Keeping Up With the Family

Almost a month and a half ago, I left North Carolina to relocate to the Pacific Northwest. Now that I’m no longer seeing my family and my close NC friends on a regular basis, I find it hard to keep them updated on what I’m doing. With my parents, some of my aunts and uncles, and my closest friends, there have been emails and Facebook messages flying back and forth. But what inevitably happens is that I tell things to some people and forget to tell others. Or I find myself hopelessly repeating myself. And other people get missed altogether. And then, I had a thought: “Hey, Sarah. You have a website. Use it, ya dork.” So, here we go –

Dear Family, Friends, and Other Assorted Folks:

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been pretty busy here at the “Twilight Pizza Test Kitchen.” (The family I live with owns one restaurant and is getting ready to open a second one.) They have postponed opening until September. Which is a bummer, but it’s given us time to perfect what we want to put on the menu. Such as: Arancine, Caprese Skewers, Hushpuppies and Corn Fritters (both of which we made from scratch, since we don’t have House Autry mix out here in the Great Northwest), Fried Chicken (which just isn’t the same as Daddy’s, no matter what we do to it!), Smoked Shrimp, Grilled Shrimp skewers, and Smoked Pork Loin. I’ve also found another half dozen or so fans of my special Sweet & Spicy Bacon…

Postponing the opening also gave us the opportunity to finish the wood for the bar. For four long, hot, sweaty days, Morgan and I spent our time on the back patio, planing and sanding black walnut root stock, which will be used to make the bar. I got pretty dirty in that process…

You will be proud to know that our Sadie has been adopted as the spokes-dog for my friends Chris and Malcolm’s new business! They are starting a business making “kombucha.” It’s a fermented tea drink that’s popular out here. It’s purported to have an insane number of health benefits. So, Chris & Malcolm are making it and will be selling it locally. Malcolm asked me to help with the label. He had an idea of what he wanted and when he told me he wanted a dog on the label, I knew exactly what to do…

Malcolm and I also took an afternoon (after a job interview) to go to the International Rose Test Gardens that are here in Portland. I love the view of Portland from there.

Last night, when I walked into the living room, Morgan looked at me and said, “Wow! You’ve lost some weight!” I’ll have to give credit where credit is due for that. Last weekend, Ryan and our friends, The Raricks and I hiked three miles at Cooper Mountain. Then, Malcolm and I walked another couple of miles that afternoon. And the next day, Andy and I walked a huge portion of his neighborhood. I’m thinking I walked between 8 and 10 miles total. I was a little skeptical that I would be able to get out of bed on Monday morning, but alas, I was able. And my two little blisters were gone by mid-week. I think it was worth it. And the company can’t be faulted!

I’m still job-hunting, but I have a promising interview this coming week. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I accept any and all prayers sent up on my behalf! In the meantime, I’m staying busy with freelance work. It’s nice to be productive while simultaneously sitting in bed in your jammies…

And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing here!

Love y’all!

S