A Quiet Day at UAB

After last weeks traumatic snowpacalpse, I decided I needed some peace and quiet. I love my family and I'm so appreciatativr that they have welcomed me into their home. However, being stranded in under one roof with all of them for days was a little stressful. I mean, I'm used to the farm where I can roam my property and not stay in the house. I think my cousin could tell I was not feeling well. I explained that I just needed a little bit of quiet time out of the house. My cousin suggested the quietest place she knew: the library. At first, I did not love the idea. The library seemed dull and boring. I'm an action kind of guy, but my cousin reminded exactly what I had been complaining about. I said I wanted peace and quiet and that did not go with action.

So I agreed to make a trip to the UAB Sterne Library. My cousin had school work she needed to get done so I just traveled with her and sat through her first two classesss of day. After her classes were over with, we made the short walk to the library. The weather was pretty ugly so I did not feel too bad about sitting inside. When we first walked into the library, it was very loud. There were students talking everywhere and I could not believe that this was supposed to be the quietest place my cousin knew. However, my cousin walked us to the very back of the library to the "quiet zone" and it was like somebody turned the volume off on the tv. This was the most quiet I had experienced all week! My cousin got out her laptop to do her school . I got out my own book, kicked back and enjoyed the "quiet zone".

Alabama Snowpocalypse

Alabama sure has been a very interesting state. The one thing that I never expected to happen while I was visiting here happened this past week. It snowed! It snowed a lot. Or at least in southern standards it snowed a lot. The Birmingham and surrounding areas only got about an inch to two inches of snow, but because it was so unexpected, it caused a lot of trouble. The whole state basically shut down. There was a thing called a "gridlock" on the interstates. My cousin explained that this meant that the cars on the interstate were stuck and not moving. It caused a lot of people to not get home. It took hours for my family to get home and some of my family spent the night at work. However crazy the situation may have sounded, it was no laughing matter. There were many parents who could not get to their kids and I know that must have been scary. 

The south is never great with snow because we never get snow. With that in mind, I had to go out and try to enjoy some of this unexpected weather. 

It was bitter cold, but such a great experience. Apparently, Alabama has not seen this type of snow in many years. It was compact and it did not immediately melt. My family and I (the ones who made it home) spent the rest of the day having snow ball fights The snow even stuck around through the night which is also unusual. We even made a short video of what our front yard looked like the next morning. 

Luckily, the road outside our house was drivable. We were able to go get food and my cousin even made it to work that night. It was fun playing in the snow, but I can definitely do without all the mess it brings. 

Vulcan and Flat Friends

My time in Alabama has been great! I have even met a flat friend. He is wrestler and we met at the Piggly Wiggly in the healthcare section. He was looking at protein powders and explained to me that protein helps him build his muscles and keeps him strong in the ring and helps him “pump iron” in the gym. Well, in talking about “big” and “iron” my cousin mentioned that Birmingham is home to the largest iron statue in the United States.  I just had to see it and so did my new friend. We made plans and went the following Wednesday. I had to take as many picures as I could to show Frank when I went back to the farm. He would never believe me if I did not have proof.

Vulcan was huge and incredibly high up. I was mesmerized. However, it was very cold and even worse so at the height that we were at. But, I would not let the coldness ruin the trip. It was great to see something so significant to a state. And it was full of so much Alabama history. There were plenty of places around Vulcan Park to learn about the history of Vulcan, but I just had to know more. My cousin told me that there was a website that had all the information that I wanted. Now, I might be from the farm and I might not know a whole lot, but I do know how a computer works. Farmers live too far apart and have to comminicate some how. The internet is the best and fastest way. So, I visted the Vulcan website and learned all sorts of things about this huge statue. I am going to show Frank when I get back to the farm. The link is http://www.visitvulcan.com/. Days like this make me never want to leave Alabama!

Piggly Wiggly

I have been with my family in McCalla for a while now and I have to say that I have really enjoyed my time with them. I really thought that I would miss the farm but there have been so many, new and exciting things to experience that I have hardly even thought about the farm. I also know that Frank is doing a great job handling all the daily chores. He called me yesterday and told me just how great my favorite cow, Betsey, and her new calf were doing.

My cousin asked me today what my favorite thing about the city was. I did not even hesitate to say “The food!” The city has so many different types of, everything from cupcakes to candy to frozen pizza. Apparently, all the food comes from the grocery store here. On the farm, we made most of our food and what we could not make we would make trip to the small grocery store in town. So, on this cloudy day, the family decided it would be the perfect day to go to the grocery store, the Piggly Wiggly. I was very interested to see the city’s grocery store. I knew the store had to be big to house all these amazing foods, but I was not prepared for how huge it was. There were so many aisles. In my little town’s grocery store there were only five aisles. The Piggly Wiggly in McCalla had at least twenty aisles and the most food I had ever seen in one place. However, some of it was pretty strange. The Piggly Wiggly sold the carrots in plastic bags that did not have an opening. How did they get in there? And what happened to the stems on top of the carrots? It was pretty strange, but not as strange as the “Egg Beaters”. These were eggs out of the shell and in a milk carton. They were just baffling. Why would you want pre-cracked eggs. Cracking them open is the best part! 

The best part of the grocery store was the cupcakes. They even had giant cupcake statue in the store, but it was one of those things that is not for sale. I have the biggest sweet tooth and cupcakes are my favorite sweet. The grocery store is great. I keep trying to convince the family to go back tomorrow, but they keep telling me that we do not need anything. Maybe I can convince them to go later on in the week.

Going to the Movies

My first weekend with my Alabama family has been very exciting. I have seen many first in this small city. Everyone knew that the doctors had recommended that I relax until I am completely used to my new body. My cousins had a great idea on how to spend my first weekend in the city. We all went to see a movie. This was the first time I had been to the movies in ages! You see, I did not leave the farm much and when I did, there was certainly no time to see a movie. Needless to say, I was very excited. The first thing we needed to do was decide which one to see. There were so many choices! Finally we all settled on the new comedy Ride Along starring some fellas named Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. It took me awhile to wrap my mind around somebody’s name being Ice Cube, but my cousins explained to me that it was just a screen name. They were even able to show me his real name and information on their phone through an app called IMDB. I thought this app would be great if anyone wanted to create biography or do research on current or past celebrities. I am sure students everywhere would enjoy creating a timeline for a celebrity they admire. However, an adult would need to monitor the use, just incase they were to stumble onto something inappropriate. They could just stand close by the teacher as they use the app for a monitored period of time. The teacher could even use this time to have the student read from the app and evaluate reading skills.

Link to IMDB app: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imdb-movies-tv/id342792525?mt=8 

The movie was hilarious. My favorite part was when the little guy, Kevin Hart, was wresting the huge bad guy. The whole idea was that Kevin would ride around with his girlfriends cop brother in order to prove that he was “man enough” to marry his sister. Well, Kevin proved himself and helped Ice Cube’s character catch the bad guy!