We have a snow day! Who'd a thunk a snow day in Mississipp (32' and sleeting w/o a DOT equipped to do anything). + we have mon & tues off 4 Mardi G! Life:good

I said who dat jumpin on de saints band wagon. It's me! It's me!

2009 Rewind
I've been told I have until the end of January to make a legitimate 'year in review' post. To bring closure to an exciting year, i reflect in photo

It Works!

That little weather feed thingy from wunderground.com is pretty cool! We're hunkering down, waiting for Tropical Storm Ida to do it's thang and move along. Brian's clinic is letting out early. The elementary school I subbed at today was on its usual schedule (but 2:30 p.m. is late enough when you start at 6:25 a.m., and not much rest between the Weather Channel and MEMA (MS's FEMA) updates, I'm ready for a glass of wine and a nap!). My first class of the new semester would have started tonight, but thanks to Ida, it's been cancelled. This is as close as I'll get to a "snow day" and I'll admit, I miss it. All dark and windy, it actually feels like a "normal" November rainy day and reminds me how nostalgic I am for the "stay in/be cozy/craft/make shit in the crock pot" season. I could be happy with a winter that was a day or so a week like this. Oh, yeah, except this is nothing normal. It's the outer wisps of a massive storm, and just in case, I already had pulled all my important papers/photos to the side. Blows, man (hahahah, I'm punny).

Halloween Interlude

It wouldn't be Halloween without carving pumpkins. We just got back into town from being gone a week in San Antonio and had no clean laundry and no groceries. Walmart came through on groceries, but short on pumpkins. I had to barter to get the last pumpkin in the store on October 30 from a greeter lady who had already claimed it for her cart. I asked her, while pointing to her pumpkin, "How much you want for the pumpkin? Please. I'm desperate." She was very generous considering she hadn't paid for it yet. I gave her a spaghetti squash in exchange for her kindness and her pumpkin. It was a Halloween-Christmas miracle. But that was just one pumpkin. What were the girls going to carve when they came over?... (as if I was going to let the kids carve it...) Halloween morning, I stumbled upon a gloriously over-priced pumpkin at the local green house. I bargained the lady down $2 ($12 to $10) and came home victorious with my moderately over-priced pumpkin.

We had fun, carving, watching football. Danielle did the creepy scarecrow. I helped her clean up the stringy pulp and added the bat.

I improvised a "Go Gators" pumpkin. Now, I would have done a "Go Cats" pumpkin, but we were playing Penn State that day and the forecast for a Northwestern win was not so good. Cheering for my team is enough of an emotional commitment. And plus, I didn't have a giant Wildcat magnet I could trace. Lame excuses. Next year, I carve "Go Cats."

To pass out candy, I dressed up as "Spooky Kabuki." This was a recycled Elvira wig and costume, and with a couple tweaks, my blouse from China, and some chopsticks, I achieved a whole new look. I think it scared Brian a little.

Creepy, eh?!

I show you trick. Candy for you... Happy Harroween!... Candy for you... You no take candy from basket... I give to you. Waitchyo tern.

And whatchew costume?... You no dress up? You "hostage" for Harroween?... Ohhh, tha's very bad costume. You try 'gain nex' year, Okay?... (and then I broke character and said, "I'm just messing with you, here's your pretzels." Afterall, I didn't want to get egged by the hostage... but don't knock the pretzels shaped like bats and pumpkins.)

Big B and lil m's Big Adventure on the Big Island

COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But first, I'm finishing the homework I put off for the last two and a half weeks (and still putting off since I'm obviously distracted and clearly not doing homework right now...)

A “Laundry & Bourbon” Hangover

Our one-act show about three women living in Maynard, Texas circa Late ‘60s, opened and closed this past weekend. I played a Baptist gossip named Amy Lee who preys on the private lives of others. From Friday to Sunday Matinee, we gave three performances to small but enthusiastic audiences. Before every show, we painted on our Tammy-Fay faces, put up our big hair, and Vaselined our teeth. I felt just like Whittley from “Different World.” No one would every suspect the vicious tongue behind these pearly whites! After every show, I had a mild but chronic headache. I think it was from my pitchy-shrilly Texan-Baptist accent.

I had the privilege of working with another great cast, a great directing team, and another memorable experience of unleashing my love of thespian culture on the unsuspecting folks of Ocean Springs. I’ve been deathly afraid I wouldn’t be able to shake the accent after the show. It’s jeyust sew mutch fuhhhhhhhn! Already, I’ve caught myself saying lines in passing conversations--- they fit the context so well, it just happen naturally. I almost want to go to a Baptist service now, just to check it out, see if the “Blood of the Lamb” really comes up in small talk.

Another side story: I had to sew my own dress for the show. It was really cool! The process, the pattern… not so much the fabric which was intentionally chosen for its tackiness. I put in a zipper, stitched in darts and made my own button hole! Of course, I have to tell everyone, “You see this? I made this!” There was some cussing, I’ll admit, and there were a few seems ripped (“this hurts me more than it hurts you”), but overall, I think everyone should make a complete outfit at least once, AND on a deadline. ;) Just interpreting the Simplicity pattern instructions was an exercise in foreign language. Simple, my ass. It took me five times of reading the instruction for the sleeves and borrowing the other girl’s dress to see how her mom sewed in the sleeves, before I figured out what “adjusting along the bobbin thread” was supposed to mean. Sometimes, you just have to do it and mess it up, before you know what the hell you’re supposed to do.

I finished on time with my last hem, just a few hours before Opening Night. It makes me that much more appreciative for all the work our Grandmas did just to clothe themselves and their families. And they didn’t have patters to follow! I’d be like, “F&^$% that noise, I’m outsourcing this *&^%*# to Malaysia.”