La Cucaracaha

...And not in that cute, funny way, where you're all "hey, I'm sipping a margarita and singing about cockroaches in Spanish! How funny!" No, I'm talking about a real cockroach-- an ugly, hairy little guy that was a good inch and a half long. Ew. It gives me the shivers just writing it.

I had grand aspirations for this morning. I've been on a real house keeping kick, deep cleaning and getting everything organized (since I have an empty house and lots of time on my hands), and last night after giving the shower a preliminary spray to loosen up any grime, I set my alarm to get up early and give it a good scrub before work. (I also wanted to get a blog post up, but now I'm sitting at my desk at work and typing furiously before my 9:30am status meeting.)

So my alarm goes off, and I (begrudgingly) get up and head into the bathroom. I start the shower water and hop in. I start to move the non-slip bathmat we have in the shower and then I detect a little movement. Before I can even get out of the way, a cockroach leaps up and on to my leg and foot. Ew!! I am not naturally someone who screams or shrieks. In fact, before this morning, I'm not even sure I knew what I would sound like if I screamed out of sheer terror. But now I do.

I leaped out of the shower and sprinted back into my room. But then I just stood there trying to figure out what to do. I actually called J in a moment of panic. Fortunately he didn't pick up because I'm not sure what I would have said. "Um, can you come back from Charlotte and kill the cockroach in the tub?" Probably not. So I did what any self respecting woman would do. I put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, drove up to HEB at dawn, and bought some Raid to kill it myself. On the way to the store, a bird flew directly into my windshield. I have no idea if it died on the side of the road (I hope not), but I am just thankful that it didn't leave any blood, because I think I would have seriously freaked out at that point.

When I got home, I thoroughly fumigated the bathroom and then shut the door to let the Raid work it's magic while I brewed some coffee and tried to enjoy my Kashi Go Lean with strawberries. I gave it a good 20 minutes and then peeked inside the shower again. The roach appeared to be dead, but I gave him another little spray just to be sure.

Then I spent 10 minutes contemplating how to get him out of the shower. I most definitely was not going to touch it, nor did I want any of my household tools to touch the roach. So finally I covered my broom securely with a plastic bag, then I swept him into a dust pan (which in hindsight I should have also covered with plastic) and dumped him over the edge of our balcony. I had no idea if leaving him in the garbage might encourage his family members to come check him out for some reason.

At this point it was now about 8am, so I had to jump in the shower and get ready and I didn't have time to even clean out the Raid, let alone the deep clean I had planned. I just let the hot water run for a little while to wash away as much of the chemicals as possible. Finally, I got in and got my day started. Let's just say, it was not the way I had planned my morning... I guess it's a good reminder that I'm not really in control. Now I'm sipping my coffee at my desk, and hoping the rest of the day goes a little smoother!

Charlotte and Charleston

Last weekend, I flew back east to visit J in Charlotte. He'd only been gone a week, but since we had a 3 day weekend (and the office closed early on Friday), it just worked better to schedule a visit when I could take advantage of that extra time for travel.

Friday night we had dinner at a surprisingly good Indian restaurant, Maharani. When I think of North Carolina, really authentic Indian food isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But it was delicious... definitely one of the top 10 Indian places I've ever been to. Then J showed me around the town a little bit and we hit the hay early.

Saturday we got up and started our weekend adventure down to Charleston, South Carolina. Neither J or I has spent much time in the Southeast, and it turns out that Charlotte is perfectly situated to drive to many of the top destinations in both of the Carolinas and Georgia in 4 hours or less. Because it was only 3 hours away, we picked Charleston for our first little road trip, and off we went!

We stopped for lunch in Columbia, SC, to try out some South Carolina "Midlands" style barbecue. South Carolina barbeque's unique element is that its sauce is made from a mustard base instead of the traditional tomato base. It was interesting... not amazing, but since we seem to be getting a pretty thorough education in regional BBQ styles, I was glad I tried it. But, it was a buffet style restaurant, and the best item by far was the fried chicken. Mmmm.

We arrived in Charleston on Saturday afternoon, got settled in, and then took a carriage ride to get oriented to the city. What amazing architecture and history! It was one stunning mansion after another, all with gorgeous secret gardens and courtyards peeking out in between. Such a romantic city. It reminded me a little of Venice... the water, the huge mansions, and the ancient patina on everything. Charleston has a rule that nothing over 70 years old can be fixed or updated. It can be restored to its original look or it has to be left as is, so lots of buildings look like they're kind of decaying a little bit, but in a very charming way. We capped off Saturday evening with an awesome dinner at High Cotton, where I had my very first shrimp and grits experience.

On Sunday we woke up and decided to walk down to the South of Broad neighborhood that we had toured by carriage so that we could get a better look at everything. We also toured the Calhoun House, which is a huge mansion, restored to its full 1870s glory. It is said that the original owner of the house was a Civil War blockade runner and the inspiration for the character of Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind.

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing shops on King Street, followed by a nice long nap. For dinner, we ventured out to Hank's Seafood Restaurant, which J's boss had recommended. I had an amazing roasted flounder on a bed of sweet corn, shrimp, and lobster risotto. Delicious. After that we rolled ourselves over to a nearby bar where we sipped drinks on a rooftop deck until the big fireworks show over Charleston's harbor.

On our final day, Monday, we got up early and headed about 30 minutes outside of Charleston to tour the Boone Hall Plantation-- as a total history dork (who was obsessed with both the book and film versions of Gone With The Wind from ages 12-16), this was my favorite activity of the weekend. Boone Hall is the oldest working plantation in the United States. It was founded in the late 1600s, and they still grow numerous crops, including pecans, berries, pumpkins, onions, etc. They drove us all around the property recounting its history, and then we were free to tour the old slave cabins, which now house numerous interactive exhibits on African American history. Finally, we toured the plantation house-- the exterior of which was used as Allie's parents' home in The Notebook. (The interior of the Calhoun House I mentioned earlier was also filmed as part of Allie's parents' house.)

Finally, we drove back to Charlotte and had some real North Carolina barbecue at Mac's Speed Shop. North Carolina barbecue with its more traditional sauce and mouth watering pulled pork is definitely more my taste that its mustardy cousin in South Carolina, but it was fun to try both out. (I have to say though, I'm becoming more and more of a Texas girl everyday and would still pick Texas BBQ over anything in the Carolinas. You just can't beat the Salt Lick!)

Our last stop was the airport, where Jason dropped me off for my trip back to Austin. It was a fantastic weekend, and a very memorable fourth of July. I'm hoping I'll be able to make another trip out there in a few weeks to explore a little more of the Southeast. I hope you all had a fantastic 4th as well!