Lumpy Lambert is an embarrassment to Knoxvillians and ALL Tennesseans alike.  I cannot believe that people continue to consider him a “viable” politician.  Like I said, ugh.

My friend Maggie is the coolest person I know.  She’s in a band.  She’s a bartender.  She’s an artist.  She’s incredibly smart.  She dresses in a style that looks effortless, cute skirts, unassuming pigtails and a broken-in pair of chucks, but that also exudes attitude.  A tattoo referencing her band, represented in the form of a scuff on the knee.  She’s also intuitive and kind.  Once, after hearing bad news and tearing up at the bar, she drew me an incredible sweet cartoon (did I mention she creates hilarious cartoons) with a 4-leaf clover attached to make me feel better.  It was above and beyond kind. 

In general, I see Maggie when my husband and I stop in for a couple of beers at happy hour.  This usually means I’m in a business suit or other work attire.  I often make some comment about not being comfortable; I’d prefer to be in a blue-jean skirt, t-shirt and flip flops.  She always mentions something like, “If I had to dress up, that’s what I’d wear.”  I take that as a compliment!

A few weeks ago, a few of Maggie’s friends came in while we were there.  She had gotten off from work and decided to have a beer with us before she left and they joined her (and us).  It was immediately obvious that her friends didn’t realize we were friends with Maggie, just thought we were normal customers.  As I tried to talk to Maggie or join their conversation, one of her friends, took one look at me, rolled her eyes, and turned her back on me.  I think that she was judging me based on what I LOOKED like I would be like.  It wasn’t a necessarily good experience except that Maggie eased her friend aside to make room for my inclusion in the conversation.  I don’t think she realized it. I feel sure she would have said something to make it known we are friends, but I didn’t really want or need that kind of validation. 

It was more of an eye-opening experience for me.  I tend to have a wide variety when it comes to types of friends but some of my friends do not.  It immediately made me aware that the same situation could happen if some of my coworkers had joined me after work. 

How often do we take one look at someone and sum them up?  How often are we wrong? I may not have looked the part, but indeed, someone as cool as Maggie is my friend.

This made me laugh and feel dirty at the same time.

Last night I got an email from my mother in law.  As I read the first paragraph, I assumed it was just a nice “Happy 4th of July” email and read on with a light heart.  As I read on, I realized it wasn’t as jovial as I’d hoped.   As it turns out, the South Carolina serial killer had killed my niece’s teacher and the teacher’s mother. 

As you can imagine my niece is pretty upset about it.  The teacher was well loved and in articles about her a student or parent is quick to rave about her.  My mother-in-law and sister-in-law had spent a lot of time with her as volunteers in the classroom and loved her dearly.

I can’t imagine having to learn about death in this way.  A nine year old having to go through the grieving process is sad enough but the senselessness of this makes it that much harder to comprehend.  Please keep the victims families in your prayers today and your own family close to you.  Life is so short and you never know when someone can be taken from you.

UPDATE-

There has been a robbery/shooting in North Carolina and the suspet has been shot.  Police are seeing if they are connected and if the shooting victim is the serial killer suspect.

The Minnesota Post has created (they are in beta right now) a new platform for displaying real time advertising.  The article mentions a restaurant being able to post a lunch special and then later posting a dinner one.  And it is set up to allow feeds like from Twitter or Facebook so the business doesn’t have to update in several different places.  I can see how this might be a way for some newspapers and media companies to see a ROI on social media. 

I used to work for an alternative weekly paper and over the years, plenty of people commented that they liked to see what businesses were advertising and what their ads looked like.  Not the same way people enjoy the editorial content, but I think it’s safe to say some people enjoy ads.  I know personally, I’ve always enjoyed looking at the classified ads in papers whether or not I was shopping or job hunting. 

What do you think?  Would you log in every day (or every day or so) to see what ads, specials, coupons, etc. that businesses want to promote?

My former place of employment has been rewarded by their peers!  Metro Pulse won four awards at the recent Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference in Arizona.  Yay!

Since KnoxNews.com has a new article focusing on the women who are being arrested for prostitution (complete with photo gallery) in Knoxville, I thought I’d draw attention to the seemingly, little noticed PDF attached to the article with a list of all people arrested for SOLICITING a prostitute since 1999. 

I think if there are pictures of one, there should be pictures of both!  (In their defense, it is a three-part series, so maybe the focus will be on the johns later.)

See article here.  PDF here.

…but I’m, umm, not built for it.  You know, when I see people running, I think to myself how enjoyable it looks.  Just checking out the scenery while getting some exercise.  It’s like a pleasant afternoon drive but with bonus health benefits!  I really would like to figure out a way to begin a small running program. Any running advice is welcome as well as any boob-wrangling advice. 

My friend Katie is having an interesting discussion on her Babble blog about how and when to talk to your children about food.  For her, and me, and a lot of women I’ve known in my life, there’s always been a struggle with food, weight, and body image.  It’s really a delicate subject (and not really limited to women, either). 

My mom said she spent most of my childhood worrying about whether I was too thin (oh, the thought of that) or if I was going to gain weight and struggle like she does.  Obviously, I struggle.  And for me, I know it wasn’t anything she did or didn’t do.  My reasons are my own, as I guess everyone is different.  It is an interesting conversation about what might cause negative food relationships.