How to Make the Perfect Salad

Step 1: Wake up awesome, put on a salad-getting hat, and journey to Whole Foods Market. 

Step 2: Approach the hot and cold bar section and steel yourself against its vast offering. The masaman curry chicken and quinoa will try to distract you from your goal, but you are a formidable salad-goer so forge ahead (in the end, you will get the curry chicken and quinoa for later. It will be our secret). 

Step 3: Which will it be? Field greens mix, Spinach, or Romaine? I'm a spinach girl, myself, but please don't let that stop you from going Iceberg crazy.

Step 4: Now that you have assembled your items in the little bowl, you probably want a little something to balance out the bitter feta cheese. Cranberries, raisins, granola, oh my! Yes. Who can pass up a trail mix bar? Maybe you like to sprinkle nuts and grains on your salad, maybe you like to bag them up by the pound and save them to snack on when you're up late. Either way, let's assume a visit to the trail mix bar is a critical component.

Step 5: It just got real, wicked. The dessert bar is wicked good and now you are calculating how many spin or zumba classes it will take to burn off the luxury of dark berries wrapped in whipped cream and vanilla cake. The struggle is real.

Step 5: So you survived the dessert bar. But what about the other meals of the day? To hummus or not to hummus, that is the question.

Step 7: Arden's Garden is Atlanta's finest juice and smoothie outfit and maybe you can only eat your salads in juice form at the moment because your braces were just tightened or you want a detox. Grab a few bottles.

Step 7: What goes best with a good salad? A new maxi dress, of course. Blue maybe?

Step 9: And lemonade because well, there really is no justifiable reason. Just because it's pink and it's lemonade.

Step 10:  Leave the cold drink area and locate your mom in the middle of the store curiously eyeing the wine aisle.

Step 11: Pause for a summer salad selfie because you've done a great job.

Step 12: Once you pull your mom away from the wine aisle, you can ring up the bounty.

Step 13: Load the biodegradable paper bags or the reusable grocery bags you brought from home into the car and take a weird selfie with your mom who, by now, is complaining about the price of everything at Whole Foods except for the wine. 

Virtue and Vice and a Nose Ring

So... about that piercing... I FINALLY GOT IT!

Who knew it takes so much paperwork to get a nose ring when you're a minor. I guess that's a good thing. We went to Virtue and Vice in Atlanta to get it done. I highly, highly recommend their piercing salon! Boy, are those guys professional. The place was clean and everyone was charming, engaging and knowledgeable.

Measuring jewels and reading up on the care of my new piercing.

I was so nervous, I started taking pics of my boots.

The guy who did my piercing didn't take long at all. He literally ran me through the process while going through the process. Mom thought that I was going to scream. I knew otherwise, I didn't even flinch. The pain was less than two seconds. It took longer to wait to be called than to have the procedure. 

Laid back waiting to be called into the procedure room. Do I look relaxed? I wasn't. Keep calm, it's only a nose piercing.

Getting prepped and pierced. Totally cool body piercing guy and he posed for a photo with a goofy 17 year old. 

The piercing is mint green and rather cute if I must say so myself. I am proud of myself for not screaming, but more importantly, I am so happy that I was able to do this. I thanked mom the whole drive home, and then we went to see the movie Wish I Was Here. 

I had so much fun, and this was an awesome follow up to my birthday! 

Can't wait to get the tops changed on my piercing! Maybe neon pink next time?

Happy Birthday to Me

At the movies. Guardians of the Galaxy, July 31.

July 31, 1997 a beautiful princess was born... ME!

My birthday is July 31 and every year my celebrations get better and better. This year was the best, no doubt!

My mother tricked me into thinking that I wasn't going to be able to do anything because she was busy on a project at work. She said that she needed to print a huge document at Kinko's and then we would go out and do something. I thought I wasn't going to get any gifts. Well, she comes back and she tells me that she needs me to get something out of the car. I go downstairs, put on my shoes and all of the sudden I see an edible fruit bouquet and a stuffed bear holding a plush chocolate strawberry on the table. My whole face lit up! The first thing I wanted to do was eat the bouquet, but my mom forced me to take some pictures first (she takes pictures of everything). If you've never had an edible bouquet, you have to try one. It was delicious. The pineapple were crisp; the grapes plump and juicy; the strawberries (no words!).

Thinking that this was the gift, I started to relax, but then mom told me to go outside to get something out of the car. I go to the car, open the door and I see a big gift bag. Before long I am tearing through the bag looking at my gifts. I see a lot of Hello Kitty school supplies, an awesome pair of boots (brown, short, like Doc Marteens). I also see a beautiful dress, (pictured above), a new curling iron, and way at the bottom of the bag, new Sony headphones! 

Every year is the best birthday ever. I got to spend time with my wonderful mother, and we saw Guardians of the Galaxy! We had a great time at the movies, and I had the best time with her!

Thank you mommy for the wonderful day! I love you.

The Five W's of the Tambourines Project

The Tambourines Project Mission Statement:

You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be healthy. You deserve to be safe.You deserve to be whole. You deserve to be heard.

Who: You, me, all of us! I asked my mom what it was like when I told her of my abuse in 2008 and she described it as, “a thousand tambourines unearthing the dark.” We all are tambourines.

 

What:  The Tambourines Project is a one-time scholarship fund established by Elizabeth Lamar to provide education, assistance and training to facilitators of the Stewards of Children program. The program is created by Darkness to Light, a nonprofit organization with the mission to empower people to prevent child sexual abuse.  Funds raised through efforts of the Tambourines Project will be granted to an advocacy group serving the Atlanta, Georgia community.

 

When: July 31, 2014 – August 22, 2014

 

Where:  Online at

http://TambourinesProject.blogspot.com,or www.facebook.com/TambourinesProject

 

Why: As a survivor, I know abuse makes you feel alone. No one should feel that way. I want other survivors to know there are people and places out there to help us feel whole again. And I want adults to know they have the power to make their community safe for all children.  

 

How: Follow my blog by email at tambourinesproject.blogspot.com; if you have a publication/blog/website, host a spot for my blog tour or interview; download Thousand Tambourines eBook from my blog July 31-August 22; share my blog FB page with your contacts; contact me at tambourinesproject@gmail.com to become a part of the conversation.

I am a human being

I understand I am a survivor,

but when if I tell you my story, please don’t view me as less.

I am neither statistic, nor something interesting to "tell Mom when I get home."

If I do decide to tell you my story, and I get a little nervous while, don’t push. 

Trust me, I am not nervous for myself. I went through it. 

I am nervous for you. 

If I hesitate to tell you, it is because I’m not sure you’re ready.

Now,

Let’s begin. 

I Wish You Love

Me Holding The MYSO CD at the 2014 Symphony Gala. 

I am lucky to be apart of Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, and I am also lucky to have been able to record with Joe Grandsen. He is an amazing trumpet player, and I had a wonderful time playing with him and his trio. The music was incredibly interesting and a little difficult, but it was so fun to play. The actual recording process was fun and not as scary as I had imagined it would be. Being with my friends and fellow musicians was the best part. Studio recording sessions are difficult and require precision. We were in the studio for four days for 5-6 hours per day. I am glad to be able to say that I have actually played violin on a CD. The opportunity was amazing and I am very grateful for it.

You can purchase a copy of the CD - I Wish You Love by Joe Gransden with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta on the symphony website here.

Enjoy some great photos from our week-long studio session. 

The best way to deal with a "C" on a test.

It hurts. When it first happens. You cry. You sob. It rips a hole in your body, leaving a large gap where you used to be.

Anger, that abyss takes over.

Then, it does nothing. It just sits there, lonely and wishing you had some left with which to rip and shred.
Don't worry, the anger, pain, sadness, will subside. All that will be left is nothing, scratch.

And, what better way to erase the past, than to start from scratch with the present?