Including commercials. It was just like watching Titanic. 3 1/2 hours of my life I will NEVER get back.
Oh the humanity!
Tag Archives: no take backs
Throw-Back-Monday: Cleaning House
My parents are moving from my childhood home this week (if the snow stops falling). It was my home for 18 years. They are actually moving less than five minutes from me, so I can’t complain, but there’s still a sense of loss. I won’t ever be able to go “home” again. Depressing? Maybe a little, but it’s been fun, too. Because of their move, I was officially forced to remove any remaining relics of my tenure there, which means I found all the knickknacks I’d been hording for years …
I’m not sentimental, but I am nostalgic. I used to keep a lot of things to remember little moments like all of the notes I passed with friends in school (we didn’t have text messages back then, you know, in all of 1996) or the corsage from my sister’s wedding. It’s hard to part with things that remind you of the times you would never take-back.
Luckily I’d read somewhere last year that if you take a picture of an object, the photograph will actually conjure the same memory and feelings the item evokes. I’d say it works. I couldn’t possibly keep all of that stuff, so I took pictures. I created a visual soundtrack to the movie that is my life, or was, in a small town in Northern Indiana. The result has been fantastic. The photos have helped me remember all sorts of cool (and uncool) things. Continue reading
When Life Gives You Snow, Make Snowmenade!
Snow. I’ve said it before – snow is that beautiful white fluffy stuff that blankets your yard, makes the air crisp and silences unwanted clatter. It makes me feel home.
Other Atlantans disagree. Because things like this happen.
A hiccup. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP Photo) from http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/southern-snow-storm-22280146
Which leads to this.
A gulp. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP Photo) from http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/southern-snow-storm-22280146
And then this.
Reckless abandon. Like literal reckless abandon. (David Tulis/AP Photo) from http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/us/winter-weather/
Throw-Back-Monday: Having A Guinness In Ireland
Today’s throw-back is one of my fondest.
A year ago this month I was sitting in a bar in Dublin, Ireland having my first Guinness in its natural habitat. Uh-Mazing. I was doing research for my Master’s thesis. I was also limited to two days on the Emerald Isle. All of which were spent in Dublin. And can I say – it was exactly like the movies!
Though I had had my option of staying at a hotel or a traditional B&B, I chose to stay above a pub called O’Donoghue’s. And that pub is where I had the best dinner EVER (other than maybe Ruth’s Chris or the Capital Grille), but the very NEXT best dinner EVER. Continue reading
Ghost Hunting In A Small Town
Ghost hunting? I’m in.
I had just gotten an iPhone. I was sharing my apps with everyone. “I can do this with this one!” and “Look! I can do that with that one!” (c’mon, it was my first) I even had a flashlight app! How cool was I? (less cool by the moment, but who’s counting?)
So I had just found an EMF detecting app and realized I could use my Voice Memo as an EVP recorder. I didn’t need any other ghost hunting equipment than that, right? I was set. Who’s with me? I recruited my little sister and her hubby.
Me, my little sister and her hubs. Ready for a serious hunt.
Throw-Back-Monday: My Friends, Chicago And Man vs Food
Chicago + Three Best Friends + Man vs Food = AN EPIC GOOD TIME
Chicago? My favorite city in the world. Darewood and Chelle ? My two best friends. And Man vs Food at the height of its popularity? Let’s call it the life imitating art imitating life component of our adventure
Darewood, Chelle and I were long overdue for a best friends get-together. Our spouses were kind enough to let us organize a little three-day get-away in the Windy City. You don’t have to tell us twice – we were off.
Sweet, sweet Chicago. Oh how I love thee!
Total-Take-Back: Walking My Dog
I might as well finish out this week continuing with the dog theme. If there was one thing I wish I could take back (well, there are many one things I wish I could take back, but this one is likely in the top ten) it would have to be the walk my sister and I took with our Chinese Pug.
We had the sweetest little Chinese Pug growing up named Taffy (no, I didn’t name her).
Taffy. The sweetest dog in all the land.
My sister and I had taken her on a walk to the river preserve not far from our house. We lived in a very rural area. As we were heading home, we were walking by a house when out of NOWHERE came the most vicious dog I think either my sister or I had ever seen.
The dog was snarling and glaring with his yellow eyes (so help me God! YELLOW EYES!) and racing straight for our sweet little girl. Taffy was frozen. She was completely terrified. I guess you could say her flight or fight instincts kicked in but it was something more akin to the oft-unspoken third option: forfeit. She collapsed to the ground, rolled on her side and started peeing like a race horse. She was peeing on herself, she was shooting it across the road; she couldn’t stop! I never thought such a small dog could have so much in her. I suppose that was her version of a white flag.
Sweet little Taffy offering her complete surrender.
As the ferocious beast was still rushing our way, my sister and I heard a voice calling from behind the house, “ Buttercup! Buttercup, come back!”
Are you kidding me?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! That’s like calling Al Capone “Little Angel” as he mows you down with his Tommy Gun.
And here’s the thing – Taffy isn’t moving. As much as we tried to get her back on her feet, it wasn’t happening. We couldn’t physically pick her up, either, because she was spazzing so much. So Taffy just continued to spray her cowardice everywhere.
Then suddenly, with impending doom just feet away, we hear it. CRACK! The chain has hit its limit and stops the savage Buttercup right in her tracks. We were saved!
Taking our lovable little pug on a journey to Hell and back is something I regret terribly. I think she aged 15 years in those 30 seconds that felt like forever. But she did survive, we lived to tell the tale and are eternally wary of dogs with violent names like Buttercup.
My Dog Locked Me In My Basement
I don’t typically have little adventures in my home, but this week there has been one to note.
So this really happened – my dog locked me out of my bedroom twice. I used a credit card both times. Never done that before. It actually worked. I felt very Richard Dean Anderson.
Fast forward a few days … my dog locks me in my basement. I had no shoes, no cell phone and no credit card. I had to be resourceful. Luckily my husband had decided to knock down a few walls in the room above my lower level stairs a couple of months back (reno hopes and dreams, you know). But I still had to get high enough to reach that level.
The small opening that was my only chance at escape.
Cue the Mission Impossible music. Continue reading
Throw-Back-Monday: Yes, I Drove Through The Ocean. (guest post)
This is a great post submitted by Ms. Politico. Thank you for sharing!
Tybee Island is a beautiful little island about 20 minutes from Savannah Georgia. My family would visit Tybee fairly often throughout my high school years to see family, and it is still one of my favorite places to visit today.
If you’ve ever been to Tybee, you know there is one road that takes you out to the island from Savannah. For a large part of that drive, it’s just a two lane highway. It’s a fun little trip as you’re surrounded by marsh and ocean on both sides as you make your way out to the island. If you’re a nature lover, it’s definitely a scene you can appreciate.
One time while my family was staying at a beach house out on Tybee, my sister and I had to run some errands and get some supplies. There weren’t a lot of shopping options on Tybee at the time, so we headed to the nearest Wal-Mart on a nearby island. However, we left during a fairly substantial rainstorm. I don’t think either of us thought anything of it, at least not at first.
After leaving the beach house, we made a couple of turns and were again on the main road that would take us back toward the city. Little did we know that not only would we be driving with the rainstorm, in the dark, but also during high tide. That wouldn’t normally seem like too big of a deal, except the road to Tybee Island was actually quite low in some areas…as in when it was high tide, the water would be just a little bit below the level of the road ( or so it seemed). The result was the scariest ride of my life.
My sister was driving and I was the passenger. We were making our way slowly down the main road, but the rain was coming down extremely hard. Suddenly, I heard my sister exclaim, ” I can’t see anything! I can’t even see the road!”. Not exactly what you want to hear as a passenger. I was looking out the windows of the car, basically just trying to find the edge so I could help direct her to at least stay on the road. Unfortunately, I didn’t see road. I literally just saw water.
This is when my heart began to beat a little faster. I couldn’t believe it. There was seriously NO ROAD! Did I mention that my sister drove a small, extremely lightweight vehicle that could easily have been washed away? I was, to say the least, nervous. After a little while of driving in horrible conditions, we came upon a clearing, where you could just make out the ocean in the moonlight that had crept in, except the ocean didn’t stop at the road, it overran the road! We were actually driving IN the ocean!
Driving through ocean. Ain’t no thang.
At any moment, it seemed like we would just float out to sea. My mind start going a mile a minute. My survival skills were kicking into gear. If we do get washed away, at what point do we try to open the car doors? We wait until the car fills with water then do it, right? Or is it better to just jump out of the car? Somehow, while I was planning our escape, my sister managed to navigate the road, or lack thereof, and get us to higher ground.
I couldn’t believe it! We made it! I still don’t know how she did it, but props to my sister for keeping us alive. Needless to say, we made it to our destination, the rain died down, and it was a MUCH better trip on the way back to the beach house.
It was bizarre, scary, and one of the coolest experiences at the same time. I mean, who else can say they’ve driven in the ocean?
Becoming A Whiskey Connoisseur AND The Stanley Hotel
What is the one thing I’ve always wanted to do in Colorado? Stay at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
You bet I’m ready for this.
In case you have been raised in a dark age, The Stanley is the famous hotel at which Stephen King stayed and his experiences inspired him to write The Shining. So it’s basically The Shining Hotel. Continue reading
