Adventures in the state for lovers

Woke up this morning at 9, then discovered it was 8. Somehow I had not gotten the memo that it was time to shift out of daylight saving mode, which is not surprising since I have dramatically limited the amount of time on Facebook and listening to NPR, to keep the Trump infection down and to focus on the long view as much as possible.

Long weekend already, since we drove up to Newport News for a robotics competition Friday evening and then back again yesterday. On each night we failed to reach our destination before 10:30. I will spare you the details, except to caution against stopping at Big Pig BBQ in Stony Creek, VA if you are in any sort of a hurry. The Q was fine, but it took 35 minutes to make some fries, 5 Q sandwiches and 2 BLTs, which is just absurd. Particularly since the woman in front was just sitting around. You would have thought the cook might have called her in to help.

But I digress. On Friday we stopped at Five Guys, where we didn't know there were no chicken options. Mary, being a woman of firm beliefs and resolve, was not going to eat beef in a place like that, so she had a very disappointing veggie sandwich, and when we got to our hotel, an Embassy Suites near the Hampton Convention Center, she was starving. The hotel was, moreover, swamped by an anime convention and -- this being the day after Halloween -- there were lots of guy and gal geeks swarming around in silly costurmes a little bit tipsy. She went to the hotel bar to get some food, I went to bed.

She took a while to come up, and, while I knew that getting food would take a while, I also thought to myself: "I wonder if someone is hitting on her." Sure enough, she comes back up after 45 minutes or so with tales of scarcely edible dumplings and an African-American military guy in his 40s who had struck up a conversation with her. He was, he told her, something of a regular there, "because it's quiet." Hmmm. He also asked her questions like "What are your plans for the evening?" Mary did mention words like "son's robotics convention" and "husband" but he never 100% seems to have given up until she left.

She seems to have enjoyed it a little. Of course. It is always nice to have outside confirmation that you are attractive. She also learned a little about DOD procurement but couldn't get a firm statement from him about what he thinks about asswipe up in the White House.