Guilty Pleasures

What's life without a few guilty pleasures? Though not everyone will admit they have guilty pleasures (or will share specifics), I know everyone has a few of these deep, dark secrets.

Here are a few loves of mine:

• Cheesy snacks (Combos, cheetos, cheddar and sour cream potato chips)
• Ice cream (sadly, in any flavor)
• Daughtry, who I will be seeing open for Bon Jovi this Wednesday
• Stone Temple Pilots (see post from earlier this month "Take it to the Grave")
• Bravo reality TV (think Real Housewives, Project Runway, Top Chef, Top Design, etc.)
• Energy drinks
• Calamari
• Embarrassingly corny jokes ("What does a gay horse eat?"... "HEYYYYY!")
• Sucking up to people I think are cool
• Perez Hilton
• The Superficial (almost as fab as Perezzle but not quite)
• Tacky clothes (anyone seen my pink and black zebra print button up? It's fantastic)
• Bragging about how much of a bargain hunter I am
• Dark and dramatic cinema!

The Land of Bobby Pins and Hair Elastics

As I used six copper colored bobby pins to secure a short veil to my bachelorette friend Maria's coif last night, I thought about something that's occurred to me so many times before. As I put in little pin, I wondered how many of them would come home with us that night... and how many of them would end up on the dance floor at the night club or in the back of a taxi cab. 

Similar thoughts popped into my head as I put my hair into a ponytail early this afternoon and pinned my bangs back to keep them from falling into my face. I asked myself, "Damn, how many packs of these things do I buy a year?"

Every few months, I toss a pack of hair elastics and a pack of bobby pins into my grocery cart and wonder what happens to all those hair accessories. Is there a place where they go to die? If we lose so many, how come you don't see renegade pins, clips and elastics littering the streets, sidewalks, playgrounds and workout facilities? I know I wonder where all mine go. 

Enter Katy's theory. Companies like Goody must have a big, hair accessory magnet radiating beams of attraction all across the universe. When we're sleeping or not paying close attention, they are grabbed right out of thin air and travel at light speed back to the distribution facilities to be refurbished and resold to us. What a rip off. 

Words to Live By

I attended the visitation of my close friend Lauren's grandmother last night. My mother and I went together and sifted through crowds of dear friends, stacks of old photo albums, collages of newspaper articles and announcements and multitudes of kind words. Lauren's grandmother lived to be in her mid-90's and seemed to live quite a healthy, full life. She earned three college degrees, taught Sunday school, helped countless girls with their weddings (either through sewing their dresses or coordinating their ceremonies and receptions) and was blessed with many friends and loving family members.

As we walked around the room, admiring her crafts and overhearing others talk about her life, my mother and I stumbled across several poems tacked to a bulletin board. Louise Griner was an avid poetry writer and reader. In fact, Lauren confessed to us last night that she would often use her grandmother's poetry or symbolic analysis as her own when she was in literature classes.

One of the poems caught our eye and made us think. I found several variations of the below online, but all with the same basic principles included:

For the garden of your daily living...

Come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses....

PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be patient
Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:
Turnip for meetings
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:
Thyme for each other
Thyme for family
Thyme for friends

Water freely with patience and cultivate with loveThere is much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.

Action Verbs

I am not sure what has prompted this blog post today, though I would imagine it’s thinking about the impending start to coordinating my employer’s 2008 annual report.

Who doesn’t love a good action verb? They are so much more fun than passive verbs and convey much more interest. Action verbs are robust, powerful, meaningful and invigorating. I have to admit that non-business action verbs are much more lively than work ones; nonetheless, try beefing up your business dialogue with a few of these:

A is for administered.
B is for budgeted.
C is for coordinated.
D is for directed.
E is for encouraged.
F is for financed.
G is for grew.
H is for handled.
I is for increased.
J is for journaled.
K is for kept.
L is for lowered.
M is for monitored.
N is for negotiated.
O is for operated.
P is for piloted.
Q is for quarantined.
R is for rehabilitated.
S is for streamlined.
T is for trimmed.
U is for updated.
V is for vied.
W is for wrote.
X is for Xeroxed (okay, I couldn’t come up with anything better for X or Z).
Z is for zipped.

Gooooo Dawgs!

Today I report very exciting news to me (as both a proud big sister and a University of Georgia alum). My little brother Paul, a senior at Lassiter High School in Marietta, made the UGA cheer squad this past weekend. The only rising freshman to make the team, he succeeded in showing the coaches that he "has what it takes" to cheer on the 'dawgs! Gooooo Paul and gooooo dawgs! Look for him on ESPN when the dawgs go all the way!

Take It to the Grave

So, a drunk Scottish guy trying to hit on some of my friends at the Yacht Club in Little Five asked my group of girls the following question, “If you could only pick one album to go to the grave with, what album would it be?”

His question, albeit a failed attempt to start a long conversation with us, did prompt some thinking among our crowd. Some of my gals mentioned The Pixies, Bob Dylan and Velvet Underground. Two of the gals insisted they were going to the grave together and chose a TLC album as their, I think, fictional (and mocking) choice.

I had a few that I couldn’t seem to choose among. My first thoughts were “Core” or “Purple” by Stone Temple Pilots (I’m a lover of 90’s grunge—what can I say?). Or maybe the album that didn’t leave my high school cd player for months (“Pardon Me” by Incubus). Then I felt a little more “dancy” and wondered if I made the wrong choice. Perhaps Madonna’s “Immaculate Collection” or one of Depeche Mode’s greatest hits albums would do the trick a little better. After all, eternity is a long time to be listening to the same 12 or 18 tracks.

Time Apart

Yes, I must preface another blog with one of my world famous disclaimers…

What I am about to write by no means indicates that I am a relationship expert or have the “perfect” relationship. I think that all relationships require occasional maintenance or encounter a handful of kinks. We’re human.

As I’ve been asked, “So, do you have any fun weekend plans?” today, I’ve reflected on what a lucky girl I am in terms of my trust level with Dan and vice versa. This weekend, Dan is attending a friend’s bachelor party in town but will be staying with friends for the entire weekend. I don’t know much about their plans other than that they will be eating dinner out, possibly going to a local pub and enjoying one another’s company.

I will miss him for the weekend but feel fortunate that missing him is the extent of it. I won’t be sitting at home, wondering what he’s doing or if he’s thinking about me. I won’t be pining over whether or not he’s making decisions that might compromise our relationship. I won’t be pouting or text messaging him every few hours to nervously ask, “What are you doing?”

Instead, I will use the weekend to spend time with girlfriends and maybe even use one night to watch a movie at home (possibly Atonement, as I’ve been wanting to see it). This has become standard operating procedure for us. If something comes up for him that doesn’t include me, he asks if we have plans and then agrees to participate in whatever is going on. I do the same thing for him (consult him, consult the calendar). Neither of us bitches or moans when a professional obligation comes up or a girls-only or guys-only invitation comes via phone or mail and the other is subsequently left out of plans. Instead, we remember to embrace the time we’re together, enjoy alone time sometimes—and use other times to catch up with people we haven’t seen in a while. And I like that.