Calm before the storm ...

So Saturday the 16th turned out to be a wild day in North Carolina with the horrific tornadoes that came tearing thru my portion of the state. Fortunately, my house and property were not damaged, except for some tree limbs and small debris. A mile or so from my house however, many of my friends had a lot of destruction at their homes. It was all too close for comfort.

The craziest part for me was that I was on the way back home from Wilmington with my friend, Beth. We were listening on the radio as they called out streets in Wake County - street names where some of my adopted family and close friends live. I started to panic. Even when you're an hour or so away from home and all the news is breaking on the radio, it makes you feel you're in a different state. We got back to Beth's house and nothing was going on, and we were probably five miles or so away from all the devastation. It was surreal. But thankfully, even though lots of my friends suffered damage to their properties, it all can be replaced, and thankfully they were not harmed.

As a calm before the storm, so to speak, Beth and I took a mini road trip to Wilmington. Before a yummy lunch at P.T.'s Grille, we went to the Airlie Gardens. I really enjoyed the visit at Airlie as it was much bigger than I anticipated. There are a lot of walking trails - some paved and some not (you almost better "x" your spot so you don't get lost, ha!) But with the beautiful azaleas and other spring flowers in bloom, it really made the garden all the more colorful and exquisite.

The historic Airlie Oak is the centerpiece for the unique garden. It is one of North Carolina's largest oak trees of this type. Another of my favorite spots was in the sculpture garden, which features a "chapel" that is made completely out of different types of glass bottles. What a beautiful sight that must be at night with the lights turned on.

There are quite a lot of areas to visit in the immense garden complex. A word to the adventurers, the tour guide map that you receive at the office is very pretty BUT the garden itself can be very confusing. If you get off the paved trail, the map isn't going to help you -- well it doesn't quite help you on the paved trail either at times, ha! But still make a visit to Airlie in beautiful Wilmington, North Carolina.

For my cousin...

In today's world at times it saddens me to see how many famous people have little to no respect for their admirers. On some level, I can understand how they get aggravated by people constantly hounding them for autographs, pictures, etc. But come on, movie stars ought to be able to take five minutes to talk to someone who spends countless dollars buying tickets to see their movies or even buying the DVDs. To some extent that even extends down to the "local" level. You may encounter a news person, a coach from a college team or someone else, who we see often, in a grocery store or shopping mall. I know I'd hate to bother them and ask for a picture or something, but would it really hurt them to do so? I guess it depends...but in all actuality, they could at least nod their head, smile and acknowledge you. I've seen so many people treated so ugly by "celebrities" (local and nationally), I often ponder what I would do if I were in their place.

Thankfully, there are quite a lot of good celebrities out there. Some that will go out of their way to speak to you and do things for you. I've met a few of them during my time here in North Carolina and have been pleased. But on Friday, I met quite a few who just blew me out of the water.

But first, here's a little backstory...

My cousin Jeremy is two months older than me. My Mom and his Dad are brother and sister. So we've always grown up together as playmates or just hanging out at family gatherings. I think as we've grown older, we've grown closer together. One difference between us (aside from the obvious boy/girl), and one difference that has never phased me but maybe has others, is that Jeremy was born with spina bifida and as a result he is paralyzed. But what's so amazing and so inspiring to me about Jeremy is that whatever he sets his mind to do, he will accomplish. He's been in the hospital numerous times and never once have I heard him complain. He is such a positive person who cares so much for many people, especially his love for our military which puts me to shame. He will go out of his way to speak to people and doesn't let his handicap get in his way.

Growing up, in some ways, I always felt kind of bad for him (he may hate me for posting this entry later, ha!). My family was always going on trips here and there, but I never really heard whether he got to go on many. I've been so fortunate lately to be able to do quite a lot of things with him. From going to the Mudcats games, to the State Fair and concerts to a real big adventure this past Friday to ABC 11 to meet Frances Scott.


Frances Scott anchors the 5:00 and 5:30 news on ABC 11, and by my count and many others, she is one of our good local celebrities. Jeremy & Frances have a friendship that started over Facebook, and they had chatted off and on for several years but neither had ever met. I thank Frances so much for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk with my cousin and be a friend to him. I can tell how excited he gets talking to Frances and getting messages from her. So in the long run, Frances invited him up to the studio, and Jeremy asked me if I'd be willing to take him. HECK YEAH!

What many don't know about me is that growing up as a child, I ALWAYS wanted to be a news anchor. Donna Gregory (from WRAL) used to be one of my heroes. She always remembered me each time I went to see her at the Fair. I had many friends in the industry and that was what my mind was set on. As a teen, I was a co-anchor on a Christian show called Teen Scene that aired out of a local station in Apex and that was fun. But what happened after that, I have no idea. So when Jeremy asked if I'd go with him to the studio to see Frances, it was almost like a dream come true for me!

I was nervous because we had to go to Durham, and many of your true North Carolinians would understand why some don't like going to Durham, ha! But all-in-all, it was a great experience. Frances is such an amazing person; she's so beautiful and just has such a caring spirit. She was so enthusiatic about giving us a tour of the facilities and introduced us to so many other wonderful people at ABC 11. All the other anchors/reporters and staff we met, were all so nice and willing to help take care of my cousin and myself.

So in the end, you never know what small things might do for others. As that infamous quote is "to the world, you may be one person; but to one person, you may be the world." We never know what influence we have on the world or on others. So try to be who you are, take time to smell the roses and acknowledge those around you. In the end, you'll be a better person.

(PS: A big thank you to Frances Scott for introducting us to Tisha Powell, Mike Mendez, Chris Hohmann, Fred Shropshire and so many others at ABC 11. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to spend a few hours with us & for giving us a ride back to the car! You're the best!!)

Once in a lifetime...

So once in a lifetime, you have to try something different, right?

Well I'm one of those who usually doesn't shy away from trying something. As my 5th grade teacher once said, "try it, you might like it."

Last weekend (April 3rd), my friend, Julie, and I took an adventure and it turned out to be one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences. We went to a REAL NASCAR race. Now granted I had been to a NASCAR event before but it wasn't a true race for points event. So off we trekked early Sunday morning to Martinsville, Virginia!

The drive up was very scenic and not a hard drive at all from Raleigh (a little over two hours!). Once we crossed the state-line, you could tell who was going to the race based on the design of the car, their clothes, etc. The closer we got to Ridgeway, VA, where the track is located (anyone else think it's funny that the NASCAR tracks are RARELY in the city that the track is named after? hmmm) ... the traffic worsened. We elected to park as close as we could so we could walk back and forth from the car to the track & we did just that!

My first experience was finding the bathroom ... welllllll, this is where my adventure began. We couldn't go in the track and come back out without getting hand-stamped. So Julie convinced me to use a Port-a-John. I have NEVER in my life used one of those nasty places, but in dire situations, you've gotta do what you gotta do. I convinced myself that if I could use the "facilities" on a moving train or on a moving bus, I should be able to use this. Well, I did but I was terrified the whole time someone was gonna tip me over. Adventure # 1 complete (well make that several because I later visited one again!)

The entire NASCAR experience is an adventure of itself. The people are just a different breed altogether. But overall, they are good people. We enjoyed all the sights and sounds. I was excited to spend some money at the drivers' trailers buying from my favorites Tony Stewart & Denny Hamlin. The climb to our seats was a huge challenge as we were seated high in the sky. But it was fun and we had a birds-eye view of the entire track.


Martinsville proved to be a challenging race with several lead changes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a terrific run and should've won the race, but I won't go on that rant now. Denny Hamlin did a good job but got way off-cycle on his pit-stops and fell back. And my poor Tony Stewart ... well let's not even go there but his pit crew did an amazing job replacing the rear-end gear and getting him back on the track so he didn't receive a DNF. But the best part, thank God, Jimmie Johnson did NOT win. Had he won that race, it would have been a very, very long ride home!

After the race, we mulled around the track for a bit before going back to our car. We sat in the car for awhile and eventually moved down the hill into the shade. Around the same time, the actual car haulers began their exit "train" from the track. What a unique experience to sit and watch all the haulers go past, tooting their horns, waving and throwing out things to the fans.

Soon after the "train" ended, we got in line and headed out of the speedway. Along our route home, somehow, Jeff Gordon's hauler managed to come us beside us and we followed it a little ways before we both went our separate ways -- him towards Charlotte, us towards Greensboro headed to Burlington to eat and finally back to good 'ole Wake County.

All in all, NASCAR is definitely a once in a lifetime experience that all should take. Even if you're not a NASCAR fan, it is something worthwhile. I think I'm a fan of the short-tracks more than the superspeedways though -- mainly because you can see the WHOLE track and know where every body is!

I hope to make it out to some more races in the near future, and maybe, just maybe, one of my boys will win and Jimmie Johnson won't!