I had a delightful little breakfast of leftover bagels with Myra at the Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement.
While we were sitting in the break area there, a guy from the group—the Study Abroad group (Personally, I’d rather study Aguy than study Abroad) [Badump-bump; I’m here all life, folks.]—who shares the third floor of our new building with us, said hello to Myra.
“Sam, do you know John?”
We looked at each other, and I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him if I did know him.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said, and we shook hands in introduction.
He spoke with Myra for a couple more minutes, and when he walked away, Myra said, “I have a question to ask you about him.”
And I replied, “I have a question to ask you about him, too. I’m thinking it’s the same question. And, I’m thinking that means the answer must be yes.”
After we’d returned to our respective work areas, it occurred to me from where I knew Sam. As it turns out we spent a couple of hours in an elevator together on October 12, 2005.
How do I remember the exact date? This is the beauty of having blogged for over four years without missing a day. I know that I was stuck in that elevator on the day before my birthday—a simple check in my LiveJournal archive, and voilà.
Every once in a while, I write a blog entry that elicits, “You must do something with your writing.” That was one of those entries.
I went back over to Sam’s office, and to his surprise, I said, “Actually, we have met before, Sam. We spent some time trapped in an elevator once.”
“Oh yeah!” he said, “I thought you looked familiar.”
Robert arrived early, a little before 5:00, and we were on the road by 5:00. There was a little bit of traffic congestion at the front end of the trip—that is to say, on I-40 East leaving Raleigh. After that, it was smooth sailing all the way into Carolina Beach.
Just on the other side of Wilmington, we passed one of the best named hair salons of all time: the Curl Up and Dye Salon. Gotta love that!
We checked in to the Beacon House, which was real cute, and then went out for a bite to eat, ending up at Bowman’s At the Beach Seafood Restaurant.
We only waited 5 or so minutes to be seated, and between the two of us we shared a bowl of New England clam chowder, a salad, some slaw, hushpuppies, tater tots, two pieces of flounder and two deviled crabs. Good stuff, but almost all greasy fried groceries.
Back at our room, the Birdhouse room, we worked on one frustrating crossword puzzle until I took it and threw it on the floor, “Done with that one.” During this time, it was storming like crazy—so much so in fact, that the lights blinked on and off a couple of times.
We worked on another, less frustrating, but still quite challenging puzzle for a while, before falling asleep.