Tori D. does VA

This time last week, I was nestled under an impossibly soft comforter and sheets at the Doubletree in downtown Richmond, hugged up on the Future Mr. watching Dane Cook.

Last Thursday I left Jackson to go visit Virginia for the first time. It was a combination present to myself for my birthday and visit to see Isaac graduate. For some reason I was really nervous boarding the plan, nervous in the ATL airport (which is HUGE, btw), just nervous period. The main thing I was stressing over was meeting his family. For me, that's a big deal because I don't try to get to know the family unless things are really serious. Anyway, I was a little on edge, but all of that melted away once I got to the Richmond airport.

I wandered around aimlessly for a minute, just following the crowd. Then I saw him standing there waiting for me. :) We hugged & kissed... did the playful/naughty touching thing in the baggage claim... Waited forever for a cab and finally split one with a really weird dude... "canoodled" in the backseat (really I just wanted to use that word LOL)...

By the time we got to his apartment, it was already Friday, May 15 and I was a year older. We talked and watched tv for a few minutes, and then... went to bed, cuz I was sleepy :) (There may or may not have been something going on before going to bed. Whatever you would do after not seeing your SO for months, that's what we did, kay?)

Friday morning we woke up and he made me his "famous" cinnamon pancakes. OMG they were delish!! And freakin huge! I couldn't finish both of mine, even though I wanted to. We both ended up with the itis and fell asleep again on the couch. When we did finally get up and decide to stop being lazy bums, we went out to tour VCU's campus and downtown Richmond. I loved the fact that there wasn't an actual campus per se, but the school is integrated into the city itself. It was a beautiful little area. I could see myself living somewhere like that. And if I did I'd probably lose a couple pounds (limited parking means walking almost everywhere). We thought we'd get to Maymont on Friday, but since it looked like it was about to rain, we headed back. After going grocery shopping and discussing the virtues of getting a puppy with the lady in front of us in the checkout line, my baby cooked me a salmon & rice dinner. It was delish. We had wine... but didn't have it. We forgot to get a corksrew so we tried to attack the bottle with a knife. Ummm, that didn't work. Then boo remembered that he had a corkscrew on his swiss army knife... But all it did was take a plug out of the center of the cork. I seriously considered breaking the neck of the bottle, but I thought that might seem slightly alcoholic of me. LOL We ate Italian frozen ice and these wonderful caramel macciato truffles for desert, then I fell asleep on the couch, lying in his lap while he watched TV. It was perfect :)

The next day we woke up pretty early because it was his graduation! Got up, showered, dressed; thought I would have time to straighten up before his folks arrived, but no! Before 8:30 they called saying they were outside. (Graduation was not until 10:00) Fortunately only his brother came in while we finished getting ready. I start sweating like I'm in a sauna, I'm so nervous. Meanwhile, he's laughing like he actually thinks it's funny. We get to the car & we do a brief introduction, not too bad... He and I catch a cab to get to the graduation venue (the coliseum or something?) and I wait around for his folks while he went to wherever the graduates were. When I finally met up with his family again, I was still a little nervous, but tried to hide it (dunno if I really did though). His mom asked a couple questions while we waited for the ceremony to begin, but it wasn't nearly the interrogation I anticipated. The graduation was nice. It took 40 minutes for all of them to walk in and be seated. The commencement speaker was short and pretty interesting. He did a little song at the end called "There Way" that was freakin awesome. LOL After the graduation we all piled into their car & went to eat at Famous ____ (Bob's? Dave's? Bill's? Something like that). Food was decent. It was fun listening to them talk, go in on each other, and watch them interact with each other. (I was slightly jealous of how they all joked around together; me & my mom do somewhat, but we could never do that with my dad... SMH).

We went back to his place for a brief moment until it was time for me and them to check into our respective hotels. My hotel, the Doubletree, was right around the corner from Ikey Baybee's place. Talk about niiiice! (And he got a good deal on it; W00t for online booking). We sat around for a while, then ordered room service. Frat was supposed to do something for his graduation, but when we arrived over there, nothing was going on and the liquor was GONE -_- We ended up going to another frat's house and watched a couple of them and some chick clusterfuck around in the kitchen to make spaghetti. Some other females came over; weren't Sorors so it didn't really matter much to me. (I know that sounds bad, but I'm actually a little antisocial) Eventually we dipped, went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday we woke up later than planned. So late, in fact, that we barely caught his family before they returned home. But fortunately we did catch up with them (after they'd already eating a wonderful breakfast that they told us about all day LOL) and went to a mall. Didn't really do a whole lot of shopping. Got one pair of shoes at Macy's. (Pair of white Jessica Simpson pumps. They are freaking torture devices, but they are so cute! Too bad we don't have a Macy's here, because I would SO return them! They may be on eBay soon!) Grabbed a little lunch in the food court and that was that. They dropped us back off at my hotel and his brother, father & mother hugged me goodbye (his sister waved from the trunk LOL). We sat around for a while then decided to go to the bar while we waited for a cab to go to Priscilla's. After perusing the goodies there, we came back and grabbed some food, then just kinda laid around and chilled until Dane Cook came on. (I'm a really big DC fan, so I already knew that whatever we were doing would have to cease to watch him. I was slightly disappointed though. Funny, but not OMG, WTF?!?! funny like usual.)

The next day, we woke up fairly early (or, I woke up early and then moved around to wake him up), checked out, dropped my stuff off at his place and went to Aunt Sarah's (i think?) Pancake House. Oooh, the catfish & eggs was delish! (I'm such a fat girl lol) Left there and went by one of the bookstores to buy a long-sleeve VCU shirt since I was so ill-prepared for the sudden drop in temperature. Went back to his apartment where I preceded to cry like a baby because it was time to go. I was so tempted to not call the cab, to "accidentally" miss my flight so I could stay a little longer, but I knew I couldn't do that. He walked me out to the cab, put my bags up for me, and kissed me goodbye. I cried all the way to the airport.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We could've sat around all weekend doing nothing & I would've been happy because I was with him. This long distance thing is so hard, but it definitely makes you appreciate the time you have together. I cannot wait to see him again, and I'm certainly looking forward to doing VA again. :)