Southern Vernacular

While dining with a few girlfriends the other night (two from Birmingham and one from Montgomery) we got on the topic of expressions and words that I've learned here in Alabama. Like how the British refer to the restroom as "the loo," Alabamians have their own names for things as well. So since living in Alabama, I now have new words and phrases that have been added to my vocabulary - here are a few:

1. Buggie - instead of grocery cart or shopping cart
   
2. Sack - instead of grocery bag or shopping bag
   
3. Tag - instead of license plate
   
4. Mash - instead of "push" a button
   
5. Fixin' to - instead of "about to"
   
6. Jankin' with - instead of "messing with" or teasing
   
7. Rernt - instead of ruined (found this one quite a stretch)
   
8. Huggie - instead of a beer koozie
   
9. "A coke" - is any soft drink
   
10. "I got a bee in my bonnet" - an expression for getting your mind set on something and having to fulfill the task
    
    Now, don't get me wrong New Orleanians and "Yats" have their own vernacular as well, but these 10 above we new to me.

Countdown to Saints Kickoff...

The Saints equivalent to "Roll Tide" & "War Eagle" when they kick off...

Stand up and get CRUNK!!!

Bless you boys! WHO DAT!

Sleazy Politics

One thing that is definitely the same about New Orleans and Birmingham is the corruption in local politics. William Bell was elected as the Mayor of Birmingham last night in a run-off between him and Patrick Cooper. Can’t trust a local politician as far as you can throw them and the same sleaze-balls keep getting elected – pure corruption!

The Ham goes from Larry Langford who was found guilty on 60 counts of fraud and wanted to bring the Olympics to Birmingham (HA!) to another dirty, local politician. Nothing is going to change if we keep electing the same kind of “leaders.”

And don’t even get me started on Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, that guy is as loopy as Langford, if not more. Maybe they go on political retreats together to strategize (or scheme).

I just hope my two favorite Southern cities can overcome their crooked leadership and not let it bring them to ruins.

Heading Home

I love these Fridays when I get so excited about going home to New Orleans - the whole day is filled with anticipation. We are headed home for the weekend for The Saints playoff game tomorrow. We were SUPER lucky to get my Dad's tickets because he ended up being out of town.

We are thrilled to be able to go to their first playoff game in the DOME and hope that The Saints will come through tomorrow - it is a HUGE game. Not just to proceed in the playoffs, but to all Saints fans. New Orleanians have had a renewed believe in The Saints and have been behind them all the way - this is huge for our city, not just another NFL playoff game, this is the spirit of New Orleans.

So wear your black & gold on Saturday - black if your in the dome for the "blackout" - and cheer, hope and pray for The Saints. AND DEUCE is BACK! WHO DAT!!

What I love about the Ham...

What Birmingham has that New Orleans doesn't, is most of my friends. I do love having so many different groups of friends here - it makes our social life very diverse. There are the friends from college (both Auburn & Alabama), friends I've met through work and networking, the downtowners and the few family friends (plus one brother-in-law). So I can have something to do every night of the week if I want.

And there is nothing better than having that nice balance of guy and girls friends in the same location. So if I want to go shopping or see a movie, I know who to call. Or if there is a great game on or I want to go hear a band, I also know who will be up for it. I adore girl-time with my Auburn blondes or or throwing darts with the guys at Rogue Tavern.

It just makes Birmingham more fun having friends to hang with - shout out to all my peeps!

It’s a Small World...in the Ham

Know that feeling when you run into people you know in random places? Like that NY magazine photographer I did a photo shoot with in Rosemary Beach, that I ran into in LaGuardia airport’s baggage claim – what a small world!

Well in Birmingham it happens every day. Yes, the odds are higher, but it is still a small world in the Ham. Like today for instance, I had a work lunch at Bottega Cafe and as I walk in, I get a tap on the glass from a guy I know (but rarely see). Then once seated, realize a woman I occasionally work with, yet rarely see, is seated at the banquet to my right. Yes, this restaurant is a popular fav for a posh lunch (and they serve their infamous crab cakes on Monday), so it is not that surprising, but fun all the same.

It is not as fun to run into people at say, the gym or the grocery store (Publix on Green Springs gets me everytime).

But as much as it happens here, it’s practically 2 degrees of separation in New Orleans. Everyone knows everybody, and if you don’t know them, you know ya mama an dem. It’s a funny town where everyone knows your family by your last name – “Oh you a Thibodaux? I know Boudreaux!” – hey, it has its charm.

Either place, there is something to be said for Southern towns where you always feel welcome and can relate because you know der mama.

Downtown Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Living in a loft in downtown Birmingham is my favorite aspect of living here. I mean, what other city in the country can you get a one bedroom, one bath spacious loft for under $200k? It’s a beautiful thing to live in the middle of a city and be part of its revitalization.

I also can’t imagine another major city where all of the people that live downtown act like a small village and are so open, friendly and would do anything for you – even help you move (even after just meeting you). I feel like if we had a child downtown, the “village” would really help us raise him/her. It’s a funny (ironic funny, not ha ha) feeling that you can go anywhere in downtown Bham and almost always run into to someone you know. It’s like Mayberry in a downtown setting…astounding.

There is one small drawback to being part of a metropolis that is restoring its vitality – after business hours, and especially on the weekends, it turns into quite the ghost town. There are some exceptions, mind you - Thursday nights are always bumping at the local bars and if there is a large event like City Stages (which is no more) or Art Walk, people are abuzz downtown. But other than that, it’s awfully quiet around town.

My biggest issue being Sundays - NOTHING is open (well, to be fair, Magic City Grill & Za Za are open for brunch/lunch). So on a day when we would otherwise love to be patronizing our local establishments, we have few options. I’d love to be able to get a coffee at Urban Standard or have brunch at Café Dupont.

Sundays make us have to drive to Crestline or Hoover and spend our money there. I know that, in general, not much is open on Sundays, especially in Birmingham, but downtown is particularly bad. I’d love to help support more establishments so they can stay open on Sundays downtown. It would make living in a great urban area even more fantastic.

What I’ve come to realize…

So, having lived in Birmingham for almost four years, I have come to realize and appreciate a lot of what Birmingham has to offer and the small gems that only locals know about.

We bought a loft downtown (to make living in Bham as metropolitan as possible), we shop and dine and locally-owned establishments as often as possible, we attend art exhibit openings and local theater productions…in essence, we are yuppies.

I do appreciate the local music scene and the hipsters we have around town. I love our more locally-known “dive” bars like The Garage, Metro Bistro and Speakeasy. And Birmingham has some killer restaurants - and coming from a New Orleanian, that is a big compliment. (Shameless plug for Veranda on Highland – Chef Roby is from Commander’s Palace in NOLA – if you haven’t been, you’ve GOT to go)!

So why am I blogging on a Saturday night? Because I am scouring the Internet for something to do. That is my one major frustration with Birmingham – there are lots of lifestyle options out there and things to do, but you have to know where to look and research everything via three publications and over five different Web sites. It’s frustration when you come from a city where nightlife options are thrown in your face and you have to narrow it down to figure out what you want to do. Here you have to search for options (unless of course, it’s a Thursday in December before Christmas and there are three to four different events on the same night at the same time because that’s when everyone throws a party).

So what will we end up doing on a perfectly good, yet freezing, Saturday night in January? We’ll probably go to Surin West in 5 Points for Thai, then to J. Clyde because of its beer selection (I have a few choice guy friends who are self-proclaimed beer snobs) and perhaps a third stop to hear a great band (Red Halo is at Innisfree – not a fan of the venue, but dig the band).

My main point is that I feel there needs to be a one-stop-shop for things to do in Birmingham…perhaps, since I’m so passionate about it, I should take on this endeavor myself…hmmm that’s an idea…

*Reader’s note – I’d like to apologize in advance for my overuse of ellipses, starting sentences with “So” and abundant sentence fragments. I feel these aspects add to the character of my written works and help with inflection.

Nuttin' much...

No big post today, figured you guys could you a break from my long-winded posts. Just a quick note to say ROLL TIDE! So proud of those guys for bringing home the National Championship this year!

A day that will live in infamy...

Today is January 7, 2010, the day of the BCS National Championship in which The Crimson Tide will play the Texas Long Horns to determine who the best college football team in the country is. The Tide hasn't been in this position since 1992...today is HUGE for Bama fans and I do believe the whole state of Alabama will be tuning in (even the Auburn fans).

This football season has been absolutely crazy! Being from New Orleans and having graduated from The University of Alabama – both of my teams The Crimson Tide and The Saints were undefeated for most of the season (until The Saints went 13-1 after their lose to Dallas…then to Tampa Bay in OT….then they didn’t even try against Carolina…so now 13-3). My husband is a SERIOUS football fan….he is intense and takes it very seriously and even runs a college football pool, so not just the Alabama game matters each week. So needless to say, my fall social calendar revolved around football games - whether I wanted them to or not.

Now, being raised in New Orleans by Yankee parents didn’t really expose me to football games, parties or weekends. I wasn’t raised in an “LSU” house nor had I ever tailgated for anything. My high school football team stunk and I only went to games to take photos for the yearbook. So when I met my husband-to-be my junior year of high school, he introduced me to the world that is college football. Prior to that, I had no concept of the level of competition or conferences (the SEC was new to my vocabulary) and when I learned that he was going to Alabama for college, I asked if he had heard of Auburn. Yeeeaaahhhh….

So what do I go and do? I decide to go to a large SEC school in on of the biggest football states in the country – where football is a religion. Not only do I spend two years at Auburn University, I decide to transfer to its rival, The University of Alabama – another football-crazed institution. So it is always interesting to see people’s reaction when I tell them I went to both (that was always fun in job interviews in Birmingham where everyone bleeds either crimson or orange & blue). I’ve gotten, “You saw the light,” “You came over from the dark side,” etc., and I’m always asked who I pull for in the Iron Bowl, which is a tough question because it depends on the season.

But I have to say, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a football season as much as this one and it has been great to see all of the boys hard work pay off. I will be watching the National Championship tonight and rooting for our southern boys (RTR)! But it doesn’t end with tonight; we’ll see how the playoffs go, and who knows maybe I’ll see you in Miami next month. WHO DAT!

My Love Affair…That My Husband Knows About

I have to confess…I have an obsession. Well, I guess it is more like a lusty, love affair. Don’t worry, my husband knows all about it – not that he’s exactly thrilled with it, mind you. It’s my love affair with shoes. I hate to fall into the typical female stereotype, but I can’t help it; it’s part of my DNA. I see a pair of platform, 4-6 inch stilettos and I start drooling (who cares that I’m already 5’9 barefoot).

I have many objects of my desire and feel so intimate with them that it’s like we are on a first name basis – there is Christian, Jimmy, Manolo and Sergio – to name a few. But alas, those are like celebrities you know you’ll probably never get to meet. More close to home (like actually in my closet) there is Sam, Donald, Carlos (Santana), Max (Azria), Steve, and even my girls Kristin (Davis) and Jessica (Simpson).

I’m an equal opportunity shoe-lover, but I tend to have a soft spot for patent leather, heels with hardware and the higher the better. And I tend to think that you can tell a lot about a person from their shoes. So what do my shoes say about me? Sharp, confident, somewhat sassy and elegant. I don’t own an insane amount, probably only about 53 pairs give or take and I’ve recently downsized (to accommodate my itty, bitty sardine-can of a closet). But out of the 53 or so I do own, I love each one and try to rotate them fairly. I do have my favorites though and they range from: my Sam Edelman pewter, boa booties and deep purple peep-toe, heeled Marciano booties with a hardware zipper that wraps all the way around; to the luxurious black, suede wrap and tie-around-the-ankle Jaime Mascaró heels from Paris and my cheap, black patent Unlimiteds with red soles (probably my most worn pair).

There are the elite designer shoes that I covet and have made a life goal of mine to own one day. My ultimate desire is a pair of Christian Louboutins. I’m not picky, all of his shoes are gorgeous, but if I had to pick one pair, it would be his “Mirrored Platform Pumps” (also the background of my Twitter page & featured above). But honestly, you could give me any pair of his, even something outrageous like his “Python Boots” and I would probably even sleep in them.

Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks make outstanding footwear as well and you’re sure to turn some heads. You can’t really go wrong with these two, but ever since the hype from SATC, they’ve been über publicized (a slight turn-off for me). But don’t get me wrong, I’d still kill for a pair and rock them like I was Paris Hilton.

Now Sergio Rossi is another story altogether…be still my heart! Sergio really knows how to infuse a pair of shoes with personality. He can take the simplest idea and make it into the most extraordinary design with fascinating aesthetics. With a pair of his shoes, it wouldn’t even matter what you’re wearing with them.

Shoes are always fun to shop for and you can never have enough because they are all so different. And just like any good lover, if you gain 5-10 pounds, they still adore you and you can still shop for them guilt-free – because shoes always fit!
And if I’m going to have a love affair, I’m sure my husband would rather me bring home another pair of shoes than another man.

Vulcan

"What is a Vulcan?" you may ask...well it is a metal statue atop Red Mountain in Birmingham...with a bare ass. I find this funny as Birmingham is such a conservative town. The dictionary lists:
Vul⋅can
[vuhl-kuh n] –noun - the ancient Roman god of fire and metalworking, identified with the Greek Hephaestus.

So Birmingham has a big, bare-assed Greek God looking down upon its city in honor of its founding industries – steel and iron manufacturing. In fact, the Ham is a rather large manufacturing town. What does this mean to me? Not much. It means that I have to try to explain it to people who come visit me – I just take them up there for the view.

I really am not trying to hate on Birmingham…I’m really not. I’m sure New Orleans has a lot of weird historical aspects that visitors find strange (but most of them originated in the 1800s). I guess Birminghamians might find this strange though: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/photo.php?pid=4369058&id=105457006718
But I was raised with Rodrigue’s Blue Dog and I think it is fantastic!

What's a NOLA girl to do (in Birmingham)??

So, a friend of mine inspired me that with the new year I should start a blog. "What would I write about?" I asked. "I think a girl from New Orleans stuck in Birmingham would be an interesting angle," he replied. As I digested that idea, I had to agree. So here it is, my blog about being from New Orleans but living in Birmingham and how the two are so different and how I struggle with those differences. Let's just put it this way, I was never home sick in college, only after moving to Birmingham and I now make the 5-hour trip home about once-a-month. Let's start off with the things I learned/was exposed to once moving to the great state of Alabama:

1. I learned what "sweet tea" was - I had never heard of nor tasted it before.
2. Learned what a "meat and three" was - I had also never heard of nor had before. (My brother-in-law in New Orleans just asked me over Christmas if I had heard of "meat and three" before and if I knew what it was).
3. Had never listened to a country song all the way through and at my first keg party in college, I was looked at like I had three heads when David Allen Coe's "Darlin" song was on and I didn't know any of the words (let alone knew what it was). They proceeded to play it over & over again until I learned all the words.
4. Never eaten BBQ before, let alone, had places that sell only this type of food all over town. (In New Orleans we have creole/cajun food and seafood...we didn't have BBQ. There is one BBQ place I know of in NOLA, and it is a chain).
5. Didn't realize there were places (mostly fast food) that sold nothing but chicken (i.e. Gutheries).
6. Was perplexed the first time I tried to buy wine at the grocery store on Sunday and was told I couldn't.
7. Was even more perplexed at why the Winn-Dixie in Auburn didn't sell liquor.
8. Started to question why I lived here when I was told that I could not have a go-cup, even if the drink wasn't for me (it truly wasn't).
9. Had a seriously hard time adjusting to the "no open container" law (that was a pain at Soho for St. Patty's).
10. And the number 10 adjustment......"Bars close? at 2 a.m.?!?!?!"