May 22, 2002 - 10:02 a.m.
Hell I tell you, someone stuck me in hell when I wasn't looking. Today started out such like any other day in the past couple of weeks. The alarm went off earlier than I would like. I compensated with a few quick swipes at the snooze. When I say early I mean early ... even my cats sleep through the alarm now. Anyhow, quick shower, grab some things. Running late - so much for packing lunch today. Run by the gas station for some milk and a bagel to eat on the way in (this was a good move) since I forgot to eat breakfast in the mad rush out the door.
I am out of my little 'burb and only about 3-4 minutes behind that magic "I left on time" moment. I flip on the radio and settle in for my 40 minute commute. "Serious accident at Hunter's Mill in the center lane, things are looking rough on the Toll Road this morning. Expect heavy traffic from the airport to the beltway interchange. Bail out traffic on Route 7 does not seem to be faring any better this morning. Prepare for a slow ride in" Okay, slow ride. Annoying but survivable. An HOUR AND A HALF later!!! I am still on the road. This is not slow, this is some penance for a sin I committed with 20,000 other poor suckers on the road. When I finally got to the site of the wreck ... it was a fender bender. A bump, a scrape, a small incident. After waiting 90 minutes ... I wanted carnage, blood, body parts littering the highway! And what did I get ... a mustang on a tow truck with a slightly crumpled front end.
Ah well - on the bright side I had no morning meetings planned for today. It could have been tomorrow when I have a meeting here followed by some meeting downtown, we are carpooling. Being late for that series would have made a heck of a first impression with n'est pas?
Wednesday already, and no report of my weekend. In short it was great fun. I always have a good time when it involved going to Carolina and causing trouble with, I mean hanging about with Tricia. We went to Jongulerie, which narrowly escaped being rainy and icky. Instead it was damp and croquet filled. Note to self, croquet on wet unmowed grass, on soggy clay, on uneven ground has NOTHING to do with talent, hand eye coordination, or accuracy. It is all about faith and luck. My kind of game.
Misha was running the rapier activities and had some plan that the teams would play a round of bocce and that would determine who got what weapon based on your bocce score. I never did figure that one out. Anyhow as he started to mention this I made some wisecrack about combat bocce. Before I know it he has all the rapier fighters over and is explaining this elaborate scheme and calling it combat bocce. Something about your team mate "bowling" his ball and you getting to fence until it stopped rolling and then points based on score and ... I got lost. But it was really fun to watch. The moral of this story: Do not suggest things to Misha, even in jest. He will make them viable and inflict them on some poor unsuspecting souls.
Other highlights of the weekend included sleeping in, Cherry Garcia ice cream, the boys coming bay saturday night, seeing Attack of the Clones, fresh cranberry muffins, raiding Tricia's fabric stash and just being with friends. Now if I could just make Southern Pines a bit (like 5 hours) closer to home my life would be complete. Or something.
This weekend's adventure ... Trimaris Coronation to see the fabu Martin and Elizabeth get crowned. I will be sad to miss Sapphire Joust. I don't even want to guess how many years in a row I have been to that event (it makes me feel old to think of that, but I am sure it is in excess of 10 now). So all of you that are going to Sapphire are hereby asked to have a great time for me. I am sure that I will have a good time - around dealing with the airport on Memorial Day weekend. Hey, it was either that or a 16 hour drive each way, and I am sure that as much as I like Martin, I don't like him that much.
'Sides this also gives us an excuse to go see the big "Mouse in Short Red Pants" and ride roller coasters ... must make mental note to take sinus drugs (cause nothing is as miserable as being upside-down at 60 miles/hour with a sinus headache). Maybe this will finally get Rags off my case for the fact that I went to Disney without him, like _6_ years ago!!!
Well time to go do real work now.
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