Chucktown Revisited

It's my third day in Charleston.

Ugh.

Half of me misses this damn city and the other half wants to get back in the car and hit the highway! I have so much of a past here and I keep looking over my shoulder thinking it's sneaking up on me. Nothing bad, mind you... just twenty years of memories of a person I no longer am... a kid making stupid choices, having bad relationships all the while trying to figure out who I am and where I was going. I suppose it was just the path I was supposed to take to realize the person I am today. I look at the faces when we are around town thinking I will recognize someone eventually. That never happens in Dayton. Of course I run into the occasional acquaintance in Ohio but it's not like here... my past is everywhere.

Damn... I do love this place and I miss my friends terribly. It's humid. I forgot how humid it is here. Forget wearing normal clothes during the summer. The less clothing, the better in this town.

The task at hand is to help my Mom out post-angioplasty surgery, which she had last Friday. Work gave me a bit of a hassle about FMLA. They wanted to mail me a certified packet in the mail with the FMLA papers in it. I had already downloaded them and faxed them to Dr. Eads to fill out. I told the billing director, Tonia, that there was nothing about FMLA that she could tell me that I didn't already know. I have been to countless training sessions on OSHA, FMLA, HIPAA... you name it! I could teach it if I had to! I did my part by having Dr. Eads fill out the paperwork. Tonia told me that she would fax it to HR in Columbus and get back to me. This was on Thursday and on Friday she didn't come in... so I left on Sunday. We'll see what happens when I return in a couple of weeks when I return to work. I know the law and I also know that Dr. Eads will provide me with whatever paperwork I need.

I arrived late Sunday night. The drive was long - I think it's just that I am getting older. I was a bit lonely on the road since my iPod died in Tennessee somewhere. My cigarette lighter doesn't work so I can't use the charger - I really need to get that fixed. I actually had to listen to CD's ~gasp!~ I did a couple of cache's in Tennessee and Kentucky, which was fun and broke up the monotony of the drive.

When I arrived in town, I stopped by my Mom's house to check on her and give her a couple of painting palette items that I had gotten for her over the past couple of months. She's an artist and collects anything with a painting palette on it. She belongs to a painting club and likes to show off her painting palette booty to the painting "yenta's". The competitiveness of the yenta's is quite humorous. They get all bitchy when she has something new and they always say "where'd you get that?? Pam??" Since she rarely goes anywhere, it usually it from me.

After a brief visit I went to Samantha's, where I am staying while here. Her house is so cute. I kind of felt ashamed since her decorating ability far exceeds mine. I gave myself the excuse that she own her home and I just rent my apartment so do I really want to invest in canopy beds and frilly things just yet?? It's definitely cute, though. Maybe if I had more money, my very own Vern Yip could do bit more with my apartment. We will have to work on that when IKEA opens. Take note, Vern!

Since Monday was a holiday I decided to hang with friends. I had plans to do some caching with Mark and eventually hook up with Devin. Well, Devin ended up pulling his back so he was laid up. I was really looking forward to meeting Nigel... hopefully next week! I never heard from Mark on Monday so I decided to go to California Dreaming with Samantha and Jackie. It was wonderful, as usual. After lunch Samantha decided to torture me by taking me to the Tanger outlet mall. I hate shopping. I am most definitely the kind of person that hates malls. If I need shoes, or a specific item of clothing, I go to the store, get it and then leave. There is no browsing or going from store to store! Now, if you bring me to an Antique or thrift store that is a whole other story!! I could stay in those for hours!

The shopping torture lasted until I complained. I mean, it was an outside outlet mall... it's Charleston and it's humid. I was cranky about all the hot and humid shopping so we left and went to Panera - Charleston's first Panera, I think. I got a much needed latte. This Panera sucked. There were hardly any baked goods on display - quite sad since they are setting the example for what Panera is. After that we headed to Samantha's Mom's for a visit.

Tuesday I picked up Mom and went on several errands that she had to run and then we had lunch. I had a meeting with Dr. Eads at 4pm to go over Mom's meds. He took her off a bunch and typed me a list of the meds he wanted her to stay on. It was good seeing Holly, Dr. Eads and Cathy again. The office has really grown - I miss working there.

I called Mark on the way home and we set up dinner plans for that night. I went home and Samantha and I changed clothes and headed out for Mark's. It was sooooo good seeing him after so many years! We went to the Voodoo Lounge for dinner, drinks and conversation. It was good to catch up with Mark. Karaoke started at 9pm and we tried our hardest to get Samantha to sing but she wouldn't. I reminded her that she sang 'La Isla Bonita' in front of all of Goose Creek High School but that didn't do the trick. She hates it when I bring that up. I was good since I was driving and had only one drink. They both had to work the next morning so we left around 10pm and made plans to go dancing Friday night.

Justin finally called on the way home - it was pouring rain and I was trying to drive so he chatted with Samantha a bit. He told me we sounded exactly alike, which I think is amusing. I miss talking to him before I go to bed each night. He had left his phone at work the night before so he could not call me and last night his phone was dying from not being charged since he left in the office overnight. It's difficult being him, I suppose :) We had a lovely night on Saturday. He picked me up and we drove to Xenia for dinner... some typical mexican restaurant where everything was too salty. We drove out to Blue Jacket to see 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. It was one of the strangest productions that I have ever seen! It was 'Legend' as a comedy. It was an ampitheater with no stage... actually the land was the stage - hills and all. Kind of hard to describe. After the show we went to Cold Stone Creamery. I think there is only one Cold Stone in Charleston, which is sad - you would think there would be more since Charleston and the suburbs have become the mecca of commercialization. He brought me home and we said goodbye for the next two weeks, with me being as patient as ever. sigh.

I am typing this in my Mom's dining room sitting next to my rowdy nieces and nephew who are talking about the MySpace "freak test" - I am scared since they are so young. I am thinking to myself that my kids will be so different. Mom and I are getting ready to head out for dinner and more errands.

The adventure continues...