To Protect and Preserve in Packrat

I spent Valentine's Day on an out of state trip with S...and one of his associates, since we went to the frozen East for court proceedings in our case. Due to misinformation, my plans had me staying two nights and flying back late Friday, which turned out to be exactly right; the court rescheduled due to bad weather, so we all needed to stay another day, and the afternoon appointment meant I made my flight.

Our day of arrival wasn't so bad, and we walked the several blocks to a marketplace crowded with vendors of all kinds. We stopped for Phillys, and during my brief contact with the owner he kept calling me "honey" and "sweetheart". When I finished my spicy dinner, S asked with a grin, "How was it, honey?"

Our walk out took us by a florist, and I joked, "I expect that you guys will be stopping here on Valentine's Day." S asked, again with a grin, "Why?"

The weather shut us in. We tried to visit historic sites, which were all RIGHT THERE, but they were closed. When we started out for dinner one night, the concierge informed us that getting a cab back to the hotel might be difficult as the city was under a state of emergency. We decided to chance it, since the weather there wasn't as bad as what we left (and once we left temperatures went up into the 60s), so we ended up riding around the deserted neighborhood for at least 30 minutes, only to instruct the driver to drop us off at the eatery directly across the street from our hotel!

Through the window we saw cabs continuously going by and foot traffic. I peeked out my window at midnight - and in that five minutes saw two cabs and a car. Light snowfall. Nothing iced over, but it was slushy and none of us had come prepared for slush.

The Wordsmith said he hoped I'm taking good notes because this is an historic event that needs to be recorded and written about. I wondered if I have been remiss in documenting all this, and I've been writing everything down like mad and took pictures. I keep a journal anyway, but this time I try to write down specifics. I told the Wordsmith he has me thinking that everything I do is part of a date with destiny. As such, I asked him, do I keep every detail, such as the fact that on my way to the airport I stopped for a humble hamburger? Absolutely, he said, absolutely. I don't know that he was kidding.

The associate is brilliant - and was born in 1982. A year after I graduated from high school. Oh, my gosh, I yelped. I have journals older than you! I've kept a journal since 1980!

He asked, "Do people still keep journals? I thought they posted everything on Facebook."

Before we headed out the next day, I waited for them downstairs and wrote to pass the time and record everything I possibly could and probably isn't relevant. S asked, "Are you writing your book?" I said I'm source material for them.

The young associate noticed a flyer for a ghost tour and pointed it out. He said he and his wife take a ghost tour everywhere they go, if they can. Toldja he was brilliant.