Steph's Bodacious Boondoggles: A New Job -- and Free Weeekends!!!

On January 10th, I started my new job with the Outreach Department. It was different being inside all day, in “professional” clothes, and in my own cubicle. Though different, it was also a welcome change of pace. The days at work were mostly spent in training to develop my educational programs, learn procedures, etc. and were pretty typical during the week. Weekends though have been lots of fun since starting the new job. (photo: In some of the down time in the office, we found time to have some fun and leave Jeff a surprise...)

That weekend (my first weekend off in over six weeks, at least) I went with the UM Alumni Club to tour the USS George Washington aircraft carrier at Naval Station Norfolk. I hadn’t ever been on a military ship and it was quite neat to see up close and personal, especially with our navy guides. The following weekend, being a four-day weekend with Lee-Jackson Day on Friday and MLK Day on Monday, Megan, Mark, and I went to North Carolina for a brief trip. We’d wanted to go anywhere and were looking at all sorts of ideas, including a circuit trip to Charleston, SC and the Outerbanks, but for various reasons only went to Chapel Hill an overnight. My friend Mark had gone to UNC and thus gave Megan and me a very enthusiastic introduction to the town and its culture, including a trip to the Carolina v. Maryland basketball game (apparently Megan and I are forbidden to return since we obviously jinxed the team). Mark’s friend joined us in a quest for barbecue for dinner (Carolina style barbecue being “the best food you’ve ever eaten,” according to Mark), which took us to three restaurants before finding one open and culminating in a blissful sweet potato and cranberry bread pudding with whiskey cream sauce. After dinner, we hit the town (where it was still snowing (!!!), albeit only flurries not really accumulating) for pool and a few different establishments. The next morning, we breakfasted on biscuits and sweet tea (more classic southern cuisine) and did some browsing/shopping before heading home. (photos: The Tidewater Alumni Club heading onboard the USS George Washington, the carrier on the left; one of our fellow alumni, a naval officer that had served on the Washington, during our tour on the main flight deck of the ship; at the North Carolina vs. Maryland basketball game in Chapel Hill; Megan excited in the snow; and our house the day after the snow (this was the most we had all year!).)

The following weekend included a trip to Hampton to see the U2 in 3D movie at the Virginia Air and Space Center IMAX. It was so cool to see U2, my favorite band, in such a neat live performance and to see The Edge as basically a 3-story high version of the epitome of cool. Some of our crew also came down and we had an evening at one of the pubs. The weekend after it was off to a former co-worker’s house for a massive Mardi Gras party. Much of the Jamestown interpretive staff and others all showed up for the beginning of a long evening. After Greg’s party wound down, a former interpreter and current outreach coworker offered to take us to his place in West Point (a small town on the York River about a half hour NW of Williamsburg) to a bonfire he knew of in the area. After a long drive there and a mile ride in the back of a pickup through the woods, we got to the bonfire only to be greeted by stares from those already there (“Who are you? Why are you here? You guys are old! We’re all in high school!”). We didn’t stay long and instead headed to someone’s fancy barn for darts, pool, country sing-a-longs, and barn cats. It was quite a lot of fun, though we at last realized it was nearly 6am and should probably head home, though it had been quite a while since I’d been up that late. (photos: Stephanie taking a photo of her food -- the obsession has become contagious!; apparently drinking a beer is serious business; Jeff (with straight hair) and Sally; Callie and Gordon at Greg's party; and Brian and Loren.)