Red Letter Day

Yesterday was a red letter day for me. I was in the big city to help my mom with things. We went to the bank and got a check to pay off her mortgage. She'll be 70 next month. I'm so proud of her. I also took her to do something that she didn't want to ask my brother to do: go to Belk's to buy make-up. I think that we actually accomplished everything that was on our lists to get done. I realized that I'm a lot like Mom in that everywhere she went, she saw someone she knew and stopped to have a conversation. My girls say that about me all the time. When L was younger, she once asked me if I knew EVERYBODY!

While we were downtown, I went by the Clarion Ledger ofice to buy Marshall Ramsey's book 10! He was in and signed it for me. While we were waiting in the lobby, my mom saw his picture on the back of the book and commented, "He looks so young!" (I'll have to pass that along.) After we left the CL, we went to the new post office downtown. I'd never been in that one. When I went in the front door, I was struck by the similarity to the airport in Gulfport, at least as the airport was last April. I think the airport renovation is about complete now. It was a strange kind of deja vu.

It was a long, wet drive down from Jackson. I drove straight to church and didn't miss too much of prayer meeting and was there for all of choir practice. When I finally got home (about 9:00) there was a piece of mail that I wasn't expecting: a letter stating I was eligible to compete in this year's official National American Miss pageant. This is my favorite line in the letter: "National American Miss is a pageant experience designed for you, today's girl: that's why we do not have a swimsuit competition, and you are not required to have a talent." What would they do if I actually showed up and wanted to compete? I just had to laugh!