We all had a lovely time, thank you.

A very lovely time indeed.

Guess who finally got a BIG trophy at the Five Star Races? Hmm? Hmm? Betcha can't!



YESSSS!

She won first place in her age group, and she couldn't be happier. Well, I suppose she could, if she'd won the quarter-mile overall. But, whatever.

I did not race again this year, because 1. I kept hearing the scanner go off, with the EMS getting called out for people PASSING OUT because of the heat; 2. My knees were bothering me again, and 3. Having to take pictures of all the racers, and be prepared to race myself, is just too taxing. Within a 20-minute time span, I have to be in about four different places, getting photos and names of winners, and that doesn't leave me much time to psych myself out.

Saturday was very, very relaxing, since a miracle happened and the cleaning we did last weekend was kept up on a daily basis! I KNOW! Who would have ever thought that the "pick up after yourself" thing would actually work?

And yesterday, I did another sugar overload, as Amanda came to have lunch with us and my parents and brought not one, but TWO cakes from her job. One, called a Frankly Scarlett, was a miniature red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. "Happy Father's Day" was written on top, and they couldn't get a hold of the person who'd ordered it, (and they would be closed for the next two days) so she brought it home.

(Yes, apparently REPEATED attempts at contact were made. I'm pretty sure they aren't in the habit of taking paid baking goods home without their due diligence.)

The other cake was a MASSIVE, three-layer number called the Cindy Lou Who. Each layer was a different color - pink, yellow, or purple - and it had pink frosting with coordinating "polka dots."It was a birthday cake, but the patron who'd ordered it insisted she had canceled the order the next day. It was vanilla flavored cake with vanilla buttercream, and it was sinful.

I'm "detoxing" today, because I need to be on my Ps and Qs in anticipation of our Press Association convention this weekend. Wohoo! It isn't at the coast, but at a casino about half an hour from here - which I guess was fortuitous, since none of us know what the condition of the beaches will be from one day to the next.

Fortunately, there don't seem to be any family functions on the horizon, so Amanda shouldn't be bringing $40 cakes to tempt me with!

(Title) writer's block

I just could not come up with a snappy title for this post.

Let me tell you what it's about, and then maybe you can help me. That's what we do around our office when we need a headline and we're stumped.

This entry is about taking Anna Marie to the fair on Saturday.

Alone!

I did not want to go. I'll admit it. I was happy that it wasn't over 100 degrees like it was last year, but it was raining. And I was tired. And I had other things to get accomplished on Saturday, and if I wasn't taking pictures for the paper, I probably wouldn't have even gone.

But I did. We did. Anna Marie and I.

(Where was Jason? Snoozing away, of course.)

Admission was only $2 each, and I bought Anna Marie a "fun pass" that entitled her to play on 7 or 8 blow-up thingies (moon bounces, etc.) as much as she wanted for another $3.

So that's what we did. Mom gave her $5 to buy a snack (as a bribe for her to eat breakfast?) but more on that later.

Anna Marie spent most of her time on those inflatable things, which were under one end of the arena where the fair was held, while I took pictures.

(Yes, I left my nearly seven-year-old child alone for a few minutes at a time while I walked around and took pictures. All of the inflatables were in one spot, and she understood she was to go NO WHERE away from those without me. Not even if someone told her they were taking her to me - no one. And to talk to no one that I hadn't OK'd first, be they an adult or a teenager. And, that there were several adults we knew manning those inflatables, and if she needed anything, she was to find one of them and have them call me.)

(Also - I checked back on her every few minutes. And if we had been anywhere else other than here, I wouldn't have ever dared to do it. That's the end of my mommy-justification for the day.)

One of the things she did while I was around - boxed some random kid.



I can hear her now, getting all up in his grill.



Yeah, that's what I thought. Punk.

There was a film crew from Sweden there, doing a documentary about Southern food. I knew they were European because no one down here wears shoes this cool.



And what would a county fair be without livestock? This cow was headed for a milking contest. The poor girls looked like they hadn't been milked in several days.




Ok, so that part about all the inflatables being in one place, inside? Not completely true - there were several waterslides outside, and I promised we could do those last.





Yeah, that water was as nasty as it looks onscreen.

So, about the snack - we settled on some nachos and a shaved ice. Which took up not only the fiver mom gave her, but a dollar of mine as well! But the worst part was that as we were sitting inside the arena, so she could eat on the bleachers, I knocked over the shaved ice! None of it got on her, but she cried real tears about it.

I felt badly, too, because I didn't have enough cash left to get her another.

Luckily, the cow milking contest started, and she was distracted for a while.

Nothing like observing a little hard farm labor to fascinate a little red-haired city girl.

(Not quite) all the deets on the races

I had hoped to have a little more information about the Five Star Races before I posted again.

Like, for instance, my time.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down the person who has that vital information. Suffice it to say, it wasn't the fastest in the pack, or even the fastest in my age group.

(I also had hoped to be home long enough to post again. That only happened just now.)

Anna Marie had her first half-mile run on Friday night. It was also the first time she was competing with older kids, some as old as nine.

It was not the first time she didn't win. Poor baby - she came in DEAD last. I mean, so far behind the rest of the pack that I was starting to get concerned that maybe she'd gotten hurt, and I was about to go searching the course for her.

Then, there she came - blazing in her bright green glory. And beside her, on the grass was my mother! She was running alongside, in her sandals and long skirt.

The crowd went wild! Shirley from work started yelling for her. And then the announcer guy started yelling for her in the microphone. And then the group of people from a home for folks with mental disabilities started yelling for her!

By the time she finally made it to the finish line, there were great gobs of people chanting, "Come on, Anna Marie!"

She told me that her legs were hurting, and she was tired, and she almost stopped, but she kept on going! I told her that was the important thing in life: that it didn't matter how pretty, or smart, or talented you were, that if you gave up and didn't finish, you weren't going to do anything in life.

Ah, the beauty of a teachable moment.

I knew then that, come Hell or high water, I had to get through my two-mile walk.

It was SO much cooler this year than last year. And I am about 10 - 15 pounds lighter than last year, but I don't think that was as big a factor as the temperature. I set my iPod to play one of my favorite praise and worship albums, and I set out on my way.

And I did it - I finished! I think it took me about half an hour, which would be okay. It took me about 33 minutes two years ago (the last time I actually finished.)

On top of the competition on the course, there was also a competition to see which group could have the most members signed up. My Weight Watchers group came in second, with 17 members! I was so proud of everyone - nearly every one of our ladies got a trophy of some sort!

After the walk we were all in line at the post-race buffet, and my WW leader was just ahead of me, pointing to the veggie tray and telling us that we DID NOT have to eat that. She gave us carte blanche to eat whatever we wanted to - and forbade us to look at her plate, or anyone elses', critically.

I don't care that I didn't win. I don't care that I didn't place. All I care about is that I finished, and so did all my WW ladies, and so did Anna Marie.

Was I sore on Saturday? You bet your sweet bippy I was. And Sunday too. But I knew I'd earned it, and mentally, I felt like a million bucks.

And Anna Marie and I have already gotten together our game plan for training for next year. We'll be ready!

S-U-N-D-A-Y night!

Yeah, that title worked better last night, when it was Satuday night, and I first thought of it.

But I was too lazy to get up out of bed and get the laptop out.

Besides, we were watching Torchwood in our room, and it was very creepy and suspenseful. My husband really has turned me into a SciFi geek!

It would've been a perfect time to blog, too, since Anna Marie was at mom's and my washing machine was humming along doing my laundry.

I would've talked about how I spent 2.5 hours on the floor of the Senatobia Elementary School gymnasium on Friday, playing "hot potato" with a bunch of 5- and 6-year-olds. Because, even though it was a Friday, a deadline day no less, I took off and went to volunteer at Anna Marie's fall festival.

I don't think there was another kindergartener left in the free world. They were all in that gym, broken down into only slightly more managable groups, rotating among the game stations.

I could've also blogged about going to the Fun Food Fair at my friend LaJuan's church on Saturday. It's their Ladies Guild's (I think that's what they're called) big fundraiser every year. They had food from Belize (Anna Marie's Spanish Teacher, Ms. Michelle), Slovakia, and Mexico (another kindergarten teacher from the school), along with Cajun cooking. They also had lots of sweets (which Jason ate, but I didn't), face painting, a silent auction, and a raffle.

Jason and I had these little taco-like things from Ms. Michelle called salbutes (chicken, topped with a cabbage-based salad, on corn tortillas). It was delicious! Turns out, she owned a restaurant when she lived in Belize. Cool!

Anna Marie, being much less adventureous, just had nachos.

Then I could've talked about how I went to Pickin in the Park afterwards, a concert put on by our local arts council. In a park. Naturally.

Maybe I could've taken pictures of Anna Marie's dinner, which was the chili I made topped with a "cheese face" - pieces of cheese arranged in the shape of a face on top, of course. It started out as a way to get her to eat the chili, and now it's a tradition.

Last night, she said, "I'll never get too old for a cheese face!"

But now, I'm just really tired. We had church, and then praise team practice, and then a staff meeting, and by the end of the afternoon, I was exhausted and had a splitting headache. I curled up on the couch and tried to let the meds kick in. Which they didn't. So the headache persisted into the dinner hour.

Luckily, Jason saved us all from starvation by cooking.

And now, I'm watching Thursday night's episode of Ugly Betty on the DVR, because I used my computer-show-watching-time to catch up on Pushing Daisies.

And now that the weekend is over, I get to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.

Ugh.

A 5-Star Update

(And you might be wondering why it's called the 5-Star Races. It's because Senatobia used to be known as the 5-Star City, those stars being Industry, Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Education. Spells "I CARE." Clever, no?)

Anyway.

I was really useless for most of Saturday. I took a nap and everything, and Sunday my rear end hurt, along with my shins.

On Monday, Shirley, the president of the Optimist Club (sponsor of the race) and my co-worker, asked how I did. I told her that I'd gotten sick from the heat and had to stop, and she said there were more people complaining about the heat this year than ever before.

And the walk doesn't start until after 7:00 p.m., if that's any indication of how hot Mississippi is at the end of June.

So, I wasn't imagining things - it really was dangerously hot. I'm not crazy!

Did you notice AM's new glasses in the picture at the top of this post? They're Barbie brand, and I like them muchly. I'm also hopeful that they won't get bent as easily as the wire rimmed pair.

Here she is again, doing some strange pre-race ritual. Next to her in line is her Arch Nemesis, Peyton. With her dad. And I found out this week that the whole family runs on a regular basis.



Suckers.

And here is the picture my loving husband took of me, starting the race. Don't I look fly, in that bandanna? I forgot to bring a hair barrette to hold my locks back, and I found the bandanna in the car so I put it on.



(Click the picture to enbiggen. I think.)

(Incidentally, that fabric may have contributed to my overheating, by slowing down the heat exiting my head. Possibly. Maybe. That's my scientific assessment.)

I guess it goes to show, no matter how fly you look, it doesn't do a bit of good if your insides are cooking.

Quitters never win

Did you know that?

I figured it out last night.

We had our Five Star Races. Mom came down to see Anna Marie run - actually, she was AM's "target." It's her last year in the Toddler Races, and next year she'll be outside running 1/2 mile against bigger kids.

My baby!

Anyway, I'm glad they left right after her race. Because I wouldn't have wanted my daughter to be around to see how I did.

Let me explain the event I was entered in: a two-mile walk, all around a (very, very hilly) college campus. They couldn't find a straight stretch for us. No. There's even a perfectly good walking track right behind the coliseum where we started. That would be too easy.

And Lawd, was it hot. Did I mention the heat? Very important, that.

About 1/2 way through, I started getting some horrible cramps all through my torso. Like, I could barely walk horrible.

I stopped for a minute or so to see if the cramps subsided. They didn't. But I kept going anyway.

Then, the headache started. Again I stopped, and my legs felt like they were going to fall from under me.

Still, I kept going.

About 3/4 of the way through, I started feeling nauseas. I asked one of the course workers how much further and she thought about half a mile.

I couldn't do it, y'all. I went back to the starting/finish line, where Jason was waiting with my camera.

I thought I was going to pass out. I was over heated.

Never in my life have I felt so badly, both physically and psychologically. I almost started crying as I sat in the lobby, trying to drink some water.

My Weight Watchers leader, Carolyn, came in. (She, by the way, won the Grand Master, meaning she's the fastest old lady there! No kidding!) She told me that it was OK I didn't finish, especially if there was a chance I'd have ended up in the ER.

That would've been especially bad considering I'm one of the uninsured.

I called my mom and told her. I didn't want Anna Marie to be disappointed, but mom said she was happy because she FINALLY had stinky feet.

You read that right. She was excited about having stinky feet she could smell.

And no, she didn't win her race. That honor, of course, went to Peyton, her arch nemesis. And who will also be starting the same school as her in the fall, as she lives around the corner next door to her grandparents - her grandmother who is a kindergarten teacher at the school, and her grandfather who is a retired judge.

And did I mention her dad is the president of a bank branch in our county? And she's blonde? I see a "most popular girl in school" in the making.

Anyway. I'm not bitter.

I don't know what went wrong last night - I tried to drink plenty of water through the day, and I ate a turkey sandwich about two hours before the race. Last year I did so great, I even won a trophy for third place in my age group.

(Know who one first in my age group last year and this year? Peyton's mom! How's that for irony?)

Even this morning, my legs are weak. And that's after just a mile and a half!

Next year, though, will be different. I think. I'm going to train better, and maybe drink some water closer to race time.

And hopefully not get overheated and have to quit.

Reason #1,395,287 that I love living in Senatobia

Relay for Life.

Actually, it isn't so much the relay that I enjoy - it's the sense of community it promotes.

And in that sense, it's a lot of other things around here that I think are pretty neat.

There's Relay, and MayFair, and the Pickin in the Park concerts, and National Day of Prayer - they all center around Gabbert Park, which happens to be one of my most favorite places in town. And they all help us gather together for a common cause.

Anna Marie and I went to the Relay on Friday night for a couple of hours. When she realized that some folks were spending the night there, she wanted to do that too! I guess I'll have to find a team next year. Or something.

Anyway.

I really, really need to remember to take someone with me to these events I'm covering, because Friday night reminded me how hard it is to do my newspaper job and my mom job at the same time. Even though we're in Senatobia, I still didn't feel safe just letting her run around without my (at least partial) supervision.

I'm just so darn proud of our community, and how they come together to support this. It's the third year, and last year over $30,000 was raised. I haven't gotten this year's totals yet, but I've heard they got even more.

That may not sound like a lot to some people, but for a town of about 7,000, I'd say that was pretty good.

They got all 10 of the dollars I brought, too - for three separate blow-up games,



face painting,



a ride on a horse named Reba





(Who apparently didn't eat before she came)



A couple of raffle tickets and two pickles.

It was nearly 9:00 p.m. when I had to tear Anna Marie away from the park. She was watching a dunk tank where some of the (dozen or so) candidates for this year's sheriff's race were taking turns getting soaked. She laughed like it was the funniest thing she's ever seen.

(I didn't tell her that as a reward for good performance on a practice standardized test, the principal of her future elementary school did the same thing a few weeks ago.)

I love summer. I love Gabbert Park.

And I love our little community.

We're so famous, we're infamous!

Does anyone remember that movie, The Three Amigos? About three movie stars, who were summoned to Mexico to battle a real life bad guy? He was referred to as "Infamous" so the dolts thought the was so famous as to be "infamous"?

No? Just me? Oh well.

Anyway, my publisher wrote a set of scathing editorials that published yesterday about our state's Attorney General. He basically calls for the AG to resign, because of the damage done to the state's insurance industry in the wake of his malicious comments.

In case you didn't know, people in South Mississippi are suing their insurance companies because of Hurricane Katrina-related damage. That includes Senator Trent Lott, who lost one of his houses. I think the main question is over whether the damage was caused by wind or water. And I also believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the insurance companies are simply trying to uphold the contracts the homeowners agreed to in the first place.

Oh, and make a profit, naturally.

So, Mr. Hood, the AG, called all insurance companies "Robber Barons" and is encouraging the citizens to revolt against them. State Farm announced that after last week, they would write no new homeowners policies in this state - no matter where in the state you reside.

My boss is concerned that because State Farm is basically pulling out of the homeowners insurance industry in Mississippi, there will be less competition and prices will rise for everyone.

He also says that he doesn't blame the company for pulling out, given the attitude of the AG.

So, somehow, through the magic of the Internet, the editorial has gotten statewide coverage.

Our phones have been ringing off the hook. Our website has been overrun with hits. We're getting calls from PR firms, wanting permission to use the editorials in their work for the insurance industry.

We're the subject of talk radio shows.

I spent yesterday playing phone tag with the state's Insurance Commissioner, who was wanting to give me his two cents worth. He finally just emailed me today.

I guess it's catching people off guard that the only paper in the state with this viewpoint is a small weekly.

My boss said that he doesn't think he's the only one thinking like this, just the only one "obnoxious enough" (his words, not mine!) to say so in public.

He's thrilled. Naturally.

We have to walk a fine line around here - how do we stir up enough controversy to sell papers, but yet not enough to get ourselves sued? Thankfully, the AG is a public official, and he would have to meet a higher standard of proof - that we knowingly printed something untrue or damaging - before he could sue. And, as my boss says, "When you're an elected official, you have to put up with a certain amount of crap."

(This is the same man that, when our web hosting company had problems last month, ripped the check for their payment in half before he signed it, and sent it in with a note saying "This is your half payment for the half-a**** service you provided." Their comptroller called, and offered to give him January's service for free.)

So, much like the villan on Three Amigos, our little newspaper is becoming somewhat infamous.

Next, we'll be doing a song and dance number.

My little buttercup, has the sweetest smile…

I love a parade!

Well, I don't love it that much, but I have a small child.

And she LOVES parades.

Her favorite part is the marching bands.

Last night, we had our annual Christmas parade in Senatobia. Why they can't have it during the day, I'll never know. I'll also never know why the weather can be sunny and 65 degrees in the days leading up to the event, but that night, it turns blue cold.

We're talking 25 degrees here, folks.

Last year, I didn't even take Little AM. She spent the night with my mom, way out in the county, where she didn't even know there was a parade.

I stood on a street corner for two hours, freezing both myself and my camera, to get pictures that didn't come out anyway.

This year, I had a plan. My general manager doesn't seem real happy with it, but my publisher told me to.

I went to the parking lot where the floats were setting up about 4:30, before it got dark. I got a picture of a group and their float.

I then went to cover the county school board meeting, which had been moved up to 5:00 p.m. so that board members could get out before Main Street was blocked off.

It didn't let out until 7:15. I had to take a back road and park at the bank next door to my office so I could walk over and clock out.

I really, really didn't want to have to get back out, but our house backs up to the businesses on Main Street - it isn't like I could pretend that there was no parade going on in our backyard. Besides, she was ready to go when I got there.

I made myself a PB&J and we set out to find a parking space. Call me soft, but I was not leaving the confines of my van. We'd be cold, but at least the wind would be off of us and we could crank up occasionally and get some heat going. Plus, I wouldn't have to worry about an excited five-year-old running out into the street.

I got lucky - even though it was close to 7:30 when we left the house, and the parade started at 7:00, we found a spot - at an intersection around the corner from my house. We were allowed to park in the middle of the street, because, well, Main Street was blocked and no one was going to be coming through anyway.

The parade was just about to get to our section, so we didn't have to wait long.

Anna Marie kept making these odd, giggly noises. I asked her if she was OK, and she just kept telling me how excited she was.

It lasted about an hour, and then I got out into traffic and found a place to turn around at a red light. We were cold. We were tired. But at least one of us was happy!

Like I said - there was no use in my trying to take the pictures anyway - my shutter gets sluggish in the cold, and it's too dark to get pictures of floats in the dark. Plus, I have a little point-and-shoot, and my flash is absolutely useless.

So I had to endure the disappointment of my GM, when she knows good and well that in the four years I've been working here we've never had a picture of the first place float to go on the front page.

There is another parade in our county tonight, and the GM says she's going to try to take pictures. I can't go, because I have another board meeting to cover.

*and 10 points to whoever can tell me where that song "I Love a Parade" comes from. I have no idea, but it's been circling through my head today.

World exposure for Senatobia!

Ok, well maybe I'm a little more excited than most of you will be, but…

We had a blues legend who lived here, named Jessie Mae Hemphill. She died last Saturday. We'd already gotten calls from the Associated Press wanting to know what information we had, but it was early in the week and we had none. I did work up a story, though, because my predecessor LaJuan had interviewed her in 2003. I also used a picture that LaJuan took.

Well, this afternoon I got a call from ABC World News in Washington. They wanted pictures of Jessie Mae! I told them we had one, and that they could use is as long as they gave credit. I emailed the picture, along with the information.

So, long story short, apparently one of our pictures is going to be on ABC World News Tonight! Around here, it comes on at 5:30. We won't be home, because we're going to Memphis to the Orpheum Theater for an old movie for Amanda's birthday. (They show old movies there during the summer - this week its one of the "Thin Man" movies. We're all into old movies!) I called Jason and asked him to set the DVR.

I'm so happy LaJuan did that interview! And took that picture! And that I got to talk to a real, live newsperson from Washington. I mean, that's different than the newspaper from two counties over calling to ask permission to run somebody's grandkid's picture who was in 4-H, right?

Yeah, that's me with a trophy!

Can you believe it? I got third place in my age division for the 2 mile walk. And I don't know if she was telling me the truth or not, but Shirley said there were more than three people in the category!

We had a lot of fun. If you live anywhere near Senatobia (even DeSoto County) you need to come to the Five Star Races. It's really one of those events that makes Tate County special.

Anna Marie lost to Peyton (again), and irony at its best - her mother beat me in my age group! It took me roughly 33 minutes to go the 2 miles, which I guess wasn't too bad, considering how out of shape I am!

It was good to talk to LaJuan and some of the others I know in the community. And who knew my mother would confiscate the mic and get Mark Massey to play "People Get Ready" for her - and all without telling him who she was! Good thing LaJuan and I were there to vouch for her after she left.

Hey, don't forget - food at my house tomorrow after church. Grilled pork chops and who knows what else. Come and bring a side of something, and some casual clothes for the trip to Bellevue!