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....