i can't believe i signed up for a pleonast thing

A few weeks ago I was at Virginia Tech doing some work for a engineering research job I have at USC. I was in Virginia for a few days to do some lab work with a couple of grad students who were doing research on the same project, and was planning on being there basically for a week, and leaving friday in time to get to my other job (cooking at a resteraunt) at 4 and work the night shift.

Well, on wednesday, we realized that our lab experiments were progressing a lot quicker than we had planned, and we only had about two more hours of work to do. It wouldn't take until friday morning, as we anticipated before. So I would be done at about 11 am on thursday, with 29 hours before I had to be at work friday...

I didn't want to waste any time by going back to south carolina early. At about 11 pm on wednesday, I decided to make some phone calls to people I have kept in touch with since my FC days, but haven't seen. I got in touch with Jamie Lowe, asked her what she was doing thursday, and we talked, and about 20 hours later we met up in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It was a really fun trip... I basically left Virginia Tech not knowing where I was going, until I saw a highway sign that said 460-west, and I knew kentucky was west, so I followed it. I took the scenic roads... I had to drive slower, and it was raining, but it was such an enjoyable drive, with beautiful sights of the mountains... I love scenery. I'm kind of a nature hippie, I guess.

But I didn't know where I was going. After a while, I found myself in west virginia, and the road I was on crossed I77, and there was a visitor information type stop. I went in, got a free map of west virginia, and asked the helpful attendant how to get to kentucky. She told me to take I77 and then some other interstate, and I got back into my car confident that I was no longer lost. I started driving, and I was about to turn onto the interstate when I realized that I would rather have a scenic drive and enjoy the ride at a slower, less than 85 mph pace.

So I stayed on the highway I was on, and eventually crossed through WV and into KY. A few hours after the kentucky border, I stopped for gas and decided to get a map and find out where bowling green was. Spontanaity is great but I only had about 23 hours left before I had to be at work, so I decided I had better get to bowling green and see people there.

And when I got there, I saw so many people I didn't expect to see there! It was awesome! I saw a low of people and realized that I really missed keeping in touch with people. (and some people mentioned this pleonast thing...)

All in all, it was a great random drive. The roads were enjoyable, and seeing old friends was just great. I left Bowling green at 7 am, drove nonstop to SC, and got to work at 3:48, exactly enough time to change shoes and clock in ten minutes early. I can't believe I made it to work on time.

I want to type all about my time in bowling green (all 12 hours of it) and other misadventures from that week, but I think I've done just about enough typing...

The week after my virginia/kentucky trip, I went to tampa for David Bermudez and Becky Hall's wedding, and again, I was lucky enough to get to hang out with a ton of people (but there are still folks I didn't get a chance to see! There's just not enough time to do all I wish I could do...)

...and again, people mentioned pleonast as a way of keeping in touch.

So I gave in and signed up.