Yep, I'm recapping this month 2 weeks before it ends. I'm nearly certain the rest of it will consist of me sitting right here surfing the internet and working on the three books I'm reading right now. January has felt nearly as long as June did. Almost but not quite. But then again I still have two more weeks left of it so check back with me on this. I've decided that I'm tacking January '10 onto 2009 and beginning my new year on February 1st. It seems like a reasonable idea.
Have you ever seen the movie "U-Turn"? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120399/
Sean Penn's car breaks down in a tiny desert town, Jennifer Lopez+many plot twists=calamity. It's a helluva movie. Check it out.
This information is relevant because I recently found myself in a similar situation, minus J. Lo and death. I was driving to Sikeston last week to pick up Andrew so he could have a few days in Murfreesboro before he left on tour,but my car broke down in Cairo, IL on the bridge across the Ohio River. Carry me Ohio indeed. A police officer happened by and called a tow truck for me and drove me to the motel in town. I got to ride in his cop car while he chewed dip and told me how much he loved Devo and informed me that I didn't need to wear my seat belt if I didn't want to. He didn't. The tow truck driver charged me $125 to tow my car a whopping 5 miles to the local garage.Cairo has a population of about 3,500 and one main road. I actually saw more dogs than humans while I was there. It was a river boomtown in Tom Sawyer's days but those are distant memories now. I kind of loved it there. It reminded me that there are still some real places left in the world. Shea and Matt dropped Andrew off at the motel and we made the best of our situation. We ended up lying in bed and watching TV for 2 1/2 days. We actually had a really great time. We walked to the Dollar General once and loaded up on Bowl of Noodle, hot cheetos, and sweetheart candies. Then we sat around and bitched about how much we hate TV for 48 hours. A good time was had by all. On day 3, Kevin came and picked us up and we ate in a lovely little restaurant in Kentucky. I love the South. We got home in time for Andrew to leave for tour. A few days later my aunt and uncle drove to Cairo, put my car on a trailer and brought it back to Murfreesboro. It's now sitting at the Chrysler dealership waiting to be worked on. They think it's the transmission. Nick was nice enough to let me borrow his car for the week so at least I have a way to get to work which is good because I'm broke as a joke.
But all of this is not the reason January ranks so low on my list. It was actually the highlight of my month to be completely honest. This girl is homesick as can be. I miss my hills and my friends. The week I spent there over Christmas was the nicest I've had in so long and I didn't want to leave. I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish by moving to Murfreesboro the first or the second time but I'm almost certain I didn't do it. I don't know what to do with myself. I've been running in circles for so long that I've finally just dropped to the ground. "I think I'll just stay right down here on this floor". What's a thinking, feeling, self-aware individual to do with herself? Don't fret...I'll figure it out. Didn't I tell you that I'm useless in the winter? I think I'll just go back to Cairo and float downstream until it carries me home. Come on life, I'm almost ready.
