Empty Nest, Visiting One Chick Who Flew the Coop

 How do you all BLOG SO MUCH? Is blogging just a thing you do like brushing your teeth or walking the dog or making dinner? That would explain a lot, actually (shut up, I brush my teeth, excessively almost.)

Angus moved to North Carolina. Eve went back to school. Matt and I went to Charlotte for the long weekend to visit Angus and it was awesome. 

We didn't really get to Ithaca until he was almost ready to leave, and I was sad that I couldn't really picture much of his day to day life and environment (is that weird? I don't know if it's weird). He made the drive mid-August and we gave him a couple of weeks to settle in and set up his room and then said we'd come and we could help him with anything he needed and go out for dinner but we wouldn't be intrusive and we'd just explore the city a little. 

I can't remember if I told this story here, but how he got his roommate is so funny and typical for him and the baseball community. When he came home during Covid and needed a summer job I told Matt we should just pay him to do shit around the house that needed doing. Matt said 'okay, if he has trouble finding a job' and I said (SO SMUGLY) 'I sort of doubt he's papering the neighbourhood with resumés'. He came up from the basement ten minutes later and said he got a job cleaning windows and was starting the next day - hired by a baseball buddy OF COURSE.

When he told his friends he got a job in Charlotte they immediately hooked him up with a guy who was moving to Charlotte to start the same job at the same company three months earlier than Angus. 

Blink. Blink.

So this guy did all the legwork looking for an apartment and sent pictures and they got a really nice place with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and laundry in the apartment and a pool and a rooftop patio and a gym and game room. For less than he was paying for a shithole in Ithaca with two bedrooms, a tiny bathroom, laundry in the basement and.... that's it. Plus the roommate has been filling him in on all the job onboarding stuff. It's so weirdly perfect.

Apparently a lot of people move to Charlotte and then look for a job because they want to live there, which Angus found a bit funny because basically '" would have moved to Siberia for this job". We walked around his building and found all the outdoor and rooftop and common areas he hadn't discovered yet.

Walk-in closet!

We walked around, we drove around, we saw a minor league baseball game (beautiful sunken diamond with the skyline behind), we sat by the pool, we found a national military park with a cool trail. And fake soldiers, so us Loyalists could know what it's like to realize you're about to be shot by a Patriot, I guess.

The minor league team is called The Charlotte Knights. The mascot is a dragon. There's an animatronic dragon that blows smoke if there's a home run. Angus was baffled about the mascot being a dragon. "Knights fight dragons?" we said. "Yeah, but a knight is a thing. You could have a knight mascot. It's not like the Aggies where you're like what the hell is an aggie." And that was a solid point, to which I had no rejoinder.

We stayed in a slightly fancier Mariott than we usually do, and Matt's status got us access to a little lounge where there was free diet pepsi (!!) and free candy. You might think this was a good thing, but it was not. I cannot be trusted around free candy.

I came across a mention of a speakeasy where you had to find a hallway past a taco place and a fancy barber shop and find a password on social media to say into a pay phone. We set out thinking this could be something embarrassingly lame, or it would be crowded and terrible (it was Friday night, and our preferred time to go places is usually Wednesday evening when no one else is there), but it was worth a shot.

We got there early (because introvert losers) and muddled out way around to find the payphone. I had told Eve she might have to help me find the password because I am an old and I really only do Facebook, but I managed to find it. It was dim and decorated with wizardy stuff and there were only a few people (because early). This worked out really well for us because the bartender clocked us as Canadians and ended up hanging out with us all night. He was a Korean army brat whose family was in Atlanta now but they'd been all over the world, so we had many stories to exchange. He made us drinks from the menu and then drinks with stuff we liked and then drinks he just wanted to try out. We texted Angus pictures and he came and joined us. We laughed so much the other bartender came over and said her customers were lame and she was jealous. We recommended drinks to new people that came in and the bartender said if you don't like it, blame the Canadians. Another customer had grandparents who had run an actual speakeasy in Nebraska.

You know those things where you think, if this goes right it will be so cool and memorable, but it probably won't go right? It went right. Best night ever. I keep meaning to look up why it is called a speakeasy and finally  have - people were told to 'speak easy' about the secret drinking establishments, and would have to be quiet in them so police couldn't overhear. 

On our last night we went to a restaurant high up with a view. The view was of some really freaky weather.

I had grits for the first time in about 25 years (at breakfast, not at dinner). They weren't bad, but they weren't good.

Then we came home. I'm not sure why Queen Charlotte is in such a rush, she's a Queen, presumably people would wait for her. Also uncertain about why her boobs are out in the middle of an airport, but hey, I don't judge. Well, the sculptor was a man, obviously, so I judge a little. 

I feel like he's in a good place, and I'm happy we got to see it.

I did not tell them to pose like this