Reflection: sisters

Mom was pregnant with my baby sister in 1985. I was a mere 3 years old, but still aware that I would soon be playing the important role of Oldest. Big Sister. The More Mature One. The Favorite. And according to my mother, I wanted to exercise my new responsibilities by choosing the baby's name.

"Mom," I asked, "when the baby is born can we name her Rudy?" You see, much like everyone else who was living and breathing in 1985, The Cosby Show was my favorite.
"No, honey," she explained. "I'm not sure that name fits."
"Then what about Trudy?" nice rhyming skills, younger self!
"No, I don't think Trudy will work either."
"Okay..." I pondered for a moment. "If she's black can we name her Rudy?" Fair compromise, I thought.
Mom came back with, "If she comes out black, we'll have to find a new place to live because your dad will kick us out!"

My mom, as it turned out, had remained faithful, and my sister came out white. We also got to stay in the house. But wouldn't that have been a fun surprise?



My devout readers are aware that I recently took a trip to NYC with my sister. I posted about our adventures in sightseeing and our whirlwind 3 day tour of the city, but I failed to say anything about our quality time spent together as sisters. Mostly I figured y'all wouldn't want to read all the mushy gushy stuff I have to say about her. It's also very difficult to write about someone I've known my whole life, someone with whom I'm so close, and someone so similar to myself. She's just "sister" to me, and if you have a sister of your own, then you know how I feel about her. Of course, I love her! I admire her ability to take on anything and kick its ass. Her desire to always do the right thing, even if she doesn't agree with it 100%.

When we were kids playing Barbies, making up silly dances and almost killing each other over the last Capri Sun, it didn't occur to me that she'd one day be living in a different city with a Big Girl Job, 2 cats and a driving a responsible Toyota Camry. I mean, who moves away from home? Why would anyone do that? Sister did. Because she's fearless.

When sister was in 8th grade she got the most horrid haircut of all time. No, seriously. It was. (I'll spare you the pictures.) As if 8th grade weren't awkward enough, here she is walking the halls with a gnawed up mop on her head! Two years later she was on homecoming court as one of the most beautiful girls in the school. She never lets anyone keep her down.

Just recently, I told someone that my sister "...is a lot like me, except more tender hearted. She's like a nicer, more compassionate version of me. A little taller, blonder hair and a better butt." But don't mess with her or she'll whoop up on you with a wooden necklace or a butcher knife...or maybe just her bare hands.

Empire State of Mind

Writing a blog about a long weekend in NYC is almost as intimidating as the city itself...

My first trip to New York was in 1998 for a high school band trip. The Marching Rebels were selected to be the lead band for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that year. Every detail of our trip was pre-planned and pre-paid.

I had the amazing opportunity to march my way down the center of Times Square, see Les Mis on Broadway, run around F.A.O. Schwartz, snapped pictures of the Twin Towers and saw The Statue of Liberty herself...but for some reason I've always felt cheated out of a legitimate trip to the Big Apple.

I never say the subway, no slice of greasy pizza, no night life...Perhaps part of my problem is that there's no way truly experience the city in one short visit. That, and the fact that I was too young to appreciate what I was seeing while I was there.

Here we are, thirteen years later, and I'm older, wiser and most importantly, legal. It was time to go back to (as Jay Z puts it) the concrete jungle where dreams are made of.

Now that my sister and I live in different cities, we came up with the idea for an annual meet-up between our birthdays (hers in April and mine in May). Only one condition: we must know someone who lives in the city so we can crash for free. NYC was chosen for the first annual sisters weekend because of Sister's college roomie. We were so lucky that Anna agreed to let us stay, AND that she helped us get acclimated to the city. phew! big help.

Three nights in NYC for $924.77, and this is the breakdown:

- $283.90 Direct flight from BNA to LaGuardia (would've been $20 cheaper, but I paid for Southwest's automatic check-in to ensure A Boarding)

- $14.10 Airport lunch. A veggie wrap and a water. seriously!?!?

- FREE! Getting lost at LaGuardia and unable to locate sister for 1 solid hour. Who knew the terminals were completely separated? Not us...

- FREE! lots of frustration because no one in the city explains anything or gives directions. UGH!!!

- $2.00 bus ride from LaGuardia to the Upper West Side
- $5.00 (about) dirty Chinese food dinner, General Tso's chicken
- FREE! THREE nights in a cute apartment at 102nd and Broadway, one block from the 1 Line

- $24.10 Breakfast food for the weekend and poster supplies for the Today Show

- $29.00 7 day unlimited metro pass. Probably overkill, but more convenient that buying a pass each day

- FREE! Standing in line on a sidewalk at 5:30 a.m., getting my poster on TODAY and seeing Matt Lauer and Al Roker

-
FREE! Walking The Mall of Central Park and enjoying beautiful weather on a Spring morning

- FREE ! Walking tour of Upper East Side ***included 5th Ave, Madison Ave, wealthy Carrie Bradshaw-like ladies with the own drivers and a slew of private school students with mannies. Totally. Surreal. I ain't never seen nothin' like that whur I come from.

- $11.88 lunch at Rockefeller Center's 'Whichcraft. Spicy Pork Sandwich with a side of marinated chick peas - so yum!!

- $36.00 Experience New York - access to Top of the Rock (priceless views!) and the NBC studio tour. ***Included watching a live rehearsal of SNL, host Ed Helmes of The Office and The Hangover, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, and passing Seth Meyers in the Hallway

- $72.45 a little shopping detour to H&M...so what? we don't have one at home!

- FREE! Naptime at Anna's cozy apartment because we only got 4 hours of sleep the night before

- FREE! Private tour of QPrime's NY management office in Midtown near Time's Square plus dinner recommendation from a QPrime executive

-$169.13 a delicious meal for sister and me at Trattoria Dell'arte @ 7th and W. 57th - breads, pastas, veal piccata, wine, tiramisu, and excellent service! Our server tossed us sweet chocolate to munch on and made suggestions on which bars to visit after our show. He was really surprised that we were tourists because this restaurant is typically for locals. At least that's what he said...

- $170 Excellent seats for the hit Broadway musical Wicked

- $11.76 two drinks during the show. AND  we got to keep the Wicked-themed travel mugs

- $6.05 an everything bagel with lox spread and coffee at Absolute Bagels

- FREE! unable to interpret anything the locals said

- FREE! Walking tour of Upper West Side and Riverside Park (where some of You've Got Mail was filmed)

- FREE! Central Park's Strawberry Fields and Belvedere Castle

- $15.41 awesome burger, fries and giant milkshake at Shake Shack on Upper East Side (86th Street)

- FREE! using the bathroom at The Met and realizing we never made a donation at the entrance oops!

- FREE! Alexander McQueen exhibit at The Met. Y'all, this is the most amazing exhibit I've ever seen in my entire life. I wish I could share it with all of you. The collections were inspiring and the exhibit was breathtaking. It's all sister and I could talk about for days!

- $48.99 giant coffee table book of the Alexander McQueen Exhibit so I can re-live the experience over and over

- FREE! walking tour of Chelsea ***included cobblestone streets, Chelsea Market, quick detour to Anthropologie, and Chelsea's beautifully renovated High Line Park.

I could've spent hours up there, but we had places to go, people to see...

- FREE! Dinner with friends at Eatery NYC (sister owed me one)

- FREE! Walking tour of Times Square - photo op!

- $20.00 Drinks and laughs with friends at McGee's pub, which happens to be the bar that inspired the writers of How I Met Your Mother. Big pours from the bartender upstairs!

- $5.00 at 1,2,3 burger shot beer
-FREE! Singing country music while walking the streets of NYC

- FREE! shouting expletives at the locals for stealing our table

What Happens When You Post Scrap Metal on Craig's List

Scrap Metal - Backyard Pergola Frame

Thanks to our relentless Spring thunderstorms, our backyard pergola
blew down. Twice.

Now, it's just a pile of aluminum rods and columns sitting next to our
house.

For anyone interested, this may be a good amount of scrap metal to go
cash in - and it's yours for the taking. I doubt it could be built
again, especially since all the assembly hardware has already been
discarded. We will be having a garage sale tomorrow from 8am - 12pm,
so the first person who comes by tomorrow morning wins!

Attached is a photo of what it used to look like before Mother Nature
took out her fury on our awesome backyard accessory. Balloons, chairs,
and general state of put-togetherness not included. You just get a
pile of metal stuff.

Address: XXX Franklin, TN.

***Below are the original responses we received. The only edits I made were removing phone numbers. Enjoy.

SU SU
hi i am interested your pergola frame im in jackson tenneessee i coming to nashville sunday so if you can dont bay that to any body i want to take that of is ok please calle me @ 731-XXX-XXXX or send me msn thank u

Su Su,

Don't worry, we won't bay that to any body because we don't know what you're saying. And P.S. You may want to consider integrating punctuation sometime in the near future. It's fairly popular.

Jessica
I have interest please let me know you address to pick up, thanks

Dear Jessica,
The address is in the effing post. We've deemed you too dumb to take our scrap metal. I would call you "retarded," but I'm not using that word anymore.

Terrence
Hi, my name is tj. i have a scrap business and can remove the hole scrap pile away. if its still there I promise i will be there at your house between 7:30-7:45am. thanks and i'll even bring a few bucks to buy something at your garage sale. can someone call me to let me know its still there. i can start getting it tonight as well if you would like. the # is 615-XXX-XXXX or 615-XXX-XXXX ask for tj.

TJ,
You seem like a nice guy! I'll forgive you for using "hole" instead of "whole." But listen, we're not going to call you, lazy ass. Just come get the scrap metal! And even if we WERE going to call you, we definitely know to ask for TJ because that's how the phone works. Duh.

Mandy
Yea i was needin to talk to u about the gazebo please call if u still have it 615-XXXX909
$$Mandy$$
You can reach me at 615XXXX909

Dollar Sign Dollar Sign Mandy Dollar Sign Dollar Sign,

Damn girl! You got a long name. And for the love of GOD, WE AREN'T CALLING ANYONE. Also, no - you weren't needin to talk to us. We're the ones who started this conversation with our post!

Sheena
if still available please call 615-XXX-XXXX. thanks.

Sheena,

Really!? Another request for a call!? When are you people going to learn...

Mumzee
I live in Franklin also. Whoever picks your pergola up can have mine too. When mine collapsed I ended up going to the ER for 7 stitches. Pile of metal in the backyard....

Oh, dear Mumzee,
Where to begin? You have serious issues if you think we're about to strike up a chat-room friendship from a Craig's List post. I bet my garage sale money that you call radio personality Delilah every Friday night. No one gives a shit about your stitches. You're creepy and lonely.

Terrance
Hi, my name is tj.just wanted to remind you that if its still there I promise you I will be there at your house between 7:30-7:45am tp pick scrap up. thanks and i'll even bring a few bucks to buy something at your garage sale. can someone call me to let me know its still there. i can start getting it tonight as well if you would like. the # is 615-207-5637 or 615-471-1944 ask for tj.

TJ,
YOU DON'T NEED TO REMIND US OF ANYTHING! IT'S ONLY BEEN AN HOUR AND A HALF SINCE YOUR FIRST RESPONSE. ALSO, OUR LISTING CLEARLY STATES TO COME BY TOMORROW. IS IT TOMORROW YET? No. No, it is NOT.

Derek
are the metal parts bent at all?

Dear Derek,

Yes.

Kevin
I COULD COME PICK IT UP TONIGHT IF U WOULD LIKE TO GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY B4 UR YARD SALE IN THE MORNING OR I CAN NB THERE AT 7 AM

OMG, KEVIN! WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME!? WE JUST MET! AND ON TOP OF THAT, I OFFERED YOU FREE STUFF. Jeez, man. Lighten up.

Bella
Hi there. I am inquiring about the scrap metal that you have posted. If it is still available, I could come by in the am tomorrow and pick everything up? I have a large van so it would not be a problem. Please email or call at your convenience and let me know the best time to come by. I really appreciate your time. Thanks.

Bella
#753-XXXX

Dear Bella,

What a relief! Finally, someone NORMAL and polite. I was beginning to think that I needed to reinstate the use of the word "retarded."

Scenes from Inside the Perimeter

May has been a total blur, and I have SO much to write about. A post about my trip to NYC is coming soon, I promise. But first I'll share the details of our friend-filled Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta (it's all the blogging I can muster before bed)...

To kick-start Memorial Day weekend we made the long overdue trip down to the A-T-L to see Luca and Adrienne. Or, if you're an extreme feminist, you may prefer Adrienne and Luca. Either way, they're the same 2 people and we love them dearly.

Because we're on a budget, the plans were simple: hang out, do some talking, eat at Flip Burger and laugh a lot. Oh! And get to the pool. We accomplished all PLUS some extras. One particular "extra" was our trip to Your Dekalb Farmers Market . Okay, I understand it's not YOURS because you probably don't live in Atlanta, but that's the actual name of the market. The market was INSANELY huge, crowded and quite overwhelming, but I'm so glad we got the chance to experience it. It was an impressive operation, and saw the most unusual foods I've ever witnessed with my own eyes.

Strange ginormous green fruit next to coconuts

Sean makes an important call on his snake cucumber phone

Because it's an international market, Luca blends right in

After the market, Adrienne had the best idea ever: Popsicles at King of Pops. Not having a sweet tooth, I wasn't particularly interested in a mid-afternoon popsicles, but I figured "what the heck?" We drove out of our way (raw meat and fish in tow) to a corner gas station where I spotted a food cart. Just a dude sitting under and umbrella selling popsicles. But they aren't just ANY popsicles. No, they're ARTISANAL Popsicles (or something like that...) Just know that they're effing amazing, k? I had a Banana Pudding Popsicle that I don't reckon I'll ever forget.

Dinner at Flip Burger in Midtown left us fat and happy. Sean and I each tried the chorizo burger which was topped with an egg over easy and finely shredded manchago cheese. And because we completely forgot about those popsicles we had earlier, for dessert we sucked down a Krispy Kreme donut milkshake and another that tasted like Nutella and burnt marshmallow.

Sunday was hot and toasty which made it the perfect day for a pool party. Listen, ya'll - I was born to be in the water! Luca invited a few of his friends, and the 7 of us toasted in the sun and took cool dips for several hours. Ahhhhh. Bliss. After our toes were sufficiently shriveled into prunes, we started the big cookout. It wasn't just any cookout, mind you. It was an enormous feast! Our group made a ridiculously large amount of food which consisted of ribeyes, shrimp, veggie burgers, grilled veggies, sauteed kale and Adrienne's homemade gluten free cobblers. The peach cobbler (although, free of gluten) was so tasty that I had 2 helpin's. The "flour" she used was coconut flour, and I must say...the slight hint of coconut was a nice compliment to the peaches. Hrrrmmmm...new idea for a recipe? Maybe so.

I particularly enjoyed the feast preparation. Maybe because there was so much energy in the kitchen. Maybe because it felt like a throwback to my old food service days. Or maybe it was because everyone knew their role and we just jived. As I kept saying, "It's like we live in a village, ya'll!" At any given time, there were 4 of us trying to use the stove or the same plot of counterspace. It was a little bit of chaos, but it worked out just perfectly.

One of the best things about the entire weekend (besides spending time with our cool friends) was the total lack of CICADAS. Yup, we got to leave those creepy red-eyed boogers back at home for nearly 3 days, and our weekend was so quiet without them. In all seriousness, we had a lovely time. We plan to use our borrowed box set of the Six Feet Under series to lure Adrienne & Luca back to Tennessee sometime in the near future.

Eight Days of May

So far we're 8 days into May. How did we get here so quickly!? Is it just me, or did April WHIZ by??? Already it's been a very eventful month, and it's only been 1 week! I happen to really love the month of May. It's my birthday month after all! And I'm excited about what the rest of this month has to hold, but here's what we've been up to thus far:

Had an important meeting at work - trying to close a Big Deal, which would be awesome for the company and for me.

Wednesday we joined Phil and Linda for a game of trivia at Mellow Mushroom. 2nd place, not too shabby! And Thursday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with our other great pals Jeff and Sherieda. A really fantastic Beatles cover band was playing at Sopapillas. I mean, who wouldn't have a Beatles cover band play on Cinco de Mayo??? As if that weren't exciting enough, we were treated to our very first hot air balloon ride. Yes, at a Mexican restaurant...with the fake Beatles...it was a trifecta of awesomeness. So we're 5o feet in the air, in a basket with a giant nylon balloon overhead. Besides Dark Side of the Rainbow, it was the most mind blowing Wizard of Oz moment I've ever experienced. Surprisingly, the ride up was very smooth, but I wasn't a fan of the giant blast of butane inches above my head.

Another exciting part of my week was having a nice chat with my brother. We talked about the impending 13 Year Cicada Swam that will be here ANY day now. Last time the swarm was here my bro wasn't even alive! He's never seen the swarm, and as a bug lover he's really excited about it. One full month of loud, obnoxious, ginormous "flies" who hatch from the earth to mate, lay eggs and then die. MILLIONS of cicadas are about to start swarming our area. Really, it's great...aren't their little red eyes so cute??


Saturday Sean and I attended The Great Tennessee Air Show in Smyrna. I was able meet his flight instructor and see the super teensy miniature plane that he flies every week. We left the air show and headed straight to The Plowmans' annual Derby Party. Big hat, cucumber tea sandwiches and mint juleps. Our horse didn't win, but a great time was had by all.

And obviously, with today being Mother's Day, I spend the day with my mama. (Bonnie is down in FL visiting her mother, so Sean had to borrow mine for the day). Church, lunch at Dumplin's and an afternoon at Arrington Vineyards. It was a truly beautiful day. OK, a leeeetle bit too warm, but I really can't complain. Mom got ME a Mother's Day gift - a new Pandora bead. I said, "But wait - I'm not a mother!" and she said, "But I wouldn't be a mama without you, so that's why you get a present."

I take that back - I am a mama of sorts. This is my baby Murphy on Friday night, sitting at the table with us during dinner. As we like to say, "He thinks he's a people."

The Big Sale

This Saturday we rose extra early in order to hit the best neighborhood garage sale of the season: WESTHAVEN. Doesn't it just sound fancy??? I was down with a fever earlier this week, and despite the fact that I desperately needed to rest, I powered through the morning in the name of Dirty. Cheap. Bargains.

With mounds of disorganized junk spread across hundreds of acres, it's quite easy to become overwhelmed at neighborhood garage sales. This is why you must come prepared with a list of items you're hoping to score. On my list? because you know I love my lists...Colorful vases to add to my "collection," a rug for the den, picture frames, weed eater, chandelier for the bathroom, art/prints, an army green jacket, and scarves.

Even with a list I found myself becoming frustrated, distracted, and scared that we'd miss out on the best deals of the day if we didn't rush through. But at the same time, you still need to hunt and peck for those hidden treasures. There's truly an art to becoming a skilled garage saler, and honestly, I don't know that I care to ever become one. That's why Westhaven is the only sale of the year for us. In addition to Westhaven, we hit 2 other nearby neighborhood sales. Three hours and $40 later, we returned with our rewards:

4 Picture Frames
Preppy yellow belt
Vintage purse
3 classic piano books (sheet music)
2 novels
2 vintage hob-nob vases
*Electric edger

*this baby wasn't even for sale. Sean has been itchin' for an edger, and I saw it hanging in someone's garage. I thought it was part of an estate sale, but turns out it was the man's very own edger. Luck for us, he never uses it! And he offered to sell it to us for $10.00. SCORE.

And while I know don't think we haggled as much as we could have, I can sleep easy knowing that we reached an average of $2.86 per item. Woo!

Raechel Meyers, a local blogger and master garage saler, is my inspiration. She will WOW you with her mad skills.

All by myself...

solitude
sol-i-tude
noun
1: the quality or state of being alone or remote from society : seclusion
2: a lonely place (as a desert)
3: something I desperately despise

Sure, I have the occasional need for alone time...which lasts about 3 hours, and then I'm ready to rejoin society. And my craving for alone time comes only once in a blue moon. What can I say? I'm an extrovert to the fullest extent. With my hubs in Chicago for a long weekend, I don't know what to do with myself. This is driving me CRAZY!!! I am literally a crazed person right now. I have *plenty to do to keep me busy - taking care of the dog, doing chores, errands, planting in the flower beds - but no one with whom to share it. I'm pacing, I'm feeling panicky, and I officially hate being alone.

**I had my first real visit with my "little" on Friday. Will share details in a separate post.

An example:
After a long, hard day at work Sean prefers to return home for a quiet and relaxing evening. So relaxing, in fact, that he may not lift a finger all night (except to click the mouse on his laptop.) This is how Sean decompresses and recharges his batteries. I'm quite the opposite. After a long day at work where my brain is fried to the point I have a stress headache, I want to throw a party, go to happy hour with friends, get people together for dinner, ANYTHING that involves human interaction. I don't even care if it's with strangers. I de-stress by mingling.

Sean left on Thursday night and won't be returning until late Monday. That's FOUR long nights of solitude for those of you who are counting. The minute I got home from dropping him off at the airport, I called and texted just about everyone I know who lives in a 20 mile radius. I think I was entering panic mode. I was desperate. See, knowing that I'd be crazy I went ahead and planned an evening with my friend Diva, but those plans fell through and she needed to reschedule. How dare she leave me in my hour of need! I wanted to do something...with someone...dinner...talking...drinking...whatever! Just anything to avoid being alone. Unfortunately, my electronic mobile device must've been broken because no one responded. So I moped...and I moped some more on Friday...and did some more calling and texting, but to no avail.

Friday evening as I was half way through a bottle of Cabernet and in the middle of streaming a Glee re-run , I got a call!!! An actual phone call. One of my failed attempts had returned my call from the night before and asked if I wanted to join a group of friends a The Bunganut Pig. ohmygodyesthankyousomuchforcalling! And as I was getting ready to walk out the door, a second friend responded and agreed to meet me there as well. It was bliss. The band sucked big time, but I was thrilled just to be in an energized environment.

I was also invited for dinner at Jeff and Sherieda's tonight. Yes, it was a pity invite because they know how pathetic I am right now, and no, I don't care. I'm going regardless! I'll be there with bells on.

Just one more day of being alone, and thankfully it involves Easter Sunday service with my mom and Jimmy. It will at least be something to help pass the time. There's not shortage of conversation when mother is involved...