Exciting news!

Thomas and I are engaged!

Gather 'round children, for a little story time...

We had planned to go to Jackson, MS for our homecoming, which consequently, was also on the same weekend as my birthday. So on our way to Jackson from Oxford, Thomas asks if, during the hulla balloo of alumni events and reuniting with friends, that we can have some alone time for birthday presents. Of course, I say, and we go our separate ways as soon as we park on Millsaps' campus. Later on in the afternoon, we get back together, and Thomas suggests that we do the gift giving at the old observatory on campus, which, some of you already know, is kind of special to us for it's location and it's lending itself to good metaphors. (that's another story).

Best birthday ever. My first gift: gummy bears! 2nd gift: a framed piece of paper that Thomas painted and fashioned to look like an ancient scroll, which turned out to look like this:


Very neat. So he tells me what it says and that it's from Song of Songs, the verse that begins "Set me as a seal upon your heart"---very touching. And if you look at it through squinted eyes, it kind of looks like the United States, but that's beside the point.

Then down he goes, and the rest is history. I couldn't have planned it to be better.

I can't actually wear the ring just yet, thanks to my larger-than-life knuckles. So next weekend I'm headed to Nashville to get the official jewelers of the Tennessee Titans (you didn't know I was so special! haha!) to get it re-sized. In the meantime, for you who are curious, here is a photo:

In this light, it looks gold, but it is actually white gold. I took the pictures with my iPhone, so not the best quality, but there will be plenty of time for that! If I may say, I think Thomas deserves kudos for picking out such a pretty thing! *applause*

We aren't quite sure yet when the nuptials will happen, but we have been telling people that the summer of 2011 looks most likely, and it will probably take place somewhere in Tennessee, but probably not Jackson.

It's so exciting! I'm happy to finally be able to share this with people! (I had to write a blasted paper this week, one that I just now finished, so I felt like it was about time!)

La la la la la la la

Sunday was my first visit to a church here in Oxford, and my first visit to church (in general) in a while. On Dr. Coker's recommendation, I went to the Oxford-University United Methodist Church, where the Chamber Singers actually sprinkled our choral delights while I was still at Millsaps.

My motives, admittedly, were not primarily spiritual--I have been wanting to join a choir again, so I went to hear the choir sing and meet the choir director, Lee, and I happened to receive some spirituality along the way, which was fine by me.

And even though I went to hear the choir, I probably have the most to say about the sermon! (Granted, the choir only sang one song without the help of the rest of the congregation, so I wouldn't have much to work with in that respect, anyway). The minister's open remarks were simultaneously surprising and somewhat typical, and I will paraphrase them now: "Yesterday was a great day for Ole Miss football! What a great thing to play Alabama two weeks in a row [University of last weekend and UAB this weekend...wherein lies the joke] and come out triumphant in the end!" I have to say that I wasn't expecting a sermon introduced by football, and yet I should not have been surprised--knowing that football itself has its own religious followers! (See this post)

The minister seems like a good guy, and I will look forward to hearing more from him about football and other matters of spiritual concern--I have decided to join the choir, and I do look forward to singing regularly (somewhat) again! I joined at a good time: All Saints Sunday is November 1st, and apparently there is quite the repertoire planned.

Busy Weekend

I'll start this long, unattended blog with a list of diversions that I took part in this weekend: greek food, football, blooper reels, (crazy) people watching, seeing friends from college, a book reading, a book signing, and lots of sleeping in.

This weekend, Ole Miss hosted the largest audience in MS football stadium history. Over 62,000 people attended the Alabama/UM throwdown, and were lucky enough to see the UM quarterback, Jevan Snead, throw a grand total of 11 completed passes out of 30-something. 4 of those were interceptions. (Cue Benny Hill themesong).

With the game, comes The Grove. There were lots of typical grove-sightings--people dressed in clothes that weren't exactly appropriate for the misty, chilly weather, wooden lattice tents with large flower arrangements and red and blue decorations, flat-screen plasma TVs connected to mini-satellites, and cooky Ole Miss decorations (an old-timey red and blue car, with a license plate that said COL REB and an inflatable colonel, just to name a few). Because of the weather, there was also a lot of mud. And people braving that mud in their high heels.

After that game, Thomas and I had tickets to go hear David Sedaris give a talk and read from some of his diary entries and from his new book. Sedaris=hilarious. I wrote an email to a friend about the book-signing experience, so here is a little bit of that so I don't have to repeat myself:

"Hello!

I wanted to tell you about the amazing and hilarious "Evening with David Sedaris" that we had last night--coincidences and all.

First, when we got there, somebody calls my name in the lobby, and it's Jessica Nelson! Her sister lives in Oxford, and they were there together. Then, we go find our seats, and we see Laura Cost and Kate Garand (Thomas taps my shoulder and says, "Hey, those are Millsaps people!") and then, we look to the opposite side of the room and see JP, Katie, and Allison Purves. Crazy. . . .it was really good to see everyone.

I want to tell you the story of getting our books signed. We (Thomas and I) went up there together, and the first thing he said was, "Have you ever set anyone on fire?" To which I replied, mostly because I didn't know what else to say, "I'll have to think about that." Then he starts drawing a picture in my book, and it's a turtle. So I say, "What a nice turtle!" to which he replied "I drew it because I knew you would like turtles, since you're a Sagittarius." Well, I'm not, but I said that was close. Then we sort of chatted about us being in graduate school for this and that, and he asked Thomas if there could be a case for an obese Jesus (something he talked about in his reading) and we were on our way. It was so fun! I wanted to ask him if he knew of this town in France called Brive something, but that didn't really come up.

He read some really funny diary entries, and I want to tell you one of them. His "theme" for this tour was stories about rude behavior, and this was one of those stories he told about that: A woman was working at a Starbucks, and this customer comes up to the cash register, so the woman says, "How can I help you?" to which the customer doesn't really respond. So the cashier starts talking her her supervisor who's right next to her, to which the woman customer irately replies "Hello! Excuse me!" And the cashier says "Yes, I was just talking to my boss" and the woman customer says, "I am your boss!" Haha! There were lots of funny stories---I'll have to tell you some more later."

Well, it's that time again--time to fit a bunch of work into a small amount of time!

HAH