Hi Gram!
What a day. I flew to Durham, NC this weekend to meet up with some friends for some FI Service Corps volunteering and to see Durham, the city where Tania lives. I woke up before my alarm – I haven’t been sleeping well lately – and headed out the door to get in some steps. I walked 21 flights of stairs to get the day started, then went to the hotel gym to do some resistance training and stretching. The gym was freezing! After a quick shower, I headed down to the lobby for some breakfast, which was pretty good. I ate some small portions because I knew I’d be eating a lot with friends today.

Eric and some other friends trickled in as I was finishing up, so I stuck around to chat a little. I headed back to the room to get ready, then met everyone in the lobby to head out. We all gathered at Note in the Pocket, a nonprofit that gives clothes to kids who can’t afford them. We got an intro from Victoria, who told us the story of their organization and gave us tasks to separate and organize the clothes. My new friend Peter and I were assigned to jackets and coats. We inspected them for stains, rips, and other failures then divided them between men and women and finally by size. Once we were finished with that, she moved us over to sorting women’s bottoms with some other people. I already knew that women’s and girls sizes were weird, but that gave me a whole new perspective. There were letter sizes like S, M, L then there are number sizes in American and different numbers in European, and many items without any size because the tags had been removed.

We got through that, cleaned up, then Victoria and Soupy thanked us for our help and sent us out the door. Tania had a catered lunch ready for us at a brewery nearby, so we drove over and socialized there. The food wasn’t quite ready yet, so I got a water and sat outside where it was quieter. A few friends soon joined me and we had a nice chat, talking about our back stories, and getting to know each other. Once the food was ready, we headed in and loaded up our plates. The same group gathered again outside at first, but the rain drove us indoors. I sat with Ron and Becky, talking about travel, catching up on life, and enjoying each other’s company. I haven’t seen them since last year, so we had plenty to talk about.

The rain let up, so I made a run for it to head back to the hotel for a shower and to get some rest. It felt good to wash off the morning’s funk and lie down for a bit. The time passed too quickly, though, and we were soon gathered again and heading downtown for some cultural tourism and the baseball game. Tania had reserved us seats near a pavilion where we could eat some dinner while we watched the game. We all got bobbleheads, then a bunch of us gave ours to Tania. The game was entertaining. The minor leagues make a big show of it, with mascots and others causing antics to keep the crowd entertained between innings. I chatted with Peter and his wife Annchen about their real estate, dogs, life stories, and travel for a bit, then with Hilary about travel plans and Chicago.

Around the 6th inning, I decided that I was tired and didn’t need to see the rest of the game. I bid goodnight to everyone, then gave Vicky a ride back to the hotel. We talked about FI and life trajectories on the way back, then said our goodnights. I headed back to my room and straight to bed.