Over the River and Through the Woods

I was looking up some pictures for some different posts, and just because I love looking at pictures of freshly-fallen, undisturbed snow, and I came across this picture:

And immediately the song “Jingle Bells” popped into my head. So I decided to write a post dedicated to some of my favorite Christmas songs.

• “O Holy Night” – my favorite is Josh Groban’s, but I also love it because every year we attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service at St. Luke’s Methodist Church, the church where I grew up and where Tay and I became the fourth generation of my family to get married there. Anyway, Oklahoma City University music majors intern at St. Luke’s, and every year vocal and music majors come together to perform AMAZING music during the Christmas season, and every year a soprano vocal music major sings “O Holy Night” and every year it brings a few tears to my eyes.
• “Silent Night” – again, at the Christmas Eve candlelight service. At the end of the service, they turn out all the lights and the whole congregation sings “Silent Night” and it’s a great moment that brings everyone together. And for that moment it seems like the world is still and there is peace in everyone’s hearts, and everyone forgets who burned the roast or was late to dinner or did some wrong to someone else. And as it gets closer to Christmas and I hear “Silent Night” on the radio, it makes me so excited for Christmas Eve in the candlelight.
• “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – I love it. It makes me think of Kevin McAlister’s schemes in “Home Alone” and how much he cared about his home and his family to come up with some of the craziest traps in the world. And it’s really fun to dance to with Tay when it’s just us at home (yes, he dances, on occasion).
• “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Joy to the World,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and any other song that little kids sing in the children’s choir or at the Christmas concerts at school. I love how they are all off-key, a bit pitchy, and loud as heck because they all want their moms to hear them, and you can’t help but want to hug them all, even the one in front who’s picking his nose, or the little girl who doesn’t sing and just spends the whole time waving to her parents.

What are your FAVORITE Christmas/Holiday songs? I know I have more, but I want to read what you guys like…

Happy November OKCityans!

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Halloween. As much as I love October, I might love November even more. A few reasons I love November are:

• THANKSGIVING! I’m a bit of a foodie, and so of course I love any holiday that requires you to eat copious amounts of delicious homemade food. Also, I love that the Thanksgiving feast is followed by two of my other favorite things – football and sleeping.
• Cool Weather – read: NOT cold weather. I love throwing on a sweater and jeans to run out the door, but not having to get all bundled up so my hands don’t freeze.
• Mustache Movember: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but November is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. As much as I support Breast Cancer Awareness, nothing is as cool as an excuse for a man to grow out a mustache in charity’s name.

Now, here are a few things I love about OKLAHOMA CITY in November:

• Chesapeake lights up Western Avenue: The energy company has once again decked out their trees and if you drive down Western Avenue between 55th and 63rd Street, you can’t miss  the glowing white lights. Also, if you drive (or WALK!) through the Chesapeake campus, you’ll see trees wrapped in every color of the rainbow!
• Braum’s Ice Skating Rink: the ice skating rink opens downtown, usually the weekend after Thanksgiving. You can rent skates, buy hot chocolate, and skate with your loved ones in front of the Civic Center Music Hall.
• BEDLAM! This year, the Sooners host the Cowboys in Norman the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If anyone has an extra couple of tickets they want to toss my way, I’m not going to stop you…
• OKC Thunder! The season opened last Wednesday, but November brings our NBA team into full force. As of last night, they’re 2-1, a winning record!
• Thanksgiving, Okie-style: I know it’s not in Oklahoma City, but my family and I go to Woodward, up in the panhandle, for our Thanksgiving celebration. Where else can you watch wild turkeys walk through your cousins’ backyard, while you dine on a delicious bird yourself? Or watch the neighbor skinning his deer from the morning hunt while you sit down for dinner?

What’s your favorite November activity in Oklahoma City?

Our Kickball League Made the news!!

For those of you who don’t know, every spring and fall for the past 2 years, Taylor and I have played on an adult kickball league. The league is sponsored by WAKA, or the World Adult Kickball Association. This was our second season as captains of That One Team, and although we haven’t won many games this season, we have a blast! Last week, Channel 8 News was at the fields, filming a bit of every game. The story aired last night, and I invite all of you to watch it:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CHANNEL 8 SEGMENT ON THE WAKA OK STORM KICKBALL LEAGUE!

Sorry for not posting the video on here, but WordPress wants me to install a new widget, and since I am at work, I don’t have the time right now. Go to the WAKA website to find a kickball league in your area!

Snapshots!

Just a few pics from the first half of 2009 to show everyone and remind me that my life is absolutely amazing!

Fiiiiiiive - for Clint & the Village Idiots

 

The K(C)atherines

 

At law prom, I found a dare from my bachelorette party in my purse!

 

While in Raleigh for work, I saw my BFF from middle school

 

This guy looked like Perez, so I made him take a pic with me.

 

Katherine & Me at Shawna's Wedding (she was my date)

 

Me & My Amazing Mama

 

In NYC for business, I hung out with my old friend Tim

 

This guy is from Oklahoma but lives in Brooklyn. I loved his tattoo!

Isn’t my life great??

It Could Have Been Me

So for those of you who don’t know, Taylor and I met on the first day of law school at the University of Tulsa – August 11, 2006. We were both first-year law students, and quickly realized we were meant to be together. Long story short: Before the end of our first year, I had withdrawn from law school and Taylor and I were moving in together. Now, almost 3 years have passed, we are married, and last Saturday, May 9, 2009, Taylor graduated from law school. I realized while sitting in the stands that I could have been there, too, and I immediately realized how relieved I was to be a bystander, not a participant. I am so proud of you, Tay!!

B. Taylor Clark, Esq.

This Will Be FUN!

Okay so one of my new favorite blogs is 2Birds1Blog and today I was reading a post from earlier this year and it reminded me so much of myself that I have decided to do a fun little exercise. I am going to paste the entry in here (giving credit, of course – see above) and then I am going to talk about how I have done close to or almost the exact same thing. Everything in red is from 2B1B – everything in black is from me. Feel free to do it for yourself as well. HERE GOES:

An Annotated Anthology of Awkward

One of my defining characteristics has always been that I’m “charmingly awkward.” Charmingly awkward just means that means I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m awkward and frequently find myself in awkward situations, but said awkwardness doesn’t interfere with being able to function in society on a daily basis (for the most part). Well, tonight I was feeling a bit nostalgic and decided to read the LiveJournal I kept in college. I thought my emo little Internet journal would be full of rich and compelling entries about growing up, finding myself, discovering what I wanted to do with my life and the like. Instead, my journal is basically an anthology of awkwardness. I feel like at least 70% of my entries end with one of the following: “God I’m so awkward,” “God my life is awkward,” or “I am so painfully awkward.”

Here are some choice excerpts:

• In college writing this morning we had a round table discussion that I was not having. Instead I decided to fantasize about watching Golden Girls and eating a delicious bagel with Helena, Caitlin and Allie after class…because the only reason I go to college writing is to get a bagel on the way back. Anyways, apparently I was thinking about how sweet my bagel would be when people started counting off 1 through 5 as a means of assigning groups for some activity we had to do. So then all of a sudden I’m hearing “1,2,3,4″ and then everyone is looking at me and I had to be like “uhhh…how high are we counting here?” and my professor was like “…..5. You are 5.” God I’m awkward. 
• C: Kind of like how the only reason I used to go to the SUB was so I could get a kolache from Shipley’s…no way was I really studying OR going to Dr. Pepper Hour. Also, I have totally zoned out in class (not to mention in my Leadership class while we were at the Ropes Course, which luckily ended with no serious injuries) and been called on and looked completely idiotic because I had no clue what was going on.

 

• Yesterday I had a total Tommy Boy moment. I got out of Religion early because we had a test, so I was going to jet over to Hurst to drop a paper off that was due in a half an hour. So I walk up the marble stairs to the old doors and I was tugging on them and it wouldn’t open and I was like “SHIT! THEY LOCKED ‘EM!” I was pacing back and forth wondering what I was going to do. Finally I just walked away and then these construction workers were like “MISS, YOU JUST HAVE TO PUSH THE DOOR NOT PULL!! IT’S NOT THAT HARD!” I was like “oh…hah…thanks.” Awkward.
• C: Remember freshman year, when we had an actual fountain that looked like the Vietnam Memorial in the middle of campus (between Carroll Science and the SUB)? Yeah, I fell  in. Multiple times. Many times while trying NOT to fall in. Also, when I wanted to be a Biology major for about 2 weeks I got a C- on my first exam and thought that was the BEST GRADE EVER and had a total, “I passsssed!! I’m gonna graduate” moment, even though it was 10 days into freshman year.

 

• I was so tired this morning. When I was getting coffee before class, instead of pouring the cream into my coffee and throwing the empty container in the trashcan, I poured the cream in the trashcan and then dropped the container into my coffee. A janitor laughed at me. God I’m awkward…
• C: This is what happens when your college puts a Starbucks in the parking garage and you and your roomate DRIVE to the other side of campus, even though you live a block away from campus, and you just want a double tall mocha that badly even though since you stayed up the whole night before and you could have slept another 45 minutes. Ohhh Garage-majal, I miss you.

• I fell asleep in class today but snapped back awake when my head did that dozing off thing. I went to chug some coffee and didn’t realize my mouth was no where near the opening…so I just put the cup up to my mouth and leaned back and poured coffee all over myself. Ugh, awkward.
• C: The first time this happened to me, I wasn’t even in college yet. I was sitting in my AP Chemistry class and instead of my head snapping back, I actually fell forward and hit my forehead on the lab desk (and knocked over my coffee). This was particularly bad because my teacher was a Vietnam vet who was sliced hip-to-hip by “Charlie” and upon hearing the loud noise, proceeded to yell at us all to, “GET ON YOUR BELLIES!” Very bad.

 

• Today I was writing my paper and listening to my itunes and I double clicked the song “Bootylicious” and a window popped up that said “WARNING: YOUR COMPUTER IS NOT AUTHORIZED TO PLAY “BOOTYLICIOUS” I died laughing because all I could think of was “Kelly, can you handle this? Michelle, can you handle this? Beyonce, can you handle this? Meg’s computer, can you handle this? I DON’T THINK YOU’RE AUTHORIZED TO HANDLE THIS, WOOOOOOOO!” …Sorry. That was awkward. [note: It's a whole other level of special when you can make it awkward with yourself in your own personal journal.]
• C: I just think this is funny.

 

• My dorm phone has been broken for a really long time [note: dorm phones?! How archaic!] Some old guy was just banging on my door. I freaked out thinking it’s the guy that’s going around harassing girls on my floor, but it turns out he’s here to fix our phone. Finally! The only problem is that I have Golden Girls on and he keeps stopping to watch it for extended periods of time. He’s like openly laughing out loud at it. I really have to take a shower now, but I don’t want to prance around in my robe for him.Ugh, I don’t want to awkwardly ask him to stop watching Golden Girls and fix my phone and get out of my dorm….This sucks.
• C: My first DAY in the dorm, my neighbor’s dad was helping her move in but since it was after 6:00 pm (we had visiting hours, yea private school!), I figured no one except residents would be in the hall. WRONG! The minute I step into the hall, wearing only a towel and carring my shower caddy, I RUN SMACK DAB INTO MY NEIGHBOR’S DAD. Also, I watch(ed) Golden Girls whenever possible

 

• I forgot to bring a jewel case for the CD that my design project is on. So what do I use to protect my CD? A ZIPLOCK BAG WITH LITTLE BITS OF CRUNCHED GOLDFISH CRACKERS AT THE BOTTOM I FOUND IN MY MESSENGER BAG FROM GOD ONLY KNOWS WHEN. Who the fuck does that? And then to compensate, I wrote “sorry about the bag” on it, but I forgot the “y” in the word sorry. So I had to draw a little carrot and a y, making myself look like an even bigger asshole. So now I’m that girl who came into class 20 minutes late the first day, who’s computer is never connected to the server and who presented her first project in a ziplock bag with bits of goldfish crackers and “sorr for the bag” scrawled on it. I am so fucking awkward. [note: I damn near had a panic attack remembering this incident. The next time our class met, the professor (whom I had such a huge crush on) held up the bag in front of the entire class and delivered a five-minute lecture on how disrespectful I was and how designers who don't take pride in their deliverable should change their major. I have never felt so stupid in my entire life. I went back to my dorm room and cried my fucking eyes out. Oh my God.]
• C: In college, I didn’t really think I would “need” to know how to use PowerPoint, so I never really tried to learn it. That is, until I had to do a presentation for my honors class and every other person had all these charts, slideshows, graphs, videos, spreadsheets, graphic design animation, what-have-you…and I showed up with a single-column handout. That looked like I had typed it out right before the class. I got an A on the presentation, but scored lowest out of 200 people on “presentation materials.”

• This morning I remembered that I was freak dancing with Danielle’s Big’s boyfriend at formal Saturday night and he randomly asked me what my favorite letter is. Regrettably, I answered with “DUH, it’s R” He asked why, to which I responded “because RRRRRrrrraaaaaaarrrrarrrrr” whilst doing a sexual cheetah-clawing motion at him…awkward.
• C: Some advice…never mix screwdrivers and foam crush parties. You WILL smell like orange juice, and you WILL make the exact same face in every. single. picture.

• I seriously am the most awkward person alive. I should not be allowed to interact with people. For one of my rolls of film, I took a picture of these two puppets my dad brought back from Thailand. I had just made a test of the contact sheet with those pictures on it when in swoops the fabulous Iwan [legendary hip photo professor at AU] with his fabulous Gucci shoes and matching belt all- “Darling, let me see that.” So I hand him my contact sheet all nervous like. He sees the picture of the Thai dolls and goes: “Ohh! You have Asian parents?? You were adopted, that’s FAHHHBULOUS!” My response: “…Yes. Yes I have Asian parents.” Iwan: “That is fabulous!” Me: “…Yea, adoptions not bad.” WHAT THE HELL?! Who does that?? So he can never meet my parents and/or I’ll have to hire Asian actors to be my parents if he ever needs to meet them.
• C: This is just funny. Nothing about my family, except I think I was the only kid at my college who had divorced parents.

• This morning in Gender in Society, we were discussing “The Glass Escalator” which is when men enter “women’s fields” like teaching and get promoted quickly to administrative positions because they are men…patriarchy…matrix of domination…blah blah blah. Anyway, all I could think of was Mr. Feeny from “Boy Meets World” and how he was first their middle school teacher and then followed them to high school and finally was promoted to became a college professor. Mr. Feeny like owned the Glass Escalator. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about how hot Eric Mathews was. And how comical Rider Strong’s name is, and how odd it is that he’s gay. Who knew?! Then I realized why I have an A in the class and a D in participation. So when I was walking to Art of the Renaissance, I was still thinking about my Mr. Feeny-Glass-Escalator-Theory and blatantly tripped and fell flat on my face in the quad, producing a giant cut on my leg, which was bleeding during class. So there I am, bleeding-out in the middle of class trying to take notes and maintain consciousness. Why is my life so awkward?
• C: Why did I not know Rider Strong was gay?? (Ride-her Strong, tee-hee!!)

• [This is a story about doing a design project with a senior designer who I had a crush on when I was a freshman] It was one of those situations where in your head you’re thinking, “OMG WHY ARE YOU BEING SO AWKWARD?! THIS IS NOT YOU! SAY SOMETHING BACK TO HIM, HE JUST ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION!!!” and all that comes out is “Uhh, yea. Good stuff.” I think I said “good stuff” like 80 times. And of all the lame things to say, why “good stuff”?? We later had to relocate to the design lab in McKinley. Once we got there, he used this random-ass back entrance that I didn’t know existed. I didn’t want him to think that I was some amateur 19 year-old design girl, so I was like err yea I know where I’m going. So we walk in and I head for the left hall and he heads right. Hot Design Boy: “Oh…you go that way?” Me (trying not to star in amateur hour): “Oh yea…all the time. But let’s go your way!” Hot Design Boy: “Oh no, I want to see your way, I didn’t even know you could go this way.” Me (thinking ‘oh shit I have no fucking clue where I’m going, this building is a maze’): “Umm okay…follow me!” So I lead him around the building for like 5 minutes not knowing where the hell I’m going. At every intersection he’d go one way and I’d go another and he’d be like “Oh…you can go that way?” until finally he was like “…you don’t know where you’re going, do you?” ::Meg hangs head in shame:: “That’s correct, sir.” So. painfully. awkward.
• C: If you knew me, at all, you knew about either Hot BIC Brian, or Reid the English grad student. Or Both. Because I literally drooled whenever they came around.

 

• I awkwardly outed Andrew to our entire comm class today. We were sitting in class at the conference table and Andrew informed everyone that the British Navy is apparently trying to recruit gay men. So I slapped Andrew on the back and said, “HAHA! Looks like you’re going to sea Andrew!” He was not thrilled. But that just gets him back for the time we were having lunch with a bunch of people that I didn’t know and he chose to break a lull in conversation with “Hey, did you guys know that Meg invented the blow job and now calls it a “Row Job?”
• C: Chase??

• This morning when I was walking back to my apartment, Scott Kalman (better known as “Sweater Vest Scott”) was approaching. We proceeded to (and in COMPLETE synchronization) do the meeting of eyes and slow head-nod to acknowledge each other. However, we did this social ritual faaarr too early. So after we did the head-nod, we were still walking towards each other for about 10 more seconds. And we were both listening to ipods, so we couldn’t really do the “How are you?” courtesy conversation to pass the time, so we both just kind of awkwardly kept nodding our heads. It was intensely awkward. And I couldn’t help but laugh. Which added to the awkwardasity of the situation. It reminded me of the time over the summer where I ran into Jeremy and we hugged, but he added the courtesy cheek kiss to the mix. I hadn’t taken him for the kind of guy who busts out the courtesy cheek kiss, so I didn’t reciprocate, instead I thought about how I really didn’t take him for a courtesy cheek kisser and then I was like shit, COURTESY CHEEK KISS BACK ASAP! So, a delayed five seconds after our hug was over I was like…….MWAAAA, and kissed him on the cheek, which at that point just seemed like a random and oddly affectionate thing to do to someone I’m not that great of friends with. Awkward.
• C: Any of my fraternity guy friends…or J, my “we’re going to date but not really even though we don’t really see anyone else because we’re in college and shouldn’t have titles” thing.

There’s a fine line between quirky and Asperger’s. And apparently in college I was flirting with that line. A lot.