Okay – I’m turning comments back on. I actually had to delete a couple of comments last night, not because they were intentionally malicious or anything like that, but because they were unknowingly hurtful to some of my long-time friends. So if you would, please be mindful that there are real people (granted, only about 40 of them, but people nonetheless) who read what you write. In the midst my diverse little group of friends there are all kinds of issues and hurts and struggles, so thanks in advance for being considerate of that.

Hey sweet friends and family –

Comments will be off for a little while. I’m not sure exactly when they’ll be on again, so please email early and often in the meantime.

Love y’all –

Two more BooMama Who’s Who entries while Alex is napping (he’s being cooperative with the blogging today, isn’t he?).

3) Merritt – Merritt and I also met in junior high (junior high was good to me). She doesn’t seem to remember me at all from the 7th grade, but I remember her because she won Best Actress in the school play. She played a grandmother, if memory serves. Anyway, Merritt and I got to be much better friends in high school because we went to the same youth group, but we really became inseparable in college.

We pledged the same sorority, and we lived near each other, but the main component of our college friendship was that Merritt is hysterical. I don’t think she could brush her teeth without making me laugh. What was so fun for me in college was seeing everyone start to appreciate the parts of Merritt that people like Liz and I had loved for so long: the goofy dances, the crazy imitations, the silly songs. You might meet Merritt and initially think, “Oh, what a gentle soul,” and you’d be right, KIND OF, but the thing I think we all love most about her is that she is a SPITFIRE. She’s one of the most loyal people I know and one of the first people I would call on in a crisis. There’s such a sweet maternal side to her, and seeing how Merritt loved her babies is one of the main reasons I started to think about having a baby of my own. On top of all that, Merritt is beautiful, and that’s not just my subjective assessment; judges have confirmed it (she was selected as a beauty when we were at State). Even now her skin is incredible, so much so that it makes me a tad envious, because she has no visibile pores or wrinkles on her face. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

I can’t wait to tell her children about…1) the time I “highlighted” her hair and turned it a lovely shade of orange and 2) (they’ll actually get to see this on video) when their mama was leaving her wedding reception, running toward the car in all her post-nuptial excitement, hair perfectly coiffed atop her head, train of her dress blowing in the breeze, and BAM! she ran straight into a street sign. Cracks me up just thinking about it. The funniest part is that on the video, you can hear Merritt go “OH” at the shock of it all, but she never quit moving toward the car. Grace under pressure, as always.

4) Daph – Daph and I met our freshman year of college, but I honestly can’t remember exactly when. It was like I showed up in Starkville, saw her, and had known her forever. We were in the same sorority, and if any two people on earth have the exact same funny bone, it’s the two of us. We lived together for part of our sophomore year (until I had to move into the sorority house), and all I remember about it is that neither of us was particularly fond of doing our laundry, and we laughed all. the. time. I have no idea about what – but we would get so tickled that my sides would hurt the next day. We are both night owls, so we would be awake long after everyone else went to sleep, and we did some mighty good philosophizing in the wee hours of the morning. Just for the record, my mother thinks Daphne is the most beautiful girl on the planet. Even now, if I mention Daph’s name, Mama says, “OH! She is so pretty – you know I’ve always thought she was so pretty since the first time she came home with you – she has the most beautiful smile.”

Like so many of my friends, Daph is fiercely loyal, and woe be unto you if you hurt someone she loves, for you will be required to answer for your actions in the Court of Daphne. In fact, I don’t think the Delta Gammas were ever the same after Daph confronted them on some questionable Homecoming Queen campaigning practices. ;-) Daph has had a really successful career doing work that she loves, but I know deep down in my soul that one day she’s going to quit her office job altogether and write the book that she’s threatened to write for the last twenty years. She has this intricate little world inside her head – imagination for days – and at some point she’s got to share that with the rest of us. I love seeing how much Daph loves her husband (and vice versa) – they just adore each other, and her boys are so fortunate to have that kind of love modeled in front of them each and every day.

I can’t wait to tell her children about the time…we went to see the Indigo Girls in Jackson. We sang all the way over there, and once we got in the auditorium, we looked around a bit and said, “Gosh, there sure are a lot of women here.” After a few songs we looked at each other and said, “Gosh, why do you think there are so many women here? Some of them even look like they’re couples. Do you think???” We were puzzled, but we stayed all the way through the concert, enjoyed ourselves immensely, and didn’t think much more of the high percentage of females in attendance. Finally, when we got back out to Daph’s car and started the trek to Starkville, I thought about all the women we’d seen and I said, “Daph, do you think the Indigo Girls are…lesbians?” And to prove just how naive we were, Daph said, “Oh no, I don’t think that at all!” And we sang Indigo Girls songs the whole way home.

I have loved magazines as long as I can remember. Until I die, I will have subscriptions to Vanity Fair and Southern Living (by the way, when Bubba’s house was featured in Southern Living a little over a year ago, I tried to explain to him that as far as my girlfriends and I were concerned, he would never achieve anything more meaningful in his whole life ever, but I don’t think he understood how deeply I meant it. Girls, do chime in on the significance of such an honor). And while reading VF inevitably raises my blood pressure because there’s a good bit of political content that opposes my own views, the articles are long, well-written, and require some degree of thinking on my part. Thinking is good.

I decided at the beginning of this year that I was going to give up all my weekly magazines: Us, InTouch, People. Now, I did fall off the wagon last weekend because I was out of town and nothing says “RELAXING TREAT” to me like going into Walgreens and loading up on magazines, but surprisingly, I wasn’t as interested as I anticipated – I found that I had little patience for Katie Holmes’ ever-expanding belly and Ben Affleck’s ever-present Starbucks cup.

I realized when David and I were having 2006 “budget discussions” that I had spent approximately $500 on magazines over the course of 2005. $500. It made me sick to my stomach. It’s not as indulgent as it sounds…figure $10/week, more or less, over the course of a year, and there you have it. But once I had the cold hard figure in front of me, I told David that I was going to give them up – we could be doing so much more with that money, like putting it toward “gambling” or “pyramid schemes.”

KIDDING.

Seriously, I was tired of Paris’ outrageous outfits, tired of seeing Britney waste her life with that ne’er-do-well she married, tired of seeing the Olsen twins cover themselves with seven layers of clothing in the middle of summer (it’s called “FAT,” Mary Kate and Ashley, and it insulates your body – you should try it. Really. Completely eliminates the need to wear scarves in July).

I guess last weekend I thought that since it had been a couple of months since I’d read Us or InTouch, I would spend hours catching up on all the latest celebrity gossip. Instead, here is what I learned:

• Jessica and Nick are still separated (and her daddy, in my humble opinion, is still creepy)
• Brad and Angelina are still together, she’s still pregnant, and they’re still in a different country each week
• Nicole Richie still needs a cheeseburger or nine – and fast
• Tom Cruise still doesn’t get that people really aren’t interested in Scientology (voodoo!) and really do think he’s just a teensy bit insane
• Lindsay Lohan is still having “accidents” that “aren’t related” to “alcohol”
• Nicole Kidman still isn’t admitting she’s engaged to Keith Urban (Sister, would you like to clarify?)
• Jennifer Aniston is still dating Vince Vaughn, and “sources close to her” are still worried that she’s on the rebound
• Paris Hilton is still famous for no discernable reason

Consider yourself up-to-speed on all the latest celebrity news, my friends. I just saved you $10.

• Members of our household who went to church this AM: 1
• Members of our household who have a messy cold: 1
• Age of said cold sufferer: 2
• “Blue’s Clues” episodes watched by cold sufferer: 4
• Pounds of cheese grated for Thursday’s meals: 8 (homemade pimento and cheese and homemade potato soup are two of the dishes at lunch; homemade macaroni and cheese is one of the sides at supper, and we all wonder: “Will Chris Tomlin‘s digestive tract ever recover?”)
• Old-fashioned cheese graters used: 0
• Times Lord was thanked and praised for food processor grater attachment: 96
• Pounds of pork tenderloin in my refrigerator: 15
• Members of household currently asleep on couch: 1 (the church-goer)
• Dogs fed Cheetos by two year-old: 2
• Minutes until two year-old’s nap: 26
• Mama who will be very, very happy in 26 minutes: 1

Update: 2:05 pm

• Minutes actually slept during “nap”: 18
• Coughs during 18 minutes: 582 (approximately)

Thanks, Bulldogs. We needed that.

Mississippi State – 84
Mississippi – 55

More game info here.