Sweet Tea and the Red Sox

I’ve moved

Belle — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:01:22 +0000

I’m back over at my blog’s original home:

www.sweetteaandtheredsox.blogspot.com

Before I turn 30

Belle — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:22:41 +0000

Next week I turn 27. I’m actually kind of excited because I’m not a huge fan of the number 26. 27 just brings me that much closer to 30 though and that scares me to death. 30 still seems so old, I mean it’s only 3 years away but 30 just says time to move to a house in the suburbs, have a baby and buy a minivan, and I’m not ready to do any of those things. Not by the time I’m 30 and maybe even never. So before I reach what I consider middle age, I’ve made a list. Things I want to do before I’m 30. I thought it was much larger but I figure I will continue adding onto it. Please keep in mind, some of these are extremely odd, but they’ll make me happy so in the end that’s all that matters :)

1. Figure out how to solve a Rubik’s cube

2. Learn how to play pool

3. Drive a Smart Car

4. Visit Hawaii

5. Vacation alone

6. Learn how to play poker

7. Spend all day in a used bookstore

8. See the desert

9. Visit Las Vegas

10. Finish the Outlander series

11. Graduate

12. Learn how to like and appreciate a good wine

13. Give up Diet Coke for more than a week

14. Overcome my phone phobia

15. Move to New Orleans

16. Reach and maintain my goal weight

17. Wear a bikini again (this kind of goes with 16)

18. Stop worrying about what other people think all the time

19. Go on another cruise

20. Master how to do a smokey eye that doesn’t make me look cheap

21. Meet an author and get a book signed

22. Possibly (big emphasis on the word possibly) learn how to use and shoot a gun (more on this in another post)

23. Go to NYC

If you should think of anything I should add let me know, I’m open to suggestions! I hope to be a more educated, well rounded, and well traveled individual by the time I reach 30. Now if I can only figure out how to line up more than 1 row of the same color blocks on my Rubik’s cube I’ll be well on my way.

What to give up for Lent

Belle — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:55:51 +0000

I’m not Catholic so I don’t even have to give anything up at all, but I feel left out with everyone else giving something up.

I told my husband that I would give up Twitter. He said I should give something up that I can actually live without. I told him I was going to put that comment on Twitter. I think that just proved my point.

My IRL friend Amy over at The Nifty Newlwed is giving up soda. I could take some inspiration from her and give up Diet Coke. I’m just not sure how long I’d last.

I could give up TV. I would reach my goal of 150 books this year a lot faster if I did that.

Hmm, this isn’t very easy. And technically it’s already Ash Wednesday so I should have started with whatever I was going to give up today. And I’ve already had a Diet Coke and watched an episode of Lost :/

Maybe I could do a reverse Lent and add something to my life instead. I could eat more vegetables or do something nice for my coworker who drives me crazy. I wouldn’t be giving something up but I’d be making myself a better person. Being a good person is what I feel being a Christian is all about anyways.

I think I need to think on this some more…Ash Wednesday isn’t over yet so I still have time!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Belle — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:04:23 +0000

I knew I would write a post about Mardi Gras but I realized that I could not give credit to it the way a writer and native New Orleanian could. So today, rather than trying to write my own post, I thought I’d put up this quote by Chris Rose instead.

“To encapsulate the notion of Mardi Gras as nothing more than a big drunk is to take the simple and stupid way out, and I, for one, am getting tired of staying stuck on simple and stupid.

Mardi Gras is not a parade. Mardi Gras is not girls flashing on French Quarter balconies. Mardi Gras is not an alcoholic binge.

Mardi Gras is bars and restaurants changing out all the CD’s in their jukeboxes to Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers, and it is annual front-porch crawfish boils hours before the parades so your stomach and attitude reach a state of grace, and it is returning to the same street corner, year after year, and standing next to the same people, year after year–people whose names you may or may not even know but you’ve watched their kids grow up in this public tableau and when they’re not there, you wonder: Where are those guys this year?

It is dressing your dog in a stupid costume and cheering when the marching bands go crazy and clapping and saluting the military bands when they crisply snap to.

Now that part, more than ever.

It’s mad piano professors converging on our city from all over the world and banging the 88′s until dawn and laughing at the hairy-shouldered men in dresses too tight and stalking the Indians under Claiborne overpass and thrilling the years you find them and lamenting the years you don’t and promising yourself you will next year.

It’s wearing frightful color combination in public and rolling your eyes at the guy in your office who–like clockwork, year after year–denies that he got the baby in the king cake and now someone else has to pony up the ten bucks for the next one.

Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once.”

~Chris Rose

PS: If you want to read anything about Hurricane Katrina read Chris Rose’s 1 Dead in Attic, it will move you. I promise.

Flashback Friday

Belle — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:58:49 +0000

Flashback Friday was started by Jacki over at Lovely Little Shelf and it is for us book nerds to “flashback” to books we read as children/high-schoolers. I am a Flashback Friday Virgin so I’m very excited for this to be my first post. In honor of this de-flowering I thought I’d start with one of my favorite books ever as a child.

I owe my love of reading to my mom and probably this book in particular. For each night as a child I would curl up in her big bed with her and read Little House in the Big Woods. First she would read it to me and then when I learned how to read, I would read it to her. We continued the series (along with some of my other all time favorites, Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpeter Swan, The Mouse and the Motorcycle) and whenever I think of learning to read, and learning how to love reading, sitting in my parents bed with this book is what I think of.

The beast’s new toy

Belle — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:48:51 +0000

I don’t have any children and I more than likely never will (maybe we’ll talk about this another day) so my beastly dog is my child. And like any good parent I need to take lots of pictures and home videos of him and share him with the world, even though I know y’all don’t care, that’s just what parents do. And we who aren’t parents/pet parents pretend to care. So pretend you care. I would like to know though how can your heart not melt just a little bit when you see his big brown eyes get so sad when I try to take it away?

He’s has learned how to make it squeak all the time and has been alternating between squeaking it and carrying it around in his mouth all day. He’s so beastly but I love him to pieces.

50 random things

Belle — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:04:12 +0000

So since I decided to skip the gym tonight and stay home and be lazy and since I can’t figure out the stupid TiVo I thought I’d write a random blog post. I was inspired to make this list by Tyler over at 344pounds.com (please, please please go check out his blog, he is such an inspiration!). So here y’all go. 50 random things all about me. Don’t laugh!

1. My bangs are my trademark. I’ve had them for 21 years.
2. I have a huge forehead. Not Peyton Manning huge, but pretty huge nevertheless.
3. I’m a fantastic driver. Or I like to think so.
4. I’ve never been pulled over.
5. I’ll watch any movie or tv show that makes me laugh.
6. I have developed a mans sense of humor since meeting my husband.
7. Case in point? I love The Daily Show and Family Guy.
8. I’m from New England but I’ve never learned to ski.
9. I plan to someday run the Boston Marathon.
10. I will be the only person bawling my eyes out the entire time.
11. I am going to be a teacher but I can’t spell.
12. I’ve been in college since I was 18 and will be until I’m 28.
13. Yes you did the math right, I will have taken 10 years to finish a 4 year degree.
14. I will bawl my eyes out at my graduation from sheer relief.
15. I could live off of Swedish macaroni for the rest of my life.
16. I like to flirt (I’m married not dead)
17. Every man I’ve ever liked has turned out to be gay. I still have crushes on them.
18. I have a list of celebrities I’d break my vows for if the opportunity arose.
19. I have another list of things I want to do before I’m 30.
20. I like lists.
21. I judge people’s parenting skills when I’m out in public.
22. I’m not a parent and I don’t care that I do it.
23. I work with kids, I think that gives me somewhat of a right.
24. I develop crushes on book characters. No different than tv characters, just nerdier.
25. I have no interest in ever playing Farmville on facebook.
26. I have the urge to capitalize the “f” in facebook every time I type it.
27. I think it would look better that way.
28. I can make my baby toe on each of my feet “dance”
29. It scares people. I think it’s cool.
30. I am extremely gullible.
31. I blame being blond for stupid things I say and do.
32. Like when I was told that it’s someone’s job to put the holes in swiss cheese.
33. I believed them.
34. I have a severe phone phobia.
35. I don’t like driving cars on tracks at amusement parks.
36. I’m convinced they will fall off the track.
37. I have a severe food aversion to anything that is green.
38. I have a minor germ phobia.
39. I love the color pink.
40. I will probably buy anything if it’s pink.
41. My sister is a lesbian.
42. I love her fiancee like she is my own sister.
43. My idea of a fun night? Staying awake late and making fun of each other with my husband.
44. I hate to go to sleep early.
45. I am a Twitter/blog/facebook stalker.
46. I was 104lbs at 5’6 when I was in high school. I thought I was fat.
47. I have a severe fear of mascots or anything in costume.
48. I think there is no excuse for bad manners. Ever.
49. I can’t write in cursive. I can barely sign my name.
50. I love love love my Mac and iPhone and will never ever use a PC again.

Oh and #51. I’m sure if my sister sees this she will find 10 more embarrassing things about me to add on to this list. I will still love her.

In case you haven’t heard

Belle — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:16:52 +0000

Well unless you live under a rock I imagine that you have heard that the Saints won the Super Bowl last night. I think the fact of them getting to the Super Bowl was enough to give most Louisianians a heart attack, the fact that they actually won I think has put most people over the edge with excitement. To say that everyone down here is thrilled is a bit of an understatement.

I watched the game at my mother in law’s house with my brother in law and my husband. I am kicking myself that I didn’t bring a video camera because their reactions when the interception was made, followed by the touchdown, nearly killed me. All three of them were on top of the tv screaming and I swear my husband was crying. It ranked right up there with when the Red Sox won the World Series and my dad was dancing around the living room screaming “we won! we won!”. I will never forget last night.

Saints fans are hardcore and I give them credit because most of them have stuck with their team for 40 some odd years even though they have lost more than they have won. They deserved last night.

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints, I’m glad I could be here and be part of such an important part of y’alls history. Who dat?!

What I live for

Belle — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:45:48 +0000

My grandmother always tells my mother that “some people eat to live and others live to eat”. I like to eat but I live to read. It’s no surprise I think to anyone that I have a obsession with love for books. For example, my tweet from December 31, 2009:

Number of books read in 2009: 125 Number of pages: 46,704

Yes I read 125 books in one year. Is that a lot for some people? Maybe. For me, not so much. This years goal: 150.

To add fuel to my book love I have recently started following some other bloggers who blog only about books, how wonderful is that? Here are a few of my favorites, make sure to check out both Bookmarked & Daily Ramblings, they are both IRL (in real life) friends of mine who love books as much as I do!

http://bookmarkedreviews.blogspot.com/

http://geebsbookclub.blogspot.com/

http://www.lovelylittleshelf.com/

http://www.bookhookedblog.com/

http://jessicaisreading.blogspot.com/

http://libraryramblings.wordpress.com/

To keep track of what I read and what I want to read I use a fantastic little site called Goodreads. Goodreads is my BFF. I don’t know how I ever lived without him (yes it is a him). I have a problem though with my to-read shelf. I have books I put there almost a year ago and I still haven’t read them. Why? Because my local library doesn’t have them.

I have the most fantastic library I’ve ever seen here in our city and I have become quite addicted to going there and have been known to go 3 or 4 times a week and happen to know almost all the librarians now :/ I hardly ever buy books anymore because I can get them from the library for 3 weeks and give them back when I’m done. I buy nice copies of the ones I love.

So I have a, quirk, lets call it, with unfinished to-do lists. They bother me. They make me anxious and make my skin crawl. Seeing these books up there on my list for almost a year now is making me anxious. I can’t stand looking at them anymore and since I know I can’t get them from the library, today I listed them on a wish list on paperbackswap.com (if you haven’t been there, go there now!) and I’m going to head over to Amazon next.

Here is the list of titles I have yet to read that have been on my list forever:

Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday (Paperback) McCafferty, Megan

Gone With The Wind (Paperback) Mitchell, Margaret (yes the library has this, but it will take me longer than 3 weeks!)

My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters (Paperback) Salter, Sydney*

Shawshank Redemption (Paperback) King, Stephen

Q & A (Paperback) Swarup, Vikas

The Road (Hardcover) McCarthy, Cormac

Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood (Hardcover) Done, Phillip

A Katrina Moment (Paperback) Everist, Alexandra

So I’m officially adding “finish these books” to my New Years resolutions. I know it’s February and New Years is over but I’m making an exception to the rule. I can’t have these books looking at me anymore without being read! Wish me luck.

New Years resolution update

Belle — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:58:44 +0000

Well today marks the close of four weeks since I made my New Years resolutions so I thought I’d put an update on what I’ve been doing in the past four weeks.

1. Get healthy. Well this is the one I’ve worked the hardest at and so far my hard work has paid off. I have lost an even 12 pounds in the past month. It’s not Biggest Loser weight loss but I’m also not over 250 pounds and working out 8 hours a day so I guess I can’t expect results like that. I am slightly disappointed in myself this week though since I ate so terrible. My kids all had birthdays and it’s carnival season so needless to say there were a ton of sweets at work.

I am loving how good I feel though. The other day I pulled out a pair of pajama pants that have been too tight for months and they actually fit and were falling down! That was the best feeling. I also feel like I have more energy, my skin looks great and my eyes look brighter. I go to the gym 5 days a week for 45 minutes a day and I love it. It’s become so much a part of my day now, it’s almost like brushing my teeth, my day is not complete if I don’t go. I think I might start the C25K this week although I’m really not sure how excited I am about running. I love to run, I just haven’t tried since I was thin. I also need to start some sort of strength training routine although that freaks me out more than running. I will be making sure I find something to do at home though because doing weights at the gym is not going to happen :) Way too self-conscious for that.

2. Blog some more. I think I’ve done good with this. Not perfect but I’m putting more of an effort into it. I’m happy with what I’ve posted in the past month.

3. Read more classic novels. This one has not happened. I have them on my list but I haven’t started them. Since JD Salinger’s death the other day I’ve been considering re-reading The Catcher in the Rye (one of my all time favorites) but I don’t know if that counts. I have had Gone with the Wind on my to-read shelf forever so maybe it’s about time I start that.

4. Be a better friend and make more time for my friends. I think I’ve done good with this one, I’ve had plenty of time spent with my friends (more so than normal) I’ve talked on the phone with some of them (I have a huge phone phobia) and a friend of mine and I are going to start our official Margarita Monday soon :) I love spending time with my girlfriends and I’m glad that I haven’t let school and day to day stuff get in the way of that anymore.

5. Take more pride in my appearance. This is another one I’ve been good about, aside from putting on makeup before work :/ I still haven’t done that. I’m just too tired in the morning to care about my makeup getting ruined on the playground. I have kept up with my hair and nails though. I take regular bubble baths for time to myself to de-stress and relax. I feel like this one goes hand in hand with getting healthy and the more I take care of myself at the gym, the more I take care of the way I look. It’s a nice feeling.

So for the first time in my life I have kept some of my resolutions longer than a day! It will be hard to keep them up all year but I’m hoping that by next year each one of them will become habit so that I don’t need to think about them at all. I’m also planning on not making the same ones again next year either! I don’t want to keep repeating mistakes I’ve made and habits I don’t like about myself.