The Weekly(ish) Carol

Now that I've brought you up to speed on Carol Convention, I thought I would introduce you to the cast of Carols... and give them a bit of a clue in the process. 

the Carols in 2012

KTO and me in 2001, bowling after junior prom. 

KTO: In 1997, KTO's mom made the crucial choice to drop her off incredibly early for my bat mitzvah party. It was at the Embassy Suites, which as a kid seemed like a beautiful palace with a soaring atrium (and today feels just like another chain hotel), and KTO and I wandered around the atrium where we ran into our middle school PE teacher. For some reason, this was hilarious to us -- like, best friend making material. 

What KTO will love about Carol Convention 2013: The fall weather! Curling up with a scarf and a jacket and drinking/eating something pumpkin flavored. 

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Rachel on the left, me on the right -- 1998

Rachel: The time honored practice of alphabetization led Rachel and I together the spring of our eighth grade year. Her last name started with Spin, I was Spie, and we were housed together at a regional youth group retreat in Memphis, where we had a "spa night" that consisted of soaking our feet in warm milk. It was the first of several bad spa experiences; years later we would visit the spa at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas and I would be told by the aesthetician that I had pimples like a "teenager" (this was like, 8 years ago. I'm still bitter, okay?) 

What Rachel should pack for Carol Convention 2013: An extra sweater. I have a feeling the phrase "IT'S ABOUT TO SNOW!" -- Rachel's favorite when it gets below 75 degrees --  will be uttered many, many times.

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AJL in Austin

AJL: When Rachel and I went to college together, I met A, Rachel's friend from high school. Besides being just a great friend in general, A is the first friend I turn to when I feel compelled to share a new song I love, important celebrity news (I was in the bathroom at my college gym when I got A's text about Heath Ledger), or a book that I loved. She also has the uncanny ability to send gifts that are exactly what I would pick out for myself, which is obviously why I keep her around. (I know A will silently hate me if I don't point out that she is more than just celebrity gossip and fashion advice ;))

What A will love about Carol Convention 2013: The celebrity homes, pastries at cute coffeeshops for breakfast, and the playlist I'll be putting together for our 4 hour road trip.

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K: All I knew about K for years was that Rachel and AJL, who were her best friends in high school, called her "Cornbread". Needless to say, she had a lot to live up to.  K can speak intelligently on any topic, but can just as easily segue into something as plebeian as a hula hoop routine to Party in the USA (see above) or writing a top notch FB status update from her dog. 

What K will love about Carol Convention 2013: Although she will be disappointed that we missed the great meeting of minds that occurs in our secret location every year, the views will make up for it. 

Dana and K in New Orleans

Dana: Dana, Rachel and I lived in the same dorm our freshman year of college, and later lived together in an apartment on campus, where we enjoyed watching Sex and the City, following the exciting lives of Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, and singing Christmas Carols (of the Britney Spears variety) in July. Dana grew up in Thailand and has a tattoo, therefore, she is our exotic and worldly friend. For reference, she was also our "Miranda" when people were still defining themselves as Sex and the City Characters. (I think I was Steve.)

What Dana will love about CC2013: The hiking and the biking. 

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Carol Convention II

Leila: Although she won't be able to make it this year, Leila still deserves a place in the Carol hall of fame -- I mean, her karaoke performance of 9 to 5 at the first Carol Convention will be revered for years to come. I've known Leila since middle school, and together with KTO we basically ruled our high school... if "ruling high school" means "spending Friday nights giving fake names to the lady at the Domino's drive thru and laughing hysterically".  We'll miss you Leila! 

Me and Leila at camp in 1998. Items of note: frog boxers. High socks. 

P.S.

the weekly carol | the history

{photo via}

(Last week I shared a Very Exciting Announcement  about  a little event I have coming up called Carol Convention. But what I failed to mention was why we call it that. I know you've all been dying of suspense. Here's a little history.)


It started in April of 2009, a car packed full of girls driving to Dallas for a weekend in "the big city". We were stuck in absurd traffic. After we had talked about everything under the sun, we settled on a very important topic: 

When guys hit on us in bars, what fake names were we going to give them so that they would leave us alone?

It had to be an older name, we decided immediately, one that brought to mind mom jeans. "Carol," said one friend. No one could think of anything better, so... we all decided to go by Carol.

We needed a back story. How did five people all named Carol end up being best friends? There was only one option: we became friends when we met at a convention for people named Carol.

And thus began the Carol Convention.

Sidenote: my legal name is Esther. Why did that name not come up as a douchey-guy-in-bars deterrent? No one wants to talk to an Esther. Every time I tell someone my real name, they say, "That's my grandma's name!" In fact, it just happened Tuesday. (Hi, Kelly!)

 I fully believe that if we'd used Esther, this legendary Carol Convention picture never would have happened:

d out

Once upon a time, three girls flew to Vegas armed with kukui beads, shrugs, and some useful advice: Don't tell anyone your real name.

"Jordan", "Riley", and "Taylor"

4 years later the same three girls, joined by two more friends, traveled to Dallas. This time we were armed with better clothing but the same precious advice. We chose the name "Carol". All of us. We figured a name like Carol - generally associated with well, moms -- would deter any weird people (aka, guys on steroids wearing Ed Hardy) from talking to us. As you can see from the picture below, it didn't quite work, but the name stuck.



To account for how 5 girls named Carol were friends, we explained we had met at a national convention for people named Carol and thus, the Carol Convention was born.

How dare they misspell our fake name?

This article in Real Simple inspired us to designate one person each year to plan a surprise trip (the yearly Carol Convention) and to add two more Carols to our posse. The girls (ladies? women?) in the article are in their 30s and some even have kids, but every year each one puts in a certain amount of money and one person plans a surprise weekend, heightening the suspense with months of clues.

Well, this year's trip starts Thursday, and after our series of cryptic clues, we were convinced we were going to be playing putt putt on a cruise with mailmen. But, it turns out we're going to a tiny resort town in Florida for 4 glorious days. Since the thing that makes my blog remotely amusing are tales of Y and Ike, neither of whom are invited, I might not have any fun blogs from the trip. So, I'm putting the pressure on my hilarious friend Kathy to recap the weekend!

carol convention 2011

Today is a very important day: the start of the annual Carol Convention.

I've explained Carol Convention before, but let me just sum it up by saying that at my old age of 27 and 4 days, it is the one weekend a year where I might have the opportunity to make a Facebook album with a line from a song as its title. Just like the olden days.

This year our planner, Leila, went all high tech on us with her clues for the weekend. We were sent this CD and told to listen to the songs, go to a website and answer questions about the songs, and only then would we receive our clue.

The clue:

Here is your packing list:

Cowboy boots

A Swim suit

Dancing Shoes

Water shoes

Water camera

Lots of room for Texas beer, chips, and salsa!

If you haven't figured it out, I'm headed to Texas today, authentic Target cowboy boots in tow!

For those of you who enjoyed the guest posts the past few days, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter! If you write a post, send me the link -- and I'll share my thoughts sometime next week, when the traveling craziness dies down.

For those of you who think my blog has turned into The View (aka Y's friends): a) dibs on being Whoopi and b) don't fear, the guest posts are over and I'll be back to making fun of your friend shortly. As in, tomorrow.

(PS: A recap of last year's Carol Convention. I'll do better this year.)

I have an exciting announcement

From what I can gather, there seem to be a few rules about "exciting announcements" in the blog world. First of all, you must announce your announcement prior to actually announcing whatever it is you're wanting to announce. Follow that?

So on Monday, you say I've got some exciting news to share with you... but I can't reveal the details yet. Stay tuned. Winky face! and then the next, say, Tuesday, you make your big announcement.

The other rule I've noticed is that your announcement must either be that you're having a) a baby or b) a book.

Well I'm going to ignore the first rule and tell you my news after this paragraph. And I'm going to ignore the second rule, because I'm not gestating a baby or a book.

I am, however, planning a top secret trip for my closest friends.

Was that a huge letdown? I thought it might be, so here's a picture of Ike as a puppy to make it up to you.

Carol Convention is a trip my friends and I have been taking for the past four years. One of us plans the whole thing on the sly. The rest of us send her money. In the months leading up to the trip, the planner sends clues, not revealing the location until the week before. So far, we've been sticking to the dirty south, but we have big plans to require passports one of these days.

I thought it might be fun (for me, at least) to share the story of Carol Convention, introduce you to the cast of Carols, share travel guides and tips for friend-trips, and lead up to this year's big announcement via the blog. Who knows -- maybe I'll inspire a wave of Carol Conventions?

For now, I'll leave you with the first clue of this year's trip:

stay classy, carols

I think I legitimately squealed when I got my Carol Convention reveal package in the mail. AJL had us all fooled -- every single one of us thought we were going to South Carolina. So when I pulled the California postcard and California shaped sugar cookies out of a hot pink Baggu bag, I was completely shocked.

We spent the weekend in the cutest house in La Jolla, a half a block from a beach where perfect people played with their perfect toddlers and wore thongs that showed off their perfect butts.

Five years ago, in Dallas, we decided to call ourselves Carol to solve a problem:  creepy guys talking to us in bars. This year we stood outside of a coffee shop in Coronado pulling grey hairs out of each other's heads.

I guess we solved our little problem.

a carol convention recap

A few years ago, I ripped an article out of a magazine and it made things happen. The kind of things that you normally agree might be fun and then you just talk about for years and years.

I'm always ripping things out of magazines: from posters of male celebrities in middle school to wedding dress inspiration and recipes. I take great care to make sure each item is organized the way I want it, then I put it in a corresponding binder: recipes, home decor, entertaining inspiration... teen idols.

It's a huge waste of time. I've never looked at those things.

Until Real Simple's executive editor wrote about her and her friends' Great Escape-- their yearly vacation planned by one and kept a secret until the very last minute. My friends and I had just returned from a weekend full of marathon sessions of laughing until we couldn't breathe. I felt like we needed to do that yearly.

Although I e-mailed my friends pretty regularly, I made actual paper copies of the Real Simple article and snail-mailed them with a sticky note. Let's do this.

Who knows, maybe the actual paper made it feel more like something real and less like just another article.

A few weeks ago, I returned from the second episode of our very own Great Escape: a summer weekend in central Texas.

Where I experienced a short and sweet taste of Austin and its live music for the first time. (I'm excited to go back in September!)

Where we had to forgo fashion to avoid foot fungus at a water park.

Where we floated a river; a giant party on tubes. My favorite part was when we floated underneath the water park and the entire river cheered as the next victim was lifted to the top of a sky coaster. My least favorite part was cramming two giant tubes the size of my Prius into... my Prius.

One night we visited a teeny town called Gruene which, while undeniably charming, is running the risk of turning into the next great city turned tourist trap, a la Gatlinburg. The first sign: a ye olde timey photo studio. I predict a tacky t-shirt store and a few pancake houses within 5 years. I'm glad we visited while it was still charming.

We were in Gruene to visit the oldest dance hall in Texas.

One of us wore cowboy boots. One of us had really sweaty ankles.

(It was me.)

After a night of Texas beer and dancing (mainly with each other), we found a real live cowboy to draw the name of next year's planner.

While in Gruene, we found air conditioning in an antique store where one of us bought a phrenology head. Looking back, I'm not sure why we didn't return from our night out and read the bumps on each others' heads.

Probably because we were too busy laughing until we couldn't breathe.

Other Carol Convention posts: 1, 2, 3

carol convention top five

Two weeks ago, my friends and I embarked on our annual trip, which we like to call Carol Convention (read more about it here). We spent the weekend at a cabin in the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas which, believe it or not, is actually really, really pretty. Because I like to think my friends and I can be pretty entertaining, I bring you:

5. Inventing peanut butter m&m pancakes. Recipe: throw peanut butter m&m's into Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Source: Just Dandy original. Be on the lookout for my cookbook.

4. Making a music video to Justin Bieber's Boyfriend in the middle of the woods and on the top of a mountain.  I wonder if that will ever see the light of day.

3. Since every year a different one of us plans the trip, at some point we have to figure out who will be in charge of the next one. On previous trips, we've found a "mascot" guy to draw a name out of a hat; at a piano bar in Florida we decided that a guy who looked like Fabio was the most hilarious man we had ever seen, it clearly had to be him. Last year at a dance hall in Texas, I asked a cowboy who had performed earlier that evening to be The One.

This year, we shared our secluded cabin with not a soul -- except for two dogs. The only thing to do was tape three names to the bottom of three bowls and put meat in each one. Whichever bowl the dog went for first contained the name of our next planner.

2. The most ridiculous game of Catchphrase. The scene: We're trying to guess a word based on clues my friend Dana is giving us.


Dana: Okay, if I want to talk to someone I would call them on my....
Us: Cell phone!
Dana: Nope.
Us: Cellular phone!
Dana: No.
Us: Mobile phone!
Dana: No...
Us: MoBILE phone!
Dana: NO.
Us: Cellular device?
Dana: NO!!
Us: Smartphone?
Dana: NO. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
The rest of us are silent.
Dana: TELEphone.

1. Throughout the United States, you might like to joke that those of us who live in The Dirty South are partial to marrying our relatives. Well, in the south, we like to deflect that accusation on one state in particular: Arkansas.


You guys, we were in Arkansas for TWO. DAYS. We listened to local radio for maybe an hour total. Besides hearing Gotye approximately 656 times in that hour, we also heard a segment where the DJ asked people to call in and tell us "how their life is like a soap opera". The first caller:


I am dating a guy whose mother is his sister. 


I am thinking that kind of confession has to happen pretty often for us to have caught one in the short time we were there.

Iketoberfest

Happy October! Here's what you can expect from me this month:

>>>My magical first apple picking experience.

There were bees. There were senior citizens. But most importantly, there were apple cider donuts.

>>>My secret dream job.

While making our way across Ireland, I discovered my dream job. Is it sheep herder? Leprechaun? Stay tuned to find out. 

>>>6 more audiobook reviews.

Because traffic never stops. 

>>>A day in the life at my job.

Bathroom selfies, red pens, and Whole Foods cheese samples -- the true behind the scenes of working at a non-profit. 

>>>That time I went to a college homecoming concert and felt approximately 87 years old.

We'll talk about this tomorrow. Truly one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life. 

>>>A video of my summer

In the style of this, this and this video.

>>>My fall reading list

Organized in no particular order other than what's available at the library.

>>>The big Carol Convention reveal!

The Carol-mobile has been rented. The playlists have been made. Where will the Carols be thumping some serious minivan bass? Only time will tell. 

>>>A huge increase in posts about Ike.

Because in our house in my head, October is known as Iketoberfest. Ike's birthday is believed to be circa October 2008, and let's face it: I'm pretty happy he was born. 

(clockwise from top left:

1. that time we woke up and Ike was wearing a shirt

2. that time Ike curled up with Y to read a medical journal (they prefer NEJM over JAMA, in case you were curious).

3. that time Ike got really ridiculously muddy

4. that time Ike was really ridiculously good looking

5. that time Ike wore Y's socks (okay fine, I might have put them on him. But I swear on a pumpkin spice latte that he was actually wearing that aforementioned t-shirt one morning.)

6. that time Ike was extra snuggly and I thought maybe I was going to die that night and his doggy premonition could sense it, so he was savoring his last few hours with me. (morbid much?)

Reverb2010: Days 1 through 4

December 28: I made it through day 11 and realized that these questions are just not for me. Maybe I'm not sentimental enough, or deep enough, or there just aren't enough opportunities for me to insert photos of my dog. After the break are my 11 days of reverbing.

twenty-ten, part 3

There's a reason I blog about Ike and Y more than I do myself: they are much more interesting than I am. But, as, promised, here is 2010 recap part 3: my year.

In January I started this blog because I could not keep my whining to myself for another second.

In February, I went on my first business trip by myself and spent far too long sitting in the windowsill taking pictures (I was in New Orleans. It wasn't that exciting).

In March I sang karaoke for the first time ever at the First Annual Carol Convention. My song of choice - Fancy by Reba McEntire - a guilty pleasure song that's on my karaoke bucket list. Also on my list: Kiss From a Rose by Seal. Seriously. How can you not be a fan of that song?

In April I ran my first (and only, so far) 5k. Maybe at the end of this year I'll report back on my first half marathon. (Highly unlikely.)

I met a super famous celebrity at my gym, and channeled my inner sixteen year old and saw Taylor Swift.

I finished three semesters of grad school this semester, and made tons of friends.

I went to DC, visited Julia Child's kitchen, and left still hating to cook. (Sorry, Y)

In September, I joined Miss B's Souvenir Foto School.

I also took a spontaneous trip to Chicago with two friends, the kind of friends who will gladly lay on the ground with you for a photo op.

I drove to Texas to drink tea with some American Girl dolls (and my sister and nieces, I guess), and drove to Texas again to laugh my face off at Aziz Ansari.

I got a new toy: a camera. My first three pictures:

Y and I took a trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

And I fulfilled my goal of getting Ike to wear a sparkly New Year's Eve hat.

(Sort of.)

Also, I read these books.

(Does anyone else use Goodreads?)

Here's to making 2011 much more noteworthy (and photogenic)!