Because every chick should have a friend who encourages this type of behavior.

I was turned on to this chicks website by my dear friend, Jen, and OH MY GOD, I have not laughed this hard in a long time. She is a must read. The humor this gal writes is brills! And make sure you read THIS entry, because it's the sole reason for my post today, and if you don't read it, then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, or why I'm talking about it, or what the ending of this post even means!

See, it got me wondering, does everyone have a friend like this? One with whom you can get in to more trouble than you can think of and laugh the whole time? One who will not hesitate to get mad at you because you forgot to call her to come join the fun/trouble that you were about to find yourself in? I have one of those. Her name is Annette. Annette is bat-shit crazy. And, God, I love Annette. I have known her for 5 years and let me just tell you right now: We have found ourselves in more trouble than should be legal. We still do not understand why certain Maconites have not banished us from our humble little town.

(Side bar: I need to state right here that The Mom will probably read this, so Mama, when I say "trouble", I don't mean in a bad way! No cops were involved in the making of The Trouble.)

You see, these friends make your world a better place. You get a 2:00 a.m. phone call from Bat-Shit Crazy and you know something good just went down. It may or may not be good for them, but you know, as much as you love her, you're about to get entertained. This is your middle-of-the-night-phone-call from her telling you all kinds of fun you just missed and could you pleeeeaassseee not tell me again that it's 2:00 a.m and that you will call me tomorrow because I have to tell you this right now! It's also sitting together, just minding our own business, when The Trouble just drops in to our laps. Like right in front of us. Like RIGHT THERE. How can you walk away from it? We look at each other, and we're all "Seriously? Does Trouble not realize what's about to happen"?

I'm pretty sure there may have been a time or two, back in the day, when our significant others just shook their heads and was all "they've lost their minds".

Bat-Shit Crazy, who also has all the love her in heart for her friends, will also come to you at a moments notice, dropping everything, when she hears the words "I need you"? Doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, we arrive when needed. Shopping, drinks, drama, just hanging out together, emergency middle-of-the-night phone calls. Someone's crying, someone's mad, someone's laughing, someone's got drama, someone's dog just dug a hole in my flowerbed and you need to know about this right now no it cannot wait until morning stop telling me that! Dinner together, gossiping, girls weekends, someone you can tell anything to and they've got your back - right or wrong.

Or, you could just be in a discount store encouraging one another to buy a 5-foot-tall-chicken and think it's totally normal.

I mean, DUH!

Doesn't everyone buy stupid stuff in discount stores, just because it's funny?

Anyway, the point is that you need a crazy friend to encourage you to do silly things. Because laughing, no matter the circumstance, is always good for the soul. And who more to make you laugh than a crazy friend that you totally couldn't live without?

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Film Festin'

Hi Dolls!

Hope this all finds you as fabulous as can be! I have finally had a quiet weekend, with no plans, and I have really enjoyed it.

But, I get antsy.

So, thank goodness I have tons of plans for the upcoming week! In case you didn't already know it from my numerous tweets and Facebook postings, The 6th Annual Macon Film Festival is almost upon us and I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am.






Terrell Sandefur, Priscilla Esser and a slew of others have worked tirelessly to bring you this fabulous 4 day event (Feb 17-20) in beautiful, historic downtown Macon, GA! This is my first year volunteering and I'll be working two different time slots: Friday, 2-5pm slot for the box office and Saturday, 11-2pm for filmmaker check-in. Come see me!

I will also be attending day and evening screenings, which ohmigoodness, just gives me chills at the fun that is headed my way, not to mention I finally get to see "Get Low". And? AND??? The after parties! (Can I get an Amen, please?) Let me just tell you right now, I am already going through my closet to pick out my "Film Fest Funky" attire, as the fantastic Mr. Sandefur described to me when I asked what the attire was for the festival. Hey! This IS my first festival and I do loves me an excuse to purchase clothes for any reason whatsoever. So, not only have I been devouring my closet, I have purchased a couple of cute things from Jack & Darcy Boutique in Milledgeville. (You can also find Jack & Darcy on Facebook here.)

(Side note: Did you see all those links? I'm pluggin' everyone today!)

In other entertainment news, I spent Wednesday evening playing cards, eating delicious food and enjoying cocktails with three of the coolest people I know: The amazing Mizz Kate McD, George and my new friend, Jettice. We had a litte bit of a half time show where Kate ran out of gas AND killed her battery all within 5 minutes. George and I jet off to save the damsel in distress, then arrive back in time to eat, break out the Uno cards, and fill our glasses with wine and love. After many hours of wine and a gazillion laughs, I do declare that it was totally worth dragging out of bed at 11:30 the next day. I may, or may not, have been hungover.

(Side note: When going out, and it's raining hard, do not under any circumstances wear light colored suede boots. FAIL!)

In the homefront department, I woke up this morning earlier than normal because I had a really bad feeling something was wrong. Oh, was it ever wrong. When I opened my eyes, they went right to my cat, Wesley, who was happily tee-teeing all over a small pile of dirty cloths that I did not put in the hamper. And he was looking me dead in the eyes, daring me to beat the shit out of him. His litter box is clean. Food and water is full. I have no clue what I did that made him mad. All I know is he better be glad he wasn't trying to finish off my previously-mentioned suede boots, because there was about to be a misunderstanding up in here! And, oh-my-god-no-he-didn't, as I'm cleaning it all up and throwing everything in the wash, he jumps his little nappy butt up on the bed, stretches, then curls up and goes to sleep.

Blink.

Blink blink.

That cat is SO VERY LUCKY TO BE ALIVE TODAY. He better be glad that I love him so much. That's all I'm sayin'.






Sparkles 'n kisses!

xoxo

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The Roadtrip (Part II)

Dear y'all,

I hope you enjoyed "The Roadtrip (Part I)". If not, you can click HERE to catch up before reading on.

Ok, everyone caught up now? Great!

So we left off where Jen and I died at 4:00 a.m. after drinking 2 bottles of wine. Once we finally woke up, I think around 10-ish (?), we decided to walk down to the Avenue, have some brunch and do a little bit of local shopping. Leisurely strolls down avenues full of locally-owned businesses is where I love to be when visiting another town. I mean OH. MY. GOD. there was art and gourmet/couture pet shops and chocolate and cheese and wine and pizza and card/paper shops and the Fall leaves falling like snow all around us and a few trick-or-treaters thrown in for good measure and some locals hanging out and dogs being taken for their walks.

I think I quivered a few times.

Anyway, our first stop was Cheesetique, that Jen frequents quite often, I understand.



Y'all the sweet, pungent odor of the cheese just got me all excited the second we opened the door. A wonderful mix of cheese and happiness. Ms. Cheese Lady has cheese from all over the world. I am not even kidding. We sat in the back, at the cafe'/wine bar area, and ordered a cheese sampler along with a sample of the cured meat. Oh good Lord, that stuff was good! After that, I had a very decadent and smooth bowl of tomato/lobster bisque and a spring mix salad with balsamic vinegarette. I can't tell you what Jen had because I was too busy stuffing my face with all that heaven-ness.

We also grabbed a few cheeses to go, along with some marinated mushrooms and some Italian salami for later.

Then it was on to other stores. About the time that we got going good, she steered me towards a beautiful, and very tiny stand alone store called Barkley Square Gourmet Dog Bakery And Boutique.



Is it not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I swear to God, I squealed like Perez Hilton when he first laid eyes on Ricky Martin. This was THE cutest place. Ever. They had clothes and toys and all kinds of stuff for pets. And the best part? Gourmet puppy treats! Oh yes, Tater and Mia are gonna love them! The treats they made for pets looked so delicious. "The Girls" (as we call them) are getting some peanut butter cookies as well as some cheese cookies. They will heart me even more now.

Once we were done with the shopping, we headed back to her place to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine, because 2 bottles the night before apparently did not teach us a lesson. And while I'm talking about her balcony, let me just tell you about the view: There is a beautiful view of the city, the Potomac River, Ronald Reagan International Airport (without hearing the planes), the edge of Maryland, AND THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT! The views at night were especially spectacular. I suspected that her balcony (which I swear was the longest one I've ever seen - the entire length of her apartment!) was the place to be on July 4th for the D.C. fireworks and she confirmed - it is.



(Partial night view from the balcony - cell phone shot. Now, you can't tell it in this pic, but the Washington Monument is there. See the zoomed-in version below in the daylight. Hard to see as it was a gloomy day outside, but it's there and on a clear day, it's an awesome sight! You can see it right in the middle of the shot - behind the tree line - just to the left of the buildings....it's tryin' to blend in with the clouds/gloom. Whatever. It's there.)



She also made mention that, on occasion, she has seen Marine One take off from The White House. How cool is that???

While we were out on the balcony, we saw a bald eagle fly by. Seriously. How much more patriotic can you get than to see a bald eagle fly by not 100 feet from you, with THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT IN THE BACKGROUND???

I'm just sayin'.

We also kept getting a whiff of something being cooked with tons of garlic. I thought maybe a neighbor, but then she reminded me about the gourmet pizza place on the 1st floor of her complex. After about 20 minutes, we decided that it was a night for pizza....and of course, more wine.

After ordering a large thin crust, we sat back and enjoyed the pizza and wine and got caught up on more of our life's events. Because we were getting up early for brunch in D.C., followed by a little sight-seeing, we thought it best to lay low on the wine, and just head to bead a little early.

And here's where I halt this post because it's getting wayyyy too long and there is lots more to tell and I don't want you getting bored because the fun part comes in Part III. I mean, not that it wasn't fun up to this point - it was awesome. But, Part III? Oh, you're gonna love that one!

With that, I will close here and say that I hope you have enjoyed taking this roadtrip to VA with me, so far!

Sparkles 'n kisses!

(P.S.: If you are on Twitter and would like to follow any of the shops that I mentioned, you can follow Cheesetique at "cheese_lady" and Barkley Square at "BarkleyPets".)

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The Roadtrip (Part I)

Dear y'all,

Oh, how I missed you and I hope you missed me just as much! I have been a little MIA lately, but that's not because I didn't want to be here with you. It's just that my schedule has gotten a little bit hectic lately (particularly, the weekends) and I just plain ran out of time to write a blog or two.

I figured I'd save up all of the missed blogs for a two- or three-parter. Beginning with this one.

As some of y'all know, I had a roadtrip planned up to Alexandria, VA to spend a weekend with my old roommate from California, Jen. I've seen her once since we both moved from CA to the East Coast and that was at her wedding 6 yrs ago, and as you can probably figure, we didn't get a lot of time to spend together...her being a new bride and all. Well, that and the fact that she needed to speak to all the guests at the reception, I'm thinking I got all of 30 seconds in before she had to move on to the next guest. So, I guess I wouldn't really call it a "visit". More like a drive-by "Hi, great to see you here! So glad you could come! Enjoy yourself! Eat, drink and have a good time". And then she was gone - on to the next table of guests to do the thank you thing. I did, however, have a fun swing dance with her handsome Dad, along with catching up with friends and acquaintances who flew out from CA to the wedding.

This visit was different. We both wanted a little bit of nostalgia and we figured it was time for a visit.

So, I headed out on what we originally assumed would be about an eight-ish hour drive.

Wrong!

It was almost ELEVEN HOURS!

But that was ok. This ain't my first trip around the block. I've made 11-hr trips (each way) many times from OH to GA and back. So it's the same, except different because I'm a little older now and my body just can't handle it (I found out after I rolled my 41-year-old decrepit body out of the car when I arrived).

Needless to say, I was a wee bit tired when I arrived at her place at 11:00 pm Friday night after being up since 7:00 am and working till 12:00 before getting on the road. Ok, A LOT tired. But as soon as she opened the door, it was like I was back in CA again, only 10 years later.

It was time to catch up on what had been going on in both of our lives. So she broke out a bottle of wine, and we commenced to chit-chatting, gossiping, reminiscing and all kinds of fun conversations.

Two bottles later, at 4:00 am, we died.

But, during the time between the start of my drive and the end of those two bottles of wine, I thought a lot about how we met, the year that we lived together, and how two very different people formed a lasting friendship. I mean, normally you have a roommate in another city (OK, at the other end of the country!), you do your roommate thing, then move on, eventually falling out of contact, only to wonder a hundred years later what ever happened to them. And it could've easily happened that way. We never had a whole lot in common, other than we both liked wine, a cappella and a good party. But, friendships form for all kinds of reasons, and this is one of them.

So, here's where I'm going to let Jen explain to you her thoughts about how we met and the resulting, unlikely, yet enduring friendship we formed. If you would, please take a moment and CLICK HERE to read her take on our friendship because I really think you would enjoy it. She writes way more eloquently than I. And she is definitely going to get a giggle or two out of you. (Don't worry - the link will open up another screen so you won't have to hit the "back" button to get back here.)

I'll be back after you read it......

Ta-ta!

Ok, did you read it? (I really hope you did!)

Anyway, there is a lot to tell you about, so I'm going to write the blog in parts. Three max, but maybe I can get it all in two. Wait...I forgot that I tend to get a little long-winded when I write, so it'll probably be three parts.

I hope you'll come back tomorrow for Part II because, for only being there a couple of days, there's a lot to tell!

Sparkles 'n kisses!

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