Leaving the house can be somewhat of a chore. Some days it's nice to be secluded in my apartment, reading or watching television. However, once I step foot outside of the apartment, I immediately feel a warm pleasantness come over me. Rick's garden sprawls across the small front yard. The garden is an explosion of all kinds of different plants, colors and textures. With every new day of spring and summer, there is always something new and interesting blooming, making for a pleasant surprise. There are traditional beauties like roses and irises, but also plants to satisfy unusual tastes such as Mullens, which grow over six feet and are covered in pods and look as if they arrived from anoth

Needless to say, the Super Bowl is a huge deal. Millions upon millions of advertisers' dollars go into it. The spirit and enthusiasm of hundreds of millions people are vested in this one showdown of the "best of the best." In the South, it is a little different. Football is not a sport but the sport to Southerners. It is a common occurrence for people to ride through town replicating rebel yells to the best of their ability just over a high school game. Yes, a local high school game... The Southern reaction to a college game is a similar one but with an underlying hostility. Everyone has a team they are rooting for either because it is nearby or their alma mater. The camps separate and st

Originally from the Deep South, the comfort food I grew up on was fried chicken, mac and cheese and mustard greens. My dad, a chef of sorts, would come up with new family classics monthly, be it a rare steak, chicken Marsala, pulled pork sandwiches, fried catfish or tilapia covered in scallops and mushrooms. It was not until I was fifteen that our small town got its first Mexican restaurant. This was a very cosmopolitan event for most Natchezians who had grown up on soul food with the exception of Chinese or Italian for special occasions. However, the specialty of the sole Mexican restaurant was the fajitas. Don't get me wrong. They were fabulous but my dad had been making them sporadical

As of 9:54 CST 11/03/08, my vote was received by Adams County, MS. Will it count?  Who knows?  At least I tried. Here's to hoping Adams County will be an Obama one.

There is nothing I enjoy more on a stressful day than to go for a walk around Midtown. I love to watch the trees changing colors and losing leaves. I love the various dog walkers and their curious pooches, sniffing everything in sight. I love the craggy old men stumbling along, lost in thought. Most of all, I love going to Sutter's Fort and feeding the ducks who are always ecstatic to see me. That short walk is the perfect de-stressor to life and can elevate my day from so-so to good. The only thing that majorly detracts from this is the bicyclists. First of all, I would like to state clearly that I have the utmost respect for those choosing walking, bicycling and using public transportat

 I am from Mississippi and have been living in Sacramento for a year attending school. My father arranged to have the absentee ballot sent to me here. Disappointingly, the ballot was the only straight-forward document of the bunch. The instructions were convoluted to say the least. The envelope required to mail the ballot was even more confusing. What was clear was that I had to fill out my ballot in front of a witness. The witness could be a notary public, postmaster, asst. postmaster or postal clerk. In the last general election, the directions were very clear cut. It stated that a notary should be the witness and there was room for their seal. In the new and improved procedure, there