Slow Down

Wednesday

On Wednesday afternoon, I took off in a hurry. I had Allie’s flight times wrong, and wanted to leave her waiting at the airport no more than necessary. We all know waiting at airports is pretty far down on the list of “Pleasant Activities.” I left the directions to RDU behind on my printer, but I still drove straight there.

Delays in Chicago meant that I actually beat her to the airport by about an hour. I got a magazine and cleaned out the car. When her flight touched down, we were ready to bolt. Allie was looking great! Rumor has it that she’s on a diet…

We drove on down the way to dinner, then got ever-so-slightly off track on the way down to the beach. We ended up getting in at around midnight. Brady woke up, even though she said she wouldn’t, and we slid into our beds.

Thursday

Brady had to go to work early. Allie and I got up a little late and hit CVS for various items we had left behind, then Arby’s for lunch. After debating the merits of Spider-Man 2 versus The Bourne Supremacy, those merits were made moot by a bit of a problem popping up in work land. That tied me more or less to the computer for the rest of the day.

My normal behavior under those circumstances would be to bug out. I wouldn’t eat, I would worry, I’d put myself in the situation and get lost. Start making mistakes. This time, I took it easy, figured out what I needed to do, and did it. I stayed up late, but I got it done.

In the middle, we had a lovely dinner. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve spent in quite some time. It reminded me of how I used to feel within this skin, and how it wouldn’t be out of the question for life to feel like that again.

Friday

Brady works hard for the money, so she was out the gate early again on Friday. Allie and I again woke up a little later. We hung out with Brady’s roommates, then went to the beach for a couple of hours. Brandy, Brady’s friend, got stung by a jellyfish. It’s the worst sting I had seen in some time, and she had a hard time walking on it for awhile.

After that, I had a talk with the group that might be taking over for me on the OPGI 360 project. That conversation went really well, and I got some validation that I had been producing good work all this time. That felt great. I’m very hopeful that we can make this transition, so I can once again focus on one job.

After that, we went out to Murphy’s Law. It’s a pool hall and restaurant. It doesn’t have very much in common with Monkey Junction in Wilmington, except the vibe. We had dinner, then played a couple of games of pool and a game of darts. It was even more fun.

We finished off with a very emotional discussion session. We’ve all had our bumps on the trail, and we had a chance to talk about it in person. It was very powerful, and it was nice to have that feeling back as well.

Saturday

Everybody woke up a little late. As a crew, we all went into Myrtle Beach to have breakfast. It was really good, but I don’t know if it was worth the drive. After we dropped by the beach again, we went out to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner. We got some tuna and veggies. Since the girls weren’t confident in their grilling skills, I ended up on the grill. After a couple of bumps in the road, we grilled it up and had a tasty, home-cooked meal.

The girls watched the Olympics finish up, and I watched the college football season get off to an excellent start. VTech gave USC all it wanted, and both teams looked ready for the season, to say the least. It was very easy to root for Tech. After that, it was time for sleep! Allie and I planned to get up at 4:30 AM to get her to her flight on time.

Sunday

Gaston had been reported as being in the area the night before. It ended up just of the coast of Charleston for a long time, dropping rain on the area where we were. After we woke up at 2:30, it just rained and rained. Allie and I decided to get out of there, after seeing that the storm still hadn’t touched down. All we had to do was beat feet and hit Interstate. The plan worked like a charm, and everybody was home safe by noon.

Of course, then the trouble started.