Day 22

CAPTAIN'S LOG

Day 22! Can you believe it?

You'd think after three weeks I'd be missing San Francisco. After all, I was raised there. But I'm strangely not. At least not yet. When I left I was afraid I'd be debilitated by an intense feeling a loss for the City. My hometown. No. I don't miss San Francisco. But I DO miss family and friends that I've left there. I do miss y'all. Sigh...

Guess you'll just have to come visit me when I finally get where I'm going! :-)

Let's talk about the lamb.

EXHIBIT C: My daughter, Harper Mae Briggs, alias: "lamb," "lamb chop," "girl child," and "harpischord." She's the reason for our move to Western Massachusetts -- where the public schools are the best in the nation, where we can convert the equity from our former SF home into a house AND a rental property, where tons of lesbian mom's are also raising children, and where my baby girl won't have to spend 40+ hours each week away from  her mothers in school (as has been the case since Harper was just eight months old). The light of my life, the air that I breathe, my perfect angel.

Harper went bowling for the first time!! Yes, y'all, in Austin, Texas. Oh, you should have seen that lamb carefully picking up her (special, light-weight) bowling ball and deftly dropping it onto the lane so that it might eventually meander, over the course of 20-30 seconds, down to the pins at the other end. So cute. Fortunately for you spectator types, I took a video!

Harper bowled a 42! (Yes, those are bumper thingies alongside the gutters -- us adult bowlers made use of them too...) I intended to keep taping till that ball hit the pins but my phone memory ran out. Rats.

When we first crossed into Texas from New Mexico, we stayed in a town called Lubbock. Nothing really of note there except some roadrage a**hole who managed to royally piss me off.

Something about me (Kenya Briggs 101): I am an extrovert who doesn't suffer fools very well at all. (This was brought to my attention about 10 years ago by my mother.) Moreover, my ability to suffer fools is diminishing the older I get.

The above statement aside, Amy -- once again -- bore the brunt of my anger at the Lubbock road rage asshole. So that "tough stuff" often adds up to me just acting like a grumpy jerk.

However, when we left Lubbock en route to Austin, we enjoyed a really magnificent drive. The scenery was just beautiful. Really. Our friend Jennifer told us that we'd gone through the Texas hills (=VERY= subtle compared to Bay Area hills). Since it's early spring, the Texas wildflowers were in bloom and sprinkled all over the place. Plus, as it's been raining in the area more than usual, the grass everywhere was lush. We got a little lost and wound up taking the back highways to Austin, which I think made the drive even nicer.

I took this pic at the Austin Wildflower Center, but it's alot like the views we saw from the road:

Texas wildflowers:

Today, we drove through Arkansas all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. We stopped in this little (really teeny) town in Arkansas called Prescott looking for food. We found this great cafe called Izzy's Place. The food was rockin'! The fried green tomatoes were especially yummy -- they literally melted in a sistuh's mouth. Best fried green tomatoes I've had in a restaurant (my friend Ginger rocks them, home-style). Harper loved her grilled cheese! Amys going to give the place a fab review on Trip Advisor.

Fried green tomatoes at Izzy's Place. YUMMY!!

Sign on chalk board in Izzy's Place bathroom. Teach preacher! :-)

Oh, I've got to share this. During the drive today, Amy shares with me this new great show that she discovered while channel surfing late last night on cable (I'd fallen asleep...). She called it "Naked and Scared," (she remembered later that it's actually called "Naked and Afraid"). She says the point of the show is to "drop people naked" in spots anywhere around the world. In one of the episodes that she watched last night, someone was "dropped naked" in the Louisiana swamps. Per Amy: "That's the the most f***** up place they did it." (I can only imagine.)  She said: "They bleep out their breasts and fronts but you can see their backsides."

Kenya: "You liked that part, babe?"

Amy: "Yeah."

When Amy gets really relaxed, as she was on today's drive, more of her North Carolina accent comes out. It's very cute. :-)

Last thing. While in Sedona, I bejeweled myself with several crystals that I intend to wear until my cafe au lait ass is cleansed of stress and bad vibes.

They are: Orange Calcite (alleviates emotional stress and brings peace, serenitiy, and joy), Jade (attracts good luck and stimulates ideas -- also encourages you to become who you really are), Pink Opal ("Stone of Inspiration," it enhanses imagination, creativity, and memory), and Rose Quartz ("Stone of Gentle Love," which gently soothes the heart and opens one to love, peace, and tranquility). I've decided to wear them all at once, all of the time. A kind of self-healing blitzkrieg.

Harper and Amy are bejeweled too! Here's Harper wearing her's:

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.

We let Harper choose her own crystal, and she chose a blue one that she thinks is really pretty (it is). The crystal does things like stave off arthritis. I'm looking forward to espcially strong bones for her. :-)

So that's it for now y'all. Not too many adventures (if you don't count the truck we passed yesterday while driving to Texarcana that was fully engulfed in flames, and the two small airplanes that literally crop dusted our car as we drove down the highway today -- those pilots were NUTS). Uneventful.

Pix:

Me and my buddy, Jennifer, at a smoothie place in Austin, Texas. We're Squeeeeeeeeeeezing each other (can't... breathe... help!)

Harper on exercise equipment at Wildflower Center in Austin.

Mother and daughter watch as bowling ball makes it's way down the lane.