Day 16: a day off. again.

Today is Columbus Day, so no school in session in the great state of Tennessee. I'm back in Memphis after a fun filled weekend in Lynchberg where I was able to begin my love affair with Jack Daniels. Not only was the tour informative and fun, but the bottle that we drank afterwards was even more enjoyable. We had the most amazing tour guide named Ron, who had legendary facial hair, and he made it even better.  Sadly, we had to drive a good half hour before we could find a liquor store (Lynchberg being a dry town), but we found a good place to call it a night, enjoy the whiskey, and even tried "shot's in a bag". Seriously. Like a zip lock bag filled with a shot. It was actually kind of impressive.

After a late checkout the next morning, (my poor room mate was hurting pretty bad), we had lunch and continued on our way back to Memphis. It was a beautiful drive, passed the town that claimed to be the birthplace of Fred Thompson, had a HUGE picture up of him as you enter their city limits. I began to feel the strain of endlessly driving, unpacking, packing, driving as I neared the 4th hour of this leg of my journey, but then was given something else to stress over when I was pulled over for going 71 in a 45mph zone. Shit. Thankfully, the cop was super nice, I don't think it hurt that I told her I worked for a Children's Theatre, and she let me go. After that all I wanted to do was get to the hotel and crawl into a ball in the corner. All this downtime is much more stressful then I ever imagined it could be. The weekdays go by fast with show after show, but these weekends, being on a limited budget, are starting to get to me. So my solution is to spend this entire day at a movie theatre, catching up on all the movies I have not seen. Aaron would be proud.

Perhaps a portion of this stress is coming from the changes at home, Josh moving out, Molly moving in, then then all that changing again in May when I decide what to do next.  There have been so many questions raised I just don't know where to start answering them all. I have lost a certain amount of control in my life as I have known it, and it's becoming more and more difficult to accept. Or maybe I'm just having an off day.

Regardless, I am still loving Memphis, it's just beautiful in the fall, and I have met some incredible people with some incredible stories. I am grateful that now they will become a part of my story. Everyday, there are these new worlds that are opened up for me and I try to cling to the memory, as obscure as it may be, not wanting to forget a moment of this, but there is just so much to take in.