# 95 Its a rom-com mystery

Its a Delta mystery. I've been here for just a few short weeks and I've already gotten myself into the middle of a mystery. Here's the backstory.

I live at 304 South Victoria Avenue (Send me a card!). I have a very nice little mailbox out by the street. Here's a picture:

Yes, tomorrow is trash day. Don't be judgy.

Also, outside on the porch, right beside the front door, is a small black basket with the word "Mail" on the side. Its nailed to the side of the door and its sort of a cute little detail, but its unused since the mailman comes to the actual mailbox these days. Here is a picture:

Yes, the word "Mail" DOES look like "Maiz". But presumably, it really is "mail" since that makes more sense (too bad I couldn't work "cents" into that sentence!).

Now, I've been getting mail here for several weeks and recently, my forwarded mail from Laurel has finally been showing up. I've gotten magazines and church bulletins and bills (though I was hoping they'd get totally lost).

Friday afternoon, I get home from work and I head inside to see what all fabulous cleaning/decorating Aunt Ju and Lori have done while I've been slaving away at the office all day. More on that to come later. We immediately head out the door to Wal-Mart to get everything on their long-list. Apparently, without such supplies as a Swifter, curtain rods, ferns for the porch, a rug pad, baskets for the bathroom and a utensil holder, I've been only living half a really sad life. I'm just so lucky they were able to reach down to my level, and try to lift me up as best they could buy getting me all that and more.

Anyway, after Wal-Mart, we decide to eat dinner (forgetting that bag of ice we'd just bought three minutes before), and we get home about 8 p.m. I head to the porch to unlock the door, and my mail is sitting in the little mail basket on the porch. Not in the mailbox, where it usually is. Strange!

All sorts of theories fly- the mailman is strange, or he forgot the mail and ran it back by (a la the Christmas bonus check for Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation), it was mistakenly put in a neighbors box, someone from the church visited and brought it up as a nice act of service (earlier this week, I met a couple ladies from FBC, Cleveland, who'd stopped by to meet me). We never found a suitable explanation.

So Saturday comes and we head down to the Cleveland Crosstie Festival down by the courthouse, a few blocks from my house. (Sidenote-- it was super awesome and super fun-- I'm so sad I still cannot find my camera and therefore didn't take any pictures!). We stayed for a while, but then ran back to the house before any further shopping/fun/etc. so Lori could grab a jacket since it was a bit cold in the shade. Lo and behold, my mail is in the mail basket AGAIN! This time, it wasn't as much mail, but still. Its there. There is no explanation. My car was still at the house (but the night before, both cars were gone, so no one would think anyone was home), but we weren't home and there weren't any signs of someone stopping by, say from the church or anything (like a note or literature about the Sunday morning services, etc.).

Its a mystery! So, dear readers, any theories?

I've decided that its not a mystery. In my mind, in a cute little house, a few houses down, a super cute, but very shy guy lives, and he's noticed me and Parker walking around the neighborhood. Now, he's noticed Parker first (cause she's so cute! And anyone who loves me, loves Parker!) and then noticed me, and has fallen for me as he's watched me and Parker interact these last few weeks. He's listened as I talk to Parker while we walk, and he's seen my family members come and visit (and he still likes me!). He's seen me trip over the uneven pavement in front of the house down the road six times (thus far). He's watched, with a tear in his eye, as my neighbor yelled at me. He watched me today as I lifted a really large fallen limb over my head and brought it from the backyard to the front, knocking into both vehicles and two trees along the way and nearly falling over. He's seen me and Parker sit outside and read, and thought it was utterly charming that I was reading Anne of Green Gables for the zillionth time.

He's a student at Delta State in the aviation program, probably-- he's a non-traditional student, so he's a bit older than me. I like to think he's from a wealthy family up north, but his grandparents were from the Delta, and that's why he came back here-- he always wanted to be Southern, so now he's decided to stay in Mississippi. He's planning to be a pilot, and has lots of money that he wants to shower upon me, and take me all over the world traveling. Of course, he won't force me to quit my job or anything (that would be controlling), but he'd want me to be happy, so he will support my decision to quit working and volunteer at the library part-time. He is also willing to buy a fabulous house and let me decorate it anyway I want, with unlimited funds. He will not be angry when I make the fourth bedroom into a large closet because he loves me. He's so shy, however, that he cannot even approach me (or Parker) and has, instead, tried to work up the courage to talk to me by going through my mailbox (which isn't at all creepy).

Yep, I'm pretty sure I am right. I will entertain other theories, however, just for my own amusement. You know, until he and I finally meet.

# 94 Things I've learned this week...

-- I really like the word "STIP". Its short for stipulations, and its a term we here at DHS use a lot of the time. I like the word. It rolls of my tongue and when anyone at work uses it, I find myself saying it over and over in my head.

-- I've really missed the "work environment" of having co-workers. I've not really had any "co-workers" at my jobs in a long time. I've had other attorneys or legal assistants that I saw on a regular basis, but there were usually only one or two other people in any of the offices I've worked in many years. Yesterday, I sat in a breakroom with about 10 other women and really enjoyed listening to them talk about their food, cooking, their work, etc. And watching their "stories". I loved it!

-- I love having people visit me! Last week it was my mom, then Katherine came for a night and now Aunt Ju and Lori (and Lulu) are here. Its so nice to have someone to talk to other than Parker. I'm literally giddy I'm so excited about being with someone! This feeling of excitement might wear off eventually, but for now, I'm still a bit lonely and insecure about being in a new place, so its nice to have people to do things with on the weekends! So hurry up and come visit me!!

-- Its been a really long time since I've had the energy and desire to dress up cute for work. Or anything, really, not just work. I used to love thinking about what outfit I could wear (or sometimes, just what outfit was clean) or designing an outfit around a new pair of shoes or necklace, etc. But for the past few months, for obvious reasons, I've not done any of that. In fact, the past few months, I was doing good to put on jeans an a t-shirt, unless I absolutely had to go to court or something. So, I've been reminded this week that I enjoy getting dressed up and looking cute! Course lots of people I've seen the last few weeks, and several of my co-workers look cute all the time, so its nice a big deal or anything to anyone except me. Its just a reminder that bad times eventually pass and that its nice to start feeling like yourself again!

-- I love my new Bible Study-- Me, Myself and Lies by Jennifer Rothschild-- its really good! I picked it out a whim several months ago in a Lifeway Bookstore, but then FBC Laurel did the Bible Study (they might still be doing it, I don't know) and a friend randomly recommended it to me, not knowing I'd bought it on my own! Its all about our "thought closet" and how our thoughts should be reflections of our relationship with God and not filled with worry, doubt, insecurities, etc. As someone who can let a nagging thought gnaw on me for days and weeks and months, and let it literally consume me, this Bible Study is refreshing.

-- Unforunately for me, I've learned that I've lost most of my ability to focus on anything for very long-- my attention span is literally in the single digits. I noticed it during the opera Tuesday night and a couple other times when I was reading a book. Also, in the above-mentioned Bible Study, my focus is so week, I'm having to do just a few short paragraphs and then take a break. I'm hoping this attention span thing will be just temporary.

Ok, I'm tired of writing this post. I need a change of pace! See, I told you....

# 93 A fabulous Tuesday evening...

So Tuesday, I went to Hernando for work and had to fill all out sorts of paperwork for my new job. You know, as a DHS worker, they like to have at least 4 realms of papers for each new hire.

Tuesday afternoon, I got home and had a surprise on my front porch! My dear friend, and avid reader, Penny, had sent me a belated birthday gift (all other blog readers who haven't sent me a gift should be ashamed) from one of my favorite places in New Orleans-- Sucre! I've made it clear, in previous blog posts, how much I adore New Orleans, and Sucre is a dessert/bakery type place with yummy individual desserts and macaroons and chocolates that come in these cool little boxes. The store itself is decorated in shades of sherbert and pink and light blue and yellows and its so fun and pretty and it just makes me happy! It doesn't even bother me that most of their desserts and stuff are in random flavors, so I don't really like a lot of it!

But my birthday gift is awesome-- an assortment of macaroons in one of their cute boxes! I brought it to work with me today and Anne Marie and I sampled some of the different flavors. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to bring with me the little insert that shows the different colors and flavors. Fortunately, Anne Marie and I are smart enough to figure it out on our own (with a little help from Sucre's website-- but we were right in our original guesses!). She sampled the pecan and hazlenut while I had the chocolate and orange. I've still got almond, strawberry, pistachio and lemon left!

It was such a good surprise and totally made my day! Thanks Penny!

After I finished squealing with delight over such a good gift, I got ready for a cultural outing. Yes, I have culture. Sure, I like Star Trek and sometimes sleep without sheets on my bed for a while because I'm too lazy to put clean ones on the bed. But, I'm as full of culture as the next girl from Newton County. I'd heard on the radio earlier this week that the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the Delta State campus was presenting "The Barber of Seville" Tuesday night-- from the Memphis and Mississippi Opera Houses and starring several quite famous Broadway actors. So I purchased a ticket and got all dressed up and headed over there. The Bologna Center is really nice, and according to what I was told, was actually the first "Performing Arts Center" in Mississippi, which led to Ole Miss (Ford Center) and State (have no idea center) rushing to build their own!

It was a nice night of opera and while it was a tiny bit sad, it was also really liberating to know that I didn't know a single soul there. Not one. No fake smiles. Also no real smiles, but no need to talk to people or anything like that. It was nice! I don't generally love opera as much as I do other forms of art, say theater, dance, ceramics-- but I enjoyed this one.

I did sneak out a tiny bit early because my friend, avid reader, and great-blogger-in-her-own-right Katherine was coming to stay for the night. It was really nice to get to catch up with her that night and we stayed up way later than this old fogey usually does-- but it did my heart wonders to talk with her, get her advice and laugh with her! She's fabulous!

# 92 The cutest Easter decorations...

In the courthouse in Sunflower County (that's Indianola to you poor non-Delta souls!), they have the cutest Easter tree decorations. Since I STILL haven't found my camera, these pictures taken from my phone will have to suffice! I'm totally stealing this idea for next year! It has little eggs and little Easter figurines like carrots and bunnies and small ribbons and flowers attached to each branch. Love love love.

# 91 I could walk into a bookstore and never leave...

Sunday afternoon I said goodbye to my mom (sad!) after a great lunch at The Warehouse in Cleveland, and I headed over to Oxford to see Ole Miss beat Georgia baseball with Nicholas. We had a great time-- we had tickets to the Rebel Club area, upstairs, where you can sit inside and watch the game where its nice and cool, or you can sit outside in the grandstand seats. There are also tvs and nice bathrooms, etc. Nick and I sat outside part of the game and inside part of the game so he could watch the Master's on tv. They also have free food-- peanuts, popcorn, cookies, brownies, chicken nuggets, salad, hot dogs, etc. Its really fun!

After the game, I dropped Nick off at the Residential College (RC to those in the know), and headed over to Square Books where I spent money I didn't have to buy these four books:

I've been wanting this book for several years. Its all different post cards that were sent in from people all over the world. Its amazing what secrets people have-- some are funny, some are tragic and some are scary. I'll share some with you another day. I'm so excited about getting to look at this book.

The most recent Carolyn Haines book-- her new one comes out this summer. I love Carolyn so much-- both as a writer and as person, as I was lucky enough to meet her a few weeks ago. She's fantastic and her books are really funny. I've read all but this one in the series, and I just had to have it. I really have no self-control when it comes to books.

This is the next book on the Katherine and Jessica Book List. Grab a copy and start reading with us. At the rate we are going, we will finish this one in early 2012. So you have plenty of time.

As an attorney, I'm practically required to read books about the Scruggs scandal. I've watched this thing unfold the past couple years and I'm starting to read King of Tort, which i got for Christmas, but then let my dad borrow and just recently got back.

# 90 Fitting in and all that jazz...

So I've been in the Delta for a few weeks now (it doesn't seem like that long since I was here, but then went home for a long while and then came back, but its really been 3 total weeks since I moved), and, with the exception of the aforementioned neighbor, I've met some really nice, wonderful people. And I've had a great time exploring some of the small towns and learning about them, and I have plans to do a whole lot more exploring sometime soon. I do believe I'm really going to like it here-- I've enjoyed my job, thus far, and I've had time to do some cooking, some exercising, and some reading. I'm caught up on my NCIS reruns, and Parker seems to be liking it as well. I've even been to a bunko group and made plans to catch up with some old friends (friends from my past, not that they are necessarily old!!)

But I'm harboring a terrible secret. Its awful. Its embarrassing. It makes me feel like a fraud. I get up every morning, and take Parker outside, and I can feel the stares coming at me from all directions (except of course, from the direction of Mr. Professor-- its not a stare I feel in my direction, its a glare). I go to the grocery store, and I feel like there, between the squash and the carrots, I'm going to be found out. I take walks to Fireman's Park or on the walking track downtown and I'm scared to make eye contact with my fellow walkers. Its something that haunts me. The only place I feel safe is alone, in my house, with the door shut. But, its my home that would ultimately betray me, if anyone ever ventured past the front door.

Here's my secret.

I don't collect pottery.

I don't even own any of the pottery.

Not McCarty's.

Not Peter's.

Not anyone's.

Its a fact that I'm pretty sure will get my kicked out of the Delta in a heartbeat, if I was ever found out. I don't know what's wrong with me. I guess I had a tough childhood or something. My parent's forgot to hug me as a child. Whatever the reason. I don't own any pottery. Its something I'm pretty sure I will be forced to rectify soon, if I plan to stay in this area long.

I went to a friend house the other day and I saw many beautiful pieces of pottery displayed in her home. I've seen pieces in different shops I've perused. Heck, we even had some in stores in Laurel. So its not like I don't know better. In Junior Auxiliary, we almost always used it as serving pieces for different get-togethers and socials. There are plenty of good people in Jones County who have pottery pieces. Just not me. I'm sure if they knew, I would have never gotten into LJA in the first place.

So, avid readers, I'm asking for your forgiveness. And your help. I want to be a good person. I really do. I don't want to be found out as a fraud. I think the pieces are quite lovely, and, as someone who fancies themselves a "ceramicist", I know the pottery is beautifully made (which is much harder to do that it looks. Just ask me!). Now, right now, I don't have much money, what with having just started this new job and all, so I don't think I'll be able to buy any pottery anytime soon. But I've checked out some websites and found a few pieces I really like, and I'm graciously posting them on here, as suggestions for any avid readers who might want to buy me a housewarming/new job/welcome to the Delta/belated birthday/love your blog gift.

These first two are McCarty pottery. I know there are different factions who argue between which artist is better, and I'm not going to get into that here-- I don't know the whole story, and I don't know which is better. I do know, however, that it was extremely hard to find any pictures of McCarty's pottery on-line. These first two are the only ones I could find.

I love this color!

These are Peter's pottery.

This says its a casserole dish, so I'm guessing its pretty big-- I love the top of it. It might be my favorite of all the pieces I saw.

# 89 Exploring the Delta with Deb...

This weekend, my sweet mom came to visit and we had a great time! Friday night we met in Leland, where we ate dinner at Lillos, which is right off Highway 61. Earlier that day, I'd driven through Leland on the way to Greenville with Anne Marie for work, and she said Lillos was a good place to eat, so I decided it would be perfect to meet mom there. It was super good! Italian food-- the fried ravioli was fabulous and their salad dressing is good enough to drink!

Saturday we did a bit of shopping, a bit of eating and a lot of exploring. I really wanted to show her Clarksdale, the town where I would be working, so we drove over there late yesterday afternoon. Anne Marie had shown me a Jewish cemetery in the area, so we wanted to check it out. We drove slowly through the parking lot, looking at the names and tombstones, when this guy, about my age, who was walking by, stopped and asked us if there was a Jewish community around the area. Turns out his name was Peleg (or something like that) and he was from Israel, but was traveling, for three weeks, in America. He'd been in Clarksdale a couple days, and specifically picked Clarksdale because of the history of the blues there. So we got to talking to him and he was interesting and kinda unusual. I mean, its not everyday you meet an Israeli in the middle of the Mississippi Delta!

Here are some pictures of the afternoon:

This is mom talking to Peleg (she kept referring to him as Pegleg

This was on one of the larger monumental tombstones-- isn't it really pretty?

I just love the beads on here-- you could tell they were beautiful and expensive and colorful necklaces, and there was a small pin with an owl on it. It makes me wonder who was buried there and who put that beautiful, and rather haunting, tribute to them.

I asked Peleg to translate this particular grave marker for us, since many of them were in Hebrew. He said that David Abrams was generous of spirit, loving friend, kind and "naive but in a good way"-- he said there wasn't really a good translation for that last description.

Many of the tombstones had small rocks and stones on top of them. I remembered this from my short-lived participation in the Newton Roxy Theater's production of The Cemetery Club back when I was teaching! According to my research then (and the refreshing of my memory now!), the stones are left there as a symbolic monument to the deceased. It is an ultimate act of kindness and respect to bury someone and place a marker on the site. A person can only be buried once-- however, each person who comes by can continue to erect a monument or marker on the grave, which they do in a symbolic way by placing the stones.

The entire experience was really neat-- it was a beautiful place. My pictures don't do it justice-- still cannot find my camera. And Peleg was super nice. He came over before he left and asked me how to get to Greenwood, because he had a car and was planning to drive there that afternoon. Since I don't know the area, I wasn't able to help him much. In fact, we were mostly useless to most of his questions about the Jewish people in the community, etc. Mom fussed at me for not talking to him more, suggesting he was "flirting" with me when he was asking for directions. I don't know what else she wanted me to do-- I mean, I got out a freaking map. Of course, she knows I don't have the "flirting" gene that most of the other women in my family have. I have no ability to flirt whatsoever. And i guess I missed my opportunity to flirt with an Israeli in the Delta. Too bad, I'm pretty sure that was on my bucket list somewhere.