Deliverance

Quick update until I am less tired.

I am back on terra firma--at least until Thursday, when I am headed to California, but I wanted to update y'all on See the Southeast 2005!, which I capped last night by deciding at the last minute (noon) to leave Nashville and drive all the way home, a 600 mile trip. Between you and me, it wasn't one of my more brilliant ideas, but since I lived, I win. I credit daylight savings time and the fact that Mineola was not one more mile from where it actually is. When I drove in and saw that the "reduced speed" was 600, I was like "damn, life has sped up around here." But in actuality, my eyeballs were falling out. (I didn't know.)

For those of you who have never been to Nashville or middle Tennessee--go! It is gorgeous. I had seen it before, but only in winter when there was less daylight and cold weather, but the rolling hills covered in lush vines and grass and trees are spectacular. The Appalachains and Great Smoky mountains were also amazing, if somewhat of a knuckle whitening experience to drive through.

Since this is supposed to be a *quick update, I'll just recount a couple of anecdotes:

I got a Subway sandwich on two different occasions on this trip. The first, in Eastern Tennessee, still very much in Hillbilly territory, had a GIANT portrait of Robert E. Lee next to the cash register.

Quoi? You can think about that one without my commentry.

The second was a truck stop in Arkansas (which IS everything you've heard + scarier) and a girl in front of me wanted her sandwich to be on "hwhaaaat" bread. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure that's not a flavor. The other words that came out of that girl's mouth were also basically unintelligible and it pains me to type them, as I relive them, so you'll excuse me if I don't.

Anyhow, I'm back and while it's great to be off the road finally with over 2400 miles behind me, I had a wonderful time seeing and spending time with all the great people I went to see, starting with Ang and Ben in Atlanta, my sister and her family in NC, and Paulie in Nashville. And Elvis in Memphis (not really. Elvis died. Sorry.). I hope to see you all again soon--but not driving. :)

Yahoo Headline: Tom and Katie Engaged! (mercifully short)

Story: Whole world gives a crap. Psyche.

Greetings from Mississippi! (long)

This has been a most interesting day. I am keeping a photolog of my trip, which I will make available to friends and appreciated associates at the end of the trip, but below is my favorite picture from today.



Please note that everything in Mississippi is named after a Confederate battle or general. E. once commented to me that her experiences in Austria and Germany showed her that World War II was still very much in the hearts and minds of the Europeans and when I said "umm, wasn't that like 50 years ago?" She replied "It's not like Southerners are over the Civil War, yet."

True dat. :)

I saw Confederate flags everywhere today. Despite the fact that Texas was officially part of the Confederacy, I think Texas is much more "Yee-haw! Remember the Alamo! We whipped Santa Ana at San Jacinto! We were our own country! Woot!" than we are "Ow! Our most of us!" about the Civil War. Although, there is a joke that I, along with many other Southerners, enjoy. (below for your edu-tainment)

A man is about to jump from a bridge, when an old Southern woman drives up in her Cadillac.
"Don't do it!" she exclaims. "Think of your wife and kids!"
"I'm not married," the man said, grimacing.
"Why then, think of your mother and dad!" she protested.
"My parents died already," the man said. "I have nothing to live for."
"Think, honey, of General Lee then and don't jump!"
"Who?" the man said.
And the woman said "Oh go ahead, you damn yankee."
Heh.

But back to today's adventure...

The Mississippi River was indeed muddy, but quite awe-inspiring and wide! When I exited I-20 to attend the Mississippi welcome center, there were two huge signs.

CASINOS --->
<---VICKSBURG BATTLEGROUND STATE PARK

What more could a Southerner want? I would have taken pictures if I wouldn't have wrecked myself doing it. I laughed in rememberance of all of you, though.

Louisiana was mostly unremarkable except for this annoying twerp who kept tailing me, then passing me and slowing down, then tailing me again--- in a Mistubishi Galant whose windows were tinted green to match the car (irritant) and whose co-pilot had her ill-painted toenails sticking out the passenger side window from Shreveport to the Mississippi River, at which time I thankfully rid myself of them. (See? Unremarkable. I shouldn't have remarked.) Oh yeah, and lots of things were in French, and I amused myself thinking of the locals pronouncing them.

I concluded my evening in Meridian, MS here at the Holiday Inn Express. I went to get dinner but decided that instead of staying along the interstate and going to Pizza Hut (boring!), I would explore this sleepy little town and I found a really good, if backwoodsy, steak place called the Old Beef Chop Shop. (How awesome would Olde Beouf Choppe Shoppe have been? Oh well.) They were absolutely dumbfounded at my eating by myself (they asked about 8 times if I was sure I was a party of one--I am always a party!), but it was a grand time anyhow, at a table for four, just in case my imaginary friends showed (where were y'all?). Cheese soup, homegrown tomatoes, garlic bread, a 6 oz. ribeye, potato wedges, and sweet tea (ah! I love southern sweet tea!) for $14. Oh yes, and as they say at Mi Cocina in Dallas-- a side of good service (no charge). If you ever come to Meridian, MS with me, we'll go there. (They encouraged me to come back.) While you're waiting, you can watch the staff make the steaks through a glass window--very cool.

So after dinner, while meandering back to my hotel, I decided to stop in to a cemetery I had seen from the road on the way. It was, of all things, an old time Jewish cemetery. Seriously, these people were Civil War vets and flu (of 1914) victims...and also Jewish. I mean, I guess it *might* not have been Jewish, but as every stone was Greenbaum, Rosenbaum, Greene, Meyer, Goldblatt, Rosenstein, etc. you could see how I would get that idea. When I think antebellum, small-town Mississippi (although even the cities here are quite modest and I guess officially, Meridian is one of the "cities"), I think Jews. What about you?

Lucky me--"the state games" (I don't understand exactly what this is) event being held in Meridian and they have filled this hotel, so I have the great fortune of listening to about 8000 6-17 year olds play games and run through the hallway. (It's a little like going to Michigan with the Marching Owl Band that one time, except these kids are more mature.) If Houston is not heaven, this surely is. :)

Like Houston, it was very hot across Louisiana and Mississippi, but tonight it was a downright balmy, breezy 78 degrees. Very nice. Tomorrow I am bound for Atlanta, to see A. and all the fabulous peaches, with sightseeing in Alabama, too. Then on to North Carolina to my sister's the following day. I'll report as soon as I can and more (exciting!)pictures will be coming soon, too.

Like a band of gypsies, we roll down the highway!

And by "we," I mean "I." And by "gypsies," I mean "gypsies driving their mom's mid-size SUV."

Yes friends and fiends, I'm hitting the great American highway in a trip I am calling "See the Southeast 2005!"
I will work on that title, okay?

Here are the places I'm going for sure:
Hotlanta (to see the lovely A.)
Chapel Hill, NC (to see my sister and sniff out the new F-R.com)
and Nashville (to see my Nashvillian)
San Jose, CA (by plane)

Highlights: I am taking a 15 year old girl from Raleigh to church camp. Thank you Raleigh Craigslist Rideshare! I have almost talked Erin into making me an ironically Jesus-y CD for the trip.

Anywho, I will try to update with photos from the road and what not, so stay tuned. I'm leaving Friday and I'll be back in H-town on July 5th. Don't cry for me, Argentina, or if you do, make it a good show.

This is your last chance if you want to come with me! Toss your cares and curls away. Woot!

I was on the moon...with Steve

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but as I have been following the case of the Alabama girl, Natalee Holloway, who went missing in Aruba a couple weeks ago, I find myself at a bit of a loss. The young men detained as suspects have admitted that "something bad happened."

Yes...and?

That admission came several days ago with no other news since. While I know I am no one-woman crack commando unit, I believe if I were told that in some sort of interrogation, I might have a follow-up like: what bad thing is that, skippy? What was the bad thing? WHAT HAPPENED?

I get so jazzy about these news stories: what they say, the way they're spelled, etc. I just can't get enough of my internet news.

I know I shouldn't be casting stones and all

...from my position in the glass house that unemployment built, but don't these people have something--ANYTHING--else to do with their lives? I know I do. Laundry. Grocery shopping. Picking lint from my belly button.

Fans said they remain confident that Jackson would be cleared and were tired of waiting in the hot California sun for a verdict they believe is long overdue.

"I'm not worried, I just want this to be over. It must be a nightmare for Michael," said Sara Arnejo, a longtime Jackson fan who traveled from Spain for the trial in February and plans to remain until it ends.

Why are they waiting outside? Don't they know how this works? They should maybe plan to visit Disneyland or Sea World or something and I guarantee that when there's a verdict, it will be on the radio, newspaper, tv, etc.

But more to the point: this woman traveled from Spain? In February? For Michael Jackson? That kind of zealotry reminds me of this special lady who took up a position of protest during the whole Terri Schiavo debacle.



You know it's bad when even America's beloved Jeb Bush (yes, I gagged a little as I typed that) has found his place in the lake of fire. In elementary school we had a way of astutely describing such pilgrims. We pointed our index fingers at either side of our heads and twirled them, as though in a spiral of abyssmal craziness. I think you get my point.

A Post-Modern Problem

I now find myself in the rather awkward position of a pending friend request for two persons I barely know, and had they not emailed me at friendster (admittedly, several months ago--I do not check it much), I might have forgotten that they existed. That said, I feel sort of not quite right about approving them as "friends."

Really, I know it doesn't matter either way, but I don't want to add to this apparent spree of friend-claiming that people are attempting on Friendster. I'm no notch in anyone's belt. I am a free agent, Mister!

By the same token, do they get an email if I turn their request down that's like "no, loser." That seems excessively mean and while I prefer they never acknowledge that they know me (and forget any moments under the influence we may have thought memorable at one time or another during our undergraduate years), I don't want them to move to Montana and start mail-bombing people because they were rejected by everyone on Friendster.

This is a pickle, indeed.