I'm back...I think...

So, I've totally neglected my little corner of the blogsphere for the past couple of months. I've been pretty busy, but that is really no excuse. I just haven't made the time, or used my free time wisely.

I gave myself a little facelift. I attempted to be creative and make my own background, but got in a fight with photoshop, and photoshop won. So I took the easy way out and found one on the internet. Maybe in the future I'll have more patience and be inspired to actually create something myself. 

I've been really preoccupied with my doula apprenticeship, and have spent all my free time lately reading and researching all things related to childbirth and childrearing. I started a post about it and will work on finishing it soon (hopefully). I'm going to try to stop being so scarce around here. We'll see how that goes. 

Wordless Wednesday: Oude Kerk

"IT'S GOOD, IT'S GOOD, IT'S GOOD!!! PIGS HAVE FLOWN!! HELL HAS FROZEN OVER!!! THE SAINTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!"*

It’s been pretty exciting in southern Louisiana the past couple weeks. You may have heard our team is going to the super bowl for the first time in history and we are pretty pumped up about the whole thing. I realize there are plenty of fair-weather fans out there, but many of us have been waiting a long time for this. Personally I’ve been waiting 27 years, but my dad has been waiting since 1967, when the franchise was founded. While I was growing up my dad, some of my family, and close family friends had season tickets, and gathered at rotating parties for all the away games. Basically I grew up on Saints (and LSU) football. Granted I didn’t care so much when I was younger. Like many things I took this for granted as a child, and didn’t really care about football, but now, as an adult, am very happy to have the history. I’ll even admit that I was a little emotional when we beat the Vikings a couple weeks ago. The tears didn’t actually fall, but I was definitely misty eyed. Honestly, it’s still a little surreal, and I’ve had to pinch myself a few times over the past couple weeks just to make sure it’s happening.

The people of New Orleans have many characteristics. Among them is fierce determination and loyalty. When our team sucked we stood behind them. Even during the losing ‘80s, the years of the “Aints”, when Buddy D advised the fans to wear paper bags over their heads to all the home games. Buddy D vowed that if the saints ever made it to the superbowl he’d walk down Bourbon Street wearing a dress. Unfortunately, Buddy D passed away a few years back, but Bobby Hebert (that’s pronounced a-bear) and the men of New Orleans made good on his promise and had a dress parade down Bourbon St last weekend. Now, if there is one thing us New Orleanians are good at it’s partying. Our most famous street is Bourbon Street, ‘nuff said. We are so good at partying that I did not learn any of the following until adulthood, when I moved away from the Big Easy:

1. Bars close? The first time I was at a bar and they announced last call at 2am I had to ask someone what the hell that meant. The quarter never shuts down, we can, and will, party 24/7.
2. Only in southern Louisiana can you buy liquor/beer/wine a couple isles over from baby diapers and potato chips. I had no idea what a liquor store was because we always got our alcohol at the grocery store.
3. They don’t have drive through daiquiris everywhere? They are ALL over the Nola metropolitan area. It’s not an open container until you put the straw in! You can even buy it by the gallon.
4. Dry Counties? Really? There are actually places that ban alcohol? That should be a federal crime….
5. Mardi Gras is not a national holiday?!?! Everything shuts down for Mardi Gras. It’s one of our biggest displays of drunken debauchery parties of the year, and I assumed everyone else celebrated too. We have a fairly large catholic population so this is our last hurrah before lent begins.

I guess I should mention that these days I’m kind of an old lady. My partying days have all but ceased now because I usually go to bed early and am ready to leave the bar by midnight. It’s kinda sad actually. However, when the situation arises I know what to do, and this weekend I fully intend to get my party on!

I Believe!


*Title borrowed from a statement at the end of NFC Championship game by local sportscaster Jim Henderson

Wordless Wednesday: WHO DAT!

It's That Time Again...

I've been blessed with my monthly visitor this week, which I should be happy about because it means I'm not knocked up (side note: I've watched too many episodes of I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant so I am now paranoid that I could be pregnant anyway, but I digress...). I was useless yesterday and had to leave work early. Of course this has to happen on one of the two weeks of the year that it is imperative everyone be there. I went in because I didn't want to screw over my co-workers by being gone on a potentially busy day. By lunchtime I was in hour 18 or so of my migraine, and was fighting to not puke all over my desk. It was fun times. I managed to sleep it off once I got home, and am feeling mostly better today. At least the headache part is gone even if the uterus ache is not. I'm going to go crawl back into my hole of feeling sorry for myself for being a woman now. I'll be back next week....

Girl Talk Thursday: Pet Peeves

I found out about Girl Talk Thursday by reading Miss Grace's Disgrace, and have been meaning to join in for a while. So, here I am taking the leap.

Inconsiderate Driving People driving in the left lane when not passing. Especially when they are going under the speed limit. People who get in to a lane that’s ending in an attempt to cut everyone else off instead of waiting their turn in line.

Uggs with running shorts WHY? I love my Uggs. Yeah, they are a little hideous, but they are so very comfy and warm so I’ve accepted the hideousness and moved past it. Wearing them with running shorts? Not okay. First if you’re running you should be wearing running shoes. Second, if it’s warm enough for shorts then you shouldn’t be wearing Uggs, and if it’s cold enough for Uggs for the love of all that is holy put some freaking pants on.

Bicyclers who don’t obey traffic rules I am all for bicycling. I think its wonderful to do your part for the environment and being healthier in the process, but running a stop sign without hesitation when a car has the right of way is asking to get run over. Just because you’re on a bike doesn’t mean you’re above traffic laws. In fact since you’re in a more vulnerable position I’d think you’d be extra cautious, but apparently I am mistaken.

People who get in the express checkout lane at the store when they clearly have more items than posted. Really, I just think it’s rude. The message it sends to me is that you think your time is more valuable than mine, and it’s not. I don’t think my time is more valuable than your's therefore if I have 15 items and the checkout line says 10 I go to another line. Just being courteous.

Babied College Kids. I may have mentioned before that I work in a higher education setting. I never get used to college kids’ mommies calling instead of making them do it themselves. I have no problem with help and support from parents. I admit my parents supported me (financially) through college, but I never asked them to call the school for me because I couldn’t log into my email or I forgot my password. I’m happy to know that even if I had asked them they would have said no. There’s a fine line between helping someone and rendering them helpless.

Ridiculous Misspelling. This is especially an issue on facebook, and I’m not talking about abbreviations. I mean blatant misspelling. Today I saw a comment where someone said “tawkin” instead of talking. Seriously, what the f*ck is that? Are people really that illiterate or do they think it’s amusing? Either way it worries me. Sometimes there are whole sentences I can’t even read because the spelling makes no sense. Hand in hand with that issue is random capitalization of letters in places where it makes no sense. yU nO LyKe tHs. (Just so you know. It made my skin crawl to type that)

Lack of reading comprehension. When directions or a sign explaining something is in from of someone they pause and appear to have read the information, then turn around ask the question that is answered by the information in front of them. I’ve heard the question “it says I need to reset my password what does that mean?” asked on more than one occasion. I see this done on a nearly daily basis by people on campus. If you’ve made it to higher academia then I think it is reasonable to expect that not only should an individual be able to read, but they should have fairly good comprehension skills as well.

I’m sure I could come up with some more, but I’m going to stop here. It kind of peeves me thinking about these things.

Wordless Wednesday: Wish I was Here...

Wordless Wednesday: Mike the Tiger

Reasons I Love the South Vol 1: Winter

Or, rather, the lack thereof. Generally speaking we have quite mild winters. I hate the cold so this suits me just fine. We don’t reach freezing temperatures all that often, and rarely stay there for long when we do. I can count the number of times it has snowed here in my lifetime on less than one hand. Just for reference, and to give you northern folks a laugh, this is an example of a major snow for us:

*note there is NO snow on the roads or sidewalks, and there are spots you can see through to the ground*

 Don’t get me wrong I actually like the snow. I think snow is pretty, and besides skiing, is the only reason for cold weather. That said I could never survive living in it all winter, and prefer it in very small doses. When it snows here we (well our businesses, schools etc) shut down. It’s a pretty major event, and if it actually sits on the ground we act like kids in a candy shop. No one here can drive in the stuff, and calamity ensues when driving is attempted. 

Well, this week/end we have been in a deep freeze. Here’s some more fodder for you northern folk, our deep freeze means the temperature has been hovering between 20°F-32°F since Thursday, with a wind-chill in the teens. Here’s the kicker, keep in mind we have had no precipitation, all the schools, and many businesses, SHUT DOWN on Friday because of the cold. Yes, that’s right, they shut down schools for cold weather. Unfortunately, I had to go to work, but since the city basically shut down we were pretty dead. I guess I should mention that we were supposed to have some rain on Thursday afternoon. So the “officials” were worried we would have small amounts of standing water that could turn into the dreaded black ice, and since us southern folk cannot be trusted to drive in ice/snow they felt it necessary to shut everything down. While I think this is a bit of an overreaction it also highlights one of the things I love about the south: we are NOT used to cold weather, and that’s the way I like it!

My Week was Pretty Good, How was Yours?

I've had a pretty good week overall. Went to yoga twice, which really makes a difference in my week. I am pretty high strung, and it forces me to chill out and mentally unwind, even if it is only for an hour. I'd go again tonight, but there isn’t a class at my gym this evening.

I've been ruminating on who I am, what I want out of my life, and who I want to be. I realized I have been focusing on the wrong things. I think I knew this already, somewhere in my subconscious, but have been having a hard time actually accepting it. I am feeling pretty motivated about making changes in my life. I have done more research, and am debating between 2 doula workshops. One is at the last week of February the second is the first week of March. The issue I’m debating now is location. The one in Pensacola is closer, and would be cheaper because I’d be driving instead of flying. But the one in Tampa has a place for me to stay, with a friend who I don’t see enough. I am hoping to finish one of the books I need to read this weekend. I also found a local doula that takes apprentices, so I am pretty excited about that.

I am very seriously considering moving once I am ready to make this career change reality. I’ve been feeling New Orleans pulling on me. I’ve thought for a very long time that I’d be content living in my current city (I use that term loosely, I mean technically this place is a city, but it feels small town-ish at times) for the foreseeable future. I am very close to New Orleans, about an hour away, and can go home whenever I want. But I feel discontent here. I want to be closer so that I can take more advantage of the local music scene and I feel that there are many more cultural opportunities in general there. I feel a magnetic attraction, almost as if I’m being drawn there against my will. I think it’s a place you either love or hate; obviously the former for myself, but I’m biased.

Work was fairly uneventful. The only “exciting” thing that happened this week is freezing cold weather, which really deserves it’s own post. Time for me to get reading, have a good weekend!

 

Wordless Wednesday: Inspiration

Resolutions.

 Its that time of year again, where we set our personal goals for the next year. To be perfectly honest I don’t usually set resolutions. I always figured it’s not like I‘m going to do them anyway, so why bother setting unrealistic expectations of myself. BUT this year I am going to turn over a new leaf and set realistic goals that I will actually work to attain. I realize that we are nearly a week into the new year, so this is a little late (ha! already failing on #5 re: post more often), but I had good intentions. I did actually start writing it prior to the new year it just didn’t get finished and posted. So, without further ado my goals for 2010:
 

1. Go to the gym consistently. 2-3 days of yoga a week and 2-3 days of cardio/weight training per week.
2. Eat less processed foods. Eat more veggies and fruits. And most importantly buy local as much as possible.
3. Attitude. Try to be more positive everyday, and don’t bitch so much at work. This will be my most difficult resolution. 
4. Go to Doula training. I keep putting this one off. I’ve begun the reading I need to do. I may not be able to do a total career shift, but I need to work towards finding a career I care about.
5. Do something with the blog. It is in desperate need of a facelift and a little TLC. I need to learn some html. And post more often.
6. Take more pictures.