sunday, take two: staunton

Tunes: coffee shop sounds

This morning I sounded like such a drip. I'm feeling better now- I think I just really needed to get up and do something. Making breakfast for myself and the roomies did the trick- I found a great recipe for low-fat pancakes made with applesauce, instant oatmeal and sour cream. I opted out of using sour cream (mainly because we don't have any in the fridge) and went with the only things I had that was comparable- cottage cheese. Believe it or not, that substitution worked really well. They were pretty heavy and filling, but not out of richness or fattiness. Delicious!
If you're interested in the recipe, just follow this link: pancakes!

I'm currently sitting and writing at a coffee shop in downtown Staunton, Virginia called The Daily Grind. It's a welcomed change of scenery from our normal coffee shop haunts in Harrisonburg. Really, just being in this town is a welcome change from the 'burg.

Staunton, Virginia is like Portsmouth in the middle of the Valley. It's where Woodrow Wilson was born, and is referred to as the "Queen City" of the Valley...not much like the Queen City I'm familiar with, it's still charming enough to warrant a 40 minute car ride down route 42 on a Sunday, when we know damn well not very many places are open. There's a fantastic Antiques shop that I went to once in April when Mum, Dad & Ty were down to celebrate my birthday. I found some great vintage fabric which I have since used to make a laptop sleeve for the macbook, and plan on making a dress with. We'll see if and when the motivation to do that strikes me.

While sitting in this coffee shop, Emily has registered to run her first marathon in January. I'm so excited for her! It's probably the best location for a marathon, too: Disney World. I was excited at the potential possibility to go root her on, but sadly I need to be on campus- it's the same weekend Winter break ends. The three of us are however talking about going to Memphis for Spring Break next March- which would be amazing. If you know me at all, you know that I have been wanting to go to Tennessee for years. Memphis intrigues me on so many levels- the music, the culture, the food. This trip would be fairly cheap, too, as we're looking into staying at a hostel in downtown which only charges $10 a night per person. It's an 11 hour drive from here, though- so we would probably stop after 6 hours of driving in Knoxville and stay with Emily's friend, Matt who goes to school there. I am totally getting ahead of myself here- who knows what'll be going on at that point in time next year, but it is fun to give myself something to look forward to.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend some time reading instead of clacking away on the internet. One last note, however- Recently my interest in Peter Gabriel has been rekindled. Coincidentally, there's a great rumor going around internet music blogs about how he may do a cover of a Vampire Weekend song, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." Such great news! If you like Mr. Gabriel as much as me, check out the Vampire Weekend song below so you can get a feel for what one of his upcoming projects will be!

http://www.mediafire.com/?eend9mjlmjd

Cheers!
-Leigh