deep thoughts

as i sit here, eating a sugary donut, stalking someone one facebook while i should be working and drowning in royal wedding news, i have been reflecting.

i am giving myself a title.

i shall hitherto be referred to as:

Her Royal Highness, Duchess of Hillside, Lady Skye McLain, Baronness of White Oak, Heir to the Hawthorne Estate

write that down. don't want you forgetting it.

if you ask nicely, you can call me HRH for short.

carry on.

top five friday - its my birthday!

well to be honest my birthday isn't until sunday, may 1 but i try not to blog on sundays.

and if i'm being truly super honest, i would actually say:

because that is how i say it in my head. yup - i'm a dork

now that we have my social nerdiness status established let's move on with the top five for this week!

five reasons i am so super stoked to be turning 29!

one

it is technically the last birthday i will be celebrating. i have this totally irrational fear of turning dirty thirty. i am afraid my body is going to fall apart on may 2 of next year and that all this fat will just start protruding from all sorts of weird places and that my dusty old uterus will no longer function and that my hair is going to turn gray overnight. so i am choosing to stay 29 forever. and ever. amen.

two

we are having dinner at one of my favorite local dives - enoch's. it is one of the first places that we were told "we had to go" when we moved here. it is a tiny, dark, smoke filled pub in monroe. they have live music there most weekend nights and some of the most absolutely delicious, greasy, grubby hamburgers you will ever have in your life. they also have really fun names like "the county mamou" and "blarney stone bleu cheese" and "the big arse burger." they all come with "chips" (or fries here in america) and a side of guinness gravy.

gravy. made with beer. made with guinness beer. gravy made with beer. are you listening?

GRAVY made with BEER.

{i rarely capitalize so you know this stuff has to be GOOD}

fun side note - enoch's is where i was when michael jackson died.

three

we are having the after party at one of my bestest bff's house. dan is one of our youth counselors and he and his wife love to host parties at their house. dan and i have so much in common it is crazy (things like our ocd budgeting, love of mexican food and inability to just let things go sometimes) but we get each other and that is why we are good friends! :)

after all the terrible storms tore through here he had eighteen inches of water in his backyard, flooding his garage and his storage building! he spent all day on wednesday cleaning up the mess and getting his fabulous yard ready for my party.



dan and me after "pitch black attack" at sr. high church camp,hence the face paint!

thanks dan! xoxo!

{yes katie, he is an auburn grad! war eagle!}

four

to be totally truly super honest i was afraid i would have a really hard time making friends in louisiana. i had never lived far away from my family and close friends in texas. this was my first big move and leaving everyone i knew and loved scared the ever living bejeebies out of me.

i'm kind of a homebody.

but, i am glad to report, that this year, i am looking forward to celebrating mah berfenday with some of the most amazing people, most of which i have met since moving to lousiana. after losing my mom last year i was so moved by how caring and supportive people here had been and i had only known them for a year. to say i consider my louisiana peeps some of my best friends would be an understatement.

i, like, love these guys!

{the plan is to edit this post and add a group shot of all my la friends after the party}
{edit to add - that picture is forthcoming, meaning it might be the fourth before i can add it. patience people.}

five

umm... in case you missed it...

do i really need another reason to be stoked?

i'm linking this up at life experiences - come check out top five friday!

and

date night {living room picnic}

i have been itching to have a picnic lately!

literally. itching. sneezing. watery eyes.

i am a walking commercial for hay fever and seasonal allergies.

{zyrtec - are you listening? i will sing the praises of your product! send it to me!}

so when you can't go into the outdoors due to the blanket of yellow pollen and other various sniffle-inducing vermin floating around..

bring the outdoors in!

spread a blanket out on the floor...

break out the picnic basket and a candle for a little romance...

lock the dogs in the hallway so you can put your food on the ground floor...

enjoy a delicious meal of baked chicken & fish...

and think about how fun this will be when college football starts in the fall!

{go pokes!!}

so i got to have my picnic and an allergy free evening - despite the dog hair that runs rampant in our house. 

{ahem - don't look to close at that blanket}

what is your favorite picnic item?

{spain - day four}

miss the first two posts?
click here for {day one and two}
click here for {day three}

and now we have reached the day that my full-on tourist mode breaks out.

like fanny pack-wearing, camera-toting, souvenir-buying mode.

ok so i didn't really wear a fanny pack but my grandma used to wear a gold sequined one when she went to las vegas to hold her cigarettes and money and if i had one i would have totally worn it in her honor.

let's just say i'm really glad i don't own one. whew.

like i said in my top five post, the aqueduct was totally amazing.

it is the oldest bit of roman architecture in the world and it runs right through the middle of what i would call "downtown" segovia.

as you can see in this picture, there are stairs that go up to the "top" of the aqueduct. of course we hiked those stairs! or rather, liz drug me, panting, up these stairs.

it was totally worth it. the view was brilliant.

breathtaking.

beautiful. i loved the shadows. and there was a nice breeze up there. quite nice after the mountain of stairs i climbed to get there!

in order to take advantage of the nice breeze and to catch my breath we decided to have a little photo shoot. when liz visited here in college (the trip that sealed her deal for wanting to eventually live in segovia) she took a picture in front of this aqueduct so we set about "recreating" this picture so she could have them side by side.

and even though i don't have a picture of me here from years ago, liz took a few pictures of me as well for posterity's sake. and because i was bugging the crap out of her. :)

p.s. oh yeah - that is me rocking the 70s romper. my mom would have been sooo proud!

then lo and behold we met someone who spoke english. i hadn't spoken english to anyone except liz the whole time i was in segovia. i chatted that poor woman's ear off. and then she very kindly offered to take pictures of liz and me. i think she just wanted me to shut up.

after this we walked up more stairs (and thus - might i remind you - even higher in elevation and closer to the sun) and few a through streets into playa mayor which is the epicenter of the city.

it is a tourist attraction and there are lots of little souvenir shops and restaurants.

we stopped for sangria and pinchos.

these were easily the most delicious olives i have ever had.

ok if you look closely in the stem of the sangria glass, you will see a tower?

that is this gorgeous cathedral. this is about 1/4 of it. it takes up an entire city block and it is beautiful. and down at the end is where we walked to get to alcazar. the castle. with the tower.

oh i have such a love hate relationship with that tower. hold your horses! i'm getting there!

here is a fun little fact: all the streets in segovia are marked with pretty little signs like these:

aren't they fun! no ugly green and white boring signs there.

so we take off walking up hill some more. i could have seriously touched the sun. we were that close to the dang thing. and about ten seconds after we leave the little restaurant i have to use the bathroom.

hello. i was the winner of the "smallest bladder" and "waits until it gets awkward to have to go" awards.

so in short, i walked up hill to this beautiful castle and i had to go so bad that my brain was, ahem, swimming and didn't have enough oxygen to take a picture of the castle. so i found this one.

via



which is a pretty good view of it. we were there in the daylight though so it wasn't bathed in golden light from the sunset. it was in the heat of the day so the sun was only about 20 feet away from us.

but 20 feet was too far away evidently. so we climbed up 152, dizzy, spiraling stair to get to the top of the tower. hither to referred to as {the beautiful death tower}. i thought i was going to die getting up the stairs but once we got up there, it put the views from the aqueduct to shame.

i literally had to sit down and gain some composure before i could really appreciate it.

ok enough words. just pictures...

this, the {beautiful death tower} ladies and gentlemen, is where i fell in love with segovia. i just signed my heart over. this is why i want to go back.

so that is pretty much the whole trip to spain! who is going with me next year?

spain - {day three}

did you miss days one & two? click here to catch up!

after our rowdy night out and sleeping in until two we thought it best to catch whatever sunlight was still out. so we put our bathing suits on and walked down to the pool.

um, to say it was cold would have been a complete and total understatement. we laid by the pool, liz bundled under her jacket and scarf and me with my towel tucked in all around me, shivering and both too stubborn to say "um it is cold let's go in."

we watched a couple of movies on liz's laptop and had dinner by the beach

we just ate at a little "dinner-by-candlelight-on-the-front-porch" kind of place. there were lots of families and groups of people there. it was one of those friendly places you just sit and enjoy for a while.

well if it isn't freezing cold that is!

the next day we flew back to madrid and took the bus from madrid to segovia where liz lives. it is about an hour and a half on a bus and about 2000 feet up into the mountains.

meaning that after we got there and i had to haul my 300 lb suitcase (at least that is how heavy it felt after hauling it around for two days and at this new, unexplored altitute) from the bus stop to liz's flat i thought i might just die.

but i didn't. i survived. yay! go me!

liz had two classes to teach that evening so i wandered around segovia. and by "around segovia" i mean i walked up and down liz's street because i was too scared i would get lost and no one would be able to communicate with me and i would never make it back to her flat and someone would kidnap me and sell me into some spanish prostitution ring and i would have to start using drugs to deal with the pain... wait. that was a movie. not real life. i digress.

and besides you can't find drugs in segovia. or so liz says.

anyways. i went to the grocery store and bought groceries for dinner that night. we had panzanella salad with all sorts of delicious fresh veggies and pasta covered in a buttery coat cheese sauce.

ok now i am hungry and i want goat cheese. help.

you have to buy your grocery bags there. did you know that? they are .01 euro. rubbish.

this is a lovely beautiful church directly across from liz's building.

all the streets are lined with trees and i bet it is beautiful there once everything is green with spring life.

directly behind the church was this pretty little park. there were lots of children playing and lots of younger folks pushing older folks around in wheelchairs.

{see the bell tower? that is the same bell tower from the picture above just to give some perspective}

the fact that they were in wheelchairs isn't really relavent except that you just don't see that much in the states. or i don't. or maybe i just don't pay enough attention.

there were these beautiful trees that had names that looked carved in them.

except they weren't really carved. when i felt them it was like they were painted on with concrete. i hope silvia and jorge are still in love.

in the back of the park was a neat little moat thing. the mural wall was done in mosaic tile and the little trickling water over the rocks made a nice little "tinkling" sound.

quite honestly it made me have to pee. (is pee an appropriate word for blogging? too late. that just happened.)

and at the beginning of the moat was a water wheel. i have seen a million water wheels in my life.

but this one is in spain. so it is special. it churns the water in spanish, not english. so therefore it deserved a picture.

every where you go there are tulips. i have never seen so many beautiful tulips.

they aren't in someones yard either. they are property of the city.

that is something else i don't notice a lot in the the states. it never failed that in every block of tall buildings, stores, flats and shops there was at least one small plot of green with some sort of beautiful flower growing there.

maybe we should stop and plant some green somewhere. it sure made the city a beautiful place.

i was hungry so i stopped in at pan's and had a bocadillo tortilla y coffe con leche y papas fritas.

or maybe it was because i was scared i wouldn't have a chance to have another bocadillo before i left and my life would be ruined because of it. either way. they put jalapenos on this one which made it extra special. i love a jalapeno on just about anything.

i also watched the spanish version of wheel of fortune while i was there. it was strange. i am usually so good at that show and i just couldn't figure it out. made me feel empty a little.

then i took another sip of hot coffee and all was right in my little world again.

day four - where i really make my debut as a tourist - will be coming soon! :)