greetings from a virginia computer room

I’m not sure why I’m trying to write an entry, other than the happy and kind of shocking discovery that my uncle has wireless, and I have my laptop – so I sure can’t waste this golden opportunity! Despite being so sleepy I’m probably going to nod off as I type. So if I start saying things like, alllllllllsffffffffffggggggggggggxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…that’s what’s happened. I’m sleeping in my uncle’s computer room, on a very uncomfortable air mattress that does not seem to be fully inflated. With a whole bunch of old books around me and a very large portrait of an elderly relative (my great grandmother?) frowning down at me. She looks highly displeased. Beside her is another very large portrait of a long dead toddler in a nightdress – my father’s oldest sister who died before he was born.  She at least is smiling. This is a little creepy, now that I think about it. Maybe I better quit thinking about it.

We’ve had an extremely nice visit, although it’s also been extremely short, and I’m not quite ready to turn right around and drive home tomorrow. At the crack of dawn, according to my father. We must leave at the crack of dawn so I won’t be arriving at my own house after dark, perish the thought. Because I’m much too young and delicate to be driving after dark. Somehow he is under the impression that I have to work Monday, which I have in no way tried to correct, since I really do want to be under my own roof tomorrow night. And sleep late in my own bed Monday morning. And have time to recuperate from the very enjoyable trip.

All three of my favorite cousins are here, although one is staying in a bed and breakfast (which has many issues of its own and isn’t as nice as a bed and breakfast sounds like it ought to be) and another is staying with an aunt who lives a few miles away. The third cousin is crammed into a bedroom with her husband and two boys, 8 and nearly 10, so I’m the lucky one.  B&B Cousin has a husband and 3 year old with her. Everyone was here for dinner tonight and to celebrate B&B Cousin’s birthday. She’s the youngest and I still recall the other two telling her, very seriously, that she did not arrive via the hospital as normal children do, but was found in a mudpuddle on Halloween. Even though her birthday isn’t quite on Halloween.

Aside from that, Middle Cousin who is my age and her husband and the little boys went downtown today. We wandered around the very nice Charlottesville pedestrian mall and took the kids to a fun hands-on museum and then had lunch and a beer. Which was fun. The rest of the day was spent playing with the entertaining little boys and chatting with elderly relatives and fixing dinner.

Well, I’m very very sleepy, and am probably making no sense at all. It’s so quiet here that I feel like the clicking of my typewriter keys is keeping everyone else awake. Surely they can’t hear it, but the walls ARE awfully thin. I could hear everyone moving around last night. Then again, I’m not used to being in a house with this many other people all around. I probably wouldn’t do well in a commune. So I better try going to sleep, so that I will be prepared for the long drive tomorrow. Which surely to god will be less long than the drive up was. Which wasn’t all that long at all until we actually arrived in Charlottesville and my Mapquest directions routed us right to the middle of downtown – I’d put in their street name and did not realize that instead of finding this street, they just sent us to the center of town. I was trying to combine them with my cousin’s directions and it did not make sense at ALL so I called her and she told me to go back to 29 and start again so I tried that but then wasn’t sure if it was business or regular 29 and when I couldn’t find the road I needed from either I stopped to ask at a gas station, where the guy told me I didn’t need 29, I needed 250 and that REALLY didn’t work and we ended up right smack in the middle of downtown Charlottesville AGAIN – so I called my uncle finally and he came and rescued us. It didn’t help that my father kept saying "We get lost every time we come here! This is right where we ended up last time!" And I’d say, "So, they’re pretty close to downtown then? We’re not that far away, right?" And he’d say, "Oh, yes, they’re very close to downtown!" Which made me believe it was worthwhile to continue driving around aimlessly looking for Hydraulic Road. In reality, they are quite a distance out in the country. But, whatever!

ooooooosaaaaaaaaaooif[iiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzz. Time for bed. Or, rather, time for underinflated air mattress.