An Afternoon in the Library

Hello to all my devoted readers--all two or three of you.  Today finds me done with my hours at the McClung Museum and tucked into a cubbie for an afternoon of study at the library.  Of course, I have brought sustenance--Bumble Bee Chicken Salad and Crackers and a Diet Coke.  And I've secured myself a pretty decent view out the window.  Now it's just this blog then some Jessie work.

I've managed to stay pretty busy since I returned to my beloved Knoxville from a few weeks in California.  It goes without saying that I miss my family every day, especially my beautiful babies.  Before leaving Sacramento, I managed to sneak away for two days at the cabin with all four of my "kids" as well as my darling dingo, Penny.  Hanging out at the cabin, going for walks, hiking to the waterfalls, and eating fantastic cooking by Heidi and Danny made for a terrific visit, even though it was a short one.  I always think of what Nana would say about this next generation enjoying the cabin that she and Grandpa bought for the family.  I think she'd be pleased to know that Kevin and Jennifer make good use of it and that I get there whenever I can.  But I'm sure she'd be even more tickled about the great-grandchildren, my girls and their friends and Kevin's boys and their friends.  In my head I can hear her say "oh, you kids" the way she did when she was pleased at something her grandchildren had done. 

Another exciting component of my California trip was the addition of a new tattoo on my back.  Having already gotten a Cross of Lorraine on my right shoulder, I got a Heidi-designed tattoo of the cabin on my left.  Heidi had actually designed it for herself and had it placed on her upper leg.  I made a few minor adjustments for mine.  Danny's friend was our artist, and he did, in my opinion, a fantastic job.  Heidi's cabin is pictured at night, with warm yellow light from the windows and a yellow crescent moon.  My cabin is pictured in the late afternoon, with the sun going down behind the summit and a blue jay flying above to represent my Nana.  Of course, there's a bear in each tattoo.  Heidi and I will be busy working on Maddie to get a tattoo and complete our mother-daughters bond.


Upon returning to Knoxville, I went back to my four-hour-a-day job at McClung.  Life was only spiced up by the arrival of two different house guests that came to town to spend time with me.  Annie came first, and we had a wonderful--and healthy--visit.  Annie loves to cook, and I love to eat.  We're a match made in heaven.  But, in order to eat the delicious offerings from the kitchen, I had to put extra steps on my FitBit.  Annie is the BEST at that component of friendship.  That gal willingly walked me all around the Greenway, around McKay's, and along the River Forks trail at Ijams IN THE RAIN!  Despite the age difference, Annie and I have a great connection, and we never stop talking.  I can't wait for another visit!

The House Guests

My second house guest was my East Coast BFF, Chantalle.  As usual, we shopped and ate and laughed like lunatics at the terrible 1986 television mini-series Dream West, staring Richard Chamberlain as John C. Fremont and some unknown actress as Jessie.  It was the most historically inaccurate thing either of us had seen--and that includes the 1940 Warner Brothers classic Santa Fe Trail, which has J.E.B. Stuart and George Custer as friends who together bring down John Brown.  In Dream West, everything was off.  It's 1840 and Jessie flounces around in a hoop skirt like she just stepped off Tara.  She also ages from fourteen to sixteen years over the course of what the director would have us believe was just four months.  And those are just two examples.  But, boy, did Chantalle and I enjoy spotting the inaccuracies.  As ever, my door is always open to this woman whenever she wants to visit.

As always when Chantalle is in town, we went to trivia at the Crown and Goose.  For the first time in the history of our little group...wait for it...WE WON!  Thank goodness the last question, which is like Final Jeopardy, was on the subject of U.S. Presidents.  We bet it all--because three out of the five of us are historians, after all.  We tied with another team, and won the tie breaker.  The tie breaker asked a representative of each team to come up with the year Ronald Reagan was born.  While I was off by a year, the other team was off by over ten years.  Thus, we took the crown--and the $50 gift certificate which we shall use the next time Chantalle blows into town.

In between visitors, I've kept busy both at work and at home.  My new boss, Katy, joined the McClung staff on July 1, and she's kept me busy with some little projects.  At home, I made a photo album of my recent trip to Boston.  It's half a photo album and half a small scrapbook--in either case, it was a lot of fun and brought back all the fond memories I have of the trip.

Crafting wasn't all I did to keep busy.  With the recent change in the federal policy concerning asylum seekers coming to our southern border, I have been appalled at the separation of families going on.  Seeing as how I have become quite the protester here (after all, I did protest the Nazis coming to UT and I did attend the Women's March), I gathered together with Robert, Katie, Dr. Sacco, and a few hundred other Knoxvillians to speak out against the inhumane and heartless way immigrants seeking asylum are treated by my government.

So, that's a rundown of all that's been going on here.  I will leave my readers with one final photograph.  If you think it's easy to research a dissertation while also being owned by a cat, well, you're so wrong.

Bye-bye for now....

First Summer Vacay of 2018

Yes, I'm saying it's the first because I fully intend to have other summer vacays this year.  But, for purposes of this blog, I'm saying that my recent trip to both Massachusetts and California is my first.

So, I called the first part of this first vacay, the part where I went to Massachusetts, Operation Paul Revere.  This operation involved not just me but Maddie, Heidi, and Yvette.  To get those guys warmed up for some Revolutionary War fun, I prescribed some Liberty's Kids videos and other useful info to get my traveling companions in the mood.  I left Knoxville on a Sunday morning, traveled through the wonderful Detroit airport, and ended up in Boston by early afternoon.  I checked into the hotel and got everything ready (by checking out the pool and liquor situations) while I waited for the Sacramentans to arrive on the redeye on Monday morning. 

Once we were all in the same city, and after some naps for the all-night travelers, we headed out toward the Prudential Center to enjoy the gorgeous views of the city and to play the "naturalization test" game and learn about immigration.  A short walk from there (well, short to me, not so much for my companions) found the four of us at the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum.  It was just what I wanted it to be.  A beautiful building and fantastic art.  Our evening plans included drinks and journaling at the Asian restaurant next door to our hotel and then to Yvette's choice of restaurants, a totally cool place that had a giant Ouija board on the wall.  I tried my first Scotch egg, which was delicious and allowed me to keep to my goal of always trying a new food on a trip.

For our second day's adventure we tackled the Freedom Trail.  We began at the Boston Common, then up the hill to the memorial to the 54th Massachusetts.  I don't recall seeing this when Tricia and I were in Boston in 1986, but that was before I really knew anything about the 54th.  I was disappointed in the rest of the Trail, as Boston has changed a great deal.  The city has built up like crazy, and it was chock full of people.  Add to this the fact that it was raining all day, and we had some soggy sightseeing.  But we managed to walk the entire way from the Common to the Constitution, including stopping at various locations along the way, visiting the graves of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams (he was both a brewer AND a patriot), sitting in a pew in one of the churches, enjoying the statuary.  Places that didn't charge much in 1986 now charged a lot and some of the old buildings have been re-purposed to serve commercial interests.  Yuck.

The one part that didn't disappoint was the U.S.S. Constitution.  I love the fact that this is the flagship of the U.S. Navy.  It's still gorgeous.  As I had already been below decks, I stay up top while my companions went exploring.  I took the opportunity to speak with one of the young sailors assigned to the ship.  I inquired about the green cammo worn by the sailors, and the young man not only told me about the uniform but also explained the way in which a young sailor gets stationed to the Constitution.  Very cool. 

On our third day of vacay, my companions and I took a very speedy ferry ride to Salem.  I hadn't visited here when I last went to Boston, but I gotta say that I immediately fell in love with this village.  It wasn't the witch stuff, although that was fun.  It was the entire town, the small shops and historic sites.  I loved visiting Nathaniel Hawthorne's house and the House of Seven Gables that inspired him.  The Witch Museum was also a treat, including a very weird little presentation that combined a deep-voiced narrator over a loudspeaker and several scenes set up with wax figures all around the room.  It actually got a little creepy.  And it was, as far as I could tell, historically accurate.  It was Maddie's pick, so we ate Mexican food at the Howling Wolf and Maddie sampled the unique cocktails while I stuck with the tried-and-true Margarita.

Our last day was a Grayline tour to Lexington and Concord.  Our bus driver/tour guide was a man from Lebanon and an example of the varied ethnicities that make up Boston.  He was funny and very nice, although he did get some of the history wrong--which irked me, of course.  But Yvette more than made up for the bad history by buying us cupcakes that we ate next to the bridge at Concord.  It was easily one of the coolest moments of our trip.

After a quick visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on Friday morning, the four of us caught a Jet Blue flight and headed for home and the first part of my vacay was over.  The second part involved staying for a few weeks at the parental estate in Sacramento, seeing old friends, and spending time with my family.

The best part of my visit to California was a quick overnighter to my Fortress of Solitude.  I love that the girls have totally made their own way of having cabin fun.  Not the same as me or the generations before, but something totally of their own.  Yet they keep the old traditions, like Nana pancakes with bacon and cantaloupe for breakfast.  Heidi does her great-grandmother proud.

As ever, the best part of any vacation is spending it with my babies.  I'm back in Knoxville now but already planning for Maddie's trip here in August and the fantastic road trip we have planned.  Then its Christmas at home with these beautiful women, then New Orleans in the spring with Heidi.  I'm so glad I have the babies I have.  I'm the luckiest mom in the world.

So, I'm tired and hungry,so I'm going to have some dinner and a good night's sleep.  Knighty-Knight from Knoxville....

Nashville Weekend

It's been a while since I've blogged, so here's a little catch-up before I get to describing my wonderful Nashville Weekend.

Still at the museum...blah, blah, blah.  Just doing administrative stuff, no teaching possibilities. 

Jessie project...blah, blah, blah.  Defended my dissertation prospectus to my committee members, who were all fantastic about offering advice, suggestions, criticism, and help.  I'm so fortunate to have the three professors that I have.  Each brings something different to the table, and there is a lot I can learn from each of them.  My goals for this summer are to take a crash-course in nineteenth-century women's lives through secondary literature, read all my Jessie secondary literature, and continue to capture all the online primary stuff I can about Jessie.  It's going to be a busy time!  All together, this should get me practically ready to hit the archives in the fall and winter of 2018 and the spring of 2019.

Now for the fun stuff.  This past Friday I hightailed it west to Nashville to spend the weekend with the incomparable Annie, a young woman who came into UT in my cohort and finished her MA last year.  Annie has a darling little apartment in a nice Nashville neighborhood, not too far from her job at Vanderbilt where she works as the administrative assistant in the Religious Studies department.  I arrived at about 6:30 Nashville time (here I must digress for a second:  I HATE that Nashville is on Central Time while Knoxville is on Eastern Time; it's f'ing ridiculous and always gets me confused).  I swear, the talking started from the time I stepped into Annie's living room and didn't end until the moment I stepped out again on Sunday afternoon.

Annie's lovely wall hanging--don't look closely at the spelling!

Starving, of course, Annie and I hit the road to the local Asian food spot , where I consumed some fantastic sweet and sour chicken.  Now, let me pause here to say something about eating while traveling.  Those closest to me know that I'm sparking and they know what that means.  For those who may not (but, really, who actually reads this blog?), when I use the term "sparking" it means that I'm carefully counting caloric intake, water intake, and exercise.  Since I began this episode of sparking back on January 9 (the birthday of my beloved Princess Brenda), I haven't really had to deal much with dining out.  So, this weekend with Annie was really going to test my self-discipline.  The sweet and sour I enjoyed was just right in terms of taste and calories, thank goodness.  Annie wanted Coldstone afterwards, and I'm proud to say that I limited myself to just one taste of their birthday cake ice cream (holy hell, that stuff is good!!). 

We talked and talked through the evening while playing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the background.  The next morning, it was off to one of Annie's favorite breakfast places, The Bread Store, for some sustenance before heading off sightseeing for the day.  Again, I was spark-good.

Breakfast Annie

Our first sightseeing stop was at Vanderbilt to look around the campus.  Golly, it's a lovely spot.  We started with the Parthenon, pretty ostentatious looking and part of the reason Nashville gets to call itself the "Athens of the West."  Personally, I prefer to refer to Vanderbilt as the "Stanford of the East," which intimidated me so much that I never even bothered to apply for the doctoral program there. 

What could be more normal than a
monument to the Confederacy?

I love that Tennessee is proud of the role it
played in the movement for women's suffrage!

This is what college buildings should look like.

To me, movable type was the greatest invention
ever--except for maybe fire or the wheel.

We each took a turn posing with the Commodore.

After walking around the campus and checking out Annie's office, we headed out toward Cheekwood for more sightseeing.  The residence at Cheekwood was built in 1929 for Leslie and Mabel Cheek.  It sits of fifty-five acres of what are now beautiful gardens and walking paths.  The home has been turned into an art museum, where, to my surprise, I found an exhibit of William Edmondson's works.  Edmondson was born to parents who had lived as slaves on a Nashville plantation.  He was impoverished, self-taught, and worked with whatever limestone he could lay his hands on.  He was the first African American to have his own show at MoMA in New York.  I only know any of this because we have a piece of his work in the Decorative Arts gallery at the McClung.

Annie with the snuff bottles.

Annie and I had a great time touring the museum and, of course, checking out the gift shop.  I bought a lovely pink hat--because I love hats--that I think I'll take home to California on my vacation and wear around town.  But what was really gorgeous about Cheekwood were the grounds.  We found an amazing outdoor miniature railroad, gardens, a reflecting pool--you name it.  Also on the grounds were giant blow-up rabbits, an exhibit of the work of Amanda Parer.

The aforementioned hat.

Leaving Cheekwood, we headed for one of Annie's favorite walking trails at a local park.  It was a little warm--and a lot of uphill--but we managed to talk and laugh our way through a lovely loop.  I'm sure I survived because I had on such a cool hat.

Dinner on Saturday night was at a local Mexican place, where I totally enjoyed some chicken tacos swimming in sour cream (spark-friendly and heavenly).  We stopped at the grocery store to pick up supplies for breakfast in the morning and also for ice cream to top off our amazing day.  By the time we were in for the night, with Gone with the Wind on the DVD-player, the two of us had each walked over seven miles.  Needless to say, sleep was deep and refreshing that night.

Mother's Day morning came, and Annie made me a delicious cheese and veggie omlette, along with a thick slice of honey and sunflower bread and watermelon.  I wish I could have stayed longer, but it was soon time for the drive back to Knoxville.  Annie and I plan on another long visit, this time with me as the hostess in Knoxville later in the summer.

The Perfect Breakfast!

Back at the Tiny Flat in Knoxville, I dropped off my stuff, said hello to Smoke, and headed over to Robert and Katie's to watch the recorded F1 race with them.  And my Mother's Day was not over.  I was greeted with....

Almond Poppyseed Muffins

My Favorites!

Though the race was dull and won by the obnoxious Lewis Hamilton, I had a good time as usual.  I'm so lucky to have these beautiful people for friends!

April seems to really like her new
grooming glove; she shed enough fur to
knit an entire second dog!

So, the weekend getaway was just what I needed to clear my head and prepare for my next adventure--BOSTON!  Leaving Knoxville on Sunday and will meet up with my babies and BFF Yvette on Monday morning for a patriotic, star-spangled, red-white-and-blue, revolutionary five days in one of my favorite cities.  Then it's home to California for a few weeks of reading, relaxation, and friends.

That's all from Knoxville for now....

Living Through Hell Week

To say this week has tried my soul sounds like an understatement.  Such a roller-coaster ride of emotions that I'm not sure what I feel as I write this.

I'm calling this week Hell Week, although it actually started last week and will run through this Saturday.  As usual for April in grad school, everything seems to speed up.  Papers are due, undergrads are scrambling--hell, there were even a few classes visiting the museum.  For me and my pals, this week brought lots of commotion as the History Department scheduled two big events for consecutive days.  But let's begin at the beginning, with last Friday.... (weird harp music as we travel back in time)

I woke last Friday morning with one thought in mind.  I was determined NOT to go to the Tennessee-Kentucky Consortium meeting that night.  It had been a though week already.  I had finished my prospectus and submitted it to the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. P.  Let me pause here to say that she is one of the finest professors in this university.  Firm but fair, she's always looking out for her grad students.  Anyway, finishing what turned out to be a 30-page document was pretty grueling.  Trying to make my dissertation project sound meaningful did not come easily to me--and I do actually believe in the importance of my project for the field of American history.  By Friday, after all that work, I was just plain tuckered out.  But, as I am being a good girl about walking, I went out at lunch time to take a lap around the campus.

On my way down Volunteer Boulevard, I ran into Good Josh (so named as to distinguish him from the several other Joshes in the department).  This wonderful fellow was my lifeline when he and I were teaching assistants for Dr. O.  He's been busy beating off brain cancer for the last year, and it is so wonderful to have him back in Knoxville and on the mend.  He was on his way to meet another of our colleagues for lunch, so he decided to take part of my walk with me.  We chattered like old pals, and I was reminded of how much I like and admire this guy.  Well, as fate would have it, he's one of two of our group who was organizing the UT-UK Consortium meeting.  After walking with him, I realized I couldn't ditch the evening get-together and disappoint him.  Damnit!  It was off to the East Tennessee Historical Society for me.

The section on early twentieth century Knoxville was
one of my favorites in the museum.  The drug store exhibit
was wonderful

East Tennessee hero Alvin York has his own exhibit right
now because of the centenary commemorations of WWI

I hadn't been to the ETHS before, although it has strong ties to the history department, and my friend Annie had worked there for quite a while.  It's actually a lovely place, good museum, nice conference room.  The folks from Kentucky were all very nice, a few of whom I had met last year when they had hosted the first meeting of the Consortium in Lexington.  In the end, I did not have a terrible time.

My weekend after that was lovely.  Weather was nice enough for a long walk on Saturday.  Sunday morning was the F1 race with Robert and Katie.  Monday, and it was back to the grind, with a belly full of nerves about the beginning of the true Hell Week.  Monday and Tuesday brought classes to the museum, so I was able to do my meet-and-greet with them and introduce them to the temporary exhibht, Pick Your Poison, which is about America's longstanding relationship with intoxicants and stimulants (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, opium, and cocaine).  Wednesday afternoon brought in Dr. L.'s European history class, for which I got to present a fallout shelter sign.  So far, so good.

But, sadly Wednesday evening came.  Again, there was an event that I wanted to ditch.  I've gone to the department awards ceremony every year since I got here, and every year it's the same thing.  The same scholars win the same awards, and the rest of us just sit there and clap. But, after having given my pal Vesty a lecture on how we all need to show up at department functions, I couldn't very well ditch.  So, off I went.  Two of my former undergrad students received awards, and I was so very happy to see that.  Then the graduate student awards began, and the first one goes to one of the students who always wins stuff.  So, I assumed it was going to be yet another year of watching these same people win these same awards.  Then Dr. P. began announcing the Walkup-Thurman Award for best research paper on an antebellum/Civil War topic.  Dr. P. said that the winner had not only passed her comprehensive exams but managed to write a paper that Dr. F. had pronounced as "nearly journal ready."  I knew then that it was going to be either me, Tess, or Minani, as we all work in that time field, we're all girls, and we all passed our comps.  When Dr. P. mentioned the name of the paper, I turned to Vesty sitting next to me because I couldn't really believe it.

Unbe-fucking-lieveable!

My Jessie paper, thanks to Dr. F., my fearless leader, won the prize.  I floated six inches above the ground for the next several hours.  It meant so much to me to be acknowledged by the department.  The fact that the award is funded to commemorate two young men who died in service to their country just made it all that much sweeter.

So, that piece of Hell Week didn't actually turned out too badly.  Then came Thursday, and all the glitter of my Oscar-winning moment faded away in the face of the prospectus presentation I had to give to the entire department.  There were five of us presenting, but I was going first due to conflicts in Dr. F.'s schedule.  So, I spoke for eight minutes about my dissertation project.  I looked out to see the smiling faces of Katie, Robert, and my former officemate, Brad, and it really helped so much.  In fact, everyone in that audience looked friendly and supportive, except for one instructor.  This person, I swear to God, mean-mugged me through my presentation.  Then, this instructor was one of the first to raise a hand after I was done speaking.  One question asked was completely appropriate, and honestly raised an issue that I hadn't thought through.  The other question was completely inappropriate and aggressive, to me at least, and it was all I could do to smile and answer nicely.  As I took my seat after answering questions, I felt completely screwed over--and not in the good way.

My fellow presenters all have amazing projects, and everyone spoke so well and presented their research in such a polished and professional manner.  Unfortunately, Dr. Mean-Mugger proved just as tough on another of my colleagues so that I then felt angry as well as ashamed and embarrassed.

Afterwards, Tess, Minami, and I (we're all that's left of the Americanists in our cohort) consoled ourselves with a trip to Sgt. Pepperoni's for dinner.  Chicken salad really did help smooth over the wounds, as did the sugar-free ice cream (one cup) I allowed myself when I got home.

Today, Hell Week continues, but it won't be so bad.  I'll be attending the dissertation writing workshop this afternoon, where I will also get feedback on my prospectus.  This will be from my peers, and I expect to get some good ideas from them.  Tomorrow is a mini-conference, again at ETHS, on the topic of the Tennessee frontier during the American Revolution.  Its not my time period or particular interest, but Michael is coming down from his job at Lincoln Memorial University to give a presentation.  I wouldn't miss seeing Michael for the world.

So, by Friday afternoon, this iteration of Hell Week will be complete.  One more hurdle with my prospectus, the actual defense with my committee members, will be May 2 (yes, my wedding anniversary to my beloved paper husband).  That, too, does not scare me as much, as I feel well supported by all three members.  I'm sure it will be tough, and they'll give feedback that may scare me a little, but it will all come from a good place and be designed to help me produce the best dissertation I can.

Anyway, that's all the news from Knoxville.  See ya....

Another Week in Knoxville

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon here in East Tennessee.  I'm sitting on Lovie the Loveseat, my laptop propped up on a pillow that is covered by one of Maddie's old shirts. Smoke is sitting on his scratching post, serenely observing the world around him.  On the television is one of my favorite movies, Now Voyager, with my gal Bette Davis.  Its just coming to the moment when she inadvertently gives her mother a fatal heart attack.  Oooops.  There goes the mother, sliding down in her rocking chair, now dead.  Melodrama at its finest!

This movie is why I started smoking when I was
fifteen.  It was just so damned romantic!

Everything going along just fine here.  This week has been filled with working on my damned prospectus.  I met with my advisor, Dr. F., on Monday, and he gave the overall idea an enthusiastic two thumbs up.  He caught me in a bad error, using the name Philip Kearny when I met Stephen Watts Kearny--he teased me about the horrified look on my face when he mentioned this boo-boo of mine.  But I won the next argument, about the word "mutiny" as one of the charges brought up in the court martial of John C. Fremont.  Dr. F. felt that the charge could not possibly have been mutiny, but I looked it up in the official record and looked up mutiny in the Articles of War enacted by Congress in 1806, the forerunner of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  And I was so right--Dr. F. gave me an A+ plus three gold stars for my research.  😉

On the down side, I'm having to rewrite the chapter descriptions that are contained in the prospectus.  This work is absolutely necessary, as I have shifted the project from a chronological to a thematic structure.  But I'm getting so tangled up in my own writing that I can't tell what I'm doing.  So, I'm taking the Easter weekend, starting with Good Friday, away from the prospectus.  I'll give the damned thing about look on Monday and hopefully finished it up early next week.  Then off it goes to the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. P., who will send it out to the entire department, along with the prospectuses of pals Alex, Laura, Tess, and Minami. We'll all give eight-minute presentations on our dissertation projects on April 19.  That's when the real pain will come, as we face our classmates and our faculty and have to defend our project ideas.  I'm so scared of Drs. O. and M. asking me questions that its ridiculous.

Me and my Prospectus
(artist rendition)

This week's walking took me even further on the Teague Greenway, from the beginning of the trail all the way to Walker Springs Road.  I'm starting to see the same people on my walks, also out getting their steps in.  Sadly, I don't always recognize the people.  I recognize their dogs instead.  There's the miniature Schnauzer, the crazy like Yorkie, and the poor little white mutt that walks behind the man that walks him, making it look like it's the man on the leash and the mutt calling the shots.  This week there was also an older lady who was walking a young puppy, which she told me she was training to the leash.  Unfortunately, this lady let the dog do all the training, making the lady stop whenever the dog wanted to sniff things off the path or meet new people--which is how I met them.

This morning I tried someplace new for my walking.  Now, I really should have been forewarned as I checked this trail online.

But I considered myself such a bad ass that I didn't heed the warning.  And the warning people were not kidding.  The inclines were HORRIBLE!  It felt like I was climbing The Hill at UT (something I've never done because of the ease of taking the bus).  As I sit crossed legged on my loveseat writing this, I'm feeling the strain on my muscles.  I thought that the hills I climb on the greenway were bad--this place gives me a whole other workout.  But, to be honest, the views were worth the struggle.

It was such a lovely day, I sort of wish I'd done the loop twice.  But that has to come later, when my legs are used to that kind of climbing.  Then, once I've worked up to it, the plan is to do the quarry trail around the lake at Ijams Nature Center, including a side trip to the little cemetery that's up there.  So many plans....

Bette just uttered the final words of Now Voyager:  "Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon.  We have the stars."  Big sigh from me.

So, I can mark off my to do list that I've written this blog.  Makes me feel productive.  That's all the news from Knoxville. Bye....

Walking Talking and Reading

It's a Sunday afternoon, and I've made the vow to write a blog each week.  So, once I finish writing this nonsense, I'll get to put a check mark into my to do list.

This week has been pretty darned pleasant.  Chantalle came to town, which is always a big treat for me.  That girl is fun, funny, and always up for some shopping (more on this later).  But, before I get into that, I'll write a little bit about walking.

The weather proved too good to ignore this week, and I spent as much time outside as possible.  The beginning of the week was a little cold, so I wasn't too incentivized to get out to the greenway or anything.  But, by Thursday, that had all changed.  I hit the Jean Teague greenway on Thursday afternoon and walked further than I had before.  Let me describe this beautiful piece of land in west Knoxville.  I begin my walk at a gravel parking lot just across the street from a school.  You'd think I'd know the name of the school, but I don't.  Anyway, the first part of the walk is through a park, with a baseball diamond, tennis courts, lots of playgrounds for kids (even a swingset away from the play areas which I assume is for grown-ups--at least that's what I tell myself when I swing there).  As you cross a small street, you get into a walkway alongside a creek.  On the other side of the creek are some really beautiful two- and three-story homes with huge backyards and lovely screened-in porches.  If I had to own a house again, I'd want one of those on the side of the creek.  As the path veers away from the creek, you round a corner that leads to the parking lot of a big church.  The path ends there and becomes just a regular sidewalk that leads up to a major road.  When I say up, I mean f'ing UP!  It's quite a climb before the sidewalk dips back down again--which is quite a dip.  There's a tunnel under the major road.  Once you've crossed that, there's a beautiful nature walk place, with the creek again on the side of the path and beautiful blooming trees and bushes.  I didn't walk to the end of this part of the trail as time was an issue, but I want to explore so much more.

From the Jean Teague Greenway

So, my legs were totally aching on Friday, after having scaled what felt was the Everest of hills on the greenway.  But I wasn't done.  As Chantalle was going out to brunch and then to watch the Purdue game, I decided that I would finally make a trip to the Ijams Nature Center.  This space is located alongside the Tennessee River and also encompasses a former quarry that is now a gorgeous lake.  Not knowing too much about the place, I headed over with just an iPhone full of Elvis tunes and a pair of earbuds.  Little did I know that I'd be doing more than walking.  Yes, like the campus of UT itself, the Ijams Nature Center is built on hill, hills, and more hills.  Next thing I knew, I was hiking down this steep trail from the visitor's center down toward the river.  God, it felt great, like I was at the cabin or something.  I followed the trail to a boardwalk that goes along the river and includes some caves, one of which was used by a woman in 1912 who hid there after killing a man.  Wandering around without a clue where I was going, I followed another trail over to the quarry area.  The lake there was sooooo gorgeous!  I scrambled up on a rock to contemplate the pretty water and to snap a pic.  Now, let me confess something about myself.  I am good at scrambling up rocks.  I SUCK at getting down again.  I had to scoot along on my bottom until I could grab at a tree trunk to pitch myself upright again.  Then I had to grab another tree trunk to finish the climb down.  I tried to avoid a mysterious green plant that was climbing up the second tree trunk, but I was unsuccessful.  Fears of poison oak filled my thoughts as I went back to the trail and walked for a little bit alongside the lake.  Every time I felt so much as a possible itch, I was sure I had the dreaded disease.  I pondered whether the visitor's center would have an antidote or whether I would have to go to some weekend clinic for treatment.  Happily, the mysterious plant was apparently not poison oak, and I finished my beautiful hike around Ijams without unnecessary scratching.

The lake in the old quarry--taken from my perch on a rock

After that, you'd think I'd walked enough for the week.  But no.  Neighbors Katie and Robert asked me to take their puppy out while they were down in Atlanta.  This time, my walk took me all around the neighborhood streets here in West Hills.  Miss April Kleinkopf-Rennie proved to be delightful company, and we walked each other until each of us was tuckered out.

Miss April

So much for the walking.  Now, for the talking.  Chantalle was in town.  Need I saw more?  Thursday night found us at Crown and Goose for trivia.  Joined by Ryan, Amanda, and Carrie, our team, "CIA Black Sites (Thailand)" took second place to "Unicorns on the Cob."  We might have won, but Chantalle didn't believe me when I answered one of the questions with "The Price is Right."  She wrote "Let's Make a Deal" on the answer card instead--and we lost those points.  Ah, what might have been....

The second-place team, CIA Black Sites (Thailand)

Of course, no visit from Chantalle would be complete without a visit to B&N.  If there is one component of our co-dependent relationship that never fails, it's the ability of each of us to talk the other into a bookstore visit.  This time it was my bad--I was the one who talked Chantalle into shopping for books.  But it was so worth it!!  I'm halfway through the latest Elizabeth Kostova book, Shadow Land, and I'm completely hooked.  Sometimes its nice to read something that has absolutely nothing to do with Jessie Benton Fremont.

Now its Sunday, and the weekend has been disappointing on the sports scene.  Yesterday, the Vol men lost to a team from a little school with a nun as its main cheerleader.  That nun pulled some strings, and the last three-point attempt from one of the Vols didn't go in the basket.  Then, last night, my man Donny Schatz had a terrible race from qualifying to a fourteenth place finish at the Stockton dirt track.  And now, as I watch the NASCAR race, the Toyotas are running away with things, and Elk Grove's Kyle Larson and Bakersfield's Kevin Harvick got into a scuffle that has trashed the hopes of the California boys to win in f'ing California.  #BadSports

I'm not really looking forward to the week ahead.  Things at the museum are just not that fun without Lindsey.  There's not a lot for me to do, so I really feel sort of useless.  But its only for three more months, so I'll make the best of it.

That's all there is to report from Knoxville.  Bye....