Belle of Babble
Southern Belle by birth. Babble by choice.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Let's Build a Snowman! We can call him our best friend!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Go Back To High School....
Friday, December 9, 2011
Oh, I wish I was a fishy in the stream...
This summer I crossed the following off of my Bucket List:
77. Go Skinny Dipping
Now. I realise that I said I would write about each experience, but this one will not include pictures of our adventures.
I went to a nudist beach in another state with three of my favorite people. It was an amazing, freeing afternoon filled with gorgeous sunshine, deliciously warm water and my viewing a volleyball game on the beach that made me think, "ow...."
My favorite parts of the day included copious amounts of swimming, friends and screaming like a little girl every time a fish bit my leg (we were in a lake). Also, the fact that every incredibly tanned person there just had to make a comment to me about the reality of my twilight-pale skin. Yes, I am pale - I get it. I reflect light... it's not that I don't spend time in the sun. I am just pale. Fact of life. Maybe a trip to the spray-tan store before I bare all next time? :)
I took a trip down memory lane back to my 9 years of summer camp and the song, "Oh I wish I were...
**if you would like to hear what the song sounds like... visit this: http://youtu.be/dCQys7EjyDs **
My not so favorite moments... the 2 mile hike through mosquito infested forests in order to reach the secluded, unmarked beach. I swear, I thought we were never going to get there!! :) Getting bitten by tiny fish every time I got in the water... (yes, i know that's also on my favorites list. The fish and I had a love/hate relationship).
Amazing moments - NOT GETTING SUNBURNT! We were out there for like 5 hours. No burn on this Irish skin! The sun gods must have been with me that day. :) A man overhearing us talking about the bugs as we were packing up to leave and him spraying us all down with some intense bug spray. It was a very pleasant hike back to civilization! Though, I felt bad for all of the un-bug-sprayed folk walking around us. It made me want to rub up against them to transfer some of my blessed spray to them.
Also, let's not forget the delicious meal we shared on the way home. It was laid back with good food and lots of us singing Queen loudly as other tables glanced our way. They just wished they were sitting with us. We were obviously the cool table. :)
It was definitely an experience that I look forward to repeating! I am so fortunate to have friends who are so dedicated to helping me with my bucket list that they are willing to strip down and frolic in the water with me. <3
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Yikes!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Knoxville's Gay Pride Parade
Thursday, June 23, 2011
When I grow up...
“I was always a fanciful little girl, but especially after I’d learned to read when I was four years old. Real life just couldn’t compete with the stories in books, though I never really gave life a chance, anyway. Books were too delicious and far-reaching. You could curl up in a corner of the couch and travel to other worlds, be other people, feel every emotion ever invented.”
“People who go to bed alone often have a TV playing. They say it keeps them company, assuages the onags of solitude, but in fact, it doesn’t work that way. When you read a book, you fully and completely enter a universe. Your mind is an energetic participant in the written language. It cannot be otherwise. But when you watch television, you cannot enter that world You always remain on the outside looking at the the screen, and the screen is the wall blocking your entrance. And so the television makes you horribly aware of the very thing you wish to escape. Your loneliness.”
Josephine Carr
This is a short one. Those two quotes say it all. :) Happy day!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Bucket List
- Parasailing
- Go on a cruise. To anywhere.
- Work with the USO.
- Live in New York City.
- Visit Egypt to see the pyramids and walk where Cleopatra walked.
- Go to Prince Edward Island and walk around Green Gables and the Lake of Shining Waters.
- Watch all six Star Wars in a row.
- Adopt a greyhound.
- Visit Gilda Radner’s grave and leave her red candy.
- Visit Ireland and drink REAL Guinness.
- Have an avocado tree.
- Drive Route 66 from start to finish (Chicago to LA)
- Get a Master’s Degree.
- Fall in Love. Real love.
- Foster kittens.
- Learn Sign Language.
- Learn about who my grandparents were and write about them.
- Learn how to play chess.
- Read all of the Jane Austen books.
- Go to a formal Ball (and have the big dress to go with it!)
- Learn how to Waltz (for aforementioned Ball).
Go fishing.(Will write about soon!!)- Visit all 50 States.
- Take a cooking class.
- Read the entire Bible.
- Stop being scared and take myself to Europe.
- Fly First Class.
Send a military care package.(Will write about soon!!)- Sew a sundress.
- Finish a Cross-Stitching project. Just one. Any one.
- Organize my photos.
- Go Sledding.
Volunteer at a Food Bank.(Will write about soon!!)- Touch someone’s life.
- Go tent/sleeping bag/hiking-with-a-pack-on-your-back camping.
- Become a mother.
- Find the job that makes me jump out of bed in the morning.
- Run barefoot through a field of wildflowers.
- Memorize the Lady of Shalott.
- Create and send out homemade Christmas Cards.
- Sing in a musical again.
- Learn how to play Raquetball.
- Go Skiing.
- Learn to surf.
- Visit a volcano.
- Go ice skating.
- Do a handstand.
- Ride a Vespa around the Blue Ridge Parkway when the leaves are changing.
- Hug a Redwood.
- Run in a 5k.
- Go on a canopy top Zipline Tour.
- Plant and maintain a vegetable garden.
- Go to Vegas, stay in an outrageous hotel and have an amazing girls only weekend.
- Ride a horse through the surf.
- Throw a themed Dinner Party.
- Take a beautiful picture.
- Go on a trapeze.
- See a real circus (i.e. Ringling Bros.)
- Stroll hand in hand with someone I love through Central Park.
- Spend a week at a mountain cabin with no TV, Internet, or Phones.
- Pet a tiger or a lion… or at least hear it purr.
- Visit a psychic.
- Take a bicycle tour across a state.
- Be on a rowing crew.
- Wear a two piece… in public.
- Go to the Olympics.
- Play Golf.
- Ride in a Helicopter.
- Visit the astronomical clock in Prague.
- Watch the Oscar Best Pic nominees BEFORE the awards ceremony.
- Watch the Tony awards Best Musical nominees BEFORE the awards ceremony.
- Become a morning person.
- Live in a house with tons of windows, a huge yard, bay window with a window seat and a red or purple door.
- Take a silent retreat.
- Go skinny dipping.
- Sit in the audience for Saturday Night Live.
- Go to Durban, South Africa.
- Walk the Great Wall of China.
- Donate my hair to Locks of Love.
- Climb the Statue of Liberty and pretend like I'm in that scene in Ghostbusters!
- Go to Utah and see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Christmas.
- Drink coffee on the patio of a cute café in Paris while eating fresh baguette.
- Have professional photos taken of myself.
- Learn how to play the piano.
- See the ruins of Greece.
- Go to a UT game and sing Rocky Top with the crowd.
- Be part of a CSA for a year.
- Throw a dart at a map and just go! No planning – complete spontaneity.
- Go to Salem, MA.
- Participate in Mardi Gras.
Help a friend cross something off of THEIR Bucket List.(Will write about soon!!)- Join a local book club.
- Do a split.
- Go snorkeling.
Make chocolate croissants from scratch.(Will write about soon!!)- Crush grapes with my feet a la I Love Lucy.
- Indoor skydiving.
- Go on an exotic beach vacation with my sister and drink girly pink drinks with little umbrellas.