Memorial Day Holiday Road Trip Part II: Monday

[candidevoltaire]

Driving to Maryland:  Woke up feeling more refreshed than usual thanks to the enjoyable dinner with ranchonmars et al the evening before, lazed in bed watching the telly long enough to catch one of my favourite eps of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on USA's all-day marathon, grabbed breakfast at the hotel's Johnny Appleseed-themed restaurant (Did he even go close to New Market, Virginia?), and proceeded on towards Maryland to attend tzel's cookout.  Driving DC's Beltway was like driving the Beltline at home what with people driving in two lanes at once and otherwise driving about as poorly as possible.  At least I missed rush hour.  Anyway, it was a short 2 hour drive, which was a breeze after Sunday's driving.  Thanks to snidegrrl's excellent instructions I got to tzel's well before the cookout started and got to see her have fun with the "fool proof method for perfect easy to peel eggs" while making deviled eggs.  Since I'm so naturally dexterous I volunteered to not make things worse.  The eggs were delicious, BTW.

tzel's Cookout:  Completely fabulous!  tzel did a great job hosting, managing to hide just how exhausting it had to have been for her, and provided a great spread of food.  I babbled way too much about the SCA with a fellow guest, though it did make me decide that I really have recovered from my SCA burnout and will join the Blacksburg, Virginia group, Barony of Black Diamond, once I'm back there.  Caught up with another friend I haven't seen in forever and otherwise chatted with all sorts of neat people to the point of almost wishing I lived up there.  Thinking about the joys of the Beltway popped that last bit pretty quickly, though.  Realised I really need a social life.  My biggest personal achievement was sometimes almost enjoying having the children at the cookout there.  I certainly felt proud that I didn't actually try to kill any.  Loved the ginger ice cream tzel made as well.  I really must have enjoyed it since I stayed about 8 hours and only left because I was starting to really zone out.

Crashing at snidegrrl's place:  Cleverly I had pre-arranged with snidegrrl to crash that night at her place since there was no way I would have been able to do the 5-6-ish hours of driving home after the cookout.  Since we were both so exhausted we only stayed up past 1AM talking with me showing off my fabulous dexterity by playing some Katamari Damarcy on the PS2 before calling it a night.  At most people's homes crashing usually involves a couch, floor, or an uncomfortable fold-out bed.  snidegrrl's crash space was a very comfortable four-poster bed in the guest room.  I suppose if stuffed animals creep you out it wouldn't be so great, given the huge collection of them, but I rather enjoyed them, especially the stuffed peeps that looked like giant sibs of the ones you find at Easter.  It was such a nice crash space and I'd had such a good two days that I actually lazed in bed well into the next morning enjoying dreaming.  OK, this doesn't sound like a big deal, but I haven't dreamed well in months.

Comments

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

The bed is actually an heirloom. While I constantly think about other ways I could use that space, I can never, ever get rid of it because it was my parents' first bed! Also because duh, I love having people stay over.

I have acquired the requisite books to send you, but have not made the promised mix cd. All in due time.