I am so full.

I have eaten one meal today. One. I was having coffee and doing my Wordle when a friend texted, wanting to know if I’d had breakfast. It was 8:30. “I have not, but I have also not had a shower. Tell me what I’m missing.”

And this is how I found myself bellied up to the buffet at Loco Burro two hours later. And quite miserable an hour after that.

I recommend the following: the jalapeño biscuits with chorizo sauce, the carved chicken, the mahi, the fajita chicken, the beans, the guacamole, the chorizo mac & cheese (that’s right, finally found some I like!), the cinnamon doughnuts, the honeydew, and the Belgian waffle. Lord, I’ve almost conjured myself an appetite just thinking of the deliciousness of it all over again. I figured it would be impossible to eat again before tomorrow. Hmm. Maybe not. Popcorn would be a good snack. ….my microwave is in the trunk of my car. Can you put popcorn in an air fryer? ….*googling*…. YES! ……however, you cannot put microwave kernels into it. Well, dang. Ok, two peppermint Hershey kisses it is.

Walked West Towne mall over. Found lots of things. Did not buy anything. Sipped my incognito mimosa. It was hard to warm up, since I was moving at a slug’s pace. I guess that’s where we get the term sluggish.

It was great to be out. It was starting to feel like Covid times again, sitting at home except to go to work or grocery shopping. Knoxville still had a crap ton of snow. Oh, there’s a truck in the ditch in the curve above the house. On the wrong side of the curve, might I add. I guess that happened Friday, because it wasn’t there Thursday. There was a tour bus on the side of 40 at Papermill, surrounded by gray snow. Imagine having to debark on the side of a six lane interstate and it 9 degrees. Shoo. We rode out through Farragut and Dixie Lee Junction and then across Fort Loudon dam, looking at all there was to see. It was pretty wild. The snow was still beautiful, and all glossy looking from where it attempts to melt and just keeps freezing. Who knew? There were still plenty of places that were ice covered. Many parking lots hadn’t been cleared, which made me anxious about people sliding their vehicles into other vehicles or over people on foot 😳 Anyway, we made it okay, and hit a couple of antique stores that were open. I finally found an apothecary jar for my sand from Hunting Island. I had been searching for one since I got back. Usually TJ Maxx has a good selection, but I guess they’re not trendy anymore. I haven’t run up on any in over a year. The snow shoes and skates were really catching my eye today. I’m curious how ice skates end up in East Tennessee. I see them all the time!

Antique stores make me a little sad. Sometimes because I see stuff that I remember using with regularity and I wonder how it could possibly be considered an antique, since I am but a mere babe myself. Then I see stuff that I know with certainty I threw away in one of the purges and it kinda feels like burning money. But it’s here in the store and nobody’s fighting over it, so maybe it’s not very valuable after all. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on the shop owner’s behalf.

But mainly I see all this junk and reflect on how it once belonged to someone who loved it. They went to the trouble of buying it, placing it in their home and living with it. They looked at it every day, they cleaned it, they moved it around. And then this person more than likely died, or was put in a home, and their relatives cleaned out their house. And now here it is, being pored over by strangers who don’t want it and think it’s junk. It makes me sad. Just like what will happen to all my wonderful, beautiful things that I have collected over my life. All my books that I curated (and many that will never be read because…life. But also because I’m writing this blog every day to tell y’all a bunch of nothing).

Anyway. It was a good day. Still a lot of snow around Knox County. Got my sand in its permanent home. Permanent until I break it, anyway. And lemme tell you, sand is a booger to clean up, if you didn’t know.

I’m gonna hafta get my laptop set back up. Writing on this iPad is killer. I can only use my pointer finger. It’s ridiculous I don’t ever use my laptop, anyway.

No, I didn’t hunt my roofing receipt. I’ve been taken hostage by a large, hairy, muscular male.

I think somebody’s rotten.

Anyway, after such a big day at large, I guess it’s time to wash my face, brush my teeth, and set my alarm. Yuck.

It’s still January. Forget about making it through December, it’s January that’s killer.

Love from Appalachia, where the snow refuses to melt,

~Amy