If there’s one thing Southern gals know how to do, it’s gab. Silly or serious, all it takes is a glass of iced tea and time. Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, and make yourself comfy…get ready to dish!
Heard in the Bleachers
Little League. Bleachers. Moms and dads and sibs. Always an interesting sociological mix, especially in our community. I’m paying attention to the game (mostly), trying not very hard to avoid overhearing the conversation on my left, conducted by slim, toned wives with far more expensive shoes than I. You know, the ones with $100 haircuts and blinding diamond (plural) wedding sets. Here’s what I hear: “…you should take your shoes off.” “They don’t take their shoes off?” “No! It’s...
read moreLast Lecture
My friend Nancy sent me a link to this short video, a clip of a “last lecture” given by a prefessor at Carnegie-Mellon University. Universities across the US are featuring last lecture programs, inviting well-known professors to deliver the wisdom they really would like to impart before departing. What’s the catch here? Dr. Prautsch has terminal pancreatic cancer and is expected to live only a few weeks or months more.Check out the Wall Street Journal article here.
read moreStyle, or Lack Thereof
So I’ve been reading style books lately. (My friend Desiree is passing out at the thought at this very moment.) What I’ve realized is that my style and my closet aren’t on close speaking terms.My friend Colleen once told me that the best thing about turning 40 was the ability to say “to hell with it” and mean it. To hell with tasks you don’t want. To hell with living up to someone else’s expectations. To hell with “should” and Hello to “want.”Colleen has a point, and that...
read moreHB2Me
DH hates the song “Happy Birthday.” He says that everyone sings it too slowly, so it comes out sounding like a dirge more than the celebratory air it should be. Methinks I agree. I’m a Stevie Wonder “Happy Birthday” kinda gal (moreso than The Beatles’ “Birthday”), which is in no way dirgelike or, come to think of it, clichéd.And on this, my 43rd “natal day,” as my grandfather was wont to say, I admit that I don’t want to be a cliché as I grow older. I will not be a teacher who...
read moreMoms Rule!
Okay, this bit is priceless:Assuming this is the common experience, then we’re all going to turn into our mothers. Which may not be such a bad thing.
read moreBooks and Cooks: The Other Boleyn Girl
WE’RE READING: I’M SERVING: NUTTY CHEESY “SALLET”Back to School means we’re back to Book Club. For this kickoff, Books and Cooks will take place at Chez mimi, so that means lots of running around and stashing and freaking and spraying and dusting and wiping and vacuuming, which isn’t such a bad thing, but harrowing if you try to do it all in oh, say, three hours right before people come over.But I digress.Back to the book…Tudor history seems to be on the upswing, what with The Tudors on Showtime (not...
read moreAh, Yes, the Writing Process
Ever wonder what goes through a writer’s mind as she’s staring off into space at odd times, like in the grocery line or while stuck in traffic? Wonder no more. Imagine that your muse(s) work something like this:Lord, help us all.
read moreText Message Morons
You gotta hand it to Celia Rivenbark. Anyone who’d title a book Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank has my undying admiration and gratitude, but I digress. Today Ms. Rivenbark takes on the army of text-messaging zombies at a live theater performance and scores a direct hit. Check out her diatribe here.Too bad the zombies will be too engrossed to notice. As Ms. Rivenbark notes at one point, “My beef is with the grown-ups. If you’re bored with what’s onstage, why don’t you haul your rude self out into the...
read moreNo, *I* Can Has Cheezburger
LOLcats. Sorry, I just don’t get it.Maybe it’s because I’m a dog person.
read morePractice, Schmactrice
This year, I’ve told myself I’m going to do the better self-care thing, so that means the Thursday afternoon yoga class is on the schedule. Not only can I twist and unkink, but I’ll be able to have dinner at Moe’s after with a bit less guilt.Class today was v. small, probably because it’s the first week of school, and most of the teachers are mental tapioca. No problem. I’m in seated meditation, listening to the nature sound remix of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, thinking to myself “calm,...
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