Jamie Farrell's Blog, page 31

Ten Little Extras About Southern Fried Blues

If you’ve read Southern Fried Blues and want a little bit more, this is for you.

If you haven’t read Southern Fried Blues, you can get a copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and more, and there’s also a giveaway for ten signed paper copies at Goodreads right now, and I promise there are no spoilers in this list, so you can enjoy it too!

 

 

 

 

Jackson’s Mamie’s real name is Edith.
I know who won the Iron Bowl in Southern Fried Blues. But since this is fiction, and therefore changeable, let’s take a vote. Who do you want to have won?
I call the creek where the fish incident happens the Pickleberry Creek. Because I think it’s cute.
Kaci and Lance met at a pumpkin chunkin’ contest. (She accused him of cheating when his pumpkin went farther than hers.)
When I needed a name for the Air Force base where Southern Fried Blues is set, I turned to Facebook for suggestions. Ultimately, the fictional Gellings Air Force Base in southwest Georgia was named after friend’s relative – this man.
Windex actually does help get rid of fire ant infestations in cars. I know this because I parked over an ant bed once. But I don’t know if it relieves the itch of a fire ant bite. Thankfully, I’ve never had to try that.
Remember Eunice, the Cabbage Patch doll who flew the HooverCraft in one of Jackson’s old stories? Eunice was my sister’s Cabbage Patch doll when we were growing up, and my sister was not amused at her mistreatment. I owe her an ice cream cone. (Also? The HooverCraft idea came from a friend’s husband, may his momma’s Hoover rest in peace.)
You, too, can play Redneck Golf! When I learned it in Georgia, that’s what we called it, but apparently the rest of the world thinks of it as Ladder Ball. If you don’t want to buy a kit, you can even make it yourself.
The “Blues” in the title refers not just to having the blues, but also to Air Force dress blues.
The movers who unpacked my house when we moved to Alabama finished the last two pieces of the pie on the cover.

Intrigued? Want more extras! Drop me a line or a comment about what else you’d like to see.

 

p.s. If you’ve read Southern Fried Blues, it would make this author’s day if you left a review somewhere! Love you guys!!

Something About A Truck

We were out to dinner last week when Squeaker started hollering. “Truck! Truck, Mama! Truck!” This isn’t anything new with Squeaker – he’s in the I Love Trucks phase of preschoolerhood.

But then Munchkin leaned over him to look out the window too. “Mommy, look! There’s an elephant on that truck! He’s checking to see if the spinning tiger is okay.”

The hubby and I looked at each other, then out the window, and then none of us did anything but stare out the window for the next half hour.

Because this was parked right outside:

 

According to the guy at the booth behind us, this is known as a Tide Ride. It’s all decked out in support of Alabama football, and it makes appearances in parades and at tailgating events. My picture’s a little fuzzy, so let me walk you through it:

Right behind the cab of the truck, beneath the field goal posts, two elephants are spanking a tiger. This truck has animatronics on it. ANIMATRONICS. It could be a ride at Disney World.

In the middle of the bed, an elephant and a Santa Claus dressed in Bama gear are pulling a tiger apart.

At the end of the bed, where my sweet, innocent little Munchkin thought that elephant was checking on that tiger who was rolling over, there’s actually an elephant roasting a tiger over a spit.

This was one cool truck.

(With all respect to Auburn fans, I don’t actually root for one team over the other (though Jackson Davis does, often quite loudly in my head, and I do admit to checking football scores since I know he’d be curious), and I would give equal blog coverage to an equally impressive Auburn tailgating truck had I seen it out the window while I was eating dinner.)

Anyway, this truck reminds me of a scene from Southern Fried Blues, where Anna, my sweet, unsuspecting Yankee heroine, insists to a bunch of Southerners that she knows something about football:

“You ever been to a real football game?” Kaci asked.

“I went to a Big Ten school.” Anna said. “And I’ve seen the Vikings and the Bears play.”

She said it so earnestly, as though it meant something, that Jackson choked back a laugh. Louisa wasn’t as kind, but Lance and Kaci made a good show of taking her serious.

This truck says it all. If it’s not SEC football, it doesn’t count. Not down here.

**For a better picture, check out the People of Walmart post on the truck.

*** If you want to know more about Anna, Jackson, and their respective football teams, you can snag a copy of Southern Fried Blues at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iBooks!

**** How did your football team do this weekend? Or would you prefer to talk about your Fantasy Boyfriend League Team?

Mental Vacation Week – Friday in Ireland

Aaahhh… I’m starting to feel better after a mental week away. And what’s more appropriate for Friday than Beer and Whiskey in Ireland?

Not much, I’m quite positive. Yes, that’s a chandelier made with Jameson bottles. No, I didn’t let the hubby bring one home.

We went to Ireland last year in May.

In January, our third leprechaun was born.

That is entirely unrelated to the picture above.

When we kissed the Blarney Stone for luck… well. It worked.

Also? Fish and chips in Ireland are The Best. Ever.

(And I know about Best Ever. My college sweatshirts say so.)

I just love this sign.

We marked an item off my bucket list – we slept in a castle.

Hello, Cliffs of Moher! You’re looking lovely today!

 

So, when you walk into a restaurant on your last day in Ireland and the dessert menu offers you ice cream, bread pudding, a cheese plate, or something called a Knickerbocker Glory, you pick the Knickerbocker Glory. Because you’ve never been in a restaurant that offers a Knickerbocker Glory, and you don’t know if you’ll ever have another chance to try one.  And when there’s no description attached to it, you find out when it’s delivered to your table that it’s jello with grapes and pineapple, topped with vanilla and strawberry and chocolate ice cream, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. And you eat it, because you’re in Ireland and you will probably never order another one in your life.

And yes, I’d still like to be in Ireland tonight. Although I don’t necessarily want to come home with another leprechaun this time.

So. How about you? Good mental vacation week? Where do you want to go this weekend?

Mental Vacation Week – Thursday in Toronto and Niagara Falls

Yesterday we went on a mental vacation to the last place the hubby and I went before becoming parents, so today we’ll go to the first place we went after becoming parents.

Disneyworld!

Just kidding.

We were living in Ohio (our one assignment north of the Mason-Dixon line), and I had never been to New York, and hubby’s program had a long weekend, so we took off with little six-month-old Munchkin and went to see Niagara Falls with two of our best friends in the whole wide world.

 

I. Loved. It.

Also, did you know Niagara Falls is a popular wedding destination? When we went here five years ago, I didn’t anticipate I’d be writing a story about another wedding destination, yet The Husband Games is coming right along. (Or would be, if my children would nap.)

And do you know what else was cool about our trip? There was an actual, honest-to-goodness Autumn going on. We don’t see a lot of that in the South. Pretty leaves plus pretty water equals happy Jamie.

And there were rainbows. RAINBOWS!! Who doesn’t love rainbows?

 

There were also giant gorilla butts in town. And I scrolled through 447 pictures to find the one I knew we took of our own butts next to the “Put Butts Here” sign on an ashtray, then I decided you all didn’t really need to see my butt, or the butts of two of our closest friends. (Hubby, strangely enough, chose to snap the picture instead of showing his butt. In retrospect, I see why he’s the one among us who has the most master’s degrees.)

We also drove to Toronto, because it was close, we’d never been, and I have a thing about going up in tall buildings and towers to get a good view of the places I go visit, and Toronto is home to the CN Tower, which was, at the time, the tallest tower in the world. (It’s now third tallest. Come on, CN Tower! Stretch a little! You can add a few inches!)

And in the CN Tower, Munchkin had an epic melt-down that resulted in me plopping myself on the floor right outside the elevator to go up to the top of the tower, whipping out a boob, and feeding him until he passed out.

Parenting vacation win.

Or something.

Also, I discovered that toilet paper holders are very polite and thoughtful in Canada. This doesn’t surprise me, because Minnesotans are also very nice and thoughtful, and I’ve always thought Canada and Minnesota had a lot in common. I’d like to spend more time with both. Though I promise not to show you any more pictures of their toilet paper holders.

Probably.

So, is it working? Is mental vacation week helping you feel more relaxed? Where do you want to be today?

Mental Vacation Week – Wednesday in the Wilds of Alaska

You ever notice how it only takes about three months of being a parent to consider the time before kids to be “That Time When Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth?” Or is that just me?

I’m thinking about dinosaurs and being old today, because Alaska was the last place the hubby and I went for vacation before we discovered I was pregnant with Munchkin. And today, that time feels like about three hundred million centuries ago.

This is probably the scariest photo you will ever find on my blog. Unless you have a fear of happy smiley things, in which case you probably shouldn’t visit here often. But since our week-long Alaskan cruise coincided with cloudy rainy season, this is what we get for Alaskan pictures. Truth is, I adore how spooky this picture is. Fitting for October, no?

 

Because I’m apparently a diva while we’re on a cruise (or maybe just because I’m part of that small minority of the population that actually gets seasick on cruise ships), I insisted on a balcony cabin. Which made for beautiful viewing of Glacier Bay.

Is anybody else fascinated with glaciers? I think they are SO COOL. (No pun intended. Though I did just make myself giggle.)

 

This is Skagway, Alaska, and it is adorable. Totally old-school and western feeling. If I’d set my next book, The Husband Games, in the Wild West, this is what the town would look like.

 

Sunshine! Blue skies! Cruise ship! Mountains!

This was a beautiful moment.

 

This picture was taken six years and three kids ago. Weren’t we so young and cute?! And adventurous?! I totally want to do this again some day.

Have a happy Wednesday! And if you’re so inclined, tell me, what’s the coldest place you’ve ever visited?

Mental Vacation Week – Tuesday At The Tower

Two kids (and about three thousand gray hairs) ago, the hubby had a business trip to the Netherlands. He also had a deployment approaching, so when he departed the country for his business trip, I flew to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and dropped Munchkin off with them, then hopped my own international flight to meet him in London.

Because why not, right?

 

The first thing we did was to photobomb a picture of a spiral staircase.

Kidding. But on a serious note, I do have a borderline unhealthy obsession with climbing to the top of spiral staircases when I’m traveling. It started when I was in Italy when I was eighteen, and has continued to this day. You have to climb the staircase. It’s a rule. Because you never know if you’ll get another chance. Seize the day! Carpe diem! The world looks different from up there! And you get super hero thighs! Win-win-win.

 

We went boating on the Thames. To be historically accurate about being in London, since everyone went boating on the Thames.

Erm, or just because we had this nifty pass that gave us a big discount on it. And we wanted to sit for a while after walking all around London while jetlagged for a day or three.

 

My biggest regret in London was the Tower Bridge. We took the tour, we watched the videos, we snapped pictures from all angles, but I refused to shell out the fifteen pounds to get the souvenir picture of hubby’s head floating in front of the tower bridge. (He was wearing a blue shirt. The picture was taken on a blue screen. So when they digitally added the background… poof! Floating hubby head!) If I could go back, I would pay all the way up to fifty pounds just to have that picture. Because how often do you have a picture of your floating head?!

 

We toured the Tower of London too. And the year we went was the big 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation. (Or birthday? Or death? His 500th something. I’m so bad with history. Or possibly my children have taken all my brain cells.)

We saw the crown jewels.

We saw Henry VIII’s cod piece.

(Note that those two could be related.)

And we also saw some big scary crows.

(I don’t want to think about how all three of those could be related.)The coolest thing we did in London? We took in some theater. And in order to have the broadest theater experience possible in three and a half days, we saw two shows.

Avenue Q.

And Les Miserables.

Opposite ends of the spectrum, same building.

(If you don’t know Avenue Q, you totally should. It’s like Sesame Street for raunchy grown-ups. Check out samples here or here.)

And now I have the Internet song stuck in my head. Quite the opposite of what I’m planning to have my children listen to today, but that’s okay. What’s on your agenda for this beautiful Tuesday?

 

Mental Vacation Week – Monday in Montana

I love my children, but there are only so many times I can listen to my two-year-old sing the “Peepee poopy buttface doodee” song before I start wishing for a nice getaway with the hubby. With his work schedule and the kids’ school schedule, we’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so I’m reliving some old vacations this week.

Today, we’re heading to Montana.

Three years ago, I was three months pregnant with Squeaker. We left Munchkin with Grandma and Grandpa, and we took off for Glacier National Park.

I loved so much about Montana and Glacier. For starters, it was 1,600 miles away from the responsibility of parenthood.

The hubby was highly motivated to make the most of every second, so he got out of bed early to take pictures of beautiful sunrises over pretty mountain streams while I slept in.

The lakes were too cold to swim in, so I didn’t have to worry about a maternity swimsuit. (Though we did go rafting. And nobody fell in. Even though I was rooting for that obnoxious guy in the back to take a dip… (just kidding. Love you, Honey.))

Gorgeous days, chilly nights… Perfect for snuggling! (Hush. I was already pregnant!)

Ahh, to be 1,600 miles from responsibility for another week… or seven…

Where would you like to be this Monday?

How Did You Meet?

Since I love love stories, and since I love funny stories, and since I hope you all love the same, today I’m sharing how my hubby and I first met, and I hope you’ll share back how you met your significant other!

 

All these years later, he’s still my inspiration

A Brief History:

I grew up in central Illinois. Hubby grew up in St. Louis. I’m two months older than he is. (That’s right. I’m totally a cougar.) When we graduated high school, having never met and having no idea our destiny, I picked a little engineering college in Missouri and hubby decided to go far, far from home, all the way to Minnesota. But hubby’s best high school friends signed up to go to school the same place I did, and during our first semester of college, I became friends with his high school friends.

You caught that little bit about me going to an engineering school, right? Here’s what that really means:

There were three or four guys for every girl at my college.

And here’s what that really means:

Since the women were scarce, the dorms hosted beauty pageants to judge which of the men made the best women.

(It was college, it was fun, the men fought over the honor of competing, and the women knew we had nothing to worry about.)

So one beautiful fall Saturday, a couple weeks before the pageant, I was in my dorm room with the window wide open, and I kept hearing explosive laughter from the room around the corner. Like serious, we’re-having-a-blast-in-here laughter. The kind of laughter that makes you want to drop everything you’re doing and run to the party so you can laugh along too.

Because of how the dorm was built (see the picture below), I leaned out my window to call into the room around the corner, “Hey! What are you guys doing in there?”

At which point my friend, the owner of the room around the corner, called back through her window, “The Macker’s here, and Spoons is trying on women’s clothing!”**

The Actual Building Where We Met

Not what you hear every day, is it?

Neither is, “Do you have any dresses that would fit him?”

But that’s what came. So I donated my sexy red high school homecoming dress to hubby’s best friend (yes, hubby has pictures, and no, I’m not at liberty to share them). Hubby and I didn’t actually meet face-to-face that day. I don’t remember where I had to be or why, but I wasn’t able to join in the fun. (Most likely, I was feeling shy.) And when hubby and I met face-to-face for the first time, almost two years later at a party, it wasn’t until the red dress story came up that we realized we’d met once before.

Through two windows, while his best friend tried on women’s clothing.

Do you have a good how-we-met story? Or a favorite first meeting scene from a book or movie? I’m super excited for you all to see how Natalie and CJ “meet” in The Husband Games next spring. There might be a similarity or two to my story with hubby, now that I think about it…

Can’t wait to hear your stories!

** Names and nicknames changed to protect me from being googled by the not-so-innocent. ***

*** Except Hubby reads my blog, so I should probably say instead that he’s outgrown being called “The Macker.” In fact, he recently expressed a desire to be known as “His Royal Highness.” ****

**** He denies this, of course. So we’re still looking for a good nickname for him. All suggestions welcome.

Who Are The People You Meet?

I’m sticking my neck out, looking for a friend

Raise your hand if you’re kinda shy.

Me too. It makes parties hard, especially parties in new places with new people, and especially if I’ve spent too many days alternating between talking only to my family and the imaginary people in my head. Oh, and the cats. I totally talk to the cats too. So when parties roll around, there’s effort involved in putting on that smile (and a clean shirt) and convincing myself that I will not be the only person at the party who feels weird, and that it’s an opportunity to make a new friend rather than an opportunity to embarrass myself and my husband.

You know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you?

(Okay, please just pretend you know what I’m talking about. Thanks.)

So that’s what makes Twitter interesting. It’s like this non-stop party, and when you join, you show up mid-conversation, and you’re not sure if you should jump in and “interrupt,” or if the people hanging out at the Twitter punch bowl will be all, “Oh, yeah, join in our conversation! Love your earrings, by the way!”

Is there a hierarchy? Am I allowed to tweet people with thousands of followers, or should I stick to my social level and tweet people with fifty followers? How do I know who will tweet back? Should I be offended if nobody notices me, or do I not have enough Twitter cred yet? Or am I just as weird online as I am in person, and nobody wants to talk to the crazy chick wearing her shirt inside out? What’s this RT and MT and #hashtag stuff? If I tweet my secret celebrity boyfriends, will they suddenly notice me and fall madly in love with my brilliant wit and my artistic profile picture and beg me to leave my husband for them, or will I be one of the crowd of women sitting around our laptops in the dark, eating chocolate chip cookies and tossing our bras at the computer screen?

Erm, seriously, I have a point.

And the point is, in my short time on Twitter, I’ve learned The Secret.

And it’s a good one.

In fact, it could change the whole face of the internet.

Want to know what it is?

Come closer.

Closer.

(I’m whispering now.)

Okay. Here it is:

Be the one who says, “I love your earrings!”

The fastest way to make a friend is to be a friend. Be the happiness, and the happiness will follow you back.

A few months back, in my semi-newbie Twitter days, I made a friend. I don’t remember exactly how we “met,” but I think she might’ve complimented my website-in-training. (Seriously, people. “Your earrings are fabulous.” That’s all it takes for a friendship to bloom.) Last weekend, she live-tweeted while reading Southern Fried Blues. (Have I mentioned how much I love all of you people sending me messages and leaving reviews and live-tweeting my book? I LOVE YOU GUYS!)

And today, she has her first book out, and it’s been getting stellar pre-release reviews! So let’s spread the happiness a little further. Go  to Katy’s website and check out her book, By Proxy. It has such an awesome concept, and I cannot wait to read it for myself! Bonus: romance novel  = happily ever after. It’s all about the happiness.

Extra bonus? There’s this fabulous lady I connected with through my friend Kelsey Browning who also has a book out today! And she totally knows The Secret, but it’s not a secret with Nancy. It’s just who she is, and it shines through in every bit of her personality. Happy book birthday to Nancy Naigle, too! Pecan Pie and Deadly Lies has a country music star hero. *swoon*

And after I go snag my copies of Katy’s and Nancy’s book, I’m going to go compliment somebody’s earrings. Because the internet needs a little more happiness. And I need to learn how to relax at a party.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

p.s. If you’re on Twitter, and you want me to compliment your earrings, I totally will. Find me here.

Fantasy Boyfriend League Inspirational Player of the Week

The hubby and I were talking about some articles going around Facebook and Twitter last week, which led to me mentioning this  speech Ashton Kutcher gave at the Teen Choice Awards a few months back. Hubby hadn’t seen it, so we watched it together.

Even on a second watch, it was so great that I drafted Ashton for my Fantasy Boyfriend League team. I’m using it as a kick in the pants for my Monday morning. Check it out if you haven’t seen it, or if you have but just need to hear a really cool message this morning:

Smart is sexy. I love that!

And if you want a bit more inspiration, go visit my friend Maria‘s really cool post about pursuing a dream.

Have a great week!