Sarah Way Down South

• Poor Angel: An Update
  Late last week, I put out a call for donations to help an abused puppy get the medical treatment she needed. I know some of you told me you donated and some of you possibly did without letting me know, and I want to thank you all for doing it for such a great cause.
  
  Unfortunately, this sweet little dog must have been more broken than anyone knew. She died last night. I don't have many details, just a quick note from the person who rescued her, but she will be refunding all donations as soon as she gets a chance. As you can imagine, she is simply heartbroken right now.
  
  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, and thanks again for trying to save this puppy's life. I guess God had other plans for her.
  
  
  
  
• 5 Things I'm Lovin'
  I've had a hard time coming up with something substantial to post lately (seriously, my life is pretty mundane right now, and I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around this election), so I'm going to maybe do this once a week? Several of my friends do it, but basically, I'm just going to point out about five things that I like at the moment. Easy enough, right?
  
  1. Giants winning the Super Bowl! I don't always get super excited about the Super Bowl, because there are some years when I just don't like the teams playing. (Cardinals vs. Steelers, anyone?) But this particular Super Bowl gave me 1,000 reasons to love it. First of all, like most of the country, I hate the Patriots. I loathe Tom Brady...almost as much as I dislike Tim Tebow. Second of all, the Giants are my third favorite team. Obligatorily, the Falcons are my first (though I have had a hard time supporting them over the last decade), and obviously, the Colts are my second, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the G-men of New York, especially when they're home to a member of the Manning family, another weakness of mine. Last night's game was fun to watch and had me on the edge of my seat to the very end.
  
  2. The Weather! Spring is in the air, my friends, and it's only February 6. It's been in the 60's most every day this week, and I love it. I've spent so much time outside, walking and playing with the dogs. I was driving home the other evening and decided to take a detour, waste a little gas, and just ride around with the windows down and AKUS in my CD player. This afternoon, I had all this chicken and beef I needed to cook, so I decided to fire up the grill and do it all outside. I'm all for having a long spring, but my fear is that it's going to make for a very hot, buggy summer.
  
  3. The Voice I know, I know. Laugh all you want, but I'm a geek for TV singing shows. The Voice is only in its second year (I spent many a night in a South Carolina hotel room last spring watching it), but it's already my favorite. It's so much better than, say, American Idol. I love that they only show talented people. Plus, I'm a big Cee Lo Green fan, so I'll watch him do just about anything...
  
  4. Spinach OK, I know this is a stretch, but I've been trying to cook more lately, and I've been trying to eat healthier. I'm so picky about vegetables, but I bought spinach to go in a recipe I made the other day, and it is so good! Who knew? I've been putting it in everything. I was starving Saturday night, so I made up my own spinach dip recipe. I even put a few leaves in a smoothie I made. Last night, I made low-carb pizza and put it in the crust. I almost ground some up and put it in my burgers this afternoon, but what was left of my little batch was getting kind gross. It's definitely on my grocery list for next week.
  
  5. Bollywood Dance Workout In keeping with the healthy theme, I've been trying to get back into the habit of working out at least once a day (hopefully, twice in the future). When I get up in the morning, I have no desire to move, much less exercise. I prefer walking/jogging/swimming/biking to following videos and such, but I'm trying to ease myself back into everything. My cable company has loads of free workouts on demand, so I began looking for something that didn't require much effort. I ended up on this, The Bollywood Dance Workout with Hemalayaa, and I loved it. I can't dance to save my life anymore, so the poor dogs were probably hiding their eyes under their little paws, but it was so much fun, easy to follow, and I actually felt like I was accomplishing something (my thighs were even sore the next day).
  
  
  
  
• Can You Help Angel?
  Back when I doing the pretend journalist thing, I made a number of friends in the local animal rescue community. One of them sent me an email today about a gorgeous little Pit Bull that was adopted from our local animal shelter and returned a few days later with some injuries and a broken spirit. She'd fallen in love with the dog who she is now calling "Angel" but she needs $2,500 to pay for surgery to fix her leg. Currently, the dog is on pain medication but she needs help as soon as possible.
  
  I would never ask anyone to donate to something that I didn't think was a worthy or legitimate cause, and if you are at all hesitant, I can assure you that Lisa, the dog's guardian angel is the real deal. She's helped so many animals in our community in so many different ways that receiving this email from her did not surprise me at all.
  
  Also, I don't know how it works throughout the rest of the country, but in our area, Pit Bulls are usually euthanized before any other dog, so she truly saved this beautiful pup's life. And now she's trying to save her leg from amputation so that she can eventually run and jump and play like a normal dog.
  
  As of right now, she's already raised about $1,000, but if you can help by contributing even a few dollars, it will go a long way. If you choose to help Angel, go to this link, click on the orange "ChipIn!" button and it will redirect you to Paypal so that you can make the donation to the right place.
  
  Have a great last football weekend of the season (sigh) and go Giants!!
  
  
  
  
• Jobs and (University of) Georgia on My Mind
  It's a lovely, sunny Sunday afternoon here in Atlanta, and I'm here working and looking for more work. Sounds exciting, huh? I thought I'd take a little break to do some whining.
  
  The whole job thing has me really frustrated right now. For the last few years, I've been working and supporting myself as a freelance writer and journalist. It's definitely had its ups and downs, but last year, I got involved with a really big company and more or less quit all of my other jobs except for one. I loved it, but sadly, they began having budget issues and all that came to a screeching halt. Late last year, I actually saw an advertisement for a part-time job at a large, local newspaper that I thought would be perfect, and I was so excited until I realized I'd found it a day past the deadline to apply.
  
  Now that the holidays are over, and I've finished this big project I was working on, I feel like I'm back to square one. I've got my book written, but it needs to be edited, and right this second, I just don't have time to do that. Looking for a job is like having three full-time jobs in itself. There are so many big publications that I'd love to apply to, but I'm so busy taking whatever tiny, boring writing job I can find that I rarely have time to come up with any sort of proposals.
  
  I really want to go back to school, and I won't rehash my thoughts on that, but I've had this nagging desire to head back to Athens in the back of my mind for several years now. I've even got a little stack of acceptance letters from my many failed attempts. This summer would be a perfect time to make that happen, even if I have to commute and take some classes online for a little while, but I seriously doubt they are going to let me attend for free, so I've got to figure out the job thing first.
  
  I'm so over the age thing. Hey, if this girl can do it, so can I, right?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Allison Krauss & Union Station
  So last night, when the State of the Union address begin to put me to sleep, I started playing around on Twitter, and I saw that Alison Krauss & Union Station would be touring this spring. After hunting down the tour dates, I decided I wanted to go. Here's the thing: my two favorite bands in the world are AK&US and REM, but I've never seen either live. REM, unless there is some great reunion tour in the future, ruined that chance for me by breaking up last year, and I am not about to let that happen again.
  
  The thing is, the tickets go on sale Friday, and if you're keeping track, I don't have a whole lot of work coming my way at the moment, so spending what money I do have on concert tickets is probably not the best idea. My sweet mother learned of my plight and offered to pay for it for my birthday (a few months early), and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to take her up on that or not.
  
  Anyway, they're not coming to Atlanta, but they will be in Savannah, Nashville, Columbia, Birmingham, Jackson and Chattanooga. We're aiming for Savannah or Nashville and making a night out of it, but I really haven't made any definite decisions yet. I just know I'm going to be at one of those concerts if it kills me!
  
  I'll leave you with some of my favorite AKUS performances. I actually prefer listening to these guys live versus listening to the albums, so I know seeing them in person will be a real treat.
  
  Here is "Choctaw Hayride"
  
  
  
  Here's Jerry Douglas playing "A Tribute to Peador O'Donnell"
  
  
  
  "Let Me Touch You for a While"
  
  
  
  "We Hide and Seek"
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Following Celebrities (on Twitter)
  
  This isn't some kind of crazy stalker post. No, it's all about Twitter.
  
  As many of you know, I've been on Twitter for about three years, and while we've had our ups and downs, I love that little social networking site. I mean, I have to force myself to post stuff on Facebook, but I have to stop myself from posting my every waking thought on Twitter. I've gotten jobs through it, I've made friends through it and I've done a lot of political networking through it. The good has definitely outweighed the bad.
  
  One of the perks of Twitter for many people is that they can follow and often interact with some of their heroes in the worlds of sports, entertainment, politics, etc. I can attest to this myself. There was the time Karl Rove and I had a conversation via Direct Message. I've been able to connect with and befriend some of my favorite writers and journalists. I even had one of my childhood crushes follow me earlier this year.
  
  And while many of these interactions have been quite delightful, I've come to the conclusion that for some celebrities, joining Twitter is a recipe for disaster. Here's why:
  
  1. Disappointment. I'm not going to mention any names here, but there is a comedian-turned-actor who I find to be very enjoyable. I've always thought he was amazingly talented, and obviously, he's known for his comedic skills. Unfortunately, following him on Twitter taught me that the funny runs out when there is not a script plastered in front of his pretty little face. When he started using Twitter to post a few not-so-funny one-liners each day, I groaned, but I decided everyone has a bad day. Everyone makes a bad joke. After a few days, I decided this guy must work with some damn good writers. The appeal began to dwindle quickly.
  
  2. Drama. There's an author I've been in love with for the better part of a decade. I picked up her first book when I was in college and have read almost everything she has written since then. With the exception of one, all of her books have been fabulous, and I'm not the only one to think so. She's got quite a reputation in the literary world and even in the world of pop culture to some extent. So, when I saw that she was on Twitter, I squealed with delight and followed her immediately. At that time, she was carrying on quite excessively about something fairly meaningless, but I didn't think much of it. (If you follow me, you know I can do the same thing from time to time.) But the next week she was carrying on about something else. And the week after that, she was still doing it. Finally, it occurred to me that this woman is full-fledged drama queen. I may keep reading her books, but I'm always going to see some of her in her characters, and it's always going to annoy me.
  
  3. Grammar. I don't expect everyone I tweet with to be perfect. Lord knows, I'm not. I understand people get passionate and type there instead of their in the heat of the moment, and I know that auto-correct can be the world's biggest pain in the ass when you're trying to spell certain words. But when someone who I have tremendous respect for is constantly throwing out sentences that look like they were typed by my dog, we're going to have a problem. I'm not expecting my favorite musician to be an English major, but there is a certain standard that adults should hold themselves to. I really don't feel comfortable supporting your career when it's probably best that you stop everything and go back to second grade to learn a thing or two before interacting with the general public again.
  
  4. Politics and Hate. I don't begrudge anyone their political beliefs, and I'm certainly not part of the "shut up and sing" crowd, though I do feel like there is a time and a place sometimes. I'm not shy about my own political beliefs. And I try to make sure that anything I do put out there that is political is A) true or B) my pure opinion or C) not hateful or nasty. As long as others are doing that, I've got no beef with you, even if we disagree on every topic from abortion to whether or not Seal and Heidi Klum should get divorced. But I can't stand people who just randomly throw out "facts" that aren't true because they "heard it somewhere." And what I really can't stand is when someone starts badmouthing their political opponents because of something that has nothing to do with the "R" or "D" beside their name (ie. "har har, Sarah Palin's kid is a retard just like her") (yes, that's a paraphrased quote from an actor whose work I used to enjoy and who I used to follow on Twitter). Many of these celebs will try to cover up their hatefulness with the old "I'm a comedian; it was a joke." My opinion is that if you have to keep using that line, you're probably not that funny. It's hard to take your work seriously when I know you're really a small-minded buffoon who can't handle people who are different from you.
  
  5. Overall stupidity. I think this one speaks for itself. If you have an ounce of intelligence yourself, you can spot the dumb ones from one or two tweets. Kind of sad to realize your favorite 40-year-old leading lady is not so "like totally awesome and stuff" because she tweets like a fourteen year old.
  
  6. Ego. Obviously, egos are huge when it comes to being famous, so this one may not come as much of a surprise. There's a musician who I think is just one of the most talented people on the face of the earth. In most circles, he's really not that famous, and he's especially not as famous as he once was. If I mentioned his name here, most of you would have no idea who he is. He's been on Twitter for a while, and I don't even think he has as many followers as I do. But to read his tweets, you'd think you he was Brad freaking Pitt, though I'm sure Brad Pitt is a bit more practiced at at least pretending to be humble. This guy thinks the sun sets and rises only for him. He thinks everything he says is hilarious. His tweets are pretentious, and he loves him some him. This hasn't prevented me from listening to his music, but I've definitely dialed back my fandom.
  
  7. Oversharing. Finally, there are some "famous" people who treat Twitter as if they are at the world's biggest slumber party. They tweet their other "famous" friends and make cutesy inside jokes. This might fly if you've got, say, Sandra Bullock tweeting George Clooney (note: I'm not even sure if these people are on Twitter, just making a point). People will eat that stuff up. But when your claim to fame is you are one of the supporting actors on that show that comes on ABC on Wednesday nights, you know the one that came on last year on Tuesday nights and will most likely be canceled by next year, and you are tweeting one of the writers for that show on NBC that no one watches and will most likely get canceled by next year, most of us don't care that you two are just too cool for the rest of us. And we all know that within hours the two of you will be sitting in whatever the Los Angeles equivalent of the Waffle House is and you can just as easily say all of that out loud. In person. I mean, most people are only following you because the star of the show that's on after your crap show tweeted you one day. I'd guess this was some kind of PR stunt if these people were actually famous enough to to require that sort of PR. Otherwise, I'm assuming it's just proof that you think you're a lot more adorable than you are.
  
  I guess, in a way, this is all good. It reminds us not to look up to people who we don't actually know, at least not beyond admiring their talents. But I can't lie; there are some days that I wish I'd never witnessed any of this. I was perfectly happy imagining the guy in example six was just as sweet as his voice and his ability to play his instrument and the woman in example two was just a cool chick with the ability to put together an attention-grabbing story.
  
  
  
  
• Soup
  I've been trying and trying and trying to eat healthier lately, but it's just so much easier to hit the drive-thru than it is to cook, so I'm trying to start preparing meals ahead. It's hard to do that with meat and my dislike of cooked food that has been frozen, so I've been looking for things that will keep a little longer in the fridge. I'm not a big soup eater, but my mom and several of my friends who are also on a healthy kick kept suggesting it, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I also wanted to keep it low-carb.
  
  As most of you know, I don't cook much anyway (and for good reason), but I thought this Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Broccoli Cheese Soup looked pretty easy and tasty. It's full of healthy foods (broccoli, spinach, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper...), mostly inexpensive ingredients (the most money I spent was $4 on the chicken broth and that was because I had to have organic, low-sodium, free-range...), and well, as I just learned, even I can make it.
  
  You really just throw all the ingredients into a pan and cook them:
  
  
  
  
  And after it's finished cooking, you throw it all in the blender and you get this really pretty green glop:
  
  
  
  I added a sprinkling of parmesan cheese to the result. I also added a little extra spinach and cayenne pepper, which made it kind of spicy, but my sinuses loved me.
  
  
  
  The end result is quite tasty, especially for something I made. It said to add salt and pepper to taste, but I didn't do that, and it may be good with a tiny bit of extra flavor, but it's fine as is. It almost taste like spinach-artichoke dip. (And I may or may not have dipped a few tortilla chips in it to verify this.)
  
  The thing is, it made two quarts and a serving is half a cup. If you're keeping count, that's... well, a lot of servings. I've got to figure out how long it will keep in the fridge. Anyway, I've been eating it as I write this, and I must say it's really filling too. (That's one reason I don't like most soups.)
  
  
  
  
• Go Giants!
  I'm not a big Giants fan or anything, but as everyone in the free world knows, Peyton Manning is my favorite non-UGA football player to ever grace the field, so naturally, I always pull for little brother when the chance arises. Also, I've got about four Giants on my fantasy team tonight.
  
  Hope you're enjoying what'll be one of the last football Sundays of the year! (She says sadly.)
  
  
  
  
• Lazy Saturday
  Well, I didn't post my baby update yesterday, because there just wasn't much to say. We got up, got ready and got out of the house. I took the little guy to do my grocery shopping, run some errands, to get some lunch and then we stopped by my parents' house to visit. We came home, and he played until he was exhausted. I put him down around 3 p.m, his mom was here by 4 p.m., and by 5 p.m., the Unabomber Cabin was quiet once again.
  
  Not gonna lie; I kind of miss him.
  
  I just knew that by today I'd be thrilled to death to have my freedom back, to be able to sleep as late as I wanted, to go somewhere without having to take a car seat and a diaper bag and to be able to go to the bathroom without having to worry about little fingers in electrical outlets or in the mouths of less-than-happy doggies. And don't get me wrong, all of that is nice, but it doesn't seem to be as big a thrill I thought it'd be. This doesn't mean I'm gong to run out and find me a baby, but it's definitely something that I want to happen in the next half a decade or so.
  
  All of that said, I slept until 2 p.m.! I didn't sleep well last night, though - I kept getting hot and having these awful dreams. Then it started storming early this morning, and Sadie is suddenly scared of thunder, so she'd wake me up every time there was a boom. I got up, ate some leftover tacos from yesterday, and watched boring crap on TV. I also just took a two plus hour bath. And now that I've seen who won the primary, I'm going to go bury my head in the sand.
  
  Newt? Really, South Carolina? Gah.
  
  Anyway, this post is pretty much pointless, but I'm so used to updating every day now that I thought I'd throw something out there. Today truly is lazy Saturday. I think I'm about to park myself on the sofa and watch some movies/DVR'd TV shows. I've kind of been in lazy mode since the holidays anyway, so I've made a pledge to myself that it will end after this weekend.
  
  I've been spending a lot of time cleaning out some of my mom's stuff, and I'm hoping I can finish that project up tomorrow. Monday, I've gotta get back to seeking writing jobs, getting my book edits finished, and figuring out what's next in my life. I'm really leaning towards going back to school, but well, I'm not making any big plans just yet.
  
  
  
  
• One more day...
  I kinda sorta feel like I just sold my soul to the devil, so I felt the need to write another post to make up for that. Truth be told, I had a six hour reprieve from the kid today, so there's not too much to report. He decided it'd be fun to wake up a little before 8 a.m. this morning, which I am not a fan of. Honestly, he didn't even wake me up; it was one of my dogs growling at him as she does every time he wakes up that got my attention.
  
  I changed him as he'd soaked through his diaper, and then I made him a double serving of oatmeal because that boy can eat. One reason I think he was so fussy yesterday is because I didn't feed him enough. After that, he ate about 1,000 crackers while I got him ready for his big day out. His grandmother (my cousin's mother and my uncle's ex-wife) had emailed me to see if she could come get him around 11, and I was more than happy to let her. She came to pick him up, and I apologized to her if I smelled bad because, as we've noted, I haven't showered all week.
  
  Once he was gone, that's the first thing I did: took a long, hot shower. It was oh so sweet. Unfortunately, I noted that I had huge dark circles under my eyes, and I looked like I'd aged ten years in one week. Hopefully, that will go away. I think that is one reason I look so much younger than many people I went to high school/church/college with: no kids. The next thing I did was to just sit here and enjoy not being responsible for another human being. I then got in my car and went places without having to break a nail on an impossible car-seat buckle. I'd just gotten home and was thinking I might watch some Shepard Smith and take a quickie nap on the sofa when the kid's grandmother called and asked if she could bring him back.
  
  The good thing is, he didn't take much of a nap today, so he got pretty tired pretty early. I fed him, changed him, and I let him play for a little while, but he was out like a light by 7:45. I have no idea what time he'll get up in the morning, but since it's Friday, I'm not going to sweat it too much. His mom won't be back until late afternoon, so my plan is to get up, get him and his stuff together, and we're going to spend a day out on the town. It seems to make the time go by faster, and he loves to be out and about. Plus, it's supposed to be fairly warm tomorrow, so I'm thinking maybe a trip to the park is in order.
  
  As my week comes to an end, I've decided that it really wasn't that bad. I even kind of missed the little guy when he was gone today. I was going to say it's become second nature, but the heat made a noise earlier that woke him up, and when I heard him scream, my first thought was what is that? I still don't think it's as hard as some people make it out to be, but I know it's unfair to make that call after four days. I still think some parents are just overly whiny about how rough they have it, especially those who have babysitters and spouses to help them out.
  
  Honestly, I thought it'd deter me from wanting kids, and while it hasn't done that, it has made me rethink the whole adopting as a single parent thing. I mean, eventually, that may be something I have to do if I want to have kids, but I might give it a few more years.
  
  Or at least wait until I'm wealthy enough to afford hired help...
  
  
  
  

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