Things I miss about Home

Cheerwine, family, Bojangles, sweet tea, parking decks, the ability to say y'all....

Speaking of parking decks.... people out here look at me like I have five heads when they ask where I parked and my response is "I parked in the deck."  It's like they have no idea what I'm talking about.  They think I parked on someone's back porch or something.  So when I go home to Charlotte I make sure to take pictures of all signs indicating a "parking deck."  

I have tons more however, I think you get the idea.   What do you call a "parking deck?"

Go Heels! Oh wait, I mean Kansas...

In honor of the final four I finally decided to post pictures from the Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament that was back in November 2010.  A great time was had by all...I got to high 5 all the UNC players, shake Roy Williams hand, and get heckled by obnoxious UNLV fans.  It was a great time!  Except for the fact that UNC lost to stinking UNLV.  

 But before they lost to UNLV they did manage to beat USC.  I found it comical that I was all the way across the country and I was watching UNC play USC.  And for all of you west coasters that read my blog, that's the University of South Carolina not Southern California.

 Love this guy.  Well, I love them all to be honest...

I was so excited to shake Roy Williams' hand that I tried to take a picture at the same time to have evidence and only managed to get a picture of his shoulder... This is what happens when my husband is in his seat and I'm stalking the players.

I always knew that Tyler Zeller was seven feet tall but man, he's tall!

Southern Made

I miss the South.  That is all.

New Year's Resolutions

So here I sit on the last night of 2011 thinking to myself, wow, I haven't blogged in a while.  I might have to add "blog more," to my list of new year's resolutions.  It's already quite a lengthy endeavor. In my effort to to have a successful 2012, lets visit previous years resolutions gone awry.
1. Learn to play the guitar
-I'm pretty sure my three guitars are still collecting dust in various parts of the house.  They are more a piece of decor than a musical instrument.
2. Get in shape
-I think my elliptical is collecting dust too except for when my husband happens upon it.
3. Lose weight.
-See previous entry.
4.  Eat healthier
-Sometimes the resolution is just too vague to be successful.  I can make any food look healthy by comparing it to something worse.  "Why yes I will have this Whopper Jr and small fries.  It's much healthier than a Double Whopper with cheese and a LARGE fry!."
5.  Save Money
-My bank account shows the evidence of this failure just like my waist band shows all that weight I didn't lose.
6.  Order Wedding Pictures
-Yes you read that correctly.  I have been married for almost six years and haven't ordered my wedding pictures.  Maybe that will make it on the resolution list for 2012.

As 2011 draws to a close, I'm surrounded by food, family and drinks.  I plan to pack on as much weight as possible in the next four hours so I can have more to lose in 2012!!!  Just kidding.  Happy New Year! Love ya'll!

Check out my melons...

Unique Craigslist Post

I found this posting on Craiglist about a year ago and thought it was time to share...

Seeking bodyguard named Betty

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Date: 2010-06-21, 1:33AM EDT

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I am a Paul Simon fan in my mid thirties. As my name is Al, for the past 20 years I've been searching for a friend named Betty with whom I could sing the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al." Imagine how much fun we could have singing along with the lyrics and pointing at each other when our names are mentioned! We could sing it together on road trips with the windows down, at home with our stereos cracked loud, we can smile at each other knowingly when it's played in gas stations and grocery stores and text each other when we're apart and it comes on the radio. I'm especially looking forward to acting out our own version of the classic Paul Simon Chevy Chase music video. We can post it on Youtube!

Just to be clear, I'm not really looking for a bodyguard (that's a lyric from the song haha!) just a friend named Betty.

If you want we could maybe sing other Paul Simon songs at some point but I'd really rather we stick with our namesakes You Can Call Me Al. Of course I want proof your name is really Betty so when we meet I'll need to see a state issued photo ID with that name. I'll also accept Elizabeth, Roberta or Beatrix.

Please write back soon I can't wait to hang out
Sincerely
-Your long lost pal!!!

Just for kicks...

In honor of the Women's World Cup Championship today, I present to you my favorite picture of our anatomy models.  That's right, it's not a REAL foot.  It's plastic.  Look at me balancing a foot and ankle with only my index finger on the calcaneous.  I'm like a Harlem Globetrotter!

Just in case my World Cup reference was a little vague, let me sketch out my thought process for you:

  The world cup is a soccer game 

                          |                    

You kick a soccer ball with your feet 

      |

I have an awesome picture of a foot

       |

I've been wanting to find an excuse to post this foot picture for over a year!!

        |

I'm going to log in to my blog and post my foot picture 

Hopefully that answered any questions... Cam Cam OUT!

A Night in the Octagon...

We finally scored some free tickets to a UFC fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.  It was quite possibly the coolest thing I've seen in a while.  (Well, except that we did see Mike Tyson walking around the strip the other day.  Seeing his ridiculous tattoo and hearing his voice was pretty awesome too.)

Try to focus here Cam...

So like I was saying, we scored free tickets to UFC 132: Urijah Faber vs. Dominick Cruz.  I don't follow UFC  religiously or anything but I knew who Urijah Faber was from his TV ads for the Ultimate UFC Workout video game for Xbox.  (trust me, all the ladies who have seen that commercial remember him too)  Unfortunately, Dominick defeated Cruz via unanimous decision.  What I find interesting is that Cruz received 40k and Faber received 32k.  But, Wanderlei Silva received a quarter of a million dollars and he was defeated by KO in 27 seconds in the first round by Chris Leben who only received 92k.  We actually got to see Wanderlei Silva a few hours later making a club appearance inside the MGM.  He's like a sharpei, so ugly he's cute.  Poor Tito Ortiz was paid a half a million dollars for the night.  Must be a rough life.  I had no idea there was that much money invested in UFC but I guess it would make since each of our tickets were over $300 and there were over 13,000 people in attendance that night.

While we are on the topic of UFC, let me mention the most amazing energy drink ever, Xyience.  It's the official energy drink of the UFC and contains all kinds of yummy vitamins and minerals.  I highly recommend Cherry Lime.  You can read more about their products on their website.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's day a little bit late to the best daddy in the world :)

Where art thou'??

Well, it's finally spring break and I have a few minutes to update my blog.  What have I been up to since August?   I know you were all wondering so here it is:

-Dissecting a cadaver
-Studying
-Working
-Living in my books
-Memorizing muscle's origins and insertions

I think you get the idea...
School has been my  life since August.  Even now that I'm on spring break I'm still studying non-stop.  Here's a quick montage of photos from the past 8 months.

Tuna came home from Afghanistan.

Tuna=What I call my husband.

And the name comes from the show The Office.  Watch the show, you can figure it out.

Red Horse Christmas party.  This is the only picture we have because we were only there for an hour.  We had to catch a flight back to the east coast for...

Harry Potter's wedding!  Ok, so maybe Harry didn't get married but don't deny the striking resemblance.  All my brother needs is the lightening bolt scar.

They are just so perfect for each other.  Love them!  

I also met my niece for the first time.  She's "technically" my niece in law :)  I just want to make sure you realize she's not the daughter of "the chosen one."  

This montage has gotten a bit long... come back to the blog for more soon! 

Lets go Tarheels!

We are ready for the sweet 16 to begin!  Bristol has been sporting his Ramses outfit since the Heels squeaked by with a win against Washington.

UNLV has already been knocked out of the tournament.  People here in Vegas acted surprised by the loss even though they've been terrible all season.  If only they could bring back Larry Johnson.  

Have no fear, Whirled Traveler has returned with new photos, recipes and ridiculous stories.  Stay tuned.  No really, I promise it won't be another 6 months until I post again.

More Fremont

Hookers Hookers EVERYWHERE!

I went down to Fremont Street last night with some girlfriends and took some new photos.  I have always enjoyed Fremont and have never thought it was "sketchy," but last night definately changed my mind.  We spent two hours watching hookers "walk the street" for customers.  Don't worry, we watched from a balcony in a bar above Freemont Street.  I've never seen anything like it in my life and would be happy if I never saw it again.  Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took last night.  Heads up, I didn't take any pictures of the hookers.  Trust me, they did not resemble Julia Roberts in the slightest.

This is my beautiful friend Laura.  She's an amazing friend and a fantastic cook!

Circle, Circle, DOT DOT DOT

Paris Hotel and Casino

Tuff N Uff MMA - Jenny Yum vs Lindsay Jones - Female Spinning Back Fist ...

I met Jenny Yum the first day of 9th grade in our creative writing class.  We quickly became friends by talking through class and passing notes throughout the day.  It's been almost 10 years since we graduated high school and Jenny has moved onto things more exciting than writing poetry and short stories.  I saw her last weekend for the first time since we graduated in 2001. She looks exactly the same however, it was a little scary for me to see her because I had NEVER watched a fight before.  She's taken up mixed martial arts and was in town for a tournament.  I sat ring side with her friends and family and couldn't even believe what I was watching.  Jenny's fight was over so quickly I didn't even know what had happened until the lady sitting beside me said, "That's it.  Jenny won."  I always knew she was one tough cookie but it's still kinda shocking to see your poetry buddy from 9th grade knock some girl flat on her behind.

Congrats to Jenny Yum!  And that's Yum like Yummy....not the way the announcer keeps saying it on the video.  She'll be back for the title fight at the end of September and I'm so excited to go cheer her on.

Floating Food

There's a really cool looking restaurant in the new City Center Mall.  It's a wooden structure that looks like it's free standing in the middle of the shopping mall.  I don't really know how else to explain it so check out the pictures.

Help a Tarheel out!

My close friend Victoria is currently in the running to win a Pepsi Refresh Grant to use in her classroom.  Please help her out by texting 101134 to PEPSI (73774).
~You can also vote online at http://www.refresheverything.com/nintendoclassroomproject

You can vote by each method once a day.  I've posted an overview of what the grant money would be used for below. And just for fun, I've posted an old picture of me and Victoria..  Please don't judge us.  We like to dress up in 80s clothes and dance around to The Flashdance soundtrack.  Oh, and we also have perfected the Blue Steel look.  If you don't know what that means then you need to meet us at the abandoned Member's Only Jacket warehouse for a walk off.  If you are still not getting it, you need to watch the movie Zoolander.


Project Overview:
     As a technology charter school, we pay special attention to using all sorts of technology in our everyday classroom activities.  I piloted this program last school year but hit some road blocks since not all of my students at my Title 1 school have Nintendo DSi's.  I have used the pictochat program to practice skills such as: singular/plural nouns, contractions, and possessive nouns.  I'd like to ask for a class set of Nintendo DSi machines along with several games to aide their learning in not only Language Arts but in Mathematics.  This is a cutting edge way to teach in this fast paced world and parents have been happy with the results.  Parents have even been quoting studies where children with ADHD do well with electronic methods of learning/stimulation and have given me praise for using this technology in my classroom.  So far, I've seen it do great things, and I'd like to see how much farther my students can go with this excellent form of technology.

City Center Mall

There's a new upscale mall in City Center on the strip.  Just what Las Vegas needs right?  Another over priced mall that only carries high end merchandise that the majority of the world cannot afford.  Only in Vegas!  The mall does have some cool windows, fountains, stores, and restaurants.  All of these pictures were taken in that mall.  I guess I could look up the name of the mall but I'm feeling pretty lazy and quite frankly I don't know anyone that's going to go there to actually buy anything.

Believe it or not, these columns are actually made of ice.  The colors on them change from the lights down below.

This was in the Chanel store window.  Nothing exciting but I thought the colors might look cool.