Insert Clever Title Here.

So I know you've all been thinking all week long..."i wonder how that honky tonk Lizzie went to was?" And the answer can be summed up by this: I'm still laughing about it. No, really. I'll be walking down the street and just start laughing! I know people think I'm crazy, but it's totally uncontrollable! I'm not even laughing at the fact that I went to a honky tonk in LOACHAPOKA, AL either, I'm laughing about my conversations with the professor I went with. We were the first people to get to Fred's, which is an old feed & seed store. She, being from Rome, was like, "what the cuss is this about!?" and me being from Charleston, but having some experience with farm life now, was just as baffled. (I live on a farm, but have never performed any farmly duties. That may make my experience less authentic, but who cares.)

We sat around and drank beer for about an hour and a half and she sampled the refined menu options of duck and sausage gumbo and a chicken "panini" until people started showing up and the honky tonk got under way. She laughed at what they called a panini seeing as it was just a grilled burrito. (There's a restaurant in town that claims to make panini's, but they don't have anything on the menu close to what you get in Italy or even any city and it pisses me off to no end!)

Anyway, I had a great time! So much so that I'm going out with her Saturday to check out a band called Lucero. It's supposed to be a mix of punk/country rock. Yeah, what the cuss? The reason I want to go is A). Nothing else to do and B). I feel like they keep coming up on blogs I read or other people I know have gone to see them.

It's nice having someone that is up for just about anything like I am. Since I haven't yet found my musical soul mate, I find myself having to cajole people into going to shows with me. By the way, the musical soul mate does not have to be a romantic one, just someone that enjoys the same music I do and isn't afraid to check out new music.

So, that's all I have to say today.

bye.

p.s. I would like to extend a big thank you to Pearls for responding to the question I posed in my last post! And also, Katie enjoys mozzarella sticks and The Bachelor.

p.p.s My last blog post has also inspired a project for me and I hope to share it with you soon!

Now I'm talkin honky-tonkin.

Well, I've been living in Auburn for a little over 6 months now and my social life has come down to honky-tonks with a professor. Wow. The picture above is for the event I am going to tonight. I wish it were bigger, but the deer's trucker hat says: "I'd rather be honky-tonkin...". This leads me to ask, "Would I rather be honky-tonkin?" and "What does that EVEN mean?". Well my friends, I will find out tonight. Some of you may know what it means, but I'm proud to say that I have never been to a honky-tonk. Julie, you probably have. What am I in for?!

Anyway, I can't believe I've lived here six months already. It seems I'm just getting into the swing of things now. I will say it's getting easier having some social contacts that aren't seniors in college that drink me under the table. They're great, but I need to be around people my own age more.

So, I'm kind of feeling like I'm having a cultural paradigm shift by going to a honky-tonk, but I'm going to embrace it and enjoy it! It makes me think of the other shifts I've had. For one, I've realized that the further away you are from the coast, the less people like seafood. I don't understand not liking seafood, but I know there are a lot of things I don't like that people love. For instance, my grandfather struggled through eating a piece of salmon last night and the man couldn't get a bite of pie fast enough into his mouth to take away the "fishy" taste. What fishy taste?! I couldn't believe it. But, in the same vein, I wouldn't eat a piece of coconut pie for fear of the too coconutty taste.

The good thing about living on a farm and in Auburn is that I've realized I am definitely not a country mouse, I'm 100% city mouse. That isn't to say I don't enjoy the country, because I absolutely do. It's just that when I'm in a city, my heart is full. When I was younger I equated city with New York City. When I visited Charleston for the first time I didn't think of it as a city because it wasn't huge and congested and sky-scraping. I realize now that Charleston is very much a city and is a very healthy city because of a lack of those three things. Technically, Auburn's a city for crying out loud! I think we all have our different perception of things because of where we grow up and it's part of life to have those shift and shaken up a bit. I think traveling does this very well, but actually transplanting yourself does too. I know I'll be thankful for this experience of farm life when I'm living in a city somewhere (hopefully soon) down the line. It's almost as if you have to live somewhere you hate, to know what you love.

[i'm not saying i hate auburn, i just hate this TYPE of town. big difference.]

So, I guess this is me saying challenge yourself and move out of your comfort zone. A year ago I wouldn't have seen the point because I said, "I love Charleston and want to raise my family here, why would I ever leave?" (ya know, that family that i've been promised, along with that husband).

Now I love Charleston even more and still would like to raise my imaginary family there with my imaginary husband, but the prospect of living somewhere else for awhile, even after I leave Auburn, isn't so scary anymore.

Anyway, I know people that stay in the same town their whole lives and they're perfectly happy and perfectly healthy, but I think the majority of people need to step out of their boxes for a bit and see what else there is...and then go back home. Wherever that may be. Or never return, that's okay too!

Just out of curiosity and because it's what I've decided to devout my life to...what comes to mind when you think of the word "city"? I'd really like to know and you can email me if you'd rather. Or maybe no one even reads this cussin thing anymore and I'm asking an imaginary audience...by the way, do you see my imaginary husband anywhere?! Even imaginary boyfriend will do. What is he like?

BYE.

roots.

it's 3:30am. i decided to get the hell out of dodge before the "snowstorm" (aka 1-3") hit auburn and drive to charleston tonight. i got here three hours ago and i can't sleep.

this might be because i had a dinner consisting of the following:

one gas station cappuccino

one off-brand coke

one sugar-free red bull

and for dessert, one java monster (it tastes like coffee flavored yoo-hoo, btw. sickening. william, you'll probably like it.)

i will say, my car ride was a lot more enjoyable than usual. that's a plus.

having never pulled on all-nighter in college, i didn't think all that caffeine would actually keep me up. now i'm pretty sure this much caffeine can wake the dead. anyway, as i've been laying here for the past three hours i've been thinking about my future. as i was thinking about my future, i decided to think about how i got to be interested in urban planning in the first place. it is somewhat obscure and i wonder why some people in my program chose this degree. for some it might be by accident (hopefully a happy accident), but others i think are really passionate about it. i fall under the passionate category and i'm glad about that. ANYWAY, i would like to share my journey with you and hopefully it's boring enough to put me to sleep!

it all began when i was a young girl. just kidding. well, kinda....

when we moved to charleston from connecticut i was very perplexed at the way mt. pleasant looked. in connecticut we didn't really have subdivisions. there were different areas of town with different names, but there were very few named subdivisions. you just lived in the town, not snee farm or hobcaw creek. i hated the idea of living in one of these places (no offense) and that's part of the reason we moved to daniel island. (an unperfect solution, i know. i almost hate d.i now.) sitting in 17 traffic seemed ridiculous. it still does. in connecticut there were a million different ways to get to one place. in mt. pleasant there are about three different routes you can take. yes, connecticut was congested, but at least there was an alternate route other than the Post Rd. sooo, in my fifteen year old head, i said, "i want to be the person that decides where everything goes". at the time i had no idea that was a profession. fast-forward to freshman year of college...i pick historic preservation to be my major. why? i can't remember, but i picked it while i was still a senior in high school. i guess because it was the closest thing to architecture. i didn't know that community planning was the second part of the major. once i started those classes, i fell in love. and the rest is history. well, the falling in love part really happened when i took urban design. and then love turned into obsession. and here i am! i wish i could say that i knew all along that i wanted to be an urban planner because for a little while i wanted to do interior design. then i did it (sort of) for a bit and come to find out, i don't love it! and you wanna know what else? i SUCK as a salesperson. i couldn't sell someone an umbrella in a monsoon. this is going to be a problem when i have to sell my ideas to a municipality or whomever, but at least i'll be passionate about it. well, that's my story. i know you weren't wondering, but i decided to tell it anyway.

and for the record, i love charleston. way more than connecticut. i just don't love mt. pleasant. once they fix 17 and coleman, i might like it. but, that might not happen in my lifetime. i know you mt. p'ers might be a little p'od that i dissed your town. sorry. i still like you. and if you want to know what i mean by "fix" i can tell you, just ask. maybe i'll even write a really exciting blog about it.

damnit, it's 4am and i'm still not tired. cuss!

bye.

Enthusiasm...

is not my strongest emotion. I'm just not good at it. I may say I'm excited and I probably am, but the expression on my face usually does not match one that you would typically associate with elation. Do not be alarmed! I am just inept in expressing this particular emotion. I am good at melancholy, or as Millie likes to put it, "being Eeyore".

But, this is not a post about enthusiasm, melancholy, or A.A. Milne....it's about "Curb Your Enthusiasm". I like the title because they're asking me to do something that I'm already really good at.

I'm a little late in getting on the "Curb" train [disclaimer:the clip may be offensive, i personally find it hilarious], but I'm catching up rather quickly. I will watch five episodes in one night, sometimes a whole season. Anyway, watching the show has awakened a strong desire in me to be on the show. If only I were a famous comedian and Larry David would ask me to appear on a few episodes, my life would be complete! Now, this may be disturbing to some of you, but to be able to angrily and without abandon throw down the F word like they do, would be so much fun! (Anger is another emotion I tend to not express.)

Anyway, I can sometimes relate to Larry's neurosis and that scares me at times. The things he says to people are often what I am thinking in my head, but have the foresight to see that it might not be a good idea to say that.

I do have some qualms though...First, Larry likes to walk in L.A. I guess it's because he's from NY, but I don't think anyone really walks in L.A., hopefully I'm wrong though. Second, Sheryl wants to save the environment. Besides going to NRDC meetings, she drives a Prius. They keep moving into bigger houses, maybe they should stop doing that. Maybe that happens later on, but I've only gotten past season 4 so far. I do love the Prius aspect and wish I drove one myself (even if they were all recalled). They even introduced the Prius before they were cool.

Those are my only qualms, besides not being able to be on the show of course.

Well, that is all I have to say about that.

I'll leave you today with some articles I found interesting.

"Do More, Buy Less" -NYT

"Federal Smart Growth"

"Fighting Obesity with Design"

bye.

The Time Traveler

So, sometimes my phone likes to play this little game of "Let's mess with Lizzie's head" and it thinks it's about 4 hours earlier than it really is. Not only that, it thinks it's January 2000!!

Umm, excuse me, iphone? You haven't even been invented yet in the year 2000. Why must you travel back to such a date?! I didn't even have a cell phone in 2000.

Anyway, I started thinking maybe my phone is sending me a message to think back on what I was like and what I was doing in January 2000. And then I remembered. That was not a happy time in my life. Why can't it go back to say, June/July 2006 when I was frolicking the streets of Florence, drinking copious amounts of wine and eating my weight in pasta and panini's?! NOOOO, it has to go back to a time when the only thing I was ingesting copious amounts of was prozac! Yes, you guessed it, or maybe you didn't, January 2000 marks the beginning of my extended stay at the venerable Silver Hill Hospital. Like I said, not a happy time in my life. I did learn a lot though....prior to January 2000 I didn't know a schizophrenic or really what that meant. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of listening to old ladies scream about crows being in their shower and thus not showering. That was a treat. Let me tell you, if you ever have the chance to live with a schizo, do it. It will make you feel VERY sane. I also had the distinct pleasure of really knowing what OCD is like. I had one roommate who was obsessive over toothbrushes. I would go into the bathroom at night to brush my teeth (being watched over by a nurse, I might add) and my toothbrush would be gone! Inevitably it would be in this lunatic's drawer. What the underlying issues behind stealing toothbrushes was, I'll never know.

There are some other fond memories, but I don't want to freak anyone out too much. I'm sure you're sufficiently scared of me now. And I'm gonna go ahead and say, I'm okay with that.

Maybe my phone likes the countryside of Connecticut better than the urbanism of Italia. If that's the case, my phone and I need to have a talk.

Silver Hill-Pretty outside, scary inside.

Now this is just all around perfection:

Florence, Italy-street vendors outside the San Lorenzo

You can't tell from this photo, but you can imagine...me sitting in an outdoor cafe, sipping the best red wine 5 euros can buy and eating the most decadent basil, mozz and tomato panini you've ever had in your life. Finished off with a nice shot of espresso. And just think, six years earlier I was sharing a room with the toothbrush thief...

bye/ciao. 

It's blazin in the ATL...

I got back from a fun weekend in Atlanta last night and frustration immediately sunk in. Partly because I went from a city with a plethora of options of things to do/eat/drink to a town where my choices for these said things are dwindled down to about none. The other reason was I have few friends in this place. I'm working on the latter, I wish I could work on the former, but I'm not about to open my dream restaurant that specializes in panini's and beer. Oh, and bagels. I guess I'd have some other things too, but those are my loves. ANYWAY, I've put in some applications with some people to see if they'd have a liking towards me and I'd say the prospects are fair to good. On paper I'd say I look pretty cussing amazing...I'm from Charleston, so if I had friends they'd have a free place to stay in an amazing city, I live on a thousand acres so if they wanted to be one with nature they could, and there are some other things that make me awesome, but I don't want to brag. Oh, and they'd get to hang out with my roomies (see pic below).

This may or may not have been a mind-blowing experience for them.

So, if you know anyone in Auburn looking for a good time...send them my way.

I also decided this weekend that I guess I could live in Atlanta. I used to hate it because you have to drive so cussing much, but I realized that I could live in a couple of different neighborhoods and walk to worthwhile places. I would just hate to live in a city so synonymous with sprawl. It'd be embarrassing for me. Sprawl is equivalent to the anti-Christ for planners, well the good ones at least. That, and cul-de-sacs.

Case in point:

Does this look appealing to you?

Or, do you prefer this:

I know this is a conceptual rendering, but suburban places can and do look like this, I just couldn't find a decent aerial shot.

Well, I must peace out because I have to go to a meeting with someone I hope will be my friend and not just my boss. Yes, she's in her 40s and is a professor, but I like her a lot and it's not just because she's Italian.

I wish I could leave you with a comment made by Gang Gang last night while watching the Grammy's, but I think I'd get in trouble with the p.c. police. But trust me, it was good.

Bye.