An Ode to Nordstrom

My heart is weary. I heard just last month that my beloved Nordstrom in downtown Indy is closing. We have another Nordstrom on the north side of town, but it is much smaller and doesn't compare to the original, in my opinion. The downtown beauty closes on July 31st. In preparation of it's closing, we've been spending a lot of time together.

We have a long history together. I believe it opened in 1996, just in time for me to buy my prom dress to attend my boyfriend's junior prom.

We don't speak, so I felt it would be inappropriate to post his face here. I grabbed the nearest piece of paper off my desk to cover half of the picture. That just happened to be a picture of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I'm a martyr, you see.

That dress was fabulous.

My senior year I bought another dress at that fabulous store. That's my date, Mike. I don't think he would care if he was featured on this highly trafficked blog.

Again, that dress was fabulous.

I would like to point out that I attended prom in 1996 and 1997. Girls were wearing sequined two piece dresses with bare midriffs displaying their belly button rings, halter taffeta or full ball skirts made of tulle.It was not a good time.

That iconic store combined with my keen fashion sense helped me avoid such nonsense.

We also drove straight to Nordstrom to find mother's fabulous St. John knit suits for our weddings. I mean my sister's wedding and mine. I've only had one wedding, geesh.

This might be my all time favorite photo of my mother. This was taken at our dear friend Melissa's wedding in Durham, North Carolina. That was one glamorous event, and Jane looked the part in her gilded frock.

She wore this gorgeous tangerine number for my wedding last summer.

Nordstrom also served as a bit of therapy for me as well. When I would have a particularly bad day at school, I would get one of their lattes and shuffle around the store aimlessly, looking at pretty things. I immediately felt better. I do have friends, I swear.

My bestest just happens to be Nordstrom.

I can always go north, but it won't be the same!

Guess who feels sorry for me and is taking me to the mother ship aka original Nordstrom in Seattle?

Sweet T!!!!

Yippeee!!!!!

Okay, he really has to go to Seattle for work, but we'll pretend this is the reason!

Aunt Shirley

When we visited my family last weekend, we also enjoyed an afternoon with T's Aunt Shirley. We went to the town square and visited the memorial. Shirley had a brick for Trinity's Granddaddy. He served during WWII.

The little square was so beautiful and quaint. Southern finery! Trinity has wonderful memories of sitting out here and selling pecans on Saturday mornings with his Granddaddy.

T and Shirl in deep conversation!

Shirl is the registrar at Bethel College, now Bethel University! Parking spots are a hot commodity. After 40 years of service to the school, she was granted a primo parking spot. The students were told that if anyone parked in Miss Shirley's spot, towing would immediately ensue.

I had to get a picture.

The sign is ginormous!

All three of us were giggling hysterically over this picture.

We are so proud of you, Shirl!

You're famous!

Family Fun

We spent our weekend visiting sister Katie and her family at their Tennessee abode.

Robby bought a Kenny Chesney hat at the local Walmart that was super for blocking out harmful UV rays.

Craig made us Pimm drinks which he claims are like European and super hip or something.

Fancy.

I was unfamiliar with this beverage and he scoffed at me, asking me "don't you read InStyle?"

That's why I love Craig.

Meghan, 1/2 of the infamous Robeghan

Craig, the Pimm Pimp and his son

More Lee

Lee and his sister Callie

This was the scene in the evening.

That is my husband and my brother in law sharing a bed.

Mom and Dad brought Katie a cake to celebrate her status as a newly certified owner/operator of McDonalds.

More value meals, please.

T perfected his front flip, exactly one month before his 35th birthday.

He brought back the flip.

I was proud.

Joey with his son Luke.

Rob, other 1/2 of Robeghan.

The Fonz

I just discovered this old photo on my mother's computer.

2 years ago I traveled to Little Rock for work and met Henry Winkler aka Arthur Fonzerelli when leaving the Indianapolis airport.

Naturally I approached him for a picture and an introduction.

Once again I looked huge.

I'm not. Maybe I am.

He's just really small.

He is also enormously friendly.

Odd Bird

There is not a lot of excitement going on with me these days. I'm reading lots of books, but took a trip to the library after I discovered I had spent $50 on books for my Kindle last month. My dad was like, "That's not bad. You'd spend more buying hardbacks."

Alas he is correct, however I don't ever buy books. Historically I went to the library or borrowed books from my friend Jamie. Now I have $50 worth of digital books that I have read but cannot share with my pal Jamie.

Boo hiss.

Kindle Hiatus is in full effect.

Moving on to a total Betsy story. My favorite bar in town, The Ball and Biscuit, has been open for a year. As part of their celebration, the owner is hiding one $25 gift card around downtown Indy each day for like a week. He is posting clues on FB to find them. I love a good scavenger hunt. My mom did a great one for me on like my 11th birthday to find Samantha, my American Girls Doll. Yes, I was 11. Yes, I was playing with dolls. Shut it.

So Trinity is like, "you're not working, go find one of those gift cards!"

I set off for my 6:30 a.m. yoga class early to hit up the Indiana War Memorial to locate one of them there gift cards.

Picture it....

the sun is rising and an odd girl is running laps up and down the steps and then in circles around the obelisk looking for the card.

I looked like I was getting exercise, running the stairs, but I had my purse all Estelle Getty style.

I didn't find it. I felt defeated. Scavenger/Treasure hunts aren't as fun when you don't find the scavenge or the treasure. I will try again tomorrow. I'm thinking someone already snagged it, rather than that I have poor eyesight. I've had Lasik, so I refuse to accept that.

Moving on to yoga, my pal and instructor Amy pushed me to do a headstand.

I was scared.

She was pushy.

I have shared my donkey kick story from childhood and my reluctance to do anything resembling gymnastics.

She was pushy.

I did it.

She totally held my legs up.

I count it as a small victory.

When I came back down, I considered doing this-

Getty images

but I didn't.

I'm thinking chalk powder all over me might help my form.

Lastly I moved on to the post office.

I hate the Post Office. I recognize that it is a federal office, so I might be put on some sort of watch list for saying that.

They are usually mean to me.

I needed to return something and brought the box in.

The lady asked me if I wanted to ship it PRIORITY MAIL.

I did.

She then handed me this-

clearly she has never seen me gift wrap something.

I hate these things.

There was no one in line at 8 a.m, yet she watched me wrestle with this tape thingy whilst trying to hold my box edges together.

I taped my chest to the box while simultaneously removing the tip of my left pinky finger.

That didn't happen, but it was probably definitely worthy of a youtube video.

Package returned, on to a day of little activity.

Stay tuned for scavenger updates.

I am determined!

Kenny, Weddings and Milkshakes

Last week was incredibly boring. It was the first time I've been bored all summer, so I filled my days with reading, cleaning and spanking my sister in Words with Friends. That silly sibling encouraged me to put that App on my new smartphone, and now her every attempt at victory has been quelled by her sister who has a penchant for words.

See why I'm winning?

Now here are our conversations:

K: You keep winning because you're better at words, but I'm better at tile placement.

B: I think I keep winning because I'm better at words AND at tile placement.

Last night was the best. After a neck and neck game I won. She called me a skank. I replied with

In the words of Rikki from Girls Just Want to Have Fun-

"No Matter how hard you try, you'll never be as good as me."

So my whole Words story has a point, other than just giving Katie some trouble. On Thursday night my phone scrabbling was interrupted by a call from high school BFF Mandy.

You know her.

We became good friends in junior high, but became especially close in high school when we both scored jobs at the Dairy Queen located behind our school. In all fairness, Mandy got the job first and convinced the pervy manager to hire her equally lanky pal. We grew closer as we shared a special affinity for crushed Reese's Cups and also a shared disdain for our subsequent ill-fitting black shorts.

This was prom. Our natural curls looked hot when a few strands were pulled down and curling ironed. In case you're wondering, we doubled as Jackie Kennedy and Miss Indiana 1996.

This final cheesy iPhone photo taken of my high school scrapbook shows us ready for Homecoming. Mandy's sister Angie was on the Homecoming court that time. She was rockin' a tiara on top of that bouffy bob. I was never on the Homecoming Court. Don't get me started. That's a whole different post.

I hope you enjoyed that background. Mandy was calling with an extra ticket to see Kenny Chesney in concert. I'm kind of a closet Kenny fan. I don't think it's generally known that I loved that straw hatted mini man. But I do, so I jumped on the chance to go with Mandy and Angie and some of Ang's friends.

Giddy up! We wore shirts and shoes, because we figured if we didn't we would have problems.

Mandy found a toddler toy in Angie's bad a** mini van. Of course I had to get a picture. I'm not even being snarky about the mini van. I want one. I'm very lethargic and prone to napping. The idea of not even having to shut my own doors sounds awesome.

We met this rowdy man post entry. I am posting this even though I look like Khloe (all gigantic and fat) next to Kortney and Kim. This man was the size and shape of Woody from A Toy Story. His outfit was a hoot.

Angie replaced her tiara with a straw lid. Too cute.

The night was amazing. Mandy talked incessantly, and I laughed at every thing she said. I felt 15 again.

Mandy is a bit of a rebel.

I am a rule follower.

We go together like peas and carrots.

Scenario #1:

There were 600 women in line for the bathroom.

M: We're not waiting in that line.

B: We have to! I have to go!

M: Follow me.

(She walks to the door clearly marked OUT)

B: MANDY, I can't. We'll get in trouble.

M: With who?

(grabs my arm and 30 seconds later I am relieving myself in a stall.)

The euphoria of no longer having to urinate and being a rule breaker was intoxicating. Maybe that was the beer. I don't know.

We marched right out and got lots of death stares but not one comment.

I forgot how generally no one messes with two nearly 6 feet tall women.

Mandy is the female version of Steve McQueen.

Her commentary is also sometimes similar to that of a first grader. I would liken her to a character known as "Mrs. Obvious."

As we were walking behind a fellow she says,

"Look at the cat hair on his shirt. He must have a cat."

I nearly wet myself.

She is truly hilarious and I almost cried with hysterics several times during the evening.

Thanks girlies for an amazing night!

Oh and Kenny was fun.

T and I went to the Shelbi Street Cafe in Fountain Square on Saturday for lunch. I didn't have a shake but thought the shake mixers were worthy of a photo.

We went back to the park where things were in full bloom!

This man was on a unicycle. I can't figure out how he gets on top to start.

I make Trinity take a picture often before I leave the house. I have to make sure that I look the way I think I do. I have confirmed with at least one other friend that she does this too. I'm sure there are more of us out there. The best part of this pic is the pair of cowboy boots from the Kenny concert that I had yet to pick up off the floor.

We went for sushi, or sushis as Trinity calls it. We stopped by Robeghan's for a brief visit.

Mom and Dad had been to a wedding and had to pick up London, who had stayed with Robeghan. Mom has perfected the Betsy lean and leg tuck for photos. Well done, mother!

Prohibition

T, Robeghan and I headed to the Indiana History Center for a fun evening that combined the history of Prohibition with a little drinking.

Oh, the irony-

We enjoyed a Tom Collins cocktail in the Cole Porter room.

T said my outfit was like a zebra who had been saddled.

I can see that.

This seasoned bartender taught us how

to make Tom Collins drinks and sazeracs.

This drink featured a brandied cherry.

I have decided that the only thing I like more than fresh fruit is fresh fruit drenched in alcohol. So nutritious yet so intoxicating.

Miss Indianapolis herself, Miss Molly, was in attendance.

This was an Indy Hub event, so it was totally her territory.

She reigned supreme as Queen Bee of socializing and beverages.