In between all that boring stuff, I had a couple of friends visit which was a great surprise! One was my friend Natalie who I haven't seen in about 5 years. She and I use to work together in Halifax and became great friends. Natalie is one of those people you pick up right where you left off no matter how much time has passed. You must cherish those friends the most for they are few and far between. Natalie happened to be about 20 minutes from town for a family reason and we managed to meet for coffee and catch up for a couple of hours. It was so great. I had been feeling homesick and just missing family and friends, and seeing her reassured me that we are in a great spot nobody is really as far away as it seems at times. Thanks for visiting Nat!
A day or so later, a co-worker/friend of mine from Champaign was going to be in DC for the weekend so we had tentatively made plans for me to try and come in to DC and meet her. Before I got here I thought for sure I could just do the drive in. Well now that I have done part of the drive and have experienced the traffic between here and DC, I realized if I attempted to do the drive I would be in such a state I wouldn't be fit to visit. It can get quite congested and backed up on the highways between here and DC. I heard there was a commuter train from here to the city I just had to figure out how to get on it. After a few phone calls, I found out I could hop the commuter train for $20.00 round trip for the day, which was more than half off what Amtrak wanted for a round trip ticket. The best part was I just had to hit the Seven -Eleven store to get my ticket. Pretty simple. I got up early that Friday took Paul to work early so I would have time to drop the car back off at home and walk to the train station downtown. I get there and there are no signs, nothing saying which platform I am to be on and there is nobody there to ask. It is all self-service. Well I took a chance and waited and my train arrived ten minutes early. There were a few others on board but other than that it was nice quiet and clean with A/C, all in all a beautiful ride. So I just sat back and waited for the Union Station Stop which took about and hour and fifteen minutes. If I drove it likely would have taken me two plus hours due to traffic.
Once I arrived at Union Station which is like a mall in and of itself, shops, restaurants you name it they had it. I followed the crowd and there is the sea of faces was Nancy! She, her husband and her two sister-in-laws met me there. It was a great day , we didn't get a whole lot of sightseeing done but that was okay cause I was there to visit with Nancy as long as I could anyway. We did manage to make it to the National Cathedral which was right across the street from her grandson's apartment. So we went over and took a brief tour. This place was amazing, it takes days to see it all honestly. There were so many nooks and crannies and people buried in the wall. We went down one hallway and there were cases with photos of past presidents photos who had been inside the church, such as Bill Clinton, and both George Bushes'. You know me I have such class, we were whispering and taking it all in, there was a service going on in one wing nearby so we were trying to be respectful of that, and I lean over to look at a case, and it was a bit wobbly so the damn things starts tipping I am trying to catch it. LOL..I am such a spaz..this is why I don't attend formal functions. DC is a really nice city I must say, very clean, people are friendly, the metro was a bit confusing to figure out at first but I managed with Nancy's help to find my way back to Union Station and back on the VRE home. It was packed the whole way home, like standing room only pretty much the whole way. I was amazed to see how many people commute from here to work in DC. That is the way to do it though if you are going to do that commute.
The next day, Paul and I had been drooling over the Ikea catalog for the previous 3 days, dreaming of all the things we would like to have. We decided to go and take a look and maybe get a few small things or our list. In reality it wasn't that far away but given the traffic jam on the highway it was like a parking lot the whole way. We there and find all these things and a book shelf.wall unit we had been admiring. We decided at first that we wouldn't get it, then as we were making our way to the check out, and the bookshelf kept popping up so we decided to get that as well. The trick was making the boxes fit in our tiny clown car. Some how we did it.
In other news, since I was told I was not allowed anymore animals right now. Well reality is our lease states that we are to only have one cat, and no dogs. I was out picking up some tomato plants and dirt, I know it's getting late but we really missed not planting much this year so I thought this might make us feel more at home here. While I was at Lowes picking up some dirt they had a whole bunch of plants for half price or less, due to them being in distress. I found this orchid that I just felt I had to rescue. Her moss was completely dried out, and most of her leaves were bright green but one looked sun burnt. I just felt with a little TLC she would really perk up. So I took her home, and kept her as cool and shaded as I could in the hot car. What could Paul say really, it wasn't an animal it's a plant! He comes home and sees it sitting on our new shelf and inspects it and says "Is it dead?" NO I replied she is in need of a good home and I have no idea how to take care of her but the tag says it should be really easy. So I gave her some much needed water and our house is usually cool, and I must say after a few days here she does seem perkier. I don't know if she will bloom anymore this year or not but her colour is far more brilliant than it was, and she seems to be standing taller. So we will have to watch her progress. In the meantime I just keep trying to find out as much as I can about taking care of Orchids.
So there you have it!
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