gray day and overheard secrets

i am sitting in the floor looking out the window. right now, everything is gray and it looks like the bottom is about to fall out. five minutes ago, it was semi-sunny. my yard is a swamp due to the showers yesterday. my seedlings need to be planted. my gazebo needs assembly. i need to buy the patio furniture for my outdoor room, but i hate to tie up the funds if it won't be assembled for a month. i need, i need, i need....ok, i want.

my dog enjoyed his party. we gave him a hunk of spam with a candle in it. he got a cute raincoat, a camo rope tuggie thing and a bag of people crackers. his spamcake lasted about 3 minutes. the rest of us has lasagna, italian spinach, corn and garlic bread. then they surprised me with my birthday cake early! it was my favorite: white cake, white icing, white flowers and white writing. yeah, it looks like a wedding cake! and it is so delicious! they also gave me a nick & nora robe and pj set, pink with a fruit label print! i wore the robe the rest of the night.

i bought myself a new vera bradley villager in cupcakes pink when they had the free coin purse promotion, as well as the promotional cooler. i am opening those on my birthday sunday and i will act surprised. i had the store giftwrap them, so i wouldn't be tempted to use them early. yeah, i'm goofy that way!

i picked up itchy at school the other day and got there early so i could park right up front. i eavesdropped (my bad!) on the rednecks parked in the pick-up nest to me. it was a mom and her teen-aged son picking up the son's kindergarten daughter- more proof we are in mississippi. through a cloud of marlboro smoke (in a no tobacco zone), i learned that one of the mom's friends stole a tricked out '08 suburban, but before he could strip it, he got word that someone had dropped a dime on him. so he sunk it in his pond. also someone named skoal totalled his "brand new '03 protege" while drunk driving. yeah, a 6 year-old brand new 2003 protege. duh! ok, so i felt a bit superior. i also heard the story of some girl the son met on the internet who ended up being captured shackled by the fbi and flown to illinois to face heroin trafficking charges or some such mess.

when i moved out here, i thought i would be leaving the pitfalls of the city behind. but there are as many, if not more, drug and crime horror sories out here. i feel defrauded. it's supposed to be all tractors, tomatoes and clotheslines, not stolen cars, meth labs and heroin mules. it's supposed to be like "green acres", not "best of cops- redneck style".

help!

p.s. i will have pictures soon!