Greetings from Huntington!

Ah yes, still in Huntington, WV. Only now I seem to have picked up a wee virus and his friends are camped out in my sinuses. My friend Anne has been sick since we got here, with a different symptom every day, so I'm lucky to have made it this long without anything. The weather has been warm, but rainy, and while the sun is poking out now, we've been promised winds gusting to 60 mph for later. All in all, a lovely holiday.

Well look at me trying to put a brave face on it all.

I feel like I've been abducted and dropped off in a dead little town. There are occasional signs of life -- a restaurant here or a pet store there -- but for the most part, it looks like a downtown that has seen better days. I think they're trying to revitalize it, which is admirable. I just hope they don't change the sign at the Love & Co. Hardware Store across the street from the hotel. It looks like the sign and business haven't changed since the 50s or 60s and I'm okay with that.

Oh, this was a little unexpected bright spot! I was getting tea at Starbucks this morning (a sure sign that I'm not feeling well) and happened to look down at the one remaining CD they had -- it's a Dean Martin CD that I owned, and lost, and could not replace! They must have brought them back out for Valentine's Day and I totally lucked out! I like the version of the songs on the CD and the arrangement and have been unable to find it anywhere -- it's a Starbucks creation and I thought was just a one time thing. Hence, my happiness when I found it...

Wow, this blog is as exciting as this trip.

The only good thing is that we're staying a block away from a movie theater. I saw Coraline the other day and ran off yesterday afternoon to see "Slumdog Milliionaire" -- which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm thinking about seeing either "The Reader" or "Revolutionary Road" this afternoon, so it looks like it's going to be Kate Winslet one way or another. I've already seen more movies in three days than I have in the last three years. And it's keeping me out of trouble so I can pay attention in this class.

My classmates are now Googling themselves because they haven't done that before. WTH? I can't believe there are only 3 of us in here who have Googled themselves... Weird.