Every time I've mentioned that I'm going to Arizona, someone says to me, "there is no Arizona." The first time someone said it, I thought they were crazy. I was trying to think of something devastatingly clever to say in response to such a strange theory. Then I realized several people held such a theory until finally it dawned on me yesterday: it must be a song. Sure enough.
Anyway, I'm jetting off to Arizona Thursday...where it's supposed to be cold and rainy. That's right. Cold and rainy. In Arizona. That's the kind of effect I have on places.
I haven't had much to blog about lately. It seems like the interesting things in life are really impossible to convey in a blog post, the not as interesting things are - well - not as interesting (not that it's stopped me before). Interesting or not, here's what I've been up to lately:
Monday, I went to a crawfish boil (pronounced "crawfish boll"). It's been several years since I've eaten the mudbugs, and it struck me once again how strange it is that we Louisianians eat those things. They taste great, but they don't call them "mudbugs" for nothin'.
I'm trying to think of other activities this week, but that's pretty much all I've done. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. It will be the first time in I don't know how long that Rachel and I have both been home on the same weekend without other people in town. Maybe we'll go to a movie or something. I want to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Starsky and Hutch. The Ladykillers also opens tomorrow, so I'll either have to check out the $2 matinees at the mall or see only one (which is much more likely).
Next Thursday, I'm flying to Arizona for a few days and I'm looking forward to the vacation time. With such limited vacation time available, I'm always trying to make the best use of my days off. I think this will be a good use of them.
Someone was telling me the other day about cathead biscuits. Is it just me, or does that sound completely unappetizing? It sounds a bit too much like hoghead cheese. What's next? Doghead soup?
As I was driving to work this morning, I noticed two police cars flying past me in the opposite direction, lights flashing, sirens blaring. Then, another detective car pulled out in front of me, drove less than a quarter of a mile, stopped in the middle of the service road we were on, two officers jumped out of the car, climbed on top of the car, jumped over the fence, and ran (dodging traffic) across I-20 and into a neighborhood on the southside of the interstate. It was a strange way to start the morning.
I was very disappointed that Enoch's did not serve green beer last night. Not that green beer is good (last year it was Coor's light), but it was St. Patrick's Day and I wanted a green beer! I had a fun time with all the co-workers, despite the lack of green beer. The weather was perfect for sitting out on the porch. I'm loving spring.
In case you don't know, oatmeal is the perfect breakfast food. I don't know why it took me so long to realize it, but I've been having it lately and it really makes for happier mornings. It still doesn't make up for the fact that I'm not a morning person, but it helps.
I mentioned in the comments my last post that I had seen a statistic that the median household income for the Monroe area is $18,400. I found my source for that here. However, in my search for that data, I realized that information is inconsistent with the government's census stats.
This 2000 census site indicated the median household income is $32,000. Other data indicates that the average income per person (not per household) is around $21,000.
This page is outdated, but I still found it interesting - the discrepancy of income by race is significant in Ouachita Parish and even more so in our neighbor to the east, Richland Parish. I wish I could find an updated page like this one and I also wish I could find something that indicated what percentage of the individuals included in the average are college students and what percentage receives government assistance. I'd think if you took away the government assistance income, the average would be much lower. That would be the only possible way Monroe would be one of the lowest income earners in the nation, as the statistic Jon heard indicated.
I don't know why I found all of this data so interesting. I guess I've always liked statistics.
One more fun fact - my blog was number 20 on the yahoo search for Ouachita Parish, La average household income. Hmmm.
This FBI study, based on 2002 crime rates, includes Monroe as the third worst small city to live in. I was honestly shocked to see the ranking. I know better than going out to the mall at night and I always lock my car and my apartment. I know there is crime here, but I didn't know just how bad it actually is - they're not exactly advertising the crime rate in The News Star. Maybe if the people of Monroe were aware of the extent of the crime, they would elect some respectable people...probably not though.
*Whether she was wrongly convicted or not (and I think the jury was probably right), I can't help but feel sorry for Martha Stewart and hope she doesn't really have to go to prison. I mean, prison would scare me to death and compared to Martha Stewart, I'm white trash. Maybe they should just make her live in an apartment in West Monroe for a while and make her shop at Walmart. That would probably be prison enough for her.
*Did you see this? Someone wrote in to Dear Abby using a scenario from an episode of the Simpsons. Good thing Abby's editors know their Simpsons episodes.
*I can't find the cute picture, but yesterday, I saw a news story about a pig, a golden retreiver and several tigers living together in a zoo in Thailand. It seemed really great, but you just get the feeling that one of these days, the smell of bacon is going to overwhelm those tigers and they won't be able to resist.
*Kerry. Isn't that a girl's name?
*The weekend was really fun. Amy and I went to the Junior Leaugue Spring Market Saturday morning. I intended to make some real purchases, but even though they had lots of great stuff, I only bought some lip gloss from the Savannah Bee Co. and some cheap (but chic) bling-bling.
*I know I've said it before, but hanging out with friends who I go way back with is one of my favorite things. Annie and Jonathan are here this weekend, and Holly is in from the great white north, so along with Ed and Heidi, it was almost like old times. It was especially fun to sit around and reminisce about our early years at college.
*Happy 21st, Emily! I remember my 21st birthday like it was...almost 4 years ago!
I have been in search for new black dress shoes for almost a year and still haven't found any that are acceptable. I have a pair that I paid about 30 bucks for 2 years ago and I can't part with them. Although they're not exactly the picture of style, they have been the perfect work shoes - perfect height (3 inches) perfect toe width. They're close to the end now: shoe polish hardly helps anymore and the soles are cracked. I've tried to replace them with cheap shoes. I've tried to replace them with expensive shoes. All I have to show for it are about 5 pairs of black dress shoes that I rarely wear. I'm afraid today may be the last day of these formerly perfect heels. It's a sad day.
If there's one thing we can all learn from Chick-fil-a, it's that cows can't spell.
They've really gotten some mileage out of that ad campaign though, haven't they?
*I consciously tried to be happy and pleasant on this rainy Monday morning. I don't know why Mondays are so hard for me. I guess I just need to try harder.
*Had a good weekend. I went to Nac. with Aaron, Amy and Sophie. We went to a wine tasting party Saturday night, which was really fun. We decided we shoud have a beer tasting party, too. Really.
*We listen to Aaron's new XM radio on the way there and back. The receiver shows the song title and artist, so we played a game where we had to name the artist. I have to say, the three of us are pretty good. It's almost embarrassing how much music we know.
*Watched the Oscars last night. Still don't care about the Lord of the Rings.
*I got another one of those e-mail forwards promising that Microsoft will send me $243 for every person I forward the thing to. Has no one realized that it's a fraud? I've been getting a copy of the same e-mail for at least 3 or 4 years. I like how it says stuff like "you are bound to get at least $10,000 for this," and "If you ignore this, You will repent later." Maybe it's real this time. I'll never know.