vacation, part II: carolina conquest

what a whirlwind!
i’m tired, weary, a day behind on blogging, and my flight leaves at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning (woah). it’s been quite a week, though. we took off for charlotte/high point yesterday and we’re already back home — i feel like we were gone for days, and yet the time is flying by all too quickly.

we started with a rough plan.

then we began our adventure! we started at furnitureland south in high point, where a very distinguished gentleman made us feel unrefined and impoverished. no, not really, but it was a bit discouraging the way he seemed he had to really DIG DEEP to reach our price range, and didn’t even quite get there — his bedroom set budget ate up 75% of the quote we had given him for doing our bedroom + dining room + desk.

on the up-side, the building was rather awesome (admittedly, this is not the first time such architectural genius has been posted on this blog) and there were a lot of beautiful pieces to admire for the future if we ever do decide we can drop some serious ca$h on home furnishings.

at one point, we were getting all caught up in the moment and considered a bedroom set from huppé, a canadian company with contemporary pieces that we both liked.

but we decided to sleep on it. i think we were both feeling a little bit overwhelmed

i think this look says “overwhelmed”, if not “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!”

we spent the drive to charlotte questioning what TRULY makes us happy.

so, can money buy happine$$?
i think we agreed that the answer to this age-old question is no, but then we got to talking about what tangible purchases DO really contribute to quality of life (and therefore . . . happiness) overall. here’s my own personal take on things:

contributes highly to quality of life
♥ food! both ingredients + restaurant experiences
♥ ability to take trips/vacations
♥ clothes
♥ enough space to keep things relatively organized
♥ gym membership/running purchases
♥ entertainment: going out with others, seeing movies/concerts

contributes only minimally
▲ technology toys: phone, camera
▲ surroundings: furniture, decor
▲ car! assuming that it works, that is

remember, this is just a list of TANGIBLES — above all of these things in my opinion are

#1: LOVE
#2: TIME

but i digress . . . this was supposed to be a short post after all! anyone care to share their lists?

so what happened with the furniture? well, that’s really in today’s story, so i’ll post that tomorrow!

charlotte, as opposed to charlottesVILLE
i remember i used to mix those two up when i was younger! anyway, we stayed at the omni (yayyyyy, priceline again!) and it was located downtown in quite a hopping area. we arrived at our hotel after a conversation full of DEEP THOUGHTS interspersed with debate over colors of wood, and by then we were ready for some serious relaxation.

we pulled into the parking garage next to what looked like a police car. but on closer inspection . . .

apparently this officer’s mission is to “serve and protect fresh beer”! YES.

feeling festive, we headed out for some italian on the recommendation of some friends who had lived in the area. after a 5 minute walk from our hotel, we arrived at coco osteria and were blissfully drowning our cares in some montepulciano before you can say ‘buona sera’.

it was light and fruity and went beautifully with the tomato-centric food to come. we were served some focaccia-like strips of bread with white beans in olive oil — nice touch.

this was followed by a caprese salad, split two ways. i love when restaurants volunteer to do this!

i ordered spinach and ricotta ravioli . . . with meat sauce. yes, i know it probably wasn’t free range. but . . . it was good. and i haven’t keeled over from poisonous additives and contamination. yet.

we finished off with a shared tiramisu, our favorite thing to order in any italian restaurant because it’s always so different! this one was extremely rich and creamy. i had no complaints.

run report + preview
yesterday’s run (wow, it seems like FOREVER ago) was 8 miles total in chapel hill before we left (josh had to do some dictations, so the timing worked out well). mile 1 was warmup @ ~9:00/mi and the rest were at average 8:20/mi pace. this felt SO hard! i don’t know if it was the heat, the hills, or the fact that i have been fueled almost entirely by restaurant food and wine. oh well: worth it. and at least i made it!

in stark contrast, today i ran with the fabulous kath and it was a FAR more pleasant experience! josh and i had a wonderful time hanging out with her and matt in charlotte, between trips to the swedish promise land of IKEA. but more on that tomorrow! now, it’s packing and then bedtime . . . it’s time for trip #3 in the morning.