Knoxville

It's Thursday and today is our last full day in town. We've been to McKay's twice and managed to pick up as many books to take home as we brought. Which is fine since it was all in trade and we didn't spend a dime. I went out with my sister yesterday afternoon. She took off work early and we had lunch and went shoe shopping. She needed black pumps and I just like to look. I did end up getting a pair of brown loafers, though. It was nice hanging out with her. No pressure, just relaxing. We drove around and looked at the new housing going up - huge houses on big lots that cost little more than my 1400 sq ft condo. How depressing. She also took me over to the Catholic school where my dad had donated a mosaic of the saint it's named after. It's actually very nice and it's to be dedicated to my grandparents on both sides.

Today I'm having lunch with Sped's mom and Erdedo, who will probably be bringing her littlest one with her. I hope Ma doesn't mind but I wouldn't have had time to see both of them otherwise (we've been spending the evenings with my parents). I'm sure it will be fine, since Erdedo, Sped, and I all grew up together.

Part of the reason for coming home was to pack up my grandmother's china to ship back to California, but my sister said she'd take care of it. I really appreciate that because if anybody was going to do it right, it would be her. My dad told me he bought that china for his mom right after the war, right out of the factory. It's even marked "Germany US Zone" on the back. He said it was very expensive and that he'd paid a lot for it - a carton of cigarettes! Apparently, a carton of cigarettes could get you quite a lot. It's not really my style but as Sped said about her grandmother's china, that's not the point. My sister is getting my grandmother's china from mom's side of the family. It had actually passed down to my Aunt Dolores, but she was afraid her children would sell it off if she gave it to them, so she arrainged for Susan to get it. She even had my brother come over and pick it up as soon as possible - I guess to keep it safe. We figured one of the kids must have started talking about it and it worried her enough to get it moved to safety. I'm glad we have it, but how sad is the whole story?