"Maybe this world is another planet's hell." ~ Aldous Huxley

Maybe not this whole world. Maybe just a few spots.

I don't mean to be negative today, but I am. It's just the way I woke up and I can't shake it.

I am going to the church this morning to do our newsletter and I don't want to. But, I'm going anyway. It feels like no matter what I do, the newsletter really hasn't much to offer. I am not inspired to do anything with it because it's the same things over and over. Pad it with this, pad it with that. Under "Mission Opportunities" we asked people to bring in their plastic bags. I can't see the real "Mission" in it. I guess I'm just grumpy.

I'm in such a bad mood that when I read our local paper this morning and saw a photo of a party at Gusano's, a local pizza place, I muttered out loud, "What The Hell???"

As if you couldn't tell by all the shows on A&E, Bravo, TLC, Discovery and the like, pageants are still a HUGE deal in the south. Issues of sexism just don't seem to have caught on here, so for every parade there is a parade queen, a parade princess, a parade little miss, a parade teeny-tiny miss, and on and on and on. Our town, Conway, Arkansas, has several parades throughout the year ~ one to kick off the County Fair, one to kick off Toad Suck Daze, the Christmas parade, and the ever-dreaded, much hated Gay Pride Parade (yes, let the wailing begin...Oh My God!!! Why do THEY have to have it in Conway???"). This year we even had a Kris Allen Parade (you know, the American Idol winner who shouldn't have been).

Anyway, my point is this. I am perusing the local newspaper, the Log Cabin Democrat, this morning and I come across the photo of the party at the pizza place. I've seen the photo a couple of times, but this morning something caught my eye (because of my nasty mood, I suspect). The photo is of 3 college girls and a boy sitting at a table together ~ simple enough. But this morning I noticed the third girl ~ sorry...young woman ~ is wearing her crown from some pageant, maybe homecoming, I don't know for sure. But folks....she's wearing her freaking CROWN!!! At a PIZZA joint!!!!



If she was dead, Marlow Thomas would turn over in her grave.