Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

Tag: Newark

  • 18 Days of Blogging

    18 Days of Blogging

    Do you celebrate valentines day?

    Seth and I really don’t. Once I made him a one time only sappy valentine’s love mix cd, back in the days when people still burned cds. (On this cd was: Luckiest by Ben Folds, Lucky Ones by Bif Naked and I’m Gonna Always Love You from Muppets Take Manhattan, among others.) But, since my birthday is exactly a month after valentine’s day we made the decision as a couple to skip it.

    My most memorable valentine’s day was my Freshman year of high school I think. I had been “dating” a friend of mine and he broke up with me as a joke the day before, but I didn’t get that it was a joke. He would tell me that later as well as saying since I took it so seriously he just decided not to correct it. We were still friends, and are still acquaintances online. He is a writer and fairly popular in certain online channels and once he broke up with me by saying “You are on a one-way trip to dumpsville baby, population you.” You can imagine how I was feeling about romance that next day.

    So…I put on a pair of black tights, black platform boots and my favorite Gap t-shirt dress that honestly barely covered my bits and I have no idea how I was allowed to leave the house in it. Oh, and a pair of creme colored lacy butt underwear things so if the skirt rode up all you saw was my ruffly butt. I added super dramatic makeup and dark lipstick. I had my mom take me to Meijer which at the time still had a bulk candy section and I bought 3 pounds of gummy worms. I then walked around on campus at high school all day a gloomy sight in all the valentine’s chaos and I gave out gummy worms. It went over well honestly and I got the attention of even some of the popular people at school with my antics.

    Later in the day I ran into my HUGE high school crush, you know the type I am talking about. I spun for him and asked him how I looked and he said I, “Looked like sex.” Which I then and still take as a compliment.

    There have been many, many valentines in between this one and that one, but that day in 1997 was the peak of valentines greatness for me. Seeing the smiles on peoples faces when I walked toward them with my giant bag of worms wishing them a tolerable day. My whole life may have just been trying to recreate that kind of magic. Thanks to bad break up jokes and my flair for the dramatic.

  • Friday night Karaoke and Cocktails.

    Friday night Karaoke and Cocktails.

    Yesterday was my last day on my current job, and it was a stressful last week, so Seth and I went down to Newark last night after work to meet up with my mom and sister for some dinner and Karaoke.

    We started at Elliott’s Woodfired Grill where we all got different woodfired pizzas. I got a roasted red pepper with goat cheese. Seth got the Mama Dre which had pepperoni, sausage, and ham. Mom had the spicy italian and Traci got the chicken bacon and ranch. They were all delicious. We kept trading pieces.

    Roasted red pepper and goat cheese pizza.

    Then we headed back to The Bootlegger for Karaoke. This time I started with a Blackberry and Sage Gimlet, which was delicious. Then I had the Sronefruit Sangria. I started the night singing Sin Wagon by The Chicks followed by Doctor Jones by Aqua, Wig in a Box from Hedwig, Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys and finally The Warrior by Scandal. I also sang a duet with my sister of Wonderboy by Tenacious D.

    It was a super fun night. We laughed a lot and just generally had a great time.

  • Friday Night Karaoke in Newark

    Friday Night Karaoke in Newark

    My little sister, Traci, texted me at work yesterday afternoon to see if I would like to come down to do Karaoke at The Bootlegger in Newark. I love Karaoke so I headed that way after work.

    The Bootlegger is a nice bar located in the building underneath the Crystal Ballroom (where I used to perform occassionally in my teens with Encore Productions). It has a gin joint feel in the best possible way, which they encourage with a large portrait of Al Capone.

    We both started the night with an Apple Butter Mule which was Crown Apple, butterscotch schnapps, and ginger beer with a caramel rim. It was delicious, and something I will have to try replicating at home. We also tried their Barrel Cider which was very good as well.

    I started my Karaoke night with We Belong by Pat Benetar, then Traci and I dueted with Tribute by Tenacious D. I followed that with Brand New Key by Melanie. Traci did a song by Miranda Lambert that I don’t know the name of. I finished the night with Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi.

    Overall it was an amazing night! Thanks for the invite, Traci. I needed that.

  • Isolation Chronicles: Zoom Parties, Trivia and Porch Visits

    Isolation Chronicles: Zoom Parties, Trivia and Porch Visits

    The Ohio stay at home order has been extended to May 1, so we are sitting tight at home for at least a few more weeks. I can say that I think my anxiety is either leveling out or I am just getting used to it. Neither is probably great, but…it is what it is. I am working from home 87.5% of my week I am working at home now (Seth helped me with that math. I go into work for 5 hours in the evening on Friday.) I still get my Wednesdays off though, so that is a positive.

    Last Wednesday I was part of an amazing event hosted by Joanna DeVoe, Molly Roberts, Cris Ashburn, Joey Morris and Jessi Huntenburg on Zoom. It was an April Fools Day Witchy Town Hall and we wore costumes (tiaras, ears, flower crowns and fun glasses), talked about books, and had witchy trivia contests. I was the lucky winner of a call with Joanna DeVoe and a prize from Joey at Starry Eyed Supplies. I also put an offer out to send more Snail Mail messages and got several replies, so I will be writing more letters on Wednesday.

    I am so excited about the call with Joanna. I have been watching her Youtube and listening to her podcast for a long time as well as supporting her Patreon and chatting with her on Twitter, so getting to have a coaching call with her is an amazing gift. Our call is set for the 15th and I am beyond excited to chat with her about where I am headed and how to get there. She is such an absolute ray of light in this world and I feel blessed to be connected to her.

    On Saturday my Mom and Sister dropped by and we maintained a safe distance on our porch to have a short visit. They dropped off Seth’s Birthday present (his birthday was March 30) and brought us Soppapillas from Soppapilla Express in Newark. That is absolutely one of my favorite foods in the world and secures my family as completely awesome. They got Seth a Fitbit Versa and the boardgame Pandemic, which we all got a good laugh at. That night Seth and I played Pandemic a couple of times and played through Castle Ravenloft once.

    We are staying sane and keeping ourselves entertained. How are you faring in the isolation? Doing anything fun?

     

  • Welcome December…Blogmas Day 1 on Day 2

    It is officially the holiday season!! I have been making little purchases here and there for a month, but now it is here and the decorations can finally go up now that Santa has paraded into Herald Square in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Here is a small collection of things that I purchased before I consider it acceptable to do so, lol.

    I realized coming into Thanksgiving that I have 39 pairs of holiday socks. How? Why? So this year I decided to do 35 days of holiday socks beginning the day before Thanksgiving and going through the end of the year. So far I have worn brown stripey reindeer socks, snowflake socks, rampaging holiday dinosaur socks, Santa riding a unicorn socks, Argyle with a fleece cuff and holiday sloths.

    The day after Thanksgiving Seth and I headed down to my hometown Newark (30 miles east of Columbus) for the lighting of the courthouse. Newark has a beautiful historic courthouse, and they go all out when they light it. Santa and Mrs. Claus are given a ride to the courthouse square on a firetruck, and then they lead everyone in carols for a bit. When the time is right they ask the children to make as much noise as possible to light the courthouse. It almost always takes three tries somehow. Now for the before and after.

  • Magickal Monday – It’s almost the Solstice

    Magickal Monday – It’s almost the Solstice

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    The solstice is on Wednesday and we are heading to Newark to attend a drum circle inside the Newark Earthworks. I grew up in Newark and often went to walk and play within the Great Circle Mound. The mounds were built by the Hopewell people between 100 B.C. and 500 A.D. You can read more about it here. The drum circle is being hosted by my friend Heather, the lovely proprietress of Violet Flame Gifts.

     

    The Sun: XVII The Star – A time of creativity and spirituality, of hope and good things. (This is a good sign for the solstice.)

    1. What in my life has been in shadow, that I need to shine a bright light on so I can see clearly what it is? XIV Temperance – I need to work on finding better balance in my life. I also need to find balance in my personal life.

    2. What in my life am I trying to force into happening when instead I need to be still and patient? XXI The World – I cannot force myself into happiness. I need to calm down, be still and let my happiness happen.

    3. What in my life is fertile and productive now? Where are my opportunities for growth? XVIII The Moon –  I need to listen to and follow my intuition. My dreams are leading me in the right direction and I simply need to heed them.

    4. What is waning in my life? What do I need to release? Seven of Wands – I need to let go of self-doubt. I am more than capable of making my life more, and it is up to me to do it.

    That is a lot to think about for the Solstice. I also think I will be joining Molly Roberts in a 28 days of Beauty challenge, so look for more on that soon.

    Solstice Blessings!!