The Last Four Months

Didn’t go anywhere for another two months. Then we headed to Charleston for Spring Break. A friend had generously offered us his condo on the Ashley River (just one of the perks of being married in college.) Day 1: Thomas sat on the glorious king-sized bed. It broke. We ran to Lowes to get boards for make-shift slats. Lowes did not have a working saw. They referred us to Home Depot across the street, where we discovered Thomas’ estimation was one inch too short. The slats fell straight through the bed. We put the mattress on the floor and slept there the rest of the week. Day 2: We ran into my dentist at church. He and his wife graciously took us to dinner at Blossom Cafe. Another blessing of being married in college. Day 3: raining so we went to the aquarium. Ate “supper” at 4pm at Bubba Gumps because in the words of Thomas Austin “it just smells so good. Let’s cancel our reservations at ___name of fancy restaurant____ and just eat here.” Day 3: Cypress Gardens in Monks Corner. Canoed through a swamp full of alligators, azaleas, and camellias . Dream come true for me. Day 4: On our way to ride bikes, Thomas glanced over at the GPS for directions, only to smash into the front of a car in the left lane. Inside the car were two 79 year-old women on their way to visit a dying friend in the hospital. We felt horrible, especially since the front bumper of their car fell off and there was not even one scratch on Thomas’ truck. We waited for the policeman to fill out the accident report while I attempted to drop facts about Thomas being a Clemson football player. Hey, you gotta use that to your advantage when you can…. however, these laides were clueless and probably hadn’t even heard of Clemson much less football. They did invite us to church that night for St. Patty’s Day supper.

Am I still on Day 4?? Yes, because after we hit the old ladies, it was time for our cooking class. We’d been looking forward to it all week, only to find that I’d registered us for the WRONG DAY. No refund. Did I mention no refund? $50 down the drain. We headed to drown our sorrows at “The Wreck,” a fabulous hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant in Mount Pleasant. After finally finding the place, we discovered it was only open for dinner. We headed to restaurant No. 2 at 3:00 pm. Not hungry anymore because we’d waited so long. Rode bikes in Old Towne Mount Pleasant. Absolutely fabulous. Headed back to “The Wreck” for the long-awaited dinner. Also fabulous. Drove around for an hour looking for a movie theater that didn’t exist. Went back to condo to drown our sorrows in the sixth season of Friends (Thomas’ obsession.)

Day 5 and 6 were wonderfully uneventful.

Stuck around Clemson for another three weeks. I went to New Orleans for a presentation with my Global South/Dirty South class. Took my friend Caroline with me. Had a blast. Stayed in a random, slightly creepy, extremely old bed and breakfast called the St. Charles Guest House.

I got back just in time for the Spring Game. Uneventful like always. We headed to The Masters the next day (yes, we went to The Masters on Easter Sunday. My mother was horrified.) Split the two tickets with my brother and sister-in-law. We hung out at Starbucks for the AM while they attended the tournament. Thomas took a nap in their mini-van while I caught up on school. Thomas woke up quite confused by the automatic doors and proceeded to lock the keys in the mini-van. Good thing my AAA card still works from my days of being single. We waited for TWO HOURS as the system was backed up with calls from the greater Augusta area. Stupid Masters. Of course, we drowned our sorrows in the closest food establishment. Which was a Mexican Restaurant. Called El Charro or Los Bravos or Tres Amigos, I can’t remember. We ate “light” since we’d heard how great the food is at The Masters. Chicken quesadillas, chips and salsa. Thomas dumped the salsa all over my brother’s beloved Sports Illustrated. I threw my body in front of the trash can to keep him from throwing the magazine away. Daniel, you can thank me later.

I guess that gets you up-to-date on the events of our marriage thus far. My sister requested I start a blog for our two week trek to Colorado. I resisted. But after our twin mattress predicament and my time at Pendleton Tire watching Thomas eat Waffle King, I realized it had to be done. Not to mention the fact that I regularly feed anywhere from 2 to 30 football players at a time. But we won’t get into that. Sorry this first post is so long, but it was imperative that I give you some background before we officially begin our journey. By the way, they fixed our tire for just $19. Thank you, Pendleton Tire.