remembering the titans… June 28, 2009

…and I’m not talking about the NFL team, although to be a girl about it for just a few seconds, I really do love the colors on their uniforms the best. Light blue and red? Killer combo. Plus, sometimes it’s nice to dwell on happy news since the whole Bronco offseason has been one fiasco after another. Suffice it to say that Josh McDaniels (new coach) needs to get his act together if he’s going to win me over. Then again, I think he’s probably not trying very hard to win me over…go figure.

Ahem. This weekend Kelly and Katie came over for an impromptu dinner and movie night. Unlike some movie nights I’ve been to/hosted, this particular one did not involve a group of people wandering up and down the new release aisle of Blockbuster arguing over a suitable motion picture that all would enjoy. This one was pretty painless…we narrowed it down and amicably decided on our movie (one of the ones at home…I’m a girl on a budget) and went downstairs and fired up the DVD player.

In the midst of our decision making pow-wow, however, I discovered that Liz had been harboring a little secret*. That’s right, she actually owns one of my very favorite movies of all time–Remember the Titans!

Why do I love this movie? Let me count the ways…and for once, it doesn’t involve a romantic storyline or a cute boy.

• I heart sports movies. Even if I don’t ever watch said sport in my “real life”, I still can’t get enough of them on the big screen. Case in point, growing up I liked Little Big League and more recently For Love of the Game. Both of them are baseball movies. And I think I’ve made my stance on baseball pretty darn clear. There’s just something about the unifying effect of a sporting event. The highs, the lows, the cheering…it never fails to take me on an emotional rollercoaster ride.
• I love that these movies are mostly about people. The game provides a catalyst to bring them together, sure, but it’s in the “bringing together” of the people that really makes the movie. Whether it’s an against the odds older never-before-pro player making it on a professional sports team (Invincible) or watching the underdog American hocky team score Olympic gold against all odds (Miracle) or a jaded coach teaching a bunch of misfits how to play hocky and gaining perspective on life and what’s important (The Mighty Ducks, D2 and D3) OR a basketball coach laying the smack down and bringing hope for a future to inner city kids (Coach Carter) there’s just something about sports that I can get into. And let’s be honest…it never fails to make me cry.
• I cheer anyway. Yes, I know that the team is going to win in the final seconds of the game. I know when they rush for the endzone/base/basket/goal that the football/baseball/basketball/hocky puck will make it in. But I cheer anyway. I just get so caught up in the moment that I can’t help myself. And I feel like just a part of that win is because of my support.
• I especially love sports stories based on a true story, as is the case in Remember the Titans. The special features that highlight the real people afterwards just makes me think that I can do whatever I put my mind to.  It really happened, people. It could have happened to me!
• Remember the Titans will always hold a special place in my heart because I do love Denzel and he’s brilliant in this film. I love that a football team brings hope to a community split by racism. I love that the team sticks together and is stronger because they accept each other and work together. And I love that even though not every second of the movie is a bunch of roses, there’s still the strength of the relationships to ground the story. (Also, I had forgotten but Hayden Panettierre is in this movie as a young girl. Random!)

Watching this movie with my friend, Helen, today was so fun. It had been a long time since I’d seen it and it was every bit as good as I remembered. If you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it lately, you should definintely watch it.

Hey, you never know! Next time you see me, I could be coaching an inner city cricket league and changing lives for the better.

*To be completely fair, Liz didn’t really hide the movie from me. She’s always generous with her DVDs and they are displayed in plain sight. I was merely exaggerating for dramatic effect. It worked, right?

Happy Birthday, Mom! June 26, 2009

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday! I know you’d like for all your chicks to be home spending the day with you and I’m so sorry that I can’t be there in person. I love you so so much and I’m so blessed to have you for a mom. Here are just a few of the things I love about you in no particular order (and keep in mind this list is not exhaustive…):

• You are an inspiration to me in your spiritual walk. I’ve never met anyone as diligent to spend time with the Lord each day in a real way as you are. If I ask you to pray for something, I know you will because most of your battles you fight on your knees.
• You are the best listener a girl could ask for. At times, you listen to me ramble for minutes on end and only speak to ask questions and understand or clarify what I’m saying. You are so approachable – I know I can talk with you about anything (big or small) and you will care about it just as much as I do.
• I may have the counseling degree, but you are so wise in your counsel to me (and others). I know you will always give me sound advice, based on Scripture or Scriptural principles.
• I appreciate that it’s so easy for me to be your friend now that I’m grown, but I always know you’ll wear the “mom” hat when I need it most.
• I love that you love movie popcorn and chocolate. It makes you just that much more accessible.
• You always serve others and are looking out for the interests of others even if others never notice what you do. You are a true, constant and loyal friend to those around you.
• I love your sense of humor…especially when you’re over-tired and laughing at everything. Your laugh is so infectious and I love to hear it. 
• I would never have such a love for football without your presence in my life – THANK YOU! In the beginning I was just in it for the Sunday chocolate chip cookies, but now every game I watch reminds me of you. It’s so fun to experience the Bronco season with you.
• In so many ways you prepared me with the skills I would need to be on my own. Thank you for making me do all the chores I complained about…I now know how to remove stains from my clothes, properly clean out a refrigerator, make dinner, etc. all because you taught me how. Thanks for preparing me for life in the “real world”.

It’s hard for me to sum up in words all the things that I appreciate about you, Mom, but I hope you know how much you mean to me. I love you and miss you!

Love,

M

ipod de back… June 22, 2009

…at least that’s what I thought was written on my “to blog about” post-it note.  Turns out it was really “iPod Debacle”.  Sounds much more interesting, if not as cryptic, right? I thought so, too.

Let me set the stage.

I have in my possession a pink iPod nano that I received from Mom and Dad for my birthday this year. Their fabulous gift replaces the now-ancient-because-it’s-bigger-than-a-business-card iPod mini that I got years ago.  There are few thing that I enjoy more than music…I love all types of artists, genres and beats. Anything that makes me want to “car” dance (it’s all in the shoulder movement) or makes me want to cry pretty much ends up on the top of my play list. Within iTunes, I have a playlist for every month with new downloaded songs that I want to listen to non-stop along with anything that falls in the oldie-but-goodie bracket.

Coupled with this is the fact that when I totaled my car, I bought a new Saturn Ion that comes complete with what I like to call “the iPod hook-up”. It’s basically a hole that is the size of a headphone jack and I bought a chord that has a headphone jack on either end. I plug one into my iPod and one into my car and it fills the car with my music directly from my iPod. I’m one lucky girl. As a side benefit to the music, I also get to hear the sophisticated “click, click, click” of the iPod dial in surround sound as I scroll to my next song choice.

Said simply…I heart music. A lot. You can see how well my parents know me and why an iPod is a perfect gift. 

Which now brings us to the debacle part of our programming.  Above my CD slot in my car is a little opening. It looks like where they would have put a tapedeck in the past, but now tapedecks are less valuable than storage space. (Well played, Saturn!) I usually put my iPod in this little slot. It sticks there because I bought a case/skin for it that grips the smooth plastic.

I was listening to one my current favorite songs and pulling into the work parking lot. I went to turn off the iPod and unhook it from the car system when it sllliiipppped from my fingers into an open cup of water that I had in my cupholder. Noooooooooooooooo! I swear to you that that moment happened in slow motion. I can still feel the range of emotions that fluttered through my heart and dropped into my stomach. The feelings of loss, of guilt, of despair…

As quickly as I could (though it felt like it was eons in time), I snatched my dear iPod from the water’s cold grasp and dried it off. You can imagine my delight when I discovered that the water had barely made an impact. The case that I bought kept the water out! And while I had really bought the case for the color and design (it’s bright pink), it really came through for me in function that day and for that I’ll forever be grateful.

So, perhaps there wasn’t really a DEBACLE per SE. But aren’t you glad there wasn’t?

Various Sundry Items… June 14, 2009

Is it bad that so many events in my life remind me of a Gilmore Girls episode? I’m going to go with probably, yes, but go with me on this. There’s this Gilmore Girls episode where Lorelai (the Mom) and Rory (the Daughter) are separated and go without communicating for a length of time. When they are finally reunited, Lorelai pulls out a box of random scraps of paper with things scribbled on them and explains that every time she wanted to tell Rory something, she wrote it down. Problem being that many of her notes were written in shorthand and abbreviations that no longer made sense to her…ahem.  I digress.

So, for the last month and half or so, I’ve been carrying around in my wallet this random post-it with notes jotted down of all the things I want to write about on my blog. My wallet, you should know, is the home of many a random receipt, movie ticket stub and even a bobby pin or two. The post-it feels right at home, trust me. I’ve now been keeping this list so long that for many points, I’ve forgotten what story the word I wrote is supposed to trigger. On one item I almost couldn’t even read my own handwriting. And really, it should be noted that my print handwriting is extremely readable since high school when I had a friend that wrote in super small print writing and I decided to follow suit. (sorry, another rabbit trail.  let’s get back on track) Enough is enough. Down with the post-it system…up with frequent blogging. I’m a girl on a mission. But seeing as how there are more than eight topics on my post-it and I know many of you have lives outside of reading my blog (perish the thought! ), I’m going to limit each of the following posts to one post per topic. Just for the record, the lengthy and verbose intro doesn’t count…

In hindsight, many of the topics I wanted to blog about are a little lame. But, I’m going to trust my original judgement and write about them anyway. Clearly, at one time they were very near and dear to my heart.

Lib

My friend Katie calls the library the lib. When I was younger, I used to call it the libERRY. Potato, potahto.

I think I owe my love of books to my parents. When I was young, to encouage my love toward the written word, they committed to buying half of all my books. If they hadn’t cut me off at the ripe old age of 16, they’d probably be in the poor house by now. I’m serious.

When the need arose (i.e. I’d already spent my allowance on something else), I would even “share” books with my sister, Lindsay. We would split our half and Mom and Dad would buy the other half. This resulted in a rather large collection of books that are neither completely mine, nor completely hers. A few minor skirmishes have been fought over the rights to said books. They now, for the most part, reside in the neutral territory of my parent’s house. The ones that we haven’t managed to sneak back with us after Christmas or Summer vacations at home, that is.

When I little, my Mom would take us to the library in our small town quite frequently. I remember a few things about the library…the movie section, the special reading room for kids, and a huge horsey out front that I always wanted to climb up on and pretend to ride.

This is a really small picture, but it’s all I could find. And don’t you think the horse looks fun to ride?

I loved the library back then. I couldn’t get enough of it! I even talked my librarian there into ordering in a series of books that I wanted to read.  It was best activity of the week, hands down (except for maybe the pool in the summertime). Since then, my view of the library has been more and more jaded, morphing into a den of torturous hours of study and research for school papers. Before this year, I cannot remember the last time I’ve entered a public library for the sole purpose of reading for fun. Plus, what is it with the Dewey decimal system? I don’t get it. It’s hard for me to find books in this system. Can’t we just go alphabetically, guys? It’d help me out I think. Besides, if we mixed genres and topics don’t you think it’d be interesting to see what books got placed next to each other? For example, Old Yeller next to a book about olive oil? Maybe that’s just me… 

You’ll be happy (or indifferent) to know that I’ve “made up” with the library. No longer do I blame this hallowed institution for simply being the tool that teachers used to inflict scholarly damage on my psyche. I know it’s not the library’s fault. Katie, being a veritable expert on the library (she actually took a test to be thoroughly acquainted with all of Dewey’s wacky ways), walked me through the basics. How to set up an account online, how to put a book on hold, how to find that book on the shelf, etc.

Suffice it to say, I’ve been reading a lot lately. I put a thousand million (otherwise known as 15) books on hold and almost immediately had more books than I knew what to do with. I’ve not yet built a relationship with my librarian, but I did have a pleasant exchange with her last time I was in and feel that we’ve made solid progress.

Today… June 6, 2009

…was the day of truth and I’m happy to report that I had a fine experience at Toni & Guy’s house of learning.

I marched in with my magazine pictures of what I had in mind and (I’m fairly certain) signed a document that waived all my rights to my own hair.  I met my stylist-in-training Megan and breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have a faux hawk, mohawk or a graduated mullet. She looked fairly normal and seemed like a downright nice person.

Now, the relationship between the stylist (even stylists-in-training) and the stylee is one built on trust and respect…I had to trust that she wouldn’t make me look freakish and I also had to respect the power she wielded of chemical agents and sharp, pointy scissors all at her disposal. We chatted amicably and I learned about her siblings, the book she was reading (The Shack), her husband and son, and that she was a fellow Kris Allen fan. I knew I liked her.

All this while she was doing my highlights and lowlights, but everything smelled so darn good that it seemed more like she was assembling a fruit salad on my head. What she was actually doing, however, was dabbing my hair with layers and layers of chemicals.

As promised, the instructors roamed the room to make sure their fledgling apprentices didn’t maim or destroy anyone on their watch. I heard (again) shock and awe at how fine, yet completely thick my hair is. Tell me about it, people. I can’t hold a curl to save my life.

Four hours later, I emerged a new woman. I got a cut and color for half the cost of a normal place and a whole new identity to boot. Maybe now I’ll wake up on a boat somewhere and have amnesia and eventually find out that I’m a rogue agent for a black ops division of the government…or, maybe that’s someone else.

Here’s some pictures! If you don’t like them, well, it’s a little late now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

This shows the cut pretty good…

Here’s the color, though the lighting wasn’t really my friend.

Tomorrow… June 5, 2009

…my fate awaits. Or, to be more accurate, the fate of my hair awaits.

After a few weeks of searching magazines for hair-spiration, tomorrow I embark on a journey into the hallowed halls of Toni & Guy…the Academy. And while part of me is a little nervous to have a stylist-in-training cut and color my hair, the other part of me is over the moon to have it be an affordable price. After all, it’s like all those medical shows have taught us. There are teaching hospitals for young med personal to learn how to become rockin’ doctors. And, to be honest, I’d rather have a stylist-in-training than a doctor-in-training, right?

So, hopefully after tomorrow my hair color will be somewhere in the vicinity of this:

And my hair will look like a longer version of this:

Here’s to taking the plunge and never looking back! Let’s all collectively cross our fingers and hope everything comes out okay. Pictures will be posted if the result of the haircut doesn’t force me to take up wearing wigs as a new hobby.