Decade

Ten years ago I looked like this:

31 years after my mom was crowned Miss Pontotoc, we became the first mother/daughter legacy.  It was such a whirlwind experience.  

I remember the morning after I won, waking up just to look at the crown to see if it was real.  While I was still in bed my mom stood at the bedroom door with her coffee cup in hand and said the following:

"Punkin', I don't want to burst your bubble, but I want to remind you of something...

Thirty years ago, I looked just like you.  Thirty years ago, I woke up to look at my crown just like you, but sweetheart I want you to know...in thirty years...you could look like this... "

I remember thinking to myself...yeah right.  Let me revisit this topic now, ten years later.  Oh dear, those were the good years, a decade has not been so kind to my body, my skin, or my hair.  Such is life...fingers crossed the next ten don't take such a toll.

Ten years ago, I stood at the back counter of Chaney's Pharmacy and my sweet friend, Joanne, said, "Hey Fe, check out this new website." I remember her circumnavigating the internet blocker and pulling up The Facebook.  She was telling me all about it and I remember thinking it was a fad and not thinking twice about it.  I would say I didn't become addicted to The Facebook until grad school and as I worked as a grad assistant at the School of Education we would message one another as we sat in side by side offices, we posted pictures without abandon and I perfected the art of The Facebook stalk.  I could ferret out information better than anyone.  A decade later I'm off Facebook.  I have loved my six weeks without it and I don't see myself going back.

Ten years ago Newk's came to town in Oxford and I remember thinking it was Oxford's best new restaurant.  Mr. Brent the owner of Chaney's, had us ordering lunch there three times a week.  I'm sure that Newk's helped me on my aforementioned downward spiral of my physique.   I once loved their BBQ Chicken Pizza, then I moved on to their famous Newk's Favorite Salad, and now I can't get enough of their pimento and cheese.

2004 was a big year, probably one of my most memorable college years.  I remember that the spring semester of that year I took a ridiculous course load and began working out like crazy getting read for the Miss Mississippi Pageant.  2004 was the year of the infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction.  That spring break I went on a seven day cruise with my roommate, Mary Gardiner.  That summer I had my first and only kidney stone attack.  I also was able to celebrate my twenty first birthday in New York City with my roommates, Roxie and Mary Gardiner.  That fall Cullen and I were introduced and went out for the first time, and now I can say, the rest is history.

I hope 2014 holds as much happiness and as many memorable moments, and that the coming decade will be just as educational as the last.