Well...

I suppose I should write some sort of summer review since I have been derelict in my writings and certainly have some wondering if I have fallen off the planet.  I however cannot wrap my head around that at this hour and in all honestly I floated through this summer only halfway acknowledging my own existence.
Truth is I suppose I have floated in and out of the last few years only halfway present.
It's autumn and this is my favorite time of year.  From that first chill in the air in September until the Christmas trees all come down is the time I live my whole year for.  It always feels magical and special.  College football, Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas parades and Choir musicals; I love it all!  But it also the hardest time of year, it's when I lost my mom, when I lost Asheville and the time of year that twice upon a time, I lost myself.
This autumn the biggest change maybe the realization that I need to reclaim myself.  I have rebuilt myself in the image of what I thought someone needed me to be, and lost the person I was.  In the end it has gained me nothing except a laundry pile of things to weed through and decide what must be tossed, recycled, or kept as a token from this time.
So no resolutions, but just a solemn promise to seek out and find the driven, artistic, beautiful woman than lies inside of all this clutter that I mucked my life up with.
I'm done with the tears and late night angst that could rival anything I ever did in my teenage years.  In the words of C.S. Lewis, "further up, further in."

Goodbye Blanche...again.

Just over a year ago when my first car died I was devestated.  Blanche, my 1990 Subaru wagon was my best pal, and giving her up was one of the saddest things I had had to do considering it was just a piece of metal with no real soul or spirit to speak of except to me.

Today we mourn another Blanche, or at least the lady who embodied her.  The namesake of my old car was Blanche Deveraux of the 80s-90s sitcom The Golden Girls.  Jokingly because the car was old and gold and I said if she must be those things then she should be the slutty one, but more seriously because I loved that show, I loved that character and mostly I loved the actress who portrayed her.

Today Rue McClanahan passed away in the early hours of the morning due to a massive stroke.  She is the 3rd of the 4 ladies to pass off of this scene but for me the most close to home.  I loved to watch Rue in the movies she made as well as old reruns of Mama's Family, Maude and of course The Golden Girls.  When I was in elementary school the GG's came on as I was getting home.  Being a latchkey kid I let myself in, made a snack and watched these four women who could have very well been my grandmothers and learned what true sitcom was all about.  In college they came on at 11pm which is about time for a study break in the midst of all-nighters and their laughter filled the spaces of every dorm room I ever inhabited.
For a lady I never met, and only really knew through the characters she portrayed, she was quite like family and I will miss her.  The greatest consolation being of course that when I am sad or just in need of a good friend I can turn on the tv, flip around on the channels a bit and usually find Rue, along with Estelle, Bea and Betty whenever I need them.
For now however, it is a very sad day for those of us who grew up in tv land.
Good bye Rue, and to you and Blanche, thank you for being a friend.

Playing a little Catch-up in Midst of Much

It has been ages since I last blogged and I have missed being here, but sometimes there is so much life it leaves no time to blog about it!

Here are the big events in order that they pop into my head.

The March of Dimes Walk:  So much fun!  My pal Elizabeth and I who rank pretty low on the athletic scale got up to do a little marching for babies.  Of course our version was a little more akin to "strolling for babies" but we had a blast and aside from being scolded by Jack Roper for not dancing vigorously enough we managed to stay out of trouble.

The Calvary Baptist Youth Golf Tournament 2010:  All of the Calvary golfers were out in full form for our 2nd annual golf tournament.  Beth and I were on our game as the official photography team.  There actually isn't anything official about us except we really like riding around on a golf cart with cameras.
Nana has been teaching me to play golf and in another 2 weeks I will have my own set of ladies left-handed clubs!  I can't wait! 
Hopefully next year I will be playing in the tournament myselfm which will be pretty much awesome!  I just have to convince Beth that she should play with me.  That may be harder than learning to hit my irons of the fairway without a tee. :(

I cut my hair!  So I realize that this isn't a huge event but come on, it was getting really long.  Here is the deal, if you love me and decide I ever need to be in your wedding, you can love me with short hair.  I will no longer be growing out my locks for someone else's nuptials ever again.  Thank you and God bless...um and as Sherrie is pretty much the only one left to get married in my life, and she feels the same way about her hair as I do right now, I figure this is a pretty safe statement to make :)

Relay for Life 2010:  Anyone who has ever been touched by cancer in anyway needs to have the experience of being touched by the Relay family.  That really is all you can say about it.  People who haven't been touched by it don't get it, but it is one of the most incredible things.  All of these friends and strangers working together to raise money to beat something that has taken so much away from us is empowering.  The night itself is fun andfull of laughter and a few tears.  Who can't tear up watching a little girl who just finished her first rounds of chemo walking around a track surrounded by her teachers and classmates with the biggest smile in the world on her face, or walking around a track holding hands with your oldest friend and seeing your mother's luminary flickering on the side of the track?  Of course all of that mixed with the electric slide and chasing people down to stop them from giving money to the people with the Clemson flag so that you can give it to those with the carolina flag makes for something so special that words are not made for.

At the bank this year I made bracelets to raise money and the response was tremendous!  I couldn't keep up with the demand and I am ready for next year to see if we cantop ourselves.  Of course I can't wait until we are finished and have to find a new reason to Relay!

Mr. and Mrs Dweil get hitched!  My cousin Tracy married a great fella name Mike and it was a gorgeous wedding!  Not to mention that the Burnett family got down.  I mean who knew we all could dance?  Correction:  Who knew we all like to try to dance? (whether we actually can or not is still up for great debate.)  In any event it was a fun reception and I am very happy for the cousin and cousin in law!

Lucy and Jess's Excellent Adventure: In order to get a wedding present for the Dweil's, Lucy and I took off for Saludato find something fun and special, and ended up taking a trip through the mountains and spending so great time together!  We landed in Flat Rock and had a fabulous pizza before heading home.  Great times!

Then there are all the little moments that truly are my favorites.  The ones that have no real reason except that all the right people where together.  Cinco de Mayo with Donna, Paul, Cynthia and Robin, breakfast at Fatz with Nikki, buying a new car battery, a ladies luncheoun at church, a really pretty one of a kind gerber daisy tree and always knowing that Mary is a phone call away to make sense of it all.

The Calvary Welcome Center

Over the last year the Welcome Center at Calvary has been an ongoing pet project of Donna, Cynthia and I (and Robin by virture of he has his own nail gun and can build bars).
We finally opened on Easter Sunday after much hard work.  Here are some pictures of the process and I will have pictures of our finished product very soon :)

Cynthia's giant coffee cup she freehanded.  She is AMAZING!

Can't you just see the clouds floating by in the pretty windows.  Donna painted the sky and I hung the clouds.

My first experience with vinyl lettering.  Cynthia found this awesome clock and taught me how to rub the letters onto the wall and hang the hands in the middle.  Super cool!

Robin hanging our mirror for us.

Springy hangers are cool. :)

Cynthia's block wall.  This little piece of wall has so much going on and she camoflauged it brilliantly.

The initial frame for Robin's bar.

Our pretty little paint mess.  Don't tell anyone we used up all of the butter dishes!

Donna checking out the fabric for our divider slip covers.

The great collaborators getting their velcro on.

The bar, a little further along.  Countertop is incredible!

Putting up tools is funny...apparently.

Yes Nikki, it is righty tighty lefty lucy :)

Ice Balls and Other Mysterious Diseases

I am finally getting myselft back up to some symblance of normal after a bizarre encounter with the most unpleasant of diseases.  The headaches, sore throat and fevers seem to have subsided and now I am left with a voice that sounds akin to a horse/ bullfrog hybrid and some nagging exhaustion.  I have no doubt that I will be back to practically perfect by Easter.  My Nikki however seems to have caught a much worse and longer lasting version of this disease and it needs to be gone!  Good news is it's not mono or strep but danged it we know what it is. :(
In other knews from the weekend, yesterday evening I got caught out in the Spartanburg County hail storm of 2010.  It was crazy!  After much phone conversation between Cynthia, Donna and myself about how to cover our cars on our respective ways home I ducked into the Ingles gas mart in Peach Valley to givve my paint job some respite from the onslaught.  I then talked to Robin, who likes to fancy himself as some sort of meteorologist apprentice and he gave me the scoop on how long I needed to stay put and such.  He then began exclaiming that there were ice balls in his floor and after careful examination further exclamined that he had "ice balls in his chimney."  Now I am not completely certain as to why this struck me so funny, but I am pretty sure I haven't laughed about anything that hard in a really long time! 
The pelting subsided and I made the rest of my way home.  Everyone had pretty dinged up paint jobs this morning but as far as I know all of my friends and family made it out of the storm with no more incident than that.

Friendships

I have been sick this week so my apologies for the lack of post.  I did have a little surge of fever induced inspiration so I did a little playing on the Picnik and here are the fruits of the labor.
Just a few photos of the people I don't see enough, but can't live without.

And to the girls I see whenever I need to but never want to be found taking them for granted...

"Up" movie night

"Up" is amazing!!!

For the semi-annual Calvary movie night we watched Up Saturday night.  First and foremost this movie is incredible.  I don't care how old you are, this animated film is brilliant!

The Calvary crowd of course had a blast, not only with the movie but with the chili dogs and fixin's before the movie and of course the rec and fellowship clean up crew which disolved into Robin, Donnie, Paul and Donna singing songs from Hee Haw and Oh Brother Where Art Thou. 

Here are a few photos of the fun and frivolity :)

The grillmaster dethroned!

Brenda told Robin to move over and she showed him how to clean a grill when you leave the brush at home.

Hysterical!

The food line!!

Me with my church "daughter" Brittany.

I love her!

Oh, Nikki....

I loves her too :)

That's about it for the pictures because Donna and Tammy threatened to take my camera away...

I didn't find myself annoying at all.

Kitty Condos....

This as you can imagine is another bank project.  I love these fabulously whacky things I get to do where I work.  One of our bosses at the bank is a huge supporter of the Spartanburg Humane Society and so we had a little project this week for them.  Our mission was to take standard super thick cardboard boxes and thurn them into chic little hideaways for the shelters cats and kittens.  We picked up our supplies on Tuesday morning and then we dove into Operation Kitty Condo.

I was, as usual, slightly more jacked up about playing with magic markers than my coworkers, but gradually we began to find the children buried deep within their hardened adult exteriors.

Here is a sampling of our creative endeavors :)

Donna went for it with her bright colorful rainbow, which Debra adorned with her St. Patty's Day inspired pot of gold.  Harriett topped it off with a myriad of stars and the result is this colorful number that for me is somewhat remenisent of my childhood days watching Rainbow Bright.

June took home a box to her grandson and he did a great job decorating!

I am sure all the kitties will love having these friendly puppies around to look at.

Meredith is our ever trusty artist, who may have left us in the banking world but is always there to lend us a hand.  Debra handed off a box to her and she made this great town house box with charming hanging baskets and little fence.

Debra and I decided to top it off with a somewhat spanish inspired roof.

We aren't quitting our day jobs but I think we make pretty good roofers!

I, still entranced with Wonderland, went for a Red Queen's castle theme and I think Iracibeth would have been pleased!  I personally am thrilled with my White Rabbit and think his huge scale should be enough for me to keep my head!

I did my top with a completely transformed Absolem.

This may be the only time I am ever able to draw an Alan Rickman movie character biut I'm all good with that!

Suzanne's box will be complete in the morning, but here is what we have so far.

June's grandson wanted some Clemson love on his box, so I helped him out a little.  My Gamecock blood runs deep, but ya got to help a kid out where you can!

Tomorrow our boxes compete against the downtown competition and after Polly's win last week I am hoping for another creative win for the Reidville crew!

Nikki, Cynthia, Donna and Jessica in Wonderland (and Alice too!)

Well here it is the Alice and Wonderland redo.  Finally saw it last weekend with my girls on our mommy daughter date and had a great time.  Monterrey's first followed by the film!
Ok, well a little goofing off and then the film...
3D glasses are cool, just ask me and Nikki.  We had great fun with them...although I think it would be hilarious to be a theater employee to look up and see a gaggle of folk with their funky black glasses on.

And yes I am a super geek who is blind without her glasses so she must wear 3D glasses over the normal glasses and end up looking like some sort of bizzarre 6 eyed alien :)

While we had this incredible photo shoot the mommies were getting their Raisinette and Coca Cola what nots...then the film started!

And down the rabbit hole we fell!!

Seriously, after I saw it the first time I was like "huh? that was it?"

then I saw it the second time and was like "yep that was it."

But then I kept finding quotes and images floating up in my mind and it has quite grown on me.  I think in time this will become a favorite.  That being said this is the first movie of Tim Burton's with his company of Death Eaters that I have felt this way about.  Everytime they put out a flick I get really excited and then I am disapointed, ala the Sweeney Todd Christmas Day excustion of 2007.  This time, by golly I think they might have actually done it!  Ok, so Helena Bonham Carter still scares the poo out of me, but I think that is all apart of her charm.

All in all an amazingly wonderful experience but it seriously might have had a whole lot more to do with the company of the Mrs. Edge and Paxton and the Miss Paxton than the sound of Alan Rickman's incredible voice coming out of a drugged up caterpillar ;)

Junior Achievement BizBowl 2010

The bowling tournament was a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!
The first game I managed a 42...I started and ended with strikes and pretty much everything else was gutter balls.  Second game was a little better...3 strikes and a few extra pins here and there and still a whole bunch of gutter balls.  Seriously, I suck at bowling, but I had so much fun!!!!
I played with girls from the main office, but spent time running down to check on my Reidville peeps.
Here are pictures.....

I think I'm so artsy LOL

Harriett and Jeff...so cute!

Ted and Debra...my camera flashed a gazillion times in the dark bowling alley and Debra was not feeling the patience!

The newlyweds, Joe and Suzanne...after I got them to quit making out and smile for a picture.  DORKS!

Donna and Larry left before I took the camera out :(

And last but not least....

DRUMROLL...

POLLY WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me with the representative of Reidville Road, Miss Polly Palmetto

She won the bowling pin beauty pageant and on this auspicious occasion she would like to thank Cynthia Edge for helping to bring her into being and all those who donated to JA by voting for her!!

Here is some of her worthy competition!

The Village People on the left were quite cute!

My cohort Elizabeth's fish Lilly.  Definitely the most stylish fish I've ever met!

Ok, so obviously the pin pageant is my new favorite aspect of BizBowl.  Can't wait until next year!!!