"on a pillow of bluebonnets & a blanket made of stars" ~ Cowboy Take Me Away

This past week I lifted a 6 year ban on a band I used to love. The Dixie Chicks. President Bush told them it was ok to speak their mind, and it is, but it still hurt my feelings and I quit listening. COLD TURKEY FOR 6 YEARS! Something about being back in the deep south and the music selection at Wal*Mart being ONLY country made me talk myself into calling a truce.

My freshman year of college their album Wide Open Spaces had been out for about a year, and Katy {my roommate} and I BLASTED this album from our stereo just about daily until they called a hall meeting about keeping your music down. We were two girls from East Texas and we loved The Dixie Chicks to the point of repeat & bordering on obsession. When I heard Wide Open Spaces played on this album I got a little tear in my eye thinking back to all our freshman year fun 10 years ago & how much I've missed the old Dixie Chicks.

Life is a little different from how it was in that tiny dorm room 10 years ago, but I couldn't help but think when I bought this CD of the fun The Four Fat Chicks are going to have singing every word at the top of our lungsin a few weeks on our girls weekend! "IIIIIIIII'LLLLLLLL FLY AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY on a SIN WAGON!"

Ps~ for the record... I can't stand when people talk ugly about our current president either. I believe it's the hardest job in the land, and I am not qualified to do it. When I am, I can judge.

being the change

The following post is a tad more serious than most of my posts on ALifeLesOrdinary, but it is something that has been on my heart and my mind for the past week and this is my honest attempt to put it into words. My hope is that it will challenge and inspire you.
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Christina and I sat in her kitchen last January sipping peppermint hot chocolate and discussing our views on life. You see, Christina and I are good at this, and in a matter of hours we can solve many of the worlds problems with a few great debates. We sit respectfully on opposite sides of the political fence, but on this night could see eye to eye on one thing. We decided that we did not want to raise our children in the world in which we were raised and with that thought in mind adopted a motto between the two of us. "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi


We want our children to be raised in a place where people of different colors and race are NOT viewed negatively or less than anyone else. True racial equality and meeting in the middle. In my opinion, the civil rights movement happened close to 50 years ago, and while most public places are integrated, little has come by the way of attitude and vision of seeing all as equally human. As the year has played out I've thought about that conversation and our motto on many occasions. It has helped shape my thoughts, my behavior, my language and my attitude.


I stumbled upon an article the other day about the racial happenings surrounding the presidential election and couldn't help but read to see what's being going on. I will go on the record right here and now to say that I never intended to vote for Barack Obama and I did not vote for Barack Obama due to my own political convictions not aligning with his, but as a fellow human being I respect him and the office he will soon hold. For the record, I've really enjoyed his interviews and press conferences post election ~ he's funny & charming! I wasn't surprised that there were incidents around the country, but one that shocked me was one that happened at my alma mater ~ Baylor University.


The day after the election there was a noose found tied to a tree in the middle of campus.


This horrific act of ignorance turned my stomach and made me feel ashamed and embarrassed to be associated by degree to that university. And ignorant it is, because while racial equality is something yet to be grasped, I believe there isn't a soul in my generation that can truly wrap our brains around the hatred and torture that embodied our land many years ago. The thing is, I think it's easy to point a finger at Baylor and say how dare you allow such ridiculousness?

And I did that for a few days until I it dawned on me. If I MUST be the change that I wish to see in the world my attitude had to go. It's about forgiveness and me. I can not force people around me or even people of other races to be different, think different or act different, and while I believe their actions are punishable by dismissal I can only be me. I can act out and think out and live out how I want that world to be and my hope is that soon many others will follow my lead.

Dear Baylor Football Team -

I am encouraged today after reading the story behind the Louisville/Rutgers game. I learned that Rutgers played in the first college football game ever, 137 years ago, and haven't done much since. Although things have not been that bad for our school, while sitting in front of the television last Saturday and screaming words that would make my grandfather roll over in his grave if he heard, it sort of felt like it had been 137 years since anything promising had happened for our team. Now I realize, that I'm not on the team and never was, but anyone who shells out (for the next 20 years...) the money to attend our great institution affords themselves the right to call it their own.

I'm encouraged, because a story like that of Rutgers gives me hope that when I hear, "we'll be better next year", it really might be next year, or the year after that. So does Blake szymanski. From one girl's eye who has grown up watching football on all three levels but doesn't claim to know as much as the boys who are real life espn trivia books, I liked what I saw. I love quarterbacks who aren't afraid to step out of the supposedly safe trenches of their pocket and run with the ball. We all need to pray to Rufus C. Burleson that we've got a chance mock/vince young situation on our hands and that shawn bell with his torn ACL has taken our football savior off the bench and onto our field.



but even if you're not, I'll stick around and cheer for you, even when you cause me to break one of the ten commandments, which couldn't possibly make Mr. Burleson or Grant Teaff happy. I'll be loyal - just ask britney.

football love and mine,
lesli

part dos...equis XX

last night i was telling cayce about the blog theme for the week and she said, "can i remember any of our homecoming memories?" there is a good chance we can't remember the best ones, and here are the four reasons why - george's, schooners, crickets and scruffy's.

at homecoming 2003 i left schooners and headed to baja tacos (i think that's what it was called...it's no longer there). i had just gotten my first real pair of stillettos...ala frederick's of hollywood. black pleather, pointy toes, and 4 inch pencil thin heels. i loved those shoes. i just got rid of them a couple of months ago before i moved. it was cold and rainy, so i took off running across the parking lot and one of those pencil thin heels got caught in the concrete and i kept moving. i fell to my knees, but i swear i broke my toes. to bad this isn't on video. i spent the rest of the weekend in sandals looking like an idiot in the cold rain.

i really wanted to post some pictures of past homecomings, but i can't remember where any of those are either. i can picture them in my head...don't you wish there was a way you could print off images from your head? if there was, i'd probably be a fashion designer.

since there are no pictures, a list will have to suffice...

Things i am most looking forward to:

-laughing hard at old memories with old friends
-REAL mexican food - at la fiesta i want refried beans, sour cream chicken enchiladas with queso verde sauce and salsa so spicy it will make you slap your momma. at on the border i'd be happy with eating my weight in chips and salsa and then a bowl of tortilla soup.
-a big O from george's
-whataburger in the middle of the night...or taco c...whichever line is shorter
-taking pictures with people from facebook that i'm not really friends with in real life.
-shoe shopping at ross (judge if you will...it's my favorite shoe store - no ross' here!)
-judging people at the chi o breakfast. this year i will take my own water!
-watching erick on the law school float during the parade and marching with the bugwb (thug love) at the football game.

before i can do all that, i have to find the perfect out...well really a few perfect pieces for this weekend. any suggestions? it will be a weather shell shock when i get there because when i walked to work this morning it was 35 degrees!

homecoming week part 1

with my favorite holiday (baylor homecoming) less than four days away i figured i'd take this week to write about some of my favorite memories from homecoming of days of yester year.

october 2002

it was the homecoming of my senior year and all the old sigma chi's were back in town to celebrate. we had recently become friends with all the younger sigma chi's as well, so it was one gigantic debaucherous party on friday night. when the night wrapped up one of my old loves came home with me, because why rent a hotel?

my mom called me at 7 the next morning to remind me to meet her at the parade. does anyone else think they parade would be 1,000 times better if it was about 5 hours later? so i drag myself out of bed. fix myself up as best i can and leave K. in bed.

i make it through the parade and around 11 when it's over my mom says, "We'll just head to your house, how do we get there." i rattle off directions and then realize...my grandparents can NOT come to my house and find a sleeping boy in my bed!!! so i fly home and call mom, "Mom, you have GOT to stall!!! K is in my bed!!!" in an abbreviated lecture she says, "You better hurry, Lesli Michelle"

so i rush in a wake K. up, and if you know him, you would know that he is NOT a morning person and doesn't do morning well. "Put clothes on, hide your suit case, brush your teeth, throw some water on your hair!" he's looking at my like i'm saying all of this in russian.

so my family walks into my new apartment and i say, "Look who JUST stopped by!" i think my grandparents completely bought it, especially since they invited him to come visit them in texarkana any time he wanted, and if you can't find us we'll be at the First Baptist Church. the best was when K walked over to my closet and said, "Let me check out your closet! Wow, you've got a lot of space." as he reaches for his own bag...