Day 6: On the Road to Raleigh

so......  because we went to bed so late, the Schmidt household didn't really begin stirring until 9-10am or so.  Or rather, the human residents were in bed that late.  The critters were up quite a bit earlier.  :-)  I kept Millie entertained by moving my toes under the sheets so that she played at the foot of the bed and I stayed snuggled under the covers.

Ryan had to jump right back in to kitchen work -- lots and lots of mudding and getting ready for all the new electrical features.  [from 2 outlets in the kitchen to about 14!]  So Kara and I lounged on the sofas while she checked out Groupon, and I looked again at my Raleigh plans and double-checked my route.  After a shower, I got back on the road.  1,082 miles into it........

Starting listening again to my next book on CD, "The Wedding Girl".  I had listened to it for a little bit on the last stretch into Charlotte, and I wasn't really into it, and was pretty annoyed by the reader and all the voices that she was trying to do for all the different characters.  I was only about 20 minutes into this leg of the journey, and had to stop listening.  Ugh.  The storyline was pretty interesting, but I just couldn't take the voices anymore!!!  The synopsis so far was that:  in the UK, as an 18-year old, a woman marries a friend of hers (who happens to be gay and American) so that he can stay in the UK with his boyfriend (e.g. get his green card).  flash-forward 10 years later, and the woman is now engaged to a man who really loves her, but hates his multi-millionaire father more.  And her sister is a diplomatic interpreter who has just discovered she is pregnant (and sounds like a big issue).  And her mother is a social climber who loves name-dropping the fiance's father into conversations.  And no one knows that she was married before, and the photographer for this wedding happens to have been at her first wedding (as a student just passing through), and is now threatening her......  And that's where I stopped.  So many plots that could have been developed in many ways -- oh, and I don't think that she was ever divorced from this first husband -- but I just couldn't take it any more.  Any of the book club ladies want to read it and tell me what happens?????

Anyway...  on to a different book, "The Last Child".  And a very easy and pretty drive into Raleigh.  I got to the Marriott ahead of Martha (a friend from Winston-Salem), so I spent some time on the PC and watching Sports Center.  [So glad that football season has started, but I haven't watched a single game yet!]

Martha joined me (coming in from a visit to Camp LeJune, NC) and we spent several hours just lying around in the hotel room jumping from story to story.  We changed clothes for dinner and headed out to Oxford (a British Pub and sportsbar, huh???).  We had made a dinner reservation and expected Jeanne (from Cary) to join us as well.  Martha and I had a cocktail at the bar, and panko-fried avocados.  Odd, but good.  Jeanne's brother and his family were also in town, and had some toddler drama before she could join us, so we went on into dinner -- talking all the way.  [I know that's hard to believe!]

Jeanne did join us for dessert, but at this point, a band had started playing in the bar area of the restaurant.  [We didn't realize it, but we had wandered into THE place to be on a Saturday night in downtown Raleigh.  When we left, there was a line to get in.  And, to be honest, lots of discussion of "what not to wear".  :-)  ] We decided to go back to our hotel bar so that we could hear each other.  Martha lasted about another 30 minutes, and then she went upstairs to bed, and Jeanne and I kept going until about 1:30am.  [that seems to be the magic hour for me on this trip!]  And, the bar was quite fun, as there was a firefighter's convention in town, and they were all staying at the Marriot.  ;-)

Was GREAT to catch up with both Martha and Jeanne; though I missed Tek and Debbie.  :-(  And Jeanne did start a little bit of a "recruiting" pitch for Raleigh.  :-)