Return Trip

I'm back early from Virginia. I was supposed to stay through the weekend, and don't get me wrong, I would have loved to...but Tuesday night we went out with Alex's friends for St. Patty's Day and got drunk, and Wendesday morning we got in a fight. Normally I can put up with a lot, but since I had gone down there in the first place to escape some local drama and bullshit, I couldn't handle any more. When she went to pick up her brother at the airport, I wrote her a letter, packed my suitcase, and left.

Since I had nowhere to be, I stopped less than an hour north of Roanoke to see one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World: Natural Bridge. I took a bunch of pictures that I have yet to take off my camera, but you know the drill: I'll post when I do. The walk was really nice, and I did my best to enjoy the beautiful summer weather before heading back up north.

The drive home was not quite as uneventful as the drive down, though nothing terrible happened. I got stuck in two hours worth of stop-and-go from route 66 in Virginia to the 495 beltway in Maryland into I-95. By the time I reached the outskirts of Philadelphia, the sun was down, and it was pitch dark when I pulled off the highway. My cell phone was dead, so I called mom from a pay phone in what seemed to the sketchiest district of Philly I could possibly have found. I explained why I was on my home, and she told me to get a hotel for the night if I was too tired.

Not tired yet, I got dinner at McD's (after having had lunch at the same) and got back on the road. In New Jersey I started looking for a hotel, but somehow I ended up over the bay and lost in Manhattan. Well, I can say I've been to New York now! After recovering from that, I wandered around for a while in Secaucus, then got back on the turnpike. I was really getting tired when I hit Stamford, Connecticut, but after getting lost there too, couldn't find a hotel less than $180. Back on the turnpike.

I finally found a Motel 6 somewhere just south of the Massachusetts border off of I-91 and crashed at about 1:30 in the morning. I finished the drive to mom's house the next day, and that's where I still am. I still have not caught up on the reading I that I swore I'd do. Some of drama has finally cooled off, due mostly to various people studiously ignoring each other. I'm moving in with Marie tomorrow, returning to work on Monday and school on Tuesday. It'll be one hell of an obnoxious commute from her place to the corner of Massachusetts where most of my life is, but I'll survive. The worst part will be the times I get out of work at 2am...