Count Me In

Word on the street says that Meryl Streep and Tina Fey could be playing mother and daughter in an upcoming film, reportedly to be directed by Stanley Tucci. I don't need a movie title, plot synopsis or even show times - buy me a front row ticket on opening night and count me in.

Could you have two more talented women headlining a film? They don't exactly look related, but have you seen my red-haired, green-eyed peanut of a mom? Or my blonde, blue-eyed son? Anything's possible...

Does this news make anyone else really excited?? It's always refreshing to see talent be complemented, not replaced, by good looks. Hope the movie's content goes the same route.

Can't wait to see what's in store!

B. Spears circa 2001 or 2008?

She's happy, highlighted, (seemingly) showered, toned and on the cover of a magazine. This photograph could easily be from Britney's sparkly nude bodysuit days earlier this decade.

Happily, it was shot earlier this year; seems our down-trodden diva is back on the cover of Rolling Stone. I'd add it to our list of gratitudes but I'm not quite that shallow.

Rooting for the underdog has always been my thing, though. (Psychiatrists might read a great deal into that, but that's another story for another day.) All in all, I'm just happy to see one less bald-headed, umbrella-swinging, crazy ex-pop star roaming the streets.

A few of my favorite things

Sweet Ashley tagged me to list just six of my very favorite things. I've actually given this a lot of (non-blog-related) thought lately, hoping to narrow down the most meaningful ways to spend my time. It's a lot harder to do than it sounds...here goes!

1. Bradley and Blue. We may be crazy, but I love our little household. Sometimes I worry that it's unusual for us to so thoroughly enjoy just hanging out. I mean, shouldn't we be inviting more people in to our ridiculous, irrational house o' fun? That's something I hope to become more intentional about in coming months. I am, however, thrilled to enjoy myself so completely by doing so little.
2. My nearby and far-away friends. Notes in the mail, smiles as I walk to my desk, sweet voice mail messages when I'm too sick to call back, emails at just the right time, a lunch or dinner to take my mind off of every little thing - from top to bottom, I've been blessed with incredible friends. The ones who have known me since braces and bangs, those who met me before Bradley did, and the fabulous folks I've met since we moved to Greenville - each of you play such an important part in my life and my happiness. Thanks for letting me into your lives. (And for consistently updating your pictures on Facebook - y'all know that's my favorite peek into your world!) Wish I could have each of you on my street; wouldn't we make the most fabulous neighborhood?

3. My family. Raised me, see me through thick and thin, still think I'm amazing. How that is possible, I'll never know. I'm so fortunate to have parents who are also really great friends - to one another and to me. I appreciate them for a lifetime of family dinners, unfailing patience, vacation memories, much-needed braces, absolute belief in me, always answering the phone when I call and never blinking at my crazy stories. (The picky eating I developed against their wishes and best attempts to teach me otherwise, I promise. Those weirdos can even allow their food to touch. Bizarre.)

4. Reading. I could sit in a hammock, in my bed, on the beach, in a recliner or on the floor for hours each day and read. Blogs, books, magazines, journals, biographies, travel guides, shampoo bottle labels - it really doesn't matter. It's the fastest way to entertain me and the most fun I can have in an instant. It's equally relaxing, stimulating and informative. I should probably become a librarian when I retire. I may need to work on my inside voice, though...

5. Doing what I "should" do. While I'm not a fan of doing things simply because I have to or I'm expected to, the feeling I get afterwards is pretty remarkable. For example, I rarely feel better than I do in the gym parking lot after a workout. Or bragging about how I got up at 5:15 to hop on an elliptical. (That's a true story - twice this week. It's ok if you're shocked; I am too.) Checking something off my to-do list is a dorky thrill for me and clicking 'send' on a project I've been working on is always a relief. I hate cleaning but adore a sparkling house, laundered sheets and an organized closet. So, as this list winds to a close, I'm about to do just what I "should" be doing right now - cleaning for our open house tomorrow.

6. Dreaming. In every sense of the word. I'm the world's best and most appreciative sleeper. Left to my own devices, I could easily sleep ten hours a day. I'm always happiest after a full night's sleep or a quick afternoon nap; therefore so is anyone who has to hang out with me. I also enjoy dreaming by imagining what our life will be like in five, ten, twenty or fifty years. Will I be have my own little PR (or stationery) shop? Be a college professor? A writer? Retired and addicted to pasta? Living in that gorgeous house with a huge porch downtown? Spending a year in a glass-bottomed hut in Bora Bora? Answering the phone for Bradley's furniture company? Wrangling seventeen childreen or just one? Hard to say. My eight and a half ideal hours of sleep each night give me lots of time to explore the possibilities though. Not counting naps on Sunday, of course.

Honorable mentions: teaching our 4-year-old class each Sunday, Christmas ornaments, Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, monogrammed stationery, monogrammed table linens, clean sheets, a good thesaurus, new journals, recording Bradley-isms, pretending I can sing, broken-in jeans, hot showers, pedicures, Febreze, lip gloss, naps, holding hands, holding babies, Clemson football, Clemson colors, Clemson people, Clemson's campus, old-school family pictures, rewatching favorite childhood movies, gelato and Diet Cherry Coke. Whew.
P.S. The title of this post is a definite reference to a favorite childhood movie, The Sound of Music. Add in Annie, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Cutting Edge, Shakespeare in Love and With Honors and you have the perfect recipe for a 1990s Anne movie marathon, from 3rd grade to graduation. Anyone in?

What are your favorite six things? I tag Shelley, Kristen and Elizabeth.

So...I kind of want to be Taylor Swift.

I was nowhere near this adorable at 18.

Spend five minutes with her and see if you disagree. (Or just think I'm creepy for being so pro-Taylor.) I mean from the hair to the faux brother fight to the tiny girl dressed as Miss Swift for Halloween - how much fun is she having?

(Not that freshman year of college was so awful, to be sure. But walking out onto stages and not living allowance check to allowance check - the girl's got the right idea!)

Keds Queen Earns Some Snaps

For anyone who has ever wondered if it's possible to escape a bad relationship graciously, or to save face while speaking publicly about an unpleasant ex, may I present exhibit A.

Anne Hathaway on Dave Letterman

I heart Suze.

Suze Orman is fabulous. Sometimes she scares the tar out of me, but she always speaks the truth. Did anyone see her appearance on Oprah yesterday? Holy righteous anger, y'all. That woman was on fire! And with good reason.

No time to discuss at the moment, but I wanted to share a few recent Suze-related articles to get your thoughts and tangle your brain waves for a bit.


Suze Orman answers your money questions (Freakonomics blog, Sept. '08)

Lay off, Suze Orman! (Time, April '07)

The Dollars and Sense of Suze Orman (backgrounder from '03)

This woman will be 63 next weekend...

Holy gym membership, Helen Mirren!!

I can't even talk about it. I'm so flabbergasted that I'm turning off dinner and going to do a few thousand crunches.

In the meantime, enjoy some wise and witty commentary from the Fug girls as well as a British piece about Helen's bikini starting a revolution. Or at least changing the way we look at aging.

Two thumbs up for confidence... And big high fives to whomever gave the Oscar-winning Ms. Mirren her fantabulous genes.

Choreographer Mia Michaels would say this is banoodles - and she'd be right.

Have I Ever Told You...

...that I really love this poem?

Sorting Laundry
Folding clothes,
I think of folding you
into my life.

Our king-sized sheets
like tablecloths
for the banquets of giants,

pillowcases, despite so many
washings, seems still
holding our dreams.

Towels patterned orange and green,
flowered pink and lavender,
gaudy, bought on sale,

reserved, we said, for the beach,
refusing, even after years,
to bleach into respectability.

So many shirts and skirts and pants
recycling week after week, head over heels
recapitulating themselves.

All those wrinkles
To be smoothed, or else
ignored; they're in style.

Myriad uncoupled socks
which went paired into the foam
like those creatures in the ark.

And what's shrunk
is tough to discard
even for Goodwill.

In pockets, surprises:
forgotten matches,
lost screws clinking the drain;

well-washed dollars, legal tender
for all debts public and private,
intact despite agitation;

and, gleaming in the maelstrom,
one bright dime,
broken necklace of good gold

you brought from Kuwait,
the strangely tailored shirt
left by a former lover…

If you were to leave me,
if I were to fold
only my own clothes,

the convexes and concaves
of my blouses, panties, stockings, bras
turned upon themselves,

a mountain of unsorted wash
could not fill
the empty side of the bed

-Elisavietta Ritchie

Things that make me smile

Hope you're thinking of a few things that make you super-happy too. Happy Tuesday! xo

Orange is Awesome, says Crayola

I knew I was onto something!!

Crayola unleases 8 new colors for 50th anniversary

Pretty Friday finds

The sweetest thing

Morning, ladies! I'm a little off today and it's feeling like it will be a long, yucky Tuesday - too little sleep, Bradley worked all night, Friday can't come soon enough. Just general Anne crankiness.

So let's think some happy thoughts, shall we? What's the best compliment you've ever been given? The sweetest thing anyone's ever said to you? Reading those should perk me up. (Selfish, I know.) Hopefully you'll enjoy them too.

I'll start:

1. A teacher told me in the 9th grade, when my arms were too long and my gawkiness was at its peak, that I was very elegant-looking. Couldn't have come at a better time.

2. Bradley asked me to marry him. That's a pretty big compliment, having someone want to spend their whole life with you. I couldn't tell you exactly what I said - he lost me the moment a ring box appeared. But I feel convinced that the question was in there somewhere.

(I'm leaving out compliments from my parents, because I truly believe they're bordering insanity in their biased-ness. But they've said some pretty sweet things!)

Share!

Thought of the moment

For a fabulous coworker of mine. A wonderful thought for Mondays, and any day we need a reminder.

Little Miss Obsessive

Total addictions:
1. Burt's Bees lip balm
2. Kiehl's lip balm in the tub (notice a trend?)
3. Crystal Light to-go packets
4. Diet Cherry Coke
5. graham crackers with peanut butter
6. Lost, Grey's Anatomy
7. JCrew.com, Facebook.com, Sephora.com

Partial addictions:
1. Diet Coke at 10 am on workdays
2. The Bachelor, Gossip Girl
3. Dave Matthews Band (Those who knew me in the late 9os would agree! I think my daily Dave quote emails were the predecessor to this fabulous contraption. They were the blogs of the late 9os and early millennium years, complete with shout-outs, comments and special requests.)
4. GoFugYourself.com, PerezHilton.com, IHateGreenBeans.com, home of the best Bachelor recaps ever.

Proud to have recovered from:
1. Vera Bradley
2. PopTarts, the college girl's breakfast of champions
3. Target
4. The urge to monogram anything that will sit still long enough. (Another version of this was tiger paws or sorority letters on everything.)
5. Laguna Beach, Newlyweds and Ashlee Simpson's show (remember?)
6. Having no wardrobe outside of dresses and sorority party t-shirts with jeans. Now, don't you judge me! You did this too!
7. EBay (the buying, not selling - I still do that)

Up and coming addictions:
1. Singing in traffic. Worry not - the windows are up, folks. I am nothing if not a philanthropist.
2. Samantha Who on ABC - The writer's strike hit me hard and I had to look far and wide for new entertainment options. What's that you say? Books? Ahh, I love books. But Samantha Who only takes 22 minutes of my (and my DVR's) time. Nothing like a quick fix!
3. I'm sure all of you can point out a few others I may be overlooking!

Never did have:
1. Singing in the shower
2. Any kind of video-game anything. Wii, XBox, Playstation, Atari, what-have-you.
3. Slogan t-shirts (Blondes have more fun, everyone loves an Irish girl, etc.)
4. Uggs (Whew.)
5. YouTube

What about y'all?

P.S. Did anyone get the Ashlee reference in the title? Who's purchased the album? Thoughts?

A Perfect Day

I adore this photo - the dogs, the flowers, the dress, the bike. What a perfect afternoon! Here's hoping for some sunshine and time outside soon, preferably wearing orange. (If you know where this picture is from, give me a break already. I'm an addict, ok?)

P.S. I now have the theme song from Legally Blonde stuck in my head. "It's a perfect dayyyyy...."