HAPPY NEW BEER'S EVE!!!

Last Sunday was the celebration of New Beer's Eve, the 75th anniversary of the day when the prohibition tide began to turn and beer went back to a potent 3.2% alcohol content!

Sameer thought I would have something to say about this and I do--mostly that I'm really glad we aren't still in prohibition! Man do I love a good bottle of organic California pinot grigio or an exotic Northwest micro brew. Thank God for April 7, 1933 and FDR's push to re-introduce legal alcohol back into the system. Not only did it give our flagging, depressed economy a boost, but it also ensured that millions of hard working Americans, just like me and you, can kick their feet up on Friday night and enjoy a nice Gin and Tonic (or whatever the drink of your choice may be). A quick story to commemorate the day.

I remember this time, right after I had turned 21 (I'm talking a few weeks here), that I brought home the leftovers of a six-pack of some yummy mirco brew from a night out with my friend Tiffany and our dank Oregon crew. I didn't think twice about putting it out in the fridge. I was 21, right!? Maybe not.

Let me give you some background on my family. Dad is an ordained minister, as is my uncle. Most of my family are elders at their churches or at the very least passionate and committed attendees. It should be pretty obvious that we aren't big drinkers. In fact, a lot of them don't drink at all (my parents do drink, but modestly). So little Bethany--the first child of the generation on both sides of the family--being into any sort of alcoholic beverage would be a little out of the norm. Most likely even frowned upon.

You get the picture. Back to the story.

Well, the next day my dad comes in from the garage, with the six-pack in his hands, asking who the beers belong to.

I wish I had an audio file of the reaction I had inside my head to record my brief panic internal panic attack. It went something like this:

"OMG. WHY AM I SO STUPID!!?? WHAT WAS I THINKING PUTTING BEER IN THE FRIDGE!!?? It's too soon! TOO SOON. WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! Ahhhhh what do I say?"

Meanwhile, though time had slowed enough for this entire conversation to run through my head in 0.2 seconds, Dad was waiting for an answer.

So I said, sheepishly (and yes I realize putting together me and sheepish is a complete oxymoron, but it did in fact happen), "mine..."

"Oh. Cool. I thought it was Tiffany's and I really wanted one," said Dad.

[jaw drops...waves of relief begin crashing over me]

"So can I have one?"

"Uh...yeah of course," croaked my uncharacteristically meek voice.

Whew. That was close. I guess Dad is cooler than I thought.

Now when I go home we go to Trader Joe's and love picking out new brews to try together.

It's like father-daughter bonding for the 21st century.

HAPPY NEW BEER'S EVE DAD!!! MUAH! Can't wait to try some new brews with you this summer!

And P.S. Next week is Charlotte's Creative Loafing's Beer Week. Come out and join us!!!

The Feisty Girl Is Getting Feasty!!!

I've been tossing around the possibility in my head for a while--but today I made the official decision after reading Penni from Tulsa's blog, Real Juice Daily. I'll be doing a juice feast when I come home to Oregon.

Today Penni was talking about metamorphosis and the vast changes she feels her mind l body l spirit undergoing during her feast. Her current experience couldn't be further from what I am personally going through. I've come to realize I'm overloaded, uninspired by work and in desperate need of metamorphosis (and not Kafka style) myself. An intuitive need for "something" led me to find the raw food lifestyle and my intuition seems to again be leading me toward a life changing process--to go further down the rabbit hole. The real person in here is being held down by a great many things and it's high time that I unburden her and allow her to rise to the surface.

I've chosen summer because I know that back in Oregon I will have access to really good, fresh organic/local produce and, perhaps more importantly, a genuinely supportive community. Like many people I spend most of my day at work--but my work community would make it very hard for me to get all the positive things out of the experience. They have a hard enough time grasping the idea of raw. I think they might call a full-fledged intervention on me if I started juice feasting. I mean, it's a huge ordeal when I make a simple salad in the kitchen at lunch!

Like--"What is this?! It's not fried, doesn't come out of a plastic wrapper and doesn't go into the microwave to get toxified before gorging it into my protesting stomach? Why would you want to eat that crap?"

Uh, cause it's healthful, it won't give me cancer or make me obese. It tastes good, is full of nutrients and energy...Oh and did I mention it won't make me obese or give me some crazy disease I can't pronounce?

My family on the other hand-- really, "my Oregon" on the other hand--is always loving, always supportive and even if they don't quite get it--you can bet they will be behind me 100%.

So I'm sitting here at work, sipping a vibrantly green bowl of spicy coconut avocado soup (which got some confused and wary looks from co-workers on their way to Bojangles or Pizza Hut) with mustard greens for dipping and craving the start date for the little girl l BIG VOICE Juice Feast. I'm about to start a countdown on my page.

WAHT A WEEK: MONEY TALKS, WALK SCORE AND CAROLINA CUP

April Updates and Musings...

1) EXTRA EXTRA: I'm adding a subscription button to the STUDIO 1:000 site, so please subscribe and keep up with us!

2) INSPIRATION IN THE WORKS: Pangea Day is May 10 (more to come on this) and I am in the beginning stages of planning an event for the Charlotte area. For those of you here in the Queen City with us, please stay tuned and make plans to spend the day with an inspired group of people ready to change our world for the better!

3) MONEY TALKS: The New York City Council has voted to put in place a Congestion Tax, which will charge drivers going in between boroughs for their choice to commute. A bummer for those already commuting, but a necessary policy in this little girl's opinion. Higher gas prices haven't yet stopped the carbon hemorrhaging in our country and the only way, it would seem, to get people out of fuel inefficient cars and into public transit is to make it less and less affordable to drive. I can't help but wonder if a similar policy in driving-heavy cities like Atlanta and Charlotte would do to improve their resident's quality of life...I know I would definitely be down for some better public transit for my commute. $50 for a unlimited pass? Or $50+ each time I fill up? Doesn't seem like a hard choice when you put it that way!

4) HORSES AT CAROLINA CUP?: I saw no horses this year, but hopefully I'll have pictures to post and stories to tell from last weekend's escapades. Whew, what a doozy! Thank God we had Daddy Doug and Jeannie to feed us and keep us out of the rain. You'd have thought we were in Oregon with the 50 Degree windy drizzle that was entirely UNWELCOME by the crowd.

5) Check out you "walk score" at their nifty website. They calculate how walkable your home is from all the places you'd want to go nearby. Mine was 40, though I proved all the amenities of Uptown are closer than one thinks from our house on the edge of it. Remember, no more driving on the weekend! If I can do it in NASCAR country, so can you!

Temporary Web Space

Check out my new temporary website that will act as my online portfolio while I'm having one built for my company, STUDIO 1:000.

http://studio1000.blogspot.com/

It's pretty bare right now, but will have more in terms of content very soon!

Enjoy!

Charlotte Cats Route 7

Mid-March Resolution: No driving on weekends. God, to be in a city better suited to public transportation! A city where it wouldn't take you two hours and 4 transfers to get to work. But since this is not the case until August--when hopefully the London Underground will carry me from place to place--I've resolved to get a head start on my future living situation and put my car keys away Friday through Sunday. I started last weekend and although I had a little adventure locking myself out of the house due to leaving my keys at the grocery store (two miles away--that I had just walked!!!), I can say that I really enjoyed trekking around Uptown in the warmness of Spring.

So Viva La Revolution de reduction du mon"Carbon Footprint".

OK, yes my french was awful. Maybe I can use my newfound weekend walking time to catch up with some free language podcasts...

Roller Derby in One Word: Awesome

Roller derby's are basically kick ass. I got my first look at Charlotte's women's roller derby team, the Charlotte Roller Girls, on Sunday and I was so inspired by these very tough and very charismatic women.

They seriously know how to take a hit. Now, being a libero, I know a little something about throwing yourself at the mercy of a cold hard floor. I've had many an affair with hardwood courts all over the country, although the Winthrop Coliseum and I could be said to have a very significant and long term relationship. I have the scars to prove it.

But these ladies were on skates and careening themselves around a concrete track at a very fast pace, alongside 20 other women determined to maintain dominance. Needless to say (though as usual, I'll say it anyway), there was a lot of cheering every time somebody went down. It was just like grade school. Every fight is the coolest thing ever--until the next one.

But I'm a lover, not a fighter. So I'll just give a final shout out to these ladies and say that I'm pretty pumped to be writing an article for Rejuvenate Magazine about them. And that I'm pretty sure I'll be coming to the next home bout in May.

My Top 5

I'm "it" to the third power. I guess I'm a very taggable person. Three times. One week. I don't have enough friends with blogs to tag back. But I'd be a bad friend if I didn't fulfill my end of the tag, so I'll at least give you five things you might not know about me.



1. I played volleyball in college for the Winthrop University Eagles. I was the libero and we won four straight conference championships in my years there (they actually won one more after I finished playing, but I can't take any credit for that one!). I also was honored to serve on the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for three years with some of the most awesome people in Division I. On the committee we met to discuss student-athlete issues, voice our concerns, lobby the membership and ensure the well-being of our peers.



2. My mom says that I was born running (I evidently was such a prodigy that I skipped walking all together. TOO SLOW!) and singing. I knew all the words to just about every Disney movie and all the Columbia House old school musicals in my grandparents collection. I loved singing SO MUCH that I used to excuse myself from the table at restaurants to go sing in the bathroom. Have you ever tried this? The acoustics are really quite amazing! Something about the tile floors and metal stalls makes any five year old feel like Mariah Carey. And yeah, I was totally belting out some Heart Breaker to be sure.




3. I used to be a coffee addict. I think I was destined to love the stuff. I'd go and smell the bins at the grocery store growing up. Some kids go for the candy isle, I liked the caffeine isle! I started actually drinking it my sophomore year in high school when I had swim training for sprints before my 7 AM class every day. Let me tell you that I loved me some espresso. I even had coffee lip balm. Now I'm a green smoothie addict and feeling much healthier, thank you. Though I'm not going to lie that I miss a quad Black Tiger espresso at Coffee People like freakin' crazy.











4. My dream job is to trek through jungles, deserts, flood plains, whatever, to tell a story that needs to be told. If that means travelling with a rebel army in Sudan to photograph refugees so the world understands the severity of the situation, well, guess I'd better be getting some shots and a visa.










5. Give me a funky base back beat and I will be out on the dance floor before you notice I'm gone from your side (that is unless you are also a dance addict and are already out on the floor with me). I want to be up at the speaker, I want the base to vibrate within me and then I want to break it down! And I mean DOWN. Hell yeah!


Classic Scenario: New Year's Eve 2007/2008. I ran a half marathon for this Nike Challenge I was doing (150 Miles in one month). Went home, stretched it out, put a bit of nourishment into the system and headed out to rage with the Eugene Gaia Tribe crew for 10 hours of the best party energy you'll feel on the West Coast. Mom picked me up at 7 AM and we drove from Eugene up to Portland for me to fly out to Charlotte. Playing on my iPod the entire trip were burned copies of the night's jams. I was dancing all through the DFW and in the airplane bathrooms. I think I have a weird connection with bathrooms? They seem to inspire my creative expression.

So there you go people! Five things I love about me! Like I said above, all my blog friends have tagged me or been tagged, so I'll have to wait to pass this on until I can remember or find some new ones, LOL!