Georgia on my Mind

Last week, Jared and I had the chance to go to Savannah for a vagina conference for my work.  I know most people who went would have said they went to the Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health or NPWH conference.  I guess technically that is also accurate, but not nearly as interesting as saying you went to a vagina conference.  I learned all sorts of stuff while I was there.  Like what to consider when treating a menopausal woman, and information on high blood pressure in pregnancy, and even what I need to know to become an opioid use disorder provider, just to name a few.  It was an informative week and I enjoyed all the knowledge pearls I found, but the best part of the whole trip was this:

Those are two of my colleagues from Idaho, Linda and Helene.  I just loved working with both of those ladies and now that I live in Rhode Island, we rarely see each other anymore.  It was so great to be able to take vagina classes with them, and even better to have some time to catch up our friendship.  What did we do besides talking about vulvas all day?  Well, we hung out in a cool old graveyard where Nathaniel Greene used to be buried:

Nathaniel Greene was one of Washington's most gifted generals in the revolutionary war and he was born in Warwick, Rhode Island!  His home in the Ocean State is called Spell Hall and they have all sorts of reenactments and activities there.  I did not know he died in Georgia, so imagine how happy I was to find out he was there!  Turns out they dug him out of the graveyard we visited and plopped him under an obelisk that is in one of the lovely parks in Savannah.  We actually found a few people from Rhode Island who ended up living and dying in Savannah.  This surprised me a little since Rhode Islanders never leave Rhode Island.  But Savannah is a pretty lovely town, so I can understand why someone wouldn't mind moving there, and staying to die there too.

We also visited a gorgeous catholic church, The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist:

Look at that place!  Helene, Jared, and I, went the first day we were together and had a great time.  I said a swear word inside on accident while Helene and I were chatting, and later, she dropped her metal coffee mug on the floor and made a huge racket.  It was fantastic!  We liked the church so much, that when Linda and her husband Shane showed up, we went back again so that they could check it out.  Who walked in that second time, but a conference of LDS mission presidents!  Here's the Alabama mission president and his wife.  She probably thought I was crazy for getting so excited for a selfie, but there aren't too many LDS folks out here and it was nice to see some of my peeps... 

I asked Helene, who happens to be Catholic, all sorts of questions about cathedrals, mass, and holy water that she couldn't answer.  Since Helene didn't have all the deep, dark info I needed, the docents in the church stepped in to clarify for the both of us.  I told Helene if she wants me to convert, she better get busy trying to advertise the benefits of Catholicism a little better.  I then thought better of it and admitted that if I ever DO convert, I have always planned to run to my Catholic friends for three important reasons:

1. Catholics build mighty fine churches
2. Midnight mass
3. Wine

I digress...

What else did we do?  Well, we ate our faces off that's what!  Loads of sweets, way too much popcorn and bread, and quite a bit of seafood and steak as well.  We did a lot of walking, ferry riding, and rain dodging, and before we knew it, the week was over!  Here are the three girls saying goodbye:

Helene and Linda left in the late afternoon, but Jared and I got to hang around in Savannah until later into the evening.  We got caught in a huge rainstorm that soaked our stuff, but spent some time drying out in a comic book store that happened to have this:

Ms Pacman!  When Jared and I were first married, our apartment had no laundry facilities.  The closest laundromat had the necessary washing equipment, but it also had a Ms. Pacman console!  Once a week, we would grab 10 bucks in quarters, haul our dirty panties to the laundromat, wash and dry our clothes, and waste the whole day playing Ms Pacman!  It's one of my fondest memories of my early married life, and to this day if I see a Ms Pacman game, I feel obligated to drop in some change and play a round or two.  We only ended up spending about $1.50 since Jared only had 2 quarters to start, and the comic book store only had a buck worth of quarters in the till.  Too bad for them.  I had 20 bucks and would have spent it all on Ms Pacman if I could have.  

After Ms Pacman, we caught an Uber to the airport where we saw Paula Deen flying into Savannah on the same plane we were leaving on:

I wanted to run up like a crazy person and tell her I had visited her store the day before and had peed in her bathroom.  She would have been really happy to give me a proper selfie after that I'm sure.  However, I tried to be cool about the whole thing and respect her privacy, so you'll just have to appreciate my creepy peeping Tom pics instead.  You're welcome Paula.

The plane ride home was bumpy because of tropical storm Nestor, but we made it home to little Rhody and settled into our bed at about 2 am yesterday.  The girls woke up me up just a few hours later to beg me for the prizes I promised to bring them from my trip.  I also overhead some interesting conversation that certainly was different than the stuff Jared and I usually discuss when we are alone.  Here's the top three:

1. Don't fart on me Bub!  If you're going to fart, stand up!
2. I hate the Patriots!  Tom Brady's face looks like a pile of dirt!
3. When I was at the dance, I needed to poop, so I went into the bathroom and took a mean stinker!

That's right Savannah.  There's no place like home...  It was nice to meet you and I hope to come back and eat my way through a bit more of your fair city.  However, I was starting to miss my kids and the Ocean State, so it was good we parted when we did.  Don't worry.  I'm sure I'll visit again one day.  Just be sure to take good care of Nathaniel Greene until I can get back...