The Beauty and the Mess

Everybody knows about the West Nile virus, right? Well, last night my neighborhood's status as the Zip Code of Death was confirmed. More dead birds have been found in our zip code than any other place in the Memphis area. It's gotten so bad that health department officials are going door to door making sure no one has any standing water. So if I suddenly drop off the face of the earth, send someone to the apartment to take me to the emergency room. :)

I'm so excited about Tiger football starting up on Saturday! I saw a news item yesterday, "Why the Tigers say they have something to prove this year." They have something to prove every year! They haven't had a winning season since- well, ever! And the main reason, in my uneducated opinion, is that every play of every game is the same. Hand it off, run it up the middle. Hand it off, run it up the middle. You'd think they'd see that passing the ball, or veering to one side, might be a good idea. But in spite of this, I love going to the games, and part of me wants to believe the new-season hype. All Tiger fans feel, irrationally, every August that this will be the year, much as Memphians in general feel every winter that The Long-Predicted Blizzard is imminent.

Well, that was a whole lot of talk about nothing. I'm going to go eat my tortellini. (FYI- a cheap five-pound bag of cheesy tortellini from Sam's is not as good as cheesy tortellini in small refrigerated packages. I guess it's better to spend more money, and get something that doesn't taste like paste.)

Lots of things to discuss today.

I became the victim of a bad haircut on Saturday. I have been going to this lady for 6 months, and till recently I was very happy with her work. But it seems like the longer I go to her, the bigger the discrepancy gets between the back of my hair and the front of my hair. You know how layers are supposed to be gradual? Well, there is nothing gradual about it. I have chin-length hair in the front and shoulder-length hair in the back. I thought it was just growing out weird, and tried to explain the problem to her, but apparently I did not explain well. I don't want it any shorter than it is now, so I will have to live with it for a while and get it fixed (by someone else) before conference. Bleah.
On Saturday, after my haircut, we went to the Tigers game. I do not like driving on our downtown jaunts, because I get nervous, but Kathy had the old clunker, so we had no choice. After a few wrong turns, we got almost to the Pyramid and were stopped by an authoritative-looking man blocking traffic in the middle of the street. He told me to give him five dollars to park in a lot around the corner. Like an idiot, I gave him the money and turned where he told me to, and encountered a police blockade. They asked me where I was going. I said I was parking, and they said I could only park in the Pyramid lot. So I had to pay another five dollars. I was very mad. If you are reading this, Mr. Parking Thief, I think you are a very bad (but probably rich) man. :(

I was going to write about being sad, and some general realizations I have come to over the last few days, but now I don't know where to start. I guess I will address that tomorrow, or the next day.

This was a pretty eventful weekend. I got to go to Midnight Madness on Friday night and see the Memphis basketball team (Yay Scooter [#3]!). I hear that we're pre-ranked #10 in the country this year, which is amazing. Then, yesterday we had a fun cookout thing at my church. The college group did buffalo wings, so by the end, most of us were sticky from buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing, but it was well worth it. Now it is Monday and I am back at work. Sigh. :)