Do You Have Nibbles? (I)

Alrighty, I will now attempt to chronicle my weekend trip to Virginia. I had great big huge amounts of fun, walked a LOT, shopped frequently, and learned that Teem really, really, REALLY likes the song "Come On, Eileen" (it's on almost all of her mix CDs).

I got up at 4 a.m. on Friday, June 4 in order to make my 6:45 a.m. flight to Philadelphia. Yes, I flew to Philadelphia in order to get to Virginia. Thank you, U.S. Airways. I left my apartment at 5 a.m., giving myself 45 minutes to get to the airport.

It only took 20 minutes.

Sooo, I was at the airport mo' early. I checked in at the U.S. Airways counter fairly quickly, then headed over to the escalators to go out to the airside. A good-looking guy and I arrived at the escalator at the same time, but he smiled and said, "After you!" He looked a whole lot like Matthew Settle. My brain probably just wanted him to be Matthew Settle, who is in Florida filming a movie (why am I not stalking him? Good question).

So I take the monorail over to the airside and am met with a long, long queue of people waiting to get through security. I waited about 20 minutes before getting up to the front, and then I set off the metal detector on the way through. The guard told me to put my shoes on the x-ray machine conveyor belt, which confused me because my shoes are not made of metal.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

I took off the black loafers I was wearing and then went back through the metal detector with no problem. Apparently it's common to use metal to create the heels of shoes. Okaaaaaaay.

My flight left on time and was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that the guy in the aisle seat (I had window, with no one between us) kept using his cell phone during the flight. Which made me nervous. I was close to flipping my bitchcakes lid about it, but decided not to.

I landed in Philadelphia and then made the mad dash to make my connecting flight. We came in at the end of airside C and my connection was at the end of airside A. Which is a long way away, and I only had 40 minutes. I ended up getting to airside A on time and walked right onto the plane.

*fly fly fly*

I ran off the plane once it touched down in Norfolk and ran into the arms of TEEM!! Who was waiting for me by the glass doors with a Diet Coke in her hand (of course) and wearing her fearsome pink big button capris (of course).

I was meeting the illustrious Teem! TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!! Much skipping and twirling ensued. Actually we just gabbed and then walked down to baggage claim. Once we got my suitcase we headed out to her lovely silver green Mazda 6. Teem told me a story about hitting a car in a parking lot. This started the "and THEN we got in an accident in _insert parking garage name_" line that I repeated whenever Teem would park the car somewhere.

We got in the car and Teem revealed that she had made a Soundtrack of Heewig mix CD in honor of my visit. Which was SO cool! Every song has meaning, and truth be told, out of all the things I acquired this past weekend, the CD is my most treasured item.

Then we were off to downtown Norfolk! Teem introduced me to our mascot for the weekend, a Beanie Baby named "Lumberjack" - a beaver holding a log in its paws. Well, "Lumberjack" wasn't a name we could use (it has other, non-Heewig meanings), so we renamed it NIBBLES for the weekend. Actually, Teem did, and I defered to her brilliance.

I called my friend at the Virginian-Pilot, Carol, who was the only one of my former coworkers that I told I was coming to visit. She had told me earlier that before lunch was the best time to drop in, but as it turned out there was no one there. So she asked me to come in after 1 p.m.

This left Teem and I with a chunk of time to kill before Nancy could meet us for lunch. So we drove out to Ghent so I could show her where I used to live (511 Graydon St.), which is being torn down, or at least renovated. It was fenced off with a No Trespassing sign on it, and the porches/balconys had all been torn off, as had been the big cement steps outside. But it was still the same faded brick-red-with-yellow-trim color scheme. Lovely!

We drove to the mall, MacArthur Center, and parked there. We grabbed Nibbles (who often asked to be addressed by his formal French name, Nibblés) and started walking over to our lunch spot, Jack Quinn's, an Irish pub/restaurant in downtown Norfolk. On the way there we saw a man sitting on a park bench with a sweatshirt/shirt/jacket pulled up over his head. Completely. It totally covered his head.

I wanted to take a photo. Then I suggested we put Nibbles on the bench with the man and take a photo of the both of them. Huzzah for new friends! But then Teem pointed out that the man might be a robber who would grab Nibbles and run away with him, and we just could not allow that. I agreed, although I did mention that if that happened, it would give us reason to shriek "THAT MAN SNATCHED MY BEAVER!" really loudly.

But we didn't do it.

We got to Jack Quinn's and got a table. Our waiter's name was Christian, and he was personable and not at all objectionable to look at. We were both starving, but there was no appetizer that we really wanted to get, especially since we had decided to have some of the bread pudding for dessert.

Digression - We ate a lot this weekend. Weight Watchers be damned! (and it was damned ... oh was it ever damned.)

Then Nancy showed up and we EEEEEEEEEEE'd a little. Nancy and I both ordered boxtys (vegetarian for her, corned beef and cabbage for me), while Teem ordered the corned beef & cabbage entreé. Teem and I were already working on a pint of hard cider, so Nancy got one as well. Christian was a good boy and carded us all.

Soda bread and honey butter were brought out. We devoured the whole basket. Christian brought another basket. We likes Christian.

*eat eat eat*

Teem and Nibbles, getting drubnk

I really liked my boxty, which was overstuffed to the point where I couldn't finish it. The creamy mustard sauce on top was especially good. Nancy noticed that I am not a fan of snow peas, which got us on a discussion about the proper consistency of cooked vegetables (Teem and I are happy with mushy veggies, Nancy is not).

Teem and I went for a second pint of hard cider. Mmmm, tipsy. Teem was nice enough to share some of her cider with Nibbles, 'cause she's nice like that. The four of us shared the bread pudding (something I had never tried), and it was of the lrod.

By the time we finished lunch, it was raining a bit, and Nancy was the only one smart enough to bring an umbrella. So we had her go get her car and come back and pick me and Teem up. Serves her right for thinking ahead like that!

Nancy drove back in her seafoam green car, Sabrina, and picked us up. From there we headed off to the Pilot office. The security at the building is much stricter now compared to when I worked there, so I had to call Carol to come down and get us, and sign us in for security badges.

It was really good to see her! She was one of my closest friends at the newspaper. She brought us back up to the sports department. Unfortunately, the sports editor, Chic Riebel, had left for the day already. Which I was bummed about because he and I had a great relationship and I really wanted to see him again.

When we walked into the sports department, Paul White, my closest friend at the paper, was on the phone with his back to us. Carol told me to go tap him on the shoulder, which I did. He turned around and very nearly jumped up out of his chair. Hee! He gesticulated wildly and gave me the "one minute" sign (he was on the phone doing an interview).

So instead I said hello to Lee Tolliver (fishing writer), and had a great li'l conversation with him. I said hello to Tom White (assistant sports editor at the Pilot, but I knew him from when I worked in Greensboro), and then stood by the cabinets with Carol, Teem and Nancy and just sort of talked about newsroom gossip/scuttlebutt type stuff. Then Rich Radford walked in and smiled and said, "I know you!" Still so good looking (just a little more grey at the temples) - "I know you too, handsome man!"

Paul still wasn't off the phone. Paul was on the phone for a long damn time, actually. Carol caught me up on everyone else I used to work with. I told her that she needed to find a way to get someone to leave, so I could come back.

Then, FINALLY, Paul was off the phone. He jumped up and ran over to me and gave me a bear hug. I hadn't seen nor talked to him since October, 2000 (when I was in town for a Tragically Hip concert). He grabbed my hand and dragged me downstairs, stopping at each landing to say things like, "Where have you been?" and "How are you?" and "Why haven't you called me?!?" It was funny. We sat down in the lunch room for about 10 minutes just talking about stuff, but I kept telling him that I had left two friends upstairs all alone, which was kind of rude.

Carol came in and said she would take care of Teem and Nancy (not in a mafia way, sheesh), but still, I just didn't want to stay downstairs talking to Paul while they stood up in the sports department having to kill time. So I got Paul's phone number and promised to call him later, and by that time Carol had brought Nancy and Teem downstairs. I said my goodbyes to Paul, and Carol followed us out to the parking lot. I wrote down all of my contact info for her and told her to stay in touch, especially if there's any "news" that I'd be interested in.

Then we left, because it was time to go to the mall and see hot men in skirts (i.e. the movie Troy).

Part II coming soon...

Posted by Highwaygirl on June 8, 2004 01:02 PM to the category Friends