On Sunday we packed up and made our way for Charleston to spend a few days with Jim. We left the Northern Virginia area around 1:00pm, and it rained the whole way off and on. I drove through Virginia and a bit into North Carolina before resting and having Kirsten and Anna drive. As I rode, I read a book that Anna suggested to me, Good Omens. It was a very amusing book and I enjoyed it greatly. Good old British humor on the subject of the Apocalypse.
We got to Jim's around 9:30pm and quickly brought our stuff inside. He doesn't exactly live in what you would call a good part of town. For example, we're pretty sure his neighbor sells/cuts crack. At all hours, cars would stop outside and honk, then someone would come out, sit in the passenger seat for a minute, and then get back out. In particular, there was a white van that I saw at least twice a day.
Anyway, we settled in at Jim's and played with his juicer. That thing is awesome and I definitely want one.
Monday morning we got up and it was pretty crappy out. We decided to try to go rock climbing at the Naval base. However, when we got there, we were told that since we were not military, we couldn't go. Even though Jim had done it before with non-military folks. Oh well. Instead, we decided to go to see Star Trek at the Cinebarre, which is a fairly rare type of movie theater in which you sit in stadium seating, but have a bar in front of you, and during the movie, you can order food. It was kinda cool, but a bit on the pricey side to do very often. Star Trek was definitely a fun summer movie. Not an award winner by any stretch, but very fun to watch, with plenty of cool special effects, explosions, and fun one liners.
That night, at Anna's request, we went to Charleston Crab house for dinner. I got Deviled Crabs, which was crab stuffing, put in an emptied crab shell, then deep fried. Freaking awesome. Also that night, mom called to tell me that she had someone interested in buying my old mustang, Craizy Horse. At first I was completely opposed to the idea. That car has meant so much to me that it's really hard to say ok to getting rid of it, even though it's doing nothing but costing us money to keep it.
I learned to drive stick on that car, I learned to work on cars by tearing that car apart and putting it back together, I modified that car how I wanted, and most importantly, my dad scrounged together enough money to buy it for me when he was on rough times. That car was my baby.
After a few days though, I came to terms with the idea. I have a new baby now, and while I don't want to get rid of Craizy Horse, it's not reasonable to hold on to him. I should take advantage of the fact that this prospective buyer will also treat it as her baby. Also, there's nothing to stop me if, when she's done with it, buying it back from her if at that time I will be able to afford it. Also, in keeping with my dad's whishes when he got me the car, I plan on spending a portion of the money I get from Craizy Horse to pay for add-ons for Mako.
Tuesday was also pretty bad weather, so we mostly sat around at Jim's watching CashCab. We also went out to an empty parking lot and had Anna and Kirsten practice driving stick on Anna's new car, WeissBlitz. Then we went out to one of the beaches and wandered in the sand a bit and watched a couple guys go Kite Boarding. Not gonna lie, that looked like a lot of fun, but the equipment costs and the time it would take to get good at it I feel like would make it unrealistic for anyone who doesn't live at the beach and have a job like Jim's.
That night we went to this little dive of a bar around the corner from Jim's called Moe's Crosstown for burger night. The burgers were definitely delicious. Kirsten got their special burger for the day, which was the Inferno Burger. Their house hot sauce was ridiculously hot. Not even Kirsten could finish it. And if you know her, that's really saying something.
Wednesday it was finally nice out, so we made a point to go to the beach. It was crazy-windy out, and after just laying out on the sand for ten minutes I was almost buried. But, I got up and went in the water. It was cold at first, but not very, and I got used to it very quickly. Jim and I tried going out to the breakers, but they were far out and there was an extremely strong cross current. Even though we could walk the whole way out, we still would have been a long ways down the beach by the time we got out there, and even further out when we came back. We would have needed someone to drive down the beach and pick us up.
After an hour or two we went in and got lunch at a place called Taco Boy. They had really good fish tacos, very tasty. For our last dinner in Charleston, Jim made us shrimp in a mustard-base sauce, which was delicious, and chicken for Anna. I also got more fruit when we were getting supplies for the dinner and continued to polish off about a month's worth of homemade orange juice.
We debated staying another day, or at least driving late and stopping in New Kent for the night if it was nice on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was raining and overcast in the morning so we left. Apparently the afternoon was very nice, but we'd made our decision, and it was probably best. With Anna's luck, it probably would have rained the whole day if we stayed.
Anna and Kirsten drove Kirsten's car back while I drove by myself in WeissBlitz. I was getting bored with trying to find stations on the radio, so at a rest stop where there were books on tape, I snagged one. I got How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. It was a little boring, but certainly better than scanning the radio. Eventually I actually started really enjoying it, if only because it was about being a magazine editor/writer in NYC.
I also talked to Matt for a long time on the drive. He had left Ft. Sill and was making his way, eventually, to Benning. In another conversation the next day, he told me that he'd gotten his orders for when he was done with all his training and would be going to Hawai'i and joining a Striker Battalion, which is what he wanted. Unfortunately, his battalion is scheduled to deploy June or July 2010, if not earlier, meaning he most likely will not be at my wedding. Sad, but nothing to be done about it.
So that's a fairly (believe it or not) abbreviated version of what went on at the beach.
Now I'm back down in Blacksburg and I'm going back to work in the morning... unfortunately. I am very excited to move in to my new place though at the end of the week, even if I won't be able to move everything until I commandeer a truck. I will have a gym and a pool I can go to. Huzzah!
I think that's all for now.
All the best to you and yours,
-TES
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