Tag: about me (Page 2 of 5)

The 2010 highlights and lowlights

December 31, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

Yeah this is my round up of the best and worst of the year 2010. This is not an objective list. This is entirely my opinion and consists of the things I personally experienced which means there are movies that I have not seen and books that I have not read that probably would affect this list if I had seen or read them. Also, this means that some of these things were created in other years.

Favorite song of 2010

Fuck You by CEE LO GREEN

Come on. You know me. YOU KNOW ME. Left to my own devices, I’m a potty mouth and a half. It’s only respect for my elders and the desire to be professional that keeps me from cursing like a sailor all the damn time. So of course, this catchy doo woppy old school sounding song with the F-bomb in the title was DESTINED to be my favorite song. Add on top of that it’s dedicated to an ex who did the singer wrong and I’m on that song like white on rice.

Favorite book

I found the Swedish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy all kinds of riveting. I read the first two in the span of three days. For favorite of the year, I am going to have to go with True Grit by Charles Portis. It’s written by an Arkansan and takes place in Arkansas. Besides that, it is written in a voice that is both smart and sassy. Mattie Ross is a 14 year old girl who goes to Fort Smith to avenge the murder of her father. She solicits the aide of the mean, drunk Rooster Cogburn. Hilarity ensues. There’s a certain witty repartee combined with religion that is so quintessentially Arkansas I had to chuckle in recognition.

People who don’t like Arkansas can go to the devil! — Mattie Ross

Indeed.

Favorite cultural trend

Using the internet for good. Earlier this year, there was a rash of suicides by gay teens who were bullied. This, of course, was very bad. Then some people got together and created the “It Gets Better” project. People from all walks of life made videos telling people to hold on and that no matter how shitty things seem right now, it does get better. Many of these videos had the person telling of a time where they felt down and depressed. Some relayed stories of the time they were so down they tried to kill themselves. It was touching.

My favorite though is the snarky calling out of Clint McCance, the Arkansan who wrote that he hoped gay kids kill themselves on his facebook page, by George Takei: “You are a douchebag”

A close second was the seven year old Katie, the girl who with the Star Wars water bottle, and the solidarity of girl geeks everywhere to tell her not to let those pesky boys bully her into putting down her bottle and that Star Wars does indeed rule.

Worst personal moment

This would be my friend Angela going into a coma and dying out of the blue last May. I didn’t even know she was that sick. She had MS but was more or less fine. Then BAM. The aftermath involving the crazy child custody brouhaha and whatnot was completely horrible and still hasn’t ended. Being a lawyer, I got put in the very uncomfortable position of explaining to folks that “no I can’t do anything about it. I’m a witness. The rules of professional responsibility means i can’t do lawyering on this case. I’m a witness.” Lord have mercy.

Of course, watching a trainwreck from a distance and knowing there is nothing you can do is always a lesson.

I still miss my friend. Sometimes I will see something on television or read about some local brouhaha in the newspaper and want to call her to discuss it.

Best Moment

The Conan O’Brien tour. Oh yes. This came about two weeks after my friend died so it was even more awesome.

Favorite movie

I didn’t see as many movies as I would have liked this year. Partially because most of the movies I want to see never make it to the local theater. I saw some pretty gosh darn good films. I’m going to pick The Social Network.

The Aaron Sorkin/David Fincher chatfest about the creation of Facebook managed to make computer programming and lawsuits interesting. Go figure. True Grit is a close second and I have not seen Black Swan yet.

Best Comeback

BETTY WHITE!

Christmas roundup with the family traditions explained

December 31, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

Hello America. Why yes I am behind on my Holidailies posts. I was spending time with my 80 year old grandma at my 80 year old grandma’s house. She’s not tech savvy enough to have internet access and even if she did, it would be that god awful dial up that would take ten thousand years to upload any pictures anyway. And well, 80 year old grandmas are a higher priority than some random internet meme. So there you go.

The annual Melissa family Christmas celebration goes like this.

We go to my Mom’s Mom’s house. Mom’s Dad died back in the late 70s. We spend Thanksgiving with Dad’s family. This was decided way back before I was even born. It makes sense really. Mom is one of two siblings. Dad is one of six.

Now we go to my Mom’s Mom’s house and on the 24th we have a baked ham. We make sandwiches with the baked ham. The sides include the lettuce and tomato and what you would consider toppings for a sandwich. Also, there is pimento and cheese. I don’t know if “pimento and cheese” is a Southern thing but there you go.

Besides the meal itself, there is a cornucopia of snack foods: cookies, Chex Mix, the summer sausage/cheese/spicy mustard combo, pecan brittle, etc.

Now the 24th, the family would open the presents and clean up the area around the tree so that when Santa came, he would have room to set up the toys on Christmas day. THis meant when the kids woke up, the toys were already assembled under the tree and ready to go. Yeah it was fun times.

Also, back in the day, every other family on the street (well it was all cousins) would open their presents on Christmas day. This would leave a whole bunch of people bored. They would come down to grandma’s house and have a helluva time. Back in the day, there was also a lot of liquor around. As the cousins got older and became grandparents on their own, that tradition sort of stopped.

But to this very day, we open our presents on Christmas eve. I guess this is preparing me for the god awful visitation arrangement with my future ex-husband and our future kids who will be floating between the families. Nobody ever said I wasn’t prepared.

On Christmas day, we have turkey, dressing, and the other traditional “Christmas foods.” Grandma’s dressing is a cornbread based dressing and it ends up really thick with a consistency similar to bread pudding. It also has quite a bit of sage in it. We eat around lunch time. There you go.

My family quit trying to buy me things for Christmas years ago. Usually they ask for a “Christmas list” where I list things I would like and they pick from that list. But lately, they’ve even dropped that pretext and I usually get a bunch of cash. Of course, cash is impersonal and so I usually get something small and “thoughtful” to go along with my money.

One year, I got a Tickle me Big Bird. I was twenty seven years old. One year, my Aunt got footie pajamas. I’m not even going to say how old she was because she will find this web post, hunt me down, and kill me.

So this year, I got a lovely dark purple faux reptile (or maybe real who knows) handbag, (seriously it’s something I will actually use), a Timex Ironman watch, a bunch of cash, a snuggie, and a shake weight.

That’s right kids. A SNUGGIE

and a SHAKE WEIGHT!

As you can see, not only did I get a snuggie. I got the most whacked out designed by a six year old girl on acid Snuggie in the world. Seriously, what the hell? I asked my mother and she replied, “I wanted to make sure you didn’t lose it”

No siree. Homeless people would slap me if I attempted to give them that monstrosity.

As far as the shake weight is concerned, I almost bought my Aunt a shake weight. It’s like the smart ass version of the Gift of the Magi at our house.

My Dad got a pistol and some CDs. My Mom got some cooking items. My grandma got an air compressor. My Aunt got a car vac. Everybody got watches from my grandma. Apparently, she went to an outlet mall watch store and stocked up.

My brother spent Christmas at one the family home of one of his roommates.

I spent a couple of days after the holiday hanging out with my grandma, watching goofy television. We went out to eat and hung out like girls. She has some random pain in her hip and doesn’t like to drive after dark so when someone comes to visit, she is all about having someone take her somewhere.

About a year and a half ago, she started experiencing pain. It turned out she had a slight curve in her spine that went untreated as a kid. As a result, the disc between one of the greatest curves has pretty much eroded away. It puts pressure on a nerve that makes it feel like her hip is hurting. Somehow it goes back to her back. This is the first time that she’s really felt like she can’t do anything. She’s feeling her age and she really hates it. It gets her down. Two years ago, her BFF Bud died. He used to come over every morning and drink coffee at her house. Now she doesn’t get nearly as many visitors. As a result, I try to spend as much time as I can with her.

I did. It was nice.

Action

December 13, 2010 / melissa / 1 Comment

When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?

(Author: Scott Belsky)

I am a list maker. I make tons of lists and have tons of goals. Many of them are listed somewhere or other on this page.

The next step for me is to always overcome self doubt and just do something. More precisely, the next step is to just make a step. Any journey begins with one step. Any task can be broken down into a sequence of simple mini tasks. The goal is to squelch the naysayers whether they be inside your head or out in the world and just make that step.

Body Integration

December 13, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

December 12 – Body Integration

This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?

I have a confession. I don’t really have “Body integration.” You want me to prove it to you.

When I saw a picture of myself at the Women for Bloggers event, I screamed. I mean I knew I was overweight. I knew I was morbidly obese. I’m not proud of this and accept it as a flaw and am working to get healthier BUT I HAD NO IDEA THAT I LOOKED LIKE THAT!!!

It was disconcerting.

It was a wake up call.

No more

December 12, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

December 11 – 11 Things What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

Boiled okra Boiled okra is nasty. It’s a big bowl of slimy with green things floating in it. You know what else is slimy with green things floating in it. SNOT! BOOGERS. The crap from your nose when you have a cold. That’s right, folks. Boiled okra looks like giant boogers. I’m not having any of that! yech.
Toxic people You know what I mean. Yes, I would like less of those please.
Unreasonable fear Okay, now if I’m camping and a bear rips up my tent as I’m sleeping in it, then I will be so scared that I will poop on myself and rightly so. Now things such as fearing of looking stupid are not quite as valid and certainly should not deter anyone from doing something.
Jeggings. ugh. Seriously, look at them. LOOK AT THEM. I lived through the 80s and it wasn’t all that.
Sloth. I will exercise more. After my friend died, I went into this funk where I sat on the couch and watched trashy TV. I managed to neglect anything not completely necessary and well some of that too. My bathroom got to scary level of nasty.
Clutter It is time to clean out the closet. OH yes it is.
Jersey Shore I really don’t want to see Snooki and the Situation anymore. None. Na Da. Make it go away.
Isolation In times of great stress, I tend to go off by myself to sort things out. This year I took that principle too far.
Less death and cancer. This year a whole bunch of people I know managed to come up having cancer. Seriously. I would like less of that please.
Entitlement It’s not my world. It’s not your world. IT is THE world and no one has promised that everyone is going to be to your liking. So if someone has a lifestyle, religious preference, weight, hairstyle, fashion choice, or any other characteristic that is not to your liking. Tough poo poo to you. You are not the center of the universe and most of those choices have nothing to do with you personally. Get over yourself.
Less zany small town politics This year, every single time I read the paper, I had to shake my head at the shenanigans of the local city council. It is crazy mess. I think they’re just making up things as they go along with money that is not theirs. What about that splash pad that is way past deadline and over budget? Why all the new sparkly Christmas Decorations and why not list the “shipping and handling” with the price in the paper? Is that not being paid with tax payer money? SHouldn’t we the citizens have a right to know to the last cent where our money is going? Seriously folks. I might have to move to a big town to get rid of small town shenanigans. yeesh.
White bread. I pledge to eat sandwiches on bread that is whole grain or darker like rye or wheat. Yes I am going to try to get more fiber and less fat and all that.

Wisdom

December 11, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

December 10 – Wisdom Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)

I had some big plans. I put them on hold in order to take care of myself for a while. My friend’s death really kicked me in the gut and I thought that staying here for a little while might be in my best year.

Sometimes, I think it is the wisest decision. Other times, I think it is my most foolish decision.

Party all the time

December 11, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

(Author: Shauna Reid)

I’m not sure about rocking the socks but I did attend several parties this year. Each one rocked my socks off for one reason or another.

At one party, I met this guy who had so many overlaps in my career and academic interests overlapped so much that it was freaky. The next chapter in his life involved him doing something that I had always wanted to do. There’s nothing like meeting a mere mortal who is doing activities that constitute your wildest dream to inspire you to be a better person and just go for it. That experience knocked my socks off.

Another party that rocked my socks off was the Tweeties. Central Arkansas’s Twitter Community is so prolific that after a year, they decided they needed an awards show to celebrate all the twitter goodness coming out of the area. There was singing and dancing. There were blue feather boas and tiaras. Oh, and I literally fell down and broke my ass. Okay not literally breaking my ass but I did fall down on my butt. I actually hurt the hell out of my arm. It was out of commission for a good two weeks.

Tomorrow is a reception for Arkansas Women Bloggers. I am so down. This might be the party that ROCKS MY SOCKS clean OFF!!! I’ll let you know.

It’s the little differences

December 8, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

(Author: Karen Walrond)

I’m always a little flummoxed by this types of posts because while I can guestimate on what makes me different, I’m not sure what makes me beautiful or beloved by other people. “Lights people up” I’m not a mind reader but here we go.

According to my friend Angela (RIP), I was different because I “really don’t care about race” when it comes to judging people. Surely that isn’t that special but since it was mentioned by someone else.

I’m pretty tall — Statuesque even.

I’m really curious about other cultures and ways of doing things. It’s part of the reason I have a travel bug.

I’ve lived in a wide variety of places and types of housing and had some pretty awesome jobs in my time.

I feel things from the top of my skull to the tips of my toes. I’m very passionate in that regard. Over the years, I’ve tried to keep a reign on that because sometimes it will get me in trouble.

I am a very loyal friend.

I used to be able to play piano beautifully. I’ve even made people cry before (in a good way, I was told). I haven’t played in a while so I’m not sure what I can do RIGHT NOW.

I have really thick hair with just the right amount of body to hold a curl. My stylists always get really happy about it. Then they end up thinning the hell out of it with thinning shears.

I’m not afraid of being silly.

But really, people are more alike than they are different. They want to be loved and respected. They want to feel useful and that they are not wasting their time. They want to have their existence validated.

Community

December 7, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

December 7 – Community Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

This year, I discovered community in a variety of places. I’ve found myself among a community of runners. The same people seem to run the same races every year and there’s a core group of people who seem to run the same races that I run. I also managed to rekindle old friendships and make new ones out of the death of my friend Angela: many high school classmates came back. Since her death, I have spent time with her family including her parents and her cousins. I’ve also managed to go to the tweetups in Little Rock and meet quite a few people there. I’m considered a “LRTWEETER” so there you go. That is not even counting the community of attorneys I have met over the past year. Community, like family or life even, is what you make of it.

Hello, it’s Holidailies time and things I’ve made

December 7, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

It’s that time of the year. It’s Holidailies time. A time when tons of busy people agree to post an entry a day during the busiest time of the year. (December 6-January 6). I’ve done this before and it’s quite difficult to do it in a way where it’s not completely vapid navel gazing crap. That hasn’t stopped me before.

The first prompt says “introduce yourself” and so here goes, I’m Melissa. I’m thirty something. I’m an attorney. I live in Arkansas. I am attempting to get fit and I like running and yoga. I am quite broad in my emotional states which is probably more fun to watch than to live.

Oh and I’m also doing Reverb 10 this year too. Here’s the prompt.

What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

(Author: Gretchen Rubin)

The last thing I made was a slight variation on The Pioneer Woman’s Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. IN my version, I used penne pasta. I also added more garlic than listed and added red pepper flakes. I was attempting to recreate the pink sauce from Damgoode pies out of Little Rock. I used fresh garlic and a fresh onion. I used tomato sauce out of a can and some organic heavy cream. There you go.

I really want to make a clutch out of a book, like the one Natalie Portman is holding in this picture.

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