FRIDAY
Friday had the potential to be a great day, but mostly it was just frustrating. Company usually celebrates St. Patrick's day with employees being intoxicated by noon and lots of kitchen activity. I agreed to contribute 2 packs of bacon, a roll of sausage, and pancake mix (for Guinness pancakes, which I do not partake of, but I knew I could ask for a batch of regular pancakes). I asked that someone pick up green Krispy Kreme doughnuts on their way into work, or I'd do it if I could count it as company time. That idea was frowned upon.
I was told that we'd start festivities around 0830, which was perfect so I could eat before my 0900 meeting. I purposely didn't eat breakfast to save room for work noms. Bad life choice. There was nothing ready for eating prior to our meeting and I had a 1000 physical therapy appointment (the only available appt within 7 days of making the appointment).
As our 0900 meeting ended, someone said that Coworker who was bringing in doughnuts had arrived. Praise Allah. I crammed a delicious, still warm, green glazed doughnut down my throat and decided to just come back to the office after my meeting to be able to "celebrate" a little. Twin Dad also gave me a slice of the sausage he'd cooked, which I gobbled down. As I left the office, I grabbed a doughnut with green icing on it to deliver to Teh German. It was a peace offering of sorts. I don't even remember what I was being a bitch about anymore.
After dropping off his doughnut, which he later commented was a perfect addition to his fresh coffee he'd just refilled right before I arrived, I headed to my PT appointment. It was torture-tastic. I got a few new exercises to add to my regimen. Afterwards, I headed back to work. I had left my lunch at home that morning since I knew I'd be eating at work, so I was starving.
When I got back to the office, there were Guinness pancakes, Bailey's syrup and whipped cream, and eggs. No bacon, no sausage. I made a plate with 2 pancakes and an egg and went back to my desk SUPER pissed. Before I let myself get entirely amped up, I asked if anyone had saved me a piece of bacon. Nope. AND THE RAGE CONSUMED ME. I tried to eat the pancake, but didn't like the beer flavor or the super sweetness of the syrup/whipped cream, so I gave up and just ate the egg.
It was everything I could do to stay at work in my rage state. I didn't really have any tasking to distract me. As tends to happen, about an hour before I was going to leave, something came in and I was glad for a task to distract me from my hunger-rage. Oh this makes me remember what I was pissed at Teh German about.. selfishness (aka that pretzel situation from the weekend prior). I'm that person that would have said, "So and so isn't here, we should totally save them a bit of everything so they can enjoy it when they get back." That doesn't seem to be the case with so many people and my struggle with that is real right now. Also, no fucking bacon. The principle alone of the person bringing in the bacon not getting a piece should piss off everyone else too.
After I overhauled the document I had received, I sent it off and headed home. Despite the soreness from my run on Wednesday and the gym on Thurs, I was determined to run on Friday before we left for NC. I changed, dropped Meri and Phil off at Roux's house for some play time, and got 3.5 miles in. I even passed my physical therapist while he and his stepson were on a walk. I had warned the physical therapist that I was planning on doing the Bridge Run and that I was going to start running again. We agreed that if it hurt, I'd stop, but that really the only thing that could happen is if it is a tear, it would just make it worse and it would probably already require surgery to fix it, so really not that big of a deal.
Everything hurt because I was so sore, but I spent a LOT of time rolling and stretching when I got back home with the beasts which helped immensely. After I showered and finished packing my half of the suitcase, I headed downstairs. I remembered the box I had thrown inside as I was leaving with Meri and Phil and went to see what it was.
It's really good I didn't look at the box when I threw it inside, otherwise I probably wouldn't have went on my run! Wedding invitations! Excited, I opened the box and checked all the contents. Exactly like I had dreamed they would be.
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| No, you don't get to actually see them. |
Eventually, Teh German came home. He ate dinner without me, which only fueled my "everyone is a selfish asshole" fire. While he packed and showered, I ate dinner alone. Teh German and I had already discussed eating dinner at home instead of stopping somewhere on the way to NC. After dinner, I started arranging the back of the truck for the dogs. Teh German had already put the seats down, so I laid down a comforter and then went through the hassle of figuring out which dog beds to bring with us (way more complicated than it needed to be).
Eventually, we were all loaded up and we finally got on the road.
We made it to Teh Dad's house shortly after 10, which was super good time. We chatted for a bit and then it was everyone's bedtime.
SATURDAY
Teh German got up with the dogs at 0545 to bring them out (which includes leashing them up and walking them to the "turnout area" (a small area enclosed with chicken wire)) but by 7, Meri was harassing us. I couldn't figure out what the problem was until Teh German informed me he hadn't fed them... Uh what? He didn't know where the food stuff was. It was on the counter, just like it would have been at our house. I had been trying all week to move on from the "everyone is a selfish asshole" thing, telling myself it was just me, to let things go.. but this definitely made me sigh heavily. Teh German ended up getting up and feeding them and coming back to bed. We laid there for a bit on our phones. I had messaged Teh WJL to see what she was up to. Her birthday was Friday and I was the awful friend who didn't even post anything on social media for her (unlike years prior), but did call her before we left for NC to sing happy birthday in German. We finally made plans to meet for lunch in Boone.
As I was about to jump in the shower to get ready, I got an email from the library that said a hold was available so I downloaded it. THEN I discovered it was an audiobook! How convenient since I had just finished
Lilac Girls the day before and was about to start the last unlistened to book I have on Audible. #win
We had lunch at Bella's where the service was absolutely terrible, Teh WJL's order was wrong (and they still charged us for it), and the leftovers made Teh German's truck smell like fish, but the food was good. After lunch, we headed to the outlets to look around. I ended up
finally picking up a new belt for Teh German, otherwise we didn't find anything we liked/in our price range.
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| SNNNNOOOOOWWW!!!!!!! |
After the outlets, we headed to downtown Blowing Rock for Kilwin's. There is actually a Kilwin's at the outlets, but we are snobs and downtown Blowing Rock is
our Kilwin's. I ended up getting the lemon mirange pie cone and it was a solid life choice. We walked through some of the shops and I ended up buying some pun greeting cards. #solidinvestment
Next, we headed back towards Boone. Teh WJL asked me if I wanted to go by TJ Maxx and I said yes. She had been looking for flats, I was just perusing. I ended up buying a new scrubber for the dishes (to replace the sponge (which we continue to use despite me knowing how gross it is)) and some face wipes. On Friday night, my face had essentially turned into the Sahara Desert. I wasn't sure if it was because the dry weather or if it was the face cloths I had brought with us. This has happened before, so I leaned on the face cloths. I'm still not sure, but these smell really nice.
While I was in TJ Maxx, Teh German messaged me to ask when I'd be coming back home and I committed to "by 6:30." We had plans to go to Sims Country BBQ for dinner. After we checked out, I dropped Teh WJL at her car and headed back down the mountain. I tried to talk her into coming home with us, but she resisted. We had so much fun, we even forgot to take a selfie together.
When I got back to Teh Dad's, I showed Teh German my purchases and we left soon after to head to BFE.
So back story: While we were on the way to NC, I did some research for things to do at Home, Home. There was an article of 100 things to do that I stumbled on which included gems like, "Visit a lonely senior citizen at a nursing home," "Order a livermush biscuit for breakfast," "Worship at the church of your choice this Sunday," and my favorite, "Develop your own adventure ideas as Home, Home offers countless opportunities. And don't forget to bring a friend!" Essentially, this list made me a connoisseur of things to do in the area which happened to be zero things for Saturday morning for Teh WJL and I. But it did help me think of an entertaining dinner idea, Sims BBQ. I remembered going a few times as a kid, but after discussing it with Teh Dad, none of us (Teh Stepmom included) had been there in years.
Sims BBQ is a "buffet" with bbq chicken, smoked pork, smoked beef, cole slaw, chips, bread, rolls, and beans. The real lure of the place is the live music that they have on Friday and Saturday nights. There is no alcohol on the grounds. Since it had been a long time since we'd been there, I was surprised at the "cash only" situation. Oops. Teh Dad ended up paying for all of us since he had cash. Then we were surprised again when we had to pay $5 for a pitcher of tea, rather than our drinks being included in the $12 buffet price. Water was free, of course. I pointed out later that we couldn't even get cell reception, so how were they supposed to be able to have a credit card reader? Teh Dad pointed out that you could just have a phone line and use DSL for internet, but then we both agreed that was probably too high tech.
The bluegrass music had Teh German bobbing his head. There were several birthday celebrations, to include 2 90 year old women. There was also a small group of exchange students (one from Africa (the country wasn't announced, just his continent, as if it wasn't obvious from him being the only black person probably within a 20 mile radius), one from Germany (which perked up Teh German's ears), and one other country). Technically, we were there for a birthday as well since Teh Dad's birthday was on Sunday. I didn't realize they were going to announce birthdays, or I would have added him to the list.
While the band took a break, they played some line dance music and Teh German joined me for Cupid's Shuffle and then headed back to the table. I joined in on the other 3 line dances (Cha Cha Slide, Grapevine, and Boot Scootin' Boogy) and after all that, I was tired. We didn't wait for the band to come back since most everyone had already cleared out, we decided to leave too.
It took us almost 10 minutes of driving to get back into cell phone coverage. When we got home, we noticed a bunny in the driveway and then we saw it dart off into Phil and Meri's makeshift turnout area..... We were trying to figure out how to help it escape, all the while the bunny is running full speed into the chicken wire boundary.. like a pinball machine. We were all cackling at the situation and the poor bunny after he finally escaped the way he had come in then tearing across the yard like a freed prisoner.
When we got inside, Teh Stepmom was working on cooking for something at church and Teh Dad, Teh German, and I started playing Phase 10. When Teh Stepmom joined us, we put her on the same level as the last person. We ended up playing through all 10 phases and Teh Dad won, much to my chagrin. Poor Teh German was stuck on 2 sets of 4 for no less than 6 rounds and I was feeling pretty bad for him. We ended the game around midnight and we all headed to bed immediately after. Right before we fell asleep, I reminded Teh German about the rabbit and we both giggled ourselves to sleep.
SUNDAY
We had agreed to go to breakfast a greasy spoon by 9. I took my turn with the dogs on Sunday morning and just stayed up. Eventually, I headed downstairs to rouse Teh German and throw on some clothes. We had breakfast and I expressed some serious concern about Teh Dad's health choices, that mostly seemed to come out as berating, probably. After breakfast, Teh Dad and Teh Stepmom headed to church while Teh German and I headed back to the house to rescue Meri and Phil and load up Baloo.
When everything was loaded, we put Meri and Phil in the truck and headed back to Charleston. I had given Meri a benedryl about an hour before we left to see if it helped calm her down while she was riding. It did help some, but it didn't completely alleviate her distress. She did at least have a few minutes of respite where she laid down her head and closed her eyes, but she was definitely not sleeping. We made the mistake of stopping for Starbucks and lost all the time we had gained because it took forever. Teh German went in while I sat in the truck taking selfies with the dogs. While we drove, I brooded about breakfast and Teh Dad being selfish by refusing to go to the doctor for annual screenings and discussed it some with Teh German.
When we got home, I helped Teh German unload the truck and the load of wood we had brought back with us. I got the dog beds re-situated in the bedroom and started dinner and when Teh German carried up the suitcase, he helped me put everything away and I started the laundry. I came back downstairs to finish up dinner.
After we ate, Teh German relaxed on the couch, catching up on his social medias while I went out to scoop poop and listen to my audiobook. When I came back in, Teh German suggested a few episodes of Modern Family, which I agreed to. I did tell him that I wanted to take a bath so the cutoff time was 8 for TV. He agreed.
At 8, I headed upstairs to soak in my own filth and peruse social media. Teh German eventually came upstairs and took a shower. After he was done, I showered and then we got ready for bed.
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Overall, a good weekend. We got to "celebrate" both Teh Dad and Teh WJL's birthdays. Without the bikes, our schedule was a bit more relaxed and I felt like we actually got to give people our attention instead of being around for meals, maybe. I'm glad we went.
This week includes Phil's follow up appointment where they take his blood and they bleed my wallet as well, more PT, and my MRI is on Friday... finally. I'm also planning on continuing the running since my hip has hurt LESS since I jumped back on the running train. #mybodyisweird
Happy Spring, Gentle Readers!
