beowabbit | The past week-and-some

Wow, it's been a busy ten days or so. Sorry this is a bit rambly; I'm too brain-fried to edit it down much. But I was good and I did <lj-cut> it.

Trip to North Carolina and visit with onemintjulep: I took off after work on Wednesday the 25th and went to Hartford (ish) to see the ever-fabulous onemintjulep, who was just back from a somewhat scary trip to West Virginia. We had a wonderful, wonderful time hanging out and catching up, and he fed me copiously. onemintjulep rocks, but you all know that if you know him.

Then on Thursday morning (well, I think it was before noon :-) I continued on down to North Carolina to visit my sister and her sweetie/fiancé, along with my mother and stepfather — all of whom are most excellent people, I might add. It was lovely weather and an easy drive, but the traffic was heavier than I remember being used to, and I didn't get there until about 1:00am. (I was surprised and pleased that everybody was still up.)

There was some stress I hadn't been expecting, but overall it was a great trip. This was the first time I'd been there since my sister's fiancé moved in with her, so I got to see more of him than I've seen on previous trips, and a lot more of his friends and family. Highlights of the trip include a shower (at which I got to meet the little boy my sister cared for as a recent job and his parents, who were throwing the shower), a really awesome used book-, music-, and comic-store where I got a Krazy Kat collection, among other stuff, the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, which is a sort of combination petting zoo and science museum, and good company and good food. At the Museum of Life and Science we spent a lot of time in the butterfly exhibit, and I hope to post pictures of pretty butterflies and cute animals soon.

The drive back on Sunday saw considerably worse traffic than the drive down. I left earlier, but didn't get home (if I'm remembering correctly) until significantly after 3:00am!

Tuesday at the Diesel after picking up docorion: After work on Tuesday I picked up docorion at the airport, whereupon we immediately went to the Poly Boston social at the Diesel. There were a number of people who had come specifically to see him, which made me feel really glad I'd mentioned his attendence in my journal. I was glad he got the chance to connect with some people he hasn't gotten to see in a while. And of course I had a marvellous time myself.

Wednesday with docorion and mizarchivist: mizarchivist and I had made plans to do dim sum on Wednesday. (This means I was lying earlier today about when I'd last had dim sum on two counts.) Since docorion was going to be in town and I figured they would enjoy getting the chance to hang out, I suggested that we invite him along, which we did. We had yet another wonderful evening of hanging out and catching up. Are you detecting a theme yet? beowabbit likes his friends. When I dropped mizarchivist off at home I also got to say hi to quiet_elegance and purple_terror.

Dinner with my friend Cory on Thursday: On Thursday I had yummy dinner and conversation with my non-LJ-assimilated friend Cory at her house. She taught me how to make Chinese peanut sauce for noodles, which is something I'm looking forward to trying, and we had a great long conversation. She also gave me a copy of the game Password for my birthday. Cory, by the way, is wonderful.

Dinner with sionnagh on Friday: On Friday I met sionnagh (at the Worldcon site; she and docorion have been attending Worldcon) and we got dinner at a nearby food court. That was nice; between Worldcon and other pleasant things in her life and my travels I haven't seen much of her lately.

She was going to pop her head back in at Worldcon for a while while I did a bit of shopping, and then (schedules permitting) we were going to reconnect to take the T back home. (She's not staying at the con hotel.) But unfortunately we had significant cell phone problems that made it impossible for us to get back in touch, and I ended up taking the T home alone. Might have been for the best; she got to spend a lot of time at some parties, and I was pretty tired.

Saturday birthday party: Saturday I went to a birthday party at a good friend's house, which was lots of fun. It was great to get to see her! Except for a couple people who stopped by briefly, I didn't know anybody there besides the birthday girl, but everybody was good people and it was a good time. It was kind of an artsy-craftsy affair, and people were sewing and playing writing games (and Psychiatrist; we're evil).

Dim sum and the gym on Sunday: Sunday I went out for a wonderful group dim sum organized by a friend visiting from out of town. Yay! Good company and good food (albeit too much of it). And on my way to the T station afterwards, I discovered that Juice Bar in the Chinatown Eatery (that's its name, according to the business card: Juice Bar. I'm too lazy to look up the Chinese, but the first two characters look like they could be "juice".) sells coffee shakes with tapioca pearls. I am a happy beowabbit.

Then I went to the gym at work, for the first time in something like three weeks. (It's been a very busy few weeks!) Since it was a weekend, I had a nice leisurely workout. I discovered that starting on Tuesday, the gym is going to be open 24/7! That's excellent news, since I very often stay at work too late to get to the gym. Probably means I'll be able to get there more consistently.

Today, ending with dinner at Dalí Today I dropped sionnagh off for the last bit of Worldcon, went in to work for a bit — I had today off, but I needed to shepherd along a backup — and went to the gym again for a short workout.

Tonight, sionnagh and docorion and I went to Dalí (a wonderful tapas place in Somerville), at sionnagh's suggestion. I really like that place. When we got there, they first told us there would be a 25-minute wait, but before we sat down to wait a table opened up, so we were seated immediately. The food was very yummy, and we had a great time. It was a wonderful little celebratory goodbye dinner. Yay! It's been a great summer with sionnagh, and I'm so glad I got to spend a couple nice chunks of it with docorion, too!