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The List Volume WV

By |September 2nd, 2011|The List|
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As mentioned, I was born in West Virginia.  I went to highschool and college in West Virginia.  My family is from West Virginia.  Needless to say, I’ve been bombarded with ignorant questions and commentary for a large portion of my adult life.  Below are ten of the most cliche stereotypes and misconceptions about my birth state:

  1. First and foremost: West Virginia is its own state.  It is not the “western part of Virginia.”  Do you know how many times people tell me, “Oh! I have friends from Richmond!” That’s wonderful, but that’s also a different state.
  2. I am not, nor do I have any plans to be, married to my brothers, cousins, uncles or any other relatives.
  3. West Virginia is not the poorest state in the country.  That honor has been bestowed upon Mississippi. Congrats!
  4. I have all of my teeth.  Well, unless you want to get technical- because I did have my wisdom teeth removed.  And might I add- my teeth are pretty glorious?
  5. With a 72% highschool graduation rate, WV is actually above the national average.
  6. The movie, Deliverance, (dueling banjos?) has absolutely nothing to do with West Virginia and is actually set in Georgia.
  7. I’m not a coal miner’s daughter.
  8. I don’t say, “ya’ll.”
  9. While there’s still work to be done- we’re not all racists.  West Virginia is the only state that was formed by seceding from a Confederate state.
  10. We may not have  sports teams, but we’ve got a symphony.

While West Virginia might not be the most cosmopolitan state, it sure is beautiful and there aren’t many people much nicer.   They sure aren’t lying when they say, “almost heaven.”

xx,

WhyDid

Why Did You Eat That: Put Some Pep(peroni) In Your Step

By |August 29th, 2011|Recipes, Why Did You Eat That?|
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20110829-111010.jpgYou might have noticed that I’ve been a bit slow with my blogging lately. Well, that’s because I’ve returned to my birthplace. My roots. My home away from home. Wheeling, West by God Virginia. And while I do enjoy laying around lackadaisically, I do not enjoy the fact that my sweet, sweet mother has yet to set up her wireless Internet making me feel as if I am, in fact, in the boondocks.

Anyway, I thought I would share the recipe a little local delicacy known as the pepperoni roll. Here’s the funny thing- I never realized this was a regional delight because while I was born in West Virginia I grew up in Florida. My mom made pepperoni rolls for our school lunches (lot better than a turkey sandwich, eh?) and so I spent my formative years thinking this was a normal thing and everyone’s mom had made them pepperoni rolls at one point or another. That is until I headed to the Big Apple and got the same looks as a person saying, “please” when I mentioned this tasty treat. Upon further research I found that the rest of the world was not privy to pepperoni rolls and so today I’m going to share a wonderfully simple recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 8 oz. can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
  • Approximately 5 oz. pepperoni sliced
  • 1 cup marinara sauce
  • 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and separate dough into triangles on non-stick cookie sheet.
  2. Drizzle center of triangle with sauce and arrange pepperoni and cheese on top of sauce.
  3. Roll into a crescent.  Repeat for all dough.
  4. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now, I’m aware there are probably some pepperoni roll purists out there shaking their heads and scoffing at my simple recipe– but it’s all I got and it’s pretty damn tasty (in my humble opinion).  So, the next time you’re traveling through the great state of West Virginia (HA!) be sure to stop for a snack and make sure it’s a pepperoni roll.

xx,

WhyDid

WhyDid Wisdom: Own It, Guuuuuuuuurrrrl.

By |December 16th, 2010|WhyDid Wisdom|
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The other day, someone asked me how old Ke$ha is and I didn’t know. So, of course, I had to look it up (I hate not knowing). While I found out that Kesha Rose Sebert is a mere 24 years old, I also learned some other fun facts about her. Kesha was raised by a single mother who was just barely able to get by. Kesha’s upbringing was so meager that the family relied on welfare and foodstamps for a period of time.  As I kept reading Kesha’s Wikipedia entry, I became more and more intrigued by her. I hadn’t really felt one way or the other about her until I realized that Kesha is not only smarter than she lets on, but she owns who she is and where she came from.  She’s strange, vulgar, and a little bit off her rocker, but all of those things make her who she is.

This, of course, got me to thinking.  Not many people are very comfortable with who they are.  It seems now that our culture is obsessed with being “fabulous” and keeping up the “right” appearance.  Our generation has racked up billions in credit card debt trying to “pop bottles” and wear the right shoes, right bags, right jeans. We want to drive the right cares and live in the right zip code. I just have one question: who’s to say what’s “right”?

Thanks to reality shows and people like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian who are rich and famous for no good reason, people everywhere are just chasing the dream.  Heaven forbid you work hard to earn your living.  We are all pretending we’re on an episode of MTV Cribs or something.  Why can’t we just be happy with what we already have rather than maxing out the plastic trying to buy new identities? I have news for you. You aren’t Lauren Conrad and this isn’t The Hills.

When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them Wheeling, West Virginia. Glamorous? No. But I am proud of it and it’s part of who I am. Believe it or not, most people (who realize that West Virginia is actually a state and not just the western part of Virginia- see diagram below) are intrigued and start asking lots of questions.

It took a while for me to learn to accept all of the things that society tells me aren’t ideal about myself.  I’m never going to look like Marisa Miller, I probably will never own my own jet, and not even autotune is going to land me a hit single.  My brother, who is an artist, once told me I had a good face for painting because it is “unique.”  Before I could smack him, he explained that people with perfectly symmetrical faces are less interesting and easily forgettable.  Why do you think the world was so outraged when Jennifer Grey got a nose job? Same thing with Ashley Tisdale. Sometimes, the things that are “wrong” with us are the things that people find most interesting and attractive.  Everyone is trying to so hard to be different, yet trying to fit in one mold.

If everyone was the same- looked the same, liked the same things, dressed the same, had the same beliefs, the world would be an incredibly mundane place. So, instead of trying to change all of your so called flaws, why  not embrace them? Own it, girl.

xx,

WhyDid

Country Roads

By |July 1st, 2010|Uncategorized|
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home sweet home

What does one do after having a mini meltdown? Go home, of course. No one can nurse a wounded heart and tired soul like Mom and a little good ol’ fashion TLC. So, I went ahead and packed my things and headed to where I call home, Wheeling, West Virginia.

I took it as a good sign when my Dictionary Word of the Day app was, “hegira: noun 1. A journey to a more desirable or congenial place.”  I must have been drunk when I booked my flight seeing as how I’d managed to book a flight with a layover. (It should only take an hour to get from NY to Pittsburgh- I stretched it into three). Upon arrival at Pittsburgh International, I rushed to the bathroom with one too many things in my hands and managed to drop my beloved Blackberry into the toilet. Good work, WhyDid.

This wasn’t the first time I had dropped my phone into some type of body of water so I had high hopes that it would dry out and function after a good session under the blowdryer. Unfortunately, there must be something in the water in Pburgh. No such luck. I was later informed that putting your wet phone in a bag of rice is known to soak out the moisture and get it back up and running. Again, no such luck.

After ordering another phone, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was completely disconnected. Not to mention, my mom’s computer is my computer from college (it’s basically a tin can with wires) and she does not have wireless. The only thing my MacBook Air was good for was iTunes dance parties in the kitchen with mom.

As miserable as this sounds, it actually forced me to focus on having a wholesome good time with my mom. I never talk to her as much as I should or talk to her like the friend that she has become. Not having constant access to BBM, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare gave me time to appreciate just being quiet and getting back to the basics like simple conversation and … gasp… being quiet.

While home I realized that there were so many simple pleasures that I had overlooked while living the life in NYC- hula hooping, dance parties, lightning bugs, reading, running, getting to know my mom. I spent a week, which never seems long enough, just being myself. There was no need to put on a show and I felt so incredibly relaxed. I understand that I’m incredibly blessed to have a family like mine and if you have something even remotely close, I suggest you do the same. Sometimes you just need to reconnect with your roots in order to move forward in whatever busy city you are living in.

xx,

WhyDid

Why Did You Wear That: You’ve Said Too Much

By |October 5th, 2009|Why Did You Wear That?|
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I didn’t realize people were still doing the whole slogan t-shirt thing until I was trucking around the other day and noticed several douchey t-shirt sayings on several different individuals.  The first t-shirt I spotted was one that said, “Don’t Think Twice.”  Not only is that incredibly poor advice, but that person probably should have thought twice before sporting that particular t-shirt. After that, I saw a girl in an “I Only Date DJ’s” t.  Um, really? Good luck with that.

I blame the whole slogan t-shirt phenomenon on Abercrombie and Fitch.  Especially since they did this little number:

itsallrelative

Obv, I take personal offense to this. I can’t imagine anyone from West Virginia would actually purchase this shirt.  Anyway, below are a few more loser logos that seem to be pretty popular with the common folk.

bustedtees.2450f690f0ac4efbbf29419dc58ca03d

Kind of awful/kind of amazing. However, I would be careful when wearing this out on a Friday or Saturday night. You may very well get stabbed with a stiletto heel.

ffff

If you were famous, you wouldn’t have to wear this shirt. And quite honestly, no one wants to be a starfucker. That was so 2001.

487cbeb07b9ba_73987n

I bet you do. So if that’s the case, please remove this wretched t-shirt and prove it.

new 345sweatshirtj123

At least you’re being honest.

guidogear_2073_97623705I mean, apparently not. Hence the above t-shirt. All of the “Everybody Loves a…” t’s kill me.  No, everyone does not love a…

So next time you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what to wear, please refrain from stuffing yourself into a slogan t.  Let your mouth do the talking, not your t-shirt.

xx,

WhyDid

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