We have been home now for almost a week. I’m having internet DTs. So I’m writing this to put online later at the library. It was a long 3 weeks in Tennessee. We are all glad to be home. Let me give a short (yeah right!) rundown of our vacation:
We arrived Sunday night, may 15th. I don’t tell anyone we are coming to town, so I wait 4 days until the 19th to surprise my friends at the sofh group skating day by just showing up (D’s scream could be heard by all). And that is when I felt like I was home again. I always forget that there are more than 1 or 2 people in the world that actually like me, this day reminded me that I do have friends after all. I got the best hugs (N in particular who caught me at the door coming in and didn’t let go…thanks!!). I felt loved.
We didn’t do anything again until the following Thursday (the 26th), which I already wrote about in “big park day.” Well, I don’t mean that we did “nothing.” We did visit with my family as well. I got a taste of what it is like to have to pick up children from school. Yikes. I am glad we didn’t have to do that every single day! I helped as much as I could to get the house straightened up for my grandma’s big visit, which wasn’t until June 2nd. You know, just hangin’ around the house.
Okay, so then on the 29th, the kids and I went up to the ol’ homestead to visit with D and her family for the day. We were so good and only stayed about an hour past the time I planned on leaving (and that is saying something!). This was a big and wonderful day. They made fresh homemade, well everything. Kids ground the flour for pizza dough, pizza sauce on the stove from canned tomatoes from the garden, fresh sautéd kale, cheese that D had made (I even shredded it…ooh). I explained all of this to sadie as she does not like pizza and I guess it made an impression because she actually ate half a piece which is a lot for her. And then there was the broccoli salad (with the perfect amount of mayo, I might add…wink wink to D). And all the different lettuces in the garden salad, with homemade feta and dressing (made by one of the kids no less). It was all so wonderful!! But to top it all off, when D and I returned from her slopping the hog, we find that her hubby has made banana splits for everyone!!! And this is where it gets good: they are made from homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream. No I am not done yet! They are then topped off with fresh whipped cream. I must say, we make a lot of stuff from scratch…but not like this. From scratch for us would be to buy the cream and whip it. Or buy any of the main ingredients and then make it, be it pizza sauce, ice cream, dressing, whatever. But to have something so homemade as to have actually walked by the cow and through the gardens that it all came from that same day is another thing entirely. People have no idea what they are missing. My husband is a chef and so I hear about the so called fine dining world an awful lot. There is no finer dining than what we have whenever we visit that mountain and break bread with our nearest and dearest friends. The only thing that would have made it a more perfect day is if Scotty could have been there as well. I know there are dozens of things I could talk about besides the food, but why??
On Monday, the 30th, we drove out to another friend’s house for the monthly sofh “support group.” It was nice to be out in the country…two days in a row!! We had a really awesome day visiting with all our friends again. There was a trail to hike and a pond to find frogs in and lots of food to eat. We finally got to visit with our friends V, C, C, and S who we hadn’t seen yet and that was really nice, I got some more great hugs from them. Can you feel the love?? I was feeling it. I normally come away from these things feeling really weirded out and isolated (see entry from our last visit for an example). But this day I felt energized and alive. And when I left I didn’t have that usual “I just can’t go out anymore” feeling that I normally have.
So our last visit of the trip was on June 1st at V’s house. We hung around the house all day just relaxing, ate bean burritos and cabbage, played cards, laughed and talked, looked at some yard work in progress (hey C, break anymore car windows lately??), had some mac-n-cheese (thanks to S). It’s nice because I’m about the same distance in age from V as I am from her kids and so I’m somewhere in the middle and am able to relate and have independent friendships with each of them. Again, I got some hugs…my last hugs from friends.
My grandma came late the next night. It was so good to see her again, it’s been a couple of years. And then Scotty got into town Friday night and we stayed up pretty late talking around the table with my mom and grandma (who likes to talk dirty!!). My grandma turned 80 years old on May 22nd. I still see her as more like 60. But I don’t see age as having anything to do with the year you’re born, it’s about how you feel and how you see yourself. I may be 34, but I feel more like 20…most days. But there are also my 16 year old days and then the days when I actually feel almost 30.
On Monday (the 6th), we visited with scotty’s brother for lunch at his pizza shop (yes, more people feeding us!!) and then we headed home.
It is 12:35 am right now. I am tired tired tired. Scotty should be home soon. I may be able to wait up for him still. I usually don’t make it and I fall asleep with the kids around 10, but tonight I had some music in my head and couldn’t sleep (camper van beethoven’s “all her favorite fruit”). So I got up, put on my headphones with a cvb cd in and started writing. I keep telling myself I need to try to keep up my journal better and to write more letters to people. But it seems like I just can’t get near the computer too much these days. I just don’t feel like it. Not to sit and think about something to write anyway. But I’m coming down now from all the time away and I’ve had some time to sort some things out. I’ll be writing more as it comes to me.
Listening to:
Camper Van Beethoven, “all her favorite fruit”
Favorite line:
“I drive alone home from work and I always think of her.
Late at night I call her but I never say a word.
And I can see her squeeze the phone between her chin and shoulder.
And I can almost smell her breath faint with a sweet scent of decay.
She serves him mashed potatoes and she serves him peppered steak with corn.
She pulls her dress up over her head, lets it fall to the floor.
And does she ever whisper in his ear all her favorite fruit,
And all the most exotic places they are cultivated?
And I’d like to take her there rather than this train.
And if I weren’t a civil servant, I’d have a place in the colonies.
We’d play croquette behind white washed walls and drink our tea at four.”
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