Jill – Page 3 – J.I.L.L.

Atlanta, Georgia

We started our day a little leisurely, waking up without an alarm. Even so, we were on the road around 9 am. We skipped breakfast so BA had a few Wilbur Buds to hold her over (thanks Kim!).

About two hours down the road, we decided it was a frappe Saturday so we stopped and got ourselves medium caramel frappes and fries at McDonalds. I also filled up the car and cleaned the windshield and rear window. My car got 40 mpg again, which is great (especially given how heavy the car is now that it’s packed full).

Shortly thereafter, we crossed into Georgia; and, as has been the case all along the way so far, I said “Welcome to Georgia, BA!” To which she said thank you and promptly texted her brother that we just crossed the line into Georgia. Not even five minutes later, we passed a sign that said “Welcome to Tennessee!” We were a little confused but we went with it. I asked BA if she was going to text her brother that we were back in Tennessee now and she said, “Nope.”

Traffic today was noticeably heavier and less patient than the past two days. I may have dropped several expletives, which I was delighted to find BA completely agreed with.

A couple hours later we made it to Atlanta and BA’s brother’s home. We had a nice introductory conversation and then he kindly took us on a driving tour of parts of Atlanta. We saw Emory University (fun fact: Emory was the only place I applied to in high school – and, no, I didn’t get accepted), the Governor’s mansion, parts of Buckhead, and Peachtree Rd, along with several other sights. Atlanta is hillier than I expected and is lush with beautiful mature trees.

Upon returning home, we quickly dove into some day drinking and chatting while dinner was cooking. What a delightful time chatting with BA and David! Dinner was a delicious fall-themed meal and the great conversation continued. I talked with them about the 5 Love Languages – you know what a fan I am of that – and really enjoyed the whole visit so far because I am a quality time kind of person.

I particularly enjoyed the banter between BA and David. Here’s a nugget you’ll have to ask her about sometime. Check out the horse in the picture below. It wasn’t originally designed to have a removable tail. Yet, now it does…

We get an extra hour to sleep tonight. Perhaps we’ll actually make it past 10 pm! Good night y’all!

Nashville, Tennessee

Can you believe we slept 11 hours in Bristol?! It got cold enough to frost things over pretty good last night so the morning was brisk and lovely. We hit the road at 9 am after a quick stop and photo at Sheetz.

It took a a little over four hours to get to Nashville. The drive was beautiful. Light traffic, fall colors, and lovely skies again. We decided to go directly to lunch and figure out our afternoon plans there. Based on a recommendation from Carmen, we landed at Uncle Bud’s Catfish for lunch. It was delicious!

At lunch we decided to book Nashville’s Biggest & Wildest Party Public Tractor Tour. They may not have talked much (or at all) about all the sights around town and outside the tractor, but the inside entertainment more than made up for it! (Check out the MC in the back of my selfie photo.) Among our group were five folks celebrating their birthdays today and one couple celebrating their 10-year anniversary. The couple renewed their wedding vows on our trip. BA and I totally rocked the catwalk during the tour, and the MC called BA a bad girl while she showed off her dance moves. Sorry folks, no pictures of that. No way a picture could do it justice.

We went to Robert’s Western World for a drink and to listen to some music. After that, we found our hotel and got settled before heading back out downtown. We ended up at Kid Rock’s Bad Ass Honky Tonk & Rock n Roll Steakhouse at the rooftop bar. The band was amazing and the people watching was an added bonus.

Another day of fantastic fun with BA!

Bristol, Virginia

Well, we are on our way! We left Pennsylvania today and crossed through Maryland (very briefly) and West Virginia to land in Bristol, Virginia. Fun fact, Bristol is on the state line so half of it is in Virginia and the other half is in Tennessee.

What a beautiful day for a drive! It was sunny with happy clouds and the trees in lovely fall colors. We listened to 70’s Light Rock on Pandora. Traffic was relatively light and although BA used the holy sh!t handle a few times and offered to flip somebody off, there were no serious curse words, no true a-holes on the road, and my driving was solid.

We started off only a smidge rough. We had to return for some forgotten snacks, forgot to ask someone to take a picture of us, and forgot to take a picture of the car. Fortunately, it only took a few moments for us to realize this. So we stopped on a random street in Palmyra to snap a selfie. There was a light up goat decoration in the yard where we stopped. Seemed perfect!

The quote of the day: “You see, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know” (courtesy of BA) and followed up later by the caveat, “but I do know hot buns.” We had delicious hot buns, Cesar salad, steaks, and sweet potatoes at Texas Road House. Can you guess whose drink is who’s?

Now we’re settling into our room to get a good night’s sleep. Good night! Thank you for the prayers and well wishes! I’ll share more tomorrow!

Plans

Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. Yep. How often are we reminded of that wise saying?! And I guess one of the best (and most cliché) responses to that is, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Now, I don’t think you can always turn things around so far as to make lemonade. However, you can certainly just accept the lemons for being lemons (and not the end of the world). Maybe squeeze them into a glass of water? Or zest them around the room for some clean fresh fragrance? Or use them to keep your avocado from turning brown?

I say this because my car is in the shop with a screw in the shoulder of one tire. Yes, two days before our big road trip and not only do I need to get a new tire but I’m also without my car for over a day, ruining my practice packing plans. What to do?

Well, I’m grateful the tire place could get me in today. And I’m grateful they can get me new tires in time for our planned departure. And I got some bonus extra time with a friend who helped me drop off my car. Plus, I got to eat fresh hot Chick-fil-A tonight instead of 20-minute old Chick-fil-A.

These are all good things. So much for my plans! Things are turning out differently and just fine anyway.

Good friends

Good friends tell you the truth. They don’t just tell you what you want to hear. And when I say the truth, I’m not talking about things like telling you when you have something in your teeth. Although any friend should do that!

I’m talking about telling you the truth by asking you the tough questions and challenging your perspective. Your friendship exists in a judgement-free space where you’re able to be fully vulnerable with each other, knowing that no matter what, you’ll always be there for each other.

I am blessed with lots of great good friends. I love spending time with them. I love sharing laughs. And I’m extra grateful for them when we need to share tears.

Be sure to be that good friend in return. Tell them the truth. And tell them how much you appreciate them, if you haven’t done that in a little while.

5 Things

I was talking with a colleague about my upcoming drive to Florida and he said “maybe you should just leave everything here and start over.” It’s an interesting idea. What if I just left everything behind? The material items aren’t what’s truly important anyway, right?

These thoughts prompt me to pose this question to you: Other than one normal outfit including your typical jewelry (but no crazy layering allowed), if you were to move to a new life and could only carry with you five material items, what would you take? And why?

The Big Move is Almost Here

I am going to start posting updates on my journey to a new state and a new life.

Including today, I have only five days left at work. And, one week from tomorrow, I hit the road to FL. I still can’t believe I’m actually doing this. I am super excited yet super sad, and can switch between those emotions from one moment to the next.

Between now and next Thursday, I need to figure out exactly how much stuff I can fit in my car, so I can decide exactly what will go with me now and what will go into storage with all my furniture and other home goods. One of the many lessons I have learned so far through this process is the importance of letting go of material things. What do I really need versus what do I just want?

Regardless of what you call it – decluttering, simplifying, organizing, minimalism, essentialism, etc. – I highly recommend you look into purging some material clutter from your life. The process of sorting through all my belongings has given me a sense of freedom I did not anticipate. It makes me think of the movie Labyrinth, where one character literally carried on her back all of the belongings she cherished. This kept her from going out and experiencing life. Scary metaphor, huh?

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
     ~Matthew 6:33, NLT

I also need to figure out the actual route I will drive to FL. My good friend and former secretary, Betty Anne (BA), is making the trek with me. We are going to make a fun trip of it, stopping at several places along the way. Many people are likening us to Thelma and Louise. I hope we don’t get into nearly as much trouble as those ladies; however, I hope that, thanks to BA’s company, this drive to FL will be an adventure in and of itself!

“Well, we’re not in the middle of nowhere, but we can see it from here.” ~Louise Sawyer, ‘Thelma And Louise’

“Together share this smile “

Dave Matthews’ song, Lover Lay Down, has a line in it when he longingly sings, “together share this smile.” I love that line. It epitomizes why I value quality time.

Smiling is great. Smiling together with someone else is even better. I highly value creating shared memories with people, which is the love language of quality time.

Thus, I’m finding myself, in my last two weeks before my big move, scrambling to spend time with all my dear friends. And I think part of the reason I’m struggling so much with leaving is because it will be hard to have quality time together when I’m so far away.

If you are not familiar with Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages, you need to check them out. They may not be the answer to everything about relationships, but they sure do set a solid philosophical foundation. There’s a quick and easy online quiz you can take to find out your primary Love language (https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/love-language).

Hair

Hair, both beautiful and vile. When it’s attached to your head, it is prized and cared for. When it’s unattached from your head, it is gross and repellant. Think of how much time and money we spend on our hair, just to shed it or cut it off.

And although I’m not super girly, I do love getting my hair done. There’s just something therapeutic about chatting at the salon, enjoying someone else washing my hair, and the excitement of a new color and/or a cut.

This is yet another example of going someplace different from normal and enjoying good people. I love listening to the conversations in a salon. There’s something special about the conversations that occur between people who have an intimate relationship but only see each other every 10 weeks or so.

The Random Yes

I am a “yes friend,” in that you can ask me to go do random things and I will say yes. Not only that, I will love every minute of the random shenanigans and will do all I can to blend and share that love and laughter.

This weekend, saying yes got me to a dive bar where smoking is still allowed, an outdoor concert with a 3-man band that hasn’t played together in a year and a half, and a local theater group production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

All of these were uniquely cultural experiences yet they all had the same feel: good people getting together to have a good time. In all my yes-shenanigan experiences, I have found that 99% of people, in all groups, from all walks of life, getting together for all sorts of reasons, are good people.

This brings two thoughts to mind: 1) people have more in common than they do differences and 2) we are meant to interact with those who are different than us. Yet, we seem to focus on the differences and we tend to stear clear of those who are different than us. And all this does is serve to polarize us even more.

I say let go and let be. Enjoy people. Love them for their humanness. Love them despite their flaws. Love them in the midst of their struggles. Love them even if they don’t love you. There’s way too much good in this world to get bogged down in the 1% that isn’t so good, and let’s be honest, probably isn’t in your control anyway.

And please stop seeing stories about the exceptions and believing they are the rule. You don’t make it on the news if you’re the rule.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
John 15:12-15