keeping track of the traveling:
in june, as soon as school was out, we went to cincinnati for 5 days. i had never been there and wanted to make that trek. it had been a long time since i had been to the midwest. it was an interesting town. i ate in a couple of chili places, collected different types of chili from the kroger, and discovered coneys, which are little mini-hot dogs with chili. never had seen those before. one day i went downt to the ohio river to the riverfront park area and walk on the purple people eater bridge. there was an art show out on one side of the bridge, and a riverboat churning under the bridge. i wanted to get down to the river and get a rock, but it wasn't set up to do that easily, so i left cincinnati without one. this journey was also noted as when i got told that austin had had sex for the first time with his girlfriend. it wasn't like i didn't think this would happen, but i thought it would be later. we were in east jesus, ohio, traversing 50 miles of 2 lane roads because the males in the convoy had a "better way" i.e. using the stupid GARMIN gps. note: they all suck and i can't imagine why anyone would use one. anyway, i cried when austin told me, but i didn't really understand why. he did. he said "you are crying because i am not a little boy anymore." and this is true. it was the beginning of a summer in which i found out how much i don't really know my son and how much i don't have any control over anything he says, does, or feels. the real reason we went to cincinnati was to play ball, and they won the tourney, which was nice. it was a fast 8 hour pedal-to-the-metal drive back home because austin had to get to the DIAMOND by 8am the next morning for his tryouts with the arizona diamondbacks (he made the team.)
next, a hot saturday was spent in williamsburg watching silly games on dusty field. not a fun day. nothing memorable.
JULY: austin went off to atlanta for 2 weeks. this trip was precipitated by a speeding ticket on the morning he left and a total meltdown by me over not being able to control anything, his being a total dick and obnoxious. not what i wanted to have happen at that point. but it did. and i think now it was a good thing. i went to bed that monday with a headache and pretty much cried and slept the whole day. in the long run, i think this was the break. since then, my parenting has been sketchy at best. i am now used to not seeing him for long periods of time, and find that when he is here, it just stresses me out because he never does what i ask him to do house wise. it is very upsetting and all summer i have felt devalued and disrespected. i don't know whether my acceptance of his sexual situation and hearing about it from both he and lindsey has made me less respectable in their eyes, but i don't think i can change that. i am not comfortable totally with the situation, but not because i disapprove so much as i don't care and wonder if i should. the birth control is taken care of, and i have more or less looked the other way concerning their activities. i know they have sex in the house. i have asked not to have it in my face about what they are doing, but they are pretty open and jokey about it, which weirds me out a lot. but again, i don't care really. i figure at this point i could make them feel guilty, make them sneak around, but what good comes from that? bad sex and lots of guilt. if they are going to do it, might as well make it stress free and pleasurable. what they do later in their lives, i don't know. and i don't know if i have made the right move or not, but the move it made. so be it.
the second week austin was gone i went to seattle, and i had a simply marvelous time. for the first time since pam and i were in new mexico, i was completely relaxed. i was totally enraptured with the weather, the flowers, the food, the culture, the people, all of it. if i could have stayed there longer, i would have.
before i left for seattle, i went up to petersburg, wva to uncle jack's farm. mom and dad were there also, and we helped him prepare for his annual 4th of july party. the memorable thing there was the UNmemorable bbq that he had made and it was tres bland. mom and i tried to doctor it up as best we could. mom was a bit irritated because she spent most of the time doing work for the party. daddy's hip went out and he was down for the count for a day. we couldn't walk to the creek or the barn because both places were overgrown with weeds. i spent some time doing puzzles and we did a bit of shopping. the fireworks were marvelous and i took some really good pictures of them. i discovered a broasted chicken place in harrisonburg off of the interstate at 33, and got some and took it home with me. that was the first time i had had broasted chicken since we at it at bob's diner in Sioux falls, sd.
there was a trip to nc. to play ball at unc and at campbell university. we stayed with kathy houlihan in youngville, nc and that was fun. she and jim have "retired" there and have a huge, lovely home. we gabbed all night. jim wasn't there (it was during the week) and we returned to richmond on a friday so that austin could leave on saturday to go to myrtle beach for a week with lindsey's family. the next trip was the following thursday, when i drove to myrtle beach and spent an amusing, but sleepless night in the "condo" that lindsey's father's girlfriend had gotten. it was not the size of my san francisco room, and everyone was sleeping in one room. i got no sleep, and listened to 36 songs by josh groban 3 times over and over on the IPOD. austin and i got up early and drove to lakeland, FL where he was playing for 5 days in the east coast showcase baseball deal.
august: and it started in florida, which i hate, and still hate. the weather was miserably hot. i did some shopping there, at a lot of hot dogs at the checkers stand. daddy flew down on saturday and i was glad he did that. it was the first time i had spent time with him alone in my whole life. we drove around during the day sometimes and went into lakeland, which is a quaint little town. we went looking for oranges one day, but didn't find any (out of season in that part of the state.) austin was in the tigertown complex in his dorm, so we saw him some, but not a lot. i went to orlando twice, once to pick daddy up from the airport and once to eat at bubba gumps at universal studios. we had a bad rain storm going, and austin went with us. we had quite a hike from the parking lot to the restaurant and there were tons of people despite the heat and rain. it just confirmed my resolve never to go to a theme park in the summer, period. on sunday daddy and i went over to tampa to eat cuban food at a restaurant recomended on roadfoods.com. we were both underwhelmed. it was pretty bland and i was pretty disappointed. but most of my food choices in situations like that are good, so i guess i can't complain too much. the holiday inn that we stayed in was nice and i had a huge room, king bed, and a fridge and microwave. daddy was down the hall from me in my own room. we put him on the plane and booked for virginia, an all day drive. we stopped and did get produce outside of daytona (oranges for the neighbors) and then straight home for the most part with few stops. i drove the first 6, austin the last 6 and we made it, again, in record time. the trip wasn't a waste in that austin got seen by all these scouts, but it was much ado about nothing. he didn't play the whole week except 3 at bats (l hit, l walk, l strikeout) and he pitched 2 innings in the last game of the whole tourney, the last day. i had to sit in the heat and sweat myself sick for 4 days to see it. he did pitch well, over 90+ and he struck out 3, including ozzie guillen's son. one walk, one hit. pretty quick work. he didn't get to play first at all, and it was obvious that some of the coaches had favorites who got to play all the time.
after we got back from florida, pam and i went down to visit chuck and linda barat in horsehoe, nc, which is south of asheville, and north of hendersonville. we had a fun, relaxing time. pam went to the biltmore and chuck and i went to the nc farmers market, where of course i went nuts. we went to a nursery where i bought black mondo grass and a pitcher plant. we went to the art district of asheville on saturday and went into several galleries. we ended up eating thai and shopping in hendersonville and that night played hearts and spades and listened to the classic vinyl station on XM radio, where i knew all of the artists! we enjoyed looking at the plants and gardening things, and they have a lovely koi pond and have done a great job of landscaping the place, which is up on top of a mountain. pam and i drove back via danville and southeast virginia, which i hadn't been in in a long, long time, so that was an interesting twist to traveling.
daddy had hip surgery, so i made a couple of trips down to the beach, but never got on the beach. i spent a day with my mother and we did a little shopping and went to pollards for dinner and out to lunch at a deli, where i had one of the largest reuben sandwiches i have ever had. i had decided to spend time with my mother one on one like i had with daddy. we were supposed to go to the beach, but it was very hot and she didn't want to do that, so we went shopping instead and i actually bought clothes. daddy did fine with his surgery and has continued to do well. i had thought i would go back and help them last weekend, but they didn't need me since he was doing so well. lindsey and austin went on wednesday and took them uncle al's hotdogs and visited for the day. when i was there that last time i ate a footlong hormel hotdog at danny's drive in on kempsville rd, and i was happy about that in that i had been driving past that place for 40 years and had never stopped and eaten there. it turned out that they have 3 kinds of hotdogs, gwaltney, hormel and nathans as well as deli sandwiches. it was a good stop!
i went back to school on monday and i have been tired, but cerebral all week. i have been in a flare since 8/4 and it has not subsided. i was supposed to have gone down to cary, nc yesterday for austin's baseball, but i just didn't feel good and bebo was going anyway, so it was all good. i think i just need to rest.
