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Memphis Smells Funny

Phew! Where was I??? Nice of y'all to ask! Let's see - we'll start with Friday night. I left work, packed my bags, rounded up The Boy and we drove to Lawrence to pick up Elliot and Holly. The kids were uber-excited for their weekend getaway to Grandma's house in Salina. They jabbered away and danced in their seats to the Beastie Boys until we hit the Stuckey's outside of Topeka for a potty break. Once back in the car armed with gigantic lollipops and Laffy Taffy, the insanity began. A thread of parental responsibility exists in my being, and I merely suggested that neither child consume all of their sugar laden treats less they get a stomach ache or even worse, decide it will be fun to stay up all night long. This made Elliot giggle and ask a question using the word "cavity." It could've all ended there, but it didn't. For whatever reason, the word cavity amused Holly and she began to chant it. It was funny. We laughed. She then begin to sing a song using only the word "cavity." We laughed harder. The cabin of my vehicle was completely filled with the sound of the now infamous "Cavity Song" and the sometimes loud and sometimes silent sound of uncontrollable laughter. I laughed so hard I think I peed a little. And then, just as I predicted, dead silence.

The silence fell away and idle chatter resumed until we were about 45 minutes away from Salina. About that time, darkness fell. Then silence. I asked Elliot to check and see if Holly had fallen asleep, but instead I hear "Holly, what's wrong?" She had gotten scared of the dark and missed her mommy and daddy. After a few minutes of trying to console her, a genius idea occurred to me, and I turned on the reading light above her seat. All of those endless hours on an airplane finally paid off! The next thing you know she was fine and playing with her myriad of Polly Pocket dolls. Woo! Stupid darkness.

The rest of the weekend was filled with funny kid moments and tired kid moments and loud kid moments. Fun stuff. Holly attended my wedding shower on Saturday and we all got to go to my cousin's 1st birthday party and a bbq as well. Yes, I have a cousin who is younger than my niece. My mom's family is a big fun family, and I am at the old end of the seemingly endless string of cousins. One of the best moments of the weekend was a presidential debate between Elliot, my 11 year-old nephew and Kyle, my 14-year old cousin. It went something like this:

Elliot: Kyle, you gotta check out this web site - it's really funny. (opens www.jibjab.com)

Kyle: Are they making fun of President Bush??? (he is shocked and appalled).

Elliot: You like Bush???? (incredulous)

Kyle: Well, duh! Why wouldn't you like Bush?

Elliot: (speechless for the first time this weekend - in stunned silence I could hear his brain processing the fact that my cousin, one of the "cool kids" in his eyes, likes Bush. I was positive he couldn't reconcile that fact with his image of Kyle.)

Jenny: It makes fun of both of them. (I said that to rescue Elliot as he still couldn't understand why someone would like Bush. Believe me - I was right there with him.)

Kyle: Well, I guess its funny.

A few minutes later, they were back to the PS2 and I heard Elliot start humming the music from the cartoon. Next, he began singing the part about Bush not being able to say "Nuclear." A couple of minutes later, Kyle started singing the same line.

Elliot: Are you making fun of Bush?

Kyle: No! (incredulous)

Silence... and then someone sang the line again. Tee hee! It never really got into a debate, but it did set me thinking back to my youth when Bush and Dukakis were battling it out. It was the fifth grade in a small rural school district smack dab in the center of Kansas... and I was voting against the Republican. Hmmm... I think that says something about me. I'm not sure what, but I'm sure that means something.

Fast forward to Monday, and I'm flying to Memphis with Taerna. I think we would both agree that Downtown Memphis smells bad. Plenty of "stinky" moments to be had all over that city. Bleh. We ate a hole-in-the-wall diner named Mike's, we saw beer drinking goats, and we ate Memphis BBQ which isn't any better than Kansas City BBQ, so that's that.

One interesting moment occurred on the walk to the diner. I stopped dead in my tracks, pointed up at a street sign and made Taerna confirm that I was really reading it correctly. What did the sign say pray tell? If I hadn't misplaced my USB cord, I'd download a photo that reads:

November 6th Street

There is a street named after the date on which I will be married. Freeeeaky! Even more freaky was that in searching for the meaning of the November 6th date, I came across the fact that Memphis hired the same guy to plan their city as did Kansas City. Coincidence or not:

Kansas City has a suburb named Overland Park and another named Leawood. The Memphis plan included a site named Lea's Woods which was renamed Overton Park. Innnnteresting...

1:22 p.m. - September 22, 2004

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