wilmington blitz

The Chief and I headed down to Wilmington to birthday tidings to my lil bro who turns 21 tomorrow. I enjoyed the entire trip. We had beautiful weather-- sunroof open weather. We drove mostly back roads, which makes for a longer but more enjoyable trip. We drove by lots of cotton fields and had lots of rambling conversation. Road trips produce singular conversation; they're a unique spot on the time-space continuum.

The visit was a relaxed, roly-poly, meandering kind of rollick. We read by the pool until J-D could meet us. Then, we went to downtown Wilmington where we strolled and cheered for the Iron Man competitors. They were very close to completion and completely haggard. One guy shocked me by looking me in the eye and thanking me after I cheered for him. Um, you're welcome. Another guy cracked me up when he asked for a short cut.

We ate steak. We watched football. We ate organic pumpkin pie on styrofoam. We enjoyed each other's company. We sat abreast a bench and watched the tide come in for about an hour. We drove and walked my brother's normal routes. We laughed, smiled and chatted. We shopped, and I bought a cachecole or something or other at the art co-op. We ate Mexican, which is an unofficial ritual for turning 21 in our family. My sister's birthday we ate Mexican in Charlottesville, mine in Chapel Hill and J-D in Wilmington. It was coincidence that somehow gained significance. The brother and sister are going to hang out in W-S next weekend.

Tomorrow I'm teaching political cartoons to the entire seventh grade. It should be interesting. I picked some good ones. I hope I do it justice. It was brilliant to get away if just for 36 hours. I should enjoy work more.

I voted Friday, which is worthy of its own post, but I'm tired. The wait was about two hours. We were surrounded by pleasant people whom we chatted up. We shared a party cheat sheet and laughed about how we could talk with each other but had to silence our cell phones. I think there should be an express lane for registered voters. The unregistered really bogged down the process.