friday: rad mom interview, katie s.!
when i first met her im pretty sure it was because she was telling me how insanely adorable i looked and how my kid was so fat it was amazing and thats why she loved him and oh my gosh, you are such a fabulous photographer…
this is how she talks and i love it. katie schnack has a brilliant brain that runs 100 miles a second and she never skips a beat. shes a genius in the clothing department and yes, she did work in tv for a time. (famous, yes.). she and her hubby kyle just moved away from lovely west palm beach to be in austin texas, where kyle will be going to grad school for acting….and yes he will be in NYC on Broadway before we realize.
katie schnack is hilarious. such a trip. a person you see and say, “i MUST know her. stat.”
she is an incredible writer. her blog, Tales of a Palm Beach Waitress, will have you rolling on the floor laughing. it is spew-your-dr-pepper-out-your-nose funny. ofcourse, i never knew she wrote until the DAY BEFORE she moved away from me, when i took her and her hubby out for a fun “leaving west palm” photo shoot. when i discovered pbwaitress.wordpress.com….well i found my comic relief for daily life. (cream, sugar, or pee is the best read you’ll come across in a while. fab post)
id love to say that i begged and begged her to be a guest on my blog, and we had emails and texts and phone calls debating whether or not she actually would because she is THAT fabulous and it’d have been cool for there to have been more drama and pulling of teeth….but she said yes right away and i was uber flattered. so without further ado….
introducing, Mrs. Katie Schnack! (GO TO HER BLOG. you’ll become an instant follower)
Rebekah: well hello. Tell us a bit about yourself!
Katie: I am just a confused 23 year old rolling around in the ocean of life’s uncertainties. Wasn’t that dramatic? Just moved to Austin, Texas with my awesome husband, and am waiting patiently on the Lord to tell me what my next move is. And by patiently I mean with a lot of stifled anxiety and stressed out prayers.
Rebekah: tell us about your blog or site. What do you do and why do you do it?
Katie: My blog is called ‘Tales of a Palm Beach Waitress”. I was a waitress as The Breakers in Palm Beach for four years. Working there is a whole different world than the life of a struggling college student. I began being amazed at the things the wealthy would say, do, or how they would act. Some absolutely ridiculous situations would occur, and I thought, these are wayyyy too insane for me to forget about in 5 years, so I began writing them all on the blog. I got a really great response from a lot of people, so I kept up with it, and have since turned it all into a book. Read the stories…they are all based on true events, and the crazier the situation, the more likely that it actually happened. Yes, pee was found in a coffee pot. Also, I just love love love making people laugh.
Rebekah: When you’re not blogging, what takes up most of your time?
Katie: As of now, job hunting! Applying at magazines, newspapers, websites. Thinking really hard about going back to grad school. I got a baby kitten who likes to sit on my shoulder like a parrot, so he is fun. Other than that, exploring my new city of Austin with my hunky husband, eating at delicious restaurants, biking, and trying to make friends. Want to be my friend? Oh, and I make espressos just like they do in Paris. A lot. I am obsessed with them. OBSESSED.
Rebekah: If you could pick one dessert to eat every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Katie: White birthday cake with white frosting. Not just regular cake, but it has to have someone’s birthday attached to it. That just makes the cake SO much better for some reason. Oh, and my dad’s pumpkin pie. He makes it out of our jack-o-lanterns from Halloween, or at least he used to, when we were all home for Halloween and still carved pumpkins. Sad.
Rebekah: Most of us are women, some of us are moms. So spill it, whats the most important lesson you’ve learned as a woman in the last year? Mommy related or not!
Katie: I am not a mom, except to this new little kitten thing I adopted. (I like him even more than I like my espressos.) However, I have been learning way more than I would care to over the past year. When you leave college, a lot of stuff hits you square in the face that is not that exciting. Like health insurance- what is with that crap anyways? And paying your first water bill, and realizing that to keep your house clean, you actually…have to clean it. (Gross.) I am just trying right now to process all of these new found responsibilities without losing the zest of my youth, and remaining inspired. Also, a lesson a lot of my friends learned when we left college is that things just take time. We all expect to graduate college, find the perfect job right away, go to work every day in high heels and cute business suits, and have lots of money. However, the reality is most people don’t even figure out what they actually want to (or what God wants) them to do until they are at least 25. We feel so old at 23, and get all panicky if it isn’t all working out just exactly as we had pictured, when the reality is our adult life is JUST getting started, and there are many great adventures to be had…they just take a while to brew!
Rebekah: Share with us your favorite recipe! (no rules here…)
Katie: I have invented this weird thai chicken recipe that involves the use of peanut butter. I cut up a boneless skinless chicken breast, and brown it. Then I add low sodium soy sauce, sweet thai chili sauce, garlic, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes. Once that cooks for awhile, I add in a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables, mix it all around until it is all cooked. Then, a big spoonful of peanut butter, stir it in and SHA BAM- thai peanut chicken. Delicious. I serve it with rice, or noodles.
Rebekah: I hate to cut things with scissors because of the scratchy feeling, and I cannot look at a car that’s not painted glossy for fear of thoughts of chalkboards and fingernails. Tell us about your weirdness…what are your quirks?
Katie: The sound of pouring water makes me extremely uncomfortable. I can’t watch my sister eat cereal without becoming extremely disturbed. It annoys me when my husband sneezes, so I always feel guilty saying God bless you, when I am so inwardly annoyed. Please note though, that I love my sister and husband very very much, but more so when there is no cereal involved and it is not allergy season. P.S. Rebekah, I just laughed out loud that you can’t look at a glossy car. That really is kinda weird! Bahah.
Rebekah: If you have kiddos & a hubby, or a soulmate/best friend, tell us what it is about them that you love soooo much.
Katie: I don’t even know why I love my husband, I just know that I do and I am supposed to. I loved him right when I first saw him at age 12, but had no idea why I did. But if I had to put this strange and beautiful feeling into words, I would say things I love most about him are the way he makes me laugh, calms me down, believes in me, never gets jealous. He doesn’t care that I am not good at keeping the house clean or folding shirts, slash if you say the word housewife around me I break out in hives. I also love that he is an artist, and we can have these deep discussions about the meaning of a play, or why he hates my paintings, and how he understands my desire to be a writer and to not EVER work an office job. I also love that we both love the outdoors, and have hiked probably 400 miles together, and we both are obsessed with cats. And that he is super hot.
But most of all, I love when he does completely absurd, out of nowhere, make me pee my pants laughing things like break out in a dance in the middle of our living room. He is mentally insane, and I am obsessed.
Rebekah: If your husband/significant other comes inside from working, and is sweaty and smelly and covered in dirt, do you embrace the manliness and give him a big smoocher or send him packing, straight to the shower with a fresh bar of irish spring? Whats the reason behind your choice?
Katie: This is kind of a creepy question, but I will answer it with all honesty. No, I will not send him to the showers because 1. Showers are overrated. 2. I like when he smells a little sweaty, I like when he smells clean, I like what he smells like when it is cold outside. All of these smells remind me of some forgotten memory of growing up together, like Christmas time playing in the snow, or after football practice in high school. He always smells good to me. Well, mostly always.
Rebekah: We obviously all love to blog stalk. Give us some of your favorite blogs that you keep up with.
Katie: I swear I am not sucking up, but this blog is one of the two that I actually follow. The only other one belongs to the beautiful creative blonde bombshell Kristin Bruce. She writes about life, God and mostly the issue of human trafficking. She just got back from a trip to Thailand- check it out! http://parakristin.tumblr.com/
Rebekah: Whats the most important thing you’ve discovered since breaking into the blog world? A good tip, say, for those of us who are new to it!
Katie: Ok, so this is really strange, but I have to admit that one thing that will bring traffic to your blog is writing about poodles. Yes, I am serious. I wrote a couple stories about huge poodles, and how I absolutely detest them. ( I love dogs, but not poodles. They are not dogs. They are hair covered French men with low IQ’s who walk on four legs. Not a dog, and absolutely terrifying. ) Anyways, people kept coming to my blog when they would Google poodles. I am not kidding, I got like 90 hits one day just by people searching for poodles. Hopefully, they liked my blog too! Also, I hear writing every day no matter what is good, however I have failed in that area!
Rebekah: You can only download ONE album from itunes. Whos it gonna be?
Katie: Mumford and Sons. Hands down. My husband and I listen to them every day. Brilliant.
Rebekah: Ive said it before, im not a reader but I wanna be. Give me a book that has inspired you, romanced you, kept you hanging, or one you simply couldn’t put down!
Katie: This year books have actually played a big part into me deciding to leave TV and pursue something that I am more passionate about. My top for this past year:
The Happiness Project- Gretchen Rubin
Making Your Creative Dreams Real- SARK
Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper- SARK
I loved all of those.
Rebekah: We’ve all got them; role models. Give us one or two of yours and tell us why you look up to them!
Katie: My role model is anyone who doesn’t let fear hold them back from living a full, exciting, love and joy filled life and doing exactly what they love to do and doing it successfully, no matter how off the wall and impractical it may seem. If you fit that criteria, I look up to you.
Rebekah: Besides blogging, what is one thing that you do every day without fail? Could be big or small.
Katie: Tell my husband I love him about 100 times, and drink coffee.
Rebekah: Who is your alma mater, and be honest…what was more important to you while in school; football, or studying?
Katie: Palm Beach Atlantic University– Go Sailfish! And since we have no football team- studying I suppose. At PBA it is not hip to display any amount of sailfish pride anyways. Mostly because the mascot…is a sailfish.
Rebekah: Saved the best two for last. One, how has God blessed you this week?
Katie: My baby kitty got super sick and we thought he was going to croak…but he survived! Also, just allowing me to have so much time with my awesome husband.
Rebekah: And two. What makes you rad? (OWN THIS)
Katie: Why do questions like this make people feel uncomfortable? If you instruct me to own this- I guess I will.
I have freckles and imperfect teeth. I see the world in a mass amount of color, and then I paint it how I see it. I have a ring in the shape of a buffalo head that I bought for $1 on top of a mountain in California, and I cherish it like it was made out of gold. I have been a dancer my entire life and own 2 pairs of broken in point shoes. I have climbed a 10,000 ft mountain on 2 hours of sleep with no trail, walking on ridges two feet wide and clinging to unstable rock for dear life. However, I was secretly terrified the entire time and will never climb again. I can furnish and entire home on 75% thrift store furniture, and 25% Ikea furniture. I always know exactly what I want, and refuse to settle for anything less.
I am a Rad Mom. 