Well, my money's no good, when I'm up to no good, no good ever comes from it all...

This line is from a Ryan Adams song, "Two." I really enjoy his music; it's like a mellowier John Mayer, with a twang of a country storyteller. Did you know he composed the song "When the Stars Go Blue?' It was remade in a duet by Bono and the Corrs, as well as Tim McGraw. I like the former version much better. Ryan Adams is just cool.

I went home from January 24th-27th. The purpose of the trip was really to drive an additional five hours to West Virginia to see my paternal grandmother, Bello. Her real name is Belvia Reid Honaker and she is eighty-seven years old and one of my favorite people in the world. She may be an octogenarian, but she is still sassy! My brother Graham couldn't quite say Belvia as a young kid (I'm still not sure why he didn't just call her grandma, but anyway), so he called her "Bello" and it stuck. Bello used to come visit my family each year for a few weeks at a time and we have some wonderful memories together. My grandmother used to be a fabulous cook, and her specialties were scrambled eggs (the best ever), Bello's chicken (or chicken with onion soup, Russian dressing, and apricot preserves), and the best sourdough bread ever created. Making the bread was an intricate process, which took three (!) days, because the dough had to rise that long. I even wrote a paper about the process for a class in high school. A splendid memory with Bello.

So I flew out of Providence on the 24th at 7 am to Philadelphia, where I found out my flight to Louisville was cancelled, due to "maintenance." I don't think so; my feelings are that this flight was not full at all and we all conveniently fit on the 12:45 flight. Of course, i made a complaint via e-mail, but I haven't heard anything back yet. No big deal. It was great to see Mom, as always, and we were on our way to do a few errands. We drove over to Fifth Third to make a loan payment (car will be paid off soon, hooray), to Why Louisville Loves You, my new favorite store, and bought a fleur-de-lis light green shirt (Katherine bought it too) and a small bumper sticker, and then to Louisville Stoneware to talk registry and check out my lovely French Country pattern. Mom bought me a Kentucky derby pie plate and I love it. Hopefully, I will have people over for Derby this year. I'm glad that some people who live here are actually enlightened about it. Not to say that we Southern folk know everything about the North, either. We then met Katherine and Jayne for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then we went shopping for a little bit. Mom and I bought the same pair of socks for each other (this is a frequent occurrence) and I bought carrot cake shower gel (Philosophy) and lemon body souffle from Sephora with Natyra's giftcard (thanks!). We went to visit Graham and Muggsy for a few minutes, and then we headed back to Grandad's house for the night.

We left for West Virginia before eight am and stopped at Tamarack for lunch. Tamarack is this arts center right off I-64 in Beckley, where folk artists sell their wares and one can grab a nice, West-Virginia style lunch. Mom and I then drove south to Bluefield. It's funny that my parents have been divorced for over ten years and Mom still keeps in touch with his mother, and Bello likes my mom more than my father (so does everyone else). Anyway, we drove to my Aunt Trish's house and she drove us to the nursing home to visit Bello. I haven't seen Bello in over two years, and I haven't seen Aunt Trish in four or five years. We are just not very close to Trish, my Uncle John, and my cousins Elizabeth and Mary. My cousins are nineteen and twenty-two and they go to Concord College in Athens, West Virginia. They both live with their ne'er-do-well boyfriends and will probably never leave West Virginia.

My grandmother is doing well, but she is in the nursing home because she cannot take care of herself without assistance now. The nursing home was a nice facility, but I really get depressed when I am in one. I don't want to get old. My aunt only visits her once a week, even though she doesn't work and lives ten minutes away. Again, there are reasons why I don't see this side of my family very often. We were only at the nursing home for thirty minutes when my aunt decided it was time to leave and we went to Bello's condo to look through pictures and other items. My cousin and her boyfriend recently inhabited the condo as well and the place was a complete mess. I felt really guilty about not staying with Bello very long and Mom did too, so we went back to the nursing home and sat with Bello during her dinner. And we think that she has a "boyfriend" at the nursing home. If she does, that is very sweet. We had our dinner with my aunt's family that night and then stopped by to visit Bello one more time in the morning before we drove back to Kentucky.

Mom and I got back to Louisville at 1 and had lunch with my Aunt Diane, cousin Melissa and her daughter Savannah (a very cute baby), and Eliot at Bountiful Bread in Camelot. I think it is a little overpriced-- I ordered a turkey and brie sandwich with a pickle speaar for $7.95. Aunt Di and I talked about the bridal shower in March and I gave her my list of invites. After lunch, Mom and I went to Gumer's to choose my wedding band. Eliot went to school with the owner's son and they were fraternity brothers, and he gave me a good deal on a ring. The band has a white gold band with five diamonds (I don't even know the carat size) and I like it. It was a little more than Brian wanted to spend (it's going on his credit card), but it's not too pricey.


We took more pictures with Flat Stanley in downtown Louisville at the Louisville Slugger Museum, the baseball field, and against the skyline. The 26th was also Graham's 33rd birthday and we all went to dinner at Sapporo on Bardstown Road. Japanese food is always delicious.

On Sunday, I met Natalie and Steven for breakfast at Bob Evans (Brian loves this place, so sadly, he missed it) and it was nice to see them. I went to church with mom at St. Matthews Baptist afterwards and then we met up with Eliot, Graham, and Sarah before heading to the airport. The flights home were not delayed at all, but it was sad coming back to the snowy coldness of Massachusetts.

"Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green (or maybe blue) and the girls are pretty. Oh, won't you please take me home." Yes, there is a rumor this G-n-R song was written about Louisville. and for good reason, too.