Vacation - Part 1

I'm so tired I'm not sure I'm even mentally up to reliving my vacation but here it goes!

On Friday night mom and dad came to pick me up and we had supper at Schmidt's. Our bellies then full of German grub, we headed down to Kentucky to spend the night at a Hilton hotel just south of the Ohio River. It was a very nice hotel - tons of pillows and big flat-screen tv. 2 public computers in the lobby and tons of lounge areas. Free Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries. Classy!

Saturday morning we went back to Cincinnati to look at the river and so dad could live his dream of walking on the Purple People Bridge. We found some murals which told the history of Cincinnati and were really well done. After dad walked on the bridge we drove to Augusta, Kentucky to the Rosemary Clooney House and Museum. Augusta is a very tiny town in the middle of basically nowhere, right on the Ohio River. There were a few modest homes, trailer homes, and then on the river there are a few nicer homes and a small main street of very nice, rather trendy, restaurants and shops. Rosemary Clooney's house is right on the river, 2 stories, but not too large, and inside houses lots of exhibits including the largest collection of memorabilia in the world from her movie White Christmas. The elderly gentleman collected admission fees from his chair in the dining room and as we were the only ones there that day, it was nice to take our time and really enjoy it. There are several tvs which are playing the movies that are featured in the exhibits. In addition there is a small 'George Clooney corner' which has some memorabilia from ER and his movie Leatherheads. George's dad, Nick, still lives in town, and do several other friends and family members.

This picture is of the exhibit of costumes from the movie White Christmas in the living room, including the outfits and fan used during the song Sisters, and the military jacket worn by Bing Crosby when he sang White Christmas at the end of the film:



In need of a restroom, we popped into the town 'general store' and got a snack, then began the drive down to Tennessee. The roads from Augusta back to the expressway were treacherous!

Last weekend was uneventful. I was aprehensive about this week. Work is always stressful the week before classes begin at the university. There's so much to do! It never occurs to me that some things CAN be done after classes begin. I am always so spazzy about it.

To make matters worse I'm going on vacation Friday-Monday with my parents. You would think 'oh vacation, how relaxing' - NO! I'm panicked about getting things done before I leave and my first day back at work will be the first day of classes. And now I find out that the forecast is for rain EVERY DAY I'm in Tennessee. I'm such a whiner!

This week flew by because I was super-busy at work. School starts a week from Wednesday but I'll be on vacation starting next Friday, so next week will be even more hectic.

Columbus is currently a media circus due to the OSU vs. USC game taking place tomorrow night. ESPN is set up down at the stadium and the traffic coming home was terrible. Most of the official tailgate parties start between 8am and 10am tomorrow giving people 12 full hours to get drunk before the game begins at 8pm. The entire city becomes deserted during football games, so I take advantage of the opportunity to go to the grocery or see a movie. I listen to the game on the radio as I drive around so I know what's going on and squeeze my activities in before it ends.

When I had told non-football-fans that astronaut John Glenn 'dotted the I' at last week's game, some people didn't know what I meant. Here is a video of the marching band doing their famous 'script Ohio' formation, complete with 'i dotting,' traditionally done by a suzaphone player, as seen here.

This is turning out to be the most unproductive weekend ever. Well, I guess not entirely. On Friday at the last minute Mary and I decided to go to a movie and dinner after work. First we went to El Vaquero where I got my regular, Nachos Locos ("Crazy Nachos"). We were surprised to find that since we were there last, which really wasn't long ago at all, they'd built a huge back room as big as both previously existing dining rooms combined. Then off to the theater where we saw the new Sandra Bullock movie All About Steve. I had wanted to really see it because I'm always up for a movie about a crazy stalker! It was fine, but I think my expectations were just too high.

Tonight I ordered the makeup off the internet that my new internet friend told me to buy for the 'virtual makeover' she's giving me over the internet. It was definitely a splurge, but I probably need it. I hadn't bought makeup in forever.

I have tomorrow off work for Labor Day. Yay!

Well, I managed to twist my knee up yesterday getting out of the car. So today I stayed home and iced it. I feel so unhealthy! I wane back and forth with believing I'm too far gone to ever be in anything near good condition (I don't even remember a time when I was, for lack of a better word, "fit") and feeling super-optimistic that this is day 1 of a whole new me! *sigh*

Here's a song that always makes me feel better: