The long goodbye

Most of my weekend was spent helping Spesh get ready for his return to Israel. It went something like this:

Saturday

• 9:30am, pick up Spesh at the U Street apartment where he's staying.
• Drive to College Park.
• Eat breakfast at College Park Diner.
• Drive to campus to pick up some things.
• Hang around the office while Spesh shuffles papers around.
• Drive to post office.
• At post office, Spesh buys stamps.
• Drive to Greenbelt (the other place where Spesh has been staying) to drop off some things and pick up some other things (including dirty laundry that I agreed to wash).
• Drive back to Spesh's office on campus, work for a while. I help him out by copy editing a grant application.
• Leave him there and drive to Pele's to watch the Seahawks crush the Redskins.
• Watch the game with Pele and her roomie, eat boiled shrimp and watch the Seahawks beat (but not crush) the Redskins (yay and boo).
• Hang around with Pele for a while.
• Drive home and do Spesh's laundry, watch SNL and get to bed late.

Sunday

• 9:30 am, pick up Spesh and his enormous bag (it's a hockey bag; you could fit a medium to large size person in it).
• Drive to College Park.
• Pick up a friend and go to breakfast at the Silver Diner.
• Drive to campus and drop off friend.
• Go to Spesh's office, check email and play computer games while he finds a box for his papers and books.
• Pack up junk in the office and take it to the car.
• Drive the car to a garage to get out of the wind.
• Spesh rearranges his stuff in the bag and the box.
• Stop for gas and to get a better box at a liquor store.
• Drive to the best vegetarian Indian restaurant in the world.
• Eat way too much.
• Surprise visit by C-Money! Makes it an even better farewell.
• Go to the Rite-Aid next door to pick up some things for Spesh's dad.
• Buy chocolate bar and a diet coke.
• Say goodbye to C-Money.
• Drive Spesh to Dulles Airport.
• Drop him off, park the car, go back to the terminal to stand in line with him.
• Not allowed to stand in the check-in line with him.
• Strike up conversation with a young mother who is in the same boat, waiting for her husband.
• They were both in the military, he still is. She got out after having her baby.
• They met in Iraq. She has no idea what we're doing there. Posits: oil?
• I say: that's not the only reason, but it doesn't make sense to me.
• Spesh and I sit for a little while after he checks his bag and box and gets his boarding pass.
• It's time to get in the line for security so we say goodbye.
• We hug and he kisses me on the cheek.

The end.

Grateful for: good friends.