I Guess We Need a Personal Photographer, Cause We Suck At Taking Photos

My friends and I are retarded. We took exactly ZERO pictures on my birthday last night. I wonder about us sometimes, LOL.

Though to be fair, Jennie brought her camera, but the lens wouldn't open. Bummer. But my phone actually has a very nice camera WITH a flash and we still didn't take any pics?! Not to sound ridiculously shallow, but we looked hot last night and I want proof to show my daughters in 20 years. Yours truly rocked a white strapless number that definitely made me strut my stuff all night.

The night started off with uncorking a bottle of bubbly (the cork hit like every wall in our condo LOL!) at our place and then on to dinner at this restaurant called Feast. They could have just named it Delicious. I had an arugula salad with walnuts, beets and green olives. YUMMY!!! I was a bad raw foodie and also had goat cheese on my salad and a bite of Beth's chocolate and banana crepe. Both were AMAZING and soooooooooo worth it.

Then we walked through the mess and maze of Taste of Charlotte over to SUITE (still strutting...John Travolta would have been so proud of me). SUITE, like Feast, is super swanky--which I love. I just loved getting dressed up and going out on the town for martinis, etc. It's kind of the last thing I haven't given up with the whole raw food lifestyle. My last frontier I guess you could say. I just love me a good dirty gin martini!!! I think I like feeling very Carrie Bradshaw in NYC for a few hours, LOL! Someday New York, you and I will be together at last. I feel you calling to me. I'm working on it oh sweet Siren!


But I digress. Back to last night. No pictures at SUITE either. Retarded. Well that's not entirely true. I did take one shot of my friend Dianne with some sparkly table decoration. Random.


So we finished the night dancing ourselves into oblivion (DJ even played MIA which made Jennie happy happy happy), shut down the club and headed to Pita Pit (which we immediately nixed as the line was out the door and spilling onto the street. Waiting 40 minutes for a pita in heels? No thank you. Not worth it).

Woke up this morning and Beth and Jennie gave me my birthday present: A freakin' bad ass Rocket smoothie maker. It's like one of those magic bullet things and I'm so pumped to use it for green smoothies and juices. Traveling especially will be SO much easier. I mean who has room for a giant blender in their suitcase? Not me. That's like four pair of shoes I could have brought. This baby will only take the place of one pair of shoes and I can live with that.

I already tested the nut milk making capacity and it's good. It has a little strainer application that does a pretty good job getting the grit. It's not as good as a nut milk bag or cheese cloth, but who wants to bother with all that in a hotel room? Not me. I'll be testing it for soups and more creamy things later. I want to see if it can actually get things made with soaked nuts smooth.

Which got me to thinking. Why the hell is there no mini-Vitamix? Or Vita-bullet, if you will? I know they make industrial level machines, but the raw foodists of the world would surely appreciate a bullet-esque vitamix for travel. Not to mention people who like to make a single serving smoothie or juice in the morning and take it with them to work or whatever (i.e. me).

Like my friend Tiffany always says--I should write a letter.

So I'll be trying out my new toy all day and predict that I will be very happy about it. Also trying out Maca for the first time. I took some yesterday with almond butter and was totally blissed out for the evening. Put it in my matte this morning and tasted OK there too. I will be trying in smoothies and upping the dose to see what's best for me. Right now I'm at a little under a 1/4 teaspoon. I can feel the effects, but no adverse reaction, so I'll just keep bracketing until I find the perfect dose.

Did That Really Just Happen?

I meant to post this yesterday, but I got sidetracked.

It definitely makes my list of The Top 10 Things I Never Expected to See.

Tree Hugging Former Presidential Candidates: I was watching CNN yesterday and was this close to turning the TV off to head to work, but God I'm so glad I didn't. I saw the most amazing thing: Jesse Jackson and Pat Buchanan doing a commercial for a cause. TOGETHER. And, get this, they were doing a commercial on saving the environment!

I was like....WHAT?!?!?!?!?

I seriously pondered whether my green smoothie was laced with something.

But no, it was real. I suppose miracles never cease to amaze and I'll be honest--I freakin' like this miracle a whole lot. Here's why. This teeny tiny commercial is really a giant step for mankind. It tells me that people are waking up to the reality of environmental consequences and that the cause is transcending political lines. I mean, come on--when Pat Buchanan (Mr. "Right From The Beginning") and the Rev. Jesse Jackson (Mr."Left Conservatism Behind When He Sprang From The Womb") actually AGREE on something AND think it's a big enough deal to willingly be in each other's company, the issue is HUGE. Now I know that, and you probably do to, but there are still so many global citizens who are clueless as to how big the issues of climate change and environmental preservation are (i.e. our current Prez).

And a commercial, admittedly, is not going to solve all of our problems, but there is a major lack of awareness that still exists in this country and beyond that challenge, there is also a lack of urgency. I think initiatives like this will act like alarm clocks for people and let them know that its OK to be a Bible toting environmentalist. That you don't have to be on the far out fringes of the left to love your planet and want to keep it in good health. When the issues moves from the extremes and into the mainstream it is a much better thing for us all. I hope more people with influence will continue to push the message and get it out there for the people that still need to hear that being green isn't just trendy--it's absolutely necessary if we are going to make it as a species for another millennium.

I really really wanted to include the vid for you, but couldn't find it on the web and I'm too impatient to keep looking after 20 minutes. Sorry, my name is little girl I BIG VOICE, not little girl I BIG PATIENCE.

However, for good measure, I have included an extremely relevant ad from the environmental defense fund that I found while looking for the other. Enjoy!

The Stickiest Hug Giver You Ever Saw

This is my Grandpa Earl in a nutshell. I love this comic for making me smile and think of his fantastic hugs.

Crazy Scary Good

Wow, sorry for the absence people. I was connected in Texas, but only through Blackberry. I had a great time with Mary and Gabe at their wedding (more to come on that later), ate and drank way too much and am back in Charlotte. It's REALLY hit me that I am leaving very soon. I've started to get busy putting together my portfolio, selling almost everything I have accumulated in college (and it's A LOT) and making plans. The challenge in all of this is to remember to stay present and make sure I really enjoy my time here and my people here while I have them readily available.

I feel so fortunate that I've got a lot of you wonderful people out there floating around in the world, making your presence known and keeping me sane. My love is definitely a bit promiscuous when it comes to geography, but I have no intention of holding it back. Charlotte is just one more city that I will have loved and lost to some extent. I am always missing people and places, but the silver lining is that a plane ticket and an email can solve all of that.

So while everything here is making it pretty challenging to detach, I feel a wee bit better knowing that I can come back to these people and they'll be the same even if the skyline changes.

It's been a pretty good day. I'm broke and jobless after June. I've turned down four opportunities to play it safe and I'm scared as hell about job searching as a photojournalist. But it feels freakin' great to make a choice.

It's crazy scary good.

Ashes to Ashes or Cradle to Cradle?

The author of Cradle to Cradle discusses design and how to rethink how we build our products and cities in order to save and enjoy the world. Check it.

The Future of Body Care is Futurenatural Baby

Also, glamazon ladies out there, check out this new website PLEASE!!! If you like Sephora, but are eco-conscious and want to put only the best, purest, organic products in and on your body, Futurenatural.com is the way to go!

Founder Emma Pezzack was interviewed by Current TV about the mission and purpose of this fabulous new company.




We often forget that our skin is our largest organ and absorbs everything we put on it. If we are concerned about putting chemicals into our body, we must also be concerned with what we put ON our body. Emma does a ridiculous amount of research about their products and tests everything. Anything on their site is top quality in all areas. Check it!

Wedding Season

photo credit: www.cartier.com

I don't know if anybody else noticed--but it's wedding season. I myself am in one for my best college girl next week and am going to a shower for another couple tomorrow. That's this month alone.

Not to get all Carrie Bradshaw on everybody, but I have mixed feelings about wedding season. On the one hand, the joy and love that accompany such a day is so incredibly refreshing. On the other, that nagging feeling that I should be up at the alter too doesn't ever quite fade away completely.

It's not that I want to get married. I don't. Well--let's clarify, I don't want to get married now. The idea of finding a man I am so head over heels in love with that I just don't know what to do with myself is incredibly appealing in theory. It's just that I know I'm a massively long way from being there right now. You know that State Farm commercial (The one where everybody is "so there")? I'm it's anti-thesis.

I'm so not there.

What is there? That good ol' peer pressure--even in this day and age where getting married later in life is perfectly OK, normal and common--to find somebody. Because if you haven't, then there must be something off about you right?

Wrong.

There is nothing awry with this little girl. I'm just freakin' independent as hell and have high enough standards to stay away from Mr. Right Now. I don't have time for Mr. Right Now. Not because I'm spending it all in a hurry to find Mr. Right. Uh, hello! I've got a life to live and things to accomplish! I've got goals and plans and aspirations that don't involve a hubby (at least not on paper, because we all know the world has a crazy way of throwing the best laid plans askew and challenging you to fit things into the picture that weren't even on the horizon in the original vision).

But back to Mr. Right Now. I hate Mr. Right Now. Mr. Right Now is such a waste of time. Sure, it's nice to have a guy or two to go out on dates with. That you enjoy spending time with, but don't invest anything further into. That's all fine and dandy. But the guy (or girl) that you stay with because there isn't anybody else on your radar at the moment, and you can't handle being alone for more than two weeks, isn't somebody we should be staying with. Not only do we hold ourselves back, but we also hold them back. Not just from finding "the one," but from finding self-confidence, self-determination and self-awareness. While a triple braided cord may be stronger than the three alone, you are also only as strong as you weakest link. You have to make the individual parts strong if you want the entire cord, the relationship, to be strong as well.

Me? I'm in strength training mode baby. I'm learning so much about myself right now. I'm learning about what I believe in, what I am passionate about, what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am learning about my baggage and figuring out what I want to and need to leave behind in order to get to a new level of being. Cause, man oh man, am I ever ready for that level!

It just doesn't necessarily involve my soul mate. Or maybe it does. It's like a video game. There are all these levels and challenges to pass before you enter the next phase. In life, we play each level only once, and we never know what lies ahead--so maybe Mr. Right is there. But Mr. Right Now will surely be avoided. Don't want to get stuck in a level and become stagnant. Let me put it this way. There are some people who will call you crazy (and who have called me crazy), but we'd rather be crazy for the rest of our lives than apathetic for one single day, right?

So all you single ladies (and gentlemen), bury that feeling of insignificance despite the fact that you haven't come across a significant other. It's about as important as Mr. Right Now.

I.E. NOT VERY.

It's wedding season, yes. It might make you long for a soul mate of you own--and that's OK too. Who doesn't love the idea finding that person. Just remember that you are worth just as much single as you are married or committed. My Mom loves this mantra: I am holy, I am whole.

I am holy, I am whole. I am holy, I am whole...