Amazed

I really, truly don't get some people and their bizarrely negative and uninspired opinions regarding Barack Obama.

My assumption is that it is hard to recognize the significance of Obama's inauguration unless you and your family have personally experienced being told the limits of your dreams.

Don't get me wrong. I get it. I know that Obama will not be able to solve all of our problems. I know that some people are overly excited and expect more from Obama than he will be able to deliver. And while this is a very important moment in terms of race, my fear is that people will blame his mistakes (because he will make them) on his race. But President Obama is just an imperfect man. Just like Bush. Just like Reagan. Just like Kennedy. Just like Washington.

But if people want to celebrate, I say let them. We have gone from this



to this



in a fairly short amount of time.

And while this presidency will not solve all of America's problems, it represents a sense of redemption that many Americans - particularly African-Americans- need to feel. Just 40 years ago, my parents (not my great-great-great grandparents) but my PARENTS were told who they were and who they would never be. They were called names to their faces that I've only been called behind my back. They bit their tongues when they were just as equally entitled to speak their minds as those who attacked them.

So I say, today, let them celebrate. Today, I think of my grandfather, one of Alabama's first black voters, and how proud he would have been. There will be plenty of time to focus on the issues. Tomorrow, President Obama will go to work, the people will travel home, the news crews will return to their families, and we will still be broke and at war.

But as for today, let's just soak it in and think positively.

Thankful

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you.

Myspacious and finally free

Dear Myspace,

It’s not you, it’s me.

I think we both knew this would never last. In the beginning, we spent so much time together. I couldn’t go more than 10 minutes at work without knowing what you doing and who you were doing it with. I was so insecure about being the older woman. I was sure that we wouldn’t get along because I was over the age of consent for To Catch a Predator, I didn’t know how to make those cute little clever hearts and thingamajigs on my display name, and I had absolutely no pictures of myself standing before a mirror in a dusty dorm bathroom with my butt sticking up in the air showing off my thong and pursing my lips and trying to look cute while trying to capture the image on my mom’s “Buy 1 Get 3 Free” Nokia 6310.

But I was wrong. I loved you and you loved me back. You helped me reconnect with old high school friends, work buddies, and guys from Auburn whose last names’ would escape me as I vaguely tried remember their faces through the disorienting haze of smoke, patchouli, and black-lighting that made me powerless to curly-haired, lanky, Chuck Taylor-wearing 6^th-year seniors. I am forever grateful.

Hey. Forget what you’ve heard. This is not about someone else. I know I’ve been neglecting you. I used to take such joy in picking my new song for the week and changing my profile to some obnoxious Auburn wallpaper just to annoy any so-called “sports fan” that didn’t have the sense to support the Tigers. War (Damn! Damn! Damn!) Eagle. I know you’re heard about me posting pictures and the like elsewhere. I thought I could have you both. But it’s just not right.

Listen, Pooh Bear. I’m getting up there in years and I need more substance in my life. I’ll be 30 soon and like it is so eloquently put in the critically-acclaimed Legally Blonde, I need a Jackie… not a Marilyn.

This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later (when I log in under my friends’ accounts). I’ll think of you often…and fondly.

Best,

Andrea

Formerly member number 101,380,978

Siilly

I am OBSESSED with Kristen Wiig. I'd go into detail, but I couldn't do her justice.

Here are a few of my favorite Wiig characters:

Orgasmic Surprise Lady


The Innovative Virgania Horsen


and of course, Penelope


Hooray for smart, successful, beautiful, funny women.

Sexually Chocolatey

Has Obama already picked a band for the Inaugural Ball?? Hmm...

While earning an education at Auburn, I somehow also earned the nickname Sexual Chocolate. Probably because I spent more time doing impressions of Randy Watson and Sexual Chocolate than I did in political science.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the source (shame!!), Sexual Chocolate is the fabulously baby-blue-polyester-suit-with-the-butterfly-collar-wearing backup group for Randy Watson. Who's Randy Watson?? Randy Watson is the Jheri-curled singer from "Coming to America," one of the most (fill in any synonym for "freakin' awesome" here) films ever dumped in Wal-Mart's "2 for $10" bin. But I digress...

Without fail, upon entering Buffalo's on Magnolia Ave., I'd get at least a couple "Sexual Chocolate, ladies and gentlemen. Sexual Chocolate!!" from my wildly hipp-tastic group of friends who were full to the rim of penny beer and chicken wings. Why, you may ask, would I want to associate myself with such a visually and fashionably degenerate group?

Because they are America's finest. Coming to America's finest.

Enjoy. Thank me later.

Snuggalicious

This could be me.


Or this! I'm not picky.

While I have shared my love for the Snuggie with most of you, I feel it necessary to reiterate the point. I heart Snuggies. As a matter of fact, the only thing keeping me from owning a sassy sage-colored Snuggie is my own inability to cope with paying shipping and handling for the free Snuggie. What that says to me is that I have to use my (parents') hard-earned money to buy my own Snuggie and they will give me one free. (Not that it will be hard to find someone to dump that extra Snuggie on, ya feel me!?!) But I truly feel like I'm getting jipped by having to pay 16 bucks in shipping charges.

My mom, a jack of all trades, has been trying to convince me to let her make me a Snuggie that is even better than the one on TV. And to that I say- come on, mother. The Snuggie is one size fits all. The Snuggie allows me to read a book AND eat popcorn in a cold room that seems to be cold for no apparent reason. The Snuggie has no material on the back. So... I guess that means the Snuggie is more of a seamless, backwards,Kriss Kross-looking, pocketless tarp of a jacket that I would not be caught dead in on a normal day.

I still love the Snuggie. In theory.

Humbled

My cousin Lynn is working through the very tough side effects of colon cancer. However, she maintains a super positive attitude and fights to feel better every day. As a teacher at UBCDC in Montevallo for over 30 years, she has helped raise hundreds from around the community and they continue to show her love. Please keep Lynn in your prayers and send her lots of positive energy.

For more on colon cancer from the Mayo Clinic, click here.

Artistic

While I am far from a photographer, I do enjoy taking pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.


My 2 year old turtle Fredrigo Pedro Wynn II (even though there was no predecessor), two days before returning him to the river. I bought him at 6 weeks, and 2 years later the vet suggested he was getting too big to care for at home. And apparently he's a she.
Oopsy.

My nephew Myles, the day his sister was born in 2007. I guess it had been a long day for him and, at one point, he just started staring out of the window. He looked so grown up and reflective.

One of many sleepovers with my beautiful niece Londyn Arissa.

Arissa at bath time. To me, this photo epitomizes what it is to be a kid.
Here's to never growing up.

Infatuated

Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way. I love Anderson Cooper. I love looking at him, listening to him, watching him with pre-election holograms of will.i.am. Yes, I know he kinda looks like a ferret. Yes, I know he laughs like a prepubescent school girl. But I just cannot get enough.

Let's have a look.


I mean, seriously. Seriously. Somebody should warn security at the CNN center because if AW and AC just so HAPPEN to cross paths in the men's restroom because I get a little bit off course on the guided tour (those maps are SO misleading) I cannot make any promises.

I know this may seem like a bit much, but at least I'm not this woman.

Inspired

After talking about it for more than a year and stalking my friends' blogs, I've decided to officially step of the ledge of reality and into the blogosphere. There is so much crap and negative energy on the internet and while I cannot guarantee that this will not be crappy, I assure you that I will not perpetuate hate. I will however, spend a great deal of time on my unrequited love for Anderson Cooper.

In addition, I'd like to give a peek into what is going on inside my head. I'm surrounded by a great group of people from every walk of life and they have helped mold me into the fabulously well-rounded person I am today. They've rubbed off on me and (for better or worse) I've rubbed off on them. I am an amalgamation. (Sorry about that...I was also an English major.)

Funny. Serious. Outgoing. Creative. Shy. Outspoken. Laid back. Demanding. Professional. Goofy. Productive. Girly. Inquisitive. Original.

And so it begins. I hope you laugh, scratch your head, scratch your nose, have SOME reaction. And if not maybe it's not me, people, maybe it's YOU!

Okay. It's probably me.

Andrea Adjectivally.