Ah, Summer....

...What power you have to make us suffer and like it. -Russel Baker. If you've ever spent any amount of time in the South during the three months known both as heaven and hell- especially in the whereabouts of Alabama or Mississippi- you understand this quote all too well. It's a time of melted make-up, sunburned shoulders, and luke warm beer. But, for me, it's also a reminder of how beautiful the world around us can be. That being said, I'd like to leave you with some images from my beautiful summer so far....

"Earth laughs in flowers."-Emerson

A SummerTime Bride. Taken at Scott and Jaclyn Collum's wedding at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

"A garden is to be a world unto itself..."- William Kent

So there is my sweet, Southern summer thus far. It feels like it's been summer for months now, but apparently it's been only a week or so. I can't wait to spend every moment I can enjoying it's gifts. Happy Summer to you!

Happy Birthday Big Gu!

Big Shout Out to my wonderful husband, Gusty! His birthday is in just a few hours! Happy Birthday, babe!

Everytime I find the meaning of life...they change it...

Change seems to be all around us. It's the word of the day this year- political change, religious change, social change. Endless change has become a relentless constant in our lives. The bad news is that change can be hard and is often complicated. The good news is that if you're reading this blog, you're most likely of a generation that greets change at the door with a warm smile, a big hug, and invites them in for a cold beer and some friendly banter. I asked some friends to take a clever "Cosmo"-style "what's in? what's out? approach to change and report back. The results were classic wit:

In: Out:

Green/ Goth
PDA's/ PDA
Blogs/ Beepers
Reality/ Shows Reality
Texting/ Talking
Hybrid/ High Octane
Email/ Snail Mail (This one is a personal tragedy for me)
Climate change/ Global Warming
Corporate Responbility/ Corporate Greed

The moral (if there is one) to this ditty is to chill out when it comes to our world's constant state of modification. Don't take change so seriously. Adopt change....or don't...who cares really? Either way, consider it, ponder it, brood over it like a cup of hot tea, and for crying out loud QUESTION it! But don't ignore it, because the world will pass by with little regard for your inability to cope. Accept, decline, or abstain- your choice.

The thing about change that is so enticingly liberating is that while it gives you just one more opportunity to actively make your own choices, it's still going to happen...with or without you. It happened before you. It will happen after you, and it's how you deal that defines you. Change...deal with it.

4 Is the Most Fabulous Number!!!

Big Shout out to my four followers today!!!! LOVE YA'LL!!! You are so presh!!!!

Crossroads

In the swift and hurried day that we live in, it seems everyone is working towards some kind of goal. Whether it's to make it through a mundane afternoon at work just to get home to your couch, or climbing the corporate ladder to become your boss's boss, it seems everyone's got an agenda or some zenith to reach. But if you take a hasty second, any given minute in your rush to achievement, you'll realize...we are all at a crossroad. A personal crossroad, a professional crossroad, whichever it may be, we're all there. I, personally, am at that crossroad between 20-something and adulthood. I'm that "adult" that still laughs a childish jokes, talks too loud, and refuses to quit giggling when I get embarrassed. I still like my too trendy clothes from college and I tend to often forget about my responbilities. On the other hand, I get up every day and pursue my career, I come home to a house that I worked hard to own, filled with the things I love, my husband, my pups, my memories in frames. I cook dinner (sometimes) and I clean (enough to appease the health department), I pay bills, etc etc etc. But what I will never be is a suit...or a domestic goddess....or a woman who can control her giggling. So...that's my crossroad.



More often than not, a crossroad is assumed to be a dejected matter, a tough position, the peak of a either a major decision or a disasterous breakdown. But I have to politely disagree. A crossroad can be a flawless, unspoiled moment. A moment where we have total control. A moment where we can stop, look both ways, and go whichever way we fancy...or not at all. The truth is, a crossroad may be exactly where we want to be. A new self, clinging to parts of our former identity that made us genuine and authentic- embracing fresh qualities of our new atmosphere that only better the authentic soul we've created. That's where I am. That perfect, imperfect, unfinished place- and that's fine by me. I'm cool with the crossroad.

The BIG, HONEST Answer

Take a quick moment and think about how many times a day you're approached with questions that you KNOW people really don't want the answer to? The mundane "hey, how are you" or "how's it going". Think back to that one excessivel needy friend you had in high school, college, or work that you unabashedly did NOT approach with such questions. Because what followed would be, well, for lack of a better term, exasperating. I had a sorority sister in college who was known to, at every opportunity, hoist unbearable amounts of her own burdens onto your shoulder, ruining what at once had been a perfectly amicable day. I remember loathing that slow motion, panic-filled moment, passing her in the hall or on the sidewalk, making that brief eye contact that forced me to ask the dreaded question- "hey girl, how's it going?", all the while my brain anxiously thinking of reasons I could just rush on by. Aggghhh! The Horror of the 15 minute dialogue that followed making me miss 3 phones calls, be late for class, and basically made my want to shove a pen in my eyeball.



But now, looking back down the retrospective tunnel, wasn't I just a little too harsh? Aren't I being just a tad bit dramatic? Aside from the pencil in eyeball thing, was it really that bad? After all, she was just being honest. How often are we ever honest when someone asks one of those questions?



Being a newlywed, I am incessantly approached with one of those questions that forces me to wonder if the person asking really wants to know the answer. "So, when are you guys going to have a baby?" Let me first preface the rest of this post by saying that I in no way intend to have a child anytime in the near future (i.e., in the next 4 or 5 years). But, REALLY, guys. Do you really want to know something that personal? Lately, I've been rehearsing my answer for the next time I get this awfully annoying question. "Well, Mr. or Mrs. Person Who's This is None of Your Business, we've really been having a lot of sex. All different positions, in different rooms of the house, different times of the day. So who knows? Do you have any suggestions to prevent or encourage conception? Do you want me to call you next time and give you a PLAY BY PLAY?"


Come ON!!!! People just don't understand how PERSONAL of a question that is! Maybe by giving an extremely uncomfortable and personal answer, they would quit asking? Kind of like that experiment where you talk to yourself in strange voices when someone is in the elevator with your....just to see what happens.

Next time someone asks you one of those questions, think about your answer. Be honest for once, overly honest...indulgently, awkwardly honest...take up way too much of their time with your answer and see what kind of results you'll get. After all, honesty is the best policy, right?

Tweet Tweet!

Ok. This is it. I am humbly admitting that I have a problem. I am officially addicted to Twitter. The girl who mockingly lashed out against facebook to a huge group of friends over a cold keg in college, is now a member of not only the infamous FB, but Myspace (somewhat inactive), LinkedIn, Twitter, and now, Blogger. I have GOT to get a grip, right? The more I think of it, though, the less different I am from all the other cyber litterers out there. As an advertising professional and media buyer, my career forces me become an early adopter of anything that has even the tiniest crevice for us to dig in and commercialize. I am literally in awe of what so recently began as social networking that has now altered into this mammoth we call social media. In a recent study, 88% of marketers said they are using some form of social media to advertise their business or client. 88%- that is WILD- 88% of marketers two years ago weren't even using TELEVISION to advertise! Some still aren't! I have a split brain- 1/2 consumer, 1/2 advertiser. It's hard to wrap my mind around how something I enjoy so much as perusing through profiles of people who, without Facebook, I would have probably forgotten that I knew, has become such a powerful way for someone to target and serve me with their message. Are advertisers ruining the very portal that may become the absolute STRONGEST way to reach us?