Georgia
I left the Stuks' at around 10:00 and headed to "The Big Chicken" - a Kentucky Fried Chicken that has been a 56-foot-tall landmark in the life of Marietta, Georgia. It was impossible to get both me and the chicken head in the shot so i improvised. Some weirdo who introduced himself as "J.R." drove up and started taking pictures of me and wouldn't stop talking to me. His accomplice was a scary obese lady with few teeth and a cackle that still drills into my soul. I was so scared they were going to steal my camera or do something weird, so I quickly did the thing and left.
I hooped at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park and played in the fountain.
Small children kept running into me.
South Carolina
Booooooo.
I had no fun. Just many hours on the highway in the pouring rain and traffic. I spent the hours listening to more music and practicing Spanish with my "Spanish for Dummies" CD. I hooped in some stupid little park in Greenville, SC.
North Carolina
Charlotte looked SOOOOOOO fun and I almost stayed longer but it was getting late and I'd probably not make it to Richmond. Friendly security guards and young hip people skipped around the North Carolina Music Factory - a gathering of bars, comedy clubs, a volleyball court, and more bars. Gotta go back there sometime. It's something very not-Kathleen to not do what I want in that moment, but I got back on the road hoping it was what destiny wanted.
It was getting dark. I paused at a diner in High Point (Lexie's alma mater) to plug in my phone (the navigation really sucks the juice out). As I sat there a moment while it charged, an old man approached me and asked how to put his phone on silent. I showed him and then he proceeded to tell me his life story. It was obvious he needed someone desperately to talk to, so I put on my listening ears. He lost his wife 12 years ago and then fell in love with another old lady in the church choir who was divorced 28 years and "never once committed adultery," who decided not to date him anymore. Though I knew I was doing an important duty as random listener, I was relieved when he said he was leaving. I don't plan on getting old.
Virginia
I got to Jessica's Dad's house in Richmond (which I previously visited as Jessica's Grandma's house back in 2009) past midnight. Jessica is one of my best friends in the world. I met her in college and we clicked pretty quickly. We've spent years singing and playing piano and dreaming together. She's a creative and linguistic genius. Jess's Dad invited me in and had bought some burgers and floats. He charmed me with his stories of music-making. I slept in Jessica's old bed, missing her. In the morning Jess's funny funny Dad took me down Monument Ave and I hooped with a monument of Jefferson Davis.
I also stopped at Stonewall Jackson's shrine and then in Fredericksburg and walked around admiring the old-fashioned buildings and atmosphere.
Maryland
Traffic on Rt 95 was SO BAD that I just skipped Washington DC and I will unfortunately have to go back to hoop in front of those so-important buildings. I went to visit Cami in Silver Spring and she was cute as ever with her short hair cut, sweet boyfriend, and tattooed leg. Cami and I were really close in middle school and some of high school. I always think of the time we sat up in her attic and read The Giving Tree and we cried in each other's arms. I feel like there's a silent sadness between us, because we lost touch. Still her giggle fills my soul with sunshine.
My Maryland and Delaware hooping shots are lame, but I figure they're close enough to New Jersey that I can revisit. Anyway...now I'm home in my spot on the couch in Woodbury Heights. Happy to be with Daddy and Anna.
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