My friend Kate announced to me a few months ago that she had an amazing chicken curry dish to teach me before I turned 30- she even called it “Curry before 30″…isn’t she clever? I thought so. Well, such as life it took us months to actually make it happen. In her defense, she did just get married and all and in my defense I drove across the country, so we’ve been a little busy.

 I have known Kate since kindergarten!! Yes, kindergarten. I still can’t believe I have people in my life today that I have known since I was five years old (and I really still like them too, honest!) It’s such a sweet and comforting feeling to know somebody for most of your life. We have so many memories together…play-dates, sleepovers, ballet classes, the craziness of Jr. High…first boyfriends, tears, triumphs and we even have France. When we were 13 Kate came with me to the south of France for a few weeks to visit my grandparents. It was one of the best memories form my childhood. I think we only argued once. We skipped through olive orchards, got crushes on French boys, ate nutella crepes by the truck load and pretended to practice our French. My grandfather Matt named us the “Dupli-Kate’s” and my grandmother Cass made us amazing French toast every morning.

I have always known Kate to be an extremely smart, funny, creative, honest and direct soul. For all those reasons I have always been a fan of hers (alright maybe the time she got a better role in our ballet recital I felt differently, but other than that I am a fan). Sadly, after high school graduation we lost touch. But then, viola!, with the power of facebook and this crazy blog, she’s back in my life and I could not be happier about it. Her funny sense of humor has become even funnier (borderline raunchy) over the years and her direct and honest attitude towards life is refreshing- she’s just fun to be with.

What’s that, you say? Why aren’t I talking about curry? Sorry, I got a little sidetracked but I wanted you to know the back story. So, back to curry before 20 (a typo I have decided to let stay- wishful thinking maybe?)- last week Kate invited me over to her house and we made curry, drank wine and laughed a lot.

My first lesson about curry…it’s a bit of a needy dish. It does not like to be left alone for too long and wants constant attention (again, I am reminded of my early 20′s). But don’t be scared off, all your hard work will pay off in the end…in a very delicious way.

We spent 2 hours adding ingredients or, as Kate called it, “layering” and stirring the pot of goodies. The aroma that filled the kitchen was amazing but the dish was even better. It was spicy, sweet, tender and comforting.  I was in curry heaven.

Click to view slideshow.

Recipe and finished dish up next!

365til30: instagram  @kate365, twitter, facebook

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When I first started this project, I remember thinking 65 days in or so (way too early)… what the hell did I get myself into? I can’t possibly find something to share for the next 300 days and some of my goals seemed impossible to accomplish- I couldn’t  imagine how I would figure out how to drive across the country or learn how to tango.

It all seemed impossible yet I kept putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.

Every time I felt overwhelmed I would remind myself to take it a day at a time…a moment at a time if I had to, and that somehow, someway it would come together.

Yesterday it hit me…tomorrow is day 40. I turn 30 in 40 days! The fact that 30 is so close isn’t the shocking part anymore! I’m in shock that I actually followed through with the project. I am not going to lie, some days were pretty hard….like this day and this day and this day and this day and this day- haha.

But it’s been the most amazing, surprising and fulfilling experience.

It has taught me to appreciate my life in a way I didn’t know possible. So here I am on day 40 and all I want to do is soak it all in.

I feel so grateful.

It’s the best birthday gift I have ever given to myself.

*

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. 
- Earl Nightingale

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Things that have been making me happy recently…

1. summer is around the corner

2. learning a new recipe from my dear friend Kate! She taught me how to make a curry dish and it is unbelievably good. Post coming soon!

3. the fact that I am 43 days away from 30! I’m actually getting rather excited to turn 30 and be done with the 20′s…they were fun but oh so exhausting!!

4. cozy date nights spent…at home

5. feeling healthy

5. my first yoga class after a month

5. emailing with Jen who’s very far away working with All Hands in the Philippians.

6. my girlfriends

7. cucumber & mint margarita’s 

8. pop physique classes!

9. It’s frozen yogurt season again! yipee!

10. this post by my favorite blogger

What’s been making you guys happy recently??

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365til30: instagram  @kate365, twitter, facebook

After a hilarious morning of struggs we made it to Middleton Place just in time for our horse-drawn carriage tour only to be told that they had to cancel the rest of the afternoon tours because it was too hot and they were worried the horses would overheat. I felt their pain. I felt near death as well in the heat.

After recovering from the blow of not having a horse pull us around the gardens we decided to do a walking tour of Middleton place instead and it was gorgeous. The gardens look like something out of a fairytale book. So lush, green and romantic. The highlight of the afternoon was making friends with the huge white water buffalo below. He was quite friendly!

Ugh. Waking up in Savannah after a very fun night out on the town was difficult. I think I will go as far as to say…it was a struggle or “struggs” as we warmly called it. Sadly, we didn’t have time to indulge our headaches and exhaustion because we had to pack up, check out and head to Middleton Place in South Carolina for a scheduled horse-drawn carriage tour! I was certainly spending a lot of time with horses lately.

We packed up our room (which happened to look like a clothing bomb had gone off in it and only added to our “struggs”)

Before

After

Would you want to pack up this room with a hangover? I think not.

By the time we were actually packed up, in the car and ready to go I was ready for bed again. But onward we went! But, not before I wrote on Rachel’s twitter page “struggs” to which she replied “super-struggs” and we both smiled.

A few hours later Rachel received this email from her uncle…I have NEVER enjoyed an email more. I’m dying to meet this guy!!

Hi Rach,

Just checked @katemcclafferty for the latest LA-ladies’-chinese-fire-drill-teaser but found, instead, Kate’s cryptic “72″.  Hmmm…. to 365Til30.  Oh no!  You eighty-sixed D.C. and Delaware?!  I have followed youz guys with Twitter and blogs several times per day for the past week.  I sipped morning coffee while TCB, and all the while kept an eye out for the day’s first Tweet.  Where are they now and what are they doing?    Now I understand why “soap” addicts swoon when a character is written out; I am not ready for “over”.  
Only after I’d browsed the hilarious photos in, and digested the text of, “72″ did I (finally!) get the meaning of “72″.  Duh!, Michael.

The following might bring smiles, so I hope you see this email very soon, i.e. early in the “72″.  The “strugg” flares sent aloft by Kate and then you left me clueless, very puzzled.  What?  Is that a place?  A thing?  Google Earth shrugged; Wiki shrugged;  Both Google and Bing seemed pretty sure that I was looking for a band.  A Band?  OK.  Maybe.  But no further tweets that morning and none in the afternoon felt …. wrong.  The puzzle continued to percolate in my brain.  I do like puzzles, but puzzles that seem impervious to my attacks niggle me no end.  And so it was, until I happened to mention the pesky “strugg” to a neighbor.  He grinned and said, “So you’re STRUGGling with strugg?”.  Yeah…… Oh… Now I get it.  Puzzle had fallen but there was no joy here, because I then understood that Kate was struggling and Rach was super-struggling but I didn’t know the root problem.  WTF?!  Nothing to do but stake out Twitter; I pitched a bloody teepee on its doorstep.  Finally: “And all is good again”.  That’s not all I wanted to know but it’s what I most wanted to hear.  I can wait for the rest.

God speed, Rach, Kate and Herb.

…….

BEST EMAIL EVER

Day 16, Part 2 Middleton Place up next…

After 15 days of staying on a very regimented schedule, we decided to let it all hang out on night 15 (and stay out past 10!), and boy oh boy, did we pay for it dearly, on Day 16…

We arrived in Savannah, Georgia after a fun morning on Cumberland Island (playing with wild horses!). It was late in the afternoon and the city was bathed in a gorgeous warm light. Savannah was everything I thought it would be and more…its quaint, romantic, artistic, eclectic, colorful, mysterious, unique and well, magical. As we drove through the city in search of our hotel, I was in awe of each and every street, building and tree. If you haven’t been to Savannah, one of the prettiest things about the city is that most of the trees are covered in spanish moss- it’s breathtaking and definitely adds to its romantic and mysterious quality.

 After arriving at our hotel, we checked in and headed to the hotel’s complimentary cocktail reception for a glass of wine. How very nice of them, indeed! Then we hightailed it to our room to shower and change for a night out on the town (the writing may have been on the wall at this point).

(photo by One Part Gypsy/ bag by Sud De Sur)

Our plan was to wander the town letting the wind take us wherever it pleased before we headed to Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady And Sons, for dinner. A solid plan indeed! After walking the streets for a bit, the wind ended up taking us into a tapas restaurant where we popped in for a glass of vino. We chatted with the bartender about her love of Savannah (in her words it’s a mix between New Orleans and Charleston) and then she asked the dreaded question…where were we eating dinner that night? When we said Paula Deen’s, her jaw dropped (in a very bad way). Honestly, I’m not sure I have ever seen a person more offended in my life.  After she collected herself, she said “You cannot eat at PAULA DEEN”S! It’s horrible! It’s so touristy and not authentic southern cuisine in the least! Let me make a few calls and see what other restaurants I can get you two into for dinner.” And with that, she was gone. When she returned a few minutes later, she informed us that we would be dining at the restaurant Alligator Soul at 8:30pm.

The wind had changed course.

The crazy bartender was right! Dinner at Alligator soul was pretty incredible. We dined like Queens ordering 1st courses, main courses, dessert and more wine (the writing was definitely on the wall at this point). I ate scallops and they were melt in your mouth good, but I am a sucker for a good scallop.

(photo by One Part Gypsy)

As we were finishing up dinner, our waiter said….”you girls should have a drink at The Bohemian Hotel after dinner. They have an amazing rooftop bar overlooking the city.” That was all he needed to say! We were headed to the rooftop bar!

Let’s just say that our night out in Savannah was AMAZING and the morning after was HORRIBLE. Nothing like trying to tackle a day exhausted with a hangover. BLAH.

A day of struggle and gardens up next!!

….

For Rachels blog click here!

365til30: instagram  @kate365, twitter, facebook

Day 15, Part 1

So after garnering my second speeding ticket and shedding a few tears, we arrived in St. Mary’s, GA late at night, exhausted and a bit crabby (although that may have been just me).  Saint Mary’s was less of a “stop” on our trip and more of a place to rest our heads for the night before catching the ferry the next morning to Cumberland Island. Cumberland Island is Georgia’s largest and southernmost barrier island. The island also has a rich history as it was home to early natives,  missionaries, enslaved Africans and African-Americans and Wealthy Industrialists throughout the years. It’s covered in gorgeous maritime forests, undeveloped beaches, marshes, ruins (of the Dungeness Mansion) and wild horses…yes wild horses! Clearly the whole wild horse thing was a draw for me.

After getting a good nights sleep at our hotel we ate a sad complimentary breakfast (one of the joys of a road trip) and grabbed Subway sandwiches (another joy of road trips) to eat for lunch while on the island. We boarded the Cumberland ferry for a quick 45 minute ride to the island. The ferry also happened to be filled with a massive amount of cute 10 year olds on a school field trip. The were all SO excited to be on a boat headed to an island! Every animal, wave, landmass, tree and fellow boat we passed was more exciting than the next. It was actually rather sweet (I was even daydreaming about doing such activities with my future kids) until one kid yelled down to a smaller boat below- “suck it!” in the loudest voice he could muster. I slumped down in my seat embarrassed to be sitting next to him (in that moment I stopped daydreaming about doing these activities with my future children).

After our lively boat ride, we were officially on Cumberland Island and also officially the only people wearing dresses and flip-flops instead of hiking boots and fanny packs. I was starting to regret my clothing decision as we set off alone into the lush green wooded path of trees on a one mile walk in search of the Dungeness Mansion ruins…oh, and wild horses! Although now I was starting to wonder about the probability of actually seeing one. I mean, usually wild things hate to be contained (welcome to my early 20′s)…that’s why we call them wild, right? As we weeded through the plants, I couldn’t help but read the “animals to watch out for” section of our welcome packet and was surprised to learn that both rattlesnakes and alligators were present on the island. As I continued walking down the lush path I thought, Why am I always reading such things much too late? I must change this moving into my 30th year on earth.

I was just about to start having a panic attack about where I was stepping when we came out on a beautiful, empty beach with cream-colored sand and seashells. It was like being in some foreign film or something. I felt like we were the only people in the world. We climbed down the rocks to stick our toes in the sand and play around for a bit.

(bottom three photos by One Part Gypsy)

Then as we set back down the path towards the ruins, it happened…we turned a corner and voila, we were in a huge open field with a sea of wild horses in front of us!! I almost died. I could not believe what I was seeing. I approached them as quietly as I possibly could, frightened I would startle them and they would flee. But the closer I got to them, the more I realized that they could care less about us. The didn’t even flinch! They just kept eating their grass and swinging their tails. They were so very delicate and sweet. The wild horses against the backdrop of the mansion’s ruins was breathtaking. I honestly felt like I had been dropped in a movie and was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for this experience and gratitude for it all.

….

For Rachel’s blog click here!

365til30: instagram  @kate365, twitter, facebook

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I woke up this morning to this note from the universe and it could not have been more perfect considering I am 48 days away from turning 30 and my crazy journey is coming to an end.

……

The very best moment in any long journey that makes your dreams come true, Kate, comes not on the day you realize they have, but on the day you realize how little they matter compared to loving the adventure they’ve inspired. 

Don’t ask me why, I just know what I know - 
    The Universe

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365til30: instagram  @kate365, twitter, facebook