Eye Doctors

Today I went to the eye doctor for the first time in 11 years, because for some freak reason I started to have blurred vision in my left eye.

It was strange.

The cause of the drama is uncertain...I thought it was a scratched cornea (via a straw wrapper haphazardly thrown in jest), but eye-doctor-man said it looked more "toxic" - which, by the way, is not a comforting word to hear from the person examining your eye.  After the word "microblister" was thrown around substantially, I was sent off with eye drops and instructions to use them every half hour until I go to sleep, and theoretically things will be better in the morning.  Let's hope so, since I've got a travel day ahead of me.  And I prefer to keep my eye examinations a decade apart, so overnight healing would be for the best.

The emergency medical appointment actually afforded a lot of humor and sister bonding, and was followed by an evening of Chinese takeout, The Art of Getting By from Redbox, frozen custard, and playing Lego Harry Potter on Xbox.  And before the bizarre eye incident, my parents took me to lunch.  So actually, it was a pretty good day overall.  Wish I had a couple more days here, but it will be good to get back to Dallas too.

Only one more day in 2011!  Weird, isn't it?

Laura's Visit: A Photo Summary

Well, after an awesome weekend that was absolutely packed full of sightseeing and delicious restaurant meals, my friend Laura is safely back in her old Kentucky home.  I took her to the airport this morning, and then headed off to work, as usual.  It was after work that the exhaustion of the weekend set in - after arriving back at my apartment, I completely crashed.  I wound up taking a 2.75 hour super-nap on the still-inflated air mattress in the middle of my living room, before waking up, throwing a Sweet and Sour Chicken skillet meal on the stove for dinner, and heading off to Bible study.  I fully believe that sunburns and exhaustion are the signs of a good vacation, and according to this criteria I had just as awesome a "vacation" as Laura did.

Since I didn't have time to write while Laura was visiting, I thought I'd recap the last few days with a photo summary of Celia and Laura's Texas Adventure Weekend...because a picture's worth a thousand words, and we both took a ton of pictures this weekend (don't worry, not all of them will appear in this post).

Day #1: Fort Worth

Lunch at Fuzzy's Taco's before hitting the road to Fort Worth for the day!

At the water gardens, we ventured down into the giant canyon fountain (which is entirely legal, in case you were wondering)...

It was absolutely terrifying.  It doesn't seem like the walk down is going to be so intimidating until you're standing at the top about to start the trek.  Those platforms behind us are the stone stairs we took down.

Vacations necessitate jumping photos.  It's a fact.  Eventually, a passerby came by and offered to take a photo of Laura and I jumping TOGETHER...that gem of a photo lies on Laura's camera, unfortunately (watch for it coming soon on Facebook)

Dinner at Risky's Barbecue.  I was reminded of my absolute love for barbecue joints, and inspired to look up barbecue crock-pot recipes immediately upon return to the apartment.  I had a pulled pork sandwich with potato salad, if you're interested.

We spent the evening in the Fort Worth Stockyards...aka, stereotypical Texas at its finest.  It's like walking into a Wild West film.  Seriously.

Laura outside the Cowtown Coliseum (yes, the COWTOWN COLISEUM), before the rodeo (yes, RODEO)

Getting our Texas on at the Rodeo.  We were some of the small number of people not wearing cowboy hats.

We were SO pleased with ourselves...it was just about the most Texan thing ever.

Cattle ropin'.  Other events included bull-riding, kids riding on sheep, and cattle herding.  It.  Was.  Crazy.

That's right people, Fort Worth has rodeos every Friday and Saturday night - a $15 ticket for three hours of Texas fun.  Who knew??

Day #2: Dallas

After beginning the morning at Dealey Plaza (site of the JFK assassination), Laura and I explored the West End...including Wild Bill's Western Shop.

If only we'd had these hats for the rodeo the day before...not that we actually bought them, of course.

Lunch was had at Chuy's...Tex Mex at it's finest!

We spent the afternoon briefly visiting the church where I work (ps, we visited SMU's campus the day before, I forgot to mention that).  Then, we headed out to White Rock Lake to check out the harbors and sailboats.

And for dinner: Pokey-O's.  Because nothing says vacation like an enormous ice cream cookie sandwich :)

By this point, we were (quite obviously) absolutely exhausted, and spent the evening watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Music and Lyrics back at the apartment.  

I must say, after a weekend of doing all of my favorite Texas things and experiencing a rodeo firsthand, I feel like I went on vacation too!

Last Day at the Grandparents'

Just a quick note to acknowledge that it's the last day of our visit to the family homesteads of West Virginia.  We set off on our return trip in the morning, and will arrive back in good ol' St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.  All in all, it's been a good trip, and as usual I will probably be sad to say goodbye.

Some quick tidbits about today's happenings: we spent the morning with my mom's family doing the country thing again, then traveled with my paternal grandmother out to Pennsylvania to pick up some old family documents (specifically, a Bible from 1854 and a 19th century photo album) from a woman who contacted my aunt via a geneology website in answer to a posting looking for documents pertaining to the Wiesner family (my great-grandmother's maiden name).  Both items are super cool, and I would post photos of them but I'm using my grandmother's computer and therefore don't have access to my photos.  I'm planning to write a post where I wax poetically about the glories of family and heritage and whatnot, so they'll show up here in the near future, I'm sure.  After obtaining the Bible and album, we drove out to Funkstown, MD where my late grandfather grew up, and saw his childhood home and the tavern that my great-grandmother ran.  The day wrapped up with a family trip to Olive Garden.

And now, I'm off to read some of The Great Gatsby (my current read-for-fun book) and get some sleep before the long car ride tomorrow...even though I will undoubtedly spend a great deal of that car ride sleeping anyway.  But I could definitely use some sleep after this busy week!

The Theatre, The Theatre....

Note: The title of this post must be read in a hoity-toity British voice.


You may now proceed.

Today I participated in the quasi-traditional Girls' Day theatre/dinner combination with my grandmother, aunt, mother, and sister.  We've gone to several plays together over the years.  My mom attended college at a music conservatory not too far from my parents' hometown, and we would often travel there during our visits to see a musical or two.  Today, we actually went to a different place: the Wayside Theatre, in a little Virginia town whose name I have since forgotten.  The theatre was charming and unpretentious, housed in a space that felt intimate yet professional.  Our seats were in the very front row, center: up close and personal.

The play that we were seeing was The Nerd, by Larry Shue.  Quick plot synopsis: The main character (Willum) is a Vietnam veteran whose life was saved by an anonymous fellow soldier (Rick).  The two have been in correspondence for years, but have never met: until Rick shows up on Willum's doorstep one night in acceptance of Willum's open invitation to come and stay with him whenever he had need of it.  But, Rick's outlandish social mannerisms (or lack of social mannerisms, however you'd like to think of it) throws Willum's life (and dinner party) into complete chaos.  It's really quite the clever play, and it got more and more ridiculous by the second.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and encourage you to go see it if ever you have the chance. You'll laugh your head off.  You may also never eat deviled eggs again.

Yum.

Part two of the day was dinner at the nearby Golden Corral, where I stuffed myself silly on an assortment of buffet fare (it really didn't look like that much food on my plate), and ate some absolutely wonderful bread pudding.  Say what you will about chain homestyle buffet restaurants, but the bread pudding is awesome.

As might be expected, I spent my post-buffet evening curled up in my grandfather's old green recliner and watching Modern Family on TV (the one where Cam gets sick and Mitchell is all conflicted about what to do with their Lady Gaga tickets).  Only one more full day left at the grandparents...

A Family Picnic of Reunion Proportions

The internet issue of yester-night has been solved...it turns out that my grandmother doesn't actually have wireless internet - which explains why we had so much trouble connecting to it.  Anyway, I've located the broadband cord, so we're good to go (until my battery gives out.  I managed to leave the laptop charger at home).

The events of today included all the quintessential trappings of a visit to the extended family.  In the morning, my father and I attended church with my grandmother.  My mom and sister went to church with my mother's family, but I preferred to go to Calvary UMC 1) for the nostalgia quotient, and 2) because the building is just gorgeous. It was built in the 1800s, and has one of those old-fashioned tin ceilings and stained glass windows and red carpet and all those good, classic church-type things.  It's the church where my dad grew up, where my parents were married, where I was baptized, and where my grandfather's funeral was held.  I always like to go back there when we come up for a visit, because it's just about as familiar to me as my grandparents' houses.

The service was your typical United Methodist church service, so I won't go into great detail about it (go find a liturgy book if you're super curious).  The highlight of the service, for me, was actually the children's time.  The speaker came to the front, and the pastor invited the children to come forward, and it quickly became apparent to everyone in the room that there were no children present.  The speaker muttered "oh, come on..." good natured-ly, but it was still something of an awkward moment...until, from all corners of the room, the seven teenage members of the church youth group popped up out of their pews and came down to the front, along with the pastor himself, while the congregation laughed appreciatively.  It was a small gesture, but it spoke of the solidarity of the youth with the church, and the lack of arrogance among them.  None of those seven teenagers thought they were "too good" to sit in front of the church and listen to the speaker read from The Cat in the Hat - they saw a gap, and they filled it.  I thought that was pretty awesome.

So that was the morning.  Lunch included grilled cheese and tomato soup, which has an uncanny way of vibrantly reminding me of my childhood.  Also, my grandma makes better grilled cheese than any other grilled cheese maker that I've come across.  It must be a grandma trick.

BUT, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the Great Family Picnic of 2011.

My parents both grew up here in this small West Virginia town, and so all of my grandparents live here.  We usually stay with my father's mom, but my mom's family lives right across town so we bop back and forth throughout the week.  The catch is that unlike my paternal relatives, who have scattered across the country, my mom's entire family still lives in this area - meaning that every time we Missouri relatives show up, it's family picnic time.  Four generations-worth of family, mind you.

I'll admit, it was rather a daunting site walking up the hill to my aunt's house to the large group of people who had assembled.  In total, the number grew to 30 (I counted), and included grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' children, friends, and neighbors.  It was truly quite a lot of people to just "come over to dinner," as it were.  But, my aunt lives right next door to my grandparents' house out in the country, so there is a lot of space to be had, and she has the gift of hospitality, so it was a very warm and inviting atmosphere.

And there was GOOD FOOD.  We're talking hot dogs, barbecue, my MawMaw's macaroni and cheese (which is amazing),  cole slaw, deviled eggs, watermelon, corn casserole - all your classic picnic fare.  Dessert-wise, there were fudge brownies, carrot cake, and potato candy...all of which I ate more of than was probably a good idea.  This is potato candy, if you don't know what I'm talking about...I'd never heard of it until today, but it is certainly something I will be attempting to create in the future, you can believe that.

I ate dinner with my sister, my grandmother (who we grandchildren all call MawMaw), my cousin Randy, and his son Logan.  Logan doesn't have fantastic language skills, being a toddler, but he is still quite the talkative kid.  Still, he didn't have much to contribute to the Bachelorette discussions (yes, my grandmother is a fan).  Logan and the other kids (six in total, all under the age of 9) spent the majority of the picnic playing in a kiddie pool and splashing each other with water (and soaking diapers wet through, which resulted in the occasional naked child while parents performed an on-the-spot diaper change).  These picnics are a lot more fun now that kids are around - it used to be that my sister and I were the youngest of the family, and we were always rather shy and reserved and therefore non-entertaining.  The evening wrapped up with a group game of Guesstures, in which three of the kids (Jacob, Chasity, and Serenity) participated the most enthusiastically.  We finally said our goodbyes stuffed and tired, and happy to have seen one entire side of the family in one fell swoop.

In fact, being around those kids tonight made me wish that we didn't live so far away that we only get to see them once a year or so.  But better sometimes than never, right?  I also snagged MawMaw's macaroni and cheese recipe, which makes the entire evening an even greater success.

Here are a couple pictures from the family festivities... :)

My mom's family - my grandparents, aunts, and uncles (and mom, of course)

Cousins photo-op (plus one kid)

Serenity and I

Hannah and Jacob

The neighbor's cat kept coming over and trying to get in the house.  It was adorable.