Bring it on 30!

To say that this past weekend was fun would be a gross understatement.

This weekend was fantastic, awesome, incredible, and amazingly fun! To my complete shock, my dear friends organized a surprise birthday party on Friday night. When I say complete shock I mean complete shock. Since the beginning of October I had been anticipating a costume party at Ashley’s house on Saturday night. I realized that wasn’t happening on Friday night as Allan pulled turned on my street and there were lots of people in my front yard. I think my exact words were, “Wait…whaaa…are those people!?”

It was confirmed that they were in fact people and I received a jubilant “Surprise!” greeting as I exited the car. My jaw dropped and stayed that way for most of the night as the people in the yard were just the beginning of the surprises! I began hugging everyone and then enter surprise #2 when I saw my lovely sister as one of the people in the yard! She had flown in all the way from Dallas for the big event and it took me all of 10 minutes to even see her there. I blame the state of shock.

We all went inside the house to find surprise #3 – my sister Jeni had brought with her many ‘fun’ keepsakes from my childhood. In the house were old uniforms, classic childhood pictures, and my favorite – several old pairs of my glasses hanging from the ceiling. I think my exact words at this point were, “Y’allll…I mean….Y’allll…”

About 10 minutes later “Boomer Sooner” started playing loudly and the front door burst open to reveal surprise #4 -- my BFFs from college, Kelli and Laura bouncing into the living room. Kelli was holding a lit tiki torch and they both were sporting t-shirts that said “Rebathlon 2010” with old pictures of me screen printed on the front. I had to look around to make sure everyone else was seeing what I saw.

Once ‘Boomer Sooner’ stopped CC explained that we were about to embark on Rebathlon 2010 which is similar to a decathlon or triathlon but filled with events related to things I love. If you read this blog you know I love a lot of things so the events were plentiful. They included: Beanie baby cornhole, ladder golf, guess how many gummy bears are in a jar, Wheel of Fortune, ‘Score with Sam’ football toss, jump rope competition, music trivia, and OU trivia.

Everyone was paired off in teams of 2 with matching Rebathlon t-shirts of course and each team also had a name of something about my life or something I love…there was team: Chris Harrison, Betty Locke, Theta, Beanie Baby, Pioneer Woman, and Bob Stoops – just to name a few.

We went on to play the games and then had cake – surprise #5…two cakes! An ice cream cake which I appreciated since having a birthday in November usually means no ice cream cake. And a traditional cake with a picture of all my friends who couldn’t make it screened on:

Awards were presented at the end of the night and somehow I won with 1,056,342 points. My prize was a medal with OU on it and a giant bag of sour patch kids, of course! The entire night was truly amazing. I felt completely known and cared for by my precious friends. It was one of those moments where ‘thank you’ is a completely insufficient response. (so instead I apparently just kept saying “I mean…y’all…”)

I want to say thank you times a million again to my friends who planned Rebathlon 2010, to my sister and friends who traveled to be there, and to those who couldn’t attend the games but wanted to be there. Friday was a very clear reminder of how blessed I am as I enter my 30th year!

Face to Face with an Idol

As I posted yesterday, I’m an accidental fan of The Pioneer Woman and definitely never thought I would have become a fan of any cookbook last year. But she won me over with her hilarious writing and inviting how-to recipes. So when it was announced that she would be making an appearance at a bookstore in Charlotte I had to go.

My dear sister and mother had tried to get my cookbook signed in Dallas in December only to show up and realize the line was 3+ hours. They love me, but even they have limits. However they were able to get the PW’s daughters to sign the books before leaving so that was something and I of course appreciated the effort.

I went to the book signing in Charlotte with my friends Aimee and CC. I think they would attest that I was totally geek-ing out in preparation. I called the bookstore to find out what the process was and secured early tickets. Then I had pictures printed of the meals I had made from her cookbook (including a lasagna in the shape of Oklahoma, of course). Then I rehearsed what I was going to say to the PW in the 60 seconds that I would be face to face with this idol.

The problem was I had at least 5 minutes worth of things I wanted to say. Surely she would want to know that I went to school at Oklahoma, that my sister and mom had tried to meet her in Dallas but only to get meet her daughters, that I when my family ate the lasagna I made using her recipe we ended up cutting it in the shape of Oklahoma (fate of course), that I started reading her blog for the Black Heels to Tractor Wheels section only and really appreciated her inviting picture step-by-step approach to recipe sharing.

When it was finally our turn to approach her throne (the book table), I froze. I think I said something about being a fan and muttered that I loved Black Heels but I honestly can’t remember what I said. When she opened my cookbook she noticed I already had her daughters’ signatures so I explained how my mom and sister tried to meet her in Dallas and she told me she was glad I got the job finished. Then we all took a picture and exited stage left.
No more than a few sentences were exchanged between us but it was still a great experience. I’m thinking about emailing her my Oklahoma lasagna picture – surely she would appreciate that, right?

PYOT

PYOT (pronounced pee-ought) is an acronym for Put Yourself Out There. This term was created in the summer of 2006 through a discussion at the Original Pancake House (OPH) with my dear friends Katie and Meghan. We made a decision that we wanted to spice things up that summer. While eating lots of curry would have definitely made for a spicier summer in the literal sense, we instead decided to spice things up by taking risks and “put ourselves out there.” Once the acronym became a word we analyzed what a PYOT would entail. Really it boils down to anything that is outside of the box for you; examples include but are not limited to: ordering a different dish at a restaurant, wearing super trendy clothes, asking someone out on a date, being flirty, moving to a new city, trying to meet a celebrity when they are in your city downtown, etc. Hopefully you get the idea.

Right after PYOT was established Katie, Meghan and I of course had to live by example and PYOT by ordering something different than we normally do at the Pancake House. There is a picture on the wall in the OPH of the Dutch Baby and I'd always been intrigued by the shape of this dish. So on that day…the day of the creation of PYOT… I finally ordered the Dutch Baby. If you plan to order the Dutch Baby in the future let me warn you that the poster sized picture in the Original Pancake House is the real size, not enlarged at all. I definitely underestimated the size of the Dutch Baby based on the picture. What came to our table was a ginormous bowl-shaped dough pancake. Here is a picture (not of my Dutch Baby, this is a picture from the Internet of someone else’s D.B.):

It wasn’t my favorite breakfast dish, I could only eat ¼ of it, and I don’t think I’ll order it again, but I’m glad I can now say I’ve tried it, which is really the reward of the PYOT; the satisfaction from courageously stepping out and trying something new.

Happy PYOT-ing!

30 for 30

If you’re still reading this blog it’s likely because you are either related to me or you have ample time between the hours of 8 and 5 to surf the web. My blogging came to a two month halt after Rrroberto won Ali’s heart for many reasons:

1) I was hiding under a rock to avoid the insanity that was The Bachelor Pad

2) I was cheering on Tim Gunn’s choice words for Gretchen

3) I was busy making my pros and cons list to ABC’s choice for the “new” bachelor

4) I was contemplating what would happen if Lucky Strike left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

5) I was grieving over the breakup of Ed & Jillian

Okay so maybe only 4 of those 5 are truthful…everyone knew Ed and Jillian would never make it. There were red flags all over his short shorts.

I never intended this little blog of breeziness to be a dedicated Bachelor franchise blog, it just kind of happened. And I can’t really take credit for it because ‘crazy’ is easy material to write about. But since the “new” bachelor doesn’t start until January I thought I’d take the rest of the year and get back to the breeziness that is this random blog.

What inspired this? Well in 30 days I will be 30 (insert gasp here). Someone asked me yesterday if there was anything I wanted to do before I turn the big 3-0. As I thought about it I became really thankful for this past decade because I’ve been incredibly blessed. I graduated college, moved across the country, traveled to incredible places, and accomplished many goals within the past 10 years.

With only 30 days left I thought it would be fun to try to accomplish a few more small goals. One that comes to mind is to write a complete “piece”. Writing has always been an interest of mine but like many projects in life it’s one of those things that I start but never really finish. I have lots of half written essays and short stories that I’ve just lost interest in. So one goal is to write something (I’m not defining what it will be) and complete it by November 3rd. These will be small goals as I only have 30 days to complete them, but consider that goal #1.

In an effort to keep up with the writing I’ve decided my second goal will be to write 30 blog posts in 30 days. I like this goal because I’m a big theme person so I’m stealing the ESPN documentary series title and calling it my own personal 30 for 30. (if you’re not a theme person I can hear your eyes rolling). I recognize the cheese-factor may be high but I think that’s allowed because I’m still a 20-something. I’m sure I’ll be more sophisticated in the next decade, right!?

I have no idea what these 30 posts will be about. They may be a sentence or they may be a novel. (scratch that-- they will definitely not be novel length). They may be serious or seriously ridiculous. I’m making no promises that they’ll be interesting as time will be limited and my goal is to just write and not over-analyze content.

So...30 for 30: day one…check!

Super Fun!

It's a big day at A Breezy Blog - one year ago is when I decided to start this little project. That's right - Breezy Blog is One...and super fun! (side note: I really like rhyming adjectives with ages - i.e. 30 and flirty, 28 and great, 13 and lean, etc....yes, sometimes it's a stretch to find a fitting adjective.) Since I've been in a pensive mood recently (see previous post) this little anniversary has made me reflect back over the past year. It's so crazy how fast time seems to go, but then how long ago some things seem, ya know what I'm talkin' bout Willis?

A special thank you to you who are reading this blog right now! I started it for many reasons - all of which you can read here in the first ever Breezy Blog post. Basically I just like to write and talk about pop culture and this is an outlet that allows me to do those things. Oh and I also like to make fun of reality TV dating game shows.

Please always know comments are welcome as I'd love to hear your thoughts on all these random topics too. However, I understand commenting on a blog is sort-of scary since it's acknowledging that you have time to actually read blogs among other things, so if you prefer to remain quiet that's fine too.

For this next year on the blog I'm thinking about introducing some sort of themed day thing that I've seen on other blogs. Not that I want to totally rip someone else off, but I like the consistency that a themed day would bring. And let's be honest, who doesn't love themes?

Other than the themes everything else will pretty much remain the same...more Bachelor/ette and other reality TV show discussions as well as music and products I love. Unless of course you have some other ideas of things you'd like to read about- please do share them if so! Thanks again for reading, if you weren't here I'd feel like I was talking to myself...which actually wouldn't be that unusual for me.

To commemorate this exciting day, enjoy a clip from the best episode of Friends ever (the one that introduced me to my favorite word):

Blaming Beyonce

These were the fantastic words spoken by Anthony Williams, the latest contestant eliminated on Project Runway. If you don't know who Anthony is - here's a picture:
I have been a loose watcher of PR this season; I'm not sure why, but it's just taken me a while to get into it. This could be because when I have watched, Anthony has definitely been the only person providing entertainment. (I mean seriously, has Mila had any inflection of tone in her voice when speaking this season?) This season's cast is just 'blah' in my opinion and will be even more so now that Anthony's gone.

However I LOVED his thoughts on Beyonce. In fact, I don't think truer words have been spoken on this show. Okay well maybe except for whenever Nina calls something "aesthetically not pleasing" because she's usually right about that.

I went to a spin class on Tuesday. Before you judge me as one of those spin class fanatic people let me assure you that this was a rare occurrence. Let's just say I took an exercise hiatus during the cold winter so drastic measures need to be taken quickly as this warm weather approaches.

Anyway, the class was very painful as expected and I was huffing and puffing my way through it until the song 'Survivor' came on by Destiny's Child. Immediately I was transplanted back to 2001 driving around Norman, Oklahoma with my windows down - Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle blasting my mantra from the speakers of my sweet '93 Mitsubishi Eclipse (affectionately known as Mitsi, may she rest in peace). I cannot tell you how much I loved that song in college. So of course I couldn't resist singing along during class...

"I'm a survivor (what), I'm not gonna give up (what), I'm not gon' stop (what), I'm gonna work harder (what), I'm a survivor (what), I'm gonna make it (what), I will survive (what), Keep on survivin' (what)"

As I sang these lyrics my cadence on the bike picked up and I turned the resistance knob up -- completely forgetting the fact that I've taken less than 10 spin classes in my entire life. The pain in my legs increased immediately of course and then a smile spread across my face as I realized Beyonce had in fact made me feel like I was conquering the world through my all powerful spinning skills. I was a survivor after all.

After that enlightenment during my spinning experience with B, I went home and made a new workout playlist containing only Beyonce/Destiny's Child songs because I now completely believed Anthony- there's no question that they make you feel invincible. A sampling of what's included...Independent Woman - check, Irreplacable - check, Single Ladies - of course, Bootylicious -- you know it.

If I can get non-breezy for a moment here I'll share that I continued to further reflect on what it was that made me love Survivor so much in college. I know you're probably thinking the answer is obvious -- just look at this CD cover, how could this song not be awesome?
It was more than just the album cover or the use of the terrific line "Cause my mama taught me better than that" that made me love this song though. I think I love the song because it not only makes me feel all-powerful with physical strength as I workout, but it also makes me feel mentally invincible as I sing along.

Generally it's pretty difficult for me to let other people into my failures and grief; especially when that pain is a result of feeling disappointed by something or someone else. I'd much rather use Beyonce's words to tell them (and myself):

Thought I couldn't breathe without you, I'm inhalin'
You thought I couldn't see without you, Perfect vision
You thought I couldn't last without ya, But I'm lastin'
You thought that I would die without ya, But I'm livin'
Thought that I would fail without ya, But I'm on top,
Thought it would be over by now, But it won't stop,
You thought that I would self-destruct, But I'm still here,
Even in my years to come, I'm still gon' be here.

While there's a part of me that desires to have that thick skin mentality and be the person who has it all together - the truth is that's not how I feel and that's not who I really am. Since college I've learned that if I try to live under an armor suit then yes, I might escape some of the pain; but under all that armor I'll also miss out on some of the joy. While this may seem like common sense it's been a tough lesson for me to grasp and one I'm still working on...taking off the armor leaves me scared and exposed. I have to constantly remind myself there's Someone bigger who won't ever let me down so it's okay to PYOT (put yourself out there - explanation on that acronym is another post for another time...).

Quite a tangent from Anthony's lovely comments, right?! For the record I still love Beyonce and I won't blame her for all my problems - even though I totally agree that she would be worthy of my blame-shift. Now when I sing along in my sweet '07 Honda Civic (affectionately known as Sally) I have a different perspective. Rather than trying to be the Survivor or Independent Woman I'm trying to be the genuine and fearless - jumping into life with others full-on (no armor) so I can experience complete joy. I'll save the tough-girl mentality for spin classes...

Click here to watch several video clips containing some of Anthony's hilarious comments made during Project Runway. Thanks for indulging a somewhat non-breezy post today, I'll be back to regularly scheduled breezy posts about other random things soon!

And I'm back!

Today is my 29th birthday. 29 - yikes! A friend from college wrote a blog post about the age of 29 that I found to be so true and hilarious. I think her post perfectly sums up why the age of 29 is somewhat of a quandary.

In high school I made a pretty big deal about my birthday complete with a countdown to remind all my friends how many days they had until they could celebrate me. Looking back now in my wisdom as a 29 year-old I realize this sounds extremely narcissistic. But at the time I honestly think I just enjoyed any reason to celebrate anything. Thankfully I have always been blessed with wonderful friends so they didn't get too annoyed (I think). For my 18th birthday they took the opportunity to make sure everyone in the entire school was aware of the blessed day. Travel back with me to that day...

November 3, 1998: I wake up, get ready for the day and then head outside to get in my car and that's when I see them. My 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse (affectionately known as Mitsi) is covered in small pieces of paper donning my high school crush's face. 'My friends are so funny!' I thought sarcastically. I spend the next several minutes removing the papers from my car before driving to school.

When I do enter the school I see that my sweet friends have painted happy birthday signs on butcher paper and hung them in different hallways! I love the signs and decide that maybe I can forgive them for the incident with Mitsi. I make my way to my locker and see that someone has taped up this Titanic Poster of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet dancing with one slight alteration - my face was taped over Kate's. If you'll remember 1998 was the height of the Titanic phase which also happened to coincide with the height of my Leonardo DiCaprio obsession phase. Again a nice gesture and since I didn't even know what photoshop was in the late 90's taping my face to a poster was definitely the next best thing.

I walk to class, and wait - what's that I see people wearing? Oh Lordy, my "sweet" friends have passed out the tiny pieces of paper with my crush's face on them and people are wearing them as pins on their clothing. People I don't even know. Unbelievable. I get to class and see more papers with his face on them all over my chair and hear the laughter of my friends as my face turns bright red. Admittedly, this whole scenario isn't quite as bad as it could have been however because my crush was older than me so he thankfully had graduated and therefore was not completely freaked out that someone was semi-stalking him (at least as far as I know).

I'd say the memories of that birthday are right up there with the "Backwards" party I had in elementary school. Everyone wore their clothes backwards to the party and we did an obstacle course in the front yard backwards. For the record I still think this is a genius idea for a birthday party - try wearing your clothes backwards for a while and you'll see how fun it is too...okay so maybe it's more fun if you are under the age of 10.

I'm Still Here

My apologies for the lack of blog posting recently. I promised myself when I started this blog of breeziness that I wouldn't disappear for extended periods of time and then return with a "sorry for the lack of posts" post and yet, here I am. My absence hasn't been for a lack of material but rather for a lack of time and energy. So in an attempt to put forth minimal time and energy yet also entice you to return to the blog soon here are a few of the events that have recently happened or will be happening in the next few days that will serve as breezy blog material:

• How to set a squirrel trap in your attic and (hopefully) trap an intruding squirrel.
• A day-o-fun on an all day office trip that includes the following: a bus, boxed wine, team building activities, and the movie Hoosiers.
• The day I broke the law, got kicked off the light rail and lived to tell about it.
  
• What does "evening casual attire" mean to you? To me it means confusion.
• The Neti Pot: It's gross and a very unpleasant experience but it totally works, well done Oprah.
  
• And finally, congratulations to the happy couple; if you haven't heard Molly and Jason are engaged. Here's to second place - I mean chances, second chances!

Stay tuned for details and explanations...

IIIIIII'm Breezy!

It has come to my attention that some people may not be aware of the term breezy or that it has a context outside of the weather. According to dictionary.com there are actually 4 definitions for breezy, my favorite being "fresh; sprightly"; synonyms include "carefree, lighthearted, buoyant, lively, jaunty, easygoing." My love for the word breezy grew out of my love for a certain Friends episode. In the episode, "The One Where No One is Ready" the correct use of breezy is explained, although I am aware that I break the rules because I do call situations or things (like this blog) breezy when actually saying the word breezy negates the breeziness.

Anyway, enjoy the best Friends episode below and then enjoy your use of the word breezy. (note: I tried to find a way to clip the breezy part but no luck. If you just want to see that part go to where there is 14:43 left in the video, it goes to 13:09.)

Friends: The One Where No One is Ready

To Blog or Not to Blog

Well, here it is...my blog! To be honest I've been off-and-on considering blogging for several months now and today, April 8, 2009, I finally decided to take the plunge and give it a try. Why was I questioning this? Why did I finally decide to try? Do you really care? That last question was the main one that I kept coming back to on the issue of to blog or not to blog. My pro/con list looked a little something like this:

Pros

• I enjoy writing; blogging is writing
• I have some time during the day (my lunch break, of course)
• I have friends and family in other states so this is a fun way to keep them updated
• I enjoy reading other people's blogs to see where my friends are vacationing, what their babies look like, or what their current favorite book, movie, tv show, color, etc. is and why.

Cons

• Do I really have that much to say and is my life exciting enough to warrant it's own blog?
• Do people care about what my current favorite book, movie, tv show, color, etc. is?
• Is blogging a little self-absorbed? Will I over analyze every post? :)

As you can see the pros slightly outweighed the cons and the last pro was truly the one that made me decide to start. My main hesitation was the last con; something about blogging feels a little on the narcissistic side of things to me - maybe because the blog typically revolves around the blogger's life and the blogger. But then, is it really that much different from facebook? Although I kept coming back to this thought, I also kept coming back to the fact that I actually love reading about my friends adventures, as big or small as they may seem - so maybe they would enjoy reading about mine. There's also a good chance that I was over analyzing and I should just blog if I want to and stop thinking about it so much...so here we are! I'm making no promises and am not super technologically-savvy so if this is the most boring blog ever don't say I didn't warn you!

Now that I feel I've given the proper amount of disclaimers, let's begin...