Hooplah.Org A Story of Graceful Stumbles

The next three days with Matt

Yet again, I'm cheating. I posted this entry a couple of minutes before midnight on the 6th, and I'm only writing about it now (the 9th). I've only done this because making two semi-long entries is better than one huge gigantic one. And plus, I wanted the one with the trip to Luray all by itself

We had wanted to be able to take our time getting ready before leaving for Luray, so we decided we would take a tour the day after we arrived. I don't think we actually left until 1 or 2 PMish, I think. Matt slept most of that morning, while I woke up early and showered and asked my parents to double check the directions I got from maps.com. There was a pretty long debate (like 40 some minutes) on where the directions were really saying to go, but we eventually got it all figured out... and, luckily for me, I knew how to get through 1/2 of the directions and the rest after that was basically a straight shot.

It was raining and foggy on the trip, which made for both a pretty and troublesome ride. Seeing the mountains from a distance capped in foggy clouds was beautiful, but having to drive through it on a very curvy mountain road wasn't that great And when I say curvy, I mean almost 90 degree turns every 15-20 seconds or so.

The hotel we were saying at was almost directly across from the Luray entrance (or, near it... the hotel was across the road from the street that lead to it). The hotel itself had a very 70s feel (or, I thought so) and it had a cute little balcony that looked over a mountain and "part of the Shenandoah National Park), though it just looked like some trees to me

Matt and I had talked about maybe doing something that evening like looking at the other sites in the area, but we ended up just saying in. The fok w thing we did was make love (since the previous night we had had a discussion about how I seem to put off wanting to do it until late at night, and by then I get sleepy and we end up not doing anything... so I decided just to pounce him earlier to make up for it Shortly after that we made plans to get food... after some debate, I decided I wanted Pizza Hut (to see if their pizza was sucking too) and Matt wanted McDonalds. We almost ate in the Pizza Hut, but there were too many flies there. Oh, and while we were waiting for them to make my two personal pan pizzas, we were picking up brochures near the bathroom and when the men's room door opened a very old man came out, and just gawked at me... his leathery lips came into a smile and just stood there, gaping at me, getting closer to me slowly but surely... ugh, it was really uncomfortable and just nasty. So, needless to say, I was happy when I was able to get away from him and my pizza was ready shortly after. We went to McDonalds, and the drive through guy was sort of flirty/annoying as well, saying the total was $1000 and stuff like that. I swear, I've gotten more guy attention than I ever have in this short of a time period, and it's all from either middle aged men or snotty 15 year old boys And of course, Matt's there to see all of it

The only downside in being in a very country area (because despite the fact that Luray, Virginia is in northern VA, it is still close to West Virginia) is that my accent seems to pick up real bad around them. Matt swears up and down that I have a slight one (though I never noticed it before) and it just got horrible the more and more I heard the locals talk. It's like being in another country and you start speaking like them... only I guess it was just me getting back to my roots. Or something.

Before returning to the room, we got lots of snack food from the 711 that was right nearby as well. It was such a typical country town... most every popular/needful business was all located on that one road.

When we got back to our room, we ate our food and watched the Simpsons (which I haven't actually watched in, uhm, a good couple of years) and I was so happy that the pizza from that Pizza Hut was decent... hope was not lost! I let Matt have a bite and he admitted that it wasn't all that bad I didn't care if it had fly poop on it or not, it was yummy as hell. I just wish the Pizza Hut nearest to my home didn't turn to shitty... I've really been thinking of putting in a complaint their toxic tomato sauce, but I doubt that'd do any good.

After eating, we both got the idea to go out and get a deck of cards... Simply because it would be fun. We checked a couple of places until we found some at the same 711 from earlier, and picked up some more candy (I picked up a bag of cotton candy, and Matt made me swear that I wouldn't choke on it, since last August I almost did while laughing at a Robin Williams comedy special on HBO) and headed back to the room. The only thing we both really remembered how to play was Go Fish (though I had to teach Matt how to play) and we sort of did it like strip go fish... I think I ended up losing Though I swear it was because he had on more clothes, because I rock at go fish... Matt says there's no way to be good at it, that it's all chance, but I believe whole heartily that the power of winning that game lands all on counting cards and educational guesses

Anyway... that evening, we also took a bath in the hotel room's tub, which was luckily a little bit longer than the one I have at my house. We had some trouble with the drain, but we just put a cup over it so the water wouldn't leak out as much, and just simply kept refilling the tub whenever the water level got low. It was so nice, just laughing and goofing around with him in there. The room was all steamy (from the hot water, I swear!) and it was just cozy... I even took a few pictures of us, but they'll probably remain for my private collection

I had wanted to make love again after the bath, but of course, that was when my stomach started to bother me... and damn did it ever All the other times of the trip my stomach just seemed to cramp and hurt, but this time I got the joy of spending lots and lots of time in the bathroom. Whoopie. I felt bad, since I had sort of talked up the idea and teased Matt a little about making love again, but he's always so understanding when that feeling hits me... mainly because he knows just how it feels. We ended up just laying in two different beds (since the hotel didn't have any kings or queen bed rooms available, and Matt had missed being in a big bed to himself, which was totally alright with me) and going to sleep while watching Conan.

We had set my clock's alarm for 8:30AM, so we could go over to the Luray place and have the free breakfast there. We were sorta sluggish at first, but we were up and checked out by 9ish. The free breakfast ended up not being too hot, so we both opted to get a egg and hash brown meal they had. We sat in the far corner and ate, while I tried to take a picture of the corny vampire painting on the wall next to the door. I think we were both done eating sometime around 9:30ish, and just went next door to the actual entrance to Luray to get our tickets (since there was a deal with the hotel that gave us a voucher to turn in... the actual tickets were still the same price, but we got like $5 or !10 off the room doing it that way). The next tour was at 10AM, and Matt and I just walked around the gift shop-like place until it was time.

The tour itself was nice. The tour guide was an older man, with white hair and a white beard.. he sort of reminded me of Santa Clause. I really liked him, even though I think he may have snapped at a few people on the tour, he always seemed nice and informative to me. Luckily I had forgotten a great deal from when I went to Luray at age 8, so it was like seeing it all over again for the first time. The only things I remembered from the first time was the organ that is attached to the rocks that can play music, but this was the first time I ever got to hear it play since my first trip down I remember them saying it was under maintenance or something. The tour was only about an hour and 10 minutes long, and Matt had to duck alot since some of the stalactites (sp?) hung down low from the ceiling. The tour it self was pretty big (like 20 or so people) and sometimes I had trouble getting good views, but that was fine. There were always plenty of other very beautiful things to look at... natural wonders area always so pretty. I think the tour guide said the oldest "formation" in there was about 7 million years old, just to give you an idea of how long that cave has been there.

After the tour inside, there was a little auto gallery right beside it, and we got to go through it for free with the stub of our Luray ticket. Matt wanted to go because he liked cars, and it did turn out to be pretty interesting. It was a twisting walkway with cars from horse drawn wagons to the mid 40s and 50s I think. They were all cars that were actually used at sometime, too, and they all had a little information plaque about when they were made and what they were used for. I was taking my time reading and skimming over each one until Matt said his allergies were starting to bother him, so we headed out there quickly. The poor guy couldn't really enjoy anything outside for too long of a time without his nose attacking him.

The ride home was a little better concerning weather. It was sunny and it was much easier to tackle that icky mountain with the curvy road. Inside the car, I was somewhat snappy and we spent most the trip in silence... even though Matt was sleeping for some portion of it. I tried to keep the car steady when I noticed that his eyes were closed, but it seemed that when I made the effort I would of course run over huge pot holes by accident. Either way, it was nice to be home I guess... My father was standing at the door with his arms crossed, and at first I thought he was going to be angry (since I had purposely not told him that Matt and I would be staying the night so I wouldn't have to deal with the headache of him possibly whining about it. I had told my mother, and hoped that she would tell him after we were gone so whatever complaint he had about it would be gone by the next morning... and, luckily, it was.) but he just sort of smiled, which was a relief. He only seemed surprised that we were home so early.

Matt took a nap when we got home (since he had taken 3 benadryl, I think) and I randomly worked on page stuff. Somewhere along the time I got sleepy as well, so I got a pillow and his blanket and curled up on the floor. Matt woke up a couple of times offering to trade spaces, but I was fine on the floor and I really wanted him to keep the bed. In total I think we both slept for 2-4 hours. If I remember right, we spent the rest of the evening playing different card games. I had gotten my mother to show us how to play gin rummy, and she actually played a couple of games with us after teaching us (which was a real surprise, since my mother usually hates to be bothered by that kind of stuff... I think it was because Matt was there. If I had been by myself she just would have showed me and then picked up her book again which I think I ended up winning the majority of... I think. I kept mostly winning until Matt got a real hold of the game, and then he started kicking my ass. We played past 500, simply because we felt like playing longer with the same game.

That night I can't remember what else we did... I know we had some more steamed shrimp for dinner (even though we asked for fried, my mother couldn't find the "ready to fry" Seapack stuff, since Giant seems to not sell it, the bastards) and my stomach was still bothering me a little that night. Matt had given me some Amodium (sp?) Advanced while at the hotel, and while it worked alright, I think I still prefer my prescription shit pills to help my tummy. I ended up taking one of those that night, and also noticing that I had like a total of 7 refills left on my prescriptions before July/August of this year, which was so nice Not sure if I can take them out all at once, but I'll need to do something since I won't be able to get another prescription for them for a while without any medical insurance to see a doctor to give it to me.

The day this was posted was the 1 year anniversary of Matt and I being together. Yay I think we went through most of the day forgetting about it, but we told each other happy anniversary whenever we thought of it.

The next day I wanted to eat lunch at a different Pizza Hut I knew of in Fredericksburg, just to see if it was shit or not. We were the only ones dining inside, and the waitress was really nice. I decided I would change the meal on my credit card, since we had gotten real low on money from going to Luray and I was feeling bad :ehh: The meal itself was really good... we ordered the garlic bread with cheese, and I got a personal pan and Matt got a small pepperoni pizza (which I requested he get pan style rather than hand tossed, since Pizza Hut is the only place I like pan and I prefer pan and just... I've missed having it, since the Domino's pan pizza SUCKS. He was really sweet and agreed to) and I got some of their cinnamon sticks to go. It ended up coming to like $20ish I think, and I gave a $5 tip... just because I really liked the waitress, she just seemed happy even though she was working

The rest of that day was spent playing more cards (LOTS of cards... Matt sort of fell in love with gin rummy ) and playing some N64 games as well. We only played Mario Kart, and Matt had gotten really good with it... actually beating me sometimes I was sort of sucking, which I have no idea why

We took another bath this night, but I can't remember anything really about it... which I have no idea why. I think it was just a nice bath together, just hanging around and spending time together. I think I'll probably miss moments like that the most... when we're both vulnerable, can't hide anything, and still feel comfortable enough with each other to laugh and make jokes.