Now
the intrigue, such as it is, can be revealed...
First off, let me say there was never supposed to be any intrigue about the Washington, D.C. trip. Originally, the post stated exactly where and why we were going. In fact, a few of you may have read the original post, as it was up for a few hours. But then Bubba came along and read it, and got all worried and so I changed it.
The whole reason for the trip was that a dear, dear friend of ours - from our
college days - was turning 40. And his wife was throwing a surprise party* for him, to which we were invited.
On the surface, it seems crazy to drive all that way (it turned out to be about 25 hours of travel time when all was said and done) for a party that is going to last three, maybe four hours tops, right?
And I acknowledge that yes, yes it does seem crazy. But my thinking was this: I've gotten to the age** where my friends are scattered all over the country. And with the exception of weddings, and funerals, we tend not to see these friends. Oh, we have good intentions, I'm sure all of us do. But it seems like we ever only really make the effort for weddings and funerals. And, again at my age, most of my friends are done with the former and hopefully we're all a good ways away from the latter. Hence the car trip.
(We decided on a car trip, because this time around we had a bit of time to take it - but not much money. Yes, there are fairly cheap plane tickets from ATL-DC. However, cheap tickets multiplied by three = suddenly not as cheap anymore!)Honestly - it was a long trip. Particularly Sunday, where we literally got in the car at 7:30 in the morning, and spent all day there, arriving back home after 8 in the evening (this includes stopping for meals, gasoline, etc.)
Fortunately, my boy,
Schecky, wins the award for best traveler in the whole wide world. Not once did he ask "Are we there yet", "How much longer?" or any of the pesky things I did when I was a kid in the for much shorter stretches of time. Particularly, when you realize there was nothing in it for him - he spent all that time in the car, and what did he get to do? Go out for appetizers at a restaurant with a few boring grownups he didn't know, and then on to a party full of boring old grownups - virtually none of whom he knew. Schecky, you're a champ!
But even with it being a long trip, and even though I think Bubba and I are still exhausted from it -
it. was. so. very. worth. it. I worry that sometimes I (and I don't know, maybe we all do) get so caught up in my own thing - my life, and all the minutiae that entails - that I don't always make the effort that I should to connect with the people in my life who mean so much to me, and who add so much to it.
So, was 25 hours on the road worth the few hours of face time to connect with a smattering of old friends? You better believe it. It was a fabulous time, and I got to spend time with not one, but two of my best friends from college. And I got to spend a lot of good talking time in the car with my two favorite people in the world.
And when you look at it that way - can you think of a better way to spend a weekend???
*And that word "surprise" was the reason for the unintended mysterious editing of the post. For some reason, Bubba decided to sit down and get caught up on the blog -which is odd, because he almost never reads it unless I ask him to proof something to make sure I'm not being too illiterate. Or too bitchy.
(So that's something to consider - whenever you read BadFortuneCookie, and I am coming across as either illiterate, or bitchy, or both - the post has probably been edited already to tone those elements down. How scary is that????)Anyhow - long story longer: Bubba read that I said that we were going up to DC for a surprise party for a friend, and he got all worried that our friend would somehow see the post and the surprise would be ruined. Never mind that there are exactly three people who actually know me in real life who read BadFortuneCookie, and not one of them exists in a sphere that would ever overlap with the birthday boy's. Nope, there was no way that blog post was going to ruin the surprise - but I just decided not to argue about it, and edited it instead. I figure it didn't pay to pick a fight with a man I was going to be stuck in the car with for a really long time. Not when I wanted him to do most of the driving, anyways!
**
38, for those of you who track such things....
