Fierce

Dear Blog,

You know that old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same?" Well, it's true. Hence the following photos.



Photo taken in March '06





Photo taken in March '08.

NYC: Check
Prospect Park Subway Stop: Check
Dirty blonde hair: Check
Big, black jacket: Check
Cream scarf: Check
Blue bag: Check
"Get that ^&*()%! CAMERA OUT of my FACE or I WILL SHOW YOU where you can stick that &*(_^*$%& CAMERA" look on my face: Double check.

xoxo,
Alison

Spu-Ring!!! (Spring)

Dear Blog,

I love me some spring and thankfully it came last Thursday! I've been rockin' and rollin' my Vespa to work everyday and I gotta say, I think I'm in love. It adds about 5 minutes to my getting ready for work routine but it's totally worth it. I'm still bringing people joy and at least once a day someone in their car beside me rolls down their window and asks me as many questions as time allows about the Vespa. In my mind, as soon as the light turns green they're driving on over to Vespa of Charlotte to buy one and I've done my duty to help save the earth.

Alas, there is ONE thing missing from the Vespa. A cup holder. Y'all know I'm addicted to my coffee and I've been strug-a-lug without my 3 cups o' joe in the a.m. But, Aaron fixed that. He fashioned me a cup holder! He's so smart and talented and blah blah blah. (Picture to come soon.) I tested it out this morning and it firmly keeps my cup in place and THAT gave me joy. Take a look;





So, this past weekend was Easter and I think Easter is a great holiday. I do think it is one of the most holy holidays and I like that the fan fare around it is less intense than Christmas and of course, I love the insane focus on candy! I think this might have been the first Easter I wasn't with my family, instead I was with my best good friend Leigh's family and helped support cute little Miles get baptized. He sure is a cute little sucker and every time I'm around him my heart of stone turns to mush and I see a glimpse of hope that I too, might be a good parent. Aaron and I were matchy matchy at church and everyone was like, what's up with the matchy matchy? What's up with it? Duh. Matching is totally coming back in style. So do it.

I'm sorry this blog is totally random but I have nothing to write about. I'm going to New York this weekend to see some of my fave New Yorkers, y'all know who you are. When I come back, I'm beginning the 40 Days of Yoga program at our studio. The participants are enlisting themselves to do yoga 5 days a week at the studio, once a week at home and then are given one day of rest. I know all of my non-yoga friends are like WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU HIPPIE, VESPA RIDING, FREAK? Well, don't worry non-yoga friends, I will keep you all abreast of my progress and let you know if I have any life altering experiences during my 40 days.

I know you wait with bated breath.

xoxo,
Alison

Normal, everyday conversation

Dear Blog,

The following conversation was had at 9:25 am this morning.

Alison: Johnna, it's 5 'til, better get your butt in the classroom.
Johnna: It's packed in there! What's up with that?
Alison: It's Good Friday, most people have today off.
Johnna: What's Good Friday all about?
Alison: Today is the day Jesus was crucified.
Johnna: Shit. That's heavy.
Alison: Don't worry though, on Sunday he raises up from the dead and you get to sing "Up from the Grave He Aroooooooooooooooooooose!"

xoxo,
Alison

Matey-moon

Dear Blog,

So, one of my best friends from college is pregnant. Her name is Mate. It's still kind of unreal to me that she is pregnant and quite frankly, sometimes I forget. (whoops) It's not that her pregnancy is not important to me but I'm just not USED to the idea of MATE having a CHILD. That is so grown-up and kind of intimidating. I keep forgetting that I'm officially a grown up, sometimes I feel like Aaron and I are just playing house and I'm going to wake up from this dream and be freaking out about a pre-cal exam at 8:00 a.m. Babymate is due at the end of April or the beginning of May and Mate and I wanted to go to Charleston for the weekend, just the two of us, to have a mate weekend before life changes. Mate taught me two very important things about pregnancy that I did not know that I will need to remember if/when this woman decides to have little brats children.

1. A babymoon! Apparently, before you are banned from traveling because you are to push out a little booger, your husband is supposed to take you on a fantastic trip called A BABYMOON! I think that idea sounds fabulous and have already planned my babymoon to Maya Tulum and dreaming of my virgin mai-tai's...yuuummmmm. Since Mate and Caleb aren't going on a babymoon, we termed our weekend the Matey-Moon and I hope it sufficed as a trip before Babymate is born.

2. A push-prize!!! Yes, folks, that is exactly what you think it is. You get a PRIZE for PUSHING a BABY out of your HOO-HOO. I mean, that really sounds enticing to me because someone is going to have to strongly convince me that having children is worth the time, money and responsibility before I willingly comply to pushing a baby out of my hoo-hoo. I'm just sayin'.

So, in the midst of my learning about these two very important items dealing with pregnancy, Mate and I were in the middle of a tornado. I'm like why do we have to deal with tornadoes during our matey-moon? It was stressful. The very overzealous weathermen were scaring the DAYLIGHTS out of me warning about this stupid tornado! I seriously thought I was going to die. Not only was I worried about dying, I was worried about having to become McDreamy or something and pulling out mate's baby in case it decided to come early during the stress of the "WORST STORM TO HIT CHARLESTON EVER IN THIS CENTURY OR EVER IN ALL OF CHARLESTON'S EXISTENCE EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER! GET IN THE BASEMENT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY!" So, I'm texting Ron and my family telling them that I love them, I'm also lookin' up on the interweb how to deliver babies in case something decides to happen. While I'm huddled in a basement with my dear pregnant friend, reminiscing on my short 27 years of life, laughing over the good and bad times, convinced that I'm about to be knock, knock, knockin' on Heaven's door, I get a text from my dad. I think to myself surely my dad is going to tell me he loves me and thanks for the being the best daughter a Dad could ever ask for. This is what the text reads: "Clemson beat Duke. Don't die and ruin my day."

Leave it to a tornado to show you who really cares. Thank you Mom, Michael and Ron for sharin' the love.

xoxo,
Alison

Livin' the gooooood liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife

Dear Blog,

My brain jumps all over the place from day to day, hour to hour and minute to minute. So, I thought I'd give my blog readers a smattering of what I think about on a day to day basis.

1. I love the sun, it makes me smile.
2. Working at a yoga studio is so fun because I just get to be honest to everyone, if someone is getting on my nerves our owners encourage us to go to that person and say "You are getting on my nerves...let's talk about why." I have already exercised that right probably more than any other person working there. I LOVE IT!!!! I love being honest.
3. If I love being honest so much, why do I have to be nice to people I don't like? I wish I could just really focus on spending my time and my energy towards people I actually care about and not as much time talking about boring things with people I don't like. But, if they like ME and I don't like THEM, there is a problem.
4. Someone once told me that if there was something that really gave you grief then you were either supposed to write that grievance down on a piece of paper and burn it. I really wanted to burn my call reports from my last job but I didn't have time to start a fire so I just SLAMMED them down to the bottom of my trashcan!!! I mean, I threw that binder in the trashcan like it was a fake Louis Vuitton. Loved every minute of it.
5. I got my car washed today and I felt like a new person.
6. All of the highschool boys at the AutoBell flirted with me and that made me happy because they cleaned my car with an extra zest of energy.
7. Aaron is employee of the month at the Art Institute! He gets an up close parking space.
8. Aaron is doing yoga with me yiiiiipppppeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
9. We're going to NY in two weeks!
10. This Cadbury Egg is delicious. Thank you Jesus for raising up from the dead so we can have Cadbury Eggs.
11. I can't wait to go to Charleston and hang out with my mate and eat some Groucho's.
12. Thank goodness for www.pankates.com, I made some chicken curry soup and it was delicious.

All of those thoughts ran through my head today :) The end.

xoxo,
Alison

Sick Day

Dear Blog,

I know I don't often write about the plight JOYS of being married but I need to warn all of my unmarried friends about what will happen to you once you get married. You're, like, held accountable for, like, everything you do. Everything. (That includes shopping.) Aaron and I have been married for 9 months. Technically there could be a little baby running around now, thank God there is not but that does seem like a long time to be married doesn't it? We don't really ever fight or even have heated discussions, in fact, being married to Aaron is probably the easiest thing I've ever done. But, every once in a while (ed. note: once a month or so) Aaron and I will have a lovely discussion (ed.note: ARGUMENT, RUN!!! RUN!!!) about a few minor but necessary purchases (ed.note: shopping sprees) that I may have.

This past weekend my mom came to town for a beginners yoga workshop at the studio and when she comes we always make a trip to SouthPark Mall. While we were at Nordstrom I found two bags that I HAD TO HAVE. So, I did what I had to do, I bought both. I mean, they are really different. I had a little guilty feeling inside but I just pushed that negative thought aside because I really needed these bags. Cut to the next day. My mom is leaving. Enjoy the following scene:

Alison: "Bye Mom! Love you!"
Aaron: "So, are you going to show me what you bought at the mall?"
Al:"Sure (inner dialogue:F*!K...he's going to kill me)...maybe later"
Aar: "How about now?"
Al: "Okay....I'll go get them.
Alison goes to get her bags and quickly tries to devise a plan about how to explain the purchase of two bags from Nordstrom.
But she can't come up with anything dammit, she's just going to have to come clean. Oh wait, wait, one of the bags can be used to jet-set because we are jet-setters and the other one is just cute. And the jet-setting bag can also be used to ride around on the scooter when I have to carry lots of items...alright, this is getting better and better. Sweet.

Al: "Alright, I bought this shirt that was 50% off...how cute is that? And this hot little number was like 80% off? See how I'm totally a bargain shopper? Aren't you proud of me?
Aar: "Yep, good honey. What's in that Nordstrom bag?"
Al: Well, you see, I needed a bag for the scooter and all of the traveling we do so I bought this bag And then I saw this cute little Marc Jacobs number and I bought it too.
Aar: "You did what?!?!? How much did you spend?"
Al to self: Shit...he's not liking my explanations, what next, what next? Steam is coming out of his ears, what do I do?
Al to Aar: Smiles..."Aren't they so cute?"
Aaron: "Why did you buy two?"
Alison: "Duh. One is blue, one is green, one is big, one is little."
Aaron: "Why can't you just spend $30 on a purse?"
Alison: "EGADS, AARON HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? ARE YOU ASKING ME TO CHANGE? I might have said for 'better or for worse' but I never said 'for real or for fake!!!!!' Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...I would never ask you to change....waaaaaaaaaah"
We then discussed for the next three hours how we could come to a suitable understanding on the ways our $ is spent, but future wives out there...for the love of God, never buy two bags in one day. Take it from me. After all of that was settled, I had to take a sick day (it was Sunday). I couldn't wrestle up any energy to do anything, not even enjoy my bags! It was terrible. I just watched lots of TLC and drank lots of wine. By the way, Jon and Kate plus 8 is a pretty cute show! I think Jon is way cooler than Kate though.

In non-related news, in order to deal with yours truly, Aaron has started doing yoga! Check out the pics. He's also added some of his own modifications.
Observe:
Warrior 2
Warrior 2 with beerification










Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm











Finally, shavasana...with a Yuengling. Never better!

And together we say, Namaste!!

xoxo,
Alison

Wild, Wild, West

Dear Blog,



BellaFrench: Bringin' the dirty South out West; cause you know black people don't like snow.

For real, I don't think I saw one black person when I was in Colorado. Let me think about it...nope, none. I missed my peeps for real. Oh, and to answer the question; "Did she really wear that outside of the confines of the Shurts' household?" The answer is a big DUH. You know I was rockin' that outfit. I wore it to go snowmobiling, which I don't really like, but I did it anyway and I kept myself entertained by lookin' a fool. Husby and I had a great time in CO, to break it down here's what we did; Got there late, woke up the next day and went skiing, woke up the next day and went skiing, woke up the next day and went snowmobiling, woke up the next day and began our descent back East. Oh, and we ate a lot. Aaron's mom is a big fan of cooking. A LOT of food. So we ate a lot of food and that is always fun. Plus, you can eat more out there because the elevation is higher and that in and of itself burns calories so you just need to eat MORE cookies to LIVE. Sounds good to me.

Ohhhhhh, so this is funny. As far as skiing goes, I'm good but not great. I always check the intermediate box when I'm renting my skis. I've done my fair share of falling but nothing has ever happened to me like the following. I decided I needed to try the black diamonds. I find one that looks relatively challenging and give it a whirl, I fall. It's not a big deal, Tony(Aaron's dad) and my main man Paul (Tony's friend) help me back up. I don't want that stinkin' mountain to kick my butt, so I decide to go down again and this time I don't fall! Victory...or not. I turn around to check out my cohorts and I fall down but this time my ski comes off with my boot still attached to it. Clearly, my ski was still itching to ski down that hill. So it did. My ski (with the boot still attached) skiied right on down the hill by itself and ended up in the bank at the bottom of the mountain. Well, what's a girl to do? I don't have a boot on, I don't have a ski on so the only thing I can think of to do is just slide on down the hill on my well cushioned butt. Seriously, it was funny. It's a good thing I don't take myself too seriously because it was mildly embarrassing but I got over it. I gave everyone on the ski lift above me a good chuckle.

That's all I got for tonight!

xoxo,
Alison