Road Trip

I ventured on a road trip today with 2 of John's relatives. Probably 2 of my most favorite folks in the family. We went to Wakefield, VA and ate at the world famous (cough cough) VA Diner. I felt like I needed an afternoon away from the hustle and bustle of Norfolk so I buzzed up the sis-in-law and said, "Let's go eat at a place I've never tried before." "And call that crazy niece of yours and see if she wants to tag along." She said, "Ok". And off we went.

The food was delicious. I had the pulled pork BBQ sandwich with onion rings (real onion rings btw) and sweet iced tea. The sis-in-law had fried oysters(lightly dusted), loaded baked potato, a side salad, and 2 biscuits. The niece had a mini BBQ sandwich, mini cheeseburger, and onion rings. We all cleaned our plates and it was yummy!

We talked about our lives. We talked about my husband and the niece's parents and the matriarch of this huge family. We laughed some, we remembered plenty and we missed the ones no longer here. My loss being the freshest made it difficult but I survived.

The thing about reminiscing with family members is that you hear things about your loved one that may not be so pleasant. And that was the case today. I won't go into any specifics but let's just say if I had known what I heard about today prior to "getting serious" with him, our relationship would not have gone very far. It was hard to hear and even harder to imagine. I knew a far different man than the one in the picture that was painted for me today. I know we're not all perfect and I know we've all made mistakes along the way. But, this was just too much. I just thank God that the man I married was no longer the man that he used to be before I met him. Things would have most certainly been different in our lives. I found it hard to reconcile in my mind, the things that I heard today with the man that I had called husband. I came into his life at the exact right time. I missed all of the less than desirable qualities that he possessed. He had mellowed I suppose. It would not have been pretty had he not and our paths still crossed.

Aside from that conversation, our day was nice. The weather could have been better but the food made up for that somewhat. The really cool thing though was the fact that all 3 of us wore black & white clothing today. I've never dressed anywhere near like those 2. And today, we all had the same color scheme. And we didn't plan it.

My sis-in-law told me several times that I looked good today. I said, "well how bad did I look before for goodness sakes?" She then backed up the conversation and said, "not that you ever looked bad, but you look different." "I've never seen you dress like that, why haven't you dressed like this before?" I said, "I couldn't fit into these jeans until recently is 1 reason." "The other reason being, I was too tired to get "all gussied" up most of the time and if I had left the house looking like this when your brother was alive, he'd have 20 questions and I would have been too tired to go anywhere by then." "I did dress like this when he & I went out together, you were never privy to that." She said, "I like it. You really look nice." I thanked her. Losing 30 pounds always helps a gal look and feel better. If my husband were here and himself he would say, "who are you losing weight for?" "Certainly not me." "Well, of course, it's for you dear, don't you know I love you that much." Battin'eyes.

We all agreed that we must do this again soon. We all enjoyed each other's company. What's better than good food and good company? Nothing, I say.