"I'm Going To Jackson"

Top Five Reasons to Live in Jackson:

1.      Hal and Mal’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade:  St. Patrick’s Day is easily one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in Jackson.  Downtown becomes a sea of green from little boys with green hair to puppies sporting new green hair-dos.  Last year, I even spotted two famous green creatures—Kermit and the Geico Gecko. This year’s parade is March 19^th!    

2.     Food:  Where do I begin? Keifer’s, Pizza Shack, Basil’s Belhaven, Babalu, Rooster’s, Newks, Broadstreet, Sal and Mookie’s, Bravo!, Beagle Bagle, Julep, Primos, Aladdin, High Noon Café, Little Tokyo, Bon Ami, Nick’s, Char, Hickory Pit, Elixir, Que Sera, The Elite, Mayflower, Edo, La Cazuela, Two Sisters’ Kitchen, Thai House, Spice Avenue, Cherokee Inn, Fenian’s, Tony’s Hot Tamales, Cool Al’s, Majestic Burger, Brent’s, CS’s, Hal and Mal’s.  Jackson knows how to eat!

3.     Community: As a lifelong Jacksonian, I can’t help but love the community feel of Jackson.  While it is the capital of Mississippi, Jackson manages to maintain the intimate feeling of most small Mississippi towns.  It is hard to go somewhere without running into friends or neighbors.   Millsaps has shown me a whole new Jackson in some ways, but running off campus to Newks or to Kroger typically results in spotting a classmate’s parents from high school or another acquaintance.  These run-ins definitely liven up a routine trip to the store.

4.     Weather: I enjoy the inconsistent nature of Jackson’s weather.  After brushing my teeth, I look up the weather as a part of my daily morning routine.  Lately I have really enjoyed the little bit of mystery surrounding the day’s outlook.  Last week we had snow and ice and this week we’ve had the mid- 70s, or what I like to call "spend your day outside weather." 

5.     Laurel Park: I have taken a recent liking to Laurel Park on the weekends.  It’s located in the heart of the Belhaven neighborhood and very easy to walk to from campus.  There is a trail at the back of the park that takes you to Fortification Street via an old railroad track.  I hiked it for the first time last weekend with some friends.  This experience reminded how of much of Jackson I still haven’t explored and I think that is perhaps the greatest thing about this city.  There are so paths to explore—“wider opportunities surround you everyday.” 

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Top Five Childhood Dream Careers

1. Swimmer—Most of my childhood memories of summer revolve around Brairwood Swimming Pool.  I spent countless hours improving my fly, back, breast, and free strokes.  When August came and it was once again time to return to school, I would begrudgingly return to school thinking only of the pool and the swimsuit that had been traded for a plaid jumper.  I daydreamed of standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal around my neck and the “Star Spangled Banner” ringing in the background.

2. Dentist—I wanted to be a dentist after hearing countless stories growing up of my grandfather’s dental practice.   My favorite story was about a man who paid my grandfather in watermelons.  A watermelon wasn’t a rare form of payment by any means in my grandfather’s practice, and so I thought that being a dentist would be great fun for that reason.  You could never know quite what you were gonna get.

3. Professional Lifeguard—Yes, this seems to be no different than that of a swimmer, but it is.  Spending a lot of time at the pool, you hear things.  Someone once told me that you could become a professional lifeguard (no- it is not exactly Bay Watch).  This job involved a lot of world travel, which is of course what attracted me to this position.  I saw myself traveling from water park to water park, exploring large waterslides and lazy rivers, or at least that was my romanticized version of the job description.

4. Chef—I always loved cooking with my grandmother.  She was so patient in the kitchen, teaching me how to make mashed potatoes or dressing for our Thanksgiving feast.  I can remember the disappointment of my first attempt at baking a cake in my Easy Bake Oven.  The cake was still a gooey mess after three and half hours in the Easy Bake.  So let’s say the Ace of Cakes has always impressed me.  

5. Do Gooder—As a general warning: this job is the most make believe out of all these jobs.  This job was very simple.  I wanted to make people happy. I had thoughts of giving away rainbows and rays of sunshine.  I also thought about giving away copious amounts of pizza and candy to my kindergarten class.  The logistics of this job revolved around some type of endless supply of money and magic.  

"Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity"

I think my liking for lists could be attributed to Oprah’s annual “Favorite Things” show around Christmas time.  As silly as it may sound, as a child I would come home from school in the afternoons to watch the mogul’s show.  Her “Favorite Things” show quickly became my favorite episodes because of the bulleted list like format it took.  There was no time to waste going over the how to install that Blu- Ray player she just gave away.  Oprah had to move on to exciting the audience with candles, Uggs, and trips to exotic destinations.  Now, her website even conveniently catalogues her favorite things from the past three years into slideshow lists of items from watches to cameras.  Lists have become a common thread in our lives from daily to-do lists to best-dressed lists.  Personally, I have decided that I love a good list because of its easy to scan, easy to read nature; it is not like sitting down to read a sentence of Faulkner spinning the better half of a page.  I hope that this blog will be a little piece of reading pleasure.