Well...
Steve arrived a couple of minutes later, and after loading my bags into his car, we headed on over to my parents' new house.
I had called my brother earlier today to get the address for the house again. I knew the general area it was in, and my parents said it would be easy to find, but I had forgotten the actual address. I asked my brother just to text me the address so that I could MapQuest it... "But the development is so new, it's not yet on any of the mapping sites." And he was right. Thankfully, he knew the development next to it, and that helped me look up the directions in advance. Then after finally getting a hold of my mother, she cleared up the mystery.
Well, we only made one wrong turn, but we did find my parents' new house. It's certainly new, and it's certainly big. It's not as big as the house they just moved out of, but it's big. Especially for two soon-to-be retirees. Living room, dining room, breakfast nook, kitchen, master bedroom, master bath, two smaller bedrooms, one full bath, one half bath. A whole lotta house! -However, the garage is strangely small. In any case...
It was good to see my parents, and my parents were happy to see me. And Steve too. We ended up chatting for a while in their new living room - which has a really cool three-sided fireplace unit. Then we all headed out for dinner. And since my Dad has fallen in love with the seafood buffet at Shoney's - "Those are good fried oysters" - we headed on over to Shoney's.
It was buffet. It was Shoney's. It was good and filling. And it was cheap. And since my parents were able to get the senior citizen discount, it was even cheaper.
It really was nice just sit and talk for a while, we haven't done that in a while. And it was also nice to see that they still get along with Steve like they always have, and that they still know that Steve is an important part of my life. I never "officially" told them when Steve and I broke up, but they just knew that we were no longer together somewhere along the line. However, they would still occasionally ask how he and his family were doing.
During dinner, I finally got all the details of the house sale, as well as their retirement plans. My mom actually had her last day of work this past Friday, and the gentleman who was her assistant at the nursing home has been promoted to Head Dietitian. My father will be staying on for one more week at his job at HHS. He's a bit concerned that according to the job announcement that went out, that he's being "replaced" by three(!) part-time(!) workers. Part-time workers receive no benefits, and they're also requiring that whoever takes the positions stay on for a year minimum, or they will be penalized. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to him, and he's just wondering how long it will actually take to find someone to take over the HHW mess (as in kitchen). In the meantime, his staff will be running the kitchen. Come this coming Friday, he's outta there!
And a week from now, they will, hopefully, be living full-time in Richmond, VA! -Well, technically, Glen Allen, VA, but it's still "Richmond".
