executive decision

i made an executive decision this morning that a vegan oatmeal cranberry cookie was a breakfast food.  and i stand by that decision.  a delicious, delicious breakfast food.

wasting less paper leads to free music

so our school is trying to get people to waste fewer paper products - because the environment doesn't like that - and one way we're doing this is by encouraging people to bring their own reusable cup to lunch and use it instead of a paper cup.  (sidenote: of course the bookstore has taken this opportunity to try to sell us tervis tumblers, which i agree are a great product.  but don't turn an environmental initiative into a money making endeavor.)

oops, off track.  i promise this story is going somewhere.

if you bring your own cup to lunch, you can enter a drawing every day for a $10 itunes gift card.  i enter every day (why should i let the kids win??), and last week i WON!  granted, i know for a fact that there were only three other people who entered the drawing that day, but who cares.  i screamed for joy and ran through the cafeteria to get my gift card.  i wasn't even embarrassed.  this is something my mama would do.  i am becoming my mother.  (but what else is new?)  in celebration, i spent more than half my gift card yesterday (big spender, i know), and bought these songs:

"party in the usa" - miley cyrus (yes, i hate every other song she's recorded.  but i love this one!  don't judge me.)
"run this town" - jay-z, featuring rihanna & kanye west (if you haven't heard the NPR story investigating whether jay-z has occult links, and using this song as proof, go to NPR right now and search for it - it aired in the last week or two.  really interesting.  and i love the song.  downloading a hip hop (is this hip hop?) song because you heard about it on NPR = probably the whitest thing i've ever done.)
"all we are" - matt nathanson (he opened for sugarland on saturday and i only had one song of his (bet you can guess which one), and i really like this one.)
"lookin' for a good time" - lady antebellum (great one that i heard recently on the radio)
"challengers" - the new pornographers (i love neko case, and she sings with this band...)

i now listen to these songs exclusively.  in a week, they'll be integrated into the rest of my music collection, but for now they are getting a lot of air time.

best waitstaff in atlanta

creative loafing's "best of atlanta" list came out this week - you can see the restaurant section (obviously the most important one) here: http://atlantahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAwards?Section=oid%3A543586

one winner i'd like to draw your attention to the reader's choice for "best waitstaff" - world peace cafe!

i started volunteering at world peace cafe in august, and i love it. i am a server/dish washer/silverware roller for one shift (4 hours) a week. i was kind of guilted into this - self-guilted - by the ever-present fact that i haven't done any significant volunteer work since i was in college, and people - that was more than 5 years ago. my mama volunteers as a guardian ad litem AND spends every saturday working for habitat for humanity, and until last month i did NADA. i had some free time during the week, i love world peace's food, and i like that the waitstaff is made up of all volunteers, because it means that more of their proceeds to go promoting peace in the atlanta community. so i started volunteering. and it was a little scary because i'd never done anything like this before - never worked in a restaurant or in any retail business. but now i am much more comfortable with it, and i genuinely like doing it - it's so different from what i do for a living, and there is immediate reward: a person orders, you serve them food, they eat it, they leave, you clean up their table. check. even though i don't make the food, i feel somewhat responsible for it, and it makes me happy with they like it. and most of them love it. i probably wouldn't do this at a restaurant that sells meat, because meat is gross. so working here is really perfect.

what i think it amazing is that world peace won the reader's choice award in ALL OF ATLANTA for best waitstaff; amazing because we aren't paid and we don't work for tips. my first inclination would be that servers who work for tips provide the best service because there is an immediate gain in it for them. provide better service = make better money, so i will provide better service. at world peace, if we provide bad service it doesn't hurt our pocketbooks because we aren't getting any money to begin with. by winning this award i think it shows something really special about world peace - because the waitstaff WANTS to be there - we aren't motivated by the money, because there is none - we are happy at work, and that shows. we come to work in the spirit of giving, and of making the whole restaurant more successful.

so! get thee to world peace cafe! and when you do, get the tmb (tomato, mozzarella, & basil sandwich) with a side of the tomato soup. or the peace burger salad with the plum vinaigrette dressing. and an unsweetened tea. and the vegan strawberry cake.

these are the days

best. concert. ever.

we almost didn't go because it was pouring down rain, and our lawn seats were...on the lawn. weather report: 100% chance of rain until 9pm. i kept thinking - go, and be wet and grumpy, but hear one of my favorite bands live; don't go, be warm and cozy inside, but regret that i just wasted $40. in neither scenario i would be happy and dancing to my favorite songs. but jenny suggested a compromise: go, try it out, and leave whenever we want to - no guilt, no need to brave out the whole concert. so we got in the car and drove up 400 in a steady drizzle. we arrived. and it stopped raining. at 7pm.

and hasn't started back since.

and oh was the concert glorious - best one i've been to in a really long time. sugarland puts on a great live show, and if you get a chance to see them, jump. for those who aren't versed in the glory that is sugarland, here are 5 songs you must download from itunes:

1. speed of life

2. settlin'

3. joey

4. stay

5. these are the days

i think their covers of "come on get higher" and "irreplaceable" are genius...and tonight they covered REM's "nightswimming." i mean, seriously? couldn't have been happier.

paradox

while i agree that the help has some problems - it isn't a perfect book, or a particularly deep book - i did definitely enjoy reading it. i worry, though, that the author is attempting to right the wrongs she feels she committed as a child - and her family committed before that - by writing this book. and that annoys me a bit. get some distance, chica. write about something you know, not something you feel like your family history compels you to write.

i did like this passage, though - from the nonfiction portion at the end. i've had quite similar conversations before, and this mimics my thoughts on the south. i wouldn't trade growing up in the south for anything, and those who didn't can't understand what it is like to be fiercely protective at times and ashamed at others:

to the people who smiled and said, "i've heard it's beautiful down there," i'd say, "my hometown is number three in the nation for gang-related murders." to people who said, "god, you must be glad to be out of that place," i'd bristle and say, "what do you know? it's beautiful down there."

mississippi is like my mother. i am allowed to complain about her all i want, but god help the person who raises an ill word about her around me, unless she is their mother, too.

(kathryn stockett, the help, pg. 449-450)

promises, promises

i'm not presuming that i have things to say that others would care about. or maybe i am, but if you don't, i promise not to take it personally.

after some self-reflection, i have realized the following things:

1. i have blogged as a personal (and password protected) journal since october of 2006. i've kept paper journals since i was a little girl, and i still have all of them, however cringe-worthy they may seem now. i like writing.

2. i blogged first for a public audience this summer when i traveled and worked in europe for eight weeks. i loved doing this - i would have written more if i hadn't been afraid that i was too eager for my readership. i loved - and needed - that connection with people i didn't see every day.

3. i miss blogging for an audience now that i'm back in the us and back at my real world job.

4. i read several blogs of people i've never met and probably never will meet. i love hearing about what is going on in other peoples' lives - of reading about the experiences that make us different and the ones that unite us.

i like:

cooking, eating, tv, movies, music, podcasts, books, the new york times online, history, politics, photography, trivia. is this enough for a blog? i don't know. do people care what i think? we'll find out. is this a passing fancy? maybe. i almost set up this blog earlier today, but chickened out at the "name your blog" step. (note: this is step 1.) then i came home and listened to a phone message from a far away college friend; as part of her message, she said "i think you should continue blogging - i miss cyber stalking you, and knowing what you're up to." fate? maybe. well, world, here i am.

my promises:

to disguise your identity if i actually know you and you do something blog-worthy.

to avoid the mundane - "i ate greek yogurt for breakfast today" - "this story only makes sense if you were there" - "wasn't the office lame last night?" - "i'm ready for the weekend."

hold me to these promises.

and, um, welcome.