girl from the south

Last Blogger Blog Ever!

2007-03-23T12:54:00.000-05:00

Girl from the South officially has her own domain name.

www.girlfromthesouth.com

Am I cool now?

Buh-Bye Blogger

2007-03-22T08:22:00.000-05:00

It's been a fun 3.5 years, but it's time to move on. After I attended a breakout session on local blogs last week at the Politics Online conference, I realized how behind-the-times I was with my blog.

Tuesday night, I set up a wordpress blog, so welcome to the new and improved Girl from the South. Wordpress is incredibly easy, and I'm shocked that I didn't switch earlier since I've been contemplating the move for a while. Within an hour, I had my template customized, my links updated and all of my archives transferred. My archives need some work since I moved them over from my orginial blog as well as this one and there's some duplication.

I still need to get my own domain name and make a few other changes, but I'm heading in the right direction. I absolutely love the customizable header on Wordpress. Thanks to flickr, I found public picture of Oak Alley in Louisiana.

Update your bookmarks and enjoy the new site.

The One Where the Smoke Detector Keeps Beeping While Pet-Sitting

2007-03-20T12:03:00.000-05:00

Since last Thursday, I’ve been pet sitting my friend, R’s pooch while R is soaking up the rays in Ft. Lauderdale. Since I was stuck in town for the conference and happen to be a crazy dog person, I looked forward to spending the weekend with Ms. Daisy.

Daisy is an adorable Jack Russell/Beagle mix. She’s incredibly smart and R, does small-dog agility training with her. Since I hang out at R’s apartment a lot, Daisy has gotten to know me pretty well, so I didn’t anticipate any problems.

The past few days went by flawlessly. I made it to work on time every day even with the extra chores of walking and feeding Daisy in the morning. The biggest hassle was walking her in the pouring down rain. There’s something humbling about standing in the cold, freezing sleet cooing, “Poo, Daisy, Poo. It’s time to go potty,” while DC professionals pass you on the sidewalk.

Yesterday, R e-mailed to check in, and I replied that everything was fine. I should have realized that I was jinxing myself at that point.

Last night, I was getting ready for bed and watching a movie. Suddenly, I heard a beep, and noticed Daisy twitch. I blew it off since I was in a strange apartment. Then I heard it again a few minutes later. I looked up and noticed that the smoke detector right above R’s bed was beeping. I tried pressing the button to make it stop, but that didn’t work. Then I took out the battery. No luck. I pulled the case off and noticed that it was wired into the wall, so the Mr. and Mrs. M method of hiding it in the refrigerator wasn’t an option. I figured that short of electrocuting myself by cutting the wires, there was nothing I could do.

I tried to block out the beeping, but it was hard to do. I turned the A/C up and a fan on, but that only blocked out the sound of the movie and not the smoke detector. Then I noticed Daisy’s behavior. The beeping seemed to unnerve her. She’s rather skittish and takes anti-anxiety meds everyday. After an hour of the sporadic beeping, poor Daisy was curled up in a nervous ball next to me and jumping every time it beeped.

I tried to go to sleep, but nothing blocked out the noise, so I considered my options. Destroying the detector Phoebe-style wasn’t an option since it was wired into the wall. R has an efficiency, so I couldn’t go to another room. After two hours of beeping, I opted for escape.

So at 12:30 last night, I grabbed my suitcase, threw all my stuff in it, leashed up Daisy, grabbed my pillow and headed home. Thankfully, I’m only a few blocks from R's apartment, so it wasn’t bad. I’m just trying to imagine the sight of me wandering through the streets of NW DC in pajamas and a UT hoodie with my hair pulled back in a messy pony tail, holding a pink pillow and pulling a suitcase, while trying to control a nervous dog. Hopefully, I provided some amusement for the neighborhood.

Of course once we got to my place, Daisy was wound up and looking at me like, “Where the hell am I? I want Mom.” I finally got her to sleep at about 1:30 a.m. and decided that it was better both of us to get a few hours of quality sleep than a night of tossing and turning. This morning was extra fun too since I had to get ready at my apartment and then walk back to R’s situate Daisy for the day. Poor thing, the smoke detector is still beeping. She’s going to have a nervous breakdown before I get back today.

Good news is that R is coming home tonight, so at least Daisy gets her mom back.

BTW, thanks to everyone who's taken my survey. If you haven't done it yet, click here.

Help a Grad Student! Take My Survey!

2007-03-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

After hours and hours spent tweaking this survey, it's finally finished. Please, please take it. If you're reading a blog, you're Internet savvy enough to be a perfect responder. It's fast, easy and completely anonymous.

Thesis Survey

Thanks for your participation. Also, feel free to forward this link to anyone else who might want to take it. The more respondents, the better!

Go-Go-Gadget Insults

2007-03-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

Saturday night, I ventured down to Dupont Circle to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with a few friends. We decided to grab dinner before hitting the pub since Guinness should probably not be consumed by women on an empty stomach. The restaurant had yummy Irish-inspired cocktails that tasted like thin mint cookies (Bailey’s, crème de menthe and gin). Being girls, we decided to stop by the restroom before waiting in the extra long line for the pub. We were about walk out of the restroom when a girl walked in talking very loudly on her cell phone.

Girl: This drunk guy said I looked like Inspector Gadget and started singing the theme song! Then he said my shoes were hideous! I wanted to run to the bathroom and cry.

At this point, all four of us looked at each other and tried to suppress our laughter. The girl stepped into view and looked at us, ended her phone call and repeated her story.

Girl: This mean drunk guy outside said I looked like Inspector Gadget. Then he actually started singing the song. Do you think I look like Inspector Gadget?

To the drunk guy’s credit, the girl was wearing a belted trench coat that was rather Inspector Gadget-like. However, we assured her that she looked very nice, which she did. Then she pointed to her shoes.

Girl: Do you think my shoes are ugly? The guy also said they were hideous.

All four of us looked down at her shoes, which were a pair of cute, black flats. We all complemented them and told her that the guy was a drunken jerk who didn’t know what he was talking about.

Girl (sniffing): Thank you. After he said that I just wanted to run to the bathroom and cry.

At that point, we left the bathroom as Inspector Gadget Girl opened up her cell phone to share her story with someone else.

Now, I have to give this guy credit. Inspector Gadget is a rather witty comparison for the average drunk male in Dupont on a Saturday night. Furthermore since that was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, I’d be secretly complemented to be compared to the great cyborg secret agent, although I always wanted to be Penny with her cool book computer. However, once the guy insulted my shoes, it would be hard to refrain from exclaiming “Go-Go-Gadget Purse” and slap him crazy with my handbag.

Piece of advice for guys—never, never, never insult a woman’s shoes. Them’s fightin’ words. This poor girl probably spent a considerable amount of time examining her options and debating style vs. comfort. Even if the shoes are truly hideous, guys just don’t ever do it.

Draft Fred Thompson

2007-03-18T20:49:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of weeks, I've watched the buzz build about Fred Thompson's possible presidential bid. All I can say is please run!

No matter how many (placed) news stories or blog posts I read, I can't bring myself to like Giuliani, especially after I met one of his campaign directors last week, and he was an absolute jerk. Giuliani is just not a conservative. I know his camp is going for the "if you tell a lie loud enough and often enough" strategy here, but I won't buy it, nor will the true conservatives. Sure, he's a great leader and a hero of 9/11, but being President requires more than that.

John McCain? Oh give me a break. He's insane and rather creepy to watch too. The John Kerry flip-flop strategy would work well on him.

Mit Romney? His socialized health care in Massachusetts ruined that one for me. Health care is just not a right. If you want insurance, get an education. I've gone to pretty far lengths to get insurance, so it can be done. (Proving the Winston Churchill quote one day at a time...)

Duncan Hunter? Mike Huckabee? These guys really don't have a shot. That leaves us with Fred Thompson.

Thompson has high name recognition, a ton of experience, a solid Conservative record and he's from Tennessee. He's an excellent speaker and exudes confidence, and like (the campaigning) Bush, seems like a "regular guy." He just comes across as extremely likable and intelligent. His interviews have been stellar. He's a good candidate all the way around.

Also factor in his ability to carry most of the country. I honestly believe that neither Giuliani nor Romney could carry the South. My beloved region of the country has emerged as an important voting bloc, and I doubt anyone could win without carrying most of it.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a candidate that conservatives could get excited about? I've been dreading the election season, thinking I'd have to go into a "any one's better than Hillary or Obama" mentality, but Thompson could save the GOP from the brink of disaster, which seems inevitable at this point.

Technology Thoughts

2007-03-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of the Politics Online conference and my mind is swarming with new ideas and theories. The conference has evolved into buzzwords. The "Obama Phenomenon" (try saying that 10 times fast), the "Dean Model/Effect," the "BC04 mobilization plan" and the incredibly overused "Macaca moment." It seems that politicos must use sound bytes in everyday conversations now.
(Oops! I just became the person who spilled a giant cup of coffee. Damn, that was 16 oz. of caffeine that my body desperately needed. Thank goodness, I have no shame. I'm so used to making a fool of myself in public that I don't get embarrassed easily.)

Now, (after I cleaned up my spill and found a new chair on the other side of the room) I'm sitting in a session on data management. This does actually interest me because your campaign is only as strong as your research. However, the moderator just said that they're "bringing the sexy back to data." Sheesh.

Brief memo to conference speakers:
1) People aren't switching ISPs frequently anymore.
2) The digital divide doesn't exist or is a minor factor. Between 75-80% of all Americans have web access now.
3) The divide on the web is now between people with high-speed access and dial-up.
4) Myspace is not the panacea for social networking. Read the news articles. It's actually trending down. Facebook is a much better example of using social networks efficiently.
5) Does anyone over 35 actually understand the concept of social networking? Does that explain why the parties just don't get it?
6) Just because something is talked about a lot doesn't make it a good fit for your organization. Don't just create a Facebook profile because everyone else is doing it. The tactic needs to fit your strategy.

Overall, I've noticed several themes coming from this conference that fit the general trends in communication. We're at a crossroads in the communications world and are literally watching a paradigm shift in the way that we communicate. Traditionally top-down models are no longer accurate. While they're still being used and probably will be for a few more election cycles, they are quickly going to be outdated. New media or Web 2.0 are changing strategies and tactics so quickly that it's difficult to figure out how to build a plan. We know that these new methods should be used, but how do you measure? What are the metrics of social networking? Are click-through rates on a web site accurate measures on changed attitudes? How do you incorporate bloggers and youtube into a traditional media campaign?

What we're seeing is a widespread demand to relinquish control of the message. Best case scenario--this is incredibly scary. Worst case scenario--the decision makers decide to keep control of the message and eventually work themselves into oblivion. The gatekeepers are no longer necessary, and the established powerhouses in politics and the mainstream media really don't know how to adjust to that. We're finally seeing democracy enter the communications world.

There's also another phenomenon that's paralleling this paradigm shift. The wall between the virtual world and the real world no longer exists. Not only can we access the web from practically everywhere (the buzzing BlackBerries at this thing only make that painfully obvious), but we think about the web differently than we did 10 years ago. When AOL made the Internet accessible to the masses, the web was a very segmented thing from our lives. You physically had to sign on and off and plan what you were going to surf. E-mail was a novelty. Using your credit card to purchase something was insane. Now, huge segments of the population are living lives fully integrated with the web. In addition to Blackberries, we have web functions on cell phones. The iPhone and new products like that will only further this integration. Furthermore, it's becoming increasingly difficult to have a web personality and a real-world personality. The web is becoming a giant paper trail of everywhere you've been and everything you've said. New gadgets in the next few years will continue to help integrate the web into our lives.

The RNC data guy is talking. this is rather funny. The RNC may have databases that are incredible, but they sure aren't taking advantage of that information (see my thoughts above about controlling the message). While data can make or break your campaign, you need to build a campaign the responds to what your data actually says and not what you want it to say. Does the GOP actually think that card-carrying members on the ground are happy? Are they that out of touch with the base? Did the 2006 Election not teach them anything? We're 18 months out from a major election. We need to be completely reforming the party, not attempting to justify the traditional methods and catering to the blue bloods.

Google Is Taking Over the World

2007-03-15T12:59:00.000-05:00

Live blogging from the 2007 Politics Online Conference at GW. Elliot Schrage, the VP of Global Communications for Google is currently giving the key note.

This is like Mecca to all the political techies out there. Seriously, this is one of the coolest things I've ever been too.

While he's talked, I suddenly realize how many Google applications have become part of my everyday life. From chatting on gchat to blogger and then google scholar. Kinda creepy. Ha! I just realized that I'm sitting in the midst of the Google contingent. There are about 5 VPs sitting around me.

It's pretty funny to see how the political techies are using everything. The guy sitting two rows a head of me is apparently the official blogger for the conference.

Also, a public service note: when you're miked and giving a speech or serving on a panel, turn off your BlackBerry. The vibrating function causes feedback.

Google also has a sponsored lounge here. Note to the engineer who's probably looking at my blog,:don't put bean bags at a internet conference. It's extremely difficult to balance a notebook while sitting in a bean bag and wearing professional clothes.

Umm, Yeah

2007-03-14T17:44:00.000-05:00

Alive and doing great. Just super busy lately. The winter funk has lifted, so I actually want to have a life outside the blogosphere now. DC has been absolutely gorgeous the past few days.

Will post soon with fun pictures of my "spring break that wasn't," as one of my friends called my working vacation.

Go over to Newlywed Bliss and congratulate Mrs. M on getting into grad school! Despite all my breakdowns, she drank the kool-aid. This fall, she and her hubby, J, will both be grad students. Good luck with that one, Mr. and Mrs. M.

Now back to the exciting evening of content analysis, which follows an excellent afternoon of survey design.

(I did go out an play this morning, so don't feel sorry for me.)

Celebrity Hair Envy

2007-03-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

Some people worship celebrities. Some people follow the gossip or watch what celebs wear. I admire celebrities for their hair.

Hair is a hard thing for me to pull off correctly. I can do make-up, and clothes are always something you can learn. You either have a knack for hair, or you don't. I envy celebrities simply because they can hire a hair stylist to follow them wherever they go and control bad hair days. If you're Jennifer Aniston or Jessica Simpson, they also fill in as a best friend when going through a major crisis.

For the past few years, I've envied Reese Witherspoon's hair. She has similar face shape and hair like mine, so I've pretty much copied Reese's hair. As she's gone shorter, I've gone shorter. Reese gets choppy layers, I get choppy layers. It's worked out well for us. I have a cute hair cut, and she has a loyal fan that goes to all her movies to see how her hair is styled.

Then I moved to DC and wanted to update my look.

Over the past few months, Bebe has run extensive ad campaigns in major cities. Since moving, I've seen huge posters of Mischa Barton for Bebe at every bus stop at least twice a day. Perhaps it's my job field or maybe I'm just too materialistic, but those ads got to me. Forget the clothes. It was her hair I noticed. Suddenly, I found myself wanting Mischa's perfect bangs. Her layers were tousled, but sophisticated. It was time to dump Reese and move on to Mischa.

Now I have no delusions. I look nothing like Mischa Barton, nor will I ever, but I love her hair in those ads. So I hunted the ads down on Google, printed them out and brought them to the salon yesterday.

Hair stylist: Oh you brought a picture today.
Me: Yes. I love this hair cut.
Hair stylist: Mischa Barton?
Me: I realize I sound like a 16-year-old wanting to be on The OC, but I like her hair in the Bebe ads.
Hair stylist: Bebe ads, huh? So you found it on the Internet and printed it out?
Me: (feeling really stupid by this point). Yeah. I googled Mischa Barton and found them.
Hair stylist: Well at least you just want her hair and don't want to be Mischa.

After the hair cut, which turned out really cute! I jetted over to campus for a reception and met up with some friends. One of the first things said to me upon unveiling the new Mischa-inspired cut:
"You Got Bangs! Now, you look more like Reese Witherspoon than ever!"

By George, I Think I Got It!

2007-03-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

There's an amazing feeling that comes when you've created a really good idea or realize that you're on the right track to something big. I haven't felt it in a long, long time, and last night I experienced it for the first time in grad school.

My thesis has been a bigger challenge than I ever thought. I anticipated the workload and the long hours, but I never thought I'd struggle with the creative aspect. As a right-brainer, I've never been in short supply of creativity. I wanted to do something around Internet activism, but I just could not discover a unique hook that hasn't been researched yet.

So two weeks ago, while working against a major deadline, a brainstorm hit. I stumbled upon small statistic from Pew's Internet & American Life Election 2006 Report that was intriguing. I did a bit of follow up research and ta da! A new thesis topic, examining the political ideology behind Internet activism, was created. This concept somehow combines my love of politics, new media and communication theory. It's also somewhat original* and very much needed in political communication. My professor, who serendipitously also researches communications and new media, loved the topic and encouraged me to do it.

The worst part of any research project is creating the methodology and instrument (content analysis and a survey for this project). It's easy to do a lit review. Google practically does it for you now. But defining your design and justifying it in a timely and affordable fashion for a field that spends millions of dollars for the same research is a challenge.

Last night, the comic book light bulb lit up over my head and the design just came to me. I'll probably explain more details later (after the project is completed and copyrighted), but it's super cool. Well, at least to politicos and the digerati.

This blog is quickly becoming Girl from the South's update on the thesis, but anyone who's been through grad school will understand. The process reaches a point where it just consumes you.

*Thanks to T.S. Eliot and Henry Adams, I no longer believe in the concept of original thoughts. No matter how original you are, someone has probably thought of it before you. Any Google search proves that.

Happy, Healthy and Wise?

2007-03-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

I'm well! I'm well! I'm well!

Today, I realized that I was finally over the flu when the walls of my apartment started to close in on me, and I started feeling deprived of social contact with the outside world (hence all the phone calls to friends and a batch of e-mails). '

Other great news--I was somewhat productive and met my thesis deadline. Praise God in the small things. It's a very rough draft. However, given that I didn't finalize my topic until 2 weeks ago and didn't work on it all last week, I'm happy. It's an interesting topic and there will be probably be more posts about it.

Can't say so much for the management paper. Who knew there was so much information out there about Dilbert? There are actual scholarly articles written with titles like "The Idols of Organizational Theory from Francis Bacon to the Dilbert Principle," "The Dilbert Syndrome: How Employee Cynicism about Ineffective Management is Changing the Nature of Careers in Organizations" and "An Economic Analysis of the Peter and Dilbert Principle." However, my favorite one is "Manger-Employee Relations Guided by Kant's Categorical Imperative or by Dilbert's Business Principle." I never imagined that I'd see Immanuel Kant's name in the same title of Dilbert. Scott Adams must be a modern-day philosopher.

Unlist My Gmail

2007-03-04T22:23:00.000-05:00

My gmail account seems to be pretty popular. If it was a phone number, it would be the number that’s one digit off from the neighborhood pizza parlor. Yep, I’m constantly getting the equivalent of wrong numbers in my poor little gmail account.

Thanks to this blog, I was among the first invited to open up a gmail account, so I had the pick of all names. Since I was about to graduate from college and needed something quasi-professional to send out resumes, I went with the initial of my first name and my last name (i.e. jdoe@gmail.com). It seems future employers don’t respond well when your name email address is something like uthottie@aol.com.

Since gmail has gotten better and better, I’ve stuck with it. However, more people seem to be joining and are creating similar e-mail addresses. Due to what I guess is user error or plain laziness, I’m constantly getting emails intended for other people.

This can be quite interesting. For a while I was getting e-mails addressed to a woman about my age attending Cornell. Her friends loved forwards, and there was some interesting gossip spread around. After receiving several receipts from purchases that she had made with her credit card, (the idiot was entering my e-mail address when buying things on the web), I made repeated attempts to have her not use my e-mail address. Finally, I received an e-ticket for a plane reservation and decided to forward it everyone on her distribution list informing them that they were telling a complete stranger personal and financial information. The e-mails finally stopped.

Later, I was confused with some missionaries in South America. People sent a lot of e-mails saying they were praying for me. It was a nice thing to be confused about.

Over the past year, my e-mail was mistaken by a father writing his son at UCLA. He and the son had some financial “misunderstandings," and the son got very angry e-mails. I feel sorry for that poor kid. His dad only e-mails at the beginning of the semester about money.

Tonight, I received an e-mail from the Texas Retailers Association with a copy of the e-mail newsletter that needs to immediately go out. While I like the state of Texas and hold an affinity for shopping, I really can’t help out a retail lobbying organization. The Texas legislature has some interesting things going on right now. Should I respond? It seemed kind of urgent.

I like my gmail address and don’t plan on changing it anytime soon. So I expect to continue getting these. It’s frustrating that people can’t be careful enough when entering email addresses, but mistakes happen. I’m just thankful that my last name is fairly unusual. Have other people had issues with this? What is the polite thing to do? Miss Manners failed to cover this issue.

School Stops for No One

2007-03-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Let's see. One week later, and I'm still sick. Perhaps a doctor's visit is in order. However, sickness doesn't stop school. Somehow, I've managed to catch up on the little things, but haven't touched the big assignments. This could possibly be bad.

Thesis:
10 pages have to be posted by 5 p.m. tomorrow night.

Number of pages currently written: 0

Management paper:
10-12 pages turned in on Wednesday.

Number of pages currently written: 0

Take a wild guess as to what my exciting weekend plans are.

The American Work Ethic

2007-02-27T10:40:00.000-05:00

Sometime over the weekend, I came down with the flu. Between two papers that are due for school and legislative season at nonprofit job, I simply can't afford to fall behind. Due to the wonder of technology, nonprofit job allowed me to work from home since most of my duties are web-based, and I can access my PC at work through remote desktop.

Yesterday, I was simply too sick to work. I tried it, and the mental haze only made matters worse. This morning I woke up early, set up an office in the dining room and have attempted to reason things out. It sucks to work, but at least I can wear my pajamas, and my bed is only a room away.

It made me laugh today while reading Vol Abroad's post about maternity leave. Thankfully, that's a concept that I've never needed to consider nor will need to for quite some time. However, this comment almost made me spill my green tea over my keyboard.

Although as a professional I usually work quite a bit more than my mandated 35 hours a week - but if you're an American reader - I'd bet good money I don't work as much as you do.

Understatement of the day. Here I am, a full-time graduate student with the flu and a fever, and I'm working from home to meet a deadline at my part-time job. By nature I'm a workaholic, just like McGuyver Dad, but living in DC has made the matter worse. I was IMing a co-worker last night, and she was still at the office at 9 p.m. trying to meet her own deadline (there's a new web site that's supposed to go live today.) Not only are we workaholics as a nation, but this city is packed with type-A overachievers who put way too much importance into their careers. It's a crazy cycle that is easy to get trapped in. How else do you explain the 20% marriage rate here?

I'm betting that Washingtoninans largely don't take their vacation time and work far more than 40 hours a week. One nice thing about being hourly is that I'm forced to go home at some point. Once I get a salaried position, that's it. Heaven help me if I give in and get a BlackBerry once I graduate.

When School Is Fun

2007-02-22T11:42:00.000-05:00

Grad school is a challenge. It's a completely different ballgame than college. The pressure is more intense, the work harder, schedules are busier, and the Bank of Dad isn't recieving the (pricier) bills.

However, I love my program. Despite moments when I've questioned if grad school is causing me to lose my already tenuous grip on reality (hence the frequently bizarre Facebook messages and now-famous Top 10 list), there's a passion for my field that underlies the challenges.

My management class is a perfect example. The professor in this class is awesome, and my good friend, R, refers to the prof as Yoda. Last week we had to write a RFP, or request for proposals. These are common in the industry, so we needed experience writing one. Our assignment was to design an RFP for a nonprofit with a budget of $350,000. The best one out of the two management classes will then become a competition for teams to answer and create a proposals.

Since it was a small budget and a nonprofit, I decided to have some fun with it. The expression, "The cobbler's wife has no shoes," fits the internal communications of the SoC at American. Despite teaching us how strategically communicate, the administration isn't capable of using two soup cans and a string to relay critical information. We're constantly grousing about it, so I decided to be creative with my complaint. Hence, my RFP covered "National University's College of Communication" and their internal communication problems. Strangely enough, this university is also nestled in a quiet, residential neighborhood of NW DC and is led by Dean Garry Dirkman. I don't think I've ever had so much fun with a writing assignment.

Next week, we have to write a paper on some topic relating to management, so I'm researching the effects of satires on management. It seems that being able to quote Office Space has finally come in useful. Yoda loved the idea, saying, "Oh, I love Dilbert! Do that!" So, I'm examining how Office Space, The Office, Dilbert and Despair.com have affected management styles. There are countless other examples that I could use (the movie 9 to 5 has more organizational theory than most textbooks), but those are my favorites. The scary thing is that there's a ton of work out there already. Dilbert has spawned an entire field of research on its own. "The Dilbert Principle" has been adopted by scholars and actually quantified.

It's a Small Internet World

2007-02-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

Today at work, I had a moment to catch up on checking e-mail. Since I have at least four addresses going into my inbox, things can get backed up when other responsibilities take priority. In the midst of all the spam and bizarre responses that we get from our database, there was an e-mail with a subject that said Knoxville News-Sentinel.

A reporter was interested in finding out information about an issue that's drawing more attention in Tennessee and the greater Southeast, which happens to be part of nonprofit jobs' mission. Thankfully, I don't handle media (my least favorite part of the communications field), so I forwarded the request to our communications department.

I had to laugh that someone from the Sentinel had e-mailed nonprofit job, and the one person in the office who actually knows where Knoxville is located happened to receive the e-mail. The reporter also didn't do a very good job of searching our web site and missed the huge part that says "MEDIA INQUIRIES CLICK HERE," and instead e-mailed the general account.

However, the reporter's name sounded vaguely familiar. For the next 30 minutes or so, I kept thinking that I knew the name from somewhere. Was it a reporter that I had worked with during the few times that I couldn't get out of media relations at KMA or College Republicans? On a whim, I logged onto Facebook and did a search. Sure enough, the individual in question was a J-student one year behind me. I'm pretty sure this reporter worked for the Beacon while I was at UT.

As much as I love studying the Internets, and their effects on society, it shocks me at how inter-connected we've all become. With Google, MySpace and Facebook, we leave virtual footprints everywhere we go. It astounds me how in a short decade, we've become so accessible. The very definition of privacy has changed so much. Furthermore, what effects does this have long-term? Until I logged on Facebook and found the reporters' name, I was pretty sure the individual was a middle-aged columnist with KNS. Then I found the profile and my professional respect dropped several degrees. Somehow, it's hard to trust a reporter with critical information on a story when you can see silly pictures of him or her on their profile and have friends in common.

What does this say about my Facebook profile? John and Heather have both posted about this recently, but it hit home today. There's a terrifying amount of information about me on the web that can't be scrubbed. (If you know my first and last name, go ahead and Google me. There's a wide "paper" trail.) Of course, this is my own doing, and I should be more careful about what is posted about me on sites such as Facebook or Myspace. However, in college, and even grad school, you feel so sheltered from the rest of the world that you never think about silly pictures of you holding a tell-tale red Soho cup ever affecting your career.

Is this just me being paranoid, or are Facebook, blogs and other new media a liability to careers? I spend so much time praising new media and writing about it, but I never think of the drawbacks.

My Apologies

2007-02-19T11:41:00.000-05:00

Posting has been light of lately. My apologies if my fans are disappointed. However, everytime I've sat down to post, it's been the same old stuff. "GFTS is busy with school/work/homework/thesis. Comprehensive exams bite. Home for a funeral. Not a fan of snow. Being anemic isn't fun...blah, blah, blah."

I don't want to read that, so I know you don't want to hear about the mundane details of my life. Hence the lack of blogging. However, today is dedicated to getting caught up with school work, so that I can attempt to have a fun again. I've also recharged my energy supplies this 3-day weekend (read: I've done absolutely nothing, and every moment was wonderful). As weather.com toys with me and claims that today will actually get above freezing and melt the snow/ice, I hope that my bleak winter blahs will pass and my random adventures will return.

Fighting the Liberal Bias...of Ice Cream

2007-02-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

Found this on facebook tonight.

New ice cream named for Stephen Colbert

Now, I never buy Ben & Jerry's. Their liberal bent disturbs me, and as everyone from Tennessee know, Mayfield is that much more amazing. However, an ice cream named for Colbert is just so cool that I may stock up this weekend.

My Attempt to Not Be Snarky

2007-02-11T14:56:00.000-05:00

After three days of sitting in my bedroom staring at a computer, I'm trying to figure out a way to post without sounding snarky. I really don't know if it can happen.

Friday afternoon, the SOC released copies of the comprehensive exam that is required for us to graduate. As far as comprehensive exams go, it's really not too bad. We have all weekend to write three 5-page essays. However, that's a bigger challenge than it seems.

I did a bit of work on Friday before my roommate had her long-awaited "Minature Party" where were watched The Terror of Tiny Town and ate minature food. Seriously folks, there's really a 1930's western musical cast entirely with little people. It's one of the trippiest movies I've ever seen, and that says a lot given my love for independant films.

Yesterday, I wrote all day. I managed to tackle research methods and principles of strategic communication, but today I'm stuck with theory. Since that was my strongest class last semester, I put that one off until last. However, the question involves combining communications theory with designing a strategic plan for a Democratic presidential candidate (yeah, I'm selling my soul here). I'm seriously tempted to just write--"Even given the Issue Attention Cycle theory, how the hell are we supposed to forcast the DNC convention 19 months in advance?"

There's just way too much that can happen in that period. 19 months ago...well I can't really remember what was going on 19 months ago since my brain feels like it's been in a blender for the past 48 hours. But my point is that politics can change in an instant. One bad video on YouTube, one poorly uttered soundbyte or a grand jury testimony leak, and your career is over. There's no way to create a plan that far in the future.

Ugghh...I just want to turn my computer off and sit outside for a while. It'll be over at 8:30 tomorrow morning though. Then life can perhaps slow down for a while.

Needed: Office Fairy

2007-02-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the Thesis Fairy did seem to make an appearance on the flight from ATL to DC. I managed to get 90% of the thesis proposal finished, and my professor was excited about my ideas. In fact, I was a little too detailed with two hypotheses and four research questions. The verdict: I get to chose ONE.

However, it's looking like I'm going to follow up my thesis with an independant study this summer. This is cutting-edge communications work, so there's a need for it.

Today, I returned to the office to find 400+ unread e-mails to sort through. The new job responsibilities increased my e-mails about ten-fold, so I've spent the morning sorting and filing with the intent to read later on.

I'd much appreciate it if Thesis Fairy's cousin, the Office Fairy, would make an appearance. It seems that the states I'm responsible for were rather busy last week, so I have a lot to catch up on. Note to self, go buy some peanuts so that this doesn't happen...

Wi-Fi Rant

2007-02-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

Continuing on my wi-fi rant from last Thursday. Why, why does Chattanooga of all places have free wi-fi for passengers when DCA does not?

As I sit here waiting for my connecting flight to ATL, I'm shocked at Chattanooga's forsight to provide free Internet access. I imagine the demand is quite high. I'm one of three people sitting with my computer open at one of Chattown's 5 gates.

Happy to be getting back to DC. Of course, my 3-5 page thesis proposal is due at 5:30 tonight. At this point, I have 3/4 of a page written. It also doesn't help that my main source didn't arrive at the AU library until after I left. Hmmm...either the thesis fairy better make an appearance, or my skills of persuasion will be pulled out tonight.

The South + A Funeral = Food

2007-02-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

There's one universal truth in the South: all events, joyful or sad, are accompanied by food. Someone at the airport gave me a Moonpie to welcome me back to the Scenic City, and we've been eating ever since. My grandparent's church had an incredible spread after the funeral with the best chicken salad that I've ever eaten (90% of the table had some type of fried food). Since it's almost Mardi Gras, someone even made a king cake in the shape of my grandfather's name. The pounds that I escaped gaining over Christmas caught up with me. I'm looking forward to returning to the land of the health-conscious food police.

The funeral went as well as most funerals can go. My 10-year-old godson and cousin, John Edward, served as an alter boy and his sister, Catherine, wrote a poem dedicated to my grandfather that she read during Mass. I don't know how she managed to read it. We were all crying.

It was really good to see my family. Most of my cousins were there, and it has been years since I've seen some of them. We've all grown up so much. It's crazy to think that the oldest one is turning 30 this year! One thing that amazes me is how much we all look alike. Despite different genetics, and the fact that I'm the spitting image of Mom from the South's side of the family, there's just something about all of us that shows we're related. It's not always present in extended families, but it seems to be on both sides of mine. Maybe it's a Cajun thing. They are a rather inbred ethnic group.

My great aunt and uncle (my grandmother's brother and his wife) also drove up from New Orleans. Every time I see them, I'm reminded of what the parentals from the South will be like in about 30 years. They're a spunky pair who travel all over the world and are just really fun to be around. They brought pictures of their recent adventures, and gave Mom from the South some new destinations for her vacation planning agenda.

Family events are also very interesting because of religious differences. McGuyver Dad's family is fervently Catholic. Mom and Dad are fervently Protestant, and I'm fervently Calvinist. It's an interesting situation that can be uncomfortable at times, and we're faced with the conundrum of being polite and respectful and demanding respect for our beliefs. Politeness generally wins since manners are placed above everything else on Mom's side of the family, but it has prompted some interesting discussions on the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. However, seeing that it's an issue that has caused bloodshed and theological debates for hundreds of years, I doubt we're going to solve anything.

Last night, instead of vegging out to the Superbowl, we went to Lookout Mountain Pres. and heard Joe Novenson preach. How I miss Joe's preaching! Chattanooga is so blessed to have him. He spoke on brokenness in your relationship with God. Since that seems to be the 2007 theme, it was really great to hear. We're 36 days into this new year, and God has shaken the very foundations of my faith. I'm starting to get scared at what He's going to do next. Every time I think I understand where God is going, something else happens (like losing your grandfather). However, it's always exciting to grow in the Lord, and I'm appreciating this process. As Joe said, God is breaking the support system that I've created and replacing it with His. It's painful at times, but always, always good.

Heading Home

2007-02-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

Currently at Reagan with just a few minutes to post before my flight leaves. Stupid airport doesn't have wireless, and Mom from the South had to hunt some down for me via her mad maven skills.

Last night, my grandfather lost his 3.5 year battle with cancer and passed away. We believe that he's in a much better place now and not suffering anymore. As can be expected, my grandmother is really upset. They were married for more than 55 years.

So, I'm suddenly off to Chatt and then the boonies of Birmingham for a few days for the funeral and to be with my family. I'll try to post through this one. Gatherings with large amounts of Cajuns tend to be rather interesting.

Please keep my family in your prayers. A big thanks to God for a reasonable airfare to Chatt and not a nearby airport, which makes things much harder. Also, the DC Urban Family has been wonderful. Once again, I'm blown away by the amazing blessings of friends.

Until later (hopefully in a bit at Cincinatti if they have wifi...)

In the Bleak Mid-winter

2007-01-28T14:20:00.000-05:00

Cloistered in the library on campus doing research for about five different projects and papers that are coming up in the next few weeks. I've been alternating between Internet activism and arts programs in urban public school system (or the lack thereof, I should say) for several hours and finally breaked to grab lunch at Subway. How thankful I am that AU has healthy places to eat on campus! It beats the sun chip and cookies and creme frappachino diet that I lived on my senior year at UT. Hmmm...perhaps that's why I gained weight?

It's so sad and bleak outside, which is especially noticeable since yesterday was warm and sunny. All I want to do today is curl up on the sofa under a warm blanket and finish The Ragamuffin Gospel.

That book is really something. I'm about half-way finished and so sad that I never picked it up before. I've seen it quoted in countless other books, but I've never read it. However, it seems to fit the spiritual lessons that I've been encountering in my life lately. I want to post about it, but I'm still working through what to write. Needless to say that lately God has used circumstances and my reading material to force me out of a complacent and stagnate spot and spurred me to grow. That may sound painful, but this has been a really awesome period in my life. The lessons may be difficult, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Lunch is over. Must return to the world of academia...

Googlephobia?

2007-01-26T17:08:00.000-05:00

We watched this in class this week and I thought it was clever. Definite doomsday scenario of the mainstream media, but just possible enough to be scary.

Whoa, Flashback

2007-01-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

This morning, I decided to pull out the bright, UT hat and muffler set since I only have class on Wednesday and can dress down. Despite my love of all things UT orange with Power Ts, I hardly ever wear the color. Who exactly looks good in UT orange? As a blonde with a pale complexion, it's not the most flattering color to have near my face.

As I pulled on my gloves while walking towards the bus stop, I noticed something funky on them. They were dirty and looked to be covered in dried Elmer's glue.

"Why?" I thought to myself. "Why would I have dried Elmer's glue on my gloves? I would have been gluing something outside in the cold to have glue on them?"

Then it hit me.

Homecoming.

The only time I would have necessitated the wearing of gloves in the cold while using some type of adhesive product would be Homecoming week at UT when we were building our parade float.

As a devoted Gamma Sig, I practically moved in to the frat house that week, so that I could help pom and then glue each individual crunched up, tiny ball of tissue paper onto the float.

UT, or ACE actually, has an old-fashioned float building process. You have to build the frame, then paper mache, then cover the float in literally millions of tiny poms. (Most schools cover the frame in chicken wire and then stuff pieces of tissue paper in the loops.) I still remember how dry and swollen my hands would get from crunching up garbage bags full of 4"x4" sized tissue paper.

After you finished poming, which was usually 7 a.m. on Friday when the float had to be done, we'd glue them individually on the float and then cover them in hairspray to make them stay better. I don't think anyone is ever actually finished with their floats. Some groups are just further along than others.

The hairspray added an interesting aspect. What happens when you have a large group of 20-year-old guys who have been binge drinking for a week and are presented with a 10'x 10' item that is highly flammable? Yes, the night of the Homecoming parade is pyro heaven in Knoxville.

The things my parents invested tuition dollars in...

Dispatches from Gradland

2007-01-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

I've re-entered graduateland, where life is crazy busy and my existance revolves around studying, working and occassionally venturing out and remembering that there's a world of fun and free time out there.

So until May, expect rather boring posts. I now get excited about research articles, interesting lectures in class and campaign activities that I'm working on.

-Nonprofit job has changed a bit. While my job title didn't change, I got a raise and more responsibiliites. The change is pretty cool, and I'm now working directly with the state directors of three regions in the U.S. I get to handle the online grassroots activities of these three regions, which is scary and requires a lot of organization and multi-tasking. I'm definetely seeing a possible long-term career path in grassroots development, especially since I'm focusing my thesis on that subject. It just seems to be a really good fit for me.

-Yesterday, we got to sit in on a video conference call with the president of promotions at MGM in Hollywood and heard about the promotion campaign behind Rocky Balboa. While I hate the Rocky franchise for reasons that some of you understand, it was fascinating to hear about the promotion campaign. MGM guy explained how the box office gross is broken down, how movie trailers are strategically placed, budgets and the print campaign. It's amazing how much money is invested in movies when the ROI is really not that high. The downside was sitting through about 20 different Rocky trailers and hearing MGM guy describe how each collection of the same scenes was different.

-I'm really loving this DC smoking ban. The now infamous SOC Dance Team has planned a couple of outings this semester. It's so nice to be able to wear a coat to a bar or club and not immediately head to the dry cleaner in the morning. It's also nice to be able to see my friends instead of peering through a smokey haze. But most of all, it's nice to not use my inhaler pre-emptively and arriving at a club unintentially buzzed and then worrying about an alcohol/inhaled steroid cocktail. Needless to say, I'm all for smoke-free laws.

-Tuesday, a union organizer spoke to my communication and social change class. Given that I was raised by two ardently anti-union parents who break picket lines when they have a chance, this was a painful lecture for me. I about fell out of my chair when the organizer lady said she focuses on recruiting ministers to support unions. Her main selling point: if your congregation earns more money, they tithe more and that's more money for your church. Where do I even begin to explain how wrong that is!?! I think she picked up on my feelings when I asked if DC had Right to Work laws and was the only person in the room who knew what those were.

I kept thinking that this woman was a little nutty but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then she gave her background and admitted to being a former staffer for Cynthia McKinney. Yes, that Cynthia McKinney. Suddenly everything made sense.

Already Behind?

2007-01-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

It seems that my professors started classes two weeks ago and forgot to tell us. The phrase "hit the ground running" can't be emphasized enough this week. On the bright side, I absolutely love all of my classes. If I'm going to be up at all hours of the night researching, writing, reading, editing, designing, creating and planning, I should have a passion for what I'm doing. AU's focus on strategic nonprofit communications drew me to the program, and it's quite possible that I might OD on saving the world this semester.

Thesis Seminar
Pro: My professor likes my thesis topic.
Con: There's not a lot of research on it since it involves the Internet, forcing me to dig up primary sources.
In an ironic twist of fate*, it appears that my thesis seminar course is going to be the easiest. All we have to do there is research and write a 40-60 page paper. While all my professors are awesome, this one likes my thesis idea and knows the president of my nonprofit job.

Practicum
Pro: I get to develop a strategic campaign on a topic that doesn't relate to nonprofit job and hopefully involves the arts and/or children.
Con: This prof loves, loves, loves busy work.
Remember the lone professor who made us take a final? I have him again for my practicum. While he can be a stickler, I really like him and enjoyed his class last semester. He also teaches the best practicum section in the program, so I'm happy that I got into it. This course takes all the principles of our other classes and combines them with extra things that we'll need to know to conduct strategic communications programs such as media training and best practices.

Management
Pro: This class is a lot of fun, and the professor minimizes the workload for maximum learning.
Con: To my knowledge, this is my 6th management course.
While listening to my professor lecture in class yesterday, I was suddenly struck by how familiar the material was. For some reason, I seemed to know a lot of the history and background information already. How could this be? Management is a required course for my degree, so I just registered for it without thinking. I started mentally cataloging my courses at UT. Turns out, I took at least five other courses as an undergrad that dealt with management/organizational theory from the perspectives of psychology, political science and communication. Now, I get it from the graduate communication perspective. Thankfully, the professor covers the focus of the previous classes in the first few lectures, so there will be new material.

Communication for Social Change
Pro: This is an interdisciplinary course for film, journalism and public communications students studying how the media drives social change.
Con: There are a few undergrads in the class, so we have some handholding and busy work.
This class adopts a project in the community and develops a campaign that incorporates all the disciplines. Seeing that AU has one of the best film schools in the country, we're working with tomorrow's leading film makers. The final product should be pretty amazing. My bleeding heart
is quite satisfied to be in this class.

*I'm firmly convinced that irony is the driving force in my life.

Back to School, Back to School

2007-01-16T09:43:00.000-05:00

The spring semester starts today! I can't remember when I've ever been so happy to have classes start. (Maybe my senior year at Berean when we all wore "Kiss Me, I'm a Senior" pins?)I'm welcoming the change to escape some of the drama and blahness that have followed me for the past few weeks.

I'm not sure how long this excitment will last. One of my professors already e-mailed the syllabus out, and his class is going to be intense and challenging but really good. Basically, my semester is going to entail 3 huge PR campaigns and a thesis for a total of 12 hours. It's gonna be crazy. Prayers appreciated!

Addypod Selections

2007-01-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I did a soundtrack post, so I thought I'd rename it the Addypod Selections due to the fact that this is what I've been listening too since I got back to DC and put the ipod back into constant use. Overall, bleak and depressing, but it rather fits rainy January weather.

The Blower's Daughter, Damien Rice
This is the most addictive and haunting song that I've ever heard. Most people know it from the movie Closer. It's the perfect depressing track. If it goes onto your playlist be sure to pull out the Sylvia Plath.

Let the River Run, Carly Simon
Carly Simon's 1980's girl power ballad from Working Girl. What's not to like?

Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper and Sarah McLachlan
New(er) version of another great 80's classic. I love the blending of Lauper and McLachlan on this track.

My Savior, My God, Aaron Shust
Amazing praise song.

Stand in the Rain, Superchick
Sure, Superchick is a Christian teeny bopper group, but you can't help but like some of their stuff, and Stand in the Rain seems to capture my mood lately.

This Woman's Work, Maxwell
Another cover of an 80's movie song by Kate Bush. (Notice a pattern?)

A Long December, Counting Crows
Also been pulling out the Counting Crows lately. What ever happened to them?

Politik, Coldplay
Favorite song from the band before Gwyneth entered the picture, and they were good.

Fix You, Coldplay as well.
So X&Y isn't my favorite album, but I do like about three tracks off of it, and this is my favorite one.

Satisfied and Just About Enough, Josh Bales (from Underneath the Armor)
I ocassionally post about Josh Bales, but he's quickly becoming my all-time favorite songwriter. His music just seems follow the ebb and flow of my relationship with God. Underneath the Armor, his latest release, is my favorite yet. If there's one CD I'd recommend buying this year, it's Josh Bales.

Cuddling is My Superpower?

2007-01-12T16:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a sudden Second Life interest at work, I was led to the Sundance Channel's web site where I found this fun nugget.

Yeah, this is probably as racy as this blog gets, but it was a fun quiz (at least better than anything Cosmo does) that actually seems to be a fairly accurate assessment of my personality. However, what got me were the graphics.

The design of this site is awesome. It's well thought out, fun without being cheesy and pervy. It's a really creative way to design an online quiz and the survival guides at the end are adorable.

Seeing that I don't have the Sundance Channel, I really have no clue what the quiz is promoting, but it works. I'm intrigued now, and I blogged about it. Well designed web sites and clever viral tools get promoted here.

Hey, You Out There...

2007-01-11T11:30:00.000-05:00

Wow. It totally escaped my notice that it's National De-Lurking Week, and I've miss almost all of it. Thanks to Mrs. M for doing some mad updates at work and keeping me up to date.

I'm sure that I have some lurkers out there. This blog is listed in enough places. However, what scares me are friends that lurk. It's really strange when you're sitting down with a group of friends and one, particularly odd one suddenly starts commenting on your ability to spell "geaux" and the rest of them chime in. This isn't the first time that something like that has happened. If you read the blog and actually know me in the real world, leave a comment on occassion. Bekna and PR Jedi Master Boss this goes for the two of you as well.

Introducing Edmund

2007-01-08T18:57:00.000-05:00

Greetings blogosphere. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Edmund, and I'm a new notebook computer that Girl from the South ordered last week.

Why Edmund? Well, it seems that my delightful owner has a habit naming electronics, plants, stuffed animals and pretty much anything else that she can get away with. She read somewhere that when you name something, you can control it. Hence Baby the Honda Accord, Hermione the schefflera, Edgar IV the old Dell desktop, Addypod the iPod and me, Edmund the new Dell laptop.

Edmund, GFTS informs me, is a classic name from British literature. Jane Austen, her favorite author, named several characters Edmund (Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility). Plus it's the name of one of the children from The Chronicles of Narnia and Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas to name a few of her favorite books.

Given that it's been about 1.5 hours since I was lovingly lifted out of the box and started, my life is going to be rather exciting. GFTS has already put the important things like iTunes and AIM on me that will ensure that I'm a cool PC. She also insisted on putting a picture of Clive Owen as my wallpaper. Now, he's a fine British chap, but what is with her obsession with this one actor? My recent purchase seems to have coincided with seeing Children of Men, although Edgar informs me that he's 3 years old and has had Clive Owen from The Driver as his wallpaper for 2.5 years. Before it was some wimpy daffodils.

I've also been told that I'm a key figure in GFTS's academic success. She has to write a 75-90 page thesis within the next 4 months, and I'm necessary for researching information, storing documents and actually writing the paper. It's exciting to think that I'll be so important to her future! It looks like we'll be spending many hours together in the near future. Sadly though, I was built for far more exciting things than simply using Microsoft Word. I'm hoping that GFTS decides to splurge one day soon and order the entire Adobe Creative Suite!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2007-01-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

So happy to be back in the District!

After a short drive to ATL, a quick trip to IKEA, a 2-hour flight (with one hour spent on the tarmac at ATL), a shuttle, Metro and taxi ride later, I finally arrived home in my NW apartment.

This probably wouldn't have been too bad, but I had 100 pounds of luggage.

Yes, that's right. 100 pounds split between two giant suitcases. Perhaps I shopped a bit too much in Chattanooga. Did I really need to buy a cocktail dress and 4 new pairs of shoes? Plus I got a giant set of fluffy bath towels from Santa. Towels don't back easily.

When both suitcases are bigger than you are, chances are it's going to be tough to navigate a public transportation system. Surprisingly, the hardest part was getting my bags on and off the shuttle at the airport. Since the Metro stop is only at one terminal at DCA, you have to shuttle if you take a small or budget airline. However, one nice guy helped me get everything loaded. It does work to play the helpless female sometimes.

Thus, my 2.5 week vacation has ended.

It was wonderful to see all of my friends and family although it feels like I spent most of the trip in the car driving to different destinations. Two trips to K-town, a trip down to Birmingham to visit extended family plus the initial drive home and then finally down to Atlanta to leave, and I probably logged at least 2,000 miles in the car.

It was a nice break, but I probably timed it right. Another week at home, and I probably would have started getting cabin fever. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone. I got to see Bekna and the rest of the Chattown friends several times (plus a few meals at Amigos!). I also caught up with PR Jedi Master Boss, visited CDM, saw the grandparents and cousins, spent some time with Mrs. M and caught up with some of the CR peeps.

Visiting friends in Knoxville, I was reminded of one universal truth: as long as there are College Republicans, there will be drama in the world, and my blog archives prove that! My vacation was almost enough time to sink back into the drama and intrigues of that bunch. It's just amazing how one group of supposedly Christian conservatives can get into so much trouble. My advice to those still entangled in that strange world--get out as soon as you can! Someone could seriously write a novel on the experiences of that club.

Geaux Tigers!

2007-01-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

41-14 LSU!!!

While my blood runs orange, there's enough of a purple tinge to make me thrilled that LSU wiped the field last night with Notre Dame.

At least one of my teams won their bowl game.

If anyone missed the game, it was a good example of why SEC football is the best in the country. Notre Dame looked like a measely little high school team compared to the Tigers.

I'll probably get hate mail for this, but I really can't stand Notre Dame. Sure, they're the Fighting Irish and have all the traditions, but usually, they're one of the most overranked teams in the nation. Yeah, I've seen Rudy, but get over it. Past glory shouldn't affect current BCS standings. Which are once again proven to be BS once again with Boise State. Grrr...where's our playoff system?

Sadly, the new year means that college football is over. Sniff, sniff.

2006 Was So Yesterday

2007-01-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

Dear 2007,

I've been waiting for you for a couple of weeks. The last six months of 2006 were so insane that I was pretty happy to say goodbye to the year. My life has literally changed in every aspect, and my mind is still processing those changes, so I'd be quite happy if your first few months were rather dull.

If 2006 could be summed up in a few words, it would be changes and friendship. I was amazed at what God did in my life and some of the decisions that I found myself making, both good and bad. However, the one thing that got me through those highs and the lows were my incredible army of friends who are now scattered around the country. For that, I can never thank God enough. That's one trend that I hope stays the same in the years to come.

I know that you will be another pivotal year. Until July, grad school will be pretty intense, and then I'll have to make important decisions about where I'm going in my life. Mr. Stafford and Mr. Perkins are also going to be giving me a call in the latter part, so finding a full-time job with benefits and a retirement plan are at the top of the to do list. I'd also like to do a bit of traveling. It would be nice to do a repeat of last year and spend a week or two across the pond as a reward for becoming Girl from the South, M.A., but my hopes are a bit higher than my finances.

Generally, I know I make several resolutions about working out more, drinking more water, reading my Bible/praying more often, etc. but this year, I just want to make just one big one. It's become fairly obvious that I need to simplify my life, so one resolution should be plenty for me. Seeing that I've lost nearly 40 pounds in the last two years, I'd say I've got the common ones covered. However, my spiritual life has often gotten lost in the shuffle, so as a good Calvinist, my one resolution is to "Glorify God and enjoy Him forever" as much as possible in my life. Seeing that those six words have prompted mulitudes of commentaries, it's a pretty big challenge. There are a few other minor resolutions that I've made, but I'm depending on Mrs. M and Bekna to help me with those.

Above everything else, I hope that 2007 keeps providing interesting adventures for me. Of course given my natural ability to find drama and trouble in every circumstance, I doubt life will ever be boring. However, to paraphrase another quote from Anne of Green Gables, "2007 is full of new days with no mistakes in them."

2007-I look forward to getting to know you.

Your Friend,

Girl from the South

Defining Domesticity

2006-12-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

What makes you domestic?

Is it full-time domestic diva status or is it the ability to create a 4-course meal in 20 minutes with an elaborately set table complete with a centerpiece and matching place cards?

This is a debate that Mom from the South and I have been having for quite some time.

Mom is the uber-domestic. She's so talented that Martha would run off crying in a crafting showdown. How can you challenge a women who sews her own slipcovers, has a backyard that looks like the cover of Better Homes and Gardens and still manages to put gift baskets together for the our mail carrier, Ted, and all the neighbors at Christmas? She also makes her own soap. Yes. Soap. Fantastic soap that's similar to Lush and makes my skin look awesome.

Given that I grew up with this model of home economics, I gained much of her knowledge. (How many 4-year-olds give consultations about drapes and ask questions about the nap and repeat of fabric?) However according to Mom, my skills are still not up to par.

What is the average domesticity level of other women in their 20s? I can bake, cook, decorate, paint and even Sheetrock. I'm a mad crafter and know the basics of gardening (apartment living has hampered that pursuit). While my sewing skills are somewhat lacking (I hate the exactness that patterns require), I was the one that sewed on buttons and hemmed pants and skirts for roommates and friends in college. Heck, I've even given lessons on ironing before, and the entire SOC was enthralled this semester with my Oreo truffles.

Two events prompted this discussion today. Earlier, Mom asked me to slice cranberries just as I was leaving to run errands. While I love baking, chopping 3 cups' worth of individual cranberries into fourths is not my idea of a fun time, so I bolt when the cranberry walnut bread ingredients appear.

Later tonight, I was wrapping presents for our belated Christmas with extended family. I'll note here that for several years, I've been the official gift wrapper of the GFTS family. I literally live to wrap presents at Christmas. The only presents that I don't wrap are the ones given to me. Even though we didn't get home until 3 days before Christmas this year, the parentals saved all the presents for me to wrap. If I could start a business gift wrapping presents for people, I happily would.

Hence this conversation which occurred in Mom from the South's dream craft room (formerly known as my bedroom)
Me: (looking through a box of ribbon) Can you help me with bows? I'm terrible at making bows.
Mom: (picks up ribbon and proceeds to make an elaborately looped bow) You can't make bows, and you call yourself domestic? (joking, I think).
Me: I'm just horrible at making them. I never practice.
Mom: (starts on a new bow). Just watch. Loop and twist. Loop and twist. It's that easy (think Bree Van de Camp).
Me: (attempting to follow) Umm...this doesn't look good.
Mom: (looking at it) It's ok...
Me: (holding it at a distance) Are you sure?
Mom: Bow-making and cranberry chopping are requirements for domesticity.
Me: Sigh. I am domestic. I'm just bad at making bows. And for the record, I can chop cranberries. I just hate doing it.
Mom: One day you'll need to know how to do those things.
Me: You only know how to make bows because of all the matching hair bows* you made me growing up.
Mom: True, but I practiced.

By the time we finished the latest round of this debate, Mom had assembled 2 gift baskets and decorated 4 loaves of cranberry bread with clear plastic wrap, red bows and sprigs of holly. Me: 3 presents had bows (sad ones) on them. Looks like I have some work until I pass the next level of domestic divaness.

*My childhood was spent in puffed-sleeved dresses with sashes and ruffles that were popular in the 1990s. Since Mom made most of my clothes, I always had a matching hair bow, and many of them were quite amazing. At one point she had about a 12 hour turn-around time from buying the fabric to cutting out the pattern, sewing and making an elaborate hair bow to match. Of course, I always ended up hemming the new dress. She sewed. I hemmed. We had a pretty good deal going plus I rarely have to pay to get clothes altered.

Breaks from Blogging

2006-12-27T08:43:00.000-05:00

Belated Merry Christmas everyone! For some reason, although I have plenty of time, I haven't felt like blogging. Perhaps it just seems strange to not be doing it from work (hehe!). Anyways, more than anything else, I've been enjoying not staring at a computer screen for 14 hours a day.

So the DC family trip was fun. The White House is amazing at Christmas although I was disappointed to not see Barney or Miss Beazley. (I'll have to hang out there more often in order to catch them playing in the lawn.)

Christmas flew by strangely fast. I feverishly finished up shopping for the 'rents since I didn't want to pay DC prices for gifts. Santa also brought some very nice gifts for me including a nice, new set of pink, fluffy bath towels that I've been requesting for a while, (Mrs. M...?) this fun book, which will spur many hours of entertainment at the office and this book from one of my favorite fashion icons.

It appears that President Ford died last night. My sympathies go out to his family. However, it would seem that I always miss the excitement in DC. Since I'm not heading out until the 7th, if he has a state funeral, I'll miss it. Tempting to see if I can move my ticket up. Official ceremonies fascinate me. Perhaps that explains my anglophila.

Also, this past week has reminded me of how I have an amazing set of friends in Chattanooga (not to exclude Mrs. M in K-town)! Getting to spend time with them has probably been the best Christmas present ever. I really don't know what I'd do without any of them!

Tennessee Sounds Good to Me

2006-12-21T08:16:00.000-05:00

Heading home momentarily! Who-hoo! Two weeks in a red state and away from school, work, stress and urban dwelling!

Merry Christmas DC! I'll see ya next year!

12 Hours Later

2006-12-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

YEA!!! I'm finished for the semester! I have a life again until January 16!

Last night, I took my last final which was an agonizing writing lab for my communications tactics course.

This exam was truly evil.

While it wasn't hard (write a press release, PSA and letter of reccomendation in 2.5 hours), the professor gave it to us purely out of spite. Since the unspoken rule is that there aren't any finals in grad school (only massive papers, crazy campaigns and 3-hour presentations), none of my other profs made us meet for finals. Apparently AU has some obscure rule that all classes must meet during the final exam period. Given that this class was scheduled for the last final slot, my professor decided to be a stickler and force everyone to stay in town for an extra weekend so we could have one more night of "practice."

Factor in that my professor was bragging to all the other faculty that he was being mean and forcing us to do it just because he can, and none of us were happy campers last night. My friend R did find out that other professors were upset and sticking up for us and calling him to complain.

Have I mentioned what an odd little world AU is?

The good news is that I'm now 12 hours into my program! That means I only have 18 more to go by July.

December is for Anniversaries

2006-12-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

While sitting in a staff meeting today, I realized two things.

1) Today is the 26th anniversary of the parentals from the South. Happy anniversary! I'm pretty darn lucky to have parents who are happily married and have set a good example for me.

2) Last Sunday was my 3rd blogiversary. Honestly not sure what I was doing since my world was still in grad school chaos, but I missed it. It's hard to believe that it's been 3 years since I started this.

Blogging first came to my attention in the Fall of 2003 during a marketing class. My first reaction was that it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard. The fact that a few weeks later John Brown started a blog only confirmed my thoughts that it was silly and nerdy. (Sorry John! Now, I'll see if you actually read this.) Of course following that, Bethany, another friend who has sadly moved to Arizona, started her own corner of the Internets, and blogging suddenly appeared cool to me. Yeah, I'm swayed by peer pressure like that.

Chattanoogizing the Strip?

2006-12-18T13:19:00.000-05:00

For the second post today, somewhat involving Chattanooga.

So the firm that changed Chattanooga is now redeveloping the Strip? As a Chattanoogan and a UT alum, I'm not sure about this. A major part of the Strip's appeal is it's sketchiness. Can UT sustain its reputation as a major party school without skeevy bars and clubs? What happens to the strange comic book stores and dives if offical Chattanooga planners take charge?

As much as I love Downtown, I don't want the Strip to turn into Frazier Ave. How can you have a real UT experience without tales of questionable pub crawls? If they redevlop the Strip, students won't be able to afford to hang out there! Plus, who'd want to live on the Strip in overpriced condos with hordes of drunk people walking by on football Saturdays?

I must add though, turning Cumberland Ave. into one lane on either side with a turn lane is a great idea. Everyone I know had an accident at some point there, including the sad demise of Mrs. M's Little Red Rocket. Baby even got rear-ended there while turning into Walgreens my sophomore year.

Homesickness

2006-12-18T12:40:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that it's only been three weeks or so since I was in the Scenic City, I've been feeling extremely homesick the past few days.

It could be that exams are finally over (well, after tonight they will be) and mentally, I'm ready to relax. However, the parentals from the South arrived in DC last night to see Christmas in the capital, so it's going to be a few more days until I get home. (Sniff, sniff).We do have tickets to the White House, so it can't be that bad, especially since I'm obsessed with White House Christmas specials and daydream about working on their special events staff. (not the smartest thing to admit in career-driven DC, but true).

Christmas is my favorite time of year because of all the fun traditions that my family has. Plus, Chattown just has some quirky things that make Christmas magical (Christmas on the River, the window displays downtown, the neighborhood off of Norcross Rd in Hixson that does luminaries, the crazy house below DuPont Parkway with all of the lights, almost getting killed driving around Hamilton Place, but above all this place--

It's simply not Christmas until I've seen Enchanted Garden of Lights at Rock City. Oh the memories!

The Surreal Life: DC Edition

2006-12-14T14:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a true story that happened at the office of my friend Lindsay today. Gotta love DC for it's total absurdness.

So I start getting a stream of emails that start out like this:

"For all interested ladies and gents ... the two snipers on the roof across
from my office are HOT! Come by, take a look, tape your phone number to my
window."

And yes it was really snipers because the President was visiting
somewhere around where I work. Then the emails proceed with mentionings of
posting phone numbers on the window and calls from the sniper. They conclude
with one of my coworkers having a date Monday night with the sniper.TOO
FUNNY

Do snipers make good dates? Well, only in DC do you get the opportunity to try. And they say no one dates in this city.

Still Alive

2006-12-12T14:49:00.000-05:00

A quick note to let the blogosphere know that I'm still alive. Sadly, life isn't very exciting right now. I keep thinking that school is finished and another assignment pops up. After the paper from hell was turned in last week, I thought "Wow! I'm finished." Then my group from another class reminded me that we had a presentation on Monday. After the presentation on Monday, I thought, "Sweet, I'm actually done this time." Then I found out that I needed to write a final report on our presentation (which I should be doing right now among other things). At this point, I'm giving up. School is just going to follow me around until I finish up in July. I still have a final on Monday and a project for my research methods class on Thursday.

You'd think I'd be done then, but not so much luck. Given all the other pressure this semester, I got behind in some of my reading for the semester. I need to use Christmas break to catch up on my reading and note taking so that I'll be on top of things for the comprehensive exams in February. It'd also help to get some research done on my thesis, but I don't know if I can handle looking at the words "framing" or "information subsidy" for a while.

No. 1 lesson learned this semester: 1-year intensive master's degree means looking at your life and saying, "Bye! See ya next year. Next time we meet, I'll have two letters after my name."

Just Checking In

2006-12-08T11:56:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's been almost a week since I updated this. Didn't mean for that to happen. However, the darker forces of grad school have been at play. Literally all of my free time has gone to school work.

Wednesday, my major theory paper for the semester was due. While it was only 20 pages long, the professors have been hyping it since orientation back in August. This is supposed to be the foundation of our thesis, which is supposed to be the grand entrance into the world of academia. Given that I want to be Girl from the South, Ph.D. one day in the future, this paper is pretty important.

So I've been working on it for the past 4 months and chose a topic way too broad. By broad, I mean a doctoral student would have a hard time doing a dissertation on it with a research budget. Last Wednesday, I went to my professor for much needed help. She informed me that the background part was great, but that I needed to narrow my theories and analysis. She pointed me in the direction of one theory instead of the 2 meta-theories and additional 6 communication theories (framing and information subsidies versus analyzing how social marketing and public affairs interact), and encouraged me to analyze a specific time period of the organization I was writing about.

My paper is a case study of one campaigns that my place of employment has conducted, so I had a wealth of resources to sort through. However, with 7 days and other obligations, this was hard. I had to do additional theoretical research plus gather primary sources to analyze. Factor in all the crazyness of Friday night, and I've been a busy bee for the past week. I took Monday off from work to devote time to it, but guess when it got finished?

1 hour before it was due.

It wasn't that I was procrastinating (Mom!). Since the scope of my paper changed at the last minute, I was really pressed for time. By Wednesday at 1 p.m. (it's due at 2:10 p.m.), I was catatonically sitting on my bed trying to frantically proof the thing. That was hard! Some of it was written months ago, so I've been staring at the same words for hundreds of hours! However, worse freak-outs come to mind, so in the grand scheme of life, it wasn't so bad. I have an A in the class before the paper, and I got a 100 on the presentation, making me hopeful about the final result. My professor also suggested a conference to submit it to next fall, which would rock. Getting published has moved to the top of my priorities. Given the lack of research and my interest in the field, I'm not opposed to working extra hard to have it accepted. If I'm mid-way through grad school and still have a desire to be an academic, maybe there's a chance it'll happen one day. However, at this point, all I want for Christmas is a 9 to 5 job and enough income to buy a house in the near future.

When Grad Students Get Out

2006-12-03T20:26:00.000-05:00

What happens when you take a group of extrovered, PR grad students who have been stuck in front of a computer screen for the past 4 months, deprived of all social interaction and give them an open wine bar at a U Street location?

A night that really can't be accurately described here. However, it will go down into the annals of Girl from the South's memorable weekends.

What scares me is that there are at least 2 more weekends with planned events before we leave for the semester. People should be afraid. Very afraid.

Because It's Friday

2006-12-01T11:03:00.000-05:00

...and I'm ready for the SOC Christmas party to kick-off December.

You Are 72% Lady

Overall, you are a refined lady with excellent manners.
But you also know when to relax and not get too serious about etiquette

Are You A Lady?

You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead...
But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place.
You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

How Machiavellian Are You?

You Are 55% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal...
Other things you do are downright strange
You've got a little of your freak going on
But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

You Are 25% Left Brained, 75% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

You Communicate With Your Eyes

When you say, "I'll believe it when I see it" - you really mean it.
For you, what you see is a lot more important than what you hear.
You don't take someone's words at face value. You judge people by their facial expressions, body language, and appearance.
You tend to be quiet, but when you talk, you tend to make eye contact and describe things in colorful detail.

How Do You Communicate?

The most accurate ones...

You Are a Drama Queen (or King)

And the oscar goes to... you!
You're all about overreacting and just plain acting.
You see the world as your stage, and give a great performance.

And while you're friends may find you entertaining at times...
Everyone's secretly hoping that you'll just chill a little.
(But they'd never tell you - they fear your wrath!)

Are You a Drama Queen (or King)?

You Have A Type A Personality

You are hyper, energetic, and always on the mood
You tend to succeed at everything you attempt
And if you don't succeed at first, you quickly climb your way to the top!

You could be called a workaholic, but you also make time for fun
As long as it's high energy and competitive, you're interested
You have the perfect personality for business and atheltic success

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

You Are a Conservative Chick

Like Elizabeth Hasselbeck and Ann Coulter, you're conservative and proud of it.
You speak your mind, even if everyone else around you disagrees.
As you see it, you have to stand up for traditional values and what's right.

Are You a Liberal Lady or a Conservative Chick?

Lastly, the most important one...

You Are a Classic Gucci Bag

You've got style mastered - because you stick with what works
Like this Gucci Bag, you prefer classic items that stand the test of time
You're also a bit of a practical girl, who prefers function over fluff
You prefer a big bag, so that you can have your stuff with you at all times

What Handbag Are You?

It does make me laugh how blogthings has quizzes that cover "Are you ready to get married?" and "Are you pregnant?" next to "What type of bra are you?" and "Who's your 80's heartthrob?" Who writes these things?

Apple/Tree

2006-11-30T15:00:00.000-05:00

It seems that the older I get, the more I find my early years influencing my decisions.

And by early years, I mean toddler ones.

As a preschooler, I frequently joined Mom from the South at her various protests. Seeing that she was right-wing before the vast right-wing conspiracy was conspired, it's safe to say that I was hard wired to be a life-long conservative.

While it seems that the average 4-year-old would have been bored to tears standing with her mom on the side of the road and holding signs, attending rallies or participating in some other form of civic activism, I was fascinated by it. When it came time for me to go to school, I was sad that I could no longer join her. It also made me mad that Rush went off the air at the same time school got out.

Is it surprising then that I somehow got a job in grassroots activism?

Furthermore, is it surprising that I'm focusing my research and thesis on these activities?

Today, I ran across an article on civic engagement and family influence, and it made me realize how much my family has influenced my decisions and activities as an adult. Without their influence, I wonder if I would be so interested in politics, activism or social causes.

I'm curious to see if other politically active/interested people had similar childhoods. Is civic engagement a nurtured trait? If it is, can we predict the number of people who will be involved in the political/social arena in coming years, or is the Internet the great equalizer? Do people reach adulthood and suddenly get involved in civic causes? Thoughts anyone?

Creative Juices Run Late

2006-11-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

Being a night person is not necessarily a good thing.

Every night around 10 p.m., I'm suddenly wide awake. I haven't had more caffeine than normal or exercised particularly late. My body just decides, "Hey I'm ready to work now!" Strangely enough, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., those four hours are usually my most productive of the day.

However, at 7 a.m. when my alarm clock goes off, I'm not feeling so great. And the caffeine chugging generally starts.

This is fairly common, especially among right-brained people. Most artists and writers have suffered from insomnia or needed very little sleep to exist. Victor Hugo only slept four hours a night and he managed to be a prolific writer. Had a messed up personal life, but he managed to be rather successful.

Unfortunately, Girl from the South needs her beauty sleep. An ideal world would allow me to hit the pillow at around 2 .m. and sleep in until 9. However, this isn't a perfect world and the typical work day starts around 8:30 a.m.

My question is--can you change what time of day you typically flourish? Is there anyway for me to change from a late night person to a mid afternoon/early evening person? This would be ideal. Get my school work and assignments done plenty of time to the one or two hours a week I actuallyl want to sit down and watch TV and still get to bed at a decent hour.

The good news is that the light is dimly blinking at the end of the tunnel. I found out on Monday that I "graduate" in May and then finish up my requirements by July. Thus, only 7 more months to get through.

It could be worse. At least my program is only 1-year long.

Post-traumatic Shopping Disorder

2006-11-24T21:08:00.000-05:00

Without a doubt, the Internet has made Black Friday shopping worse (Yet another reason to love Al Gore...). Now, ads are leaked out weeks in advance, so people can fully strategize about what sales to hit.

I've been hunting for a good deal on a laptop lately. I should have bought one before school started, but frankly, I'm just extremely cheap and hate spending large amounts of money on things that will be obsolete by the time you open the box. However, at this point I'm desperate and would be happy to lug around an old-school word processor if it came with a wireless card. Thus my excitement when I saw that Best Buy had cheap HPs for just under $400.

However, in the fine print it said that each store had only 10 and that vouchers would be distributed at 4 a.m. Even though we vowed to never shop at early a.m. Black Friday sales again, McGuyver Dad and I decided to leave the house around 3 a.m. and try to get a cheap notebook.

Thus, the reason I was standing in my parent's drive at 2:45 a.m. The great thing about Hixson is that everything is close buy, so we were at Best Buy 10 minutes later at approximately 2:55 a.m.

The. Parking. Lot. Was. Packed.

Dad drove around to the front of the store and there were not the 10 or 20 people that I was expecting, but about 100 people standing in a line at least a block long.

Americans are truly bizarre people. Extremely materialistic and extremely cheap.

Dad didn't even stop the car. With only 10 computers and 100 or so people, there was no way that Girl from the South was going home with a new computer today. So we went home, and I went back to bed.

Later in the morning, we ventured out to Hamilton Place and Michael's. Let me just exclaim how psyched I am that penguins are in this Christmas. Between March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, our little tuxedoed friends are everywhere. My sorority's mascot was Sigmund the Penguin, so I've been brainwashed to love the little artic birds since I pledged. After graduating, I decided to only indulge the penguin obsession at Christmas, and this year is fabulous.

Penguins plus kitchsy 50's decorations make for amazing Christmas decorations. I'm excited to get back to G-town and make Christmas explode in the apt.

For reasons unknown to me, I decided to drive over to Kohl's and Target after seeing that Michael's wasn't so bad.

Sign no. 1 that things are bad--there's not an empty parking space in Kohl's giant parking lot.

Sign no. 2 that things are bad--the line to check out stretches past the registers, down the side of the store and around the back aisle.

As much as I love to bargain shop, there is absolutely no deal in the world that would make me want to stand in line at Kohl's that long. As my agoraphobia started to set in, and as I pushed my way towards the exit, the manager came on the loudspeaker exclaiming, "Even though the early bird specials end at 1 p.m. and it's 12:55, the prices will remain in the computer until 2 p.m. If you're in line, you'll get the sale price."

To me, this sounded like a plea to not stampede the cashiers.

I must have been in a masochistic mood because I walked down to Target next, which was just as bad. Target and Kohl's are two of my favorite stores, but I deplore crowds and just can't handle Black Friday shopping.

Then I met the Parentals at Verizon where we finally upgraded our cell phones!

Yes, I'm a thankful, but spoiled brat, and my parents have decided that spending $10 a month on me for an extra cell phone line is better than me spending $80 for my own plan. Plus, I'm the only one that actually uses our minutes since they primarily only call other each other on their phones or family members who are also with Verizon. I may be the only person in DC without a BlackBerry, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

I'm now the owner of an adorable pink RAZR. It's so cute. It's not geeky to love computers and electronics when they come in pink.

Thus as another Black Friday comes to a close, and exhausted retail employees limp home, I renew my vow to not to get up early next year and try to save a buck. Check back in another 365 and see if I remember these words.

Thanksmas

2006-11-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

We have entered the period of the year where everyone is putting up Christmas decorations but still eating Thanksgiving leftovers. The term Thanksmas hit me at 2:45 a.m. this morning as I stood in the drive way of the Parentals from the South's house and saw the Christmas wreaths and candle lights in the windows while the porch was still decorated with pumpkins, hay bales and mums for fall.

What exactly was I doing outside at 2:55 a.m. this morning? I'll explain later.

I've been a bit absent from the blogosphere this week. Apparently a vacation at home meant a vacation from anything else remotely related to school or work, and since I blog about those things... In all actuality, I've been catching up on much-needed sleep, reading fun books and working on a huge project that's due in 2 weeks, visiting with the family and enjoying suburban living.

Bloggers from the South
Last weekend was so much fun! I wish Mrs. M lived closer so that she could visit more often. We had a blast doing the monument thing, shopping and exploring the Smithsonian. She did an excellent recap, except that she left out two things:

1) The Smithsonian has probably now implemented rules about adults playing with toys and/or trying on costumes, hats, etc.
2) We sported Burger King crowns for much of the trip home. In fact, I forgot that I had one on until Mrs. M mentioned that she was taking hers off after several hundred miles. It's great to have friends that you can be completely silly around. Of course, factoring in that we were roomies in college, were in the same sorority and visited New Orleans together, there's really no reason for either of us to pretend we have dignity.

Chatt. vs. DC
Thus, last Sunday, I found myself briefly in K-town before McGuvyer Dad came to bring me back to Chattown. We did stop at Sawyers, but at $6 for a box now, it's really not worth it anymore. Good thing I neither need a regular hangover cure anymore nor live in K-town.

Since this was the first time that I've been out of the DC-metro area in 5 months, it was really strange. On the way home, we stopped at Bi-Lo, and I was amazed at the size and variety of the store. Given that I shop at Social Safeway, I was extremely disappointed to remember how much fun grocery shopping can be in the rest of the country. Unless you want premade food or organic, DC stores stink.

Also note that even though I hadn't driven a car in 5 months, I still have road rage. I must be a lost cause. This is another reason on a lengthy list of why the District is a much safer place without Girl from the South behind the wheel. If a town of 200,000 people make me angry while driving, what would DC drivers incite?

I had also forgotten how friendly people are in the deep South. This isn't to insult anyone north of Richmond. On a whole, Washingtonians are nice, polite people. They just aren't overtly friendly like they are in the South. Small-talking used to bug me with complete strangers, but since moving to DC where it almost never happens, I was happy to encounter it. Monday, Mom from the South and I went to HomeGoods and the lady in front of us in the check out line chimed in on a conversation that we were having. Mom didn't even notice it, but my jaw momentarily dropped open, and I looked at the woman in shock. Then the realization hit me that I was in Chattanooga where not small-talking and waving to people is considered rude. Yes, it may take us longer to do things here, but we're happier people.

Bekna--The Newest Hixsonites
Tuesday night, I finally caught up with Beka and Dana, and we decided to have dinner and hang out. Since they moved to Hixson after I left, I finally got to see their new apartment. Mrs. M mentioned that it's strange to keep seeing my stuff rearranged in different apartments, and I noticed the same thing with Bekna's new place. We also somehow ended up going through our senior yearbooks, and it was odd to see how much has changed in 6 years. Jessica, a fellow Bereanite, just had a baby girl--the first one in our clique to start a family, and almost everyone else we went to high school with is married. It was also nice to see how much better we all look. Everyone has lost a ton of weight. As a smart, but unathletic lot, we seemed to be heavy in high school. I guess adopting healthier eating habits and maintaining a more active lifestyle helps, but all of us look much better in our mid-twenties (yikes) than at 17 or 18.

In Good Company

2006-11-16T09:55:00.000-05:00

{{Girl from the South looks up from studying research methods}}

Mrs. M is visiting today! Mrs. M is visiting today, and Sunday we're driving back to Tennessee!!It's nice to have company and a vacation!

{{Girl from the South resumes studying research methods}}

Saturday Means Library Day

2006-11-11T18:53:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday night, so that means I must be in the library! Is it possible to develop Stockholm Syndrome for a location? If it is, I'm a classic example.

All is not bad. I think I'm going out to Cleveland Park tonight for drinks. That doesn't make me feel so punished.

Yesterday at work, we had a huge party to celebrate some good news that we had this week. It was strange to enjoy a beer at 3 p.m. in the afternoon with co-workers. The Tennessee tee-totaler attitude is just hard to shake in professional settings. However, I was so drained from the week that I could barely function, so I left early and literally went home and slept all night, which was wonderful.

Today's been relatively productive. We had a group project meeting this morning and then I stuck around to work on my term paper. Thus far, I've gotten the outline, and about 9 pages cranked out. Not as much as I needed to do, but it's not too shabby. I decided to stay at the library today to avoid distractions at home. Apparently, that's what everyone in my program thought too. At one point this afternoon, we had around 9 people in the library working on their term papers. Nice to know I'm not the only one who's procrastinated. The paper isn't due until Dec. 6, but our professor has been pushing us all semester to work on it, so even though it's not due for three weeks, I feel like a slacker. My goal is to have the rough draft finished by the time Mrs. M gets here on Thursday.

Did I mention that fact?
MRS. M IS VISITING THIS WEEKEND!! Pretty excited about that fact. We're going to have fun around DC and then drive back to K-town together next weekend for Thanksgiving break. I anticipate lots of fun shopping and monument touring. That also means that we get to roadtrip down to Tennessee together, and I get to stop by Sawyer's on my way back to Chatt. For some reason, I've been wanting a Sawyer's box lately, which is odd because that was my hangover cure as an undergrad. Since I've moved to DC, I've had maybe 5 drinks, due to the fact that I no longer advocate liver destruction, and I frankly don't have time to nurse a hangover on the weekend. I guess my arteries are craving Sawyer's fried goodness. It's all about that sauce.

Back to the grindstone of paper writing for a bit more. I only need to finish about 14 more pages, read 4 or 5 books on social marketing, writing a speech, and start homework for my other classes. The work of a grad student is never done.

Extreme Home Relay

2006-11-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

Got this from the ACS this a.m. Mark your calendars to watch! Relay for Life and Extreme Home Makeover--such a great combination. Plus, they did a 5-day Relay with more than 5,000 people participating. I can't even imagine how amazing that would be.

Relay For Life Volunteer's Story Will Be Told Nationwide
on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Tune in to ABC on Sunday, November 12th at 8 pm ET/7 p.m. CT to see what happened when the cast and crew of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition arrived in St. Meinrad, Indiana to rebuild the home of a very special Relay For Life volunteer. At the heart of all the action was one woman, a cancer survivor named Shawna Farina. Now Shawna's story and the story of a community that rallied around her will be told nationwide during the November 12 broadcast of the popular reality series.

Inspired by the positive attitude and determination of her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when Shawna was a young child, Shawna joined the American Cancer Society Relay For Life ®, a yearly, overnight event held in more than 4,700 communities to celebrate cancer survivorship. A year and a half ago Shawna herself was diagnosed with breast cancer; just three weeks shy of her 26th birthday. To hear more about Shawna's story, visit www.cancer.org/extrememakeover.

Because the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life have been major forces in Shawna's life, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition asked the American Cancer Society for help in telling her story. Over the course of a week-long home build, Society volunteers from 18 different Relay For Life events across southern Indiana conducted five consecutive 24-hour-long Relays, collectively called "Extreme Relay For Life in Spencer County." More than 5,000 people took part in the event, including the cast and crew of the show who walked laps between building projects. You, too, can make a difference by forming a Relay team in your community. Click on www.cancer.org/extrememakeover to learn more.

To find out more about the upcoming episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Watch Party information, as well as to learn more about how you can get involved with the American Cancer Society, visit www.cancer.org/extrememakeover.

The Wonderful Distraction of Busyness

2006-11-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness that I was slammed today so that I couldn't follow every breaking story. There's so much spin going on in this town right now, that it's likely to fall off the planet.

Since I had a two-hour presentation on public affairs theory this afternoon, I'm just catching up on the fallout of today. I did manage to see that Rummy resigned. I'm one of the few people disappointed by this. He's so awesome to watch at press conferences, and since press conferences are one of my favorite things to watch, I like Rummy. He's definitely on the list for my fictional dinner party.

So as the Dems spin this more as a mandate on Iraq, the Bush administration will do more and more desperate things to maintain some semblance of order. I'm curious to see how low Bush will sink before finally canning Rove. It's really sad. We've literally watched the self-destruction of the Bush administration for the past year. It's like seeing someone fall down in slow motion while somehow managing to pull you down too. You want to help or least protect yourself, but there's just nothing you can do.

As I said earlier, I had a 2 hour presentation for my theory class today. My partner was supposed to do half of it, but she's not so keen on public speaking. Her part was about 30 minutes, leaving me to take up the remaining time. Since talking is possibly the one thing I like more than writing, this wasn't so hard. The class might have viewed that approach differently, but I tried to bribe them with oreo truffles. Those were the undeniable hit of the day. I also managed to tie in our theories to scenes from Legally Blonde 2 and Thank You for Smoking. Thus uniting two of my favorite things--movies and PR theory. Hopefully my professor agreed with how fabulous that combination was.

I'm happy to see that local elections went smoothly. One of the troops from the frontline called and gave me an update. Of course Jimmy Duncan was re-elected along with the other important parts of the TN delegation. I was also happy to see that Stacy Campfield won. Mrs. M told me about the smear campaign his opponent ran, and I saw the commercials on YouTube. Those were seriously the funniest things I've ever seen.

At least I'll be spared from the painful extended spin. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be slammed with homework. I'll be camped out in the library this weekend with an exam and a 25 page paper. I'm also contemplating bringing a tent and sleeping bag with me. A flare gun might help too. If I get too overwhelmed, I could always fire it for help.

Senator SpongeBob Saved Us from Organized Crime

2006-11-08T00:39:00.000-05:00

The AP, Fox, CNN, and the Tennessean have called it with Hamilton, Knox and Davidson Counties still coming in, so I'm off to bed a somewhat happy camper.

The worst thing tonight: Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the house. Honestly, that's the real tragedy of the night. I'm not a fan of Hastert, but Nancy "I've had way too many botched face lifts"? The next two years are going to be interesting.

Also sickening to see how badly the media wanted Junior to win. I'm thrilled to see that Tennessee has gotten to the point where race is not an issue in politics. However, I'm glad to see that the GOP prevailed, even if we just elected a Rino in Corker. Thus, we replace one weathly Rino born into his money with a Rino who worked for his.

On the bright side, my church at home can now boast a Senator as one of their "regular" attenders.

With that, I'm off to bed. I have a 2-hour presentation and a very interesting day at work ahead of me.

Wake Me Up When It's Over

2006-11-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

This is a strange phenomenon. Ever since I discovered politics in Mrs. Dillards first grade class during the 1988 election, I've counted down the days to the Election with excitment and anticipation.

This year, I just feel apathetic.

Perhaps it's because I feel abandoned by the party that I've devoted so much of my life towards, or perhaps it's just the ickyness of DC politics rubbing off on me, but I just want to wake up tomorrow, find out the results of the election and return to my little hole in the library working on pre-thesis research.

This race has done one thing for me. I now officially despise pollsters. Seriously, every single pollster is running daily tracking polls based on a 200-person sample. That's the most useless and stupid thing to ever waste money on.

While I don't feel that all is bleak for the GOP, I'm just not revved up like I usually am. The elephant brings me no joy today.

On the bright side, at least we won't have to see any more Cardin/Steele or Webb/Allen commericals. That's what sucks about living in DC. While you rightly can't vote (no problems whatsoever with taxation without representation), you get stuck watching ads for Virginia and Maryland when I could really care less about those two races. If you did tune in to see Girl from the South's election predictions, look at John Brown's. He broke it down much better than I ever could have.

At least it'll be a quiet, sober, er somber election night for me. That's a nice change from years past.

Live from the Library, It's Girl from the South!

2006-11-04T16:12:00.000-05:00

Here, I am stuck in the library all day. :(

At least it's been a productive day. It's safe to say that I've entered the second stage of Girl from the South Stress Spectrum: High-efficiency mode. Despite going to bed at 3 a.m. (netflixed House season 1), I got up at 9 a.m. and started on laundry, then met my group on campus to work on a project and then put a presentation together with my partner for another class. Now all I need to do is finish up my powerpoint slides, learn how to edit film, write a few one-page papers, re-write a speech, design a letter and draft a CEO letter for an annual report, and I can call it a day!

Damn public communications degree. Everything is so practical you can't use the excuse, "I'll never actually use this." My entire degree is completely work-oriented. Not only do I forsee using 110% of what I'm learning, but I've frequently thought, "I wish I knew this while I was at CDM!"

The good news is that it looks like I'll have a chance to lock myself up tomorrow and spend the whole day on my term paper which is due in about a month. I've gathered a ton of resources but have yet to make a dent on drafting or organizing it. Once that happens, writing the paper is easy.

Sometime this weekend, I also need to go grocery shopping, make a Costco run and find time to create some Oreo truffles for my presentation on Wed. (Everyone presenting always brings food, and every week it gets a bit more elaborate. Bourbon balls were requested, but I'm leery of bringing food drenched in an adult beverage.)

I'd probably be a bit bitter about today, but I got to go out last night for a celebratory birthday dinner at La Tomate, an Italian bistro down in Dupont Circle, which was fab. Chatt. has many great restaurants, but no good Italian ones, so I got a nice pasta fix! I also found out there's a good NOLA themed dive in Adams Morgan that I need to look up.

For some reason, I've always developed very different groups of friends who rarely overlap and when they do, it's always interesting. Last night, friends from both small groups, my boss and girls from school came out. It was fantastic to hang out beyond the office or classroom and get to know them better. We spend so much time together, but it's always revolving around school or work. It was nice to just have fun.

Afterwards, girls from school met up with Michael and Gary and their friend Tom from my other small group at Brickskeller. Sadly, I don't think that I'll be returning there. Sure, it's a DC institution, and they have the largest selection of beer in the world, but the service was horrible. I've never encountered such rude waitors and to top it off, we saw a mouse running around the restuarant. Very glad that we didn't order food or anything on tap.

I also had the most delicous Belgium beer ever. If I ever make it over to Belgium, I'm so loading up on a case of it. It was cherry flavored and so yummy! Well, there goes my break, so I'm back to powerpointing. Thank goodness for the ipod, Tab Energy and the new Josh Bales album! More to come on that.

Dead-on Election Analysis

2006-11-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

I may be Conservative, but I rarely ever agree with Pat Buchanan. Hence my surprise at how accurately he's nailed the current state of the GOP with his column today. I wish I could print this article and go plaster the RNC with it.

In other analysis, it seems that the GOP leadership has bought into the left's belief of Karl Rove's Jedi mind trick ability. Either Rove is the modern day Machiavelli or the White House and RNC leadership have completely buried their heads in the sand.

My assessment.
If the GOP manages to pull this one off, it's all because of this picture. Marketing tip #101, you need a strong visual to rally around. Thank you John Kerry. Once again you inserted your silver-plated foot in your mouth.

*I really wanted to post this picture. Note to politicians. Don't tick off people trained in weaponry who are stuck in the middle of a desert with free time and digital cameras.

2006-11-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

Every week, I keep telling myself, "Girl from the South, if you just get through this week, I know that next week will be a lot easier. You can do it!"

After about a month of this, I'm slowly realizing that I'm good at lying to myself.

I would absolutely love to write a long-winded post about my laundry list of complaints. However, last night, I was mentally complaining to myself, when I felt God going, "Why are you complaining so much? You wanted to go to grad school. You knew it would be hard. Instead of complaining, be thankful that you're in a good program and learning a lot. Would you want to be paying all of this money if it was easy?"

My mouth is going to have to be duct taped closed to break my complaining habit. Gotta love the Holy Spirit's timing in teaching you lessons, and why does the Holy Spirit sound so much like Mom from the South?

There have been some funny stories with all the stress going around. As I've said before, my program is really small, so we've all gotten to know each other really well, and are all experiencing the same high stress levels.

In our building, there's a small computer lab where most of the grad students gather throughout the day to get work done. I've learned not to go in there if I really need to get tasks accomplished because I'll end up talking instead of working. Last night, my friend R and I returned from Subway and wanted to print off our assignments for class. We turned the corner and saw about 2/3 of our entire program crammed in the little room working, talking, planning, typing, talking and studying. Some people were standing or sitting. Others were running around the room and stressing out. Perhaps it was the glass walls, but standing outside of it, it just looked like a cage of giant hamsters in the midst of some scientific stress experiment. You could sense the stress level increase the nearer you got to the door. R & I stood outside and watched everyone for a few minutes because it just seemed so surreal.

Today at work has been interesting. I've been chained to my computer feverishly working to get things done for the election. School + Work + Election = Challenge.

If I go on any more, I'll start complaining. Signing off to go put my nose back to the grindstone for a few more minutes before the work day ends and class begins.

2006-11-01T18:35:00.000-05:00

Orange Is....

For all you Vol fans from the early '00s.

One of my all time favorite songs with one of my favorite bands.

*So I realize that Live 8 is forever old, but a friend is doing a project on Live 8 and was searching on YouTube for research and ran across this video.

The Quarter Century Mark

2006-10-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

Well, despite my efforts, I didn't get all my work done yesterday. Does that mean I've been hard at work all day? Hardly. Girl from the South works hard all the time. It would be wrong to push myself on the one day of the year I'm entitled to be the center of the universe. (As opposed to all of the other days that I'm not entitled to it but still act that way.) :) Plus, there's a House marathon on right now, and Hugh Laurie is just too delightful to miss. That's why Tab Energy was created.

Despite a school stress break down last night, this weekend hasn't been so bad. I spent all of yesterday at school working on projects. My writing class has devolved into graduate busy work. This week we have a pitch letter (no big deal), a 2,000 word feature (that's a challenge but do-able) and a press release derived from a 15 page monsterous policy statement. That's been this weekend's challenge.

I'm also one of the few dingbats who forgot that Daylight Savings Time ended last night, so I was wide awake at 6:30 a.m. this morning to get ready for church! Agghhhh! I rarely get to sleep in, and I squandered the best sleep-in day of the year. It did help me to get to church on time, which is a nice change.

After church, I decided to go spend some time at the National Gallery. On the way over there, I encountered the Marine Corps Marathon. 34,000 people running more than 26 miles is a sight to behold. DC Roomie was running in it, and I've got to give her and all the other runners major props. I'm not sure that I could even Oprah power-walk a marathon.

Several of the runners wore Halloween costumes, which were really funny. One guy was running while pushing a stroller with three children in it. Several other ones carried flags and wore commemorative shirts for people serving in the Marines. DC Roomie just told me one guy ran the entire marathon while juggling. Whatever helps, I guess.

The National Gallery never fails to impress. Right now, they have a Constable exhibit that must be traveling since it seemed to orginiate from the Tate Britain and several London galleries. If you're in the area, go see it. Constable actually painted full 6' "sketch" versions before painting the final version. Much more dedication than I could ever do.

Thanks to everyone who's called, sent a card, myspaced messaged or written on my wall on facebook. It's really meant a lot. I've been dreading this birthday since my plans for going home were canceled. I'm excited about the celebration I've put together for next week.

The parentals from the South also went above and beyond to make 25 fit in with the other birthday extravaganzas. Mom ordered a super yummy ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Surprisingly, red velvet cake with birthday cake flavored ice cream is scrumptious.

They also bought the best gift ever. Brace yourselves...I got the special 10th anniversary DVD version of BBC's Pride and Prejudice! Yes!!!! I've wanted this DVD since before DVDs were invented. 5 hours of Austen and Colin Firth! Does it get any better?

Thus far, 25 hasn't been so bad. Of course I've been in denial about school all day. That'll have to end in a bit.

I Report. You Decide.

2006-10-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

Since this is election season, I thought I'd present my audience with a very scientific and reliable opinion poll from GFTS Polling Services.

Filtering Questions:

1. Girl from the South is turning 25 this weekend. Were you aware that October 29 is her birthday?

A. Yes
B. No

2. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the least significant and 5 being the most significant, how important would you rank birthdays?

1 2 3 4 5

3. Are you aware that birthdays in Girl from the South's family are typically week-long extravaganzas?

A. Yes
B. No

Issue: Given the fact that Girl from the South was bombarded with writing assignments in class last night from an insurgent professor when and she was praying for a homework-free zone this weekend, what do you believe is the right course of action:

1. Stay the course.
Girl from the South is in grad school. She should know that sacrifices must be made. If it takes studying all weekend, that's what she should do.
2. Set an early exit date.
Come on. It's her 25th birthday. She should forget all obligations and commitments and PAR-TAY. Plus, AU clearly did not define the amount of dedication and hard work it would take to succeed in the program before she enrolled. She was in fact, manipulated by AU's evil pursuit of gaining more tuition dollars.
3. Adapt to Win.
Surely a middle ground can be reached. If she works very hard over the next few days, she may be able to relax and take Sunday off. She must be efficient, pro-active and ever vigilant to changing demands of her enemy homework. She will tackle the elusive main target on her war against homework--the 25 page term paper that will form the basis of her thesis--this weekend.

One Thing is For Sure

2006-10-24T17:26:00.000-05:00

Tennessee politics are always juicy.

I can tell we're two weeks from an election because I suddenly find myself caring when I had sworn off interest in politics for the time being. Oh well.

NRO has a good column on the TN Senate race. Plus Mason-Dixon's reporting that the race is getting even closer. Corker 45%, Ford 43%, although the sample size was really small, only 675 people. From this critical "expert" perspective, Corker's numbers are a few points too low. A larger sample size would most likely give Corker a wider edge.

How Far Does the Apple Fall from the Ancestral Tree?

2006-10-24T09:57:00.000-05:00

With the leaves changing and the weather growing colder, Paula Deen has taken over my kitchen, and I’ve been pulling out recipes for soups, fall vegetables and heavier, cold weather foods.

Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon cooking a yummy batch of homemade green beans and butternut squash. Green beans are going to become a staple on the grocery list. There’s something very relaxing about breaking individual bean pods in half before cooking them. On top of that, you can’t get much healthier than green beans, and homemade ones taste so much better than canned.

My cooking mood continued into yesterday when I woke up and decided to put a pot of red beans and rice together. (I had a mid-term in my strategy class yesterday). Red beans are my favorite Cajun dish to cook. It’s one of the few recipes that doesn't require a roux and can be put together quickly. Although when needed, I CAN make a very nice roux. They just take forever to make.

So I quickly chopped all the ingredients and threw everything into my crock pot. (Those wonderful cooking gadgets are completely overlooked. In the morning you throw your ingredients for dinner in the crock pot, it simmers all day, and when you get home that night dinner is already made.)

When I got home last night, I walked into the aroma of simmering red beans, a smell that instantly makes it feel like home. Later, as I was cleaning up the kitchen, it suddenly struck me that it was Monday, and I had made red beans. I stood in my kitchen shocked and started laughing.

In Cajun culture, you always have red beans and rice on Mondays. Since Mondays were traditionally wash days, the meal didn’t take very much work and could be used as leftovers. Even after washing machines became popular with my grandparents’ generation, the tradition stuck. School cafeterias even serve red beans on Mondays. Growing up, we frequently had red beans on Mondays, but I never questioned it, it was just how things were done.

Now that I’m on my own, I had to laugh at how much little traditions, no matter how insignificant, seem to pop up in our adult lives. How much of our daily actions and decisions are derived from the culture and society around us, and how much comes from the way we were raised? I never consciously thought, “Today is Monday, I think I’ll make red beans.” I just woke up and thought that they sounded like a nice way to start the week since it was cold outside. It was an interesting train of thought given that some of my readings this week covered nature vs. nuture.

2006-10-23T16:43:00.000-05:00

Why Jr. will Lose the Election

I know that this got a lot of press over the weekend, particularly in Tennessee, but I thought it was blogworthy.

I honestly think that Jr. just lost the election with this little trick. In the words of Mom from the South, "I don't want a spoiled brat representing me in the Senate."

When Everything is Surreal, What Is Normal?

2006-10-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

Just when you get used to living in DC and establish a routine, something strange happens that reminds you that you possibly live in the most surreal place on earth.

Mondays are rather crazy for me. I have class until 12:30, and then I try to rush to work by 1:15. Since the team for my group project likes to meet right after class, I’m usually frantically running around the Metro system in order to get to the office for a 2 p.m. meeting.

Today was no different. I even got frustrated by a tourist holding a Metro map, who was blocking the crowded escalator at Metro Center and almost made me miss the train. Once I arrived at my stop, I ran through the station and up the escalator trying to get to the office. But as soon as I got to the top, I stopped, surprised by the sight before me.

Across the street were several black Suburbans with tinted glass that subtlety scream “High-security risk VIP.” In front of the SUVs, there was a black, armored panel truck. Up and down the block, men dressed all in black holding weapons were scattered around.

I stepped closer and noticed that about 30 people where standing around taking pictures with their phones and then saw that both sides of the block were closed with DCPD redirecting traffic.

At first I thought it was a motorcade, which isn’t unheard of since I’m a few blocks from the White House, but everyone was pretty stationary. I noticed a DC police officer and asked him what was going on.

“Oh, it’s the President,” he mentioned casually, gesturing towards the building across the street. “Generally the black Suburbans and snipers are a good indication," he added with a thick layer of snark.

Mentally, I wanted to reply, “You’re a DC cop, not Secret Service. Yesterday, I bet you were writing tickets for expired parking permits in Georgetown. BTW, Just how many unsolved murders does the DCPD have?” However, I restrained myself and went inside since I was already late, and no one knew when the President would be coming out.

The office for nonprofit job is located on the top floor of our building. Once I got there, walked by my boss’s office to let her know I was finally in, and our executive director stopped by and asked what was going on outside. He had happened to look outside his window and noticed that an armed sniper was facing him on the roof of the building across the street.

Several thoughts crossed my mind.
1) The people who handle the logistics of moving any president around are pretty amazing. Don’t want that job.
2) I live in a city where snipers with automatic machine guns and armored vehicles are the norm.
3) The minute this becomes passé, and everything outside of the Beltway is strange, I need to move.

We Need a Caffeine IV in Here, Stat!

2006-10-20T09:22:00.000-05:00

Super sleepy this morning. Could be because my research methods class last night consisted of three hours of interpreting SPSS read-outs into English and trying to figure out what that meant for the super "scientific and valid research study" we did on testing the effect of celebrities vs. non-celebrities as spokespersons.

SPSS and I are not on the best of terms right now, but the good news is my professor gave us a week extension on the paper.

Thankfully, the office is slow today. All the important people are at a conference several states away and are only intermittantly available through e-mail. The rest of us minions are taking a couple of easy days. We can use a break before the election.

My birthday care package arrived last night from the parentals from the South, and it ended up being the strangest package that I've ever recieved. In addition to my birthday gift and cards from the parentals, which won't be opened until next Sunday, it included the following:

junk mail with many credit card offers (either I shop too much or have good credit)
bills
1 lb. package of pre-cooked bacon (?)
1 box of shout wipes
1 bar of Swiss white chocolate (yummy!)
some toiletries from Sally's (not one close by here)
A letter from the UT Alumni Association with a minature diploma and a card saying I was a graduate in good standing with the university (can't slap me with anymore fines, can you Bursar's office! HA!)
Mail with MacGuyver Dad's name on it including a bank statement
A birthday card from my maternal grandmother with nothing in it but a recent professional portrait of her and note simply saying "happy birthday, love grandmother"
2 blank birthday cards with "happy birthday daughter" printed on them that were sitting on top of their envelopes
1 Continuing Ed catalog from Chattanooga State Technical Community College

Since I opened the box late last night, I couldn't call home for explanation, but Mom call this morning asking if I had gotten it, and together we deciphered the box's meaning. In true Mom from the South fashion, she started assembling the box about two weeks ago and would stuff relevant things in there when she thought of them. After two weeks, she had forgotten where she put my birthday cards, so she bought new ones. Then she started randomly stuffing mail in there. The bacon, it would seem, came from a short-lived phase in college when I tried Atkins. She was at Sam's Club and remembered buying it for me once. The weird card from my grandmother--well, my grandmother is just a strange person, and I'm surprised she remembered my birthday. Last year she forgot. The shout wipes will come in handy when I finally break into the chocolate bar, and the minature diploma just makes my day. It's an exact replica of the one hanging over my desk, except there's no UT orange on the university seal. They laminated it, so I'm guessing I'm supposed to carry it in my wallet?

The care package represents why I love my Mom so much. We're exactly alike to the point that I could be cloned from her. As I was going through the box, I kept thinking, "Mom must have started stuffing this two weeks ago and has been randomly putting things in here." Why did I know this? Because it's exactly what I would have done.

More Southern Than I Thought?

2006-10-19T14:26:00.000-05:00

As you can tell by this blog, I'm rather proud of being from the South. However, I'm very thankful to the parentals from the South for constantly correcting my grammar and speech growing up. With one side of my gene pool from Baton Rouge and the other side from New Orleans, I developed a broad Southern accent that's typical for south Louisiana without any of the weird NOLA touches (papah instead of paper, Nawlin's instead of New Or-lens).

In fact growing up in Tennessee, I was questioned and teased about my accent* much more than anything I've encountered in DC.

Today, I had to call volunteers in Southern California about a project that we're working on out there. I expected to get a lot of voicemails and wrong numbers, but I never expected to have problems being understood.

The first few calls went like this:
Me: Hi, this is ______ calling from __________. You recently volunteered for _________.
SoCal Volunteer: What? I can't understand you.
Me: (slower and more enunciated) HI! THIS IS __________, calling from _______. You recently volunteered for ___________.
SoCal Volunteer: I still can't understand you. You're talking too fast.
Me: (supremely slow) HI. THIS. IS. __________, CALLING. FROM. _______. YOU. RECENTLY. VOLUNTEERED. FOR. __________.
SoCal Volunteer: Yeah. I just can't understand you.
Me: CAN. I. E. MAIL. YOU?
SoCal Volunteer: What? Email? Sure.
Me: THANKS. I'LL. E-MAIL. YOU. NOW.

After about five calls, this got old. Either people in California speak at extradordinarily slow speeds, or they're just not used to even a hint of a Southern accent. Frustrated, I went to find my boss and see if I could just e-mail the remainder of the list.

Me: People in California apparently can't understand my accent. Can I e-mail them instead?
Boss: They can't understand your accent? What?
Me: I tried calling about five people, and none of them understood me.
Boss: Really? I'm from California, and I understand you. (starts to laugh.)
Me: Well, none of the people I called today did.
Boss: You're accent's not that bad. (laughing)
Me: Yes, but you've been on the East Coast for several years now. You're used to us.
Boss: True. But that's really funny.

Now, I feel like I should be blasting some Skynerd and waving my Dixie flag around while I chug down some moonshine before hitching a ride home in the General Lee. And people in California are suppose to be more diverse and progressive. Sounds like they need some Southern diversity.

*Despite what Hollywood believes, there are numerous Southern dialects that differ from state to state or even region to region. However, most movies will have either a Mississippi drawl or a Texan slang. Hardly anyone actually speaks that way. I can't stand most movies about the South because of that. Steel Magnolias is like fingernails down a chalkboard. Must be what the Brits felt when Bridget Jones came out. And seriously folks, get over the Deliverance crap. We have shoes and we're educated.

And I Thought I Was Safe from Politics

2006-10-17T16:08:00.000-05:00

For the first time in my life, my livelihood and not just my interests are tied in with the election.

Remember when I mentioned that nonprofit job is at one of the thousands of (c)3/(c)4s that take up office space in downtown DC? Yeah, the (c)4 part is really busy right about now.

That's about all I can say, but we're extremely busy bees right now. Not the killer bees* that have apprarently resurfaced from 1990 in a weird flux capacitor (maybe they're wearing my MC Hammer pants), but extremely hard-working, busy people striving for the greater good.

*I'd seriously like to meet the assignment editor at Fox & Friends sometime and just say, "nine times out of 10, I like your show, but is that 10th story from News from the weired?"

Not Quite So Sure About Weekends

2006-10-14T14:57:00.000-05:00

Apparently, I haven't quit my second job.

When I tried to quit, I offered to work my Saturday shift the rest of the semester to help them out with staffing.

My supervisor responded that it would help, and then stated that he's normally not so accommodating and expects us to finish out our semester commitment.

At this point, I'm rather confused. I really don't need the money and was mostly staying on so they won't have massive scheduling headaches. However, I really don't like it when I go out of my way to be nice, and it's turned around to look like they're doing me a favor. It's already hard enough to balance nonprofit job with school, and I could really use Saturdays to run errands or just enjoy a day off.

While the extra money is nice, my time is more valuable than an hourly wage. Should I completely quit or go on being nice girl? I know at this point that I'm definitely not working here next semester, but I don't want to burn any bridges.

I'm Bringing Weekends Back

2006-10-12T18:27:00.001-05:00

One post this week. How bad of me. My fan club must be biting their nails in anticipation.

The highlight of this week was finding out that I can work a few more hours a week at nonprofit job and quit the campus job. YEA!!!!

Since the beginning of the semester, I've had to work one overnight shift. After class on Thursday night, I started working at 11 p.m. and didn't get off until 8 or 9 a.m. on Friday morning. I purposely didn't mention this because I knew most of you would be upset.

It's well known that Girl from the South needs her beauty rest, or she's not her sweet, good-natured self. As a person who thrives on a schedule, not sleeping one night a week really throws me off. Friday mornings, I've gone home and crashed for about 5 or 6 hours and then forced myself to get up and do something constructive.

Well, I don't have to worry about that anymore. While, I'm still working the same amount of hours, I'm doing something that I enjoy more at nonprofit job, making more money and not disrupting my sleep schedule.

That pesky need for sleep gets in the way of everything.

The other good news is that now I'll have Saturdays to play. Being in the working world for two years completely spoiled me. I simply can't tolerate working every Saturday. Plus, lots of fun happen on Saturdays that I've had to miss. Not any longer!

Sigh...now if I could get rid of homework and assignments that easily...

My Inner Soccer Mom

2006-10-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

Why is it that the crazier school gets, the more my domestic goddess cries for attention? Amidst the reading, writing, studying and researching, I’m driven to cook, clean, sew, do crafts and daydream about becoming Bree Van de Camp one day. I’m positively riveted by the idylls of Mrs. M’s newlywed bliss. It gives me hope that one day I might join her picture perfect world.

Last year, while I stayed busy, I couldn’t force myself to hem a pair of pants. Now, when I have two jobs and 12 grad hours to balance, I relish the opportunity to yield a needle and thread and sorely regret not bringing my sewing machine with me.

For several years, I’ve turned to cleaning to reduce stress, so around mid-terms and exams my apartment is sparkling. While this is usually a diversionary activity to avoid studying (much like this post now. I’m in the middle of a research methods paper) the domestic arts offer a release. The busier I get, the more I find myself envying Mom from the South’s life. Heck, my thesis might even drive me to take up gardening—an activity that I’m convinced shows that you’re officially a responsible, functioning adult. Despite a childhood with two master gardeners as parents, I’ve avoided gardening at all costs, well except for Herminone, my thriving shafalera.

Perhaps this is a case of the grass is greener, or my personal theory—the ability to use another portion of my brain. Studying, reading endless research studies (all of which seem to revolve around the area of nonprofit job, so I look at the same information at work and school) and writing insanely difficult papers are very left-brained oriented activities. For a completely right-brained person, this can be torture. My head literally hurts from overuse some days. Yes Mom, even my hair hurts sometimes.

I’m curious to see that if a year from now, I’m shunning the domestic arts and embracing my full-time career status. It’d be nice to get a mix of both. Well, for a while at least until full-time supermom status is achieved.

How 'Bout Them Vols?!?

2006-10-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

Thoughts from the game.

Perhaps this is just an old UT bias, but I really cannot stand ESPN coverage. When UGA was up, they kept commenting, "Some have questioned the strength of UGA, but this shows that their defense is the real thing."

Then when UT was winning they started comparing Erik Ainge to the Patron Saint of the state of Tennessee--Peyton Manning. Cutcliffe has done a lot with Ainge, but it's a bit much to compare him to Peyton.

Commentators on a whole are annoying, but ESPN has the worst.

But all of this doesn't matter because WE BEAT THE DAWGS IN ATHENS! Freakin' Sweet!

Now, if there was some way for Georgia to beat Florida, we'd have shot at SEC East.

Who Do You Prefer?

2006-10-07T10:43:00.000-05:00

Since today is the the UT/UGA game, I thought I'd ask, "which is the cuter mascot?"

What would you prefer? A mean, drooling yippy dog or a smart, loyal hound dog trained to help you provide sustenance?

While Smokey and Uga can battle it out for cutest mascot. This pup earns cutest dog ever.

By the Beard of Zeus!

2006-10-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

...I'm drowning in assignments this week.

Classes seem to alternate every week. Last week was easy, well easier. This upcoming week is hard. Actually, at this moment it seems damn impossible.

Journey with me through my upcoming studious week.

Principles of Strategic Communication
Presentation on "The Stickiness Factor" of The Tipping Point with partner and a ton of reading.

Public Communicaton Strategy
Two article reviews and one case brief to write and a ton of reading.

Public Communication Writing
Two radio scripts, an optional PSA for extra credit and a ton of reading.

Research Methods in Communication
Research study critique and (together now) a ton of reading.

Notice a pattern? Graduate school seems to be a succession of wading through hundreds of pages of research studies, articles and texts and then summarizing, comparing & contrasting and applying those theories and case studies into one or two page reports. That may seem easy, but I'd much prefer a 10 page paper to do all of the above for a 100-page theory rather than 3/4 of a page written in APA style.

That's another challenge. I seem to be constantly shifting between several styles of writing--conversational, internet chat for nonprofit job, Associated Press for writing class and APA for my strategy and research methods classes. Heaven help me if I get it all confused somewhere.

Wait, I already did that. This week I found out the hard way that in APA style an acronym needs to be written in parenthesis after the first reference, while in AP style you can use it upon second reference. Can someone explain why we spend 12 years of required schooling and then at least 2 college semesters learning MLA when we'll never use it again? Where are the courses on APA style?

Beneath the complaints, I'm loving it here. I'm surrounded by people who love communications and share this voluntary burden with me. No one made me go to grad school, and I can make a living with just a B.S. in PR. Plus, I'm making great friends at church and school, loving the nonprofit job and enjoying life in an exciting city. Share in my misery over the expected academic rigor and pray, but don't feel sorry for me.

Update: I just realized that I can't read my syllabus because my presentation is next week. However, since it's already put together, it doesn't help the work load this weekend.

Strange, Crazy Dog People

2006-10-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

Very interesting site of people who are even crazier dog owners than I am. This takes the cake though. Dressing your dog up in a costume and then dressing yourself in a costume to match your dog...that's rather odd. I do have to give these dogs props. Coco refuses to wear hats, but he's not an easygoing dog.

Rather reminds me of the poor Bumblebear attached to UT Hodge's Library. Just another example of Tennessee tax dollars at work.

Does anyone still have a copy of that hilarious Beacon cartoon that went along with Bumblebear?

This Is Why I Went to Grad School in DC

2006-10-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

Last night, AU hosted the first An American Forum of the semester. Since a friend of mine worked on program, and my professor canceled the first hour of class so that we could attend, I decided to swing by.

On the way there, I ran into a couple of classmates, so we walked in together. The room was packed with at least 200 people. Students were everywhere--sitting on the floors, in the window sills, standing in corners. I looked at my classmates and said, "AU undergrads are nerds. You had to force me to these things as an undergrad or offer extra credit." Then I looked at the program.

It's safe to say that no program that UT ever offered was taped by C-SPAN and included editors and producers from CNN, WaPo and NYT as the panelists and AU professor Jane Hall, a Fox News contributor, as the moderator.

Despite the mental flags that went up from my "vast right-wing membership" status, the evening was really great. These were professionals from the most established news outlets in our nation discussing problems that we throw around in class.

This is an exciting time to be studying the media. The last major shift in news reporting happened in the 60s with the Vietnam War, so technology and Gen Yers are breaking 40 years of established traditions that don't always please arrogant Boomers.

A lot of time last night was spent on the issue of blogs and their role in reporting. It seems that the mainstream is finally coming to grips with the role of blogs and have realized that they need to work with them. Instead of viewing them as pajamahadeen interlopers, there's some hope that the citzen journalist will exist to offer first-hand sources and further analysis from differing perspectives.

They described how in the London bombings, cell phone pictures appeared on Flickr accounts before any news outlet could respond and how bloggers are become front-line dispatchers during times of crises (i.e. the Thailand coup and Katrina). The power of the press has never been in the hands of the general public before. There has always been a gatekeeper that edited the news before it was released to the public. Perhaps the 4th Estate is finally being democratized with the advent of blogs and technology.

For anyone in the communication field this is truly groundbreaking. It's changing the 1-way, asymmetric, top-down model that has existed for at least 150 years into a 2-way, symmetric, conversational model that the field of public relations has advocated for a long time. For communication nerds like me, it's fascinating to watch.

Hopefully, this made sense to someone besides Mom from the South, Mrs. M and PR Jedi Master Boss. Last night was just a good reminder of why I chose to attend AU and experience the amazing resources that Washington, D.C. has to offer, a nice bit of perspective in the midst of the mid-semester rush.

What Blast from the Past Would You Chose?

2006-10-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

Today, I feel that I'm channeling some Alex P. Keaton vibes with my button-down blouse layered under a sleaveless sweater, black skirt and loafers.

Everyone seems to have dived into the 80s revival with leggings, bulky sweaters and ballet flats, and I'm slowly succumbing to pressure and purchasing clothes that are similar to what Mom from the South sported in the 80s.

This made we start questioning, if you had the power to bring back one fashion trend from the past 20 years, what would it be?

Without a doubt, my choice would be MC Hammer Pants. Mom made me a pair in the 2nd grade, and those were the most comfortable pair of pants that I have ever owned. It was like wearing pajamas all day. If fashions are going to come back, why can't we make them comfortable? (Note: mine were not gold lame'. They were white with black squiggles, which was much more tasteful. I did however, have a gold lame' flower girl dress in the mid-80s.)

So, I'm wondering. If you were given the opportunity to make one fashion trend popular again, what would it be?

Health Center Hassles and Belonephobia

2006-09-30T07:57:00.000-05:00

What's belonephobia? It's the fear of needles and sharp objects. I'll explain later.

Yesterday, I finally dragged myself to the student health center to get some asthma meds. Not being able to breathe's been downer for the past few days. I had a 9 a.m. appointment, so I arrived at 8:45 a.m. However, they didn't call my name until 9:30.

I never thought that I'd miss the giant bureaucracy of the the Big Orange Screw, but it was efficient, and you could anticipate it. Sure, it took forever to get UT to do anything and there were miles of red tape, but the established procedures worked. AU seems to be the opposite. They're completely disorganized and inefficient. Thus far, the student health center seems to be the epitome of inefficiency.

When the doctor finally saw me and realized that I've been operating under decreased lung functions for a while, she was rather angry that the front desk didn't send me back immediately. She wanted to stop and administer a breathing treatment, but I told her that I had a nebulizer at home and would rather wait to do one.

For those of you lucky enough to not have impaired lungs, a nebulizer or breathing treatment mixes liquid dose of a bronchiodialator (emergency inhaler) with oxygen, and you have to sit there for about thirty minutes breathing in the medicine. It's a hookah for liquefied steroids.

Knowing that I had to walk home, I insisted that I wait to do a breathing treatment. Asthma drugs are extremely potent and a couple of puffs of my inhaler makes me loopy, so a breathing treatment is the equivalent of downing five or six apple shots. (That's for you, Mrs. M.)

I finally got some scripts for the drugs that I needed and wanted to hightail it home for my date with the asthma hookah, but the front desk reminded me of a little hold on my account.

The socialist utopia known as the District of Columbia, requires that all students under the age of 26 show proof of their immunizations. It was a pain to find copies of my immunizations and, then I found out that I lacked two--tetanus and hepatitis B.

Since registration is coming up soon, I decided to stop resisting and get the shots. That's where the belonephobia came in.

There aren't that many things that scare me. I admit to screaming like a little girl when I run across mice and roaches, but two things absolutely terrify me on earth--needles and the sight of blood. Just writing those words makes me sick to my stomach.

There are several colorful accounts of my experiences with needles and blood, and I post that Lost-worthy backstory. They honestly are traumatic. For example, that few times I've attempted to give blood, I've passed out on the table before they ever inserted the needle. Seeing the bags of other people's blood made me ill. Watching Grey's Anatomy makes me nauseous, and Discovery Health is blocked from my cable line up.

At this point, the Health Center's ineffienciency reached a new high point. AU can't just administer the shots. You have to sit down with an immunization coordinator and discuss your records before they put you on the waiting list to actually get the stupid things.

Since I'd already been there for two hours, I used my wheezing to my advantage and got moved up in the queue for the shot consultation. Otherwise, it would have been another hour of waiting to go through the first hoop.

The immunization guru was pissed that I was put ahead in line and was rude. Then he couldn't find my records, which made me mad. He finally located them and told me what I already knew, what Mom from the South had told me and what my primary doctor at home had written down, I needed tetanus and hepatitis B.

Now I did need the tetanus shot. My last one was in 1999 during my senior year at Berean when I slashed the knuckles of my right hand open on a metal door and had to get stiches. (Several of you are laughing at that memory. Should I post that story?) However, the Hep B vaccine was debatable.

Since I have no plans for getting a tatoo, sharing needles for illegal drugs or engaging in high-risk sexual activities, I have a zero chance of getting Hepatitis B. Tommy Lee has hepatitis B. Does my life in any way resemble that of Tommy Lee's? Hence my objection of getting a Hepatitis B shot.

The District of Columbia apparently overrides my objections.

Then, I discovered that Hepatitis B isn't just one shot like tetanus, MMR, polio or anything else. It's a series of THREE boosters taken over several months.

Each shot is $65.

The expensive health insurance policy that AU requires you to buy? It doesn't cover the boosters.

$200 bucks to prevent a disease that I have no chance of getting! There go the new boots that I've been eyeing this season.

It seems that my miserly attitude towards money is stronger than my belonephobia because I marched back in to the waiting room and literally fumed until the nurse called me for my shots.

I was still angry when she pushed back my sleeve on my left arm and administered the tetanus shot.

I was still angry when I realized that I'm left-handed and needed to get the shot in my right arm.

I cooled off when I glanced at the table and saw the huge syringe holding the Hepatitis B vaccine.

That's when my stomach started doing somersaults, and I fell foward in the chair with my head between my knees.

Apparently, you have to be sitting up to get shots, and the nurse wasn't very kind about it. She pushed me back up, told me to sit still and advised me to start breathing again in order to relax.

I just sat there envisioning dollar figures in my mind and the really cute knee-high black boots that I've been coveting. An eternity later, she reached for a band-aid and let me go.

The nice thing to know is that the Health Center told me to come back in on October 29 to get my second booster. Happy Birthday to me.

Oh, and I should be able to do relief work in Africa easily now. Good to know that the state of public health in DC is similar to that of Africa.

Replacing Sleep with Tab Energy, One Can at a Time

2006-09-26T14:50:00.000-05:00

For the past few days, I've hesitated to post anything of subsequence because I wanted to blog with the right attitude. Even right now, I'm not really sure what to write, which is frustrating. The most maddening thing for a writer is not being able to express the right words.

My overwhelming life has taken a challenging turn. While that's to be expected from someone who's taking 12 hours of grad school and working two jobs, the actual process of living that fact out proves to be a lot more difficult than anticipated.

Long-time readers are familar with my ability to overload myself and then freak out over the multitude of responsiblities that I'm facing, but this is different. Beyond any doubt, I know that God has me here for a purpose, and it's only through His grace that living in DC and going to grad school is happening. That just resounds differently than being busy with Relay for Life, going overboard planning a wedding shower for two dear friends or overcommitting myself for special events at work.

Yesterday was particularly difficult. This week I've been slammed with assignments (I have FOUR papers due just today), my asthma's been getting progressively worse and I've just been running from one thing to the next. You know it's bad when you walk into the office and your supervisor comments, "Wow, you look exhausted," and you actually had a somewhat reasonable amount of sleep.

I'm praying about some potential changes that could make life much better. It requires a leap of faith, but hopefully it'll work out. As of right now, my health is my biggest concern since my asthma seems to be getting worse. I've gone from using my inhaler once or twice every six months to once or twice a day, which worries me a bit. Monday, I sat next to someone who had just smoked a cigarette before getting on the bus. There wasn't any secondhand smoke at all and the smell alone almost suffocated me. Guess it's time to check out the student health insurance that AU required and see if they cover allergists. I wish I could fly Dr. Younger and his team up here!

Other than that, I've had the funniest song going through my head. A few months ago, children's church at Northshore gave a performance, and I've had a kiddie song playing over and over. Can't be too bad since it's a good reminder of God's providence:

God is good
All the time
He put a song of praise
In this heart of mine
God is good
All the time
God is good.

Mission Statement, Goals and Objectives

2006-09-25T14:42:00.000-05:00

Girl from the South's Mission Statement

Jeremiah 29:11-12
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Girl from the South's Goals and Objectives

Philippians 4:6-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.*

*Not posting this to be a Bible thumper or in-your-face Christian, but because I really need to remember these verses in my life right now, and there are very few places that I can't access my blog. (Yeah that article on Christian blogging actually made an impact.)

Black Squirrels Are Creepy

2006-09-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

Brown squirrels don't bother me. They're a fairly common species in North America. It's fun to watch them frolic and be merry. Plus, I know a camp song about them.

Black squirrels are a completely different situation.

Washingtonians are familiar with this odd-looking rodent. Apparently, the National Zoo brought them in from Canada in the early 1900s. It's like the DC version of kudzu.

Yesterday, while walking home, I noticed a black squirrel climbing up a tree. It was very near the sidewalk, and I could see it's features up close. My first reaction was that it was Squirrelicula.

I swear this looked like the vampire version of a squirrel. It had a small, pointy head, beady eyes and possibly fangs. There was just a sinister look about it.

As a child, I loved the Bunnicula series about a pet rabbit fron Transylvania that had fangs and a black patch on it's fur that looked like cape. Bunnicula also had the strange habit of sucking all the juice out of fruits and vegetables until they turned completely white.

This squirrel could have been Bunnicula's cousin. After all, Rabbits and squirrels are in the rodent family, although Bunnicula was good and Squirrelicula looked demonic. Bottomline, it was an odd squirrel and creeped me out.

Perhaps I shouldn't have watched Underworld:Evolution this week. Lots of vampires. Lots of werewolves. Lots of blood. Buffy or Bunnicula, it was not.

According to the calendar

2006-09-21T15:26:00.000-05:00

...today is the first day of autumn, the stores are stocked with Halloween candy and costumes, mornings are crisp and football season is well underway. This can only mean one thing...

...Girl from the South's birthday is around the corner! Yep, folks. That's what the coming of fall signifies--my birthday is near. In a little over a month, I'll be one year older. Twenty-four's been a great year, so my hopes are high for the quarter century mark. Thus, in my interesting corner of the universe, candy corn=my birthday.

However, the greatest thing about my b-day this year is the high probability that I get to go home! It looks like I'll have the weekend to visit the parentals and dog from the South and hopefully friends. I also need to make a pilgrimage to McKay's and ship a huge box of books back here. There also better be a birthday trip to Amigos and Formosa involved.

While it's not as cool as Europe, visiting loved ones is one of the best birthday present that a girl could receive. Of course, I'm also expecting many of the gift-wrapped variety. However, I am promising that there won't be any drive-in movies at this year's celebration.

Get excited Chatt! Girl from the South will hopefully be returning (briefly) in five weeks!

Son of a Biscuit Eater!

2006-09-19T15:20:00.000-05:00

By the powers, raise ye grog! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! This here lass forgot until she arrived at her sweet trade this morning.

Sadly, I e'en have a pirate hat from Amuseum two years ago. Arrgh! Although I be a bit lily-livered to wear a black hat emblazoned with ol' jolly roger on K Street during morning commute. Stuffy Washingtonians. Pirates have all the fun.

Speak ye like a buccaneer, me mates?

Good News for Lost Fans!

2006-09-18T14:38:00.000-05:00

For a limited time, ABC is allowing one million iTunes downloads of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy from last season. If you're a genuine Lost fan or need to brush up on last year's plot before the Oct. 4 premiere, this could save you at least $60.

I also must gush about how much I heart iTunes. Since I have class on Wednesdays, I'll miss Lost every week. Thanks to this wonderful Mac program, I can order the entire season ahead of time, and each episode will automatically download immediately after ABC airs it! Commercial free! Take that Tivo fanatics (and you know who you are!) Now, if only CW would do it, I wouldn't have to remember to tape Gilmore Girls every Tuesday.

Due to my crazy schedule, I'm limiting my TV obsessions to two shows. As much as I miss it, I'm thankful that Alias has ended (sniff, sniff. I really miss the spy family & co). There's no way that I could keep up. Given J.J. Abram's ability to create amazing shows, I'm staying as far away from Six Degrees as possible. The show looks really good with an interesting concept.

Keep Smokey No. 1!

2006-09-16T08:56:00.000-05:00

Being rather partial to mascots, I'm happy to see that Smokey currently has the most votes in the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge.

Having spent a summer as a costume character, I have a lot of respect for these guys. It's hard to walk around in one of those costumes, and most mascots can do amazing stunts, especially Smokey.

Some of the competition isn't that impressive. Smokey is one of the harder costumes to wear because of the head size. Sooner is pretty impressive with his flips and The Bird from the Air Force is funny because you know that there's a macho military guy inside dancing like a nutcase. Georgia Tech's Buzz and Wisconsin's Bucky Badger can stand on their heads. However, the coolest one, aside from Smokey's smooth moves, is NCSU's Mr. Wuf. He does the moonwalk.

Thankfully, Smokey is the best. Aubie from Auburn and Wildcat from Kentucky make the SEC look pathetic.

On a side note, I'd love to get a blue-tick hound dog one day and name him something orginal like Peyton or Neyland, but not Smokey. Every other dog in Tennessee is named Smokey. However, blue-ticks, especially in Smokey's bloodline can be thousands of dollars. I could always get an white bull dog and name him Smokey. That would be justice.

What I'm Learning in Grad School

2006-09-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

True fact: if you play an audio recording of a person yawning to a room full of blind people, they'll start yawning too.*

I've borrowed the equivalent of a Honda Accord car loan to learn this type of information. Perhaps, I'll recoup it on Jeopardy! one day.

*The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, pg. 10

New Rules for My Sanity

2006-09-12T16:01:00.000-05:00

After reading Mrs. M's comments about my post below, I'm instituting a new blog rule:
no blogging late at night after I've been studying all day. It just confirms what my friends and family already know about me.

I'm also creating a rule to save my sanity. Every weekend, I have to do at least one fun, relaxing thing--shopping, hanging out with friends, going to a movie, etc. Sunday after church, as I was walking back to the Metro at Union Station, I looked outside and remembered how close I was to the National Gallery. The realization hit me that I need to slow down and enjoy my time here in DC. While I'm living here, I want to value every moment, so that means taking a break from the books every weekend.

It didn't take long to convince myself to walk a couple of blocks to the museum. I really didn't even do that much there. I just sat in the Monet Gallery and enjoyed The Japanese Footbridge, one of my favorite paintings in the world. Afterwards, I grabbed some yummy raspberry sorbetto from the cafe' and read a fun book.

While I only spent a couple of hours away from studying, the results were great. I was able to go home recharged and got a lot more accomplished than if I had doggedly returned home from church.

Not that church wasn't great also! Sunday, I shadowed in children's church and assisted with the 3 and 4-year-olds. After working at a children's museum for two years, I've missed working with kids. Thecommitmentt at NCC isn't that much, so I'm pretty sure that I'll get involved with the children's ministry. The best part is that I'll be responsible for a craft once a month! Yea! I've missed craft time. Good thing I brought my craftbooks and supplies with me!

Have You Seen My Life?

2006-09-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

Reward for Safe Return!

Wanted: one life belonging to a 24-year-old Girl from the South. While not particulary exciting, is fun-loving with an occasional odd adventure. Recently moved from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Washington, D.C. Loves shopping, reading, museums, coffee shops and movies.

Last seen bolting out the door of AU's Bender Library.

Left note in Public Relations Theory II book explaining, "I just can't co-exist with this new presence known as 'grad school.' It's completely taken over and refuses to share or accomodate. All of these research studies and recent obsessions with a thesis topic has made me completely boring. Off to Tahiti or the nearest bar until next August."

Rules to Blog By

2006-09-08T12:38:00.000-05:00

This article on Boundless.org has some interesting guidelines on how Christians should act in the blogosphere.

I found this comment rather convicting:

When blogging about emotionally charged issues, Carolyn suggests allowing a cool-off period to evaluate whether you're writing out of anger, impatience or self-righteousness. "If you're questioning your motives, there's nothing so important that you can't wait 24 hours to post it.

Me angry or self-righteous? Never!

What Would We Do Without Research Science?

2006-09-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

Celebrities are narcissistic? Wow, this is now groundbreaking research!

This article has so many good quotes, I don't know where to begin, but this has to be my favorite one, "Reality TV personalities had the highest overall narcissism scores when compared with actors, musicians and comedians."

The entire concept of reality TV is narcissitic. Self-promotion is the only reason someone would ever audition for one of those shows. Look at all the reality stars who try to extend their 15 minutes--Tara and Ryan, the chick from the nutra system commercials, anyone from a Real World vs. Road Rules Challenge and most casts of Survivor. Katharine McPhee's bulimia may be a serious problem, but must you announce it in US Weekly, People and InTouch? Go make a Lifetime movie like Tracie Gold.

Aside from the blaringly obvious nature of this study, how did they define "celebrity." It seems that most B and C-listers are more narcissistic than their A-list counterparts. Also, doesn't it seem like Dr. Drew should have excluded himself from the study? It took a celebrity to justify research dollars on this. No wonder we don't have the cure for cancer yet.

My Poor Roommate

2006-09-02T19:54:00.000-05:00

Since I had to work today, I couldn't make it Arlington to watch the game with the UT Alumni chapter at the designated bar. So I rushed home from work and managed to turn the game on shortly before half-time.

This, my readers, is how you play football. Needless to say, I've been a rather exuberant spectator tonight, wearing a Tennessee shirt, waving my invisible shaker and singing Rocky Top to my heart's content.

In other words, I gave DC Roomie a true glimpse of the splendor that is known as SEC football.

Since she's from the Midwest, understandably there's no reason for her to be a football fan. I tried explaining the experience of a football game in Neyland Stadium, but words simply can't express what that's like.

Other Vols can watch a game and appreciate the overwhelming sense of watching the game with 108,000 other people. Yes, that's right. Neyland is the 2nd or 3rd biggest stadium in the country. I've been to two record attendance games, and it's indescribable.

Alums know the feeling of standing in the student section (because you never get to sit down!),trying to spot friends in the band during the half-time show and avoiding the freshman pledge next to you who's pre-gamed a bit too much. Every time I hear Rocky Top, I automatically raise my right hand and start waving my invisible shaker to the beat of the music. I can't help. It's second nature now.

Apparently, two years out from college is just enough to time to make you nostalgic. I've found myself searching for the Pride of the Southland Marching Band CD on the web. Sadly, I haven't been able to hunt it down. Perhaps a former roommate bound by the strongest bonds of sisterhood would be would perform the kind service of purchasing one for me next time she's on campus?

As for the game--it appears that we remembered how to play football again over the summer. For the first time in over a year, it's great to be a Tennessee Vol! We actually played 2 halves well, and didn't even need special teams to bail us out! That's a great game! Now, if we can keep up the momentum. Florida isn't that far away...

Now is the only time that I'm happy not to be there. Getting out of the stadium and off campus is impossible after a home game. Especially when you have to go home and get ready for the obligatory party in the Fort or on Frat Row. (Oh, my liver quivers with the memories of post-game parties!)

Now, I've gotta go play the Tennessee Waltz since I couldn't hear it on TV. After all, the game isn't over until it's been played.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2006-09-01T13:03:00.000-05:00

It's Football Time In Tennessee!!

The Power T t-shirt and the Big Orange purse have come out, meaning it's time for my beloved Volunteers to take the field and hopefully kick some California ass! At least they better. We can't take another dismal season.

Actually, I'm surprised that we're ranked #23 pre-season. We didn't even go to a bowl game last year. That ranking is purely out of respect to our previous successful history.

Oh well, Randy Sanders was offered up as Big Orange sacriface, and we have David Cutcliffe back as offensive coordinator. Thus, the Power T gods should be appeased.

A note to Coach Fulmer and the rest of the team: Please, please, please beat LSU this season. That one game makes my year. The Tigers may be my second favorite team, but in the end, my blood runs orange. Do whatever it takes. Add seats to the stadium. Invest several million more dollars into a full-length practice field. Say General Neyland's axioms 100,000 more times. Learn a football "Physics Moment." (anyone remember that season?) Just beat the Tigers. Oh, and an added bonus would be to whup Vandy and go to a Bowl Game. Coach, am I asking too much?

Wishing that I was on old Rocky Top, or at least in my Clinch Ave. apartment where I could see Neyland Stadium's Jumbotron.

Random Warm Fuzzies

2006-08-31T17:43:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I had a random post, so I know you've all been waiting to see the interesting thoughts that have crossed my mind lately. Plus, random posts when I'm not stressed out and slightly hysterical are always much more enjoyable.

Yesterday, I saw this story on Chattanoogan about a dog that was stolen with a pick-up truck was really heartwarming. I can't even fathom what I would do if Baby was stolen with Coco in it. Sure, I'd be upset that Baby was gone, but life without my beloved Border Collie is unfathomable. Luther is truly a Chattanooga treasure. He's done a lot for the community for the past 70 years.

In other Coco-related stories, apparently my dog has more of a social life than I do. He got to go visit Point Park last this week and walk around the pretty trails. This graduate degree thing really puts a hamper on going out.

Actually, this is something that hit me today. I was feeling a little discontent at my lack of a social life. It's not that I was incredibly popular person in Chattown and went out to fabulous places every night (just generally every other night), but I had a band of merry partners-in-crime with Bekna, LF, Adam and the other LTP kids, not to mention two years of random conversations with the PR Jedi Master Boss. It's not loneliness, but a missed feeling of being connected to a group of people who know me completely. Wait, maybe that is loneliness. Anyway, I do miss feeling connected with those around me. DC is such a fast-paced city, that it's hard to sit down and have a real conversation with someone. There's no such thing as lingering over coffee at Greyfriars or keeping Amigos open an extra hour while debating mushrooms and bleu cheese.

There are several challenges here with the main one being time. While there are plenty of opportunities to get to know people here, my schedule just doesn't give me huge chunks of free time, which is hard to get used to. Hopefully, this will be rectified once I get settled into a small group. This leads to Girl from the South's spiritual thought of the day... (Laura's blog is starting to wear off on me. Sheesh, the influence of a former Bible study leader.)

Everyday, I'm just more and more amazed at God's hand in my life. Either this move was God finally granting some of my heartfelt desires, or my desires started mirroring His Will as my walk with Him deepened during the past few years. (I'm suspecting the latter.) As I commuted from work to school today, I realized that I've started doing things out of routine--knowing which platform to walk to in the Metro, what time the bus comes in the morning, etc. This is a neat miracle because at first DC seemed so overwhelming that I thought I'd never catch on. I also realized how God led me to the right school. There are 6 graduate communication programs in the DC area. AU is the perfect fit. It focuses on nonprofit PR and the campus atmosphere suits me better (Better to be the lone conservative in a room full of free-spirited liberals than stuck in the midst of straight-laced right-wingers.)

The time thing is another interesting spiritual challenge. Christianity is a life-long process. God is constantly shaping you, so there are always new challenges and struggles. Right now, my struggle seems to be with time. I don't like surrendering my time to anyone--God, work, school, you name it. For the next 11 months, I have absolutely no control over my time. That doesn't make me a happy camper. However, I know that God's going to get me through it somehow. This is what I keep telling myself every time I think of the massive loads of work waiting to be accomplished. Unless I surrender every day to God and let Him guide me, it ain't gonna get done.

*Here's another post to bookmark and send back to me when I'm in the midst of one of my famous stressed out moments.*

Katrina: A Year Later

2006-08-29T16:05:00.000-05:00

It's been one year since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and I really don't know what to say. It's still painful to think about what everyone in New Orleans went through. My family has deep roots in Louisiana and just the thought of the destruction in the state is too much to comprehend.

I'm also still very angry. Angry at the people of New Orleans who refused to leave when they were given proper warning. Angry at incompetent state and local officials for doing nothing but wrongly pass the buck onto the Federal Government. Angry at how New Orleanians completely depended on the Federal Government to take care of them and then re-elected their useless leaders when given the opportunity for real change. I'm also angry at the Bush Administration for putting in bad leaders at FEMA and and then making knee-jerk decisions to try to rectify the previous bad string of choices. I'm angry at the decades of corruption on the Levee Board that refused to make much-needed repairs to a levee system that's still operating on it's 18th century origins. I'm angry at all the previous Presidents who vetoed appropriations money to fix the levees given the general belief that "nothing will ever hit New Orleans directly."

The problems of Katrina are so deep and wide-spread that I don't even know how to begin to describe them. No one government official or body is guilty. Katrina was a disaster from the start. New Orleans is a perfect example of the lack of personal responsibility that exists in our society today. If people took responsibility for himself or herself and communities bonded together, the damage would have still been severe, but we wouldn't have faced a refugee situation that existed in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.

Last spring, I remember discussing Katrina with my grandmother, a born-and-bred New Orleanian who moved away about a decade ago. She described Hurricane Betsy, a storm just as severe with a similar track as Katrina. The devastation was just as bad, but people and communities came together. Within a few months, all the schools were reopened, streets were cleaned, and businesses operating normally. What has happened to our society in the past forty years to cause such a difference?

The real damage of Katrina is the evidence of our reliance on a nanny-state, a prevailing loss of personal responsibility and a lack of community and caring for your neighbor. Houses, businesses and levees can be rebuilt, but I'm afraid that everything else is lost in America.

A Student Once Again (With Hopefully a Better Perspective!)

2006-08-29T12:12:00.000-05:00

Bright and early Friday morning, I returned to the student world. My program held a mandatory orientation, so I was forced to relinquish my day off for the week. The first part of the day wasn’t so bad. We got to meet all the other grad students in the SOC and split off into our programs to meet with some of the professors. There are only 45 people in the Public Communication program, so my entire class is smaller than most lectures I attended at UT.

The professors have pretty amazing experiences. Since the field of PR has changed so much in the past ten years, these are the people who have been at the forefront of the industry. If they don’t know about your specific interest, they’re more than willing to put you in contact with some one who does. I was happy to hear the head of the department urging students to not focus on getting perfect scores, but to enjoy the overall experience of studying in DC and take advantage of networking opportunities and the extracurricular programs that this city has to offer.

I’m also more and more impressed with the design of the program. Most public relations courses combine strategy and theory into one case study class. AU pulls that concept apart into two separate courses and incorporates case studies into both. That’s a strength that I haven’t seen at many other places.

The most interesting part of the day was meeting my fellow students. Most of them have been out of school for a couple of years, and it was interesting to see their various backgrounds. However, there were a few people who went straight on from college. One girl just graduated from Florida. Aside from being our biggest SEC rival, Florida and South Carolina were our biggest rivals in PRSSA. It was fun to compare notes with her, since our two programs were so similar.

Overall, most of the students were like me—passionate about PR and wanting to deepen their knowledge of the field to improve job prospects. However, one girl stuck out. This girl, my friends, was more Tracey Flick-like than I could ever be. She was the uber-Flick. She was the one raising her hand during every section of the orientation to ask questions, some of them painfully obvious, some completely pointless and some completely unnecessary just to mark her territory as the aggressive girl determined to come out on top.

Thankfully, she was at another table, so I was able to observe how this behavior affects other students. This was possibly the first time I wasn’t the Tracey Flick in the group. (Wow! Is that what I put all of you through for years? I’m really sorry guys!) Sitting there, watching someone else exhibit type-A, over-achieving behavior was a bit of an epiphany. I really don’t want to get sucked into that lifestyle of freaking out over every B+ and killing myself to make perfect grades in order to be the top student in the class. At this point, it’s just not worth it. I’m too busy with work and enjoying life to be the perfect student. How many times have I kicked myself for missing top honors in college by two tenths of a percentage point? It’s taken a while but seeing “magna cum laude” on my diploma everyday instead of “summa cum laude” doesn’t lessoned my feeling of achievement.

Perhaps all of Dana’s sermons on perfectionism finally made an impact! I’m hoping that several of you bookmark this post and e-mail it back to me whenever I start getting stressed out or competitive. Please remind me that in the long-run, it just isn’t worth it. Every time I get lost in perfectionism, my health suffers, and it hurts the relationships around me. I have a feeling that I’ll need to be hit over the head with this revelation several times, but what are friends and family for? (Paging Bekna, Laura, Mrs. M, PR Jedi Master Boss, Mom from the South and MacGyver Dad…)

Yesterday my first class met. As much as I’ve been grousing about all the hard work I’ll have to do, it was nice to be back in the classroom. It was thrilling to be with other people who are just as passionate about the field under a professor who is eager to teach us.

I’ve also been nervous that I wouldn’t be up to speed with the rest of my class on the foundational knowledge of the field, but I was worried for nothing. UT seems to have done a great job in laying the foundations of public relations. I was familiar with every case study, theory or strategy that the professor mentioned, which made me happy. Hopefully, the first part of the semester will be a good review instead of intensive learning.

Overall, I’m excited about what I’ll be learning and the upcoming networking opportunities. However, I did find out that the program is going to be much harder than I anticipated. Going into this, I knew that it would be challenging to take 30 hours of graduate courses in 11 months. Then I found out that on top of the 30 hours, I was required to take three comprehensive exams based on the strategy, research and theory classes to graduate. Friday, they made the announcement that on top of squeezing in 30 hours of classes and three comprehensive exams, we’re required to write a thesis and do an internship! Oy vey! I’m afraid that in the upcoming months, I just won’t have the time to be a perfectionist!

Stop, Drop and Roll

2006-08-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

This morning at 6 a.m., I woke up to the sound of sirens. It's not that unusual to be woken up by street noise since I live across the street from a bus stop and several blocks away from one of NW's main streets, but this was the first time that I heard alarms getting louder and closer.

At first I rolled over and assumed that there was a fire somewhere nearby and waited for the sounds grow more distant, but they didn't. Instead, the alarms grew more frequent and louder. Suddenly, I noticed that I could see the red outline of flashing lights through my closed blinds and started to wonder if we needed to check the batteries in our smoke detectors. I got out of bed and sniffed the air for smoke before stumbling through my bedroom door for our giant, picture window in the living room.

Since my apartment faces the back of the building, I don't have a great view of the street, but I could see two fire trucks parked and several firemen clad in all of their garb getting stuff out the trucks. They weren't moving very fast, so I assumed that it wasn't an emergency.

By this time, the DC Roomie had joined me saying, "Oh, I thought that Dick Cheney had changed routes, and the motorcade was going down Wisconsin." (We're only a mile or two from the National Observatory where the VP lives.) Then pointing to a fireman getting a long pole-like tool out said, "Isn't that what they use to measure where bodies are found?"

Both of us stood there for a few minutes with our noses pressed to the window, wiping the sleep from our eyes, while we watched firemen saunter around our normally-quiet street. Finally the curiosity got the better of me, and I went outside.

As soon as I walked out the front door of the building, I was greeted by not one, not two, but seven fire trucks and a Fire Marshall's SUV all surrounding a Metro Bus. My next immediate thought was that we had some kind of Speed-like situation going on in a random street in Georgetown, and Keanu Reeves was going to jump out and save the day. Then I noticed that several disgruntled looking people were sitting in the bus, and I figured that it wasn't an emergency if they looked annoyed instead of afraid.

For the next few minutes, I stood there blinking in the early morning dawn while various neighbors joined me out of curiosity or to walk their nervous dogs. It was funny to see the typically well-dressed residents of my neighborhood wander outside in their jammies. By the time I got bored with counting the fire trucks and looking at my neighbors, the firemen were folding up a giant hose and starting to leave.

I went back inside to get a few more hours of sleep, relieved that even if the DCPD couldn't solve a crime with neon arrows pointing to the suspect and evidence, the DCFD is sure going to protect Georgetown homes from even a hint of fire.