As Leslie mentioned, I made my way up to Nashville and Owensboro for Thanksgiving last week and it was an excellent trip. On Tuesday, my fights were on time for the first time this year and we shared a wonderful pie at Pizza Perfect, home of the best pizza I've tasted in Nashville.
On Wednesday, Les had to work, so I met Kevin (a friend from college and member of our wedding party) for breakfast and a walk around Vandy's campus before Leslie got off work at noon.
One of the hardest parts of getting married and moving to Nashville from Texas will be finding a job, so I've started the search early and on Wednesday afternoon met with a woman from KIPP Nashville about a prospective teaching position. KIPP is a national charter school network that serves students in low-income communities and works to close the achievement gap by providing excellent teachers, extended school days and years, and increasing what's expected of teachers, students, and parents. If I'm going to teach in Nashville, there's nowhere I'd rather be.
The talk was great and we arranged for a phone interview earlier this week, which went really well, too. Hopefully I'll hear about next steps by midweek. I still need to be interviewed by the hiring committee and teach a lesson for them. I'll keep you posted.
Leslie and I devoted the rest of the day to registering at Target and a wonderful meal at Firefly Grill in Green Hills.
Thursday, we woke up and headed to Owensboro for Turkey Day. We spent the day eating and watching football at her Uncle Rob's house. The food was exceptional and company excellent. We tried to pay a new game called Scrabble Slam. I'm not a fan. Maybe if I was smarter and faster I'd like it, but I'm not, so I don't.
Friday we went on a bridesmaid's dress hunt with Lauren (a high school/college friend and wedding party member), her mom, and Leslie's mom. After nailing the dress (I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to say about this, so I'll err on the side of caution and say nothing) we had a great meal at an old favorite--Owensboro's Real Hacienda.
In the afternoon we loafed around (actually I did, Leslie and her mom went on a walk) and baked a pie (as seen in the previous post) before an excellent meal at Famous Bistro.
Saturday, we did a marathon registration at The Baker's Rack (a local home store in Owensboro) and headed back to Nashville. Not sure how we wanted to spend our last night in Nashville before I returned to Texas, we surfed the internet to find that the local NHL team, the Predators, had a game against the Florida Panthers. For those of you who know hockey, you know that Preds v. Panthers is a real match-up of two top-flight squads with a storied rivalry for feline supremacy (the Predator is a saber-toothed tiger, the Panther a panther). For those of you who don't know hockey, you should know that the previous sentence was a complete lie, but that the game was a great time anyway. The Preds won 4-1, including an open-net goal in the closing minutes. Pictures below.
Now, the most not-fun part of the weekend greeted us when we arrived back to Leslie's place from the hockey game. See, there's this problem where every once in a while someone in an apartment above hers will overload his or her garbage disposal with food waste and the result will be dirty water gargling up her her bathtub drain. Normally, this is a small, temporary problem remedied with a bit of hot water to clean the bottom of the tub, but we arrived home to a bathtub half-full of waste water. We attempted to ignore it, hoping it would subside in the night and would be empty by morning, but we kept hearing more gargles and every time we went into the bathroom, the water level in the tub was rising.
Thinking that I would be heroic and husbandly, I decided to take charge of the situation by stealing a garden hose from the courtyard and attempting to siphon the dirty water out of the bathtub into the street via the bathroom window. It didn't work. I ended up with cold, wet clothes and a mouthful of other people's sink water. It wasn't ideal.
In the end, we called emergency maintenance and a friendly man with a plumber's snake came and fixed the problem. Nevertheless, I only got four hours of sleep before having to wake up for my 6 a.m. flight.
In spite of that final-night hiccup, it was a wonderful and productive trip. Can't wait to go back at Christmas. Only two weeks to the break!
See you in Danville!
P.S.- Keep an eye on your mailbox. There's something special headed your way.
