North Cackalacky

I’d never been to North Carolina before and I didn’t have anything planned for the week, so when B called and asked if I wanted to come up, I didn’t hesitate. At first, I thought driving would be fun. It would be new scenery a lot of time to listen to music and think, but by Sunday afternoon, I started dreading the seven hour drive that would take me to Raleigh and thought that I should fly. I booked a flight to leave Monday morning at 6 and immediately started packing. It was a pretty spur-of-the-moment sort of trip, but I managed to remember to pack everything except my phone charger. You know, the one thing that I kept reminding myself to pack.

I got to Raleigh at 8 on Monday morning. I was exhausted, having spent the entirety of Sunday running from this place to that and making sure that I had everything ready for the trip, but I managed to stay awake once I got there and fill the day with “Hippie Speedballs” and dirty martinis. We made too many trips to the grocery store and the liquor store, we managed to find a really cool bar that B had never been to before but had always been curious about, we swam in his brother’s pool, we listened to music and talked about everything. It was a great day. It was the kind of day that, when you open the vault of fond memories, it jumps out at you and screams, “I’m here!”.

I got to meet B’s friend (who I will refer to as my Drunken Rachel Ray) and we hit it off almost immediately. Of course, there was the few hours after we first met that sort of seemed like a test for me. I could tell that she had a few questions about my relationship with B and I could tell that she wasn’t sure what she wanted my answers to be. I opened up right away and told her that there was nothing between us, although, I don’t think she believed me right off the bat.

DRR and I spent a lot of time together while B was at work and we ended up actually really liking each other, which I think shocked her. B’s girl friends tend to be a little…territorial…and I think that they normally expect me to be catty and lame, but I do my best to show them that not all girls have to be bitches. It worked. We burned each other some CDs, we had a couple of dinners together, she brought me to see her apartment and she told me hilarious stories that she has never told anyone. “You must have something about you that makes me want to open up because I have known you for 24 hours and you already know WAY more than you should about me!”

I was flattered that she felt that way. We had a great time. Every night, when B got done working, he met us wherever we happened to be and we giggled and drank and giggled some more.

It was nice to get away from home for a while. And it was really good to see an old friend and fall right back into our niche together. It was especially awesome that I got to meet a really sweet and hilarious girl who can keep an eye on my friend and report to me when he does stupid crap so that I have fresh things to make fun of him about. Like breaking martini glasses or falling into a bush.