Live Blogging the Oscars!

Really liked the montage about Best Songs from movies- Beauty and the Beast, Footloose, Titanic, Dirty Dancing- love it! My favorite song would probably be Wizard of Oz- Over the Rainbow! Its a classic choice! What do my avid readers say about this very important issue?
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

Really liked the montage about Best Songs from movies- Beauty and the Beast, Footloose, Titanic, Dirty Dancing- love it! My favorite song would probably be Wizard of Oz- Over the Rainbow! Its a classic choice! What do my avid readers say about this very important issue?
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

Adore Scarlett Johansen's dress- undecided about her hair. Something about her reminds me of Jessica Biel tonight- that's not good. Also? Matthew McCougnahay is annoying to me.
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

Anne's song about Hugh Jackman was hilarious! According to Twitter, lots of people thing Anne and James aren't great and that the Oscars are boring this year, but I'm enjoying them! Also, Helen Mirren is fabulous!
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

Love Amy Adams! Also nice to see Bellatrix LeStrange wearing such pretty clothes!! Glad to see Melissa Leo win for The Fighter even though I haven't seen it. Really like her dress. Very appropriate.
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

The winners speeches are boring! I am also reading Elle Decor magazine while watching- that magazine is full of beautiful objects- the beauty makes me happy! Wish my house looked like that!
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Live Blogging the Oscars!

Love love love Tom Hanks! Thus far, this is longer than I've ever watched the Oscars!

I didn't realize Harry Potter was up for any awards! But Alice deserved this- the sets were beautiful!!
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Live Blogging the Oscars...

As long as I'm watching! Loved the introduction skit and adore Anne's white dress!
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# 56 More FAQs....

I've decided to spread all these questions out for as many blog posts as possible!!

Jessica, what about all your ridiculously many organizations that you are overly involved with? What will you do without them?

I will be leaving everything behind! I'm so super sad about it, but that's life. I will continue to do some things with LJA until I leave (like the Gala this weekend), but I've already given my "notice". Technically, come May, I can "transfer" to the Cleveland Junior Auxiliary, if I want to. I will decide on this later-- its a great way to make friends, and I really do love JA, but I don't want to get myself over-extended and over-involved up there.

Jessica, what are some changes you plan to make in your life as a result of this move?

Well, I'm going to try not to be so hard on myself. While I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, I think I've taken it to a whole new, unhealthy level here recently. I make mistakes and I have serious problems forgiving myself for those mistakes and then that bleeds over into my life-- i.e., I'm so worried about previous mistakes that I'm scared to make new decisions for fear of making more mistakes! Its an ugly cycle.

Jessica, what are you looking forward to the most in your new life?

Not having to compete with Dad for Parker's attention. Just kidding! She loves me best!
Seriously, I am really excited about having a lower-stress job-- one that I can leave behind at 5 p.m. I'm also looking forward to not being so busy-- with JA, the Museum, church, driving back and forth to Newton, work, etc. I'm looking forward to getting home after work, relaxing, cooking dinner, reading and going to bed. Drama and stress-free. Even a bit boring.

Jessica, what will you miss about Laurel?

Waffle House and Arbys. Are you kidding? I'm going to miss everything and everyone in Laurel (well, maybe not everyone. I'm looking at you, P. Chesser). I'm not even going to think about how much I will miss my family and friends-- they've been so good to me, especially here recently. But, there are lots of changes underfoot, especially with my family, so this is as good a time as any to move along. I will miss my GA girls at church-- I love them so much! I will miss JA and the Museum, and I will miss Laurel-- its a beautiful town. However, I want Laurel to be my home-- the place I go to visit my family, to relax, to enjoy myself-- like it used to me. Unfortunately, now, by living here, its become the place filled with my past mistakes and broken relationships, etc. So, I'm looking forward to getting some space between me and Laurel, so that one day it can go back to being a wonderful place that I look forward to seeing.

Jessica, what will you miss most about Newton?

Cooks BBQ and my daddy. Even more so than Laurel, Newton is my home. I'm lucky to be able to call both of those places "Home" and I mean it. I know the roads and the people and the buildings like my heart. I don't have anything to spoil my love of Newton the way I do, right now, for Laurel. Right now, its the most welcoming place in my life-- the people here are wonderful and I will miss them incredibly much. I'm sure I will expound on these two places much more later.

Jessica, what will Parker miss most about Laurel?

Tucker and Bentley. For those of you who don't know, Parker has been involved in sort of a classic "love triangle". On the one hand you have Bentley, the Pomeranian three doors down-- comes from good stock, good family, well-groomed, nice neighborhood. On the other hand is Tucker-- the black dog from next door to Aunt Ju's house. Tucker roams the streets day and night, doesn't have a curfew, gets into trouble and hangs out with a rough group (Al Gore and his brother the beagle). And sweet, pretty, innocent, lovable Parker is in the middle. Parker loves both dogs, for different reasons. Bentley is the more affluent of the two, and for many months has been living at his house "in the country" (no joke!), but there is a connection there and everyday we have to walk down to Bentley's house to see if he's home. Whereas Tucker is more rogue-- when we go visit Aunt Ju, Tucker comes over to play and the two of them have the best time (Tucker and Parker, not Tucker and Aunt Ju). She's really upset about leaving them but I'm not sure she would have ever been able to choose, so I believe God has one perfect little dog up there for her to play with.

Jessica, what will Parker miss most about Newton?

Probably Dad. Or the grass at the church where she likes to play. And poop.

Jessica, can we see more pictures of your house?


This is the view from the front porch. My next door neighbor on the left is the manager of Wal-Mart who is only in town two days a week and the neighbor on the other side is a retired Delta State professor. I cannot wait to meet him.

This is Parker's favorite part-- the backyard! Its got a double fence with plenty of room for the sweetest girl to play!!

Jessica, is there any truth to the rumors that Parker has asked to stay behind in Newton with Dad so she can "finish out the school year"?

That is outrageous-- an absolute rumor spread by my nemesis, Chesser. Don't believe everything you hear.

Jessica, does Evan know?

No. This isn't something I want to talk about right now. Its too hard.

Jessica, will you be having any going-away parties?

Yes. I hope so. Have one and invite me. Also, I will be accepting gifts.

# 55 Home Sweet Home...

So has everyone recovered from yesterday's BIG ANNOUNCEMENT? I do hope so.

I know there are lots of questions in your minds right now, so I will be doing my best to answer them today.

Jessica, when will you be moving?

That's an excellent question. I don't know.

Jessica, can you expand on the previous answer?

Yes. I really don't know. But, I think it will be sometime the second week of March. I've signed a lease beginning March 1, so I can move anytime, but I think somewhere around the 14-18, I will be moving.

Jessica, I love moving. Can I help you move?

Yes, you can. I can use help moving or packing, if you'd prefer less work. I would greatly appreciate it and will show my appreciation by buying you dinner and/or allowing you to "guest blog" on here.

Jessica, you have a LOT of stuff. A LOT. Ridiculous amounts of stuff. Will you be taking it all with you?

No. If you are concerned about helping me move because of the sheer amount of stuff, you need worry no longer. I am having a huge rummage sale March 5, so I will be hopefully selling lots of my stuff and all that is left will be taken immediately to the Salvation Army.

Jessica, where will you be living?

I'm glad you asked. I will be living at 304 Victoria Street in Cleveland, MS. Here is a picture of the house:

Jessica, I've heard that the Delta is kinda awful. Thoughts?

Yes, I've heard this too. I've also heard that lots of people absolutely love it. It seems as though you either LOVE it or you HATE it, and there is no in between (kinda like Lady Gaga). I've decided I'm going to love it.

Jessica, what is the difference between Cleveland and Clarksdale?

About 30 minutes. Also, a whole lot. Cleveland is a super cute town, with fun places to eat, shop, an adorable downtown area, Delta State, a super fun cupcake place, Lenny's Sub Shop, etc. Clarksdale doesn't seem quite so cute. It does, however, have lots of blues-ey stuff, and Madidi and Ground Zero, which are Morgan Freeman's restaurants, but I don't think its really up my alley. Cleveland, on the other hand, is super adorable and I'm going to love it!

Jessica, is it true you once stepped on Morgan Freeman's foot?

Yes.

Jessica, will you have enough closet space for all your clothes?

Probably not. Which is why I'm having a rummage sale. Its a sad thought, but you can't have everything you want.

Jessica, can we see more pictures of the house you will be renting?

Sure:

The kitchen and breakfast nook. This is where I will have all my Williams-Sonoma cookware and gadgets and I will cook a fabulous dinner every night for my guests and myself.... ha ha ha, I cannot even type that sentence without laughing. This is my kitchen. While I will probably have lots of cute accessories to put in the kitchen, I don't expect to be using this kitchen all that much.

Jessica, will you be taking Parker with you?

That is such an extremely dumb question that you should be ashamed of yourself for asking. Yes, I will be taking Parker with me. She is super excited about this new adventure.

Jessica, what will your bedroom look like?

It won't look exactly like this:

But it will be similar, without all the, you know, masculine accessories.

Am I a bad person?

Does it make me a bad person if I just went to the bank and while the nice lady at the drive through was looking up my information and filling out my deposit slip, I realized that the pen I just used to sign my check was really nice. And when she was looking down, I put it in my purse and now I've driven away. Am I terrible? To be fair, it wasn't an expensive pen or anything- it was just a cheap pen with the bank logo on it. But it wrote really well.
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# 54 I think a change... will do me good

Yesterday I explained my obviously lacking skills in counting. And today is blog # 54. 54 is the year my parents were born-- coincidence or conspiracy? Because today is the day of a big announcement. Now, I've learned my lesson about BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS back in the Fall with mine and Katherine's book list. So, I've purposely not really made much reference to this BIG ANNOUNCEMENT in the past couple weeks, though I've been busy preparing for it. I've now officially told everyone that needs to know and am now announcing it on this blog.

Parker and I are moving.

To the Delta.

With a new job.

I'm terrified.

And super excited.


Yeah, this is a big change. And a big announcement (makes up for the book list fiasco, doesn't it, haters?). I don't think its probably a surprise to anyone who knows me well, knows me a little bit, reads my blog, has met me once or even walked past me on a sidewalk that I've not been super happy here recently. That's no shocker. I've been unhappy with this whole law-practice-on-your-own-thing for a while but only in the last couple months have I admitted it out loud. I've also had a lot of other things going on in my life, and frankly, I've been a bit depressed over everything-- its gotten harder and harder to get back up and get myself happy the way I want to be. I've fallen into a rut-- one of those, "its easier to sit here and watch 12 episodes of NCIS and avoid my problems rather than actually going and doing something about my problems". That's not a good way to be happy, you know?!

Luckily for me, I have a super fantastic network of friends and family who are fully supporting this decision. They helped me look for jobs, wrote me letters of recommendation, listened to me whine about my problems, got me kleenex when I was crying, tried really hard to cheer me up, continued to listen to me whine, built my confidence up, fussed at me when I needed it, and tried not to scream as I cried and whined AGAIN over the same problems I found myself in. Most of them are readers of this blog and I don't think I'll ever be able to thank them fully, nor do I think they will ever know how much I needed them at this point in my life. Perhaps someday, when my emotions are not so fresh and raw, I will, for therapeutic (wow, I totally misspelled that word- wasn't even close) reasons, I will expand on some of my more ridiculous issues I've been having lately, but probably not. I've talked myself to death over these issues.

But one conclusion I've come to is that I need a fresh start. I need a change. I'm terrified of change, and as one person recently put it, "change is very hard for me. I resist and resist until when I finally do make a change, its under the worst possible circumstances." This is really me, which may or may not be surprising to you. I sat around and stayed miserable for a long time, and then I finally paused NCIS, got up off the couch and decided to look for jobs. I found one. Its in Clarksdale, MS (Coahoma County). Its with DHS as a child support attorney. Now, I'm pretty much sick of being an attorney and would love nothing more than to find a non-law related job, but this one seems like a good fit and will be a good change for me from this current job, so I think I will give the law a second chance.

I'm actually going to be living in Cleveland, MS, which is about 30 minutes from Clarksdale. Apparently, everyone in the Delta lives in one place and drives to another place to work, so this is nothing unusual. So, that's the big announcement. Are you excited? Are you going to come visit?

# 52 - 53 Quote of the Day (s)...

I just did the math on the day of the year for my title and I've realize there is a problem. Actually, I just looked in my handy little calendar and they have the days of the year on my dayplanner part, so its really just a matter of looking at the calendar. However, today I realized I am WRONG. Today is actually # 53, but I had yesterday as # 51. So, somewhere I've missed a day, and its not important enough for me to even try to go back and see where I messed up. So, I'm starting over and today will take care of both # 52 and # 53 and we will be all back to normal tomorrow.

The last couple weeks I've hung out a lot with my cousin Em-- partly because she's just so fabulous and partly because she hasn't had to go to work since she's getting ready to go back to nursing school. And we have a good time together, and we laugh at a lot of really super random things. For no real reason. We've recently decided its important to write down some of these random stories or quotes so we can continue to laugh at the long afterwards. Last week I bought this cute little book to keep in my purse (like I need anything else in my already overflowing purse) and will start writing down all my quotes so I can revisit them.

There are many, many quotes that I think of and they make me laugh-- sometimes I cannot even really remember the context of those quotes. Here are a few of my favorites (some of these have been taken from my facebook so you might be familiar with them... if you are a stalker):

There are more idiots than non-idiots. Its a problem, really. Dad the Mayor

She hang up. Mom

She seems like a lady who would like other ladies. Nicholas

Jessica, you are not beautiful. Cousin Em

That is not a real friend-- a real friend would laugh at you when your hair looks terrible. Karen O'Donohoe

You just double-skipped back to yourself? What the heck were you thinking? Jeff Gaddy

It was really more romance than vampire. Penny

Can I call you back? Courtney's fixing to eat a cricket. Katherine

I think people who don't agree with me are stupid idiots. Aunt Ju

I'm ill as a hornet. Ju

These quotes make me laugh everytime I think of them and I look forward to having this book filled with random quotes. Makes me happy!!!! Also I plan on writing all sorts of stuff in here- I am doing a Beth Moore Bible study right now and I underline and circle stuff all the time so I've currently been copying those important sentences into my book so I can reread them when I want to!

# 50- 51 Delta ghosts, dog-nappers and murder...

Today I had lunch with my good friend Melinda-- whom I adore. I always have a good time with her-- she's fun and creative and supportive and caring and generous and just an all around great person. She takes super beautiful photos and turns them into cool pieces of art (I WANT one of those calendars, Melinda!). And more importantly, at least for purposes of this post, she has introduced me to my new favorite book series-- written by Carolyn Haines.

These are my new favorite books! Melinda let me borrow them quite a long time ago but the first two books sat unopened for a long time. A week or so ago, I picked them up and was hooked. I've sped through the first two and am now anxiously awaiting the third book. My mom's even started reading them and she's enjoying them as well. I love Sarah Booth-- I want to be just like her, and perhaps, soon, I will be a lot like her.

This is the first one:

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney... an unconventional southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi... if it doesn't make her the deadest.

No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state- or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.

But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself... and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

The second one-- my favorite so far:

The third one that I am excited to read!

I love Sarah Booth-- she's a Delta girl through and through. And she solves the most random mysteries and she's super funny while she does it. Sarah's single and she's kinda choosing between Hamilton, the dark, mysterious guy who is in and out of the story all the time and is kinda shady but irresistible, and Harold, who, despite having a terrible name, is super perfect-- he's smart, reliable, successful and crazy about Sarah. In the second book, she still hasn't chosen Harold and its beginning to stress me out! I think it shows a sign of me maturing that I adore Harold so much. I mean, I'm the girl who always chose Jess over Dean for Rory Gilmore and give me a bad boy and I'll chose him every time (Exhibit A: my life). So I'm happy with my newfound maturity in loving Harold so much even though to some, he might be "boring". I love him. I love Harold. I want Harold to come find me!!

Also, to my negative nelly readers, I must apologize for not always being perfect-- when this year started out, I promised to do my absolute best to post everyday and there have been a few days that I've failed to live up to that promise. I forgive myself, so you should too! Its hard work to maintain a blog. While I am fun, fabulous, smart and interesting ALL the time, its sometimes hard for that to come across on the blog and often I find myself with blogger's block. Or, more likely, the stars don't align-- i.e., I don't have internet access at home, or I want to post a blog with lots of pictures but my camera cord is in my office in Decatur, as it is now. This blog, like me, is a work in progress-- sometimes its interesting and fun and long, and sometimes its interesting and fun and short and sometimes its boring and long or boring and short. I can't please everyone. So, cut me some slack here-- sometimes, especially recently, its been all I could do to post anything at all-- I'm getting better and I hope you will all keep reading!

# 49 Prettiest girls...

Emilee and I at Mallory and Brandon Giovengos wedding reception tonight!
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# 48 Moving on to the other side...

Today has been a super long day and I'm at my cousin Em's house doing my daily blog for you wonderful readers and I'm super tired, having driven about 7 hours today, so I hope you are all feeling super special right now!

Emilee and I had a great day exploring Cleveland (pictures and thoughts and announcements to come!). Em and I have totally bonded these past few months and our trip today was lots of fun. We had entirely stupid conversations about large v. small teepees, and very serious, though provoking conversations about making changes and what type of things motivate us, etc. Emilee has an uncanny ability to know literally every single song that comes on the radio and be able to sing the words as soon as she hears it-- we spent most of the trip with the radio on "scan" and Em never missed a beat singing to whichever song happened to be playing for the 3 or so seconds.

As we came through Jackson on Highway 49, Em looks at me, quite seriously, and says, very quietly, "Jess, when we make it to the other side"... and pauses. I immediately start thinking about what is coming next-- "when we make it to the other side of this life? The other side of our tough times we've had recently? The other side of death? Heaven? Difficult choices?" I'm thinking of all the deep thoughts she might be about to expound on, and perhaps she's going to mention our grandparents, who we've just been talking about, or perhaps she's going to mention how much happier we will be once some of this toxicness out of our lives, or once we learn how to make ourselves happy, or some other Oprah-type self-love.

And then she says ... "of Jackson.... can we go to Krystal?"

Yes Em, when we get to the other side... we will go to Krystal.

BLOGGER'S NOTE: Last week I had a very interesting post about Wonder Woman and possible casting options for a new Wonder Woman. And today, this was announced. Coincidence? Or does David E. Kelly read my blog? I think we all know the truth.

# 47 The healing effects of singing...

Yet another blogging milestone...
I've officially reached more than 3000 all-time views on my blog! Isn't that impressive? For those of you who "forgot" to send gifts and congratulations and cards and money last week when I posted my 100th blog, now is your time to make up for it. 3000 is a BIG number! I'm super proud of it, although, to be fair, I'm not exactly sure how blogger counts page views-- I mean, if I view a page, click over to view a comment and then go back to the blog page, does that count as two? I'm not really sure. Adding to my confusion is that last night, before leaving the office at like 8, I saw that I was still 12 views shy of 3000, but now this morning, I'm at 3013. Perhaps there was a run of views late last night? Or, more likely, Blogger adds each page total at midnight, so in essence, I was probably already over 3000 yesterday. Regardless, I'm sure there is a plaque or something in the mail and flowers will be delivered soon. I'm waiting.

In a effort to celebrate my latest milestone, and in keeping with my more recent "nostalgic" posts, I'm posting one of my favorite pictures of all time. I have lots of great pictures. The picture of an 8 year old Emilee, sitting on her bed in El Dorado with coke bottle-sized glasses holding her teddy bear; the picture of my mom, my Aunt Ju and my Aunt Jane at Easter sometime in the late 80s with blouson dresses and hair that reaches to the heavens; the picture of my dad at my dorm in college wearing a sweater Bill Cosby would envy; the picture of Betsy standing on my parents bed wearing a LHS t-shirt of my dads with one sleeve off the shoulder and bright colored heels singing; the picture of Nicholas, as a small, angelic blond child in my room, surrounded by my high school memorabilia, in an effort to "recreate" my Senior portrait; the picture of my college girls taken at the football game our freshman year (see previous blog); the self-portrait of Katherine and I sitting in Bath, England, with no makeup and uncombed hair looking happier than we've ever been; any picture of Parker, etc. All of these pictures make me happy.

But there is one picture that might be my most favorite picture of all time so I'm posting it here in celebration of my blogging achievement so you can enjoy it as well:

I love it for a lot of reasons. First off, it reminds me of many of the great times I had in law school with my great friends. Most of you know how much I enjoyed law school, but I mostly enjoyed it because I thought I'd hate it-- everyone had warned me how awful it would be, how much I'd hate the other people in my classes, how I'd make no friends, etc. So, it was a refreshing surprise for me to make such great friends and have such great memories since I'd resigned myself to a life of studying and watching Law and Order for 3 years.

I like this picture because you can see my karaoke machine there in the background-- that karaoke machine was the subject of many great times. I love me some karaoke. I've carried that thing around in the back of my trunk for many, many years (though its not sitting in the bottom of my Harry Potter closet), and I've had many a good party with that thing, usually at Katherine's house, but there was one time at our apartment with me, Shannon and Penny just sitting around singing for hours with no microphone needed.

Another good thing about this picture is that you can actually read the words to "Build Me Up, Buttercup" on the screen. I'm not sure how that particular song became my theme song of law school or even why I love it so much, but I do. Its my most favorite song. Its been sung dozens of times in Katherine's living room (both Oxford and Madison), in bars and restaurants across California, Memphis, Arkansas and England, in many different vehicles and, in a very moving rendition, in a large group sing-along at a camphouse on Pickwick Lake.

That song brings back so many memories and, no matter what I'm going through, how bad my day is, if I switch on the radio and hear it, I HAVE to sing at the top of my lungs and I finish the song with a smile. I love it. I'm not sure there will ever be a song that will mean more to me than that one.

Which brings me back to this picture. This is sometime during law school, probably second to third year. And we are singing Build Me Up, Buttercup. There are other pictures from this night but this is my all-time favorite. I love that we are singing our favorite song and that you can obviously see the enjoyment on our faces. Especially Katherine. I personally have no problem singing just about any song, if I know the words or not. I'm not shy and I have a REALLY loud voice. But Katherine is shy and sometimes she wouldn't want to make a fool of herself and sing like an idiot. Shocking. But, always when our song came on, she would join in!

So, in the background you see me and Katherine singing out little hearts out. We are happy, in that moment. I'm also pleased that you can see some of Katherine's house-- many, many memories were made there and many heart-to-heart talks were had on that couch, so its nice to see.

But more important that our singing is what is going on in the foreground. That's my friend Penny and Sherrod. Sherrod's favorite hobby is picking Penny up and moving her around. It really is. He was all the time swinging her around and making her dance with him and all sorts of stuff. So, I love that he has now picked her up OFF THE GROUND, turned her upside down and has a serious devilish grin on his face. And while Penny may look like she's smiling, she was actually shrieking and begging for him to let her down. All less than a foot from me and Katherine. And yet we did NOTHING, not one thing, to help our friend. It makes me happy (and a bit sad) that we were so very much into singing our song that we totally ignored the harassment that took place before us. That's why I love this picture. Penny, I'm sorry that I totally ignored your pain. But, its a really good song.

NOTE: No Penny's were hurt in the making of this picture.

# 46 Rainbows, television and Gargamel...

My discussion (and subsequent blog) with Emilee yesterday regarding Gummi Bears (as one of our favorite cartoons as a child) got me to thinking today about other favorite cartoons. I LOVED watching cartoons as a kid. It was usually very quiet, and I could sneak down to the den (when we lived in Laurel) and watch my shows with little or no interruptions. As I grew older, quiet time in my house was harder to come by, and the result was extended stays in the bathroom with my books (one of the few rooms with locks on the doors!).

As I got older, Saturday mornings had to be shared with Betsy and we watched Saved by the Bell, USA High, Hang Time, etc. I have a theory (its not fleshed out yet so I won't go into details) that the generation behind me grew up watching those more "teenage"-type Saturday morning shows, as opposed to, say, Smurfs, and thus they grew up faster and were more mature and more materialistic. After all, Saved by the Bell made you want to go buy cute clothes so you could look like Kelly, whereas Rainbow Brite just wanted all the creatures in the world to love each other. Differing messages.

Some of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons (many of which I've previously mentioned):

Fraggle Rock-- this might be my most favorite ever-- it teaches you about hard work (the Dozers), friendship, adventure, and turning to more knowledgeable people for advice (the trash heap)-- in my opinion, life can be boiled down to a few good Fraggle Rock episodes

Gummi Bears-- bouncing here and there and everywhere-- love those people. Wish there was a tree roller coaster somewhere I could ride today.

Jem was so cool-- I had her doll and wished I was Jem. I've always wanted cool hair, but I'm stuck with my boring brown hair.

Muppet Babies-- love the Muppets as well, but adored the Muppet Babies! Since most of you still haven't bought me a congratulatory gift for my 100th blog, you can go buy me some green and white stockings. I really want some.

PeeWee Herman-- before he was a creeper, I loved him. I loved his talking chair and his any farm, and his "Word of the Day"! Skype has nothing on his video phone, even now. When I was young, I spent the night away from home a lot. A lot. I had a baby sister and, eventually, a baby brother, and my house wasn't nearly as much fun as those of my friends who had older siblings. One Saturday, I stayed with my friend Melody and we were up early, before her parents, watching PeeWee Herman. It was a really bad storm and the power went off. We were furious-- how DARE a storm come through during PeeWee Herman. This was before DVR and even before most shows did reruns all the time, so we only had one 30 minute time period on Saturday to watch PeeWee's Playhouse. Melody's mom tried to explain the bad weather to us, and suggested we go try to help get the house ready in case the weather came closer to us. We proceeded to take a bunch of Encyclopedia's and put them in her windows-- we had read that would help make sure the glass didn't get blown out. And you know what? The glass didn't get blown out, so I'm confident out actions were helpful.

That was the really bad so-called "Glade" Tornado of 1987-- it destroyed the Glade school (luckily it was a Saturday) and did lots of damage. Since I had no sense of where Melody's house or my house was in relation to Glade, I was a bit scared. Luckily, we had those encyclopedias protecting us.

Punky Brewster was the coolest. Period. No question.

I have always fancied myself a bit like Rainbow Brite-- I love her. I love her blonde braid and her bright colors and all her colored friends. I personally don't have any friends who are say, always wearing blue or green or yellow, but I still love my friends anyway.

Thundercats: Unite.

Now, I've mentioned lots of my favorite cartoons but now I have a more serious inquiry. Does anyone remember Saturday morning cartoons on a "TV Special" where all the cartoons had to join together to solve a mystery or something? Like Punky Brewster might meet up with Rudy Huxtable and they would travel through the Talking Sphinx to save the Smurfs or something? I very clearly remember this happening-- there were at least a couple of these tv specials. And all the characters interacted with each other.

Even though I remember this for sure, I've never found anyone else who remembers it as well. I've even done some internet research trying to find it-- nothing. I'm fairly sure I didn't make this up-- can anyone out there help me????

# 45 Mi Casita, random messaging, blasts from the past, Subway, and losers...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! I hope all my readers have a fabulous Valentine's Day!

Its been sorta a long day for me-- I had my Junior Auxiliary Meeting, which was interesting. More on that another day, perhaps. I'm not ready to share yet.

Emilee and I went to eat lunch at Mi Casita and we wound up sitting there, in the back room of the new Mi Casita, and talking and laughing and being stupid all afternoon long! We had a great time discussing various topics such as Fraggle Rock (still wish I was a dozer), Morgan Freeman (he's not been in a whole lot of movies here recently), Sara Evans (we love her new song), our Mexican waiters, Gummi Bears (the cartoon, not the candy), spilling our drinks (Em spilt hers all over the place!!), favorite movies (You've Got Mail was mine, Em needed more direction and a more narrow genre before she decided), who we'd pick if we were on a desert island (we both agreed that a good boat builder was a good choice), You Tube, old school rap songs, Pro Bowlers in the NFL, and bad choices we've made. It was a super fun day. Tonight we met Aunt Ju and Lori for a Valentine's dinner at Subway-- February is Footlong Subway month-- a footlong for the price of a 6 inch! Can't beat that!

Enough rambling for one night! I'm about to head to Newton to spend the night so I can get up early and do lots of work!!! Happy Valentine's to you all! YOU are my Valentines!!

#s 43 and 44 It's so hard to believe...

Its really hard to believe that its been nearly 5 years since I graduated law school. Its really hard to believe!

For reasons that will be more clear at a later date, I've been quite sentimental today and the last few days. I've just spent about an hour on facebook looking at all my old pictures-- pictures I'd forgotten about. Its also hard to believe that I've been on facebook for more than 5 years! Longer than anyone I know very well, except my friend Penny. She got me on facebook simply to look at a picture of a guy I knew to see if his profile picture was actually him or a joke.

It was fun to relive some of those memories on FB, and I've pulled off some of them and saved them to my computer so that now you can enjoy as well! Some of these are (obviously) older than others, but they are all good, wonderful memories. I've been blessed to have some fantastic friends and family and some fantastic memories with those friends. I'm looking forward to lots of new memories. Perhaps another day, I will get on my old computer and move all those pictures to this computer so I can show you those as well.

As a sidenote, I was highly impressed with how quickly Blogger uploaded these pictures. It usually takes FOREVER which is why I sometimes don't put as many pictures as I'd like to. My internet at home is down and I am so dedicated to my blog that I am actually sitting in my vehicle, in front of my cousin Em's house, stealing her internet. Are you readers happy? You've pressured me into becoming a thief.

In random order, some of my favorite pictures from FB and my thoughts behind them.

Shannon, Shanica and myself, circa 2005-- this picture is one of my favorites, yet its also really tough to see. This was supposed to be our Christmas card that year and we had this picture on our fridge for a long time, but it wasn't long after this picture was taken that poor Shanica passed away. Actually, I'm not really sure when the original Shanica actually died, but presumably, it wasn't long after this picture. In fact, the fish in this bowl might not even be Shanica. The actual details of Shanica's last few days are still a mystery, and perhaps, will be the subject of another blog someday when the wounds aren't so fresh. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't let Shannon's mom take care of my children, if I were you.

This was me, Nick and Betsy, circa 2007. Doesn't seem that long ago, but its true! We were sitting outside at my Aunt Ju's house and we had a great time, playing with the fire, roasting marshmallows and being stupid. My cousin Em and Brandon were there as well. Some of my favorite memories at my Aunt's house are roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, although we've now relocated to the side yard from the back patio. She likes to shake things up sometimes.

Sonji, Becky and I at Sonji's house, not sure when this was taken, but I'm thinking it was at Gatlin's birthday party, so it was sometime in August and Becky was pregnant, so I'm guessing 2009.

Katherine, Shannon and I at the Spread Eagle in Cambridge, England-- summer of 2004 (how long ago!)-- best summer ever. This was a pub right across the street from where we were living that summer and we spent lots of time there. We had a blast!

The entire Ole Miss group at the Spread Eagle-- Summer, 2004. This was the last night in England and we had a big dinner for all professors and students so we were all dressed up. I'm pretty sure this was one of the few times I actually dried and brushed my hair and put makeup on that summer!

Karen and I at BSU-- sometime before 2001-- we were doing the infamous arm robot. She loves it when I do that!!

Katherine and I at my house in law school-- Miss America party-- 2005-- I love wearing lots of makeup and doing my hair all up and wearing fake eyelashes and stuff for parties like this-- in the moment, I think I look fabulous. However, the pictures usually make me look like a drag queen!

Emilee, Courtney and I at Murffs in Oxford after a football game. I believe this was the Ole Miss-Arkansas game in 2007-- there was a big group of us there, and we are attempting to show our "model" poses. It was after this picture was taken that Courtney took control of the camera and tried to take pictures of me being "serious" and she was fussing at me because I kept laughing. Everyone knows how easily I get tickled and she kept fussing at me, which made me laugh even harder.

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Betsy and I at my surprise birthday party in law school-- this was at Tara Thompson (now Gaddy's) house-- it was a great surprise! I was disappointed we weren't going to get to go to Clarksdale to Madidi's (Morgan Freeman's restaurant) for my birthday because it was closed, so we decided to go to Yocona instead. However, my fantastic friends decided to have a surprise party so it was even better!

Brandi, Rebekah, Karen and I at a BSU End of the Year Picnic at Sardis-- freshman year! I love this picture. We look so young, so fresh, so happy. And we were. College was a great time, and I miss it incredibly. There was a professional photographer taking pictures and somewhere there is this picture taken by that professional with the date and all on it. I love these girls-- they were my family during college.

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Taken my sophomore year at an Ole Miss football game-- Me, Karen, Rebekah and Jeannie-- according to Jeannie's FB (who posted this), this is a "recreation" of another picture from a football game our freshman year. She's right. I have that picture in a frame in my office. Well, it was in my office. Now, its in my backseat. I'll put it up somewhere another time. Also, note Karen's scarf-- I loved wearing scarfs like that. I hate it went out of style! I used to have a really pretty redish one I got from the Gap and I felt so cool everytime I wore it.

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This was me, Karen, Jeannie, Rebekah and Amanda at their house-- Karen, Jeannie and Amanda were roomates and had a really cute little house. We had lots of fun times hanging out there!

Emilee, Betsy and I in Eureka Springs when we'd come to visit Emilee. This was a fun weekend and Eureka Springs is a cute little town. I remember wearing my hair down and worrying how it looked. I routinely wear my hair down now, but that is a recent development-- for many, many years, I NEVER wore my hair down, under any circumstances. I thought it looked bad. Perhaps it does, but I no longer care.

# 42 Muppet, Wagtail, Sweetest Girl, Pumpkin, Abominable Snowman, Sugar Blossoms

Lots of readers (ahem Mom and Nick) are semi-critical when I don't post a long blog. But, its hard sometimes to post a really long blog via my blackberry and I've only figured out how to post one picture via email at a time. So you know who NEVER complains about the length of my blog posts? Or the topics? Parker, that's who. She loves me unconditionally! She is the sweetest girl, the funniest girl, the best girl. She's my Valentine! So I'm posting a picture of her for all you readers to see how cute she is. She's super cute, but as I've said before, she's not very photogenic, so this picture is one of the few good ones I have of her. One day I will post all the bad ones she takes! They are hilarious- she's possessed looking.

She's cuddled up right against me right now as I watch My Big Redneck Wedding. I'd like this show a lot more if Tom Arnold didn't pop up and talk. This show reminds me of true, pure love. Just like me and my Parker!!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

# 41 Snowstorms, Allen Taylor, Technical Fouls and Begging my daddy's forgiveness...

Yesterday was one for the history books, folks. In my life, I've traveled to Starkville a number of times-- usually for a basketball or baseball game, but once for a tennis match, and once for a job fair with the Law School. Perhaps some other times, but I've managed to repress those memories. Now, I'm here to say that I personally think Oxford is the best town in Mississippi. I think its a fabulous place, full of charm and personality and old and modern and fun people and great memories. I've got my opinions on other SEC school towns, and up until yesterday, I was never that impressed with Starkville. I'm being honest here, people, don't hate me. I've had some wonderful friends who went to State and have tried over the years to convince me that it was a great town, but I'd only seen bits and pieces of the area and campus. Specifically, I'd eaten a whole heck of a lot at Obys (one of the best things about Starkville, in my opinion, and I'm glad Oxford has one now as well!) and I'd been on campus for sporting events. However, since my taste runs red and blue and not maroon and white, I'd never been that impressed with any of the sporting event locations decorations or anything.

Last night, I traveled with my sweet cousin Emilee to see her Arkansas Razorbacks take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs (I don't bother calling them TSDS or anything stupid like that. Its a waste of my energy. And I will never stoop so low as to say GTHMSU as I believe there really is a hell and its a terrible place and for me to say that about anyone or anything is incredibly offensive and if you say it to me [GTHOM], I do take offense to it. Another topic for another day!)

Anyway, when I left Laurel, I took my sweet Parker outside for a walk and I didn't even bother to put on a jacket- it wasn't that cold, even for me. However, after we left, I realized I'd made a huge mistake. It was getting colder and colder, and my outfit, as cute as it was and my shoes, as super cute as they were, just weren't made for keeping people warm. And as we drove, it got worse. The snow began to come down and it came down hard. We started laughing as we found out that there was major snow in the Golden Triangle Area and that we didn't even need tickets-- because of all the bad weather, they were going to let anyone in free! Luckily, we didn't buy our tickets so we weren't out any money! Our trip took a long time but we finally made it. Unfortunately, Obys closed early because of the weather (presumably) so we just went straight to the game.

We found a fairly decent parking spot, but it was made all the better by our new best friend (NBF) who graciously offered us a ride on his golf cart. Despite the fact that we were standing by a red car with an Ole Miss tag and Ole Miss stickers. What a nice guy!

Now, its time for a confession. It was cold. I was freezing. My tank top and short sleeved sweater underneath my jacket didn't do a thing to keep me warm, and my aforementioned shoes were worthless in the snow and slush. As I dug through things in my backseat that might be of help, I found something (sidenote-- this is why I don't like cleaning out my car-- you never know what you might need, and it always seems like I need something that was in the backseat as soon as I clean out my car). I found... a MSU hat. Its not mine. I don't even wear Ole Miss hats because it makes my ears stick out and accentuates my uneven earlobes. But it was there. I'm not going into details as to why it was there, but its been there a while and it won't be returned to its original owner anytime soon.

It wasn't an easy decision, and to be honest, had I known that mere moments after I walked away from vehicle, my knight in a shining yellow Event vest would drive by and give me a ride, thus negating my need to be extremely warm for the long walk, I might have left it in the vehicle. But, hindsight is 20/20 and I'd read somewhere that 95% of the heat in your body escapes through your head. So on my head went the dirty baseball hat.

Which turned out to be a fantastic memory from the night-- I was wearing a stupid looking hat, and it looked stupid on me and I didn't care at all. It was a really fun night-- I didn't care who won the game, I didn't worry about seeing anyone I knew or cared about, I didn't care about anything but having a good time! I laughed over wearing that hat and I didn't even take it off for most of the game! I cheered for whatever happened to be going on, I laughed at whichever player did something stupid, I prayed for Reynaldo Sidney to get into a fight, I screamed happily when he got a technical even though it was a pretty boring one, I ate two hot dogs, I ignored the looks from people who thought I was crazy, I screamed for the Razorbacks while wearing a MSU hat, I laughed and danced and had a blast. Em and I had the best time!!

After the game was over, we walked back to our car (no golf cart for us!) It was at this point, I was glad to have the hat-- it seemed a lot longer of a walk back to the car than the drive from the car. Plus, it was snowing harder and the snow was past my bare ankles. We even got to see our favorite event volunteer, who remembered us and was kind enough to point us in the direction of our vehicle when we'd almost given up hope of finding it and were nearly to the point of laying in the snow, waiting for sleep to come.

We then drove around Starkville and got to see some really rather pretty areas! We saw downtown, we saw a TON of white houses-- seriously, is there some kind of code or something on the color of paint in the historical districts? We saw Abners, Ooh La La, and Old Venice (all of which reminded me of Oxford!), we saw idiots sledding down hills into the middle of the street, and we saw people having snowball fights from across the street, we found tons of bars but no food places, and we toured campus several times (campus is really pretty-- I'll go to my grave believing that Ole Miss's brick buildings are the most beautiful things ever, but MSU campus was super nice and looked really pretty with all the fresh snow everywhere. It was also refreshing to see a spread-out campus-- I mean, Ole Miss puts up a building anywhere there is more than 4 feet of space, but MSU was sprawling and beautiful. I'm sure the students wish it wasn't quite so big when they are walking to class, but it was so pretty last night. Makes me wish Ole Miss had more space.)

We finally made it home, super, super late, but we had a great, great time and made some really good memories.

At the game:

When we walked in the door, the first thing that happened was we were given this cup with a hand sanitizer and TWO chapsticks in it! Perhaps I was wrong about MSU all this time...

Proof that we were where we said we were:

Em better back up off my hat:

Our favorite Starkville resident-- sorry I didn't get a picture of his face-- he was quite cute. When we saw him after the game, we were literally too cold to take anymore pictures. My fingers were numb!

Riding on our cowbell chariot to the game!

Baseball field in the snow-- our event volunteer slowed down so I could take this picture!

Em is a proud Razorback fan!

Em and I in front of baseball stadium after the game:

Em's a silly girl:

My snow-covered vehicle:

Em is still a proud Razorback fan!

BLOGGER's NOTE: This is my 100th Blog! Woohoo! Its the big 1-0-0! How exciting! Where are my gifts? Where are my flowers? Or Congratulation cards? No, seriously? Where are they? Doesn't anyone care?