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My friend Emily is making it in Hollywood! After graduating from Peace College, she headed west to California and has been quite the success. She has worked as an assistant to a celebrity (who I will not name in order to pique curiosities), written an entertainment blog, interviewed celebrities on the red carpet, and started her own comedy troupe, Gas Money.

Emily has also been hard at work with the Groundlings, a prestigious improv comedy group. It takes years to pass their certification levels and is quite difficult. Alumni of the Groundlings include Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, Phil Hartman, Ana Gasteyer, and more. I am very proud of her! Here's one of her latest sketches:



And while I'm at it, I thought I would share some of my other favorite video clips. These are ones that I never get tired of watching :)

1. SNL: More Cowbell. I've got a fever...



2. OK Go: Here It Goes Again. Love the video, love the song, love any group that can think up something like this.



3. Judson Laipply: The Evolution of Dance. Is it long? Yes. But definitely watch the whole thing - it's well worth it.

Being in the Winner's Circle

Last Saturday, I got to bask in the presence of winners. In the morning, I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was amazing. Everyone there was so nice and enthusiastic. Here are my 2 favorite parts from the race:

1. People wear pink papers on their backs saying who they are running/walking for. If they are walking for a breast cancer survivor, it says, "In celebration of [name here]. During the one-mile fun run (okay - it was more of a one-mile fun stroll), I was behind a family. The older woman's paper said, "In celebration of my daughter, Christine." Next to her was a younger woman whose paper read, "In celebration of my sister, Christine." She was holding the hand of little girl beside her. The little girl's paper said, "In celebration of Mom." The "o" in Mom was drawn as a little heart. Winners.
2. When a survivor is about to cross the finish line, race volunteers figure out what his/her name is (I think it's based on their race number) and pass the word onto the announcer. That way, when the breast cancer survivor actually crosses the line, it's announced, "Great job, Anna!" or "Here comes Susan - way to go!" It was great. Winners.

That night, I got to be around a different kind of winner. I went to Frankie's Fun Park in Raleigh with some friends. Right off the bat, my friend Tim hit the jackpot on one of the arcade games. Not once, but twice. It was amazing. The tickets just came pouring out of the machine (it's like Chuck E. Cheese where you get tickets from games and then trade them in for prizes). I screamed. A lot. I was very excited about my vicarious win.


So what do these two things have in common? It's about finding joy in what you do. Everyone was so optimistic and happy at the race. Despite the obvious difficulties the families were going through, they came out and supported their loved ones. And sure, it was just a pile of tickets at Frankie's, but sometimes it's important to be excited about the little things in life so you can handle the curve balls that come your way.

A Literary Handbook for the Beach

iro·ny \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\ (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Duck Beach with some friends, as chronicled here and here. After a day of enjoying the beach, we were driving back to our house when we spotted a car stuck in the shoulder of the road. Note: Duck is located on the Outer Banks. As barrier islands, they are made of sand. Hence it's important to drive carefully when venturing off the road, lest you get stuck. Much like any "beachy" area. Since these people were from New Jersey, they evidently were unaware of this little factoid.

We decided to stop and try to help them out. It was a couple and a little kid. When we walked up, the guy actually handed us the keys and said, "I don't even know how to drive." Yes, that was a little weird. We dug out the front tires and then another guy stopped to help. He was able to tow them out using his truck. Afterwards, the New Jersey guy shook everyone's hand and thanked us, saying, "You hear about southern hospitality, but I've never seen it. Thank you." He was extremely appreciative. Here's the hole the car left.

Later that night we went to a party. When we walked up to the house it was at, what did we see? That same truck now stuck in the sand. We stopped offered to help, but the guy said he had it under control. So instead, I helpfully took a picture.

met·a·phor \ˈme-tə-ˌfor also -fər\ 1: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.

One day while we were all at the beach, the water was quite cold. We were toeing our way in when a random guy came up and told us, "It's better to just get in all at once." He then plunged himself into the water as we watched. PS - We later saw him go and appear to have this same conversation with another group of people on the beach. Maybe it's his hobby. Anyway, this began a discussion of how we like to get in the water. I decided that at pools, I like to jump in all at once. For the ocean, however, I prefer to ease in a little at a time to see what's it like, and then quickly get out past the breakers so they don't continually crash on me.

As our little group compared notes about our relative water-adjustment techniques, I began to wonder how this transferred to other areas of my life. Do I plunge into my metaphorical pools only because I know it's safe? In the giant oceans of life, it can certainly be difficult to swim out into the unknown. Are some methods better than others? Sometimes. Maybe it's about finding the right balance between caution and abandon.

de·noue·ment \ˌdā-ˌnü-ˈmäⁿ, dā-ˈnü-ˌ\ 2 : the outcome of a complex sequence of events.

It was also my birthday :)

Above photo courtesy Lacey Martin.

Maybe they don't know about the wave...

I love the Olympics. During the last games, I gave my co-workers a little "highlights" reel every morning during the games. This recap mostly involved me singing NBC's official Olympic song (da...da...dadadada...da...da...dadadada....dadada...da...dadadadada), and then telling them what I saw on TV. I'm sure they loved it.

I am excited about the coming games, even though I have to admit that the winter games are my favorite. I think it will be quite interesting to see how things go in Beijing this summer.

I came across this article today on BBC.com regarding China's plan for an official cheer.

This definitely made me 1) laugh and 2) reflect on China's society.

My favorite part is that they are launching an entire campaign to teach people how to do this. As the article explains, "The authoritative, four-part Olympic cheer, accompanied by detailed instructions, will be promoted on TV, in schools and with a poster campaign...The Beijing Olympic Organising Committee has hired 30 cheering squads who will show spectators how it is done at Games stadia" (BBC.com, June 5, 2008). Oh China - what will you think of next?

You said it, Bob!

My 11th-grade U.S. History teacher loved the 60s. She had us prepare a whole "60s Night" to be held on a Wednesday night after school. She explained the mandatory attendance to this event as, "I know some of you have commitments, like church youth groups. You can miss one night. You won't go to hell." Yes, that's how passionately she felt about it.

Aside: Everyone had to participate in some kind of "act." Britt and I performed an amazing reenactment of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The amount of aluminum foil we used was, and is to this day, probably unequaled by the likes of anything seen in the Cary High School gymnasium.

In preparation for the evening, our teacher had us learn protest songs. Even now, I find myself singing "Little Boxes," "If I Had a Hammer," and "The Times They are A-Changin'."* That last little number is what brings me to my post today.

I've been thinking lately about how things change. Specifically, how you can look back at a chapter of your life and remember the emotion of the moment. Even when details become fuzzy, you can recapture the feelings and thoughts from the past. Sometimes all it takes is simply looking at a picture, hearing a song, seeing someone, catching a whiff of a familiar scent, or some other innocuous, everyday experience to trigger this reflection. While we continue to change, it's as if our past selves are frozen into place, accessible by our current selves.

*We learned a LOT of songs, and after a while I gave up trying to learn all of them. I would just hum along and join in on the choruses. As a result, I can't guarantee that we learned this last one, but I think we did ;)

Little Visitors and Little Lessons

My mom had a few little visitors at her house just recently: baby birds. A mother bird built a nest in the wreath on the front door, so Mom had a great seat for all the action. Visitors to her house were not so lucky; she roped off the front steps so no one would knock on the front door and scare off the mother bird.

She kept me posted on their progress. They started out with few feathers and mouths constantly open, eagerly awaiting a snack. Pretty soon they got feathers and began looking more like, well, birds. (Very young birds look a tad reptilian, in my opinion.)

In a few weeks, they matured and flew away. We were sad that they had left the nest (literally and figuratively) but pleased to have seen them.

It could have been an inconvenience to have the birds take up residence on the front door, but my mom chose to view it as a unique, fun experience. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

We can choose to throw stones,
To stumble on them,
To climb over them,
Or to build with them.
-William Arthur Ward

Maybe this week I could try to change my mindset about an unexpected challenge and view it as an opportunity. Maybe ;)

Photo courtesy of Virginia Enzor

How Blogtastic became Barftastic

I should have been reading. It's a simple as that. But I thought, "I'll just paste this one little thing into my blog real quick." Boo. One wrong click later - literally, ONE - I have now messed up my template. Double boo.

I really can't put off other stuff while I feebly try to fix this, so this template will have to do for now. 

The moral of the story: stay on task!