Greg Loves Sarah

:-) Hold your breath, Texas! Here I come….again!

Tomorrow, I head back to Big Sandy – a lovely little place made lovelier by my sister and brother-in-law living there! Here’s a picture taken with my cell phone on my last visit. Aren’t they the best!?

OK – I’ll wrap up this little post with a few random statistics for ya. I will confess that I can’t exactly prove any of these…and you know what “they” say about statistics. SO…don’t use them in your college-level papers.

Here goes….

• Each year, Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups.

• In China, people eat a bar of chocolate for every 1,000 chocolate bars eaten by the British.

• In a lifetime, the average driver will honk 15,250 times.

• In a year, the average person walks 4 miles to make his or her bed.

• In an average lifetime, people spend 4 years traveling in cars and six months waiting for red lights to turn green.

And my favorite….

• 96% of people put the peanut butter on first when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. :-)

*NOTE: I can probably count on ONE HAND the number of times I’ve used my horn on purpose in traffic.

Y’all have a lovely day! And may it get EVEN LOVELIER tomorrow!

We at EIS* [that’s for you, Mel] interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special announcement. Thanks to the thoughtfulness, generosity, and talent of my friend [and “adopted lil’ brother”] Josh, you are cordially invited to join me HERE at my new site!

For the last year and a half, I have been a faithful blogger at www.xanga.com/sperkins. It has been and will continue to be great fun and a real source of encouragement to keep up with my friends (and them with me) there!!!!

Alwaysperky.com was a Christmas gift that I am very grateful for!! SOOO…I will be blogging from here now! Just as with Xanga, you can leave comments [hint, BIG hint] and you can also e-mail me. One cool thing about having my own place is that anyone can comment (whether you are Xangan, etc. or not)….Very cool!

If you are wondering about the site’s name, credit for my nickname – “Perky” – must go to Ben M. He came up that well over 2 years ago. As for getting it to stick, that was Ben, Nik, and the Southeast Asia teams. And, I’ll have you know, STUCK and SPREADING, it is!

So, y’all ENJOY! Stop by often for a visit! Say HI! My e-home is your e-home!

As for latest happenings, Saturday was certainly a grandiose day! What made it so sweet?? Melanie and Mr. Bogner came for a visit……:-)

My friends, all of you, are treasures!!!!

Sarah

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

*”Emergency Interrupt System”. EIS is an extremely helpful network dedicated to the courteous interruption of studying friends. :-)

It can be said that “anticipation” itself is one of the best parts of receiving, giving, experiencing, or whatever. But when it comes to being a girl from South Louisiana, even Wikipedia knows the likelihood of a white Christmas down here. They say, “Snow is not very common near the Gulf of Mexico, although those in the northern parts of the state can expect one or two dustings of snow per year.” Think they know EVERYTHING.

I also read that “Longing for a snow-white Christmas may be keener in subtropical Louisiana than in any other state in the union.” [Editor, Christmas Stories from Louisiana] So….we go to Hobby Lobby and buy little plastic snow flakes for decoration. And at the local ice-skating rink, they even section off one end of the rink and put a pile of snow there for the children to play in. I wonder where they get the snow from. Hawaii?

The National Climactic Data Center has a document out that tells of the likelihood of a white Christmas around the country. To see our lovely state in that list is quite disturbing. They list 6 cities in LA: Baton Rouge, Lafayette [that’d be us], Lake Charles, Monroe, New Orleans, and Shreveport. All show 0% chance – except for Monroe. Monroe has a 4% chance – probably snowed there on 12/25/1856 and that threw off the calculations.

…Last winter, I created a Louisiana “snow” man. Even kept him in our freezer for his preservation. Alas, I must admit, he didn’t survive the year. And he WAS the last of his kind. *sigh* I think Mom was the one who “set him free” which led to his demise.

AND, while we are on the subject of cold weather, I’d like to address another issue. Why do department stores, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Eddie Bauer, etc. endeavor to sell random fuzzy, heavy, and plush sweaters this time of year in Louisiana? At times the only people they would benefit are those who occasionally have to walk into a commercial freezer! Up North, these items of winter finery are necessities. Here – they are “drawer-fillers” (with the occasional exception). I think the clothing industry is taking advantage of our hopes for a picture-perfect winter. Maybe they are attempting to subconsciously convince us that “If you buy it, it will snow.” Doesn’t work that way though. But hey – positive side is that, HERE, a good heavy sweater will last you for YEARS!

I will encourage Louisianan children, who have yet to see snow in their beloved state, with the following photographic evidence that snow IS possible here. This is me and my sister at one of those quite rare times when snow flakes fell [and I DO mean more than ONE flake] and actually STUCK to the ground. If it could happen then….IT CAN HAPPEN DECEMBER 25, 2006!

Keep hoping, little ones! Miracles do happen!!!!! :)