Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category

I promised a recap of my Memorial Day weekend and my cousin’s wedding so here it is:

The weekend can be summed up in one word:  SPECTACULAR!

Almost the entire family was able to make it to the wedding.  People came from Washington State,  Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, and New Mexico.  I’d say we did our best at taking over Sherman, Texas for the weekend!

Besides having a ton of fun, doing alot of reminiscing, and making new memories that will last a lifetime, I think the most important thing that came out of the trip was the realization that I have the best family in the world and I absolutely love them.  As children, we were all very close, but I often worry that after all of the years of college, and jobs, and everyone moving farther apart to pursue different careers or life choices, we would slowly drift apart and lose that closeness that we all had.

This trip definitely stifled those worries because even as adults, we all still enjoy each other’s company and realize how important it is to maintain that closeness that many other families are not lucky enough to have.

And in no specific order, here are my favorite moments from the trip:

• Marc calling me to tell me that they were running late to pick Ben and I up from the airport and they would be there soon if they didn’t die first from the roach crawling around Megan’s car
• Eating REAL Tex-Mex food and drinking margaritas with Megan and Ben on a Thursday afternoon
• Watching the Hangover with the fam and repeating quotes like, “Tigers love pepper; they hate cinnamon” and “Toodaloo Motha Fuckas”
• Running on the treadmill with my sister in the hotel gym on Friday morning and keeping each other motivated for our half marathon in October
• Eating continental breakfast with the whole family in the hotel lobby every morning
• Watching the surprise slide show made by Bryan’s (the groom) dad 3 times and loving it more each time
• Getting to know some of my cousins as adults since the last time I saw them they were still kids
• Dancing with Ben for the first time in our almost-4-year-long relationship
• Visiting with friends and family at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception
• Introducing Ben to the whole fam damily and to Sherman, Texas!
• DANCING with the fam (particularly to Footloose – will always remember the suspender tricks)
• Giving a speech at the reception to honor my cousin and one of my best friends
• Catching the bouquet (even if my mom DID volley it to me)
• Meeting many of the little ones who have joined our family but I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet and watching them dance and play on the dance floor
• Saying “Shelby Drink Your Juice” in a country accent every time Megan started to tear up at the thought of no longer being a Mitchusson to keep her from messing up her make-up
• The sigh of relief I had when mom fixed the zipper on my bridesmaid dress and once again confirmed that she is my ultimate hero
• Walking down the stairs at the reception with the best man as we were introduced to the guests to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”
• Partying at Cellarmans until midnight after the rehearsal dinner and then moving the party to the Holiday Inn Express gazebo until 2 AM the night before the wedding
• Getting my hair done with my mom, aunt, the bride, and the bridesmaids
• Getting pedicures and manicures with my mom, aunt, sister, and cousin
• Laughing the day after the wedding at the stories of dance moves involving the shocker
• Seeing Matt’s bee hives
• Dancing to “Girl’s Just Want To Have Fun” after “catching” the bouquet
• Watching my cousin get married in the same church my parents were married in almost 40 years ago

There are so many more great memories, but if I keep writing, you’d all get bored and stop reading!

And now, courtesy of Marc Mitchusson, a photo of the Scott Family great-grandaughters who attended the wedding and also some of my best friends in the whole world!

I love this sign!

It’s almost as good as “We don’t swim in your toilet, so don’t pee in our pool!”

Occasionally in life (or at least in my life), something comes along that changes me.  It helps shape the person I am becoming and has a profound impact on the way I live my life.

It seems that the older I become, the less often this happens (probably because I am too busy to notice it happening), so I try to hold on to this feeling when it comes because I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait until I have it again.

The most recent catalyst in the molding of who I ultimately will become was the ending of a television show.  I know some people might think that I’m stupid or cliche for letting a television show shape who I am or considering a television show important enough to influence me greatly, but I don’t care.  I can’t control what feelings are evoked in me by different forms of art (and yes I do consider some television a form of art but this would explicitly exclude reality television).

The television show I’m speaking of is LOST.  I feel that there never has been and never will be a piece of fiction so profound and meaningful on television in my lifetime.  When I watched the two and a half hour series finale on Sunday evening, I cried.  And I did not just get teary eyed.  I actually bawled like a baby into Ben’s t-shirt.  It wasn’t because I was so sad that the show was ending, although that did depress me slightly.  It was that the ending and the overall meanings of the show fit so perfectly into my beliefs and values that I couldn’t help but feel what the characters were feeling.  I won’t go into details because I know not everyone is a LOST fan like I am and I know there are some out there who have yet to see the finale.  All I can say is that the ending was perfect for me (keywords:  for me).

I’ll always cherish this show and I know I will watch it over and over again.  I will encourage my children (once they’ve reached a certain age) to watch it and discuss it.  LOST is definitely a show that will transcend time and has certainly had a very large impact on me.

Always remember, “If we can’t live together, we will die alone.”

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. 

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

This year, I am blogging about my friend Nita Collier.  Nita is one of the strongest, smartest, and most amazing women I know and she is one of the people who inspired me to further my career in technology.

I first met Nita when I was 22 and right out of college.  I was working my first real job as the Help Desk Associate for Albemarle County Schools and Nita was one of the Technology Support Specialists.  She was only 4 years older than me, but she had a husband, 2 beautiful children, a house, and a successful career supporting technology in education.  At first, the Help Desk work satisfied me, but soon I found myself wanting to learn and do more.  I saw what Nita and my other co-workers were doing and I wanted to do the same thing.  I wanted that challenge and even though it was scary to think of jumping into something that I was not confident about doing, I knew that I could do it because Nita did and I knew she could teach me alot.

Over the 3 years that I worked forAlbemarle County, I became good friends with Nita and learned sooooo much from her.  She taught me everything she could about the profession.  Now a mother of three beautiful little ones, Nita supports the entire division, consisting of more than 26 schools and sites, by helping teachers to integrate technology into education and providing a more engaging learning environment for the students of the 21st century.  She continues to inspire me to be all that I can be in technology.

It’s because of strong and intellegent women like Ada Lovelace and my friend, Nita Collier, that women like myself continue to enter and succeed in the technology field!

I love you Nita and thank you for everything!

Yesterday I attended the Crozet Music Festival with some friends from work.  We went to support a group of guys from VGT who have a band called Coal River.  These guys were AWESOME!  They sang some really good cover songs as well as some of their own unique tunes.  If you’ve got some free time and feel like hearing some great local music, check out their MySpace page.

In addition to listening to some great bands, there were several local wineries and breweries there.  Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery (mentioned in an earlier post) was there and had a newly bottled wine called Lavender Metheglin.

From Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery’s website:

Metheglin is derived from the Welsh word “meddyglyn” which means healing drink.  In ancient times, healing spices were added to mead resulting in a  drink with healing powers.  Lavender, believed to promote good health, is also soothing and relaxing and is associated with romance and seduction.  Possessing a beautiful golden color and a bouquet of fresh lavender flowers, this slightly sweet mead can be enjoyed heated or paired with desserts such as blackberry cobbler.

This wine was amazing and hopefully it really does have healing powers since I’ve been fighting a cold.  I loved it so much that I bought 3 bottles of it.

In addition, I sampled wines from Well Hung Vineyard (love the name and their label) and Flying Fox Vineyard which had some really good wines (and really cute labels).  I’m going to have to make it out to Flying Fox’s tasting room to try their 2006 Petit Verdot which won a Gold Medal in the 2009 Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition.  It tied for first place with Barboursville Vineyards ‘ Octagon 2005 and Jefferson Vineyards‘ 2006 Meritage (according to the owner) and I loved both of these wines.

Local breweries in attendance included Starr Hill, Blue Mountain Brewery (was really sad I missed out on their Humpback Oktoberfest but will have to make a trip out to Nelson County to try it and their up-and-coming Chocolate Pumpkin Porter), and Devils Backbone Brewing Company (I had the Gold Leaf Lager which was delicious).

In the end, it was an awesome night with lots of friends, good music, good food, and great wine and beer (despite my cold).  I will definitely be attending again next year and you should too!

On occasion, I like to share with a random stranger, like the blackjack dealer at my table in Vegas, that when I give birth to my future children, assuming I’m still living outside of Texas, I’ll place a shoebox full of Texas dirt underneath the hospital bed so that I can say my children were born on Texas soil.  People usually laugh and think I’m kidding or drunk, but I’m totally serious.

Of course I can’t take credit for this idea myself.  I have Wikipedia and the father of Colt McCoy, the quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, to thank for this BRILLIANT idea!  According to Wikipedia and several other online sources,

 ”McCoy’s parents were from Texas, but his father, Brad McCoy, was working just across the Texas border in Hobbs, New Mexico at the time of Colt’s birth. Brad McCoy reportedly brought a shoe-box of Texas dirt to the hospital and slid it under the bed so that Colt could be born “over Texas soil”. The story may or may not be true, as his father has chosen to “plead the fifth” when asked to confirm it.“

If you’re out there reading, Brad McCoy, I just want to say THANK YOU for this AWESOME idea!  I’m totally doing it!  As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to have kids, just so I can prove to everyone that I am actually going to go through with this!  It’s a helluvalot cheaper than flying to Texas to give birth.

I also plan on naming my first son Dallas.  Dallas Davidson has a nice ring to it, don’t ya think?