Whew, today was a long day. It started around 7:30 in Charlottesville, Virgina, and has about come to an end with me back here in Cornfield, Illinois. While hopping into bed sounds lovlay, my sugar crash for the day hasn't quite hit yet and I thought you all must be dying for some attention.
Charlottesville is quite fantastic. It is home to the University of Virgina which just so happens to be where WAM is working on her Ph.D. For the past two years, WAM has come to visit me but this year she was too busy and I wasn't busy enough so we switched roles and I went to visit her. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, WAM is one of my childhood friends although we didn't really become friends until our 5 year high school reunion. It's kinda funny how things work like that. Anyway, she's sort of a big deal. She graduated with honors from Harvard and writes history books. I write books too but all my pages are filled with figures and equations which take up a lot of space. She actually fills up her pages with real words. Right now she's getting ready for a 4 month trip throughout the New England states to dig into some archives to basically write a history paper on historians prior to 1860. Answering things like how did the early Americans from England view the Indian mounds or maybe why they might choose to preserve an old building or document rather than others. Sort of like how we look at the Colosseum and think awesome, what did they find awesome, why, and what did they do out of reverence towards it.
WAM also has great taste. Her condo was exceptionally well decorated however it did have some issues. I felt there was a lack of femininity and toys. Other than that she has successfully managed to school pretty much everyone in the decorating department (aside from yours truly, the master, of course). Her choice in the condo also reveals much to her personality, as it is located within a short walking distance to the university, hospital, and downtown Charlottesville.
Let's start with the university. Thomas Jefferson (TJ) is your main man there although another 3 or 4 presidents were there too. Everyone there is infatuated with TJ to the point of slightly creepy. For us UIUC'ers compared to Jefferson, Lincoln is loved about as much as an unwanted stepchild. These guys just cannot get enough of him. The university itself is very nice. A lot of the buildings are very old but kept up-to-date on the insides. The entrance to engineering library (sweetly named Charlie Brown) was particularly eye-catching (see the censored version here). Charlottesville is also basically in the Appalachian mountains which means every view is a photo. No stupid boring flatness.
Downtown Charlottesville is also fairly fantastic. It's several blocks long with no road. Instead the road is layed in brick and it's covered in tables for wining and dining and vendors hawking their wares. The stores are great, and to my liking there are plenty of ice-cream and gelato joints. WAM felt having a milk-shake and gelato was a bit much but I was in heaven.
Charlottesville also has a lot of vineyards. We went to one where they have polo matches. The idea was to have a picnic out on the sidelines of the polo field while watching the match, but unfortunately it was too hot out for the horses. So instead we went further up into the mountains to Veritas Victory vineyard where we had a winetasting. We chose the white wine lineup which consisted of about 6 wines. They pour about a swallow's worth into your glass and you get to drink it down. Apparently you are not supposed to just swallow it all in one down. I tried to explain to WAM that men do not sip we drink like we do everything else with intensity. We all know I hate wine, but it was worth it because after all the nasties the last one as described "smells like roses and tastes like honey." It was amazing. Not surprisingly this was the dessert wine. This made me very excited to try that dessert wine I had mentioned earlier. Remember, I brought that dessert wine as a gift to WAM, but more on that in a second. After the wine tasting we had our picnic out on the hillside which had a stunning view of the grape vines and further on out the blue ridge mountain range.
The food was divine. Being in the south of course we had barbeque. So good. Last night I had what were probably the best porkchops in the world. Today's breakfast came from a bakery that was so good it would probably bring my Mom to tears. I brought her home (I stopped home on the way back) a couple selections and she was giddy with excitement. I do not like cheese or humus. Our picnic changed my mind. And finally last night it was time to open the dessert wine with our special dessert. I was extremely excited because before this trip I was highly skeptical that I was going to like the dessert wine, but after that wine tasting I knew it was going to be great. But sadness of sadness the wine had gone bad. The cork was moldy. WAM says this happens all the time with dessert wines, and that I can get a refund. Lame.
However, WAM's taste in movies is wanting. This is where her femininity comes in as we just had to watch '500 Days of Summer' on Saturday and 'He's Just Not That Into You' on Sunday. After hearing the first sentence of what 500 Days was about I told her this is a bad idea, but we watched it anyway on the idea that if I watched it with her then she would watch 'The Hangover' which was outstanding. 500 Days was about as bad as I expected it would be, because it hits so close to home, but I loved the dance scene he does walking down town (trying to be vague here to limit spoilers). Another highlight was a trailer for the movie 'Adam'. Sarge go watch that trailer, you will laugh. We did not get to see 'The Hangover'. It started too late, which is why we decided to watch 'Not That Into You', somehow this was a good balance. Again I wasn't exactly thrilled with this movie but it had its moments. See girls here's the thing. These are not happy movies. They are terribly depressing but they give you a minute or two of a comedic happy end and because you have no attention span, you completely forget that the entire movie was really about nothing but heartache fighting and tears. Anyway back to the trip.
We also went to a Catholic Mass for my benefit on Sunday. It was supposed to be the traditional one, but I had never been to a more untraditional Mass. For example the alter servers were not wearing robes. They were just dressed slightly nice. And they didn't ring the bells. The songs were odd, I only knew one. Now actually I didn't mind any of this because all I'm pretty much there for is the Eucharist; so as long as that doesn't get screwed up everythings fine by me. But having an outsider come with me, I expect that "traditional" Mass to be amazing. I want all those signs and symbols and music that add to the experience of it all to sort of show off a bit.
Now before you go start posting or get to thinking that WAM and I are the cutest couple you've ever known you're not the first (the first was a random butch middle-aged lady at a bar in Ohio) but are nevertheless completely wrong as the title indicates. So don't go getting any ideas. But just to show off our cute selves here's a couple good shots of us.
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