Sunday night

We just got back a little while ago from a lovely weekend at the beach with our friend Wendy.

Wendy and Joe used to work together at the same County mental health center. They became very good friends, and when Joe left the County 10 months ago, he and Wendy promised their friendship would outlive their work relationship. They meet for lunch every other week or so, and stay in touch through email too.

Two or three years ago when Wendy expressed an interested in going to grad school, Joe really encouraged her to do so. They both knew it would be hard, working full time and going to school, but Wendy decided it was what she wanted. So she enrolled in George Mason's Conflict Resolution masters program. Fast-forward to now, and Wendy has graduated. So we decided to go to the beach to celebrate her achievement.

Despite the fact that Wendy was 35 years old and had never been on an airplane, she has begun to make up for lost time. Her first 'adventure' was to go to the United Arab Emirates. She enjoyed this exotic travel so much she decided to go to Spain and Alaska. Her conflict resolution classes afforded her opportunities to visit other countries where conflict could be studied, such as Northern Ireland, Egypt, Cypress, and most recently Bosnia.

We left Fri night, shortly before 8pm and got up there just before 10:30. The traffic was good, even for this being the last weekend before the "season" starts. We had great weather on Sat, and enjoyed a nice walk on the beach, shopping in Rehoboth, and napping and reading. Rehoboth was having their sidewalk sale and Wendy found some bargains. Sunday the weather was a mixture of clouds and sun, but still very pleasant. We went for a walk on the boardwalk, and finished up the sidewalk sales in Rehoboth. Wendy took advantage of the 'down time' to go threw her photos and organize many of them into photo albumns.

During lunch on Sunday Joe asked Wendy about her pretty earrings. She said she'd gotten them on her trip to Bosnia, and that she always bought a pair of earrings on all of her trips. This gave me a thought: since Wendy loves to write about her travels, loves to take photos, and always buys earrings, I suggested she write a travelogue called "The Earring Diaries". The book would feature her photos and stories of the places she visits, along with a photo of the earrings she buys there. I think it would be a big hit!

We left at 5 and got home at 7:30. It was a fun weekend, and hopefully a good way to celebrate Wendy's graduation.

Tomorrow I have to go to Richmond for work. I have a meeting with some folks to hopefully talk them into doing some things the right way, which of course it my way. Since I drove 4 hours on Thursday, 2 1/2 hours on Fri night, and 2 1/2 hours tonight, I am sort of dreading the 2 hours down to Richmond and 2 hours back home tomorrow. But it can't be avoided. I hope the meeting goes well. While I'm there I'm supposed to meet some of the others I have worked with via email and phone but not met in person yet. That could be fun, only it probably won't be. These people live in Richmond. Need I say more?

I have nothing against Richmond in principle. It's just that they all live and work there, and I live and work here. Even though Richmond is only 2 hours from northern VA, it might as well be a different planet. They think differently, they talk differently, they have different expectations. They are used to dealing with other people from Richmond. I am used to dealing with people all over the US. Its just very.... different. But hopefully tomorrow I can 'build some bridges' that might help connect their planet with mine.