Southern Charm

Special K and I just got back from a long weekend in Charleston, SC and it was SO GREAT. Last week was b-r-u-t-a-l. I arrived at my office at 9 am Tuesday morning – I left at 11 pm Wednesday night, and came home and kept working. I fell asleep for a few hours because I wasn’t capable of staying awake any longer, but woke up and kept working. I was supposed to take Thursday off, but left my office at 4:30. That did, however, mean that I could leave and not think about a particular project for the weekend – even though we drove past a place closely connected with it on our way to Charleston.

We arrived in Charleston late on Thursday, as might be imagined, and slept in Friday morning. We went to meet our hostess for lunch near her office (she’s from Long Island, and went to high school across the street from where I had my first job out of college) at a place called Jim n’ Nicks, which had some awesome Southern barbeque. Mmmm. Then we went to Urban Nirvana for massages. This was Special K’s idea, and MAN, was it a good one. I was drifting in and out of consciousness for the duration of my appointment, as the massage therapist beat away at the knots and ropes that comprise the muscle tissue on my back. I even had some lingering soreness from our Old Rag adventure, which she was able to work out. Such. A. Great. Idea.

I got a lovely tour of Charleston from Special K, including his alma mater, The Citadel. Not only did he go to undergrad and grad school there, but he also worked in the admissions office for a while. He was a *thorough* tour guide! But it was a lot of fun, Charleston is a really beautiful city.

After that, we went back to J’s house (she’s the hostess – but I know way too many people named J. SCJ, perhaps?), by way of a grocery store. The plan was to have a bunch of Special K’s friends come over for dinner, since he went to school in Charleston and lived there for a while afterward, but didn’t get to go back and visit a lot. I offered to cook, mostly because I’d been on a delivery-only diet for the entire previous week, as a result of my insane work schedule, and I was dying to cook.

I made a really easy veggie lasagna and my garlic bread, which is not for the faint of heart. One of SCJ’s friends said it was so good that he was going to go home and slap his mom for not ever making it for him like that when he was a kid. Going to punch her right in the face, apparently. He also said he wanted to just bathe in a pool filled with it, so I’m hoping that he’s naturally prone to exaggeration. Otherwise I probably owe his mom and apology.

After dinner, we walked out to the Ashley River (SCJ’s place is right on the river) and hung out in a gazebo on the dock, getting to know each other. It ended up being a late night as we went through SCJ’s liquor collection and the talking continued, but it was a great way to spend the night. I also really appreciated that, even in a group of old friends, I felt welcome and right at home.

We crawled out of bed on Saturday morning and hung around, before heading out to watch a USC – Vanderbilt game at a bar out near the beach. It was fun (and I was glad we got there early), but shortly after halftime, Special K suggested that we head out and check out the beach, since that wasn’t likely to be on the agenda otherwise. I tend to like the outdoors in general, and I love the beach – the smell of the salt air and all that good stuff. El Cid has a beach house for use for students, so we snuck into the parking lot (there really wasn’t any sneaking involved – it wasn’t crowded and they weren’t looking for parking decals), and walked out to the beach. There was a bit o’ frolicking, as you are required to do on the beach, as well as people- and wildlife-watching. It was fun and invigorating, and after a while we headed back to meet up with everyone for a haunted hayride.

It being close the Halloween and all, we decided to do something to get us in the spirit. We clambered aboard a wagon, to be driven around by a bored looking gentleman named Raoul, with our guide, whose name escapes me. She was really trying to sound creepy and spooooky, but it didn’t quite work. Although, I really must only speak for myself, because the people sitting next to me were plenty frightened, and kept leaping up out of their seats (often onto me), yelling things like “Git up off me!!!” to any number of folks whose job it was to run out of the woods and scare the crap out of the folks on the hayride. It was a fun diversion for the evening though – which we followed by a nice dinner out (Mmm…T-Bonz), and curling up with a movie.

We woke up Sunday to see gray skies for the first time since we’d arrived. We eventually got around to heading out for brunch, at which point the skies opened up. As we sat there, munching on breakfast (I tried grits again, and I have to say, they were much better than when I’d had them before), we were recapping the weekend, quoting “Elf”, and talking about how glad we were that everyone had been able to make it into town, since a few other friends had also driven in from Columbia, SC.

We finally set out on the road, a little later than we wanted, but not regretting the extra time spent. The drive back was fairly uneventful, Special K and I did some good talking, when I wasn’t sleeping in the passenger seat (hopefully I didn’t drool…), and we rolled into my place a little before 11 last night. I walked in the door, and with the way the last week had been, my cats looked at me as though I’d been gone for months. Needless to say, I woke up almost smothered by the two of them this morning.

And now, it’s back to work. But what a great and relaxing weekend from which to come back!