days 10-17

I wrote this yesterday but didn't post due to spotty internet:


Just to play quick catchup, the past week went pretty fast. I didn't run at all. I spent the beginning of the week trying to get ready for my trip. Wednesday night I flew to Richmond. My plane was scheduled to leave at 7:30pm. Wednesday night was the freak tornado in Springfield, MA. My plane was delayed and didn't leave until after midnight. I ran into Rachel Givens in the airport and we talked on and off over the long wait. She was having a bad day, and I felt increasingly sorry for her as the departure time kept changing. 


Over our wait I made friends with the two middle-aged men sitting across from me. They live near Pony Pasture. One was a social worker and the other did employee training. They flew through Boston to attend a family reunion in Maine. The one from Maine moved to Richmond in the 70's to get his masters at VCU. He said he was really prejudiced against the South, but he ended up loving Richmond and he never left. The other guy was from Roanoke. He moved to Richmond on his way to DC ("the big city"). They said they'd both lived in Richmond 30 years now. They told me they're going to Dubai in the fall. The one who does employee training has to fly to Oman for work.

I liked this one because I also like to play themed games.

Someone boasted that they used all 144 tiles. Notice how they spelled "zoo."

My Virginia trip went by fast. I played a lot of bananagrams. My family is really competitive with word games, and this is no exception. More than winning, I think its important to play a beautiful game. If I get a "z" I will never make the word "zoo." I don't want to win if I have to spell "zoo" to do it. There were a lot of lovely words played over the course of four days. I spelled "Jacobean" but was thrown out on my use of a proper noun. If I were being honest, I would also say that I spelled it wrong: "Jacobian." I also used "theophany" but I can't remember anything else. There was a little bit of controversy over whether we were allowing foreign words. Jaime spelled "qi." I have no idea what that is, but she said "if I played Scrabble, I would know it." 

This is Tessa.

Tessa, Jaime's 2-year-old daughter, entertained me most of the weekend. Before I flew in she kept calling Lauren "Courtney" by mistake. The entire time I was there she called me "the real Courtney." 

Mickael 

M&B

Before I left on Sunday I went over to see Mike and Brionna. They have a house off of Hermitage Rd. I can't remember what we talked about, but it was easy and comfortable. M&B are inclusive. The kind of people you've known your whole life and will know your whole life. I've known them almost as long as I've known Quinn. They told me stories about Quinn in high school: how he threw an orange at Brionna's sister boyfriend's head and how Brionna called him at Victors (a pizza place Quinn worked at in Northern Virginia) to tell him off for being so mean. She said he said, "sorry, sorry, sorry" and she said, "i'll see you tomorrow." 


Sunday night I had dinner with Mike & Sarah Moore. We went to high school together. They got married last summer and live two streets over from M&B, but they don't know one another. It was nice seeing old friends. Lauren Stewart was there and a few people I'd never met. The things I remember about them were the same: how they're light-hearted and easy to laugh with. Still, it was kind of weird. I haven't seen them since my wedding and friendships are different when you don't know the details of one another's lives. I wonder if I'll ever live in Richmond again. I wrote in my diaryland that I'd always planned to move home, but the city wasn't big enough for me anymore.


I flew back from Virginia this morning. My plane left at 6:50 am and we touched down in Boston by 8:30. The plane ride was fine except a woman sat next to me. In theory I enjoy people, but theories have holes. The arm rest to my seat was up, and when the woman sat down we were touching. She edged into my seat, and I felt possessive, almost territorial over my space. There was no polite way to shove the arm rest down. I felt like I had to avoid her the entire ride.


When we landed I took the airport shuttle to the blue line, rode the blue line to Government Center, transfered to the green line until it ended at North Station and rode the shuttle bus to Lechmere. That's an awful lot of transferring when the airport's only 4 miles away. I walked in the door by 9:00 am and couldn't find my cat. He hides during the day. I unpacked my clothes. I feel asleep in my oddly clean apartment and woke up again at 11. The cat was laying on my arm. I was on the bus by 11:15 and ate at the cafeteria in my building before work at noon. They have great salads but they charge by weight. They should charge by container size like Devon & Blakely, a sandwich shop in DC. When I worked on 14th street (oddly enough in the building above Borders, the building where Mark Twain wrote Innocents Abroad) I ate at Devon & Blakely weekly.





Work was busy. I spent all afternoon playing catchup for missing Thursday and Friday. I'm 90% caught up. I didn't take a break. I have to regulate myself or I won't take breaks. There's never a good time to stop. 


After work I went to Trader Joes. Before moving here I thought Trader Joes only sold novelty food (chocolate covered cherries! Ice cream mochi balls!) but now I'm addicted. I bought blueberries and butternut squash triangoli. Triangoli is a triangle pasta. I think the name might take itself too seriously.


On the way home from grocery shopping I rode the T back to North Station. The city is filled with Bruins jerseys tonight. It's been years since the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup so it's a big deal. I don't follow hockey, but I piggyback on the city's euphoria. On the train home I tried to imagine myself as a serious hockey fan. I imagined myself as a season ticket holder, dressed in team gear and going to all the games. In my imagination I was wondering what I would do if I didn't want to go to a game because I was in the middle of a book. My imagination sucks.