And it was a good thing. I wanted to hit the treadmill because we were going to be in the car for at least 3 hours.
So I got us coffee, Doug got into the shower, and I was on the treadmill by 9:15.
I had the gym to myself, which is always fun because your girl likes to sing out loud and punch at the air and look like an idiot while doing this.
Anything to keep my attention span engaged.
The playlist was perfect. I got to actually run to Frank Turner, Rage Against the Machine, and Smashing Pumpkins.
A song came on that I would have skipped so I took that as my queue to head back upstairs and get ready. I promised myself 10 minutes and got 26 under my belt.
We assembled in the lobby at 10:30, checked out of the hotel, got the car, and headed to breakfast. I'm actually very proud of myself for knowing how to get around the city to get to things. We were at a rotary (Stevens Circle) and I pointed up the street and said "that's the way to John's apartment in the Fan." After all I did drive that road dozens of times in July back and forth from my hotel in town to his place over to VCU back to his place back to my hotel... it became muscle memory.
The Village Cafe is an old school style restaurant, beautiful wood booths (built when people were a lot skinnier than we are these days). Lin and I got mimosas, and they don't screw around.
Fucking pint glasses of champagne with a splash of "color" just the way Linda likes it. We chatted and initially I wasn't going to tell my cousin Bill how things ended up the last time I was with John but I did.
It felt good to tell him, since I thought he should know. To be honest I think was looking for approval or something, acknowledgement that ya know, kid, you did the best you could even at the end of your rope.
And he gave that to me. My anger about how all that went in July, it felt good to be seen and understood.
Breakfast was great. Fellowship was great. Honestly out of all of this, I'm exceptionally thankful for the time we had with Bill, telling stories and remembering family shit.It was funny because yeah, this is a hot spot and brunch is brunch and timing can be a challenge. John texted us to "be prepared to stand in line for a long time" to get in the door. Yeah, that makes sense, and we know because we're grown adults who have experienced restaurants in the past in our lives.
He likes to be the "expert" on things Richmond. Telling us this like we wouldn't have ever thought it. Like, somehow we'd think Richmond was not a cool and hip enough city to have a restaurant on a college campus with a wait.
Doug doesn't wait on line for food. No restaurant is worth more than a 20 minute wait in his mind. So we were prepared to ditch and run.
Bill said "there's always Bojangles." And I thought that was hilarious. Doug said he was going to put "Waffles near me" in Trip Advisor and see what came up. We had a plan B, C, and Z.
Doug dropped us off to find parking because that is honestly the hard part in Richmond. He had to go up the block a few buildings to score a spot. And then, literally, we walked right in, dozens of open spaces, great table... in fact it is where Doug and I sat last time we were there in like 2021.
We got him a whole box of hot cocoa mix (nestle, for the record) a really nice pineapple/strawberry/kiwi fruit salad (he didn't want melons, so this one was a slam dunk). And a 6 pack of small red fruity red Hawaiian punch. I hope when they transfer him tomorrow, it all goes over to the new place with him.
When we got to the hospital there was a college friend already visiting. Linda and Billy went down to the room and Doug and I went to the waiting room. After a bit, they came out, and we went in. It was kind of funny because there were 3 of us, another person came in, and then ANOTHER person. So we'd been kind of following the rules by doing the only 2 visitors thing, and next thing we know five people are in the room with him.
He was awake and lively. Very excited for visitors, the two college friends, a lady he used to work with at a restaurant, and Doug and me. We were watching the Ravens/Steelers game, and John has a great memory - he brought up Doug coming from Pittsburgh to tell his friends about us, and that Jess went to Pitt for a while. We talked about how there's a guy on the Steelers that Geoff went to high school with, and played JV football with for a year back in the day. And John said his name. He literally knew this fact already and I didn't think he knew it.
The guy is a douche sometimes but he pays attention. He knows the details. He remembers things that most people forget. There's something to say about that in a family member.
We finished up our visit, Bill came down to the room and we said goodbye to him. His flight is very late tonight out of Richmond and I'm honestly not sure when we'll see each other again.
Team Mini Cooper (us) headed north and traffic was great until we got to ..... LORTON. It always falls to shit there. Luckily it wasn't long, and then getting over to the beltway/395 was shitty. Once we were on 270 it was smooth sailing. An interesting sunset, home and a very enthusiastic dog welcome.
We ordered pizza, drank wine, watched football. Doug took a nap and woke up at 9:30 (oh the poor thing) Linda forced herself to stay up until 10.
Tomorrow, I'll take her to the airport. Doug didn't take the day off, so I'm the responsible adult with a vacation day.
Not sure if it will be a go out to brekkie first kind of thing or what. But. It'll be a drag getting rid of the sister.
Digits below. We were lucky to get that one pic with Toffee. Ha.
digits
exercise: 10/12 hours, missed a couple hours due to being in the car. 26 min on the treadmill/1.5 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
10am: 170
5:15pm: 117
9:30pm: 170
food & meds:
9am: phentermine+jardiance
10:30am: breakfast sandwich on biscuit, homefries, mimosa,
2pm:met+glip
6:30pm: buffalo chicken bites, piece of pizza crust, 4 oreo cookies. White wine
8:30pm: met+glip
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