Home again, home again, jiggety jog

Well, it was a mixed bag my friends.

On the plus side, travel was great: no delays, minimal construction, and Fi travels like a champ now. We did narrowly miss being involved in an accident. Several car lengths ahead of us two cars had a terrible collision, and in trying to stop in time, the eighteen wheeler next to us burned the rubber all off its back tires in a plume of smoke; I thought it was going to lose a tire and turn over or jackknife, so I ended up braking into the median, but all was well.

Also good: I reconnected with my childhood BFF (first grade through first year of college) and we had a blast catching up. I think we are going to be a part of each other's lives again, and I am so happy about that. Plus she has all the best gossip about everybody we went to school with since she still lives in the area we grew up in. In addition, I got to see Josh's BFF from high school who became my BFF in college along with his wife and kiddos.

Bestest: I got a card in the mail and an e-card from kaleecat! I got well wishes from trobadora, decynthus, and timespirit. I got some pretty rad birthday gifts from various and sundry.

On the negative side: on the way there, we accidentally stopped some place where I couldn't eat anything, and I ended up having to eat some lunch meat and cheese roll ups in the car while everybody else had delicious food. The route we take home goes through the ass end of Alabama where there is genuinely nothing for freaking ever, not even gas stations for miles and miles and miles, and since we change time zones, that often affects where we can eat too. I anticipated a problem and packed the lunch meat and cheese for that very reason, but it was still pretty disheartening. On the way back, Josh told me he found a place that had gluten free options, but when we got there, it was clear the servers didn't really understand what gluten was and the kitchen confirmed that their chicken wasn't gluten free, so I had to eat a salad (arugula, mozzarella, avocado, tomato) with lemon squeezed on top instead of dressing. It was a really good salad and I was okay with it, but Josh was all embarrassed and upset because he didn't realize that unless places have a dedicated gluten free menu, having gluten free options generally means a salad with no protein or dressing. I think this is the moment that he realized that we're basically confined to eating at places like Applebees or O'Charleys unless we do a lot of research and are prepared to go out of our way.

Also negative: the night before my birthday, my dad was a total asshole, hollering at me and being a jerk, and it came out of nowhere. It really upset me and hurt my feelings, and I'm re-evaluating my interactions with my parents as I do from time to time. *sigh* My dad has anger issues which are bolstered in very negative ways by his evangelical faith; after all, he is the avatar of god in the household. No one ever calls him on his shit, ever, and I have zero memories of him every apologizing to me about anything although my memories of him hollering at me unjustifiably are legion. In fact, Saturday night when he lost his shit, he was reading his Bible. This is not the good kind of irony, my friends.

Anyway, Josh is heading out of town on Wednesday for five days in Michigan for a conference, so tomorrow is incredibly busy: dentist appt for Ems, chiropractor appt for Josh, cross country for Ems, washing clothes, and packing for Josh. Whew. I don't know when I'll catch up on Game of Thrones and the Penny Dreadful finale.