Chez Molly Murphy

The tryptophan has finally worn off, the Diet Coke has kicked in, and this has turned into a late night of last minute laundry and deciding exactly how much stuff you really can squeeze into a suitcase and still meet the 75 lb. weight restrictions. M.'s mom and dad have graciously offered me the use of their computer here, so naturally, I thought I'd try to get one more post written before we leave for the airport tomorrow afternoon...I've got pleeeeenty of time to pack, right? Right. Anyway, this week has been a lot of fun, not the least of it was generated as a result of the road trip from San Antonio to M.'s mom and dad's house here outside of Atlanta. After outprocessing in Texas on Tuesday morning, we headed north to Dallas and I-20 which shoots across the southeast U.S. on a line through Shreveport and Birmingham, and then up to Atlanta. We hit really awful weather probably 45 minutes north of SanAntonio-torrential downpour, tornadoes, lightning: the whooole south Texas kit and caboodle. So needless to say, the remaining 7 hours of the trip to Shreveport were a little dicey. Anyway, on the way, we stopped at a Starbucks drive-through in Waco. By this point, it was raining so hard, that M. had to pretty much open the car window a crack and throw his coffee mug in to the lady working there. She was pretty much drenched by the end of the first part of this whole transaction, so when it came time for him to hand the money to her, she just waved him off after handing him the coffee: there was nooooo way she was sticking her hand back out the window into that cold rain! It was pretty funny: we were soaking wet inside the car...it was at this point that we were beginning to wonder just how important coffee actually is. Anyway, a mere 1,300 miles, two days and a bazillion cups of coffee later, I've colored in my map and I am now claiming that I have been to Louisiana and Alabama. And Georgia, of course, which has been really fun. M.'s mom and dad live outside of Atlanta on a lake, which is gorgeous. If you're inside, looking out, that is. M. and I didn't exactly realize the full importance of having a pane of glass between you and the water during the winter months until this past Thursday morning, when we decided to go running, which turned into a brisk walk as we encountered the coldest, wettest wind that I've ever felt coming off the lake, directly into our faces. "This is the south!" I said. "I thought it was supposed to be warm here!" Aaaah!

ANYWAY, M.'s family had their big Thanksgiving celebration on Friday this year. Other than arriving on time to greet them as they arrived around noon, our only task was to drive my car into Atlanta and drop it off at the port Friday morning. Sounds simple, right? So, we set out with PLENTY of time: it was only going to take an hour to process my car, according to the ladies at the port office. We get to Atlanta, no traffic, things are good. Unload my car, they pull it into the processing area, inspect the whole works: smoooth. Things are STILL good. All they need me to do is to review the inspection, sign it and drive away. Great! No problem there! So, M. and I are literally just about to get in the car and drive off when one of the inspectors comes running down the ramp, waving his arms to stop us. I roll down the window and he says, "Ma'am? Did you know that your car won't start?" What? Okay, now, it started that morning. It started when they pulled it into the garage....good grief! I wound up having to go to Auto Zone, buy an overpriced battery (my favorite kind!) and then they helped us put it in. Okay, so this battery replacement, well, it had to be done, and that's okay, but here's the really important part of the story: this whole escapade took an hour and a half. By this time, M.'s three older brothers and their families have already arrived at his mom and dad's house, and are waiting, fully aware that we're late. Really late. Add to this the fact that, thanks to some phone calls that M. had received from his brothers in the weeks since they'd found out that I was coming to Thanksgiving, I'd gotten a sneak peak at the kind of teasing, etc. that was in store for me. Any of these suspicions that I'd had were thoroughly confirmed for me when 10 minutes into the car ride back to his parents house, M.'s cell phone rang. It was his brother, B., and I could hear him say the following: "The loooonger you stay away, the more we're going to embarrass Leigh, so if you know what's good for you..." Oh geez. Anyway, we finally arrived, and, true to their word, the boys did their best to run me off, but I hung in there, thanks in part to M.'s three sisters-in-law who did a lot to cushion all of the teasing pointed in my direction! They're a really fun group, and we had a great time hanging out together for the day. Oh, and eating waaay too much, which was definitely fun, too.

Today, we drove to Athens, GA, to tailgate before the UGA-Georgia Tech game with one of M.'s brothers, B. and his wife. If you haven't been there, Athens is a really cute college town, and the UGA campus is very pretty: the leaves are even still on the trees! Unbelievable! We drove back up here this evening to do some last minute, pre-packing shopping and now it's off to finish that laundry. Anyway, thanks to everybody who's called and e-mailed before my departure: I'll try to keep posting as soon as I have access to a computer again, and calling just as soon as I have a phone. Have a great rest of the holiday weekend, wish me luck and see you all in Germany, as Chez Molly Murphy will be opening soon!