May was quite a month.  We had quite a few endings and some new beginnings.  And any month that has new food discoveries is always a good month!

For starters, this guy right here graduated college.  This is my younger brother, Eric.  In the beginning of May, Steve and I got really early one Saturday morning to drive an hour and a half to Myrtle Beach to watch him walk across that podium at Coastal Carolina University and receive his college diploma.  Everyone in our family had come to celebrate – my mom and stepdad and other brother, my grandma, dad and younger sister and my cousins.  We were all very proud of him and we had a really, really good day afterwards gathering at a hotel right on the beach and eating food and cake and opening presents and swimming in the pool and watching the sunset over the water.  We went home exhausted but overall, it was a throughly enjoyable time with family to celebrate such a long anticipated event.  Congrats kiddo!  Welcome to the real world!

Secondly, the beauty below now belongs to me!  That’s right, I finally paid off my car loan after five long years.  She’s stuck by me for five years, four accidents (only two my fault), thousands of miles and an interstate move all the while running awesomely and giving me great gas mileage.  This actually if the first time I’ve ever paid off a car and damn does it feel good.  That picture below was taken exactly five years ago as of tomorrow and that was when she was pristine and beautiful.  Now, she’s broken in and lived in with some minor wear and tear but overall, she’s still hanging in there.  Let me stop before she kicks the bucket on me which is the last thing I need.  Anyway, it feels good to now own the car and have that burden of payment off my shoulders.

In the food category, there’s a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom that we recently discovered.  I’d had lunch delivered from there before but it was only when we actually went back to eat there this month that I realized how awesome they are (I ate there twice and just talking about it makes me want to go back).  The first time I had a steak and cheese calzone but when I tried Steve’s ham, it was delicious.  The ham had amazing flavor to it and the dough is phenomenal.  So the next time, I got a ham and pineapple calzone and it was just as delicious, though I think I will go without the pineapple next time.  Regardless, we’ve tried both the downtown location and the Mt. Pleasant location and while downtown seems more like a local pizza joint as opposed to Mt. Pleasant’s more commercial feeling, the food is still delicious.  Next on the list to try is their pizza!

Also on the docket this month is banana splits.  I happened to see a commercial for a local ice cream place a few weeks back where these kids ordered this amazingly beautiful banana split and immediately, I had a craving for one.  So the next time I was at the store, I picked up some Breyer’s neopolitan ice cream, some Smucker’s caramel and chocolate syrup, some bananas and a praline crunch type nut mix.  And soon enough, I had this:

It may not be pretty, but it was so very delicious.  No cherries for this girl but looking back, I should have gotten whip cream as well.  I think the praline nut crunch definitely made the sundae.  Now I’m all out and I’m going to have to go back to the store to get some supplies.  Maybe I’ll have an ice cream sundae party, just as an excuse.  Oh who am I kidding, I don’t need an excuse to eat ice cream.

As for TV, the only thing I’ve really been watching besides Rescue Me is The Real Housewives of New Jersey and OH MY GAWD! I have such a problem.  I cannot stop watching this show.  Even when reruns are on I can’t help but watching.  Now I loved the Atlanta housewives but not like I love the Jersey girls.  I don’t know if it’s because they remind me of friends and family or if the locale and attitudes and stereotypes make me feel at home but I can’t get enough of them.  From Caroline’s ‘thick as thieves’ family mentality to Teresa’s unforgiving ostentatiousness to Dina’s quietly smiling in your face while judging you silently to Jacqueline’s overall sweetness is such a cutthroat nasty state, I love them all.  Except Danielle.  She disgusts me.  She’s everything that’s wrong with women and her face is hideous.  I mean seriuosly, what is up with the eyebrows.  And the clinginess.  You are a grown woman!  Go out and take care of yourself and stop clinging to all those other women like the airbrushed t-shirt you got on the boardwalk that is two sizes too small for you.  Overall though, this show makes me summer  and I unabashedly admit that it is my guilty pleasure.  If that makes me somehow worse of a person, it don’t matter to me.

An honorable mention goes to season finales of many of the shows that I watch.  I like TV alot and sometimes it’s nice to have a forced break from watching the latest Grey’s Anatomy or Heroes episodes.  Granted, there are plenty of new shows on this summer to keep me busy but there are much fewer which make catching up nice and easy while still allowing us time to enjoy our summer nights.

Finally, the old school geek in me can’t help but rave about both the Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation movies.  While I was never a huge fan of the original Star Trek (I was more of a Next Generation girl), I knew enough about it to want to see the latest incarnation.  To say it was awesome was an understatment.  I walked out of there all geeked out and hyped up to see another one with this entourage of characters.  And Terminator! Oh lord, I remember when the first two were big (the stupid third one doesn’t even get an honorable mention, it was that stupid) and awesome and just wow and this one certainly lived up to the older ones.  The story was awesome, the characters were great (though I could do without Christian Bale using his Batman voice all gravely and hoarse – is that how he thinks Americans speak?) and I just might have developed a bit of a crush of Sam Worthington.  So needless to say, I had some very geeked out moments this month in the movie theaters and am looking forward to the continuation of both of these franchies in the future.

So overall, May was a fairly good month.  There were a few low points as there always are but that’s just life.  Now I’m just looking for a quiet June with some dinners and movies and outings planned with some friends and some more time spent with family.  Summer is always a nice time around these parts so I’m sure next month I’ve tons of things to rave about!

Happy June everyone!