# 11 Oh, so they have the internet on computers now?

I work super hard. Ha ha ha, I cannot really type that entire sentence without laughing. I do sometimes work really hard. But other times, like now, I use my time at work to peruse the internet. I find that working hard for a while usually necessitates a break and then I can sit in front of the computer and check out some of my favorite websites. When I used to work for Judge Gordon, right after law school, I had a lot of time on my hands. A lot. Literally, there were hours most days where I had nothing to do. So, I got into the habit of checking out different websites, usually celebrity gossip websites, and then I'd see another interesting article and and follow it to another website and so on and so on. I amassed quite a large number of websites that I read faithfully and, as a result, I was up to date on a whole lot of useless knowledge, mostly celebrity related. Unfortunately, and perhaps, to some of you, unbelievably, I don't check out many of those sites anymore or as often. But there are a few websites to which I'm pretty loyal and read daily. Here are a few of my favorite websites and why:

Laineygossip

This is my alltime favorite website and if I could only ever check out one website again for the rest of my life, this would be it. Lainey (Elaine Lu) is a tv journalist in Vancouver, Canada, and this website started out as a weekly email newsletter about her stories of interviewing celebs and her take on the actual gossip of Hollywood. I love it. I love her. This website is now a massive celebrity gossip site and Lainey does an internet celebrity gossip talk show as well as a lot of television celebrity news-- she goes to all the major awards shows and press junket stuff and always gives a lot of interesting behind the scenes-type gossip-- who's nice, who's not, who's got issues, etc. I find myself agreeing with a lot of what she says-- she's very knowledgeable and very honest. She's also really good at giving "behind the scenes" gossip-- like how celebs treat journalists and other crew members, how celebs manipulate the media and publicity, how celebs have patterns of behavior, etc. Its an interesting world. For example, yesterday, she just had an article, written by her friend Sarah (Lainey does most of the writing, but has a couple friends pop in every so often with different areas of expertise-- Sarah's is movies-- she has her own blog, CineSnark) about how movie companies, directors, actors and show business types "campaign" for the Oscars even though the Oscars as supposed to be for the "best movies", but for who campaigned the hardest or spent the most money. Its going to be a week-long series and its so interesting. Lainey deserves a whole blog devoted to her, so I will stop gushing now.

Tvtattle

This website is a roundup of all television-related news (hence the rather obvious name!). It links to other websites and I love it because it always has a ton of stuff and its updated all the time. I love my television shows! It also is really good about posting articles about old television shows or actors and what they are up to now, so that's fun.

Gawker

I love gawker. Its hilarious. Its a similar, news round-up type website, but its really funny and it has hysterical recaps of lots of shows. Shows I love (like Top Chef) or rarely watch (like Real Housewives) are even funnier when you read the recap.

Designspongeonline

This is a super cool design website-- its full of really beautiful design inspiration. The writers showcase fabulous homes, gardens, parties, and cool things to buy. They have a really cool column called "Living In..." where they pick something, usually a movie, and gather all types of clothes, jewelry, furniture, household accessories, etc., to match the "theme". For example, a recent one was "Living in Marie Antoinette" with a beautiful white chaise lounge, black bow flats, pink macrons, vintage playing cards, a white marble bust, cashmere knee socks, and many beautiful stills of the movie. Its very inspiring and they've done the movies Big, Pretty in Pink, Last of the Mohicans, Charlie Brown Christmas, and all sorts of other stuff. They also have super cool City Guides with lots of cool places to check out-- shop, eat, see, stay. Everytime I plan on visiting a new city, I always check out the City Guides, just in case. Unfortunately, they haven't added Bay Springs, Rolling Fork, Wiggins, Pelahatchie or Petal yet. I'm sure they will get around to it soon though.


Some other pretty design blogs I like to check out:

The Inspired Room

La Dolce Vita

I also love Televisionwithoutpity--
I've previously discussed my fondness for watching random television shows over and over-- its relaxing-- I put them on and since I've seen them a million times, I can just have the noise in the background and its comforting. I also like to make sure I've watched all the shows in a series and, if I really like the show, I like to read recaps, particularly funny ones. I love this website-- they make fun of every single show you can imagine and lots of shows no longer on tv. Their recaps of Angel are particularly hysterical.

And finally, I love reading my friends blogs but most people I know don't update often enough for me (that's a pointed remark to some of you). So, start a blog and then update a lot and I'll read it! Now, get back to work and quit reading my blog.

This is a test...

to see if I can update my blog via email. If it is successful, this will rank at the near top of my "proudest technology moments" right up there with the time I rewired a lamp for my sister and the time I installed Sirius radio in my car. By myself.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

# 10 Isn't she lovely?

My cousin Emilee is a fabulous girl. She's tall (that matters to short people like me), she's got a super cute house, a fabulous cousin (me!), patience to spare, understanding and kindness to boot. She's always been known as the "nicest" one in the family, which, to be fair, isn't that much of an honor since some people (ahem, Ju) in our family aren't very nice at all. Em's a great listener and she's never judgmental-- even when she totally disapproves of what you are doing, she will get her point across without being ugly about it! She's also proven here recently that she's stronger than anyone ever knew, she's more confident than ever before, and she's wiser than most people give her credit for. In short, she's fabulous.

Yesterday, Emilee earned a couple more jewels in her crown when she accompanied me, on a Sunday afternoon, to the Urgent Care Clinic. Its about as fun as you can imagine but we had a pretty great time just catching up on things and laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Em's headed to nursing school at William Carey in a few short weeks, so she's all about medical stuff. (She's also super into creepy, gory true life murder books and tv shows, but we cannot all be perfect.) Luckily for Em, one of my ailments yesterday was a pretty stopped up ear canal, and the remedy was a good, old fashioned ear cleaning. The nice nurse let Em check out the before and after of my ear canals (YUCK!) and Em was overly excited for such a gross reason, but it made her happy, so I was glad I could provide some form of entertainment, as humiliating, and, rather painful, as it may have been for me personally.

I'm super lucky to have Em in my life, and these past few months, we've grown even closer for a variety of reasons (most not so good), but I think God knew what He was doing to throw us both into these circumstances-- where we could lean on each other and grow much closer!

I'm blessed to have a family that I'm very close with (as my friend Courtney says, its cute how I actually LIKE being with my family) and some of the best times in my life have been sitting around my house or Em's house or Ju's house or Waffle House (see previous post) and laughing till my stomach hurt about nothing at all. We just all get each other and there is nothing I like more than to see something funny or hear something funny and look at my brother or sister or Em or whoever in my family and just KNOW that they saw the exact same thing and they are thinking the same thing as me, without saying a word. It makes me feel close to them even when they aren't near.

Emilee and I totally get each other and I love love love laughing with her! We've had a great time together-- I've gone to visit her a couple times when she lived in Fayetteville (my second favorite SEC town!), we gone to the mountains for Christmas this year and in years past, New Orleans, beach trips, Oxford weekends-- its always fun!

Emilee makes a mean hamburger steak, listens to the strangest variety of music I've ever seen (Chopin or T-Pain, anyone?), and loves Gilmore Girls almost as much as I do! She's a bit OCD and takes a really long time to get ready, but she's beautiful and funny and strong and I'm lucky to have her in my life! Here are some recent pictures of us:


All dressed up with somewhere to go-- Commander's Palace in New Orleans!




Christmas caroling




At the pumpkin patch this past fall.




With Betsy in August-- for their birthdays.




With Aunt Ju in the Grove last football season!

# 9 Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...

"I'm a simple man, I like pretty dark-haired women and breakfast foods."
Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation

I love Parks and Recreation-- its one of the funniest tv shows right now and I'm super excited because it comes back on with new episodes in the next week or so! My favorite character is Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman, who, in real life, is married to Megan Mullaly, Karen from "Will and Grace" whom I also love). Anyway, I love Ron Swanson and Ron Swanson loves breakfast food. He even has a portrait of a breakfast food plate in his office behind the desk!

Much like Ron, I LOVE breakfast foods as well. I've spent many a fun meal at Waffle House, and love seeing my friends on the weekends when we either cook breakfast (they cook, not me!) or go eat brunch before we all head back to our homes. This morning, I had another fabulously unexpected breakfast memory. I woke up late this morning as I'd been up for a good portion of the night not being able to sleep, and I took Parker out first thing, as usual. We decided to walk towards our friend Lori's house. Lori lives across the street and down about three houses. The front of her house has a perfect view of my backyard and driveway. She's a total stalker, really. Additionally, my cousin lives down the road the opposite way, about 2 blocks and across the street diagonally from her, is my Aunt Ju. So we are all close neighbors in what we like to call "the Village".

Lori is a fabulous cook and has been inducted as part of the family-- I love hanging out with her and she's one of the most generous people I know. She also has a really cute house which we got to decorate for Christmas and that was a lot of fun! So, this morning, I'm walking Parker and I look up and my Aunt Ju is peering out Lori's window with her little pet Willie. We head on up and totally lucked out-- Lori had cooked breakfast for Ju and Emilee, but Em had decided to sleep late and I was able to step up and take her place. Yummy fried eggs (my fav!), grits, sausage and biscuits with jelly. It was fabulous. Lori's such a good cook and we had a great time sitting around watching random tv shows and laughing. Its always fun at her house!

Unfortunately, my day went downhill from there, but I did get further evidence that my cousin Em is the best cousin in the world, and managed to take down all the ornaments and lights from the Christmas tree as well as doing a few loads of laundry. Now, the whole town is hunkered down, ready for the big ice storm that's supposed to be hitting, well, now. So far, so good, and, more importantly, we still have power. I'm headed to bed. Hope everyone had a great day and a great breakfast!!

# 8 EVAN ALEERT... the court date's been set...

[Bloggers Note: Apparently I've already broken my promise to you guys and didn't post yesterday. I'm truly sorry; however, its totally not my fault. I finished writing this yesterday morning and THOUGHT I'd worked it to where the blog would post this automatically last night. Obviously, I thought wrong. It was brought to my attention by alert reader Nick who said "it literally took you less than 24 hours not to blog!" I was so devastated that I got up in the middle of the night to re-post this. Not really, I just couldn't go back to sleep. Irregardless. So, hopefully you guys will forgive me when you see that this post is an EVAN ALERT!!)

All Evan Alerts are blog favorites, and for good reason. I've not seen a whole lot of Evan in the past few weeks and months (in fact, I've only seen him once or twice since my Disney trip!)-- those of you in my inner circle will know that the last few weeks and months have been some tough ones for me, and I've battled my own version of depression. Now, add two and two together and you get the picture-- the less Evan in my life, the less happiness!

Lucky for us all, Evan's been around a lot lately-- driving past me wearing a black ski cap pulled over his eyes (twice), speeding down our dead end street and jerking into the driveway so he can turn his vehicle around and park (now I see how he managed to hit his neighbors vehicles not once, but twice.) and on New Years Day, returning to the house after a visit with his mom. Parker and I happened to be outside for this last event, on Saturday afternoon.

Evan: Hey Jess! Hey Parker!

ME: Hey Evan! Happy New Year!

Evan: Happy New Year! Just getting home from visiting my mom-- she sent me home with lots of food (holds up the 6 or so clear containers he's carrying)-- cabbage, black-eyed-peas, cornbread, corn, regular peas and turnips! All the New Years Food!!

ME: Oh, looks yummy. Did you have a good New Years Eve?

Evan: Yes, I did. I stayed in with my girlfriend and we just hung out.

ME: (Heart sinking. Tears welling up in my eyes. Devastation in my voice. Girlfriend?) Oh, that's nice.

Evan: Yes, it was ok. But we got good news, so that was nice.

ME: Oh, what kind of news?

Evan: Well, we got a courtdate, finally, so that is good.

ME: A courtdate? For what?

Evan: For the fight. Haven't I told you about this already?

ME: No. What fight?

Evan: My girlfriend's ex boyfriend beat the heck out of me the other day. It was in front of Homewood (points in the direction of a very nice neighborhood about a block away). He totally slammed me on the forehead (lifts up his hair and points to a rather large red cut from his eyebrow to his hairline. Its super red and his eyebrow has been shaved off.)

ME: Oh my gosh, Evan, that's awful, when did this happen? Whats the courtdate for?

Evan: It happened November 23. We had him arrested, obviously, but I wasn't arrested or anything, so don't worry. He's crazy.

ME: Yeah, apparently.

Evan: Want to come upstairs and see the pictures we took of it when it happened?

ME: Oh, gosh, Evan, yeah, sure, but, um, no, I cannot come right now. (thinking it might be better to have a witness go with me if I ever entered his apartment). I'm getting ready to go somewhere and we need to get back to the house.

Evan: Ok, some other time. (notices my Junior Auxiliary t-shirt). Are you in JA?

ME: Um, yes.

Evan: Oh, do you know *name redacted for purposes of this blog*?

ME: Well, I know the name, but I don't know her personally or anything.

Evan: Well, it was her ex-husband who hit me. He's nuts. He used to date my girlfriend. Well, she's my girlfriend now and has been for a while, but we aren't really telling anyone. You know how it is.

ME: Yeah, ok.

Evan: Well, okay, better go inside and get to eating! Have fun!

ME: Bye.

I immediately went straight home and got on the phone to find out some information about this woman from JA and her husband. I cannot help but be curious that there is someone that was in LJA who has an ex-husband who dated a girl who now dates the strangest guy I've ever met. Its intriguing.

A new leaf for a new year...

So, I've been blogging, on and off for more than a year now. Usually more off than on. I love blogging. It makes me happy to think of funny things I can share on this blog and it makes me even happier when someone tells me they love reading my blog-- I don't even mind when someone fusses at me for not blogging enough! I enjoy blogging, but I'm not consistent. Last spring, I ran across a blog of a girl from Laurel, whom I barely know, and she made a resolution to blog every single day for an entire year-- to blog about the best thing that happened to her that day. I've been a bit of a voyeur and really enjoyed reading her blog this year.

Now, its January 7, so I'm really over the whole New Years Resolution thing-- I don't generally make them and I didn't make any this year. However, I'm all about improvement and happiness and trying to make my life what I want it to be (gosh, I sound like Oprah). But, I've decided I'm going to make a similar decision for this year. I'm expecting a whole lot of changes in the coming year, and most of you know how badly I detest change-- its one of the reasons I'm in this situation right now-- I'm so afraid of changing anything that I wait till things get absolutely awful and I have no other options but to change. Anyway, all this to say that I'm going to be blogging every single day from now on-- come rain, sleet, snow or shine. Or, in MS, humidity, heat, sweat and more heat. Its my promise to you, dear readers. I cannot promise that it will be interesting, or even slightly witty, but it will be something. I will do the very best I can to make sure I blog about something, preferably, something fun and funny and interesting and good that happened that day.

So, in an effort to start things off right, and to begin at the beginning, and since its January 7, I will do 7 mini-blogs here and now to "catch up".



1. I love ANGEL. Its one of my favorite tv shows and I'm watching an episode right now. I love love love David Boreanaz. I tend to get on a tv show kick and watch all the episodes and read on-line recaps of each episode in order, etc., until I am sick of a show. Right now, I've been totally into NCIS-- I LOVE that show. However, for various reasons, I'm a bit sick of the whole military/Marine/Navy/damaged soldier/PTSD/hide your feelings/etc. aspect of the show. So, I'm taking a bit of a break from it for now. So, I've been tivoing Angel episodes to watch when I need something mindless in the background. I like that-- having a show I've watched a thousand times on in the background while I work, read, clean, get ready for bed, etc. At various points in my life I've watched CSI:Miami, NCIS, Angel, Stargate Atlantis, Judging Amy, Stargate: SG1, Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World, Gilmore Girls and Trading Spaces. I've literally seen every single episode of each of those shows a dozen times. I'm back on Angel now. Any other suggestions for mindless tv entertainment?



2. Next week is my Miss America Pageant Party. I think its somewhere along my 8th Annual or something. It gets a bit confusing because a couple times I've had a Miss Mississippi party in addition to the Miss America party and at least once, I didn't have the party, I just went over to Jackson and watched it with Katherine and Courtney, but I still count that as a party, even if I didn't host it. This years party has snuck up on me and I'm beginning to panic that I cannot get everything done, but I'm sure it will all come together. At this point, I'll just be thankful to wake up in the morning and watch the show that night-- decorations, party favors, and food aren't even priorities.

3. I've lost my camera charger so I'm unable to download my pictures from the last few weeks. Its really frustrating-- I keep thinking I'll find it when I finally clean my room up, but still no luck!!!

4. Parker has fleas. Its ridiculously annoying-- I'm attempting to wash all the bed sheets and comforters, pillows and blankets, as well as spray that stinky stuff everywhere she tends to hang out (which is to say, all over the house) and I've got two houses to do this-- mine and the Newton house. Its overwhelming.

5. My Christmas tree is, as of now, still up. I'm hoping to get it all up this weekend. Its overwhelming as well, and I didn't even put up as many decorations as last year!!!

6. I got the following books for Christmas and I'm super excited to start reading them:







7. I'm really nervous about making this commitment-- I tend to be very bad a long-time commitments and right now in my life, a week or so of good decisions is all I'm truly capable of. But I think its time to focus on all the really good things in my life and change the bad things, and this might be the best way I know to do that. So, avid readers, keep me encouraged and let me know if you like this idea or what you'd like me to write about, etc. I've always relied on the kindness of strangers, or in this case, friends.

Delta, Delta, Delta, Can I Help Ya, Help Ya, Help Ya?

I've been unable to download the pictures from our Christmas Wonderland Family Vacation, so as soon as I can, I'll do that and also update you guys on all the fun we had. You'll be glad to know that all family members returned unharmed, although another inch or so of snow and another hour or two might have left us stranded and I doubt I'd be able to say that then.

In an effort to do some winter cleaning and find some tax receipts, I've been cleaning out my desk drawers at my office in Decatur. I came across some old emails that I've printed off from previous email addresses, most of all which were when I was living in Washington. I've had my yahoo email account for a really long time, but I did once have a hotmail account as well as my old ole miss account, and at some point, I printed out some of my favorite emails before I quit using those accounts.

Some of them where really funny, random forwards from college-- 25 Ways to Write a Paper, 30 Fun Things to do in Wal-Mart, etc. Those kind of emails make me laugh as I remember how many things on those lists I've actually done in college. Another post for another day.

I also found some from my family and friends after September 11, 2001, when I was living in Washington-- it brought back some tears and some panic when I was reading those emails. It was such a terrifying, unknowing time-- we can look back now and know exactly what happened, but in the minutes, hours, days and weeks after the attacks, there was so much uncertainty-- reports of bombs and other attacks all over the country, but especially in NYC and Washington. Sirens went off for months, and troops with guns and tanks filled the streets for quite some time. For a Mississippi girl who'd literally just moved to the Big City, it was quite terrifying and I still wake up in cold sweat if I hear a siren in the middle of the night and I still hate talking about September 11, and ignore most of the anniversary coverage each year. Too many bad feelings.

I also found a lot of really funny emails from some co-workers at the United States Chamber of Commerce-- I had several really fun people that I worked with, all of whom I've lost touch with. I keep thinking that Facebook will help me find them, but, at least with the girls, they've moved and probably married and I've had no luck. One girl I really need to return her copy of Katherine Graham's biography!

I really enjoyed working at the US Chamber-- DC is a cool, interesting town filled with cool, interesting people, most of whom have made their career, and not getting married, a priority, so you can see how I related there. But, it was the first, and only time I've worked in a large office filled with all sorts of different people from different places and been exposed to lots of different cultures and ideas. Its also the only time I've been surrounded by people who were like me-- and who were stuck in a cubicle all the time and were desperate for a little fun in the office. We had a great time, and lots of the things we did, I've already forgotten. We had a great time with each other!

I've entirely forgotten these emails until just now, but apparently, we had a weeks long discussion about different celebrities we would let into our sorority. It was intense, passionate, carefully argued, and, well, pointless. We got into deep arguments wherein we championed our favorite celebrities and destroyed girls we hated. I imagine its a lot like what being in a real sorority is like. My closest friends, Meredith and Elisabeth, went to a school in Virginia and were Delta Gamma's there. I'm sure you all know that Ole Miss is where the sorority DG actually started-- there is a small sign between campus and the Square and everything! Anyway, the fact that I attended Ole Miss was very interesting to them, despite the fact that I was not a Delta Gamma, nor the fact that I was only an AOPi for about 17 minutes. It didn't matter-- they thought it was so cool, and I was so cool, by extension. In that aspect, they were right!

Here are some of the opinions we had about specific celebrities at the time (remember, this is circa 2002-- some of these celebrities haven't been popular since then!)

We cut Katie Couric (her ties to Tri-Delt as well as her being "FULL of retarded questions" forced us to not give her a bid but we all dis agree she was better than Kathie Lee), but we agreed on Julia Roberts (my choice-- shes "kinda quirky but she's funny and would probably be a good candidate for 'going to SPE'. [ I have no idea what SPE means!!!]).

Oprah had us divided-- I hate her, but others pointed out that "her money could buy us a rocking good formal" but also that "those big satin dresses she likes to wear probably wouldn't fit through the bus door." Harsh.

Alanis Morisette got a huge NO, as she is too "weird and granola" for us. Christina Aguilera was another big no ("a grade A first class total ho-bag), but we did like another Christina-- Applegate.

Cameron Diaz was another no, but we did really like Charlize Theron, who is "dumb but probably cool at parties" and "is from Africa, so she could be our token diverse sister."

Elizabeth Hurley was denied, as she was also a "HO" and has never been in a decent movie. Also, there was some discussion about the fact that she didn't know who her baby daddy was at the time [sidenote- I don't recall this? I don't really recall much about Elizabeth Hurley except every single dress she wears and has worn is the same]. The most interesting part of the LLiz Hurley discussion is that the girls got off onto a side discussion about a girl from their college named Erin Leddy and the identity of her "dentheaded" baby daddy. I don't know if the baby or the baby daddy is dentheaded, and now I'll never know.

So, dear readers, who would be in your sorority? I'm offering bids to Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Guliana Rancic, Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana. Thoughts?