#i did meal prepping on sunday which i haven’t done in … far too long. so i feel like im breaking out of the funk yipeeeee !!!

[tetzoro]

could it be .. ? it is !! HAPPY OCTOBER FRIENDZ ! the start of the month is always so exciting and i hope it brings you all love & comfort & everything you desire ! giving an extra dose of luck to all my writer friendz for this month ! may your kinktober / fics be great ! let’s all do our best this month and fill it with silly spooky vibes ! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ෆ

[this-lioness]

Another bullshit update on life in general

Work has kept me busy, and I’ve been trying to get more done creatively and around the house, as well.

This was the first weekend in awhile I didn’t do any (or much) meal prep, since we had enough in the freezer to last us for all the dinners this week, and even a few lunches for Marc.  I made a dozen eggs, cut up and roasted almost 5 lbs of potatoes, and called it a day.

I cancelled the physical therapist, because between work, gym, housekeeping and trying to do something other than being a machine I did not have time for an additional two rounds of exercises every single day.  We were getting up at 5 AM, leaving for work at 6:30 AM, leaving work for home at 5 PM, getting home from the gym around 7, then eating for a half hour.  It was not going to happen.

We ended up cancelling the gym membership, because -- as much as we want to go -- we are just too tired and hungry after an hour-long commute to be like, “Yay, let’s do something tedious and exhausting for a half hour!”

The long term goal was to cancel the membership anyway, however.  I told Marc I want us to concentrate on finishing the sheetrock in the former “cat room” this coming weekend so that we actually use it for its intended purpose, which was exercise.  I have that barre I bought last year that I haven’t had time or room to use even once, and the treadmill and hand weights is just sitting and collecting dust.  So anyway, that’s the plan for next weekend.

We will also be fostering two cats in the next couple weeks, and trying to find them a home.  Long story short we met an artist at one of the galleries downtown, very nice guy, and his friend or nephew or I forget has recently knocked up his girlfriend and decided, “Well, we need to move and get rid of the cats I guess!”

So they’re two year-old sisters, and he wants them to stay together, which is fine.  Like Rosie, they actually look very young, like maybe only 5 months old.  They have never been to the vet in their life, so no shots, and neither of them are fixed, which means it will be on us to take care of all that before they get adopted out.  I’m sure he’s going to be a great Dad [/sarcasm].

When Marc found out that the cats needed a full vet workup, including spay, he was initially resistant due to the cost.  I said okay, if you’re not comfortable with it you’re not comfortable with it, and went upstairs to investigate our options.  The Walmart just opened up a “Vet IQ” clinic that does basic veterinary care, and we can utilize a local spay clinic for about $50 per cat, so on that end alone we’d be shelling out less than $300 (there’s always food and litter, of course).

After awhile Marc came up and was like, “I think I was a little hasty, I’m sure we can make it work.” After I told him the anticipated costs he was much more into it, so that’s good.  Hopefully we won’t have any trouble finding a home for them.

Rosie is doing well at feeding time in her crate!  It has not stopped her from being an absolute maniac spaz about food, but there is almost no growling at all while she eats now.  She goes in her crate, Marc covers it up with a towel, and she eats with seemingly less hysterical anxiety.  I’ll call it a tentative win.

Rosie, by the way, loves Bones. Bones can usually take her or leave her, although his tolerance level is much higher when she’s not acting the spaz, although you see moments of affection for her as well.  She greets him with a nice long body rub when they cross paths, and yesterday Marc caught him grooming her head.  It does my heart good.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I’ve been doing much better at bowling for the past few weeks!  I did decently at league on Friday, and when we went for our Sunday practice I had a series of something like 145, 106 and 140.  Considering I was lucky to break 100 a couple months ago I’m feeling very encouraged.

What has worked for me, honestly, is throwing out a lot of convention wisdom.  Marc has always been very patient with me, explaining game theory and approach and all that, but no matter how much I tried to put it all together it just wasn’t working.  And I was really, really trying.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was chatting with someone about Dyscalculia, and did a bit more casual reading about it.  I was reminded that it often causes issues with spatial awareness, something I can absolutely vouch for (I actually suspect it’s part of what’s caused me to have such persistent problems with perspective and anatomy over the years, although that’s a discussion for another time.)

So I started keeping that in mind when we play: I used the techniques that I knew were helpful, but in any aspect where I was supposed to do one thing, but consistently got unexpected and problematic results, I tried to go more by “feel”.

It’s hard to explain why this works, but it has so far.  Basically, I had to throw out the notion of bowling at “angles”, and became more of a straight-shooter, keeping in mind that my ball does have a tendency to hook left.  I got something like 3 or 4 strikes in one game on Friday!

Which is not to say that I’m suddenly a good bowler, because I’m not, but I’m better, which is what I wanted.  What’s annoying is when (admittedly well-meaning) people are like, “Here’s what you’re doing wrong!” and try to teach me about techniques which I already know, but which just don’t work for me.

This happened two weeks ago I think, and I’m sure the lady meant well, but she also was ignoring me when I said multiple fucking times, “I understand, but I have spatial awareness problems, that doesn’t work for me.”

Like, repeating something at me over and over is not going to make it any more true.  I hear what you’re saying, you’re just wrong.

So in other news I finished two more of the Mori Girl Cats, and that dumb little werewolf thing that was strictly for my own amusement.  (Someone was like, “That would make a great t-shirt,” and haha, I’m not fucking falling for that one again.)  I also organized the office / computer area of the Geek Room, we stashed away the last of the convention stuff, and it feels much more clean and open and neat.  A place I actually want to hang out, and not anxiously work while avoiding the pile of shit sitting behind me!

Last night I also installed Sims 3 and treated myself to a handful of expansion and “stuff” packs.  I only had enough time to create one Sim last night, but I already look forward to giving him a cold.

…*cough*...

Unrelated, but I meant to talk about something that happened last Wednesday, when I was out running my Mom around to her appointments and whatnot.

So… for anyone who didn’t follow me on Facebook or my old Tumblr, the short version is that my Mom and I have a very long and complicated history. She was not a very good mother, she is a textbook covert narcissist.  She was an alcoholic for many, many years which caused serious and life-altering problems for me as a teenager and young adult, and after she got sober she transitioned to a prescription drug addiction which further deteriorated our already tenuous and fraught relationship, and landed both her and my stepfather in financial ruin.

About a year and a half ago, to help save them from the road to homelessness, we helped them sell their old house and moved them to Bucks County to live about 10 minutes from us, in a mobile home park.  We helped them get it fixed up, we help with maintenance, running errands, etc.  It’s a very cute little house, and although it took some time I think they see that now, and that their lives are better off.

When they first moved up here my mother was still on prescription drugs, but she very quickly found that it was impossible to find a new doctor to continue prescribing her the same pharmaceutical cocktails she wanted.  And boy did she fucking try. She’s already changed doctors at least three or four times since moving here, whipping out her favorite refrain of “I don’t think this doctor knows what they’re talking about!” every time they’re like, “Yeah, you don’t need to be on a steady stream of opiates.”

Eventually the lack of drugs caught up with her, the withdrawal passed, and for the past year or so she and I have actually gotten along okay.  She is still, and always will be, a difficult person, and I worry about whether or not she’ll find a doctor to start filling prescriptions again, but until then things are… okayish.

Anyway, that’s the long back story.

Back when they were still living at their old house, Marc and I would periodically go to visit them.  My Mom was always drugged out of her gourd, so I fucking hated going, but I had to do my duty, and she made every excuse imagineable for why she couldn’t come visit us.  So once a month we’d pack up, trek over to her house, order take-out, hang out for a while, then go back home again.

Except my Mother would do this thing where, after the food arrived, she would put the plates out, and then she would continue to gather plates and reorganize the kitchen while everyone was sitting down, serving themselves and eating.  

Like, the food would be on the table, we’d all be halfway through our meals and well on our way to being done, and my Mom would still be in the kitchen sorting around in the drawers for a mystery spoon or bowl that she needed, then finding it, washing it out, drying it, realizing it was the wrong one, putting it away, etc.

Eventually she would come out while everyone else was finishing up, serve herself a tablespoon of food, eat half, and then talk about how full she was.

For a while we would be like, “Mom… everyone is eating. We have everything we need. We literally don’t need anything else. Just come in and eat,” and she would ignore us.  Eventually I just stopped caring, and let her do her thing while the rest of us ate.  The sooner we finished the sooner we could leave.

I don’t know how else to describe her behavior apart from manic.  Like, when it was time to order, if I asked her for a menu, she would bring me the menu, and for fifteen minutes after I had called to place the order she would still be rooting through the drawers looking for more / other menus.  She would get herself so worked up that sometimes while we were sitting downstairs hanging out she’d have to go up and be sick.

All this just to give you a sense of what she used to be like.

Anyway.  I’m driving her home from an appointment on Wednesday, and she’s commenting how all of us just naturally turn into their mothers as we get older, even though we don’t want to.  In that I stayed dead silent through this observation I think she recognized that I disagreed.  So then she moved on to how different some daughters are from their mothers, especially in the kitchen.

And she said to me, “Like when I cook, I have to clean as I go along, I can’t just put everything in the sink until later.  Remember when you used to come over to eat, and you’d say to me, ‘Mom, come and eat, the food is ready!’ and I’d be so busy cleaning up that I wouldn’t even realize!”

And I’m like, “....”

Because that’s not what happened.  That’s not even fucking remotely what happened.  So she has spun the reality where she is an out-of-control manic drug addict and spun it into a funny story about how she’s such a neat freak that she doesn’t realize it’s time to eat.

I was sorely tempted to correct her, but at the last second realized it wouldn’t make a difference either way.  She is never going to look back on her behavior with any kind of clarity, and trying to force her to do so would just make the day end on a sour note.  If she wants to live in delusion, that’s on her.  I can tolerate it, but I’m certainly not going to feed into it by saying something like, “Yes, that’s precisely how it happened.”

She’ll have to learn to interpret the silence on her own.

Anyway, I guess that’s it.  Greatly looking forward to getting home and having a nice night on the couch, or maybe playing Sims some more.  I may even make some tea.

I hope all of you are doing well <3

[mollydollyjournals]

I made a weekly schedule for myself. I haven't included studying yet but I'll get to that tomorrow - it's late and I'm sleepy and I really should sleep as early as I can. I have everything else on it so far - media that comes out (like podcast/streams/YouTube/anime), household chores and workouts. Tomorrow I'll figure out what to study on what days, and start on a meal plan and meal prep and stuff.

Years ago before my fatigue got really bad, I had a kind of routine. I was with my ex and he worked regular office hours, so I'd go see him on Friday, stay over til Saturday. Sometimes he'd be doing something else on Friday night so I'd go over on Saturday instead. It meant if I wanted to look my best by then, I'd do most of my weekly self maintenance on Thursday. Take off my nail polish and do a fresh manicure, stuff like that. And on Tuesdays I did laundry. It was either Monday or Tuesday my friends met up at a local pub - I think Tuesday. Granted, I lived with my mum in a town where I could walk anywhere I needed to go and didn't have as many health problems. And there wasn't a pandemic. But having a weekly routine is something I think was good for me.

For some reason laundry on Tuesdays has always stuck in my mind. So I put that in my new schedule. I had to make Sunday the day to sort trash and recycling because Monday is when it's collected, and a couple of other things had to be on specific days because of stuff like that. I wrote in days to do specific workouts but the cleaning will also be a lot of energy so if there's a big cleaning job that day and I can feel it working the right muscles or being cardio or something, I can keep that in mind and do a lighter workout or whatever. Saturday is a day off all cleaning and working out, which means if I want to drink it should be on Friday after I've got everything done.

The problem is it's a lot. The schedule. The reason my house and body are such a mess is that I struggle to keep up with everything required to maintain them. I do have a bit more energy now that I'm not drinking every day and my thyroid is properly medicated, but I'm still not someone that can do a lot. I still need 11-12hrs sleep every night and I really can't function well if I get less. Often one thing that happens is I make a schedule like this, then I can't get everything done on one day, so one thing rolls over to the next day and I fall behind, and everything keeps getting pushed back because I can't catch up. Then I get overwhelmed and the whole thing falls apart because I'm back where I started with just a list of everything that's overdue.

I'm thinking this time I won't have rollovers. If I don't get something done on Wednesday, I don't have to worry about it on Thursday. It means it might not get done until next Wednesday but that's kind of no worse than it would be right now anyway. I go weeks without doing laundry. I often just buy new stuff. It's a terrible habit but I just don't have the energy to keep up with it. So if I miss it one week, oh well. I'll only deal with rollovers if I get everything done for that day and still have some energy - eg I miss a chore on Wednesday, on Thursday I do all my Thursday chores and if by then I'm tired I stop but if I have some energy then I do the thing I missed from Wednesday.

That only counts for chores. For workouts, I think if I did any rollovers it'd just tire me out. I'm already going to have to give a lot of leeway. I figured if I'm kinda tired one day, rather than decide whether to work out and be too tired or not and be lazy, I'll do a less intense workout. So for each type of workout I'll have a high intensity version, medium and easy. That way I should be able to do something most of the time. In theory at least.

Tomorrow is Friday, which coincidentally is a fairly easy day on my schedule, but I also won't be able to go right into it anyway. I still haven't made space for my exercise bike and stuff, and I'm still on my period and having energy fluctuations. I wasn't as bad today as yesterday but I still feel pretty wiped out. So I've kind of just made a lost of things to do and I'll just go through them in that order as and when I'm able to, and hopefully by Monday I'll be able to get going for real and will have done some bits.

I'm really bad at sticking with plans though. Having ADHD and autism means I need routine but also can't do it. It's such a weird combination and it's weird that it's also so common. Then there's my physical health issues getting in the way. I guess a lockdown is the best time to try it because at least I don't have anything else that I need to make time for.

Bf is getting his first jab soon. I'm really glad. I'm also scared, for myself. It's been so long since I saw him. I could have reached my goal weight. I could have lost 2-3lbs a week and reached my goal weight. I could have seen him again for the first time in ages and actually looked nice and been confident. But instead I'm still the same. I keep seeing posts saying like 'forgive yourself for gaining weight during quarantine' and logically yeah sure, but emotionally no. I can't. That thought keeps going through my head. The one good thing about lockdown was that it would at least be space to hide away and work on myself. Like a cocoon. And I haven't even done that. Bf is getting his first jab, lockdown will start to ease, I'll be able to see him and some friends again. And I'll still be fat with disgusting skin and bad hair.

It feels like I'm just hitting every deadline for change being exactly the same. I can't pretend this time will be any different. I'm really trying. I have different rules for how to handle my schedule and some things are different. But some things have been different before and I still didn't manage to change anything. So I still can't believe that things will actually work this time. It's hard to be excited or motivated when I know how many times I've tried and failed.

[writingdayandnight]

Sunday Dinner -Mike Dodds Imagine (SVU/Blue Bloods Crossover)

Pairing: Mike Dodds x Reader 

Word Count: 1245

Request:  Hmm imagine/Drabble for being the youngest Reagan daughter and dating a member of SVU squad? You pick who:)

A/N: SVU has made me angry too many times to count on two hands, but why did they have to play Dodds like that? He would have been so good for the team, like best friends with Carisi and Liv’s new babysitter good. I really miss him.

***

In only a matter of months, you had fallen in love with Mike Dodds. You never thought it would start that way, considering he was your Sargeant and your fathers constantly butted heads. Though something pulled you two together.

When Mike Dodds showed up in the precinct before anyone else, you knew he was going to be a stickler about rules. His appearance shouted, ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ You were a bit worried; SVU is a place where rules are more like guidelines.

“You must be the new guy,” you smiled, extending your hand, “I’m Y/N Reagan.”

“Mike Dodds, it’s nice to meet you.”

You were glad he didn’t acknowledge your last name and just went on to ask about the squad. You told him about the different members, explaining their quirks and who tread lightly with. He seemed to be a really nice guy and he understood the annoyance of having a high-ranking father, so you were automatically rooting for him.

Later that night, you received a call from Eddie, your brother’s partner. She asked if you were interested in a blind date with a guy she grew up with.

“He’s tall, polite, and a cop, just your type.”

“Eddie, I told you I’m done letting you play matchmaker with my love life. Try Erin or maybe I’ll ask Amanda.”

“Y/N, he’s the perfect guy. Just give him a chance and I promise he’ll be exactly what you’ve been looking for.”

“I haven’t been looking that hard,” you sighed, “fine, I’ll go. What’s his name?”

“Yay!! His name is Michael.”

You told her to get some sleep and stop worrying about your love life. You hated dating, especially blind dates, but Eddie loved them. Maybe it was a good thing; free food and an ego boost, if all went well.

You arrived at the restaurant Eddie told you to meet him at, asking the hostess where you could find this Michael guy. She directed you to a table towards the back of the restaurant. The further back you went, the more guilty you felt about agreeing to dinner at such an upscale place.

"Here's your table," she smiled.

Your date stood, turning to you and immediately bowing his head.

"Dodds?"

"Reagan, I swear this was all Eddie. I had no idea it would be you," he said, flustered beyond belief.

"I wouldn't put it beneath her," you chuckled, "there's no use in wasting a good meal now. Plus, you're not some creep. You're a gentleman."

His head popped up, your eyes meeting with his. A smirk crept upon his lips.

"What's your deal?"

"You think I'm a gentleman, that's cute," he laughed.

"I'm a Reagan, give it about three minutes and you'll regret saying that," you blushed.

Your night with Mike went surprisingly well. You learned a lot about each other, like how much you both cared for your brothers and mothers, but had lost them in different ways. He also laughed about the numerous times his father would come home, yelling about something your father had done.

He also told you how lucky he was to have work with you at SVU. He said that everyone was really intimidating and you were the only one that didn't hate receiving orders from him, besides Carisi.

"Just don't make giving me orders a habit. You're coming close to the end of your three free months of authoritative power. After that, Carisi is all yours," you giggled, taking another sip of wine.

Mike joined in the laughter, earning you a few spiteful glances from the other patrons. You tried to stifle your laughter but it was to no avail. At this point, you weren't even laughing at your joke, you were getting giddy over Mike's laughter. He had always been so uptight, it was nice to see him relax. It was also extremely adorable.

Soon enough, your laughter ceased when the waiter delivered your check. You offered to go halfsies, but Mike denied, saying that it was the best "date" he had been on in a long time.

That marked the beginning of your relationship. You kept it a secret for the first year or so but after a run-in with death, the truth came out. Even though it resulted in an earful from IAB and both of your fathers, it was nice to finally be open with your friends and family.

Being open brought about its own added difficulties, though. Ever since Erin found out that you were dating Mike, she had been pressuring you into bringing him to a Sunday dinner. You wanted Mike to meet your family, but not all at once with debates occurring and tensions flaring.

"Mike," you called out, asking him to come over to your desk."

"What's up," he questioned, noticing the look of agony on your face.

"Do you want to go to Sunday dinner with me this weekend and meet my family," you sighed.

He looked puzzled, "do you not want me to meet your family?"

"No, I do, just not at Sunday dinner. It's like philosophical chairs but with more wine and more yelling."

"I think I'll be fine."

"You say that now, but just you wait."

That Sunday, Mike picked you up. You nervously tapped along to the radio, watching the buildings pass outside the car window. Inviting Mike was either going to be the best or worst idea that you ever had.

There were a few quick introductions before church started, but you knew no one would make a scene in front of a Catholic church. The real test would be dinner.

"Everyone seems nice so far," Mike said, getting into the car.

"If anything happens, just make conversation with the boys and Jamie. They're the neutral ones. You can also do what I do and stuff your face with more bread to avoid confrontation."

"Y/N, I don't think I've ever met someone as dramatic as you," he laughed, heading for the Reagan household.

When you arrived, you headed straight for the kitchen, dragging Mike along with you. You told him it would be safest in there, since it was usually just you, Erin, Linda, and your grandfather.

You were thankful that your grandfather only had a few questions for Mike during prep, which consisted mostly of talk about work. He seemed to get along great with him.

Dinner was ready to be served, so you told Mike to sit at the table while you brought everything out. He immediately got into a conversation about a new policing procedure with your father and Jamie, agreeing that it had immensely benefited the NYPD. You knew he was just blowing smoke up your father's ass, but he was doing a good job at it.

"He's a cutie," Linda smirked, as you walked into the kitchen, "he's head over heels for you."

"Linda, you've known him for like two hours and most of that time was spent in church."

"I know true love when I see it. The way he looks at you shows it all."

You smiled to yourself as you grabbed the last plate and headed toward the dining room. Everyone was laughing, having a good time. It made your heart burst.

"Y/N, this guy's a keeper," Danny said, gesturing to Mike.

"I know he is," you beamed, hoping that every Sunday dinner could be as peaceful and heartwarming as this one. It was definitely one for the books.

[suitcasetales]

The Ice Cream Chronicles

It wasn’t supposed to happen this year. It was supposed to be biennial. It first happened in 2016. And again in 2018. But now, in 2019 it has happened.

What is “it?” you ask? “It” is Sue visiting us during the Richmond Folk Festival season thus proving that once the Richmond Folk Festival grabs ahold of you, even the most disciplined person cannot escape its grip.

And so she came early enough to have a little fun before it, help with “Site Set-Up“, work hard during the Festival weekend and then have some fun afterwards. I looked at our Facebook posts over the last two and a half weeks and it looks like all we did was have cocktails [well, Janet and Sue did anyway!], eat delicious meals and try out ice cream joints. And that we did. But there was more.

Sue has been to visit us several times so we try to always find things to do that will be new to her and sometimes, even new to us. We kick started this quest with a visit to the rooftop bar at Quirk. 

As we anticipated visiting the galleries during First Friday Artwalk, the Inwood sisters enjoyed cocktails and we ate burgers (beef and salmon) and took in the views. We left enough time before the fire dancers of Gallery 5 street performance to patronize Stoplight Gelato Cafe.

The next day, we went to what we consider our home park, Pocahontas State Park, and hiked about 5 miles. (If you are local and haven’t been to PSP lately, finally after miles and miles of exciting new mountain bike trails, there is a new “no bikes allowed” trail that runs alongside the northern bank of the reservoir and can easily be broken down to shorter loop hikes.) We had dinner at Savory Grain before an evening of laughter and entertainment at VaRep with a performance of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.” And dessert? Ice cream at Charm School!

Way back in March, we attended the Folk Festival Team Leader kick-off meeting. That sounds pretty impressive until you consider how much work had already been done on the festival by that time. For those of us who oversee the different volunteer “jobs,” it as a time we began strategizing and brainstorming on how we can fill the 1300 volunteer shifts needed to successfully run and support the Folk Festival. Since then, we attended several more meetings and helped recruit volunteers at the Squirrels All-Star weekend event, the Watermelon Festival and the Pride Festival…..and anytime anyone brought up the Festival.

One of the most interesting volunteer positions is to be part of the Site Set-Up team. Seeing the behind-the-scenes work is fascinating and will make you appreciate the Festival even more....if that is even possible. (You should see the pages and pages of blueprints!) The three of us volunteered Sunday morningfor Site Set-Up and Janet and Sue did another shift Thursday morning. There are plenty of tasks to accomplish, no matter what your skill or strength level.

Beyond Site Set-Up shifts, our week prior to the RFF included attending the always delectable Folk Feast (where one of the dessert selections was Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches).

On Wednesday, the final Team Leader meeting is always held on site. At this meeting, we receive our credentials, gather for a Team Leader photo and receive our final instructions and pep talk from Festival Director, Stephen Lecky. I would say it is the calm before the storm but it is usually a pretty intense time as we all have our collective fingers crossed for good weather and a safe and successful weekend and we see how much is left to do on the site. Lastly, on Thursday night, ever since we became Team Leaders, it has been our tradition to bake Pumpkin Cookies which we take to the Festival Operations office on Saturday morning.

The 15th Annual Richmond Folk Festival was a success on every level. Besides a little rain late Sunday afternoon, the weather was perfect. Records were set in donations and beverage sales. We had, by far, the most successful turnout of our volunteers. We are humbled by the faithfulness of returning volunteers and over joyed with the number of new volunteers who showed up, worked hard and said they would be back next year! And three days at the Festival meant three days of ice-cream: two trips to the Gelati Celesti’s truck [grab the pumpkin ginger snap while it is available!] and a visit to a King of Pops cart.

Sue & Ricardo, one of the Bucket Brigade Team Leaders.

Sue was interviewed by WTVR and part of her interview aired.

After an exhausting weekend buoyed by the high of the Festival, I had to work Monday and Tuesday. Monday evening, my Aunt Carol hosted a family dinner with twelve of us enjoying Uncle Ray’s cheesesteaks and lemon pie (not ice cream!) for dessert. It was very nice that everyone adjusted their busy schedules to fit ours and it is always a treat to be in their lovely home in Ashland.

After work Tuesday, with Sue all packed up, we headed east to Virginia Beach. On the way, we stopped for dinner at Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que, introducing Sue to the longstanding tradition of many generations of families headed to Tidewater. By nightfall, we had settled in to a First Landing State Park cabin which would be our home for the next three days.

The forecast was gloomy for Wednesday but we were able to get in a morning hike on the 2.5 mile Osmanthus Trail. It is one of my favorites because it goes through and over swampy areas with cypress and pine trees, cypress knees and atmospheric Spanish Moss. Due to the drought, the swamps were pretty low and besides squirrels, the only wildlife we saw was a small mud snake which Sue spotted (and photographed).

Once we finished our hike, it wasn’t too long before the rain arrived in full force. Our only choice, ha ha, was to go for lunch and a look around at The Historic Cavalier Hotel and Beach Club. Completed in 1927, it underwent a major renovation and reopened in 2018. The lunch prices are very reasonable and we freely walked around the hotel, admiring the lobby, the lounge, the pool and the distillery down in the basement. We valet parked for free and attendants escorted us with umbrellas to and from our vehicle and were tipped accordingly!

A shared dessert at Becca in The Cavalier:

We drove down to Rudee’s Inlet, showing Sue the heart of Virginia Beach (albeit in the rain so we couldn’t walk the Boardwalk or along the beach), and spent some time at First Landing viewing the displays at the Nature and Trail Center and talking with a naturalist there. Back at the cabin, we relaxed a little, showered before meeting friends for dinner at 6.

We first met Carol and Barbara back in the glory days of University of Virginia women’s basketball. We had begun following the team especially to watch Dawn Staley play. We traveled often to Charlottesville, a lot to away games and to the ACC tournament which is how we got to know them and other Wahoo fans. They live in Greene County and are avid birdwatchers and just generally good souls. We dined with them at Hot Tuna but sadly didn’t have time to patronize the ice-cream shop in the same shopping center because we had to hustle to their hotel room to watch Survivor. We were recording it at home but Sue was anxious to see her third consecutive episode. We are pretty certain it was the first time Carol and Barbara had ever watched it!

We woke to bright sunshine Thursday morning but high winds and I worried about the effect the latter would have on our plans for the day. We drove over to the Bay and walked on the beach for half an hour in very stiff winds. We met Barbara and Carol at 10am to take advantage of their skill, passion and expertise to birdwatch along part of the Cape Henry trail. 

(Below) Carol and Sue

Tall trees and moderate foliage protected us from the wind and although the sound of the fighter jets training overhead disrupted our conversations at times, the birds seemed to not be bothered by the noises or have learned to adapt to it along with all the residents, human and animal. We saw many more birds than we would have on one of our hikes and loved having B&C there to actually identify them for us. We also came upon a beautifully constructed bald face hornet nest. After a couple of hours, we headed back to our cabin for lunch and for Carol to mark our official bird list.

(Above) A hairy woodpecker. (Below) A bald faced hornet nest.

We bid C&B a fond farewell and then took advantage of the warm sunshine and took a protected hike in First Landing. We were supposed to do a loop trail, combining two rather long trails, including one that was especially nice as it skirted along the shore of Long Creek. However, when we got to where that trail split off, there was a sign stating it was closed. Mad as heck because it had also been closed 18 months ago when we were there, and not wanting to back-track, we kept walking until we could loop back on a more interior trail back to the Trail Center, a total of a little over 8 miles!

After all that exercise, we figured we could have anything we wanted for dinner! We went to Bay Local Eatery not far from the Park and Janet and I both had broiled seafood platters and Sue had Shrimp & Grits (she said it would be her last chance until next year to eat grits!). No ice cream was on the offer but the waitress sold us on the homemade Key lime pie so we split a piece of it and it indeed was delicious.

After a trip to Target for “swimming costumes” since Janet and I both forgot ours, we were back at the Cabin, prepping for and planning our getaway the next morning. We had places to go…..and maybe, if we were lucky, more ice-cream to eat!