Airports, Hotels and a Baby Shower

On my first flight back into Greenville, I learned from the person sitting next to me that the airport had once consisted of a series of trailers and a runway. Apparently, a few years ago, when Greenville experienced significant flooding, the bustling Greenville airport wound up under water. There was some concern, the guy said, that there may be too much damage to reopen it. In the end, he said, there wasn't as much damage as they'd anticipated, and they even decided to put in a restaurant.

Still, I was mildly amused to see a tractor parked next to the airport as I arrived for my flight to Nashville, texting jokes to friends about how I could board the plane once they'd finished plowing the runway. After having my purse and carry-on suitcase searched while a Supertrooper Cop joked that he might have to arrest me, I was on my way ... to Charlotte.

I was surprised to find, during my flight from Charlotte to Nashville, that I'd fallen asleep. I was equally, if not more surprised to find that I had not awoken to some strange, snarling man poking me in the forehead with his penis -- a secret fear which has kept me from sleeping in public for much of my life. It's possible that penis-poking is an exception rather than a rule, but I can't fully rule out the possibility of a pervert sexually assaulting my brow area, and therefore, I still intend to refrain from public snoozing whenever possible.

Going back to Nashville for the first time since I moved to Greenville, I understood how things had changed. How dare the people of Nashville move on without me? Still, it was nice to be a visitor there. If I tried to write about how much fun I had, it would inevitably sound too much like a note being passed in class:

"Dear Blog, What's up or down? I had the BEST time in Nashville! It was so great to see everyone at Jessica's baby shower! I can't believe how great everyone is doing! Me and my friend Laura, after we all left the dueling piano bar, we, like, totally wound up trading shoes at a downtown bar. There we were, both of us standing at the bar, mocking the crowd, while we each had on a red high heel and a flip flop. Classic! Oh, Blog, you should have been there ...."

I finally managed to book a decent hotel room -- hardwood floors and one of those fancy vessel sinks that they like to use on HGTV -- but as Laura and I were getting ready to go out Saturday night, the hotel caught fire somewhere, and we had to evacuate down the stairwell. Barefoot. Shoes in hand. Still, it was much nicer and cheaper than the Sheraton in Atlantic Beach, NC.

I needed a trip back to Nashville. I'd missed the music. I hadn't missed the traffic. I missed the people, I missed the patio at Jackson's, and I even missed seeing little clusters of skinny emo kids and thinking, "They are the future." But, I'm finally starting to warm up to Greenville, just a little bit. And, really, I can make fun of emo kids anywhere.