The end of the summer was a whirlwind. Of course, for most of us, life is a whirlwind, but it usually consists of days upon days packed with minutiae and before you know it, it's practically November and you have no idea where the year has gone. Fortunately, my end of summer was the kind of whirlwind full of lots of good times with people, times which I can point to for many seasons to come and remember fondly. (And also minutiae.)
Ed
I wrapped up the summer concert series with an Ed Sheeran concert in D.C., accompanied by Elaine Crossfit. Ed was fantastic.Opening act was Christina Perri, who has huge musical guns. Her enviable vocal talents are some of the strongest I have ever seen.
Our seats were not so bad...
But even still, in typical Veronica fashion, I talked to some people and so we were upgraded to like the fourth row from the stage.
We got out of there and decided to hang back from the crowds for a bit, and it was a good thing we did, because the Metro line broke, and we would have had to walk through the tunnels to get out of there. We didn't even know about it till we were already on a train, about 30 minutes later, when one of the Metro workers happened to tell us that we were on "the test train" but that we were probably safe at that point.
Camping
Kake got married at the end of September, and she looked beautiful.
Before that, we went to Shenendoah to fit in some camping before married life began. It was actually awesome weather - the warmest I have ever experienced in Shenendoah.
We didn't even need a fire for survival purposes - just for recreation. That's not to say that we didn't need our survival instincts.
We spent the day at the apple butter festival, which was lovely.
We did find a good perch for the sunset... and an even better one was off the side of the road and down a cliff. Realizing that there was no safe way to walk down the hill, I found one way particularly effective.
Thus, the invention of Mountain Slide.
After sunset, we made our way back to our campsite.
Within moments of arriving and starting to set up our fire, the campsite next to us caught on fire. I mean.... caught... on.... fire.
There's a phrase folks use often: "Adding fuel to the fire..."
PEOPLE. THIS IS A VERY DECEPTIVE PHRASE. Please, under The Laws of Science and Physics, do not, under any circumstance, ever ADD FUEL TO A FIRE.
The kids at the campsite next to us decided that it would be a good idea to enhance their campfire using fuel. This, of course, resulted in literally everything catching on fire. The fuel can immediately caught fire, and then the kid holding it started flinging fuel everywhere, which caught evverything on fire. Within seconds, it was so lit up that it seemed like daylight.
Fortunately, folks from all around came running out from the woods to assist. Of course, pouring water on fuel only made it worse, so all anyone could do was stand around and watch and wait. God bless the guy behind us, who had a gigantic cooler of water, and soaked the ground all around the flames so that the fire didn't spread any further. For a good 20 minutes, all we could do was wait for queue of fleeing whilst their campsite burned.
Accurate representation of the camping fire scene.
Other than the few moments of absolute terror, the trip was rather lovely. We spent the next day touring several vineyards and vast spaces.
A bear!
Cows!
Sheep!
Birthday
I had a rather quiet birthday, with a few small but wonderful surprises and gifts. Some colleagues were really sweet, and Kake sent me a fruit thing!!
Also popped up to NYC for a weekend to celebrate my great-aunt's 80th birthday. Before we did that, we did some tourist-y stuff and saw a show.
I want to take another trip up soon, because I always feel rushed when I am there. Being given 45 minutes in Macy's is nothing... it takes 45 minutes just to make it to the department I want.
It was noted that it's somewhat of a talent that I can go up 9 flights of elevators without touching the handrails.
One of the best parts of Macy's is the old wooden escalators.
Also around my birthday, Sara and I got VIP tickets to the Maryland Million race. It was my first time at the horse races... and I had so much fun! I really loved it.
VIP tickets allowed us all-you-can-eat and open bar. Yeah, I'm spoiled, I know. But let me just set the record straight on one thing: I am all set on the oyster consumption front. I do not need to eat oysters ever again.
PSA: Do not ever serve me an oyster. Thank you.
Prepare your house and your life - I think we are in for a brutal winter.
