Adventures in Being a Visitor and Being Visited

Sorry for the lapse in posting but I have been very busy these past two weekends, busy being a bad guest and a bad host (ha ha just a little joke for you there Laura)! Last weekend my fearless sister Rachel came to visit, and the weekend before that, I visited Dad and Marvis in Lexington.

I had a good time in Lexington. Jeff spent the weekend in Louisville, visiting with his family and his high school buddies, but he dropped me off in Lexington on the way. It was really good to see Dad and Marvis and their beautiful new deck. I also got to see many bonus-relatives, including Austin, Vaughan, Brian, and Maya. On Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market downtown, and then we walked around the neighborhood because it was the neighborhood garage sale weekend. At one garage sale a woman was selling lots of baby clothes, so I came away with a dozen like-new baby outfits for a dollar each. After eating lunch with Austin, we went to see the Prairie Home Companion movie, and then to the arboretum to see Dad and Marvis' rose plot. The next morning I saw Grandma, who was in her own little world but otherwise doing well. That day she was stressing the importance of saying with pride (and proper diction) "I come from a good family." And in case anyone was wondering, you must say all three syllables of "fam-i-ly." After that we had a nice lunch with all the above-mentioned bonus relatives, and after lunch I got to talk quite a bit with Vaughan and Austin. By mid-afternoon, Jeff arrived and we headed back home to Oak Ridge.

On Thursday night, we went to pick up Rachel from the airport. She was visiting to fulfill my graduation wish: since she couldn't make it to my party last year, I requested that she come visit me wherever I ended up. I took a day off from work on Friday, and after a blueberry pancake breakfast, we went to Gatlinburg and saw the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum before heading to Pigeon Forge and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. We all had a good time there. Jeff enjoyed the bluegrass music pre-show, I enjoyed drinking a cold, fruity drink from the souvenir boot-shaped mugs (all three of which went home with Rachel), and the show was kind of fun too: a "friendly North-South rivalry" expressed through contests and competitions, such as horse and wagon racing, chicken chasing, and ostrich-racing. If you just forgot about their description of the origin of the rivalry (originating in 1861 over different ideas about freedom) and the fact that you were being served your dinner by people dressed in Union blue or Rebel gray, it was a fun show. The food was good too, although they did not believe in eating utensils so you had to eat everything (including a whole chicken [more like the size of a Cornish hen]) with your fingers.

On Saturday Rachel joined our usual role-playing group and had a lot of fun entering the game as a not-so-bright but very kindly paladin. She thought that the gnome character was a child and pinched his cheeks a lot and the like. It was quite humorous and made for a lively game. I should also add that she made our dinner that night: a delicious lasagna. I made the dessert: lemon poppy-seed cake, which was a bit lemony for Jeff but I found it quite delicious. We were sad that on Sunday she had to leave, but she'll be back in October after the baby is born.