Trip to the homeland

I recently went to Nashville for a week to do research on my Seminar class paper. The paper is a rather major project for any grad student and is supposed to be about 40 pages, due in May.

I was nervous about this trip; I had never done anything like it by myself before. Yes, I had gone to Mexico this past summer for a similar research trip, but I was with a group of professors and friends! Totally different. On this trip, I had to fly by myself (check out my July 4th, 2006 posting for my expanded thoughts on flying), rent a car and drive around Nashville by myself, and all the while be responsible and work hard every day I was there! Quite a feat.

One thing made it a lot better: I was staying with MawMaw. That's my mom's mom. Driving to her house at the end of each day, seeing the familiar couch and kitchen table, eating the home-cooked meals, watching the college basketball games night after night (after night...) all brought a sense of calm to my fluttering spirit. We talked about random things and went to church together and I even took her out for dinner on Saturday night (El Chico's - she doesn't get a lot of Mexican food in Nashville). The last night I was there we played five rounds of Skipbo (I won 3 out of 5), the time-honored card game that has become a hallmark of staying at MawMaw's house.

As I sat in the airport to come back to San Antonio on Sunday afternoon, I felt as though I missed her already. Monday morning I called her to make sure she knew I was home safe and sound. She had mentioned to me before I left on Sunday that she really enjoyed going to Cold Stone Creamery when she came to visit Abilene the last time, and that she often saw the store advertised in the Nashville paper but never could find out where there was one nearby. I looked it up online (MawMaw is against using computers - I think we're doing good to get her to use the VCR) and told her about the nearest one to her house while I was on the phone.

I've never spent a lot of time with MawMaw one on one, so this trip was really good for doing just that. I hope to be able to do it again sometime.

The happy reunion with Derek on Sunday night at the airport was made extra sweet by his showering me with gifts: matching earrings and necklace, and Ghiradelli chocolates, plus a sweet card. He had done a lot of stuff with my car while I was gone too: oil change, wash, new floor mats, leather cover for my steering wheel -he totally pimped my ride, as they say.

It was a good trip and it went by faster than I thought it would, but I was glad to be home.