My Pretty Friend Rachel...

this past weekend, my pretty friend Rachel came in from Atlanta to spend some time with me.

Rachel and i met and became friends in sort of a weird way.  we dated the same guy.  i went to high school with the dude, but "dated," and i decided to add quotations, because i should be using that term loosely, but we "dated," after college.  he dated miss Rachel sometime in college.  after a facebook conversation, she started to not like me too much.

fast forward to six years later, where i see her again for the first time at a Braves game with lo and behold, mr dated man, and we click.

just click.  and although she's way smarter than me, we both share a lot of interests; in those including a love of delicious beer, Bruce Springsteen, and hair products.

she's a little crazy, but she balances out my quiet reserved side.

those things she's about to devour are the boudin balls at J Clyde.  

they are amazing.

and i had a super fun weekend with her.  i'm hoping to get to do it again sometime, except spend the weekend in the big ATL.

Long Lost New Orleans Pics

I was going through my old photos and found a bunch of hidden New Orleans ones, which for one reason or another, didn't get included on the blog here.

i'm guessing i either forgot about them, or something else super exciting caught my attention, and i decided to blog about that instead.

there is so much to new orleans; almost every time i go there, i find something different.  a different place to go, a spot that i've somehow never photographed, a different food, a different drink.  there is just so much to do there!  all of these things help to make it my most favorite place on earth.  

so without further ado, some long lost pictures from several times in new orleans.

    this is just an assortment of some of the things that got left out from past trips.

so i'm thinking a trip back for my 30th.  

would be even better if Auburn decided they may want to go to the Sugar Bowl this year.

What I Miss..

If I had a list of things I miss the most, the first thing that comes to mind is this chick...

 



Yep, that is my sister.  I think in some angles we look alike, which is why I picked this picture.

 

I haven't seen the Juney-boo in a year, and I kind of miss her.  When we were little everyone would always ask if we were twins.  I'm sure it didn't help that when my mom took us to Olan Mills, she would put us in matching outfits.  I can still remember this little white outfit, that looked like it had pink and blue splatters on it.  And of course, don't forget that the shirt was tied off to the side.  God save my sister if that picture ever happens to get in my hands, because hello deep inter-workings of the Internet, it will be on there.

 

My sister and I communicate mainly by text, and maybe not daily, but definitely once a week.  She lives so far away from me, and either one of us is always doing something. 

 

But I do miss her.  And love her lots.  And sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll put her face all over my blog. 



Eye of the Beholder



 

 

I took this picture on a downtown Birmingham street.  I am obsessed whenever I see this; I must have a picture of it.

 

Why am I obsessed with it?

 

Because it took me so long to be able to define "beautiful."

 

I have struggled my entire adult life with how I look; and from what I can remember it goes all the way back to the fourth grade.  Why is the boy that I like paying attention to that girl with the beautiful blonde hair and perfect nose and not me at all?  Ever since I can remember, I've compared myself with pretty much everyone I've met.  I was never satisfied with who I was or what I looked like.

 

So what did I do?  I became this little shell of a girl that hid behind her books and just begged to blend in.  Sitting in the back of glass, not raising my hand, not ever drawing attention to myself.   I remember being in high school and being in such a funk because my younger sister was going out on dates, and I had never even been asked.  I would sit in my room and just cry thinking about how ugly I was.

 

It wasn't until I got to college where I finally decided to stop caring.  Conveniently when that happened, I had my first serious boyfriend, Joseph, who told me I was so beautiful that he couldn't even believe I was interested in him.  And I know that sounds like I base my entire opinion of myself from what one dumb college freshman boy said to me on a first date, but it wasn't like that.

 

After he told me that, I honestly stopped caring so much about what other people thought of how I looked.  I stopped putting myself down every time I looked in the mirror, because honestly what was the point?  Not everyone in the world is going to think you're pretty, and there's really not a whole lot you can do about that.

 

Except tell someone once a day that they're beautiful.  Don't put people down, because seriously, what's the point?

 

And since I honestly don't care, I will share the most embarrassing picture of me probably known to man.

 



If you can find a more humiliating picture of yourself, wait...I don't know if there could be one! 

You Mean I Haven't Done a Post in Awhile with Stella Pictures?

So you know that Google commercial where the mom is trying to get a hold of her son to let him know that his puppy is not doing so well?

Ugh, tears for days.

Anyway, I figured that this blog needed some more pictures of my sweet girl, so here you go.  Love this silly dog!

Red Hair Bang

A couple weekends ago, I decided to go really really redhead.

And I freaking love it.

It's something I've always wanted to do, and just decided that since I really didn't want to have brown hair again, and since my hair dresser refuses to do blonde anymore, that maybe I should just go all out and go super red.

So I did.

I've always been one to want to stick out.

Hair color wise.

And I'm super in love with and think I'm going to keep it for awhile.

End of the Week Thoughts

This week has been absolutely horrendous. Work has been horrible, as well as a few other things this week.  

I really hate the quote above, too.  It's one of those things that I really have to believe right now, because if I can't force myself to believe it right now, then I might just cry.

I've been trying to think of some good that happened this week, but I just keep coming up empty.  I will say that I'm starting to feel like I fit in a little bit better at the new place, and that the actual work is getting a little easier.

AND happy to officially say that Ingrid (my ole partner-in-crime from CRST) will be joining me as a fleet leader on November 18th.  Which can only mean good things to come!

Right now I'm just thankful that it is the end of the week, that I have a glass of wine, and Auburn plays tomorrow.

Dia de los Muertos - Birmingham

This was the first year that I decided to venture out into the Dia de los Muertos festival in downtown Birmingham.

 

I've always heard about it on the radio, in the Black and White, but have just never gone.  Growing up, Hispanic culture was always of interest to me.  We celebrated all of these festivals in our Spanish classes.  And if you frequent this blog often, you know that Spain is my ultimate goal in life. 

 

But for some reason, when I got to the festival, it was a bunch of hipsters (no offense if you are one...just not my scene) drinking.  And just drinking.  It could have just been me, but I felt like a festival honoring the dead didn't need to serve alcohol.  I don't know how they actually celebrate the day in Mexico, but it just didn't seem right.  I mean, from picking up beer cans off the side of the alters, and having to hear people say "I'm important, please get out of the way," (THAT HAPPENED!!), it just wasn't for me.

 

But, the altars were beautiful, so I did get some great pictures of those.

 

My main gripe about this was that it was more about the food and the face painting than honoring the dead.  Maybe I'm being too much of a party-pooper, who knows.  Just sort of made me a little angry, and I was definitely disappointed.

 

I do hate saying that, because I do know that Birmingham is trying to get their -ish together and make it a better city, but I'm hoping that this festival will grow and maybe with it, more altars and less food trucks.



Holly Williams

A few weeks ago, I went to a Holly Williams concert at Workplay  here in Birmingham.

 

Just as an aside, if you have a chance to see any show at Workplay I would go.  We've seen quite a few shows there, and I've never had a bad time.  The shows are usually pretty intimate, and this one was no exception.  We enjoyed the opener from the upstairs balcony, but saw an empty table down below right by the stage.

 

Just a little background, Holly Williams is the great grand-daughter of Hank Williams, Sr.  And her voice is absolutely incredible.  She is married to a band member of Kings of Leon, another absolute great band.  He played the guitar and sang with her on most of her songs.

 

And her bass player was this bad ass chick that played her instrument like a stand up bass, which is my absolute favorite instrument ever.

 

Here are some pictures from that night...

 

It really was a great show.  Look her up on iTunes or your downloading venue of choice.  She was really great.  She sang a lot about her life with her Dad and how her mother decided to cope with him being a big star. 

 

Plus, she's super pretty, and her boots were awesome.