The Stars of Oneida, TN

Mark and I are currently en route to Ohio for my dear friend Katie Kinsley's wedding, and my original "something new" was the low-hanging fruit...that I'm road tripping to Ohio. When Mark asked me about today's "new thing," I think he was unimpressed, so, while driving through a very rural part of Tennessee he suggested that we pull over off the highway and stargaze.

He knows me so well.

We pulled over in the nearest exit which happened to be the not-so-bustling city of Oneida. I was insistent on finding a dark spot free from streetlights and billboard signs, which is quite difficult off the side of the highway. After traveling past fireworks vendors, a gas station and through service roads, our journey concluded in us driving precipitously high up a rugged hunting trail. While probably illegal, the journey was totally worth it to get out in the damn-near pitch black and stargaze on the hood of the car.

There were so many stars, so clearly visible in the rural night sky, and rather than try to explain the impossible, I'll leave it to the comic styling of Joe Rogan:

Meet the Parents

Despite the fact that I've been in this relationship for a year and a half now and that we live together, my boyfriend and I have never made the family introductions. For my birthday, my parents offered to take me out to dinner at Kobe Steaks and I suggested that my boyfriend invite his parents too. It's been a long time in the making, but today, finally, I introduced my parents to my boyfriend's parents.

I've never been in a relationship long enough to make this kind of move, so this was completely uncharted territory for me. How to arrange this? What circumstances are most conducive to meeting parents? I just made the somewhat selfish proposition that my birthday meant I could invite whoever I wanted to my party. So there :)


They talked about us, family and other basic, innocuous things about life. No one argued about religion or politics or anything scary that might drive the classic in-law hating game. That alone makes it an unqualified success for sure.