Pancakes, Passions and Old Hometowns

Greg and I. He's hard to get
into a selfie, because he's over
a foot taller than I am!

On my last day out of town last week, I spent an entire day in my last hometown before my new hometown, Nashville. The day before I had had breakfast in Evansville with my stepdad and his fiance, and this day I had breakfast with my friend Greg at the Pancake Pantry. First of all, it was heaven sent because there was no line. Second of all, sweet potato pancakes. That's all I need to say.

Of course, it was also awesome to see my good friend. I met such awesome people in Nashville. That was the one reason that made it so hard to leave. Greg is special because he's my writing friend. He's more than that, but it's rare to have people that you trust with your creative writing and he's one of them. I can say things that sound ridiculous and lofty like "I'm just not sure if the characters are strong enough." or "My work doesn't feel so authentic"

Home of long lines and
sweet potato pancakes

without sounding like a pretentious a-hole because he knows what I mean. And isn't it nice to have a cheerleader who isn't your family? I'm his cheerleader too. The dude deserves all the praise he's about to get when he publishes. At least I can be one of the few that say the read him BEFORE the book came out.

After breakfast, I did some putzing around town. I got a pedicure at Signature Nails, a place that my friend Michelle turned me on to when I lived there. It's awesome and I still haven't found a nail spot in LA like it, but part of that reason is that most LA nail salons are $30 for manicure-pedicures. No, that's not each. That's combined. Mani-pedis are literally one of the few things in LA that are cheaper than nearly anywhere else. But you definitely lose something.

Then I headed to my old haunt, the AHA office. I had a late lunch with Kelly, Evon and Joyce. Caught up on all the people we used to work with and the way things have changed. It was awesome. Then I got to meet up with another friend, Alyssa and have some dessert as my last visit before I got on the plane.

• Total days of Vacation: 6
• Total miles driven in rental car: 1,054
• Total number of people seen: 37

TOTALLY worth it.

Visiting Both My Homes

Last week I got to go home. . . to both of them, well, all three of them if you include my current home. I took a flight to Nashville and spent some time with my friends there. On my first night east of the Mississippi River in a while, I had dinner with some of my co-workers. It was so great to be among friends again. Not only that, but they were so sweet and threw me an impromptu bridal shower. Mostly it was just the opportunity to hang out with people who knew and liked me and whose lives I feel like I'll always be a part of or at the very least interested in.

The next day I got to hang out with my friend Greg and hit two of the places that I miss most in Nashville: Signature Nails and The Patterson House. I got a fantastic pedicure with a complimentary drink, a great foot massage and wonderful service. There are tons of nail places in LA, but I have yet to find the one that has all of those qualities. And the Patterson House. I think I've waxed poetic about the place and its drinks enough. It was the one place I visited last week that made Chef jealous. And the big bonus was that I got to have great conversations with Greg, which made me miss him even more.

The next day I went further north and saw my Uncle Ric and Aunt Deb, Grandma and my Aunt Mio. We had some damn good barbecue, which, along with quality pizza, is something I've yet to discover in LA. People don't just use smokers like they do down south. The history of barbecue isn't there. Then I visited my dad at his work, which was nice because it's always kind of cool to see friends and family members in their career element. Then I visited my Uncle Jeff and my other grandma, who didn't recognize me with the new hair and then when she did, she repeatedly told me how much she didn't like it. I also got to visit my mom's cousin and a family friend before heading off to New Harmony for the night.

Once in New Harmony, Robin and I went to dinner and then rolled around the city via golf cart. We picked out a location for the wedding reception next year (yay!) and then she showed me the coolest thing ever. We went down a dark path into the woods near the river and were surrounded by thousands of lightning bugs. It was like being in the middle of a twinkly light Christmas tree and looking out.

The next morning I had breakfast with Dad and Robin, took a tour of New Harmony and dad's office there, then headed to Evansville to hang out with Jack. We did lunch, then chatted and made muffins. Actually that's not a typo and I didn't make the muffins at all unless you count cheering him on from the sidelines. Did drinks and dinner with the Dicuses and Aunt Mio. Made tons more memories and was in bed at a decent hour to get up and in a car by 5:30 to catch my flight to New Orleans.

All in all, it was a packed but very much worth it trip to my previous two home states. I saw just about as many people as I could in the time allotted. Now I can't wait for them to come out West to enjoy some sunshine and the ability to be warm without being surrounded by air you can feel moisture in immediately.

I've Missed Dreaming

I wouldn't recommend that everyone quit their jobs and move to a different city. But I wouldn't NOT recommend it either. Since I had my emotional last day at the American Heart Association, I have enjoyed my friends and family here in Nashville while plotting, planning and preparing for our big move to Los Angeles. In that preparation, I decided it was time to give up something that I love very much: ambien.

I still have about two weeks worth left which I intend on keeping for emergencies, but thought it was time while I was unemployed and my day's work didn't depend on my night's sleep to try and ween myself off of it. The first night was rough. It took me about two hours of lounging in bed to feel drowsy. Then it took me all of two hours to wake back up. It was up and down for the next 6 hours until I had declared it time to give up the fight.

Night two was a different story. Still very much in short spurts, but then longer stretches, as if to give my unconscious self some hope. But one main difference between this night and probably 5 months of nights before: I had a dream. Not the Martin Luther King Jr. kind, but a vivid dance in between my imagination and subconscious. It was glorious. I remembered it. And some day, in some form, I'll share it, but not here.

The next night I slept longer and harder and dreamed more scenes. And slowly the dreams began to take over my thinking during my waking hours. The time I spent thinking about strategy and reports and accounts has in the last week been used to day dream. And I realized how much I missed it. Thinking without purpose or hindrance.

Last week I went with my friend Greg to see an author named Aimee Bender. I was late, but she was wonderful and as she got to the question and answer section, she became even more endearing. If you've been to a Q and A with people who are fans, you know that the questions can become more diatribes on the person's admiration than an actual question (for example, one question to Ms. Bender when boiled down to logic this night was "How do you put words together?". Seriously.) But one of those questions, and I frankly can't remember which one, led to Ms. Bender answering with "Sometimes it's good to be bored. Sometimes those crazy thoughts that we all have as humans are meant to peek through." Or something to that nature. I'm clearly paraphrasing, but the gist of the sentiment has stuck with me this week.

It made me realize something: Whether it was during the day time or night time or any time in between, I've missed dreaming. And I'm happy to be doing it again.