Long weekend in Tennessee

I had a beautiful weekend with Shane in Tennessee, in his friend's log cabin outside of Knoxville, where he is living now.

I arrived Friday afternoon and just got back to New York tonight. We mostly hung out in the cabin, reading, watching movies, cooking, and playing this crazy board game called Settlers of Catan, to which I am now slightly addicted.

He showed me the house he and his friend have been working on, in another town. They have been painting and are now working on stripping down the bathroom to redo it. I helped take trash to the recycling center.

At night you can hear the cows mooing, the cocks crowing, and a donkey hawing away. Also, some coyotes. Yesterday we walked along the road where the cabin is. There is a big farm where some cows graze. A couple other houses have horses. We petted and walked with a couple yellow dogs, very sweet and friendly.

Today we drove around a thing called Cade's Cove, which is like the Saguaro National Monument -- a loop road through a national park -- only not for gawking at cacti but at the fields and trees and hills of the Smoky Mountains area. It was pretty, but I didn't think it was nice to have to drive through it. We saw some deer. I saw some wild turkeys by the side of the highway.

It was so good to see Shane! I can't wait till we get to hang out again.

Of course, I didn't get much work done, and I'm tired, so maybe tomorrow I'll skip classes after going to the elementary school. I just can't be bothered -- we have about five assignments due in just one class tomorrow, and we only got the directions for them through email this weekend! Because I didn't have internet access, I didn't see it till now, and so there will be no point in going if I haven't anything to show. Instead, maybe I'll come home and work on all the freakin' work I have.