Monday Musings

1.
Roll Tide, Roll. The college football playoff championship game is tonight, and Alabama's Crimson Tide is defending their title. How do I know this? Because I live in Alabama. I'm not the college football fan - remember, my university instead had a surf team:

But it only takes about three seconds of living in Alabama to know that college football reigns. Literally, at our house closing, the attorneys on both sides sealed the deal by exchanging Roll Tides. I've learned that any time Alabama is playing is a fabulous time to grocery shop - the first time I ventured out to Publix (unknowingly) during a game, I had to ask the cashier what was wrong and why the store and roads were empty. My Junior League meeting for tonight has been moved to tomorrow (because game night, y'all!) so I'm thinking it will be a perfect opportunity to run some errands, ha!

2. 

Here in The South, it's tornado country. I take comfort in the fact that we live in a 60+ year old house, which bodes well for its future survival (tornadoes tend to hit the same paths over and over). Still, having endured two separate warnings last year with the tornado sirens going off, this California girl was all about telling everyone she could that, as far as natural disasters go, earthquakes are so much better. You don't get all the hype - no closing schools early, putting everyone on watch, having the emergency alerts on cell phones go off - for an earthquake it just happens and then it's over. Or, that's what I remembered. You see, despite living almost all my life in California, I somehow entirely missed experiencing an earthquake for the past twenty-five plus years. It was a talent, actually - I would leave college the weekend Santa Barbara had one, or be out-of-town when one hit my house - or my favorite, driving on the 101 and talking to one of my friends via cell phone (back when this was legal) and having her go on about how there was an earthquake happening right this instant (which I completely missed of course, since they pretty much cannot be felt while driving in a car). I always attributed my earthquake avoidance to the fact I was in the big Bay Area earthquake of '89 - I figured that had filled by quota for forever. But alas, my karma wore off and on our latest trip to California, we were in not just one but three earthquakes. We were actually pretty far from the epicenter, but they registered in the mid fives (significant) so they woke us up miles away. Being in bed, I felt both the up and down roll then the side to side shake, and it was not. fun. I'm changing my tune and my inclement weather of choice is now a dust storm, à la Scottsdale (unless of course, I happen to be on the road when one rolls into town).

3.

What happens when you live in California for twenty-six years, followed by the Scottsdale desert for five? You collect very little cold weather clothing or footwear. This is our third winter in Alabama, but I'm totally lacking in the winter attire category. Especially when we get days like this weekend:

Brrrrr. So I'm thinking I need to a pair of warm all-weather boots to help me out. I love the look of these Sperry ones (and the fact that they'll brave the rain and snow) but for the price I'd love a real review. Does anyone out there own a pair? At the very least, they'd look darling ;)

Happy Monday!