Like mother, like daughter....

Now, this is not a post about Ole Miss v. State.  I'm not about to go there anymore.  In my opinion, Ole Miss has had a rough few years (mostly self-inflicted) and MSU is having a lot of good things going for it these days.  This is also not a blog post about Ole Miss's recent public relations snafus or MSU's over-reliance and insistence on a whole lot of hashtags.  Its also not a post about the many, many MSU fans that I've had to delete from Twitter and Facebook in the last two years due to obscene comments about my school (again, GTHOM is offensive and GFY, Ole Miss is even worse). 

What this blog post is about is how I've raised my Parker to be, apparently, just like me.  A few weeks ago, FBC, Cleveland, was doing a women's ministry "Festival of Tables" and I, along with my friend Jessica (one of the cooler MSU fans, I do believe), had decided to decorate a table with a "House Divided" theme of Ole Miss/MSU decorations.  Not only did I think it would be super cute, but it would also mean that we could be a part of the evening without having to shoulder the entire table all on our own (which would be heavy, you know, putting a table, with decorations and everything on our shoulders.  Also, uneven.)

Ultimately, our table got scrapped (table scraps!) because there were more than enough tables and decorations and we didn't mind stepping back and letting some of the other, more creative ladies in the church decorate.  But before we decided not to decorate, I went to the Wal-Mart in Clarksdale with a co-worker (also of the cool MSU kind- I'm glad I'm a cool enough Ole Miss fan to attract cool MSU fans in my life!) to get some fabric.  Cleveland Wal-Mart, among its other inefficiences, does not have fabric, thanks to the two, more expensive downtown fabric stores that would be perfect for most people, but don't work at all for an out-of-town working girl like me who can never get to downtown Cleveland during weekdays.

Anyway, I bought some fabric for us to use as a tablecloth/centerpiece runner on our table.  I figured I can always use red/blue fabric during football season and Jessica felt the same way.  Albeit about maroon/gray, not red/blue.  I bought some some fabric, and then, as we were walking away, I found some actual fabric with MSU and Ole Miss decals on it, so I bought that too.

Since we decided not to do our table, that fabric has sat on my chair in my living room, waiting for me to 1. put it where it belongs, 2.  decide where it belongs, and 3.  give the MSU fabric to Jessica, who I've seen several times since that day but keep forgetting to bring it with me.  Yesterday, I came home to this:

  

Parker loves sitting in this chair.  Actually, Parker loves laying on all my chairs.  And the couch.  The floor, the rug, the bed, the guest bed, the rug in the bathroom, the cushions under the window, the floor in the closet, pretty much everywhere. She likes to get into her spot, rub her face and body around, have fights with whatever blanket, shirt, pillow, etc. that might be on that spot.  Then she likes to lay down and relax, tuckered out from her fight.  But this time, she apparently, threw all the MSU fabric onto the ground while leaving the Ole Miss fabric in the chair.  Its kinda, funny, right?!

Even funnier, when I placed this fabric on the chair, I specifically put the Ole Miss fabric ON TOP of the MSU fabric (so I wouldn't have to look at it, natch) and she still managed to only throw off the MSU fabric.  She did this on purpose, I know.  I'm kinda proud. 

Happy Mardi GRAS!

This is my new wreath I made for my front door! I'm loving it even though it's too big to shut the door without pushing the glass door open!

My most favorite vehicle ever...

Is this one...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this is super random, and its not really like me to like an obnoxious blue "Miller Lite" vehicle, but let me explain. 

When I first moved to Cleveland, I saw this vehicle.  A lot.  Its kinda noticeable so every time I saw it, it made an impression on me.  And then I began to see it all over the place.  I saw it going south on 61 towards Cleveland in the mornings.  I saw it parked at Kroger late at night.  I saw it going north towards Clarksdale in the afternoon.  I saw it parked at the house five doors down from mine on a weekend.  I saw it in Indianola.  Leland.  Greenville.  Several times in Clarksdale- driving, parked at businesses, parked at a house.  Once parked on the side of the road.  I saw it at night, in the morning, weekdays, weekends, going this way, that way, every whichway. 

It became my new hobby, a new obsession.  I'd try to determine what kind of person would drive this and where they might be going.  Did they live in Clarksdale and drive to Cleveland to work for the beer distributor?  Did they have a friend who lives several houses down from mine and they'd come over to watch a movie on a weekend?  Did they drive to Clarksdale in the morning?  What about mornings when I'd see them driving towards Cleveland?  Did they visit Leland and Indianola a lot for what purpose?  What does this person do?  When do they work?  Is this their only vehicle?  Their company vehicle?  Who are their friends?  Where do their friends live?  It was fascinating. 

And then, one day, I drive, on my regular route home, past a metal building and there are THREE of these vehicles.  Yeah, it answered a lot of my questions. 

When I snapped this picture, there were only two, and I've since never seen all three vehicles at once, but it makes much more sense to think there are actually three of these!  Its not nearly as much fun when I see these vehicles, but I still get a bit tickled when I think of the many months and the amounts of energy I wasted trying to make sense of this one (err, three) vehicle!!

A cup of tea?

I've joined a book club.  Its totally awesome!  I even made the front page of the newspaper that week, although I've not been able to see the actual picture so its possible its not a good one of me, which means I will totally deny its me. 

I play trivia each week with a big group of local Clevelandites (Clevelandians?  Clevelanders?) and one girl, Katie, and I have bonded over our love of books and specific authors, include Carolyn Haines (check her website out here).  She recently invited me to her book club which meets once a month and reads a large variety of different types of books.  My first time to attend was in January and we read "Game of Thrones" . 

You've possibly heard of this series of books because there is now an HBO television series based on them.  We read the first book for book club and there are five, I believe, books out now, the most recent came out in the last few months.  I really enjoyed this book- its right up my alley-- kinda scifi, a bit weird, lots of strange characters, a fantasy world, made up cultures, etc.  I thought it was great.  Its super long, and there are a LOT of characters to keep straight, but it was good.  I'd love to watch the television show, but I don't get HBO.  Since book club, I've read the first four books, and I'm contemplating getting the fifth.  Honestly, I'm a bit burnt out-- the books follow so many characters and they flip back and forth between them and different plot lines.  At first, it was great, and then, as time has gone by, I've gotten less patient with the entire series.  this last book only followed a few of the original characters and introduced a whole bunch of entirely new ones.  That was basically the last straw for me- I'm invested in the original characters and to ignore some of those original ones for an entire book while introducing new ones was an abuse of my loyalty, I believe.  I'm debating if I want to buy the fifth book or just wait a while.  I found myself skipping entire chapters with the new characters and its entirely possible I will regret that when their stories become more important to the book.  I'm sure I'll get over it though.

But the first book was good and I'm really glad I read them all, to be honest.  I'm glad I read them on my nook because these books are very thick.

My first book club was a hit and I enjoyed getting to know some of my friend better and meeting new people.  Plus we had a fabulous dinner at the Cleveland Country Club (the hostess's husband is the chef so he brought out some yummy appetizers!)  And the best part was the end-- the club had just had a fancy party and the chef had bought some chocolate teacups for the dessert-- and he had just enough leftover to make us a fabulous orange cream dessert and put it in the chocolate teacups!!  It was really, really fun!  I'm not into eating that much chocolate all at once, but it was so much fun to look at!

After I'd eaten some of the saucer.  I took the cup home with me to show my mom!