I’m frittering away my few moments of free time this week, writing this post. I hope I don’t regret it later.
Last weekend Bob went to see Stevie Wonder in Auburn and I drove down to meet him on Saturday and we hung out for about 24 hours.
I can’t explain how strange it was to be with him again for the first 1/2 hour. This workshop is such a full immersion meal deal that it’s like a I’m in a completely different life. So going leaving this and seeing Bob felt surreal at first.
This doesn’t mean I wasn’t very happy to see him.
Bob’s super power is finding weird motels and this was no exception. It was sort-of in a Lowe’s parking lot. We had a view of pallets of bark-dust from our window. It was clean, comfortable and totally low end. The continental breakfast was a basket of muffins on the check-in counter. But the staff was very nice and the location decent so it worked out fine.
We had a big lunch. It seems like we eat all the time at the workshop but at the same time I don’t think I’m eating as much as I usually do and I was super hungry.
We went to Emerald Downs (we’ve never been to the horse races before) and we had a blast. It’s funny to me when I’m in situations where I don’t know what I’m doing, sometimes I’m very timid and sometimes I don’t care. This was an I don’t care. We went to the program booth and said, “We need a program,” and they said, “Which one?” and we said: “We don’t know. We’re new.” And we did that all afternoon. “How do I place a bet?” “What’s a superfecta?” and “When do I get to ride?”
I picked horses purely by their name or how pretty I thought they were. I did not come out ahead. I also didn’t wear sunscreen and got nice pink shoulders.
Later we went to dinner. Bob had found a Greek/Italian place but when he phoned, the message said they were on vacation. We did a drive-by anyway, just-in-case, and they were open and he practically did back flips.
After dinner we did a quick drive around Muckleshoot, the view of Rainier was incredible. We stopped in at the casino. I have been in at least 20 Indian casinos so I didn’t think I could be surprised but this place blew my mind. It was as big as Texas and went on and on with machines and tables and people and restaurants and a bar with a band so horrific they were awesome.
Fun time. I will also report that I slept 7.5 hours — my longest night of sleep since I left home. Then I returned home Sunday by Noon and worked on my story until 1:30am. I had a hard time with my story for this week and was tempted to bag it and not turn anything. My deadline is 9pm on Monday and I worked all afternoon and by 7pm I knew it was at least decent enough that I wouldn’t be humiliated. I should explain that I hold myself to high standards. My classmates will speak out on what’s not working but their feedback is very kind.
Here’s a parting moment with Bob:
B: D’oh!
Me: Do you need my help?
B: I put the cap to my butt creme on wrong
Me: I love being married to an old guy.
B: It’s only going to get funnier.
