The Life Pursuit

Okay, so I turned 39 years old a week ago. It was also the first day of the summer semester at the college. I suppose I had a decent birthday week. It could have been better. It could have been worse.

One of my uncles is in ill health. He's in his eighties. He's been frail for a few years.

If you've been reading my blog regularly, then you know that my mother's business is ongoing. I've been heading down to Hattiesburg to help her out whenever possible-- usually on the weekends.

This past week was pretty hectic at the college. While there are fewer students attending classes, campers-- happy and otherwise-- predominate. Last week, it was Baptist Camp & Soccer Camp. This week, it's Baptist Camp Part Deux & Basketball Camp.

The book club had its last Master and Margarita meeting Thursday night. I had some vodka-- fortunately, just enough since I had to get up really early the following morning to pick up a cheesecake for a co-worker's birthday party that I was in charge of organizing.

I had earlier purchased for my co-worker a Sheryl Crow cd. I purchased for myself a Belle and Sebastian cd and placed a special order for a Nathan Larson cd.

My birthday party at the library was held on the second. Chocolate Cheesecake. Yum. The Lemuria gift card and coffee were excellent selections. I purchased The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure with the certificate. I thumbed through part of it this past weekend.

I won't be purchasing the book club selection though since it's available for checkout at the library. One of the benefits of faculty checkout powers is that I have the book until the end of the summer semester.

This past weekend, I went down to Hattiesburg. My mother treated me to dinner at the Canebrake Country Club clubhouse. More yum. The Alligator Etoufee was perhaps a little spicier than I had expected, but the salmon with horseradish sauce and fried oysters was outstanding. I had the strawberry cheesecake as a dessert.

The people sitting at the table next to my mother and I are interesting people. I'm very much a stranger to the Canebrake community. I know one family in the neighborhood very well. Others, well, I don't know nearly as well.

The people at the next table used to own the house where my mother lives. They had moved to another house in the subdivision. When their daughter (who's a few years younger than me) heard I was celebrating my birthday, she said "Happy 29th!" I promptly proposed marriage. She showed mer her hand, which was sans ring, and went to her knee. I laughed, and she did too.

After socializing for a little while, my mother headed back to the house in her car. I had driven over to the clubhouse in my car as well, so she told me to stick around and have a little fun-- perhaps listen to the band performing at the pool. I chatted with the family at the next table-- drinking three glasses of wine-- for what seemed to be a couple of hours and then we went to the pool to listen to the band.

We went to the pool. I had a couple more glasses of wine. I had fun. I met some more people-- a few familiar faces who I didn't know personally, but nice people. After the band ended their show, the daughter and I went to the Purple Parrot-- in separate vehicles-- and met with some of her friends. All nice people-- one of them, I recognized from earlier that evening at Canebrake. I had another couple glasses of wine.

The daughter's cool. Apparently, I had met her a year ago at a Canebrake thing-- maybe a July 4 fireworks thing. It got to be late-- a little after 1 a.m., and I was operating on very little sleep, and I needed more. She also needed to head back to her house, so she left in her vehicle while I went back to my mother's house in my car.

Saturday was pretty quiet. I helped out some at my mother's business. After work, I headed over to Leatha's and got a couple of rib plates to go.

Sunday was quite similar for me except that Leatha's was closed, so no ribs. I headed back to Jackson yesterday evening. I normally work Monday evenings, but I arranged to switch nights with a co-worker.

An instructor asked me if I would talk to her night class about library resources this coming Thursday night. I'm a pretty agreeable sort, so I said sure. I've got to send her an email tomorrow to see what specifically she wants covered for her class.

So, tonight, since I didn't have to be at work, I went over to New Stage to see tonight's Crossroads Film-- Night Watch, a Russian scifi-horror-fantasy flick that I would describe as one part LOTR, one part Matrix, and another part Star Wars Chapters 1,2,3-- if they were good. Great film. It's the first film in a trilogy. I look forward to seeing the next two films.