Cupcakes, haircuts and snow days

Today I was able to take a “snow day” along with the rest of the counties and schools in the area. I’m working Saturday, so I was able to take the day off and get some other things done today.

While I was sitting on the loveseat, working on my freelancing articles, my room mate was sitting on the couch working on homework.

“I want cookies,” she said.

“I want cupcakes,” I said. She looked interested and I mentioned a recipe I had for red velvet cupcakes.

“I’ll help you eat them if you make them,” she said.

And so two hours later, after finishing my articles (I made $200 in one hour for writing three brief articles) and getting ready, I made an appointment to get my haircut and headed out to run some errands, picking up the ingredients for our special snow day cupcakes and getting picking up a shovel and salt for the driveway and walk.

Roomie is probably tired of hearing about the granduer of the cupcakes but I had never made a cake from scratch – I know, it’s cake, right? And the cream cheese icing? Yum! We had a couple mis-haps. Like when I mistook the vanilla extract for the red food coloring. That was quickly remedied. Then I messed up the first batch of icing and had to start over. There were lots of 3 year old kid squeals though as we licked the beaters from the mixer with icing and batter.

Tomorrow I go back to work. The day off has done me good and allowed me to catch up on things I’d been putting off. I hope all of your are safe and if you had the day off, enjoyed it!

For your viewing pleasure

Full of secrets

On Friday, my room mate and I went to George Washington University in D.C. to see Frank Warren, the creator of Post Secret. It’s something we had talked about doing for some time and I’m glad we were able to take advantage of such an opportunity and attend such a beautiful, raw presentation.

You couldn’t help but like Frank when he came out. He was preceded with a loud – almost booming video of the All-American Reject’s Dirty Little Secret. It was quite an introduction. Frank was introduced as the most trusted stranger in America. When he came out, he smiled. He was holding a small box (of secrets) and came to the front of the stage, smiled and said “Hi, I’m Frank Warren and I collect secrets.” You couldn’t help but grin back at him and just wait to see what would happen next.

In sharing his story and the secrets that didn’t make one of his four books (I now own two and have one autographed), Frank inspired me to not only be more accepting, but to go after what I really want.

My secret (that I’ve told no one about until now)
This week, as I was thinking about attending the presentation and in anticipation of my best friend, who lost her grandmother last week I got to thinking about secrets. Things that are real and make me vulnerable. I got to thinking about my childhood and how I was bullied in grade school and how that’s made me less trusting of new people. I remember standing in line in PE in grade school. I’m horribly uncoordinated. I can’t turn a cartwheel to save my life, and I knew that I was the less desirable teammate when we picked teams for kickball (which wasn’t all that bad) or a relay race on the field. That fear of being picked last has carried into my friendships.

Whenever I go out to dinner with a group of friends, I still wonder if there is going to be room for me at the table; if someone will pick me to sit with them if we have to get separated. It’s a silly fear. I know my friends love me and we’re not 10 anymore. There is always room at the restaurant for everyone in your party – restaurants are good at accommodating paying customers like that.

A couple years ago I went out to breakfast with eight of my friends for our traditional finals week morning at Betty’s (a small restaurant in Shepherdstown). The place was busy; packed and the layout is less than desirable. I was split with two other people who I didn’t know very well. I didn’t want to be seated at their table. I wanted to be with my other friends – the ones I had graduated high school with and the main reason I was there in the first place. I was so mad at them for putting me at the other table. Looking back, I realize it wasn’t that big of a deal, but then, it was. It was a flashback to my days at Springfield-Green Spring Elementary when I was picked last for group activities in PE.

Since realizing that, I’m working hard to overcome that and connect that to other fears in my life that may be holding me back. That fear of not being liked or being chosen last.

Frank’s talked about ideas that no one has done before and it’s so obvious he loves what he does. That’s what I want for my own life. I want to do something someone hasn’t done before or be apart of a project that is doing things. I want to be apart of something bigger than myself. I feel strongly about that.

My second secret
I want to cut my overhead monthly expenses and quit my job and find a way to volunteer or intern with a missions group or organization that is making God’s name famous. I’ve realized in the past month just how selfish and self-centered I can be and I don’t like it. I think one of the ways to break that is giving of myself. Wearing myself out on a 9-5 job that frustrates me and stresses me out because news and media agencies are cutting jobs is not going to do anyone any good.

I highly recommend you look Frank up if he ever comes to your neck of the woods. I can assure you it will be therapeutic, entertaining and eye opening to humanity and the people around you.

Moving

Yes folks, I’ve moved.

You can follow me over at Make it Happen

It’s been rad. I will miss my About me and Quotes pages. Perhaps I’ll find a way to take them with me.

Presidential Inauguration ‘09

• An estimated 40 lone gloves missing their mate.
• Countless stray hand and body warmers.
• 258 photos.
• A 12 hour work day and more than 5 hours traveling, waiting and pushing to board the shuttle bus.

I finally arrived back from D.C. around 9:30 p.m.; up until about an hour ago, I hadn’t washed my hands all day with honest to goodness soap and water. That felt really good. The shower about 20 minutes later felt even better. Hat hair – gross.

But all of that doesn’t really matter. Who cares if I wasn’t up close? Who cares if I shared one megatron screen with about a million of my new best friends on the lawn of the Washington Monument. A co-worker of mine made the comment that he was able to see the inauguration from his living room where he was warm. My response was that nothing compares to hearing President Obama’s voice booming from the speakers and know that it’s live.

It was an amazing experience. One that I’ll remember for a lifetime. I’m honored that my editor asked me, at such a young age, to be able to take part in such a huge part of history, how ever small my part was.

We didn’t have tickets or special clearance, but we went to follow a local group of people and watch them experience it. Seeing it through their eyes was the best part I think. We were all on the same playing field. There was no competing for shots or angles and Naomi, my fellow-embedded journalist didn’t have to compete with anyone for quotes or interviews. They were all ours and we looked out for one another.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was the volume of people and how we got around town. Everyone was on foot, everyone was in the street and people literally took over the town. I’ve never seen so much trash in the streets nor have I seen so many people standing in line. There had to be thousands of people standing in line to take the shuttle back to RFK Stadium, which for the record is the bane of my existence from now on. I spent more time waiting in line, worrying about how I was going to get back there and then more time just sitting waiting for fellow trip mates and later, traffic which was backed up on 395.

You can click on pictures to the left and I’ll post more in the coming days once I recharge and watch some of the footage and figure out what. just. happened.

Pre Inauguration

Today is the eve of the Inauguration; in 12 hours, I’m going to be boarding a bus to go to Washington, D.C. to fight the masses. I can’t even imagine what I’m getting myself into and I’m a little nervous. I’m worried if I’m going to dress appropriately, if I’ll find my group and the right bus. Someone told me today there are going to be 10,000 tour buses.

The panhandle has been hit with a significant snow fall today too, which could be a bit of an issue tomorrow. Our newspaper has heard of at least 20 accidents in Berkeley County and another 15 or so in Jefferson County today and I’m sure it will only go up this evening.

This weekend I went home to visit with my family and see some old friends. While being as delicate about the situation, I was appalled at how ignorant some people can be. I’m tired of making excuses for people who refer to President-elect Obama as “that colored guy down there,” or say they “can’t pronounce his name.” That’s pure laziness.

I finally feel like I’ve made a home for myself in Shepherdstown and this area. I have my own little “family” that looks out for each other and has my back and sometimes gets me when no one else does.

We’re goin’ to Nashville (or rather, we did go to Nashville)

Last weekend I set off in my car with three good friends and we set off for Nashville. I had never been and actually, had never spent much time at all in southern Virginia, North Carolina or Tennessee until last weekend. In about 58 hours, we traveled 1400 miles across three states and got our tushes really acquainted with the seats of my Subaru.

The sky was remarkable on Friday evening as we traveled south on I-81. We took turns driving and paying for gas (we did the whole trip on $100 gas).

Stanley seemed to enjoy the music selection. At one point he started belting out “Ladies Night” and proclaimed it was “his jam.”

Took in some local culture …

and some local tunes.

On the way home we detoured into North Carolina and drove through the Great Smokey Mountains State Park. It was there that I peed along the Appalachian Trail at a dire point when I couldn’t wait any longer.

And after that long, curvy trip, we made our way to Asheville for some browsing, Irish pub food and coffee from a double decker bus.

We crammed a lot into a short time period, but it was definitely worth it. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t find more to do on Saturday. I was too tired to enjoy much, but it was so fun to explore a new city doing the road trip-Econo-Lodge way.

You can see the complete set of photos here.