1) Virginia was simultaneously relaxing and a bit of a disappointment as the weather sucked the whole time we were there so we didn’t get any outside time. I stayed home on Wednesday night intending to get to bed early but my empty-house-insomnia was in full effect and I ended up falling asleep around 2am. When I booked my 8am flight the week before, I hadn’t really thought about the travel time to JFK and ended up catching a cab at 5:45am to get there in time, passing out later that afternoon from exhaustion. The kids had a good time, though, as my mother pulled out all of the stops in the arts & crafts department, and my stepfather spent more time with them than he ever has, teaching Isaac how to play card games and hanging out with India watching TV. Also, Salomé cooked ox tails. Yum!
2) We caught Juno while we were there and absolutely loved it! I rank it up there with Say Anything and have tentatively penciled it in to my all-time Top 10 Favorites list. Ellen Page is adorable and sassy, reminding me a little bit of both Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz and Brooke Wacha, both in and out of character, and I totally related to Michael Cera’s understated Bleeker, who reminded me a lot of my not-cool, not-totally-uncool high school self. Interestingly, I picked up [Juno writer and Oscar winner!] Diablo Cody’s memoir Candy Girl : A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper in hardcover off of the bargain table at Barnes & Noble afterwards, and am looking forward to reading it. I suspect any additional copies have been taken to a back room and the paperback edition has been placed on a prominent display table in all of their stores as of this morning.
3) The trip back home was the first time I’ve really gotten to drive our new car and after 10 hours — including a 2-hour layover at Cracker Barrel! — I love it now more than ever! It’s got a peppy little engine that responds nicely even when you’re passing 65 mph — our old car always felt a bit sluggish at that speed — is easy on the back and ass, and it’s just big enough to squeeze a week’s worth of stuff into without being a pain in the neck to park. Make mine Mazda!
4) This was the first visit since our ill-fated move down there in 2002 that it didn’t cross my mind in the slightest to consider moving back at some point. It’s nice enough, but any underlying charm it might have had in the past is completely gone and now it’s just another unappealing collection of strip malls, chain restaurants and cookie-cutter housing. For that I’d move to Long Island! 😉
5) Is it really the end of February already?!?
Would you have said that if I hadnt told you it’s the big thing I’ve been hearing lately?
It didn’t immediately come to my mind until you mentioned others had noted it, but then I saw a little bit of Page’s interview with Barbara Walters and the way she walked down the red carpet and it sank in.