Saturday morning, Doug decided he'd come with me to Richmond. When I asked him last week he said he was not interested. "Are you sure you're not coming with?" I asked him while we were drinking coffee and I was starting to put things in my bag. He hemmed and hawed a bit.
I said, "It's always more fun if you're with me, whatever it is I'm doing that is slightly unpleasant you make it more fun."
He then said "Well, an overnight in Richmond is..."
"Not the worst thing in the world?"
"Yeah, exactly that. Just don't expect me to do too much at your cousin's."
Okay. Yay.
It isn't that I can't do this by myself. I just get so incredibly bored, and having him around is helpful...
He made us a reservation, not at a Marriott, but I allowed him to be the picker of the lodging. I told him don't you DARE pick a Motel 6 by the airport or I swear I'll leave you forever. He laughed.
I'm not kidding though. More on the hotel later.
I was all packed and ready, and he got in the shower. We hit the road before 1. I knew my cousin was working in the morning so we were not in a huge press to get down to RVA. We stopped at a rest area in I think Fredericksburg, VA, and the lady gave us Virginia is for Lovers, so. I ... took liberties on Instagram.
Any opportunity to pimp, right? Guster is for Lovers is my Jam.
Traffic was absolutely shitty, and we arrived at about 4, a full hour later than I thought we'd be there.
My cousin was in a full panic spiral. His computer had completely stopped working, the internet was out, he had so much to pack, he was giving things away to a friend - dishes and plates, some books, a crockpot, all sorts of things, and those were stacked by the door ready to go into his car. Things were looking good but he felt that it was all chaos. Of course it looks and feels like chaos, you're in the middle of it.
I had been under the impression that we were bringing a ton of stuff over to this guy's house for storage but I had that information wrong, so he needs to get a storage unit. In a college town, I bet that will be easy.
Standing over his non-functional computer, exasperated, he said "I'd like to know what God I offended to have all these things happen to me all at once." He was in tears. I told him to close the computer, we'd look at it later. Make a mental priority list - put this down much lower. Way lower. You don't need wifi either while we're packing. Just let things go for a while, and let's get to work.
He showed me what he needed accomplished and I set to it. He and Doug went into the basement and brought up tons of plastic storage bins that he had been saving. And luggage. I put 90% of his clothing in the luggage - he has TONS of suits and dress clothes, he has literally a hundred sweatshirts, and at least another hundred baseball hats.
I'm like dude, divest of these? He said "If you see anything you like, take it.
So I took a Boston Red Sox hoodie, and one from the Quarterdeck Pub in Falmouth, MA where he used to work and is kind of a destination for us when we're on that side of the bridge. I also took a Phish baseball hat in Red Sox lettering, just because so cool. I was sorely tempted by the Jerry Garcia handprint North Face Jacket, but. I didn't want to just start being greedy.
He had four sets of binoculars so he gave us three. One for Doug, and one for each of the kids. He had a ton of clothing and pots and pans he was throwing away. I told him to put them in our car and I'll take them to goodwill or Savers.
He's got so much anger and I don't blame him, so I just let him rant while putting 9000 baseball hats into a plastic box and giving him advice on things he wanted to "run past a normal sane person" to keep or pitch.
We worked hard until 7, and he had calmed down a lot and was focused. Still upset about his laptop not working, but at least I got him to just leave it alone, and it started loading updates and looking healthier by dinner time.
We got hungry, of course, and he wanted to cook us a meal. He enjoys cooking, but we wanted to take him out for dinner - and there's a nice little restaurant 2 blocks away. So we walked over there, had a meal, I drank a lot of beer, more than I should have but. Doug was talking to him about the Civil War, his favorite subject, and he knows a lot of history but even if it is history and factual his take and spin is as a Confederate sympathizer and I am super uncomfortable with that.
Anyway.
Back to the house, to the kitchen, to the glassware. We rolled all his wine and martini and pint glasses up in towels, stacked them all together in large plastic bins, about 3 of them. He dropped a guinness glass on the floor and I told him it wasn't a party until something breaks.
He actually laughed.
He has a couch that he cannot donate - none of the agencies that take furniture take sleeper sofas, so he is going to just try and stick it on the street and hope he does not get in trouble.
At this point, he's like "whatever." And I don't blame him.
While we were there, a friend called him to let him know he found an apartment for him in his building. K said it isn't available until September 1st but it is 1000 a month, utilities included. Which he can manage. One bedroom, one bathroom, all you need really.
And his friend is floating him the first and last month's rent.
"I only have to live in my car for a month. Much better than the three months I was anticipating in order to save up first and last."
So good news there. You have not pissed off any God, if your computer dies early in the day but someone swings by with an apartment AND willingness to pay your first/last, it just is what it is, and you take the highs and lows and for goodness sake, just try and do it with grace.
We left around 10, with him in a much better place emotionally and able to think clearly and approach what needs done next. I felt pretty good about it. And I was indeed incredibly happy Doug was there. We went to our hotel, which I let Doug pick.
The Graduate Hotel in Downtown Richmond is kitschy and cute. The theme is "We are all students," and they have locations in many "collegiate" towns around America like Eugene, OR, Providence, RI, Princeton, NJ, and Storrs, CT. Strangely though, not in Boston. The room keys are like student IDs with famous actors and actresses on them. We both got Warren Beatty, and I was curious
If you go to that link for the hotel, they had this picture of a dog over the bed. I really liked it. Doug thought it was annoying with too much white space. What is going on with all that white space? I don't know, I kinda loved it.
The room was weird, there were zero plugs/outlets by the bed, and my side of the bed had no side table. Doug's did - and he was happy because the lamp had a power outlet on the base so he could plug in his C-PAP machine. I was annoyed that there wasn't a table to put my water on. Oh, and there were free cans of water in the room, nice, but ... no cups? I could drink tap water if I had a cup. And I was not about to go downstairs at 11pm and ask for a cup.
The Graduate. It's a Vibe.
We got settled in, Doug passed out and it took a while for my Zzquill to kick in but ... I passed out. My friend Sara had big news at 6:45am and blew up my phone on facebook messenger. John texted me at 7:45am, and I ignored both of them. John called at 9, Doug got up and got in the shower, I went downstairs and got us both coffee.
Both of us were underwhelmed with the shower, the water pressure was lame, but the shower itself looked top notch. And the peppermint soap was delightful. At least we came out clean.
We checked out at 10:45 ish, I would have liked to have explored the hotel some more, there is a rooftop bar and pool, the ByrdsNest, I think it named.
Perhaps next visit, and I'll complain about outlets and lack of side table.
When I asked Doug what he wanted to do with our day he said "I don't need to look at anything in Richmond except an omelet."
Hell yeah. I agree.
He picked the Village Cafe, which was incredibly old school with wooden booths and a gorgeous bar. It is the kind of place I could just spend a lot of time, taking pictures and drinking cocktails.
He got his wish. A big Omelet. I had a pancake, I wanted pancakes with an S but. I took a cue from Mike Birbiglia talking about his type 2 diabetes and how his wife made him pancake for breakfast. Because he likes multiples and she knows no. Don't do that. So. Pancake. And I had a breakfast burrito, it was huge. And full of good protein things. To balance ... pancake.
The restaurant serves things in small pitchers, which is weird. It's odd. To drink your unsweetened tea out of an actual pitcher. I'm wondering what is up with Richmond Virginia that actual drinking cups are a problem. But. I drank 3/4 of the pitcher of iced tea.
I passed on a cocktail, because I knew Doug would be driving and it was just fair. The temptation was real though.
We headed home around 1 and traffic, again, was the shittiest.
We took backroads up to La Plata MD and enjoyed the scenery and the farms. We went through a town called Frog Level.
Now, get this, there are two whole ass towns in Virginia named Frog Level.
Friends, I shit you not. The one we went through is in Caroline County, and the other is in Southwest VA by West Virginia.
You just honestly never know what you're going to see out there.
We got home to one very excited dog, a boy who made cookies, and one very huge problem at my job. Doug took a nap with the dog, Geoff made dinner, and my colleague T and I tackled the problem. I'm still working on things, but wanted to get the blog entry out there. I am hoping to have it all buttoned up before wanting to hit the hay.
All told, one does not just bop down to Richmond. I wish it was easier to get to, but wow does it just suck going down there. I'm so glad Doug went with me. And I think over the next month I'll keep good tabs on the cousin, who knows, I may end up back down there soon. We'll see.
Digits for 2 days below the Phish hat.
Saturday digits
exercise: 10/12 hours. lost 2 in the car, 9k+steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:45am: 176
n/a - no reading too busy
11pm: 202
food:
coffee/water
11am: metformin, 2 little chocolate donuts
noon: turkey sandwich w/mayo on 647 white bread
7pm: cranberry walnut spinach salad w/goat cheese and 5 nicely blackened shrimp; 4 beers; slice of cheesecake w/blueberries and homemade whipped cream
8:30pm: metformin+jardiance
Sunday digits
exercise: 11/12 hours. 17 minute walk around downtown RVA. 6k by bedtime
blood glucose:
9:30am: 153
4pm: 172
11pm: 162
food:
coffee/water
10:30am: metformin (so I won't forget at lunch)
11:30am: one pancake, breakfast burrito w/ egg, sausage, bacon, cheddar cheese and some sausage gravy on top. Unsweetened iced tea. A lot.
4pm: two Geoff cookies
6pm: 2 sausages, 6 pierogis; red wine; metformin+jardiance
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