Well, it ended up being a lot longer of a delay between entries than I thought. I've been trying to do this for the last coupla days, but various techincal and health difficulties prevented that.  So I guess it's been about 11 days since the last entry.  Not a whole lot has happened. Well actually, quite a bit has happened, but none of it too exciting.  I'll try to sum it up in a few paragraphs.
 

    I arrived here in Lexington, VA on Saturday June 26.  Rodzilla and I went to dinner, and it was very nice, and that's about it for Saturday.  Sunday was even less eventful. She worked until mid afternoon, and then I think we just hung out for a bit. No, she went to hang out with some of her friends, and I sat around her apartment, without even cable TV to entertain me.  I did watch A Fish Called Wanda for the first time though.  Very, very good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. So much in fact, that I watched it again the next day. Love that Kevin Kline.  Anyway, on monday, we were bumming around, starting to sort of pack things up to move out of her apartment.  We were going to go to Roanoke to see a movie, then we decided it was too late to go.  Then, an hour later, we decided to go anyway.  She picked the movie, so we went to see Notting Hill. It was pretty bad. there were some pretty funny parts, but there was no rhyme or reason to the plot, really.  There was no explanation why the characters were supposed to be in love or whatever, and I really can't suspend my disbelief when it comes to these sorts of movies. And if you ask me, there should be some rule that says no romantic comedy can be longer than 100 minutes. This clocked it at around  2 hours, and it really dragged at points, full of unecessary scenes. The cameo by Alec Baldwin was pretty good though.  After the movie, we drove the 5 miles down I-81 to Salem. I decided I wanted to buy some rollerblades. So I did. I got the bottom of the line pair, pretty much. But for as much rollerblading as I'm planning on doing, I'd say they're more than adequate.

    So let's see. On tuesday, I sat around for a long-ass time waiting on Jed. I told him I'd help him move some stuff, and he said why don't we have lunch around noon, if that's not too early? And I said sure.  So around 12:45, I got a call from him saying he fell asleep and he'd be on his way "shortly."  Not "I'm on my way." Which pissed me off.  He was already gonna be an hour late, and he still didn't even feel like walking out the door. So I told him that I had some shit to do, and he said why don't we meet at Subway at 2:45. I said fine. So I get to Subway, feeling a little guilty for feeling pissed off, at around 2:46.  Around 3, Rodzilla and I are all but done with lunch. So he strolls in at around 3:05. He was sorry, and i guess I couldn't be that angry. But it really pisses me off. Or worries me.  Anyway, while at lunch, i asked Rodzilla if she would go get a refill of soda, since it was an all-you-can-drink joint.  She replied to me that, no, in fact, she could not do so, because we only ordered a small drink.  And I'm all "what?"  She she's like, "you have to order a large to get free refills."  sigh.... Poor girl. one of those.  although i tried many times to explain to her that the you can indeed get refills on a small, and in fact it was quite dumb to get a large when it's free refills, she wouldn't belive me.  So we had to drive around to three other restaurants on a bet to see who was right. Well, we were gonna drive to five, but it was best out of five and of course the first three clinched it. Then she disputed the order of the restaraunts that we went to, and I had to explain the concept of "clinching." I'm not writing this to be mean, and I think it's making Rodzilla seem kinda dumb. Really, she's actually very intelligent. And she did make a compelling argument why it doesn't make sense to give free refills. But the point is she was just wrong. And it amused me greatly.

    Anyway, on wednesday I met with the other camp counselors at the Lee House, where the president of Washington and Lee lives.  This is my third year doing this job, so it was nothing terribly exciting.  I spent the rest of the evening quite miserable, helping Rodzilla move the stuff out of her apartment.  The next morning, we finally finished the cleaning and the moving. It's been incredibly hot here, and moving into the dorms was nice because i get to use my air-coniditioner. It's been 100 for the last few days, with no end in site.  It's the humidity that's getting me.  Anyway, later on thursday, the group of counselors all went up to SkyLark, and farm retreat that the university owns up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, about 35 miles outside of Lexington. I was leading the caravan, and I couldn't quite remember how to get there. So it was a relief when we actaully made it there.  It's really quite beautiful up on that thar mountain.  The complex consists of two main houses.  It's on a farm, with cows and Christmas trees.  The property is fairly sizeable, with tennis courts and a little pond.

    We did all sorts of dumb training stuff while we were there. Something new this year was a "leadership workshop" where this joker came up and taught us all the importance of accepting diversity.  Gosh, me be eju-cated!  he actually congratulated us on our diversity.  "Say, congrats on being born to your parents and inheriting their ethnicity!"  the guy was really super nice, but I just hate these type of people.  Maybe it's my business-as-usual approach to life, but I really don't think we need to learn the importance of accepting different cultures. I'm fairly certain it's something most educated people already know.  we actually had to define "what culture means to us." It was really, really annoying. it's one of those terrible discussion groups where there's never ever a wrong answer. A "safe" envirnment if you will, where you can feel comfortable taking "risks" conversationally. What was most disappoint though, was that almost everyone seemed really into it. Besides me and Rodzilla, only about 1 or 2 others didn't participate at all. There were a lot of things that were said that I either disagreed with, or were just plain dumb, and I really felt like saying something, but I just didn't want to. I didn't want to pretend that I cared, I didn't want to encourage a lively debate, and I sure as hell didn't want to extend this idiotic conversation any longer than the 4+ hours that it went on.  Like I told Rodzilla afterwards, "When I write about this weekend, i think the concise way to sum it up would be '... and friday was largely spent humoring imbeciles.'"  Not that my fellow counselors are dumb and horrible people. But it was still disappointing to see that this group was largely one of those kinds of groups. You know, the "Oh, I care about you and want to connect to your feelings."  there was actually a little workbook he handed out, and in it was something called the "Matrix of Oppression."  he said that when you oppress someone and their beliefs, you're encouraging rob them of their voice.  This made me periodically scream "Silince!" to whomever was speaking at the time.  There was also a little form where we had to write down the four types of cultures we thought we most identified with, and the 4 worst and best things about them. Everyone got to work, but I just couldn't take it seriously. I kept looking at Rodzilla going " pssst! what'd you put for number three?"  We had to read them to a partner later, and I felt bad for making mine such a joke when my partners was quite serious and actually quite personal.  All my good points were the same as my bad points, by the way.
    He also handed out a little evaluation form. I was mostly middle of the road, maybe a little worse. Rodzilla's was scathing. I mean, it had numbers to circle ranging from 1 to 5, with one being the lowest. I gave him mostly 3's some 2's. I didn't want to hurt the guy's feelings, because obviously, this is his life. I glanced over at Rodzilla's, and her from was almost uniformly "1"'s. She also had a long list of comments on why this was unnecessary. it looked pretty scathing. God, I love that girl.
 

    Anyway, besides that, the retreat was ok. I'd been there twice before. Last time, i left a "glue hand" in the hymnal in the piano bench. You know, you cover your hand with Elmer's glue and then carefully peel it off.  Anyway, the hymnal was gone this year, so I guess someone didn't think it was too funny.  I also found this path on the other side of the vegetable garden, that lead to this clearing at the highest point on out particular mountain. It was a flat, level field, where the grass was cut short  and there were a few benches and whatnot. The site was really quite breathtaking.  And the sun was setting at that moment too. rodzilla and I were sitting up there, and some of the other counselors came up later.  All in all, a very pleasant time.
 

    At night, we mostly watched movies and played cards. We watched Rushmore the first night. I love that movie. Rodzilla and  saw it in February. The second night we watched I still know what you did last summer.  it sucked. And I HATE jennifer love-hewitt. She sucks.
    We returned on Saturday.  Rodzilla and I went to see Wild Wild West. It was not very good. but entertaining enough. I think Kevin Kline was kind of wasted, and he had to carry some pretty stupid scenes and dialogue. It's good to see that Kenneth Branagh can act in non-Shakespeare movies, though.

    Anyway, that's about it for now. So i'm caught up to July 3rd. more later. Or tomorrow. I have a lot of other webpage-maintenance to do.  So i think i'll get to that.
 

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