Triburban - 2013 - A new start

Only a few more days until 2013! The new year marks a new start for many of us, including myself. I have many goals for this  year. I am determined to make 13 my lucky number! I do not do resolutions because I never keep them and also, the first of the year is not always the best time to change certain things, why restrain yourself? I want to double my revenue from last year at least. I want to organize my work space and put a shipping procedure in place. Have at least 100 items in the store. Develop a home decor collection. Continue to grow my business and my creativity towards the ultimate goal: To be self- employed! Post blogs regularly about my progress and about others like me who are striving to make the world more beautiful through their art. Some of my personal goals include: Get another tattoo. Get out of debt  (at least a big chunk of it) Road trip down the west coast with my best friend (already got my ticket!) Document my room mate starting a business on my blog. But first on the list is to clean up my space.My great aunt told me that however you bring in the New Year in your house, that is what your whole year will look like! I don't know about you, but I sure don't want my 2013 to look like dirty laundry and old hat.

When in Athens, GA...

At the last minute, I decided that a weekend adventure was in order. It seems as though I just can't manage to stay at home for more than one weekend in a row lately. I did stay home the previous weekend and was nearly bored to tears so I swore I would make something happen the following weekend.

Athens, GA is about a four hour drive northeast of Montgomery and you have to pass through Atlanta on the way. Because my car is from a time where the youth of today was a mere twinkle in their fathers' eyes, I made a decision when I got home. My car is not allowed to leave the city limits of Montgomery. In case the engine falls out or something begins to smoke. I could have borrowed my room mate's 1991 Buick skylark and arrived like a pimp (read old person) in Athens, GA but I opted not to. Instead I decided to spoil myself and rent a car. That way I could pretend that I have a car from this century, even if it would just be for one weekend. I know, I am living a large and in charge lifestyle, somebody stop me! I arrived in Athens after a nice comfy drive in "my" 2013 Chevrolet Impala, around 7 pm. It was great seeing my long time friend and also meeting her boyfriend Patrick and super cute kitty Tweep. Since they live close to downtown, we walked to a local restaurant called DePalma's for some pizza. The atmosphere in the pizza joint was great, their oversized booths and high ceiling really made the place feel cosy, surprisingly. It actually felt Italian in there, something I cannot say about many Italian restaurants in general. Downtown Athens feels pretty large considering that the city only has about 100,000 people in it. The city owes most of the bustling activity to the University of Georgia (UGA) located downtown. There is definitely a very young population here. I felt ancient walking around the area.

Saturday was chill yet eventful. Danielle and I had breakfast at home, then hit up some yard sales. I found two really cool Haitian paintings at the first one and I bought a third one for Danielle, all for $5 bucks! Danielle found lots of things for the apartment and some clothes for herself.  We then came back to the house, hung out for a while, had some beer and home made pasta before heading out to a local craft show. Being a crafter myself, I must say that I admire people who participate in craft shows. I have not done it yet and perhaps I will in the future but it just seems like a lot of work for nothing. Many things were beautiful and wonderfully crafted, but I am just not going to buy a $40 mug to drink coffee out of. There is a thin line in the world of handmade between charging for craftsmanship and charging for crap. Some of the items were very ellaborate and took a long time to make I am sure, however it looked terrible. You just cannot expect people to pay outrageous prices for your time when the item is hideous. I was taking mental notes on what NOT to do if I ever decide to partake in an event like this. DO NOT tell embarassing personal stories about your friends. It is awkward.I don't know you nor your friend and now, I won't know your products either because I walked away from the awkward. DO NOT forget your business cards. Even if you don't have cards, print or write small notecards with your info so that people can get in touch with you or see more of the things you make and possibly buy them. It also helps if you have an Etsy store, a website or even a Facebook page where I can look at pictures. E-mailing you and randomly asking to buy something from you is odd. How will I know what I am ordering? Moving along. After the craftshow we ran some errands around town. Since I had a car and Danielle does not, it only made sense to get some grocery shopping done while I was there. 7 hours later we were done and starving. Patrick suggested a Mexican restaurant that he had been to once before called Tlaloc. If you like authentic Mexican food i.e. not Chipotle, Taco Bell or Moe's, this is the place to go. We ordered a bunch of different combo plates and shared them between us. The customers are mostly Mexican but there was also a few groups of college kids dispersed in the restaurant. As a former resident of Colorado, I know my Mexican cuisine and this hit the spot. I would frequent this place often if I was living in Athens, GA. Sunday was my travelling day but we had time for a quick brunch downtown at Nona's. It is a New Orleans inspired restaurants with a cool looking dining area in the back and a bar/bistro area in the front of the building. We sat at a table by the front window so that we had a view over the campus and the people walking by. I had the French Quarter Breakfast which included cheese grits, honey bacon, and three beignets. Three!! I really liked them....The bacon was very sweet, a bit too sweet for me especially since I had beignets too. Did i mention you get three of them?

After brunch it was time for me to head back to the Gump. I really did have a great time and it was great seeing my old friend. We are a little bit older, a bit wiser and if I may say so myself, a bit hotter. 30 is the new 20, I don't care what anyone says.

Coincidence or chance? My life is awesome!

I have never claimed to be particularly "together" in fact, I probably would be inclined to claim the opposite. So in perfect accordance to this statement, I managed to lock my keys, my phone and my computer in my car in the parking lot of my job. Fantastic! One of the wonderful perks of having a 16 year old car with no automatic anything. I meant to unlock the passenger door, get out of the car, walk around and grab my thing on the other side. The plan was perfect, except it was not fool proof. This morning evidently, I was indeed a fool. So, my morning was not off to a great start. Luckily, I have the best roomies in the world who also happen to have smartphones AND check their facebook. I logged on the office computer and arranged for one of them to come and unlock the car. Success!! While I was on Facebook, an old friend of mine messaged me on the chat. To understand how amazeballs what I am about to tell you is, you have to know this person.

[caption id="attachment_552" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sunset over Malta's Capital, Valletta[/caption]

In 1994,when I was 15, I visited the small country of Malta situated in the Mediterranean sea. I was there for an EF English language course. In hindsight this seems like it was a tremendous waste of money as I knew how to speak English already. My brother had spoken English to my mom and I at home since I could remember and I had English class in school 5 hours a week since I was 9 years old. Anywho, off I went.

At the time, I believe the population was somewhere around 350,000. This small island had one stop light and you could drive around it in a day. I met Danielle there. She was half English, half Maltese. I met her again in 1996, when I came back to the island on vacation with some friends. Somewhere in between there or after, I met her in London for a few hours. We have not stayed in touch per se but we have always stayed friends. I think the last time I saw her in person was in 1999 when I was back in Malta working as a bartender after high school. Did you ever have one of those friends who you just click with? That person that no matter how long ago you saw each other last, you pick up right where you left off? That is who Danielle is for me. so when she sent me a message, it was like getting a message from any of my friends. i was happy to hear from her and figured she just wanted to say hi. Well, it turns out that the universe has a weird way of making my life super interesting and coincidental in an amazing way. I am not sure why i got this cool life, but I am glad i did! It turns out that Danielle now lives in Athens, GA - A 4 hour drive from my house!!! I am planning to visit her as soon as I can, hopefully within the month. I can't wait to catch up with my friend of 17 years. We have not seen each other in over a decade so I am sure there will be a lot of chattering. Stay tuned for a follow up post with pictures and update! The Meeting with Danielle! Cecile

BUCKET LIST, SCHMUCKET LIST - make your own

I was contemplating what to write about for my next blog post and came to think of a bucket list. If you don't know, a bucket list is a list of things that a person wants to do, see, accomplish or experience before they "kick the bucket" or pass on. This practice has been popular for a while but I guess gained even more popularity after the release of the movie with the same name starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Now, I must say that I did enjoy that movie and I really like the idea of having a list of the things you want to do. Here is the problem: Where do you keep said list? The odds of me keeping a list of anything, let alone a very important one is highly unlikely. I lose my keys at least once a week. I once lost my wallet in my bedroom. I knew it was in the room yet I could not find it for 12 hours. The odds of me having said list in my possession as I walk on the Great wall of China or feed a koala, are fairly low. The other problem with having a list of thing you want to do, is that you easily forget the value of the things you are doing or have done. I don't know about anyone else, but I have been lucky to do some pretty cool things in my life and half of them, I had no idea I was going to experience. I most certainly did not have them written down on a laminated paper prior to the event. So, I decided to make a different kind of list. A list of thing that I have done already that I think are pretty awesome and memorable. Perhaps this list will inspire someone else to write down their own awesome experiences. Please note that my list is in no particular order of importance but in a sort of chronological order... but not really. Here we go! 1. Move to a different continent. I was 22 years old, I had $2,000 and a ticket to the Big Apple. The rest is history. 2. Ride across the U.S. on a Greyhound Bus. Perhaps not everyone's number one choice for transportation but definitely an unforgettable experience. New York, NY-Frisco, CO. Denver, CO- Waterloo, IA. Jacksonville, FL- Denver, CO. Denver, CO-Minneapolis, MN. Chicago, IL- Denver, CO. Never again!!!! 3. Make the front page news. So, it was the front of the summer special edition of the free Metro paper distributed in the subway in Stockholm. It was still the front page....maybe not news....Still. 4. Visit the grave of Franz Kafka. Nuff said.

Franz Kafka and me!

5. Visit the Great Pyramids of Egypt. I was even climbed inside the top of the big one. it was UH-MAY-ZING!!! Twice as old as Jesus that tomb is. Crazy cool!!!

about an hour after this picture was taken, I was inside that pyramid, right where my index finger is!

6. Own a used bullet  I found on the side of the road in Cote D'Ivoire. True story... and a bit creepy....

The African bullet.

7. Be an extra in a music video. It is kind of cool that my friends across the world can see me anytime just by looking at a video.

8. Be in the general vicinity of a President. In 2008, I was lucky enough to be able to attend Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. It helps that my cousin is a delegate and could get me a ticket. 9. Graduate from College. No explanation needed. 10. Visit 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana. YES!! The family home of the King of Pop...Pretty great stuff!

11. Drive across the country with a somewhat complete stranger. In 2010, I drove from Denver, CO to Atlanta, GA with a person I had only met for lunch once before. It was a lot of fun and we are still friends.

12. Visit an authentic Juke Joint. Yup, Queen of hearts in Jackson, MS. Bring your own booze, buy the setup(ice, cup and mixer) at the bar.

13. Live in Montgomery, AL It is kind of amazing to live in a place where people like Martin "Luther" King, Rosa Parks, Nat King Cole and F. Scott Fitzgerald have also lived. The birth of the Civil Rights Movement, a place where John Wilkes Booth performed (obviously BEFORE he shot Lincoln), yeah, i live here. 14. Find the half of your family that you never knew before. See the resemblance. Truly priceless!

So there you have it - My Bucket list thus far. I hope to add at least two more things to this list within the next 12 months:  Participate in a 5K Race in November and Drive on the Pacific Coast Highway with my best friend in March... If I could fit in skydiving  somewhere around my birthday, I would be a happy camper. until next time! Cecile