# 149 Had a BBQ Stain on my White T-shirt...

This weekend I had the good fortune to get to hang out with some friends from my college days at Ole Miss.  Seriously good times.  Thursday after work, Parker and I loaded up and hit the road to Jackson, where we met the Mayor at the Pearl Cracker Barrel.  We really know how to hit the town.  Parker sat in the car while dad and I dined on breakfast for dinner and dad graciously bought me some herbal itch reliever for the ridiculous number of Delta mosquito bites on my legs and arms.  When dinner was over, Parker and I said our goodbyes, and she and dad drove away, traces of tears and fear in her eyes. 

I continued on my journey to the Loden's house in Brandon.  Karen and Jeremy Loden are friends of mine from way back- before I had law school, before Washington, before I was as cool as I am now!  Saturday was her son Conner's birthday party and I dislike missing out on my kiddos birthdays if at all possible!  Karen and Jeremy graciously opened up their guest room and the world's most comfortable pull-out couch for me and let me crash for a couple nights.  When I got there, this was on the bed:

A t-shirt quilt! I LOVE it! I think the red and white polka dots are really cute. Seeing this t-shirt brings back lots of memories from college!

The t-shirts above are of the BSU Community Day (which coincidentally, I believe, was the Community Day on my birthday, when I skipped out a bit early to head to Tunica to see the Monkees in concert! See, readers? All my blogs intersect with each other in ways other bloggers can only dream!) and the Ole Miss Arkansas State game. I don't recall which game this was, but if it was Arkansas State, our friend Brad was most likely in town since that was his school!

This blue one is the Ole Miss Move-In Mania t-shirt from my sophomore year when I helped. Moving in isn't fun and its even less fun when its not you that's moving in, but it a good way to meet new people and get them involved!

The Rod Squad- I'd forgotten about this! Remember Rod Barnes? He was our coach back when we used to be good at basketball. That was a fun time to be an Ole Miss fan and all my friends and I went to all the games. It was lots of fun! The BSU softball t-shirt was Karen's uniform for our girls softball team. I was on the team too-- my catcher skills rivaled that of.... that of a back-up catcher on an academy junior high softball team. I'm not bragging or anything though. Because of, or in spite of, my skills, our BSU team made it to the intramural finals EVERY SINGLE YEAR. And EVERY SINGLE YEAR we got the crap beat out of us by the Pharmacy team. It was totally bogus since they had teachers on their team and, even though its too late to prove it, I'm positive there were all sorts of performance-enhancing substance problems. Whatever, I'm only a tiny bitter.

The SEC Champion T-shirt from my freshman year- Karen, my dad and I hit the road to Atlanta for the SEC tournament and had free player family tickets courtesy of our friend and player Anthony Boone. We had a great time, even though Ole Miss lost before the finals.

And finally, the Shadow Auction at BSU and one of my most favorite t-shirts ever-- the BSU navy blue shirt.

These shirts and all the other ones on the blanket bring back some really great memories. I had a blast looking at them and that's why these t-shirt blankets are so wonderful! I've actually been cutting out the design of all my favorite t-shirts from all the way back to high school and I'm dying to get a blanket (or three- I have a lot of shirts!) made! Perhaps Karen's will inspire me!

# 148 Lights, Camera, Action...

# 147 Obsession...

Sometimes I get obsessed about things. Ok, a lot of times I get obsessed about things and I cannot let go. It happens in my life all the time. Sometimes those things are ideas or thoughts or people. And sometimes, they are actual things. When I get something in my mind, I HAVE to get it and I will move heaven and earth trying to get it.

Picture it: Summer, 1998, Newton, Ms: I'm working at the Newton Regional Hospital filing during the day and once a week, on Monday nights, I man (or Wo-man) the switch boards. I'm sure you can imagine how exciting the NRH was on a Monday evening from 4 to 11. It was action-packed. One of the few things I remember is that I did find time to write to my roommate, Brandi, and my friend (and VIR) Jeremy a lot that summer-- she referred to them as "books" instead of letters. Apparently I talk/write a lot. Who knew?

I also found a watch in a magazine and decided I HAD to have it. It looked a little something like this:

Remember these preppy ribbon watches that were all the rage a few years ago? Well, before they were all the rage, they were nowhere to be found. The one in the magazine was made by Tommy Hilfiger (it was a bit preppier than this-- pink and green and white) and I spent the rest of the summer trying to find it. Don't forget, readers, this was before the era of internet shopping, so it wasn't very easy to locate. On Monday nights, I spent most of my time calling every single McRaes (pre-Belk), Macys, JC Pennys and any other store I could think of within a 7 state area. I'm not lying. I called Birmingham, Nashville, New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, New York, and a few other places trying to track down this watch. No where had it. Turns out it wasn't going to be in stores until Fall, 1998. Unfortunately, it literally took me an entire summer to get someone to
tell me that information. I went back to Oxford in the fall with a bare wrist and no idea of what time it was.

The next summer, these watches became all the rage everywhere, and finally made their way to Newton. Soon thereafter, you could buy knockoffs for like $10. These watches are still around. I've never bought one or even been tempted after that fateful summer-- once I got over the object of my obsession, I wanted nothing to do with it. Plus, everyone started wearing them and I don't want to look like everyone.

The moral of this lesson? That when I get obsessed about something, I get OBSESSED-- I do everything I can think of to get it. And if I don't get it for whatever reason, I eventually get over it and no longer want it. Even if its right in front of me.

These obsessions don't hit me often. Sure, I want plenty of stuff and I buy even more stuff. But rarely does a real obsession hit me. It hasn't happened in a while. Till Monday. I'm reading a magazine and I see this:

And I HAVE TO HAVE IT. Granted, I've never actually made a cake pop before, but then again, I've not had a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker, so how could I? I thought about it all day yesterday and got really excited thinking of all the things I could do with it! I did extensive research, read some reviews, found some recipes, and found the cheapest price on the internet and was so excited. Then when I went back today, it was SOLD OUT. So I put my investigative skills to the test and found another one, just as cheap. When the internet site wouldn't work correctly, I called and put my order in over the phone. And soon, in just a few days, this baby will be mine! I promise to make all my readers lots of cake pops just as soon as it comes in!!!

# 146 I bleed Red and Blue...

I love decorating for holidays-- any holiday, any decoration. I have more Christmas decorations than a trailer park in May, my Fall decorations put the pilgrims to shame, and I love to stock up on pastel Easter happies. However, I don't do enough of decorating for the summer holidays-- Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day. My dad, a Newton Lions Club Member, called today to let me know he put out the flags around town for Flag Day. It seems like the Lions Club puts those flags out about every third Tuesday or so, and Dad usually gets the largest route (he had 18 flags when the other routes had only 13... conspiracy?). Many a time have I watched and/or helped take the flags down and store them in the building behind the funeral home (a bit creepy? Yeah!).

He'd be ashamed of the fact that I don't do much summer decorating with the red, white and blue. I mean, let's face it, those colors are absolutely the BEST colors in the world. The best. Its one of my favorite things about being an Ole Miss Rebel-- our colors are just prettier than yours. They just are. If you deny it, you are literally a communist.

Since I'm all about the budget these days (see: previous posts), I'm not going to go all crazy and buy a bunch of decorations. At least not until they are 75% off on July 5th. But I will try one of these-- which do you like the best?

# 145 I absolutely...

Love my new nail polish! It doesn't have a cutesy name but its my new favorite color. I love being able to wear weird colored nail polish at this job- as long as I wear closed toe shoes to court, no one cares! Probably no one would care even at court, but I'm trying to retain some of my dignity! Love this color! All my readers should go get it! Even the guys. Especially the guys.

And soon, ignoring the voice of my disapproving mother, I WILL be painting my nails this color! I'm wild like that, you know.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

# 144 Money, money, money... MONEY...

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I'm not good with money. To anyone who knows me, loves me, has seen me checking out in Wal-Mart, standing nervously in line at the bank, or works for any utility company that currently serves me, this is not news. I'm bad with money. Does anyone want to take over my money-managing and just give me an allowance? Probably not! Till then, I'll keep trying.

Now my dad might be laughing at this statement, but I've been doing a bit of a better job in the last few weeks. Mostly because I've had no money to spend, whether responsibly or irresponsibly!

Anyway, I'm trying really hard to get myself on a budget, pay off some bills and make better money choices. Dave Ramsey would be seriously proud of me. Right now, I'm waiting it out till payday and I've got a little bit of money-- but I've got another problem. After my recent purse-stealing episode, the first thing I did was cancel my debit cards and order new ones. Well the card finally came in and I couldn't get the stupid thing to work. There wasn't a number to call to "activate"; instead it said activate at any "retail store". Yeah, that's not exactly accurate. I tried three different places Wednesday and an ATM to get it to activate, but it wouldn't. This particular bank isn't located around here, so I couldn't just go to their atm. Regardless, I was a bit stressed. For once, I actually had (a little) money in my account but I couldn't access it! And I was in desperate need of some gas to get to work tomorrow!

Today in Sunday School, we studied parts of Matthew and the part that me and another girl focused upon was the "Do Not Worry" section of Matthew 6. Totally fitting for me right now. I mean, I'm pretty good at worrying. One of the things God showed me today was that I worry way too much (although to be fair, I already knew this-- everyone already knew this!). And I worry a lot about money since I make pretty bad money decisions-- i.e., I get so excited about having money and managing it well that I decide to celebrate by, say, buying a new purse or something equally as unnecessary. Its a work-in-progress. But one thing I think God was trying to get through to my sometimes-stubborn-self was that its one thing to trust God and know that He will provide everything, even money. But even more importantly, you have to make good decisions so that you don't have to worry. Like, its not a good idea for me to go buy a ton of new clothes and then worry I cannot make my rent and expect God to provide money out of the blue for my bills. Instead, I need to make thoughtful and prayerful decisions regarding my money and then, my worrying about money won't be necessary-- because I'm prepared. This is especially poignant for me right now (poignant- big word, huh!?).

Anyway, despite this life lesson from earlier this morning, I WAS worried about money today. I was in need of gas and had no cash, and a non-working debit card that I've tried to do everything I could to get activated.

I tried one more time-- I headed to the gas station, praying that this card would work-- otherwise I'd have to wait till the bank opened in the morning and be a bit late to work! And lo and behold, God showed my worrying was for naught-- the card worked! I celebrated in true Jessica style. But heading to Walgreens for this:

A diet coke and some fabulous nail polish. I've been needing some nail polish for a long time-- my toes look awful! So all weekend I've been wanting to head out and get a cute new color since all my colors are old and had to be thrown away. In keeping with my new financially stable self, I chose the cheapest kind and it was on sale! Yay me! And a DC. Caffeine free- cause that's how I roll...

# 143 Overachieving, Happy People...

Friday I worked really, really hard. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying! See when you work for the state, the work never really ends-- there is always something else to do, a new case to file, a new client to see. Its one of the more interesting things about my new job-- no matter how hard I work (or, don't work!), the work is always there-- its the never-ending file drawer-type thing. Lately, there has been a huge push to get "caught up" on a lot of cases-- many of which fell through the cracks at some point in the line of workers. So, every time I've opened my "to file" drawer, its gotten bigger and bigger. I try to clean it out daily, but it seemed that every day, 10 or so new cases were there!

Our office works on a "compressed schedule" which means that everyone in my office (except me) works longer days with shorter lunches, and in return, gets off every other Monday or every other Friday. Nice, right?! I'm the only one who doesn't do this and its only because I'm new. I suppose its a form of hazing or something... No, its because you have to sign up for this on a certain day each quarter and last quarter I wasn't working yet. So, come July 1, I too will get a day off- every other Monday.

But for now, I'm working hard every day. Or at least most days! Just kidding! Currently, every other Friday, the office is empty except me and two other ladies. Those two ladies have off the "every other Monday". Friday was one of those days that they have off and it makes for a pretty quiet work environment which I really do like. I try to make the most of my empty trailer (since the other ladies are in the other trailer, I'm all alone!). I rock out to the oldies station I recently discovered. I have the printer all to myself. I down a few diet cokes to get my blood pumping. You know, the usual.

And this Friday, I got to filing. And I filed like a maniac, I'm telling you. I filed over 35 cases which isn't too shabby. I used an entire package of paper. Which makes me happy-- because this is what our paper packages look like:

Isn't this kid hilarious?? I LOVE IT! My colleague Ann Marie pointed him out a few weeks ago (and took this pic, thanks!), and I have a huge belly laugh everytime I see his smiling face. I mean, isn't he proud of himself??!! Its exactly how I felt Friday!

(SIDENOTE: It has been suggested that this child really doesn't have much to be super proud of-- I mean, he is proud of an A+ on some times tables, and, making some racial generalizations here, shouldn't an Asian kid this age, be a bit above multiple tables? I mean, really? Shouldn't he be at least doing trig or something?)