Then we made the trek home to Sun City where my parents now live. They have really made a home for themselves out there which was made quite evident from the glorious light display that my father, aka "Clark Griswold" had constructed in the front and back yards. It was heartwarming to see, especially after my sister-in-law had emphasized to me "They are REALLY glad that you are home!"
Sunday night I just chilled out. I was exhausted. I had been working NONSTOP leading up to this "vacation" (if you could call it that - since I was on the go the ENTIRE time!) and I needed to rest a bit.
The next day I started with a cup of joe from Dean and Deluca (OF COURSE!). This was ONE of many trips to the D&D. I had brought home with me two pairs of jeans to have altered at my favorite alterations shop. I knew the owner and have a girl there that I trust to alter my jeans. Having someone that you can trust to touch your denim is VERY VERY IMPORTANT!
After getting my jeans taken care of I got a phone call from my buddy John and told him that I was gonna come pick him up and make him check out a possible reunion venue with me.
The venue was AMAZING, but the details are "more to come..." once those reunion plans start falling into place.
After that John and I made our way to Tega Cay/Fort Mill to meet his BF for lunch. Then we stopped by to say hello to my mom and give her a hug and kiss.
From there I headed over to Ronna's to check out her new house. It was crazy to me that she got it for under 200,000. (Hope she doesn't mind me blogging that out!) but the fact that someone that is my age owns a house that is two stories (and i think even has a basement) and a back yard, and a driveway, and a porch, and some other shit too, and yet here if I was to buy something for 150-200K it would be some hole-in-the-wall piece of shit. They would call it "Historic", "Rustic", or "Cute", which would basically translate to "old", "dirty", and "small".
Then we headed over to the mall to check out my old work crew, and then made our way down the street for happy hour. My friend Jamie happened to call in the meantime and said she had something that she was embarrassed to ask but that she would just come right out and say it. I figured that it was some embarrassing gay question but was confused why she would ask something like that when I haven't seen her in forever. Instead she admitted to being a HUGE twilight fan and asked if I would want to see New Moon. Since I am a proud card carrying member of TEAM JACOB I agreed.
I left my work crew to meet Jamie just in time for the movie. We had about 5 minutes to talk and catch up before the movie started which led to Jamie jabbing me with her elbow throughout the entire movie because I had a hard time containing my emotional outbursts every time that Jacob showed up on camera. It is really hard to believe that the kid is only 17 years old.
Regardless my first day was action packed to say the least. The second day I spent with my parents. I cooked and prepped our Thanksgiving side dishes and dessert in the kitchen with my mother in the AM and in the afternoon we went to see "The Blind Side". The movie was tear-jerkingly emotional to say the least. I could hardly contain myself throughout the duration of it. At one point my mom looked over at me cause I had gotten choked up and I realized, she is not even phased. I also realized that I was sad about parts that were not even happening in the movie because of my Social Work background from college that I had been thinking about worse things than what was even actually coming through onto the movie screen. This confirmed (ONCE AGAIN) for me that Social Work was not an avenue for me to pursue.
We had our Thanksgiving with the family celebration that night and my brother and his family came over. It was great spending time with my three beautiful little nieces. I miss them so much and their love and their innocence. It feels so good to be a part of their lives. Luckily I have managed to impress Daisy (the youngest) just enough so that she remembers who I am and smiles every time she sees me. This was only the third time that I have gotten to see her since she was born and I was happy that I was able to hear her say "Uncle Justin, I love you!"
On Wednesday I made my friend Allie be ready by 930 AM so that we would be able to get in some good QT with one another before heading on to other correspondences. Allie lives in NY and we are closer in proximity than any of my other friends but for some reason when we are both in Charlotte at the same time it is easier for us to meet up when she has no car, and I am borrowing my mother's. Interesting.
We had a lot of fun catching up and I had mentioned to her that one day I might want to start my own company and she said that she would work for me. I still smile thinking about when I used to work with her and we were both salespeople but I would talk to her like I was her manager. She hated it. She would roll her eyes at me and sigh. I think this is why we became friends.
I went over to Lindsey's house next. We got to spend an ample amount of time exhausting our efforts in trying to help figure out one another's lives. This is typically the case with Lindsey and I. We have been friends since high school, suffered/endured many ups and downs and always managed to bounce back from it. I was glad that we were able to get in this time before meeting up with a few high school alums for drinks that night.
In the midst of this transition I met Natasha at the Penguin. It was loud as hell, and made me remember that Charlotte, unfortunately is NOT a NONSMOKERS world. People sat on both sides of us at the bar smoking. One guy lit his cigarette, smoked half of it down and then left it in the ashtray, lit, with the smoke wafting straight into my secondary smoking nostrals. It was gross. It made me happy to think about returning to Boston where you cannot smoke indoors. I forget how pleasant it is until venturing to these Smoke friendly environments.
Meeting up with my class of 2000 alums was very fun and quite entertaining. I had randomly posted an invite for everyone on the class page. Just a casual gathering of whoever was interested and whoever was in town. Could be big, could be small, no big deal.
It turned out to be a larger crowd than I had originally intended and I was pleased with the turnout. People were thankful that I had planned it but I really felt as though I had made no such efforts. They were also thankful that I was taking initiative to plan our reunion which was really interesting to see and made me feel a lot more confident about taking on such a large task.
It was a great end to a short-lived homecoming.
The next morning I spent with my parents sitting at Dean and Deluca before heading to the airport to head back to Home #2 aka Beantown.
