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.

Hobbies

So since moving here I have embarked on some new activities. They're both solitary, because I have no friends. First, it was returning to running, which is still going well. Now, today I needed another outlet, and, for some reason, I decided to pretend to be an artisan and make clay beads. I just laughed out loud at how ridiculous that sounds. I realize the sadness of the situation. I feel like this is how I would be if I were a recovering addict, doing the most obscure activities to keep my mind off my drug of choice. I guess in a way this is true, minus the drugs (thankfully.)

Also, my Grampy's burial service was today (in Rhode Island, where I am not.) Thinking of him lots.

And one last note: Southerners go crazy for football. Today was the first Vanderbilt game and it was nuts around here. People tailgating everywhere I looked and spread pretty far from the stadium. They also set fireworks off for kickoff at 6:30 when it was still fully bright outside...I was confused about the point of that.

Down

So I've been meaning to post about my new exercise regiment and more thoughtful food endeavors, but instead, I'm extremely homesick/Bates-sick and just devoured every single edible thing that I brought to work today to try to dull the pain (with no success.) I'm having a transcription-heavy week, which means less human/kid interaction, so I don't think that's helping. Going to call my mom as soon as I get out of work. Here's hoping I can hold my tears until then.

Getting Real

Had my first closed-door meeting today at work (things just real) and went out to dinner with people on the project. Total of ten hours spent around them and was still far from sick of them afterward. Work is getting intense -- some chaos went down today, big meeting Friday to get organized and figure out who I should be listening to / what my priorities should we be as we work to play catchup. Hopefully won't lose my job. Also, big storms last night woke me up multiple times, so it's been a long day and this has been a boring rant. Homesickness/Batesickness peaked last week and still feeling it but thankfully too busy to usually think about it. I'll try to be more exciting once I survive the week. 

Beware Buffalo

Turned on the TV when I got home from work and saw this headline scroll across the screen: Rancher killed by Buffalo (source). It's times like these I remember I live in Tennessee.

Tennessee Thoughts

1. When I learned I would be moving to Tennessee, I kept having "Walking in Memphis" stuck in my head. Obviously there's a Tennessee connection, but I'm not sure why this song haunted me so when there are so many songs (including ones I'm more familiar with) about Nashville.  It happened. Though when I sang it in my head, I would replace Memphis with Nashville to be more accurate. Now I'm listening to it...good song. I'll have to go to Memphis.

2. We get approximately 20 channels (it was cheaper to get this limited package and internet than internet alone) and two of them are exclusively targeted to evangelical Christians. So many sermons, so little time. And don't even get me started on radio stations. Whenever I'm listening to the radio and find something that sounds good, it seems that the station inevitably turns into country or overly Jesus-y Christian music. Yay cultural differences. Which leads me to...

3. Language/vocabulary differences due to culture (even within a language): One of the measures we use is basically a parent report of all the common words that a child says (it also has Bates in its name--after one of its creators-- and a teddy bear on the cover of the form, so it's probably my favorite measure.) I've been entering the data for this measure, and it's funny to see how, under the clothing category, "snowsuit" is always left unchecked (i.e. child doesn't say it.) Obviously it wouldn't be functional if they did, but that's just one example of how I've been thinking that this report is as much measuring culture and environment as it is vocabulary. Another quick example: there's a whole list of places, and it's interesting to see who knows outside-related words and who doesn't. Makes me think of KD's thesis.

Throwback Day

I just faxed my first document! Yes, somehow I managed to avoid it during my summers of non-profit office work. I feel like I'm in the 1990's again, and I love it. Yep, doing lots of office-y stuff because the boss is on vacation so no kiddie appointments for our project. It's nice to have my time entirely unscheduled (I transcribed from home yesterday for a change of scene) but it reminds me how much I like the variety and the kiddos.