Notes

Happy Holidays!

Posted on by Megan

I sort of have a reputation when it comes to the Christmas/Holiday cards I send out every year.

Or so I’m told.

You see, I’m a huge fan of paper pretties. I’m one of those people who can stand in the card aisle for hours looking for the perfect birthday card for a friend. So it should come as no surprise that, every year, I scour the Internet for unique cards.

Starting in October, I make it a point to find a card with a little something extra – an added sparkle here or a spinning ornament there. But this year I decided to try my hand at designing my own and I’m so happy I did!

I had bought several yards of canvas to make these lovely calendars as gifts, but grad school got in the way. I was sad and stuck with yards of canvas that I didn’t know if I’d ever use.

Then it hit me: Christmas Cards! Yep, I printed my cards on canvas this year. But not just that, I took it one step further and made the envelopes, too.

As one friend said after she received it in the mail: the card “did its job of making me feel inferior.” I guess operation make-my-own-cards was a success? 🙂

PS: Can you still call them cards if they aren’t printed on paper?

True Life: Procrastinating Grad Student

Posted on by Megan

I came across a post I wrote several years ago for a short-lived collaborative blog with some friends. I’m now in my fourth semester of grad school (I took a break after my first semester to figure out what degree I really wanted) and while now it’s more DVR and needlework distractions than construction projects, apparently I’ll never learn NOT to procrastinate…

{Comments in brackets are my additional thoughts, 3 years later}

As most of you know, I began graduate school this semester and I’ve noticed some things about me and school have not changed. I still thoroughly enjoy procrastinating and the [seemingly] free time it affords me. Here’s a glimpse into one such night:

Monday night, 6pm: Opening the door to my apartment trying to remember what TV shows premiere that night. Oh yes, Chuck…AND The Bachelor…AND Dancing With the Stars. Awesome! I can get my reading done for class tomorrow during the commercial breaks and still enjoy the shows.

{I have no idea how I managed without a DVR back then. PS: I only watched Dancing With The Stars that season because I had recently purchased the show’s first workout DVD and was a bit smitten with Maks}

8pm: Chuck ends, first episode was really good…I might have to add this to my weekly lineup.

{Chuck didn’t stay in my lineup for long}

[hand drops highlighter, picks up remote, and clicks over to ABC for the end of Dancing With the Stars] Since I haven’t fully entered the 21st century yet I have to watch the shows live, gasp, I have no DVR. So sue me. I pick up my computer off my coffee cubes [not to be confused with coffee table] and begin to surf the internet. I needed a study break anyway.

{Still have the coffee cubes, still use the computer, now a MacBook, while I’m watching TV}

8:15 pm: What was it that I told Mom I needed this weekend? Oh yes, that’s right a black bookshelf, preferably one of those nifty little leaning ladder ones, to put in my bedroom. [fingers type walmart.com in FireFox] YES!!!! Wal-Mart has one for $39.99, perfect!!!! [fingers type bank’s URL to check balance] YES!!!!! I have money, I can go buy the bookshelf. [Body proceeds to get up off the couch and walk toward the door, purse and keys in hand]

{Now, it’s been 2 years, at least, since I’ve shopped in a Wal-Mart}

8:25 pm: I pull into Wal-Mart’s parking lot and head towards the furniture, pushing my buggy as I go. Dang! That bookshelf isn’t at this Wal-Mart. Determined to find something I like I press on.

8:40 pm: Find another bookshelf on sale for $20. [SALE = music to my ears] I embark on hoisting the 75 lb box into my cart by myself. Phew. Now I just have to get it into my car.

8:50 pm: Pull into my Apartment Complex and begin to pull 75 lb box towards my apartment door.

8:51 pm: [after getting 3 feet closer to my apt from my car] pant, pant, pant. Why did I think this was a good idea?

8:55 pm: Sigh. How in the Samhill am I gonna get this 75 lb box upstairs to my apartment by myself?

8:57 pm: Nice neighbor boy sees me struggling from his balcony and offers to help. Thank you Lord.

9:00 pm: Bookshelf is finally in my apartment. Construction commences!

9:20 pm: I’ve unloaded all pieces on top of my bed and begin to hammer and screw away until this monstrosity is complete.

9:25 pm: Why?!!?!?!!??!?!?!!?

9:40 pm: Bottom half is completed. Top half is gonna be a booger.

9:50 pm: Why?!!?!?!!??!?!?!!?

10:25 pm: Top half is attached to bottom half and now I have to turn the bookshelf over and attach the back.

10:27 pm: The pieces aren’t even…they don’t match up…argh. Maybe if I flip them around a bit…no…ARGH!!!!!!

{This reminds me of a similar construction project I embarked on with my friend Mandy. It involved a coffee table from IKEA and, 3 months later, it still has no drawers}

10:30 pm: Why do I have to put the back pieces on crooked? I hope this doesn’t look tacky when I’m done.

10:40 pm: 40 long minutes, a crooked back, and a small section of damaged drywall later the bookshelf is in place!

10:45 pm: Is this bookshelf crooked?!?!? DANG! I’m not taking it apart, it’s gonna have to do.

11:00 pm: OH CRAP!!!!! I had 50 pages left to read for class tomorrow….

{Back then, I actually had classes in a classroom. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, I take all my classes online. It’s a sweet deal}

Tuesday Morning, 12:05 AM: Screw this [no pun intended], I’ve got to get up for work in 6 hours, I’m so done with reading. [arm reaches to turn off light] I’m sound asleep in 10 minutes.

So I ask you, why did I think that at 8:30 buying and constructing a bookshelf sounded like a good idea?

Oh, yeah! Because it was better than reading my graduate school articles.

Road Wars

Posted on by Megan

This morning I risked my life for a bagel.

I woke up craving the cinnamon-y, sugar-y deliciousness of a Panera Bread Cinnamon Crunch Bagel. I got ready in record time – for a Monday – hopped in my car and headed to Panera.

Panera is relatively new in Conway and in a new development of both residential and commerical properties. [Which, by the way, is quite possibly the cutest little neighborhood I’ve ever seen.] This development has sparked the installation of some roundabouts and due to those roundabouts there is understandably some construction to navigate through. I’m okay with that, as normally it doesn’t cause that big of a delay.

But today, this is what I encountered as I approached my turn:

What you are looking at is a roundabout where the middle is blocked, making it impossible to make my left-hand turn to get to Panera. [Also notice there’s a curbed grassy median preventing me from just making my own turn lane]

Frustrated, I continued to drive a bit further as there is a second roundabout just up the road, it’s also new. Unfortunately, that roundabout was similarly blocked preventing me from making a U-turn.

This would be where I developed road Tourette’s.

I was bound and determined to make that left-hand turn and buy a bagel, so at the first opportunity I had where there was no longer a grassy median blocking me, I made a U-turn through an opening in the traffic barrels and into oncoming traffic narrowly avoiding a collision, but also starting a trend of 6 other cars making the same manuever.

I got skills. And I know how to use them.

At lunch I risked my life for a salad.

Now that my favorite Little Rock restaurant has opened a location in Conway, it’s pretty much become my regular lunch spot. To get there I take a series of side streets from work to get back to the aforementioned cluster-*bleep*. You’d think, since I’m making only right-hand turns this time it would be a breeze to get to ZAZA.

Well, you’d be mistaken, because this is what that same area looked like at lunch:

This time, the entire northbound road is blocked off. Not only that, what you don’t see is the madness I had to get through just to get on the road. The last 20 feet or so of the side-street I took was blocked off and had detour signs up. What these detour signs didn’t tell you, until it was too late, is that you were being taken to a coned off area that was running out of road; where making a right hand turn was virtually impossible given how close the cones were together and the narrow lanes of two-way traffic you would have to fight. You also had no option of backing up and turning around, because there was a line of cars in the same predicament as you.

As soon as I could make a left-hand turn, as it was much easier to make than a right, I bolted into the traffic then quickly made another left into a parking lot so I could finish my U-turn. And, wouldn’t you know it, I started a trend yet again. Skills.

I’m giving myself an imaginary pat on the back for being so resourceful when faced with adversity when I realize that the entire half of the roundabout I need to drive through to get to ZAZA is blocked. I do a quick scan for construction workers and equipment, of which there  is NONE, and bolt through a gap in the barrels just large enough for my car to fit through.

Which brings me to this question:

Seriously, “road people”. What possessed you to block the ONLY entrance to 2 of the newest hotspots in town with construction? Is it to test my analytical thinking skills? Is it a subtle hint that I don’t need to eat a bagel? No? Well then, maybe it’s your way of really testing my patience first thing on a Monday? Either way I deserve an explanation. stat.

Grocery Lessons

Posted on by Megan

See that window? That BIG window at the top of the picture? That’s the window that inspired me today as my mom and I enjoyed a day of shopping.

Growing up my dad owned a grocery store, Taylor’s Grocery, which eventually became Taylor’s Big Star. This grocery store was a part of my family for most of my adolescence. As a kid, it was AWESOME to have the store opened after hours by your dad to run wild in & get everything for “free”. Frozen pizza, popcorn, coke, magazines, comics. That store was my oyster. My sister and I were even the store mascots during the annual Chicken and Egg parade.

(Yep, my hometown’s summer festival celebrated poultry. Laugh. It. Up.) See Exhibit A.

Exhibit A

I learned many things by being the daughter (and mascot) of a grocer:

I learned the importance of properly sacking groceries, a skill that I still value to this day. You want squashed bread about as much as you want soap flavored apples, which is about as much as you want broken eggs, right? Never underestimate the importance of sacking your groceries. Ever.

I learned how to efficiently scan barcodes. Well, when the scanner cooperates. Which also explains why I almost always choose the self-checkout line when the option is available. That line takes me back to a childhood of playing on the scanners after-hours at the family grocery store.

I learned, thankfully not from first-hand experience, that those meat slicers in the deli can be awfully dangerous. I also learned that pricing guns aren’t dangerous and can actually be a lot of fun to use.

(No wonder why my dad always let me price stuff when I asked. Hmm…must’ve been the free labor thing. Though my parents would never encourage free labor. WOULD YOU mom & dad?)

I learned independence, because as a toddler my mom was known to wake up and see me toddling down the driveway to see daddy. Yep, I was an early riser. An early-riser who missed her dad. Thank goodness it was a straight shot, literally, to the grocery store from our house and that I never made it further than the driveway before getting caught.

I learned where to find my dog, Sugar, a Cocker Spaniel, when he wasn’t in his pen. 9 times out of 10 he had jumped the fence and went to visit my dad at the grocery store.

But back to this blog inspiring window…

At the back of the store there was a small window, behind that window was the most fun area of the store. A tiny private “office”, if you will. To get to this office you had to climb up some stairs. Often these stairs were blocked by pallets or boxes, but that never got in our way. My sister and I would go up to this office with a box of Gushers or Fruit Roll-Ups, a few Archie comic books, some crayons and coloring books, and a fruit juice jug of some kind. We would feel like the queens of the store.

(I’m generalizing here. Maddie may not have felt this way, in which case she can clarify her feelings in the comments.)

From that little-bitty window we could see everything. A woman thumbing through magazines, a man picking fruit, every.single.person that walked through the doors.

Unfortunately, we never witnessed some of the more interesting happenings of the store from that window. Like the time a guy decided to steal cigarettes, so he stuffed them down his pants then ran out of the store with the manager following him, leaving a trail of cigarettes along the way. Not to mention losing his pants in the pursuit as well. Or so I’m told.

But I loved everyday that we got to sit up in that “office” watching over the store. From that window we could see exactly what a small town is about. Smiles to strangers, friendships, support, gossip, laughter, family, and eating.

Being the daughter of a grocer taught me so much more than the importance sacking and scanning. It taught me the importance of a community that sticks together through thick and thin.

Weekend Recap

Posted on by Megan

This weekend, Adam and I enjoyed all that Riverfest in Little Rock, Arkansas had to offer. Well, almost. We only made it there for 2 nights, but we still had a blast! Earth, Wind, and Fire, fireworks, and Ludacris, what’s not to love? We also got to see each of our families. All in all, we kept I-40 hot…

Here’s some highlights:

Friday:

  • Heidi Montag left Spencer, is the world coming to an end?
  • Watching Adam rap and groove to Outkast – Ms. Jackson while driving to Riverfest is one if the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed…
  • The streets around Riverfest are filled with cars blaring 90’s rap/hip hop and all the drivers are white.
  • Waiting patiently for Earth, Wind, & Fire http://twitpic.com/1ryqkj
  • A DJ is spinning mixes of old-school rap/hip hop. Think O.P.P. and Da Dip and Hip Hop Hooray into Usher’s Yeah.
  • Save me. Adam is quoting Spaceballs while we wait for Earth Wind & Fire…
  • There is nothing better than watching white people with no rhythm dance to hip hop music.
  • At Earth, Wind, & Fire, Adam’s first impression of the band is “That tall guy is wearing some interesting pants.”

Saturday:

  • On our way to lunch, Adam says/sings, “I’m a Rock. It. Man!” just in case I ever doubted his geek status…
  • Protein. Dairy. Grains. Veggies. Totally healthy right? http://tweetphoto.com/24547642
  • This bike shop is named Poppa Wheelies? Really?
  • I just missed Adam’s fist in a fist bump. #IAdmitMyFlaws #IFail
  • Today I learned that Adam has never seen “Catch Me If You Can”. Tonight we’re watching it together.

Sunday:

  • Dad: “What is box wine?”
  • Dad: “I had some of that behind the blue moon beer”.
  • Oh Sonic, does it really take 5 minutes, 1 callback, and 3 tries to order 2 shakes? Oh, it does? Yay!
  • After Ludacris sang “Move B!tch” Adam and I left. We didn’t want to disobey Mr. Luda, as he had an entourage.
  • Listening to the LRPD scanner. Glad we got out when we did…
image via LITTLE ROCK CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

Alpha Delta Pi Directory Update

Posted on by Megan

Alpha Delta Pi Lawn Letters

Oh how I love sorority directory update time.

Today, I [finally] stopped putting off calling to verify/update my information for the Alpha Delta Pi international directory. Luckily on the other end of the line was a very nice black woman (I could tell her race from her voice, you know). Anyway, she’s asking me about my initiation year [2002], college [University of Arkansas] and major [Journalism] and then goes into my current job title [Training and Development Specialist]. All of a sudden she stops and says (in that ghetto fabulous way) “Giiiiiirl, why you giving up that degree? That’s a heavy major, you could be the next Diane Sawyer.”  [I smile, I’m sure she felt it through the phone.]

After we finish my updates I’m told for 2 easy payments of 49.95 I can have the newest international directory. I said thanks but no thanks, I’ve got Facebook.

Ink.

Posted on by Megan

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an obsession with pens. Felt tip, gel, fountain. Those are my favorites, but I’m also known to have a few ballpoints scattered in there. As a kid, I was known to have mugs bulging with pens randomly placed in shelves around my room. Apparently, that hasn’t changed as I’ve gotten older, because my pen and pencil holder on my desk is totally full of pens. So much so, that I can barely pull one out or put one back in.

Colorful pens make mundane meeting notes less mundane.

“Good” pens, the ones that write with hardly any pressure/effort, make my hand hurt less when taking notes and [best of all] are most flattering to my handwriting.

So, if you need to add a little color to your life, grab a pen and doodle for a bit. I promise it will brighten your day, if only for a few seconds.