happy friday!

it's been a relatively eventful day in lara terms...

jenny (one of two HS friends i still keep in touch with) is in town this weekend since her sister graduates from college in arkansas tomorrow. today though, we:
* had breakfast at brother juniper's (a small breakfast cafe in midtown memphis that's been voted "best breakfast in the city" for years and years... it was great)
* visited the national ornamental metal museum, which was quite fun. the rest of my family has all been there at various times in the past but not me. it's a cute little place, and usually you can see blacksmiths hard at work, etc. and they always having rotating displays of cool metalwork... the current exhibit is "from mineral to metal" so for each metalwork piece they had on display, they had raw copper, titanium, etc. on display next to it. some of the pieces are really elaborate and cool... the museum grounds is high on a bluff right over the mississippi river south of downtown and used to be an old military hospital complex, so it's interesting to wander about outdoors too.... lots of fun.
* after the metal museum we were hungry again so we parked on beale street, which is currently packed thanks to memphis in may type tourists, etc.... after walking a bit, we finally settled on huey's... i'd never been to the downtown one before, so that was fun... as they have "the best burgers in memphis", we decided we were creating our own "best of" tour for the day...

now, no more jenny... she and her folks are headed west, and my mom wants me to come visit her classroom before she takes her 8th graders on their class trip to gatlinburg next week... so like a good kid, i'll show up and say hi to everyone and let her show off... i was *only* a student there for 9 years, an employee for 4 years, and been back there several times a year ever since... :P

before i turn this off and head out to the school, here's one more reason to love memphis:

i DON'T feel like an out of place ogre of a person. in NJ, yes, there's diversity, but most of the white girls i come into contact with are quite a bit shorter than me, have much smaller frames, and aspire to dress quite a bit differently than me. i'm fine how i am, but i definitely am not "from around there"... here, being tall and a little rounder doesn't make me stick out, it's more the status quo. being me and being here, i don't feel too tall or too round or too anything, i feel like i actually more or less fit in here, which is rare and nice! maybe it's local prejudice but i feel like people are friendlier here too. unlike the innate prejudice *against* the South i find frequently when elsewhere, i don't find prejudice against other regions as much here. people are fine with just being without worrying about who's better or who's worse, and i like that.

done rambling... time to go make faces at a room full of 8th graders who i last worked with when they were in kindergarten... this should be entertaining.

later dudes!