Pumpkin Living

On Sunday September 1, 2013, (which is, as I write this, just barely yesterday) this happened:

Which is pretty awesome, right? Here's what makes it especially awesome: Erin Shaw Street (awesome!), editor of the Southern Living (awesome!) blog The Daily South (awesome!), took notice of and wrote about my PumpkinSpiceWatch blog. She called me a "keen trend spotter," you guys. Me.

She mentions my "pumpkin spice army" (!) which, and I've given this a lot of thought (not really), is basically one-and-one-half awesomes better than having my own Kiss Army. It would have been two more awesomes, but in the interest of fairness I docked myself one quarter of one awesome for not (yet) producing a comic book which has had my own blood added to the ink (and/or the blood of an innocent pumpkin), and then I subtracted yet another (I'm a giver y'all) quarter awesome for not (yet) reaching an endorsement deal with Gene Simmons (...yet?)

This has been a lot of fun. My mom and dad are proud of me, and my pumpkin blog slash convenient excuse to buy all the pumpkin things is now feeling so much enabler love! As Erin namechecks in her post, my super ultra mega über favorite seasonal pumpkin product, Cromer's Autumn Spice Caramel Corn, won't be available until mid-month. When it is, rest assured: I might tell you. Because mine. MINE!

Erin, if you'll email me an address, I'll send you a bag. 

Related:

• Erin Shaw Street on the web
• @erinstreet on Twitter
• SouthernLiving on the web
• @Southern_Living on Twitter
• The Daily South blog
• PumpkinSpiceWatch on the web
• @pumpkinsw on Twitter
• @tryjen on Twitter (my personal account)
• Gene Simmons: Mogul on Twitter

About That #LiveLikeRick Tribute Video

James and George created this tribute to Rick Stilwell. James will say that he AND George made it; George will say that he just contributed a few bits but that James did all the work. He said/he said aside, this is a bittersweet video for those of us who knew Rick... It's nice to hear from him again, it's funny, he was funny, and he's just so missed.

The thing for me, though, is that this tribute video is especially important for me: It includes a bit of footage where Rick talked about me (!), suggesting that people should be following me on Twitter. Me! Of all people! I'm just some dweeb, and he was talking about ME! I seriously couldn't believe it. Rick was the coolest of the cool kids, and I was a total nobody... at least, an in-person nobody, and he was talking about me? That's why I'm here talking about him, to tell you not just about this video, but also about that day.

If memory serves, the day Rick recorded the bit about me was a blazing hot day in late August, 2011; it was the day when I finally got to meet Rick in person, on the steps of Cromer's Pnuts during Food Truck Food Court. I heard he would be there, and told The City Girl I wanted to meet THE Columbia social media guru. She made sure to find him; rolled me right up to him in the middle of his lunch, and made a proper IRL introduction (we'd known each other online for ages). That August day in 2011 was a big deal day for me in a lot of ways: It was the first time I beat back the social anxiety enough to attend any of the tweetups; the first time I met most of the "Real Twitterati". I was just standing up the social media department at work for real, and I needed to turn my virtual connections into real ones. Everybody who was anybody knew: RickCaffeinated was the guy you talked to about that in Columbia, SC.

So there I was: Sweaty, self-conscious, scared, nervous, and by the end of the day I had a raging sunburn, too. As it turned out, though, every single person I met was not only super fun and kind, but 100% welcoming and friendly, just as if we'd known each other forever... which, well, we had. Rick was so nice to me that day, answering tons of questions, inviting me to Social Media Club Columbia, and telling me he would happily tell me about how to do what he did, for his going price of a cup of coffee. :)

Anyway. I have been wondering what happened to that clip, and to find that not only did The Misters K and N locate it, but that they chose to include it in this tribute... well, that just means the world to me. In mid January 2013, the day after Rick died, I would go back to Cromer's - which now houses Jamestown Coffee Company - along with lots of the same people who were there that day in 2011. In 2013, we raised our mugs in toast to Rick, shared memories, and said our goodbyes to him.

Please take a minute to watch. Thank you.

SC Governor Nikki Haley Contradicts Science, Just Because

"South Carolina's major exports are peaches, shrimp, and fodder for late night comedians." - Susanna King

Update 4/9/12: This post was featured as a guest article for Tell Them on April 4, 2012. Tell Them is a program of the New Morning Foundation, a statewide, reproductive health-focused foundation based in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition to making grants to improve reproductive health education and clinical access for citizens under age 30, the Foundation is committed to serving as a leading advocate for improving the state’s sexual health policies.

If there's one thing I never could stand, it's South Carolina politics. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart calls South Carolina "America's whoopie cushion", a nod to the countless jokes told about the regularly-occurring gaffes in the SC political arena. As a resident of the "famously hot" state of South Carolina for over 15 years now, most of the time I just roll my eyes and chuckle along with the rest of the country (world?), when SC shows up on the blooper reel.

But then this happened:

Dang it, Governor Haley! This is why we can't have nice things!

That is the governor of the state of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, appearing on ABC's The View on Tuesday April 03, 2012. I almost can't believe that anybody growing up female could bring herself to say such a thing without genuine fear of sprouting a Pinocchio nose and/or her pants bursting into flames on national television. Women do indeed care about contraception, and we care a great deal.

Governor Haley, like a lot of women, is an educated and successful person. She holds a B.A. in Accounting from Clemson University, and among numerous accomplishments on her way to becoming governor, she spent six years in SC House of Representatives.

Would Governor Haley have been able to meet her goals without access to, or use of, contraceptives? Anecdotally, one might say 'sure, maybe so'. Statistically, however, it's much more likely that the answer would be 'probably not'.

Here's why:

According to the famous 2002 paper "The Power of the Pill", the earlier a woman has access to contraceptives, the more likely she is to complete higher education and career goals . The authors state "The most persuasive evidence for a role of the pill is that its initial diffusion among single women coincided with, and is analytically related to, the increase in the age at first marriage and the increase in women in professional degree programs."

Forbes goes so far as to state that we women have "The Pill to thank for 30%" of our paychecks, in their report on a recently-released study of over 4000 women by researchers at University of Michigan.

So here I am, stating for the record: I care. If you live in South Carolina and you care, too, you can use this handy email form courtesy of Tell Them! to tell Governor Haley that you DO care about contraception, and that you do NOT support legislation which restricts your access to it. If you live outside of South Carolina, well, enjoy the current ridiculousness, and be glad it isn't you. Residents of Arizona, of course, exempt.

Internet Nation, I'll leave you with this quote, courtesy of my favorite astrophysicist: “The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” Neil deGrasse Tyson