Three Quotes…
Three quotes on this dreary and completely exhausting Monday. My brain can’t really handle much more than this! Three I’m loving!
Commitment means staying loyal to what you said….
Commitment
So smile, because life is too short to be unhappy….
life is too short
In life, you will realize there is a role for everyone you meet.
In life
These are three I love this week. What quotes or inspiring posts are making you think this week?
On the Menu: Grits
My Grandma Pat and I met up for dinner last week. I hadn’t had a good catch-up with her since the first week of August before the insanity (also known as the start of the academic year) started. She is one of my most favorite people in the world, a second mom and my goal is to get together with her at least once a month… so I got this one in just under the wire for September. I hold my crazy schedule completely responsible.
We debated for a good thirty minutes about where to go for dinner and ended up at a local favorite: Yesterday’s, since it has a little bit of everything on the menu. Good home-style cooking with lots of popular American dishes. Yesterday’s is an old favorite… I first ate there with my dad one time when we were down visiting from Ohio in the early nineties, my roommate freshmen year and I would walk down from campus to grab dinner from time to time and it has been a good go-to place for many years.
It is typical American food, but it wasn’t until this last visit that I realized how much of a Southern food place it is. They’ve always had country fried chicken and collards on the menu, but they re-did the menu recently and added an entire section on grits. I’ve mentioned what grits are HERE. You know you are in the South when there is a half of a page devoted to this culinary staple of the South. Well done, Yesterday’s!
Grits on the menu
The Age Difference
There are a lot of pros and cons about working with college students. On one hand, you are always going to be up on the latest slang, pop culture news and latest hit song because of the population you interact with everything. On the other hand, the years between you and those that you work with will always be growing and there will come a point where you realize you are no longer completely of the same generation as the students you interact with.
This hit completely home for me this past week more than ever before. I have an amazing staff this year in my office, and three of the staff who work with me the most all just turned 22 (as in within the last month, there has been a lot of Taylor Swift’s “22” being played in our office). They are a full decade younger than me. This is the first time in my career that I’ve had this much of an age gap between me and the staff I supervise on a daily basis. I realize that this is how it works, and that it will continue to happen, but this past month was the first time it really struck me that it was happening.
It was driven home this week when the following things happened.
Incident number one:
On Tuesday, I was chatting with one my GAs about the How I Met Your Mother episode the night before. We both adore this show and had been looking forward to the last season starting. I was commenting on how I loved all of the references to The Princess Bride…. the sword fighting, the one liners, the Mandy Patinkin comments. Her response: “Oh! I haven’t seen The Princess Bride. Is that what the lines during the sword fighting were about? None of the people I was watching it with could figure it out. And who is Mandy Patinkin?”
My response: ” You haven’t seen The Princess Bride? Inconceivable!”
Of course, she hasn’t seen the movie, so she didn’t get the joke. Which is even more tragic. I immediately went to YouTube and made her watch the trailer… which I have to admit, movie trailers in the 80’s may not have been the best. But the movie came out in 1987, I was like 6. She wasn’t even born until 1991. I’m tempted to take a Friday and make all three of these lovely ladies watch the movie so they can get the pop culture references. How can someone not know what it means when you hear: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” I mean, I typed “Hello. My name is” into Google a minute ago and the rest of the sentence was the first thing to pop up before I finished typing! Inigo Montoya even has a Wikipedia page!
thanks Pinterest
Incident number two:
The next day, in a staff meeting, we were talking about someone in the news or something another, when my boss comments, ” Yes, he looks a little like Zack Morris.” Another one of the 22 year-olds on the team replies with, ” Who is Zack Morris?”
My mouth may have completely dropped open at this comment. Who is Zack Morris? Seriously?
“You know, from Saved by the Bell, ” I said.
Blank look back at me.
This then launched the whole staff into commentary about the late eighties and early nineties and what we did, or did not, remember. I was more thrown by this one though, because I’m pretty sure that they still show re-runs of Saved by the Bell on TV. So it is not that hard to have an opinion on Zack, Slater, Kelly and the gang. Or the clothing choices from the costume people, the cell phone that Zack used, or that infamous episode with Jessie and the caffeine pills I’m so excited/I’m so scared episode. I just typed in “Jessie and I’m so sc” into Google and the YouTube clips immediately popped up. Clearly, still known in popular culture!
So, the lesson from all this… I’m getting older. Also, I think I’m going to make it a part of my job to make sure my staff are aware of the past pop culture hits they’ve missed out on. They may need it for trivia someday!
Flip Flops
This is true. My favorite November look is Reefs, jeans and a cable knit sweater.
Think I’m crazy? Perhaps part of it comes from working with college students, or maybe it really is just the South and the great weather. You don’t know how amazing it is until you’ve tried it. This is also the reason I own about 15 pairs of Reefs or Rainbows. Can’t live without them!
Throw Back Thursday: Road Trip, October 2000
Since it is the first week of October, we will throwback to another October…
Back during the first week of October in the fall of 2000, I was a freshman in college. My first semester living in the deep South. I road tripped up to close to the Mason Dixon line with Gail and two guys we had met in college who were also from the same general area we had grown up in. We made the drive together and then separated for the weekend to all hang out with different friend groups who were at various colleges in the area. I got to spend the weekend with three of my dearest friends: the Bestie, TT and Val.
Me, the Bestie, Val, and TT. October 2000.
Please note my ridiculously blonde hair. What was thinking it dying it blonde all those years? I would love to be that skinny again though! Gotta love the early millennium styles…. small sunglasses, boxy coats, if the group photo was in color you could totally see the whitewashed color of the jeans. Not to mention the eyeliner. Only a little over a decade later and we have changed so much. Not only in looks, but in who we have become. Love these ladies. So happy I can still call them my friends and people I consider family!
Me and TT. The hair, the makeup!
and…
The Bestie and Val
Staying Organized
I’m a busy person. My friends and colleagues know that if they want to get on my calendar, they need to plan early. Otherwise I’m trying to rearrange way too many things. And I’m not a fan of trying to rearrange things unless absolutely necessary. I also am always challenging myself on how to 1) be more sustainable and 2) make better use of constantly evolving technology to manage things. I was chatting with a group of students the other day about items I use to help manage my time and thought I’d share.
1. My Erin Condren Life Planner
I LOVE Erin Condren Life Planners! This is the second year that I have used one and I can’t live without it. The monthly and weekly layouts are wonderful. The stickers are so fun. I start out with color-coding the whole thing, but that tends to go by the wayside by the end of the semester. It has great space in the back to take all sorts of notes, and a great little pocket holder. It has cute quotes throughout, but the best part is that you can basically design your own cover design, with your name on it. Such fun. I went with a coral paisley design this year and pear colored back color. They are super durable with a hard plastic cover/back and a great steel coil. I’ve talked so much about them I’ve even convinced seven other people to buy them! They are a bit pricey, but it breaks down to pennies a day over the course of the year. Check them out: http://www.erincondren.com
2. Outlook
As much as I love my Erin Condren Planner and take it everywhere, I can’t function without my Outlook calendar. It is all nicely color-coded, easy to edit, and my entire office can see it and schedule things on it as needed. It is up constantly on my work laptop and is easily accessible by phone. Really, the best feature is the sharing ability. It makes my life much easier to just give someone access to my calendar and tell them to find a time that works for a meeting instead of going back and forth over times.
3. Evernote
This has replaced my old school padfolio, legal pads and post-it notes. It is basically an easy website to use to take notes in. You can create notebooks (like Psych 101, Writing, To-Do, etc.) and then you can also tag each note entry (such as chapter one notes, staff meeting, etc). You can access your account via the website or there are apps for my Ipad and Android phone. Do you know how nice it is not to have to remember to take a list to the grocery store with me? Or what a wonderful feeling it is not to try and track down the notes I wrote on a scrap of paper from a meeting? It is all in one place and completely organized by topic, I can even cross tag things in case it has multiple purposes. Best of all: it is free! http://www.evernote.com
4. RSS Feed Reader
I became obsessed with Google Reader a few years ago, and then got a a lot of my friends and colleagues hooked. We were all pretty devastated when Google announced it would be shut down last July. I spent a fair bit of time researching where to move my feeds and eventually decided on The Old Reader. Feedly and the AOL reader came in a close second, I may go to one if the Old Reader doesn’t work out. Basically, an RSS (which stands for Real Simple Syndication) feed is a way to have news and such delivered to one website so you can scroll through it. I have various things fed there: NBC world news, NBC US news, the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed, In Focus from The Atlantic, all of the various types of fun blogs that I follow, and the list goes on. I love, love, LOVE that I don’t have to waste my time going to 100 different websites a day to keep up on what is happening. I just check out my Old Reader feed and read at my leisure. Oh, other great features… you can create folders so that it all stays organized… I have a news folder, technology folder, blogs folder, travel folder, higher ed folder, and so on. You can also connect with other people and follow what they follow…. but that is just too much for me! http://www.theoldreader.com
5. Get Pocket
As I mentioned, I’m busy. So there are plenty of times that I don’t have time to actually read all of those blogs or articles I’ve come across, but I don’t want to lose them. So I signed up for Pocket (www.getpocket.com) which I’ve linked to my Old Reader account. Basically, every time I come across an article in my Old Reader account that I want to read and don’t have to read, I click the “Pocket” button and it goes to my Pocket account. Once it is in that account I can tag it with any tag I want: higher ed, technology, travel, etc. Like Evernote, you can cross tag, so I can have one article with the following tags: Travel, Europe, England, Hotels, travel tips. So, if I can’t remember how I tagged the article, I just remember it is about hotels…. I can just look at the hotel tag to find it. There is also a key word search. After I read the article I can delete it from the Pocket account or I can keep it. If they are going to be helpful in the future I keep them… kind of like an online filing cabinet. This also has a great app for the Ipad. LOVE IT!
So that is what I am using this semester to keep my life organized and save a little paper. What are you using? Any suggestions of new time-saving apps I should try?
Translation Tuesday: Cotton Pickin’
Today’s translation is in honor of Congress and this ridiculous federal shutdown.
“Have you lost your cotton pickin’ mind?” is a lovely colloquial phrase that means: what the hell were you thinking, have you lost your damn mind?!
So, since we have now been forced into a shutdown and several of my friends have been forced onto a furlough because hundreds of grown ups can’t find a compromise, I say to them… have you lost your cotton pickin’ mind? Get it together!
We Love Okra
We like festivals in the South. We like food in the South. It would make sense that we would have a lot of our festivals be food themed. The Peach Festival is in July, there are at least two Apple Festivals in September in different parts of my state, the Cornbread Festival, the Chitlins Festival (I don’t even really want to explain that one), and the list goes on. My friends and I like both festivals AND food, so it would make sense that we would patronize as many of these events as possible. Last September we made the logistical plans early and made our way to Irmo, South Carolina for their famous Okra Strut. It is coming up again, which is making me remember the fun from last year!
This is okra
Okra is a popular food around here. A lovely green veggie in the shape of a pod… it is eaten in gumbo, sauteed, mixed into casseroles, or sliced and deep fried. Hence the reason there is an entire festival dedicated to it. But Irmo has taken it a step further…. it has combined it with a Strut, which is a dance style. So basically, if I understand the premise, the town of Irmo has created a dance in honor of okra, and then dedicated a weekend festival to it as well. Love the south.
fried okra
Not only is there a festival, but there is also a parade. Complete with dancers, politicians, and a giant inflatable okra man. Yes, giant inflatable okra character… check out the picture below. Gail, Puff, Bimmer and I went to the parade, which was slightly longer than I anticipated, and then headed to the festival… where we all consumed fried okra and it was great! However, I have to admit that I didn’t see the famous Stut, but did see the giant green man!
OK- Anyone else have a festival that is unique to their area?
Pumpkin Confession
I have a confession to make. A confession that will make many gasp in shock and the inability to understand: I hate pumpkin.
As in, can’t stand to eat it, smell it, think about it in any context of food without wanting to gag. For the past month I’ve been scrolling through my Pinterest feed as fast as possible so I can skip all of the damn pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin spice puppy chow…. I hate it all. I know everyone else in America loves it all and counted down the days until a certain coffee company started to sell their pumpkin flavored beverages earlier this month, but I can live without it!
I love fall… the leaves, the crisp air, shorter days, football, even pumpkins as cute decorations. But the everything pumpkin flavored, I’ll pass. Go ahead, judge me and think I’m crazy, I’m okay not following this trend!
Throwback Thursday: Tailgating, 2007
I’m jumping on the Throwback Thursday bandwagon. My friend Kari has been doing on her blog and it has been fun to see her old photos, so I thought I’d try. Plus, it gives me an excuse to use up some of the 37,000+ photos I have uploaded on my photo page (yep, 37,000+). Since it is fall, I went with a football themed picture!
Homecoming 2007
This is a pretty typical group picture of some of the 420 crew. It is from left to right: Anna (Anna Mazurek Photography), Gail, Me, and Rach (Out of Meal Ideas). Typical. Anna chilling with a beer looking on at the shenanigans. Gail and I involved in the shenanigans. Rach with a smile on her face that is saying “what the heck are they doing? take the picture already.” Oh, and there is a garden gnome involved. Our group has a thing for garden gnomes, I don’t know how it developed, you all have no idea how hard it is for me to not buy a “hanging with my gnomies” shirt every time I see one. I love this picture. I actually think I have it framed somewhere. It was a beautiful fall game and we had all gotten together to tailgate in the morning for before a game. There were football shaped biscuits and chicken sandwiches from chic-fil-a. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday in the South. Food, friends, college football and tailgating. I’m pretty sure that there was a ride on a motorized cooler train after this….
*I should note that I THINK this is my photo, but I’m not 100%. So if it belongs to Anna, Gail or Rach… sorry. I had to dig to find it. It is a fave though!
All things I love…
about living in the South.
Love the front porch, fried chicken and steel magnolias. Not such a huge fan of the moon pies. How about you?
Translation Tuesday: Hush
This one is pretty easy. Hush is a very nice way of saying shut up.
Sometimes I say “Hush Your Mouth” not so much “Hush Up” but I definitely say “Hush! ” Usually the full phrase is, “oh. hush” sounds do much prettier than “shut up.”
Chicken With My Head Cut Off
This is how I feel today.
Strike that. This is how I’ve felt most days since the start of August. The beginning of the school year is always crazy. Unfortunately, it continues on and on. I’m ready for September to be over with!
In the meantime, until the craziness dies down, I’ll be the one speed walking across campus in high heels and constantly running late from one meeting to next. Sigh.
Crockpot Salsa Chicken
Oh, how have I not put this up here already? It is hands down a fave for me and up North in the Bestie’s house. She is actually the one who told me to try it in the first place. Which is funny if you think about it… we did have to teach her how to make tuna salad back in the day, she has come a long way with cooking since then 🙂
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup salsa (I like Greenwise by Publix or Paul Newman- medium for both)
- 1 packet of taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 can cream of chicken condensed soup OR make your own, which is what I do. Process for this in another entry.
- soft tortillas
Steps
- Put your chicken in the bottom of the crock pot
- Sprinkle the taco seasoning all over the chicken
- In a separate bowl, mix together the salsa and condensed soup mix*.
- Spread mix over chicken
- Cook on high for four hours
- Take a pair of tongs or forks and shredded the chicken
- Mix in the sour cream
Salsa Chicken. Not the best photo, but at least I remembered to take one!
You could eat this a number of ways… on a salad, as a dip, made up as a sandwich. I eat it rolled on a tortilla. I heat the tortilla for 10 seconds, then spread sour cream on it, sprinkle shredded cheese on it and load it up with chicken. Roll it up and eat! It is very good and very easy to make. The chicken freezes really well too!
* I really recommend making your own version of cream of chicken soup. Anytime I’ve made this using the can version it is sooooo salty. It is great when you make your own!
In looking up the recipe on the Bestie’s blog it looks like she got it from this blog.
Translation Tuesday: Haint Blue
As I’ve mentioned, I work with lots of exchange students as a part of my job. I love it when I take the exchange students to Charleston for weekend trips each year because I get to explain so many of the cool little quirks of the South. One of those unique features is the subject of today’s Translation Tuesday: haint blue.
benjamin moore crystal springs via http://willowbeeinspired.blogspot.com/2011/06/be-inspired-no-2-haint-blue-porch.html
Haint blue is a shade of blue that is very popular in the South, especially in Charleston, SC. It is light blue with a touch of green mixed in and you will often see it painted on the ceiling of a porch, or on a trim around an outdoor window or door. Historically, it traces its roots back to the Gullah culture that is found in the low country. Legend says that ghosts and evil spirits can’t cross water, haint blue is similar to the shade of ocean water. So many people painted the porch ceilings and such this shade of blue to keep evil spirits and such out of their homes. You can wander all through Charleston and see this on porch after porch throughout the city.
I’m trying to convince my Dad that he needs to paint the ceiling of his back porch haint blue as a part of his deck and yard renovation project. We live in the South, its fitting! Have you seen haint blue on a house before?
convertedsoutherner 