Richmond Fun

So, thru work, I must take part in some VISSTA trainings. This week I had a training in Richmond from December 1-3. So, I went with my buddy, Laura K. from Adult Protective Services (APS), and I from Adult Services (AS). So, as always, it is an adventure no matter the location.

December 1

So Laura and I were going to drive down together, and because our jobs are asking us to be out and about in "the field" we never really concluded where, how, or when we would meet. So, I get home 11/30/10 and felt like an investigator trying to find my friend's contact information. The smart cookie she is, I found her on the white pages but her phone number did not come up, and dialing the operator provided the information that her number was requested to be unsolicited. I called APS on call that said all I could do is leave her a voicemail at work. Well i sent her an FB message, a chat message, and an email. So I remembered she had sent me an event invitation and I found the number for her friends via white pages and they gave me her house number. See Laura's cell phone had died. Anyways, I was happy, and proceed with packing. However, I helped my friend with her thesis and then napped and then I packed till 2:30. I was too excited to sleep but manged a few hours. And, then I awoke and took another lap, b/c poor Laura got stuck in the rain traffic. I ended up meeting her at walmart and got to see my friend in the process at Great Harvest Bakery. She gave me apple scrapple and I saved it for Laura. We got to our training at 10 AM but everyone was late so we were actually on-time :D. Laura and I are both wile energetic ladies, but we started to get tired b/c the room was so warm and stuffy. However, we managed! That evening we went to "Short Pump," an outdoor restaurant. It was far to cold and Laura and I went on a shopping spree at the dollar store and then we got lost finding whole foods but found it. We met her friend at a Bakery store which had a salad with GOAT CHEESE and a gay guy who decided to convert to heterosexual just to flirt! There were no desserts and he got me fruit to which he said the chef thought it was for a child. And, he kept coming in and chatting with us. Then, of we went into the cold weather freezing it was far too cold. Then we went to Vicki's home; we chatted the nite away and watched a movie :D till 1 AM. And, I slept on the couch with tons of warm blankets all snuggle and warm. She had two cats too!! One whose name was Dude!

December 2

We woke up, and got to training! We got flashlights :D Then we had a wonderful digression b/c people followed their personal values and disagreed with the policies. To make this short, it would have been easy to just say hey, there are policies for a reason, follow them...the goal is not to put your feelings or thoughts on the clients but to help them achieve their goals and have autonomy in their decisions whether right or wrong. It is only when the decision making cannot be made that a more upfront approach should be taken. Anyways the good stuff...

We wanted to get Vicki a thank you gift from a Christian Book Store, which was really far out of the way. However, we found it, and we had to much fun in it!!! And, again, the person we asked for helping us was flirting with me and wanted to add me on facebook. Laura thinks I have something pasted on my forehead saying "all guys here." Afterwards she wanted to show me one of her friend's house on monument drive b/c it's beautiful and in a nice location, however, the GPS took us in a roundabout way and we ended up in impoverished areas and in areas where it looked deserted and then we finally decided lets ask the GPS to take us back to Vicki's. As we understood where we were we decided on dinner: the hummus and bread we got yesterday, soup, and candy, so we found a chinese restaurant on GPS which told us go left, go right, go left in a matter of 2 seconds and so we couldn't do each one and the last left was on Monument Drive. We couldn't find the Chinese restaurant and when we did we waited for a while, 45 min, to get our soup. Then we went to Food Lion to see if there was a red box to get Charlie St. Cloud but there was no Red Box, and we looked up Walmart which was not close, so Target it was. We went the long way to electronics and got the movie. Then we went to Vicky's home. We made the couch bed and got our dinner. Then we put on a movie Hudwick b/c my energy is that of the squirrel. And, it's true and there is a scene where the wolf gave the squirrel a cup of coffee and said I can't believe I'm doing this and the squirrel went bonkers, and that is me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had our soup

Then we watched Charlie St. Cloud but Laura and I pretty much talked during this movie about a lot of stuff. But, we ate our candy and the hummus and bread.

Dude was loving us and begging for food and then just slept on our laps as we petted him and he closed his eyes and this was even when Vicki was home! Vicki got home at 10 and we chatted with her till like 11:30 about the events of our day and then we watched one of her christmas movies till 1 AM. Laura thought I was asleep, but nope I was up!

Then to bed a nice warm comfortable bed.

December 3

We woke up but not early enough to do what we wanted. Vicki only opened up one gift and loved it! Hopefully she will see the other one tonite! She was teasing Laura. Then Laura grabbed my suitcase and I'm here thinking, where is hers and then she realized it and I went and knocked on the door to get it and there was Vicki with the bag nodding her head like "really." Then we went to Krsipy Cream to get our trainer a doughnut and the class Krispy Creams. Laura and I went to Starbucks, and my soy hot chocolate and her mint latte!!!!!! MMMM and then class, then we shopped and got cheap movies and talked about how much fun it was hanging out and getting to know each other better. Now off we go back onto the infamous I-95 to the hectic lives of NOVA which we love oh so dearly!