I got up at around 9:30 yesterday. My aunts had already left; they hit the road at 6:30. I surfed the web to wake up a little, and my dad made me breakfast.
Then I hurried to take my shower so I could spend time with Connor before he went to school at 11:30.
When I rushed out of the shower, Dad told me that Connor would call me when I could come over, so I surfed the web a little more. Then Connor and AJ came over; apparently they had been waiting for me to call, and now there was hardly any time left. Connor and I spent the fifteen minutes before he had to leave playing putt putt golf (Connor has one of those SportsCenter things) and pool in the basement, and then he headed off to kindergarten.
I played with Logan while waiting for Faye to get back so she could decide which of a stack of pictures she wanted to keep (I was taking the rest).
Finally I packed up and headed out to see Grandma.
I found myself driving automatically up Nicholasville to Man-O-War to Tates Creek, even though it's really faster to go straight up Harrodsburg, so I decided to stop in at Hibari Market, the Japanese grocery store I used to visit all the time. I once spent over $100 there on food, dishes, and a cookbook. This time I spent a more reasonable $21, on two rice bowls, two sets of chopsticks, four chopstick rests, and two soup spoons. I thought very seriously about getting a tea set, but ultimately decided against it. When I do get a new tea set, it's going to be when I'm in Japan, and hopefully I'll be able to go back to Hirashimizu Pottery outside Yamagata. It would be perfect if I could find a set like the one I had before (which I apparently don't have a picture of--it was of course handmade, and a pink/purple color. You can barely see the creamer in this picture, and the box it all came in in this picture).
When I finished buying my new Japanese dishes (and waxing sentimental about my old pieces), I went over to Grandma's. Uncle Steve was raking the yard. The big tree out front was gorgeous, covered in bright yellow leaves.
Grandma fixed me a roast beef sandwich and cut me up a tomato, and we sat and talked for a long time. She gave me a set of four glass dessert bowls and a few dinner napkins. Ultimately, I didn't end up on the road until after 3.
The drive wasn't bad. I only fell asleep at the wheel once, and I didn't start hallucinating until I got to I-20.
You think I'm joking?
I was pretty tired. In Tennessee I was fighting to keep my eyes open, and I guess I lost that battle, because the next thing I knew, the wheel was slipping through the fingers of my left hand. This caused the weight of my other hand to turn the wheel and veer the car to the right.
That woke me right up, and I was quite alert as I pulled off onto Stinking Creek Road to find a place to park. I managed to nap for something like 20 minutes, and after that I was wide awake for the rest of the drive.
When I got on I-20 some four hours later, though, I started seeing weird stuff. The first thing I have no explanation for. I could swear something shadowy ran across the road right in front of me. Of course, I let up on the gas, prepared to swerve or brake, but there was nothing there, and no sign that there ever was anything. I still have no idea what I saw.
The second thing looked like something waiting at the side of the road, but when I focused on it I realized it was just the headlights of the car in front of me lighting the dead grass.
The third thing was real; it had to be. But it was eerily still. It was some kind of animal, tannish-brown--either a deer or a dog. It just sat there on the side of the road, staring, not moving. The lights from my headlamps didn't even make its eyes glow. But it was definitely there.
I was very happy to get home...at 1:16 am. Ugh. Starting out late = no fun. (Plus I added to the drive by obsessively searching for an open Japanese restaurant in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Atlanta, only to come up dry and end up eating McDonald's.)
And that's that. I stumbled in, put my stuff in its approximate places, and crawled thankfully into bed, and now here I am, about to go run some errands and get back into the swing of my normal life.
It was a nice weekend away. I kind of wish I was still in Kentucky ;>
1 comment:
His cuteness will destroy you!
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