Weekend Review

Friday: Worked all day at my internship, then dropped by to briefly visit Allison. Came home to hang out and ended up watching the Disney Channel's Camp Rock with Sunni, which was pretty much a new version of High School Musical. I'm glad I was available to let Sunni know how ridiculous the whole thing was.

Saturday: Helped Grandpa and Aunt Judy go pick up my new mattress and bring it home so I don't have a lumpy bed anymore. Went out for a Chinese food lunch, then spent a billion stressful hours shopping at art supply stores for my latest mosaic project. Came home to have Grandpa inspect what I'd bought, and promptly went with him to Home Depot to get wood that would last much longer than the stupid stuff I had picked up. I then tried to help Grandpa as he cut, sanded, and sealed the wood. Then I decided more of the stuff I'd bought earlier wouldn't work either, so returned it to the store. Spent the evening working on my resume.

Sunday: Up to start my mosaic, took a break for lunch, mosaiced (?) more, went to church, and came home for more mosaicing. Made lots of progress and finally getting to bed.

I never liked P.E.

My brother Ryan is four years younger than I am, so we went to the same school at the same time for only two years, during elementary school. One day I went to P.E. and apparently did something wrong that got me in trouble. I can't remember what exactly I did, which is too bad. What I do remember is the P.E. teacher telling me my little brother had been in P.E. earlier that day and had also gotten in trouble. Ryan getting in trouble was, of course, no surprise. What shocked me, however, was that the P.E. teacher said "hmm, must run in the family."

Now unfortunately this is a terrible retelling of the story because I don't remember what I did or what Ryan did, I just remember how insanely mad I was at that teacher. And I wasn't mad for comparing me to Ryan. It was the opposite. I think I believed that what I had done wasn't all that bad and assumed what Ryan had done must not have been all that bad either, and instead a deep family pride bubbled up in me. And I regretted that I was such a good kid and didn't have the guts to kick that lady in the shins.

I survived, but with a sunburn.

Last Thursday when I arrived at the rented house on the bay I immediately started looking around for snakes. I didn't see any, and no one else looked stressed, so I just tried to relax. But then I decided I needed to use the restroom after sitting in the car for four hours, and as soon as I'd entered the bathroom and closed the door I saw a snake. I screamed and did a half-running half-jumping dash down the hall warning everyone in the house that "seriously, there's a snake in the bathroom."

Only it turns out the snake was a rubber cobra. My cousin Jay didn't think I'd fall for a cobra with the flared neck, but if you think I stopped long enough to examine the darned thing you can think again. So they got me. And then I made sure to hide the snake so I wouldn't have to deal with replays all weekend.

I did, however, see a few real snakes out in the water the first evening I was there. I was cool with it until I thought Jay was going to pick one up. That was when I made a running beeline for the house. He didn't pick it up.

Other than the snake scares, the weekend was great. Friday we all played in the water and floated around. I floated for several hours after forgetting to put sunscreen on my "porcelain" white legs and now my knees are still pink. My nose has lots of freckles, too. Friday night we played games.

Saturday I rode Josh's bike and towed him around while he rode roller blades. Then we went kayaking.




























Josh and I had a kayak and my cousin Leslie had a kayak with her boyfriend Alex. I had a good time, except for the part where we were practically in a swamp and we came upon a floating dead raccoon. Leslie and Alex did not have as good of a time because they flipped their boat and when that happened Alex lost his glasses and remained blind for the rest of the weekend. Big bummer. Saturday night we had a seafood dinner on the patio of a restaurant by the water.

Sunday we had to leave the rental house and everyone else headed back to Richmond (needed to get back in time to get a new pair of glasses made), but Josh and I hung out in St. Michaels. We had a breakfast sandwich and coffee, walked around the shops, then ate dessert at noon. Next we visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which was also hosting the 21st Annual Classic and Antique Boat Festival. The boats were fun to look at and the museum is fun. It has stuff to climb on and play with. Look, I caught an oyster!

























After the museum we stuffed ourselves on an all-you-can-eat blue crab dinner, and then we headed home.

Oh dear.

This weekend I'm headed to the Eastern Shore in Maryland to hang out at a house on the bay my aunt has rented. I was thinking it would be pretty fun. Hang out by the water, eat, nap, play around outside, play games inside, maybe ride a bike, maybe catch a crab. You know, an all-around good time.

However. My grandparents are currently at the house and I just heard the report that last night there was a SNAKE wrapped around the bed post next to my Grandma's head. A snake. On the bed. Inside the house. I am freaked out.

Remember a few weeks ago when I went to the mountains in North Carolina with my friend Elizabeth and we climbed around Chimney Rock Park? I spent about 45% of my walking time there looking for snakes. I tripped and almost fell down stairs because I was looking for snakes instead of looking where I was going on the side of a cliff. If I hear snakes are around me I can think of little else besides snakes.

That means this will be a long and red-eyed weekend as I sleep little but fear a lot. I'll be sure to update you when I return. That is, if I return...

The Weekend Review, comin' back atcha.

Friday: Worked at my internship. Normally I wouldn't work on Fridays but I'm already making up for the days I'll miss when I go back to Montana for Amy's wedding. After work I came home for Sunni's 11th birthday party. My favorite part was dancing the "Macarena" with all the kids- they were much better than I. After the party I hung out with the "big kids" (i.e. older cousins and their spouses/significant others) for a while, then watched Charlie Wilson's War with Aunt Judy.

Saturday: Slept in a little and went for a run. Ran a birthday present errand before going out for my cousin Jay's birthday lunch at the Richbrau Brewing Co. Came home and took a three hour nap, waking up just in time to watch the Belmont race with the grandparents. Went by the mall and picked up some pants I can wear to work, then came home to waste time on the internet and practice the ukulele.

Sunday: Set my alarm for 10 but woke up at 7:30. Read a little, and eventually went for a run. In the 90+ weather I need to run earlier. Enjoyed a delicious dinner with the grandparents and Uncle Richard. Went to church, helped go on a Rook cards hunt in Carytown, got milkshakes at Bev's, and came home to play Hearts (the game store was closed so we couldn't find Rook) with the grandparents and Uncle Richard. Now I'll be going to bed very soon.

Broadcasting from RVA...

I'm back in Richmond. And I've already been to work at my internship for three days. It's a little creepy how things haven't changed much over there. Same people in the same places, some of them working on the same projects (like me, working on a different section of the same project). I'm back to packing lunches and taking walks every day during my break. So far I have noticed only two differences. The first is that they moved me to the other side of the huge table, and another intern has my old spot. The second is that the construction work done at the Powhite toll plaza means I pretty much have to take my life in my hands every evening when I want to cross lots of lanes of traffic very quickly to get to the Chippenham exit. I guess that has nothing to do with where I'm working, but I'm using my return to the same commute as the connection. In case you missed it.