va va voom

For months I had been planning on going to Williamsburg on the 27 for my friends Alison and Scott's engagement party. They graduated a year before me, both geography majors at Mary Washington. After living there in Fredericksburg for four years, I still take for granted how large the Commonwealth of Virginia is, but figured a quick 375 miles to Williamsburg from home was not a big deal. However, the deal was sweetened when I found out that Junk Science would be playing the night of the 26. I had to be home today, so this trip ended up being a 750 miles in 36 hours whirlwind. I told this to my friend Paul, who responded, "Only Colleen Earp would go 20 miles per hour in her sleep." True story.

I left for Fredericksburg around 3PM Friday, arriving an hour before the band went on at The Loft at 9. Much to my dismay, this was actually the band's farewell show because the drummer is heading to Montana for a position with Americorps. (We are all happy for him, but the music will be missed!) While waiting for a college buddy of mine to meet me, I hung out at Hyperion, my favorite coffee shop maybe ever. Cute little historic building in a cute little historic city. It's not that I wanted to stay in college forever, but there are definitely things I miss about that town on the Rappahannock. Good show though, and I stayed at the house of one of the band members with a bunch of friends.

The next morning, after another stop at Hyperion (seriously, the iced coffee is cold brewed and just the best I've ever had), it was off to Williamsburg. The friend I met for the show the night before, Jonathan, was also a geography major with Alison, Scott and myself, and was also going to the party, so he drove us down there. I don't know why I had it in my head that once I was in Fredericksburg from NJ, Williamsburg wasn't much farther, but that's basically not true. It ended up being a long day and a fast turn around for me, but it was so good to see some old friends.

On the way home, I stopped in northern Virginia to see one of my old roommates, Brittany. I am overall not remotely a fan of the overdevelopment in Fairfax County, but I am a huge fan of Brittany so it was definitely worth the stop. It meant getting home at 3AM today, but it did make it an even 36 hours of touring the southern part of Megalopolis.