I'm back on the Megabus, heading toward Alexandria. The bus driver is a good one, thank God!! I was watching True Blood, but I've run out of episodes!! I thought I'd be able to download one or two on the bus, but the wifi connection is a lot weaker than I thought it was...so just one is going to take forever (21 hours estimated so far).
I just finished episode 6, and I'm wanting to know who the murderer is!! Are all the women going to be dead by the time the season ends?!?!
Anyway, the weekend was interesting. I went home Friday not knowing what to expect this weekend, honestly. I arrived Friday afternoon, and we ate pizza and drank beer by the Holiday Inn pool (where my relatives from Michigan were staying). It was kind of a relaxing night, hanging with family and doing nothing special.
Saturday was a full day, though. Woke up to Penny's barking, but thanked her because it got me out of bed. Ate a donut, and started going through the mounds of boxes in the basement. (Because of the move in two weeks, I had to go through all my stuff to figure out what was going to be brought up to Arlington and what isn't.) After a couple hours, I got ready to go to Emily's funeral at the Presbyterian church. I wasn't looking forward to it, but felt obligated to go because of Bob. It was a nice service, and I held my composure really well until Bob went on stage to say a few words. Poor man. Emily was his life! ...he looked good, nonetheless. I left quickly after the hour and a half ceremony without saying anything to him, so I'm almost positive he didn't know I was even there. I will call him later this week to say what a nice service it was.
Once I got back to the house, everyone had already eaten and had been talking to each other for a while. I grabbed some food, and ate a few d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s chocolate cupcakes Aunt Robin made. Speaking of cupcakes: Mom actually bought me an amazing cupcake book!! It has pages and pages of recipes...I can't wait to make them! and while on the subject of books, Dad bought me "101 Things I Learned in Architecture School." It looks really interesting...I only read a couple pages and I already relate to them!
Saturday night, however, was more of a funeral-memorial-burial for Grandpa. All 30 or so of us went out to Newport to spread some of Grandpa's ashes in the creek by the old covered bridge. (I took a couple pictures with my phone, but I'll post them after the 21st because my texting is limited until then......) I held Grandma's hand while Doug poured them into the water, and tears started to pour. It was really special. Dad broke the solemn silence by adding, "Too bad Don didn't like water," and everyone laughed.
Then a bunch of my cousins, Lacey, Mom, Leslie, Dan, and I went to Attitudes for karaoke. Much to our surprise, karaoke doesn't exist anymore in their bar, even though their pamphlets still says it does. We stayed and talked there until midnight. Much to our surprise again, midnight was last call there. So we all got into a Hooptie and went to Bull & Bones so we all could continue to hang out together. It was a long night...didn't have a lot of fun...won't really push details on you like I did to Anthony, but I think it was just because I was so emotionally drained.
Sunday, everyone went home except for Leslie's family. I spent the afternoon sorting through the basement, and it was about 2pm when I found MOLD - yes, mold - and MUSHROOMS - yes, mushrooms - GROWING - yes, growing - INSIDE MY ROOM!!!! What happened was this. Whenever it rained really hard, the water would drain off the driveway and into the basement bathroom. Dad tried to solve this dilemma by redoing the drainage pipes to they were thicker near by bathroom and ultimately direct the water farther down the hill, toward my room. ...BUT, then another storm - or storms - came and the water leaked into my room instead, soaking some boxes, my canvasses, an extra pillow, and my Grammie's trunk! The mold was fine to look at, but the mushrooms, which looked like cooked lasagna pasta, made me gag. Oh my gosh it was so disgusting. Di-sgust-ing!! I finished the basement as fast I could and decided I'd go to Grandma's. You see, while I was in the basement cleaning and sorting, Dad was hiking the cascades with my uncle, cousins, and Ava, while Mom was with Leslie and Lacey at Grandma's. I couldn't find Mom's spare keys, and Mom had my car, so I was stranded at home. Hence why I don't have anymore True Blood episodes to watch: that's what I did while I was waiting for everyone to come back home. That, and I played with Penny for an hour or so. For dinner, we just had a ton of Saturday's leftovers. Yummy! Later, while Mom went to Grandma's to spend time with everyone, I stayed home talking to Dad until bedtime.
That brings me to today. I woke up, said Goodbye to Dad and Mom, and spent the morning packing and getting ready to leave. I went to visit Grandma with Ava for a little while, and then went to spend a half hour with Maria! I miss her. She was one of the first girls I met at Virginia Tech my freshman year and the one I lived with and around all throughout college. (It's going to be odd not going back this Fall.) Afterward, I had lunch with Mom at Lefty's and naturally, we ordered our favorite creme brulee for dessert!! We went to Grandma's once we finished to visit for a few minutes and bring them to the bus stop with us.
Riding to the bus stop, I did feel a bit sad to leave. It wasn't the best or most relaxing weekend by any means, but it is home. Arlington will never be my home. I could work there, live there, and eat there for 20 years and it would never feel as comfortable and welcoming as Blacksburg is. Thinking I won't be at Virginia Tech this fall makes me sad, too. Don't get me wrong: I am not going to miss taking classes. At all. I'm going to miss my small group of friends, my home, and the school itself.
On a lighter note, it's only a week and a half until I get to see Anthony!! I fly in to Houston Thursday, July 21st, and I can't wait!! It'll be about two months since I've seen him on that day. Fortunately, his internship doesn't go much past September 1st. He's been talking about trying to find something closer to me so we can see each other on weekends.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I'd love it if you would cross yours for me too.
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