lovely weekend getaway. thank you, thompsons!


our fabulous steak dinner on friday night.


leah and i fireside, and below...various photos from around the farm. enjoy!

the sunshine state

just a few photos and memoirs of a six-hour journey to destin, florida from atlanta, georgia. i drove on a major highway for about half of the trip, and on the second half of the trip on the back roads of alabama and northwestern florida, i...

~spotted an armadillo carcass (hey, this is exciting for a yankee. i thought armadillos were from africa.)
~played dodge-ems with a bunch of turtles in the road (i avoided them but i felt that their demise was coming soon. so sad.)
~took way too many pictures from the driver's seat
~passed three cars at once on a two-way road (that was a first for me.)


welcome to alabama!


in case you can't see it, it says "Don't get caught with your PLANTS down!" loved it.


welcome to florida! (and welcome to "time to clean your windshield.")

traveling over the mid-bay bridge to my DESTINation.

when i arrived in florida i got to see my sister-in-law Leah's dental office, hung out there for a few minutes, and drove fifteen minutes more to my home for the next few weeks. it's great! had a nice dinner with leah and friends at the melting pot, and the next morning, leah made eggs for us (pictured below)! this is the life!

supermodel for a day

i am staying at the coolest apartment i've ever been to. i'm in decatur, georgia, which is quite close to atlanta, kind of part of atlanta, but not really. i am here to see monica and joel, friends from college who tied the knot in ohio three years ago. monica and i go way back to my freshman year. we met when monica was directing a one-act show and i auditioned. i got the part of the most spastic person ever (oddly enough, right?) and it started our friendship on the right foot. monica knew right away that we would be lifelong friends and that intuition hit me, too, in no time at all. a few pictures of cool apartment below:




unfortunately, though monica is a freelance photographer now and photography teacher, and with all the pictures taken during my days in atlanta, i did not get any of the three of us together, or even one of monica and i! oh well, i still have the one from the "abbinato" post a few days ago when we randomly met in stafford, va. and lots from college.

monica gave me the pleasure of playing model in a just-for-fun photo shoot in nearby stone mountain yesterday. now, some of you might think, a photo shoot? fun? and trust me, i have my share of terrible photos, but, let's just say it, i like to pose. ha! i think i am pretty good at it until i start pretending i'm on america's next top model and i look like a dorky puppet. (if you click on the words "photo shoot" in this paragraph you can see a few of the best shots on monica's blog.) monica and her self-starter, freelance self are an inspiration to me since i would like to pretty much freelance the rest of my way through life. we'll see. at least i'm inspired. preview to what you will see on monica's blog:


the last adventure during my time in atlanta was a trip to the coolest restaurant in atlanta with another long-time friend, brian. we went to the same school for most of elementary and middle school and have somehow kept in touch just in enough to still hang out if we are in the same city. the restaurant is called the sundial and it is one of those rotating restaurants on the top of a building. it was super fun!






next stop: destin! i am anticipating being there for a while, but i am hoping to do enough cool and interesting stuff to still be able to post on the blog every couple of days, so keep reading!

carolinas in my mind

i know i am truly in the south now.

reason #1: on sunday, i drove from the dc area to durham, nc, home to duke university and my lovely friends mike and liz. and what did we have for dinner? chicken and dumplings. delicious!

not so delicious: mechanically separated chicken. i learned about what it was from mike and liz and have sworn off chicken nuggets of any kind forever. above is our reaction to that bleak reality that is processed meats.


above: a visit to duke university, mainly the chapel. liz and i looking more normal.

reason #2: on monday, driving from asheville, nc, where i stopped to visit my teacher friend, chris aitken, to simpsonville, sc, where my cousin heather and her husband james live, i found myself in dire need of a restroom, but on a country road that was NOT promising on the rest stop outlook. i also was not quite sure i was on the right country road, either. i saw a large faded sign that read ANTIQUES and figured i might as well stop and ask the store clerk, who was currently picking up the items off the porch for closing time (it was around 5 o'clock), whether i was on the right track to simpsonville. i pulled in and screeched to a stop, took out my atlas for a moment, was encouraged, but was literally squirming in my seat and could not focus on the map. i definitely drank too much water today! anyway, as she continued to clear the outdoor items, i asked the clerk about my general direction, and she said in her endearing southern drawl that i was on the correct route, and then i asked, sweetly, "do you know where the nearest place is that has a bathroom?" and she pointed to the restroom in her shop. THANK YOU, southern charm! i can't stand it when i'm in new england somewhere and i stop with a similar request and they say, "sorry, no bathroom" and faintly gesture at some unreadable sign near the door. i always want to say, "then what do YOU do when you need to go?" or, i wonder, are they saying "we have no bathroom," which, of course, is a blatant lie, or are they saying, "you no bathroom" like cave-man neanderthals, as an abbreviated way of saying, you cannot use our bathroom, even though we have one. needless to say, i am in the south, where there are no bathroom-hogging store clerks and no lies. (okay, that might be an exaggeration. you get the point)



above: photo of the mountainous drive to asheville (i'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of chris and i during our quick grocery-store-lunch-buffet-rendez-vous!) and a few snapshots of downtown asheville.

reason #3: people look at me funny when i talk. finally, i have an accent, somewhere!

my new friend, emmy! she is so cute and she loved me!

james, emmy, heather, and me at their lovely home in simpsonville. it was a great stop. except the fact that my car decided to freak out at the crack of dawn and start honking at everyone. well, i guess my car has the right to protest all of this. but i hope that's out of it's system for now. off to start my drive to ATL!

abbinato...a gathering. my new favorite word.

over the past few days, i've been encircling our great capital, never quite entering it, in order to see some of my wonderful friends who live in the dc area. first, on friday evening, i made my way from frederick, maryland, to sarah and rich's house in chantilly, va. (side note: the drive down 15 south is gorgeous!) they have a (relatively) new little bundle of joy...at least i had never met him...so it was great timing for the trip. his name is rich, too, and he has a lot of personality. you might not see it here because he was just so enamored by my camera. sarah and i went to a great indian restaurant called rangoli in nearby south riding, va. it was delicious! we spent lots of quality time together in the short span of my visit and rich and i even got a chance to talk investments. i couldn't have asked for more! :)


the next morning, after a nice walk with sarah around their picturesque neighborhood, i went to another great restaurant, recommended to me by rachel, my next visitee in the dc area! i have known rachel since first or second grade, i think, and we had a lovely time at eggspectation, i got eggs benedict sans hollandaise sauce. i had a sample of the hollandaise sauce and decided that it tastes like chicken. it was a no-go. but the eggs benedict i had, made with poached eggs, spinach and guacamole over wheat toast, was delicious, and i didn't feel too bad about it afterwards! (but apparently i did feel like i was getting my senior pictures done again...see below.)


i drove about an hour and a half south to stafford, va after a memorable run to target with rachel. it's the little things, people. stafford is where josh and kara live. they got married a little over a year ago and i have only seen them once or twice since their wedding. josh and i went to concord christian together at various ages, were in the worship team together in high school, and then he ended up tagging along with me to college, too...and kara i met in college when she was a freshman. i would love to say i introduced them, but i didn't. but there's a good chance that josh never would have heard of grove city college without me. i mean, seriously, WHO has heard of grove city college other than people who know someone who goes there? okay, and people who listen to rush limbaugh. so i think i brought them together.

next comes the story of the craziest circumstance yet to be described on this blog.

josh and kara suggested a drive to a hilltop vineyard for some great pictures. josh and kara had never been there; it was close, right in stafford, and i am agreeable to pretty much anything that includes hilltops and vineyards and such, so the decision was unanimous. the drive was short, ten minutes, maybe, and i could feel the car angle toward the sky as we began to ascend the long driveway of the winery. the car slowly passed over the rocky surface of the road as the winery rose into view. there were several passers-by sauntering around the grounds in the sun, and kara remarked that there was a wedding going on. as my eyes began to adjust from the grandeur at a distance to each of the people closer to us, i noticed the strange resemblance of one woman to the mother of one of my dear friends from college, monica. the resemblance was so strong, that after squinting at her for half a minute, unmoved by the fact that the woman saw me shamelessly gawking, i mentioned it to josh and kara. upon getting out of the car, i began to walk towards her with no intention of speaking to her; it couldn't be her! then, i saw a man. with a strange resemblance to monica's father. that's when i started running.
"mr. and mrs. ammirati...it's me, abbie!"
"what are YOU doing here?"
"i'm on my roadtrip!" introductions of josh and kara and their status in stafford, va were made.
"we're here for our nephew's wedding. monica's inside!"

so you get the idea. the odds of me seeing my atlanta-based friend, whom i will be seeing in two days and have not seen in...maybe six months? maybe more? ...and we ran into them!? monica was shooting the wedding (she's a photographer) and i was able to give her and her husband, joel, a quick hug before letting them get back to work. we were all mystified.


to wrap this up quickly...last night was a lovely time to spend with josh and kara and this morning i will be going to worship with them at their church. i can't believe it's sunday already! and one more note...the title of this blog is inspired by a wine we saw in the store section of the winery. at first, i was inspired by just the look of the word "abbinato" as there is some similarity to by name. and it's italian. so i like it. then i found out that it means "gathering" as in the gathering of the grapes, or the gathering of people to drink wine together. i liked the thought of this trip as my "abbinato," because i am gathering up love from people all over the place by gathering with them. we'll see if it catches on.