With this ring...

One of my oldest friends got married to a wonderful man yesterday in the Rose Gardens downtown. It was disgustingly hot, but absolutely beautiful. The two have been to hell and back together and are so incredibly in love, which is abundantly clear in the way they look at each other. I would like to wish them the best, but I know they do not need it.

"When You are Engulfed in Flames"

David Sedaris visited Quail Ridge Books last night for a book reading and signing. After the reading, I waited for probably four hours to get my copy of "When You are Engulfed in Flames" signed with a signature David Sedaris doodle. I got an airplane, a reference to my response to his funny airplane stories segment, in which I told a story about my parents' jobs.

He was super nice and incredibly engaging. We also went to the same high school! Raleigh is lucky to have him!

Lulu!

I start work tomorrow at Lulu, an online start-up self publishing company based here in Raleigh, as a customer service representative. I interviewed and got the job in the same hour! I'll be a temp for the first two months making very little money, but hopefully after those two months they'll hire me full time.
The company is really innovative and very, very cool. I can't even explain how excited I am to finally work for the company I've been checking out since I watched them build the new building across from Cup-a-Joe.
(photos from New Raleigh)

Roller Derby

I had my first Roller Derby experience last night when I went to go see The Carolina Rollergirls take on the national champions The Gotham Girls of New York. It inspired me to strap on some rollerskates and become a rollergirl, though I feel like that would end badly for everyone.
It is a really intense game. Each game consists of two thirty minute bouts with a short intermission. Each bout has several two minute jams, in which a group of girls called "the pack" tries to block the two "jammers" who have to pass the pack and lap the other girls.
Those girls are seriously tough, and they get slammed to the floor pretty regularly.The audience is also kind of insane, jumping and shouting and yelling and whatnot. We had such a blast. It was pretty much impossible to not get not blurry pictures, as these girls are flying by.

First Friday

On Friday, my sister and I met up with some friends and headed downtown for First Friday. First Friday takes place on the, well, first Friday of every month. Downtown is always hoppin' and all the local art galleries, restaurants and music venues have events happening. It's impossible to go to everything, so the best plan of attack is to pick a few places that are within walking distance of your car. Scarlet Virginia was playing a show at Father and Sons, which is a really amazing vintage shop with three floors of art and antiques. The building is incredibly old and the floors are wooden and squeaky, and there's unrepaired holes everywhere. There's stuff to explore everywhere you look and gems to be found if you're willing to dig. It is not, however, a music venue and the Scarlet Virginia band members were quite squished. Regardless, we had a great time and celebrated the night with some MoJoe's delicious and ridiculously cheap burgers.