Category Archives: Parties & Events

Listen To Your Mother

 

Courtesy of Amy Konieczka
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka

On May 3rd, I had the privilege and opportunity to participate in the first Baton Rouge production of Listen To Your Mother. Listen To Your Mother is the creation of Ann Imig, and weaves an individual quilt of the voices and experiences of motherhood through a production that centers around the weekend of Mother’s Day.

I auditioned for this production because I had produced The Vagina Monologues in college with my two best friends and it still ranks, hands down, of one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. If Listen To Your Mother was anything like that, I was in.

The difference here was that we are telling our own stories, not someone else’s, baring our souls with laughter and struggles to you. It was an emotional experience, bonding with these other women, over our collective experiences, that while similar, were also very different.

Courtesy of Amy Konieczka
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka Photography
Courtesy of Amy Konieczka Photography
courtesy of Amy Konieczka Photography
courtesy of Amy Konieczka Photography
Backstage, getting final instructions.
Backstage, getting final instructions.

This year, Listen To Your Mother was produced in 39 cities.  One of the best parts about this experience is that not only did I get to share this with the Baton Rouge cast of eleven other amazing, smart and caring women, I was able to share this with all of my writer friends who were in these performances in other cities.  We tweeted, texted, emailed, and messaged support to each other.

And today, the YouTube videos are out.  All of my friends who were in other cities, I get to watch them bare their souls to an audience I was not a part of.  And, of course, this means you get to watch me explain feminism through farting.  Yes, you read that right.  Watch this here:

I can’t wait to audition for next year’s production!

Boone’s Farm Tastes Like Regret and Bad Choices

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So, I have this new friend that I mentioned last week, Harmony Hobbs of ModernMommyMadness.com.  We’re in this writer group together that has women writers from all over the world and it turns out she lives 5 minutes down the road.  Literally.  As in 3.2 miles.

Anyhow, she came over last night and we participated in a Google+ hangout with MomCaveTv.  I have totally popped my writer cherry this month by getting published, having an author signing, and now, hanging out during a live internet chat.

Because Harmony is apparently as ridiculous as I am, we decided it would be funny to wear onesie pajamas and drink Boone’s Farm.  Believe it or not, I had a hard time tracking down Boone’s Farm.  We broke the bank and bought one of every flavor at $2.79 a bottle.  Holy shit that’s cheap.  Was it that cheap in high school?

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Mom Cave TV is the brain-child of Jennifer Weedon Palazzo, Stephanie Faith Scott,  Valise Tate (whom I am disappointed was not on there with us!), and J. Sibley Law.  It has won a ton of international awards and is brilliant, and I am kind of surprised they let us into their world.

Harmony and I are still excited about it, the day after, because we like to make fools of ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously.  We broke down what southern mommas say to our Yankee friends over the course of 20 minutes.  I’m pretty sure that they are still confused as to what the hell happens down here in the South.

Harmony gussied up this photo above for us.  It pretty much sums it up…Check out the video here:

4th of July

We had such a good time on the 4th! We had family and neighbors over for food and lots of fireworks. I hate to spend time in the kitchen while people are over, so I prepped everything prior to the evening and it was stress-free and I was able to focus on being present.

I picked up these adorable tablecloths from Target (the boys said the circles looked like fireworks), and the table runner from Tuesday Morning (the brand is Thro— of which I am obsessed!). The rest of the stuff I shopped for in our attic, with the exception of the ceramic berry baskets that I use every day into kitchen. They also make handy silverware caddies!

I picked up the petit fours from Alexander’s (if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times–best.grocery.store.EVER) and stuck some extra toothpick pizzazz in them. For the cake, I made two cakes, a red velvet and a blue velvet from the box and layered them with white icing. I cut out a stencil of a star out of paper, set it on top of the cake, smeared icing over it, and then poured blue sprinkles on it. I lifted up the stencil, and voila! So cute, so easy, done!

I also made pulled chicken sandwiches in the crockpot. For the pulled chicken, I winged my own recipe, and here it is:

8 chicken breasts
9 ounces of BBQ sauce
2 cups of brown sugar
1/8 cup of soy sauce
1/8 cup of Worcestshire sauce
1/4 cup of Bourbon
1 tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

Cook ingredients on high for 4 hours. Remove breasts from crockpot and pour liquid into a bowl to preserve. Shred chicken and put back into the crockpot. Pour enough liquid over the chicken to coat it. Set leftover liquid aside. Cook one more hour and serve on pistolettes.

I used the leftover liquid for storing the leftovers, so the chicken won’t dry out when reheating.

All in all, the food was easy and everyone had a blast. I hope yours was fun and easy, too!

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