decatur county - world's largest coon hunt

that was the bumper sticker i saw this morning at 7:07 a.m.

yes, it was early. do you want to know why i was on the road that early?

here's the story of how i actually got to work on time for the first time this summer.

i went running yesterday afternoon, and decided to get in a run this thursday morning to compensate for not doing anything all week and going out of town tomorrow for the weekend. so i set my alarm for 5 a.m. now, for those of you who know me well (or even just know me a little bit), you know i do not do mornings. so this 5 a.m. run thing was pure paving-the-way-to-hell good intention. anyhoo, i did not get an uninterrupted night of sleep due to a unsleepy husband who does not like the air conditioning as much as i do. so i naturally turned off my alarm at 5 and reset it for 6 a.m. like a good employee.

woke up from a crazy heat-induced dream at 7:21 a.m. panic ensues. my teeth are probably not as clean as they should be, and definitely are not flossed. coffee the law student was supposed to make is not made. makeup is not on. oh well, i'm more late than usual, so i forego the coffee and makeup. as i dash to the car, i look at my phone to calculate my ETA. it says 6:53 a.m. i do a double take, walk in the door to check the dvr clock, and realize it is not a dream. i am on time.

when i reset my alarm, i inadvertently set my clock forward an hour. so i put on makeup, make the coffee, water the plants, potty the dog and put her in bed with the law student and wake him up to tell him the story. i arrived at work at 7:10 a.m. this morning. model employee.

told you i was incident-prone.

giveaway

i totally did it.

i totally signed up for a blog giveaway. and signed up a lot. like, did all the little extra stuff to get extra entries. i'm not really sure why, as i'm not that big on intials, and i hope to god they are not pink. but hey, who doesn't need a new pair of free shoes?

i've never won a contest in my life. well, that may not be true. at least the contests like the radio/tv/website entry stuff where you have to call or send something in. so, this is my little experiment. i'll let you know if i win these from her.


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just in case you forgot, wednesdays are for wussies. everyone acts like wednesday is the big weekly benchmark, but this is simply not true.

this is me being a wednesday wussy: it's rainy here, and i don't want to work. at all. i'm ready to be at home with the law student (and his new haircut). it's cold in our office and i had to steal a co-worker's fleece (yes, fleece in mississippi in july) to ward off the artic blasts from the ceiling vents. i have several art projects i need to finish, and now i'm afraid one may not work like i want it to. not good. and i had to totally abandon one last poor glass of pinot noir last night because it was too late, and i can't chug wine. wine waster wednesday wussy. that's me.

best sunday ever

did that post title make anyone think of jessica simpson and her terrible song "you're my sunday?" just me? ok then. moving on.


today is a fantastic sunday, for a few reasons.

1. um, hdnet concert sundays are awesome. ben folds with guster was concert numero uno, and i'm currently rocking out to o.a.r. with a paintbrush in hand. 'cause that's how i roll. not really--i just like painting to music. more on this. (i fear, dear readers, this will be a lengthy post, as it's been unattended for too long)

2. breakfast at bbb's (big bad breakfast--overpriced and crowded, but so worth it) with the law student after a wonderful lounge-y morning in bed, of which there have been too few. my personal favorites: the with signs following, which i enjoyed today, and the dear american airlines, which features all your breakfast stars--eggs, ham, cheese and bread--cooked together, eaten with a spoon out of a little tin cup. and the fresh-squeezed o.j. is a must.

3. i'm still in my pajama pants.

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just want to share a few thoughts and goings-on with you on this lovely, 75-degree-july-in-mississippi-what? day. heck, it's been like this all weekend. first we get an actual spring, and now breezes in july. i must bring this up with those in charge of such things.

-there is no decent place in this forsaken little college town to get a decent hair cut, which, with all its vanity plate citizens and undergrads, annoys and confuses me. so i have to drive all the way home just for a wash and a trim. vegas, possum town, or bust. it's true. i'm so tired of hairstylists here who are able to mess up a hairstyle that consists of long layers and bangs that hit my cheekbone at an angle, and a husband who ends up looking like lloyd from dumb and dumber. seriously. the law student deserves better, don't you think?



(aaaand there's my attempt at uploading a photo into blogger. thanks for all your kind praise.)

-so, on my way home from possum town last night for above-mentioned ear-lowering, i pass the golden triangle's little gem and favorite strip bar, the pink pony. and i noticed there were a lot of minivans in the parking lot. we all know who drives those. gag me with a spoon.

-ever wonder what it is about the united states post office that drives all those female workers to get the mullet haircut? is this in their manual? take a look around next time you wander into that time trap.

-the song "whip it" is now playing on hdnet. whip it good! (ha, now it's in your head too.)

-the law student had a birthday! he's 29. i'm still 23, with a few years of experience. neither of us look even 25. so on his birthday, i promised to paint him a few canvases of his favorite sports teams and gave him a card (it was really a sweet card). on this card i write a few things, one of them being, "enjoy your last birthday in your twenties!" poor thing. he's handling it well though. i tell you that to tell you this: my mom wrote him the same thing. it's true--i am becoming my mother, and at a young age too. this is not the first occurance. once last winter, i tucked my camisole into my pantyhose (man, i hate those things. a man must have invented them). two thoughts went through my head: now, that looks better, nice and smooth, followed immediately by oh my GOD my mother does that! i also now listen to NPR programming and enjoy it, and a little AFR (american family radio) just to agitate me.

speaking of...on AFR last night on my way home, stephen baldwin and some other dude (ken mccullough or something) were duking it out over the religious conflicts of harry potter. really? harry potter? please. it's children's literature, not the paperback handbook of satan. ken doll took his wife to see it, posted it on facebook, and received assaults and judgements over his faith. and everytime a caller called in with a comment, mr. not-alec-but-stephen baldwin put words in his mouth and took it five steps to the right. no, stephen, that guy did NOT say parents could use harry potter books as a substitute for the Bible. he just simply said parents can use this, as they can use other situations with their kids, to teach them about God and what is real versus what is not. this debate issue was preceded by the topic of racism. racism and harry potter in the same conversation. which is more important? the more you fear something, the more power it has, and as christians, we do not have a spirit of fear. Christ has defeated all.

*disclaimer: i have not read the books (simply because i did not want to give in to trends or sensationalism--same goes with that whole twilight series, which seems far more sinister for a few different reasons) but have seen the movies and talked with others who have read the books, and seriously doubt these stories are evil/the gateway to the occult. i also do not have problem with parents being careful of what their children see/read.

(ahem...stepping down from soapbox now)

-it's 4:37 p.m. and i am still in pajamas. aaaaaahh.....

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hobbies

two current hobbies are pilates and the mid-town farmer's market on wednesdays and saturdays.

pilates is my new exercise of choice. it's fantastic for toning. you should see my arms, and i have abs again. my sisters are jealous. and i'm totally into it and would love to get certified. i'm teaching a class this summer, along with a dance class, so i always have to give the disclaimer and ask the class to please not hurt themselves. i hurt myself. i have a jammed sacral-iliac joint on my left side, which will now involve a few weeks of hydroelectric therapy (feels awesome) and some stretching to get me back on track, literally. dad (steve, the life professional) took me to his "bare-bones" chiropractic (fitting description) after my hair cut for a second opinion. i got adjusted all over the place--my back, my sides, and worst of all my neck-i'm always afraid of getting paralyzed. cowboy chiropractor literally had his knee on top of mine and jerking me back and forth. and then i got buffed. he had this large hand-held vibrating massager that he rubbed all the way up my back to my head. it all felt nice, and that little spot doesn't hurt when i bend over anymore, but i'll take that heated massaging water bed any day, thanks.

i try to go to the farmer's market every week. i'm really into eating locally grown food and eating healthy, non-hormoned, non-pesticided, non-processed foods, after reading animal vegetable miracle (see post here). at the market there is a large selection of fresh vegetables (way fresher than anything you'll find at the grocery store), pasture-fed beef, pork and poultry, free-range eggs (free-range as in chickens running around the yard, not free-range the legal definition which only allows for a door to the outside), herbs and now straight-from-the-cow, home-pastuerized sweet jersey cow milk. whole milk, with cream on top. it's like drinking a milkshake. it is sooooooooo good. a bit expensive ($5 for a half-gallon) but very comparable to organic milk* at the grocery store.

*which, by the way, is only called organic because they feed the cows organic feed, not because they let those cows roam around and eat grass like they are supposed to.

well, it's 5 o'clock here, which means i need to get on with a few things: canvases, cleaning up a bit after the law student and myself, and maybe dinner. dad always sends me home with meat and yesterday it was steaks and jumbo shrimp. i'll try to eat us out of house and home until friday, when we head to chicago with dad to see wrigley field. maybe i'll finally give him his father's day present.


hope you enjoyed catching up! now you can go rest your eyes.

wednesdays are for wussies

wednesdays are tough. i'm sure you've heard the term "hump day" (and if you haven't until now, it is not a reference to routine weekday sexual activities), and everyone seems to think this makes wednesdays not only tolerable but enjoyable. but man, sometimes, i just have to draaaaag myself through a wednesday, and fridays are still 2 days away. all wednesday long. so i have dubbed myself a wednesday wussy. you can be one too!

a few thoughts for all you wednesday wussies out there:

i vacuumed up a spider yesterday while i was cleaning, and didn't scream at all, although i was marginally afraid the vacuum would shoot it back out at me, which would have elicited a large scream and quite possibly a conniption fit.

my right index toe (pointer toe, if you will) is numb on the tip, left side bottom. curious. and curiously annoying. it started last night around 7, and is still occuring, and i have no idea why. maybe it's narc-toe-lepsy.

woke up this morning around 5 am to an empty bed, which is weird because the law student was there when i went to sleep. found him underneath a sleeping bag on the couch with the roxy. his explanation: "i couldn't sleep, so i came out here and got on the couch and fell asleep." in his regular shorts. unzipped. so he got up in the dark, felt the need to dress, but not entirely. whatever. who am i to judge someone's sleeping neuroses?

i am currently a fan of greek yogurt, particularly with honey, blueberries or strawberry preserves. it was super tangy at first, but now i am hooked on it. but i would feel much better if it didn't have 12 grams of fat. kind of shooting myself in the foot here.

my dog ate a roach last night. i encouraged her to do so.

is it only 10:30 am?????? curse you, wednesday.

i'm waiting for lunch with the law student, then a visit to the local farmer's market. what's getting you through the day?

not me

today is not me monday, if you read mckmama's blog. i cannot figure out how to play by the rules, so unless someone wants to link me, then consider me a blog offender. mckmama, my apologies. now, on with it...


i most definitely did not purposefully try to be loud this morning while ben was still sleeping because i was still mad at him for waking me up at dark-thirty this morning when he came to bed, instead of coming to bed at a decent hour like i demanded asked *.

*thank you ber.

i did not spend sunday morning sporting hair and makeup from friday night and still not shower until 4 pm that afternoon. not me!

i most certainly did not lie to someone in authority today to get out of doing something i should have done. and i am not being purposefully vague because i fear they may stumble upon me in blogland, even though the chances are slim to none, and it was a small offense, but lazy none the less*. me, lazy, paranoid? not me! not ever!

*email me, and i might tell you the story, or i might not. it's way less interesting than you think.

and there you have it. like i said, not me.

much ado about nothing

this post really has nothing to do with anything, other than posting for the sake of posting. i am watching the golden girls (season 4, disc 3), in a t-shirt and friday's hair and makeup (really), and in the middle of lists: a grocery list, a menu list, to-do list, and wedding photo list. that's right: married 2+ years and i haven't ordered any wedding pictures. heck, i even have empty picture frames up in the house. this weekend i noticed my mom does too, so it must be genetic, not lazy. i like to think it's a reminder, a "to-do" of sorts, to get current photos up. i must rethink this strategy.

i've also GOT to stop going home all the time. every time we go to visit, we always end up bringing back more than we took down there. this past weekend, we took peaches and gave most of them away. in return, we brought back books, some gorgeous sapphire earrings of grammi's (a christmas present from the law student), my college diploma, delta gamma paddle, and a huge box of old penpal letters and some sweet adolescent pictures of yours truly. i really had no style. no wonder no one wanted to be my friend.

i am floating around some ideas for future posts--one outlining bathroom etiquette and a few horror stories, a book review (just finished salinger's franny and zooey, and it's hilarious), and a post about the law student's sweet grammi. she passed away about a month ago at 98 and a half. she was such a special person.

it's a quarter to 2, roxy is laying to my right snoring, and i have a long list--cleaning, bathing, shopping, training, exercising. happy sunday, folks.

p.s. we will have a NIECE by halloween 2009!

someone's got a case of the mornings

1. i finally watched office space for the first time, all the way through, the other night. love it. especially all the gangster music. now i can understand better when people make jokes about work that involve office space quotes.

2. i am not good at mornings (much less mondays), and it turns out they're not so fond of me either.

morning #1: technically 12:00 a.m, friday may 1.
-law student (with limited brain capacity due to exam week at this point) loses my memphis in may tickets for my friend and i. he's tearing through the house trying to find them, and i'm too tired to care.
-i open up the fridge to get creamer for my coffee (makes me think of carly simon. moving on...) and see the brand new entire half-gallon of ice cream sitting in the back of the fridge.
-try to call friends regarding memphis in may tickets, only to be directly routed to at&t's collections service (that limited brain capacity again...). i hate it when that happens. i hate at&t in general, but that's another story. comment if you want a post on THAT.

morning #2: tuesday, may 5 (cinco de mayo AND grandma's birthday)
-woke up with the dog pushing me off the bed because my husband is gone, i broke the alarm by setting off the smoke detector sunday night (yes, details below), and thought the rox would protect me.
-spent 20 minutes looking for the birth control pill pack that i was 2 days late starting anyway. i found it underneath 2 magazines on the floor in our office. you know, right where i left it.
-managed to almost be involved in 2 of 3 almost-wrecks i saw this morning on my way to work, within 1 mile of my house. they were not my fault, as one person was driving backwards while closing their eyes (i assume they were catching some last-minute zzzzzzs...) and the other was momentarily playing chicken/posing (unconvincingly) as a traffic cone in the middle of the road before jetting out in front of me and another oncoming truck.
-talked to the law student, who had already managed to get himself kicked off of the courthouse property at 7:30 a.m. while campaigning on election day. i was so proud.
-did i mention the law student took the only tube of toothpaste with him yesterday? awesome.

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supporting post: smoke alarm fiasco

sunday night, i am home alone. 9:30. ben's studying for his LAST exam. i start making myself a sandwich (or sammich, if you prefer)--heat up the grill pan, get out the ingredients. our security alarm sounds and i about fall down. i, fearing we have be infiltrated again, grab the dog, my phone and keys, turn off the alarm and stove eyes, get in my car and leave. in boxer shorts, flops and a t-shirt with no supporting undergarment. by the time i call the manager and my husband, they deduce (with no large amount of luck) that i set off the smoke alarm. jeff tries to reset it while in his pajamas as well, with no luck. so the next day my husband leaves to go work on a campaign in vegas, leaving me with a useless alarm system.