Tips for tackling Black Friday

Black Friday is almost two weeks away, but it’s not too early to start preparing your plan of attack for the biggest shopping day of the year.
According to Wikipedia.com, the term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia in reference to heavy traffic the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, it’s been used to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red to being in the black.
Always the day after Thanksgiving, many people see it as the first day of traditional Christmas shopping.
Love it or hate it, Black Friday is not going away. Stores across the country have a field day with it, promising crazed shoppers the best deals ever. Some retailers even open their doors at midnight, and you’d better believe a long line of customers will be waiting when they do.
So as they say, if you can’t beat ’em, why not join ’em? You need to start your Christmas shopping anyway (no more waiting until Christmas Eve!), so why not take advantage of all the amazing deals on Nov. 27.
Before you venture out into all of the madness, here are a few tips that may come in handy:

1. Wear your most comfortable clothes and shoes. Ladies, this is not the time to concern yourself with looking stylish and cute. Leave the heels and skirts in the closet and go for the Nikes, jeans and long-sleeve T-shirt (and bring a jacket for when you’re outside of the stores).
You don’t really need to wear a sweatshirt, sweater or anything else heavy, because you’ll be plenty warm with all those other bodies crammed up against you when you’re inside. And when you’re trying to find all the best prices in a 24-hour-period, it helps when you can easily break out into a run.

2. Don’t stop to eat. At least, don’t find a restaurant or food court and actually sit down to eat. Think of all that precious time you’re wasting when you could be shopping.
When you’re waiting in line at Chick-fil-A, someone could be buying the very last Barbie Twilight doll at discount price. Do you really want that guilt on your hands?
Pack some granola bars, fruit and nuts for when you get hungry. You shouldn’t need much fuel, anyway — that turkey and third helping of pecan pie are still sitting comfortably in your stomach.

3. Don’t be afraid to throw some elbows. Shopping on Black Friday is not for the timid or weak. You have to be especially tough if you are five feet tall.
For some reason, many people don’t think we shorties need us as much space as the rest of the population — or they pretend not to see us. And some people are just rude and think they can shove others aside. A polite but firm “Excuse me!” always works.
And watch out for us shorties — we’re feisty because we have to be, and you don’t want to mess with us.

4. Get organized and take a chill pill before you walk out your door. Yes, there’s going to be horrific traffic, long lines and no parking spaces — ’tis the season! We can’t change that, but we can map out where we want to shop, have our coupons ready and get in and out without murdering anyone.
The trick is to go with the flow. And if you can’t manage to do that, then...

5. Pour a glass of wine or hot cocoa, mosey over to your computer and shop online. If you do this now, you can have all your packages delivered in plenty of time for Christmas morning. When saving your sanity is more important than saving some extra bucks, this is the way to go.

Black Friday, after all, isn’t for everyone.

Happy shopping!

Bye-bye, Blogger...for now

Well, I've decided it's time to take a little hiatus from the blog.
Everything has still been going great...it's just that I've decided I need to put all of my extra time into family and reconnecting with God.
I'll continue to write...you can still read my columns online at The Mountain Press
Thanks for reading!
God bless,
E.B. :)

Surviving "Mean Girls" gets easier with experience

Mean girls of today...


...and of the 1980s. Love Winona Ryder in this!


(Column from The Mountain Press, Sept. 6, 2009)

As an education reporter, I have gotten an inside look into the beginning of the school year. I have talked to several students, and I envy their anticipation and excitement of what the year will bring.

It’s a special time, being young and not having to worry about jobs, paying bills and other adult responsibilities. I’ll admit it: I was one of those kids who loved school. I loved the good times and secrets shared between friends, the agonizing yet wonderful feeling of a crush, the nerve-wracking first date.

There are also experiences I wish I could have bypassed, mainly my encounters with “mean girls.”

It can be quite bewildering and frustrating when someone decides not to like you for no good reason — this is the No. 1 trait of a mean girl. They tend to be more powerful in groups, but one mean girl can inflict just as much meanness (and sometimes more) than 10. Their bullying is different from that of mean boys; these girls usually don’t attack physically but emotionally, and because they have the same insecurities you have, they know how to get you where it hurts the most.

Every woman has either been the target of a mean girl or been one herself. My first encounter was in high school with a mean girl who was a little older than me. She seemed well-liked by pretty much everyone, but I had heard of a few girls talk about how catty she could be. I got to know her because we were both involved in one particular after-school activity. She started out being reasonably nice, then began making snide remarks about me behind my back. When I finally confronted her in front of our whole group, she was defensive, but she backed down after that. This woman still lives in my hometown and we have several mutual friends. She could have changed — high school seems like a million years ago for me — but I will always see her as my first mean girl.

The second encounter was in college and was even more confusing because this particular mean girl had started out as a friend of mine. Everything was peachy the first year of our relationship, and then her behavior towards me changed. She would ignore me around our other friends and refuse to talk about what her problem was with me. This went on for most of the school year, until she magically softened towards me before we went home for the summer. And no, she never told me why she had acted the way she did. We remained friendly throughout the rest of college, but I always thought of her as crazy with some serious issues.

Sorry to break this to my younger counterparts who have not yet entered “the real world,” but most of these mean girls grow up to be mean women. Although they have long left junior high behind and now have a college degree, they have yet to truly grow up and learn how to play nice. Most of my experiences with mean women have happened in the workplace (although all the women I work with now are good friends). I remember how amazed I was, as a 23-year-old in my first job, to learn women who could be my mother or grandmother acted so petty. Just a few years ago, I had a co-worker who was sweet-as-pie to my face, only to bash me to other co-workers when I wasn’t around. It was like I was after her husband or had killed her dog. What was her problem? I’ll never know and frankly, I don’t care.

It’s true that your skin gets a little thicker after dealing with these meanies throughout the years, but my heart goes out to the young girls who are experiencing it for the first time. I’m also fearful for them: There’s a new crop of mean girls who seem to be even more vicious than the ones I encountered, A group of Florida teenage girls actually videotaped themselves beating up a female classmate last year. Rosalind Wiseman, whose book “Queen Bees and Wannabees” inspired the hit movie “Mean Girls,” has just updated the book to include chapters on younger girls and insights on how technology has come into play with kids’ social landscapes.

Susan Fee, a counselor specializing in girls health and wellness, offered these tips to parents on eHow.com on how to help their daughters deal with mean girls:

1. Avoid minimizing. Responding with empty platitudes like “Just ignore them” minimizes her experience, making her feel you don’t understand.

2. Coach, don’t solve. Ask her what she wants to do about the situation, then coach her through steps she may need to take and let her act on them.

3. Role play. If your daughter decides she wants to solve the problem by talking to the other girl, help her become more confident by role playing what might happen. Remind her that any conversation needs to be face-to-face and held privately in order to be effective.

4. Encourage personal interests. Girls who define themselves by their friends fall the hardest if the relationship falters. Help girls build a safety net of resiliency by encourage them to explore hobbies and interests apart from their friends.

5. Teach social skills. If your daughter tries (and fails) to solve conflicts by texting, it’s because she has not learned another way. Eye contact, posture, tone of voice, listening skills and word choice are all examples of positive social skills girls need to be taught.

As for my own advice to these young girls, keep your head up, be strong and always remember you are special.

Confessions of a blog slacker

OK, yeah...I've been a bad blogger lately. While normal busy life is partly to blame, I confess it also has to do with my new addiction to Facebook (see my profile picture above). I loooove seeing what my friends (some who I haven't seen in 15 years!) are up to! I adore seeing what books they're reading, what movies are their favorites, what they ate for breakfast that morning.
And yes, I know I'm a freak.
I apologize for leaving my loyal blog readers hanging. Not too much has been going on, just the hard working, glamorous life of a reporter/writer (I trust that you detected the sarcasm there).
Here are some of my latest pics from a friend's birthday party. Our pal Joseph turned 60 last week, and he always wanted to have a pirate party, so here we are...


Me with my Captain Jack Sparrow (move over, Johnny Depp!)


Don with pal Joseph, the 60-year-old birthday boy

Learning the joy of cooking

"To eat and drink and find satisfaction in all your toil — this is the gift of God." Ecclesiastes 3:13

My column from a few weeks ago...

There's a book on my "to read" list called "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," about a woman who chronicles her year-long journey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I admit it sparked my interest mainly because it's been made into a movie starring Meryl Streep, but also because cooking intrigues me.
I wasn't always interested in learning how to cook. I have, however, always loved food. Ever since I was a baby, I've had a big appetite (something you can clearly see in old pictures with my adorable chubby cheeks and chunky legs and arms. Such a shame the look isn't as attractive on a 32-year-old woman).
In my earlier years, the only time I was in the kitchen was to eat. It was my sister who was more interested in helping our mother bake brownies or cookies or assist in whipping up dinner. I guess I was more consumed with playing with my Barbies when I was little, or talking on the phone during my teen years. If you wanted to get me in the kitchen, you told me the food was already on the table.
As I've gotten older, I've become more interested in not just becoming a cook but a good cook. If nothing else, I feel it's my duty to uphold a family tradition — all the women in my family are culinary masters. Their ability to create food that was not only pleasing to the tastebuds but pretty to look at is something I've always admired and have come to appreciate more. It's something I hope my children and grandchildren will say about me one day: "Man, she was a great cook!" Hey, it's gotta be in the genes somewhere, right?
My mother and grandmother have certainly tried to unleash that talent within me. When I moved into my first apartment — straight out of the dorm room in college — my mother presented me with a couple of cookbooks. I still have them and love the easy recipes. One is actually called "The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook — or 'How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg?'" I don't think I used them at all during college; my diet consisted mostly of pizza, chicken fingers and the occasional alcoholic beverage, which my fabulous young metabolism had no problem dealing with.
When I graduated from college, moved four-and-a-half hours away from my mother's kitchen and was truly on my own, more cookbooks followed. I can't remember the names of those offhand, but they were also introductory level cookbooks. I did use these a little more, mainly when I was trying to impress a guy I was dating. Once they took a bite of my Snickers cheesecake, they were putty in my hands.
Every good Southern cook usually has a specialty, and I already have mine. It's a chicken tetrazzini recipe that I absolutely loved growing up. I love making it for people and hearing them rave about how delicious it is. It's my go-to recipe for lots of things: Potluck get-togethers at church, for friends who have just had babies or company coming over for dinner. With the vermicelli noodles, chicken, sour cream, mushrooms and cream of celery soup, how could you go wrong? It's simple to make, but I still feel as if I've prepared a gourmet meal once I've finished.
I have certainly tried to make more of an effort in the kitchen since I've been married (even though I've fallen down on the job lately). Some recipes have been successes, such as turkey meatloaf — the husband loves it. Others have not been so great, like the hamburger noodle casserole that was low-calorie but really bland (to his credit, my husband eats everything I cook, even if it tastes awful). I know Don appreciates my efforts more than anything, especially since most days after work I just want to let our microwave do all of the cooking.
Just weeks after we had been married, I was inspired to bake whole wheat cherry scones. Baking has always been less intimidating to me, probably because everything is so exact — there's rarely a "pinch" of this or a "dollop" of that. It seems simple enough — just combine everything the recipe calls for and "Voila!"
The scones recipe called for lining the baking pan with parchment paper. I looked through our cabinets and didn't find any parchment paper but did come across wax paper. That would suffice, right? Not so much, as I learned when our smoke detector started going off. Don, who was downstairs watching TV, just shook his head and was grateful I didn't burn the house down.
So whether it's baking or cooking, I still have a lot to learn in the kitchen. I'm still working on my "introductory" recipes but have high hopes for excelling at sweet and sour brisket or creme brulee one day.
And my mother still seems to have faith in me: She gave me the cookbook "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman last Christmas. It's a definite step up from "How Long Do You Cook a 3-Minute Egg?," wouldn't you say?

Back from the beach

I had such a wonderful time with Mama, Mimi and Jennifer at the beach! We left for Gulf Shores, AL last Monday morning and came back Friday.
I think every woman should have a "girls' getaway" at the beach at least once a year. Don't get me wrong, I missed Don terribly — but lying on the beach, soaking up some sun, eating great seafood, enjoying lots of laughs and girl talk, drinking good wine and having the time to read four (!) books eased the pain of the distance a little ;)
So, gals...when are we going back next year? I love y'all!


*Note: I have more great pictures, but there seems to be a problem with Blogger uploading photos (grrrr!). I'll try again later!

Goodbye, Twitter...Hello, Facebook!

OK, OK — I know I said before I would never join Facebook, but I did! And I'm now addicted!
I'm going to cancel my Twitter account because having both seems kinda pointless for me.
Good grief...as if I don't already have more than enough things to fill my time! Maybe I should read my previous post, huh? ;)