I got to hold a little wee baby tonight. Less than a month old and already with several opinions. She's a beautiful girl with a closet-full of colorful dresses already. She would curl her feet up and get into a little ball and lay her head on my shoulder and sleep. Oh my. Her daddy took her and had her on his arm with her head on his big strong wrist and a leg on each side of his arm, asleep and secure like on a strong tree branch.

Then I watched the tail-end of "Wise Blood," one of my favorite films, based on the Flannery O'Connor novel. When I was taking film classes I read the novel and wrote a paper on the film (next to last by Jhon (sic) Huston). Hazel Motes! "Nobody with a good car has to be justified." And other colorful phrases. I LOVE Amy Wright in this film. She's my favorite actress.

So Friday night is starting off pretty good. Then I get a phone call and we got a Fat Tuesday gig - on a patio - if it doesn't rain - I think it's supposed to rain. Did I mention that I took my banjo (that I won the money for at a casino) FINALLY to a gig? I didn't play it (cause I don't know how to yet) but I took it with me so it can see how much fun it's going to have later on.

So, as the night proceeds, we decided to drive to the nearest small town (instead of going to the nearest bigger town and eating at our favorite Creole New Orleans-style restaurant) and go to the local Sonic. This has become an exciting thing to do. We watch our weight (oh, it's so easy to see) all week and then go to Sonic on Friday night. I got a double cheeseburger and onion rings and an orange slush. I DO love orange slushes. We listened to Wynonnie Harris and Zuzu Bolin in our car and turned it up loud. We watched the teenagers. The boys all have on leather jackets and ballcaps on backwards. They're all gathered around this big pickup with the lights turned on (even though it's parked) and lean in the windows. We see a part of long hair and a flash of white teeth and, of course, realize there are two teenage girls in the truck. After awhile most of the boys go sit at an outdoor table and the two left lean in the respective sides of the truck and continue to talk to the girls (with their headlights still on).

So we came home to a house-full of teenagers sitting around our dining room table and playing some game and throwing out opinions. Cool kids. They say cool things like, "Is it legal to be this good-lookin' cause, you know, I wouldn't want to break the law?"

I fall asleep in my bed watching All the King's Men. I've been looking forward to this cause I love and loathe and make fun of and study movies about the south. Like Duff says, "We're too dumb to play ourselves." So we've got Sean Penn, James Gandolfini (who I love but he couldn't do a southern accent with a sawed-off shotgun to the head), Jude Law (who my poor old daddy calls Dude Law cause he can't get his name right), and Kate Winslet, etc.

We didn't get to go to Mardi Gras in Denim Springs and ride on a float and eat boudin, shrimp, crawfish, vodka, etc. because we needed to stay home and work.

Hope y'all are living life to the fullest and paying attention to the details.