Does Arkansas Have a Food?

While I was retrieving my dish from the church potluck last week, an older lady asked me what I had brought. It was couscous with Rotel and garbanzo beans, so I quickly explained I just threw the ingredients together. I knew couscous wasn't the most common of foods, so I tried to explain.

She stopped me. "Rotel?" she asked me to clarify. Apparently, couscous wasn't the confusing factor.

Another Arkansan was standing nearby. "They don't know about Rotel here," she said.

Is this true? Is using Rotel in every other recipe an Arkansas thing?

I thought catfish was our only signature dish.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Clear the decks for pleasant action, and drink battle, murder, shipwreck, and hellfire to this day for swashbucklers, filibusters, freebooters, and gentlemen of fortune...or else you'll be blasted to Davy Jones and the death you'll face will make men's blood run cold for a hundred years.

Thesis Freakout 9.13

On a scale of 1 to 10, how big of a problem is it to have a 13 page story that has 9 named characters and a dog?

Embarassing Story

Making pancakes is not a risk free activity, but I have to admit, I did not expect to burn my stomach.

Where I Should Live....

Apparently, right where I was before Wilmington. Who knew.


Fayetteville, Arkansas
Alexandria, Louisiana

Little Rock, Arkansas

Charleston, West Virginia

Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana

Frederick, Maryland

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Monroe, Louisiana

Greenville, South Carolina

Baltimore, Maryland

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Lafayette (Cajun Country), Louisiana

Clarksville, Tennessee

Norfolk, Virginia

Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi

Charlotte, North Carolina

Hampton, Virginia

Gainesville, Florida

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Richmond, Virginia

Raleigh, North Carolina

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Tallahassee, Florida
 
Find your spot

September 11

Tim and I were talking yesterday about how we are among the youngest that will clearly remember the events of 9/11/01. We were in 10th grade. I'm sure people a few years younger understood and will remember, but around about fifth grade, the details get confusing. I vaguely remember the Oklahoma City Bombing; mostly, I remember my mom's reaction when it happened, and then eventually put the pieces together once they had a suspect.

I don't get tired of telling the story about how I found out the World Trade Center was attacked and how my day preceded. And that makes me glad that, at least for three years, I've lived in a community of story-tellers.

A picture of me in the 10th grade, with the wonderful Stephanie

On a less serious note, I'm also glad that I spent four years in an SEC community. I didn't know a ton when I was in high school, but I knew enough to decide on the University of Arkansas, so.....

Labor Day Reunion

I am thankful for friends across the United States that know the beauty of spending seven straight hours at the beach doing absolutely nothing (besides swimming and flirting/watching-Olivia-flirt with lifeguards.)

Wilmington, NC   August 2010

Sydney, Australia  March 2007