Those of you who have known me for while, know I get on kicks. It started with squeeze candy, you know, the kind that looks like it's in a toothpaste tube, but oh no, it's candy. I know it sounds gross, but I tried it once and then I was hooked. I found myself getting a tube everytime I saw it at the store, or the gas station. I even had a small travel size that I had on a keychain once. Then it was Capri Suns. I never really drank them as a kid, but as an adult they can be SO good! Especially when they are super cold, even a little frozen sometime. I rememember when I was in the 6th grade at Woodward Elementary, the big thing was the green Hi-C that had Slimer from Ghostbusters on it. Those were the days. After the Capri Sun kick, I went on to FunYuns, which I affectionately call, Fun Yums, as I'm sure all of you can understand why. I was on 2 bags a week before I found Cheetoo's Naturals White Chedder Cheese Puffs. I also had a brief weakness for Old Wisconsin Beef Jerky. I don't even know where it comes from. I heard on a radio show one day that a girl and her roomate were addicted to Hawaiian Punch. They went through, brace yourself, 10 gallons a WEEK!!!! Can you imagine? When they asked her what started it, she said, it was a 2 for the price of 1 special at Publix!
I really haven't gotten on any new kicks in a while, and once I'm done with it, I'm really done. So here's my question: Am I the only one who does this? What do you get hooked on? It could be anything...Facebook, Farmtown, Twitter, Myspace, Mafia Wars. What's your hangup? What makes you quirky? I realize that by admitting this quirk, you all are probably ready to have an intervention with me, but trust me, it's not necessary.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Poor Blog, How I've Neglected You
For my 8 followers out there, I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogging. After the finale of American Idol, I just thought I didn't have that much to write about. For those of you who know me best, you know that's a lie though, because this summer I have been going nonstop and quite frankly, I think it's gotten the best of me. Since my last post SOOOO much has happened that I think we should talk about!
Sugarland
I didn't really realize how much I liked their music until I went to their concert. My sister in law, Brittany went with me, along with a friends from church. When we walked through the gates, we were given a little package with a little card from Sugarland that said "Thanks for coming to our show" and inside was a glowstick and a thing of bubbles. At one song in the show, everyone pulled out their glowsticks and one one show everyone blew bubbles at the same time. It made it SO much fun! It really made us feel like we werent just ticket sales to them, but like they really wanted us to enjoy being there.
Michael Jackson
How could I go any farther without at least mentioning it. For those of you who haven't heard, Michael Jackson is dead. I know, I know, you're shocked. Michael passed away on the same day as the Sugarland concert. I'll be honest with you, I was pretty sad about it. It's sad that someone could have that much and never know what it means to be truly happy. I remember as a 6 year old being SO excited when my Aunt Susan gave me a Michael Jackson glove, belt (with a glitter glove buckle) and t-shirt that she'd gotten from his concert. If only the Michael of those days had never changed. Thanks for the music, Michael.
New Kids On The Block
After the devistation I felt when they cancelled their Birmingham concert back in May, I didn't know if I could bring myself to go through the heartache of buying another NKOTB concert ticket, but I sucked it up and purchased 2 tickets for me and my friend Gina to see our grown men in Memphis, TN. My friends Mandy, Melanie & Lindsey had already purchased their tickets, and thinking I couldn't get off work, didnt buy mine then, so I drafted Gina into making the roadtrip with us and away to Memphis we went. As we stopped along the way, just inside Tupelo, to the Pizza Hut for lunch, I saw a family that I'm certain were inbreads, but I'm not here to judge. I knew that we were almost there. Gina and I were sitting in the 2nd tier at an amphitheatre that didn't have a bad seat in the house. I think it was called Mud Hill. Great place for a concert! There were 5 platforms in front of each section, just in front of our tier. Gina informed me that she saw on You Tube that they were to come down from the stage and each guy would be on one of those platforms. We had 2 platforms that were , I kidd you not, 15 ft from us. I was sure we would get the shaft and get Jon and Danny, but when I saw Donnie walking my way, as I live and breathe, I thought I would D.I.E. die!!!!! I just kept yelling, we got Donnie, we got Donnie! We had a BLAST!!!!! My girls, Mandy, Melanie, & Lindsey, got Jon, however. Sorry ladies. After the concert we went on the Waffle House run, hoping to see them (along with every other cougar in town) only to find out they wouldn't be stopping by, since they were all sick with summer colds. Oh well...we gave it a shot.
The next day we got up and decided to take a trip to Graceland, home of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. You know what they say, "When in Rome..." so when in Memphis, you know we had to see the king. I've always said that there's no such thing as gaudy (usually talking about diamonds) but I'll be the first to say that Elvis proved me wrong. While some parts of the house were beautiful (the Peacock Room, for instance) others were just downright hideous (such as the paisley draped rec room). Apparently I'm a super slow walker though, because it took me a good bit longer to get through it than it did the other girls. The highlight of my trip to Graceland was by far, seeing the jumpsuits and singing karaoke with Elvis. LOVED IT!!!!! I had a great time.
California Dreamin'
On July 4th I flew out to visit my Aunt Susan and her family in sunny California. I flew in around 1:30pm their time to beautiful San Francisco, and made an immediate stop to In & Out to get a burger and one of their famous neopolitan milkshakes. If you've never had an In & Out burger, you don't know what you're missing! SOOO good!
We picked up my Uncle Farzad (he's from Iran) and headed to one of Susan's friends houses where they were having a little party. When I walked in, I was immediately a novelty because of my stunning good looks...um, I mean, my Southern accent. One lady took one look at my blonde hair, blue eyes, and said, oh, you must be from Farzad's side. I looked at my aunt, who also has blonde hair and blue eyes, and just said..."No, not exactly". I thought, how could anyone mistake my lily white skin for me being Persian? But, I digress. The next lady came in and was talking about her husband who's from South America. I said, "Where exactly is he from?", to which she replied "South America". I said "What part of South America? I was in Peru last summer". She told me he was from Venezuela, and he came in and she said, "Honey, this is Susan's neice, she's from Peru". He looked me up and down, and I just simply said, "No, I'm from Alabama, I just visited Peru". I learned there on my first day that California is called the Granola state for a reason. Once you remove all the flakes, all you have left is a bunch of fruit and nuts.
While in California, I visited Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel, Monteray, Santa Cruz, and San Jose. My aunt lives in Livermore, which is right in the middle of the wine country. I had SOOOO much fun sight seeing and visiting my cousins, Brianna and Sherizad (Sher) that it was really tough to leave. Carmel was absolutely one of the most beautiful places I've been to (home of Clint Eastwood and Pebble Beach). I took TONS of pictures. Visit my facebook page to see those (www.facebook.com/blarinkaren).
Always the Bridesmaid
My best friend, Kendra got hitched on July 25th to Mr. Stephan Reese. I had double duty at this wedding, as a bridesmaid and wedding singer. She was a beautiful bride, and Stephan is a very lucky man. I made it without shedding too many tears. She got to the altar and realized she'd left Stephan's ring in the bride's room. I didn't know it until I got a tap on my shoulder telling me to pass the ring what was going, but it all worked out. I did however, catch the bouquet. I'm 4 for 4 this year.
August
Well, so much has gone on this month I don't even know where to begin. I took and extremely short trip to the beach, found a little jewel called the Cotton Gin in Hanceville, AL (I'll discuss that in a seperate blog) and finally finished and passed my Statistics class. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I'll have more to talk about later, but I think your eyes may pop out if I go any further, so until then, I'll have to say goodbye.
Sorry for such a long post but I had to get this whole summers worth in!
-Blarin Karen
Sugarland
I didn't really realize how much I liked their music until I went to their concert. My sister in law, Brittany went with me, along with a friends from church. When we walked through the gates, we were given a little package with a little card from Sugarland that said "Thanks for coming to our show" and inside was a glowstick and a thing of bubbles. At one song in the show, everyone pulled out their glowsticks and one one show everyone blew bubbles at the same time. It made it SO much fun! It really made us feel like we werent just ticket sales to them, but like they really wanted us to enjoy being there.
Michael Jackson
How could I go any farther without at least mentioning it. For those of you who haven't heard, Michael Jackson is dead. I know, I know, you're shocked. Michael passed away on the same day as the Sugarland concert. I'll be honest with you, I was pretty sad about it. It's sad that someone could have that much and never know what it means to be truly happy. I remember as a 6 year old being SO excited when my Aunt Susan gave me a Michael Jackson glove, belt (with a glitter glove buckle) and t-shirt that she'd gotten from his concert. If only the Michael of those days had never changed. Thanks for the music, Michael.
New Kids On The Block
After the devistation I felt when they cancelled their Birmingham concert back in May, I didn't know if I could bring myself to go through the heartache of buying another NKOTB concert ticket, but I sucked it up and purchased 2 tickets for me and my friend Gina to see our grown men in Memphis, TN. My friends Mandy, Melanie & Lindsey had already purchased their tickets, and thinking I couldn't get off work, didnt buy mine then, so I drafted Gina into making the roadtrip with us and away to Memphis we went. As we stopped along the way, just inside Tupelo, to the Pizza Hut for lunch, I saw a family that I'm certain were inbreads, but I'm not here to judge. I knew that we were almost there. Gina and I were sitting in the 2nd tier at an amphitheatre that didn't have a bad seat in the house. I think it was called Mud Hill. Great place for a concert! There were 5 platforms in front of each section, just in front of our tier. Gina informed me that she saw on You Tube that they were to come down from the stage and each guy would be on one of those platforms. We had 2 platforms that were , I kidd you not, 15 ft from us. I was sure we would get the shaft and get Jon and Danny, but when I saw Donnie walking my way, as I live and breathe, I thought I would D.I.E. die!!!!! I just kept yelling, we got Donnie, we got Donnie! We had a BLAST!!!!! My girls, Mandy, Melanie, & Lindsey, got Jon, however. Sorry ladies. After the concert we went on the Waffle House run, hoping to see them (along with every other cougar in town) only to find out they wouldn't be stopping by, since they were all sick with summer colds. Oh well...we gave it a shot.
The next day we got up and decided to take a trip to Graceland, home of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. You know what they say, "When in Rome..." so when in Memphis, you know we had to see the king. I've always said that there's no such thing as gaudy (usually talking about diamonds) but I'll be the first to say that Elvis proved me wrong. While some parts of the house were beautiful (the Peacock Room, for instance) others were just downright hideous (such as the paisley draped rec room). Apparently I'm a super slow walker though, because it took me a good bit longer to get through it than it did the other girls. The highlight of my trip to Graceland was by far, seeing the jumpsuits and singing karaoke with Elvis. LOVED IT!!!!! I had a great time.
California Dreamin'
On July 4th I flew out to visit my Aunt Susan and her family in sunny California. I flew in around 1:30pm their time to beautiful San Francisco, and made an immediate stop to In & Out to get a burger and one of their famous neopolitan milkshakes. If you've never had an In & Out burger, you don't know what you're missing! SOOO good!
We picked up my Uncle Farzad (he's from Iran) and headed to one of Susan's friends houses where they were having a little party. When I walked in, I was immediately a novelty because of my stunning good looks...um, I mean, my Southern accent. One lady took one look at my blonde hair, blue eyes, and said, oh, you must be from Farzad's side. I looked at my aunt, who also has blonde hair and blue eyes, and just said..."No, not exactly". I thought, how could anyone mistake my lily white skin for me being Persian? But, I digress. The next lady came in and was talking about her husband who's from South America. I said, "Where exactly is he from?", to which she replied "South America". I said "What part of South America? I was in Peru last summer". She told me he was from Venezuela, and he came in and she said, "Honey, this is Susan's neice, she's from Peru". He looked me up and down, and I just simply said, "No, I'm from Alabama, I just visited Peru". I learned there on my first day that California is called the Granola state for a reason. Once you remove all the flakes, all you have left is a bunch of fruit and nuts.
While in California, I visited Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel, Monteray, Santa Cruz, and San Jose. My aunt lives in Livermore, which is right in the middle of the wine country. I had SOOOO much fun sight seeing and visiting my cousins, Brianna and Sherizad (Sher) that it was really tough to leave. Carmel was absolutely one of the most beautiful places I've been to (home of Clint Eastwood and Pebble Beach). I took TONS of pictures. Visit my facebook page to see those (www.facebook.com/blarinkaren).
Always the Bridesmaid
My best friend, Kendra got hitched on July 25th to Mr. Stephan Reese. I had double duty at this wedding, as a bridesmaid and wedding singer. She was a beautiful bride, and Stephan is a very lucky man. I made it without shedding too many tears. She got to the altar and realized she'd left Stephan's ring in the bride's room. I didn't know it until I got a tap on my shoulder telling me to pass the ring what was going, but it all worked out. I did however, catch the bouquet. I'm 4 for 4 this year.
August
Well, so much has gone on this month I don't even know where to begin. I took and extremely short trip to the beach, found a little jewel called the Cotton Gin in Hanceville, AL (I'll discuss that in a seperate blog) and finally finished and passed my Statistics class. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I'll have more to talk about later, but I think your eyes may pop out if I go any further, so until then, I'll have to say goodbye.
Sorry for such a long post but I had to get this whole summers worth in!
-Blarin Karen
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Concert Frenzy!!!!!
Well, needless to say it's been a few weeks since I last updated my blog. I've decided that this is the summer I say yes to almost anything. As result, I had plans to got to Virginia Beach (which, sadly, was cancelled), Nashville, Memphis, San Francisco, Gulf Shores, and Destin (which I'm having to cancel as well). I've already been to see Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert (and Blake Shelton), Kenny Chesney, Mikey Wax, Nathan Angelo (who was AMAZING!!!), Tim Brantley, and Josh Hoge (who was really good also). You may have never heard the the last four but you should DEFINITELY go to itunes and listen to their stuff. I'm going to see Billy Courington and Sugarland tonight, and my sister in law, Brittany & a couple of my friends, Rebecca and Andi, are going with me. I'm not a huge Sugarland fan, but I really like their music and I know they'll put on a great show. I'm leaving a week from today for Memphis, and I can't wait! I'll be going with my "Favorite Girls" Mandy, Lindsey, Melanie and Gina for the New Kids On The Block concert. I'm going to go ahead and give Mandy a birthday shoutout on this weeks blog, since we'll be celebrating on Friday while we're there. Stay tuned to hear all about our adventures in Memphis!!! We'll be hitting all the Waffle House's in town looking for the New Kid's after the show. I didn't have time to get my "Hey Donnie, I'm a big girl now" shirt made up, so hopefully my unbelieveable good looks will just have to capture his attention.
San Francisco
We're driving back to Birmingham on Friday, and then bright and early Saturday morning (July 4th) I'll be flying out to visit my out in the beautiful city of San Francisco. My aunt and her family actually live in a city called Livermore, but I'm super pumped about going and visiting the fam! For those of you who know me best, you know I'm someone who likes to be going all the time. My aunt's the same way, so I know we'll have tons of places to visit and sights to see. The last time I was there, her daughters were in school, so we had to be back early every afternoon, but this time they'll be out of school so we should have tons of stuff we'll be able to do. I'll be back in a few weeks to update you all on what went on while I was there, but in the mean time, have you been to San Francisco? What are some things I should do while I'm there, and please, spare me the jokes!
San Francisco
We're driving back to Birmingham on Friday, and then bright and early Saturday morning (July 4th) I'll be flying out to visit my out in the beautiful city of San Francisco. My aunt and her family actually live in a city called Livermore, but I'm super pumped about going and visiting the fam! For those of you who know me best, you know I'm someone who likes to be going all the time. My aunt's the same way, so I know we'll have tons of places to visit and sights to see. The last time I was there, her daughters were in school, so we had to be back early every afternoon, but this time they'll be out of school so we should have tons of stuff we'll be able to do. I'll be back in a few weeks to update you all on what went on while I was there, but in the mean time, have you been to San Francisco? What are some things I should do while I'm there, and please, spare me the jokes!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Another Year Come & Gone
Goodbye 30
I said goodbye to 30 this week. I'm not sure why but to turn 31 was especially hard for me. I think because I'm no longer just a number but I've now begun the infamous 30's. There's just something about that apostrophe s that makes me a little uneasy...even kind of panic like. It's like my life's suddenly on this time table and it puts me immediately in freak out mode. None the less, I began my birthday the right way...goodbye 30, hello 31. I had a big party, dinner with friends at the Comedy Club Stardome, and dinner tonight with my married friends.
Let's discuss:
Blarin Karen's Birthday Luau Blast at theBenefield's
Ok, that was a lot of b's. Sorry, I got carried away. My great friends, Jeff and Joy called me a few weeks ago to discuss plans for my birthday party. We decided to celebrate early because they had a lot of weddings planned to go to in June and I figured what better way to say goodbye than with a party at the Benefield's. Jeff and Joy got married March 28th and honeymooned in Hawaii, so I knew they would be experts on throwing a luau-themed birthday.
Jeff and Joy did a great job getting the word out and we had a lot of people show up. We had chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, smoked sausage, mashed potatoes....they went all out! I've celebrated my birthday for the past 3 years at Jeff's and this was my favorite one to date. Everyone came dressed up in their hawaiian shirts and leis . My facebook friend Andy Palys (who is Jeff's college roomate) and his sweet wife Becky made a trip down from Arab for the party too, so that made it even better!
One of these days I'll learn how to post pictures on this blog, so I can show you a picture of the cakes that my friend Jen made. One looked like a volcano and one was a beach scene.
After things started to die down a little we played Rock Band. I, of course, had control of the microphone for a while, and I enlightened all of my friends with Blondie's "Call Me", Bon Jovi's "Livin On A Prayer", Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder &Lead", and finished it out with Dixie Chick's "Sin Wagon" .
When I got home I had to use the restroom really bad, so I was running into my house. When I ran up the steps one of my flip flops got hung up on one of them bricks and I fell face first into my front porch. I decided that this was the night to bust out my new white jeans (I read they were back in style) and so when I scraped up my knees I wanted to make sure that (a) they were't ripped (b) they weren't blood stained. Fortunately no blood was shed on this spill, but when I fell I hit the door, waking up my roomates (aka my parents), so my mom came to the front door to find me with my pants rolled up stumbling through the door with one shoe on asking me if I was ok. Needless to say, all was fine, just two bruised up knees and a lot of commotion.
All in all, it was a great night, though. Big props to Jeff and Joy for making it a really special night for me. I'm so thankful that I have friends like them. Everyone needs people like them. They are always there to encourage, call me out on things, and push me to be a better Christian and friend. I consider them not just friends, but more like family.
Sunday
I woke up really sore from the tumble I took the night before, so I was running late for church. When I got in the car, the clock said 10:15 and I really didn't think I was running that late, but I just figured time had gotten away from me. I pulled in to the parking lot at 10:40 and thought about sitting in the car for 10 minutes until it was time for Sunday School to get out so I could walk over to the service with all of the good boys and girls that got there on time. I thought about it a little more and decided just to go in to Sunday School for the last few minutes. I expected to get some looks, but when know one said anything, I thought, "gosh, am I late so often now, that it doesn't even surprise anyone?". Andy, our singles minister, was talking when I came in and then said that Linda was going to speak. I thought, "Man, he's only giving her 5 minutes to talk, so she must only be saying a few quick words before we go into the service". She got started off just like she normally does and no one was looking at their watches to see how late we were going to be to church except me. I looked at the time on my phone and low and behold, it was only 10:15. I didn't know it but my car battery was going bad and it kept messing up the clock. I'm glad I was able to make it, though. Sunday was a good day at GFBC. After church, I went to lunch with the whole fam to Brio and then had dinner with Rebecca, John Austin, & Andi the girl at Cocina Superior, two of my favorite restaurants.
Comedy Club
I got the phone call earlier in the week that I had won a few tickets to the Comedy Club Stardome. John Morgan, who has been on the Rick and Bubba Show several times over the years, was the headlining act. I'll be honest with you, John's always been a super nice guy, but I've never been to his show. I was really impressed with his show. He was hilarious!!! One of the funniest shows I've been to in a long time. The hostess for the night was a girl named Michelle Thomas. I don't know if I thought she was funny just because she's a big girl or what, but I laughed at her a lot! She does a lot of big girl comedy too, and I'm pro that. I checked out her website (www.michellelovescake.com) and read up on her. She's a Christian comedian, and she does a clean comedy tour. Anyway, after dinner we had some dessert and cheese dip at Cocina Superior (wow, twice in one week!) and it was back to the house.
The Wrap Up
I would say that all in all, I had a good birthday. For those of you that weren't able to celebrate with me (and you know who you are), you're in luck because I celebrate my birthday for the entire month of June. Aside from a couple of emotional breakdowns at the thought of being over 30, I had a lot of fun, and realized now, more than ever, that my friends are really the best. I had a hundred facebook wishes and tweets to go along with them. Thank you all for being such good friends. I love all of you! Until next week.......
PS: Follow me on Twitter @blarinkaren
I said goodbye to 30 this week. I'm not sure why but to turn 31 was especially hard for me. I think because I'm no longer just a number but I've now begun the infamous 30's. There's just something about that apostrophe s that makes me a little uneasy...even kind of panic like. It's like my life's suddenly on this time table and it puts me immediately in freak out mode. None the less, I began my birthday the right way...goodbye 30, hello 31. I had a big party, dinner with friends at the Comedy Club Stardome, and dinner tonight with my married friends.
Let's discuss:
Blarin Karen's Birthday Luau Blast at theBenefield's
Ok, that was a lot of b's. Sorry, I got carried away. My great friends, Jeff and Joy called me a few weeks ago to discuss plans for my birthday party. We decided to celebrate early because they had a lot of weddings planned to go to in June and I figured what better way to say goodbye than with a party at the Benefield's. Jeff and Joy got married March 28th and honeymooned in Hawaii, so I knew they would be experts on throwing a luau-themed birthday.
Jeff and Joy did a great job getting the word out and we had a lot of people show up. We had chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, smoked sausage, mashed potatoes....they went all out! I've celebrated my birthday for the past 3 years at Jeff's and this was my favorite one to date. Everyone came dressed up in their hawaiian shirts and leis . My facebook friend Andy Palys (who is Jeff's college roomate) and his sweet wife Becky made a trip down from Arab for the party too, so that made it even better!
One of these days I'll learn how to post pictures on this blog, so I can show you a picture of the cakes that my friend Jen made. One looked like a volcano and one was a beach scene.
After things started to die down a little we played Rock Band. I, of course, had control of the microphone for a while, and I enlightened all of my friends with Blondie's "Call Me", Bon Jovi's "Livin On A Prayer", Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder &Lead", and finished it out with Dixie Chick's "Sin Wagon" .
When I got home I had to use the restroom really bad, so I was running into my house. When I ran up the steps one of my flip flops got hung up on one of them bricks and I fell face first into my front porch. I decided that this was the night to bust out my new white jeans (I read they were back in style) and so when I scraped up my knees I wanted to make sure that (a) they were't ripped (b) they weren't blood stained. Fortunately no blood was shed on this spill, but when I fell I hit the door, waking up my roomates (aka my parents), so my mom came to the front door to find me with my pants rolled up stumbling through the door with one shoe on asking me if I was ok. Needless to say, all was fine, just two bruised up knees and a lot of commotion.
All in all, it was a great night, though. Big props to Jeff and Joy for making it a really special night for me. I'm so thankful that I have friends like them. Everyone needs people like them. They are always there to encourage, call me out on things, and push me to be a better Christian and friend. I consider them not just friends, but more like family.
Sunday
I woke up really sore from the tumble I took the night before, so I was running late for church. When I got in the car, the clock said 10:15 and I really didn't think I was running that late, but I just figured time had gotten away from me. I pulled in to the parking lot at 10:40 and thought about sitting in the car for 10 minutes until it was time for Sunday School to get out so I could walk over to the service with all of the good boys and girls that got there on time. I thought about it a little more and decided just to go in to Sunday School for the last few minutes. I expected to get some looks, but when know one said anything, I thought, "gosh, am I late so often now, that it doesn't even surprise anyone?". Andy, our singles minister, was talking when I came in and then said that Linda was going to speak. I thought, "Man, he's only giving her 5 minutes to talk, so she must only be saying a few quick words before we go into the service". She got started off just like she normally does and no one was looking at their watches to see how late we were going to be to church except me. I looked at the time on my phone and low and behold, it was only 10:15. I didn't know it but my car battery was going bad and it kept messing up the clock. I'm glad I was able to make it, though. Sunday was a good day at GFBC. After church, I went to lunch with the whole fam to Brio and then had dinner with Rebecca, John Austin, & Andi the girl at Cocina Superior, two of my favorite restaurants.
Comedy Club
I got the phone call earlier in the week that I had won a few tickets to the Comedy Club Stardome. John Morgan, who has been on the Rick and Bubba Show several times over the years, was the headlining act. I'll be honest with you, John's always been a super nice guy, but I've never been to his show. I was really impressed with his show. He was hilarious!!! One of the funniest shows I've been to in a long time. The hostess for the night was a girl named Michelle Thomas. I don't know if I thought she was funny just because she's a big girl or what, but I laughed at her a lot! She does a lot of big girl comedy too, and I'm pro that. I checked out her website (www.michellelovescake.com) and read up on her. She's a Christian comedian, and she does a clean comedy tour. Anyway, after dinner we had some dessert and cheese dip at Cocina Superior (wow, twice in one week!) and it was back to the house.
The Wrap Up
I would say that all in all, I had a good birthday. For those of you that weren't able to celebrate with me (and you know who you are), you're in luck because I celebrate my birthday for the entire month of June. Aside from a couple of emotional breakdowns at the thought of being over 30, I had a lot of fun, and realized now, more than ever, that my friends are really the best. I had a hundred facebook wishes and tweets to go along with them. Thank you all for being such good friends. I love all of you! Until next week.......
PS: Follow me on Twitter @blarinkaren
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sorry about the late post
Ok, so I realize I was a slacker last week but I'll be back on the weekly blogging bandwagon starting this week. Today's blog is a full recap of last week in my world.
Last Week
Monday
I got my hair cut Monday night after work. Normally, I go in and get the standard trim...nothing different, but since my birthday is coming up pretty soon, I've really been thinking about doing something a little different...you know, a little more grown up. I love the girl that does my hair. I have a policy that if you don't have good hair, you're not touching mine. Rikki has great hair so I put a lot of trust in her. She cuts it exactly how I ask her to and it always looks great. I got some bangs cut and a few inches cut off and it's a lot thinner. When it comes to my hair-thin is in.
After I had my hair done, I went over to Rebecca's so I had to play catch up on The Bachelorette premier when I got home. I would love to give you a recap, but truthfully, there were so many bachelors and not enough time to really get a good feel for all of them. I, for the most part, agreed with the guys she sent home and few stood out to me. Kyle, who stepped out of the limo with no socks, a Members Only jacket and later told her his grandfather was from Peru, but didn't look like any Peruvian I've ever seen. Who still has a Member's Only jacket? I guess he's the last member. Tanner P with the foot fetish. Greg Bilbo, the short guy who wanted to challenge Michael to a break dance off and kept saying "let's hug it out". I was glad to see him go. Stephen, who said "Maybe she just doesn't like awesome guys". No, Stephen, maybe she just didn't like you. And then there's Juan. I didn't think it was necessary for them to play the latino music each time he came into the room. Nothing about him except for his name seems latino, but I guess they want to remind us that he spent the first 2 years of his life in Argentina. Thanks, ABC. What would we do without you.
Tuesday/Wednesday
Tuesday night was bittersweet with the untimely demise of Danny Gokey on American Idol. I literrally shed a tear last week when they announced he was leaving, but, as I've said before, he'll make an awesome Christian cd one day that will be unbelieveable. Oh, and I'm following him on Twitter now, too, which helps me forget he didn't win. I got a lot of backlash last week when I said that Justin Guarini (sarcastically speaking of course) could give Adam some pointers on how to make it big as the 2nd place winners. I understand that some of the 2nd place winners have sold a lot of albums, but I still believe they were all 2nd place for a reason. Adam looked ridiculous in those iron angel wings he wore during his song with KISS, and I felt like the viewers made a great choice by choosing Kris as the winner. It made my week when I saw one of my favorites, Queen Latifa, singing with Lil Rounds. Great choice Lil. Little. Lil.
Friday
Friday was a really good day. I had taken the day off because Peaches and I were supposed to take a roadtrip to Virginia Beach to visit Don Juan but the trip fell through and I spent the day with my mom. I really didn't have any intentions of doing anything, but we ended up taking her car to the shop and doing a little shopping. It was really nice to not have a schedule to keep. Usually when we go somewhere we have to be back by a certain time, so it was a great change of pace.
That night I met my friend Mayfield for dinner at Wings and afterward we met up with Andi, Rebecca and Roxy and went to the McWane Center to see A Night At The Museum 2 at the IMAX theater. I had really been looking forward to seeing the movie, and I thought it would be really fun to see it there. Before the movie started they were playing some elevator rock music. I successfully got the entire theater to join me in singing along to Livin On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, which felt like one of the single greatest moments of my adult life. Sad, I know. The movie was really good and it was definitely worth the $11.
Saturday
Once I get my mind set that I want to go out of town, there's no stopping me, so I talked my friends Rebecca and Andi into driving to Nashville for the day. We spent all day at the Opry Mills Mall and at lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, The Rainforest Cafe. I got some awesome houndstooth dressy flip flops, a super expensive new flat iron, and spent plenty of time in Harry David. We saw a kiosk that offered eyebrow threading, which is kinda like waxing, but I was certain someone had told me it didn't hurt as bad. Andi went first and said that it didn't really hurt, then Rebecca had hers done, telling me it wasn't that bad. They lied. It was horrible. Basically what they do is take a piece of thread and somehow tweeze your eyebrows with that thread. I must not have a very high tolerance for pain. I almost told her to stop so we could take a little breather, but I suffered through it. My eyebrows look great but I definitely won't have that done again. After a quick trip to Apple Barn, we wrapped up our day of shopping.
After leaving the mall, we drove into downtown Nashville to get some dinner. There were a ton of people downtown, which was great because you see a lot of really different types of people. Rebecca and Andi had not been to Nashville in a while and had never really experience that part of it, so I drove around for a little while showing them some different places, like Legends, Tootsies, The Country Music Hall of Fame, Wildhorse Saloon, Hard Rock and The Ryman Auditorium. Andi was taking in the sites and saw a picture of Patsy Cline and said "Awe, I love Patsy Cline!". Rebecca was in concert mode, and without thinking said "Oh my gosh! Is she here tonight?". Without taking a breath I had to remind Bec that Patsy's been dead for 40 years. We did see a lot of street performers, which I guess I never really noticed before. Everybody's got a dream in Nashville. Maybe that's why I love it so much. Everything seems possible there.
We had a great trip, and it was great to get home and get some rest. I had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to an even better week. Stay tuned for a recap of this weeks episode of the Bachelorette.
Last Week
Monday
I got my hair cut Monday night after work. Normally, I go in and get the standard trim...nothing different, but since my birthday is coming up pretty soon, I've really been thinking about doing something a little different...you know, a little more grown up. I love the girl that does my hair. I have a policy that if you don't have good hair, you're not touching mine. Rikki has great hair so I put a lot of trust in her. She cuts it exactly how I ask her to and it always looks great. I got some bangs cut and a few inches cut off and it's a lot thinner. When it comes to my hair-thin is in.
After I had my hair done, I went over to Rebecca's so I had to play catch up on The Bachelorette premier when I got home. I would love to give you a recap, but truthfully, there were so many bachelors and not enough time to really get a good feel for all of them. I, for the most part, agreed with the guys she sent home and few stood out to me. Kyle, who stepped out of the limo with no socks, a Members Only jacket and later told her his grandfather was from Peru, but didn't look like any Peruvian I've ever seen. Who still has a Member's Only jacket? I guess he's the last member. Tanner P with the foot fetish. Greg Bilbo, the short guy who wanted to challenge Michael to a break dance off and kept saying "let's hug it out". I was glad to see him go. Stephen, who said "Maybe she just doesn't like awesome guys". No, Stephen, maybe she just didn't like you. And then there's Juan. I didn't think it was necessary for them to play the latino music each time he came into the room. Nothing about him except for his name seems latino, but I guess they want to remind us that he spent the first 2 years of his life in Argentina. Thanks, ABC. What would we do without you.
Tuesday/Wednesday
Tuesday night was bittersweet with the untimely demise of Danny Gokey on American Idol. I literrally shed a tear last week when they announced he was leaving, but, as I've said before, he'll make an awesome Christian cd one day that will be unbelieveable. Oh, and I'm following him on Twitter now, too, which helps me forget he didn't win. I got a lot of backlash last week when I said that Justin Guarini (sarcastically speaking of course) could give Adam some pointers on how to make it big as the 2nd place winners. I understand that some of the 2nd place winners have sold a lot of albums, but I still believe they were all 2nd place for a reason. Adam looked ridiculous in those iron angel wings he wore during his song with KISS, and I felt like the viewers made a great choice by choosing Kris as the winner. It made my week when I saw one of my favorites, Queen Latifa, singing with Lil Rounds. Great choice Lil. Little. Lil.
Friday
Friday was a really good day. I had taken the day off because Peaches and I were supposed to take a roadtrip to Virginia Beach to visit Don Juan but the trip fell through and I spent the day with my mom. I really didn't have any intentions of doing anything, but we ended up taking her car to the shop and doing a little shopping. It was really nice to not have a schedule to keep. Usually when we go somewhere we have to be back by a certain time, so it was a great change of pace.
That night I met my friend Mayfield for dinner at Wings and afterward we met up with Andi, Rebecca and Roxy and went to the McWane Center to see A Night At The Museum 2 at the IMAX theater. I had really been looking forward to seeing the movie, and I thought it would be really fun to see it there. Before the movie started they were playing some elevator rock music. I successfully got the entire theater to join me in singing along to Livin On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, which felt like one of the single greatest moments of my adult life. Sad, I know. The movie was really good and it was definitely worth the $11.
Saturday
Once I get my mind set that I want to go out of town, there's no stopping me, so I talked my friends Rebecca and Andi into driving to Nashville for the day. We spent all day at the Opry Mills Mall and at lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, The Rainforest Cafe. I got some awesome houndstooth dressy flip flops, a super expensive new flat iron, and spent plenty of time in Harry David. We saw a kiosk that offered eyebrow threading, which is kinda like waxing, but I was certain someone had told me it didn't hurt as bad. Andi went first and said that it didn't really hurt, then Rebecca had hers done, telling me it wasn't that bad. They lied. It was horrible. Basically what they do is take a piece of thread and somehow tweeze your eyebrows with that thread. I must not have a very high tolerance for pain. I almost told her to stop so we could take a little breather, but I suffered through it. My eyebrows look great but I definitely won't have that done again. After a quick trip to Apple Barn, we wrapped up our day of shopping.
After leaving the mall, we drove into downtown Nashville to get some dinner. There were a ton of people downtown, which was great because you see a lot of really different types of people. Rebecca and Andi had not been to Nashville in a while and had never really experience that part of it, so I drove around for a little while showing them some different places, like Legends, Tootsies, The Country Music Hall of Fame, Wildhorse Saloon, Hard Rock and The Ryman Auditorium. Andi was taking in the sites and saw a picture of Patsy Cline and said "Awe, I love Patsy Cline!". Rebecca was in concert mode, and without thinking said "Oh my gosh! Is she here tonight?". Without taking a breath I had to remind Bec that Patsy's been dead for 40 years. We did see a lot of street performers, which I guess I never really noticed before. Everybody's got a dream in Nashville. Maybe that's why I love it so much. Everything seems possible there.
We had a great trip, and it was great to get home and get some rest. I had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to an even better week. Stay tuned for a recap of this weeks episode of the Bachelorette.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
My Week So Far
Well, since I started my blog last week, I feel like now is not the time to slack off so I'll begin by addressing my biggest concern from last week. American Idol. I got really nervous last week when Kris Allen was the first one called as safe, and for a second I thought Danny was going home but thank goodness, it was poor Allison who went home. My friend Hobie pointed out that she looks like a Muppet, and as I thought about it, she really looks more like a character from Fraggle Rock. Regardless of whether or not she looked like a creation of Jim Henson, I thought she had a pretty good voice, but wasn't really sad to see her go.
Now on to this week
Monday wasn't too bad. I had a great weekend that was (as always) jam packed, but I started off by coming in and my coworker asking if I wanted to go to the Kenny Chesney concert this Thursday. We actually got tickets, so I'll be sure to report on that next week. I was feeling pretty good, because the whole fam went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse Monday night so my brother, Jordan and his wife, Kari could announce the sex of their baby that will be arriving in October. After dinner and a round of guesses they announced that Hannah Morgan will be here soon! The thoughts of little dresses, pageants, cheerleading, & softball almost excite me as much as the hope that she'll have her Aunt Karen's love for music...not to mention my stunning good looks. LOL! So yay for Hannah!
Now on a sad note:
Now on to this week
Monday wasn't too bad. I had a great weekend that was (as always) jam packed, but I started off by coming in and my coworker asking if I wanted to go to the Kenny Chesney concert this Thursday. We actually got tickets, so I'll be sure to report on that next week. I was feeling pretty good, because the whole fam went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse Monday night so my brother, Jordan and his wife, Kari could announce the sex of their baby that will be arriving in October. After dinner and a round of guesses they announced that Hannah Morgan will be here soon! The thoughts of little dresses, pageants, cheerleading, & softball almost excite me as much as the hope that she'll have her Aunt Karen's love for music...not to mention my stunning good looks. LOL! So yay for Hannah!
Now on a sad note:
I woke up yesterday morning to hear the news that my beloved New Kids on the Block cancelled their show in Birmingham. I, of course, was devastated. There are not many things I get that excited about, but after seeing them in October in Atlanta, the thoughts of them being here, in the salty 'Ham, just overwhelmed me, and I made certain we got tickets. We even bought them on presale. I found out we had not only gotten tickets, but that we were to be sitting on the 10th ROW!!!!! When I saw them on the Today Show Friday, I was ready. I saw a girl with a shirt on that said "Hey Jordan, I'm a Big Girl Now" and I just knew I had to get one of those. Thankfully, I didn't get one because, although Donnie and Jordan have been going on and on about how they're gonna give us Full Service (the name of the tour) on Twitter, my little heart was broken to find out that due to "unexpected production delays" they were pushing the tour back a week, and ended up having to cancel 5 shows-Birmingham included.
American Idol Recap
I know that Danny did pretty good on American Idol last night, but if he goes home tonight, it may be all I can take. Just kidding, you and I both know he'll still make a Christian album that is AMAZING just like Mandisa did and all will be right in my world again. I'm definitely still pro Danny to the finals, but can I just say that Kris Allen did a great job last night. Really brought his A game! I thought he did a PHENOMENAL job on "Apologize", though I may be partial since it's one of my favorite songs. I thought Adam didn't do very well last night at all. I didn't think he sounded that good on "One" and I couldn't understand what he was screaming about during "Cryin", which upset me because for once I got pretty excited about his song. I love Aerosmith's version of "Cryin" and I agree with him that Steven Tyler is "A-Mazing". I hope he goes home in an upset tonight. He'll be fine-he doesn't need the win. Look at Chris Daughtry who, coincidentally, cracked me up when he said last week on the show that after being voted off he got over it in about 30 seconds.
Well, that's all I've got for now, but there's sure to be more later.
Here's a list of things to look forward to next week:
1. Kenny Chesney Concert recap
2. The Bachelorette returns to ABC starring Jillian (aka Hot Dog Jillian)
3. American Idol recap (hopefully a happy one!)
Have a great week!
Who do you think will get the boot tonight?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
My first ever blog!!
Ok, so it's not exactly my first ever. I have posted one or two on Myspace in the past, technically it wouldn't be the first, but, since Facebook is the new Myspace, and well, frankly, Twitter is the new Facebook, I'm done posting anything on Myspace, a note on Facebook is entirely to difficult to write using my Blackberry, and well, this is already over 140 characters, so you and I both know that I can't tweet about it. That being said, welcome to Karen's World. More than likely, if you are reading this, you have to (for whatever reason) have some reason to want to know what I have to say. I'll start with American Idol. While I though they should have made last night's show a latin music theme with it being Cinco de Mayo and all & because I know Kris or Danny could've killed it singing Frankie J's "No Es Amor", it seems they settled for the Rock theme to cater to who the American Idol producers obviously trying to position for the final two: none other than Adam and Allison. I don't think Allison is that bad, but I have a hard time believing she would sell any records. Adam on the other hand, I will openly admit, I cannot stand listening to. Last night was perfect for him, giving him the open opportunity to do all the shrieks and screams that he's become known for in this competition. I'm hoping that with the amount of them that he put into that Led Zepplin song last night it will secure him in the bottom 2 position as it did last week, but I don't have too much confidence in that. I'll be honest. I didn't hear Danny or Kris' solos but I did enjoy their duet. I actually agreed with the judges in saying their voices blended beautifully together. If it was a perfect world, they would be my final 2, not because I'm a huge Kris fan, but because it would secure the win for my boy, Danny Gokey. I mean, Kris is a good singer and he loves Jesus, so I like him, but Danny is by far my favorite. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Danny may have a lot of baggage, but I've got just the dolly to carry it. I'm just saying. Anyway, I know you're probably wondering how I missed their solo perfomances last night. I didn't get a chance to watch the show. I had to work late last night and had made plans to go to dinner with friends in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, one of my favorite holidays. I don't know what we're celebrating that day, but for me, it's Mexican food coming to the US. In fact I had it twice yesterday, but, I digress. I heard half of the show on the radio on my way to Superior Grill, and got out of my car just after my boys did their duet. I had planned to watch the rest when I got home, but my Macroeconomic final had to be taken online by 11:30pm and since I didn't get home until 10pm I thought it better to do the final. I'll watch the others tonight when I get home from work. So...what did y'all think? How did they do? Who's going home tonight, and who do you pick to win?
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