Get ready for a long one.
Had a productive/relaxing vacation. Spent Tuesday through Thursday going through my apartment, getting rid of stuff, bringing stuff down to MB’s. Oh, did I mention that we’re moving in together?
I’ve been wary about mentioning it here, but the move is going to dominate my life for the next couple of months. Seems crazy right? We’ve been together for barely six months, but sometimes you just know when something’s right.
I got my new lease early last week so I took that opportunity to call and say I wasn’t renewing, and ask if I could break it a month early. They were pretty nice about it, saying that if they could get someone to sign for May 1, then I could break it. Otherwise, I’ll just let my lease lapse on June 1. It’s good timing: they wanted to raise my rent a $100.
The brokers descended almost immediately, and were really annoying at first. I guess one woman was in competition with everyone else. She raced over to my place, saying, “I’ve been waiting for your apartment for so long! You couldn’t decide when you were leaving!”
I was like, Um, no, my place has been on the market for all of four hours. Dumbass.
I have nothing of value left in my place – except the gigantour TV, good luck toting that out of my place – so I had keys made for them and am just letting them show it whenever. My only request is that they call beforehand. Who knows if they will but I don’t really care.
Besides, I want to get rid of my TV, couch, bookcases, and other large pieces of furniture. MB’s place just doesn’t have room for that stuff, and I really don’t need it. Also, I’ve gotten several years’ use out of everything. Hopefully Craig’s List will help me purge all my junk.
It feels good to let all of those things go. I feel like they’re from my old life, and I’m shedding my old skin.
During my time off, I also:
Did my site visit for library school. The assignment is to visit a library, and observe for three hours. I picked the medical library of Sloan Kettering. They were extremely nice and helpful, and it’s a beautiful space. The highlight for me? Excellent coffee for 25 cents. Woohoo!
Went to the dermatologist. Waste. Of. Time. She barely looked at my face before trying to prescribe me oral antibiotics. It’s not like I have rampant acne so I didn’t want to take antibiotics if I didn’t have to. They always do a number on my stomach. So I went with the topical stuff instead. Who knows if it’ll work.
Got my taxes done. Got quite a chunk of return, which means I’m paying too much, but oh well.
Ran six miles. So I worked out just once during my vacation, but at least it was a good one.
Went to Charleston. On Friday, MB and I flew out to Charleston for a little vacay. It was an absolute madhouse at the airport, and we actually almost missed our flight. We were sitting there, keeping an ear out for announcements, but only heard the very last one.
Then we proceeded to sit on the runway for close to an hour. MB was pretty relaxed about it, which helped me be less antsy.
Got into Charleston around dinnertime. Our hotel was on the harbor side, so after settling in, we took the free trolley into town and ate at Magnolia’s, at the suggestion of the trolley driver. It was good Southern food – I had the fried chicken while MB had the shrimp and grits – but a bit overpriced.
Overall the weather was very nice. At night and by the water, it was chilly, but in the sun it was in the 70s. The sun was unexpectedly strong so that MB’s poor shaved head got totally burned.
We basically spent the whole time eating and walking around. The houses there are these beautiful old Southern homes, and it was cool to walk by the water and see birds that we don’t normally see, like pelicans and other sea birds which I can’t name. One looked like a black egret while another looked like a tern. And of course there were seagulls.
More highlights:
Ghost & Graveyard Tour. We wanted to do the Dark Side of Charleston tour cuz it was “rated R,” but it was sold out. The Ghost & Graveyard Tour was still fun though a little cheesy. Mostly the guide just told walked us around told some spooky stories.
The best part was when she took us to a cemetary, and told us about plat-eyes, a type of mischievous ghost from Gullah culture. Apparently they’re most active during the full moon – which it had been the night before – and take the shape of a white creature. Supposedly during a tour on the night of the full moon, a woman saw a white cat with green eyes in the graveyard we were in, and at the same time felt a severe stabbing pain in her side.
So after that we were all a bit creeped out and keeping our eyes out for a white cat. “I want to see the cat!” MB announced cheerfully. He doesn’t believe in any of that stuff and wasn’t nervous at all.
After the tour, as we were walking away, I said to him, “You wanted to see the cat,” and then a frigging cat jumped out at us from the bushes. It wasn’t white – in fact it was black – but that didn’t stop me from yelling, “Oh my God!” and jumping ten feet, at least according to MB. Some people from our group were behind us, and totally cracked up. We were laughing like crazy for a good long time.
Poogan’s Porch. This restaurant was a stop on the ghost tour and supposedly one of the most haunted places in America. Poogan was a dog who hung out there and died in 1979. Supposedly if you eat on the porch, you can feel a dog rub itself against your legs, and dropped food will disappear.
But the spookier story is that many years ago, two spinster sisters lived in the house. After one of the sisters died from a fall down the steps, the living sister, Zoe, went nuts and died in an institution. After the house was renovated into a restaurant in the ’70s, weird stuff started happening – people seeing a little old lady waving from the second floor after the restaurant was closed, stuff being moved around, and the topper, a woman who used the second floor bathroom, looking up to see the image of a little old lady in the mirror.
So of course we had to eat there.
The food was really good. We had fried green tomates, jambalaya, and crab cakes. For dessert we had their “award-winning” bread pudding. I don’t usually like bread pudding, but this was SO GOOD. Moist and not too sweet.
As we were eating, I sort of forgot about the spooky stories. Then the waiter was telling this other couple the Zoe story, and the woman said that she had gone to the upstairs bathroom earlier and felt totally creeped out, and that was before she even knew the legend.
So then I was like, “I want to check out the bathroom!” but then immediately started to chicken out. After some prodding from MB, I did go upstairs, and of course that bathroom’s light was off and the door partially ajar, which for some reason made it seem skerrier.
I was a total wuss and couldn’t go in.
MB was like, “You’re lame,” and went by himsef. Of course nothing happened. After we finished eating, we went together, and again, nothing. But we only stayed for two seconds, enoug
h for me snap a couple of pictures, and for MB to shut off the light, scaring the bejeezus out of me.
Charleston Cooks! Cooking Class. MB signed us up to my consternation. While I like cooking, I just don’t feel confident about it, and don’t like to do it in public. But then I thought, okay, it’ll be good to get out of my comfort zone.
Turned out not to be hands on but lecture style. It was still fun though. It was Easter Sunday so the chef made a ham, biscuits, greens and grits, and lavendar tea cakes. The glaze for the ham and the greens and grits were good, but the biscuit sucked, especially compared to the ones we had at Poogan’s Porch.
Dolphins, up close and personal. Another way to get into town from our hotel was the water taxi.
On one of our trips, we saw some dolphins, first in the distance, so subtle I thought I was seeing things. But then the water taxi guys pulled up to where the dolphins were and they swam right up to the boat. I’ve never seen a dolphin that close up in the wild before. The water taxi guys said they weren’t really supposed to drive up to the dolphins, but MB and I were the only ones on the boat – it was Easter Sunday – so they made an exception.
Back at work. It wasn’t as bad this morning as I anticipated. Some annoying emails and one particularly annoying phone call, but that’s all. Helped that I got lots of sleep last night. We flew in on a 6 AM flight, so going to bed at 11 was no problem.
While I was gone, my boss and team members worked more on trying to redefine our team. I so don’t care. I was very happy to see that I got second round interviews for that communications manager job I want so badly. I live for the day that I can see ya.