Jugband Blues

I haven't updated in so long! I just really haven't had much to say. Living with my parents for two months made me boring and reclusive. Also, I read a ton of books. But now I am back in the city and back to my old ways of wasting time and telling people about it. So let's do this.

This past weekend I was in Mississippi visiting a friend who goes to Ole Miss. It was my first time in the South (apparently Florida isn't the South?). Wow! It's a different world. I felt like I stood out like a pale, sore, short thumb. Usually I stick out because of my platinum blonde hair. Not here. Everyone was blonde! Shouldn't I love this? No. I didn't feel special. But I stuck out because I couldn't say mam without giggling, couldn't sing one lyric of any country song I heard, and wore flip flops past September (It's cowboy boot season!).

What I absolutely loved about my southern experience was the food, the weather, the kindness of strangers, and the non-hectic atmosphere. Of course I can't forget my trip to Graceland Too.

When my friend first picked me up from Memphis I asked her if Graceland was something to see. She said it was $60 a ticket so that ended my curiosity. Then she told me about Graceland Too, which was only $5. We drove 45 minutes to go walk around this guy's house who hoards Elvis paraphernalia. So worth it. We went at like 11:00 pm. I was worried it would be closed, but then I was told that Paul Mcleod, the man behind Graceland too, never sleeps. I read that he drinks 24 cans of coke a day. We actually stopped at a gas station of the way there to get a bottle for him.

I was warned that Paul Mcleod said really inappropriate things and that I would leave the house smelling. Both were true. Don't worry Mom, we had boys with us. I couldn't really understand anything Paul Mcleod was saying during the tour but at one point I started screaming because he was reaching into a bag and for some reason (basically every northerners stereotype of southerners) I thought he was going to pull out a gun or a dead animal. It was actually a microphone and he sang to me.

Paul is open about the fact that when given and ultimatum from his wife asking him to choose between his shrine to Elvis or her, he chose his shrine to Elvis. 

Me on an electric chair (aka a chair with a colander and Christmas lights attached to it, aka Jail House Rock).

What's funny is that I actually heard about this place in a book I read in college. I had the best major!

It's located in a normal residential neighborhood. Would you want to be his neighbor?