Thursday, January 17, 2008

backatcha!

whew! that was one looooooonnnnnnngggggg break! and so i didn't pop in and post a few times before i left on christmas day. i'm sure no one missed me much.
well i'm back now. mississippi was great. i missed being home and seeing my mama (awwwww) and my family. even though i got a bit sick (i spent a few days in bed scared that i was on the edge of having pneumonia), i managed to visit with some of my family and precious friends back home. i wish i had more time to stay and really get caught up with folks.
ainsley, of course, went with me and accompanied us on a couple of shopping outings and i was absolutely overcome with joy (ok....that's exaggerating, but you get the picture) that no one freaked out over ainsley like some places in new jersey seem to have a habit of doing. it was a frickin' breath of fresh air i tell you. no matter how much people like to rag on the south--and the deep south in particular--there ain't no place like home to me. the people, the sights, the sounds, the flavors--i love MY SOUTH.... which reminds me....
on one of our shopping outtings, we went to Greenwood, MS (about 35 miles from my hometown) and had lunch at the Viking Company's Mockingbird Bakery which is next to the Viking Cooking School and Shop. The acclaimed delta hotel, The Alluvian, is across the street and the Alluvian Spa is in the same building. Next stop was The Turnrow Book Company where i literally could have spent weeks browsing and hanging out. i LOVE this bookstore. i know i will be making future, lengthier visits when i make extended trips back home. i can't wait to try out the reading porch in the summer.
i bought myself the perfect little book called My South by Robert St. John and Bryan Curtis. I picked up a few other small things (local magazines) but wanted to just move in. Another stop was The Mississippi Gift Company where i was less than thrilled with the prices, but still founds lots of cute items that i really liked. the best thing is that they have mail order for all those delta gourmet items like cheese straws and trash.
i spent time helping mother sort through the backlog of "stuff" and made a huge dent in the "stuff" pile by getting rid of over five HUGE contractor's trash bags of "stuff". we've got a great deal of work to do in order to address some repair issues with her house. this means i may be spending my summers in mississippi for a while. i wonder if i can still handle the humidity??? *yikes*
i spent a good deal of quality time with my little jake-jake. he's my little JRT who ran away from home when i went off to wisconsin for grad school in 2002. he lives down the road with the neighbors now and they call him squirrel, but he still is, and always will be, my little jake-jake. he comes when i call him across the cotton field and he stops by the house when he knows i'm there. he loves up on me and lets me cuddle him. he still does this sweet little thing of putting his nose on my nose and looking deep into my eyes. still likes to play chase and to show out for me. he's a happy dog with a happy life. i sure love him.
the cats are just fine. pokey has lost her upper teeth for some reason and seemed a little thin to me so i bought her some wet cat food and she went to town with that. i left a huge box of wet food for mama to feed her from now on and now the other cat, miss kitty, insists on being fed the same although she has all her teeth. i'm amazed at how loving and sweet pokey has become. she used to be the cat version of sybil--sweet one minute and satanic the next. i think i like pokey in her old age. miss kitty likes to get up on the roof and sit right at the corner of the house watching things. aparently mama got worried that she couldn't get down the first time she did this and went to all sorts of trouble, even calling my aunt kat and uncle harry, to get the cat off the roof. now miss kitty comes down when she's ready. all by herself.
since my flight back to jersey left at 7am on a friday morning, aunt kat, mama, and i went to jackson on thursday night and spent the night with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. of course, i had to throw a little drama into that night by getting attacked by a vicious, evil, 11lb yorkie named abby. *eye roll*. abby looked and acted like she wanted to give me a kiss and i, being the dumbass that i am, figured i'd oblige her, promptly finding said doggie's teeth embedded in my lower lip. ouch don't do it justice. thankfully, miss abby kindly left my lip attached to my face and did very little damage. still, it hurt like a MOTHERf&$^er. no lie. once the bleeding stopped and the pain subsided, it looked like little more than a mishap caused me to bite my own lower lip. today, it is almost healed and just feels like a very chapped lip. since that happened "at home", i guess it doesn't qualify as something to write home about.
while at home, i received (at the wrong address) my letter and certificate for the certification test i took in october. i was quite relieved. gotta get that sucka framed up good.
before we left for jackson, i went out to cottonwood plantation in morgan city to meet a friend of my mothers. he was pretty cool and very well read. he has books everywhere. he'd been in the hospital due to a bleeding ulcer (double ouch) but was doing much better and i was glad to finally meet him after hearing so much about him and his family for so many years. i also met trampus, the dog. mama had told me how trampus showed up looking all mangy, skin and bones, and cut up, and just sad. they didn't expect trampus to live, but he did. and amazingly, trampus is now the prettiest purebred german shepard dog i've ever seen. that's right, he's a purebred german shepard. he immediately fell long and hard in LOVE with ainsley. it was quite sweet. he was very protective of her, yet at the same time demanding (if you know what i mean!). he's incredibly smart as well as beautiful. you know me, i love dogs. i love cats. i love animals.
i also got to me little ben. he calls my mother aunt doris and mama loves him to pieces. he's a sweetheart. i've had pictures of him from when he was born but this was my first time to meet him.
all in all, the trip home was more than i expected in many ways. it was perhaps the best trip home so far. i didn't get to see aunt cookie, uncle richard, or uncle lewis, but i'll have time for that next time (i sure hope!). i did manage to re-connect with some very special and important people in my life and to understand others better than i had previously. i think some bonding was done and relationships taken to a "next level".
i already miss home, but i sure do love the city.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad your trip home went well, but more glad you're back! *smoochies*

Anonymous said...

Great reading! If you do come for the summer, PLEASE let's get together!

Love ya!

Arwen said...

Welcome back! We missed you! TONS!

Deana said...

Sounds like you really enjoyed your trip back home. I am glad you are back safe and sound too!