Do you always close the bathroom door....

Even when you're home alone?

I just realized I do. I even lock the door....

Bless the silliness of life......

For most of last week my house was bursting at the seams. My Nawth Carolina kids (along with two friends) were home. Add to that the kid/child/young adult (you choose) who's currently living with me, and the fact that dad/hubby/bread winner/hunter gather is working (in BR) and living at home, and we were as close to being a normally functioning family as we've ever been. Their visit was the usual gloriously zany, hectic, and kooky-type visit. (Which, as usual, left me wondering why it is we can't behave sedately and orderly as the families I see in tv commercials....)

They left all too soon, and are home safely. They took the kid/child/young adult/brother who's been living back home with me. He's staying til Christmas and then we're meeting up at the Coast. I say all that to say this -- hubby and I are home alone. Actually, hubby's somewhere in TX today helping a friend pick up and haul back a boat the friend bought on eBay. Why can't men do anything alone!? But....Saturday, hubby and I were home alone and we decided to pop into the little seafood joint up the street. Here's the silliness that transpired:

As we're walking to the restaurant, we pass by a few neighbors and stop to chat for a minute or two. In each short conversation, someone mentions how tired they are, and how glad they are that we have the weekend off. We agree with them. At the restaurant, the server tells us how glad he is that we have the weekend off. We sigh, and agree. The cook/owner makes the rounds and tells everyone to eat up and rest up for next weekend. Big one coming up. We all heartily agree. We can't wait. As we leave, everyone tells each other to pull us through next Saturday, and we solemnly accept our portion of responsibility.

Yes, we are a city preparing for battle. Football battle. And to hear us talk you'd think that we actually expend some of our personal energy on the field, when in fact, our part is done at home. Here are some of the things people do -- and they swear it helps the team win:

One person watches the game upside down when the Tigers are in trouble.

One person won't move from the position he finds himself in when the Tigers begin a drive. He moves when the drive is over. Some of those drives last 7 minutes or more....

One person watches/listens to the game with his back turned when the Tiger's are doing good. ??

And then there are the ju-ju moves and the talisman.

You get the idea....

Now, me? I fully realize how foolish all this is. It's the team that plays and decides their fate. Period.

I help them by remembering that they are a bunch of kids out there in front of millions of people and don't deserve the criticism and cussing that is sometimes aimed at them.

I help them by loving and supporting them even when they stink.

And....I help them by wearing my purple panties and purple earrings. (Don't laugh. I bought those purple earrings before their national championship season. ....Some things are just too obvious to discount!)

Thank you, G-d, for life's silliness and our ability to participate in it. Even if it does wear us out.

Three battles fought. Three battles won.

Now, we call him -- da guv. (keep your fingers crossed)

Three battles fought. Three battles won.

Three battles fought. Three battles won.

And, for my Tennessee friends -- in the true spirit of our unique sense of sportsmanship:

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me!

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, BIRTHDAY......TOOOOOOOOOOOOO MEEEEEEEEEEE!

(Pardon the self-promotion. Here --- have a piece of Caramel Doberge Cake from Gambino's and a cup of coffee from CC's.)

It's a beautiful day. Full of promise. The gubernatorial election. My two favorite college football teams each have one of their biggest games of the season. And, more importantly, I know where all my kids are and have talked with each of them recently. At this moment in time, I feel blessed. Tonight....after the election results and the game scores -- it might be a different story. But, we'll worry about that later. Right now -- it's all good.

Well, time to take a deep breath and get to work. Three battles await -- the election and two football games. But, plates of shawarma along with the cake and plenty of liquid refreshment is at the ready.

I wish you all a wonderful day!

We call him Bobby......

this young man so many are pinning their hopes upon. He's not much older than my daughter -- they went to the same highschool. During the last gubernatorial election (the one before Katrina. the one that maybe, just maybe could have produced a different outcome for this state in general [and Katrina victims specifically] if the election had had a different outcome) he was called a wunderkind. For the first time in I can't remember when, I didn't have to hold my nose as I voted for Bobby. After his loss (especially after realizing who he lost to) I was ready to pack my bags and head to sweet home Alabama.

Well, we have another chance. This Saturday. But this time around I'm not so confident. I don't know if there's anyone who can pull this place forward. It's like my seatmate on the flight from hell home from NYC said about Katrina, "If something didn't change things. I wonder if someone can."

I wonder, too. It's being said that people in this state are being paralyzed by indecisiveness -- and the closer to the storm's effects you are, the more indecisive you are. How true. In one ear we're hearing -- we have the chance of a lifetime to change things. to start over. to make things better.

Then....in the other ear we're hearing -- you know you can't trust anyone. be careful. remember the past. do the right thing.

Believe it or not, there are many down this way who care and want to do the right thing. Many of us see hope in a young man born in Baton Rouge to parents who had recently arrived from India to attend graduate school. A young man who was daily told how blessed he was to be living in America. A young man who decided he wanted to be called Bobby after watching the The Brady Bunch. A young man who, as a teenager, converted from Hinduism to Catholicism.

It's time to decide and all I can say is, "Go Bobby Go!"
....I think. ....I hope.

"I used to care......

but I take a pill for that now."


I recently saw that saying on a t-shirt and couldn't help laughing out loud.
....Which brings to mind a conversation/debate/argument I had last weekend with a friend. He and I both are suspicious of popping pills for "this" or "that." Be strong -- we tell each other. Get your mind right -- is another favorite saying.

That's well and fine for us, but once he started implying that everyone should follow the same philosophy -- I had to disagree. He thinks, in general, that people are being prescribed too many pills to act as crutches, much too easily. He thinks it's not good because it starts a vicious cycle -- pop a pill for [fill-in-the-blank] (so you don't have to deal with it), and then something else surfaces that you need another pill for, and then you can have side effects for which you need even more pills....

I can see where this might be so, but I feel that a person's actions shouldn't be judged so quickly or generally. We can't get inside another person and feel what he or she is feeling. Let them deal with it -- along with a trained professional.

I think we all are blessed in different ways. I don't take much medicine -- don't like to. But when I finally do take an aspirin and realize how much better I can feel, I wonder why I didn't take one sooner. But....even then, nothing changes. I'm no more apt to take anything for relief quicker the next time I'm not feeling well. My husband says I'm trying to prove I'm tuff because I was raised in a houseful of males. I think it's more likely that I might not feel pain and discomfort as acutely as some.

I know someone who can plan (and execute) a party for any number of people at a moment's notice. Me? The thought of having two people over causes me to freeze up and reach for the phone to order out. The friend I'm talking about has a pill for everything. Wait a minute....maybe that's why she can do the things she does????

Have you ever wanted to just curl up and......

....disappear?

That's how I feel. I don't know why exactly. Things just don't feel right and I want them -- and me -- to go away.

So....excuse me while I go and curl up and pull the blankets over my head for a while.

LSU MARCHING BAND