Chopped Up In Pieces

About a week ago, I went to Benihana for dinner in Plano. I haven't been to a place like this in a while, and I haven't been more than one or two times in my life (unless you count Mongolian grill-type places).

Anyway, the food was great and I loved watching them cook everything!

Here's the 'clean slate' before the action (and a really cool looking plate):

Despite the fantastic (notice the sarcasm there) directions on the chopsticks wrapper, I stuck with the good 'ol fork this time......

The restaurant was dim and unique, which I love....

Here's another table's chef in action!

This was our view out the window - The Shops at Legacy is a very pretty place at night.

Here's our chef starting things out - making the fried rice:

He made a volcano of steam out of stacked onions! He called this the 'train' - choo choo!

Now he's getting crazy with a bunch of things going at once.....

The train's fizzling out now......LOL

It was great food and very entertaining (even if our chef was Mexican, NOT Asian) - hahaha.

Thankful Thursday

Light traffic during the holidays! Yes, that's what I'm thankful for this week........because now the light traffic is gone and I don't think I appreciated it enough when I had it recently!

I'm not a huge fan of the holidays at this stage of my life, so I try to enjoy the parts that bring me joy and ignore the rest. One of the things that I am just giddy about is the fact that almost no one is on the highways during rush hour! HURRAY! I can go about my business, leave whenever I want and not have to worry about the 5 accidents and thousands of cars on the roads during my 20-mile commute up to Irving.

I rarely take PTO at the holidays, so I work basically every day that the office is open - I think I have done that ever since I got my first 'real' job out of college. One of the main reasons I got in that habit was that my ex-husband was a general manager in retail and so he had to work right up until Christmas and then immediately afterward too. Same deal for Thanksgiving weekend. So, we never could go out of town, so I might as well be at work!

After my divorce and in the years since, I have just sort of kept in that pattern and it works for me. It gives me all of my coveted PTO to use throughout the year for traveling, visits from friends, home projects, etc. Perfect plan for me!

Anyway, the thing that I am missing most right now is clear roads - I was so spoiled during the holidays!

Black-eyed Peas!

This New Year's, Mayce invited me over to have dinner with her and Todd so that I could experience a southern New Year's tradition: eating black-eyed peas!

I do not like beans and really am not an avid eater of strange things, so I was apprehensive, but my obsession with all-things-Texas took over and I said yes.

Mayce went all out for the dinner - mashed potatoes, green beans, black-eyed peas, ham, rolls, etc. It was a fantastic dinner!

Here's pregnant Mayce being Martha Stewart in the kitchen!

And here are the famous black-eyed peas in some sort of broth, along with bacon. They were kind of bean-like, so I wasn't crazy about the texture, but they weren't bad! I better have some serious luck this year!

And here's a picture of her cute house in Grapevine:

I guess the traditional southern New Year's Day dinner has a bunch of special meanings. The collard greens (Mayce substituted green beans) signify money/wealth. The black-eyed peas signify prosperity in the coming year. And she got a round cake (bundt cake) and that is supposed to represent continuity from year to year. There may be more things involved, but those are the ones that she specifically told me about.

OK - NOW am I an official southerner?!

Entitlement

I have no idea if this letter is authentic/true/real, but I like it and agree with it, so I'm posting it! ENJOY!

Put me in charge of food stamps.

I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job and support yourself and don’t take free money.

Put me in charge of Medicaid.

The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine, and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job and support yourself.

Put me in charge of government housing.

Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or XBox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public
housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the "common good."

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules and quit abusing the system.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad
choices.

Alfred W. Evans, Gatesville

Manners

I was just thinking about random things the other day and I came upon a subject that caught my attention. Kids these days have less manners than in my generation and definitely before my time. It's just a fact. Parents today seem to be raising the "me" generation (some more than others, of course).

In my day, there were just things you were taught as 'manners' and they were not negotiable, and always expected, at least in my Mom's home!

Here are a few:

• Handwritten thank you cards for gifts (even to relatives)

• Don't start eating until everyone has been served their food at the table

• When invited somewhere, always offer to bring something or help

• If someone else (other than you) is paying the electric bill, then shut things off when you're not using them (my Dad was a SPAZ about this one)

What are yours from your childhood???

Indulgent!

As a fun topic for today (and because I am obsessed with lists), I am going to list my top 10 favorite indulgences (in no particular order):

1. Dill pickles


2. Massages


3. Dark chocolate


4. Blankets


5. The buffalo chicken wrap at Cheddar's


6. Genghis Grill


7. Cool new rings


8. Decorating/shopping for home decor


9. Diet Mountain Dew

10. Puppies (especially wiener ones)!

Thankful Thursday

FRIENDS - plain and simple. That's what I am thankful for as I pass from one year into the next. It is my friends who are there day in and day out, ready to laugh with me, cry with me, support me, encourage me and let me be a friend to them as well.

I am wildly thankful that God has brought into my life the people He chose to be my friends. I have been very blessed in that area - in all of the places I have lived and all of the stages of life I have been in thus far. He always knew exactly what I needed at the time.

Here are some friend highlights from 2010:

Cindy and I in Amarillo - at Cadillac Ranch!


Barb from Ohio at the pumpkin patch!

Renee & Sara's visit from Minnesota - at the Stockyards!

My best buds, Maggie & Owen!

Girls trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas - Me, Jenn, April & Lauren!

Holly's visit from Ohio - with 2-month-old Madalyn!

Dress day at work for my birthday in August!

My crazy fantastic college friends in Orlando - Me, Renee & Allison

The Governors Girls trip to Orlando - gotta love your college friends! Renee, Shauna, Me, Claire

Mayce's bachelorette party in Gruene!

At the Gaylord Texan with Cindy & Laura for the ICE exhibit!

Mayce and I at the top of Rockefeller Center in NYC (with the Empire State Building in the background)!

Cody, Me, David & Mayce at the Statue of Liberty with NYC in the background!

Laura and I at a Rangers/Yankees game in August (100+ degrees out!)!

No More Rosie

I saw this article online and thought it was noteworthy - the REAL Rosie the Riveter died! I remember in college, my friend Claire had this poster up in her room. I love it and am sad that Rosie is gone now. What an awesome, and very recognizable, staple in our country's history!

CHICAGO (AFP) – A Michigan factory worker used as the unwitting model for the wartime Rosie the Riveter poster whose inspirational "We Can Do It!" message became an icon of the feminist movement has died.

Geraldine Doyle died Sunday, a spokesman for the Hospice House of Mid Michigan told AFP. She was 86.

Doyle didn't realize she had a famous face until she was flipping through a magazine in 1982 and spotted a reproduction of the poster, her daughter told The New York Times.

But while Doyle recognized her face under the red and white polka dot bandana, the strong arm held up in a fist wasn't hers.

"She didn't have big, muscular arms," Mrs. Gregg said. "She was 5-foot-10 and very slender. She was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face -- that's her."

Doyle was just 17 when she took at job at a metal pressing plant near Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1942.

She quit about two weeks later after learning that another woman had badly injured her hand on the job -- she was worried she'd lose the ability to play the cello, her daughter said.

She was there, however, when a United Press International photographer came to the factory while documenting the contribution of women to the war effort.

A picture of Doyle was later used by J. Howard Miller, a graphic artist at Westinghouse, for the poster which was aimed at deterring strikes and absenteeism.

The poster was not widely seen until the 1980's when it was embraced by the feminist movement as a potent symbol of women's empowerment.

The iconic image now graces a US postage stamp and has been used to sell lunch boxes, aprons, mugs, t-shirts and figurines.

The term "Rosie the Riveter" stems from a 1942 song honoring the women who took over critical factory jobs when men went off to war.

Another Michigan woman, Rose Will Monroe, was the best-known "Rosie" after being featured in a wartime promotional film about female factory workers.

Doyle was quick to correct people who thought she was the original Rosie the Riveter, Gregg told the Lansing State Journal.

"She would say that she was the 'We Can Do It!" girl," Gregg said. "She never wanted to take anything away from the other Rosies."

A funeral service is set for Tuesday. Gregg did not immediate return a request for comment.

Different Faces of Courage

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

I loved this quote when I saw it on my pastor's FB page - just goes to show that sometimes the strongest and hardest thing you can do is to be quiet and do nothing but LISTEN and LEARN. I have blogged many times about listening and how very few people these days know how to TRULY listen to someone.

I think most people think of courage as Russell Crowe in Gladiator - fighting lions and barbarians, but we don't often connect the idea of courage to quietness, listening and retreating......however, sometimes that takes MORE courage than fighting.

There are people in your life who once were a healthy component to your world, but are no longer a good influence - it takes tremendous courage to realize that and to do what is best for you and retreat, protecting what you are exposed to and how it affects you. I have had to do this several times at pivotal times in my life and it is HARD and it HURTS, even though I knew it was the best thing for me.

And this courage concept doesn't just apply to people, but to organizations you are involved in, the workplace, family members, etc. At very stressful times in my life, I made sure that I stayed vigilant about what I was exposed to and what my environment was. I believe you become a product of your environment, so you should be very careful of what you watch on TV, what kind of music you listen to on a regular basis, who your friends are, what religious beliefs you subscribe to, what kind of workplace you are in, etc. All of those things shape who you are and in what direction you are going. Sometimes it takes great courage to make changes in those areas so that what you surround yourself with aligns with your beliefs and goals for the future. Courage isn't all about the fight!

On The Cutting Room Floor

I knocked out another item on my 33-list - a new hairstyle! I have wanted to cut my hair off for a while now, but finally got up the courage to do it. The other day, I saw a Groupon for a $20 haircut with a master stylist at Tony Cao Salon & Spa in Trophy Club and I took it - made the appointment for the very next day!

So I brought in the picture of what I wanted and he just started CHOPPING hair off. LOTS of it. I was pretty nervous, but excited too. He seemed to know what he was doing, so I just went with it.....but to see the huge chunks of my hair fall to the floor was terrifying!

Here's my self-portrait in the car afterwords:

I love it! It's not exactly what the picture looked like, but I'm very happy with it! But....the next day when it was up to ME to make the style work, I wasn't too happy with my hair skills. I need to work on it some more and perfect it, so I can make it look like he did in the salon!