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jazzfish... and I am ready to be buried in cats and speak to no one for awhile. Since last Friday uilos and I have been staying with my parents for a family-holidays / seeing-friends visit to DC. Nine days of that is not quite my limit but I can see it from here.
The bus down to Seattle was an hour and a half late due to customs delays. Good thing the bus schedules were such that our flight wasn't for another four hours after we were scheduled to arrive. We flew in on the redeye Satyrday morning and spent most of the day in Arlington with boardgaming friends.
Sunday was recovery, a bit of driving around, and then droppinguilos off in Fredericksburg so she could spend a few days with her parents in Richmond. Monday there was BBQ with parents followed by more gaming. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from work, which was not nearly so horrid as it might have been; Wednesday I had a very tasty dinner with workfolk and collected uilos from Fredericksburg.
Thursday I met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jpenamelist at Great Falls, where we walked and talked for three and a half hours, and then had lunch and more conversation over the next couple of hours. This... is not entirely without precedent but is very much worth noting. (Later post, I think.) Then I wasted $12 on Skyfall (nonsensical plot on both the macro and micro levels, poor pacing, and I am not at all convinced by Daniel Craig's Bond, not to mention the sidelining of one awesome character and the SPOILER of another), caught up with my former writers' group, picked uilos up from her RPG in darkest Maryland, and crashed hard.
On Friday we headed into DC to wander the Eastern Market area withvvalkyri, including a wondrous fire hazard of a used bookstore, a new game store, and a panoramic sunset from a rooftop in Southeast DC. Plus, you know, hanging out with vvalkyri, which is always good. Afterwards, people swarmed La Sandia in Tysons Corner Mall for our semiannual Back In Town Dinner. (If you are ever in the DC area and find yourself wanting Mexican, I highly recommend La Sandia. It is hands-down the finest Mexican food I have ever had.)
Satyrday saw the Obligatory Family Lunch with parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niephlings. It wasn't bad as such, just... lacking in positives. My sister's transformation into a West Virginia Republican is complete: runs her own gun business, complains about how the principal at her daughter's school hasn't been fired only because he's black, mocks the idea of socialized health care thirty seconds before cheering the Family Medical Leave Act. Common clay, salt of the earth, you know. Seems like every time I interact with her I get more little reminders that no, I don't really like her very much, and that's okay, because 99% of the time there's a continent between us.
Thankfully after that we got to see what a non-dysfunctional family looks like. Steph ("my ex, no, the good one") got married over Labor Day in Minneapolis and I wasn't able to make the wedding, but her parents hosted a big post-wedding reception at their place. So there were lots of her relatives, and lots of her family's friends from church etc, and a few friends from high school. Good times. Delicious red velvet cake pops, too. I would have liked a chance to catch up with Steph when she wasn't busy being hostess; next time, I suppose. If we make it to Fourth Street we may take a couple days on either end to see the two of them.
And after all that we got up this morning, packed, had one last brunch with my folks, and got on a plane at BWI that took us to O'Hare. Which brings us up to the present: waiting in the lobby for a flight to YVR, and Skytrain, and thence home to my own bed and a blanket of cats.
uilos and I have been staying with my parents for a family-holidays / seeing-friends visit to DC. Nine days of that is not quite my limit but I can see it from here.The bus down to Seattle was an hour and a half late due to customs delays. Good thing the bus schedules were such that our flight wasn't for another four hours after we were scheduled to arrive. We flew in on the redeye Satyrday morning and spent most of the day in Arlington with boardgaming friends.
Sunday was recovery, a bit of driving around, and then dropping
uilos off in Fredericksburg so she could spend a few days with her parents in Richmond. Monday there was BBQ with parents followed by more gaming. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from work, which was not nearly so horrid as it might have been; Wednesday I had a very tasty dinner with workfolk and collected uilos from Fredericksburg.Thursday I met up with
jpenamelist at Great Falls, where we walked and talked for three and a half hours, and then had lunch and more conversation over the next couple of hours. This... is not entirely without precedent but is very much worth noting. (Later post, I think.) Then I wasted $12 on Skyfall (nonsensical plot on both the macro and micro levels, poor pacing, and I am not at all convinced by Daniel Craig's Bond, not to mention the sidelining of one awesome character and the SPOILER of another), caught up with my former writers' group, picked uilos up from her RPG in darkest Maryland, and crashed hard.On Friday we headed into DC to wander the Eastern Market area with
vvalkyri, including a wondrous fire hazard of a used bookstore, a new game store, and a panoramic sunset from a rooftop in Southeast DC. Plus, you know, hanging out with vvalkyri, which is always good. Afterwards, people swarmed La Sandia in Tysons Corner Mall for our semiannual Back In Town Dinner. (If you are ever in the DC area and find yourself wanting Mexican, I highly recommend La Sandia. It is hands-down the finest Mexican food I have ever had.)Satyrday saw the Obligatory Family Lunch with parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niephlings. It wasn't bad as such, just... lacking in positives. My sister's transformation into a West Virginia Republican is complete: runs her own gun business, complains about how the principal at her daughter's school hasn't been fired only because he's black, mocks the idea of socialized health care thirty seconds before cheering the Family Medical Leave Act. Common clay, salt of the earth, you know. Seems like every time I interact with her I get more little reminders that no, I don't really like her very much, and that's okay, because 99% of the time there's a continent between us.
Thankfully after that we got to see what a non-dysfunctional family looks like. Steph ("my ex, no, the good one") got married over Labor Day in Minneapolis and I wasn't able to make the wedding, but her parents hosted a big post-wedding reception at their place. So there were lots of her relatives, and lots of her family's friends from church etc, and a few friends from high school. Good times. Delicious red velvet cake pops, too. I would have liked a chance to catch up with Steph when she wasn't busy being hostess; next time, I suppose. If we make it to Fourth Street we may take a couple days on either end to see the two of them.
And after all that we got up this morning, packed, had one last brunch with my folks, and got on a plane at BWI that took us to O'Hare. Which brings us up to the present: waiting in the lobby for a flight to YVR, and Skytrain, and thence home to my own bed and a blanket of cats.