I <3 Craigslist

Thank you to the inventors of Craigslist! The best online tool for communities to buy or sell each other their stuff. You of course can do other things there as well, but I mainly use it to buy/sell household stuff.

Back in 2004 shortly after I moved to Virginia with little to no furniture I decided to spending my days waiting for my real job to start surfing Craigslist for a couch. I wanted to upgrade from my one lousy chair I had. I had found my perfect match being sold for $100 in Georgetown. I just had to pick it up. Deal! I made the trek with my sister and new colleague to pick it up during rush hour traffic. What an experience. But after some struggle, I managed to get it into the cars and into my home.

I have had that couch now for about 3.5 years. Tuesday I posted it for sale back to Craigslist. Within an hour someone had said, "Hey, can I buy that?" Why yes you can! They came and picked it up tonight and I watched my couch go out the door and into a moving van. It was a good little couch. I will miss it.

I managed to still get $75 for it after all my use and my kitties scratching. I probably could have sold it for the $100 I paid, but hey, let's not get greedy. Here's to Craigslist for finding good homes for my couch!

Why Do I Still Have This?

Next week I am moving in with Rob, so of course, that means amongst other things, packing. We have been spending some time going through obvious duplicates of stuff (anyone need a couch?) and trying to sell/get rid of them BEFORE moving.

I have a closet full of seasonal stuff that I barely open because, well, it's seasonal. I forgot that I also packed away boxes I knew I wouldn't open but wanted to keep. I have decided since I am moving in with another person, I shouldn't be a space hog. So I opened all those "wanted to keep boxes". Umm.. wow.

I have found lots of stuff. Sadly, only some of its what I would label "worth keeping" and now wonder what was I thinking when I packed it into the box to begin with. For instance, I found a meal ticket from a rifle competition I was in back in 1998. Seriously? I suppose at one time it meant something to me and until today, I haven't reevaluated it's sentimental value. I have shredded an entire trash bag worth of old records that mean absolutely nothing anymore. Bills from RIT? Yeah, they have been all condensed to monthly student loan payments.

I am not getting rid of everything . I am trying to keep what really means something to me, and letting go of graded papers from college and old parking passes for Anheuser-Busch. And now, back to packing.

Catch a Wave And Your Sittin' on Top of The World

To really appreciate this entry to it's fullest (I am not promising award winning material here) some background information may be helpful. While we were at the beach two years ago, I hopped on a board for the first time and caught a wave into shore. I said to myself, "That's a lot of fun, but next time get something to wear over the suit, top troubles are not fun!"

Last year I got out almost every day and played on an older board we were given and had a blast. The day at Cape Hatteras with Amanda was a lot of fun and not to mention, we got to enjoy good waves and warmer water.


This year I was determined to get my own new board for this activity I seem to enjoyed so much. I bought myself an official rash guard to upgrade from the tank top I was using last year. It does it's job well AND even makes me look professional. All about the look. :)

I picked out a board at the beach and anxiously awaited getting to the ocean. Only, the weather didn't cooperate as much this year as it did last year. With a storm in the middle of the week, boarding days were far and few between. Thankfully Friday shaped up well and turned out to be the best day with waves that were decent and it was warm out.


The new board definitely makes a difference, but it was kind of silly to get used to. I knew how to ride on the crappy board, not the nice one. I took a couple of rolls and missed a good number of perfectly fine waves, but all in all, it was pretty fantastic.


I would like to thank my photographer, Rob, for catching some action shoots. Although it looks like I am in pain, I am having a great time. :)

Sarah's Getting Married!

While I was on vacation something pretty fantastic happened. Rob asked me to marry him. I said yes. :) This is the reason there has been great delay in my blog entry. We wanted to inform as many people as we could before they read it here. Since that was really the next thing to get blogged about, well, we needed to wait. :)

We went camping at Pettigrew State Park in North Carolina near Lake Phelps. We did this last year and found it worked out great to get out to the Outer Banks early on Saturday and enjoy ourselves fully instead of driving all day. This year we learned to bring firewood and food to cook. We enjoyed the unwinding after being in the car for 9 hours and started to relax. We got up the next morning to rain and overcast skies. We packed it up and headed towards Manteo to get some breakfast and coffee. Yum!

We got into town, parked, and I went towards the coffee house and he went towards the lighthouse. I said, "What are you doing? I am hungry and want breakfast!" Keep in mind it's still kind of icky out. He said, "I'm going to the lighthouse." I realized he was just going and so I said, "you are being a poop" and followed him out there.

Once inside the lighthouse, he handed me a present and said, "I thought beach week should start with a gift." So I opened it and found a small brass kaleidescope. He explained, "This is the first thing I remember buying with my allowance and technically that would make it one of the first gifts I ever bought because I am giving it to you now. This is one of those gifts you only give once and I don't want to loose it, so..." I had been looking out the window through it and things started clicking in my head and I turned around to find him on one knee, "Sarah Alice Behling, will you marry me?" I managed a yes before I started with the tears of happiness and hugs and all that goodness. Needless to say, that set the tone for a very enjoyable vacation. He made me a very happy woman. :)

There will be a lot of changes over the coming months, but I think they will be some good ones and I am sure you'll be able to follow along here as I see no need to delay in postings again. :)

Kara Bo Bara Got Married!

I promised more on the wedding event I attended in Rochester, NY, so here it is!

My friend Kara or as I call her, Kara Bo Bara was married to Matt last Saturday. The wedding was held downtown at a place called Artisan Works. It's basically a huge warehouse full of art and eclectic items. They had both the ceremony and the reception in the building. This worked out really well because after the ceremony we were given free range of the place to explore all the quirks it had to offer.

I must say this wedding was very Matt and Kara and done in their own style. That was pretty refreshing to see two people tailor such a special ceremony in a way that best represented them. They wrote their own vows, used song lyrics for readings, and had their wedding design as their backdrop on a giant projection screen behind them.

The reception was a lot of fun. We were given our table markers that looked like rock concert tickets with our names and the name of a band which was how they designated tables. On the tables they had old records glued together as a center piece and guitar picks laying around like confetti. For your favor, they had a table set up like a concert vendor stand with different jars of candy and little bags for you to fill. What an awesome idea!

There was no detail overlooked, but it didn't seem over done and no one seems uptight or spazing about anything. Just comfortable and fun, the best kind of party. I know they both put a lot into designing their wedding, but it was totally worth it and noticed. Almost everyone we talked to said positive things about it.

I just want to say how happy I am for the both of them and wish them the best and their start their life together. I am sure it's going to be a rockin' good time. :)

Beach on the Brain

Most of the people who read this blog either know I am going on a beach vacation and/or are coming with me on this vacation. Rob's friends started a tradition of going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina while they were in college. After they left college they realized there was an opportunity to keep doing the trip and make it a sort of reunion event. So they continue to plan a week at the beach each year over Memorial Day Week. Hence the term Beach Week.

This will my fourth year in attendance. I love this trip and look forward to it more than all others I take. What's better than having nothing planned aside from relaxing, swimming, drinking, and being around friends for an entire week? Not to mention it's relatively cheap since we get a big house and split it with whoever wants to go.

So, by the time May rolls around each year I immediately switch to a special mode of vacationitis I call Beach Weekitis. I told my boss sometime last week I already mentally checked out of work. I set my out of office and it's ready to go. I have made the various lists, shopping trips, and all necessary work to prep so far aside from the actual packing. Each time I do something like that I chant in my head, Beach Week! Beach Week! Beach Week!

I am also going to hopefully purchase a body board this year so I day dream about what kind I am going to get and how awesome I am going to out there on the surf. I am praying for warmer water temps and some bright bright sunshine. :)

I got so excited, I did a little jig in the hall today which one of my senior managers saw and laughed at. Whatever, they know I am crazy, it's just more pronounced when I am excited. :) So with 2 working days left, you can imagine I could be quite useless in the office. After a big meeting tomorrow, that will be entirely true. I'll probably be thinking about what kind of drinks I want to make. Hmmmm...... :)

Weddings, Friends and Family

This past weekend Rob and I got out of town and flew to Rochester, NY. The main reason for going was a wedding of one of my college friends, but we managed to squeeze in some visits to places and with people. The wedding is going to get it's own entry because it's that cool. :)

Friday we landed and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Rochester Airport Marriott Hotel just north of the airport. I was impressed with the hotel as it was one of the nicer hotels I have stayed at in a while. From there we drove east to meet Josh for dinner and general visiting. I only get to see people in NY about twice a year, so it's a big deal when we do. Computer and telephone hugs can never beat the live ones. :)

Saturday we got up and went to Wegmans for some muffins and coffee. Let me just say, DELICIOUS! From there we visited my alma mater, RIT. A LOT has changed on campus. What used to be a grassy corner on the far side of campus is now filled with our future bookstore with some shopping centers, apartments, and town homes. It is called Park Point at RIT and seems like it's trying to bring the city feel to a campus on the outskirts of town. They also built two brand new buildings and are clearing spots for the next few. A lot of existing buildings were updated from total brick fronts to ones with tall glass fronts on the bottom floors. This allows a more modern feel as well. I popped by my old work place and said hi to Paul, my old boss for a short visit. I randomly drop in every few years or so just to keep them on their toes. :) We hit up the very tasty Dibella's Subs for lunch and went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was was a lot of fun, but you'll have to read more about that later. :) *Enter Jeopardy music here*

Sunday proved to be the day of visiting = eating. For each person we met, with we shared a meal. This works out well, however, by the end of the day, you feel like you ate an entire buffet. Not that you did it on purpose mind you. Just sort of happens. We started with breakfast with the newlyweds and then traveled over to visit with Rob's grandfather who lives in Victor. He and his wife Linda were very nice people and greeted me with a giant hug. We went to lunch with them and then headed slightly more east to meet up with my sister and my brother-in-law. We ate dinner and just enjoyed each others company chatting about whatever came to mind. I miss my sister and brother-in-law a lot, so it's great when I can see them.

That's probably one of my biggest gripes about being this far south. Visiting friends and family gets to be a real struggle any time you enter the respective home states. You are only home for such a short period of time and you want to visit everyone, but then all the visits are short and hurried, but it's what you can do. It sucks, but will have to do for now.

We left the gray skies of Rochester on our 6am flight back to Atlanta. The flight was cheaper, but my productivity at work was about a 3 on a 1-10 scale. Granted, even with a good nights sleep, it would have only been a 6 at the most (can you say beach weekitis?), but still. Overall, it was a pretty fantastic weekend. Now to coast until vacation!