3.01.2010

going pro: a girl-love story

allow me to tell you a tale as old as the milk in your refrigerator. in the cold, dark, winter of 2008 jesse told me he wanted to take me to a place he had recently heard of. it was called serenbe and it was a magical planned neighborhood in the middle of a ton of green space that was focused on sustainability and true community. it is about 30 minutes south of the airport and kind of in the middle of nowhere. i was pregnant at the time and i my neurotic paranoia was on high alert. as we bounced along the gravel road leading into the main area we passed lovely homes and charming shops...however there didn't seem to be anyone around. there were cars parked along the streets but no lights were on in the houses and nothing seemed to be open. naturally, i started having visions of a yuppie ghost-town gone horribly wrong and pictured us in our little volvo as the next meal for this recently-turned-zombie populous. i locked the doors and made sure jesse didn't drive too fast over the bumps (flat tires and warm fetuses are CLASSIC zombie-bait) on the way out.
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flash forward a few months. i told my parents about our scary adventure and they informed me that the people who started serenbe and owned all the land were a fellow woodward family and that my little brother and all his friends had actually gone down to the land a bunch of times in high school to "hang out" back when it was just the family, the nygrens, living there. tripp was good friends with their middle daughter, kara, whereas i knew their oldest daughter, garnie, because she was just a grade below me in school. my folks also said that it was supposed to be totally unique and very cool and that they had heard great things about the shops and restaurants (zero zombie-sightings reported).
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so we sacked up and decided to give it another try. we made reservations at the hil, one of the two dinner-serving restaurants, to celebrate heading into the 9th month of pregnancy. oh sweet, sweet mustard on a hoagie.
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maybe it was because it was daylight when we went back and we were able to see the outrageous beauty of the green space intermingled with a tight-knit little "downtown" residential and business area, or maybe it was just because they fed me instead of eating me. either way, we were hooked. i quickly went from "next victim" of serenbe farms to "biggest fan."
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one of our first dates after judah was born. at the hil, june 2009

i can't even describe to you how good the food at the hil is. it defies its palmetto, ga zip code. it's definitely not someplace you could eat every week unless you are blessed by the gods themselves (cough, cough, garnie!), but it's such the perfect place for a special date. jesse's parents as well as judah's godparents, lukas and danielle, have actually spent the night at two of serenbe's current lodgings, the bed & breakfast and the inn (which is the nygren's old house!) and both of them had ridiculously positive experiences as well. we haven't explored much else at serenbe because we are so obsessed with the hil and can't imagine eating anywhere else once we're there.

we about tossed our excited cookies when we saw that the hil had $25 off $50 certificates available on restaurant.com. i bought all 4 that were available (i had an 80% off coupon code so i got each one for $2 each...regularly priced at $10) since you have a year to use them. well, judah was spending the night with the dukes on friday so jesse and i wanted to do something we couldn't normally do with the little guy in tow: stay out past 6 pm, make out, finish a sentence without saying, "he's so damn cute!" etc.
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but, dag-blast it, it was frugal february! we aren't supposed to spend ANY money on eating out during this entire month, and we have done so well for the first 25 days. deftly swinging into lightning-fast justification mode i said, well the charge may not post to the credit card until the march statement since it's the very end of the month plus we are using a coupon. luckily jesse's resolve was worn down by his kidney stones so he said yes.

compulsory cheesy couple-shot in front of the sign (jesse has corpse-pallor due to being outside of the light)


ok so, summary: we're super huge fans of the hil. we eat there whenever we have some extra money to spend and want to spoil ourselves.

during this almost year long love affair we have had with the hil and serenbe, i started blogging hardcore (did you notice?). i have been tickled pink (by that phrase) to make a bunch of random friends through my cultivation of this little chunk of the interwebs. one of them just happened to be kara nygren, the middle sister of the founding father of serenbe and good high school buddy of my brother. it should be said that most of my brother's high school friends are the worst sort of little ruffians. they are spoiled little prepster delinquents--my brother included (minus the spoiled part)...at least back then they were. wanton judgment of these people i don't really know aside, kara is not in this category. somehow she managed to be in this group of friends and still stay classy (san diego). it was probably the green space that kept her pure.

well, miss kara wrote me on facebook out of the blue a few months back and said she knew tripp and that's how she found the blog and that she thought judah was adorable (instant friendship right there) and we should be friends. done. she also told me to let her know when we were coming to serenbe so we could meet in person. so it's been this funny sort of mutual stalking relationship: kara because she was a blog lurker (reformed on de-lurker day!) and me because i am a serenbe groupie and her family totally invented it. kara and garnie also frequent mr. fuji, jesse and my most favorite local restaurant so there was always this nervous little excitement kara and i both admitted to whenever either of us would go, not knowing if tonight was the night we'd get to meet!
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well, i told kara we might be going to the hil on friday if the kidney stones behaved, but i didn't give her hardly any notice, so i didn't have a lot of hope. well, we walked in and there is her sister garnie eating with a friend! i was dying. it was so funny because kara and me were the ones who stalked each other and yet it was garnie who "got" to see us first. she immediately called up kara (they live two houses down from the hil in a townhouse) to see if she had left to go out with friends yet. squeal! she hadn't and she was on her way over. OMG. OMG. OMG.
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it was amazing. we got to talk to garnie while we waited on kara to come over and learned all about the plans for and mission of serenbe: 1000 homes eventually (they have 100 now) and many more little pod-like communities within walking distance, but all separated by green space (can you tell i LOVE that new term? GREEN SPACE!) and all unique in their community identity (arts, agriculture, education, etc.). the model is the small towns in europe and regaining the soul and identity of a true neighborhood. the houses are all intentionally close together and garnie said that they literally know by name all 250 people who are their neighbors, from infants to octogenarians. so freaking cool. it's kind of the answer to the default scheme of suburbia that tends to have no common bond between neighbors besides peeing in the same community swimming pool.
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and then kara came in. i would imagine it was like what people who meet on eHarmony feel the first time they meet their matches in person: we know we're compatible online, but here we are in person. ahhhhhhh, girl crush! i cannot overstate how much fun it was to hang out with kara and hear about what she does at serenbe (both sisters are huge studs in the development and management of several of the properties there and in the big-picture planning). kara was on her way somewhere to meet friends for dinner so she had to go after about 20 minutes, but she made us promise to come back during the day sometime in the spring and summer when there are street fairs and farmers' markets that really show off the heart of serenbe. she also said we have to bring judah and let her babysit sometime while we have dinner. done!

love her! it even looks like we are two fruits sprouting on the same braided vine (was that creepy?)

so after kara left, we had a fall-on-your-face delicious meal (organic wheat bread and butter to start, the ribeye with chef's risotto and the wild mushroom and honey glazed shallot pizza on organic wheat crust for dinner and then the special dessert of a homemade waffle with butterscotch topping and butter pecan ice cream...retarded!). the always-wonderful quality of the food plus the amazing conversation we had with garnie and kara made it totally worth blowing frugal february and splurging a bit on dinner out..

while we were waiting on the dessert, the hostess came back up to us (she had already visited once to ask how everything was) and i was nervous that we were getting in trouble for being rowdy and dishonoring the nygren name. then she said, "i just wanted to let you know that kara paid for your meal." um, okay. i put my napkin over my face and started welling up with tears. first off, i thought secretly having people pay for your meals only happened in the movies and DEFINITELY never happened at your most favorite restaurant. i was floored. i immediately got on facebook on jesse's phone to tell her how outrageous she was and how pumped we were. but instead of writing "i totally teared up," i typed, "i totally reared up." luckily i caught it before i sent it, but i went to tell jesse how funny that would have been to write "reared up" and then i did a little impression of a bucking stallion neighing and pawing (hoofing?) the air. little did i realize how loud and stupid i looked and we got quite a few looks from the other more dignified patrons wondering what horsey-girl's deal was. side-braid + horse impression = i should be wearing a sweatshirt with a picture of a pony on it.
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the entire way home we just took turns saying, "i cannot believe she did that for us." then we realized that due to the massive assist on kara's part, frugal february was still 100% intact!!! holy moly balls. i also realized that this amazing act of generosity, and more importantly my new friendship with kara, would have never come about without the blog. a few quick jumps of logic forward and i came to the conclusion that i am now a professional blogger. stay with me. i mean we benefitted from my writing in such a way that would have lost me my eligibility back in the NCAA because i was receiving [nutritional] compensation for my writing; essentially turning pro. i had been trying to preserve my amateur status in hopes of competing in the blogging olympics of 2012 (not real), but i am going to go ahead and say that it was totally worth it. i am now in negotiations for a sibling trade of kara for tripp. i don't think garnie's gonna go for it.
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post-dinner feelings.

4 comments:

  1. ahhhhhhhh this made my day!! it was so so so wonderful to finally meet you and it was so fun to read about it! i was so star struck! :). you did a prefect job of describing everything! i am so glad you all had a good time. and yes you are definitely a professional blogger! please come back soon so we can hang out more and we can chat for longer!

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  2. Ha! I have been stalking/lurking serenbe's sight for a couple of years.. It looks like a dream come true!! I have never been or tried the restaurant!! I so want to. Maybs a double date this summer?!

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  3. I'm totally intrigued... Never ever heard of this place till just now! I'm with Natalie, please oh please double date with us next time we're home?! (I'm begging. On a blog. You just make this place sound amazing.... I see endorsements in your *professional* future!)

    alicia

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  4. Keight...loved the excitement in your voice when we heard about it, and still loved (and died laughing)reading about it! What an awesome experience. I think it's so cool that the Lord arranged all the details so you could a)feel really great about your blog and your professional status and b) keep frugal february (not just Fri, but Sat too!) I love FF, and the insane lengths you go to in order to save for what you really want!!!! Amazing...so blessed to have you in the family! Keep the infomercials coming--just got great deals on restaurant.com. Love it!

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