Like Sunday Morning! (In the immortal words of Lionel Richie). This has been such a beautiful weekend.
I’m in Jacksonville Florida working at the Mayo Clinic. I don’t care for the clinic or the people. I’m not one for pretentious people or places which I suppose I’m glad I found out before I actually seriously considered coming here. Part of the reason I chose to come here was to get to know my aunt and cousins who live here a little better. But of course I get here and all of the phone numbers we have for them are disconnected. We’re gonna drop them a note in the mail and hopefully they’ll get it before I leave. My aunt has 5 adult children who have children of their own now and the only time I get to see them is at funerals and the occasional Christmas dinner (of course they rarely can afford to travel to Chicago from Florida). So far Jacksonville seems like an okay town.
So getting on the road again was a bit difficult. Nearing the end of med school, I’m broke! My car is shaking like a salt shaker. I was willing to ignore that little problem except occasionally when I put the key in the ignition, it doesn’t wish to turn. So at 8am on a Saturday, I’m sitting at the dealership. They fix the ignition and tell me that I’m driving a deathtrap with a tire that could blow at any time. Whoa! I just spent $300 I don’t have and now I have to spend another $100. I immediately pick up the phone and call Coach who calmly said to me… “Do what you have to do. We will work out the finances later”. I so appreciate his ability to calm my hysteria. I go back into the dealership and tell them to fix whatever it needs. Of course after waiting an hour, they tell me that they don’t have my tire after all. WalMart didn’t have it either.
So I leave, pick up Coach and we head out to see the DaVinci exhibit at the Science and Industry museum. My girl’s husband had free tickets through his job. Let’s just say, good thing it was free. BORING!!! Definitely not worth the $21 we didn’t spend on it. My girl is gushing because she’s pregnant. I’m happy for her. Slightly jealous but happy for her. I hope she has a boy because she is really not the girly type.
Sunday Coach and I went to church together for the first time. 730am service. You know we must have needed some church to get up that early. My mom was pleased to see us at church. It was a good service and I’m extremely happy that the man in my life is a Christian man and I don’t have to drag him kicking and screaming to church. We went to get a tire for my car which of course turned into 3 new tires, a wheel alignment, and another $300. Praise the Lord my aunt gave me my money back for part of my repairs! Frankie is rolling like a brand new Focus 
My aunt and uncle were cooking for Labor Day so we stopped by the house for a bit of free grub. He got a chance to meet the fam. I think he made a good impression but in my family we don’t bother to remember your name until at least 2 introductions. They were pretty impressed by his good manners. I think he was just kissing up
Before we made it to my aunt’s we had a little project to complete.. my car looked like a tornado hit. He helped me clean the inside and out (to include the trunk). Good news, no dead bodies were found in the car! We took Frankie out for a bath.. he came out feeling bout 15 lbs lighter
So with all of that done, I hit the road on Labor Day and made it to Jacksonville in 16.5 hours. I’m staying at an extended stay motel.. raggedy!!! But hell at $40/night on Priceline, you can’t expect the Ritz. Lots of men here (looks like a few recently separated folks) but I have finally seen some women so I feel better. Now of course that hasn’t stopped me from double locking the door. I feel safer, but I ain’t stupid.
I took myself to breakfast at Denny’s this morning and caught a movie and took in a late lunch at Copeland’s (one of my favorite restaurants ever!!). I’m chilling in bed on my computer watching the Cowboys-Jaguars game… life doesn’t get any better than this!
