…and I still woke up at 9.
I’ve been whooped. Things have been moving very quickly lately, so I don’t feel bad about a few 8pm bedtimes this last week. The Virginian’s have been keeping me up late other days. Like, REALLY late. Like, flat tire at 5am and it’s snowing outside late.
I like Virginia.
When I moved here in October, I brought only clothes and other essentials…like the Playstation 3 because Skyrim was coming out soon…Two weeks ago I sold a kidney so I could afford to fly back to Georgia (cost four bucks a minute, just saying) to get my furniture and things.
I spent a couple of days sorting and organizing. We picked up the Penske truck, which we dubbed Penny Lane, on Friday morning. I had rented the 16 footer because it cost no more than the 14 footer, and I didn’t want to leave anything behind due to space issues. Turned out we could have made it with 10 ft, but we’d have had to work a lot harder to load it. Since we were getting on the road same day and wanted to get at least half way before stopping for the night, we did very little vertical packing. We shoved everything in, like horizontal Tetris, and hoofed it out of there.
Did I mention it was my birthday?
We stopped off in Columbia, SC and grabbed a couple drinks at Outback (classy!). On the road again at 7am, an hour later we stopped at South of the Border. I’d been at SOTB once before…I was six weeks old and we were moving from Rhode Island to Dad’s new post in Charleston. 24 years later, it’s grown, Mom says, and I could only stand so much cheese for 30 minutes or so.
Before we reached the Virginia border I took back the driver’s seat so Mom could see the countryside. We rolled into the faery farm around 4pm, unloaded nothing, and went to dinner in my landlady’s home.
I’ve met some really groovy, amazing people in Virginia. They threw me a fabulous birthday celebration. Jerusalem artichoke soup, pasta with pepper sauce, salad, and carrot cake. And my gifts…
For one thing, I don’t buy Balvenie for myself, it’s too good.
I have some now.
On New Year’s we had played dress up in Charlottesville at a friend’s vintage store (I still have no fashion sense, but I have a new appreciation for vintage. Not only are vintage clothes beautiful and unique, but they’re made from good materials and for women made of breasts and hips. I am not shaped like a boy, Abercrombie.) Anyway, I tried on this incredible red dress that I ended up not buying for sake of my pocket book. My friends pitched in and surprised me on my birthday. Hubba hubba!
And with my classy dress came a classy, classy card.
Yes…
We did finally do some unpacking. The real success of the trip was the tv made it without injury or technical difficulty. The first thing we put on the wall was, fittingly, Breezy’s painting that Noni did for me years ago. It’s been hanging in my bedroom in Georgia because I was too afraid to move it around during and after college. I am thrilled to have Breezy here with me now.
I can almost see the floor through the boxes. It’s slow going unpacking everything. I nearly broke my leg getting wedged between two plastic storage things and falling on my face. But it’s coming together.
Sam is the last step. Although there is snow on the ground at this moment, it’s been a mild winter for the region. Just got to get through February, and then we’ll be making plans to get him here before the eventing season is in full swing and I find myself traveling for work. Sam will love it here, and I’ll love having his sweet nose only a few steps from my front porch after five years of complete separation.
