We had the complimentary breakfast in the dining area off the lobby of the hotel.
I had on my IBM rebus shirt, and this older lady said in the most southern of accents, “I lahke yowah Ah-Bee-Eayam t-shirt.”
I said thank you, and then listened as their conversation continued to the effect of:
Husband: “We should get Karen one of those.”
Wife: “Karen doesn’t work for ah-bee-eayam anymohah.”
On the way back up to the room, we asked for a late checkout — noon instead of eleven.
We packed, with plans to spend a couple hours at the beach before heading back to Raleigh.
At about ten until noon, as we were just finishing our packing, I looked out the window, and said to Joe, “Oh my god. It’s pouring.”
We altered our plans, and headed to the closest Port City Java to have some “real” coffee, and to use their free wireless Internet service for a while.
There was only one other person in the coffee shop, but there may have been five. He was having trouble installing some application on his laptop, and was on his cell phone talking incredibly, rudely, loudly. No “other-awareness” in this person.
While we were there, this car came through the drive-thru that had two huge poodles in it, whose heads were sticking out the windows.
The weather cleared up at one point, and we decided we’d drive down to the beach, see how the parking was, and if there was any hassle at all, leave, otherwise, park and stay for an hour or two.
Before we finished up, and got out to the car, black clouds were all around again. We decided to bag the beach.
We ate our leftover Stromboli in the car, and then headed back to Raleigh.
The ride back was tedious. The traffic was stop-and-go, on the interstate, and I mean coming to complete stops at times — for no reason other than the rain. And it rained the entire way back.
I went to Helios at 8:30, where Steve N., Mark Z., Joe and I eventually ended up chatting together.
We had some great laughs there. Mark showed us a picture of himself at a costume party that he’d recently attended, in which he was “dressed” as a conjoined twin, a la the Treehouse of Horror VII Simpson episode. He had this little “mini-me” of himself growing out of his cheek. It was hilarious.
When Helios closed at 10, Joe and I went over to Flex to meet Kevin (av8rdude) et.al. for his birthday. Eventually, Brant and Eric (innoman) joined us.
At one point, when I got a drink, Rodney, the bartender said, “Are you going to sing tonight?”
“Me? I don’t sing. I just come here to be critical.”
He started ranting, “I am so goddamn sick of these same goddamn people singing the same goddamn songs every goddamn week.”
I laughed at him, “Girl, and you’ve only been back for about two weeks.” Bless his heart.