Old Friends and Singing Batesies

Last weekend, roadtripped to Atlanta (about 4.5 hours) for the weekend to see an old friend, Steve, in Atlanta before he heads abroad for a year for a post-grad program. Was so so nice just to see him (it had been 94 days since I had gotten a hug from anyone -- and yes, I did calculate that), but the weekend was perfect in so many other ways: getting to catch up, getting a blitz tour of the people and places in his life these past four years, and getting to see some of Atlanta (touristy and local-y alike). It was also like a vacation in the sense that we stayed at his friend/mentor's house, which was beautiful and comfortable -- got my own king size bed! And also had the pleasure of meeting a lot of southern gay guys, which clearly I had no prior experience with, because I was perplexed. They had a big house party for a college football game. My Northern brain was really confused by the whole gay guys watching football thing, but that's the way it is. Funny how new combinations of things reveal stuff you had never even thought about.

All in all, the weekend made me realize that I really miss somethings here. Among them: public transportation (Nashville has a bus system that I can ride for free as a Vandy employee, but it is pretty sparce and infrequent.) Also, hugs.


Back and work has been sadly devoid of children for me recently (trying to crank out processing data -- still catching up.) So nothing too exciting there.


My mom has booked a flight to come see me in November! I am so excited to see her (five months is the longest I've gone without seeing family) and also to show her around -- there are so many things that I think she would like that it's going to be tricky fitting it all into a long weekend.

I almost completely forgot about my amazing experience at a Nashville Bates alums/families event this past week. I laughed, I cried, I missed Bates. It happened to fall on my birthday (a Wednesday evening.) I didn't know what to expect going into it and was even a droplet nervous, but I had such a great time and gave myself a gold star for successfully chatting (I would say mingling but I hate the connotation of that word -- it's too fake, and Batesises are real, dangnabit). I was so busy talking Bates and Nashville that I barely had time to enjoy the food there -- and if you know me and my love of food (plus this was free and delicious Italian), then you know that's a big deal. To top it all off, they brought out a piece of tiramasu with a candle in it, proceeded to sing Happy Birthday, and the guy from the Alumni Office gave me a Bates hat. I didn't think I could ever love Bates more than my last semester and short-term there, but after having twenty would-be strangers serenade me, the Bates love hit me really hard. As soon as I got in the car in the parking lot and headed out, I found myself laughing/happy crying/sad crying. It was probably 60% laughing hysterically, 35% tears of joy, and 5% missing Bates/friends/family. This continued for a good ten minutes and caused me to miss my exit. Worth it. Sorry if that sounds awkwardly cheesy and makes you want to vomit. Just wanted to record that for myself.