ridge top

A little line of cabins across the valley from us. I think I may have stayed in those cabins before.

♥, TiffanyAnne

nee Heuser

John, the newest family member, with his bride. Heather is my beautiful cousin who I saw this weekend for the first time in twelve plus years.

♥, TiffanyAnne

nobody puts baby in a corner

i named her baby because she's the baby.

♥, TiffanyAnne

goat photo op

you gotta admit, she's a cutie. even if she is a goat.

♥, TiffanyAnne

Media Managment

"So, I talked to that reporter today." I had said while we were chatting before class. (I was interviewed for an article about my professor. Sopping wet with conditioner still in my hair. It was a phone interview.)

My professor got this weird look on his face and said how he preferred to be on the other side of the story. He'd rather write the story than be the subject of the story.

"Like this one time, when I was on Larry King Live--"

"Wait. You were on Larry King Live???"

He's so casual about it all. The first day of class, he mentioned his Pulitzer almost in passing like it was no big deal. I bet the deal is that he'd rather stay outta the limelight. That's why he's the guy who isn't in the stories--his byline is on top of them.

♥, TiffanyAnne

Tee to Tiffy to Miss Tiffany

I'm sitting here with a toddler at my feet who doesn't yet toddle but understands a heck of a lot more than he lets on. He's fifteen months and some days but was seven weeks and one day premature. He was supposed to be born August 1st which would have made him not even fourteen months old today. His brother is at kindergarten and his sister is at preschool.

He has moved from sitting at my feet to staring out the window. Not only staring at the window, but coming in full contact with it and kissing the cool glass. Making silly noises and walking away leaving behind a smear of baby saliva. He's moved on again. This time to the small desk that technically belongs to his sister (it is, after all, girly and cute) but is used by all three children. He likes the desk because it houses wonderful things like markers to suck on and draw all over his face and crayons to chew and subsequently spit out. Those things are yucky.

He loves brushes. Hair brushes or tooth brushes, he doesn't really care. He knows what each is used for and loves to reach out to me. He brushes my hair sometimes and makes a mess out of it, but never my teeth.

He gets a little mischievous grin when he finds his way to the cereal cabinet and pulls out a box. Two days ago it was frosted flakes. They ended up all over the floor. Today it was Fruit Loops.

I stood in front of him. "Fruit Loops? Can you say 'Fruuuuit Looooops'?"

He stared back at me. "Aaaah," he squawked.

"Or cere-ee-alll?"

He stared at me again and stuck his hand in the box. He withdrew a fist full of Fruit Loops and kept on munching. Oh well. We've got "ma-ma" and "da-da." We're working on "Miss Tiffany" but I have a feeling it's going to be a while for that one.

♥, TiffanyAnne

Opinionated?

He made a red check mark on the door frame just to remind us to check our emotions at the door. Got it. In a classroom setting, that's easy to do. Also, we are to write the facts without putting our opinion out there. It's a script for broadcast, not an opinion editorial. Keep it to yourself. Easy, no problem. Well, I've unknowingly written opinions on pieces without realizing. 

I was writing a story about Sarah Palin's hair (Yes, her hair.) based on this article from the Boston Herald. I enjoyed that piece. Yes it was silly and a bit ridiculous, but it was a light assignment in the world of current events. Unfortunately, I--going from the article--wrote that Palin sported an "out-of-date" hairstyle. It would have been fine for me to quote someone saying that or to say "what some have said is an out-of-date hairstyle" but for me to say that is showing my own opinion.

I just got a package script back today that was about Bush promising to bring troops home from Iraq. Part of the article said this: "Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has advocated pulling all U.S. combat forces out of Iraqi within 16 months of taking office." (Yes, I realize that says Iraqi. It's a direct quote. Should it say "Iraq" that's what I thought...maybe I'm missing something? Read the article here.) Well, anyway I used that to end the script. It didn't feel like a nice finish and I needed about 10 more seconds anyway, so I finished with: "If he should become our next president, we can hope to expect more than just 8,000 troops back on the home front." I figured that was okay because isn't that what he said anyway? If you guessed that isn't not okay, you're right. I can't go around telling people that if Obama becomes president he will send our boys home. What I thought I was doing was giving myself a nice ending that people would like. Some people, sure, but not everyone thinks those troops should come back home just yet. So, really, I only said what I thought would appease some people.

This whole keeping my opinion--even when it isn't necessarily my opinion!--to myself is trickier than I thought.

♥, TiffanyAnne

at the fabulous fox

Some corporate networking event...whatever...there was "press" taking photos at the front door, a live band on the stage, cigarette girls in sequined skirts, and the Swing Cats...er...Swing Kids... Oh yeah, that was the four of us. Dressed in vintage (or at least looking like it) and danced away. The photo is Paul, the man behind the local swing scene (instructor, DJ, all around good guy), and me dancing at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. I love this photo because--can't you tell?--I'm having a fabulous time!

♥, TiffanyAnne

Baby Come Back

I laughed so hard when I saw this commercial last night. Mike must've thought I was going crazy. It was that stomach starts hurting, gasping for breath, tears forming kind of laughter. Wow...actually that sounds pretty miserable. But you know what I mean. Look at that mop poking his head from behind the tree. HA-ha-ha-ha-ha. I love it. Ohmigosh. So freaking funny.



♥, TiffanyAnne

Perfection

Everything has got to be perfect. Isn't that the mindset we espouse? If all our little yellow ducks aren't in a row, then something must be horribly wrong with the world. Maybe something in your life seems so wonderful, so perfect, so nice. Well, that's good, isn't it? That's the way it should be. But if a little something goes wrong, if one of the ducks goes missing...well...that is quite another story. Am I the only one who sometimes feels like the world might end when something goes wrong? Emphasis, mind you, on that sometimes. I am far from a constant perfectionist.

How about a happy medium instead: something in between perfect and horrible. I'm pretty sure that's what we call life. Oh, yeah sure, sometimes life can be perfect and sometimes life can be horrible. All too often, though, it falls somewhere in the vast expanse in between. It's okay if everything isn't just right. It's okay to mess up, to not get it, to have chosen the wrong door. I think this has something to do with being content with the cards we have been dealt in life. Don't force perfection. Life can be rich and perfect in its own right it you love and appreciate your lot right now.


♥, TiffanyAnne

sing dance skill

I don't like to spend a lot of money on my makeup and makeup tools. I don't feel the need to pay one hundred plus dollars for a little face paint. The drugstore products are my friends. I love it two things to help me find the inexpensive but good quality stuff: Glammies and Makeup Alley. It was from Makeup Alley and various youtube videos that I learned of Essence of Beauty, the makeup and beauty line sold exclusively at CVS. I bought a few brushes and have since become obsessed. The above brush is the EoB kabuki brush. Soft, thick...so far, so good.

I have no idea where the kabuki brush got it's name from. Kabuki is a form of traditional Japanese theater consisting of elaborate costumes and makeup. The characters for "kabuki" (which I cannot type on my computer) mean sing, dance, and skill. From whence I get my blog title. If someone knows of a connection between the theater and the brush, fill me in. I can't find any, so I'll just assume it's coincidence.

♥, TiffanyAnne

turn and face the strain

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

Don't get me wrong--I am not an Obama supporter. I am also not a McCain supporter, for that matter. I am one of those viscous undecideds. Or, as I like to call myself, "slightly apathetic." This is a vast improvement from last year when I labeled myself as "apathetic."

Anyway, he's not talking about Palin. He's talking about how all of a sudden the McCain campaign is all "Change! Oh yeah, we like change too. We are crazy about change." (This is a slight paraphrase.) Just because you have a woman as your veep doesn't mean you need to read into everything.

♥, TiffanyAnne

falls park

♥, TiffanyAnne

CaFFiNe!!!1!

My eyes snapped open and I rolled over to eye my alarm clock, expecting the garish red lights to inform me that it was 7:45AM and I should have been at work fifteen minutes ago. I was off by four hours and one minute. It was 3:46AM. What was happening me tonight was this: waking up every hour or so, cursing the world, then trying to fall back asleep with my head abuzz of random and quite irrelevant sequences of events. What was happening to me was the same thing that had happened two weeks ago exactly. You can read about it here.

I realized that I am one of those unfortunate individuals who cannot have caffine in the evening. So, when we traversed all the way to IHOP for coffee and crepes last night, I ordered decaf.

I'll tell you what. It was beautiful. Between 1AM to 8AM, the only thing I saw was the inside of my eyelids.



♥, TiffanyAnne

magically delicious

The two bowls of Lucky Charms were not enough for me and so, after bible study, I joined my roommate in the living room for some good girlie chat and hummus. We munched and chatted about my guy, her dreams, our individual crazy paths and trusting God with our lives. The newest addition to our girlie little family joined us and read aloud from a past issue of Glamour. 10 Ways To Be An Even Better Friend. This resulted in a little bit of confusion when Ellen, who was only half listening, thought one of the pieces of advice was to tell your friend's ex-boyfriend her ring size. Ha-ha.

It was a wonderfully unpretentious way to end the evening and it is during moments such as those when I realize that having roommates and living in community, despite the accompanying trials, is so worth it.

♥, TiffanyAnne

signage

In desperation for a daily photo, this photo was hurriedly snapped as I walked by. You can see my bottom half in the bottom half of the photo.

♥, TiffanyAnne

difficulties of selfportraits

Wait...were you smiling in that one?
No, why were you?
Yeah.
Let's take another one.
Smiling or not smiling?

♥, TiffanyAnne

the only time i focus on my ability to lead

I have been learning about and working on writing good leads in two of my journalism classes and in doing so, it occured to me that I never once think about the leads in my blogs. The lead is that first sentence or paragraph that draws the audience in. Its what keeps you from clicking over to the next news station or turning the page. I was writing a 60-second package for my "Writing for the Mass Media" based on this piece about Sarah Palin's hairstyle. It was a fun little project, but it took me longer to get started that it did to write the rest of the piece. I wanted a catchy lead that would keep the viewer from changing the channel.

A few days ago, the professor said that it wasn't so much that he wanted to make us into good journalists but rather that he wanted to make us into good writers. If all goes well, you will be the ones to bank on that promise as I write less drabble.

♥, TiffanyAnne

elevator floor

♥, TiffanyAnne

two truths and no lies

"Where you headed?"

"Over to pick up Mike."

"Ooooh. You guys have a hot date tonight?"

"Oh, you know, 'hot' is a relative term when you've got a broken hip."

♥, TiffanyAnne

augh

forgive me
i'm dealing with word block
and, seriously, i really want to write too
♥, TiffanyAnne

iv machine

♥, TiffanyAnne