2009: An Epic Year

Another year has flown by and the shenanigans of 2009 hands down beat the happenings of 2008! (see My Ode to 2008) If you’ve already read that and you’re thinking that’s impossible just remember, the possibilities are endless! So put on a diaper and get ready to roll on the floor...

I have found that the best way to remember things is through photographs because my memory is not great and often times it is fuzzy or altogether forgotten. This remembrance is a combination of my memories and the photos from the past year.

We all know how 2009 began...HUNGOVER! That’s a never a great start for a day much less an entire year but we pulled out just fine! (that was for you mb ;) lol) So after recovering from that we had a fun photo shoot and a mini pre-birthday warm up celebration one random night at The Kudu. That night we were on the bar,on the stage, behind the sound controls, head in trash cans and spinning in capes. The beginning of that sounds a rap song...just a little bit. :) Then there was my actual birthday festivities! I joined forces with MB for a celebration at Chuck E Cheese and it was fabulous! Great friends and lots of fun and the best peanut butter cake a girl could ask for. The celebration continued and was nothing less than fantastic. For birthdays, this was just the beginning and some would refer to theirs as the best birthday ever!

We celebrated Rebecca’s birthday in February, more fun times at The Kudu! Skip ahead to April-May-ish and lil Jac turned 21 and Buzz turned 30! Of course Jac had to be initiated into the world of The Kudu and she’s been a fruitloop lover ever since. Her birthday also fell around Crawfish weekend so we also enjoyed some LL Cool J, Katie Perry, Jason Mraz and some other fun musical guests and then jumped on a short bus only to continue the fun times and memory making. And for Buzz, what better way to celebrate than with a theme?! Golf Pros and Tennis Hos it was! And this is when the murf began! Lots of fun times, scandalous pictures and a little bit of beer glove action. Little did we know that this would be the last party we would ever have at Rebecca’s Southside home.

Next came Tiff and 2...Tiff has finally given in and let me tell her exactly how and for how long to celebrate her birthday. So this was her making up for bad birthdays birthday celebration and it lasted a long time! We first celebrated with a beach trip (see Girls’ Beach Trip 09: PCB) but unfortunately not everyone could make it. We had a blast at the beach and by that I mean by the pool 2 feet from a tiki bar. =P But because everyone could not make it to the beach we had a reason to celebrate more when we got home. Tiff had lots of surprises in store for her! She got everything she wanted and more. We all met and had dinner at Jacksons and then head to our favorite home away from home for some ColdStone cupcakes, drinks and oh yeah, a live band! Worth getting barefoot for, right?! Then to IHOP for some lingdon berries and the explanation of the brown towel. And a week later we all gathered again for Kimberly and A2’s joint tye dye themed birthday celebration. Let me just say, duh-runk! We began with pizza and lots of beer before heading to the Lakeview District for an unexpected bar CRAWL! We started at The Kudu and worked our way around the block to On Tap and then crawled our way back to The Kudu.

There were also other happenings between all of the birthday festivities. St. Patty’s day (one of my favorites btw) Memorial Day, bridal parties, wrecking a Hummer, beach trips, pool days, weekends at the lake and unfortunately an unforgettable Labor Day weekend. Trash the dress, a boy on a big green tractor, LSU/UA game, renewal of wedding vows, a new pool boy, motorboats, silent auctions and Martinis & Mistletoe. Fun times all year long and the best ending to a great year: A birthday party for Kerri and a NYE party. 2009 all year long was the best! I was surrounded by great friends and had a blast doing most of the things that I did. You know it’s a good year when your regrets are minimal, your pictures are good and plentiful and at the end of the day you still have people to call your friends.

Splenda vs. Sugar

I’m a sugar girl. A substitute is just that and I like the real thing. Sometimes you can’t get sugar even though that’s what you really want. So what other choice do you have but to have a little Splenda? You have to make due with what you’ve got; love the one you’re with right? In life you have to make choices. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not the best decision maker. Sometimes, scratch that, lots of times I make bad choices. Don’t get me wrong, good ones usually follow right behind the bad ones but it’s the bad ones that get me every time! My question is that in world full of Splenda and very little sugar should you hold out or just enjoy the Splenda?

love

Love. Love is many things. Love is multifaceted and can be uniquely defined by each individual experiencing or yearning this whirlwind of emotion and feeling. Those who know me, know that I have relationship issues. These issues are in conjunction with love but not to be confused with love or the idea of it. Today I realized how special love actually is.

I’ve always had a jaded sense of love. I guess because I over analyze things and there’s not a clear cut answer about love- not because I grew up with a lack of it or experienced it in a perverted way or anything like that. I have a lot of love in my life and sometimes I take it for granted. I can be a lot of things but nice sometimes most times, well, that’s all debatable but that’s not my point. Point being, that no matter my dislike and/or bratty attitude I still love those that I loathe. This got put in perspective for me today in a big way. Love isn’t perfect and though people fuss and fight it doesn’t mean that they don’t love one another.

I remember love at different stages in my life. When I was in high school I used love as an argument. I would ask my teacher to define love, being that this was a Religion class he could reference Biblically for days. I didn’t care to hear the answer. I used this as a ploy to buy me time to do other homework or study for tests that I had later in the day. I also manipulated the idea of love to get my way, “If you love me you’ll...” This worked on my parents and boyfriends for a long time (maybe that’s why I’m the brat that I am today.) I also remember working close to a cafeteria and every Sunday after church I would watch the little old men and women go to lunch. Observing these elderly couples was one of the sweetest things that I’ve ever witnessed. The men would walk around the car and open the passenger door, offer a hand getting in and out of the car and offer another hand when stepping on or off of the sidewalk, they opened doors and kissed the cheeks of their significant others. As I got older, I began to notice other patterns of love. The changing of relationships and love not being what you thought it would be and learning the difference between infatuation, lust and love...getting your heart broken and learning how to overcome that and try it again.

In a world where there are more broken homes than there are successful marriages, it is easy for love to be cheapened, forgotten and taken for granted. This is ironic to me because no matter how lost or hopeless, people still yearn to find and to experience love. My parents have been married a long time but my grandparents have been married even longer, almost 70 years! Today, at the hospital, the nurses were inquiring about how long my grandparents have been married. They commented on how they could tell how much my grandfather loved and cared for his wife. At that moment, I realized that my grandparents are those people that I used to watch every Sunday at work, my parents probably will be those people and one day, I want to be those people too. I am 26 and not married and that is because I am waiting for my person who I can be those people with one day.

And btw, this is why people fell in love with The Notebook! ;)

Hiatus Resulting From Randomness

Truly blessed, educated and single, yeah, sounds like a singles ad in a church bulletin but that’s me. After four years of college and achieving a BS degree, lots of job experience and having quite the social life (lol...so I’m told by some of my married friends), I have decided that I may be stuck in a rut. The economy is not good and doesn’t seem to be getting any better which raises my concern about having any kind of job stability.

Am I ready to begin a job search? Am I willing to move? If I move, there is still a chance of unemployment. Is it worth it? Should I go back to school? Am I smart enough? If I do go back to school should I still consider changing jobs? These are just some of the questions inside my head and that’s just concerning my professional future! Add in all of the questions and doubts about my personal life and you’ve got a ginormous mess! Not to mention that part of my head is still being used to function daily. Don’t be surprised if one day my head just implodes! Then I’ll need all kinds of surgeons, neuro and plastics especially. Well, that’s probably not even possible, so no worries there.

Anywho, I decided to go on hiatus to try to sort through some of the many thoughts ricochetting inside my head. So far so good...

A Week (or two!) Of Birthday Celebrations

As you may or may not know, I whole heart my girls and I whole heart birthdays and the celebrations that go with those girls’ birthdays! As it is, six of my girlfriends have birthdays within days of each other over a two week span. (Kimberly, 7/24; Tiffani, 7/30; Angela, Sara and Joanne, 8/7 and Megs, 8/9) A birthday celebration, on average, is approximately one week. Boiling it all down means not sober days outweigh the sober ones for those two weeks! So here is my blog on the happenings of those two weeks...

On Kimberly’s birthday, I was headed to my annual ‘girls’ beach trip’ which worked out because she wanted to have a double celebration with the other Angela. Tiffani began her birthday celebration on that beach trip. (The beach trip has its own blog!) The week that we got back from the beach was Tiff’s actual birthday week. She had plans with Brett and family so we decided to party hard that Saturday. I had to work but Tiff, Brett, Jac, Rebecca and Matt went to the lake that day and had fun in the sun.

That night we (Tiff, Brett, BA, Jay, MB, Kerri, Buzz, Rebecca, Matt, Sara, Jac, Keith Shoemaker, and myself) had dinner at Jackson’s. The weather outside was monsoon and inside the restaurant was like 500 degrees, no joke. After dinner and pressies we headed to the Kudu for Cold Stone cupcakes and more tasty libations. We lost some peeps but gained Greg Lee. After lots of beverages were consumed and we had completely cooled off from dinner and dried from the torrential downpour of rain, we were ready to get our party on! Many photos and funnies later we decided to go in and listen to the band. You know people are having a good time when they get barefoot in a bar! JS.

After a little drunk drama we decided it best to get Thanksgiving Dinner so we headed to IHOP. Tiff decided to have an inappropriate conversation with a server outside about whether or not he sold drugs and then announced abruptly in front of a cop how wasted she was. Nonfiction. Don’t forget Keith was with us so we were the loudest group of people everywhere went and at this time it was early in the a.m.! Talk of lingdonberries, intestinal issues and brown towels kept us rolling. And I’m pretty sure that everyone in IHOP thought that we were all too inebriated, loud and crazy and were probably wishing and hoping that we would leave! Several hours later, sun up, we were headed to the lake. Boats and beverages always make for a good time ;). Weekend 1 down!

The next week, my friend Jenny was in town from San Francisco so I met her for lunch one day and hung out with her and some peeps in Calera one night. Friday was Sara, Joanne and 2’s birthday. 2 had to work and we had planned to celebrate her and Kimberly’s birthday on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night, I met Sara, Joanne and some of their friends and significant others at the Garage for dinner and drinks. For me, no dinner and many drinks later, we decided to go to Rogue. After more drinks, shots and the closing of Rogue there was talk of going to The Nick :& Jonathan and I decided that we were going to fold on that note and go get something to eat.

I got home somewhere between 3-4 a.m. and had to be at work at 9:30. Work sucked that day! After work I met Tiff, Brett, MB, 2 and Kimberly for Kimberly and 2’s birthday celebration. Kimberly and 2 were late so by the time they got to Dave’s were several pitchers ahead of them. We had more beer and some pizza before heading to the Kudu for presents and cake. After an unfortunate sequence of events causing me to find the place of ‘funk and ill’ we did presents and cake and departed. We bar hopped around Lakeview until the wee hours of the morning. So, we started at Dave’s and from there went to the Kudu, Nana Funks, Innisfree and On Tap where we met up with Megs and several of her friends. From On Tap we went back to Innisfree, Nana’s and ended at the Kudu. We had at least one drink at every place that we went. By the end of the night my mood had improved and our hop had become more of a crawl! Back to where we started from-in all aspects... The next day off to the lake for more fun times, birthday brownies and a make out session with the sun. Birthday week 2: Complete.

Not everyone can do what we do. It’s survival of the fittest from July 24 until August 9 and we all survived! Every year gets harder because every year we seem to get older...so put your big girl panties on and start getting ready for next year!

Behind the Scenes:

*Falling out of cars

*Beer Gloves

*Projectile bodily fluids

*Drunk texts

*Lots of mini dramas

Matters of the Heart...

Can you lead your heart or does your heart lead you?

The other night at dinner, one of my friends was talking about how she and her husband are doing a Bible study at church and someone made the comment that you should not follow your heart but instead lead it.

In theory I think that this could work, but is it for everyone? When she was talking about it and that statement came out of her mouth, I couldn’t help but think, “Could this be true?”

Just recently I was telling another friend that I met someone that is everything that I could ever want but there’s just not that kind of attraction and chemistry that I seem to have for all of the wrong people. I think that if you can lead your heart then I would definitely lead mine towards this person and away from others. It just doesn’t seem to be working quite as well for me as it is for my friend. So why is that? Maybe your heart and your head have to be in sync? I just know that when my heart leads me my head is always saying No and when I try to lead my heart it says No. And sometimes good on paper is still not good enough!

Girls’ Beach Trip 09: PCB

Girls’ Beach Trip 09: PCB

Every year, for the past three years, my girlfriends and I have taken a girls’ beach trip. It’s an opportunity for us to get away and have some girl time. The boyfriends, husbands and lovers all get left at home to fend for themselves and eagerly await our return home. We are women of all kinds; some are married and others single, some are divorced and our ages span an entire decade but despite our differences we all come together once a year for our annual beach trip! This year, there were seven of us and we had a blast like always! Our beach trip was filled with fun times: surprises, presents, crack (LMAO), Jesus, some XXX school, relationship confirmation and a white dress!

It all began Thursday night as we drove down to the beach. The last week had been extraordinarily interesting for Tiffani because she had met a new man the Saturday before. Tiff was driving and MB, BA and I were passengers. We all had lots of questions and had plenty of time for discussion! Needless to say the drive down was very interesting and quite entertaining. And we almost ran over someone but that is a whole other story!

We were staying with Smiley Thursday night on Mulberry Lane and then hanging out until our condo was ready on Friday. When we got to Smiley and Scott’s, she had left us a note telling us to make ourselves at home. Since I had only seen their house in pictures I wanted to explore a little bit. I put my bags in the guest room and wondered around a bit. I got to the living room and just happened to look down and glance at their movie collection. Low and behold is a film titled Crack Addict 2 and there is a girl bent over touching her toes in nothing but a thong. Tiffani was outside and I thought that it would be hilarious to stand in front of the front door in the same position, fully clothed though. When she walked in she was like WTF are you doing?! And I laughed and pointed at the dvd case. We all had a little giggle but the next morning Smiley didn’t think it was as funny as we had thought it was because it meant that Mike had found it and watched it and done who knows what else to it! So who else lives on Mulberry Lane? The porn man! Oh, do you know the porn man, the porn man, the porn man Oh do you know the porn man who lives in Mulberry Lane? I think he’s distantly related to the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane. Talk about seven degrees of separation!

So the next day we got up and went to the grocery and then on to Pier Park to do a little shopping and get some lunch. Margaritaville couldn’t have been any better! From there we headed to the Sea Breeze Winery and picked up some gifts and some wine slush! Yummo!!! We got all checked in and unpacked. Once we were all settled in we realized that the Verizon commercials are nonfiction! The only people with any phone service were those that had “the network!” After slightly freaking out a bit we discovered that there was a small signal if you stood in just the right place out on the balcony. Btw, the view was AMAZING! We were on the corner so our balcony wrapped around and on one side was the beach and on the other was the beautifully landscaped pool. We also had to be in a special place in order to pickup a wireless signal. Since we were stealing it from someone it was a little spotty so we decided to go to the atrium to get a better connection. Tiffani stepped outside to have a ciggy and all of the sudden we hear screaming! One of Tiffani’s birthday surprises had arrived! Jac had pulled up and let her presence be known! She got settled in and we enjoyed pizza, beer and lots of gossip and judgment! Then Jac and I had a night beach shoot. So much fun! While we were out B decided to give free tutoring and visual demonstrations about all of the different girl on top guy on bottom sexual positions. (For those of you who don’t know B she has no modesty and has a very healthy sexual appetite and is very open about it.)

Saturday. Saturday morning some of the girls made appointment at the spa for a little massage. While at the spa those who wanted to sleep in did exactly that and then decided to get ready for the sun. In the midst of that a little Shrek came out and then we discovered the new and improved breakfast of champions: swiss rolls and beer!Unfortunately it was a little overcast so we set up camp at a prime location: right beside the tiki bar! The sun may have been absent but the libations were flowing freely. A few of us decided to go for a walk on the beach and after a mini photo shoot with a sailboat Jac dropped her camera and got sand in the lens ending our photo time. As we were walking I suddenly realized how not sober I had become as well as the fact that it was about 4 in the afternoon and I had forgotten to eat lunch, oops! Needless to say drunky pants was an understatement. I got lunch and decided I needed a nap. While I was napping there was still a lot of activity going on at the pool. Sadly I missed out on the following events but was very entertained when I heard the stories later that night. There was a change in bartenders and “Big Daddy” was the new sheriff in town. After getting off to a rocky start with the girls he warmed up and was giving free shots and drinks. Jac called out an ex and met a Jamaican. There was some flashing of the bartender and a couple of old men. Tiffani was trying to pimp out MB to a group of old men who wanted to suck her toes, when she said no to the toe-sucking they moved on to the next girl and were feeling her up when Tiff noticed and in her drunken state said, “Oh no! No! Well, you can touch but you can’t pen-a-pena-penetrate!!!!!” Enough said. And shortly after that they thought it best to come back inside. Good choice girls!

By this time, I was ready for round two and everyone else was drunk and hungry so we split up and half of us went to the Waffle House (because it was within walking distance) and the other half called in food to be picked up. At the Waffle House we made friends with the waitress-imagine that! who hooked B up with extra goodness on her waffle (no charge of course) and brought Tiffani some birthday pie. After Thanksgiving dinner Tiff’s new beau rang and they became facebook official. We waited outside while she was talking to him because she actually had service where we were, but we made the most of it as always. Pictures in trees are always fun! Not to mention all of the other fun props like doggie poop cans, benches and fire hydrants! After walking up 8 flights of stairs (we thought it would be sobering) the other had just gotten back and were eating their dinner which was packaged in styrofoam boxes. When they were finish the boxes went in the garbage can. Someone went into raccoon mode and dug out a dinner. The rationing of this was that it was in a box and it was kind of on top. And since it was in the box, “In the trash or on the counter, it don’t matter!” Lmao!!!

Sunday we were ready for a full on, all day make out session with the sun! He stood us up the day before so were determined we were gonna some today! And he brought it! =)

We were a little easier on the tiki bar drinks today than the day before but we were still set. Smiley and DBA left around lunchtime and then Jac followed later that afternoon. After a full day in the sun we were spent. But then we remembered our purpose! Sometimes in order to move into the future you have to let go of the past. Trash the dress! Can you think of a better way to move on? I didn’t think so! It was the perfect way to spend the last night of our beach trip!

The next day we got all packed up and had lots left over beer. You can’t let that go to waste so we filled the cooler and whatever was left we drank before we checked out.

We said our goodbyes to all of our newly made friends, Officer Mike, Melissa, and Conner. Then we were on our way.

10 Best of the Best Quotes from the Beach and One to Grow On...

I gotta man and his teeth are better than officer Mike’s

Who needs Wheaties when you have swiss rolls and beer?! It’s the new 2009 breakfast of champions!

8. In the trash or on the counter, it don’t matter!

7. She sho didn’t find Jesus but she did find Jack!

6. Watch out for the bush! Put your knees up!

5. Uh-uh. My shit travels.

4. OMG! It’s worse in the dark!

3. It’s better from the back

2. Dude! You’re not ruining my Kudu!

1. You can touch but you can’t pen-a-pena-penetrate!!!!!

*One to grow on...Shut up Angela and drink your beer!

(This one was in the car on the way home!)

The Best Convo

Preface: Before this conversation occurred we had had a 30 minute discussion about sex. Leading into the following conversation was a mild debate about whether or not there is a limit to someone telling you how pretty you are. One side argued that too much can be annoying and come off as being insincere while the opposing side said that they enjoy being told how pretty they look and that it should be limitless the times that they get told such things.

“Maybe when I get me some Jesus I’ll feel differently.”

“Please tell me that’s not what you really call IT.”

“No, I mean the real Jesus!”

And this concludes our 2009 Girls’ Beach Trip! 2010 is gonna have to step up its game to top this epic year! Nonfiction. So until next year...Peace out sisterfriends.