Painted Babies at Seventeen is on TLC right now. I’m thinking Michael Arndt, who wrote Little Miss Sunshine, must have seen Painted Babies, which is the predecessor to Painted Babies at Seventeen. The documentary is about children in beauty pageants, and it’s just scarily close to the pageant parts in Little Miss Sunshine. I’m creeped out by the whole notion of little girls in pageants — it seems wrong for these little girls to wear more makeup than I’ve worn in my entire life, to feel that much pressure, and to be exposed to the creepy emcee. However, much like most things on TLC, I’m sucked in and can’t stop watching. Typical.
I’m in Mississippi this week, and it’s been mostly good. I’m in the other Jackson, and I haven’t gotten lost once. This is promising. I’ve also met some students who have been really interested in coming to my school. It’s always a good thing when students ask questions (or, you know, have heard of your school), so all in all, I’m having a good time down in Mississippi. However, despite the fact that I have been at private schools, I’ve realized no one was lying when they said this state was last in the nation for education. One girl said she didn’t know there was another placed called Jackson, and there’s a billboard on 55 that has Mississippi in huge letters with backwards Ss and Ps. Over that it says, “Our children can’t read,” and in the bottom corner, it says, “We should be ashamed!” How terrible is it that the entire state of Mississippi is being shamed by billboards on a highway?
I’m moving on to Alabama tomorrow, and then I get to go back to Indianapolis because I’ll be in northern Kentucky next week. I’m going to take full advantage of time with my family — and sleeping in. However, I think y’all know how I feel about Indiana. It should be interesting to see how it goes. We’ll just look at this as a test period since I’ll be back in Indianapolis for over a week for Thanksgiving (Happy birthday? Happy Thanksgiving? Happy your-favorite-band-is-coming-to-town day? Happy go-back-to-your-high-school day?). I might make it. We’ll wait and see.
