Translation Tuesday: Well, Butter My Butt…
Truth. In the nearly fifteen years that I have lived down here I have heard this phrase used exactly three times. It rarely refers to actual biscuits (which I happen to love). So it may not be the most common southern slang, but it is a whole heck of a lot of fun: Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!
Well, Butter my Butt and Call Me a Biscuit! via http://www.etsy.com/shop/MagnoliaHousePrints
The phrase is a long-winded and dramatic way of saying “Well, I’ll be” or “I’ll be darned.” It usually indicates “surprise.” For example: “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, look whose here!” or “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, Steve finally graduated from school!”
That one time… I had an allergic reaction to mascara
This was not how I wanted to start my Monday. Looking all around my eyes like the marshmallow man from the Ghostbusters movie.
But I did. Allergic reaction to mascara. Ugh. Not a happy camper.
This is what my eyes normally look like:
What I normally look like. From a wedding in Fall 2013.
It all started on Sunday. I was running errands and just tossed on some powder and mascara to look presentable to go in public (this is the South after all). I has this Eco-friendly, 100% natural, made from tea and fruit or something that I got for free as a part of a package. Seemed like a good day to give it a whirl. FAIL. Even more ironic that it is Eco-friendly.I was taking my makeup off that night and the area around my eyes were super itchy. Then this morning I woke up and looked like this:
allergic reaction to mascara
You can’t even tell how bad it is in this photo. All swollen under, above and all around the eye. They itch like none other and are an ugly shade of red. Everyone keeps looking at me and doing a double-take. It looks THAT bad. I’ve had cold compresses on and off all day and taken normal allergy meds. If it is not better tomorrow I am going to have to go to the doctor. Sigh, I see a cortisone shot or something to reduce swelling in my future. It is ugly and driving me nuts. NOT using that type of mascara EVER again.
Throwback Thursday: Junior Prom, April 1999
Oh, my first prom. Class of 2000, so this was April 1999… end of junior year of high school. I totally went the princess route. The skirt of this lovely lavender creation was eight layers. EIGHT.
Junior Prom. I went with the princess dress.
I still have the dress. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to be a size 7/8 again? Oh so long ago. And my blonde dye job wasn’t that bad, right? It was a pretty ash blonde here. Senior prom hair though… that was super blonde. And the prom theme… Am I Dreaming? Our class (minus Gail) loved us some Dave Matthews Band. Actually, I am pretty sure a ridiculous number of us still love DMB!
Translation Tuesday: Don’t Get Your Feathers Ruffled
I love that Southern Living posted these little phrases on Pinterest. They are such a cute little design! Anyway… Don’t Get Your Feathers Ruffled…. guesses?
via Southern Living
It means, don’t get yourself in a snit. Which may be another southern saying in itself… it means don’t get all upset about something. Stay calm, don’t be bothered… don’t let it ruffle your feathers!
Example, “Don’t let your mother-in-law ruffle your feathers, she doesn’t know what she is talking about.*”
Direct quote from this month from someone I work with! Now you know… don’t let them ruffle your feathers!
101 Days
101 days until the start of college football! You know I live in the South when I know that! I just saw that Lou Holtz is going to retire from doing commentary at ESPN at the end of this season, which makes me a little sad… I’ve always liked him. Thursday, August 28th will bring the start of the new season…. ESPN Gameday, tailgates, school colors, and college football dominating Saturdays. I can’t wait! Also, can’t wait to see the SEC dominate again. I mean, if it is not the SEC, is it really football?
via yahoo
Today’s Throwback is from four years ago at Gail and Puff’s wedding. Happy Anniversary to my dear friends! They got married back in the Fort at a sweet wedding surrounded by friends and family. It was a low-drama, yummy cake-filled, awesome music kinda night. I’ve known most of people in these pictures for nearly 20 years and it was such a fun night dancing, laughing and drinking. Clearly, there was a lot of alcohol consumed in some of these photos. All of the bridesmaids donned flip flops by the end of the night to rock with our cute dresses… with pockets. Love dresses with pockets! So, a smattering of my photos from that evening!
Me with the bride
The bride getting advice from her Dad
Gail and Puff cutting the cake
Meg and Missy. Fellow bridesmaids.
Friends for years!
Dancing Queen
Sean and Sara
Sean and Chuck
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Strike a Pose
The Bride and Groom at the end of the night
Translation Tuesday: Gimme Some Sugar
This is one I hear all the time down here… Gimme Some Sugar. It means give over here and give me a kiss… give me a little sugar.
Gimme Some Sugar via Pinterest
Pretty easy little translation, often used and just a fun phrase! I have no idea why this image included a picture of a pie… not the same kind of sugar.
In My Life
I love music. Drives my friends nuts that I can read with the music blaring. There are lots of songs that I love, but only one has remained my constant favorite year after year. In My Life by the Beatles.
In My Life lyrics from the Beatles. Image via Pinterest
I’ve listened to different covers over the years and appreciated them all. The song was on the album Rubber Soul which was one of the first CDs I ever owned. Actually, to be more specific, I stole my Dad’s copy 🙂
Part of the reason this remains one of my all-time favorite songs is because it always has meaning to me. No matter what is going in my life, what situation I am in… it fits. There are places I’ll remember… all these places have their moments…. and in my life, I’ve loved them all. And while many songs will come and go… this one will always be my favorite. 🙂
Throwback Thursday: College Graduation, May 2004
Ten years ago this week I graduated from college. How the hell did time go by so quickly?!? In May 2004….
- The TV show Friends ended a ten year run. I totally remember watching while packing up my apartment.
- The Iraq and Afghanistan were still in their early stages.
- I was obsessed with the song “The Reason” by Hoobastank
- Facebook had only been around for a few months and I was boycotting (that didn’t last)
- We ALL were still using AIM (that would be AOL Instant Messenger for you young folk)
- 13 Going on 30 and Troy were playing in the movie theater
- The average cost of gas had JUST jumped to a little over $2 a gallon. I remember when I used to be able to fill my gas tank for $10. TEN DOLLARS!
- And I spent the night before graduation hanging out with my roommates and ironing all of my friends graduation gowns because I refused to be in pictures with wrinkled graduation robes. I am so weird.
All of the girls a few days before college graduation. May 2004
Graduation was a crazy weekend with several ceremonies, a lot of luncheons and grad parties, and plenty of tears. I loved my time in college. It had lots of highs and lots of lows and I learned so much. Looking back at this photo I probably thought I knew everything… little did I know how much I had to learn still. I didn’t know all the sadness that would follow in a few months when my Grandmother passed away. Or how much grad school would kick my ass. I had no idea all of the cool places I would see in the next few years or the great people I would meet. I did know that I would continue to be surrounded by wonderful people. Ten years later I’m happy to say I was at or in the weddings for most of these women. I spent my birthday a few weeks ago with or on the phone with about half of this group. Sure, some of us have drifted apart… but I love that I still am close to so many, and at least in touch with all of them. Not bad for ten years. This also means that our ten year reunion will be hosted by our alma mater this fall! Ladies, whose in for Homecoming?!
A few photos from that weekend… I wish I had more!
The student org crew
And another
The 420 and 300 roomies
I was thinner… but my hair still looks pretty much the same.
SQ 420 forever and never serious.
I don’t even know what they were doing.
Graduation. For the record…I still have this dress and it fits. Also, I just got rid of these shoes!
Friday grads. For the record, I have an inability for a Mortar Board to sit correctly on my head.
with Pinkster
Graduation Wisdom
Today marks the 10th anniversary of my college graduation… nuts! That means that it is graduation season and my next few days will be filled with graduation ceremonies, hooding ceremonies, and various other graduation celebrations. It is a bittersweet time of year because I am so very proud of my students, but so sad to see them leave as well.
Several years ago, I stumbled upon this book called What Now? by Ann Patchett. It was at a time in my life when I was trying to figure out which direction I wanted to go in (the quarter life crisis) and it was exactly the book I needed at that time to challenge me and help me reflect and think about what I was going to do. It is hands down one of my most favorite books that I’ve ever read and is one of the few books that has actually had an impact on my life.
It is a small little thing, about a 100 pages or so. I believe it started out as a graduation speech she gave and then morphed into a little book. For the last six years or so I have always given a copy as a graduation gift to my graduating students. I actually think it is out of print now, I know I have bought every copy in my four bookstores in the area and have had to start ordering it online. I need to re-order, I’m giving out my last copy this week! I’ve had students come back and tell me they loved it… right after graduation, sometimes even six years later. It is meaningful at different times in my opinion. For me, it was when I was 27. Below are the first several paragraphs of the opening and it gives some great words of graduation wisdom.
“If all fairy tales begin with ‘Once upon a time,’ then all graduation speeches begin ‘When I was sitting where you are now’ We may not always say it, at least not in those exact words, but it’s what graduation speakers are thinking. We lookout at the sea of you and think, Isn’t there some mistake? I should still be sitting there. I was that young 15 minutes ago, I was that beautiful and lost.
For me this feeling is compounded by the fact that Sarah Lawrence was my own alma mater. I look out at all these chairs lined up across Westlands lawn and I think, I slept on that lawn, I breathed that wisteria. I batted away those very same bees, or at least I batted away their progenitors. Time has a funny way of collapsing when you go back to a place you once loved. You find yourself thinking, I was kissed in that building, I climbed up that tree. This place hasn’t changed so terribly much, so by an extension of logic I must not have changed either.
But I have.
That’s why I’m the graduation speaker. Think of me as Darwin sailing home on the Beagle. I went forth in the world just the way you are about to go forth, and I gathered up all the wondrous things I’ve seen; now I’ve brought them back to you. As the graduation speaker I’m the one with the wisdom, or at least that’s the assumption, but you as the graduates have something even better: you have youth, which, especially when you multiply it by several hundred, is a thing so fulgent it all but knocks the breath out of those of us who are up on the stage. I’d like to tell you to appreciate your youth, to stop and admire your own health and intelligence, but every writer has a cliché quota and I used mine up by saying, When I was sitting where you are now.
When you leave this place, as you will in a few hours, be sure to come back. Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you to another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which, aided by several detours- long hallways and unforeseen stairwells- eventually puts you in the place you are now. Every choice lays down a trail of bread crumbs, so that when you look behind you there appears to be a very clear path points straight to the place where you now stand. But when you look ahead there isn’t a bread crumb in sight- there are just a few shrubs, a bunch of trees, a handful of skittish woodland creatures. You glance from left to right and find no indication of which way you are supposed to go. And so you stand there, sniffing the wind, looking for directional clues in the growth patterns of moss, and you think, What now?”
– Ann Patchett, What Now
Hands down my best graduation gift to give and one of my favorite books. Go buy a copy and give it as a gift today! Do you have any great graduation gifts?
Translation Tuesday: Fiddle Dee Dee
I love Gone With the Wind. Well, the movie anyway… the book is on my list to read. Scarlett loves to say “Fiddle Dee Dee.”
Scarlett O’Hara Fiddle Dee Dee via http://groovyvic.mu.nu/
Okay, so Fiddle Dee Dee isn’t really used a lot in the South anymore. It was popular way back in the day. Basically, it is the old school way of saying “Whatever.” Honestly, I kinda like Fiddle Dee Dee, it just seems more fun. And you can say it with a completely different tone and still have the same impact.
Watch Out for Gators
Personally, when I think of Gators, I think of Florida. There is a reason the University of Florida has them as the mascot… they are all over southern Florida. Sometimes I forget them we have them here along the coastal lower south… but we do!
Watch Out for Gators… via Pinterest
When I was a kid and we would go on vacation down to the Carolina Coast, we would automatically start Gator Patrol. See how many we could spot. I always knew to be careful near swamps and such. Didn’t think much about roads, until this made the rounds on social media today: Gator Crosses the Road Near Coast
Ugh. I’m gonna have Crocodile Dundee on the Atlantic Coast nightmares tonight. And, yes, I know the differences between alligators and crocodiles. Alligators have just never been the subject of a hit movie franchise, now have they? (We’re just going to forget about that 3rd Dundee film). Be on the lookout the next time you head South!
For my 21st birthday, my Dad took to to Cancun, Mexico for a vacation. There was lots of pool time, snorkeling, and exploring the are. Granted, this was 2002 before there was a travel warning for Mexico because of all the drug cartel issues. One day we took a day trip into the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula and toured the ruins of Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza are the ruins of a huge and powerful Mayan city from like 800 AD (at least according to Wikipedia).
Climbing down the temple at Chichen Itza
It was so cool exploring the whole place, but at some point my Dad and I decided we wanted to go up to the top of the center temple… the Temple of Kukulkan. The view was lovely, but it is like 70 something feet high. And it was designed with such precision, it is lovely. But all that loveliness that has stood for hundreds of years…. comes with really steep steps. I mean REALLY steep. It was at such an angle, we could walk down. We went down scouting down on our asses.
The above picture is one of my Dad. We were just happy we didn’t tumble down! Look at that drop! Would you want to walk down that?
Hindu Wedding Adventure- Part IV (The Sari)
It may take me a damn year, but I’m going to finish all the updates about my experience being a part of a Hindu wedding. On the bright side, Rach is a good friend and keeps giving me hell about it, so at least I’ve got a reminder! So this entry is about what I wore as a bridesmaid. When Pinkster first brought up being a bridesmaid and wearing a sari, I was on the phone thinking “where the hell do I get a sari?”
All dressed up in the bridesmaid sari and ready to go. THREE safety pins holding this!
Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about where to get it. Her parents had them made for us, and paid for them. Apparently, this is common in this culture and I LOVED IT (I also love her parents and want to adopt them, but that is another topic). Her parents also covered our hotel, gifts and meals.
So the bridesmaid sari. I was like sure, as long as my stomach isn’t hanging out… just let me know if I need to go to a store and get sized. HA! A few weeks after this conversation, Pinkster sends me instructions on how to measure myself for the sari. IT WAS A 17 PAGE POWERPOINT. I kid you not. On two slides alone I had about 30 different front shirt styles. It was nice to have options. And it took a freaking hour to fill out!
So- what is the sari made of? First, it was multilayered and the entire thing was wrapped and tucked and held up with THREE safety pins. Seriously. One of Pinkster’s aunts and a cousin came to the hotel at 7am to dress all the non-Indian bridesmaids who had never worn a sari before and had no earthly idea what to do with all this pretty material. The saris were red with a lovely gold and green embroidery all around the edges.
Bottom later: the petticoat. It was just a satin layer held up with a draw string.
petticoat and blouse
Blouse: We all got to choose the cut of our blouse. I wanted to be covered as humanly possible. I LOVE how body image is not as much as a focus in the Indian culture as it is in American culture, but I couldn’t shake my fears about showing my stomach! So I got a Horseshoe neck with sleeves. It was also October, so I didn’t want to be too cold. My blouse buttoned with little hooks completely up the front. Actually, I didn’t get to try the sari on until the day before the wedding and it didn’t fit. Luckily, there were people in her family with excellent sewing skills, so they fixed it immediately.
detail
After the blouse and sari were on, the rest of the material was just completely wrapped around me with certain tucks and pulls. All held up with those tucks and three safety pins. There was no going back… that sari did not come off until it was time to change into the second dress for the reception!
And finally, some pictures of the bride in her bridal sari. It was all white, red and gold. She was completely stunning!
Translation Tuesday: Spanish Moss
Spanish Moss. I was obsessed with this stuff as a kid. Every time we drove down to the low country for vacation I wanted to load up a bag of this stuff and take it back to Ohio with me. I thought they were fairy wings (I was six)! My Dad kindly talked me out of each time.
I snapped this while jogging through Palmetto Dunes in Hilton Head last week. Love Spanish Moss!
Spanish Moss is a plant that grows in trees throughout the coastal low country (where there is heavy humidity), usually in Oaks. It was a good thing my Dad would never let me take it home.. snakes, spiders and other bugs have a tendency to live in it… and birds use it to make nests. Back in the day it use to be used to stuff mattress. Legend goes that this is where the saying “Don’t let the bed bugs bite” comes from. Because bugs lived in the moss and then they were stuffed into mattresses! Granted, I don’t why they call it Spanish. For some reason when I was a kid I had it in my head that it was because the Spanish Conquistadors had beards… and the moss looked like long beards. But as I think about it, that seems silly. Anyone know why it is called this?
Regardless… if you come down South and see this stuff hanging from the trees, you now know what it is! And don’t take it home!
convertedsoutherner 