Tag: Arkansas (Page 10 of 10)

Hey HO! let's go!

December 23, 2008 / melissa / 0 Comments

Facebook is a funny thing. It’s like a virtual high school, college, and workplace reunion all in one. You end up seeing people from your distant and not so distant past. They post pictures of their kids as well as pictures from the distant and not so distant past. Sometimes you catch up on mutual friends and whatnot.

This whole social network reconnecting is how I got invited to the DMZ reunion at Vino’s. I hadn’t seen her since school but it was a punk show. I live in the country and they don’t play punk down here so I was down with it. Also, Vino’s has great food. No seriously, it gets great reviews in the papers and everything. Yes I have eaten here before and it is on my short list of stops when I’m in town.

Of course, even though I had RSVP’d weeks in advance, the weather reports were threatening sleet on that day. And dammit I was a going.

And GO I did.

First, Arkansas has had a long and varied punk scene since the eighties. In fact, there is a documentary about the whole thing called Towncraft. Also, Evanescence (not punk) came from here. Another guitarist from one of the local bands went on to be in Green Day. So this DMZ 20 year reunion was sort of a big deal.

To answer your question, yes I had one of those awesome calzones. I had a snack for dinner and then ordered a calzone and ate half of it. I indulged but responsibly so.

The show was fun. Here are some pictures.

Matt Besser as the “Hunchback of Vino’s”

This is a very dark picture of what I believe to be “Trusty” playing. I might even have the band wrong. Man it was late.

This is the sign to the left of the stage. There were several of these around the stage. but but .. it was a punk show. What do you mean no stage diving? Then again, this was a twenty year REUNION SHOW. This means the average age was probably thirtyish.

Arkansas is a really small place. The entire population is about two million people and when you divide the age groups and then put the city dwellers and the people who would like punk music, well you see what I mean. I saw a bunch of people I recognized, which was nice. There was also this one guy who did this very public defriending of me on myspace complete with a blog entry about the whole thing. I haven’t experienced anything like that since the whole junior high “no you can’t sit at my lunch table anymore” scene. in well, junior high. And yet I don’t know what I did to offend so righteous indignationly. (is that even word? I don’t care!) So that was a little, what’s the word, AWKWARD! for minute.

What is about Social networks that bring out the worst of junior high school behavior and social politics in people who are old enough to know better? I just want to know.

But I survived and I go where I want to go, when I want to go. I’m a bad ass like that. Now if the place had only allowed mosh pitting, I would have been all good.

Sixteen tons and what do you get?

December 16, 2008 / melissa / 1 Comment

Bellesouth says that I tagged her on facebook for this meme but she is sadly mistaken. I haven’t done this meme anywhere and since it’s Holidailies, I thought I would amuse you with these snippets.

The Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 random people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

I actually keep a large and annotated bucket/things to do before I croak/goal list. There are hundreds of things on there
I want to finish a marathon
Even though I am from Arkansas which considers itself the South even though the coasts consider it the Midwest (these are some fighting words y’all), I do not like fried catfish, sweet tea, boiled okra, deer hunting, the Arkansas Razorback football team or watermelon. I’m afraid the state might revoke my driver’s license, “Sorry hon but you’re no Arkansan of mine!”
Once upon a time, I had a website and I wrote an entry about how I was so horny I could cry. A reader sent me a vibrator for Christmas. God bless the internet
I love the writing of William Faulkner and want to read everything he has ever written
I was able to name 111 countries on this website
I was inspired to take piano lessons from a Bugs Bunny cartoon involving Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
I still want to be able to play that song
One of the most amusing memories of my brother is when he put an egg in the microwave to cook it. I believe I was 12 and he was 10. The egg exploded and blew the microwave door wide open.
I have straddled the equator in Kenya
When I’m on my own accord and not bound my societal conventions or legal obligations, I curse like a sailor.
If it’s possible to have a diet Dr. Pepper addition, then I definitely need join Diet Dr. Pepper Anonymous.
I want to ride on camel while looking at the pyramids in Egypt. I need to hurry up, I hear acid rain is making them erode away
I’m scared of snakes
I like taking photographs. In another life, I would be a photojournalist
I turn into a babbling baby talking idiot whenever I see a kitty cat or a tiny puppy dog. Seriously, someone is going to shoot me someday.
I lost 30 pounds this year. GO ME!

This isn’t actually facebook so I’ll just tag anybody who reads this and needs a holidailies prompt.

Mission may be accomplished but the war's not over yet.

December 15, 2008 / melissa / 0 Comments

This now ubiquitous video of an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at George W. Bush will never get old for me. In fact, I like it so much that I fear I will be placed on the terrorist watch list. Oh Baby Bush has some lightning fast reflexes there. It seems that he is used to people throwing crap at him.

Oh the hilarity.

The Little Rock Nine have been invited to attend the swearing in ceremony of Barack Obama. This was at the suggestion of Senator Mark Pryor who pretty much didn’t campaign for Obama AT ALL. The Arkansas Times reports that Elizabeth Eckford, 67, who still lives in the house where she grew up, said she can’t afford the trip. It turns out that she doesn’t want to go because she hates crowds and the cold.

I guess if I went to school every day with a bunch of people yelling bad words at me, I would be hating crowds too.

The hilarious part is that Mark Pryor, the man who couldn’t be bothered to put up an Obama sign in his yard is now for having the Little Rock Nine come and the big time photo op that it entails. Did I mention he skipped out on the big Hillary for Obama rally on the Capital? Many many folks were completely lackluster in their campaigning even though Obama came here in 2006 to campaign for Mike Beebe.

See the “vote for Beebe” sign? I told you.

This is very surprising and one answer for that just might be racism. In fact, John Brummett called the citizens of Arkansas out for it. (I can’t find the original link so here is the column about the letters received after the original column ran).

So when I read the article about the Tuskeegee airmen and the Little Rock Nine with the headline, “We’ve Completed Our Mission” from this quotation:

“The culmination of our efforts and others’ was this great prize we were given on Nov. 4,” he [retired Lt. William Broadwater, 82] said. “Now we feel like we’ve completed our mission. This inauguration will be the ultimate result.”

I’m sorry Mr. Broadwater but as long as there are people making jokes about whether Obama will plant a watermelon patch at the White house (something I endured at a funeral, of all places) or someone is raising a Confederate flag to protest the election or you see “The Anti-Christ Hussein Obama” at a tattoo parlor, the mission is not over. Unless you are referring to the fact that the Commander in Chief will be a black man which could be considered the ultimate end result of the Tuskeegee Airmen’s mission, then yes that mission will be accomplished January 20th.

But the war is definitely, definitely not over.

This “fish and Chips” logo on the back of a Mini Cooper in Little Rock cracked me up. There are so many fundamentalist that the “Jesus fish” is pretty ubiquitous around these parts. Every once ina while, I will see an “evolution fish” but this “fish and chips” fish makes me laugh. In fact, I think I want one for myself.

Random facts and figures

December 13, 2008 / melissa / 0 Comments

My friend Jennybee is a new Aunt. Even though I am not only old enough to have a child and am old enough to start worrying about the freshness of my eggs, I still don’t feel old enough to actually have a kid. I’m stuck in some sort of adolescent mindset. When I get bonafide big wrinkles, I am going to faint. I have friends who have teenagers and they weren’t teenage moms. Lord have mercy, when did I get old?

Today I heard that in this town, an African American woman who lives in a prominently white neighborhood had her house vandalized and the police did nothing. I mean people literally spray painted “N&****” on the front of it. It didn’t even make the local paper. How the hell does that happen? in 2008?!? I am stunned. Completely stunned. Of course, I had to call my friend to apologize for making jokes about her Fort Knox style security system on her house.

My post Jingle Bell 5K soreness and hill running problems during the race have convinced me that instead of signing u for the Little Rock Marathon, I am going to sign up for the half instead and do more hill training and pace training instead of just trying to finish. I think my legs will thank me.

As a business owner, I can attest that I am feeling the economic fallout of everybody being broke. It’s a sad sad day in Melissaland.

A few weeks ago while running in the dusk, a guy turned his headlights on bright and swerved toward the shoulder where I was located. Seriously, some mother fucker tried to “pretend” to run over me. What if he had lost control of his big ass truck and not been able to swerve back in time. I had on the big hunter orange vest with reflective tape that promised to be seen from 1200 feet away. Who does that?

Jingle Bell 5K

December 6, 2008 / melissa / 3 Comments

I woke up bright and early for a Saturday to run in Craig’s Jingle Bell 5K. Craig is Craig O’Neil of KHTV Channel 11 fame. He has big eyes and big lips. Think Mick Jagger but replace rock star sexy with goofy and that’s about it. This is the first race timed race I’ve run. It’s also one of the first larger races I’ve run. By larger, I mean large enough where I would have to worry about hitting or getting hit by other people in the beginning due to the crowd. Since running a marathon is one of those life goals on the bucket list, I figured I should get used to it.

It was exciting. Crazy exciting. I invited my mother to come with me to watch the action. It turned out she hates the cold and sat in a restaurant to keep warm the entire time. Oops. She was a trooper otherwise though.

It was chilly this morning. I hadn’t registered beforehand so I got to be there before 10:30 to get in. It was windy and chilly.

When I picked up my race number, I also got a temporary tattoo and some tiny jingle bells to put on my shoes.

ME and my TATTOO!

JINGLE BELLS!

I wasn’t expecting the big push of adrenaline waiting in the crowd at the starting line right before the race. It is a “I wanna go! I wanna go NOW!” feeling. Also, my training runs on the high school track and the shoulders of roads didn’t prepare me for the pounding that is running on the street. . Also, I didn’t know you could wear your iPod during a race so I had no music. There weren’t tons of spectators cheering you on like there were at the Race for the Cure.

My calf threatened to shut the race down on me at the first hill so I had to slow down my pace and walk up most of the hills. My time, therefore, sucked really damn hard. I had to remind myself this was my first race and the goal was to finish. This was a FUN RUN dammit. It wasn’t like I had any chance in hell of coming in first.

This 5K run/walk had the distinction that you could walk your dog in the race. There were lots of cuties. Some wore Christmas-y garb and some didn’t.

Here’s a picture of me looking like a dork at the finish line. (Dear Lane Bryant, Can you pLease make some jogging pants that don’t want to go up to my boobs. Seriously those are some Steve Urkel style highwaisted jogging pants from hell. I might send the other pair of pants I have unopened back.) Craig’s in the background.

My post race lunch was a gyro platter at Leo’s Greek Castle. YUMMY!

Holidailies.

My fabulous weekend

October 21, 2008 / melissa / 0 Comments

Team Fabulous 2008

Originally uploaded by mesawyou

I cannot tell a lie. I was a little bit nervous about meeting the “team fabulous” team and going out with them. The last time I met a large group of people that I mainly didn’t know, I was forced to listen some guy talk about his “Italian sausage” for 45 minutes at a sit down dinner.

But this was not that event. This was fun.

We loaded into the hotel shuttle and took our fabulous butts to La Hacienda on Cantrell. There was booze.

That’s a raspberry Margarita. It was orgasm good.

Since it was also a double birthday party, there was cake.

If you celebrate your birthday at La Hacienda, you get your picture taken with a sombrero and blanket, a serenade and a shot of tequila (if you’re over 21).

There was laughing and practical joking. I think we scared Mitch, the shuttle driver.

I didn’t get the memo about dressing like a Transvestite hooker for the Race but considering that I was called Man Woman in college (damn you Frank and Ken!), I think I can definitely pull that shit off. Nextyear, girls. NEXT YEAR.

It is quite awe inspiring to see 40,000 people gathered in one place to support one cause, no matter what the cause is. The Broadway bridge was bouncing. That was a little bit scary.

The other interesting thing is the groups that line the race route along the way. There are bellydancers, firemen, politicians, regular guys (or the Three miles of men), Bikers, line dancers, cheerleaders, a high school marching band, etc. It’s touching. Really.

Hillary Rodham Clinton…. last Friday

October 15, 2008 / melissa / 0 Comments

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Originally uploaded by mesawyou

Last Friday at 5:00, I was on the steps of the state capital awaiting the arrival of Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was set to speak at a rally on the steps and then go to a big fancy pants thousand dollars a plate fundraising dinner for Barak Obama.

There were lots of other “fancy pants” people there including Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson (hey Hollywood fancy pants), Marion Berry, Vic Snyder, Blanche Lincoln, Mike Beebe, Wesley Clark, and David Pryor.

Of course, being politicians, they all had to get on the podium and say something. The formula is fairly simple: say something good about Arkansas, say something good about yourself, say something good about Hillary, say something bad about McCain, and say something good about Obama and how that good directly contradicts the bad about McCain. Therefore, to save the world from destruction, you have to get all your friends to vote for Obama.

Yes there is the political rally in one simple paragraph.

My one and only complaint about this and every other rally or rock concert in Arkansas. The idea of personal space. Seriously, people expect to have three feet of space between themselves and the other people in the crowd. Honey, if you smell that bad, people are going to smell you even if you stand a hundred and three feet away from them. Sheesh.