This is the story of how we begin to remember.

The subject is a line from Paul Simon's "Under African Skies" which was admittedly stuck in my head as I was leaving on August 20th, at which point I used the lyric about walking the length of the days under African skies as my facebook status. Nerdy, I know, but appropriate. Over the next few weeks I'm planning on sharing some of my stories and journal entries on here, but in the meantime, here's what I accomplished in my visit to Virginia over the weekend:

• Still not on Eastern time, woke up and drove down to Paul's in Alexandria early Saturday. Stopped in to say hello and then met Taylor and Scott for lunch on King Street. Good to see them!
• Took a nap back at Paul's because I wasn't functioning. Woke up after a little over an hour and was functioning at a lower level than before, just in time to meet a few of his friends who were over for the football games. I bet I made an awesome impression. Sorry guys!
• Ended up heading into D.C. to meet a group of internationals I worked with over the summer and wandered around with them for a bit. There was an awesome sunset as we crossed the mall. Great to see everyone (Julia, Gyöngyi, Timi, David and Dave) before they continued traveling and heading home!
• Went back to Paul's and caught the end of the game. Stepped away to brush my teeth and continued my good impression on his friends by not saying goodbye, since the games all ended and they left before I returned. My bad.

Sunday was Jeremy and Adrienne's wedding in Fredericksburg!

• I went down several hours early to veg/ pretend to make lesson plans for Tuesday at Hyperion. I love love love that place. If there is one thing I really feel that Rutgers is missing, it's a good, local coffee shop like that. I actually ran into Ross and Matt as they were heading off to do groomsmen stuff, which was fun like old times. Actually, one of my favorite random memories of the end of senior year was running into the two of them there on a gorgeous day and just sitting for an hour since I had little else to do anyway. Oh, Hyperion. So lovely.
• I walked around town for a little while, seeing what's new and what's old, before heading over to the Presbyterian Church (which is definitely old). The wedding ceremony itself was hands down the shortest I've ever been at, but the pastor got all of the important things in there. It was downright impressive. And also beautiful. I just totally adore Jeremy and Adrienne together.
• The reception was at the Alumni Center and was a totally classy affair. It was great to catch up with music department friends despite the fact that my travels have left me a bit under the weather*.
  
• After, some of us went to the Kenmore Inn. How didn't I know where this was?! Pathetic. But there are a lot of major historic sites in Fredericksburg, so I guess it's fair to not know every single one of them. We hung out in the basement, which seems like a pretty cool place to go with people. I was still feeling the jetlag though so I went back to Alexandria for the night.

Monday was a really nice day.

• I met up with my dear college roommate Brittany and walked all over Old Town Alexandria. For all the times I've visited Paul, I haven't really walked around that part of the city. Brittany and I walked from Braddock Road down to King Street and to the waterfront, where we happened upon the Torpedo Factory. This is a place I actually learned about in a geography class once! We checked out some of the art inside and continued along the waterfront. I love seeing this woman. I'm so glad we were able to coordinate!
  
• Then back to Fredericksburg for a quick run-in with my friend Noah and a few of his people. He had gotten back from England the night before after spending the summer there. He might have been the only person I saw over the weekend who looked more exhausted and crazy than I did. Sorry Noah...
  
• I spent the afternoon with my cousin Laura, who just started at Mary Washington. She grew up somewhat near Fredericksburg but hasn't really walked around town and figured it out for herself yet. However, she seems to be doing great at school and we had a lot of fun getting ice cream and checking out other shops and houses downtown. I am loving this excuse to get to know her better, and also to stop in Fredericksburg even though my friends have all graduated and moved on!
• In the evening, the plan was to meet Taylor, Alison and Scott for dinner, but the latter two were at a wedding, so really Taylor and I just people watched from benches on campus walk for a while before deciding we weren't hungry and traffic wasn't going to be that bad. I made the drive home in decent time despite some initial congestion (people returning from holiday weekend?) so that I could be well rested for my first day back in the classroom today.

Total mileage: 627. Good weekend. I really need to spend some time relaxing though. I realized going into the weekend that I haven't slept in the same place for more than six consecutive nights since... at least January, quite possibly actually last year. The new quote in my blogger profile is from my friend Becky, who is working on settling down a little bit after serving in Peace Corps with her husband and then traveling the world a bit. It's kind of true. My toothbrush is in the same place each night though-- my travel toiletries bag...