Charlottesville Amusements

Today has been a lazy post Christmas day and the boyfriend and I ventured out for a while to the Charlotttesville downtown mall and wandered among the numerous people window shopping and looking for shopping bargains. We had lunch at an interesting landmark of sorts - Timberlake Pharmacy (pictured above in 1918 - it looks largely the same today) which opened in 1890 and is still in business, including it's soda fountain and and deli area complete with wood burning fireplace. The food was good and it was like a time warp of sorts. As always, Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge Mountains (pictured below) to the west of town are beautiful.
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The boyfriend purchased a wonderful feather boa for one of our more glamous friends - she has style and can carry off what lesser woman could never do - and he bought us some books before we ventured back to my mother's place. All in all it has been a relaxing visit so far and it is nice spending time with my mother whom has been totally charmed by the boyfriend. But then, he is charming and a very sweet man. Yes, he reads this blog, but I'm not out to flatter him. He is the real deal and he makes me very happy - even if Rick Warren equates our relationship with incest and pedophilia.

Charlottesville Weekend

The b/f and I are in Charlottesville for the weekend - yep, he is meeting my mother and some of my siblings. The weather is gorgeous and it should be a wonderful time. We'll tour the University and probably hit some of the local wineries. Posting will be minimal until we get back home to Tidewater.

Appalachian Trail - 6/11/08 Update

My son has now passed the half way mark on his adventure of hiking the entire length of the 2,138 mile Appalachian Trail as evidenced by the photo above. He continues to seem to be having a wonderful time and is traveling in association with some other through hikers that he met weeks ago, two of whom are pictured with him in the photo below where they are getting a ride into Front Royal, Virginia, located at the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition to continuing to see plentiful numbers of deer, he has also seen bears. I am very proud and pleased that he is demonstrating the courage to live his own life rather than trying to live a life that others would have him live. Would that I had found such courage far earlier in my life. I often feel that by the time I summoned the courage to do so that it was too late to truly matter. Other times I feel it is a case of better late than never. Sadly, we only get one shot at life and I definitely feel that I messed it up big time

My Son's Adventure Begins

My son - pictured above in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville - is off to Georgia to start on his hiking adventure on the Appalachian Trail. As a parent, I hope he is careful and makes his journey safely and without mishap. I also wish him much enjoyment and believe that he will have an incredible experience in the process. He seems well equipped and he seems to have done his "homework" in terms of planning of traversing the length of the Trail up to Maine. He has e-mailed me a link to the Flicker account he has opened where he will upload photos as and when he can along the way.

Obviously, I am very proud of my son and love him very, very much. He and his sisters are what give meaning and a reason to my years in the closet. In order to have them, I'd go through all the pain and unhappiness all over again.