I love small towns, and today I spent the day in Tylertown, Mississippi. A town full of happy people going about their happy lives. This is the main street of town called Beulah Ave, full of many great little shops and businesses to explore.
Life is never perfect, and love is never what you want it to be. I don't know where we will end up, but I do know that we share a love. As we enter this new phase in our relationship, I feel a chance to begin again. Everyone knows how pearls are made, sand in an oysters mouth... Well our love has encountered and will continue to encounter "sand" and other trouble... But as we work the best we can, we can make our own pearls. Someday when we are old and grey, we both will stand hand in hand on a beach of pearls and watch the waves come in, and know that our love has conquered all that has attempted to shatter it, and together we will be victorious.
Louisiana Bayous are not the only places where there are homes In the middle of rural areas on stilts… there are many places in Mississippi that harkens back to the Cajun lifestyle. These homes in Hinds County are within a hundred feet from the Pearl River. They are homes for a group of people that I have personally grown to love for many reasons, one because I am related to them, and that I once also lived in one of the very river homes in this photo. My mother’s family is descended from the Creole people, and apparently that is a part of genetics that lives on in its descendants. 
The Pearl clock tower is a relatively new addition to the city at only two years old. It was exciting when they announced that it was going to be built, and it makes a wonderful addition to the Pearl City Hall/Library/Police Department/Community Room/ Former High school that is the “town square”. It is made up of bricks from a former wing of the high school that was demolished to build the Community Room, and contains plaques on the inside commemorating everyone who ever graduated from the old High School. It is Modern in appearance, and is lighted from the inside to be able to change colors with the season… or flash rainbow at night on someone’s whim. For the longest the Pearl Clock tower did flash rainbow colors at night, earning it a nickname with Pearl’s Gay community, and placing Pearl at the butt of many jokes… however the true beauty of the clock is often ignored…
Dan Donovan is retired… he no longer exists. I guess I should somehow give some sort of proper goodbye to the character that I have given life to for the last few weeks. Dan wasn’t very smart, but what he lacked in intelligence he made up with athletics. He never quite understood the opposite sex… perhaps that was because he spent way too much time with the same sex, more time than any normal 17 year old boy. Perhaps Dan was gay, or maybe he was just an idiot… I guess no one but I can be certain on at least my incarnation of him. However one thing is for certain, he did not kill Aunt Caroline Endicott! But he was present during the events that led up to and preceded her death, including one regrettable tryst with a Detective over a red purse… as well as lying and throwing things across the Endicott’s house, but at least he did clean!
It’s that time of year, when the homes of most Americans is filled with wonderful smells… the smells of large feasts being prepared. These feasts are prepared in honor of a group of religiously persecuted Christians and the Native-Americans that helped them through a tough winter. They had much to be thankful for, a new people to share customs, a place to worship however they chose, a great virgin land to mold and destroy into anything they hoped… People… What meaning does Thanksgiving hold for us in this modern age? We are one of the richest and healthiest countries in the world, and now as we embark on the 2007 holiday season, I wonder what lies ahead. A “Season” for giving… and Giving Thanks for what we have… perhaps we should end the “Season” and give to those less fortunate than us all year round… not just for a season. And for that matter, This Thanksgiving lets give thanks for what we don’t have disease, death, destruction, that some places experience on a day to day basis. Let’s not look at each other for what we believe or how we look… lets look at each other for who we really are, and we can take one another’s hand… and really give thanks that we live in a better world than we did yesterday!
Angels have always been a source of fascination and interest for me. As a young child I was taught that people who die become angels, but as I grew older I came to realize that people do not become angels, angels existed long before men and have taken many different forms. They are protectors, spirits, messengers, but all in all beings of light, they bring positive things to all they encounter… So I guess some people can be angelic. 
The famous SS Hurricane Camille that washed up during the infamous 1969 Hurricane that killed 269 people left this tugboat sitting 200 feet from its present location off Highway 90 in Gulfport, MS. The Boat survived many storms, and Katrina left it battered, and destroyed the gift shop that once sat at its rear. Now there is nothing saving it from possible demolition, the former owners have no intention of rebuilding, and the tug is in danger of disappearing... something needs to be done to save this piece of Mississippi History! For More Information Visit www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/?p=993
When I get bored things tend to happen, sometimes I can get creative. This is a glance at the creative side of me, including my love of graphic design. I did this movie poster and DVD cover for Who Killed Aunt Caroline, as I mentioned in an earlier post I play Dan Donovan. I love doing things like this, and I have learned my photoshop well… What can I say… there might be more stuff like this posted if I get bored enough.
Have you ever been faced with one of those imponderable questions? One that just keeps you up for days on end? Well I have! Now the answer to my question has finally been answered, a question everyone has asked once in a while…. “What do I do if someone hits my mailbox and breaks it? Do I replace it? Fix it with new materials? Or use Duct Tape? Well my friends the people in good ‘ole Pearl, Mississippi have finally put the question down, once and for all! Duct Tape really does fix everything!
Very few places can cause such mixed emotions in me as this one photo. No this is not the house I grew up in; no this is not the home of a dear relative. Nothing like that, this home for me was part of a life changing event that transpired over the past summer. I lived in this house from March 2007- September 2007 and I learned a great deal about myself while here. I learned that I am stronger than I ever realized, and I also learned that I can be loved the way I always dreamed… but that that can go away in an instant. Sometimes things are not what they seem, and I know that while this may look like a nice house, believe me just a few months after this photo was taken, it went way downhill…. Sometimes it just takes a while for the true façade to come through. 
Everything comes to an end, that is undisputable fact of life if we admit it or not, the sturdiest, prettiest, largest trees can fall and turn to dust. The greatest people if they have not will someday also pass from our lives. My life has been touched numerously by many people that have entered into my life, and then had to go on to what is beyond… and I know that I am better for having known them, and they will forever live in my heart. 
The Ross Barnett Reservoir is a great place to go and relax, and occasionally it can surprise you with beauty. These two trees stand in Lakeshore Park on the Rankin County Side of the Reservoir and provide shade in the summer, and a break from the cool wind like today. Oh and believe me the wind was strong and brisk today creating some wonderfully large waves that sent spray on anyone within a ten foot radius of the shore, it was a really nice albeit a cold experience. 
The power of the mind is immeasurable, things that were thought to be impossible have come to pass through thoughts creating actions and then things become possible. And there are times where everything bad is mounting up around you and it seems that you can not break through. There in lies the trick, it is impossible to break through if you do not believe you can…. Your mind is working against you. Believe it… Know it… Feel it… and it will happen you will break through! Don’t focus on how it will happen, just know it will… and the “how” will fall into place, I think as a people we have forgotten this. 
Today we went and had lunch with John and Cynthia at El Sombrero that just opened up in Brandon in between the Fred’s and Hancock Fabrics in what was once a Wal-Mart. I was shocked when I walked in at how awesome the place looked compared to some of the other restaurants in town, and the fact that it was located in a former Wal-Mart was even more shocking for me. Anytime I walk into a place that I knew in it’s former existence I look for little nuances of what once was, and the only way that I could tell that this had been a Wal-Mart was the painted “shopping center” ceiling, but the transformation was wonderful… kinda felt like I was in a resort in some odd Mexican town. The food was average compared to other Mexican restaurants, but it was not bad, I hope to return soon!
