All Or Nothing

This Post Brought To You By The Letter T

T, as in THERMOMETER.  And I can use thermometer as the word du jour, because I don't have any strong feelings towards thermometers, one way or the other, and therefore that won't mess up this meme I'm about to do.

Yeah, yeah I know.  A meme.  Or survey, or quiz, whatever you wanna call it.  But don't worry, this one is decently entertaining and easy.

The rules:

You leave a comment on this post, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on.

And then you each send me $25. 

What?  That isn't on the other people's rules?  Well I'll meet you halfway, you don't have to do cash, you could just do a gift card or something.  Geez.  Where's your holiday spirit?

1.  Tea.  Yeah I know, it seems a little bit cheaty since T and Tea are basically the EXACT SAME THING - tricky phonetics - but I genuinely love tea.  Green tea, specifically.  I drink probably 2- 4 cups per day, and yeah yeah I know all the good stuff about moderation, but it's better than soda and my tea tags say cute little things like "grace brings trust, appreciation, love and prosperity".  How can you find anything wrong with that?  I DARE YOU TO TRY.

2.  Tree pose.  Balancing poses in yoga are my kyrptonite and yet I can always count on tree pose to be a real winner.  Steady, easy, natural - it's the one thing I can count on when every other balancing sequence sends me toppling in all directions.

3.  Tiramisu.  Mascarpone cream, chocolate, espresso, ladyfingers... does it get any better than this?  No, no, it does not.

4.  The Raconteurs - namely, their newest album Consolers of the Lonely.  Honestly my favorite album, start to finish, since Radiohead's In Rainbows.  And this is my list, so I can consider "The" as my T-word, NO COMPLAINING.

5.  Travel.  I get super antsy if I am stuck in the same place for any real amount of time.  Even a couple of weeks, and I need a day trip or something.  I love the adventure, I love airports (even after being stuck in way too many of them for way too long), I love watching other people and wondering where they're going and what their stories are, and I love finding myself in a completely different place.  It kind of gives you a fresh start every time.

6.  Texting.  I confess, I am one of those people you probably hate.  Unless you're like me, in which case you would LOVE to be my phone buddy.  I have gotten to the point where, unless a seriously complicated conversation needs to occur, I almost won't ANSWER the phone, preferring rather to send a quick text after the missed call: "yeah, what's up?".  I just can't stand all the small talk, and if all the person needs is to say "I'm running 15 minutes late, meet me then?" then I certainly don't need to spend 5 minutes on the phone discussing THAT.  Ooh, I almost hate myself for being such a snot.

7.  Turtlenecks.  And turtleneck sweaters, especially.  There's something about being bundled up in a cozy, oversized turtleneck sweater that I just can't beat.  However, I know not everyone feels this way; I had a boyfriend for a long time who HATED turtlenecks in all forms, and when I had to give him some particularly bad news one day, I dressed in the biggest turtleneck I could find.  My best friend had dubbed it the "Queen Mother of all turtlenecks", and I guess our reasoning was that the less appealing he found me, the easier the news would go over?  I dunno.  Remember that, Amy?

8.  Tequila.  You know how sometimes when you have a really bad experience with a particular type of liquor it makes you want to swear off it forever?  Yeah, I had that experience with tequila, a few Mardi Gras ago, and I think it only drew us closer.  Tequila + Elise 4EVA.  I have become a bit of a snob as of late thanks to a friend of ours, and a few months ago, I told Cody I would only be drinking Patron.  He said (and I quote): "HA."  And then he bought NOT Patron.  Can you believe him?

9.  Tall people.  I hadn't considered this as something that I LOVE, but to be perfectly honest, I got to 8 and kinda got stuck.  So I started asking around and apparently, I love tall people.  To hear others tell it, I am actually somewhat obsessed with tall people; always going on and on about their incredible height and how impressive I find it.  So, there you go, we both learned something with this list.

10.  Time to myself.  This one is definitely true.  In fact, if I don't get time to myself, I go a little bit crazy.  You know how for some people, being surrounded by friends makes their energy level go up?  Yeah.  That works in the opposite for me.  It wasn't really until college that I figured out the necessity of me being able to get away from everyone, even if it was just for a few hours.  There was more than one Friday night when I told everyone who asked I had plans with someone else and went to hide out in a big, cozy chair in Barnes & Noble with a book and a big cup of tea.  Anti-social?  Perhaps.  Sanity-saving?  Absolutely.

So there you have it, ten things I love that start with T.  Wanna give it a shot?  Like ATW, I promise not to assign you X or Z, unless you're just one of those people who like a challenge.

Either That Montage Just Takes Forever Or I'm An Internet Idiot

So I feel like I have a good friend who I haven't talked to in a while, and all these things have happened since the last time we talked, and every time something new and/or crazy happens I think "oh my goodness, I NEED to tell Friend this!" but then I think that I cant tell Friend right now, because I don't have time for a conversation of that length.  I'll call tomorrow.

And then tomorrow comes, and more crazy events transpire, and somewhere around two weeks later I resurface from the insanity and think "AHHH, I still haven't talked to Friend!"  Now the conversation is going to take hours.

Well, you are that friend, Internet.  I have so many things to tell you that I honestly don't even know where to begin.  First of all let me say that this summer has, bar none, been the weirdest time of my entire life.  Secondly, I have absolutely no idea how to fit this into one post so I was thinking maybe I would do bullet points (the lazy person's listmaker) and you can weigh in on subjects you want to hear more about/seem the most interesting.  How 'bout it?  Because otherwise I can guarantee you that this will degenerate into a ridiculously long, rambling, disjointed mess of a post, and I honestly can't even say that I would read that.  

So let's all play along and here are the bullet points of things that have gone on since May that I need to tell you about and haven't (ETA: Now a numbered list with pictures!  Everyone has been doing that Flickr montage and while I wanted to do it too [and still may] at least you now get a numbered list with visual interest!):

1. Lost my appetite completely and with no warning; lost about 14 pounds in two months*
2. Spent a week and a half on vacation in Los Angeles - the first half by myself completely, and the second half surrounded by a whole host of interesting characters doing interesting things at interesting places
3. Quit eating fast food completely
4. Got the Death Flu but it only lasted two days, one of which was handily the date of the biggest event of the summer for my boutique, so that was fun
5. Went back to Los Angeles for work and ended up doing about two weeks worth of social stuff in three days time
6. Quit eating sugar almost completely
7. Met a girl while in LA who is from a tiny East Texas town about 35 miles from where I live - we knew many of the same people and remarked on how strangely small the world can be
8. Cody's dad started having major neck/spine issues, which quickly deteriorated to the point where he was partially paralyzed on the right side, leading everyone to completely freak out and him to get scheduled for emergency spinal surgery, which he had yesterday (7/1/08)
9. Cody's grandpa (his dad's dad) went into the SAME hospital on the SAME night as Cody's dad, because Grandpa BROKE HIS NECK - the neurologist got confused and saw the wrong patient because there were two Mr. Carters in the same hospital on the same night in for largely the same reason - felt like I was living in the Twilight Zone
10. Have become somewhat the main go-to person for Cody's grandpa because obviously Cody's mom and dad have been SOMEWHAT DISTRACTED, what with the partial paralysis and emergency spinal surgery and all
11. Quit eating most processed foods completely
12. Saw Alison Sweeney (Sami from Days of Our Lives, for the non-soap opera crowd) walking to her car and made fun of her because she was all dressed up and from a distance she looked like a teenager going to prom. At 4 in the afternoon on a Friday.  Then I saw who it actually was and thought "oh good, she isn't a skinny little stick!" She looks normal
13. Went to a Death Cab for Cutie concert randomly; it was weird
14. Went on several hikes
15. Missed my friends at home while I was gone; wished that I could intermingle my worlds - move my house and friends out to a big city or move the city here
16. Became hopelessly and totally re-addicted to chips and salsa.  Weight loss of past two months is being reversed almost solely by the power of corn and tomatoes
17. Went out to a whole host of places in and around Los Angeles; some uber trendy, some kind of underground, some in between
18. Have learned an awful lot about neck braces, how they work, and how they DON'T work
19. Have consumed my weight x3 in green tea
20. Celebrated Cody's birthday with a really fun night of live music outside IN MY HOMETOWN, can you believe it?  Because I can't
21. Hosted three (THREE) baby showers
22. Have done yoga almost every day
23. Went to a "recycled" clothing store in Studio City with my sister-in-law and came away with three pairs of high-end shoes, two shirts, a pair of linen trousers, and a pair of straight-leg designer jeans and spent less than $150.  Wow
24. Figured out that my dog ate half a square of Baker's Chocolate, had a mild freak out and then realized it would be yet another item to add to my Vet Bills Spreadsheet - watch out, OPH! (And RA - are you proud of me for having a spreadsheet?)
25. Watched helplessly as my house (both outside and now in) has become inundated with tiny ants - have been plotting and will wage Ant War Strike I this evening
26. Have been doing about 18 loads of laundry and (#27) cleaning house to get ready for our annual 4th of July lake extravaganza where any and everyone we know comes to town to hang out, float in the lake, (#28) drink adult beverages, play volleyball, mess around on boats and jetskis, and have an all around awesome (#29) Texas lake celebration. Come!
27. (Actually #30 - THANKS FOR NOTHING, AUTOFORMAT) Got to see my best friend and her brand new baby girl on the day she gave birth.  So sweet

Want to know details about any of the above?  Let me know in the comments!  I'll be happy to spin a long, rambling tale about any of those events.  Had your fill?  That's fine too - just enjoy the pictures because that montage took FOREVER.  What is with people "not subscribing" to the Flickr mosaic maker?  DON'T THEY KNOW HOW LONG I SEARCHED FOR THAT PICTURE?

*I wish I could take credit for some incredible measure of self-control I used to quit the sugar, fast food, etc.  Unfortunately for me, I have no such self-control and the only reason I was able to get out of those bad eating habits was because I had already lost my appetite and therefore felt no desire to eat ANYTHING, including my beloved fast food.  Once you get out of the habit it's not so hard, and so thanks to extreme amounts of stress, I have become a healthier eater.  I should write a dieting book.  It could be alternately titled "How To Develop An Eating Disorder".

Welcome

Episode No. 1

This is Bob Dole. He hails from Balcony Porch Planter, USA, and enjoys green plant food, drinking water, and singing showtunes. He resides with a live-in girlfriend, who you can see pictured just to the left of Bob, and they say they are more than happy to be living in sin! Congratulations, Bob, you are quite a plant!

With Love For All

I think we should all give lemurs drinks from our generic brand colas while toothlessly grinning at the visitors of a northwest Arkansas "zoo".
I mean, give it a try, at least.

Upward Facing Ass

This yoga pose is a Dr. Jillian Vegetable original, and is recommended for all your lizard chasing, attacking, and eating needs.