cristin, jano but no elvis

got back to memphis on monday... since cristin and jano had some time left before they had to fly home, i got to show them around town a little bit. always wished i could have done this before, but that's how these things go.

we tried to go to pho hoa bin again (apparently its virtues are not just apparent to me) but it was closed. pho pasteur had moved, and i was all out of ideas. i had kinda forgotten it was the 4th of july and a monday afternoon to boot, but it wasn't the end of the world. we went to viet hoa while we were in the catholic charities vicinity and boy has that place gotten huge. i saw a familiar face in there...an old housemate who's back in town.

we headed down vance so i could see the antebellum house by orleans, and went down by beale for awhile. it sure felt hot, although at the time we didn't have a clue that it was really 100 degrees out, and here we were foolishly walking around outdoors. boy has this part of town changed since i've been gone...and barely even a ghost remains of beale streets far more interesting and shady days...after kicking around there for awhile, we went to the peabody to see the ducks, and by that time, the afternoon was over and it was time to go back to the airport.

i thought for sure i could just take the bus back home, but silly me, I had no idea mata wasn't running to the airport (i had seen buses all over town and figured it was a safe bet to go to the airport and ride from there). hah, the joke was on me and i had to call for a rescue ride.

leaving tj's last night, the winds started rising, and trees started shaking. driving down east parkway, and down southern, a huge storm blew up out of nowhere...and mini-tornadoes of trash and dust followed me down southern past the eerie dark of the freightyards illuminated by the lightning of the storm and fireworks going off nearby. i made it to the safety of the house just in time and saw everybody hanging out in morgan's yard in a pool, was handed a watermellon slice, and hung out on the porch with derek and tim and amanda and jb. we sat on the couch and watched it rain and pour out in the street, and listened to the frogs gettin' ecstatic about finally getting some moisture. we watched that unexpected monsoon unleashed from the sky until it was far past my bedtime. getting home was hairy because the underpasses were flooded as they often do at times like these, and there were rivers of floodwater going down the street.

ahh this is what i missed, a real good memphis summer thunderstorm. we never have these in oregon and i miss them.