North Carolina 11/11 Trip

The Big Out of State Weekend has come and gone. Nothing between here and the holidays now. Pressure's on to think of treats that will travel well to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, items that will delight teenagers and adults, yet not send my father-in-law's blood sugar skyrocketing into orbit (unless he eats 4 or 5 helpings). Pressure's on to think up and obtain Christmas gifts. And I can't seem to find paperwhite bulbs (cheap, anyway) to start forcing indoors. And the pressure is on to use this fine, warm weather to go out foraging for stuff to fill the windowboxes until spring. Can't possibly opt out of that and leave them bare.

I survived a total of 24 hours on the road alone with my mom. Yes. I did. The bizarre thing was that every time she would have had us going the complete opposite direction we were supposed to go, that's when I was sure what to do. Every time I wasn't sure, she was. So navigation-wise, it all worked out. And there were the mostly tolerable annoyances: the fretfulness whenever the gas tank got down to half full. The 'Tova'(oldladystinkylavenderIdespiseit) perfume. Her leaning way over toward my side of the vehicle to peer/squint at the GPS screen and repeatedly exclaiming how 'cool' it was that it knew just where we were, and was telling us where to go; alternating with her complaints that the screen wasn't big enough and that she couldn't read it. The predominance of sleep-inducing classical music, which I knew was the best middle ground for our road-trip listening pleasure. What would have been far worse would be the possibility of her trying to pretend to like my sort of highway driving music (Metallica, P.O.D., Shinedown, Disturbed, Alice In Chains, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Nickelback, Creed, or Rush). I could all too easily imagine her nodding along and saying 'I like the beat!', and that would have had me telescoping downward in my seat like an embarassed teenager for sure.

And we had to revisit the whole ELCA/Missouri Synod Lutheran thing. Discussing Sunday's plans, she stated she refused to attend her friends' (Vera and Bob) church (ELCA). They believe non-biblical things, she informed me in a very lofty, sanctimonious tone. I suspected she wanted me to ask 'why, pray tell, what nonbiblical things to they believe?' so she could lambaste them for ordaining gays. I didn't take the bait, and I don't feel I have the chutzpah to have an intelligent religious debate (wait, is there such a thing?) with anyone. But here's a pretty good in-a-nutshell discussion on the topic.

Other than these things, it was all a pleasant weekend. Best baby shower I've ever attended. No silly games involving melted candy bars smeared in diapers. We constructively and creatively personalized onesies with fabric paints and markers. The gifts appear to have gone over well, including the unique color scheme afghan I was suddenly compelled to make in the middle of September.





The weather couldn't have been better: sunny, warm and brilliant fall foliage. I had an entire motel room to myself for 4 nights (I mean really, when else am I going to get to nibble leftover hush puppies in bed curled up with a big-ass novel?). I slept. I drank brown liquor and ate Carolina barbecue, fried oysters, shrimp and grits, and my brothers' cooking. I tried a new Mexican restaurant. I took a chance, knocked on a door and met a philosophy professor turned chocolate maker. We walked away with a box of his salted caramel chocolate truffles.