The Mates' Reality TV Life

Life goes on

2007-06-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Someone recently told me this...Alison, life goes on...and yes, indeed it does. Indeed it does. Why the cryptic beginning to the blog? I'm making some life changing events. Just like Fergie with the Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani before her and Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block before them, it's time for a solo effort. Some of my blog fans have said, "Al. You should do your own blog, because seriously, we need more of your blogs in our life." I shimmied away from the idea but today is the day. I am fully embracing it. Bring on the newness. I will still blog on Mate TV from time to time. This is where I got my start. Thank you Mate TV. And thank you, fearless blog fans for encouraging me to branch out into the world of blogging solo.

I've already started blogging on the new site. Ch-ch-check it out.
www.bellafrench.blogspot.com

I ain't no hollaback girl,
Alison

Camp Faris in Session

2007-06-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello all you blog readers. Just wanted to keep you posted. I am in Greenville, SC until 7-7-07 (the big wedding date) for "Camp Faris". That's what my Dad calls it. You see, my parents REALLY love me. They are so excited to have me home, living in my house and doing everything with them. But let me tell you, it's pretty intense. I wake up in the morning whenever I want...which is nice...and then Mom and I get in the car and proceed to run about 159 errands. Most of these errands have to do with the wedding and others are just errands I make her take me to do. Today, I faxed resumes to schools where I'm trying to get a job and mailed Mate her wedding gift since I accidentally left it in the car last weekend. UGH. Anyhoo, this errand-running goes on pretty much all day, and includes a lunch break of some sort. The lunch break includes partaking of SWEEEEET tea that I continue to drink for the rest of the day. Because that's healthy. This girl is putting on the pounds. Usually, late afternoon, the matriarch of Camp Faris...Mrs. Rita Smith needs some time to herself, so Faris, the princess heads to workout or naps. So, the last part of the day at Camp Faris that is noteworthy is that I am learning how to cook. You see, this girl only knows how to cook a few select things, so my mom is teaching me how to cook whole meals of food. What's funny about this teaching experience is that we're trying to simulate what it will be like in my new house. For example, I don't have a microwave, so I have to make accomodations for that...I only have one oven and Mom has two. I can't cheat or else I won't have a clue how to do it come July 14th or whatever. Camp Faris finishes up the day with family time. Dad comes home and we eat whatever I've cooked. The other night he almost cried because Mom and I didn't have time to cook dinner and we had to go to the Cracker Barrell. Then a long walk follows with our imaginary dog and last night we even went to TCBY and Baskin Robbins (for mom) afterwards. Tonight was a little different because we went to the Greenville Drive baseball game. La dee da. All you need to know is that I am having a great time at Camp Faris! Duh, the world is revolving around me for a whole month...who wouldn't like it? ;)

I know it's exciting and I know that you're dying to know more...but sorry. Tomorrow night is my bachelorette party and this whole weekend is Caleb's in Charleston, so perhaps there will be stories to tell pretty soon. Until then...

Faris

whoop whoop!

2007-05-21T04:45:00.000-07:00

Who's getting married this week??? ME!!! I have more to post but it's 7:45 and I need to get ready for work. Damn the man, making me work on my "wedding week" :)

As one of my coworkers obnoxiously says every 5 mins,
SMOOCHES!!

Wait for another post from me latra,
Al

Alright, I'm back for the rest of my post!!
So, a couple weeks ago, I was at a really poopy sales training in Augusta, GA for a couple of days. On the real, it sucked. This woman just read out of the sales manual to us for TWO STRAIGHT DAYS. At one point I grabbed a plastic knife left over from lunch and started hacking away at my wrists...I digress, back on course. One of the most RIDIC things they tried to instill in us was how to "close the deal". They said, when we are in a meeting with our client and we're trying to reel in the little fishies, to pull out a calendar and put a big X on today and then a big X on when we are coming back in for the completed contract. Can you imagine? If someone showed me a calendar and started x-ing out the days, I would say um Hello...get out of my office you sales neophyte! And I would most def. use that word because I think it's awesome and I can't ever find a time to use it. Thanks. But, I did put a big X on today and then a big X on my wedding day to show how close it is!! I've decided to include that in this post
.

Woooooooow, aren't you impressed that I'm using something from my sales training? This is how Alison closes the deal. Try to find a man in whatever account I'm trying to close, smile a lot, flirt, show some skin, flash the contract. Holla if you got a dolla!!

Alright. So...there are a lot of things you have to do before you get married. I got my eyebrows shaped and cleaned up, my hair highlighted and touched up a little, I still need a manicure and pedicure and...OH! I've been whitening my teeth!! Here is a picture of my nice, white smile. (Think Ross in that epic Friends episode)

Smooches!
Alison

Moving on up

2007-05-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Moving can be fun, especially if you have advanced notice. In my case, I've will have had about 7 months to get ready for my big move to Augusta. It's fun because I've known my address for that long too. I already know it and it's fun to write it on stuff that I know won't be coming for a few weeks/months. So, lately I've been going through all of my belongings and deciding which things are worthy enough to make the big move and which things I have to say goodbye to. Last night, I said goodbye to a real telephone (like the kind you plug into the wall in your house...omg!), lots of trinkets because I hate trinkets and luckily Caleb does too, and other random things like a Mancala game and one of those squishy things that I used to use to avoid having sore wrists while typing. Last weekend, I graduated from Georgia with my Masters, so earlier this week I had the joy of throwing out allll of my notes and readings from the past two years. I held onto a few key readings that I think will help me if I ever find myself in a debate about bilingual education or confronted with some other topic of debate--because when you get into an argument, you go back into your notes and pull out readings (*note sarcasm*).

I think that moving is really good for the soul because it forces you to revisit memories that you may have suppressed or haven't fleshed out completely. My favorite thing I found was a box with all of my diplomas, awards, test scores, academic and athletic letters from high school, and so many other cool things from my life. "You vain goat!" is what Mama Fay would say.

Top 5 things I found last night when packing:
5. Box of wrapping paper, gift bags, and tissue paper that my mom gave me when I went to college (just so I would be prepared for special events!)
4. My CPR book. I really need to brush up in case I'm able to help in an emergency situation.
3. Some of the tapes that Mate and I used when we recorded "letters" to each other when I was in Costa Rica and our whole Senior year.'
2. A print of the bell tower that one of my youth leaders gave me when I graduated. She was a very special blessing to us in high school.
1. Baggie of tickets....everything from movie tickets to football tickets to concert tickets (think Dave Matthews in high school, Britney Spears, etc.), Falcons, et. The cool thing is that now I've added many more like the SEC championship and the Masters!

Are you moving this summer?

-FBS

Juniors Decision

2007-05-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

Yeeeflippinhaw!!! Dale Junior has left his diddy's racin' team and is gone to another one!!!! Well I'll be gosh deeerned, where is he gone? I bet his diddy is flippin' over his grave.

Well, I just HAVE to know where he's going and I'm so glad that this piece of "news" is covered by all of the major network news this evening and on all of the radio stations.

Blah.
Blah.
Blah.

**I was forced to go to the above race where I am pictured. I documented the hilarity with a picture then promptly put in my earplugs and went to sleeeeeeeeep.

I got tagged!

2007-05-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to Augusta in 2 months! It's really exciting. I'm job hunting right now and that's always time-consuming, confusing, and kind of fun too. It's fun to think about a new routine. Am I weird? Things I'm looking forward to: a shorter commute, teaching younger kids maybe?, getting to know a new school community, and starting a fresh school year. The beginning of the year is so fun. Fresh clean school supplies. Pretty, clean notebooks. Drew, you're probably the only one still reading.

I have been tagged by Merritt to do a thingy.

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names.

1. I always think of weird/scary ways that I might die (i.e. the bridge I'm running on might collapse; a plane might crash on my car; tuberculosis; etc.). It's a terrible habit and not very faithful of God's promise to me.

2. I drive 90 miles a day total commuting to and from work. And I only work part time. I leave between 5:35 and 5:55 each morning. This morning, I had the joy of waking up at 6:20. That was an adrenaline rush.

3. I was obsessed with shoes when I was a little girl. When people asked my best friend Margaret Dennis and I what our favorite things were, she always said "horses" and I said "shoes". I wanted to swim in a pool of shoes.

4. I think it's really scary when someone is dressed up in a costume or wearing a mask. The Smurf at Carowinds did me in as a child.

5. My family's birthdays are on the 1st, 10th, 20th, and 30th of different months.

6. I really like to have pictures up everywhere. On my wall, in frames, on my computer background, on the screensaver, on my bathroom mirror, you name it. Caleb has already warned me that he has different tastes and doesn't quite foresee the large amt of pics in our new house. :(

7. I love Sonic grilled cheeses, Chicken Express custard, TCBY, Bojangles cinnamin biscuits, Duke's sandwiches, and a smattering of other unhealthy treats.

I tag...Mate, Charlsie, and Drew!

XOXO,
FBS

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS MORE QUESTIONS

2007-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm just going to post something to stop the hate. I am sitting here fielding so many questions...SO...MANY...QUESTIONS. Somedays, I wish I could not have any questions directed at me by my students. I mean honestly, it gets REALLY tiring to answer so many questions. And sometimes there isn't a simple answer. Like, "Ms. Smith, I turned in this movie poster and you gave me a 0, why?". Well, I don't know. It's Friday. You got a 0. That's life. You didn't turn it in. And I don't want to spend the next 10 minutes looking for it or otherwise explaining to you that you can't turn it in now because it's been more than the 5 days after the due date that you can turn in late work. No, I didn't lose it. You just didn't turn it in. Teachers don't make mistakes, just students. :)

Just now, "Ms. Smith, what time do we get out of here today?". Well, that's an easy one. Quick answer, and I'm back to my blog. Some days the questions don't bother me. Other days I want to scream.

Guilty Pleasures?

2007-04-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those guilty pleasures kind of days. The kind where it rains all day and the only thing you can WAIT to do when you get off work is go home, kiss your dog....and your man too, get in your sweats and watch E! until your eyes blur. And then tomorrow when the girls at work ask what you did last night, you evasively reply, "Oh nothing, you?" When really, you just had one of the best nights of your life! You just don't want to admit it. So that had me asking myself, why are our guilty pleasures....guilty? If something makes me happy then I should just enjoy it, right? Wrong. I love hip hop music and very cheesy pop songs, I get great pleasure from listening to Britney Spears' "I'm a slave 4 u" and Fergie's "My humps" but when someone asks who I'm listening to these days, I answer the newest, cutting edge artist that people may not have heard of yet, because that is coooooooool. Then I get in my car and ask myself, "How come everytime you come around my LONDON, LONDON BRIDGE WANNA GO DOWN?"

Recently, I've changed jobs. Actually, I've changed careers. And I find myself feeling kind of embarrassed telling people what I'm doing because it's not as OFFICIAL as my previous job. BUT, it makes me happy. Therefore, why be embarrassed? So, no more!!! I'm following Sheryl Crow's line of thought, "If it makes you HAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYY, it can't be that BAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAD".

Update: 8:19 p.m I got home from work at 5pm. Kissed my dog. Kissed my man. Took a nap until 7 pm. Woke up. Called Pizza Hut. Ordered large pizza. Ate two pieces. Ate a wonderful Reese's Peanut Butter Egg. Didn't feel guilty about a thing. Progress.

Straight Chillin'

2007-04-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I love it when people ask me to blog or say that they read our blog, etc, because it means they like it! And it is my main goal in life to please people. Alright, who in the heck am I kidding, we all know I'm a selfish little twit. So, I thought I'd write in and tell everyone about my new job. So, far I'm really, really, liking it!!! Everyone in the office is around the age of 30 and they don't question my dark fingernail polish because they automatically know that black nail polish is the hardest color to keep on the shelves this season. (Don't ask me why!! Why in the heck did leggings come back in style?? "What goes around, goes around, goes around comes all the way back around....") And I found out there are amazing perks involved with this job!!! My new coworker Alexis said that Neiman Marcus holds privately held fashion shows and gives out swag bags to the attendees...and skirt! is an attendee!! I will definitely be staying around for that one. I found out today that I'm going to hear the founder of Spanx speak at the Westin hotel in a few weeks. (Aaron has no clue what Spanx are, but we girls know that they help a sister out from time to time!) So, the job is great. They haven't unleashed me yet, I'm still training and am going to Charleston next week for some training. But, for now, it's all good.

xoxo,
Alison

It's been 6 months, so it's about that time!

2007-03-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, I've been raising a lot of hype on Facebook by saying that I'm excited and tune into the blog for details....and then I never blogged. Which raised the question, What is Alison excited about? Did she buy a house, is she pregnant, (HELL to the no!!! I have a very freaking CUTE wedding dress to fit into in 2 months....child please). Well, the reason why Alison is excited, I like talking in the 3rd person, is because she got a new job!! You know the seasons are a changin' when I start looking for a new job, but I'm thinking this one might be the one that will last longer than 6 months or a year. I mentioned on a previous post that I was thinking about changing careers and getting the hizzy out of banking/mortgage, well, I have successfully completed that wish. Starting on Monday I'm going to be working for Skirt! Magazine. I will be doing some marketing and advertising sales work for them. I think it's going to be great fun. All the people in the office are around my age, cute, know how to dress, and have Mac's. I think I will fit in famously. I took a picture of the latest magazine and am including it on this post. I'm thinking this new job will launch my career and pretty soon I will be taking over Vogue. Watch out Anna Wintour....Alison's in town!
xoxo,
Alison

Ankle blues....still?

2007-03-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of my ankle sprain. SAD. Why so sad, you ask? Well, because my ankle still hurts! No, it's not swollen anymore. But, I can't really run that much these days. I thought I might train for the Cooper River Bridge run, but then I realized that my stupy ankle is still giving me trouble. Doctor, doctor, give me the news...what is up with this beotch!? Seriously, I would appreiciate some med advice from all the smarty pants docs that read our blog. Am I supposed to still be having pain when I run 1 year post injury? It's the inside of my ankle that hurts. Boo.

So, this week is the GHSGT (Georgia High School Graduation Test), which means nothing. The 11th graders take the test and I get the pleasure of spending alllll morning with my 9th grade homeroom class. I have already shown three movies: Toy Story, Shrek 2 and Toy Story 2. I wanted one of my students to bring Happy Feet, but I'm still wishing. I haven't seen that movie yet! So, I'm looking at their faces, bored out of their minds, hoping for Spring Break, watching this movie.

I got nothing else. 2 weeks and 1 day til thesis is due. Not much else going on. Going to Charleston this weekend for the big Cooper River Bridge Run. MATE and her man can't go this year which blows; BUT Drew, Court, Karis, Rebecca, Jenny and many others will be there. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAY

Love to all in blog world and the haters too,
Faris

The Office

2007-03-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

Aaron

Jim

Seriously, everywhere we go someone tells Aaron that he looks like Jim from the office. What does Blog world think?

xoxo,
alison

RAMblings

2007-03-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

I know that my life is seemingly boring to the blog readers, but maybe they need to find a new blog if this one isn't cutting it. I mean seriously, I'm a pretty stressed out lady right now and I've been trying my best to keep those negative thoughts from encrouching on the blog. But I've been forced into it, dangit. So, I'm getting married in July. And I'm graduating from my Masters program in a month. Which means that I am working on my thesis and my Masters portfolios along with taking my 3 last classes of my program. And I'm planning my wedding. Did I mention that I'm trying to find a job for next year too? The bottom line is that I'm stressed to the max and apologize to blogworld for A) not ever blogging and B) for not providing exciting/scandalous/happy blogs for all to read. This is my life, so get over it!

In other news, I just bought the CUTEST Jessica Simpson ballet shoes that are black with white polka dots. I want to wear them every day. Caleb says that I say the word "polka" funny. I actually pronounce all the syllables. "Poll-ka". He says, "Poh-ka". Tomato, tomaaato, :) What else? I'm giving a presentation to the student teachers of UGA on Friday that I'm really excited about. Who wouldn't like the opportunity to share fun ideas with a bunch of impressionable new teachers? It motivates me and gets me excited about teaching. It's been a pain to prepare for, but now that I'm about ready, I'm excited.

Who is NOT ready for the Cooper River Bridge Run? THIS GIRL. I can barely run 3 miles without having an "asthma attack". AKA an "I'm really tired coughing fit". Haha, anyway, I see the Bridge run as a great excuse to hang out with fun friends down in Charleston (one of the most amazing places on Earth). I wouldn't miss it for the world.

-Fair Bear

It never gets old

2007-03-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I recently joined Facebook because I was receiving peer pressure from my friends. And, I'll have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it thus far! It's a little narcisistic but who doesn't like to look at pictures of themselves and see how many "friends" they have? I do! Anyway, so Mate wrote a comment on my Facebook that now we have another outlet to reunite. But, really, let's face it Mate, do we really need ANOTHER outlet to reunite? I talk to you every other day, we blog, we write comments on the blog to each other, and I see you like once a month. But, now, I get to stalk you and know what you are doing 24/7 so it's like we never even left college!!! Woohoo!! So, Mate and I reunited this weekend for her very first wedding shower and after all of the pretty pictures were taken we had to take some retarded ones to make up for the pretty ones. We were sitting in front of her mom's computer literally cracking ourselves up at how contorted our faces were. For some reason, Mate and I have taken funny face pictures ever since 1999 and we laugh at them every single time. Thus, the title for this post, it never gets old.

Love to my mate!!!!

xoxo,
Alison

Ahhhh summer

2007-03-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I am in love with summer. I love summer like Snoop Dogg loves the marijuana. I guess growing up in South Carolina and not ever really having a spring, my mind kind of bypasses spring and makes me want the long, hot, HUMID, days of a Carolina summer. It's really hard to explain but it's like as soon as the warm days start my outlook on life gets a lot brighter and I'm just happier as a person. It's a really good thing that Aaron has no intention of ever wanting to move anywhere where there is bitter cold cause I'ma (that's for you Mate) be honest. I'm not going. Take me where there is a moderate climate and I'll be fine. I'm especially excited about this summer because there are a lot of fun things going on!!! Both of the mates are getting married, faithful blog reader Adelaide is getting married and my granddad is getting married!!! We had a mini celebration for him last weekend at my parents house. Isn't that cute?? I'll have to include a picture of him and his new main squeeze. Plus I'm excited about this summer because at some point or another I'm going to have a new job. I don't know what yet but I've decided that I can't work in mortgage anymore and that's it. I'm totally open to suggestions of what my new career should be.

xoxo,
Alison

Look at me, I'm special

2007-03-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Please read this article. It's SUPER interesting. When you're reading it, try to think about if we are at all like this. Do we fit into "Generation Me"? I mean, I have a facebook page. Many people have Myspace. What are those? Look at me pages. Here I am blogging. Read about me, look at me. I'm special.

College students think they're so special

-Faris

Shopping 2 the Max

2007-02-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, I figured it was time for someone to blog. I think it's my turn. Have any of you guys been to Ikea? It is like the most exciting store I've ever been in. Especially now that I'm in "move into a real house"/"be domestic" mode. They have everything you could possibly want and more. And it's super cheap. So, my uncle Walter and I went today after a fabulous brunch with British Jason, Darren, and a new friend Chris at Sun in my Belly. We spent hours in Ikea gawking at the cool stuff they have AND at the interesting people in there. If someone wanted to kill a large amount of people, they should bomb Ikea on a Saturday or Sunday. Well, that was morbid. Anyway. the coolest part is that they have all these little helpful things that you reallly really needed, but didn't remember you needed til you saw them. And, did I mention...they are cheap. So, you're wandering around and you keep picking up little $1.50 or $2.00 items that you "have really been needing" and my grand total at check out was $15.00!! I mean, I had a gift card for more than that and everything. Well, I was excited because I got Caleb some magnets because he's been taping things to his frig and we all know that's not the correct way to do things. And I got some things that I forgot I needed like a pretty dish scrubber and a TV tray type thing for when I eat on the couch. :) I even got some adorable notecards that are pink chickens!! How jealous are you? You know, it's the simple things in life.

--Faris

house update

2007-02-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

Too bad so sad. We walked from the contract. The sellers amended the contract and Alison and Aaron aren't retards and didn't agree to their terms. They said if the house didn't appraise we would still have to pay full price for the house, i.e, bring extra money to closing. Wait...what? Who would agree to that? They're essentially saying they don't think the house is going to appraise.

Oh wells. We'll just keep on house hunting.

OMG. Our dog is SO FREAKING UNBELIEVABLY CUTE.

xoxo.
Alison

????

2007-02-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

Could it be true??? Are we buying a house? That's so OFFICIAL SON. We gotta do WORK. (Whenever I say that it reminds me of my favorite show Rob and Big)

My heart belongs to this man.

Don't I look natural in the kitchen?

xoxo,
Alison

When I chirp shawty chirps back...

2007-02-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

That title has absolutely nothing to do with anything but I heard that line in one of my many favorite rap songs today while I was working out at 2 in the afternoon because we had a SNOOOOOW DAAAAY!!!! Hells yeah. Aaron's school was canceled today as well so we've had fun doing nothing today except working out and playing with Bella. I guess I have a couple new things to report. A couple weeks ago Aaron and I had a photo shoot with our new friend Amy, an aspiring photographer who wanted to get some good shots of a hot young engaged couple. So, OF COURSE, she chose us. Word. The picture of Aaron and I in front of the mural is one of the 800 she took in Uptown Charlotte, if you click on the picture it'll get bigger...it's magic! I was a little embarrassed walking around having a papperazzi follow us, but I just used it as a good learning experience for when I become famous. Watch out America's Next Top Model!! Alright, moving onward today it snowed and Bella had her first snow experience. She didn't really care about it. She sniffed around a little bit, but then it was business as usual with a pee and a poop. Enjoy the pictras.

****UPDATE****AARON AND ALISON JUST MADE AN OFFER ON A HOUSE!!! STAY TUNED BLOG WORLD.
xoxo,
Alison

Lucky 7-7-07!

2007-01-23T16:45:00.000-08:00

I'm getting MARRIED kids! On lucky July 7, 2007! Check out this article about it, This past weekend, while watching the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, my boyfriend Caleb asked me to be his wife. It was so super exciting. The ring is gorgeous and more than I could have ever asked for. I am such a jewelry person, so having such an awesome piece on my hand at all times is the BEST. And it reminds me of my amazing man and all the excitement we have to come.

Even more fun has been calling and emailing everyone to share the great news. I have loved catching up with my friends and family. My parents drove down to Athens immediately and brought us champagne and an Emily Post etiquette book (our second Bible these days). Then two of our favorite friends took us to dinner...and omg I couldn't stop getting up and going to the bathroom to call my bridesmaids! So, Mate is going to be my matron of honor and I'm her maid of honor. How much fun! We promise not to bore the blog with too much of our engagement bliss.

Here is a pic of Caleb asking my Dad's permission. It's so weird finding out later that things have happened that you didn't know about! And a picture after the engagement.

--FARIS

Is American Idol too mean?

2007-01-19T04:49:00.000-08:00

"Simon telling that guy he looked like a monkey...that was WHACK!"...a comment by one of my first period students that does not usually condone making fun of others. I love my 1st period, by the way. Anyway, I laughed my butt off when I watched the Seattle auditions for American Idol. I thought Simon's faces were hilarious and I seemed to enjoy the bad performances more than the good ones. But, when I got to school on Thursday and talked with my students, I started thinking about how mean it really is. Are these people mentally unstable? Rosie O'Donnell on The View questioned American Idol, saying that they are openly ridiculing mentally unstable people. Well, here's my question for you readers: why the heck do these people try out for American Idol? Even worse...some of the contestants said things like, "my coworkers encouraged me to try out". THAT IS SO MEAN. Would you in good conscience encourage a really dorky person with no talent to go and sit in line for hours and humiliate his/herself on national television? WELL YOU ARE JUST PLAIN MEAN. I'm thinking that YES, some of these people aren't really as weird as they put on...and that they are doing it to just be funny. Like, "Red", I think that he was on there to be funny. His smug little grin when Simon was bashing him gave it away. But other people like girlfriend in the picture above really are just dorky as they come...and shouldn't be encouraged to try out.

On a happier side, I love seeing people do well. The brother and sister pair were awesome...it was adorable how the brother said that his sister was better than he was. Humble people. I didn't know that they existed anymore. Also, there were 2...yes TWO people from my high school (where I teach) that made it to Hollywood. One is a teacher that I know. He is an AMAZING singer (obviously), but he decided not to go because he would have had to abandon his year long teaching contract. I'm sad because it would have been cool to see his cute self on the show...he is a skinny, young white English teacher and he sings like an older, experienced black man. It cracks me up. Anyway...not sure what the girl student that made it decided to do. I guess we'll see.

So what do y'all think, is American Idol too mean?

FYI: I can't get my picture to post because I'm...well...slow. Help!

--Faris

My name is Earl, I mean Alison

2007-01-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Isn't that stupid tv show, "My Name is Earl" about karma? I've tried to watch that show but I don't like it. Anyway, this blog isn't about Earl, but about Karma. You know ever since I got back from Colorado I've had one disaster after another!! I was talking to Mate about it and she says karma is a bitch, but I haven't done anything wrong...I mean sure I'm a little bit vain and like to look at myself in any mirror that's available, and I spend money on clothes that I should give to church, I spend money on shoes that I should give to church, I spend money on Kate Spade stuff that I should give to church, I look up things online that I want to spend money on that I should give to church, I might talk about people behind their backs ONCE in a while, I read perezhilton.com and love wondering if Lindsay Lohan is really putting vodka in her water bottles and lusting after Paris Hilton's newest pair of Louboutin's, but all in all I'm a good person. So, WHY GOD WHY did the ceiling fall in the other morning and why did I jam my toe this morning while plugging in my celly? Seriously, some chicks washing machine broke above Aaron's apt and flooded his house. Oh yeah, and our mascot Bella got out and I had to chase her for 30 minutes during the madness. And then this morning I think I broke my pinky toe and I only have one pair of flats to wear to work and they are leopard print. Enjoy the pics. Oh and no questions about why my fingernail polish is black, people need to watch the E! network once in a while. Black is the new light pink.

Godfather of Soul

2007-01-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. James Brown. James Brown died on Christmas day. I didn't know this until I arrived in Augusta, GA a few days later to visit Caleb. The way I actually found out was this...we called Charlsie on Friday night, desperate for something fun to do. She came through. She said, "Hey, a bunch of famous people like Oprah, Usher, and Michael Jackson are in town for James Brown's funeral. Let's go to their hotel and see if we can meet them!" And so we did. We dressed up like famous people...I have never worn that much make-up in my life. Caleb has never looked more metro in his life. We sat in Augustino's, the hotel bar at the Marriott, from about 7:30-midnight stargazing. Well, we didn't get to see or meet the aforementioned stars; however we did have the company of the following in the bar with us: Jesse Jackson (Greenville native), Don King, Rev. Al Sharpton, MC HAMMER (my personal favorite), and a few other important politicos. Some people thought WE were famous. We left the Marriot and headed to the Partridge Inn, another hot spot, thinking that the Bamboo room would host some celebrities. We were told it was "closed for the evening" by a body guard that I recognized the next day on CNN as one of Michael Jackson's 30+ entourage. We made a stop at the statue in downtown Augusta and you can tell from the picture what state of mind I was in. Caption: Faris, Charlsie, the Godfather of Soul, and Maggie. Saturday, Caleb and I watched the funeral on CNN like it was a suspense film. We squealed like little girls when Michael Jackson came out and gave a speech. When was the last time he made a public appearance? OMG that was a fun few days!
-Faris

Edited for content

2006-12-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

The administrators of blogger made Mate Tv take down the previous post because of its explicit content.

Ramblings

2006-12-11T15:39:00.000-08:00

My neighborhood is whack. Seriously, I am so sick of it. Now before I say anything, I have to say that I am very blessed to live in such a nice neighborhood and I'm very appreciative that my parents have bought this place for us. So back to my rant. The Woodlands is placed right smack in the middle of two lower-income neighborhoods. What that means is that there are ALWAYS people wandering through our streets...well, that was until they started strategically placing cop cars throughout the neighborhood. I'm not sure what an empty cop car does, but whatev. So anyway, I noticed last night what these people have decided to do instead of cutting through the Woodlands. They walk along the fence that is right across from my house...and it's CREEPY. They are all sneaky and stuff. People are literally coming from work and stuff walking along the fence line. Go ahead, anonymous, judge me.

I love the show Rob and Big. It's hilarious. Those two could not be anymore of an unlikely pair...but that's why I love it. When Big is so excited about eating a burger...hahahahaha...

So, Caleb and I got our Christmas tree! The story: he wanted a small, cheap one because he is not going to be home much this season and of course I don't live in Augusta to enjoy it either. So, we see all kinds of expensive trees, but finally find the perfect tree. We wanted to go to Big Lots to buy all the stuff first so we told the Xmas tree people we'd be right back. So we proceed to Big Lots and get all kinds of ornaments, ribbon, lights, etc...only to go back and find the tree place closed. So, all was sad because I needed to drive back to Athens...so Caleb sent me into Big Lots to return all of the decorations. I almost cried as I stood in line with his credit card and the bags that we had JUST bought. Well, just like in a movie, right before the cashier returned everything, Caleb yelled into the store to hold on because he had found some cute, cheap trees at Food Lion!!! YIPPEEE!!!

-FARIS

Kick off to Christmas

2006-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hey peeps,

Aaron loves Christmas. Once Thanksgiving is over he's all about some Christmas time. The day after Thanksgiving we went to York county and picked out our tree and cut it down, decorated it all while watching a Christmas movie. We love it. Anyway, last year we started a tradition of having our friends over for a Christmas dinner so this year was the 2nd annual Christmas dinner. We invited 5 couples but 2 of them had conflicts so we had 3 couples come over plus is, so a total of 8 people plus Bella. It's a good thing that not all 5 couples came because seriously almost all of the food got eaten. Our friends like to eat, but they're all so skinny....they must work out. So, after dinner we played Cranium which is so much fun, Alex and Molly won after rolling like 3 purples in a row. We think they stay home and practice how to roll the dice. Whatever, Aaron and I came in fabulous 3rd. Fun times had by all. In other news we got Bella's hair cut, the mohawk was starting to take over her cute little face. We also got her ears trimmed. But before we got her hair cut we had to take a picture of her with a sumo wrestler style ponytail. Pictured above is Molly and Alex and the setup of our dinner and below is cute sumo Bella.

Your mom has facebook

2006-11-29T14:51:00.000-08:00

Facebook. All of you bloggers that aren't on facebook need to get on. It's the best thing since sliced bread. Take today for example, I woke up, got dressed, got on facebook for 10 minutes. Went to work for a school district that doesn't allow the internet to go to the Facebook site (dooooo!). Came home from work and got on facebook. Needed to study for a final exam that was at 2:30; instead spent about 30 minutes on Facebook. Went and took the final exam. Well, the teacher insisted we do our final evaluations first on the computers, so when I was done, what do you think I did? Got on facebook. Hurried through the exam, came home to take a walk. Instead I wasted 15 more minutes on facebook reading my photo comments. Took a walk. Now I'm back. And I've already been facebooking.

What does it have to offer? HOT DAMN. My favorite part is that I can put all my pictures from various events up and everybody and their brother looks and them and puts comments!! How cool is that? It makes me feel special and like I'm the center of attention. Especially with these last set of pictures. It seems like a TON of people put comments. Funny comments. And I didn't even put all of the pictures from the trip up. YET. Anyway, for those of you with stalker tendencies, facebook is for you. You can find out the relationship status, favorite books, most recent pictures, etc etc on your newest crush or beotch you be hatin'. Lord my 1st period is rubbing off on me. Anyway, wish I could post more pictures on here, but it just ain't possible. You'll have to get on facebook. Maybe that's why I don't post more. Because I'm on facebook. Or maybe it's because of crazy anonomi.

--FARIS BUELLER

The two-family holiday

2006-11-28T04:20:00.000-08:00

This year was a first. This year, I grew up a little and decided to do the two-family Thanksgiving. What I mean is that Caleb, my mans, came to my family for part of the weekend and then I went with him to visit his family for the other part. It's hard to do the two family holiday, I have to say. We were in Greenville from Wednesday to Friday, then we drove from Greenville to Nashville, which involves driving on I-40, the most terrifying road on earth. Especially when your driver thinks he's Mario Andretti. So, we went and stayed with Cay's sister and her husband in Nashville for the weekend. His parents came and so did his sister and brother-in-law that live in Jacksonville. So, back up the train to my family's Thanksgiving. All in ONE day (Thursday), we decided to: drive to Charlotte/Lake Norman to have Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's family and then drive back to upstate SC to Williamston to have Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's family and then we went back home. 2 Thanksgiving dinners! Then, I got to eat again on Saturday night with Caleb's family up in Nashville. It must be really hard to be married and have to accomodate everyone's family. We were talking about how we guess that you just have to keep a tally of which holidays you spent with who to be fair. What do you married folks say?

My friend Stewart calls his holiday travels the "Triangle of Death" because his family has to go from Atlanta to Birmingham to Tennessee and back to Atl. I feel his pain.

I'm thankful for the fact that I am healthy. I can run and jump and eat whatever I want. I think I gained some pounds this weekend, but that's probably good. I'm bored at work today. Maybe I'll write another blog in a few minutes. Do I have a picture to attach to this blog? Mate, maybe I'll send you one to do.

-FARIS

We're getting old kids

2006-11-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

We have reason to celebrate the whole month of November here in Charlotte because November is birthday month!!! On November 6th, I turned 26. On November 11, our friend Paul turned 26, and on November 17th Aaron turns 26. For those of you reading closely, yes, I am older than Aaron, I robbed the proverbial cradle. I like having one up on my mens. Alas, I digress. So, I love November because it's like a party all month!! I used to call November my birthday month, but now that Aaron's birthday is in November as well, I get the first half of the month and he gets the second half. So, today is November 15, the end of my bday month. ***Sigh*** Thanks to all the peeps that came out to celebrate with me at Mama Ricotta's and here is a pic of what Aaron gave me! A smokin' hot ski jacket. I should put a picture up of the jacket I was skiing in. It was one of those Land's End jackets we had in middle school. Yep, I had my previous jacket for 14 years. So, thank you Aaron for bringing my ski gear to the 21st century. Peace out kiddo's.

I'm always cold

2006-11-06T05:41:00.000-08:00

Why am I always cold? I think that starting in mid-October and spanning through mid-May, I am cold 23/24 hours per day. I realized this over the weekend. And I was in FLORIDA for goodness sakes. Honestly, I was cold every second. I was cold in the car, inside, outside, awake, asleep. My boyfriend was about to kill me because he is the opposite. He is always hot: driving with the window down in 40 degree weather and running the AC at night. Do y'all think that I'm going to get even colder as I get older? That rhymes. Kinda. What if we didn't have heat? I'm not sure that I would have survived in the olden days.

Why does everyone call their hometown or college town "God's Country"?? I got an email this morning from a coworker and he was like..."I'm going to God's country this weekend to watch the Auburn Tigers take on the bulldawgs." I've heard people refer to the following places as God's country: Auburn, Athens, Georgia in general, Alabama in general, North Florida, and the South in general. I'm beginning to wonder what exactly IS God's country. What would God say? WWJD. My boys in my 2nd period, who are presently taking a quiz...and probably failing it...told me that they think it's mostly Alabama people that say "God's Country". Maybe they think that God likes them "extra special" or something.

-FARIS BUELLER

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2006-10-31T05:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween y'all!!! So, as everyone knows Bella the cocker spaniel is the mascot of Mate TV. Actually, I just made that up, but mate, I think that Bella should be our mascot. She is so cute and happy, just as the mascot of our blog should be. I digress, on Sunday Aaron and I bought Bella a costume!!! We weren't planning on buying a costume but this little Bumble Bee just jumped out at us and we couldn't pass it up. So, for one day instead of a dog, we have a bumble bee as a pet. Check it out!! I've also included a picture of Aaron and myself from our engagement party on Saturday night. I'm putting this up because the other picture of me in the marathon photo looks like poop. In this picture, Aaron and I look pretty :)

Frigid 26.2

2006-10-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

I ran the Chicago Marathon. It took me 5 hours 51 minutes and 7 seconds. I got to run beside my best friend, MATE (her real name is Alison). We had fun...for the first 17 miles. Or maybe 13 miles, then we got mean. We ran to 12 miles, then we instituted a run a mile, walk a mile routine. This seems do-able, but you try it. We started bitching at each other and even at the "nice" people cheering us on. Little did we know that the winner of the marathon had suffered an injury upon crossing the finish line. Actually he slipped on the mat (that records your time) and fell backwards on his head. Click on the video on this link (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15391743/)to see his fall. He actually never crossed the ceremonial banner, BUT HE STILL WON. His time was almost 4 hours shorter than mine. Way to go, Kenya. For me, the race highlights were the following: feeling pain at mile 6, dropping my hoodie at 12K and realizing later how cold I was, my ipod dying at mile 12, almost not making it through 15-16 because of my hunger (powerbar was frozen), slurping up GU at mile 17.5 and then gagging, having to stop and walk several times to avoid pooping my pants, trying to be nice to my running partner even though I felt like I hated the world, finally making it past mile 20, seeing amazing people with injuries, disabilities, and real reasons for running keep on going, and finally realizing that I had just checked off something on my list of life goals!! After we got done, we were freezing cold, hungry, but relieved...and LAUGHING!! We hobbled to the subway, which was at least a 10 minute walk away. I honestly think that the worst part of running a marathon was how horrible I felt afterwards. After sitting on "the EL" train for an hour, I was so stiff that I almost started crying. Then I got up and walked to the hotel, went to sleep at 6:30PM and woke up the next morning at 9AM. I'm still tired. Enough for now.

To see pictures of me running, go to www.marathonfoto.com and my bib number is 36116. You know my last name.

-Faris

Chickadees in Cheecago

2006-10-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. Lovers and haters, these Mates are traveling to Chicago on Friday. To. Run. A. Marathon. That's 26.2 miles, folks. So, we've been chatting it up all week about how excited we are about this weekend. Alison, my best friend from high school Drew, another friend Courtney, and I are taking our girl selves to Chicago for a weekend of running and mostly shopping and going out. There won't be any blogging from vacation because of the lack of computer access and the fact that I will be too busy. However, if you guys want to track our progress during the race on Sunday morning (starts at 8AM), you can go to the Lasalle Chicago Marathon website at www.chicagomarathon.com. Okay, here's the website if you want to track us the day of via email or phone. http://www.doitsports.com/results/MSG-signup.tcl?sub_event_id=2161 By the way, you aren't allowed to laugh when it takes us the entire 6.5 hours and we don't even finish the race. We might have just stopped at the American Girl store or something. HAHAHA.

Let's get Campy!

2006-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps. So, last week Aaron and I decided to go camping before all of the campgrounds were closed for the winter. We also wanted to take our cute dog Bella with us and see how she reacted to the great outdoors. Everyone warned us that it was going to be cold and we were like, yeah, we know, but not only was it cold, we woke up this morning and there was frost on the ground. But, obviously since I am writing this post, we made it through the cold mountain nights. Bella was a little overwhelmed with her first camping experience. When we got to our site she started barking at everyone walking by and we were afraid we were going to get kicked out of the campground, but luckily she calmed down. Then she was just so excited that we were all outside. Although, sleeping in a tent really confused her. By the end of the night she was in Aaron's sleeping bag with him. Saturday, we went on a hike with about a 47,000 other people and we were a little disappointed in the hike, because it wasn't even a mile!! It was more like a stroll. There were people out there with heels on. WEIRD. But everyone said Bella was a cute dog, which made us happy. After the hike, Bella was POOPED and from about 3 p.m on, she slept in the tent. Actually, she's still sleeping. Aaron is a camp-master might I add. He was an eagle scout, so he knows how to make a good fire. And, I know how to make good s'mores. Enjoy the pictures.

Hooray for Relay!

2006-10-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today 5 miles became a disappointment. Today was supposed to be my last long run (10.5 miles)...actually I should still be running as I type. Instead, I'm back, sitting at my computer all sweaty, and feel the urgent need to blog. I couldn't do it today...my tummy was hurting and mentally I couldn't get excited about running for 2 hours and then spending the subsequent hours feeling like shit. Let me tell you why I'm mentally losing it with this training...

When we signed up for the Chicago marathon, I was healthy and optimistic. I googled training programs and all. At the time, I was already training for my all-time favorite race, the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston. Well, as some/most of you in blog world know, the world/blogworld came to an end when I sprained my ankle both ways the Wednesday before the race. I decided to train for the half-marathon instead because of the long recovery period that ensued with the damn ankle (about 5 months). And I've been doing great with training. Last week I did a 9.5 mile long run. Until my guy friend Drew (former Chicago marathoner himself) dropped the BOMB on me: THERE IS NO CHICAGO HALF MARATHON. I REPEAT: THERE IS NO HALF MARATHON IN CHICAGO. I feel misled, scared, angry, unprepared, nervous, and stupid for not having checked this out before my training. Now I am faced with an impossible task: 26.2 miles. I can be successful running 13.1 miles; but that's not an option. The LaSalle Chicago Marathon is not allowing me to succeed. I just want to go up there, run a half-marathon, be in the paper, and say I did it. Now I'm afraid of failing because I'm just not ready. They are forcing me to flounder around in a race that is so completely daunting that I don't know what to do!

Until we thought of the RELAY idea. Faris runs 8.75 miles and passes the chip/number to Alison who runs 8.75 miles and passes the chip/number to Drew who runs like hell to the finish line! Team Faris Drew Alison hopefully finishes the marathon in under 5 hours! (...so we can continue shopping and enjoying Chicago of course ;)

Body Modifications

2006-10-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey there blog--So a couple weeks ago I was just feeling frisky and after church I said to my fiance, Aaron: "Aaron take me to the body piercing studio" That's right, I said body piercing studio. So off we went in search of a body piercing place and and I got my nose pierced!! It's so cute, I love it. A lot of people have asked why at the age of 25 do I decide to get my nose pierced, and I think I just wanted to shake things up a bit. Because, I ALWAYS follow the rules and do everything I'm supposed to and so that day I decided to do something different that would not be too drastic/dramatic for my conservative work environment. Speaking of work, there's this one guy there who is the office gossip and he like flipped out when I showed up with my new body adornment and asked me if I had checked the dress code and did I think it would affect my business??!! It was totally annoying, especially since my bosses didn't care AT ALL. He's such a busy body, mind yo' bidness. Anyhow. It was cold in Charlotte this weekend, and I loved it! I'm ready for fall weather. As soon as I charge up the camera, I will take a picture of my new nose piercing :) Oh, the reason it took a couple of weeks for me to post this is because I wanted my parents to experience my little rebellion first hand and not read it on the blog. My mom's reaction was funny "AHHHHHHHHHH, YOU ARE RETARDED!!!! AARON WHY DID YOU LET HER DO THAT??? Oh well, let's go shopping" Then my dad didn't even notice it, how disappointing, I had to point it out to him. But, very typical of my dad he said in a very succint manner, "Alison, that's stupid"

NEW YORK IS IN THE MOTHERFREAKING HOUSE

2006-09-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Alright, so this a-non-y-mous person is getting on my last nerve (not really but I'm going to pretend) and so when thinking of how to act like some crazy bee to get this anonymous off my back, the infamous New York from Flavor of Love came to mind. FLAVOR FLAAAAAAV!!!! That B. is crazy, and she's so crazy that I love her. I'm going to digress off the anonymous hater and talk about Flavor of Love for a minute. That show is so bad. I mean terrible and I wasn't watching it until Flav brought New York back and my BFF Tiffany called to let me know. Anyway, New York is great t.v. So, back to the blog. Anonymous, why are you hounding me so much?? If I have something to say then I'll write it, but as of late I've been busy with real things...you know, like WORK. Why aren't you working anonymous?? But, I do have a couple of things to kind of write about. So, this blog thing is getting kind of out of control because a good amount of people are reading it and I had to call and apologize to my friend Landi in New York (that's a shout out) because she found out that I was engaged, via the blog. How sad. And it's like I know there are people that I need to call but sometimes I just don't feel like talking on the phone...you know? I know that's a pathetic excuse, but it's the truth. I do have a funny story but that's another blog for another day but look for the lesson coming out of that blog being, um why are you talking to me BOB?

Here are some pics of the day Mate and I went to the UGA/USC game. Holler. Give it upto Megan doin' the dirty with the funnel. She's the epitome of the Furman elite with the lighter stuck in her tube dress.

And below is the pic of me and the crew, the FLIPCUP champions!!!

POSTED BY ALISON

Teedy-bopperness

2006-09-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Omigosh I am turning into the biggest pop music FREAK. I want to share with you all the last 5 songs I downloaded onto my Ipod: 1st: Nich Lachey: "We built it up...to watch it fall, like we meant nothing at all". 2nd: Jesse McCartney: "You've got me right where you want me" 3rd: Seether: "Honey, why you callin' me...so late?" 4rd: Jojo "It's just a little too late, a little too wrong..." and 5th: Mat Kearney: "there's nothing left to lose...". Lesson learned about Faris is that she is a complete teedy-bopper and has to download songs that are already played 8 bazillion times on the radio and on 20 on 20 XM station.

In other news, Mate is completely MIA, so everyone in blogworld, including myself is worried about the whereabouts and happenings of this Alison Williams. ET phone home.

I am AS WE SPEAK putting off my long run until tomorrow because of the awfulness that I feel after I do my long runs. I feel like I have the flu and stomach virus and depression all at once. I can't miss work tomorrow because I'm proctoring the GHSWT or something like that (writing test). Whatever, sounds great to me because it's 2 hours that I get quiet kids and I can get a bunch of stuff done. :)

Lastly, I'm looking for a fabulous dress for the Ole Miss/Alabama game. Anyone want to help me?

--FARIS

XM Radio "Radio of the Future"

2006-09-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

OK. Does anyone here have XM radio? Well, I do. When it first came to be years ago, I invested in a "Roady", which was a little device that enabled me to listen to XM radio in my old car. I loved listening to all the different stations...and never hearing commercials. I didn't even mind paying $12 a month or whatever it was. When people got in my car, they always asked what the little black box was. "Faris, what in the hell?...you've got more technology in this car than in a recording studio!?" Anyway, I had a lot of things, because, let's face it, I like technology. I like gadgets. I like iPods, computers, cars (they are technology, right?), scantron machines, projector screens, language labs (exciting blog on language lab to come), etc. So, I was such a happy camper. I never got the XM radio officially installed in my car...so I just ran the antenna thing up on my dash board. It was all very ghetto, but my boy at NalleyLexus in Atlanta made my cords all nice and neat, so I was happy.

Then things changed. I bought a new Honda Accord (see previous blog). It came with XM INSTALLED. How cool is that? I can actually see the song name/artist/whatever on my little screen. I can even control my XM radio as I control all my other radio stuff from my steering wheel.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED PEOPLE. XM radio, the "Radio of the Future" that they advertise...is...going to complete crap. It is full of advertisements that make me absolutely looney. Not normal advertisements. Like advertisements about how to discipline your kid or something. And I swear to the good Lord that I heard a McDonald's commercial yesterday. I paused for a moment of silence in remembrance of how amazing XM used to be.

-Faris

Funneling and Flipcup

2006-09-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well, oh well. The Mates time traveled back to 1999 and our college days this past weekend in Columbia, SC. It all started out in the apt of my lovely sorority sister Whitney. We piled into an SUV and quickly realized that the car was full of Furman grads. Blog readers, I cannot tell you the last time I was in the car with all Furman people. I mean, I live in Athens now. So many of my friends went to Georgia. They could care less...they say "Furman, shurman". Well, not really...but you get my drift. Anyway, so we finally make it to our parking spot and mosey over to the REAL tailgate, which consisted of a butt-load of Furman grads...all younger than us...but all fabulous. There was a nice array of Adpi girls, Chi o girls, and Sigma chi boys. Back in MY day, where you would find Adpi and chiOs, there would be SAEs...but this was their tailgate, right? And I have a love for the sigmacheeees as well. So, we chowed down on some barbecue, wine, beer, whatever was there...OH LORD...these things called "Gooey Butter Bars" that Emily Geer brought. Slap my momma good. Then FLIP CUP commenced. All I know is that I went to the bathroom and when I came back, my mate (Alison French Williams) was playing flip cup like a frat boy would. She was so into it...and GOOD at it! This is Alison speaking: nobody but mate knew this, but I had never played flipcup before and I didn't even know what it was!! But I just pretended I knew what I was doing and then all of a sudden, I rocked at it. Word. Back to Faris: It reminded me of the good times that we had at Furman playing drinking games like flipcup, quarters, jackass, cornhall (well I was always drinking when we were playing, right?!). Then, as if this gathering couldn't get anymore like college...THE FUNNEL came out. At this point, I thanked the good Lord that the E-bags were NOT around, as they expert funnelers, shown by BetaSig performances. We got crunk (or at least tried) and wandered across the COCK valley in search of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. After returning from the visit with my padres, we had a slight panic attic when we realized that the parking space previously inhabited by our car was empty...luckily cell phone service resumed and we were able to get someone to come pick us up. Part II: We get back to Whitney's house and everyone from the tailgate was having a "party" at her house. I knew it was a party from the minute I walked in from the glorious smell of pot smoke. Alison again: I believe our exact words were, "Ewww, mate what is that smell? Is that weed? Gross. Well, just follow the smell and we'll be at Whitney's. Pot is so 10 years ago, everyone knows coke is the drug of choice" We all proceeded to watch the Dawgs stomp USC. Whitney found out today that one of the sketch balls that came to the party actually credit carded his way into her apt, causing her to have to replace her lock. If you have any information about this incident, contact Whitney Smith at www.facebook.com. When I walked out of the apt at 10:00 the next morning, there were various randos strewn throughout the loft. I was just happy that I got to sleep with my lover, Whitney. She loves me so much that she slapped herself in the face in the middle of the night. Love you Whit.

PS--Can't get pics to work, as usual. Have great ones, though. Will post soon.

--FARIS BUELLER

ALISON WRITES--I just want to give a WHAT WHAT to matetv reader Becca B in Charlotte. I'm so proud that the word of mate tv is getting around and even though we don't know each other that well, you know about my life :) Leave a comment. Thanks.

Did you miss me?

2006-09-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's me. Faris! Hope all the Faris-haters are okay with me blogging on the mate blog. Well, I first want to apologize for neglecting all of you for the past month or so. I am going to blame it on several things; and in the blaming I will attempt to catch you up on my life! I am a high school Spanish teacher (which I'm scared to claim based on the previous blog), so my school year started about a month ago. So, the start of the year has been great. I teach 3 class periods of kids, Spanish II CP. My kids are absolutely hilarious...you should hear some of the topics they try to get me off subject with...and sometimes they're successful. Go RAMS (hence the pic). Anyway, I'm also in grad school. I leave work when I can and drive back the 42 miles to Athens where I go to my classes. Side note: I hate UGA parking services. Why is parking in life always such a bitch? And why is it that speaking to the manager, or her manager, or her manager's manager's manager never helps? Anyway...I'm also in a fairly new relationship, which is really fun. I flew up to Virginia to meet the parents last weekend. Mate, remember when you met the parents? Or at least when you went to Colorado? CRAZY. So, life has been filled with lots of exciting things...but for all those reasons I've been neglecting the blog. MY NEXT BLOG WILL BE MORE EXCITING AND SCANDALOUS I PROMISE. Well, Mate and I are going to Cola this weekend for the UGA/USC game, so we're sure to have a blog entry when we return. Love all you haters.

-Faris

People get on my nerves and that's it.

2006-09-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a short blog until mate gets her stuff together and starts blogging, but until then it's all about ALISON. So, last night our friends Leigh and Kyle had a small fete for the day of Labor that is today. And at the last minute they invited some friends of theirs whom we know but we don't know that well. So, the girl is a spanish teacher at a local magnet school and everytime I see her she's always talking about how dumb her students are and it just pisses me off, like our schools aren't in enough trouble? Some teachers are walking around talking about how stupid their kids are? Now I know I haven't been a teacher and I never will be but Aaron is a professor and never once has he been like my kids are so stupid with a high and mighty air about him and Faris never has either, which is why I respect them as teachers. Anyway, so that got on my nerves and major strike against her. Then she starts going off about how she's learning french and proceeds to tell everyone she's only taken 3 french classes and can parler le francais tout la journee long. Like seriously she was walking around conjugating verbs and trying to talk to Kyle and I in french. Kyle is a lot more patient than I am and finally i was like, "oui, je parle francais mais seulement quand c'est necessaire et ce soir a CHARLOTTE NORTH CAROLINA, CE N'EST PAS NECESSAIRE." even her husband laughed. I wish people didn't get on my nerves as much as they do. Thanks DAD. (I got that trait from him) but I think the rest of blog world would agree. Amen and Amen. Adelaide, I hope you're laughing as you read this.

WOOOOHOOOOOOO

2006-09-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

Those were my sentiments yesterday when my new employer called me to tell me that I was "drug free and not a criminal" and could start working whenever I wanted to. I said, how about Tuesday? I'm not giving 2 weeks notice at my current job because I don't have to :) Omg. Most of y'all know that this past year at a certain bank located in Fort Mill, SC has been a FREAKING NIGHTMARE. For some reason the powers that be, decided I did NOT need to be working there and I kept experiencing one problemo after another. And, to make matters worse, I kept getting in trouble. Now, I don't get in trouble...I just don't. I believe that rules are there for a reason and so when I kept having to talk my way out of things with my ass of a manager I knew that God must be drunk or something and I needed to get the snell out of there. So, now I'm going to another bank that has a much better reputation and leaving all of the bullshit behind me. Sigh of relief. Last night Aaron and I celebrated and went to a new restaurant we've been wanting to try and then saw Little Miss Sunshine. We liked the move, especially the last part. I laughed more at Talledega Nights but Little Miss Sunshine was probably a better movie in terms of scripts and a plot, etc. I digress. I looked for a picture of me to put up here, but couldn't find that aptly descriped the mixture of hatred for the old job and joy for a new job. So, just imagine me flipping off the camera and laughing at the same time.

Everyone worth Knowing

2006-08-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

So, this is just going to be an update to appease all of the "anonymous'" out there. Mate, feel free to write over whenever you feel like you have something to blog about (which I thought you did, but you haven't blogged yet) So, this week I read the newest novel by Lauren Weisberger, the author of "Devil Wears Prada" and I have to say I was very disappointed. Her novel was the exact same format as the DWP. This dorky kind of chubby girl, well the book makes her out to be chubby but in reality she's probably a size 6 so that makes me obese but whatever, she quits her job as a banker and magically lands this job at a PR firm where she becomes a who's who in New York's social scene and then her life gets out of control and she loses her friends....and is this starting to sound familiar? So, I read the book in about 2 days because I really just skimmed it since I knew what was going to happen. Let's see what other updates I have, Aaron and I booked the reception site and are now looking at the tens of millions photographers, florists, dj's, and whatever else comes along with a wedding. My ring is a little loose on my finger so I'm taking it today to get sized to my finger :( i've managed to put that off for 3 weeks but Aaron and my mom are driving me crazy to take it to get sized because if I lose apparently I might die. That's really all for now, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

I'm gettin' he-otched, beotch!!

2006-08-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

What's up foolio's. So, as blogworld may or may not know, Aaron and I are makin' it official and getting MURRIED. WHAT WHAT? I know, I was just telling Aaron that as soon as we get married that we're going to have to act like a-dults. EEk. He asked for the ring back. Nooooo, just kidding he didn't. Half the time I still can't believe it's real and can't get used to calling Aaron my "fiance" instead of that goofy guy I hang out with all the time. (I'm just full of jokes tonight) So, the proposal was AWESOME and we got engaged at the very first Starbucks in the whole entire world in the fabulous town of Seattle. If that sounds cheesy to some of you, then shame on you!!! It's not. Aaron and my meeting was one of fate as we met outside of Starbucks amongst thousands of people on New Year's Eve in 2004 about 10 minutes before midnight. And no, I did NOT give him a kiss at the stroke of midnight. My parents raised me with morals and they include not kissing strangers. Anyway, I'm soooooooo glad that we are engaged now and if you all are nice then we'll invite you to the wedding!!!! So, these pics are of my face when Aaron asked me, literally and the big fat (phat) rock that now adorns my left hand. If it's tacky to show the ring, I don't care, it's my blog and don't read if you're offended!!!!

******UPDATE******The date of this infamous wedding has now been decided: MAY 26, 2007. Mark yo' calendars.

Run FARR-RIS run!!!

2006-08-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

I love to run. And lately (well, since March 29th), I've had a spear in my side in the form of a severely sprained ankle. But yesterday when I went running, I didn't think one bit about my ankle, about how tired I was from being out late on Saturday night, or even how hot it was for 7:30 PM. I was running all out. Have you ever just run at full speed for your whole run? It feels REALLY good. I had no reason to do it that way, I just liked how it felt. It hurt, but in a good way. Usually when I run, I find myself smiling at people as they pass and having all kinds of chipper, happy thoughts. I think that I have these thoughts because running is something that I can succeed at during a day where I may have failed at other things. But during this particular run, I felt like I was running off a lot of stress and anxiety. If I could just run faster, I can make myself feel better about the first day of school coming up. If I make my body hurt more, then maybe my ankle will suddenly not be injured anymore and I'll be able to run the half-marathon. The more I ran and the more it burned, the less I thought about other worries. Anyone else had this experience with anything? I often wonder what people do if they don't run or bike or hike or something. Hmmmmm.
-Faris

The biggest airport EVER

2006-08-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, get pumped world, cause here we are at Moore County Airport the biggest and best airport this side of the Mason Dixon line. When we told my dad where we were flying out of, his response was the best, "Excuse me?" You see, we are flying from Pinehurst, NC to Atlanta en route to Seattle (we're on vacay) and most people don't know there is an airport here. But let me tell, YESSIREE, there shore is. And boy is it nice. You can't beat the customer service. The person who checked us in, took us through security, took our boarding passes and is our flight attendant. We are best good friends. She really likes my hair cut, but too bad for you Sally Mae at Moore County Airport, there's only one place you can get this 'do and it's not in Pinehurst.
Can you guess which one is our plane?

Crocs. They make me want to barf.

2006-07-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Alright, so do y'all know what I'm talking about when I say crocs?? They're those plastic birkenstock wannabe shoes that come in every single color of the rainbow. When I see people wearing them I seriously get a little angry inside. ESPECIALLY when guys are wearing them? Um, I'm sorry, are you proclaiming yourself to be a eunuch? I don't CARE if they are "the most comfortable shoes in the whole entire universe galaxy to infinity and beyond" wear a pair of flip flops for goodness sake. Well if you are 2 years old or younger then I think they are cute, but if you are their parents then definitely do not. You just look foolish. Now, the last time I was home I saw an orange pair with the Clemson logo on them....and I am just praying to my God that those were a free gift and neither my mom nor my dad are sporting those around Columbia. Sigh.

Other than that, I'm having a good weekend. I had a great interview yesterday with my former boss and he's recruiting me to come work for him at a new company. Then Aaron and I went to GROUCHO'S for lunch, so good. Aaron had to do a little work in the afternoon and after that we went to the pool and swam like 2 little kids complete with races, handstand contests, and who can do a better sneak dunk attack. We finished off the night by going with Mark and Jessica to see Pirates of the Carribbean 2. I liked it. It was just really, really long. My butt started to hurt. That's all for now! Only 8 days til vacation in Seattle. Yay!!! Nobody in Seattle better be wearing crocs. Watch out! Alison's on the hunt.

Lowcountry Highlights

2006-07-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Shalom Bitches. The video is amazing. Super props to Ron. The entire Smith family, including Bebe and Buddy have seen the video and now err'body in the club knows how we do. We having a bblllast down here in the lowcountry. To start, I rolled up on Tuesday and spent a few days relaxin' all cool. I went to the beach, did a little work, went running, you know the drill. I had the pleasure of going on girls' night with the S.L.U.T.S. (Southern Ladies Up to Somethin'). Now that's funny. My mom and her friends call each other the W.R.E.N.S. (Women Recently Empty Nested). What's up with that? Do we need a name for our friend groups? The M.O.T.H.E.R. F.E.R.S. (Mo Old Times Had Every...). Okay, we give up. So Drew came down Thursday night and it began!! On Friday morning, theses ladies got up and ran 45 minutes on the bee-atch. It was an amazing workout. We can still feel the burn. Then we shopped and went to the beach. Watch out, Greenville. Drew got some HOT new threads. OMG interruption. Kite surfing. Drew and I are absolutely intrigued by this sport. First of all, the men who were kite surfing were hot. Second of all, it's cool to watch. We'll learn soon enough.

Hopper got here Friday night. Oh, and the parents. So, we went to a 10:45 PM dinner at a BAR called Red's that's on Shem Creek (see facebook pictures). I had a trailer park scene with a guy who came up to me and said, "I love your breasts". Except, he didn't say that. Drew clarified later that he actually said, "I love your dress". And I was a bitch. Naturally. We went out afterwards in the Upper King area...you know, to "live the game", because that's how we do. I lost my credit card, but gained a group of friends in the process. We were a little OOC, but Millan, Brad, and Chickamunga took good care of us. Today we went out on the boat all day and it was SWEET. A perfect ending to the weekend. Tonight we said, "the hell with going out" so we decided to blog and facebook instead. Awesome. We're sunburned, full, tired, but very very happy after an amazing weekend in the lowcountry.

the wedding

2006-07-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

(Double Click to play)

At last!! It only took a month and a half for the video to get made from Sarrin's wedding. But in the word's of my erudite brother "everybody gotta do shit" and so basically we've had shit to do and had trouble carving out a couple of hours to edit the video. I say "we" like I actually had something to do with it. All of the praise should go to Captain Ron Jeremy. I helped him think of the name of the song by Panic! At the Disco and of course Paris Hilton's song was on my iTunes, so those are my contributions. Anyway. This is our movie. And that's it.

Mom??? Pussycrumper??

2006-07-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Alright, so Aaron put this audio clip up last night after I was sound asleep. So, now I need to add a bit of text to make it complete. Over the 4th of July weekend when our New Yorkers came down to visit the word of the weekend was pussyscrump and when Kate and Aaron made reference to it, my mom was a little concerned, I mean confused. Who was her precious daughter associating with? All I can say is, I don't know. Listen to the message and laugh.

Heinous Scrunchy Woman

2006-07-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

WHAT UP MATE TV!? This is a co-posting brought to you by both mates, Alison and Faris, as we are in the same city right now. Athens Mate came to visit Charlotte Mate and it's been grand. Faris is celebrating her last few weeks before going back to work (teaching the children of America) and Alison is keeping it real up here with her current hellacious job. So, last night we went to Cosmos for a little drinkin' and tapas. Tiffany came with. She's great. Anyway, we met up with one of her work friends, Maria and one of Maria's out-of-town friends, Heather. Tiffany assumed, since she enjoyed chatting with Maria in the office, that this relationship would translate outside the office. WRONG. Maria was annoying as hell (think: little 30 something redneck woman pulling out pictures of her dogs and her "hot man", talking so fast and loud I thought her head was going to pop off). To make matters worse, Maria's friend, Heather, was a total disaster. She had just flown in from Reno. She was wearing a SCRUNCHY on top of her head. Her hair was g-ed out like something out of the 80s. And she was wearing a lot of fake jewelry. When someone complimented her leopard print skirt, we all wondered why anyone would encourage such stylistic disaster. Her job was to do payroll and other "jobs" for a construction company. She said she loves deliverin' parts out to the work sites so that she can get all the attention from the workers. She might be only woman on earth that enjoys being catcalled and hit on by construction workers. Oh and Maria and Heather met at band camp. REALLY. OK, Alison hasn't helped me with this blog, dammit. But, anyway, I'll forgive her. She's on the phone dealing with another one of the ridiculous things that comes with her job. Anyway, so, Tiffany decided that she's over Maria as a friend since Maria is 33 years old, married, but still likes to go out salsa dancing til 4 in the morning on Thursday nights. WTF?! Tiffany said, "I'm grown."

My tour of thu South!!

2006-07-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Mates, I've missed the blog. I really have. I always check it to see if it's updated. I forget that I'm the one that's supposed to be doing the updating. Duh. For the next few weeks before I start work (ughhhhhhhhhhhhh), I'm going to be making a big trip around the South. I'm pretty pumped. So, this past weekend, I did the ATL thing. I went out Mean Girl/Beotch style, managed to take some scandalous pictures as usual, and caught up with lots of friends. It made me miss Atlanta like usual, but I think that everytime I go I'm more and more okay with the fact that I don't live there anymore and that I might not ever live there again. Honestly it's kind of overwhelming because there are so many freaking people and different groups to catch up with. I kind of prefer Athens or Greenville where I really only have a few peeps. Is that weird? Anyway, so this coming week, I'm going to Greenville where I'll do my usual Duke's lunch with Drew. Duke's, for all of you that are unfamiliar, is the best lunch restaurant in the universe. They serve smashed sandwiches. And sweet tea. And I'm sure some other stuff, but none of that matters. The sandwiches are on white bread (unless you're weird and you get wheat) and they're cooked on the grill so they're smashed and they're wonderful...think pimento cheese, chicken salad, barbecue, ham and cheese, egg salad. Whatever your heart desires. I've been eating Duke's sandwiches for 25 years...well, since I could eat. Okay, so then Drew and I are gonna go running, because you know we're running in a marathon in October!? Well, I think I've since decided to run the half marathon since my ankle is a bitch. But she and Mate are running the freakin' full marathon. I'm going to leave G'vegas and go see MATE AND BELLA (and you too, Ron) in Charlotte!!! I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I'm sure it will involve eating sweets, going on Mate walks, watching MTV, and shopping...because that's how we do. After that, I think I'll check back in Athens and make sure all my people :) are doing aight. Then, TO CHARLESTON, to soak up the sun. I'll be staying at Bebe's on Mount Pleasant of course. Drew is going to come down also and we're going to relax, go to Sully's Island, walk, lay out, go out, eat, sleep, watch TV...do all the things that we like to do on vacation. Drew and I are great vacation partners by the way. We experienced this in Seaside two spring breaks ago. Everyone thought we were weird because we didn't want to get dressed up and go to dinner and stuff. We just wanted to BE at the house: sit, read, sleep, and pretty much enjoy the QUIET. They were out meeting their wives and stuff. Weird. Drew, did you know that Brock is like serious with that girl he met in Destin? At AJs or whatever? Anyway... So, that weekend, my parents are going to come down in Chucktown and we're going to take Bebe and Buddy's phat boat out on the ocean and PLAY PLAY PLAY. I'm really excited about my "whirlwind trip of the south" (I think someone called it that once). I think that's the way to do it. Because that's how we do. It's Mate TV and that's IT!!!!

-Faris

We got jangled in Charlotte, NC

2006-07-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hey Blog! It's been a long time. So, the past 4 days have been super fun and today, wednesday, has been a super draaaag. I'll start at the beginning. Aaron's college friends (sidenote: When does your significant other's friends become your friends?) came into town. Their names are Ian, Paul and Kate. On Saturday we trekked down to SouthPark Mall and surprised our friends with the plethora of nice stores we have in Charlotte, NC. They were really surprised that there are nice stores outside of New York City. We tried to use that to convince them to move down here...alas, it didn't work. Although we still had 3 more days of convincing to go. That night we met up with our friends, Leigh and Kyle and Alex and Molly and hung out at the park for the patriotic symphony night at SouthPark. We got some bojangles chicken and biscuits (not rolls) and proceeded to eat, drink and be merry. All courtesy of First Charter Bank. Sunday was a bit slower. After eating doughnuts we decided to go to the movies. The boys went to Nacho Libre and Kate and I went to The Devil Wears Prada. That movie is great!!! I recommend everyone go see it. I will probably buy it when it comes out on the DVD. Sunday night Spurgeon came into town and we had a cookout at the pool at my apartment. Oh, at my new apartment there is a resident Nanny McFee. Some old Brit hag that comes out and closes up the pool and also tells me that precious Bella is not allowed by the pool. I hate her. Anyway, that leads us to Monday which was so much fun because we spent the whole day on Lake Norman pontooning!!!! Everyone got too much sun and was completely waterlogged by the end of the day. We grubbed at P.F Changs and then Tuesday was sad cause the friends had to go back to the hustle and bustle of New York life leaving us bumpkins down in Charlotte. Aw shucks. All in all I had a great time and I love Aaron's friends because I think they are so funny and you can always be my friend if you are funny. I'm glad I got to know Kate better and I've decided she's my new best friend even though she doesn't know it yet. Oh, on the actual 4th of JUly, Aaron and I went over to Leigh and Kyle's and cooked out and shot fireworks. My parents never let us shoot fireworks because they thought they were dangerous and wouldn't you know two people got burned??? Well, one of them was Peter so that doesn't count but my heart goes out to Alex who got a 3rd degree burn between his toes from a sparkler!!! Thanks Mom and Dad for not letting me get burned as a child. The end.

Quarter Life Crisis

2006-06-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yea, I know you're all thinking of the John Mayer song, "might be a quarter life crisis...or just the stirrin' in my soul." Well, kiddies, here I am at 1:48 AM on my 25th birthday. My mom sent me some "stats" on my birth which were good to know (7 lbs 1.5 oz, 21 inch long, born at 12:46PM). I haven't reviewed those in awhile. I think it's important to know things like that and to ask your parents about what you were like when you were little. My dad called my mom today and asked her, "You know Faris' birthday is tomorrow, right?". She was like, "Yes, remember, I birthed the child!". Oh how blessed I am to have parents that remember all of those little moments and still like me enough now to want to talk about it. Most years on my birthday, when my dad calls, he reminds me of what he did the day I was born. He tells me about what restaurant he went to while he was waiting and even the emotions he had expecting his first child (fear, anxiety, and excitement).

Maybe that's is why I'm such a brat about my birthday. My parents have always done a really good job at making me feel so special. I really like to have fun things to do around my birthday. Luckily, last weekend I was able to have a great birthday party in Atlanta, put on by the one and only Mean Girl (Rebecca). Many of my friends were there, but I still felt sad that many weren't there. I wasn't mad at anyone for not being there; I just truly like being surrounded by my favorite people. I'll post some pics. I'm obsessed with big parties and I want EVERYONE that is my favorite person to be able to come. Is that too much to ask? ;) On Saturday, we are going to the lake for my family birthday party. It will be a birthday/4th of July celebration with the boat and Mom trying to kill us all with her mean driving skillz. My two little cousins, Micah and Suzanna, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Robbie, Brende, Mike, Caleb, my grandparents, Mom and Dad will all be there. Yay!!!

Anyway, I doubt that I will have a "quarter life crisis", but I do think that birthdays are a good time to reflect on how far you've come and consider where you'd like to go. Hey, before 25, I've graduated college, taught for 2 years in Atlanta, and finished half of my masters, among other things. Mate, you're probably throwing up in your mouth because I'm being cheesy, but as you all know, I've been known to post some mushy posts. Goodnight!

-Faris

Mate TV Road Trip

2006-06-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

http://urbncowboy.com/matetv/Site/Warfield%20Wedding%202006.html

Above is the link to all the pics Ron Jeremy took on our trip to Naples. Enjoy!!

You're kidding me right?!?

2006-06-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

So, I wake up this morning to someone vigorously knocking on Aaron's door. It was 7 a.m. He goes to answer it. I don't hear the conversation but Aaron comes and tells me that someone has broken into my car. Yes. The left rear window is smashed to pieces and something of value that I left in the backseat has been stolen. Shit. So, the only thing running through my head is I am such an idiot and I am totally going to get in trouble. I always am careful to take everything out of car but last night I forgot and now I'm paying the consequences. But, alas, what's done is done and I had to report it to the police and the insurance company and SafeLite Auto Glass is coming out tomorrow to fix the window. I cannot believe my luck. So, now I get to ride around all day with a broke up window lookin' all ghetto and being totally depressed. But, of course I took a picture so I could document this shitty occurance on the blog.

Down on her luck Alison

Your mom likes to eat!

2006-06-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight at dinner with some friends, one of the guys, Blaze (yes his name is Blaze) said that he's decided that he's only going to eat when he's hungry. He refrained from eating the...well, they were sick tacos, but whatever...he refrained from eating dinner because he says he wasn't hungry. It's his new thing. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? He said, "I mean, do y'all really enjoy eating?". Molly and I looked at each other like he had just asked us if we really enjoyed...um, let me think...being told we're amazing! Of course we do! I love eating. I mean, I don't like gorge myself or eat when I'm stressed or have some binge eating problem like some people in my family do (ah hum). I eat like a bird, but I eat numerous times a day. I don't even eat food for comfort. I actually usually STOP eating when I'm really upset about something OR the other extreme, when I'm really excited about something. My body lives on adrenaline or something.

But, my point is: I look forward to yummy meals. If I know that I'm going to get the pleasure of eating Inoko Express for dinner, let me tell you, I'm damn excited. If Last Resort is the dinner choice, my mouth will salivate all day at the idea of Praline Chicken or cheesecake. I can't even concentrate on the lecture..."peanut butter pie! grits!". I might even fast all day just to get ready for the meal. I also think I might talk about food too much. "What'd you have for lunch?" "Well, let me tell you about my lean cuisine that I brought today...it's my favorite, ravioli!". I could have an entire conversation about my lunch, what I made for dinner the night before, and what I'm thinking about picking up for the next night's dinner. Is this weird? I'm not sure. Molly says she's the same way. My grandparents are absurd. They seriously do nothing besides watch TV and talk about their next meal. My grandfather has never cooked so much as a slice of toast in his life, bless his heart, and he even got food for Father's Day! WTF!? When we ask them how their beach trip was, they tell us about the restaurants they visited. For Christmas, we give them an envelope of gift certificates to Greenville restaurants. Do they talk about food because they have nothing else to talk about? Do I talk about food because I'm boring? No. I don't think that could be true. Maybe it's because I have to have food or I get really angry. Raging angry like a dragon. Mom knows. She wonders what aliens have inhabited her child when I'm hungry. "Feed her quickly!", she says!

(Stupy blogger won't let me put a picture up so just imagine a pic of me...eating.)

"You're in NIPPLES?!?....ooooh Naples"

2006-06-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

And so was the weekend that was Sarrin's wedding. I must say the mates had a blast. There was a teensy weensy bit of drama with Faris and getting her grad classes figured out, which she did oh so classily by the pool, and then of course when you get 6 girls together and stuff them in a suite there might be some terse words but all in all, us bridesmates came together for some good ole fashion fun in honor of Sarrin. It was great to see old college friends and let all of them meet Aaron whom they all knew before meeting him because he's that "tall guy" but hey, I've been described by other people as that "bitchy girl who gives looks" You know how we do. I digress. The place we stayed in was gooooorgeous and Mate, Ron and I didn't know how to act and the valet guys loved us because we were so uncouth we gave them something to talk about. Because of unforeseen circumstances Aaron had to get a hotel room for the last night and as his girlfriend I gave up my seat in the lap of luxury to be with him (awwwww) and so the next day we had to go to the Marco Resort to pick up Faris and it's raining and we had no car. So, Ron and I walk to the hotel carrying his luggage, in the rain, I'm in my bikini and shorts with hair and makeup still did for the wedding. Wow. We were a sight. I had to apologize to the guy letting me the hotel because we looked so strug. I'm not doing the wedding justice. Let's see highlights of the wedding: 1. The resort was freaking awesome. 2. Sarrin was hot. 3. Spurgeon, need I say more? 4. Swimming at 1 in the mo'nin while peeps is chumming for sharks...what? 5. SHALOM. By the way, Shalom bitches was the phrase of the weekend. Even the dad said in his toast. That's right Ammuuurica look to Mate TV for the phrase that pays.

Shalom bitches!

2006-06-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Aight, don't worry, we here. Well, we're in Naples, Florida. After my exam yesterday (that I aced! Yay!), I drove to the A to meet Alison (Mate) and Aaron (Ron). We all piled in my car and were on our way down 75. The entire trip was down 75. Highlights of the trip: writing our toast for Sarrin (Mate style), talking to Spurgeon on the phone and reminiscing about the days when he used to drive me INSANE in FTrue04, me filling in Mate and Ron about my latest...um...social interactions with the opposite sex, Ron's new name being "Professor Ron Jeremy", hearing "Ridin'", "Black Horse and Cherrytree", "Over my Head" over and over again, and just general good times had by all. Here I lie on the bed at the Comfort Inn and Suites (Sarrin said we couldn't stay at her house...Bee!) feeling like poop. I have a super sore throat and some other gross symptoms. Hmm I hope I'm not sick. Momma, what do I do if I'm sick down here? Well at least I'm not a hypochondriac like Mate and Charlsie.

So, we're talking about how one of our friends who is easily influenced always wants to do everything that Mate wants to do and that if Mate decided to be Jewish, she probably would too. Mate starts talking about the kosher knife at the local bagel shop where she used to work in college...and that they'd use the knife to cut bagel sandwiches and stuff. Then if a Jewish person walked in, they'd freak out and clean it real quick. If our friend, we'll call her "Sarah", decided to be Jewish, she'd be like...

Shalom bitches!

Best Week Ever

2006-06-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! So this has been a great week so far. Besides having to work but that never really factors into whether I'm having a good week or a bad week. On Monday I got my tee shirt that I had been oh so looking forward to from my friend Paul in NYC to promote his website, dport7.com. You need to check it out homies. Then on Tuesday I picked up my new jeans that i was soooo excited about, cause we know how a girl is about her jeans. I strayed away from 7 jeans because as soon as guys start wearing them they're not as cool. I checked out a new brand, Rock and Republic and so far they're pretty hip. Today my mini vacation/spring break relived/Furman Homecoming begins. Ron, Mate and I are driving down to Naples, FL to watch SArrin get married. All in all, a pretty good week. We're taking the laptop, camera and video camera to get some live clips of the mates in action. Trust me, we will not disappoint. Although, I don't know if you can upload video to blogger? Paul, can we do that?

I want to be like Katie Couric when I grow up

2006-06-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, so many of you that know me, know that I LOVE The Today Show. I'm not kidding, not being sarcastic, nothing. Through thick and thin, Matt and Katie have been there with me. When I started college, so did Matt and Katie, when I graduated...so did Matt and Katie. Through all the boys, Matt and Katie have been there. I've even turned people to love the Today Show, i.e, Ron. (Although he thinks Katie is cheesy, hater) I've been known to talk about Today Show topics throughout my conversations during the day...but suffice it to say that a morning is not a morning without the Today Show and a cup of coffee. So, what am I going to do now that Katie's left? Who cares about the CBS evening news when there's goofy antics with Matt, Al and Ann to be done? And let's not even talk about Matt...if there was ever a chance with him...well Ron might be looking for another girl. Sigh. Life will not be the same. Good Luck Katie, you might get some people to start waching the news (me). I'll give Meredith Viera a chance but if I don't like her, you'll be hearing from me.

-Alison

Merry Mate is getting murrrried!!!

2006-05-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Meet "Merry Mate". Her name is Sarrin and she is the blonde in the pink tube top. She's getting murrrried on June 10th. I want to set you all up for the next few weeks in the lives of the mates. Prof is even going with us, so this blog will be sittin' pretty between June 7-12th. WE'RE DRIVING TO SOUTH FLORIDA FOR SARRIN'S WEDDING!!! Yes, Alison and I will be bridesmaids in Sarrin and Rob's (Robby in his real estate/family world) wedding in Marco Island, FL and Aaron ("Ron", my nickname for him) will be along for the ride. Or hopefully the drive because we'll be taking turns driving. So, Sarrin orders us these super expaaaansive bridesmaid dresses (I'm ok with her reading this because I bitched from day 1 about the price.) and of course the piece of fabric doesn't fit my super unique body. Does yours fit, Mate? I keep forgetting to ask you, all those millions of times we've talked lately. Ha. Mate and blog readers, I'm here to tell you, Bessie at Bessie's Alterations on Milledge SET A GIRLFRIEND UP! Putting on my altered dress today was like slipping on Cinderella's slipper. Bad analogy. Continuemos. I'm pumped about all kinds of other things like the fact that there will be so many fun Furman people like: Erik, Smitty, Hunter, and Spurgeon...who are ALL riding down together, I might add. A very hot carload, in my opinion. :) We're going to be at the beach! It'll be like college. My girfriends and I hanging out with all the Sigma Chi's at the beach, having way too much to drink, etc. Circa Beach Weekend 2001, Jekyll Island, GA "Get It Right". Yes I still wear the tee shirt. It's hot. I'm looking over at my bulletin board of pictures and I'm thinkin' I HAVE to scan in a picture of the MATES at one of the Sigma Chi beach weekends we went on at Furman. Nevermind my headband, ok?!

I am not responsible for my actions between the days of June 7th and June 11th. Amen.

-Faris

Single woman; big world.

2006-05-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

So, timing is a bitch. As many of you in blogworld know, Aaron's mom recently underwent major surgery in the form of a kidney transplant. Aaron went out to Albuturkey, NM and stayed with his mom for a week and then came back home to Charlotte, NC. Now, like I said before this was major surgery and she was out of commission for well...she is still out of commission. So, a couple days ago his mom calls him and says that his dad passed out at work and is heading to the hospital. I know, I know, WTF? So, we come to find out that his dad is having surgery to remove a lemon sized tumor from his stomach. (the surgery has passed and we are 99.7% sure that it wasn't cancerous). But damn, people, how much more could that timing suck? You gotta feel bad for this family, like my momma always says, when it rains it pours. So, Aaron has gone back out West to help out his family once again, he is such a great son!! So, that leads me to the title of this blog. We just found out Aaron was leaving yesterday so here I am in Charlotte in somewhat shock since my boyfriend has left me for a week at the least. So, this has been my day of being a single, white, female. Wake up, take Aaron to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn. go home and go back to sleep until 10:00. Get up, take a shower, try to make coffee with a wonkey coffee machine. Take Bella to the park and tell everyone and their mom that she is 3 months old and she is a cocker spaniel. Go home. Eat some cereal. Watch True Hollywood Story about people you could care less about. Go to Pilates at 2:00. Go to the grocery store and go back to my apartment to get some clothes/essentials (I can't stay at my apartmente because my roomate has turned into Chucky). Go over to Aaron's empty apt. Play with Bella. Watch more THS of people you don't care about. Make dinner which consists of leftover merlot and Edy's light ice cream. I would call my friends but they are all gone since it's a holiday weekend. More or less, since I've been in a relationship for the past year and a half I make plans for "we" and not "me". I've forgotten how to be single. Regardless of my melodrama; whomever you believe in God, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, or Hulk Hogan please pray for Aaron's family cause they sure as heck need it. Amen and Amen.

-Alison

Tasty Florez

2006-05-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to see Florez play at Tasty World in Athens. It's a really cool bar where lots of fun small bands come and play. I always have fun when I go there. Last time Florez came in town, which was like, maybe 3 months ago, they played at Tasty World. It's hard though, because both times they've played on weeknights, this particular one being a summer weeknight where there aren't many students in town. Only a few avid fans showed up for the show, including some Furmanites...but not many (James Kilpatrick and Brian Tickner)! It's always super weird to me...well, always meaning these 2 times...anyway, it's weird to me to be at a Florez concert without my Mate and Spurgeon and everyone that I typically associate with those concerts. I was telling Erik about my feelings on this and he didn't seem to understand. See, he's been with Florez way past Furman and that's where I have them stuck. I think of Homecoming out on the mall rocking to Alex and the band and hearing them at the Handelbar. Florez + Athens = Bizarre. By the way, check out Florez at www.florezmusic.com. Oh, and the boys are hot. Sizzlin' hot.

Side story: on our way home (right after fearing that the cop behind us was going to pull me, even though I was dead sober), Charlsie, Bren and I saw a car in front of us swerving. MAJORLY SWERVING. It was so scary that we followed it up Barnett Shoals Road. After watching this swerving and driving extremely slowly/then quickly, we made the executive decision to call the cops. Probably sensing us stalking them, the car pulled into an apt. complex. We left, hoping that the cops would take it from there. I'm not one to tattle, but guys, this was serious. I would never want anyone I know or love to be in a car anywhere near this guy/girl. All in a hard day's work.

-Faris

"Little Pink penises for you and me..."

2006-05-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday was quite the event for yours truly, my first true bachelorette party. Yeah, I've been to a few "bachelorette parties" but they all were GAY so I'll have to give props to this one. I mean, what could be either more fun or more obnoxious (you choose) than 10 girls in matching pink tank tops that say "Kate's bachelorette party" all carrying around penis straws and a big inflatable penis? Well, I for one, had a great time and give props to the party planners, Jackie and Katie. Anyway, the day started off with us looking all angelic for a true, Southern, wedding shower. Enclosed is the first picture of the day. Pretty soon we left lovely bumfreak Clover, SC and headed to the hottest of hot spots, Charlotte, NC. Soon, the lovely two girls that were above morphed into pink tank top wearing FREAKS and cared about nothing more than taking shots and drinking out of penis straws. In one of the bars there was a cover band singing a John Mellancamp tune and he oh so aptly changed the words to match our theme of the night, and this is when Kate started dancing like this.
Oh and also inspired the title of this blog. There were at least 6 or 7 other bachelorette parties out that night but they were all drinking their HATERADE and muttering underneath their breath they couldn't believe that we got shirts, cause that was too much work. All I have to say is, whatever. You only get one chance to celebrate one of your girlfriends getting married and get the chance to parade a big penis around uptown.

-Alison

Hey blog! Ya miss me!?

2006-05-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

I went to a bridal shower this weekend for one of my co-workers from East Paulding Middle School, where I used to teach for two years (2003-2005). My friend is getting married and the shower was full of people that I worked very closely with for two whole years. BUT...I couldn't remember their names?!?! I mean, what is that all about? I walked in and completely blanked. Of course they knew me since I was 30 minutes late and made my entrance to say the least, but nobody did me the favor of reminding me of any names. I was like a circus freak to all of them because 1) I couldn't remember anyone's names and who has a baby or two babies or is divorced and 2)I'm not married...oh yea and 3)I don't have kids. Gawking at my empty left hand and quasi-flat stomach. While they talked about the best play groups around, I daydreamed about what part of town I wanted to go out in that night.

I don't really have any good stories from this weekend! I just wrote a long paper, so I think I've drained all my creative juices. More to come, blog, more to come.

Sleepwalking

2006-05-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

I sleepwalk. Sleeptalk. And sleepscream. However, I haven't sleptwalked (to my knowledge) in the past few years until last night. Now, yes, I have woken up with random items of clothing in my bed or woken up lying on the wrong end of the bed, but I haven't had one of the scary experiences in awhile. Last night at 1 AM (1 hour after going to bed), I apparently, bounded out of bed, walked down the stairs, looked at my sister and when asked, "what are you doing?", I copped an attitude and walked over to the front door to look out the window. Clearly. Then, I started walking through the den, all the while she is making a crazy "what the hell is going on?" face, and I suddenly stopped and asked her, "Is it the middle of the night or something?". She begins interrogating me, "Are you awake? Are you sleepwalking?". I insisted upon being awake and sometime during this discussion I actually woke up. I was confused, started to giggle, then went back to bed. I tell you: I would NEVER have remembered this incident had Brende not brought it to my attention on my facebook wall that I read the next morning.

Other funny sleep stories. When I was probably about 9 or 10, I sleptwalked out of my cabin at summer camp and happened to pass by my counselor on her way back from her evening meeting. She carried on a conversation with me that made no sense and walked me back to the cabin. Who knows where I was going? I had NO recollection of that experience. She was terrified and put a bell on the cabin door from then on. #2 The first night that MATE (AKA the other person that shares this blog with me) and I stayed in our freshman dorm room, apparently I got up and wandered around the room. When she politely asked me what I was doing, I began yelling at her to "SHUT UP!!". Way to make a first impression. The following year, our sophomore year, I bounded out of my top bunk, turned on the lights and insisted that there were "spiders everywhere!...can't you see them?!". That was one of those that I woke up and realized the ridiculousness of it as the "spiders" slowly disappeared from my vision.

Believe me, there are more stories. Mom, how many times did I come in y'all's room ranting about some dream or wake up on the couch downstairs? Got any good stories, any of you friends of mine?

Quote of the week

2006-05-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know the season finale of Gray's Anatomy was Sunday and Monday nights. My boyfriend and I watched it both nights and after all was said and done he was very upset that McDreamy had sex with Meredith, mostly because Meredith is not hot. So, the quote of the week is "Having sex with Meredith would be like having sex with an old, wrinkly, Olson twin."

That's funny right there.
-Alison

2006-05-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Mi carro nuevo

2006-05-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Folks, I bought my first car. I did it. It was slightly an impulse buy and slightly pre-meditated. Premeditated in the sense that I have been planning on buying a car with better gas mileage for my commute to and from Grayson High School. Impulse in the sense that I wasn't planning on buying it until later this summer when I actually had an income. Regardless, the car buying "bug" got me on Monday, May 8th after having lunch with my dad. He basically told me that my Lexus SUV was a ticking time bomb as well as a money pit and that I should quickly get rid of it before it breaks down and I have to put tons of money in it. So, he called his guy, Evan, at Acura of Greenville, who I met over at Honda. Within an hour, I had test driven my car (I was the first person to even test drive it!), had my old car appraised, numbers figured and presented to me...and eventually I had bought a car! It is a white 2006 Honda Accord EX. It has all the bells and whistles that I can't live without like leather, sunroof, and built in XM radio. The greatest part about my new car is the gas mileage. I was getting 17.5 miles to the gallon on a really good day in my SUV. Now I'll be getting as much as 35 miles to the gallon on the highway in my Accord. Unbelievable. Do you like your car? Why?

Lunch lady Doris...

2006-05-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends. Here I sit behind the computer, property of Gwinnett County Public Schools. Today I have the biggest sense of dread. I have to buy school lunch. Usually, the night before I commute to Grayson HS, I prepare marvelous lunches. They are complete with snacks for the morning (a banana and graham crackers with peanut butter), an entree for lunch (a sandwich, soup, left overs, or a lean cuisine), a tasty dessert, and a fruit snack for the afternoon (grapes or peaches). Well, last night I had the pleasure of having dinner and spending the night in Lawrenceville with my friends Casey and Gary. Good news: I didn't have to commute this morning. Bad news: I have no lunch and no snacks! So, this morning during one of my classes, I sent a girl to get me some food from "Rampage", the school store. She came back with Combos and M&Ms. Wow, what a healthy snack. Thanks Rebecca. So, I've polled my 5th period class and they say that my best bet for school lunch is pizza or soup. They say the "International" line is questionable. However, my real fear isn't the food. I'm scared of the actual buying of the lunch. Do I cut in line because I'm faculty? How many sides of food am I allowed to take? If I take too many, will the lunch lady slap my hand because I look young enough to be in high school? Do I pay cash or do I have to type in some number into a machine? What is my number?! Lord help me!!!

Seis de Mayo

2006-05-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

That's right beotches, seis is the new cinco. Cinco de mayo is way too mainstream for me and my homies, thus, our new favorite friend Ed and two moxican lesbians decided to have a seis de mayo party. It was a pretty good time. My favorite girl, Kristin, at the left, is always a good time at any party. You can always count on someone to drink too much and be a little inappropriate, and that's Kristin. I think she has a secret crush on Aaron. Last night she told me that even though she knew me before she met Aaron, she was sure about Aaron way sooner than she was about me. That's alright, I have a hard exterior so I don't have to be everyone's friend, right mate? So, Ed has two big dogs and we felt bad leaving little Bella at home for an afternoon. So, with Ed's permission of course, we went back and picked up Bella and let her play with the big dogs. The two moxicans cooked up some good moxican eats and some partook in some moxican green. Not me of course. Ew. But, to each their own I guess.

--Alison

Twinsies

2006-05-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

I got to see my darling, baby twins yesterday. It was amazing. I used to nanny for them last summer and fall and then I had to quit so that I could student teach this spring. Anyway, I hadn't seen them since December, so you can imagine how much they have grown and improved in the time since I last saw them. They will be 2 in July. It's ABSOLUTELY amazing to me how quickly children learn things. For example, since I last saw Haleigh and Hannah, they have learned to reach the doors and open them. And let me tell you, they are experts. The Bakers now have those plastic things around the door knobs so that the girls won't go everywhere in the house. When I was there in December, the problem was them getting into the cabinets (hence the cabinet stoppers). They don't use their pacifiers anymore. Now, I'll tell you what. That got on my nerves. Yes, I understand that they have 3 kids under the age of 3, but seriously. Pacifiers and they are 1 and a half? Well, now they only use them at nap time. What hasn't changed? That Haleigh loves me the most. That Hannah's sweet little face might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. That walking round and round the outside of the house looking for rocks to put in sandpails doesn't get old EVER when you have two pea sized twin girls in tow. I love teaching high school, but there is nothing like some TLC of babies!

A bunch of monkeys throwing peanuts down an alley

2006-05-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

So, last night Aaron and I went bowling with some friends. It depends on my mood but sometimes I get really competitive when I bowl and other nights I don't care at all. I think last night was one of those times. First of all, there were a ton of people there, at least 20 and you know how long it takes for that many people to get organized and get their beer and then get into teams, blah blah blah. So I decided to goof around as evidenced by the pic below. Aaron, on the other hand, loves to bowl and even has his own shoes and ball. No. I am not kidding. Sometimes I can't believe it either. But, it's true my friends, it's true. AND, not only does he have his own shoes, they look like special shoes, not really bowling shoes. I think that might be indicative of Aaron....if you look carefully you can see them in the pic.

HUMP DAY

2006-05-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

That's right. I'm back. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather this week so I'm staying home to get some rest before I start pounding the street again to drum up some business. Last week at the conference in the PTC, Georgia they worked us so hard that I'm kind of semi exhausted. So, anyway, my all time favorite band, Pearl Jam, has a new cd that came out yesterday. Now, I will definitely go and buy it because I've bought every single one of their cds since I was about 12 or 13. Now...we all know that Pearl Jam is not a high profile band anymore but has more of a cult following I guess...Anyway, whenever I tell someone they're my favorite band they look at me kind of funny like...okay, how old are they like 50? so that led me to thinking, are they really my favorite band or do I just have loyalty to them. So, then that led me to thinking that I'm that way about everything. For example, I only buy clothes from Banana Republic. I only have Kate Spade purses. I only wear 7 jeans. Am I limiting myself to being such a brand snob? Maybe, maybe not. Banana Republic clothes fit me well because I have a small upper body completed by a bedunky-dunk lower half. So, that makes sense. The Kate Spade purses and 7 jeans might be a little over the top but it's like once you have the real thing, why go back to something that's not as nice? I would enjoy comments. Thanks. Oh, the pic above is perfect example of all three brands together. 7 jeans, KS purse and BR jacket. I'm obsessed. Please help.

Fun on the Faris funny farm

2006-04-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Mom, for the title of my blog today. I really wish that I could blog about any and everything, but since this is public knowledge, I have to keep some of my stories for phone conversations. Mate, I'm sorry for not returning your call, I'll call you tomorrow. So, I have this recurring problem. Sometimes when I get upset or angry about something, I overcompensate by becoming a rock star (aka drinking too much). I talked to Bren about this and she said that her usual reaction is to just stop drinking and go home if she has an altercation with someone. For me, my inner voice tells me that I am actually a 200 pound man who can metabolize much more alcohol than my real life body. My inner voice says something like this, "You'll show him/her! Drink more mojitos!". My inner voice is an idiot. So, I give into the inner voice and live the rest of my evening "showing" the person that usually isn't even present at that point. Hmmm, stupid inner voice! Anyway, I'm recovering from one of those overcompensating nights and I think I've had a lightbulb moment. And when I really think about what it was that I had the trailer park argument about in the street, I'm embarrassed that it was even worthy of me a) getting upset and b) choosing to act like an 18 year old freshman. Lessons learned: 1) Don't lose sunglasses that don't belong to you. 2) If you find yourself upset and angry with boy, go home immediately. 3) Don't go to Waffle House after 5 glasses of wine, 1 vodka tonic, and 3 mojitos. 4) I am not superwoman.

I heart Propel

2006-04-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

I think that Propel water is pretty much the most amazing drink ever made. Charlsie always brings me propel, which is really thoughtful of her. So, this morning I woke up with a huge hangover, so I wanted a Propel. What seems like an easy task turned into an all out scavenger hunt for this damn drink. I finally found some at Kroger, but it was disappointing because they weren't cold. I like Propel so much that I wash out the bottles and refill them with water. Or maybe it's that I like the cool mouth thing on the bottles. Not sure. So I just read on some random girl's blog that Propel might be bad for your teeth. Hope not, because I'm obsessed.

-Faris

one long week

2006-04-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Mate, that was a long post you wrote, but I understand all of your pensive thoughts and feelings on the summer time. I love summer. Anyway, this has been a long but very effective week. The first part of the week I was in Peachtree City, Gawga with work learning how to give an effective sales presentation. Seriously, I am very confident in all aspects of life but when I have to talk in front of people I look like a damn fool. And I seriously hate that because I know I can do way better, so I did learn a lot this week. I was one of 5 women at the conference and the only one under 30 so you can imagine I got a lot of attention from the males and a lot of hateful glares from the females. Oh well. I imagine it would be a lot worse if I got no attention from the males. Suckas. Another success is that Bella is sleeping through the night, woohoo!!!! I'm soooo glad because me getting up at 2, 4, and 6 am was just NOT working out. (Refer back to earlier post about being woken up from a drunk call by stoopy Brandon Bailey) 3rd success, yesterday I had a conversation with my roomate that I had been dreading for about 6 months. I told her that I am not extending the lease and am ready to move out. You see, we have roomed together for 2 years now and were college roomies too. But as of late, our relationship has been a little....frictional to say the least. So, yes good things come in threes. Here is a great pic of my baby bella.

Out with the...old, in with the...new?

2006-04-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Yes, I'm still alive and no I haven't forgotten about the blog. So, I'm at home (hooray) on my first day off after I've finished my student teaching (yippee). I actually just had to go to Kinkos at 7AM, so the whole sleeping in thing was shot. Well, I slept in an hour. Regardless, I'm done with the student teaching part of my life. Yesterday at school, my students had parties for me all day. We had two donut parties, an ice cream party, a quesadilla party, and finally a dessert party. ;) My third period is so amazing that after I gave my speech (thanks for being so wonderful, I'm going to miss you guys, etc.), each individual student wanted to give a speech! OMG! My girl Chelsea is such a drama queen that she demanded that we turn off the lights in the classroom and then she stood underneath the emergency spotlight in the room to give her speech. I have a video of a few seconds of it, but I don't know how to post video clips on here. I even got a special delivery of balloons! I got a mylar balloon that says, "You're special". I was so happy all day for several reasons: I was glad that my students actually liked me, I was eating the most amazing food ever, and lastly, I was ready to get the hell out of that school after 14 weeks of intense work.

So, this morning I was thinking about the fact that I'm not really closing a chapter of my life or starting a new chapter like so many of my friends are. I have friends that are finishing up law school or MBA school. Some 3Ls have even been at UGA all 7 years. They are leaving this bubble to start their new lives as real life people. Some of my other friends from my education classes are college seniors. Do you FU alum readers remember this time of year when we were seniors at Furman? Sad to leave everyone, excited about getting a paycheck at a job and not studying anymore, scared as hell about paying bills and having a boss? Well, my friends here are going through the same thing. Well, as for ME, I am staying right here. This summer I'm taking a ton of classes here at UGA. Three are online courses, so I have flexibility if anyone has a beach house with internet... Haha, anyway, starting at the end of July, I will begin my school year with Grayson High School. I've accepted a part-time position as a Spanish 2 teacher. I'm SO excited to be teaching at Grayson with the amazing faculty and students that I worked with this semester. I'm also going to be finishing up my masters, so I'll be a busy girl. What's so weird about all this is that I'm not moving this summer. I've moved every summer since I was 18! For once, I don't have to pack up all my crap and start fresh somewhere else. I guess I'm okay with it. I love moving all my stuff into a fresh, new room and buying new things for the bathroom and kitchen. I love arranging the furniture and having mom hang all of my pictures on the wall. I think I'm going to miss moving. I know my parents aren't going to miss it. Well, anyway, good luck to all of you that are starting new chapters in your lives. I'll be here holding down the fort.

Baby Bella Mushroom

2006-04-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend was just rolling right along until I fell in love all over again with my newest purchase, the one and only Bella Williams-Shurts. I was going to enjoy the lovely afternoon with some fun in the sun at Freedom Park when I stumbled along a lovely family selling the last of their litter of cocker spaniels. Now, I have wanted a dog for a good 7 months now and today the dog just seemed to find me. The owners were very nice and offered her for a very reasonable price and I am the proudest mommy around!!! So, blogworld, welcome the cutest dang dog this side of the Mason Dixon line, Bella.

Alison (#1 puppy momma)

absurdity

2006-04-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

My life is truly like a reality tv show.

Happy Friday world!

2006-04-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Alright blogworld, I was gone for a minute now I'm back let me hit it (the blog that is). Mate has written some things that i would like to comment on but my comments would be too long to leave in the comment section so I'm writing a new post as my comment. First of all, Mate, I understand your plight in the whole guy situation. I see both yours and your mom's point of view, you ARE lucky to have that many guys focused on you (as we know several people who have trouble finding a date and are down on themselves about that) but it can be frustrating to not find one you want to spend more than a couple weeks dating casually. I think the big question here is, what are you looking for in a guy? What would really get your mojo working? And what is it about all of these guys that you don't like? I admire your ability not to settle and date someone just for the hell of having a boyfriend, I always lose respect for women who do that because it seems like they're not happy with themselves and have to find it in some GUY. Whatever. But think about those questions I asked my dear mate. I would like to add on to the ranting and raving but kind of in a different manner. No matter where I go or what I'm doing, driving, going to Barnes and Noble, working out, black guys always seem to holla at me. Why is that? I do have a black girl booty that I inherited from my mom, but dang. I really should keep a tally of how many times a black guy starts sweatin' me. Just yesterday I'm exiting a parking lot and this guy rolls his window down and is like, "mmmm mmmm mmmm" I'm sorry, do I look Campbell's Creamy Tomato soup? I don't think so. Although, the attention is funny and makes for a good blog.

Disclaimer: I am not racist. Thanks.

"The Values Americans Live By"

2006-04-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered Dr. Robert Kohls' "The Values Americans Live By". The first time I read the list of 13 values, I was super annoyed. We're not like that! These make us sound like awful, heartless, heathen people. But when I really thought about it, I realized that they all had a lot of truth to them. I want to share one of my favorites...

Excerpt from "Individualism"
"Americans think they are more individualistic in their thoughts and actions than, in fact, they are. They resist being thought of as representatives of a homogeneous group, whatever the group. They may and do join groups--in fact many groups--but somehow they are just a little different, just a little unique, just a little special, from other members of the same group. And they tend to leave groups as easily as they enter them.

"Privacy, the ultimate result of individualism, is perhaps even more difficult for the foreigner to comprehend. The word 'privacy' does not even exist in many languages. If it does, it is likely to have a strongly negative connotation, suggesting loneliness or isolation from the group. In the United States, privacy is not only seen as a very 'positive' condition, but it also viewed as a requirement which all humans would find equally necessary, desirable and satisfying. It is not uncommon for Americans to say--and to believe--'If I don't have at least half an hour a day to myself, I will go stark raving mad!'

"Individualism, as it exists in the United States, does mean that you will find a much greater variety of opinions in the country, along with the absolute freedom to express them anywhere and anytime. Yet, in spite of this wide range of personal opinions, almost all Americans vote for one of the two major political parties. That is what was meant by the earlier statement that Americans take pride in claiming more individualism than in fact they really have."

Faris

'Twas the night before Easter...

2006-04-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

and all around the cookout sat Uncle Kyle telling stories of his days of glory smuggling bibles on the Red Sea. No, blogworld, really, I am being serious. My good friend Kyle smuggled bibles on the Red Sea, how cool is that? So, anyway, as the pictures suggest Aaron and I hosted a cookout tonight at Aaron's apartment for some of our closest homies, and some of our homies brought their homies and it turned into a regular party.

We told people that it was going to be a cookout, which usually suggests being outside but a couple of the girls (ahem Leigh and Tiffany) were a little opposed to the inch worms and tree poop that kept falling from the sky. I vehemently deny that it was tree poop, I'm thinking they were little seeds but Leigh says they were mooshy....as you can see this was a hot topic of debate. So right now the Easter bunny is coming, yay!! I will report on what he brought tomorrow. I'm putting a picture of leigh in the blog since she is a big fan!! Below is a picture of oneofthemates and Leigh.
-Alison

Fun Day Friday!!!

2006-04-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Oh man am I glad it's the weekend!!! I don't have much news to report but I do have some funny stories. So, the latter part of my week was spent in Columbia visiting accounts for work and the like and while I'm in Columbia I stay at my parent's house. And for all of you in blogworld that know my parents know that they are so completely opposite that it's really funny, so when we're all together I usually laugh a lot. So last night we go out to dinner and my parents and I are having the usual dinner conversation about STRIP CLUBS and I feel the need to tell my parents that Aaron has gone to a few strip clubs in his day but I doubt he'll be going to anymore in the near future. My dad is like "yeah...well how do you know that?" and I was like "Aaron knows I will cut his balls off if he goes to one" HAHAHA, I thought my mom was going to fall out of her chair. It was really funny. Sigh. Well, tonight is the opening night of the Charlotte Knights and my company has a box so I'm going to that and then tomorrow night we're having a cookout with some peeps to enjoy this beautiful Easter weekend. Only 3 more days til Jesus jumps up from the grave, holla!!

Alison

EGGciting day!

2006-04-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

Easter eggs make anything fun. I love them so much that I planned an entire day's lesson using Easter eggs. Oh yes, my friends. My students enjoyed not only an egg hunt with a corresponding vocabulary activity, but also a spoon/egg relay race that went with a grammar practice of sorts. Step off my kinesthetic review games, beotch!! I pretty much wore a perma-grin all day watching "the children" (as Holly and I refer to them) hunt for the eggs, run in the relay race with the egg on the spoon, and generally enjoy my engaging activities. I was on top of the world. Easter eggs are the best. Other reasons Easter eggs are cool: they are colorful, they can hold things (in my case, instructional material), they sit so nicely in a basket. Any other ideas?

To add to the fun, another teacher upon seeing us engaging in our kinesthetic review game (I love educational jargon!), decided to play a prank and in between classes go steal all of the eggs. Our next class was thinking that I was an expert egg hider. Anyway, we've plotted revenge and named it, "Project Peep". We will fill the suspect teacher's classroom with Easter grass and stick peeps to his whiteboard.

Faris

Crutches my ass!!!

2006-04-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Aight homies. Quick update. Regular doctor called yesterday freaking out, said he looked at my X-rays and I have a bad sprain with "joint instability" (whatever). "You need to get off your ankle immediately". So, I sat down. He instructed me to go get crutches and had already made me an appointment with the orthopedic man. Keep in mind that this is a 2 week old injury, right? Using crutches when you've been walking around on something seems really silly and is super annoying, but I tried my best all day today to do so. Well, good news!! I went to see Dr. Bacastow (?) and he said that yes, indeed, I have a severe sprain because not only did I tear the usual ligament that tears during sprains, but I also tore another one. In addition, I am having nerve irritation, which explains why I have tingly toes and loss of feeling in parts of my foot. He said that's due to the swelling. Blah blah blah. This blog is boring. The good news: no crutches and no weird braces or casts because of my nerve issues. The bad news: loooong recovery (6 months full recovery, at least 4 more weeks of doing nothing).

Did I mention that I ran a 10K in 56:16 on a "severely sprained ankle"? ;) I'm so humble.

Faris

No good crappy blah grody Tuesday

2006-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Alright, so today has DEFINITELY not met my expectations whatsoever. First of all, I had to wake up before dawn to go to a meeting that started at 7:30 a.m and lasted until 4. That was not fun because I think I have a mild form of adult ADD and I was going crazy!!! I started singing "Laffy Taffy" at one point when someone started passing around candy. Geez. Then I was SUPPOSED to go on a power walk with my girl Leigh but her overzealous husband (accidentally) extended OUR invitation to another girl. Now, I know y'all in blogville don't know, but I like to walk fast and I have long legs to allow that to happen and leigh weighs about 20 pounds so nothing is holding her back either. Letting someone else try to compete with that would be disastrous. So, Leigh and I decided to postpone our walk for next week. THEN, I started my taxes on April 11th no less!!, and all in all this day has just sucked and left me feeling bewildered.

Cankle Blues

2006-04-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

Alright, I had been holding out on posting because I was waiting for a few minutes of peace and freakin' quiet so I could "compose". Well, ain't gonna happen. I've just walked in the door for the first time since 5:45 AM on March 31st. Wow. What a long spring break!! I'm impressed with Mate's skillz of adding a pictra of what she was talking about.

So, the medical profession just doesn't work on MY schedule. They just haphazardly suggest appointment times as if people don't work!? What the hell!? ALSO, I go get an X-ray at the hospital (the doctor sent me over there) and the technician (Side note: "X-ray technician" is just a nice way of saying "X-ray bitch", like nail technician or trapeeze artist)...tells me that it's going to be up to 24 hours before the radiologist writes up his report, gives it to the "writes up the report bitch", who in turn sends it to the bitch who calls my doctor's office, only to get the front desk bitch...well, you get my drift. Eventually I will find out something. Meanwhile I'll continue to hobble around on the 2 week old cankle/club foot.

Faris

Monday Monday

2006-04-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

So, Mondays are always kind of slow but I've found a new way to make entertain myself. Online shopping!! I randomly got on Banana Republic today and they had a cute pair of the longer shorts that are kind of in right now, on sale. I love a good sale, I think they had been marked down like 50%!!! Plus, I'm a Banana Republic LUXE member so I don't have to pay for shipping, yippee!! Also, I got to talk to mate for a little bit today and she is had to get her ankle x-rayed because she's been way too hard on it lately, i.e running a 10k in 56 minutes. Which is awesome. Anyway, I digress--only 6 more days until J-dub jumped up from the grave and says I'm back beotch!

Alison

My hips don't lie

2006-04-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

The name of my post is also the name of my new favorite song by Shakira Shakira and Wyclef, I really can't get it out of my head and I used to not like Shakira because she looked like such a SPAZ dancing in her videos, kind of like an alien got inside of her and was making her move all crazy like. But anyway, in other exciting news, one of my kind of friends in college BRANDON BAILEY, drunk dialed me on Friday night at 12:15 while I was peacefully sleeping to tell me 1.)how drunk he was and 2)how much he loved me and how I needed to call him back because he was desperate to talk to me because he loved me so much. First of all, if you're going to profess your undying love for me don't do it while I'm sleeping because I'm so cranky when I get woken up. Second of all, Brandon, I think you're kind of a dork and you need to put away those Adidas flops that you wear everywhere because those went out with Umbros. I'll end on a good note, we watched "Just Friends" with our great friends Leigh and Kyle last night and that movie is surprisingly funny.

Alison

Fast times at Furman

2006-04-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Let me clarify, I am not sweet, so you don't have to play like I am. And, we can definitely sign our names at the end of the blog so all of our friends know who is posting what. Which leads me to another question, how are we going to get our blog out? We're going to have to distribute a mass email of some sort? Because, we're popular, people like us and will want to know about what is going on in our daily lives. So, freshman year at Furman was definitely a good one. Faris and I hit it off like Forrest and Jenny and were each others best friends throughout the year, if not each other's only friends :) We basically did everything together and scared all of the girls on our freshman hall by having Insta-Parties and bringing MTV JAMS into their rooms to try to instigate some sort of fun to sometimes boring Furman U. Blog guru, AARON is telling me I'm writing too much so I'll stop.

Alison

The Beginning

2006-04-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, I am about to pee my pants because I'm so excited about having a blog. I'm not sure how I'll handle it. I think that I'll do one of the following: 1. be obsessive and post all the time, only to get sick of it quickly and never post again; 2. never post because I don't remember to; 3. post all the time and find blogging to be a new "medicinal" way of curing what ails me.

Quick question, how are we going to make sure that people know WHO is posting? Maybe each entry should be signed at the end by the appropriate mate. Food for thought.

The beginning. Alison and I met a few months before we started college. We were paired together by the pot luck rooming gods at Furman University. Once we got each others' names, we arranged to have a meeting. I can't really remember what we did. I vaguely remember taking a pictraaa at my parents' house. Mate, can you fill in the blanks on this one? Then, we started college our Freshman year. I know that one of the first nights that we slept in our dorm room that I had a sleep walking/sleep talking escapade that freaked Alison out big time. Apparently, I started screaming at her in the middle of the night, telling her to "SHUT UP!". She thought that I was just a total bitch, which maybe I am, but of course I would never tell my sweet (?) roommate to shut up on the first night!

Mate, why don't you comment on what our Freshman year was like?

1st blog

2006-04-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

First things first, this is Alison (the one in the black halter) and this is the first entry of our new blog!! Faris doesn't know about this yet but I'm sure she will be excited to join in on all the blogging fun. Now, I don't know about her but I don't intend for this blog to only be a place for me to post my deep thoughts, very serious topics, or only positive things that make me smile :) I'm going to write about things that I think are funny and will be amusing for others to read, so enjoy the frivolity.