when it's not always raining, there'll be days like this
when there's no one complaining, there'll be days like this
when everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
well my mama told me, there'll be days like this

when you don't need to worry, there'll be days like this
when no one in a hurry, there'll be days like this
when you don't get betrayed by that old judas kiss
oh my mama told me, there'll be days like this

when you don't need an answer, there'll be days like this
when you don't meet a chancer, there'll be days like this
when all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit
then i must remember, there'll be days like this

when everyone is up front and they're not playing tricks
when you don't have no freeloaders out to get their kicks
when it's nobody's business the way you wanna live
i just have to remember, there'll be days like this

when no one steps on my dreams, there'll be days like this
when people understand what i mean, there'll be days like this
when you ring out of the changes of how everything is
oh mama told me, there'll be days like this
-van morrison 'days like this'

today and always i am a server

"How far you go in life depends on

your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,

sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak & strong.

Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

-George Washington Carver

"May I be medicine for the sick and weary.

May I be their doctor and their nurse until the sickness appears no more.

May I quell the pains of hunger and thirst with rains of food and drink.

May I be a torch for those in need of light, a bed for those in need of a bed,

and a servant for those in need of service."

-Shantideva

"You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand out

are the moments when you have done things for others."

-Henry Drummond

"Love is the best friend of humankind,

the helper and the healer of all ills that stand in the way of human happiness."

-Plato

This past week I have been moved by a tremendous amount of things.

Some good, some bad, but all part of the game of life.

The good, though, has been to see the smiling faces of all the children I am around

throughout my coursework.  The children that are typically developing as well as those children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and those that have suffered traumatic brain injuries. I wish I could express the JOY they bring me.

It's indescribable the amount of love that can pour in and out of a classroom when you see it from somewhere that is geared toward hope, awareness, and service for these children.

To have a four year-old little girl in pigtails and a pink, hand-smocked dress climb into your lap and twirl your hair everyday is a feeling unlike any I have ever experienced.

Her almond eyes melt my heart and her little hands, with their simian crease that her extra chromosome caused, are always so gentle and loving. It is no wonder that she pours out her love for me, she is surrounded by love at home, school, and with friends.

That is why I have a hard time understanding why people refuse to serve, love, and - sadly enough - even treat equally, our neighbors with disabilities.

Hard-headed politicians look for all the answers to the world in foreign policy, immigration laws, and taxation practices but they never think that maybe it will all fall into place once we implement the golden rule into our societies:

treat others as you would want to be treated

because if ever one of my friends calls out to me for help, I want to touch their heart like my friend, the little girl with Down syndrome, has touched mine

"miss baily, if the fire still has all of your stuff, you can borrow my things"

I just smiled and tears ran down my face.

How could one not love a life like that? Much less, how could one not think a life

like that is deserving of being in this world?

We spend much of our lives focusing on people and relationships and friendships that end up amounting to nothing in a time of need. But yet, we ignore those indifferent from us because we are unaware of what really makes a child with special needs special! 

Just because God created an individual with an extra 21st chromosome and a predisposed development that is slower and less autonomous than his or her peer, does not mean He didn't bless that child with the same amount of love He did us.

Quite more, actually.

That's what makes children like that so sPeCiaL - the enormous amount of God's love that she expressed to me in a way that holds much more weight than someone sending a text message saying 'I'm here for you' which turns out to be a lie in the end.

So maybe that's why I feel inclined to raise the awareness of Down syndrome/trisomy-21.

Amongst other things, we should all be aware of the blessings that come from being unignorant, inclusive, and non-prejudice. More generally so is that God teaches us to love all of His wonderful creations and to find the richest fulfillment in life is to see the beauty in all things.

And trust me, if the big, compassionate eyes weren't beautiful enough, and if the simian-creased hands weren't God's own 'artist mark', then the beautiful soul that spoke out of her need to be of service to others, is very much so a sense of fulfillment that I look forward to go out an seek on my future endeavors.

I'm glad that many years ago, I was made

AwArE

of these exceptional lives and the goodness of their mere being.

peace&love

baily

this just in

i literally just shrieked and squealed with such excitement that millie's pissed off at me now for waking her up from her nap beauty-sleep. 

she is now lounging on the couch and watching 'harry potter' with E (the roomie). 

well, this is the first i've known about the pig loving magic & whimsy & wizards so much

I only buy her pig and elephant toys

Oh ya, speaking of elephants!

 (roll tide roll)

 i got a text message from a very excited boyfriend of mine (bama born/bama grad), telling me to read what he wrote to justin core (bama born/florida state grad) on his facebook wall.

i love how he (my bama boy) knew this would make my day

Chace Spears   Mr. Core, I was just listening to the Finebaum radio show and Tim Brando just gave his preseason prediction for the National Championship... Bama vs. FSU. I'd welcome the opportunity to get the Seminole's back for Bama's embarassing showing a few years ago in Jacksonville. Thought this would give you a glimmer of hope. Hope you and Megan are doing well!" 2 hours ago via facebook for iPhone 

you probably hate tim brando

right now, if:

• 
  
  you are a fan of boise state

people like tim brando are still not taking you seriously

and please don't damper another football season for me by whining continuously about the BCS for 14-weeks .

(Damn, you give a dog a bone, I reckon'...)

You just left the WAC for the Mountain-West and...

you have the smurf's turf,  an idahoschedule,

and absolutely NO football tradition w h a t s o e v e r.

sorry, dudes

or

• 
  
  you are a florida gator

because y'all absolutely can't stand for the tide or the noles to ever be good

because not only is your dynasty fading, but bama is back to being college football king and your neighbors in tallahassee are about to run that state once they get it all assembled...

you've dominated the sec, until B A M A stole it back (22 sec titles/and counting)

you dominated the S u N s H i N e  S t A t E until bobby finally stopped trying

but now jimbo fisher is running the show and it looks kinda familiar to you i bet.

it oughtta  since y'all turned things around like wham-bam-thankya-ma'am when Urbs got to town.

and you oughta know how fast nick saban and a.l.a.b.a.m.a snuck up on your butt & rained all over your overly-annoying tebow parade that NeveR would GO AWAY

now that he's gone and it's not sacrilegeous to say negative things about timmy-t anymore:

YOU DO ADMIT THAT THE SPECTACLE YOU ALL MADE OF HIM WAS ENTIRELY TOO MUCH, RIGHT?

i don't know how i ever made it the first 17 years of my life

without being a die-hard footballfan

but the second i said my first

 'roll tide'

i could feel it was a

code word

for this very special something of a college-place...

just hearing people talk about football in the fall makes me pumped up

 and to know that i have gotten to experience a lot of super cool things

that others have not is the

 best

part about this town

this place called titletown

peaceandlove

bai 

a song called lochloosa and lochloosa sounds like my home.. for florida...

Lauren and Whitney bought me some suprises when they were in Seaside, Florida over the 4th of July Weekend. Supposedly there's this new record store there that I hear I would "just looove!" and they brought me a couple teases home. They bought me the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' album, Janis Joplin's *ORIGINAL PRESSED* 'I Got Them Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!' album, and the JJ Grey & Mofro 'The Choice Cuts' album.

The JJ Grey & Mofro album was one I had never heard before (the Michael Jackson and Janis Joplin albums came out obviously several decades ago so I've given my ears a listen a few times on each of those). But the 'The Choice Cuts' vinyl is already well-loved by me.

It got me through a pretty treturous week of studying for that killer Social Psychology exam. But I just got home from it, and I rocked it's gypsy soul. I really do like this lecture, and the material is enough basic theory that I can apply my previous knowledge to it, but it goes into depth in the social and cognitive domains of psychology and there's always a bold-fonted key term in the textbook that I don't know, so it's been pleasantly challenging. I stop there, and go no further, because the last thing I need is to say that and then completely _beep!_ myself when the next two exams are the pit-fall of ever being both pleasant and challenging and becomes HELL.

But I love this album because there is a lot of Florida heritage that are written in the lyrical component of this different style of music. It's swamp-folk and country-rock and a little bit of jazziness mixed with mountainy bluegrass strings. I can put it simpler, into two words: I DIG. (I have even facebook-statused some of the lyrics about my beloved swampy sunhine state!)

Here are some of the lyrics I just love and this new band of interest for me definitely gets a high five for singing some good tunes about the very misunderstood nature of my homestate...

FLORIDA!

Homesick but it's alright / Lochloosa is on my mind / She's on my mind /

I swear its 10,000 degrees in the shade / Lord have mercy knows - how much I love it /

Every mosquito every rattlesnake / Every cane break - everything //

Every alligator / Every black water swamp / Every freshwater spring - everything //

All we need is one more damn developer taking her heart out //

All we need is one more Mickey Mouse / Another golf course another country club /

 Another gated community // Lord I need her /

Lord I need her // And she's slipping away /

Homesick but it's alright / Lochloosa is on my mind /

She's on my mind / She's on my mind

-JJ Grey & Mofro 'Lochloosa'

guess what I DID recently that caused me to miss the good ol' days?? 

i t . i s . w h a t 

 m y . f r i e n d s . d i d

a l l . s u m m e r . l o n g 

w h i l e . g r o w i n g . up 

a couple weeks ago Chaceface and I went N a little ways up the interstate to Smith Lake and enjoyed a day of laying in the water on a raft. Not just any raft. The kind of raft that is considered some prime real-estate on Jones family vacations. A couple cold beers, my boyfran, and a weeks worth of stresses being deferred so that I could

.e n j o y.

.m y.

.S U N D A Y.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was really quite amazing and much, much, much needed!

I wigged.. and I mean WIGGED out when I jumped off that dock into dark and unknown waters and let me anxieties get the best of me as I splashed and cyclopzed around and up that ladder back onto the dock. Chace got quite the kick out of it and intead of saying,

"No, Baily... we're not in Florida - you can swim in lakes, no alligators!"

like a good and compassionate boyfriend would and instead said,

"I bet you someone bought a pet alligator like a dumbass and has let it go in this lake once it got too big and now it's breeding out of control and bringing alligators to my lake!"

Seriously? What.the.heck....???

Could he have not let the fact that I am the MOST-GULLABLE girl he's ever met in his entire life refrain him from saying anything, because by the time I could get me and my not-so-nineteen-year-old-body (complete w/my newest version of big-woman-curves) out of the water, I had already convinced myself that this lake-neighborhood is made up of a bunch of imbeciles with stray pet alligators, which are in a breeding frenzy right below me in

 my very unfamiliar and horribly uncomfortable area of unbeknownst dark lakewater.

I finally warmed up and we enjoyed our day hanging out on the

S H O R E L I N E

o f . a

f r e s h - w a t e r

L  A  K  E

a n d . n o t . h a v i n g

t o . w o r r y . a b o u t . a n y

A L L I G A T O R S

l i k e . w e . h a v e . t o

w o r r y . a b o u t . i n 

t H e . S u N s H i N e . s T a T e

Come see us in Alabama and Florida!

We've got pretty lakes, but it is our beaches that really need your everyone's help!!

The Gulf Oil Spill is staining our very beautiful and much-loved white sandy coastlines.

Our tourism is bruised.Our wildlife are in danger.

And the spirit of those perfect Southern summers still linger,

but it's hard to feel the free-spirited charm of 

O L D  - F L O R I D A  

because of the brutal reality that there is a spilled and spewing detrimental disaster sittingvery unwelcomed in her panhandle's harbors. Just above

the Land of Sunshine and in the Heart of Dixie is the

S T A T E   of   A L A B A M A

where all the well-mannered and good-souled folks are breaking their backs to help out their country, their state, and their fellow Southerner, despite the bitter reality of the unwanted spill of darkness that masks our waters and plagues our shorelines.

message me and tell me how you have contributed to the relief efforts in wake of the BP Oil Spill

i may (or may not) have a personalized

Expressive Journal: starter-kit that i put together to give-away

to ((someone)) who appreciates the things that I appreciate, like:

advocacy, peace, love,

unity & community-service

THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT A TYPICAL BLOGGER "GiVe AwAy" THAT YOU MAY SUSPECT

NOPE - NOT WHATSOEVER

BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE COOL TO HEAR OTHER'S STORIES OF

NATIONAL//or// STATE//or//COMMUNITY//  VOLUNTEER WORK!!!

*if no one wants to share their story by leaving me a comment, then I will use this time to be up on my soap-box  advocating service oriented and volunteer work  EVERYWHERE, especially with the Gulf Relief Efforts

BUT I THINK YOU WILL LIKE SOME OF MY  IDEAS FOR MY OWN LITTLE WAY TO (INEXPENSIVELY) GIVE BACK TO THE SOUTHERN-COASTAL ECOSYSTEM, THE LOVE AND COMFORT THAT THOSE SaLtY SHORES AND CrYsTaL cLeAr WATERS

 GAVE ME OVER THE YEARS ON THOSE CHERISHED FAMILY VACATIONS

AND ON ALL OF  THE PREPPY, COLLEGE, SPRING-BREAK WEEKS THAT  I SPENT IN

destin, florida . gulf shores, alabama . panama city beach, florida

and

 orange beach, alabama . pensacole, florida . marco island, florida

"at the Bama Breeze, you're one of our own down here, you never drink alone down here, good God I feel at home down here." -Jimmy Buffett's ode to The FloraBama

Oh ya, P.S. I think everyone should go see "GROWN UPS"

because it reminds me of how awesome those summer weeks were when my family

(along with any other family or families we were summer-vacay-ing with)

w o u l d . p u t . t h e . w o r d

F  U  N

☮

i  n t o . t h e . w o r d 

d  y  s  F  U  N  c  t  i  o  n  a  l

will write more on my next study-break!

it helps me vent... thank God!

☮Peace ☮

and

Love

 - bjj -

sorry, me and millie jean have been away for a while....

I'm sorry that I have been on such a blogging hiatus. One of my best friends, Kathleen, has already gotten onto my butt about it. I have so much to blog about, here's the run down of what I'm going to take time this week and write about:

• Justin and Megan Core's Wedding
• 4th of July in Orlando, the newlywed's Independence Day celebration
• House-sitting the Little's dogs
• Stories from the classroom

Ok, so I promise I am going to blog soon.... but I have a test tomorrow ((I thought it was today, but about 8 hours into my studying I realized I had an extra day... yay for that, huh?!)) Bonus points!

Omg here are some pics from Millie at Oak Mountain State Park this weekend at the lake. I COULD NOT KEEP HER LITTLE BEHIND OUT OF THE WATER!

After she was done taking a dump on the dock of the rental cabins we were probably NOT supposed to be at with three dogs. One shnauzer, one black lab, and one little pig-dog. Chaceface would throw the stick in the water for the dogs, Tripp would do an Olympic-style jump off the dock in all of his labrador glory, and my little pig dog would go hopping off the dock, into the paddle boat sitting between the dock and the "beach," then would hop into the water from the muddy "beach" and would just take off swimming into unknown waters until we realized she'd done it again and had to holler for her to come back to the shallow area of the lake. She seriously didn't stop... ever. She found a little "spot" she could rest on and stay in the water. I couldn't keep her out, except from time to time she would run back on the dock and I'd beg her to jump in like Tripp does. I'm sure she was thinking, "Moooom, I'm a boxer not a lab!" But she tried one time, but she literally just looked like someone bumped into her skinny butt and knocked her in. Except no one did. She just toppled herself into the water, then either decided she liked her jumping like a deer through the boat way or she realized what a doofus she looked like and didn't want us to laugh at her anymore. Either way, she just galavanted down to the mud-beach and took off. Chace and I would have to say, "Millie, come back!" "Piggie where are you going?!" "THIS WAY MILLIE!"

There she goes again... "COME BACK THIS WAY MILLIE-JEAN?!?"

Her and Tripp got out in the middle of the lake at one point and I thought we were going to have to go all-out Baywatch on them, but they finally came back by the tease of a new and better stick that Chace found. Needless to say, Millie was hilarious. Chace got aggravated because he couldn't enjoy laying on the dock with his sister and I because he was having to keep the pig-dog from swimming out into the current and drown. She's not as good of a swimmer as Tripp is either.. but they're dogs - I'm not judging her dives and swim skills. She thinks she's as good as him apparently, though, because she just takes off. Or she hangs out on her spot... just sittin' on the dock of a lake... a dog's life.

Peace and Love

BJJ

her resting spot... so cute

so happy to be at oak mountain!

she would not get out of the shallow water, she just hung out there until we turned our backs and she could take off toward deeper waters again...

so tired after all of her swimming!!

a blogger game

I know that some of my readers have blogs, and others do not, but either way - it's fun to read blogs, right?! It's a socio-technological phenomenon if you ask me.  It's completely different than any other social networking website. Sure, you can write a "Note" on Facebook but in all honesty, who really reads their friends' "Notes?"  We don't go to the public library down the street to check out a book on "How To Make Curtains" or to find a "Country Stew" recipe... or, at least I don't! We go to our Blogger dashboards or we go to our Google Readers. But, for a lot of us in the "blogging community," we do more than use blogs for our references and resources. We find friends, we play games, we inspire creativity, we for sub-groups: the travel lovers, the dog lovers, the creative geniuses, the special needs educators, etc. It's amazing... and you meet friends!

One of my favorite Blogger friends is Becca at Life In Technicolor. Her blog, sub-titled "the musings of an artsy editor" is one that I frequent. She's a lover of the Lord, a lover of Journalism, a lover of vinyl records, and many other things that we have in common. She is a lover of life - which makes it all the more better to know that she tagged me in this fun "game" that is linked all over blogger and around the world. It's fascinating to wonder how many people are in on this... and just how true the six degrees of separation really is - especially in our whimsical world of socio-technology! She asked me to fill out these 8 Questions below... then, I'll tag a few of my other blogger friends and hope the trend continues to link others. (If you're not a "follower" in my Google section, sign in with a Google, Twitter, or Facebook name and jump in on the fun! You truly are missing out!)

1. If you were a geometric shape what would you like to be? A circle... un-jaded, un-breakable, completely put together, and well-rounded --> of course!


2. What is your favorite animal and why? Horses (a Palomino to be exact!) I think they are the most beautiful of God's creation. I used to be a rider, Western-only... none of that English saddle, preppy boots, and 'posting.'  I've always been a rugged Cowboy boot lover, and nothing's more fun than a good ride on a Western-saddle. One day, I hope to have horses and offer a summer camp to children with disabilties.

3. What song on the radio right now is currently at the top of your guilty pleasure list? "You're Love Is My Drug" by Ke$ha. (I know, I know!)

4. If you were lost in the forest alone and a bear came up to you, what would you do? Soil my pants. Just being honest.

5. In your opinion, what is the most annoying show on tv? True Blood. I hate vampire crap!


6. What is the strangest thing you've ever eaten? Squid soup. My roomie's mother is Korean and she always sends some down. I like it :)


7. What are your thoughts on 2012? Just another year that the Lord will bless us with if it is in his plan to do so.

8. What's the craziest excuse you've came up with to skip work for a day? It totally wasn't an excuse, but it brought a lot of laughs. When I was a hostess at a swanky Gulf-style seafood restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa (Chuck's Fish) I had to call my manager (who is also my friend and was my friend before I was hired) and say: 'I did a 40-minute ab workout on my OnDemand last night and I can't move. I had to be dropped off and picked up at class today." He just laughed and said, "Only Baily Jones would call and say that." (words of advice: 40-minute ab workouts need stretching, warming up, and cooling down, just as much as a 2-hour workout. Ohhh.. Myyyyy.... Gaaaahhh... I was in serious pain!)

I'm tagging these people to be the next links in this survey-game, which served as a good study-break and an easy way to clear my head! Join me, girls :)

1. Moonpies and Fireflies
2. Moonflowers, Mojitos, and Me
3. Seabird
4. Team Southards
5. Lindsey's Blog

6. Kayley's Blog

peaceandlove

bee jay jay

picture i framed today:

(freak)in' stressed

Hello lovelies! My inner-Carrie is in full force and the only de-stresser for me right now isn't aromatherapy. It's writing. It's one of those days.

You know those days when you wish you were laying in your own cabana on the private beach that you share with no one? That private paradise, even if it's just for an hour or two - reading a dirty romance novel or the newest Nicholas Sparks book? Or... since that's a far-fetched fantasy, it's more like one of those days where the only thing that's going to make you happy is hitting the jackpot at a killer shoe sale.

I have a bad case of 'the Mondays,' so what...!?! What doesn't kill you make you stronger, right? Or it's water under the bridge, a lesson learned, whatev. The hardest stress is the one that waits on you the next day, not giving you a clean slate, or a chance to come up for air.  A major stress, in my case, is my resource management. Not just my mistakes in managing my own resources gives me stress, but literally, the study of resource management that I am being lectured and testing in this summer. So much work, so much exhaustion, so much excitement for it to soon be done.

Sorry to everyone who has to deal with my stresses and deals with the end results of my exhaustion. I know I am serious case of 'the crazies' sometimes, but I promise it's just part of the little freak that I am. I love you all though, dearly, and I hope you know that even though I seem like I'm from a different planet sometimes, I'm really not... and after all my unfinished pieces are complete, I will be a more pleasant and a more earthling-like little freakazoid.

I received a Facebook message today that had written: "You remind me of a young Carrie Bradshaw," which I later used to explain why I was mentally a wreck today as I said, "I feel like being the Carrie Bradshaw in me today." I was analyzing everything and going up and down with my emotions but balanced it with my cynicism and ignorance. I was absolutely my inner-Carrie today, and I needed to write.

She's my inspiration for writing. Just to see the image of her sitting at her laptop with a coffee, cocktail, or cigarette and writing about her life, love, and inbetweens, is inspiration to give me something to write about. When I imagine that shot of her at her laptop, I can't help but hear Carrie's voice-over phrasing, "I couldn't help but wonder."

So when I'm having one of those days that I'm not the most pleasant little miss thing, I go to my Sex and the City quotes page, and let her speak to me. I'm sharing my favorite "find" in the quote pile tonight. It's de-stressed me before, you know my quotes aren't just my guilty pleasure, they're my aromatherapy. 'Goodnight, Lovers!'

peace & love(you all very much)

baily

"Eventually all the pieces fall into place...

until then, laugh at the confusion,

live for the moment, and know that

everything happens for a reason."

 -Carrie Bradshaw

(Sex and the City)

quoted: summer and tom

Narrator: This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Tom Hansen, grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met the one. The girl, Summer Finn, did not share this belief. Tom meets Summer on January 8th. He knows almost immediately she is who he has been searching for. This is a story about boy meets girl, but you should know up front, this is not a love story.

Summer: There's no such thing as love. It's a fantasy.

Tom: It's official. I'm in love with Summer. I love her smile. I love her hair. I love her knees. I love how she licks her lips before she talks. I love her heart-shaped birthmark on her neck. I love it when she sleeps. I love how she makes me feel.

Summer: Ok, I like being on my own. I think relationships are messy and people's feelings get hurt. Who needs it? We're young, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, might as well have fun while we can and, save the serious stuff for later.
Tom: What happens when you fall in love?
Summer: Love. You don't believe in that, do you?
Tom:  What? It's love, not Santa Claus.Tom: Either she's an evil, emotionless, miserable human being, or... she's a robot.




Tom: Did you ever even have a boyfriend?
Summer: Of course.
Tom: What happened, why didn't they work out?
Summer: What always happens??? Life.

Narrator: As he listened, Tom began to realize these weren't stories routinely told; these were stories one had to earn. He could feel the wall coming down. He wondered if anyone else had made it this far, which is why the next six words changed everything.
Summer: I've never told anybody that before.
Tom: I guess I'm not just anyone.
 Summer: You weren't wrong, Tom. You were just wrong about me.

Summer: I named my cat after Springstein...
Tom: What's his name?
Summer: .....Bruce.

Tom: I hate her crooked teeth. I hate the way she smacks her lips. I hate her knobby knees. I hate that cockroach-shaped splotch on her neck.

Tom: You know what sucks? Realizing that everything you believe in is complete and utter bullshit.

Tom's sister: Get over her.
Tom: I don't want to get over here. I want to get her back.

Summer Finn's favorite quote in her high school yearbook:
Color my life with the chaos of trouble.

500 days of summer

I'm a movie freak. I always have been, even before I realized it. I am convinced that the reason I have to squint my eyes to look at my computer screen, whether I have my prescription eye-glasses on or not, is because I sat in front of the killer-high-tech televisions from the late 80s watching Peter Pan over and over and over again.  My mother always tell me that story, I'd say.. "Do it again, do it again!..." and I'd watch it all over again. It's really funny to think about how much that must have fooled my parents. I, literally, have not sat still for that long since the last time they popped that bad boy into the VHS player.  It's okay, though, because my mom tricked me into helping her clean by putting an "educational video" in and letting it do it's work on me. And by educational, I mean that it was a sing-along to "Whistle While You Work" and documented a day in the (custodial) life of Daisy, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey as they broomed and swept the entire grounds of Disney World. I guess it was better than how the kids have it these days, with a big purple dinosaur that sings 'clean up' songs with what sounds like one wretched sinus infection.

Anywho, I love movies. Just like songs, I apply them to my life. Here are a list of my favorites - and if you know anything about me, then you can probably see why all of them seem to "fit" in this movie lover's "favs" pile:

• Forrest Gump
• Almost Famous
• 500 Days of Summer
• Thelma and Louise
• When Harry Met Sally
• Steel Magnolias
• Sweet November
• Taking Woodstock
• Walk The Line
• Riding In Cars With Boys
• The Notebook
• Unfaithful

Lots of favs... I had to just stop there, could've kept going. Let me just tell you, with a pile of favorites that big, it is hard to explain how much you miss watching them when you realize life has left little time for things like sitting down for 2+ hours and watching a movie. Especially hard to explain to the guy you are dating, who happens to not give a rat's behind about what is playing in theaters.
This is a normal line I mutter almost everyday, "You need to watch movies. It's weird that you don't watch movies or that much television, even. Do you realize how disconnected from the world you are?"
Not that I would trade a single thing about him, but I do think a good movie, regardless of the drama, can help with the every day realities of life. I mean, think about it, why do we watch movies?  To escape, to be inspired, to see new places, things, and people that we might not otherwise get to see. We go back in history, we push forward with technology to enhance the fantastical imagery of what mankind's future endeavors entail. We enjoy it, that's why we pay the arm and a leg (and pretty soon they'll have us signing over the rights to our first child), to go to a movie and eat extra-buttered popcorn and drink a Coke that is watered-down before the previews are over. "Gee, thanks, thought I was getting a medium Coke, not a bucket of it."
Well, I finally convinced ol' cutie-pa-tootie to watch 500 Days of Summer with me.
After all, I don't know how many people called me from the theater to tell me that it was the story of Chace and I. The movie came out this past summer but I never caught it in theaters. I was so eager to see what they meant by that, because Chace and I weren't a couple then.  That goes without saying much, though. We met five years ago and that was the beginning, and we never really ended. I was a cynic who convinced myself that I was fine being alone. He has always been more un-jaded than me. Instead of dating every wrong Tom, Dick, and Harry like I did, he knew there was something special about one girl and one girl only so he patiently waited. Until about breakup #4 for me when he said he couldn't wait around being my friend and watching me let people walk all over me, when it was so obvious that we were never "just friends."  
At about the beginning of February, I finally watched this movie that everyone said I would love and that would make me think of Chace and I's relationship. My mom even called to tell me that, so that's when I couldn't handle it anymore and rented it.
The next day, I got an email from Chace. Sort of out of the blue, sort of not. That email changed everything and was a major gear shift in getting us back in sync with one another by the end of March, and a couple by April. The email was probably going to be sent on that day whether I watched 500 Days of Summer that night or not. But I think the movie did help me realize a few things.
I let my guard down, I let things happen, and I no longer trained myself to not buy into the whole love b.s.
So, we had a good time the other night watching it, and reliving some of my colder hearted days which we both have found humor rather than anger in.
Everybody needs to watch it. Don't be square.
I'm posting quotes from the movie that I not only love, but find very relevant to my cynic
side from back in the day. The way Tom, the main character, talks about Summer is very familiar to the way things were back then and are now for the two of us. Enjoy!

PeaceandLove

Baily

why cheerleaders hate me

You know what book I really love? "Hate Mail From Cheerleaders" - it's a compilation of Rick Rielly's sports' column on the last page of SportsIllustrated. I started reading it again today - found it in my trunk (always a mess & sometimes a treasure chest).  I found it appropriate to read from today since cheer nation has infested my darling Alabama campus.  Every summer I am guaranteed two things. ONE, I will come VERY close to beating the crap out of one of these little brats with her spirit stick when she forgets that I am a student and not a camper, therefore would like to order my double cheeseburger and french fries and un-Diet Coke without looks of disgust and whispers about my calorie in-take. And TWO, I will, at some point and probably more than once (or six times), obnoxiously lay on my horn when a couple of high school seniors forget that they don't "own this place" like they do their 3A high school, and not only jay walk in front of me on MY campus, but practice their routine, while jay walking in front of me. Sorry for being obnoxious with the horn, I was merely trying to speak cheer language.  Anywho, that's why I vented about my cheer-phobia with my fav columnist, Rick Reilly. He shares the belief that cheerleading isn't a sport and he is in large part responsible for inspiring me to write my infamous 'Just Jones It' sports' column my junior year of high school that, not only is to blame for my gmail inbox getting blown up with incredibly hateful e-mails from the cheerleading squad, but is also to blame for my mean, pink Post-It note death threat that read:
Since we're not a sport, we'd love to have you at practice today to admire your skills at what we do. -Senior Cheerleaders '04

This ordeal is funny -well hilarious actually - to me now, but earlier I used the term 'cheerleading squad' and what I meant to say was 'small army'.  The '04 cheer militia pretty much loved to hate me, and there was a ton of them. I guarantee you there were more members on that OHS cheerleading squad than there were buzzed heads walking around The Citadel campus on any given day. (Ok, maybe not that many, but close to it!) Let's just say that I successfully pissed off about 25 bia-bias in orange skirts - according to my pink post-it I found in my locker about... eh... 25 minutes after our school newspaper got back from going to press and was delivered to the 3,200 guys and gals that made up our super-sized student body. Some say you can spot the Great Wall of China, the Egyptian Pyramids, and the OHS Cheerleading Squad from outerspace ( only when they wear the orange uniforms, duh). At the time this blog post was published, NASA had yet to confirm this theory.

Let me try one last time to un-declare war amongst me and the pom-pom mafia.

1. I said it wasn't a sport, and I have a right to my opinion today, just as I did when the original publication went to press (Fall 2004). fyi, my opinion stays unchanged.

2. I said you girls were athletes. One must be athletic to jump, bend, twirl, fly, throw, flip, twist, tuck, clap/suction the hands, bob the head, thrust the pelvis, and point the toes. All the while smiling at the crowd of people cheer moms and screaming out football terminology from three plays back. My bad, the people cheer moms are all watching the football game that's going on behind behind you. (The special teams are in to punt, but y'all are still doing that "1st and 10, Do It Again!" chant).

3. I'm still laughing at your invitation to come 'show you my skills.' I'm a sportsman, not one for the Fine Arts.... so, how about 'no!'

Here's what I have to say to that, five and a half years later.

• The Lions Tale usually had a press deadline that fell on a Friday. Which really meant that we got it out Monday morning NIGHT. Therefore, it usually came out on a Tuesday. Tuesday in Baily's World meant one thing: speed workout day.
• Speed Workout Day: the cross-country runner's day from hell. Usually consist of four 1mile repeats. Whether we ran these mile splits on the 103 degree asphalt or on the trails at the cemetary always Depended on how immature/mature the JV Boys' cross-country team was during the team meeting (which was made up of 9 slow and egotistical members of the Varsity wrestling team and approximately 13 state champions rings). And so it goes... 9 out of 10 times the wrestler's pretending to be cross-country runners would act like infants, which in turn caused me to bitch them out, which resulted in a hot afternoon on OHS's ghetto-ass track doing sub-6:30:00 mile splits. 
•  Which leads me to this point, you Cheer Camper you... I will humor you with my toe touches and bowlegged, wobbly-kneed stunts if you can make it around that track four times in six and a half minutes. But listen, since I 'offended' you, I'll give you a 7min split time since a few of you about croaked last Friday night getting to the endzone to lead the cheer. But, stretch! 4 miles in 28 minutes is a lot harder than the two 'warm-up' laps you do around the indoor lunch room of ours.
• I won't call you 3 out, but one of you is the main suspect in the Post-It detective file. The only suspense is what senior in high school still dots her i's with a heart. In a threat, on a pink Post-It note. FAIL.
• When I wasn't in a fight with the real-life A.C. Slaters, I joined them on their immaturity level during  warm-ups and cool-downs. Usually because they half-ass cared for cross-country and were just trying to cut weight for wrestling season, so they would sneak us in to the AC to do our cool-downs if the temptation was even slightly there. Very immaturely, we put bets on which one of the three was walking with a side-stitch after her 2 laps around the lunch tables. Conversion: half a lap around the track.

I guess I bit my tongue for once in my life and didn't explain this sooner. I don't expect anyone to care now that five years has gone by, but I doubt anyone cared five years ago either. I was inspired by a book that a sports enthusiast/genius wrote, and I wrote what came to mind. A lot of the 2005 girls who were my best friends were members of the short skirt mafia, and I love them dearly and respect what they do. They just rubbed me off as being a cynical tomboy whose hair wasn't pulled back into a mind-altering coma that brainwashed me into a cheer cult like theirs was. Ha... and here I was thinking y'all just had a thing for unnatural ringlets and hair nets. Rah! Rah! (Shish-Koom-Ba!)

cheer coma

a whole new meaning to late-onset developmental delay, or traumatic brain injury.

(image: google images)

I feel less bad for the very decorated toy poodle I saw at breakfast this morning. Peaches probably didn't have to wear a hair net, and Peaches is a lap dog (scale: Missy's hairbow weighs 12 lbs. Peaches weighs 13 lbs.) Nevermind, I'm siding with Peaches. Missy is old enough to know right from wrong and THAT. IS. WRONG.

Anyway, sorry I never made it to cheer practice that day, girls. The threating tone mixed with the whole heart shape dotted 'i' thing really had me confused.  I might have taken it more seriously if you woulda been all like "you just got served" about it by doing a little jazz-hand number and a simple, to the point bitch comment like "Bring It On!"
That movie's a classic, right? Up there with Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, and Bring It On.

(I'm rolling my eyes and 'for real' gagging this time).

Hate mail? Comment below. Not sure if there's a computer formula to make the dot in your 'i' a heart but the ol' less than sign (<) paired with a three (3) always works pretty good... but you already knew that, I'm being silly. I think they teach it at cheer camp!

rah rah rah <3 <3 <3 love and peace <3 <3 <3 rah rah rah

bjj

before any current or former mafia member is about to get all west-siiiiide on me let me remind you of a few more smart-alec points...

1. a columnist has an entirely different code of ethics than a reporter. political correctness is not required, bias opinions are greatly encouraged.

2. my name was on the by-line which means I fully endorse my opinions

3. i fully supported the cheer troops at competitions because some of you are my friends

4. re-itterated: i cheered for cheerleaders who were cheering for a score by the judges, not for a score on the stadium scoreboard.

5. i'm probably bow-legged and wobbly-kneed from all that lactic acid build up in my muscles from playing my SPORTS.

6. I could have guessed which 3 west-siders gained 50lbs post-grad.

7. Hell no, I can't run sub-06min30second mile repeats anymore but I don't see too many basket-tosses in your near future there either, Thunder Thighs.

8. And for crying out loud, whoEVER thought making a suction cup of the palms of your hands was a revolutionary form of clapping needs to chill out with all the cheer competition coma idealogy.

HAHAHAHAHA. This one might even make Nick Saban show a little grin. Funny, silly, spirited girls! (Insert overly obvious eye-roll or 'gag me' gesture here)

and add a little consideration for the un-cheery type to all that spirit and wait until you get to 'nationals' at disney world to rehearse. I am, I'm excited about my trip home to Orlando, and excited about how inexpensive this SouthWest Airlines ticket was, I just forgot to put on my silver glitter eyeshadow... my bad. Pardon me while I read "Hate Mail From Cheerleaders" and cuss myself for not planning my trip on any of the other 51 weekends this year.

Nothing is worse than a plane full of Alabama's perkiest, peppiest, bufont-haired girls who are Disney-bound for the first time since they were in the toddler age group in the beauty pageants. Wait, yes there is..... their MOMS! Yep, there they are. Hard to miss their beloved title, "Cheer Mom," spelled out in horrible clumps of glitter and confetti on every single accessory and item of clothing that they own.

Ok I'm done. I just re-read my cynical rant and I'm disgusted at #5 up there.

I cheered for cheerleaders who were cheering for no one.

Sweet. I could have done something better with that 4 hours of my life. Take up a new sport or something: you know, like bowling or poker or bass fishing. The stuff that's on ESPN.

p.s. we appreciate the bloomers, but I probably would have taken you more seriously if you had left the paw prints off your ass cheeks.

Game over.

And THAT is why you are not a sport. No sport, or athlete, or fan that I know of considers a gay man's banana hammock a piece of sports equipment.

words of wisdom to cheerleaders everywhere: when in doubt, don't ask your mom.

because THAT up there happens.

and this girl down here truly believes that the roach-sized star stamped on her temple is going to earn her squad-army some bonus spirit points! (1, 2, 3, 4, like totally... ok!)

however, she seeing different stars as a result of her cheer-coma.

Hey Casper... your hairline is bleeding.