In Motion
March
First, Madison moved back to her dad’s at the beginning of
March under extremely traumatic circumstances for all involved. In the midst of that attendant drama, we also
finally added our new fur baby to our family (a process that was well
progressed before the situation with Madison erupted). So, we got the puppy,
Melody, and the next day, my daughter left. Two weeks later, I took advantage
of Andrew’s work trip to Italy coinciding with my spring break to go camping in
the middle of the month. I had an extremely pleasant and restorative experience,
spending time with dogs and no people at Arkabutla Lake in Mississippi. About a
week later, Missy died. While very sad, her health had been in decline for some
time. In addition to Missy’s passing, it was also difficult to see an era draw
to a close for the lives of so many loved ones. A couple days after Missy’s
funeral, we went to see Leonard Cohen at the Orpheum. I thought it was kind of
fitting; while she wasn’t a Cohen fan, Missy loved music and songwriting, and I
thought of her and Mom a lot that night. At the end of the month, Andrew and I
traveled to Great’s and met Carter with Maddi and the boys for Easter with Aunt
Bonnie and her gang. We did an Easter egg hunt around Great’s yard, which was
an absolute blast. The kids were really cute, and everyone had a lot of fun. It
was a really nice visit and did my heart a lot of good.
April
The beginning of April was significant in that I resumed my
daily photo project in earnest. I had been ignoring it since the middle of
February, when my emotional rollercoaster started gaining momentum. Two weeks
into the month, Andrew’s Grandma in New York went into hospice care in her
home, so Andrew took a long weekend mid-month to go spend time with her. Since
I stayed behind in Memphis, I decided to go camping again. This trip started
out well but ended abruptly when Cuba got hit by a vehicle. We were both pretty
traumatized but, thankfully, he lived and is fine now, newly nicknamed,
Scarface. The Lyrids meteor shower a couple weeks later was the occasion for my
third camping trip. This trip was marred by an idiotic off-road driving debacle
that incurred a huge towing bill; this after the ginormous vet bill that saved
Cuba. I did salvage the trip and got in some nice hiking and nature time and
caught some lovely Lyrids. At the end of the month, Andrew and I went to Nanuet
to see Grandma for a quick weekend. That was a tough trip. We enjoyed seeing
family, but Grandma wasn’t doing very well. We made the best of it, and, in
addition to visiting with much-loved relations, we stopped by the legendary
Rockland Bakery one day and visited Little Italy in the City on our last night.
May
Upon returning from New York, Andrew and I hosted our best
pal, Jonathan Lovin, in town from Japan and his brother, Christopher, for the
first week of the month. As soon as Jonathan and Christopher left, it was the
first weekend in May and, thus, Music Fest. The weekend was cold – which is
highly unusual – and, of course, it was rainy with lots of great music, known
and discovered. Less than two weeks after Music Fest, I hit the road for
Louisville to pick up Noah for Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores. While in Kentucky, I
got to see Maddi and Carter and Micah for dinner, and then headed back to
Memphis with Noah the same day. We spent two days in Memphis before Andrew,
Noah, and I set out for Gulf Shores.
We had so much fun that weekend at the beach with Noah. We
got to town early Friday morning, checked into the condo, and then took Noah for
his first beach experience. He especially loved playing the sand that first
day. That evening, we walked around the main drag in Gulf Shores and took him
to Souvenir City. The next day, we spent all day at the festival, seeing Public
Enemy, The Black Crowes, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Noah had fun but
wasn’t especially into the music. We spent most of our last full day at the
beach, where Noah had the best time playing in the waves and in a little pool
formed by a sandbar until we were all wrinkly. Andrew found a plethora of live
sand dollars in the sand of the little pool, which I just loved! When we went
to the festival, we all rode the Ferris Wheel, and I dunno which of the three
of us loved it the most. We saw Stevie Wonder that night, and, then, Hangout
Fest was over. Before heading back to Memphis on our last day, we visited the
shell of the Saunders beach house and checked out our digs for our upcoming
family vacation. We really liked the looks of the red house on the lagoon. Squeezing
in one more fun experience into the trip, we stopped off at Alligator Alley
where we all had a blast seeing and holding and feeding the gators before
hitting the highway, Memphis-bound.
I took Noah back to Louisville the next day. I spent the
night with Rachel and took Maddi out to breakfast before she had to go to
school. I had coffee with Carter and then stopped by the cemetery in
Hodgenville on my way back to Memphis. It was Mom’s birthday, and I put some
flowers on her grave and hung out with her for awhile. Instead of going to
Memphis, at the last minute, I was lucky enough to get to go to Monteagle
instead.
I had a day and half to myself at Monteagle before Andrew
and Maddi arrived on Friday. I used this time for hiking around Stone Door and
Sewanee and for savoring what was likely my last visit to Peavine Cottage. Andrew
joined me Friday, driving in from Memphis when he got off of work. Maddi
arrived that night in Nashville on the Greyhound, and I went and picked her up.
We had a lot of fun the next day. We took Melody to Foster Falls, making our
customary stop at the carbophile’s delight, the Dutch Maid Bakery in Tracy
City. To the amusement of Andrew, Madison, and on-looking strangers, I
inexplicably tumbled to the ground at the Fiery Gizzard trailhead. I don’t know
what happened, but I had some good cuts and bruises in addition to lots of
laughs. The hike was nice and included a stop off at the Little Gizzard Creek
for playing in the water; the 60 foot falls were lovely, running full with the
recent rain. We spent the next day just chilling at the house and appreciating
its quiet pleasures. On Memorial Day, Andrew dropped off Maddi at the Nashville
bus station on his way back to Memphis to be at work on Tuesday. I stayed on
another day, ostensibly for the sake of thorough cleaning (which I did do). I
drove home to Memphis along the scenic route down the mountain that takes you
through Muscle Shoals, Alabama and saw Fame Recording Studio which was neato.
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