5 Things I've Learned 3-24-10 to 3-28-10

I feel like imparting some, perhaps somewhat obvious, pieces of wisdom on my lovely friends this morning.  These past few days I have learned a few things that might be worth sharing...

1.  If oil starts to burn out of your pan... you're screwed.
I burned the h-e double hockey sticks out of some food this past week.  And for whatever reason, I kept cooking my "blackened" creation even after my oil burned out of the pan.  Moral of the story? Audrey has a hard time cooking on high heat without ruining dinner.  Any insight into successfully doing this would be much appreciated.

2. Don't carry a pile of laundry half your height up the stairs... you just might trip.
For those of you who know me intimately, this is no surprise.  My mother calls me Grace quite often and it's meant for the irony.  I definitely did trip up the stairs this week and now I have a gross bruise on my left knee and a little bit of fluid around it.  It sucks.  Make a second trip.  It's worth it. And it would burn more cals.

3. Sleeping in the floor of a dorm room is not for anyone outside the 18-21 year old demographic.
I had a fabulous reunion this weekend with my sisters in Blacksburg Saturday night. We had a great night catching up.  Some of our plans fell through to stay the night in our sorority house when some visitors from headquarters planned a last minute visit, ousting us from the comforts of a couch.  My friend Meghann's little sister so graciously allowed the two of us to sleep on her floor in Lee Hall.  That's right.  Lee Hall. Sound familiar even to those non-Hokies following me?  Well that's because I lived there freshman year.
And let it be known that a soon to be 24 year old drunken married woman has no business sleeping in a dorm room floor.  Whilst brushing my teeth with Meghann in the bathroom, we were alarmed at the sounds of a poor girl puking her guts out in one of the stalls.  We had a brief back and forth on whether or not to help her.  Good thing we passed on aiding her and instead judged her shitty friends for not being in there with her.  Because it turns out we could have gotten Meg's sister a Judicial Referral for helping.  How much sense does it all make?
Also, let's talk about my back hurting two days later.  I normally don't mind floors... or maybe that's a carpeted floor with some cushion... Dorm room floors are harder than the hardest of rocks.

But it was free.  And a funny experience.

4. Old photographs and artifacts are a part of history I reallllly enjoy.
I think it's the element of story that does it for me.  The tales these pieces of someone's life can tell you that a history textbook cannot.  And also the strong tie to family reels me in.  I saw a couple interesting things in the past few days.
One was an old newspaper clipping from 1904.  It was a wedding announcement from my Grammy's grandparents wedding.  My Grammy's grandparents.. so let's see.. that makes them my great, great grandparents.  Two greats.  The headline said "Married in a Buggy."  Apparently my great greats had a spontaneous wedding on a mountaintop in a buggy.   How cool is that?  The wording of the clip was better than sex plus chocolate cake for a language lover such as myself.  "They are among the county's most deserving people."  Or it said something like that.  Wow.  How neat the way these were written in the early 1900s!
I also had the pleasure of viewing old photographs of my Grammy's of her modeling her high school basketball uniform.  And let me tell you she was quite the looker.  For those of you who know my grandmother, she now stands near the five foot mark and is thin.  Not back then!  Grammy was voluptuous with a tiny little waist!  When I told her she looked sexy in one of the pictures, I got a pretty big laugh.  But really.. you don't think of your grandparents as they were young- their appearance, their hobbies and energies. I told her I wanted to get copies of the photos. (P.S: She would absolutely die if she knew I publicly commented on this.. but I found the experience priceless and worth sharing.)
Mom, Grammy and my Aunt Nel just went through some of my Aunt Elsie's stuff a couple weeks ago.  She was a great great of mine, too.  Apparently they found a really creepy old doll, some old coins, among other treasures.  I am the owner of some of her vintage scarves.  Do you ever think about the way your material belongings define you after you're gone?  Not that it is all of your essence, but it's what you have left behind.  I love the story it tells.
These are the things everyone should want to locate and hold onto in their families, in my humble opinion.

5. It is so much easier to be nice than to be a jerk...
I have nothing to say about this (lie), except for it's true (truth).  And not everyone understands it (too true), as easy a concept as it appears to be (duh!)

Sorry it's lengthy today.  Lots on my brain!

XOXO,

Aud