And That's How I Fell in Love With Zombies

This last Monday, I went to downtown Naperville, IL (a small pleasantville-like community where it actually feels safe to walk around at night) with a friend to an author reading at a local bookstore. I had never heard of the author but figured it was something new and a nice night to walk around town. The author was Carrie Ryan, author of "The Forest of Hands and Feet" and a sequel book called "The Dead-Tossed Waves." Both books are based on post-apocalytic worlds where a contained society exists within barracaded walls and zombies exists outside the walls. This books seems to be building a following and has been recently added to the New York Times Bestseller list.

I've never been to an author reading before so I wasn't sure what to expect. But as soon as Carrie Ryan began speaking, I immediately liked her. She talked about how scared she was of scary movies until she was forced to go to see the "Dawn of the Dead" remake with her boyfriend and fell in love with zombies. Her passion for writing continued and even after going through everything that law school makes you go through, she knew that a career in law wasn't for her. So she set out to write with a 10 year plan....if she didn't make it happen in 10 years, she would give it up. However, her writing found an audience and there she was tonight...doing what she loved and answering questions -- most of them about zombies. The one thing that really made me liked her was the fact that even though she went to law school and got a degree, once she knew that law wasn't for her, she allowed herself to change her course....it would be hard not to feel obligated to follow the original plan. But she knew what her passion was and went with it and you could tell she was happy....that she was proud of her work and loved what she had done and what she will do (she's in the revision process of her third book). Needless to say, I bought her first book. She sold me.

And We Raise Our Glass

In the last ten years or so, I have been to countless weddings, been part of two wedding parties, and will be part of two more this year. The weddings are as unique as the couples that have them. I love weddings. It's a celebration of love that is purposefully designed to reflect the two people that it's bringing together. And seeing two people at their happiest makes me happy. But this post is about the wedding experiences from the guest's point-of-view (well, in this case, my point of view) and the little tidbits and memories that have been my favorite through my wedding-attending days. Some are cherishable, some are sad, some are bizarre, and others are clever. Here's a list of some of the memorable wedding tidbits:



1. The Memorable Pastor -- For most wedding ceremonies, the pastor (or priest or other dude) will recite verses and conduct a sermon. However, at one wedding I went to, the pastor personalized and focused his entire sermon on the guy and girl getting married. He used stories that they had told him, talked about their hobbies and passions and future plans. He used quotes from them about what they loved about each other and intertwined those quotes into the sermon. It was so personal, so beautiful, and so sincere that even after the sermon was done, I wanted to hear more.



2. The Memory Candle -- At one wedding, the couple had an "In Memory" candle at the back of the church by the guest book. The candle was engraved with all the names of loved one who had passed away. It was something so small but to me was such a statement -- "we know you can't be here but you are not forgotton."



3. The Backyard -- This wedding will stand out as one of the more non-traditional weddings. It was a country backyard wedding complete with: a random dog wondering the aisles, an uncle who showed up with no shirt, another couple sucking each other's faces while waiting for it to start, and an interruption of the wedding vows by a group of 50 or so bikers driving by whose motorcycles were so loud, we couldn't hear, well, anything.

4. The Dream Wedding -- The bride of this wedding was her own master wedding planner. She had every minute planned, every detail down, and no flower petal out of place. I had never seen a wedding so meticulously planned as this one. After over a year of her life invested into this one day, it was so fun to see her revel in it. Oh, and if you are wondering if this dream wedding came with a horse-drawn carriage?...yes, yes it did.

5. The Fire Truck -- This couple met while working for the Fire Deptment so it was only fitting to them that they would leave the church and climb up on a fire truck to take them to their reception. The wedding cake had a fire truck at the top with ladders connecting each teir and the bride herself had a white dress lined with navy blue -- to commerate the colors of the fire dept. Many might say "tacky" but these two people were paying homage to the passion that brought them together and they continue to share.

6. CD Wedding Favors -- At one wedding, the favors we received were copies of a CD where the bride and groom burnt some of their favorite songs played at the wedding. So very clever!

7. "I Loved Her First" song -- This beautiful father/daughter dance song can still make me cry but hearing it while watching a father and daughter dance to it? Priceless.

8. The Unwedding -- As I was on my way to a small wedding of a friend who was hosting it in her own backyard, I got a call saying that just an hour before the wedding, the groom-to-be called it off. Instead of wanting people to leave, the former bride asked that we still come and just be with her. She was calm and non-emotional -- as I think she was still in shock -- and we came and talked with her at what would have been the reception tables and ate the food that had been catered in and paid for. The part of that afternoon that stood out to me was when she refused to open the fridge where her wedding cake lay untouched. It was a sad moment.

9. The Mansion -- This wedding was held in a gorgeous old mansion. Did I mention it was suposedly haunted? That fact alone would put it on this list! This place beat any reception hall in beauty and elegance. I would go back to this place anyday!

10. The Champagne -- I had to finish out this list by mentioning my first wedding ever. I was 8 and it was the first event where I really did "dance like nobody's watching." My brother did cartwheels across the dance floor and since we couldn't have this odd drink called "champagne" that the adults got to have, we made our own -- we mixed Coke and Sprite and called it the same thing. We even made a toast with it. Unforgettable.

Conan O'Brien: Long May You Run

I'm a fan of late night talk shows and a big fan of Conan O'Brien. After a busy day, Conan with his self-deprecating humor and whit, always made me smile and laugh (out loud, might I add -- has anyone seen his skit -- In the Year 3000?) I was overjoyed after learning he would be taking over The Tonight Show after Leno stepped down. And unless you have been living under a rock, I'm sure you heard or saw the ongoing dispute among Conan, Jay Leno, and NBC Studios. For those of you who are under-rock dwellers (or just don't care about pop culture), I will catch you up.

Jay Leno left the Tonight Show to pursue his own television show that would air before The Tonight Show, which would be hosted by Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno show was cancelled due to poor ratings and NBC decided to offer Leno back The Tonight Show and move Conan back to his original spot. Conan refused and the ongoing fued was captured through the television with verbal jabs at each other on their own shows as well as from other hosts (like David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel). Actors/guest stars lined up behind Conan to support him and he stood his ground against NBC. Finally, last week, both announced a deal. Conan O'Brien would leave The Tonight Show and receive $33 million dollars out of the total payout of $45 million. The remaineder would be split among his producers and writers of the show. So on Friday, January 22nd, Conan made his last appearance on NBC as a talk show.

I know stereotypes are made about people and their professions, and I confess that I can tend to make unknown claims too. I tend to think that stand-up comedians or people who make humor their career only know how to make people laugh --when it comes to the serious stuff, they lack emotion and poise. But I could not have been more wrong when Conan took the last part of his show to completely surprise me with his emotional and graceful goodbye (including a perfect song performed by Neil Young -- "Long May You Run":

"Before we end this rodeo, a few things need to be said. There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can't say about NBC. To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want. And what I want to say is this: between my time at Saturday Night Live, the Late Night show, and my brief run here on The Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over twenty years. "Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we're going to go our separate ways. But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.

Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I've had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we'll find a way to make it fun.

And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism — it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. "

Conan, I will always be a fan. I know great things are in store for you. Stay humble. Stay cheerful. Stay passionate. Long May You Run.

Twenty Ten or Two Thousand Ten

Wow! 2009 has come and gone and now we are entering a new decade! It was hard for me to comprehend all that has happened in 10 short years......in my own life and our society. It may not even seem like much until you really think about it. We had the closest presidental race in history between Bush and Gore (remember that??) and since have had two other presidential elections. We went through some great tragedies like September 11th, the Challenger exploding in 2003, the Tsumani that left 200,000 dead, Hurricane Katrina, a war that has been going on for almost 7 years, and most recently, a recession that has affected everyone (if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure you can name someone that has).

Look at your own life now. What has happened in the last 10 years? Are you where you imagined yourself to be? I examined the last ten years and was ultimately surprised by the changes and experiences I have had. I graduated from middle school, high school, college, and will be finishing my Masters Degree this May. That equals A LOT OF SCHOOL and it will be a big change after May to not have classes at all. I had the experience of teaching a class and chaperoning the same high school field trips that I once took. I've been to an island, Vegas, the Rockies, an abandoned isane asylum, and explored the downtown city of Chicago so far. I've seen countless weddings, made and lost friends, had heartbreaks, have seen wonderful expansions to my family and witnessed part of my family torn apart. I've welcomed the birth of two little cousins and said goodbye to my grandpa. I have received and parted with my first and only car I have owned thus far. I watched as 6 of the 7 Harry Potter books were transformed onscreen and the truly amazing invention of the Ipod changed the way I listened to music. I found priorities, changed some values that I had previously held and gained a bit of wisdom along the way. Let's hope the next ten years only get better!
Stephanie

P.S. I do plan on blogging a lot more than I did in 2010
P.S.S. The reason for the title: There is this massive debate among grammer-correct-people about whether we should pronounce 2010 as Twenty-Ten or Two Thousand Ten.......and my answer is........whichever one tickles your fancy. I won't correct you if you say either one and I hope that this debate among um....grammatical experts can be resolved peacefully. Thanks.

Conquering the Adult Playground of America

Many of you know that I recently took a trip to Las Vegas at the beginning of July. Me and two friends from college (let's call them Sasha and Ivy because those were the fake names we donned while there....mine was Harley in case you were curious) packed up and flew out for five days. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. It was a new place after all and nicknamed "sin city" for a reason -- an adult playground where most anything goes and is accepted behavior. But, I can say with confidence that I had an amazing time, experienced things that I'll never forget, and would love to go back again someday. Before I get into the details, was there anything that happened in Vegas that stayed in Vegas? Yes. It was wonderful and exciting and no regrets and that is what I will say about that.

Being in our early twenties, the one thing we wanted to experience was the nightclub scene and experience we did.....EVERY night. We went to small clubs and huge clubs and clubs with lounging couches and even had a V.I.P. experience on our last night there at the Playboy Club at the Palms Hotel. I met so many different kinds of people from all over the world. We were stuck on a double-decker bus with two native (and handsome-as-hell) French men who taught us a bit of french, partied with two girls from England whose word for drunk was "pissed", a hilarious cab driver from Virginia and two older ladies from New Hampshire who we met in the pool with their big hats and jewelry who officially labeled themselves our "Vegas grandmas" and were two of the funniest and most genuine people I have met. Oh....and the MEN in Vegas........they are something else......I swear. One man offered to be our pimps and help us make money, I had a man bluntly say this exact phrase to me -- "You have beautiful eyes. Want to f*** in the elevator?" When I politely declined his offer, he counteroffered with "How about a hand job? Or a feel?" Another man I danced with at the club told me I made him hot and he wanted to "marinate" me if I'd come by his hotel room.....no joke...marinate? Like you marinate meat before you cook it? Had to chuckle at that one so good thing it was loud and dark in the club.

You need to come to Vegas with an open mind and heart and not take anything too seriously. It's about coming to the party and making it fun. You meet some doozies and may have an offensive remark thrown your way once in a while and if you let it get to you, you will have a miserable time. But if you can throw the remark back in a whitty, humorous way or brush it off or laugh it down, then you will fit in just fine. For every gross or preverted person you might meet, there are 10 or 20 good people you will run into. Well, this is Part I of three blogs I will be doing about Vegas. There's so many subjects to talk about, it hard to fit them in to one blog. My next blog will talk about being a girl in Vegas because being a girl in Vegas is GREAT and being a guy in Vegas SUCKS. I'll tell you why next time!
Later dayz,
Steph

Having a Passion for Hauntings

So, me and a very good friend of mine Emily recently took a trip down to Decatur, IL to attend the Lucky 13 Haunting Conference. It is basically a gathering of paranormal groups, investigators, and paranormal fans like me and Em who come together and talk about the paranormal. They had different speakers on many different subjects (one of them sex...go figure!) and lots of stories to tell. We were unable to get onto any of the sold out haunting tours that were happening, but it was still something to experience. Best of all, I was able to meet with Troy Taylor. He's like the king of paranormal. He's traveled all over the country holding investigations and has written over 60 books on the subect. And to my deligtful surprise, he is one of the most down-to-earth and coolest people to talk to. By coincidence, he was staying in the same hotel as us and came into the bar where we chatted a bit. I met so many different paranormal groups..ordinary people/friends who get together and check out haunted places. I met the owner of the Bartonville insane asylum that me and Em toured together back in November. We bounced back and forth our own stories of our haunted experiences and it was excited to have people who have a passion for this as much (and sometimes more!) than I do. I've loved learning about hauntings since I was a kid in front of the television watching "Unsolved Mysteries" while others were tuning into "Party of Five." To do this for a living would be such an experience -- to travel and meet people and hear their stories and try to get them some validation. We had groups with techology galore, others with matching T-shirts, and little ole me and Em, who probably looked outta place, but we soon got comfortable with the atmosphere. There was one other highlight of our weekend and that was the reading we signed up for with the famed psychic Ken Berg. Though I will not say what he told Em (in case she'd rather keep that to herself), I will share some things he saw for me:


1. I will be taking an exciting trip within the next two months and will have a great time

2. There is a change of residence within the next year

3. I will be getting more responsibility at my job but I will not hold that job or stay on that job path by the next year

4. No sudden deaths or health problems within my family for the next year.

5. I will be a mom someday -- he is saying 3 kids

6. I have a fear of rejection

7. A relationship dynamic will change within the next three months

8. I really hold back with men and should put myself out there more. The results will be good if I do.

I think that was the gist of it. I was kinda unprepared because he does a tarot card reading and then you can ask him questions. I would like to do it again and have questions prepared. I would like to learn more about what areas he thinks I would be good at with a career (since I'm stuck on that right now). I know maybe I shouldn't rely on a psychic to find that out but another opinion wouldn't hurt. He had some good insights with not only me but on Em as well. Wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. He's back in October. :)

I've attached a couple articles that explains more about the various speakers and activities that happened over the weekend. He does a really good job at reporting the details of the events and tells it better and with a better memory than I have.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977718294
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977718310

If you are interested in coming with me on future endeavors, I get the ideas from this great website. They have overnight excursions, haunted tours, conferences, and other events. Take a look and let me know if you want to go! Visit http://www.prairieghosts.com/
Later Dayz,

Steph

The Plague

I think a plague has swept through my family. Since Wednesday, I have been sick with the stomach flu and it horrendously sucks. Today hasn't been as bad as the other days but I can't eat much still (which, on a positive note, has resulted in me losing 5 lbs in 4 days). I tried to be productive today and start cleaning out the garage for my birthday party next weekend but once I got inside I couldn't hold a glass of water because both of my arms were shaking so bad....weird? I started laughing at myself because what else could I do except wallow in self pity or laugh? So I started seeing how much water I could hold without spilling for entertainment. I have not been out of the house much except to mull around the yard a bit for the past three days. Cabin fever will start to take hold and soon you will find me huddled in a corner with my shaking hands.......nice thought.
My brother and dad both have fevers, my grandma was in the hospital for a bit this morning with flu-like symptoms, and numerous cousins have it or are just getting over it. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I want food to taste good again and want to be able to go farther than my driveway. I've started to make plans for next week in hopes that this illness will leave. I do have a new-found love for Canada Dry Ginger Ale that seems to calm down my stomach. I'm pretty healthy most of the time and haven't been this sick in a LONG time so it just seems to literally STOP my life and I hate my life to stop with something I can't control. But that is just it...just keep taking the medicine, resting, drinking the liquids, etc. is what is in my power to do so I guess there's no use complaining much more about it.....and keep laughing at my shakiness. I just want this to go away.........
Steph