The trip to Ocean City was lovely. Sunday evening after the show Christy and I drove to Baltimore, arriving around 11pm, to Christy's mom's house to take a load of her stuff home. We spent the night there and left around 10am the next morning to drive the 3 hours to Ocean City. On the way we stopped at a farmer's produce stand and bought fruit: I bought peaches and cherry tomatoes; Christy bought peaches and strawberries. They were delicious and served as our breakfasts throughout our trip. We got to Ocean City around 1pm and went to Christy's great-aunt's house where we were staying. Her great-aunt's daughter and granddaughter were also staying there but they had kindly agreed to let us spend a couple days there too. We dropped our stuff off and headed straight to the beach, just a short walk across the street. The water was glorious; it was fabulous to be in the ocean again. We swam for a bit and then sat in beach chairs under our umbrella and read books. It was in the 80's temperature-wise, so nice that I even felt a little cold after getting out of the water. After our swim we went out on the town for dinner, to a seafood buffet called Phillips. It was very much like Captain Georges' in Williamsburg; very good. I enjoyed it very much but eventually got a bit sick of seafood taste. I had to end my meal with a bit of ribs and mashed potatoes to ensure that I didn't feel sick. After dinner we got on the bus that runs up and down the main drag and went down towards the boardwalk. We stopped at a bar called Seacrets that is apparently THE place to go in OC which Christy had never gone in because she'd never been 21 before. We just walked in to see it and then decided we might go back later. We went down and walked the boardwalk; Christy pointed out all the best places to go and OC traditions. We got ice cream at Dumser's, I got mint chocolate chip dipped in chocolate, it was delicious. We listened to a street violinist playing Phantom of the Opera music and watched an artist creating pieces of art with spray paint which was really cool. We wandered into different stores and then eventually took the bus back towards our house (it took about an hour to get back) and went to sleep.

Tuesday we slept in until about 10 and headed to the beach first thing. We read for a bit, went in the water, read more, chatted; I fell asleep on my chair for a while. It was very nice and relaxing. At about 3 we were hungry so we went back to the house and got dressed. We drove down the strip to the boardwalk, found a parking spot and went to a pizza place that Christy loves. We split a house-special pizza: chicken and broccoli and ham toppings. It was different; I don't think I'll do broccoli on a pizza again, though I'm glad I tried it. We walked around the boardwalk again; Christy bought taffy and popcorn for her family. At around 7 we decided to get a drink somewhere, so we went back to Seacrets to see what it was like. The place is crazy: it's an island-themed, mostly-outdoor bar right on the bay. There are palm trees everywhere strung with Christmas-lights; they have multiple bars, lots of tables, and bands playing. There's a pier that goes out into the water. But the crazy part is that they have tables IN the water. And beyond the tables they have inflatable pool-floats that you can sit on. We went out to an inflatable and climbed on, accidentally bringing a bunch of water on with us so that our previously-dry clothes got pretty wet. We each ended up sitting in a puddle, but it was cool. We waited for a while for a waitress (they came out to the tables and floats in swimsuits) and eventually ordered drinks. I got a pina colada and Christy got a strawberry daiquiri; they were delicious. We eventually left the float and went out on the pier to watch the sun set over the bay. Another funny thing about Seacrets is its reputation: apparently it gets swamped, especially on weekends, and lots of people get very drunk; it is the biggest party spot of the town. So they keep an army of bouncers that they call the "peace police" who check id's and wander around in orange t-shirts keeping order. While we were there a woman in the water with us was either really drunk or just really clumsy and kept falling over in the water. A couple peace policers immediately swooped down, helped her up, and escorted her away. Anyway, after our drinks and the sunset Christy wanted to go back to the house to change her wet pants. So we drove back, changed, and then went out for our dinner around 1030pm. We hit up a Mexican joint across the street called Tequila Mockingbird (clever, right? :-P) and got crab quesadillas, guacamole, and queso. They were delicious but huge and neither of us finished more than half of ours. We went back to the house afterwards, quite tired, and I took a shower and then went straight to bed.

I had discovered a couple days before our trip that Matt and his wife Beth were also going to be vacationing in OC at the same time as us. Christy and I both found that very funny and disturbing; we kept expecting to turn around and find them there or to get seated next to them at a restaurant. But fortunately Ocean City is a very big place and we did not run into them and they were allowed to enjoy their vacation in peace.

We slept in on Wednesday, got up, packed up our stuff and left OC around noon. I got an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts on our way out of town and then we drove straight back to Williamsburg because we had to get Christy back for the show at 630. The drive wasn't back, only about 4-5 hours, and we got to drive through a few bridge-tunnels. We hit bad traffic coming through VA Beach, but made it back in plenty of time.

Back at the Mills they had a girl from WM name Maryn over for dinner. We had fun chatting with her and ate a delicious meal of 4-cheese pasta and peach and blueberry cobbler. At 11pm I headed over to PBK for the Man for All Seasons photo call. Several members of the production staff were there, including Matt, and we all took pictures of several key moments of the show. I talked with Matt and we arranged to meet the next day for my last day of work: cleaning up the mess we'd made over the summer. Back at the Mill's I watched Jerry Maguire, which I'd been intending to watch for a while. It was fun; different than I expected, but funny.

So Thursday I headed over to PBK around 10am. The design room where my desk is (formerly known as the Fundies room) has a ton of drawers in it. Several of them held my stuff from the past 4 years and then rest of them we slowly filled with Matt's stuff and show-specific design materials. Now that the academic year is about to start again we needed to clear out space for the students to use. So I spent the day making piles of similar things, clearing out my drawers, organizing all Matt's stuff into other drawers, and generally cleaning up. I filled the huge bulletin board in the room with a "what we did this summer" display of lots of the drafting, paint elevations, and sketches from the 3 shows we did for the Fundies students to look at and hopefully get inspired from. The room looked so much better when I was done and I think Matt will know where all of his stuff is after I'm gone (hopefully).

Christy, Moody, and I are on a campaign to eat our way through Williamsburg. We have compiled a list of all the places we absolutely must eat at before we leave town. So Thursday we went to Pierce's Barbeque for lunch, which was delicious, and to Emerald Thai for dinner, also wonderful. Today was Nawab's buffet for lunch and tomorrow I believe is Tequila Rose for margaritas. It's proving to be quite expensive but fun and worth it.

Thursday night I spent organizing my files on my external hard drive. All my theatre photos and files were completely disorganized so I created a folder for each show I've done and moved everything into them and deleted all my duplicates. It took a long time but was totally worth it. I feel so much more organized now. I also spent time writing a letter for Matt: he's asked Christy and me to write letters of recommendation for him for when he applies for tenure. I figured since I'm about to leave I'd better write mine. Around 11pm I received a drunken phone call from my family members who are up in NY at the family reunion. They all sounded like they were having a great time together and were calling members of the family who couldn't make it. It was a bit hard to hear because so many of them were on the phone at once and I had to be quiet in order not to wake the Mills up, but it was fun to say hi to everybody.

Today I spent the morning finishing Matt's letter of recommendation, then headed to Nawab for lunch with peoples. We came back to PBK to meet a group who were heading to Rita's to get ice cream with Drew because he's moving to FL very soon. It was hot out but the ice cream was good. Meg was back in town, back from the beach early, so I got to see her again before I leave which was unexpected but awesome.

After Ritas I went to talk to Matt. He looked through my portfolio one last time and gave suggestions and pointers and we chatted about jobs and my future and all that sort of thing. It was really weird and sad to think that I'm done working for him and won't be seeing him every day and able to wander into his office whenever I want any more. After our talk I loaded up my car with everything that I had in the design room; almost a full trunk of stuff. Drew and Dave teased me that I couldn't leave and that they should unload my car and move my stuff back in. Matt had to leave, so I said goodbye to him, then ran to Kinkos to print off copies of his rec letter for the appropriate people. I put them in the right mailboxes back at PBK and then went to say goodbye to Dave and Drew. They gave me lots of encouraging advice and comments about keeping a good attitude, working hard, working lots of jobs, not getting discouraged, making sure I go to grad school, etc. I hugged them both and then walked out of PBK: graduated, unemployed, and full of great memories. I may wander back in on Sunday before I leave, but that may be the last time I'm in that building, my home, for a long time. It was sad to leave, but I was encouraged and excited too.

Back at the Mills we grabbed a quick dinner and then Chris and Eileen and I drove to Richmond to the mall so that Chris could go to the Apple store and Eileen and I could find her a dress for a wedding they're going to next week. We found a lovely one fairly quickly, bought jewelry and stockings to go with it, met up with Chris and got coffee and then drove back Williamsburg. It was fun to spend time with them; I will miss them a lot after I leave.

So now I have two days left here. I have a list of things to do:
-pack
-return library books
-pay parking ticket
-copy favorite recipes from Eileen
-meet Margaret for coffee
-get Tequila Rose and maybe dinner with Moody and Christy
-say goodbye to people
-load car
-drive home

The summer is coming to an end. I'm sad to leave it behind but more hopeful and excited about moving on that I thought I would be. I'm not really saying goodbye to anyone for good; I know I'll be back in Williamsburg at some point and the theatre world is very small so I fully expect to see and/or work with my people again. It's been a great summer and now I get to move on to the next adventure, whatever that may be.