No rules...

Hello, is anybody out there? Yes, Yes, I know I've been a bad little blog writer. We all know life gets away from us - I had no intention of life getting that much away from me but what can ya do? Let me recap my life for you since I last posted:

-I finally had the chance to meet to Anderson Cooper (quick recap: I won a Facebook contest for an all-inclusive trip to meet Anderson and get a backstage tour with a friend)

Anderson Cooper & Cherie

-Had an amazing girls weekend for my first time in Savannah, Georgia

-I fractured my foot in June

My right foot - do you like my new shoe?

-I decided to enroll in graduate in school. If all goes according to plan, I will start October 15th at Gannon University's online Masters of Public Administration program.

-Met Stephen Barker-Liles (also known as "Stephen" in the Taylor Swift penned "Hey Stephen" off her Fearless album) of the country duo Love and Theft at a Brad Paisley concert in Bristow, Virginia.

Other than starting grad school the other exciting part for me right now is I've been asked by an awesome acquaintance (did I mention she's a crazy redhead?) to co-found, That Damn Music Blog. As Stacy and I start to organize our crazy adventure we are looking forward to this "world domination"  (as Stacy calls it) in our lives and share it with other people. Our only rule is that there are no rules - how can we go wrong with a blog like that? So please stay tuned here and there as we plan on taking on a musical journey!

Cherie takes Washington D.C.: Newsuem, Tapas & Sangria (oh, wine too!)

This past weekend I went to visit one of my best friends in Washington D.C. I’ve been to Washington D.C. plenty of times but I believe this is the first time where I truly enjoyed myself, my company and the activities we would partake it. It was a truly rememberable, relaxing and fun Girl’s Weekend!

My friend Amy and I met in college at the very end of our freshman year because we both joined the Equestrian Club at its infancy. We had a mutual friend that was forming the Equestrian Club and it seemed that we had an instant connection – maybe we can even call it a sisterhood (not to be all girl power on my male readers) but it is hard to come by these instant connections – especially with a female. Even though, Amy transferred out of Wilkes at the end of our Junior year, we remained friends, sisters and close confidant’s to each other. She has even become part of my family, my parents have adopted her as their daughter – and the majority of the time I think they like her better than me! I have learned a lot from her and our friendship over the past years and I will continue to cherish the memories we have in the future – even the weekend we have coming up in November that will include a 2 night stay in an NYC hotel and my once-in-a-lifetime backstage experience with Anderson Cooper!

Amy & I at the observation floor of the Newsuem on Saturday, October 15, 2011

My Friday started off by taking a half day off from work to start my what was supposed to be a 4 hour drive to National Harbor, where Amy would meet me after work and we would catch up over dinner and cocktails. My drive was not a pleasant one – I have driven to D.C. before and it definitely wasn’t as painful as my drive a week ago. The rain was horrible to drive in and apparently Pennsylvania drivers forget how to drive properly when a little precipitation is falling from the sky. I finally crossed over into the Maryland border and the sky opened up and now I could enjoy my drive with the sunlight and music blaring in the background. I was making pretty decent time despite the rain and I was scheduled to arrive at National Harbor around 4:15 according to my GPS – where Amy and I would walk around and shop before our 6pm dinner reservation at McCormick’s. My GPS as I like to “the bitch” had other plans for me – I was following Amy’s directions perfectly despite my GPS having other routes she wanted me to drive. But as I got closer to Washington D.C. the traffic started to pick up and my automatic traffic detection decided to re-route me and drive me through downtown Washington D.C. to avoid a 45 minute traffic back-up delay. However, Ms. GPS was not so smart because it took me an hour and half to drive through downtown and I wound up getting there around 5:45pm. I would have rather sit in traffic for 45 minutes than drive through that bull-shit again. So needless to say when I finally arrived at National Harbor I was very relieved and I met with Amy for a wonderful seafood centered meal that included some awesome vanilla bean crème brulee for dessert.

Our next stop would continue to the shops in the National Harbor – we enjoyed a walk through the Just Born Peeps store, the new modern “LOFT” hotel and we spent a lot of time in Charming Charlie, an accessory driven store – like “H&M takes accessories.”Which to me would be the perfect chain boutique to find that perfect color accessory for your dress, bridesmaids gifts or just simply cute FUN!

Saturday morning, Amy made me a scrumptious breakfast of coconut pancakes, eggs and turkey bacon. We then made our way into the city for a nice and extensive tour of the Newsuem. I have always wanted to visit this museum but lack of time and their price always turned me away. However, I will say it was voted on of the best museums in D.C. for a reason – it is worth every penny.  The steep price tag does allow you entry for 2 days to the museum which might be needed if you have children, who might be able to make the trek in one day for all 6 floors. The museum is very interactive and just “stop and stare” typical museum people usually think about. As a communications and news junkie, I was in my own heaven and thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I can’t wait to go back and explore the Newsuem again with friends and/or family.

On our Saturday journey through Washington D.C. we then ventured to find some grub – while I desperately wanted sushi, Amy talked me into tapas. We stumbled across La Tasca in Chinatown right across from the Washington Capitals stadium and movie theater. The place did not disappoint – they have DAILY (including weekends!) happy hour specials from 4-7pm. There are 2 happy hour specials to choose from a group tapas that includes an appetizer, pitchers of beer/sangria and then tapas it is $15/person. The other special is $3.50 sangria glasses or beer. Then they have $3.50 tapas as well – we ordered a whole bunch between the both of us and our total bill was less than $30! As we walked back to the parking garage where we paid $11 for the whole day (quite a steal in downtown D.C.) – we heard a high school band playing in front the Washington Capitals arena and they were quite good! Before we headed back to Amy’s apartment – we stopped by Alexandria to see her mother and cake (despite us being full, her mother refused to let us out of the house without having cake).

Since we had a full day of action, excitement and Washington D.C. sights we decided to have a quite night in with some wine, Bridesmaids and Ghost Hunters. I think I’m the one to blame for getting my friend Amy hooked onto the show and she is only one of the few friends I have that is into the paranormal field as much as I am.

Sunday morning we decided to sleep in since it was kind of an early rise on Saturday. We went over to World Market (one of my favorite stores ever that is not in the Lehigh Valley) so every time I visit her or Nashville, I try to make it into one. I really think the Promenade Shoppes would really benefit from putting in a World Market – it would fit in well with the rest of the shops there and Whole Foods. I did get some good wines to try, a wine rack ($10!), an awesome tri-colored/patterned blue scarf and some good old kitchen goodies. Then we decided to pick a local Thai restaurant as our last meal together (for awhile) – it did not disappoint. The Thai restaurant had authentic Thai and a very selective menu – great prices as well! We were extremely pleased. 

Our last and final trek before I would venture back to Pennsylvania would be the Potomac Point Winery. I would encourage anyone going to the surrounding D.C. area to travel the 45 minutes outside the city to this winery – it is breathtakingly beautiful. Matter of fact, there was a wedding taking place the day we were there. They have award winning wines for anyone’s palate – they are dog friendly too!

One of the many breathtaking views from the Potomac Point Winery

Oh, D.C. – I do love you and you are one of the cleanest cities I’ve been too!

The Heart of a Volunteer

What the makes the heart of a volunteer? Dedication, passion and a smile.

A volunteer can be defined by many things – chaperoning your child’s field trip, raising your hand during a business meeting to participate or spending a Saturday cleaning up a stranger’s home after a devastating flood. Ever since I can remember, I have been volunteering – whether it was with my Girl Scout troop, Youth Group or when I was older with my college or church groups. While many say I was raised with volunteerism in my blood – my parents never forced me to volunteer with these said groups – I wanted to do it and choose to live my life helping others. My definition of a volunteer means you have dedication and passion for a cause and you use that passion and dedication to smile your way to a result.

This past Saturday I traveled to West Pittston, Pennsylvania with two other members of Sons of a Carpenter – a non-profit organization serving survivors of natural disasters.  You might recall a pretty rememberable and one of my most popular blog posts I wrote about a month ago about the anniversary of 9/11 and what it should mean to us. This is a follow up to that, I have been following the news of the flood closely before it happened, when it was happening and now as the cleanup and recovery begins for the thousands of residents of Northeastern PA. This was not the only town affected by Tropical Storm Lee – the whole greater Wyoming Valley area was affected and it will have a lifelong impact on the land, residents and economies of these towns.

We helped home owners rip up their kitchen floor, tear out their kitchen cabinets and salvage what we could out of their cabinets and other belongings. This experience and the many others I have encountered during my volunteerism throughout the years are incredibly humbling and it makes me grateful every single day that I am so blessed to have the things I have. You never know when you will wake up and everything you’ve had and cherished in your lifetime will be swept away by the forceful water currents.

Below are some images I took of the house we helped to clean-up:

 

The water was up to the step right below the end of the drywall arch

Water from the Susquehanna River swept the foundation out from underneath this house

Debris pile along the Main Street in West Pittston

Volunteering in the time of a disaster is not for everyone – it is not for those with a light heart. This is a very emotional time for the survivors as most of their belongings are gone and they are without a place to live. I remember the first time we went to Mississippi in December 2010, just 4 months shy of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation was eye opening then. Most of the people I was sharing this experience with were weeping at the sunrise because the damage was even worse in the sunrise than it was at night. When you are volunteering in these circumstances – you need to be strong and be the shoulder to cry on for the survivors because if you fall apart – they will have nothing to have faith in. Their faith, a lot of times, is what gets them through the tiring times and through the compassion of others – their family, friends and strangers.

I encourage everyone to volunteer at least one time in their life and I promise you it will be life altering experience. It will change the way you see Christmas, birthdays and the everyday aspects of life. All it takes is just a day of your life to change someone else’s.

Cherie's Take: My Favorite iPhone Apps

It is hard to imagine a life without smart phones isn’t it? Enter the world of instant news and worldwide sharing with family and friends. I take part in the motto “I don’t know what I’d do without my iPhone.” I simply do not know if I could function without my iPhone and certainly don’t think I could go back to using a regular old cell phone.

I’ve had my iPhone for over a year now and I’m still finding new features and new apps to play with. That is one of the many reasons I enjoy my phone so much because even a year later – I can still find new ways to use it and new apps to enjoy when the old ones don’t seem to be cutting it anymore.

In this entry I will feature some of my favorite iPhone apps and some app’s that my twitter followers have shared.

Instagram – Social media sharing for your pictures! Instagram has several different filters for your pictures – you can share these pictures via twitter and Facebook. You can connect and “Follow” with your other twitter followers. There is also a “popular” page to see what the other instagram members are ‘liking.’ I use this app weekly, if not daily!

Google+ - I’m still not sure about google+ in general but I am really enjoying the iPhone app. The iPhone app is easier to follow and read streaming news. One of the best features is the messenger aspect of it. My friend and I are decided to use the messenger of google+ instead of texting to each other. The app is free, the messages are at no cost and you can still do everything you can do in a text. The only downside is on his platform, Droid, he had some difficultly sending messages to me – I never had that problem. If you are looking for an invite, please contact me because google+ is still invitation only!

MyFitnessPal – I used this app religiously for a month when I started on my weight loss journey. Ultimately it didn’t work for me personally (I did lose 2 pounds in the first week but that is ultimately all I lost with using his app), but I found the nutritional values a valuable insight. It was a great ‘wake-up’ on the calorie, sugar, and carbohydrate intake in the foods you ate the most.

GetGlue – Unlock stickers to your favorite tv shows and also see what your friends are watching! It also has a companion website that you can check-in with also!

goodreads – Not only is this one of my favorite iPhone apps but it is one of my favorite website. I now have a one-stop show website that helps me keep track of the books I have read and want to read. There is a tracker – to track your goals. You can set a goal of how many books you want to read a year. There are online book clubs and you can even enter sweepstakes to win books from authors and publishers!

What iPhone app can’t you live without?

Cherie's Take: Fall 2011 TV Premieres

Hello, my name is Cherie and I am a TV addict. I don’t know exactly where my obsession with television began, ok actually I do – Dawson’s Creek, but I am aware that I watch entirely way too much television and my life would not be existent with my TiVo. And even with my TiVo – I still can’t record all of the television I want too. I’m trying out a few shows this year – Ringer with Sarah Michelle Gellar, The Secret Circle with Gale Harold, Happy Endings (I didn’t watch last season so it is new to me!) and I’m giving Ashton Kutcher a try in Two and A Half Men.

Here is my ‘Hit List’ of Fall TV Show Premieres. Both of these shows I’m most excited about have been anticipating them from their birth -

American Horror Story – FX, Wednesday, October 5^th – 10pm
Stars: Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, Connie Britton

How many horror dramas are out there right now? I’m really excited about this and it is very original for the year of remakes. Since it is coming from the creators of Nip/Tuck - I don't think it will disappoint.

Once Upon A Time – ABC,  Sunday, October 23^rd – 8pm

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison and introducing Jared Gilmore

I’m not the biggest Jennifer Morrison fan but I’m in love with this show. I think the premise again is very original for taking such a spin on such classic fairytales. I hope this show does not disappoint!

I have already checked out Ringer and The Secret Circle – I’m still deciding on these at the moment but they are holding my interest. The Secret Circle and Vampire Diaries are the perfect pair for each other on Thursday’s nights.

Shows I Want to Watch but don’t have the time: Unforgettable, New Girl

Shows I Want to Give a Try after Hearing Reviews: Up All Night, Revenge

Which shows would you take off your schedule or which ones would you add?