My First Rita's of the Season

Well, I didn't get my free Rita's on Saturday, March 20th as I had planned for weeks in advance. Apparently everyone else in Columbia had the same plan. (Damn Rita's for advertising so well!)

We ran out of time for an afternoon stop, so Ayla, my mom, and I headed to the King's Contrivance village when our movie let out at 7:30. We pulled in and there were NO parking spots on the Harris Teeter side. After a quick drive by showed the line snaking past Michael's and Subway, we bailed on our Rita's journey.

My mom and I checked out the Rita's on 175, which was a trick because they don't even open until April 2.

Anyway, it was my mission to go on Sunday and mission accomplished with Ayla and The Westies!!! And Rita's made up for the previous day by stocking my favorite flaver: Cotton Candy!

I had my first cotton candy, fat free vanilla gelatti of the season and it's creamy, icey goodness melted down my throat so lovely! Many more Rita's trips to come!

I Love Restaurants: Red, Hot, & Blue

This weekend, Ayla came over on Saturday and we were trying to brainstorm a place to eat lunch. She suggested Red, Hot, & Blue, and I agreed. Neither of us had ever been, and yes, I know it's blasphemous, but were were super excited to go!

I loved the atmosphere - very small, cozy, country, and laid back - does not seem like a chain. We both started out with the chicken corn chowder soup. MMM, it was delicious and it came with these slightly soft, slightly crunchy pita chips. (It wasn't AS good as Mimi's, and could've used some seasoning, but still worth it.)

Then, I got the pulled chicken BBQ sandwich with potato salad. I added some extra BBQ sauce, and I was in heaven! Not too juicy, not too dry... just perfect, and very flavorful. And the potato salad was yummy. Ayla and I also split a side of hush puppies... superb!

I will DEFINITELY be going back! Especially since it is less than 5 minutes from my house!

The Lunch Police

In my office, I have a sliding window directly behind my desk and computer. Yesterday, during nap (when the lights are out and the only light near me is the glow of my computer screen and my fancy stained glass lamp), I had an interesting conversation with a child...

I hear a little voice say, "Excuse me." My window slides open a tiny crack, and I see two ghostly eyes peeking through the now open window. A disembodied voice begins to speak.

Four Year Old Boy: I like bananas.

Me: I like bananas too.

FYOB: Why is that banana on your desk?

Me: I'm going to eat it.

FYOB: I see that you have popcorn on your desk.

Me: You're right, I do.

FYOB (a bit louder): Popcorn is NOT allowed in this school!

Me: I didn't realize that. Why can't we have popcorn?

FYOB: Because of the peanut butter and our school is peanut free.

Me: I'm not sure that I've ever had popcorn with peanut butter, but my popcorn is just made with corn, butter, and salt.

FYOB: Hello? That is called PLAIN popcorn.

Me: Oh, okay! That's what I have - plain popcorn.

The ghostly eyes narrow suspiciously and peer at the popcorn.

FYOB: Oh. That's okay then. I hope you like your lunch!

He slides the window closed and runs over to his teacher.

January / February Movie Review

I've decided that since I am a frequent movie-goer, that I will post a short review of the movies I've seen over 2 month periods. (Later, I can post a blog about my movie OCD and other movie incidents...) No spoilers.

Up in the Air - I truly don't know what all the fuss was about, nor why it has been nominated for an award. It wasn't a terrible movie, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. It was rather depressing, but I did like George Clooney's darker humor.

Daybreakers - I really liked this one! I thought the story was fun, albeit a bit predictable for a vampire movie. There wasn't too much gore, but when there was, it was excellent! I love Ethan Hawke, and thought it was a good role for him. Definitely recommend this one.

Dear John - Utterly gooshy and over the top romantic, as Nicholas Sparks always is, but still entertaining. Despite the unrealisticness of his books, I love Sparks and always have to see the movies based on this books. Amanda Seyfried was decent, and Channing Tatum was delicious (yes, I am a bad lesbian). I was not happy that they changed the ending.

Valentine's Day - Cute, "romantic" movie with a few funny parts, and very cookie-cutter story lines. My Mom and Ayla felt that they wasted money and it was a rental, but I wanted to go to the movies. A lot of 'starpower' and that's what drew me. I mean, come on, Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Topher Grace, Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway... what's not to love?

Avatar - This was one I resisted seeing at first, until I heard about all of the 'controversy' surrounding it. I like controversy. I thought it was fantastic!! I liked the story, the acting, the special effects - everything was awe inspiring. (I want a glow in the dark forest...) I'm glad that I saw it on the big screen and in 3D (even if the glasses were really uncomfortable!) Definitely go see this one...

Shutter Island - This was a bit of a let down. I had heard good reviews, and was expecting a good psychological thriller with mind-boggling twists. However, it tried too hard to scare people (with the jumping out scenes and hallucinations), and the ending was predictable and disappointing. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio should not be allowed to have accents in movies - I love him, but his accents sound so fake. I liked it, but not my favorite, although now I want to read the book it was based on.

There you go... Let me know your two cents too!!

A Letter About Rain Boots

The following is an open letter to a rain-boots-wearing woman, who I affectionately named Stompy.

Dear Stompy,

I admired your rain boots with brightly colored flowers from afar. Not knowing me at all, you would not know that I have a fine appreciation (well, borderline obsession) for anything rain boots. I love my rain boots, I buy books just because they have rain boots on the cover, etc. So, as I walked up behind you, I liked you on the principle that you were wearing a fun pair of rain boots.

Then, we started walking up the stairs outside.

I’m not sure you that you have ever paid attention that the stairs leading up to campus are slightly sloped downward, which causes deep puddles to form on each individual step. I’m also not sure why you walked in a normal fashion until you reached the stairs, at which point you began stomping up the stairs. As if you were angry with the very existence of the stairs, causing you to inadvertently exercise when you didn’t want to be bothered. I am not sure you initially realized that your misplaced-angry stomping was causing dirty rain water to spray several feet behind you, soaking the front of my coat and pants.

When I yelled, “Excuse me” and you glanced backwards and continued stomping, and I had to wait at the bottom of the stairs because you have no social cognizance of people not wanting to be doused in freezing cold water… at that point, I’m sure you realized all of the previously mentioned factors.

Despite your rain boots, I no longer like you. While I enjoy stomping in puddles, I do not do so to the detriment of the people around me. You are not worthy of fun rain boots.

Sincerely,

The Girl Who Loves Rain Boots

The Deafening Silence

Every time my radio stops working in my car, I relive the pain of driving in silence. When it's working, I take it for granted. Sometimes I turn it down when I answer the phone. Sometimes I turn it off when I'm concentrating really hard on following directions. Sometimes I don't return it's calls. Basically, my radio doesn't know how much I appreciate it.

This is the fourth time now, in the 7 1/2 years that I've been married to my car, that the radio has stopped working. The first time, I bought a battery powered stereo to entertain myself because I was too cheap to fix the car radio. Apparently, batteries die really fast when you're consistently using a stereo.

My radio last died almost two months ago. It was repaired on January 8. "They" tell me that it was a blown stereo fuse, but the last two times this happened, it was the first sign that my battery was dying. "They" didn't believe me when I told them this last month. Yet, here we are, and once again, I'm driving in silence.

This is what I did tonight to entertain myself for the 40 minutes I've spent in the car today:
* Called my mom
* Called a friend
* Yelled at other people on the road
* Sang children's songs
* Made up my own song about my radio
* Whistled popular songs (such as "Grand Old Flag" and tunes by Kris Kross)

Luckily, my dear, dear wife has offered to let me drive her car tomorrow since I have a 2 hour round trip drive for school. I mean, there are only so many songs I know that I can whistle...

A Blog About Nothing

A friend of mine (let's call her A-I-Ella) remarked to me today that I don't write in my blog often enough, and when I do write, I'm "always writing about stuff." She preferred my MySpace blog where I wrote about nothing - very Seinfeld-esque. When I tried to think back to verify her statement, none of my blogs really stood out to me, so I guess they really were about nothing!

I think about a lot of different things during the day - sometimes serious things, sometimes weird or random things. Let's share a few of those thoughts...

How did they put the smell into candles? And who thought of that first? I'm sure there's an answer for this somewhere on the internet (probably Wikipedia), but it's still something to think about. Since I invent ideas, but don't have the genius to follow through with them, I will share my idea about candles, but if you steal it, I will hunt you down and demand my profit.

Candible - the edible candle. Don't you ever just smell a candle so tasty (especially the birthday cake ones) that you just want to eat it? I mean, sure, you'd have to be careful of the flame, but still... Mmmm...

What is it about me, after taking a shower, that makes my cat stalk me for 10 minutes after drying off? Is it the clean smell? The slightly damp skin? She looks at me with these big wide eyes, meowing, following me, and wanting to jump into my arms. If she were any larger than she is, she would eat me and bury me under the couch. I'm sure of it.

If people have the knowledge that the idea of race is socially constructed, why do we still have check boxes on forms for this? If people are so worried about the color of someone's skin, why don't we put that? Cream, chocolate, cafe au lait, cinnamon, rosebud. I don't know, those sound more fun. Or maybe just a write in box, where you can name your own. A little boy once told me, "Ms. Jessica, you're peach with brown spots."

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Expect an increase in blogs about nothing.