I’ve been meaning to post about my trip up to Nashville and the Mothership for Sarcastro’s baby shower a few weeks ago for a while now, oops. This has been so very delayed but better late than never, I suppose. It was mucho fun and so great to meet everyone in person that I hadn’t yet met.

The day started off horribly, though, before I even left Memphis and Shelby County. I am habitually late anyway (for anyone who hasn’t figured that out yet) but I was actually running pretty close to on time that day, until I got out to I-40 and to my horror, traffic was not just slowed but stopped due to a wreck. There’s nothing worse than being stopped in traffic with no other option of getting off or taking another route around when you’ve got to be somewhere at a certain time. That doesn’t really happen in Memphis that often, at least not for long, so it’s doubly irritating when it does. I know people in places like Atlanta and D.C. and such deal with it every day and repeatedly. That would drive me crazy.

Anyway, once I finally extricated myself from the traffic mess and moseyed on my way to Nashville, I wound up hitting the Mothership about an hour later than originally planned, which irked me since that would have been an extra hour to spend talking with more folks, though I think I managed to at least say hello to almost everyone there and chat for a minute or two. I hope I didn’t miss anyone and I hope nobody thought I was being stuck up, it wasn’t intentional, there just wasn’t enough time and too many people to say hey to and meet, sigh. By the time I got there, Knuck was going to be closing up in an hour anyway so I squeezed in as much as I could!

Several I didn’t get to spend much time with this trip… unfortunately, right after I got there, the notorious ladies’ man JJ Dubin was needing a nap and not feeling well, so I only got to be wowed by his charms momentarily as his mom and I exchanged quick hellos and goodbyes on their way out the door. Jag was another one who was leaving soon after I arrived, and who is so cute and funny and I wish I was as tall as she is, but I was extra tickled because I also got to meet not only her but her absolutely GORGEOUS godchild. I was introduced to Michael but really only got to say hi and that was about it, I hope next time we run into each other to talk with him more. Malia was also a real joy to meet but had to depart soon after my late arrival.

Kerry Woo was also soon leaving after I got there but we did get to chat for a bit, and he is one of the most pleasant people on earth, I believe, and just smiles and smiles and it just makes you happy to be around him because he’s so pleasant and looks so happy. Nowadays I think of him and CLC as The Smiley Twins, really. Because they look so much alike, you know.

The being late thing cast the only shadow on the whole trip, as I was also disappointed about not getting to spend more time -but thrilled to meet and enjoyed what little we did get to chat – The Cobles, Aunt B., and Brittney. The Cobles are just the cutest couple and so nice, and Kat is so pretty. Brittney and I got to chat a little bit, but I was kicking myself later ‘cos I really meant to ask her how things were going with Cooper the dog’s issues and how her relative that had had to go in the hospital the day before was doing, so forgive me my rudeness in forgetting to ask about the latter especially. And B., I hope next time I come up maybe we can go out for dinner and beers with John and whoever else wants to go, you are just so interesting and fascinating I want to hear more!

Matter of fact, the Mothership was brimming with cute couples, including Slartibartfast and his bride Desdemona, and of course, Mr. & Mrs. Sarcastro. The Slartis are just as nice as you would expect, and the even more pleasant surprise – Mrs. Slarti is FUNNY, hugely funny. I really enjoyed meeting them and hanging out with them a bit, and while I only saw Trillian in passing, I did get to see a bit more of Zaphod because his mom made him apologize to another child at the gathering, and through it all I did my best not to fall out of my chair laughing and I think I did OK. Those moments as a parent when you’re trying so hard not to laugh because they’re in trouble, but it’s funny, I’m not sure I’d ever survive them. The Sarcastros are also both very pleasant and VERY funny and I’m now a HUGE fan of Mrs. Sarcastro, who is an adorable pregnant person (and not huge at all for being as far along as she is, even though she wouldn’t let anyone put up any pics ‘cos she thinks she’s too big right now, which she’s not). I personally would love to see Mrs. Sarcastro start her own blog in a kind of he said/she said vein, I think that’d be hilarious.

Mack was another major treat to finally meet and has adorable offspring, as was Knuck (I’m giving you 20 bucks for that Coke I drank, buddy), whose offspring was unfortunately not in attendance that day. Don’t believe any rumors you hear about me looking at Mack’s testicles because that’s just not true. I saw no testicles nor any other genitalia that day. I’m sure he has very nice ones but I was not looking at, nor for them. Though I will say that Mack has a very nice smile. :)

Another humongous treat for me, and I did get to spend a little more time with them than some others, was the notorious Bad Bad Ivy and her fellow Rutherford Countian, Kathy T., who is wonderful and I had a great time with sitting down to discuss my part of her Wrinkle series on her blog, even though I’m a lousy interview and I dunno how she stood it but glad she did. Ivy is, just as you would expect, a total hoot and a lot of fun, and luckily she didn’t kick my ass for almost immediately playing with her hair – everyone else got to play with it and pat it right after she got it shaved, so I wanted my turn too and it felt neat! Ivy also had Megs and Nate with her, and I just wanted to pick little Nate up and put him in my pocket and take him home with me.

I would eventually end up spending most of the rest of the evening with Sista Smiff and others, but Sista had to leave for a while to take the Drama Queen back home and get DQ and the rest of the kids settled for the evening. I was really glad to have had the opportunity to meet at least one of her brood – Sista claims DQ is really shy, but she was chatty and participating in a lot of the conversations and seemed to be having a lot of fun at the meetup and it was really nice to meet her as well as her mom.

Anyway, it was great fun at the Mothership that afternoon, I just wish I hadn’t been late and had had more time to spend with everybody. That was the only downside of the day for me, the realization that I just wasn’t gonna have as much time as I would have liked with everyone there.

Then there were those I did get to spend more time with. After Knuck booted us out of the Mothership, CLC, Kate, Ginger, and Hutchmo and I headed down the street for coffee, where Sista met back up with us later. Later, CLC’s sweetie RUABelle and Mrs. Hutchmo joined us as well. Of course, I’d already met Hutch before and he is always a blast to hang with, but with everybody else around it was like quadruple the fun! CLC is exactly as hilarious and fun to hang out with as I always figured he was, and RUABelle is like the perfect foil to his essence of CLC-ness, heh. Personally I think that CLC, Knuck, Hutchmo, Kerry Woo, and Sarcastro should have their own talk show, it would be like the funniest thing ever.

Mrs. Hutchmo is just the nicest person and like Newscoma has said, she has such a soothing voice and charming way about her, you could just about curl up and listen to her read the phone book and it’d be so soothing and relaxing. Ginger is bouncy and fun and a blast to hang out with, she totally rocks (I forgot to mention having gotten to meet her daughter too, and she’s a really neat kid and so pretty). Kate is just about the nicest and sweetest person in the world, very funny, and you just feel like she’s known you forever, as friendly as she is. And Sista, well, she’s my long-lost Sista, all right. If we’d grown up in the same town, she’d be one of those people I’d be telling old stories on today like I sometimes do Kelli and others, because she’s so much like most of my gal pals from back home it’s almost scary! She’d have you believe she’s a boring housewife who never does anything and has a boring life, but between all the zillions of interesting anecdotes she has in her memory banks about various and sundry folks in the entertainment industry, and the fact that she is hilarious and cracks me UP – nuh uh, not boring in the least. She is a LOT of fun and we had a blast, and just one of those things where you wonder why you’re just now meeting this person ‘cos it seems like you’ve been friends forever.

The coffee shop folks were kind enough not to kick us out even tho we hung around an hour past closing time (oops) and Hutchmo had to run off for the Vandy game and Kate needed to depart, so the rest that were left went for dinner – Italian – and stuffed ourselves silly, and added another party to our party while there, the vivacious and oh-so-funny Lesley, as in Vivalalesley. I was extra psyched to meet Lesley in person since we have so much in common with her kinfolks being from my hometown and her also being related to one of my best friends from school days, and everyone else was just thrilled to meet her too, and repeatedly said as much in the days following our big bash. Lesley is awesome.

We went from there to another joint for a few beers and some music that was entirely too loud (we are all ancient I guess!) and Hutch showed back up while there, effectively putting a damper on CLC’s mad pimpin’ skillz since he’d been the only guy with a table full of chicks for three or four hours at that point.

All our old ancient ears were about to bleed after a while, so we split and left that territory to the young’ns, CLC and the missus and Mrs. Hutchmo departed us there, and what was left of our party headed down the street to Portland Brew for even more coffee. There was so much geeky blogger talk going on at our table, I felt kinda bad for this guy who was sitting behind us with his laptop. He probably overheard enough information to figure out who all of us were and found our blogs while we were talking and thought, “God, what a bunch of GEEKS.” We had a blast though, so I don’t care that much about whether we disturbed him or he thought we were great big nerds or not.

Around 11-ish what was left of us, as Sista & Ginger had already headed home, broke up and I headed back westward. Tired, but it was a good day and a great evening.

Now, I do have to share with you one particularly cool thing that happened that day, and that was when CLC presented me with a little token of appreciation for having fixed up The New & Improved Dry Spot. He hands me this big gift bag while we were still at the Mothership, and I glanced in it and thanked him profusely – it was a totally unnecessary thing to have done, giving me that gift, but I certainly appreciated it and was very touched by the gesture (as I was as well with my bee-yoo-ti-ful flowers from Sista a few weeks ago – so now you know! – and my lifetime of Mothership BBQ from Hutchmo – that was a lifetime of BBQ, right? Hee. And all of these nice wonderful gestures are totally unnecessary but thank you all anyhow).

It wasn’t until a little later when I REALLY looked in the bag (because, of course, still at the Mothership, I was trying to make time to talk to as many people as possible in the short time there was left) that that little token of appreciation became even MORE cool. I had noticed the orange soda and Coke as well as noting there was candy in there, and some tea, but didn’t really pay attention to what candy was in there. It was all my VERY FAVE stuff!! Jolly Ranchers, Sweet Tarts, Ice Breakers Sours… all that hard sour-y candy I am so obsessed with and frequently obsess about on my blog. Oh, it was just perfect. (And as an extra added bonus, the little decoration hanging on the bag is now operating as my keychain.)

I’m not sure that even my own boyfriend or my Mom could have done as excellent a job picking out that stuff for me as he did, so I was just really pleased and tickled pink at the gesture. That’s also kind of a neat statement on the blogging world and community as a whole – in some respects, your blogging pals get to know you and what you’re about better than your other friends or family sometimes, I think. That was certainly true here so thank you again, buddy. You are a peach. I bet RUABelle gets like the most perfect presents ever all the time. Some guys aren’t good at picking out gifts, but CLC is obviously not one of those. Good man, that Smiley.

I ended up eating the chewy Sweet Tarts for breakfast the next morning while working (ha!), have about decimated the Ice Breakers Sours (you have to be careful with those, eat too many at one sitting and your mouth goes numb), and am still working on the bag of Jolly Ranchers. Yum.

Anyway, all in all, it was a terrific and fun trip even though it started out on the wrong foot and I was so glad I went, I wish I hadn’t had to miss the next weekend being sick but oh well. There were several bloggers that weren’t in attendance that I’m still dying to meet, but maybe next time or the time after that, I hope.

And the one other, only other, downside – that I forgot to eat any BBQ or any of the legendary Mothership crack ‘n cheese I’ve heard so much about, which is why I’m going to get up there again as soon as I can and remedy that omission. If it’s all as good as everyone says it is, I might have to start joining Hutch on his every Saturday BBQ tradition. Hell, if it’s that good, I might just have to move back to Middle Tennessee!