22May00
i had a great weekend with paul. i love taking road trips with him... we always get along so well. friday we drove to preston to meet up with sam. that was a good time. we stayed at this serviceman's club-place all night, and drank extremely cheaply. there was a band outside, but it was too cold so everybody was inside. i felt sorry for them - you could see their breath.. sam's brother and his wife were there. it was good to see them. they let us crash in their new camper. it has king sized beds on each end - i've never seen anything like it. it was a pretty cold night, but we had, like four blankets on us, besides being fully clothed, so we stayed pretty warm. my face got cold, but sometimes i like it that way. paul was impressed by sam's brother's relationship with his wife... they've been together for about 15 years and they're the best together... it's refreshing to see a couple that's so in sync with each other. plus, it was so nice to see sam... i miss not being close. i feel like, we're never in the same area, no matter where we are. I've been working on him to get him to move up here someday and settle down... i think the bug's doin' it's work in his brain.
then on saturday morning around eight we headed out to finish the drive to knoxville. we stopped and ate at a "happy chef" on the way. we got there around 1:30 in the afternoon. i was hoping to get our scruffy-looking selves into the room and clean up before i saw any family, but of course, while we were checking in - the entire brood showed up at the front desk to check in too!
so, we had about two hours to "rest" before the wedding (what is it about hotel rooms, anyway?) wink-wink.
the wedding was short - paul got to meet most of my mom's side of the family, other than a few cousins... so that was nice. then we had dinner (the bride prepared everything herself - unbelievable) and drank beer and talked the rest of the night. there was a dance, a dj that refused to play any country (not what i expected at all) but mostly just little kids filled up the dance floor... there were A LOT of little kids! my stomach was bothering me the whole weekend - i think i must've caught a bug - so i never got a buzz going - hence i didn't feel like dancing at all. so, paul and i went back to the hotel room early - like 9:30 or something. i was asleep by 10:30... what a party-pooper, huh? but, paul seemed to enjoy himself. i love that he doesn't need me to entertain him - my ex-husband was horrible like that. he got bored easily and i felt responsible for his enjoyment of things. paul, just makes the best of any situation and never makes me feel uncomfortable, or like i have to leave because he's not enjoying himself. all in all it was a good weekend... even the driving was fun.
god - i almost forgot to tell you!! this old, old friend of mine - my best friend from grade school whom i was in "blue birds" with - and i had lost touch with one another after i moved to minnesota in 1992. i tried to contact her a few times after that to no avail. well - she emailed me out of the blue on friday. i was so thrilled, i screamed "oh my god" and scared half the office to death. apparently she still lives in iowa and she ran into nikki at walmart and nikki gave her my email address. i can't tell you how thrilled i am to have contact with her again - she's been in my life for so long, i was devastated to have her out of it.