In A Galaxy of My Own

I had not been on a proper vacation since I was 12. My family was given a vacation as a gift one christmas by my grandmother and my mother chose to take a trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina. That vacation will always be a prominent memory from my childhood. We were able to do a lot of stuff as a family since my grandmother was footing the bill for the condo.  Since then, I have been on a lot of trips, but none of them I would classify as a vacation. We would sometimes visit my other grandparents when they lived in an elderly community in Florida. Those trips were sometimes just as stressful as being at home. I promised myself that I would take a vacation when I was old enough to do it with friends. I thought after my accident, that I would get enough money from my pain and suffering claim to take a trip somewhere. That wasn’t the case. So back in Feburary I decided I was going to figure out a way to go on a rather cheap vacation and I asked Mel if she wanted to go for a long weekend with me before I moved away from home. I started researching hotels on beaches up and down the east coast.  I found one in Myrtle Beach through hotels.com that was really cheap! So I booked it!

We left this past Thursday around 11:30ish and drove nine and a half hours to the east coast! We arrived at the hotel, checked in, and unloaded the car! We needed to run to Wal-mart to buy stuff to make sandwiches and some fruit. Our hotel had a microwave and a full fridge so we decided to bring as much food as possible so we didn’t spend money on eating out every meal. We decided we would eat out one night and we chose a sea food buffet! The first day there we spent the entire day on the beach with a break around lunch time to eat a sandwich and to dodge the hottest part of the day. After we showered all the sand off we took a walk along the beach to take pictures and to walk in the shallow water. At night we would either watch a movie or we would read the books we brought.

Our last day on the beach was insane!! A little girl got pulled out into the surf due to a strong current and had to be rescued by the lifeguard. She was ok, but a little shaken up. A while after that happened we think a surfer got hurt and required some medical attention. It was a little way down the beach so we weren’t positive what was wrong. We took a longer break than usual during lunch since our skin really needed a break from the sun. When we got to the room we noticed the maids hadn’t made a visit yet so we decided to go for a walk to the pier where there was a gift shop. We bought ourselves some jewerly and some ice cream! We headed back out to the beach after a late lunch and spent our last hours in the sun reading our books and watching the crazy people around us. That evening we ventured out to a sea food buffet that was really good and we went shopping at one of those over priced beach shops. We really didn’t want to go home the next day. But we made some awesome memories that I will always remember and we agreed that we would try to do it again another year but go somewhere different. It’s hard to tell being a college student if you’ll have any money to take a trip in the near future.

I keep my french horn in its case sitting near my dresser. I keep telling myself that I should put it away since I don’t play it anymore, but I don’t have the heart to shove it in a closet. I will pick it up again… one day. Right now it just makes me sad to realize how much I suck, when I put in so much hard work to be GREAT!

I still mess around on our piano, but it’s so out of tune and my parents won’t get it tuned since I’m moving out here soon. No one else in the house plays like I do.

My guitar is on it’s stand… gathering dust. It needs new strings, because the ones that are on it are so old it won’t stay in tune for even 5 minutes.

*sigh* My instruments are a mess. I’m sure my french horn needs a lot of work when I get the guts to take it out of its case.

But speaking of french horn and my glory days, I completely forgot that there is a recording I did with the entire horn studio my freshmen year in music school that is still up on the school website! If anyone is a fan of James Horner or the movie Titanic… zomg… this is for you. It’s a piece called ‘Titanic Fantasy” and it was actually arranged for 15 french horns by James Horner himself! If anyone is interested in listening to it… here’s the link!

Titanic Fantasy

I remember the night we recorded this… it was late wednesday night, before Thanksgiving. We were all anxious to get done so we could go home for break. We didn’t finish in the studio till about 11 and we had started around 7 or 8. I was thrilled to be able to experience what it is like to record something professionally. It was a lot of hard work and my face felt like it was going to melt off, but it was worth it when we finally heard the ending result. My professor said he was eventually going to put together a CD of all the stuff that his horn studio has recorded over the years and he was definitely going to feature our song on it. So who knows.. maybe in a couple of years I’ll be on a CD!

I’ve mentioned before that I have an Italian grandmother. When my sister and I were little we were always expected to help out in the kitchen. I remember I enjoyed it, I liked watching what my Granny was doing and she would even give me small tasks that my mom wouldn’t even let me do at home. I guess that’s why I enjoy cooking so much. We moved to a different state when I was 8 and I remember missing my Granny the most. Helping in the kitchen just wasn’t the same. I remember her coming to visit and she always had something new to make for us.

A couple of years ago she made this Italian Sausage Pasta that was AMAZING! It’s really easy to make and what makes this dish great is that any left overs you have are even better heated up the next day! So of course I’m going to SHARE!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 package of either hot or mild italian sausage links (we use mild)
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced in half)
• 1 small onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 1 can peeled diced tomato with the juice
• 1/4 tsp italian seasoning
• 2 cups of penne pasta

In a big skillet over medium high heat, toasted the sliced garlic cloves in the olive oil. Remove the garlic once it turns a light brown. While the garlic is toasting, cut the sausage links into chunks.

After you take out the toasted garlic, add the sliced sausage to the oil in the skillet and brown.

After the sausage is browned through, slice the onion and add to the sausage.

Let the onions cook with the sausage for about 5 minutes and then add the green pepper. Slice the green pepper the same size as the onion.

Let the sausage, onions, and green pepper cook for about 10 minutes before opening the can of tomatoes and adding those in.

Turn down the heat to medium, add the italian seasoning, and cover. Stir every so often.  After you cover the skillet, start cooking the penne pasta.

You’ll know the dish is down with the onions and green peppers have cooked down.

When the pasta is finished cooking, add the cooked pasta to the skillet and stir in. Cover the skillet and let simmer for another 5 minutes. I took this opportunity to put together a salad and slice up some bread.

When the salad is ready and the bread is sliced, then you are ready to CHOW DOWN! Here’s the finished dish! Before eating, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top and then nom away!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of our dinner table before we sat down and dug in!

Hope everyone enjoys! Thanks Granny!