Sunday, June 26, 2011

Back to April and Perry's

Monday, May 23rd dawned cloudy in Morgantown, West Virginia. We were under no real time constraints to get anywhere. Indeed, we had to linger because of doctor's appointments. Free breakfast at the hotel ended at 9 a.m. so that's what we had to worry about.

I woke up at 7:30 and showered. I woke mom up at 8:15 and we wandered down the hall for breakfast. The Comfort Inn had a better free breakfast than the Fairmont Inn, but maybe our lateness didn't allow us to see all that was offered. As we were collecting our food to head back to our room, there was a Monday morning pep rally by housekeeping and other employees. The start of the rally provoked looks of "What the...?" It must be effective, however, for they had enthusiasm.

We took our time getting going. It was nice not to be expected here at this time, particularly when we weren't exactly sure how to get to here from where we were.

At the West Virginia Pennsylvania border, we drove into rain. It was a drizzle at first but changed into a steady rain. Documenting this section of the trip wasn't going to happen. We drove out of the rain as we neared Pittsburgh. We met more people as would be expected on a Monday in a major city and Pittsburgh put out the welcome mat by closing a lane of Interstate so traffic came to a halt. I'm used to this. I sometimes think the Interstates surrounding Chicago were built, not to assist people in getting semi-swiftly to destinations because, quite often, you just sit, but to provide a steady source of jobs. They are always under repair in some fashion.

Once through the construction, we sailed towards Youngstown meeting more rain at the Ohio Pennsylvania border. It cleared as we approached Youngstown. April and Perry's house was a very welcome sight as we drove down Oakridge.

It was attempting to get out of the car that made me realize things were not right with my knees. We collected our stuff, I swung my legs out and went to stand. My legs refused. I had to scoot to the edge of the driver's seat, grab onto the side of the car and more or less hoist myself to a standing position, my knees protesting all the while. I knew this wasn't right and I had one more day to get through.

We got some lunch, after unloading the few things we would need for our overnight. Then mom took a nap while I learned to play Munchkin and we played another game of Carcassonne. We tidied up just in time for Joe and Bea to arrive.

Joe is a member of my World of Warcraft guild. Bea is his wife. Joe has known April and Perry "for-ever" and is one of the crew who gets together on Monday nights to play games. If I didn't live so far from them, I'd play once or twice a month. We ordered Italian food and then set about to playing games. You can read about our game night here.

Heavy storms pounded the area while we were gaming. A tornado warning was issued for near Joe and Bea's hometown. Joe, the iPhone surfer, kept watch on the weather while being beaten in "Killer Bunnies" by his wife.

When we were all done, I asked for a photo. (Me, April, Perry and Joe, left to right.) One thing, an online role playing game, brought us together. We stay together outside of the game because we have discovered we share interests; music, games, history, literature, laughter, senses of humor. My life is so much more enriched with these people as friends and I never would have met them had we not been manipulating pixels in a fake world.

Beverage:  Cranberry Pomegranate Juice

Deb

No comments:

Post a Comment