Gastonia.

My grandma is awesome.

I had a few days off so I rolled down to Gastonia today to see and hang out with her. One thing that's great about coming to see her is that it's always relaxing, and when you leave, it's another one of the ways you can hit "reset" on the feeling tired area of your metaphorical personal Nintendo. Hanging out with her is also a great way to hear classic family stories and good advice on important things, like life.

I got to her house around 2 today, and we immediately ventured out to pick up my cousins Chandler and Chase to take them to the dentist. It was great getting to see them for a while, because even though it doesn't happen too often, we're a close family, and I love kickin' it with the cousins.

After this, we got home around 4:15 and sat to talk for a while. We caught up on everything from work to family to what I'm doing the next few weeks, and as I yakked away, I started to realize how tired I was. It used to be that when I was in school, my exhaustion would hit me whenever I'd come home. Now that I'm done and living it home, it hits me when I come to Gastonia. I told her I was going to go lay down for a bit, and she figured she'd do the same. I set my alarm to allow me to sleep for an hour which turned out to be the right thing do to, because I was out as SOON as I hit the pillow. Once it went off, I came back down the hall to find her just as asleep as I was.

She got up a few minutes later and finished making dinner. One major plus of coming to visit her is that the food is ALWAYS amazing. Tonight she cooked her lemon chicken with brown rice and homegrown turnip greens (sorry to make you jealous, Carra), and it was ridiculously good. Along with dinner, she told stories of my grandfather, which is something else I always enjoy.

Since the weather's been crazy-cold lately, it reminded her of the year they got engaged. She talked about this, and how after he proposed, he would come visit her in Chapel Hill as often as he could, because he was living in Winston-Salem at the time. She said that the weather that year was crazy, and that "it seemed like it snowed every Wednesday that March." My grandfather would usually visit on the weekends, and she said that after one major snowstorm she called the bus station to see if they were running trips. They told her they weren't due to the weather, so she figured he wouldn't show that particular weekend. However, my grandfather was a determined and good guy, so even though she didn't expect it, sure enough, he drove himself and showed up at her door for his usual visit. I thought that was pretty cool of him, and it's definitely something I'd like to live up to.

She also talked about the economy, and how even though things are bad now, they'll go up again eventually. Now, obviously this is something we hear a lot, but hearing it from her is that much more credible, because she's been through this situation several times in her almost 92 years. Even though times are hard today, I believe her, and you should to, so breathe a sigh of relief folks. Things will get better.

Anyway, after a helping and a half of amazingness on a plate, we went to the living room and watched a little TV together. Grandma made the good point that there's either nothing on or several things on you want to see at once, and I quickly agreed. Tonight was a channel-surf night until nine when "Heroes" came on, but in the meantime we enjoyed good conversation until she went to bed.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in here tomorrow (she stressed that I sleep as late as I want--what a good host, huh?), and then grabbing lunch with her before I hit the road home in the afternoon, knowing that this is something I definitely want to do again soon.

So for now, goodnight everybody, and sweet dreams.
Drew