I woke up with cramps AND a headache. Grabbed some painkiller and a heating pad and went back to bed. Woke up to the lovely sound of the landscapers doing crazy chainsaw things in the building courtyard. LOUD.

BUT, as I lay there thinking "God damnit, I just want some sleep," my phone rang! With someone (who I was going to call and bug today!) requesting an interview!! Way to make my day start off WAY BETTER. YAY.

OI! Families of my Bitches! No more accidents, infections, leaving this plane for another, etc. I mean it!!

This.

Y'all had a discussion about the south and I missed it! My South has family and savory food, fireflies at night and woods with meandering creeks, treehouses built over long summer days, porches and back porches, football and booster clubs, iced tea with too much lemon, dogs sleeping under the house, fishing with granddandy, good music, accents dripping honey, eccentric folk, work trucks, boat hitches and Big Stars.

I want to go visit the South. Tom and I were just talking about taking a road trip.

DH was originally going as well, but he can't swing it with the business. He's a good one for telling me to go without him.

sooooo, does that mean that there's an extra ticket floating around? ;)

So I'm searching for a job online while Emeline draws on her chalkboard easel thing with, natch, chalk.

Then she wanders over to where I'm typing on the laptop and draws a line with chalk on the back of the screen.

Me: No!
Em: (looks irritated for a moment) Sowwy.

Then she goes to do it again!

Me: I said NO!
Em: (stares at me for a moment, gauging: Is Daddy serious? Is this, perhaps, a code for "Oh, how precious! Do it again!"? Hm. Scowling. Glaring. Not code, then. Begins fake crying) I want my Mommy!
Me: Mommy would say "no", too.
Em: (stomps off)

Has she turned three yet?

My South is cornbread without sugar; biscuits; grits; greens; field peas cooked with a ham end; pulled pork with some outside meat; green beans cooked with ham and topped with chopped raw onions; and muscadines and scuppernogs. It's where "peas" means crowder, black-eyed, field and related peas, and the other peas are English or green peas. It's where people still talk about "sweet milk," as opposed to buttermilk, and iced tea comes sweet unless you ask for unsweetened. It's making eye contact with strangers and smiling. It's also poor schools; crazy liquor laws; an unhealthy obsession with high school and college football; and going from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to your air conditioned office.

Has she turned three yet?

Not yet. And at this rate, not likely to.

As long as she doesn't go around saying, "Are you my mommy?"...

As long as she doesn't go around saying, "Are you my mommy?"...

She does have a tendency to go up to other people, point at me and say "That's my daddy."

So they know who to sue for damages, presumably.