Erwaman's Personal Journal - April 2008

Breakfast was great! Hot food! The usual eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes, but also biscuits! There's some Southern cuisine for ya!

After breakfast, I went to the front to ask about the tux jacket again, and the lady there shook her head slowly and said she didn't think she could help me. But then, another hotel lady, working in the room behind the counter and previously unseen by me, appeared and said, "Fortunately, I eavesdropped on your conversation and I think I may have something for you. Wait one moment please." Half a minute later, she returned with not one, but three jackets (probably suit jackets but good enough!) to choose from. One was blue, so that was out. Then one was weird-looking (that's all I remember about it), and the third one was black with very light pinstripes and looked snazzier and more expensive than any jacket I own. My worries were over - I now had my full performance attire!

Our adjudicated performance wasn't until 4 PM, so we spent the morning walking around Colonial Williamsburg. I was impressed with the renovations and actors installed - for example, you had blacksmiths working with real coal and fire with eighteenth century tools. The gunsmith was also very interesting. We had three hours to explore Williamsburg and my feet were quite sore by the end due to a semi-heavy backpack. On a side note, I always wonder why my backpack is so heavy - I always aim to pack light when traveling: a couple cubes, some scratch paper, writing utensils, water bottles, deck of cards, sunscreen. Ok, sometimes I'm too lazy to remove my TI-89, but that isn't very heavy - maybe four, five hundred grams? Oh, maybe it's my fannypack of change - I wonder how many coins I have in there and how much it's worth...

Before we had to return to the bus, Jimmy Boyadjis, Brian Thomas, and I ran to a Baskin Robbins and indulged in smoothies. I told the employee I wanted a wild mango fruit blast, but she said, "No, no, get the strawberry citrus - it's waay better." I conceded - and though it was good, later on I craved mango flavor and wished I'd gone with my original choice. Brian and Jimmy both got a Cappucino Blast, which I tried and liked more than my fruit blast. I'll never drink regular coffee, but I'll consume any cold coffee-flavored confections, from Frappuccinos to coffee ice cream to coffee coolatas. Coffee's a rich and unique taste for someone who doesn't drink regular morning coffee (and never plans to).

So we returned to the hotel after our morning stroll to change and refresh ourselves for our afternoon performance. When we returned, Brian, Jimmy, and I discovered that our toilet tank cover had been replaced!!! Hotel finds me a tux, provides a multi-option hot breakfast, replaces broken toilet tank covers - I was pretty satisfied with their service.

We got to watch a few choirs sing, and surprisingly, there were several choirs from NJ, one from Kinnelon and several from Sparta. Then it was our turn, and we performed. Definitely one of the most musical performances I remember.

Afterward, we went to eat a fancy seafood dinner at the Williamsburg Lodge. Considering the $40 we paid, I was expecting more options, but the quality of the food available was still pretty high. I ate lots of raw salmon and oysters and shrimp and crab legs. When I heard their soup du jour was lobster bisque, I was very excited and immediately began mouthwatering. But then I got some and tasted it and it was totally the wrong taste. Upon another sip, the discovery: alcoholic preparation. Delicious soup completely ruined. I was very annoyed, both at the untasteful prep and the resulting wasted food. Later on, I wasted further food as a tightness in my throat/chest area that I ignored for most of the meal intensified as I continued to eat more seafood. At some point, the tightness became overwhelming and I thought I must be having an allergic reaction. I didn't eat for a little bit, and the sensation died a bit, but as soon as I put another piece of food in my mouth, the feeling shot right back up. Okay, that's it for dinner. Man, I was so disappointed I couldn't try any of their extensive selection of desserts. I saw everyone else enjoying thirds and fourths of desserts and all I could do was keep calm and drink water. Oh well, I comforted myself by thinking of the sugar and calorie intake I avoided.

After dinner, we had another two hours to stroll around Williamsburg before the live performance of Cry Witch was to begin, so we had more time to stroll around Williamsburg. Jimmy said there was a plant maze by the Governor's Palace, and I had always wanted to try a live maze, so I insisted we went. Though the Governor's Palace was closed, we snuck onto the property and explored the vast gardens in the backyard. We did not find the maze at first, and several times Jimmy kept thinking an open grass field was the remains of the maze, but finally, we found it!

Jimmy told me the objective was to reach the center, so we raced there. When we got there, we found a bench and a statue. Then, in exploring the maze further, we got back to the entrance of the maze through a different path. That's when Jimmy realized you were supposed to enter the maze and turn left and try to find your way to the exit on the right, not get to the center. So we raced the maze properly, forbidding ourselves from using all the cheating paths that had been cut.

We left the Governor's Palace and still had over an hour before the show. So instead of heading toward the Capitol building a mile to the east where the show would take place, we went west (manifest destiny!), following a path through the woods. We came out upon an elementary school, which had erected a statue of some guy we had heard about earlier in the day (forgot his name).

We continued past the school and into a suburban residential area. Then we headed south into a shopping district. We entered some stores asking where the nearest bathroom was, and we finally found a quaint log cabin that turned out to be a bathroom. It was a little hazy inside, but not as bad as the truck stop restroom from the day before.

Upon exiting the log cabin, we spotted a Barnes & Nobles across the street and went in. We enjoyed the AC as we browsed the displayed books, and we headed upstairs to the Starbucks cafe. I was out of water and thirsty, so I got in line to buy a drink. I was going to buy a cold coffee drink, but then I spotted a sign that read "Cup of Ice Water - 25 cents." Wow, what a deal - you wouldn't find that in New Jersey. Oh wait, but then again, most places will give you water for free and/or have a water fountain...

Jimmy walked around to side of the counter, where there was a rack of more items for sale. And by golly, there was allergy medication, which Brian Thomas had been seeking all day to no avail (People generally said you couldn't find allergy medication in Williamsburg.)! So then we headed back toward the Capitol, Jimmy with the allergy medication and me with my small Coke-sized cup of ice water.

We watched the live performance of Cry Witch in an old courtroom in the Capitol building. It was interactive and we ended up convicting the accused lady of sorcery and sentencing her to be hung (though I voted against).

I returned to the hotel fairly exhausted, but satisfied with my day. Jimmy and I then stayed up, watching John Carpenter's The Thing, the ending of King Kong, and The Fury (which I fell asleep during because the intro made little sense and I was too tired to wait and find out the meaning of the opening scenes). End of day 2.

A lot of eventful things happened on the trip, starting with the bus ride. So before we even left WP, Mr. Limey asked everyone to listen up and do a check as he called off some important items: performance attire - pleated shirt, tux jacket, tux pants, cummerbund, bow tie, black socks, dress shoes, red dress; music; luggage; etc. Mentally, I checked off all these items and thought "Yup, good to go."

So we're off on our way to Virginia and we're cruising down the highway. Everyone's pretty chill and relaxed as there's lots of space (24 persons, 47-seat bus). I'm doing a calculus review packet and chatting with Jimmy Boyadjis, and then I go over the checklist of things to bring in my mind.

I'm thinking back to this morning and recall that I only put two hangers with their respective articles of clothing in my suitcase, but I know that I keep my pleated shirt, tux jacket, and tux pants on three separate hangers. Oh crap. Which item did I forget? I then recall that my dad ironed my pleated shirt and tux pants for me, so I probably put those in. So I probably forgot my tux jacket.

At this point, we're like 30 minutes into our trip, and there's no way I'm delaying our whole trip just to fetch a tux jacket. So I start thinking about solutions to my situation. I let Bodines in on my situation and we brainstorm a whole series of plans:

1. Ask the other boys on the trip if anyone brought an extra jacket.
2. Ask the hotel staff if they have a spare jacket.
3. Buy a tux jacket.
4. Steal one (not really).

The theme of these plans is not to have to bother Mr. Limey about this issue. The bus wasn't a great place to start asking people if they had extra jackets, so nothing more could be done until arrival.

Regardless, other issues arose. We stopped in a random, sketchy truck stop. Why? We found out our bus was apparently leaking transmission fluid. Inside, there were lots of middle-aged, disheveled-looking men. The bathroom had a smoky haze and was very cramped. In the stall I used, I saw scribbled on the toilet paper dispenser: "Make a date for a blow job."

King's Dominion Theme Park was right across the street and seeing all those roller coasters excited me for Busch Gardens. Anyways, the bus returned and we found out there were no nearby places that could fix our leaking transmission fluid problem, so we just continued on our way, fluids spilling out from under us.

We finally arrived at the TGIF we had made reservations at, many hours late due to our bus problem/unexpected stop. The food was good - I ate like everyone's leftovers and we pretended it was T's birthday.

We got to the hotel - the Patrick Henry Inn - and settled into our rooms. Brian Thomas takes a dump and then informs Jimmy and me that the toilet's clogged. So Brian heads to the front desk to ask for assistance. They tell him, "Today happens to be the one day this month that our maintenance man has off, so here's a bucket and plunger for now until our maintenance man comes tomorrow. Good luck!" So Brian returns and starts pumping away and informs us that someone else's poop was what had clogged the toilet, i.e. the toilet was clogged before we arrived.

He finally unclogs the toilet, but now there's another problem. The water tank behind the toilet bowl won't refill. So Brian removes the cover and tries to find the problem. Meanwhile, Jimmy goes next door to Mr. Limey and Mr. T's room to tell Mr. Limey about our toilet problems. Jimmy comes back and by this time, Brian has got the water flowing back into the water tank. So everything's working, but then Jimmy accidentally knocks over the water tank cover, which had been placed on the counter, and the cover hits the floor and shatters into several pieces. The two of them hear Mr. Limey's footsteps approaching, so they toss the shattered pieces into the shower and pull the curtain. Mr. Limey appears in the bathroom doorway, and they tell him, "Everything's working again! We fixed it." Mr. Limey takes one glance at the toilet with the missing water tank cover and says, "You guys broke the lid, didn't you?" They say, "Yeah," and he laughs and heads back to his room. Jimmy and Brian repiece the shattered pieces on top of the water tank and then place a towel over the cracks. "Ah, good as new."

I went around to all the boys' rooms and asked if anybody brought an extra jacket. Several had brought extra pants and shirts, but nobody had an extra tux jacket. So I went to the front desk to ask if they had an extra tux jacket. The lady told me to come back in the morning and ask the person working then. There was nothing more I could do that night, so I finally told Mr. Limey and Mr. T about my problem. Mr. T said I could borrow his sports coat if the hotel couldn't find a spare jacket. Mr. Limey also offered his jacket. Finally, he said, "Worst comes to worst, you just won't wear a tux jacket." I was glad they knew about my problem and were not too upset about it. Finally, the day comes to an end and it's time for sleep. End of day 1. Way to keep changing tenses, Anthony.