I spent the weekend in St. Louis visiting with friends who just had a new baby. The drive up is fairly boring until you hit Paducah, KY at which point, you are basically surrounded by corn in every direction.
The main purpose of my trip was to see the new babe. This child was so cute and sweet that out of the 100 odd pictures that I took, over 75 of them were of her. I don't want anymore children of my own but it's fun to drool over someone else's for a weekend.
On Friday, we had spa pedicures.
One of the things that I found rather interesting was the "backwards" way of thinking going on in this little community right outside of St. Louis. People always make assumptions that Tennessee is such a backwards state. That we are all a bunch of redneck heathens who hate anyone of a different race or sexual orientation. Perhaps I don't notice it as much because I choose to hang out with people who have open minds but it was really rather disorienting to find myself in social situations where people spoke very openly but were very close minded.
On Saturday night, I tagged along with my friend to a Bachelorette Party. At this party, the Bride's sister, who happens to be a lesbian, was there with her partner. They were at one end of the table and my friend and I were at the other end with some other people. Out of the blue, one of the women piped in with, "I can't believe Tammy's sister" and gave that all knowing look as to say, "You know what I'm talking about."
My friend shook her head as to indicate that she did know what the woman was talking about and a big discussion ensued wherein they both agreed that they couldn't imagine having a sibling that is gay. They talked about how the mother of this girl told her to not ever come home again but has since then come around and accepted her daughter's "choice". Then, they woman says, "If my child ever came home and told me that, I'd jump off a bridge." and my friend laughed.
At that point, I was stunned, both by the conversation and my friend's reaction, but managed to say, "And why would you take your own life over something that has absolutely nothing to do with you?" That was the end of the conversation.
On my way out of town, I happened to notice a bunch of white crosses over in a field on the interstate. There was a huge billboard in the center with a picture of Jesus Christ along with a statement about Abortion and how each cross signified an abortion in that town. Again, I was just kind of stunned.
And finally, two random pictures. The first, of my new hair color.
And the second, of my new back yard. We move in two weeks and I've managed to pack one box of DVDs. Ugh.
Self-Made Man 