strawberry wine

i had a first the other night... my first wine tasting! some friends from school invited me to a new "club" they started, lovingly known as the "rockstars wine club!"

each time the club meets there will be a theme, for instance the first meeting's theme was "7 dollar bottles of wine." everyone brings a bottle of wine to meet the theme and we enjoy to our little hearts' content!

up until this first meeting, i hadn't found a wine that i really liked... i can't say that anymore! here are the wines we tried and my opinions haha :) wines tasted:

1. Wild Vines Frutezia Passion Blend... sooooooooo tasty :) my favorite fo sho! (it had strawberries on the label and after discussing it with the girls about blogging, deana carter's "strawberry wine" was the winner for this post's title!)

2. Beringer California Collection 2009 California Moscato... ehh it was ok!

3. Sutter Home Moscato California 2009 (2 bottles)... again, not sure if i can say i'm a moscato fan!

4. Chateau de Pique Pardieck Winery Chardonel Indiana... had "great legs" and wasn't too bad!

5. Cycles Gladiator California 2005 Dry Rose... GROSS! weird buttery finish that i was proud i picked up on, but ew!

not only did we taste some yummy wines... we had some great quotes to go along with our night:

"I like the descriptions"
"We can have a skyped wine meeting while I'm away"
"Chardonel . . . It's like Chardonnay's black sister"
"Your glass has the best legs"
"It has a naked lady on it!"
"Look at your legs"
"Does that one have a buttery finish?"
"I feel that you're more full-bodied"
"Naked women riding bicycles . . . Perfect!"
"Pour it all up in there"
"Like . . . my dream job, that I would never go in to"
"You've gotta move. Your legs spread is in the picture"
"Well, in that case, next time might be strip wine club"

wow, what a great night! fun times with fun girls! our next meeting will be held poolside with a theme of "picnic wines," and i can't wait!!! sun, wine, and great friends! i think i could become a wino ;)

put me in coach... i'm ready to play!

oh oh oh i love love love this time of year! it's college softball tournament time babyyy :D so obviously a song of choice would be "put me in coach"

every year my family and i sit down together and get sucked into the wonderful world of women's college softball! we all pick a team (sometimes the same; sometimes not, which of course makes for interesting game watching!) and cheer for them throughout the tourney. in the past it's been arizona, texas, and tennessee... but this year i'm hoping for an SEC win (it'd be the first time ever)... so ROLL TIDE ROLL for the 2010 women's college softball world series!

despite having never played softball myself, i've fallen in love with this sport! i am definitely a girl who loves to learn anything and everything about new and different sports. and while i'm still learning a lot, there are a few things i truly love watching. #1 the pitch... oh man from a PT nerd perspective, it's amazing to watch! and #2 slap hitting just amazes me... those girls get down that first base line in just a bit over 2 second which is just ridiculous!

summertime to me means hot hot sun, laying out by the pool, relaxing with a good book, and watching softball on tv! couldn't get much better! and this summer... i don't have school to distract me from watching ;)

go bama!

well it was a sad day yesterday... bama lost! i'm still not quite over it as silly as that is haha! that team was just so fun to watch. i'm still at a loss as to who to cheer for now... as my heart was pretty set on the crimson tide to roll on into oklahoma city and win!

so this year was not a good year for the teams i liked... every single team i cheered for lost! i started with my favorite alabama, after their loss, decided i could cheer for tennessee and washington. they both ended up losing. so in a last ditch effort i cheered for arizona, who lost to ucla in 2 games. hopefully next year will be a better year for anyone i cheer for... either that or i just need to start cheering for the team i hope to lose :)

where the story ends

for the last 2.5 yrs i've been responsible for studying and reading from textbooks.
now i want to be responsible for enjoying books that i picked out myself (although that'll have to be coupled with studying for state board exams along the way).

i'm giving the fray a little (actually a lot, they melt my heart no matter my mood) love. "where the story ends" is cheesy considering my post is about books, but at the same time i'm still writing my story, so i find it quite appropriate, who knows where my story will ultimately find its end. i'm finishing up my school career with three 8-week clinicals before graduating with a doctorate in physical therapy. the past 2 years have been a story in themselves, yet i know that come 2011, i'll be putting a whole new ink to a whole new type of paper.

so... books to read before i graduate (december 15th, 2010), in no particular order:

1. Vampire Diaries (yes... i finally gave into the world of vampires; i've started this series and need to finish it; books 3 and 4 to go)... and finishing that series may lead me back to the Twilight Saga (Edward in all his glittering-ness!)
   
2. The Red Tent (read it before, but it's worthy enough to be re-read)
3. The Secret Life of Bees (i've seen and loved the movie; heard the book was amazing!)
4. The Kite Runner

this is a running list... a changeable list. i'd love for anyone to share recommendations, must reads, classics, feel-goods, anything that strikes your fancy! :)

what's been going on?

hm hm hm amos lee! there are moments when that man's voice just strikes a chord in me... and it seems that in the summer, he speaks the most to me! "what's been going on" something we ask each other all the time.. it's such a simple question, yet can spark so many different reactions and emotions!

over the summer i really feel like these four words can set the stage for amazing conversations and great insight into the people you may have already thought you knew.

as long as i've been in school, and believe me it's been long enough haha, there has always been something i've disliked about summers... and that's not being around all of my friends! you get so used to being able to talk to everyone for 8 hours, 5 days a week. when summer rolls around, that's limited by distance, by vacations, by general lack of communication. but why... why is it that it's so easy for us to just let relationship fall because we aren't in school or at work? we just become dependent on facebook or word of mouth from mutual friends to know of what's been going on in each other's lives.

i miss knowing what's up in my friends' lives... i guess it's a good introduction to life after we graduate. i know there will be people i won't lose touch with; those friends who's weddings i'll attend, i'll be there as we build our families, etc. but the ones i do lose touch with... that, in so many ways, breaks my heart because at one time, those people were once close friends! distance. settling down in different cities. even living in the same city, only minutes away, but living different lives. all of these are just excuses that lend themselves to us losing touch and not truly knowing what's been going on.

i challenge you. i challenge myself. i am at such an early stage in this... yet i can already see how easy it is, can be, maybe even will be to lose touch with amazing people. so do as much as you can to avoid losing touch. if you've lost touch with those friends, make efforts to check back in. all it takes is asking "what's been going on..."

where does the good go?

ahhh what music does for the soul! thus far, i've sent shout outs to the weepies with my blog title, beyonce's "ego" made an appearance in my last entry, and now i'm crediting tegan and sarah with this one. i've always found that music speaks to me... that regardless of my mood, i find some song that really hits home.

i think this will be my "thing." so from now on, regardless of subject matter, watch out for a song lyric or title... this should be fun! a way to find new music and discover old :) i've gone back and linked the song titles in my past posts and will continue to do so in future posts, in case you've never heard the song or haven't in a while. so look, listen, and hopefully enjoy :)

where does the good go? well i followed it to austraila and man, did i find greatness! i wanted to share with you, the good i found in the land down under! i traveled with my physical therapy program to perth, australia (west coast) for an educational exchange; and while i learned a lot, don't worry, i played a bit too!

we cruised out on the ocean!


downtown perth

perth at night

the cutest puffer fish... such a flirt too!

a kangaroo, notice her joey! she ate right out of my hand... amazing experience!

sleepy koala

traveling half way around the world... an experience that can never be put into words. all i know is that i found where some of the good goes.

i walk like this 'cause i can back it up

back in high school i was an athlete... playing soccer and exercising to the point that it never mattered what i ate. i didn't play college sports, so my body experienced some changes. those changes never really bothered me much, until something clicked during my junior year.

always a perfectionist and over-achiever, college brought about stress as well. in needing something to control when things seemed crazy, i found comfort in controlling food and exercise. i began running twice a day on less than 1000 calories; a routine that would ultimately result in my weighing 110 pounds and a very distorted body image.

it took a scary night, my mom making me weigh myself in front of her, and a hug from an amazing friend to come to terms with a serious need for change. i attended counseling at school initially; this really taught me how to better cope with stress, with the addition of realizing how important it was for me (in my own words) to "get my shit together"... i was nearing entry into a graduate program for a doctorate in physical therapy, yet i was not taking care of my self and my body. i questioned myself in my being able to honestly talk to and treat my future patients, when i wasn't even taking proper care of myself.

time has been a huge help in my bettering myself. having a family who supports you no matter how scary or uncertain things can be is essential. my friends have been great; they have been there to provide the occasional, but sometimes necessary hugs or words of affirmation. they have helped me build healthy eating and exercise habits.

i can't say my road has been smooth in recovering from such a distorted view of myself and my body, but i can say that i'm making it.

lately i found such a inspiration and a motivation through working out to jillian micheals. some physical therapist friends introduced me to her workout dvds after i had some problems with shin splints (physical therapists/physical therapist students are the worst patients; i should have rested more between runs, but didn't). jillian pretty much rocks my world... in just 20 minutes ("30 day shred" dvd) she kills my arms, abs, and legs. one of my favorite things about jillian is that she promotes an overall healthy lifestyle, with both healthy food choices and exercises. jillian is believable... she's battled her own weight issues and she's kicked its ass (pardon me)! knowing that about her makes it hard to just give up on her workouts; for me it's motivating, for me it's something that pushes me to live better.

right now i'm flying high... my mind is in a great place! my body is getting there (jillian is no liar when she says she gets results)! one of my favorite workout songs right now is beyonce's "ego"... "i walk like this 'cause i can back it up" speaks to me in many ways (and not necessarily the ways beyonce probably intended ha!) :) but i've been there. done that. i'm not going back down the roads i've traveled (at least not the bumpy ones). so yeah... i walk like this 'cause i can back it up... and you know, maybe i can back it up a little like beyonce. my legs are pretty rocking these days ;)

i don't know if sharing this will ever hit home for anyone; for me, sharing pieces of my story gives me an outlet to continue moving forward. maybe all you get out of this is a new workout song in beyonce's "ego" or a new inspiration to tackle jillian and her "30 day shred"... regardless i hope i gave you something in reading this.

and so it begins...

blogging is something i never thought i'd try, i was never much of a journal or diary girl growing up. but i have been inspired... inspired by a wonderful friend of mine who recently started blogging. in reading her blog, something inside of me screamed "try it." and so i am.

i don't know where i'll go with this, i could go so many places. i tend to be one who is led strongly by her heart... so, "as the word spins madly on" join me wherever my heart leads. maybe something i say along the way will strike you, maybe not. either way, i hope that this blog can be an outlet of sorts. one of exploration into all that life holds. sometimes i think we miss out on so much in this world, so i'm ready to open my eyes and ears and mind even wider...