blizzard of '08

Not many people plan a fun long-weekend trip to Nashville/Ohio in March and expect to find themselves in the middle of a blizzard. I, for one, definitely didn't. But here I am, sitting in my parents' house, where I've been since very late Thursday night, suffering from cabin fever.

The longer I live, the more I realize that I am not in control of my own future. As much as I plan, scheme, hope, etc., life gets in the way. Call it what you may -- fate, karma, destiny, God's sovereign plan -- we don't have a whole lot of say concerning what actually happens to us. Sure, we can try and try, but there are just some events that we cannot expect or avoid.

I've been seeing this play out in my life a lot lately. No need to go into all the details, but, for example, when I was in high school, I never would have imagined that in 2008, I would be a single woman living in Boulder, Colorado, working at a technology company. At 16, my plan was go get married at 24, travel the world, and start having kids at 27. Obviously, that's not happening. But I can honestly say that I'm glad it didn't. I'm just not ready for that.

On a much smaller, less significant scale, my little trip to Ohio has also proved that my schemes never seem to play out the way I want. The plan was to fly into Nashville (check!), hang out with my friend Bubba in Nashville (check!), spend the night there (didn't happen), eat breakfast in Nashville (didn't happen), drive up to Ohio on Friday morning/afternoon, stopping at lots of fun places along the way (didn't happen), see my cousin and aunt in Cincinnati on Saturday (didn't happen), and my friend Kayla on Sunday (hopefully will happen).

Instead, we got word of a huge snowstorm headed for Ohio on Friday morning. After a few fantastic hours spend in Franklin, TN, we decided it would be best to take off that night, even though we had both been traveling a lot and were pretty tired. But before leaving, I did catch a glimpse of Michael W. Smith walking down the sidewalk in Franklin. haha! Also, I finally got to try the famous Mellow Mushroom pizza and some local Yazoo brew. Yum!

So we started our journey around 8:00 . . . Though this roadtrip wasn't what I had hoped for, we did have some great times in the car. Bubba was kind enough to get off on the Elizabethtown exit and let me have a look around the downtown area. Mostly, it consists of lots of stripmalls (not quite like the movie), but the downtown area is very small and quaint and gave me hope that the culture of the town, is somewhat like that of the movie. Later, we made a little stop in Lousiville and jumped out of the car long enough for Bubba to snap the photo of me in front of the Brown Hotel (also featured in Elizabethtown).

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the moment we crossed from Kentucky into Ohio in Cincinnati. The Ohio River is actually bigger than I remembered it. As a child, I crossed over those bridges so many times on my way to my aunt and uncle's house in Wilmore, Kentucky. It brought back a lot of great memories of those weekend and summer trips. Also, we drove by what used to be Riverfront Stadium, where the Reds play. Lots of amazing memories there too! Fortunately, we got a little turned around on a detour and ended up climbing the steep hill to Mount Adams in Cincinnati. Since my cousin took me up there before her move to the Queen City, I've considered it one of the most amazing little residential areas. High above the city, there sits an old monestary and many interesting little houses around it. The view is unbelievable.

The rest of the trip is a bit of a blur. As hard as I tried to stay awake to keep Bubba company, in the end, I failed miserably . . . We got to my house around 3:30 a.m. and I collapsed in my bed.

The good thing about being here all day Friday was that I got to spend most of the day hanging out with my niece and nephew, Corbin and Claira, all day long. They're so funny. When my dad asked Claira to tell me what kind of animal they had seen in our yard that morning, she thought for a long time, and then declared that she had seen a kangaroo. In reality, it was a deer . . . but I guess they do kind of look like kangaroos. Pretty entertaining.

Today, while my parents spent most of the day shoveling snow and getting my dad's 4-wheel-drive truck stuck and unstick 5 different times while trying to plow driveways, I hung out inside. Mostly, I played pool by myself and attempted to fix my parents' computer (never get a Dell). Bubba braved the snow and made it over tonight, bringing with him the Flight of the Conchords DVD. Hooray!

All in all, it's been a good visit and I'm thankful for the time spent resting and with friends and family. But I do still want to do that roadtrip. :)