Katie, Meet Snow

Last night my family and I trekked up to Grandma's again. The last time we came, June, it was lovely. The weather was beautiful, we did fun things like canoe and eat ice cream, and a good time was had by all. This time, the weather is not so beautiful, the river is frozen over, and the ice cream stand is closed. Can you tell where this is going?

The Texan is learning a lot about "winter."

Last night, on the drive from the airport, Syracuse to Potsdam, 2 and a half hours north, I thought we were going to DIE. It was snowing so hard. It was kind of like driving in one of those random Texas downpours, only a completely different kind of precipitation. Snow is much more frightening than heavy rain. Like I said, I thought we were going to DIE... sliding all over the icy roads and that sort of thing. After several conversations with St. Christopher, the patron Saint of travelers, we did eventually make it to Grandma's house in one piece.

Halfway we stopped for dinner and met my friend K and her husband J. K and I coached gymnastics together several years back. Not long after I met her, she got married and moved to Virginia and I thought I was never going to see her again. SOPRESA! She called me one day and told me that her husband took a job as the pastor of a church halfway between the airport and Grandma's! Small world! I'm so excited to get to see K more often.

Today, the high was 16. Barf. I told myself that because of the temperature I was going to change my ways as a "go baby" and stay inside all day. About three hours after I got up I was itchin to get out. I caved. I felt like I was suffocating with my two shirts, a fleece, a scarf a coat and mitts, with jeans and tights and fuzzy boots. (Don't worry guys, the fuzz was on the inside)

I've really got to hand it to people who live like this. I couldn't do it.

I hope to brave the cold and take some pictures at some point.

Happy Blogging!
K

What would I do...

What would I do without all my friends and their cool talents? My friend Stephen took these pictures a while back.. I gave some to my parents for Christmas.. they were a big hit. Thanks Stephen!

Cookie Creativity

Here is some highlights from Christmas cookie making, 2008. It was all in all very interesting because the Christmas-y cookie cutters are at my house in Waco. So, We made do.

This is the dreidel series. We live in a Jewish neighborhood, and we pay homage to our neighbors by partaking in Jewish food. Dreidel Christmas cookies aren't really Jewish food, but you get the picture.
On the left is the Christmas dreidel with red and green sprinkles, next is the traditional dreidel, and last is the Baylor dreidel, which I find quite ironic.


Next comes the Scottie Series. Here we have the Hanukkah scottie and the Red-Collar scottie. Both have dragee eyes.











My Mom was making this cookie and she decided not to put sprinkles on him. Concerned, I asked her why she was making an albino scottie. She replied simply, "No, he's a Westie." Genius.









This lovely cookie is probably my favorite. She is, ovbiously, a pink poodle. I used the very technical "post-it note spinkle funnel" to get all the sprinkles just so.

"I'm like, SO over it..."

I'm over immaturity. Well, not all immaturity because we're all immature in our own way. The past few weeks I've noticed some, what I think, pretty common college student behavior that I'm so over.

1. When people are lying they will, most of the time, look up and to the direction opposite of the dominant hand they write with. I'm a stealth eye watcher when I'm suspicious, but sometimes I don't look fast enough or someone is such a good liar they can fool me. Another good indicator is that when a lie is being told, the offender will say no in as many ways as they can think.

For Example:
Girl: OMG you totally like Suzie!
Boy: Are you kidding? No way. I definitely don't. What are you thinking? She's so ....

I'm hip to their tricks! This is applicable to one of the, oh, 3 things I remember about math: Two negatives equals a positive.

Show your vulnerability and admit that you are interested in someone. It's a compliment. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

2. I was having lunch with a friend the other day. I don't really remember what we were talking about, but he shared with me something to the effect of "when it comes to (random topic about the mating dance) guys think blah blah blah." He was so proud of himself. It was as though we were football coaches and he had scouted out a play from our opponents playbook.

I don't care. I am not interested in making a generalization about the male population and changing my behavior based on his, probably obnoxious, preference.

Don't put yourself in a box with the rest of your gender. You're not all the same and that's so wonderful. Besides, it's part of the fun!

The Gentle Art of Domesticity

This was my chill on the couch, digest Thanksgiving dinner and watch the Jon and Kate plus 8 marathon project... monogramming my pillowcases!
For the record, I did not stitch the letters backwards...I took the pictures with Photobooth.

Better Safe Than Sorry

I prefer to keep my blog G rated, but sometimes I spill into PG material. This entry is more PG-13 which I try to aviod entirely. However, because what I am going to write about is excellent, I will try to cleverly disguise the material using only PG words.

Last night, my friend J and I are making an emergency run to the HEB near campus. We gather our items and pick the shortest of the long check-out lines. Fairly quickly, J noticed that the gentleman in front of us, presumably a Baylor student indicated by the logo on his t-shirt, had only one item. This particular item happens to be one that isn't imperative but intelligent to have on hand when participating in a certain stereotypical, two-person, late-night, collegiate weekend activity.

After an initial giggle and expression of sympathetic feelings towards said gentleman for his situation, we deemed his purchase to be of an honorable nature and continued with other grocery line chatter.

For the rest of the story, it is important to understand that the HEB every week or so has what they refer to as "basket items" or selected products available at a reduced price that tempt you to purchase them at the checkout.

This week, the item was a disposable camera.

Picture now, J and my faces after he makes his unique purchase and is then asked by the cashier, "Are you interested in a camera this evening?"

Thankfully, the answer was no.

Remarks about the student, his purchase, and cameras continued into the evening.

Swing It

I realized today that I really don't blog about my interest in swing dancing all that much. It's kind of surprising since it consumes the rest of my life that social work does not.

For the Baylor Swing Dance Society, I serve as the DJ. However lighthearted that may sound, it's a rather daunting task.

I love all things vintage, especially music. I am a proud owner of a record player and I'm slowly adding to my collection of 78s. I love to research artists from the "golden age" and learn about their lives and their music. That being said, I always prefer an older version of a classic over a remake. For the record, I feel that Michael Buble, who is undeniably a talented musician, should get his own material and back away from greats such as Van Morrison, the Beatles, and Sinatra.

There is always some sort of controversy about what music I play. Our biggest struggle with that has been playing enough "old" music and neo-swing. We've tried several different ideas to give both generations of swing music their place, but there's no way to make everyone happy. Regardless, I have a suggestion box for people to tell me what they think about what they hear. I sort of feel like I can either listen to, accept and adapt to criticism gracefully, or stop playing music. The latter isn't an option, and Grace and tact are two of my selective traits. I have not yet mastered responding to criticism appropriately and constructively 100% of the time.

Two instances to note:
The amount of "neo-swing" coming from our speakers has been significantly reduced since the spring semester. (There are several reasons for the change beyond my personal preference. I'd be happy to discuss them with you if you'd like.) The first meeting of the semester, a veteran member approaches me and in a indiscribeably rude tone of voice says, "When are you going to play real swing?" Note that One o'Clock Jump by Benny Goodman was playing at this point. I freaked out. Something to the effect of "THIS IS REAL SWING, THE BIG BAD VOO DOO DADDIES AREN'T REAL SWING!" That was bad. I know it. I haven't seen him since. I was wrong, but I can't help but think things would have been different if that negativity would have hung around.

A few weeks later, another veteran member approaches me while Little Brown Jug, a Glenn Miller tune was playing and asks in a polite way, "Are you going to play any Big Band tonight?" I wanted to say, "GLENN MILLER IS BIG BAND YOU IDIOT." I decided, "Is there a song you would like to hear?" was a better option. I think, great, crisis averted. Next she asks, "Do you have the Chips Ahoy song?" I had no idea what she was talking about. After some consultation with a few other people I realized that a commercial with smiling cookies jumping off of spoon diving boards into glasses of milk was set to "Sing, Sing, Sing" a while back. That song is sometimes called the theme of the 1940's. I was embarassed for her. Ah, blissful ignorance.

I feel that people think I don't care about differing opinions and I'm only serving myself. For the record, I hear everything people say. I don't just sit there and punch buttons. Listen to what the dancers are saying to each other and to me, verbally and non-verbally. I just haven't found a way to satisfy everyone. Every time I turn on my computer and play music for 50 people to dance to it put's a lot of pressure on me. I am responsible for wether or not they have a good time and I know if they don't I'm going to hear about it. When someone is upset, I haven't done my job and I'm in trouble, and no one likes to be in trouble. I want to do what's best for everyone, but I haven't quite figured out what that is.

One song that I play fairly frequently is Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Accentuate the Positive." It's an awesome song for life, but it really helps me refocus when criticism overwhelms me.

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Oh, Kids

The recent, history making, election kept the nation on the edge of its seat for months, and now that it's all over I feel the time is appropriate to talk about all of the election-related insight I received from the kids I look after.

Both of the stories I'm going to share with you occurred in the car. This is only important because you have to realize that I had to keep enough composure to drive during all of this.

Another important background note is that these children's father has a GOP bumper sticker on the back of his car.

One day, A and I were in the car without N, and she asked me who I was going to vote for. I decided she didn't need to know. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to talk about politics with her, but I would rather the discussion come from a subjective perspective rather than telling her which candidate I support. I feel that if I voiced any preference one way or the other, she might not feel comfortable talking to me about opposing opinions. That would put up roadblock to our communication, which is the last thing I want. I chose to respond with "Why do you ask?" She continued by telling me that Mr. Obama wants to take money from us. Curious, I asked for more information. She shared with me that if he is the President, and I get $100 for mowing a lawn, he is going to take away $50. I replied, "Do you know what taxes are?"

A few weeks later, we were going about our daily fun-ities, when A said, "Miss Katie, this song is inappropriate." Sometimes when I'm driving I'm listening to the radio, and sometimes it's just noise. Unfortunately, this time it was just noise. "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry was playing. Once I realized that the content of the song was not appropriate for elementary school children I promptly changed that station. By this time N was in tune with what's going on and pipes up, "What was it about?" I explained to him that it was inappropriate and we weren't going to talk about it. I was not going to discuss sexual experimentation with two children under age 10. A, however, decided to explain to her younger brother about how "some girls don't like to kiss boys, they like to kiss other girls." He remarked, in a simple and matter-of-fact way, "Oh, they must be Liberal."

I was waiting in anticipation for election day, partly because I'm interested in politics and the future of our country, but mostly because I wanted to know how the kids would react, either way. The morning after election day, I called their mother, knowing that they would be upset. Come to find out that N cried when he heard the results.


Oh, Liberals.

He-llow Sailor!

I am ever on the quest for acquiring quality vintage attire for only pocket change. Recently, I hit the jackpot. I've never been so excited about any of my finds... not even the ironing board.

Strolling through Laverty's with my friend K one Saturday, I stumbled upon these sailor pants. I love sailor pants. Upon further inspection I discovered that these were no ordinary sailor pants. No sir, these were Navy issue, WWII sailor pants! They weren't missing any buttons, only faintly smelled of moth balls and looked about my size, so I put them on. 72 million buttons later, they were on! Looking even closer at them I found the name of their owner. G.W. Tabler. This is one small man. K so eloquently put it, "Mr. Tabler must have been drafted from the 4th grade!"

Here they are, in all their glory...

The 72 million buttons (and really cool zipper pocket)...

Sorry for wearing shoes in the house, A.

Calendar Girl

There are a lot of little things that I hear about and think, "Oh that would be great, but it won't happen to me." Recently, I was lucky enough to experience one of those little things.

A few months back my good friend L from Houston invited me to spend the weekend in Austin on Lake Travis with her and a few other friends. At the time, she had said something about knitting and photographs, I wasn't sure, but it all sounded like a blast, so a few weeks later I took a trek to the lake for a relaxing weekend.

When I arrived I got the details of the knitting/photos situation. L, who's two hobbies are knitting and photography, got word of a photo contest held by knitty.com for their 2009 calendar. Long story short.. all of the girls she had invited spent the afternoon in neon inner tubes, pretending to knit. 400+ pictures and some innapropriate fish behavior later, L submitted her photos and hoped for the best.

Needless to say, we won the contest.

This one was the winner:


Check it out! It's a pretty sweet calendar.


Here are some other photos from the weekend.