A Frosty Wednesday

I had to memorize this poem in my Freshman American Literature class, and I still remember it to this day. I've caught myself reciting it absentmindedly this week, but I believe it's maybe not as random as I might want to think...

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

Atlanta's Top Patios

Ok, I've been wanting to write something to commemorate the first day of Spring since it arrived last week. However, the early concepts of a 9,000+ pollen count, 80 degree weather and bringing out the warm weather wardrobe just weren't cutting it.

Soooooo, I decided that the thing I have been most excited about for this spring is the ability to hang out on a patio again. If you aren't familiar with Atlanta, this is a patio town. People WILL go to your establishment for a great patio despite the beer selection, horrible menu, and any other fallacy that you might be commiting. It's all about the patio (luckily for Hudson Grill).

So without further ado, I present to you what I think is the list of the top patios in Atlanta. I welcome suggestions and additions that I can go test out.

1- The Nook

Located directly across the street from Piedmont Park, I discovered the Nook a few years ago when I was playing on a softball team down there. This was our post-game drinking hole. It's got a great view, fantastic people watching, and the food is pretty good as well.  Plus, it's about the cheapest in town valet parking. If you haven't tried it, go. But pick a nice sunny day!

2- Leon's Full Service

While downtown Decatur is a bit of a hike for me, I NEVER regret the decision to go out there. And while I don't get to Leon's as often as I would like, it's always on my mind. For me, it's hard to go to Decatur and not end up at the Brickstore, but I love this little patio! Day time, night time, anytime is the right time. And when the big garage doors open up and you can hear the hustle and bustle of the bar inside, you just feel like you are one of those elite few "in the know" about this hot spot. Also, on the other side of the bar, there is another small patio with a bocce ball court. Rock on.

3- The Righteous Room

I know, I know, I know. Those of you in Atlanta who have any idea what this place is are scratching your head right now and saying "Seriously?". As I mentioned, this is MY favorite list. Righteous Room takes the idea of dive bar and brings it down to a whole new level. I've never actually even been inside, no idea if they have food, but the ambiance offered by their communal tables outside is one of a kind. Settled on the corner of N. Highland Ave and Ponce, this is PRIMO people watching territory. The clientele is...diverse. And you can get a $15 pitcher of Guiness. Do not go alone, do not go during daytime (is it even open??) but go. Sit back, relax, meet your table neighbors, and watch the evening unfold.

4- Joes on Juniper

Dogs on a patio? Yes, please! I know there are others in Atlanta where you can take your dogs as well, but this one is my favorite. The location is great, the crowd is lively, and the menu is...not my favorite, but I manage. This is easily one of my favorite spots to meet up with an old friend, grab a few drinks, and enjoy the afternoon. Maybe one day I can even take Mickey with me (if he ever learns decent manners).

5- Cypress Pint and Plate

This is one of the few patios that I actually prefer at night. As you can see, they have a fun fire pit that is pretty much always on, and it lends itself to more of a night time patio. Fantastic drink menu, both beer and cocktails. The food is great as well. Parking however can be a little tough. But if you circle it enough, maybe you will luck out to find one of the metered spots up the street. OR, just make a friend who lives near by. If you haven't been here, go now. Before it gets too hot in the evening to enjoy the warmth of the fire pit.

6- Park Tavern

To be perfectly honest, if it weren't for all of the events and 99 cent drafts on rainy days that Park Tavern offers, I'm not sure they would have made my list. There is just something a little overdone about it. However, there is no denying that a beautiful patio set in Piedmont Park is not a wonderful thing. Parking is not great, beer selection is so-so, but it sure is a great place to sit, see the park and listen to live music. Unplugged in the Park starts back May 6th and already on the lineup for this year are Blair Crimmins and the Hookers and Griffin House. Two shows I will definitely be seeing this year.

7- Uncle Julio's

This may be one that we don't all agree on, but I have spent some great evenings on this patio. My memories of this patio will forever keep it in high standards to me. I used to live about a mile from here and it's also a patio that I prefer in the evenings. The bright colors and even brighter patrons are sure to keep your evening interesting. The food is pretty good and the margaritas are STRONG. And if you've never been on a Friday night...well...why don't you just try it out and let me know what you think. But be prepared, they will run out of frozen margaritas fast! Also, this only applies to the Midtown location, the Sandy Springs location pales in comparison.

8- Six Feet Under

I add this one to my list with this stipulation: I've never actually sat on this patio. However- before you let your jaws drop to the ground in complete disgust that I would dare write about something I don't have first hand experience in...I must tell you - they made me do it! But seriously, I spoke to a few friends as I have been working on this blog and EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. mentioned this patio. So surely they must be doing something right. And if nothing else, now the mystery has made me want to go try it out. The restaurant itself is great so I'm sure that if you factor in a rooftop patio, it can only get better!

Alright folks, there it is, my tribute to Springtime in Atlanta. For anyone who is wondering why I did not include any Taco Mac on this list, I ask that you please not return to my blog in the future. And if you have any suggestions for me to go try that you think should make the cut, I would love to have them!

Happy Spring, try not to turn yellow!

The Death of the "Goodbye"

"So long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye"

I found myself thinking about the meaning of the word goodbye over the last few days. And it turns out, it doesn't have the same meaning that it used to. I mean, am I right?

Today when you say goodbye, it's more of a ceremony or a ritual than words that you mean. We no longer get the joy of holding onto that last hug or that last "I'll see you soon!" because I know that I'm going to get a text in 5 minutes telling me how bad the traffic is and then I will read about your entire trip home via Twitter. And that's ok. It helps alleviate the challenges that the distance between friends creates.

However, I also believe that this concept serves as a detterent from creating any sense of urgency to see old friends again. Who needs to catch up when you can follow each others lives in pictures online and talk every 5 minutes about what you are doing. What's there to catch up on. Mostly just the past before Facebook timeline was able to document every movement of our day. And we can only tell the same college stories so many times, granted, they will probably still be hilarious. Not to other who weren't there. But to us atleast.

Maybe not the most personal way to handle it, but certainly not the worst.

But what about when you don't want to follow every movement of every day. What about when you need to say goodbye and you need to release these patterns. Can it really be done in today's modern world? Can you really just say goodbye and walk away from anything? If you cancel internet service, you will just get thrown in a database to get contacted over and over again until you sign back up. If you quit the gym they will call and email you constantly to inquire about when you are coming back and what they can do to make your experience better. Even if you move and change your address, you will be filling that address out on official forms and applications for the next 5 years. Goodbye has no real meaning left I believe. It has become and empty threat.

I guess this tied together for me the other night when I was catching up on my Grey's Anatomy (yes, I am one of the 10 viewers that is still following the sagas centered around McSteamy and McDreamy). The guest character watched their husband suffer a slow and painful death as the result of a car accident which left him brain dead. And the seemingly soulless Dr. Yang delivered a monologue about how it would have been easier to have seen the husband die in the car crash, watch a body bag zip up and cart off the remains. Macabre and gruesome...perhaps. But true. There's a sense of closure. A form of goodbye. And if you never really get to say goodbye, how does anything ever end? If goodbye doesn't work, how on EARTH can I get AT&T to stop calling me and asking me to come back to them?

But how can we say goodbye and create and end when there is no way to cut the cord in today's society? Social media, which I have written about on multiple occasions, has taken away our human capacity to say goodbye. Erase that, I won't even put this one on social media. Mainly because I know that if I don't find what I want on Facebook, I will just go out and perform a very simple Google search. Boom, what now?

And as I sit here listening to John Mellencamp's "Thinking About You", I can take this even one step further and identify a phenomenon that I don't think exists anymore:

Don’t mean no trouble
Don’t want to bother you none
Ain’t looking for nothing
Just wondering about you some
If you ain’t got time
To return this call
I understand
That you’re busy and all
But thanks for the memories

We aren't allowed to wonder about anything anymore. Just for a second, let's pretend that you are even able to have someone years in your past (presumably because they were not on Facebook when you thought about them and went to look them up), but your next move wouldn't be to call them- I'm not even sure that is a socially acceptable practice anymore. You would find an email address or phone number (again, probably from your Google search) and text them. New Age Nostalgia, or something of the like.

If we are suffering from a lack of ability to actually say goodbye and move on, we are losing the ability to experience nostalgia. We are too wrapped up in the present. How can you miss something that isn't actually gone? It all feels a little too Kate Winslet in Titanic- "I'll Never Let Go" (mostly because it's not an option).

And on the rare occassion that you actually want to have a real goodbye, that hug at the airport, a drop off at the MARTA Kiss Ride, or that last time your cell phone rings to ask if you want to renew your service, the depth of that once sacred (well, maybe parting ways with the phone company doesn't have the same hallowed experience) act is no longer possible without taking extreme measures. READ: extreme measures means falling off the grid. And if you've read any of my other posts on the social media age, this would basically entail ceasing to exist in the real world.

Sometimes we need to see the body bag. Say goodbye. Be allowed to make a memory that we can hold onto so that we can let go of the rest. The ability to think back on our happy memory, smile about it and not send a text that will inevitably ruin the whole thing (hypothetically speaking, of course).

Closure.

This would be the point in my post where I would say goodbye, bid you adieu, so long, farewell, however you like it best. But I think we all know that you haven't heard the last of me by any means.

So, as goodbye has no meaning, why don't we just go with the more casual, more practical...

Peace out, cub scouts.

P.S.- Don't forget to go see Titanic 3D in theaters, coming this spring. I'll never let go.

I'm Just a Girl, in the World

I've never really been much of one to be sensitive to gender inequalities. I just kind of always did what I wanted as a kid and these things never really phased me. I remember there was always that one girl in classes growing up that when the teacher would ask for a few boys to help her carry some heavy stuff inside, she would always raise her hand and say "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't help too!". And would then proceed to try and carry the biggest heaviest boxes in. Let me set the record straight, I was NEVER this girl. I was perfectly happy sitting in the classroom and cutting up while the teacher ran errands.

Although, in Middle School gym though, I did usually ask to play sports with the boys during PE (Physical Education for those of you home schoolers out there) time because I couldn't stand the giggly girls who would pretend they had no idea what to do with a giant rubber ball during kickball. Seriously, what were the options? There are no words for the level of hair-pulling frustration I felt when these girls would just stand there and watch the ball roll by their feet and then whine (emphasis on the whine) about how they weren't able to kick it, or that they would get their sneakers dirty if they played. If you can't make foot-to-ball contact with a 10" diameter rubber sphere, then we have far wider ranging problems than PE class. But that wasn't a gender issue, it was more of "These girls are wasting my time when I could be developing some seriously useful recreational game skillz" issue. How was I ever going to perfect my Wall Ball or Handball talents if I was constantly subjected to such a low level of play??

Of course, as soon as it was time to record our times on the mile run, I was happy to be judged to the slower girls standards. If there had been even an alternate category that I could have been dropped to, I was all for it. Maybe they could put me in the wheel chair category to compare my times against? That's of course assuming that I didn't figure out it was Mile Day and find a way to fake sick first.

However, this past weekend, I had a brief moment of experiencing that sentiment of gender inequality that Little Suzie Lifts a Lot must have felt back in the 3rd grade when she wasn't targeted to help carry in boxes. I was on the softball field, running some drills with my 10U All Star girls - in what I would call a very Head Coachly fashion - when a man that I did not recognize just wandered onto my field. No biggie, people do this, it's a busy park. Until he came over to me in the middle of me working with my girls, pulled me away from what I was doing with my team and said these words: "You must be the Team Mom, I have money for uniforms for you".

I'm sorry, what part of THIS says team mom to you!?!? Let's dismiss the fact that I'm 26 and these girls are 10-11. I'm on the field hitting grounders, you've sat here and watched me instruct my other coaches how to run these drills, AND, since Captain Obvious didn't leave any presents under your Christmas tree this year, I even wore my bright red shirt that says COACH on it today.

Luckily I had my sunglasses on. I say "luckily" because the fire death ray stares that he would have been hit with could have been enough to smite him on the spot. I quickly realized that I knew all the parents of my girls but had no idea who this person was. "No, I'm the Coach. And you are?"  He said "Jane's Dad". Great, I don't have a Jane on my team. As I broke the news to him that I was neither the Team Mom, nor Jane's coach, he proceeded to argue with me on both points. I work very hard to be a good role model for my girls, but given this man's brash attitude and condescending demeanor, I was about ready to cover how to deliver a decent right hook in the appropriate bodily region instead of Infield One Hop drills.

When the man finally had no choice but to acknowledge that his child was in fact not on my field and I was not going to take the uniform check that his wife had clearly forced into his hand in a very obnoxiously marked envelope "Jane's Uniform Money. Practice. Sunday. Give to Team Mom. DO NOT FORGET!", I had a certain sense of pride in asking him to kindly leave my field so that I could resume my practice.

The funny thing is that one of the moms came to me at the end of the Fall season and told me that she did not appreciate that we use the term "Team Mom" and wished that we would change it to "Team Parent". She felt it was sexist. As of this morning, I have made an official request with the Board to make this correction.

Also important to note: From this point forward, I'll be sure to also ask the mothers if they would like to help me carry equipment to and from the field. I would hate to be hypocritical here :)

Dealbreakers

I know I haven't written in a while, there's been so very much going on in life the last few weeks and well, let's face it, I've just been lazy. Not to mention, I've been in a perpetual loop of coughing and colds for the last almost 3 weeks now. Turns out, none of these events increase blogivation (blog motivation).

So, since I have left y'all in a seemingly humor free world in my absence, I figure it was about time to be inspired.

This week I was inspired by a conversation that I had with one of my girlfriends about dating. A topic I haven't written much about, mainly because I haven't really been doing it. However, as dust has been settling and life moves on, it's become something that seems like the right thing to do. And while there is very little about the process of dating that excites me, there are a few things that I can be sure of. And those are the dealbreakers to be looking out for.

Now this is just my list of dealbreakers. Some you will agree on, some you will not, but thank you to the great Liz Lemon from 30 Rock for giving women everywhere the idea to set bounderies in a very real, very comedic way.

Teva Sport Sandals:

Even in their hay day of the early to mid 1990s, these horrible sandals have always held a certain cringe factor to me. I'm not sure if it's the annoying velcro sound, the wretched brown/green color, the stupid loop on the back, or the way that sticks always get stuck in them, but these sandals gots to GO. Even now as I'm writing this blurb and having to look at this miserable excuse for a shoe, I find myself close to nausea and becoming increasingly angry that I have even posted them here. If you want to ask me out, leave your Teva Sport Sandals at home. And by home, I clearly mean the garbage. Just say no. Dealbreaker.

Jorts:
While these are quite atoss up for position #1 with the Teva sandals, perhaps the only bigger dealbreaker than either of these items individually is these two articles together. Seriously, is there a mirror anywhere in your home? Did your plumber dress you? How does this style even happen? I will admit there are certain situations where this is acceptable. 1) If you are under 13 years of age (because at 13, in my religion, you are officially an adult, and there is no self respecting man, save Kenny Powers, who can pull off jorts. 2) If you are Nevernude Tobias Funke from Arrested Development. And even then you are pushing it. 3) Nope, sorry only the 2 exceptions. **Note, both of the exceptions are fictional characters which means there is never any reason in the real world that this is ok. Extra Disappointment Points if you tuck your shirt in. Dealbreaker.

Overly Picky Eaters:
Don't get me wrong, I like pizza. Sorry, like isn't strong enough- I LOVE pizza. Bread, cheese, topppings, yes please! But if this is one of 4 menu items that you must have at every meal (chicken fingers, hamburgers, and tacos being the other 3) then we will not have much in common. In fact, I will feel it my official duty to judge you at every meal, and that just can't be the healthy start to a relationship. I dated you in high school, it was annoying then, it's annoying now. And if I were a betting woman, I would probably guess that your beer of choice would be Bud Light as well. If you hadn't lost your credibility before, you certainly have now. Dealbreaker.

Bad Spelling:
Ok, this category hits on 2 dealbreakers really. The first being bad spelling in general. Not on words like Antidisestablishmentarianism, but more in the vane of potato- looks like Dan Quayle never had a shot with me. It's just really irritating and having to read it in communication is the visual equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. Even worse than bad spelling? Incorrect spelling of...MY NAME. Yes, I know my name is not spelled correctly, every newspaper that contributed sports write ups in high school reminded me every week for 4 years. But I like to think that the odd spelling of my name, along with my charming personality, of course, is enough to make it stand out and remember to spell the correct way. If you can't figure it out, NEXT. Dealbreaker.

Sponge Bob:
If you are over the age of 12 and still watching Sponge Bob Square Pants, then I have to assume that you are under the influence more often than not. Don't get me wrong, I have no beef with Sponge Bob...for my 10 year old nephew. This doesn't mean that you can't sit at home and enjoy this cartoon on your own time. I just suggest that you consider clearing out the tv browser history and deleting it from your DVR because no self-respecting girl can take you seriously knowing that you are following the weekly conundrums of Sponge Bob, Patrick, and the whole gang. And this is coming from someone who watches Gossip Girl. Dealbreaker.

Ain't Got no Wheels:
If you're sittin' on the passenger side of yo' best friend's ride tryin to holler at me? No, I don't want no scrubs. Just because you don't drive a Ferrari don't mean you can't get me there. Alright, I'm out of song lyrics to make my point. No car = Dealbreaker.

Impossibly Annoying Music:

If you have ever owned an album with either of these 2 faces on them, no need to bother inquiring within. Probably also a safe bet to put in this category: Lord of the Dance. Just...Dealbreaker.

I think that has to be the short list for me. I'm a pretty forgiving person, but there are some transgressions that just can't be overlooked. So, please be on the lookout for these very real Dealbreakers. Ladies, you may think these are not serious faults, but trust me...they are. Don't say that you weren't warned.

One final word to the wise from the great LL- Put potato chips on your sandwiches!

What's Your Driving Style?

Well after having the pleasure of sitting on Freedom Pkwy in downtown Atlanta for about 45 minutes Friday night, I made some very interesting observations about the average driver in stressful situations. I think that the way a person handles themselves in traffic says a lot about who they really are.

Now I understand that none of us LOVE sitting in traffic, and it can be a fairly easy situation in which to become more irritable than normal, but what is it about waiting that makes people lose their minds (and for those of you who know me, I am NOT excluding myself from this category).

Here are a few of my favorite traffic personalities:

- The Finger Thrower: We all know this pompous driver a little too well. They present themselves anywhere that a green light is being sat at. Whether they are throwing the finger at you for sitting at the light or sitting at the light and getting honked at. These guys universally accomplish nothing. Not even burning an extra 3 calories by lifting their finger.

- The John McEnroe: Perhaps even more pompous than the likes of the "Finger Thrower", the John McEnroe driver is a yeller. He likes to fight with his words, maybe even punch the occasional steering wheel. He's a loose canon with a penchant for ridiculous outbursts that will change nothing about the situation.

- The Eeyore: This poor victimized driver was just destined to sit in the traffic. In fact, if he hadn't been going the same direction as you today, you probably wouldn't have had to sit in traffic at all. Trouble just follows him and he's completely reisgned to it. Eeyores are easy to spot, their head will be leaning on the window and there will probably be a dark cloud raining only over their automobile. Thaaaanks for noticing him...

- The Harry Caray: This driver can be characterized by a random bobbing and weaving pattern of the car's movements. In a desperate attempt to see what's going on ahead, he will pull off onto the shoulder, dart back over two lanes when there is no where to go, and then settle back in his original spot thinking that he has just successfully made progress. Odds are good he'll also be eating a hot dog or a moon made of cheese all the while.

- The Existentialist: No Exit- "Hell is other people" (or cars in this case). There's nothing that can be done.

- The Busy Body: Only present in extreme traffic situations- i.e. serious enough that engines will start to be turned off- the Busy Body will leave the jurisdiction of their vehicle and journey to yours. They will knock on your window and ask you if you know what's going on, as if you have a direct link to the CBS News Helicopter and can provide late breaking news. This is also the same person who asks you what's wrong with the printer at the office.

- The Diva: They are unphased by the traffic and time being wasted because for this particular driver, this is their time to shine. It gives them much needed additional time to continue work on their Grammy-winning recording career. Because, clearly, they need it.

- The Nervous Nelly: This is probably closest to where I would fall. This driver has traffic anxiety. Now, in my case, about a year ago I spent an entire night, about 7 hours stuck on the interstate in an epic traffic jam. Now every time I sense the slightest traffic issue, I turn into a Kristen Wiig like character (think Sue who gets so nervous about keeping any secret, she busts through a screen door) and just want out of the car more than anything else in the whole wide world. This particular breed of driver can easily trasform into a "Finger Thrower", a "John McEnroe", an "Eeyore" or a "Harry Caray" at any given moment.


And then of course there is the Blogger- she who tried to use her time stuck in the car, waiting to get past a light in time to make a dinner reservation, to find some form of humor worth writing about. Hopefully she was able to succeed.

Safe driving to you all!

The Trouble with Moving is it Never Starts out as Fun

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while, folks. Been a busy few weeks, haven't had time to really stop and reflect. So since you are all wondering what's going on in the world of Cindy Lou Who, figured I would give you the update:

Time until move: 10 days
Boxes packed: 3
Boxes unpacked: 1 (Thanks a lot, Mickey)
Boxes left to pack: Atleast 4,000

There's a lot to be done in my apartment. And I just can't seem to get motivated to do any of it. Sound familiar? I actually never despised moving, but this time around, it just seems like the most awful thing that I have ever had to do in my entire life. And it is not helping now that I think Mickey has caught on to what's going on. He knows that when I pack a suitcase, he's going to my mom's for a few days, and usually he's ok with that. He'll pull the occasional item out of my suitcase and hide it. But this week while I was packing a box of scarves and hats, he successfully managed to unpack each item behind me as I was going back and forth from the closet. It was about my 3rd trip when I realized that I kept adding to the box, but it wasn't getting any fuller. Classic Mickey moarding (Mickey hoarding, obviously).

So now here I am, trying to pack up my apartment, making little to negative progress, and not sure how to get going in the right direction. Maybe it's my lack of proper materials. Maybe it's the fact that I have to start deciding what goes in storage and what's coming with me. Maybe, packing just plain sucks. So many variables!

The worst part is that in an attempt to feel like I've made any progress, I have just been rearranging things in my apartment- pulling things out of drawers, emptying closets, creating "stacks of stuff" that I am convinced I will one day transfer into a box. I wonder if I could just push everything into piles and just let the movers scoop it up and carry it down. No? Not a good plan? Shoot.

So right now, the big focus is on the move, getting packed, and hoping that I can find some motivation. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to find some packing motivation, I'm all ears. And, if you can offer no words of wisdom, but want to come drink wine and supervise, also available. You will have to BYOB though, because if I haven't proved enough that I am terrible at packing, I already packed up the liquor cabinet. Seriously, what was I thinking??

Boxes unpacked: 2