Greenbrier

My mom has always wanted to take me to The Greenbrier, “America’s Resort since 1778.” It was on our way home yesterday so we stopped for lunch. Luckily, there was an hour and half wait, so we had to high tail it to a more modest restaurant (it was pushing 2 pm and I don’t handle missing mealtime very well).

I found this supposedly sumptuous resort garish and I couldn’t get out of it fast enough. My head was spinning--was it hypoglycaemia? Or the brilliant green elephant ear print wallpaper superimposed on a dark-and-light green striped pattern with waves going through it, rising up from a black and white tiled floor?

So many things about America confirm my decision to move back to Ireland. Conspicuous consumption remains all the rage here. In Ireland you don’t see so much of that. I feel like the reality of climate change and its tragic aftermath has registered in other countries but the U.S. didn’t get the memo. Strange when the headlines declare that 44 people died across the American South in tornados and flooding.

12-22