Highlights of my trip to Maryland--

I drove up last Thursday, and it's normally a twelve hour drive or so, but on an impulse, I detoured off of the main highway somewhere in southern Virginia (Fancy Gap, it looks like), and took the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few hours. I had no phone service (curse you, T-Mobile!!) and no physical map so after a while I started to get antsy and worry where I was going to join the highway. I stopped to take a lot of pictures, as well as to admire the views.

Friday night, Dan and I took the metro down to Adams Morgan to meet up with one of our friends for a few drinks. Hex was late, so Dan and I wandered a bit, in search of a bathroom, and found ourselves in Dan's Cafe. Adams Morgan has a ton of bars but this one didn't quite fit- the facade lacks windows and looks kind of condemned. I ordered a beer and Dan asked for a bourbon neat. The bartender pointed out that he could have a flask bottle for thirteen dollars, instead of a little airplane liquor bottle for five bucks, so Dan took the bigger bottle. The bartender poured the bottle into two glasses, which he pushed over to us with a bucket of ice, before spiking the empty bottle into a trash bin. Dan used the bathroom while I continued to marvel over all of this and came out a shaken man. I have since looked up Dan's Cafe on yelp, and almost all of the reviews mention the bathroom and how terrifyingly gross it is. Hex was still not there, so I helped Dan out with the bourbon. I'm a good helper. And my beer was terrible.

The rest of the night included the biggest slices of pizza I have ever seen, karaoke with a bunch of drunken college kids, and live music at Madam's Organ.

Saturday night, we met up with Hex again, this time at a sports bar in Leesburg, which seemed odd, except that the band playing there was The Reflex, and they are tons of fun live! The bar was giving out jelly bracelets and while some folks were there in jeans and a tee (including yours truly), other people were all kinds of dressed up- I even saw a totally hideous and hilarious zebra print suit.

Sunday morning, we drove down to Old Town in Alexandria, where we visited the Torpedo Factory, which is an arts space, and actually has exactly nothing to do with torpedos anymore! I really liked the neighborhood- it reminds me a lot of Charleston, in some ways- I guess it was mostly the old buildings and being close to the water.

Driving home Monday, I spent a lot more time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, starting at mile 0 and ending at Meadows of Dan, where I got onto a rural road and spent a lot of time praying I'd get to a highway before I reached West Virginia. I stopped a lot and walked around and took even more pictures. I even had a picnic lunch in the mountains! I didn't get home till 1 a.m., and I was still too wired to sleep until 4.

Lots of things.

My housemate Sean says there are way too many things going on with me at once right now, and I guess he is right.

I drove over to Birmingham to visit UAB on Friday, and took a tour, and I love the campus. I love what I saw of Birmingham, and I felt pretty safe and comfortable there. I also really liked the department and think I might fit in pretty well. My contact person there was really helpful in answering questions about potential financial aid, and there's a possibility I may qualify for the Academic Common Market, which would allow me to attend for in-state tuition prices. The woman who gave me my tour is a first-year in the program and was very helpful and enthusiastic and directed me to websites to look up housing.

So for now, I am up in the air. I have to decide by May 1st, so that I can tell GSU whether or not I have chosen them, and I have no idea. I'm going to try on this idea of moving to Birmingham this week and see how it fits me. I'll be looking at apartments and thinking about when I would move, and use that to help see how I really feel about the idea of moving.

In other news, pre-POC went off pretty well. The property is quite nice and reminded me of like a family summer vacation type place- not super nice, but definitely not a dump. I was in a suite, there was a refrigerator, a stove and it was like being in a little tiny apartment. On Friday night, I was there alone, and I didn't feel unsafe. I drove out to Homewood to look around and find dinner and then came home and had a beer and relaxed and read.

On Saturday, it was like summer camp, almost. I was a lot more familiar with the property and was running around from building to building and then once more of my friends arrived, we were running errands to WalMart and Sam's in search of party supplies. Sean and I made jello shots before I crashed out for half an hour- I was feeling really sick and tried to nap a few times, only to be awakened by someone texting or my con-roommate coming in to the room in search of me. After the nap, I felt much more human, had dinner, and then painted myself green. It worked pretty well- but I have NO pictures! All in all, the weekend was very fun, and I got to see a lot of friends I dearly love and make more new friends! I'm really looking forward to POC 3 now!

Trip Recap.

Now that I am home and settled again, I can recap my trip and answer a few questions.

I left South Carolina to stay overnight with some friends just outside of Raleigh. Lesley is a colleague of my father's and I met her and her husband Steve while Dad and I were in Hong Kong. They graciously opened their home to me after not having seen me for three years. I arrived after dark and was greeted by Steve and their enthusiastic Australian shepherd, Clancy. Steve and I grabbed dinner and hung out for a bit, chatting and watching hockey, until Lesley's flight came in. Once Lesley was settled, she and I walked Clancy, while she explained the finer points of cricket to me. The next morning, Steve left before I woke up, but Lesley made me coffee and oatmeal, which she referred to as porridge; I found this charming, which I think is compulsory for Americans, to find Australian and British accents and terms endearing.

I headed up to Maryland, trying to take as much time as possible to give my host time to get home from work before I arrived. I assumed I would be early, but I ended up caught in traffic on 270, which ate up an hour. Maryland would be lovely if I could visit there when it wasn't freezing or raining, I think. While I was there, I sat in on the tail end of my host's band practice, visited some friends I know through the convention scene, went bar-hopping in Baltimore, and got far too little sleep. It was a great visit! Some of my friends and I went to the Wharf Rat in Baltimore, which has been a pub in some capacity since the 1700s, and which serves beer from Oliver Breweries- delicious beer!

I also got to visit my friend Huck, who maintains her blog at Sweet Huckleberry. She invited me to have dinner with her neighbors, her partner Banjo Boy, and her, and we shared a delicious meal of black bean burgers with homemade bread and sauteed mushrooms. One of her neighbors is a sex therapist, Dr. Ruthie, and she is hilarious as well as knowledgeable. Huck sent me home with a bag of dried mushrooms and tomato seedlings, which warmed my heart. I am hoping the seedlings will do okay after their semi-traumatic ride home, though. I also got to meet Huck's hens and see the progress she and Banjo Boy have done on their house; it is a cute little Cape Cod that needed a lot of help, but it has come a long way under their dedicated efforts.

The trip home was long, but uneventful, which was a blessing. I listened to podcasts and a long music mix that a friend made up for me. So, overall, quite an excellent trip.

Short teaser from McKenney, VA:

My dad poked at me to update, but I haven't had steady access via my laptop since South Carolina. I will provide a full update once I am returned home, but for now, I will leave this little teaser while I am sipping iced coffee in a truck stop in central Virginia. Soon, yes, I will write about Raleigh, beer in Baltimore, driving all over Maryland, losing and finding my ID in Virginia, and some of the lovely people I had the pleasure of visiting on this trip!

For now, though, I will head back out onto the road. Maybe I will meet up with one of my Atlanta friends in Greenville, SC.

In North Myrtle Beach--

I was just at my family's place in North Myrtle Beach a year ago, but I cannot tell you how happy I am to be here right now. My mother and sister are already here (little sis is on spring break) and one of my aunts lives here these days, so I knew I was going to get some lovely family time.

I pulled up around 5 (the drive took me six hours and some change, which unnerved my mother) and my sister and I immediately decided to drive over to Waites Island after we tossed my suitcase and stuff into the house. We got 100 feet away from the house and ran into some horses who we assumed had escaped. We ended up taking them back to the barn- but I'm pretty sure they were actually let out on purpose. Whoops! Anyway, we went to the island after that. There are more shots after the jump.