This year was the 4th year that we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving in MLK Jr. Park, or as it’s occasionally referred to, “Everybody deserves to eat day.”
This whole thing started 4 years ago through our friend Thom who basically said, “I’ve finally found myself in a position to do something I’ve always wanted to do which is feed people who need it. Lets all do this and spend Thanksgiving together. Everyone should have a place to eat and people to eat with.”
It wasn’t (and isn’t) just about feeding the homeless (although we certainly do), but also about giving people who might not have family in town, or might not have family at all, a place to go and people to spend time with. We all agreed it was a great idea and he’s been at the lead ever since.
This year was the biggest to date. I counted what we had left, and of the 100 plates we started with, there are now 12. That’s 88 meals served. Of course by the end we were down to tea, water, biscuits and pie, but we loaded people up on food in any fashion we could. Our goal is always to run out of food and we did – in record time. That’s both amazing and scary. We’re going to have to keep growing this to keep up with what we want to do, which is always serve more people. Thank you to everyone who helped us this year. Also know that if you’re reading this, around the first week of October 2010, we’re coming after you to ask you to contribute to the cause again, or for the first time. Thanks in advance 
Not to mention this year we also had a football to toss around, and I got to introduce people to the fun that is the Foxtail.
So this year… What am I thankful for?
I’m thankful I’m employed again.
I’m thankful that Meg is healthy and the pregnancy is progressing so well.
I’m thankful for a happy, healthy, loving (and growing) family.
I’m thankful that I have so many close, kind and giving friends.
I hope your Thanksgiving was as fun and rewarding as ours was.
For more, see my flickr stream: GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE
xoxo
So in May of 2009 I was contacted on Flickr by a woman named Stefanie. She claimed to be the editor for a guidebook publisher called Museyon, and she was asking permission to use this photograph in a blurb about Calicounty and Merle Haggard. She claimed they were a new company and their print runs were small and they had no budget for photography. And of course, what’s a guidebook without photographs? Boring, that’s what and I couldn’t let that happen! I was, of course, skeptical of her claims, but certainly amenable to her request. Usually people just steal from your flickr streams, and here was someone actually contacting me about one of my photos. I admit I was excited, even if nothing ever really came of it.
But then, this wasn’t the first time someone had asked to use one of my photos. I took a rather poor photo of Sombrero Key Lighthouse in 2006 that is still used on this page of lighthouses (scroll down to Sombrero Key). So I knew that sometimes these requests are legit, and you gain +2 Internet cred and a little exposure. (It also makes me wonder what lighthouse enthusiasts think when they follow that link and eventually come across me and my friends drunk in a bar dressed as pirates….)
So anyway, that was May. The book was to be released in September and honestly I kind of forgot about it. Towards the start of November I happened to get a flickr mail and saw the old messages from Stefanie still sitting in there, so I sent her a message asking if their project happened and wishing them well on it. Yes, I wanted my name in print, but more importantly, I wanted to see two things: 1) Did my email actually go anywhere this time, and 2) Did some people who obviously feel passionate about something make their dream a reality? As it turns out, the answer is yes and yes!
Stefanie responded that a copy of the book should ship within the week (wow!) The book was slightly delayed, but it’s published and appears to be the 4th book from Museyon. You can see their website here. The hard-copy of the book retails for $17.95.
And today (well, yesterday really, but I checked the mail today) I received my copy of the book!
and this is my little photo: 
So yay! Museyon is well on their way to carving out a great little niche for themselves, and amateur (or lucky) photographers like me get to help along the way. How cool is that?
I was patting myself on the back the other day for being such a kind and understanding person. I mean, Travis left his neti pot out on the bathroom counter again and I did not even yell or go ballistic or anything. I mean, sure he has been sick and, I mean, I know that it really helps him but I don’t understand why he does not understand that it FREAKS ME OUT to stare at it all the time. Anyway, the point is, I saw it and I did not cry or freak out or demand that after 2 weeks it be finally removed from the bathroom and safely hidden away so I don’t have to look at it. And I thought, ‘Man, he is one lucky guy to have a gal as kind and understanding as I am’. I did have to scream at him for not putting the bath mat up right. And he still folds towels wrong, we will have a talk about that soon. And sometimes, he has the nerve to not clean the kitchen they way I clean the kitchen. And he still sweeps funny because he sweeps it onto the carpet and then vacuums the whole house. But the point is- boy is he lucky to have a special lady like me to take care of him. Or at least to point out what he is doing wrong.
Anyway, then I found this handy guide below and I thought ‘Oh boy, am I doing things wrong’. I could not find the part where when the guy does 50% of the house work with little to no complaining you still get to not so gently point out all the ways that he is doing it wrong. (I am helping!) Which I thought at first was a typo or obviously I was missing page two of this helpful guide but am starting to think that maybe it is me that is high strung and occasionally unreasonable. Possibly. I am not really willing to commit to that statement.
“The good wife’s guide” This is an actual article from the Housekeeping Monthly Magazine 13 May 1955
Ø Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
Ø Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
Ø Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
Ø Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.
Ø Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. and then tables.
Ø Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
Ø Prepare the childrens. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.
Ø Be happy to see him.
Ø Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
Ø Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first-remember his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
Ø Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
Ø Your goal: to make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself.
Ø Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.
Ø Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as a minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.
Ø Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
Ø Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in low, soothing and pleasant voice.
Ø Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
Ø A good wife always knows her place.
So, it turns out there is no page two- trust me, I looked. It also turns out that I probably would have been put in jail in the 1950s for a variety of reasons. The point of this post is to read the hilarious suggestions listed above and to laugh. And also for me to say that I am thankful for many things but especially for Travis, who probably would do more for me on this list than I would do for him. But for the record, babycakes, WOMEN CAN PREPARE FIRES IN THE FIREPLACE no matter what you think!! Dang. I forgot to use my low and soothing voice. Sigh. I am just bad at this. Well, I guess I am off to go buy a ribbon…
xoxo,
Meg
PS-Baby is short, fat, and fine.
As I sit here and eat my breakfast of delicious little ham sammiches it occurs to me I should write a bit about my baby shower yesterday. It was held at Tracey’s house with lots of help with food and set up from Travis’s mom, Heidi and Brooks. And it was fantastic. (And not just because of the little ham sammiches, although that helped.)
There were friends and family and new friends and good food and good times. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope that others did as well. Not to mention we got some fantastic new things for the baby. This was my first shower of any kind so the whole idea was just beyond what I would have imagined. There are pics to a lot of what we got on flickr. (Although not all the clothes- and at the risk of sounding too girly and squealy- we got some really super cute clothes.)
We got a breast pump from Travis’s mom which was super cool. Wait- can I talk about breast pumps or is that too creepy?? Eh, it is character building for those of you who are uncomfortable, I suppose. Quite frankly, I am a little intimidated by it yet and have not really put it together. But I did take it out of the box and check it out. And it is snazzy- That Medela does not mess around. In addition to the pump I also got some accessories and bags so that I do not have to rough it like Tracey and use Ziplocs.
We got a Boppy and a Boppy cover. These are supposed to be very important. We have no kids so we don’t really know but that is what we hear. And we hear a lot. It is cute and purple and I love it. Travis picked out a baby bouncer at Babies R Us for the registry and we also got that. He has already put it together and it is super soft and pretty. We also got gift cards which will be great for later when we realize we forgot to buy something really important like first timers do. Or when we realize that in 2 weeks we have gone through our ridiculously giant stack of diapers that we thought would last us a year and a half.
Both Travis and I are very lucky to have dads who are incredible talented woodworkers. In keeping with family tradition for both of us, our dads have built/are building bassinets for the new grandbaby. Our child will never lack for a place to sleep. This is good- because both her parents love a good nap. We figure we have our bedroom and the living room with the two bassinets. We received the bassinet that Travis’s dad built and it is beautiful. I look forward to filling it with something besides a loud, orange cat.
Ok ok… I’ve been slack about posting. I know it. You know it. Let’s move on.
As Meg has said, we purchased a new (to us) vehicle. It was an interesting journey getting to the point that we could actually make this purchase. Let me give you the short version.
We came to realize several weeks back that we were going to hit a deadline with the Taurus Meg’s been driving. That deadline was that we still didn’t have the title to the vehicle, so we couldn’t put it in her name, transfer the tags or put insurance on it, and the insurance that was on it was about to expire. That would leave us with only a truck to travel in, and we work different enough shifts now that to make that work would require a LOT of extra driving or Meg working 10½ hour shifts every day. Neither of these sounded very good to us.
I began looking into equity loans, refinancing options, etc… but was essentially told that CitiMortgage required all loans to be at least $10,000 and they only would loan $5,000 to homeowners in my area. So after a bit of back and forth on how stupid that is, I was sent to the refinancing “expert.” He informed me that it would cost me $6,000 to refinance, and that I would essentially just barely break even and could not cash out anything from my house. He suggested I just keep paying what I’m paying now (at 7.25%). Considering I’ve been paying more than my required mortgage payment for 8 years, this was a pretty big shock to me. But that’s ok. I’ll just drop CitiMortgage in a few months and refinance with someone else. Even if my payments are the same (and they won’t be), the poor customer service they provided me with is reason enough to dump them.
So what to do? Fortunately I moved some money around about a year ago and called my financial advisor, who opened me up to the fabulous world of borrowing on margin. It’s more than I can explain here, but it allowed me to borrow my own money, from myself, and pay myself back, cutting out the need for a bank approval at all. It’s not an option for everyone, but I’m very lucky to find myself in a position where it’s an option for me.
So money was secured. Now onto the “find a car” bit. Here’s where things have been complicated for me.
1) I wanted something I could move a family in. Meg, the baby and I all have to fit, with enough room for the baby accoutrements, and in the future, a dog. So it needs to be spacious with room to grow.
2) I also wanted to find a car that got good gas mileage. Aside from the just good financial sense it makes, I feel I’m going to have an inquisitive child growing up in an increasingly globally and socially conscious world, and I need to set as many good examples as I can. Will she ever notice my MPG or question what it is, or if I did anything back in my day to attempt to reduce my dependence on foreign oil? Probably not. But if she does, I wanted to have answer. Plus, again, financially it just makes sense.
3) Lastly, if at all possible, I wanted to find a car from a company that didn’t take bailout money. I was against the idea when Bush pushed for it, against the idea when Obama pushed for it, and I will forever remain firmly against the decision and every person who voted for it. Of course I knew I might simply have to let this one go, purely based on what I could afford, and knowing that vehicle size and fuel economy are more important than my opinions on the role of government.
So I search and search for cars. I narrow it down to a few ideal vehicles, a few “wishlist” vehicles and a few “only if there’s no other option” vehicles. Meg and I discuss payment schedules, rework our budget (for like the 20th time this year), and everything’s set.
This post has gone on far too long, so I’ll spare you the rest of the story. Needless to say, we found an AMAZING deal on a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid, which was on the wishlist. It fulfills everything I was looking for: we’re averaging 32/34 MPG in an SUV, it has all the room we need and room to grow, and Ford didn’t take bailout money. It looks good, has a decent stereo, 4-wheel disc brakes, only requires an oil change every 10,000 miles, has child safety locks, rides smooth, and sits comfortably. I’m amazingly happy with it.
I named her Serenity.
“I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.”
xoxo
Well, I was going to wait for Travis to post something but he is too busy driving around the neighborhood checking his mpg to post anything.
We officially own a new (to us) car. It is a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid that we found at the Truck Farm in Easley. Seriously, the place was actually called ‘The Truck Farm’. It is silver and cute (the car- not the Truck Farm) and one day I will be allowed to drive it. Just not soon because I will mess up all of Travis’s mpg experiments and testing that is being done. At least he promised me that since I am helping pay for it that I could drive it one day. I will let you know. That is all I am going to say about the car because really outside of it is silver (it matches my Taurus- we are a Silver Ford Family!) I don’t know anything about cars.
We have officially entered the busy time of year. Every year starting in October and going through the start of January we are super duper busy. This year is no different. Well, I mean, other than I expect we will be quite busy for a few more months after that. So it is sad we have less time to spend with people but it always helps to know it is only temporary. And anyway, we are busy with Holiday stuff so you can’t really complain about that. Plus, I am pregnant this year so I am hoping to be able to put back a few extra servings of holiday food. This is also the part where I tell Travis I need him to cook a turkey so that I can make dressing because my parents always make more of a Yankee dressing than I can find in SC. Maybe it is not Yankee…I just call it that because it does not have cornbread. And no, I have nothing against cornbread dressing. It is just not how Mom and Dad make it for me and therefore un-holidayish to me.
Plus we are going to have a kid soon so we have to start making our own holiday traditions. We have briefly discussed this but not sure of what exactly they are going to be. Pieces of what he wants from his family traditions and pieces of mine, obviously. But I suppose we have another year to hash out the details. Technically, he has claimed all of the Halloween decisions so I figured we could split Thanksgiving decisions and I get to make all the Christmas decisions. That is cool, right, Babycakes? Speaking of Halloween we are going to see Travis’s niece in the Dracula ballet this week. I am excited about that.
I have no big baby updates. Doctor says everything is great. I say I have heartburn that only allows me 2 hours sleep a night. So apparently the doctor and I have differing opinions of the word ‘great’.
Happy Halloween to you ghouls who are into that kind of thing <3
My life is changing, and with it must come another change in vehicle. If we exclude the yellow 1970s Toyota Corolla I owned just long enough to learn how much I hated working on cars, and the Pathfinder and Taurus I owned with Laura, I’ve owned 4 vehicles in my life. Here they are…
1) Pontiac Grand Am – I owned this because it cost less than $2,000 and I probably had no business being on the road anyway (and my parents were wise enough to know it. Perhaps because they were also once 16, and had raised two other children). By the end of its life, it sometimes didn’t crank, once stopped working on the highway, the AC didn’t work, the windows didn’t roll down, and my speedometer pinged back and forth between about 15 mph and 85 mph like a tennis match. Evidentially the Grand Am made me some kind of time traveler. But it DID have a sunroof.
2) Ford Escort – I loved this car. It may be my favorite car I ever owned. Black, kick ass stereo, and really good ‘get up and go’ if you knew how to work it. And I did. On my way to work one day a lady came to a dead stop on the highway. 4 other cars piled up behind her (although we all avoided actually hitting her), and my car was essentially totaled. In fact, it WAS totaled and the insurance company got very angry after THEIR recommended repair place did extra work to make it road-worthy again. They told me if they had thought it would cost that to repair the car, they’d have just cut me a check (like it was somehow my fault). As a side-note, the lady who caused the pile up drove off and avoided ever being charged, leaving us to take the heat. Anyway, the car never drove the same again, and I traded it in a few years later for…
3) Toyota Corolla – I also loved this car. I thought I’d hit the jackpot of cars. I kept it (mostly) clean, other than the school books and games and change of clothes that took up permanent residence in the trunk. I changed the oil (or had it changed), I paid for all the recommended upkeep when it was recommended whether I really thought it needed it or not. And then on the way home from Atlanta after seeing Tom Waits for the first time, the car died. And I mean died HARD. I was 700 miles away from needing an oil change, but there was strangely no oil in the car, and the engine bricked. It gave no signs of trouble until the moment it died. It made me sad. And it made me poor. Awesome.
4) Chevy S-10 – I thought I was getting a job with Time Warner Cable and they HIGHLY recommend I have a truck. Fortunately my dad wanted a new truck and generously donated his S-10 to the “get Travis a job” cause. Of course then I didn’t get a job with TWC, but I still had a truck. I never thought of myself as a truck person. Hell, I could barely drive the thing around at first because I was so used to small compacts. But a few months into it I decided having a truck was the coolest damn thing on Earth and I would never give it up. It moved tons of friends to new houses, transported band equipment, got me to Charlotte to help another friend move, moved me out of my house (and then back in again), and if you add a tarp in the bed and fill it up with water, it’s a mobile pool. But it’s nearly 19 years old now, and I’m about to have a daughter and an S-10 is not exactly what I’d call “baby-friendly.”
So, “yay!” for all my fond, and not-so-fond, memories of these vehicles. Some were awesome, some were clunkers, but they all did what I needed them to do at the time.
And now I need a car to do something else – mobilize a family.
Ok, well Travis and I have both officially ‘passed’ our big Preperation for Childbirth class. We were both pretty sure it would be kind of lame and not very useful (we both just wanted the tour of the birthing center) but it was not bad at all. Outside of the very awkward moment where I finally realized that the nice girl next to me (her partner was absent the first night, to be fair) was in fact having a baby with my ex boyfriend. Haha. What are the chances??
Our teacher was a very nice nurse who did not push her agenda on the class which was a pleasant change of pace. I think many of the home birthers had us convinced that hospitals strap you down and pump you full of drugs to give birth and the hospital birthers had us convinced that you and your baby will suffer horrible complications if not properly supervised. We are relieved to know that neither are really true.
The whole ’swine flu’ thing was pretty wild. There are intense restrictions in place for visitors and strong suggestions to really limit visitors at your home. At this point (and it is not even winter!) there is only one visitor allowed at a time (outside of the father) and that person must wear a mask at all times. I think Travis and I have decided that we will just send out pictures of the kid everyday until June and have no guests. Apparently at six months their immune systems are much stronger and then we will have a ’sip and see’ so everyone can meet the baby!
Haha, ok, I am kidding.
Mostly.
I had my first day at work today! Woot! I’m really employed!
It’s hard to say what I’ll think, but everyone seems really cool so far, the place is WAY more relaxed than my old job, and we did have a few hilarious “This will be really easy to show you how it works” moments followed quickly with “Well damn.. that doesn’t work at all. Good thing you’re here to fix it!” Haha.
Anyway, I desperately want to eat now, so that’s the whole update. I had a good first day. Oh, AND I was the only one who wasn’t 15 minutes late because of the weather. That’s gotta count for something, right?
xoxo
If you haven’t watched FlashForward on ABC, you’re missing out. I’m not going to say “this is the new Lost,” because it could totally fall apart like Heroes (sigh…). But it But two episodes in, this show is simply phenomenal, and could be as good as Lost if it maintains what its got going.
The premise is simple (sort of). At exactly the same time, every single person in the world blacks out for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds (137 seconds). During this time they all experience “memories” of their lives 6 months in the future. If you can imagine what the world would look like if suddenly everyone passed out, you can imagine the potential scope of this show. Surgeons, ambulance drivers, surfers, pilots, commuters, lovers – everyone – going about their day, and then they all collapse for 2 minutes. The devastation is immense and global, not to mention unsettling when people begin to realize their visions were all shared by the people they saw in them. In other words, these are not just dreams.
Part cop/FBI drama, part hospital drama, part sci-fi, I really think this show could be great.
It’s based on a novel, which I will now refuse to read for fear of spoilers, although the author, Robert J Sawyer, is actively involved and is writing episodes, so I expect it has license to deviate quite a bit. But this also makes it likely that, like LOST (and unlike Heroes), the show has some vision for its future.
Lost fans, look for the Oceanic Air sign. Fun little Easter egg.
Watch this show. I need to talk about it with people!
(for future reference, it airs Thursdays at 8pm on ABC)
xoxo
Travis
Meg