There's No Place Like Home

It has been so fun to be home for a few days!! Truly, there's no place like home. Sorry I haven't posted anything this weekend. I've been having too much fun with everyone to stop and take the time to write about it, but I'll catch up now. I'm super sad that I have to leave in the morning, but I am grateful for the time I've had here in Utah.

My last entry was on Wednesday--that evening I went up to Angie and Matt's in Vicksburg, and we had a great evening together. Although, this was my first time driving to their house by myself, and somehow I accidentally ended up in Louisiana. As I was approaching Vicksburg, I thought that I took the right I-20 turn-off to head towards Angie's, but apparently I did not. All of a sudden I was driving across the Mississippi River, and I thought to myself, "This is not good." So I called Angie, and she got me headed in the right direction.

Then last Thursday was an eventful day as well. I left Vicksburg at about 7:00 a.m., made it to the airport in Jackson by 8:00, boarded the plane at 9:00, and took off at 9:30. We landed in Dallas at 11:40--right on time. Life was good. My plane was scheduled to leave Dallas at 1:40 p.m., then I was to arrive in Salt Lake at 3:30. Well, my plane did leave the gate at 1:40, but then as we were heading out to the runway, they grounded all flights because of an incoming severe thunderstorm cell. They thought it would be about an hour before we could leave. Try FOUR hours!!!!! It was the pits. After they grounded the flights, it was about 50 minutes before the storm actually hit, then it lasted for about an hour and a half. It was pretty crazy with wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, but then by the time it was over, there were 50 planes waiting to take off, so we had to wait again. There were crying, screaming kids in front of and in back of me. This one little guy named Jonah kept standing up on his seat, turning around, leaning down in my face, and saying, "HI!!" When we were approaching the four-hour mark, the pilots told us that four hours is the legal limit that they can keep people on airplanes. So they could take us back to the gate, BUT then the flight would be cancelled, and all other flights to SLC were full until Saturday. That definitely wouldn't have worked for me! So luckily before it came to that, we were able to take off. Instead of getting in at 3:30, I rolled into town at about 7:30. It was a long day!

On Friday, Mom and I attended the Mormon History Association conference at the Hilton in Salt Lake. It was fun to see Dr. Rugh and a bunch of other fun people there. Then on Saturday I gave my presentation about tourism to LDS historic sites, which I think went well, and then the rest of the time I've just enjoyed hanging out with my family. It was also fun to be back in our ward at church today. I just wish I could have stayed longer, but at least I've got a nice setup in Mississippi to return to. To those of you who I was able to see, it was wonderful to see you!! And to those of you I did not have the opportunity to see, hopefully I can the next time I'm in town.

Vacation Time!

Hooray--tomorrow I get to fly home to Utah for a few days!!!!!!!!! Today after work I'm going up to Vicksburg to stay at Angie's, then tomorrow morning I'll head to Jackson, fly from there to Dallas, and from there to SLC. I was supposed to only be at the Johnson House this morning, and then go to Melrose this afternoon, but Jessica didn't come to work today, so I'm needing to stay at the WJ House all day. We've had a whopping five visitors so far today! It's funny--sometimes we'll have 100 people show up down there, and sometimes like today, there are hardly any. This one lady who came in said, "Do I know you?" I said, "Ummm, I don't think so." She wondered if I went to the local community college and I said no. Then she said, "I know! You're on TV!" I said, "I am?" She said, "Yeah, aren't you on some TV show?" I said, "Uh, no." She said, "Do you get asked that a lot?" I said, "Uh, no." She then concluded that I must have one of those faces that just looks familiar. It was kind of funny. Well, I'm off to work again, and then up to V-burg tonight!

Misterissippi

I was watching the crazy/awesome "24" season finale last night, and there was this funny Pepsi commercial. It said that 56% of Americans think Pepsi taste better than Coke, so in honor of that they proposed creating 56 states out of the current 50 United States. One of the proposed ideas was to split Alabama into two states and "call one Misterissippi so that Mississippi has someone to talk to." Ha ha. That was kind of funny. Everett and Catherine have left on a fishing trip for a few days. Mom suggested the perfect word to describe Everett: he is a "quintessential" Southern gentleman--meaning he lives the typical old-time leisure life of the Southern gentlemen of the past.

I get to fly home for a few days on Thursday!!! I am soooooo excited! I leave from Jackson in the morning on Thursday, so I am going to spend tomorrow night up at Angie and Matt's in Vicksburg--so I'll just have a 40-mile drive to the airport as opposed to a 115-mile drive. I wish I could stay at home longer, but I'm grateful for the time I will have there. The Mormon History Association conference should be a lot of fun too. Last year it was in Casper, Wyoming, so Mom and I made quite a drive, but this year it's in Salt Lake, which is very convenient.

I had some really nice people on my tour this morning. One couple was from New Orleans, and the husband was a firefighter. He had some crazy Hurricane Katrina stories. They said that their 8-year-old son wants to write a book about how his dad saved his hamster. I guess that the hamster, appropriately named Lucky, was marooned at the family's home for a couple of weeks. They were unable to access their house and were afriad that Lucky wouldn't survive, but the dad and his fire crew were eventually able to get to the house, and Lucky was still alive so they saved him! The other people--an older mom and her daughter--were from Illinois. They were excited to hear that I'll be going to Eastern Illinois University in the fall and they told me how much they like the town of Charleston, so that made me happy.

Vicksburg National Military Park (where Angie's husband Matt works) is at the forefront of the latest National Park Service news. I guess that earlier this month some vandals dug a bunch of holes around the Texas monument at the park--obviously looking for artifacts. The damage to the area was extensive, so the park began a restoration project as well as an in-depth investigation to try to figure out who did it. Well, in the process of investigating, they uncovered a human skeleton buried in a shallow grave near the area!! It's like a real-life episode of the TV show "Bones!" So now the area has been turned into a crime scene while they try to figure out when the body was buried, who it is, who vandalized the monument, etc., etc. Craziness!

Cockroachaphobia

I'll admit it--I have cockroachaphobia. I strongly detest cockroaches. I don't know what it is about them--most creatures don't bother me that much, but they just make me sick when I look at them. So, I received an unpleasant surprise this morning when I went to jump in the shower. You may remember that last year, I encountered numerous cockroaches in the shower when I lived at Jessica's house. I hadn't seen any yet this year, so I was hoping that Routhland had fewer roaches (although Mom and I did find that one fried one on the stove), but my hopes were in vain. Sitting there in the middle of the bathtub was this gigantic, disgusting cockroach. He looked dead, but I remember from last year that even when they look dead, they are usually still alive. So, I whipped out my hairspray (I was too disgusted to think clearly, so I didn't go get the bug spray from the kitchen) and let the cockroach have it. It started running and flipping all over the place in the tub, and I was afraid that I was going to have to pick it up and remove it, but then I realized that the drain was big enough to take on a roach. So I turned on the shower, and away it went. I was totally grossed out--I know it sounds dorky, but roaches are just so nasty with their long, spindly legs. It was a crazy way to start the day, but I recovered.

It's been a good day here at Melrose today. At lunchtime, I went to the Malt Shop and got a Root Beer Float in honor of Grandpa Farnsworth's birthday today. He would have been 92!! His initials are RBF, so it's always fun to have an "RBF" on his birthday. This afternoon I had some bored teenagers and some crying kids on tours, so I'm a little worn out, but it's okay because tonight is the 24 season finale!!! I'm super excited. I bet that Jack Bauer isn't afraid of cockroaches. I need to be more like him.

The big news around here lately is that this guy named Binky Vines, who was one of the Adams County clerks, was arrested for embezzling like $40,000 of county funds. BUT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO GET PERMISSION FOR HIM TO RUN FOR COUNTY CLERK AGAIN--saying it's not fair that people who have been arrested can't run for office!! Are the people here insane? Why would you even want him to be the clerk again? Do they want more of their money to land in his pockets??? I'm glad I don't have to worry about the politics here--it is out-of-control. I originally thought the crazy politicians were limited to Louisiana, but such is obviously not the case. Besides, why would you vote for someone named Binky anyway?

The Two T's

Today is was the two "T's"--Tim and Tiffany--holding down the fort at Melrose. I think that this is the last Sunday I'll have to work for a while, which is great news! Next Sunday I'll be out in Utah, and by the following Sunday, I'll hopefully be on my Sunday/Monday day-off schedule. By the end of the day, Tim and I were both pretty pooped, but we had a lot of visitors, and everyone was really nice, so it was a good day. I had some especially nice people from France on one of my tours this afternoon--there seem to be a lot of French tourists lately. The wife spoke really good English, so we communicated better than I did with the other French people last week. It must be wedding time here in Natchez because, after seeing the bride dancing in the street yesterday, today there was a girl up at Melrose having her bridal photographs taken. It was kind of amusing to sit there in the visitor center and see her outside in all these ridiculous poses with her flowers--standing next to the gate, standing in front of the gate, swinging around the gate, pulling the gate open, holding her flowers above her head, holding her flowers off to the side, etc., etc. Today I was looking through the Sunday ads in the newspaper, and I saw an ad for something I don't think I've ever seen before: a dehumidifier!! I know all about humidifiers, but a dehumidifier? That's when you know that you definitely live in a humid climate. Everett is outside right now tinkering with his boat. Every day he gets up, cleans the boat, leaves for the day, comes home, and tinkers with the boat. Mom and I surmised that Everett must be independently wealthy. I asked Tim about it today, and he said that Everett inherited a lot of money from his dad, but he also owns part interest in a tree farm outside of town. So, really all he has to do is plant trees, wait for them to grow, then at some point hire someone to cut them down--now that's the life!