The Tragic Demise of Taco Stand Night

As most of you dear readers know, the better part of my four years at UGA was spent working at The Red & Black. This honorable publication is consistently named one of the top 10 college newspapers in the country. Serving as Editor in Chief my final semester was an absolute dream.

Every term would wrap up with a final edition of the newspaper published on “Reading Day”: a day given to students, free of classes, allowing them to prepare for finals. Most students spent the day nursing hangovers and some would just keep the party going if they weren’t concerned about finals.

The Red & Black staff would always go downtown after putting the final paper of the semester to bed the night before Reading Day. Tradition mandated we always frequent the same place: Taco Stand.

Unfortunately this year the festivities at Taco Stand were cancelled due to fear that someone would be lurking around Taco Stand waiting to bust the underage Red & Black staff members who might partake of an adult beverage.

Personally I don’t agree with the decision to nix the long-standing tradition, but as I’m helpless to aid the situation all I can do is remember the fond memories…or at least look at photos because after several rounds of beers and strawberry margaritas the night tended to get a little fuzzy.

My dear friend, Ed Morales, who serves as The Red & Black Editorial Advisor, penned an exquisite obituary memorializing this long standing tradition.

Here it is for your remembrance:

Taco Stand, a venerable institution which celebrated the end of a semester of work by staff members at The Red & Black, died Tuesday. It succumbed following complications from a crippling injury inside the President's Box at Sanford Stadium on Nov. 27.

The age of Taco Stand was undetermined.

"Are you serious?" said Lauren Patrick (née Morgan) former Editor in Chief at The Red & Black. "That's awful."

"It is the end of an era," said Ed Morales, Red & Black editorial adviser since 2006. "Taco Stand represented a reward of camaraderie for the staffers after several months of hard work. And it died on December 7 as well, an infamous day if there ever was one."

Taking place in a tucked in spot on Broad Street the day before University of Georgia's Reading Day (HA!) each semester, Taco Stand offered up the requisites for any good journalistic party: cheap beer and tacos, a host of tequila shots and an occasional plate of nachos to boot.

Taco Stand also sold pitchers of margaritas which have since become known as "Sottos" named after a former Red & Black Managing Editor who was known for taking on entire pitchers herself.

"I remember Taco Stand fondly," former Editor in Chief Michael Fitzpatrick said. "Well, I remember parts of it fondly."

No one is quite sure when Taco Stand started, though its placement can be attributed to it being a restaurant where beer is served, so underage staffers could enjoy the company of their of-age comrades without so much touching a drop of alcohol.

The event proved to be a boon for the establishment, as R&B staffers would regale in tales of journalistic achievement well into the night while chasing any non-R&B staffer out of the room to find another place to go.

Sometime during the festivities, usually before the strike of midnight, a speech would be offered to the masses. Sometimes heartfelt, sometimes cheerful and sometimes garbled, the speeches would be remembered. Maybe.

Phillip Kisubika, former Managing Editor, was one of these grand orators, dotting his speeches with a thunderous "Hey, listen up, HEY" and expounding on themes of courage and relationships. Or something like that.

Taco Stand is survived by a host of random connections that will never be spoken of again, an empty pitcher of strawberry margaritas, a row of tables slammed together and a roomful of laughter and memories. 

Perhaps one day it will be buried in a pet cemetery and return to its demented ways. One can only hope.

                                                                                                               - By Ed Morales

Mi Amore: Atlanta

Yesterday I watched the wonderful movie “The Last Time I Saw Paris” for the very first time. For those who haven’t seen this fabulous film from 1954 it stars Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson as a young couple, Helen and Charles, who meet in Paris shortly after World War II ends. She’s an heiress and he’s a struggling writer who decide to get married and stay in Paris. The film follows 7 years of their relationship and the way the Parisian lifestyle impacts their relationship.

At one point in the film, Helen says this terrific line that’s stuck with me for the entire day:

I`m sick to death of death. I want to enjoy things, have fun, live every day like it`s the last day. Wouldn`t that be nice, a lifetime full of last days?

To live everyday like it’s the last day is the new attitude I’ve taken to life in Atlanta.

Atlanta and I lead an interesting relationship. When I first moved to Georgia in 1996 as an anguished 11-year old I couldn’t wait to hightail it back to Washington D.C. or North Carolina. Those were the two places in the world that felt like home.

Fourteen years later a lot has changed. I rarely make it back to either D.C. or NC, and if I do it’s usually for a short stint. Atlanta has become my home. It took a few years to really fall in love with this fair city – but now I’m head over heels.

The past month in particular has been the pinnacle of my relationship with Atlanta. A lot of exciting things have happened and they may not have come to fruition if I’d been in any other city in the world.

November and December have been filled with parties, charity events, and fun times with some of the best people in the world. Getting married in October I thought it would be my favorite month of 2010 but November surprised me with all sorts of goodness and December is shaping up well.

Here’s a quick recap of the fabulousness over the past five weeks:

AutoTrader.com STAR Graduation (look for my post later this week on my STAR withdraws)

Volunteered at Project Open Hand, a fantastic organization that provides thousands of meals a day to Atlantans who are unable to feed themselves – check them out at www.projectopenhand.org

First Thanksgiving with my hubby in our new home and we got to tailgate in Athens for UGA vs. Tech. Another reason I love Atlanta: on a good day it’s only an hour’s drive back to my Dream Bubble of Goodness.

Moved into the 10^th floor of AutoTrader.com’s beautiful new building and my commute is still less than 10 minutes. I really love where I work and play in Atlanta.

Celebrated the engagement of a coworker at the swanky new restaurant 3 Sheets, and if you’re looking for a great date night or party spot, check it out at www.threesheetsatlanta.com

Volunteered at the Atlanta Christmas House at the fabulous Mansion on Peachtree’s - this project totally got me in the holiday spirit. If you have a chance definitely visit the amazing penthouses on the 41^st floor which was decked out for Christmas. All proceeds benefit the Alliance Theatre http://www.atlantachristmashouse.com/

Amazing days and nights out on the town with my family and friends: this weekend we checked out a new restaurant called Goin’ Coastal down in the Highlands http://www.goincoastalseafood.com/. It’s the first sustainable seafood restaurant in Atlanta and the people there were so nice.

Saw the Cirque du Soleil production of Ovo http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/default.aspx. This was by far and away the best theatrical production I’ve ever seen.

Volunteered with the Salvation Army by  sponsoring a 5-year old girl (who only asked for underclothes, a school outfit, shoes and a tea set for Christmas!) and then helped AutoTrader.com load bags of toys for needy kids onto freight trucks. I’ll be working on this project again next week down at their warehouse which holds gifts for more than 10,000 children in the Metro Atlanta area. These kids wouldn’t have a Christmas if it wasn’t for the generosity of strangers. If you’d like to help this amazing cause and give a kid in Atlanta a Christmas check out this link: http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_atlanta.nsf/vw-text-dynamic-arrays/3B877148F900331C85257558005DF298?openDocument&charset=utf-8

Back to “The Last Time I Saw Paris” if we live every, single day like it’s the last day we have we could discover something new and exciting. I also really enjoy discovering ways I can help make a better life for other Atlantans. November was a month of a lot of firsts for me and I can’t wait to discover what December holds.

Wherever you are in the world, dear reader, I hope you and your city can have such a loving relationship.

 

My Top 10 Cutest Kids on Facebook

Please, let me preface this post by stating all kids are cute. Any age, gender or race – you are definitely cute. There was a literature professor  I had at UGA who said “if you are under the age of 10 you haven’t fully developed into a human being. Therefore, you are infallible.”

In our crazy world it’s refreshing to know we can take solace in the innocence and adorableness of children. Even their imperfections are still perfect. Maybe it’s the promise of a brighter future? Whatever it is, if you are under the age of 10, everyone has to adore you. It’s what the universe has called us to do.

 Most of my time spent on Facebook is looking at photos and lately it’s “oohs” and “ahs” over my friends’ cute kids. My compilation of the 10 most precious kids is comprised of my favorite munchkins that I love to see new photos of on Facebook. They are my favorites because:

A)     Their mamas are awesome

B)     They came from respectable wombs, they have to be respectable children

C)      Mamas – I know y’all, love y’all, and need to hang more with you and your cute kids

I also have to note that while I adore children and want my own some day we are planning to wait on having our own family. There’s a lot of writing I gotta go before joining the Baby Mama club. On that note, these are my top 10 favorite Facebook munchkins:

1)     Farrah Rae Williams: the first time I heard of Farrah’s existence was in March 2009. Farrah’s mama, the magnificent Heather McCole Williams called me at work. At first our conversation was casual and then Heather dropped a sentence I will never forget:

      “Dude...I’m pregnant.”  

      

      About 9 months later Farrah entered the world. Our planet has been cuter ever since.

2)     Noah Jones: his mama Sarah is not only my Delta Zeta sister but also the sister of one of our best friends Andrew Hagenbush. Meeting Sarah was so cool because we missed each other at UGA and have since been able to reconnect. It’s great to see pictures of this handsome baby on Facebook because he’s definitely going to be a heartbreaker someday.

3)     Wells Amelia Murray: it’s amazing to see photos of this gorgeous baby because her mother is such a wonderfully talented photographer. Her mama, Callie Murray, photographed our wedding and does an equally amazing job taking photos of her beautiful daughter. You can view Callie’s work at www.achorandeden.com.

4)     Landon McLeroy: the wonderful progeny of a girl I grew up next door to, Lauren McLeroy (ne: Ellers) and the first grandbaby of the Ellers family. Lauren and her husband, Mike, make a really handsome couple, and their fantastic little boy Landon is only proof of such attractiveness. My dear friend, Michael, is one heck of an uncle to Landon. Plus, this baby can sleep through anything! I just saw Landon at a party and he was sleeping on a couch while the party raged on around him. Landon is one cool baby.

5)     Sofia Morales: this little girl can grow up to be the next Pulitzer Prize winning author. She’s the daughter of two amazing journalists, loves to go to concerts, parties with the coolest kids in Athens, an looks like a fairy princess. Talk about a winning combination.

6)     Turner and Sydney Elya: technically they should count for two separate entries; however, as they both belong to one amazing mama (the terrific Jill Elya) I had to include both girls. Turner is in preschool and Sydney just entered the world a few months ago, but looking at the photos of Jill’s girls, you know they’ve already established an amazing bond. They’re both just as pretty as their mama too!

7)     Brady Maloney: his mama is the fabulous Angela Bria Maloney and my goodness her little boy got the best of the flawless features both Angela and her hubby have to offer. Brady looks like a cherub. He could be a child model with the most perfect set of blonde curls and sparking blue eyes. Oh, and this kid’s got personality plus sugar-coated sweetness. Everybody loves Brady.

8)     Reilly Clayton: the daughter of two of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Reilly’s mama is Lauren Clayton (ne: Reilly) and I love that she gave her daughter her maiden name. Lauren and I met when we were working for the Peabody Awards at UGA and we both live in ATL now. Unfortunately we don’t see much of each other (that needs to change) but it’s been a blast watching beautiful Reilly grow up on Facebook. Reilly is very pretty and, as the daughter of two UGA grads with multiple degrees, she’s going to be brilliant.

9)     Nolen Gritz: another Delta Zeta baby belonging to the sensational Sierra and her handsome hubby, Nick. Obviously no one doubted that Sierra and Nick would make beautiful kids. Like me and my hubby, Sierra’s a Bulldog and Nick’s a Yellow Jacket. Hopefully being married in a House Divided makes for even more spectacular kids. Noley is going to have a hard time deciding where to go to school now that UGA has an engineering program but he’s smart enough to pick UGA.

10)  Blakeleigh Ewing: the daughter of one of my first friends I made when I moved to Georgia: Tanner Regan Ewing. Tanner and I have lost touch (she’s a marvelous mama and busy with both her kids) but I love seeing photos of Blake on Facebook because she’s absolutely her mother’s daughter. Tanner and Blake are adorable together.

Now that’s my 10 (technically 11) current favorite kids to follow on Facebook. If there’s a munchkin not on the list please feel free to let me know and I’ll start working on Lauren’s Cutest Kids on Facebook version 2.0.

Have a cute weekend.

Flipboard Furthering Traditional Advertising

As a former journalist and publisher-in-training, I read about 5-10 different websites a day giving me information on trends in the media industry. My must reads are:

http://www.gawker.com/

http://www.adage.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.ajc.com/ (for local news, though I think the AJC has a long way to go).

During the week I also check in on the following sites and wheatever else catches my eye.

http://www.salon.com/

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/

http://www.wallstreetjournal.com/ (though I do believe Rupert Murdoch is inherently evil)

http://www.valleywag.com/

http://www.jalopnik.com/

http://www.digg.com/

Moreover, I'm particularly keen on watching trends for how traditional media integrate with new technology to deliver content to their readership and then market that readership to advertisers,

Currently our industry is in a sort of vertigo because newspapers and magazines can't establish a concrete business model to generate revenue from the electronic versions of their products.

Here’s an interesting article today about traditional publishers (Washington Post, Bon Apetit, etc.) buying into a new app for iPad called “Flipboard”.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=147398

It takes links on a publication's web site and turns them into a beautiful ad that displays on the iPad. This article caught my attention today with this key phrase:  

Flipboard Pages advertisers will get data back on who is interacting with the ads and what they do with them. "In traditional media, social behaviors are impossible to track. We will look at the amount of impressions, the interactivity and see how often things are shared."

Wouldn’t it be great if we could give our advertisers the same data? A mobile user could click on a link from our publication and suddenly a beautiful full page ad from one of our advertisers appears on their device. We could then tell our advertisers exactly how many people view their ad and their subsequent activity.

Plus then we can charge advertisers not only for the ad but the data that comes from its placement.

I do believe that print media will continue to survive but in a different form. Electronic mass media is the true way of the future and early innovators (particularly in publishing) will be the strongest longterm players.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the changes in the media industry below or email me at thelaurenpatrick@gmail.com

Giving Thanks Patrick Style

After 25 years this was the first Thanksgiving I’ve spent without my parents.

It was bit different but ultimately I was with my handsome hubby. We both ran out of vacation time due to our excellent honeymoon.

Our Thanksgiving ended up only us for Patrick Thanksgiving 1.0. It was KP, me and the pups in our new home – relaxing, amazing, and super chill for a holiday that usually has us immersed with family and close friends.

In the past my Thanksgiving began with a run to Starbucks to get lattes and Cranberry Bliss bars with my mom and sister. Then we watch the Macy’s Day parade before Mom begins to cook while Mandy and I lay around in front of the TV watching cute puppies on the National Dog Show. Later we would sit down to our Thanksgiving dinner, stuff ourselves, and then laze around our house for the remainder of the day.

This Thanksgiving was pretty much the same. My awesome hubby took me to Starbucks, we then made fun of the parade cheesy-ness, and later both started preparing our Turkey Feast. Between the two of us we could run Julie and Andy Hagenbush’s concept of a year-round Thanksgiving restaurant.

After KP passed out following our Thanksgiving indulgence, I retreated to my office to work on some blog entries for this week. For inspiration I re-read a column I wrote for The Red & Black about the Thanksgiving traditions I valued as a 20-year old. Five years later things have changed a bit.

The highest virtues in my heart are still love, beauty, truth and freedom. After getting married I believe in those values more than anything else in our world.

Honestly, the only thing that has truly changed is my perception on how work impacts life.

In college we were a bit jaded. Professors and advisors who scared us about the realities of the “real” world lead us to believe we had to obtain sustainable, financially advantageous jobs immediately following college. (Sighs) but this is definitely not the case.

I could have taken bolder risks with my journalism career instead of chasing after a job that would give me a comfortable life. I’m thankful for finding a job that offers both self-satisfaction and a decent income. I realize I’m absolutely privileged in today’s society to be in such a position. This post is about Thanksgiving, right?

What’s frustrating is how we were taught as a society to believe happiness in our jobs equates to blissful lives. A job is a job. What we often forget to remember we can make money any which way.

For the remainder of 2010, I’m going to continue to work hard at my job and continue to explore other avenues of “work” that provide me with bliss. This blog is one medium, my novel is another, and there may even be a short story or two along the way. Ultimately I’d love to make a career out of writing, and one that actually can support my family.

For now, I’m incredible thankful for the life we live. Patrick 1.0 Thanksgiving was awesome. I’m so excited to see where we’re at this time next year.

The First Patrick Thanksgiving

Was awesome.

Champion for Kelli's Cause

Granted times are tough in our current economic recovery. We’ve penny-pinched, skipped out on eating at a fancy restaurant, or opted for buying a more practical car.

We all made choices in the interest of protecting our financial well-being.

It’s been a learning experience trying to balance my personal checkbook in order to meet our mortgage, car note, cell phone, grocery, gas and other bills as a 25-year old. I am so incredibly thankful I had parents who not only supported me through college but also taught me how to properly make ends meet (and now an amazing husband to help me learn even more).

There was a particular article that caught my attention today on Gawker.

http://gawker.com/5696300/what-200000-in-student-debt-looks-like

This story is about a fellow 20-something with more than $200,000 in student debt. That’s 200,000 Wendy’s Frostys, thousands of purses, or 10,000 pairs of 7 Jeans in debt! That’s 20,000 martinis, weeks’ worth of eating out, or a full year of residence at the Four Seasons!

It doesn’t take a financial genius to realize $200,000 is a lot of money. Unfortunately this poor girl didn’t realize what her total bill would sum up to when she signed up for her student loans.

Her name is Kelli Space. She’s 23, was the first person from her family to go to college and chose the prestigious Northwestern University. However, now she’s a graphic designer with more than $890 to pay each month towards her debt. Kelli is living at home with her parents because she can’t make ends meet, and in November 2011 her monthly debt payment will almost double to $1,600 a month!

Kelli has started a website in the interest of her own financial well being.

http://twohundredthou.com/about

To date she’s already raised $793 toward paying off her debt. I donated $10 to poor Kelli because if I lived where she did the least I would do is buy the poor girl a drink! Now she can take the $10 to either pay off her debt or buy a welfare martini.

The amount of debt Kelli accrued is unconscionable. No young person in America who chose to get a college degree (albeit from one of America’s top institutions) should be punished for not choosing a career that would make her enough money to get her out of debt. It’s the ridiculous interest that has put her in this unfortunate position.

Kelli chose a profession that would make her happy instead of being miserable in an office for 14-hour days, and now she’s literally paying for it.

If you can spare the cash in these tight times, throw a dollar at Kelli. Help give her the chance to get her young life back.