268: Kentucky...it's almost like Mongolia, but not...

Kentucky is where I (Claire) had dinner. It is (somewhat) unclear to me why this state has not the most stellar of reputations out in California, but one thing can certainly be said about it: You can still smoke in restaurants! Yes, this is actually what they said on the phone today as we called from a whole ten minutes away in non-smoking-in-restaurants-Ohio to make reservations at the Green Derby. Way to look for the positive and market it like hell, though.

So, after dinner in Kentucky with grandparental members from both sides of the family, I returned home to try and explain to one grandmother what Pink is the New Blog is (note the bachelorette picture Lawyer Lana got up for us in the post below). Needless to say, that effort failed, and we went back to watching The Learning Channel special on Rose, who is one of the most fascinating people I have ever tele-met.

Rose's body, she explained, is like Barbie's, if you popped her legs off. Meaning that she has all the normal organs, but no legs. So she's tiny. However, this did not stop Rose from being a successful Colorado mechanic/car racer, getting engaged to Dave on Maury Pauvich in 1998, becoming the first woman with her condition to have a child in 1999 (the baby grew width-wise, so it didn't squish her lungs), and now serving as the head of her crazy family.

The family happens to include one schizophrenic/early onset alzheimer's father who is permanently attached to an oxygen tank, one mentally disabled and very angry 29 year old brother, and one recently deceased mother. And they all live in one small, small house. But as Dave, her husband, says: "I'm sure Rose's family is more sane than most in America."

Rose, in short, is pretty damn tough. And she's got a great attitude about life, to boot, even though her arms are getting worn out and she's gonna have to go in a wheelchair soon. I know all this because I watched the entire 30 minute program, which is all you need to learn anything about anyone, by the way.

But in worldly news, I am imagining that I am not on a 2 month hiatus from around the world travels as I "armchair travel" (yes! used as a verb!) with my latest slew of great travel books. Most notably, Hearing Birds Fly, a weird story about a year in Mongolia that reminds me of why I didn't fall in love with the country's climate, and Through Painted Desert, a road trip through the American West. Best of the lot though is surely Eat Pray Love, a fantastic coming to terms with life story (through a year spent in Italy, India and Indonesia) that PhD Jo of the second degree burns sent me.

It's looking like Kenya, for an extended period of time, will be the first TrippingOnWords stop in 2007. We have to wait and see if Lance goes to jail first, though.

P.S. The horrific joke of an out of control nosedive passing for television, The OC, has been cancelled, which I'm sure everyone knows as it has been over 24 hours since the announcement. Anyone who remembers the early days can attest to this excellent networking decision. I am sad for Julie, though, because I always believed in her inner light. A relative member told me this tonight, though, at the same time they told me that George Clooney's pig (Clooney is from Kentucky) died earlier in the month. This made me feel like the worst celebrity gossip reader in the world for like 30 seconds. Until I then remembered that being out of the gossip loop for 24 hours is actually thought of in larger society as a good thing.