So I've been pretty busy the past week, and it's ironic how the time I've gained to finally sit down and write is because my uhaul trailer decided to lose a wheel. Now I'm stuck at a Day's Inn until tomorrow, when it can get fixed, but we'll have more on that later. For now, I'd like to talk about my final week in Virginia before I started on this long road home to Texas.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure this past week has been one of the most enjoyable times I've had since I moved to Virginia, and I owe it all to my good friends who have been there from the beginning.

Most of my final week at work was spent checking out with various people, getting all the paperwork straightened out and my name out of the system. For the most part, those last few days aren't spent working, and thankfully my supervisor had no problem when me and my buddy Daniel left work with more than half a day to spare. I don't know what I would've done had it not been for Dan helping me find things to do with my time off. Throughout the week we ate at various places neither of us had eaten before; we spend a few hours at an arcade and earned enough tickets for an assortment of candy and a parachute alien and army man respectively; and we killed 4 hours driving around Colonial Park in my new Jeep, which could only have been more rewarding had we actually had a destination or a goal that wasn't just killing time. The latter Dan actually video-taped, and if he ever puts it on YouTube I'll be sure to share it here for you guys.

Apart from the many misadventures of Dan and Mattias, this past weekend was one of the most eventful weekends I've had in a while. On the plate for Friday was, of course, Indiana Jones 4 with my best friend Steven...truthfully, that's a whole other story for another day. The true business of the weekend started around saturday night, after I had taken care of many things that morning regarding my tow hitch installment, and also hanging out with my friends for lunch and a movie...(Dan in Real Life, by the way, is a pretty hard hitting movie...I thouroughly enjoyed it.) That night was my co-worker dinner, as it was again Dan and my last days in town, and we spend it at Smokey Bones. Besides waiting a good long while for one person to give up their table so we could have room for 10, it was a very good dinner, but I was unawares that it was only preparation for the rest of the night.

Duck Pin Bowling is the most fun you can have with a small group of people...that's all I'm going to say on that. I could go for hours and still be having fun and not even be near exhausted. Sunday morning I woke up nastolgic for my good friends, but there were still other people to see first.

I'd like to say that it was all high times during the past weekend, but unfortunately I did have a down time Sunday. For the most part it was good, just hanging out with my friend Matt and his Girlfriend. We were supposed to go to Kings Dominion that day, but plans fell through. Near the end of the day I started getting into some relationship issues though, that have since been resolved, but I would have to say that the resounding 24 hours would be some of the worst regarding mine and Andrea's relationship. This time it involved her parents, and though I won't go into detail I will say that I'm a huge screw up and don't deserve the second chances Andrea has given me.

I hope she knows how much I appreciate her...

With those memories behind, I still needed to spend my last day in VA in high spirits. That memorial Day morning didn't really go as planned, but I did get a lot done and had plenty of time to spare. After finally picking up Steven, we proceeded to head to Matt's Uncle Leo's House for our first Bar-b-que of the day. Swimming in the pool has left me and Steven a little red, and not just from the sun either.

When two people proceed to hold your arms back with your bare torso exposed, be prepared for Matt's Uncle Danny to rise to the occasion of bare slapping my stomach a good handful of times...the red hand print was there until the next morning.

Good times.

A few smash bros. and wii bowling matches later, and me and Steven were heading back to my place for another bar-b-que. This was the down time, because we didn't spend long there.

I should mention here: that at the first cook out me and Steven met this couple and their 16 year old daughter, who's mother strangly decided to get our emails and myspaces for said daughter and insisted that she also get steven's phone number for texting purposes. Me and him were at a loss with this, but regardless we complied.

Soon after, we were being told by Hailey (that's the daughter) that her mom demanded we come over for another cook out. Neither of us complained, so off we went to find a tipsy mother and even tipsier father.

...me and Steven opted to hang out with the teens, who thereafter proceeded on a gang ride through the neiborhood on 5 Razor Scooters. On the way back to the house I got that long awaited call from Andrea, and proceeded to have a very long discussion about the future of our relationship.

After that the night was over. I took Steven home...We said our goodbyes...And I drove the long road back to my Dad's house for my final night in Virginia (I had hoped.) There was still a lot to be done. Laundry had to be taken care of...I had an apology email that needed to be written...and I needed to get to sleep so I could get up in the morning and pack for the drive home to Texas.

I didn't get enough sleep, and this morning I knew I would end up feeling it later when nighttime rolled around. I opted to spend one more night in Virginia to get enough sleep, but as I was done getting my important documents at the base and already packed well by noon, I figured I could still make good time even if I didn't reach Birmingham Alabama by the time I started veering off the road.

...but it seems God had other plans in mind.

So here I am in Emporia, 7 hours later after losing 4 of those hours going through the ordeal of having a wheel on my Uhaul Trailer almost falling off. That would've been a disaster for sure had I not seen it in time to pull off at the nearest exit and make the appropriate calls. Unfortunately it can't be fixed till the mechanics get the right parts in tomorrow, and so just 4 exits away from North Carolina I'm stuck in a Hotel spending one more night in Virginia.

I'm grateful. It has given me the chance to catch up on the things I missed out on this weekend, especially writing another newsletter. I will most likely try and video-tape the rest of the month that I'm in Texas, so you guys won't have to expect a long drawn out blog again.

Until then, I'm off to find the local wal-mart and catch up on the sleep I missed last night, which is more than I could've asked for. I hope I didn't jump around too much, see you in a couple of days.