back to the *new* reality

These past few weeks have been somewhat hectic for me with school and then Spring Break 2010. Which is not as much fun, by the way, when you're in graduate school and 25 years old. Don't worry, I still managed to get some fun time in, but I felt slightly guilty having a week off in the middle of March. Now I'm back in Auburn and busier than ever. Which is why I'm blogging and not writing one of my three cussing papers due on Thursday. Priorities are set!

Anyway, my first part of spring break was spent in Crystal River, Fl with some friends from Auburn. That's right, you heard me. I have friends! I don't know why it took so long for these people here to realize how great I am, but I digress. Crystal River. Interesting place. The main attraction is the ever elusive sea creature, the manatee. Boy, those cussers are ugly. We got to go kayaking with them swimming (if you can call if that) underneath our boats, which was cool.

Anyway, I don't know why the font changes on me like that, but I'll just ride with it. Roll with it. Rock with it.

My apologies for that.

Crystal River is definitely in auto-centric retiree haven. The most interesting part of the trip was the three elderly people protesting outside a rental office about the rent increases. I wanted to join them, but I didn't have a fanny pack, a white hair-do, or a wonderfully, shaky hand written sign. I probably could have obtained all three if I wanted to, but the manatee beckoned. But how sad is that? Elderly protesting...I felt for them. They didn't get their cost of living increase this year with Social Security, but their landlord still increased the rent. I'm sure he is in just as much financial trouble, but it's still sad. No one is safe from this recession! Is it safe to call it a depression or are we all just avoiding that word?! I don't claim to know one lick of economics, so I should probably move on.

I rode to Charleston with the professor I work for, Carla, which was great. I hate driving and she drives a stick-shift diesel VW (aka good gas mileage), so it worked out well. We started the trip out having to fill-up her tank since she had only done this once since owning the vehicle. She bought it in August. It's March. She is my hero. We got all the way to Charleston and the back up to Orangeburg before having to fill-up again! How cussing awesome is that?! I did have to help her fill-up since she does it with such infrequency. That was funny. The car ride was one of the most fun times of the trip. We laughed the whole way. She laughs pretty hard at me and I don't know if it's because I am an idiot compared to her Ph.D from MIT or because she thinks I'm funny. I'll just continue to live in ignorance of which one it is. We were also mistaken for lesbians twice on the trip (to our knowledge, I guess it could've been more). Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd rather that not happen. Well, now that I think about it, I actually don't care. It was just funny.

One interesting thing we talked about on the ride was her experience living in a gated, suburban community. One day her neighbor said to her, "I'm having company over so don't be alarmed if you see strange cars." She was like, "what the cuss, I don't notice cars to begin with. Is that what they notice?!". Isn't it funny that the man warned her of strange cars and not strange people? That just goes to show how conditioned we are as an auto-centric country. We design our communities to facilitate cars and not people, so it made total sense in this man's eyes to warn her of strange vehicles. Sad state of affairs if you ask me.

Well, I must get back to my prestigious studies. I also have a favor to ask. My dear grandfather is in the hospital. He's hopefully getting out today, but I don't know yet. He has to live forever, so please pray he's ok.

Thanks.

bye.

millicent

(I made Millie get in this box at work one day. No idea why, but what can I say, I'm strange...but she actually did it, so maybe she's strange too.)

Today my close friend/sister I never had left for Haiti. I think it goes without saying, but please keep her in your thoughts and prayers! She's probably going to see some things that no one would ever wish on their enemy. Also pray she doesn't try to smuggle a child back in with her. I'd hate to have to write her in prison. Plus, she wouldn't last two seconds in jail. I mean, look at how miserable she was when I made her get in that box. She looks completely claustrophobic. An 8x8 cinderblock cell with Big Bertha and her 5 o'clock shadow and FUPA is not going to be any better...It's not like I would last in jail either, but I would never do anything illegal so there's no risk of me landing in the slammer. None. at. all. Lizzie Lawful is what they call me...

Anyway, there's some great opportunity to rebuild Haiti in a good way. Clemson's architecture school has actually been doing studies on container ship housing and was featured on one of my favorite websites. I'd love to be involved in something like that for Haiti. Also, Andres Duany, the practical father of New Urbanism, has donated his talents to the relief effort. Really cool. I'd also love to work for him in a completely selfish regard, but if I was able to do something really great as well, then added bonus!

On a totally unrelated note, a man moved into the "shack" that's on our farm. I have no idea why anyone would choose this house as their abode, but he has and that's fine. Well, it would be nice if he were a little less of a redneck and clean up his cussing yard, but that's not why I'm mentioning him to you. I'm mentioning him because he has two beautiful labs-a chocolate and a yellow. (I almost bought a yellow lab the other day by the way and would have if I didn't have such awesome plans for the summer that I'm not prepared to talk about yet.) ANYWAY, whenever I drive by his "house" and see the dogs outside I throw them up the peace sign! What the cuss do I do this for?! I realized it the other day and started laughing to myself. What am I trying to convey to these dogs...that I am cool with their existence? That I want them to be in peace? Again, I'm strange...Sully understands though, we email about it. I guess I'm just really missing having a dog. One day I'll have my own and I'll stop having part ownership in a dog. Oh, the future! How great it will be!

Alright, that's all I got. I will leave you with a quote from Gang Gang though. So, we were watching t.v and a McDonald's commercial came on and it must have evoked some strong emotions in her because she goes, "I remember the first time I EVA had a chicken nugget. We were at the World's Fair in Knoxville, TN and it was just wonderful. I remembered thinking, 'wow, no bones! How do they do that?'. It was sometime in the early 80s." Wow. The woman remembers a lot, but seriously being able to recall upon your first chicken nugget with such fondness is a feat.

Oh and I'd like you to enjoy some doggie photos as well.

Sully and Teddy. The two things in this world I might love the most. Sorry to my friends and family, y'all come second. Just kidding! Kind of...

And now the pups and the mother of the pups with the mother of all teets...

I think I deserve a medal of self-controll for not buying one of these guys. One even crawled up in my lap and told me he loved me...

Bye.

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.