pictures from the trip can be viewed on my photobucket account.... most are from Orlando but there's also a few in Georgia.

Day Twelve

We pack! We leave! Pap hides money in our car because he's way to sweet. The car is fucking stuffed to the bursting point. I have to sleep twisted up on top of bags and bags. I listen to music and get chills like mad. Grandma packed my nutless cookies in a Pringles can. What a gal.

Day Eleven

I wake up at about 11 and find Papa just coming home with groceries. I had 2 blueberry Eggo waffles, some bacon, and apple juice. I felt like I could've eaten something else, but I need to start weening off so much food. I took a shower. Grandma made brownies and cake for my parents' joint birthday party that night. She told me that I was going to drive her over to the other house. This is not a good idea, I swear to you. I told her that I probably shouldn't, but she insisted. She backed the car out of hte garage for me (last time I hit her tree) and she let me go from there. I actually did an okay job. I practiced looking in the rearview mirror and using my blinkers, even though it really isn't necessary because we were just on empty country roads. I made better stops than I normally do, though. Good for me, ho ho! Inside I had some macaroni & cheese, and Grandma, Jenny, and I sat around talking at the kitchen table. Jenny made plans to take us to town to buy a birthday present for my Mom, since they already had Spiderman and Doc Oc action figures to give my dad. I drove Grandma back home and managed to park in the garage without hitting any trees, puppies, rabbits, small children, or churches. We came in to talk to Papa, and the phone rang almost immediately -- it was Jenny wanting to tell Dad that she'd gotten the internet to work for the first time since we'd been there. So, I drove Dad back over there so that he could check his email from work. Of course, as soon as Dad was done, and I got on to read mine, Amelia and Leon came over to -- what else? -- use the internet so that Leon could email his resume someplace. So of course I felt guilty staying on for longer than to just reply to a couple things and read the first email I've gotten from Katherine since she's been in Morocco. After a little "Absolutely Fabulous" I drove Dad, Morgan, Rachel, and Luke back to Grandma's without running over any chickens. I did run over some big tree limbs in the road, but avoided the big puddles and the tobacco picker. Plus I parked well. Jesus, I really need to be in driver's ed. Anyway I got dressed and had a cookie before Jenny picked us up. We listened to the Beatles and Morgan & Rachel did all the "8 Days A Week" hand claps with me, without me even telling them to! It made me very happy. We went to Fred's (a nicer dollar store?) and bought Mom two little frog statues for the backyard. We also got party hats, blowy thingies, silly string, smiley face balloons, and cake candles. Jenny wanted to get me and Morgan birthday presents too, so Morgan picked out some fake flowers. I didn't really see anything, so I didn't get anything. But we all picked out some candy. Then we dropped a movie off and went over to the grocery store. Jenny went in and bought chicken while we waited in the car listening to the Beatles. God, what a band. Unfortunately, no one wants to discuss with me how "Ticket to Ride" is the best ever musical sequence in a movie, even though I started the conversation and left it plenty open for participation. Le sigh. Alanna's life in the country. Luke and I shared some sour gummy worms, and I made do. He was being sweet by letting us listen to the Beatles without complaining, so I left him eat all the orange/green worms. Amelia was at Grandma and Papa's when we got back, and I went with her back to the other house where Leon was still making his resume, I guess. Amelia and I read Mad magazine together for longer than should have been entertaining. Jenny sent us over to Grandma's for aluminum foil. Loula May is there, and I say hello very quickly before Amelia, Morgan, Rachel, and I shuffled back to the other house where I bounce around on the exercise ball and sing PFFR like a goof. When Curtis finishes grilling we take the food to the feast. Lou leaves and everybody begins to help themselves to chicken (grilled or fried), pork, bisuits, an assortment of salads, and other various food items that I can't remember because I didn't eat them. Everybody wears their party hart (except Amelia and Ella). Rachel, Papa, and I wildly snap pictures. Dad's "cake" is a plate of brownies with candles in them. Tomorrow is his 47th birthday. We ask him to tell a birthday story, but he doesn't have any memories to share. Mom's cake is angel food with beautiful beautiful homemade Grandma icing. This cake is her speciality. This cake is gorgeous. Mom will turn 49 on July 14. She, Curtis, Papa, and Grandma all join together to share their side of a certain birthday Mom chooses to recall. Conflicint memories make me laugh. I have two glorious pieces of cake, and I can die happy. Songs are sung, presents are opened, everybody gets tired. At 9 I think it will be a good idea to buy Triplets of Belleville on the DirectTV thing, but apparently my grandparents' tickety thing is full. I don't know what that means, but it's irritating. Especilly since no one seems to know who bought all the fucking movies. Oh well. Chanda comes over loaded up with Arby's for everybody because she's a dunce and didn't remember that it's the birthday day. Amelia and Leon have gone home to pick up a movie. We watch "I Love the 70s" for too long and are far too entertained by it. Eventually everyone is gone but Amelia, Chanda, Leon, and me and for some reason we're still watching VH1 shows. About the goddamn Hilton kids. Jesus. Finally we hook up the VCR and watch three crazy episodes of an anime called "Angel Sanctuary." Amelia and Leon go home, and I go to bed. Chanda comes upstairs and gives me lectures on cultural geography. She doesn't listen to me at all, and she doesn't let me sleep. What else is new in Georgialand? She finally leaves and I go to bed.

Day Ten

I wake up around 11 and drag myself out of bed for breakfast. I go out in the backyard to swing on the swing, climb the tree, and generally tromp around. I get a coke and come inside to find that Grandma has made cookies -- 2 of the 4 batches without nuts, just because I don't eat them! What a good grandmother. I go back upstairs to lay in bed and listen to music. Dad comes in telling me that Rachel is on the phone, and she says that they've rented A Perfect Score and I'm invited to come watch it with them. I get drsesed while Morgan, Rachel, and Luke drive over on the golf cart. I am chosen to drive back, and miraculously, I don't kill any bunnies. I drove over the pond damn rather than the "highway" because the dam has finally been fixed and the pond has stopped draining away. So we watched the movie and it was... really bad. Scarlett Johansson was the only reason to watch it, but I kept getting distracted thinking about how horrible her character was and how Ms. Johansson ended up in that awful part. We then watched a couple episodes of "Futurama" and it was already 6:30 or something like that. We went back over to the other house where Grandma had made chicken dumplings and rice krispie treats -- what do you think I scuttled towards? I had a couple rice krispies before Grandma suggested I try some dumplings. I regarded them for a few minutes before preparing a small bowl full. I took a few delicate bites. They were cold, but I actually really enjoyed them. I told Grandma, "These are good." She said, "She likes my dumplings! Hee hee!" It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. It made me consider a second helping, ha ha. Now I could eat as many rice krispies treats as I wanted, without feeling guilty, while we watched Wizard of Oz on Turner Classic Movies. I had wanted to watch A Streetcar Named Desire since Marlon Brando died, but I didn't get a chance to see if it was even on. I had a good time watching Wizard of Oz though. I hadn't seen it in years, and I nearly cried through half the movie. It's still very magical, and I really enjoyed it. The phone rang in the middle, and I answered it so that Grandma wouldn't have to get up. It was Chanda, who told me that she would be coming over int he morning, asked if there was anything I wanted her to bring over, and proceeded to read me all the titles in her DVD collection. After the movie, Rachel and Morgan went back to the other house, and I went upstairs. I'd missed 2 calls from Brandon at 5:30 and I was worried that I'd missed my last chance to talk to him before he left town. So I sat around a while before the phone rang -- and who could it be but Brett? Today was his birthday, and I was raelly glad to talk to him. I can't remember the last time we had such a nice conversation. Even so, I used the phone way moe than I should have on this trip. I'm realy woried about the bill, in all honesty. So anyway, Brandon called too and we talked for even less time than the night before, which sucked, but he'd been working and smoking and drinking, and he was really tired. So basically we just said good night. At which point, rather than good nighting, I read Worlds Afire by Paul Janeczko. It was a good book, but very short.

Day Nine

I wake up last of everyone. They have all eaten already and are up reading. I have breakfast, lounge around, and take a really really long shower. I don't even care when the hot water runs out. I come out of the bathroom to face an angry mob named Morgan Stewart. Ho ho! Mom told me hat while I'd been indisposed, Amelia and Leon came, ate, and left. So I've gotten really, truly, thoroughly squeaky clean and put on just-out-of-the-wash clothes instead of pajamas for the first time in years. I did the obvious thing any self-respecting young girl would do. I went outside. In the sweltering Georgia heat. Into the vast hole that used to contain my grandparents' pond. Just look at Alanna in her dryer fresh jeans, halfway up to her knees into the sad excuse for a pond, with her mother's school's digital camera around her neck, trying to stand perfectly still so that the sand would stop swirling through the water and the polywogs would appear. I caught quite a few little tadpoles and one little frog in the sand just outside the water. I put them all right back, of course. But you know me. Then I got up in the climbing tree, which is actually a really good tree for climbing, despite what the deceptive title might lead you to believe. I stayed there until the thunder started (there's a storm every day in mid-afternoon), at which point I went back inside. I changed right back into my pajamas and left my water-looged, sun-soaked, sand-filled sandals on the doormat for some poor soul to step on. Mom, Grandma, and I put on Some Like It Hot. I like that movie a lot. Grandma and I look at old family wedding pictures. Rachel and Luke come over. I eat chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I call Brock for a few minutes before Morgan, Rachel, and I perform a very brief fashion show. I get a really bad headache, and the bugbite which I got on my foot in Orlando is itching horribly. I put a bunch of shit on it, take a couple hundred benadryl, and go to bed. Every noise and facimile of a light kills me. The chorus of frogs is so loud I can't imagine how anyone ever says the country is quiet. Morgan comes in and gets her stuff to take to Rachel's. The light from the stairwell is excruciating. Finally I sleep. For about an hour. Brandon's call wakes me up, but my headache doesn't feel quite as bad. I'm really glad to talk to him, but he's stoned, can't function well, and won't remember anything that's said. We don't talk for very long and I go straight back to sleep.