Ugly footed bitches dot com - Florida day one

 Alright, so it's October 5th, which means it's Laurel's 21st birthday! Two kids who are 21 and one kid who is 17? HOW. Derek and I are just adorable litle babies. The chips didn't fall in a way where we could go see Laurel for her birthday this year, for numerous reasons, which makes me sad. There's only one 21st birthday, after all! I'm even more bummed now that all of us couldn't go to see her perform at Anime Iowa this year, but I'm glad Derek got to go. Twenty one!! Big birthday. I texted her this morning first thing when I woke up, but I doubt she's awake yet. 

Derek and I got back from Florida a few days ago. Six days, ago, I think. This will be a pretty fast recap, because all we really did was help my dad with stuff he needed help with. 

The first day was just...fuckin driving. My dad is always like, floored that Derek and I drive everywhere, but we love it. The days are long, but we talk non-stop and always have such a great time. I love my husband so much, so when we have time to just talk without interruption? I am all about it. We've had so many road trips this year, and being able to just....spend time with Derek is amazing. When we travel with the kids, they keep to themselves and don't enter into the conversations, which...you know. Makes me a bit sad, I want my kids to chat with us, I want them to engage and be silly with us, or get passionate about something like Derek and I do. I record me and Derek's conversations, because I hate the idea that he'll be gone one day and I won't be able to remember the sound of his voice talking to me about a funny billboard we saw in Valdosta. So anyway, we started our day at 8am, traveling to get a few things from Home Depot for Derek...bu we had to go to the one just outside of St. Louis. I hit up a couple of the stores in STL that I knew had food I could eat on the road, so we didn't ACTUALLY get on the road road until...uh...11 something? 

Drive-wise, it was just....a boring drive. Nothing interesting. Our first stop was Atlanta, and we took tthe way that went through Paducah. There's a bridge in Paducah that gives me tthe most intense anxiey. I don't know why, but it makes my body freaked the fuck out. Derek wonders if there's some sort of negative connection for me in that area, because when I was driving to Nashville to spend a week with Amber, going over that bridge gave me such heightened anxiety and I cried going over the bridge because it fucked my brain up for whatever reason. On the way home from Nashville, I thought I took a way that didn't take me through Paducah. I didn't. And I had to cross that bridge again, and I felt like I was going to vomit. It wasn't as bad with Derek, but it definitely made my body tense up and shiver-wrinkle. 

Driving through the SSmokies was gorgeous, we were driving through during Golden Hour. 

We started reaching the part of the south where everything was god related, and it's my favorite thing when religions market to you on  billboards.

God created wha?????? A billboard that ends on a cliffhanger??? SOLID LITERARY TACTIC. Respect.

So there's a lot of subtext going on here. Like...are democrats the only people who are...atheists, or muslims, or buddhists? No room for that in the republican party? Wild to know, but look at us, growing in our knowledge. Also, is that a pitchfork or a trident? Are democrats also mermaids? I like that democrats could either be merfolk or devils. Or merdevils. What a lot of opportunity for them, fantastic. And what does the part of the billbord in white say?? ANOTHER billboard mystery? Georgia, you have been to good to us, billboard-wise. 

When we were nearing Atlanta, we realized we should go eat first, and what's in Atlanta? JINYA FUCKIN' RAMEN. SO we stopped in for Jinya.

Ramen is always the craze, Jinya. 

Tempura battered brussels? Absolutely. And they were very good. Not immaculate, but for sure edible, especially after being on the road for almost 12 hours. 

Derek of course gets his Jinya bun, because it's a staple. Like the brussels are turning into a staple. 

As I was taking my shitty photo of my noodle-less ramen, I noticed a hair in my ramen. That I know wasn't mine, because my hair is currently an emu egg green. I wasn't going o do anything about it, but Deek made sure I got another bowl. I got it to go, because the restaurant was closing and I just wanted to get to a hotel and take all of my clothes off. I was beat. 

Before we pulled into the hotel parking lot, I noticed what we were behind:

I sent it to Allen, who sent me "HAHHHHHHHHHHHMUNNAKEEPONDANCINATTHE" and I was like, it's open 24/7, I think everyone there DOES keep on dancing. 

As we were parking, we heard sirens, and a firetruck pulled in right behind us. We were immediatly...selfishly...worried about being able to get into our room. Would something happen where we had to find a new hotel last minute? We've had to do that before, it would only be a minor inconvenience. We were able to check in without issue, and it looks like what happened was someone fell, or collapsed, and I think they were ultimately ok? I hope they were. I felt kinda bad where my first thought was about me instead of whoever was hurt. It was a good reminder that I still have a lot of growing out of hyperindividualism to do. 

Derek and I went up to our room, I ate my noodless ramen, crawled into bed, cuddled up to Derek, and we chatted about what we would be doing the next day. We had a restaurant that we were desperate to eat at in Atlanta, but it didn't open until 11am. Did we want to leave balls early to hit up St. Augustine (a place my husband had no fucking idea about?? Like, I was fucking floored that he knew nothing about St. Augustine. Except the shit I've told him, which....I don't know. Is wild to me), or did we want to have a leisurely morning, wake up at 10, pack up the car, and hit up the restaurant? We ended up choosing the latter, and I'm glad we did. After making that decision, we both crashed the fuck out. A great travel day.