Very old picture of my iPod… back when my phone matched!

I love putting together mixes and playlists. It’s practically my spiritual gift. So when Kim at The K.O. Story (a fellow Memphis blogger) announced a Music Mixup Swap, I was in! The theme for this month was, appropriately, New Beginnings. Kim matched me with Christine from A Day In The Life. I checked out her blog to get an idea of her musical taste, and sensed right away that we would be sympatico. Unfortunately, thanks to the lovely U.S. Postal Service, Christine hasn’t received her mix yet. It has a lot of my usual suspects on it, though. The CD she made for me arrived right on time:

  

I already know and like most of these songs, and have even put a few of them on my annual soundtracks. The songs I didn’t know were great too. This CD was the perfect accompaniment this weekend as I drove around enjoying the sunshine! Thanks Christine! :)

I’m looking forward to next month’s swap!

2 Comments + Posted in: music

Imagine Dragons – I was so inspired, I made this myself from my own photo

This has been a rough week, so in an effort to counteract, I’m going to list a few positive things that have happened:

– I finally got some good medication for eternally-sick me, and my eternally-sick cat.

– If my sick cat needs more testing, I found out it won’t be prohibitively expensive like I thought. (I keep meaning to post about her, if only for other cat people, but I’ve been waiting forever for a diagnosis.)

– I received helpful and encouraging writing advice from an experienced friend (sorry I haven’t responded yet!).

– The Tigers are 3-0 so far in conference play. We can’t take this for granted.

– @FantasyPastner followed me back! (Honestly, I think this was the highlight of my week.)

– My Wednesday night church small group is meeting again after a long hiatus. I’m very thankful for these kind, genuine people, who care about what’s going on in my life and don’t let me get away with evading questions.

– I have a new blog follower – shoutout to Sassy Southern Mama!

– I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on my new haircut and general appearance (an area where I always need encouragement). A co-worker even compared me to Anne Hathaway. Which is totally absurd, but I’ll take it.

– I’m finally reading Gone Girl. I was on the Kindle waiting list at the library for months. I’m over halfway through already, and will DEFINITELY need to discuss it when I’m done! I mean WOW.

– It’s a three-day weekend. Hallelujah! I know it’s nice to do some sort of community service on MLK Day, but seeing as I’ve been sick for two months, I’m just taking a pass to rest as much as possible.

Totally unrelated: Can anyone provide good tips for using Google+ in connection with my blog? Thanks to Alyssa, I found out that I was a no-reply blogger, meaning no one could reply to comments I left on other blogs. I think I’ve fixed it now, but what else do I not know about? :\ Google+ and the “new” Blogger are so difficult to figure out and use. I understand why most people eventually migrate to WordPress.

11 Comments + Posted in: life lately, thankful

We had a small ice event this week. After trekking home in slushy weather on Monday, I was awoken at 4 am Tuesday by an ice storm warning alarm on my phone. The initial predictions were a little scary for those of us who remember Ice Storm ’94. But in the end, there was barely enough freezing rain to qualify for an ice storm warning. I’m not complaining – I don’t want power outages or a tree through my roof! I wouldn’t have minded being homebound for a day or two, though. The roads remained mostly fine, except for some black ice here and there.

It’s still really cold, so a lot of the ice is still around. I snapped these pictures yesterday evening while killing time before church.

You can sort of see the ice on the trees in the streetlight!

In other news: this is my new camera! My old Canon Powershot SD1200 was lost/stolen at a wedding I went to in October. I was happy with that camera, so I bought an exact duplicate for cheap on eBay. Unfortunately, it was a lemon (lesson learned about buying electronics on eBay). The focus didn’t work at all on zoomed shots, and only sporadically on wide shots. After perusing reviews, I bought this Canon Powershot SX260 with Christmas money and am loving it so far. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to sew a case for it, so I’m carrying it around in the flimsy plastic wrap from the packaging. Classy!

8 Comments + Posted in: winter

Last weekend, I went to Atlanta with my friends Alanna, Elizabeth, and MinShien! The main purpose of our trip was the Hot Chocolate 15K, in which Alanna and Elizabeth were running. I’ve been through Atlanta many times and love the aquarium and the Coke museum, but I’d never spent much time IN the city. As it turns out, between the race and the NFL playoff game, this wasn’t the best weekend to start. While A & E were running, MinShien and I tried to explore downtown, only to get caught in a massive gridlock of Falcons fans. That was okay because it was cool to be a part of playoff excitement. But later, we all wanted to go to Centennial Park and couldn’t find parking anywhere nearby, even for $20 or $30. We literally spent hours driving in circles, getting lost and searching in vain for a safe place to park and/or a good restaurant or activity that was actually open. 

Drive-by of the Margaret Mitchell house, on one of the five different Peachtree Streets

Historic-looking country club on one of the other Peachtree Streets

Four single ladies in the city!

And so it was that we spent most of our Atlanta weekend at Atlantic Station. We did a lot of shopping, and ate at Strip (recommended by a local we met in the parking garage) and Rosa Mexicana. Both were great! In the evenings we went back to the hotel and ate desserts while watching girly TV (the Miss America pageant and the Golden Globes). I’d call that a successful girls’ weekend.

Atlanta is full of cool statues and monuments. I noticed sculpture everywhere! (And I could enjoy a lot of it from the car!)

On our way out of town Monday morning, we stopped at Trader Joe’s! The closest TJ’s to Memphis is in Nashville. I’d never been. I did some research beforehand to determine the must-gets, and shopped selectively (although I still left with a haul, including half a case of $3 wine). The first item I tried was their Cookie Butter. It looks like peanut butter but tastes like gingersnaps. SO DELICIOUS. I’ll have updates later as to how I liked the rest of my purchases! Anyway, I don’t know how we fit our four cartfuls of TJ goods into the car, but we managed!

On the long, cold, slightly hazardous drive home, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for warmth and sustenance. There’s nothing like Cracker Barrel when you’re on the road.

The end!

3 Comments + Posted in: friends, travel

I only get my hair cut about once a quarter, so I like to make it worth my while. I paid a visit to the salon on Tuesday sporting longish hair. Since the words “Just a trim, please” are never in my vocabulary, I walked out with really short hair. Shorter than I wanted, although I always love whatever my stylist does. Even though it’s cute and feels wonderful, I had haircut remorse almost immediately. What am I thinking getting a summer chop in the middle of winter? Turns out I said the same thing at this time last year. It’s a January tradition!

The thing is, when you have curly hair, wearing it long is a pain. Longer hair means longer styling sessions, increasing amounts of (expensive) product, and more unpredictability as to whether it will even look good after all your efforts. The aftermath of a drastic cut like this always feels like Christmas to me. I can be ready in five minutes with just a few spritzes and shakes? Happy day! I had long hair for years, and I’d probably like it now if I had perfectly behaved Zooey Deschanel locks, but as I get older I don’t have much patience for the trouble anymore. I also feel sassier with shorter hair. I don’t know why.

Anyway, in a few weeks it should be at my new favorite stage, which I’ve come to think of as “New York Length.” When I look at the pictures of me in Times Square last summer, I LOVE the way my hair looked. But maybe it just looked so good because I was so happy and free.

4 Comments + Posted in: beauty