Did You See What It Did To That Chicken??!

My oldest daughter turned 3 this past weekend. Weird. I still have a hard time seeing myself as someone's mother, much less two someones! Anyway, my family came in from the two corners of the Ark-La-Tex...Arkansas and Texas (I'm the La!). The party was a overdose of Disney Princess mixed with stout punch and a bounce house tendered with Louisiana heat and humidity. It was just a pleasure!

Sunday we planned to make a trip to the cemetery to put flowers on my daddy's grave. To make the most of our gas, I suggested we make a side trip to the Alligator Park since we were not going to be far from that area anyway. Yes, you read it right. Two words that God did not intend to be utilized in the same title..."Alligator" and "Park." One just doesn't quite stir up the fun flights of fancy as the other, does it? http://www.alligatorpark.net/index.html

The heat was on, pushing 100 degrees. We got there at 10:00, the first show being at 10:30, and I broke a sweat before we crossed the gravel parking lot. The stench from the petting cages (NOT for the gators!) and other animals wafted through the air as we made our way past the goats, snakes, deer and nutria rats. Yep, rats. Only in Louisiana would you cage and pay money to view vermin. Seriously. Have you ever?

Of course, I suppose some places in this state would also charge you to eat the aforementioned, as I am sure it is considered some type of delicacy in Cajun Country....though this is only my suspicion. You know, we never really know what we eat these days. And, sometimes it's best not to ask!

Back to the gators. This "show" (and I use the term loosely) was conducted in a man-made waterin' hole where two of the dumbasses employed by the park pulled themselves out in front of a stadium on a rickety barge and proceeded to call up the gators by banging chicken parts that they dangled from hooks and beat on the side of the boat. (If that's not a run-on sentence, I don't know what is!). It was a SHOW, allright! The alligators (about fifty or more) swarmed the boat and would leap into the air to tear the chicken right off the hook. It was a testament to the Circle of Life, though not quite Lion King style.

Now, I have lived in this state most of my life, and I did not know until my late 20s that there were even alligators this far north in Louisiana. Most people think everything past Alexandria is a swamp and that's where the gators are. Wrong. Alligators populate almost every body of water in this state, including small ponds and ditches. Not even five years ago, a big rig ran over a ten-footer in the highway at the end of our road. It had been laying in the ditch on the side of the highway. Waiting for a drunk redneck to stop and piss, I guess.

The gators were a hit. The massive head of one had to have been a yardstick in width, looking every bit as jurassic as it intended. Put me catchin' flies. And, the kids will probably have nightmares for weeks. It was great!

And, before you ask, the pictures cost $6.00 and are worth every bit you pay to hold a baby alligator and let it sniff your offspring. My husband's idea...

Lovin' You More 'n My Luggage

My first blog. A day that will live in infamy. Where to start?

I suppose I should share how this all came about.

You see, about two months ago, my friend Denise ~~My friend that I affectionately call a Yankee because she lives north of the Mason Dixon, despite the fact that Minnesota makes her a Midwesterner...AND a little crazy because she knows more about how to dress for cold weather than Scarlett knew about sewin' curtains!~~sent me her blog address and an invitation to read her musings. I don't know how she figured that I could fit that in between a 3 month old, a 3 year old, and a 36 year old that all need tendin' to...and sometimes at the same time! However, she knows how much I love her and how passionate I am about readin' and writin' (not so much for the 'rithmetic!)...especially things that are written by her. She is my "Sistah from Anutha Mutha" as she puts it. My soul mate. A beautiful, talented spirit who writes with unabashed wit and satire. She makes me smile. And sometimes I need to smile. A LOT!

So, for about a month now, I have been visiting Abysmal Scribble and reading about Mama Squirrel and Mr. Scribble and my friend's forays into the courtroom as a newbie-attorney-at-law. I have smiled and she has not known. Although I must have been on her mind, because...

Yesterday, I visited and, lo and behold, the Right Hand of Justice had posted the Desiderata of Happiness, Max Ehrmann's scripting, that immediately took me back to our Dallas days...to a time in our lives that vibrantly stays in the forefront of my memory. Some of THE BEST days of my life. And I read, and I remembered. And I was inspired.

So, here I am. Tapping out thoughts for you to read. A glimpse into my life and history. Denise would tell you that I my life has been an experiment in terror. A train wreck that is so horrible you are compelled to look at it. You cannot turn away, lest you miss one minute detail. The tiny shoe that has been thrown clear of the little foot that filled it, hanging from a brilliantly blossomed bush. The droplet of dew that marks its path down an open magnolia, only to fall into an abyss of tragedy and sadness. My life. My life could keep you reading for an eternity.

For now, I will only say to my friend: "...Keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world." After all, you know I love you more'n my luggage.