Sunday

Friday night's drive to North Carolina started off badly. I'd managed to get gas and some sandwiches before picking Sunshine up at the institute, meaning we wouldn't need to stop for anything on the way (luckily, Sunshine had half-bottle of warm water in her book bag). But because of when we started, we were in situ for the worst beltway traffic: the forty-minute drive from Arlington to Quantico took us over two hours. Finally, the gridlock cleared and we eventually checked into our hotel, the quaint little Biltmore* in Greensboro, a little after midnight. The plan was to immediately begin celebrating Sunshine's Saturday birthday at our favorite bar--and we did--but only after a little small town birthday magic: improbably, we ran into a dear friend in the hotel lobby. She was checking in, too, after spending three weeks in New Zealand. The last time we saw her was three years ago. Saturday, Sunshine headed off to do birthday celebrating things while I shaved and put on my suit. I had a two pm wedding to attend in Kannapolis, NC, another hour plus down I-85 toward Charlotte. Juggling handwritten directions and slippery shoes in a heat-inappropriate suit, I managed to wreck into a stopped car on Spring Garden Street. She'd stopped to turn, I'd been distracted, and our left front quarter panel kissed her bumper as I swerved to a stop. The damage was minimal. The kind officer who responded didn't ticket me for failing to decrease speed or for the fact that I was driving on a license nearly two years out of date. The worst thing about the incident was that I stood outside for a half hour in a suit in August in NC. And I was ten minutes late for my cousin's wedding. [Cavin]