The last five days in Georgia with my family were awesome. I surprised the little brothers, crouching in the trunk of the car when we picked them up from school on Thursday. There’s nothing like family to make you feel better about everything.
We ate a lot of dessert and fried food and cuddled up to watch movies we’ve seen a thousand times already. Galaxy Quest just gets better every year. And I got to watch both brothers play baseball. They are both amazing pitchers, at 12 and 8 years old.
It was actually Jack’s pitching debut on Saturday, at a tournament, and he struck out the first three batters he faced! Pretty sweet.
On Friday I went to Jack’s school to be “show and tell” to his second grade class. I taught them some Spanish and was told I was beautiful and nice and was I really from California? They shared snacks with me at recess and we told pirate jokes at lunch time. (See the update included in my pirate joke list here.) I forgot how cute little kids can be. It was incredibly strange to be in a classroom with only white and black kids. One Indian girl. Not a single child spoke Spanish. No Asians. I got a feeling I’m not in California anymore.
I went with my stepmom to an old folks’ home and watched them play an auction game with beans for dollar store prizes. There is something adorable about old ladies screaming at each other for a pair of fuzzy socks.
The weather was beeeeeeautiful all weekend – when I drove out of Durham on Thursday it was spitting rain, but by the time I rolled into Georgia, it was sunnier and warmer than I’ve been in weeks. Of course, being the notoriously terrible packer that I am, I hadn’t checked Georgia weather, and so I only had workout clothes and one dress. But I had my “I <3 USA” shirt, and that’s really all you need.
The drive itself was nice. Seven hours by yourself in a car can be intimidating when you’re scared of your own thoughts lately, but I like to sing at the top of my lungs and dance in my car. And I always come up with GREAT ideas about EVERYTHING while I’m driving, so I tried using the voice-to-text feature to record them, and came up with awesome stuff:
“Take a little nap and try to think of people you know playing cards empty water bottles mix the car accidents aren’t French CDs that you used to drive to Canada in there?”
I have no idea what I was trying to say when this came out.
One that did turn out was:
“I wish it was easier to do the running man while driving.”
Ain’t that the truth?
I also made some videos while driving, which is what every mother wants to know. I have this handy mount on my dashboard, so it was mostly safe. Some videos I made while parked. :)
It was also really, really nice to be around friendly animals. My family has two dogs. Katie is “the best dog in the world,” according to my dad. We call Katie my dad’s girlfriend. And she really is the best. She just loves and loves and loves you. And then there is Ayla, poor thing, who lived in a cage in the shelter her whole life and is now afraid of breathing, but she’s coming along. Then there is Annakin the cat and California the cat. Annakin thinks dogs are his mom, and likes to knead your chest and stomach and curl up to sleep in your lap right when you were about to get up and go pee. There’s something so warm and fuzzy feeling about a dog freaking out with excitement every time they see you, and trying to come in the bathroom with you, and licking you everywhere she can even as you’re laughing and pushing her away.
The best part of the weekend was going to my first ever state fair! The one in Perry, Georgia, is like way top notch. We ate footlong corn dogs (ohhhhh so good) and looked at all the 4H Scarecrow contest entries. We decided to go on one ride, and promptly got stuck on it and my stepmom and I had to pretend we didn’t think we were going to die on it. We watched pig racing, Wool Riding (see the videos!), and saw an invisible bunny. All things you haven’t lived until you have seen (watch my videos so you can know you live.) We ate funnel cake and God bless Georgia – it’s not often you get to see grown men wearing overalls and fanny packs at the same time, or so many people with more tattoos than teeth. I also got to hug a llama!!! hashtag dreams come true.
And despite being boxed into an impossibly small area on the bed, with a large dog across my feet and a little brother rolling over to punch me in the back, or curling up and breathing right into my neck (but whispering “I love you, sister,” as only Jack can), I slept well. We played hard and ate and drank too much. I drove back to Durham feeling better.
If you’re bored or just missing the running monologue I run, check out the video playlist here of my roadtrip adventures and times at the Georgia State Faire:
Sunglasses Always Fit 
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