I’ve learned that the way to keep up with this particular corner of my world is to write as I go along. I have to write in the moment. If I don’t, I forget what happened or lose my train of thought.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone.

I don’t have anything monumental to say today. It’s not like I’m going to write here every day, but JP and I spent some quality time together downtown.

It was a beautiful day.

The kind of day that reminds me how much I love my city.

I say this every time I pass by, but an overnight stay at the Poinsett Hotel is on my bucket list. Especially with October coming up. Remember the story we wrote about The Man in the Black Coat?

Hopefully one day.

For now, I guess I’ll have to settle for our trek from the parking garage thru the lobby to Main Street.

Everything was going fine, until it wasn’t.

I have bad news. I mean, it’s not bad news to anyone but JP, but bad news nonetheless.

Grill Marks has removed chicken tenders from their menu.

This comes on the heels of the Haywood Mall location closing. Needless to say, he is not well. If you know JP, you know that Grill Marks is one of his favorite restaurants.

With JP’s autism, changes like this can really throw him. This wasn’t a matter of, “Oh well, I’ll order something else.”

We were going to Grill Marks. He was going to have his chicken tenders. That was the plan. Then, the plan changed. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover this until we were seated and ready to order. I’m sure our waiter thought we were crazy, but there was really only one thing to do.

We got up and left.

Parents and caregivers of children/adults with autism feel me, right? You have to know when to abort the mission.

Thankfully, downtown Greenville had something waiting outside that has yet to betray us…

I don’t care how many times I ride the downtown trolley. I love it every time. Today, it gave JP time to clear his head and reset.

The windows were open. The sun was shining. Main Street was busy with people eating outside, walking their dogs, shopping, and hanging out.

After about twenty minutes, the chicken tender crisis began to subside. Thank God.

So much of the writing I do has to have a purpose. I’m always looking for the story. The angle. The history. I’m writing the review or sharing the details of an event. I don’t want to do that here. I want this to be the place where I can tell you that JP and I went downtown on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and he shut down over chicken tenders.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE writing Greenville stories. I LOVE writing my newsletter stories. But I also LOVE sharing the day-to-day, non-professional tidbits that make up my life.

Thank you for following along and caring about us. I’m so thankful for you guys.