Remembering

Justin and I were in Johnson City so that we could meet up with our friends Michelle, Wes, and Patrick for dinner at Chili's. I decided that we should visit a few ghosts from our past, mainly the time that I spent the summer in JC.

This is the intersection where I hit that car and rolled it down the street. This light pole still has marks on it from the car that hit it. Not only was this a huge deal on the local news but everyone at Justin's work saw the accident and had a good laugh. I had a good cry, thinking that I had killed someone! The paramedics here in JC are idiots-- they did not even suggest taking me to the hospital even when I said that I did not think that I was okay. The only two people who showed ANY compassion were Justin (who was worried sick that I wasn't okay) and a chiropractor I knew who was commuting to work. She called to me from her car to see if I was okay. When I said that I wasn't sure that I was, she told me to come buy her office before they closed and she would happily treat me for free. I took her up on her offer. She was very kind.

This beautiful tree is in the middle of a public park that I often went to while Justin was at work. It is large enough to have a kids play area, swings, several paths, a small pond, and a path that goes off into the forested area that surrounds the park. I brought Justin and Marcy here and, while Justin stayed in the warm car, Marcy and I explored the park.

A deck had been built since the last time I had been there in 2009. It overlooked the pond.

This is the pond. Part of it is frozen over. 

Still at the park, the sunset lights up the trees bordering the meadow as well as the mountains beyond.

Marcy runs around after playing with another dog, who I didn't get time to take photos of. The other dog, a pitbull mix of some kind, was accompanied by three Good Ole Boys who loved Marcy's spunk. They talked about how much they love this area and how one of them had been to San Diego for Navy business. The dog, I found out, belonged to one of the men's daughters who had left for Turkey seventeen months prior. We all decided that, if a dog had been left with someone for over a year, it became that person's dog. It made the man smile because he was awfully fond of that dog. I really enjoyed talking to them and was sad to say goodbye.
When the sun finally set, Justin and I left for Chili's where we met our friends. We spent a good deal of time there talking and bullshitting with each other. Then we went to a game store called G2K which is managed by our friend Jeremy. Jeremy was just closing up so, after I bought a few books (they sold comics, card games, and video games!), we went to Wes and Michelle's house where we spent the evening talking and playing video games. Jeremy had to leave early because he had to get up early for work. Justin and Wes played and chatted until almost 1am when I finally told Justin that we needed to head home.
We had a really great day :-)