#23. Try 20 new wines

Last night, Stephen and I went to Riverbanks Wine Tasting in the Garden and it was alot of fun! There were 27 stations each with 2-5 wines to sample and a few small tables of finger foods. I am not much of a wine fan (as you can see, my average rating was a "1") but I did find a white wine that I really loved, the Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc. There was a table of Japanese wine and sake, and I've never had a cold sake before but I really liked the Gekkeikan Zipang Sparking Sake! There was also one table of RJ Rockers beer. The one I tried was a peach beer and I loved it, so I'm hoping Flying Saucer has this and I can count it towards my 50 new beers. I still haven't found a red wine that I really love, but the more I try, the more I'm sure I will start to appreciate them.

Melissa's Adventures to Wonderland

#94. Get a new piercing


I drove to Asheville, NC and got my rook pierced!!!!! I love it so much. It only hurt for a minute or two! My friend Chris got his tragus pierced. We didn't drive all the way to NC just to get pierced though, I would have done that in Columbia, but I have been wanting to go back to Asheville since my sorority retreat there a few years ago. We wanted to visit some of the shops in the downtown area, namely, WONDERLAND! (which is the coolest shop in town-especially if you're as obsessed with Alice in wonderland as I am)

Asheville is such a great town. The view driving into town is amazing, the people are down to earth, there are tons of local artists and musicians playing in squares, it's a very clean city, there's a lot of personality to that place. Chris actually was mistaken for a local and a group of tourists asked him for directions...and he actually gave them correct directions! haha that was pretty funny, I know he felt at home in that town! I would really love to live there for at LEAST a short while some day. It's only 2 hours away from Columbia, which I was surprised by, I definitely thought it was about 3 hours. Knowing that, I will absolutely be making a trip again sometime during the summer to do some hiking.

Relay for Life

#72. Participate in Relay for Life and walk for Edna Grace
#9. Volunteer 24 community service hours with ESA (3/24)


USC held their annual Relay for Life and it was great seeing the sisters again! Especially Molly, Britney, and JSharp ;) I walked in honor of my former band director, Edna Grace. She is an amazingly strong woman who has battled breast cancer for as long as I've known her. She went into remission while I was in high school but the doctors found more cancerous cells fall of 2008. She went through chemo again and last April I lit a luminary and dedicated my fundraising for her. I gave her the breast cancer awareness shirt "I fight like a girl" and it is now one of her favorite shirts!

She is one of the most courageous women I know and she doesn't let anything stop her or get her down. In the same year she was going through chemo, she lost her brother, after she had just lost both of her parents in 2007. This time last year was such a tough time for her. So today, I promised myself I would keep her in my thoughts and prayers as I walked around the track at Relay. And I thanked God that we still have our "Ms. Grace."

Great weekend in Charleston

#95. Participate in the Cooper River Bridge Run




To first give you a little background information on my training schedule, I haven't ran a mile in over 4 years, and before that it has been another 4 years. And I have never ran more than 2 miles at one time before. At least not until the day before the race! I've been suffering from an upper respiratory infection and allergies for the past month almost, and it's prevented me from running more than around the block before feeling like I was going to pass out. Lung capacity was zero, so I had no confidence in my ability to run even a mile! So the day before the race, I decided I'd try to run a half mile. I reached a half mile and realized I could keep going. I surprised myself by running almost 2 miles, something I definitely didn't think I was capable of given my status 3 weeks ago!

Now let me tell you about the Bridge Run. It's a 10K, or roughly 6.2 miles. The bridge itself is about 2 miles long and begins 2 miles into the race. The record holder ran it in under half an hour. A "good" time is under 1 hour.

I finished in just over an hour and a half!! I don't think that's too shabby :) I had the support of my family and Stephen, who walked next to me the whole race when he could have easily finished a half hour sooner.

Knowing now, that I am capable of running 2 miles without having to stop, I'll definitely start training for next year's Bridge Run, and create a new goal to run it in under 75 minutes!




#70. Purchase a nice jewelry hanger for my earrings
The Flowertown Festival is an annual event held in Summerville the same weekend as the Bridge Run. Erin and Aaron came with Stephen and I and we were there luckily before the rain caused everything to shut down early! I did get to go after the Bridge Run though to get a little art inspiration, but instead walked away with a really neat earring hanger and an ALICE IN WONDERLAND purse!! I also found the best crabcakes this side of the Mississippi and if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, those crabcakes would be it :)




On a more frustrating note, I always thought Lent was 40 days- from Ash Wednesday til Palm Sunday, but the Lent season is actually until Easter which is the Sunday after Palm Sunday. Sundays don't "count" in the 40 days, which would push it back one more week. Which means I have another WEEK i have to go without fast food!!! Can I do it??

30 days sober!

...from fast food that is!

#89. No fast food for 1 month
I made it 30 days without pulling up into a drive-thru and it was more difficult than I thought it would be! Not because I truly crave fast food, but because of the convenience factor. Sometimes, I don't get off work til 8 or 9 at night, and I live 30 minutes away. I don't always feel like cooking when I get home, but I pass all of my favorite fast food restaurants on the way to the house. It was hard because fast food restaurants surround me!


So now that I've made it 30 days, i could TECHNICALLY eat fast food now, but that wasn't the deal I made. I agreed to give up fast food for 40 days for Lent, so I've got another 6 days I need to stay sober.


You would think I would feel more healthy after a fast-food fast, but I actually feel the same. I've had an upper respiratory infection and allergy issues for the past 3 or 4 weeks so I really haven't been running too much in preparation for the Cooper River Bridge Run this Saturday.

So if you pass a tiny asian girl decked out in breast cancer awareness attire passed out at the 6 mile marker, please pick me up and carry me the rest of the way!!!